3-1

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 3-2

Chapter
3
Individual Differences and
Work Behavior

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 Why Individual Differences Are Important:
3-3

(1 of 2)

• Individual differences have a direct effect

on behavior
• People who perceive things differently
behave differently
• People with different attitudes respond
differently to directives
• People with different personalities interact
differently with bosses, coworkers,
subordinates, and customers

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 Why Individual Differences Are Important:
3-4

(2 of 2)

• Individual differences help explain:

• Why some people embrace change and
others are fearful of it
• Why some employees will be productive
only if they are closely supervised, while
others will be productive if they are not
• Why some workers learn new tasks more
effectively than others

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 Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA) Cycle
3-5

(1 of 3)

• Different people are attracted to different

careers and organizations as a function of
their own:
• abilities
• interests
• personalities

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 Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA) Cycle
3-6

(2 of 3)

• Organizations select employees on the

basis of the needs the organization has
• skills and abilities
• individual attributes such as values and
personality

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 Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA) Cycle
3-7

(3 of 3)

• Attrition occurs when:

• individuals discover they do not like being
part of the organization and elect to resign,
or
• the organization determines an individual is
not succeeding and elects to terminate

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 The Basis for Understanding Work 3-8

Behavior:
• To understand individual differences a
manager must:
1. observe and recognize the differences
and
2. study relationships between variables
that influence behavior

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 Individual Differences Influencing Work 3-9

Behavior:

Hereditary and
Diversity Personality
Factors

Ability and Attitudes

Perception
Skills

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 3-10

Diversity Factors
Primary Dimensions Secondary Dimensions
(stable) (changeable)
• Age • Educational background
• Ethnicity • Marital status
• Gender • Religious beliefs
• Physical attributes • Health
• Race • Work experience
• Sexual / affectional
orientation
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 3-11

Abilities and Skills

• Ability – a person’s talent Key Abilities
to perform a mental or
physical task
Mental Ability

• Skill – a learned talent Emotional

that a person has Intelligence
acquired to perform a task
Tacit Knowledge

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 3-12

Attitudes
• Are determinants of behavior because
they are linked with perception,
personality, feelings, and motivation

• Attitude – a mental state of readiness]

• learned and organized through experience
• exerting a specific response to people,
objects, and situations with which it is
related
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 3-13

Attitudes: Implications for the Manager

1. Attitudes are learned

2. Attitudes define one’s predispositions
toward given aspects of the world
3. Attitudes provide the emotional basis of
one’s interpersonal relations and
identification with others
4. Attitudes are organized and are close
to the core of personality

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 3-14

Stimuli Manager style The Three

Work Technology
Noise Components of
environment
factors
Peers
Reward system
Attitudes:
Compensation plan Cognition, Affect,
Career opportunities
Behavior
“My supervisor is unfair.”
Cognition Beliefs and values “Having a fair supervisor is
important to me.”

Affect Feelings and emotions “I don’t like my supervisor.”

“I’ve submitted a formal

Behavior Intended behavior request to transfer.”

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 3-15

Cognition
• What individuals know about themselves
and their environment
• Implies a conscious process of acquiring
knowledge
• Evaluative beliefs – favorable or
unfavorable impressions that a person
holds toward an object or person

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 3-16

Affect
• The emotional component of an attitude
• Often learned from
• parents
• teachers
• peer group members
• The part of an attitude that is associated
with “feeling” a certain way about a
person, group, or situation

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 3-17

Cognitive Dissonance
• A discrepancy between attitudes and
behaviors

• A mental state of anxiety

• Occurs when there is a conflict among an

individual’s various cognitions after a
decision has been made

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 3-18
Changing Attitudes

The Communicator

The Message

The Situation

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 How to Increase Your Effectiveness in 3-19

Changing Attitudes: (1 of 2)

1. Concentrate on gradually changing the attitude

over a period of time

3. Identify the beliefs or values that are part of the

attitude and provide the attitude holder with
information that will alter those beliefs or values

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 How to Increase Your Effectiveness in 3-20

Changing Attitudes: (2 of 2)

1. Make the setting (in which the attempted

change occurs) as pleasant and enjoyable as
possible

3. Identify reasons that changing the attitude is to

the advantage of the attitude holder

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 3-21

Attitudes and Job Satisfaction

• Job satisfaction – • Key factors
an attitude people associated with job
have about their jobs satisfaction:
• Results from • Pay
people’s perception • Promotion opportunities
of their jobs
• Supervision
• Results from the
• Coworkers
degree of fit between
the individual and the • Working conditions
organization • Job security

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 Satisfaction-Performance Relationships: 3-22

Three Views
Causes

1. Job Satisfaction “The satisfied worker is more

Job Performance
productive.”

Causes
“The more productive worker is
2. Job Performance Job Satisfaction
satisfied.”

Perceived Equity

3. Job Performance Rewards Job Satisfaction

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 3-23

Personality
• A relatively stable set of feelings and
behaviors that have been significantly
formed by genetic and environmental factors

• The relationship between behavior and

personality is one of the most complex
matters that managers have to understand

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 3-24

Some Major Forces Influencing Personality

Cultural forces

Individual Social class / group

Hereditary forces
Personality membership forces

Family relationship
forces

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 3-25

Personality and Behavior in Organizations

The Big Five

Personality Locus of Control
Dimensions

Self-efficacy Creativity

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 3-26

The Big Five Personality Dimensions

Extroversion Agreeableness

Conscientiousness

Emotional Openness to
Stability Experience

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 3-27

Big Five Personality Dimensions

1. Extroversion- refers to the tendency to be sociable,
gregarious, assertive, talkative and active.
2. Emotional stability- is the tendency to experience positive
emotional states, such as feeling psychologically secure, calm
and relaxed.
Anxiety, depression, anger and embarrassment are
characteristics of low emotional stability.
3. Agreeableness- it is the tendency to be courteous,
forgiving, tolerant, trusting and soft-hearted.
Someone who gets along with others.
Individuals low on agreeableness are often described as rude,
cold, uncaring, unsympathetic, and antagonistic.

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 3-28

4. Conscientiousness- it is the tendency to be dependable,

organized, thorough and responsible
They tend to persevere, work hard and enjoy achieving and
accomplishing things.
Employees who are low in conscientiousness tend to be
sloppy, inefficient, careless and even lazy.
5. Openness to Experience- it reflects the extent to which an
individual is broad-minded, creative, curious and intelligent.
Individuals low in openness to experience tend to be
unimaginative, conventional and habit-bound.

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 3-29

Locus of Control
• Locus of control of individuals –
• Determines the degree to which they
believe their behaviors influence what
happens to them
• Internals – believe they are masters of their
own fate
• Externals – believe they are helpless pawns
of fate, success is due to luck or ease of
task

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 3-30

Self-Efficacy
• Relates to personal beliefs regarding competencies and abilities.
• It refers to one’s belief in one’s ability to successfully complete a task and firmly
believes in performance capabilities.
• Feelings of self-efficacy have managerial and organizational implications:
• Selection decisions
• Training programs
• Goal setting and performance
• Three Dimensions:
• Magnitude- refers to the level of task difficulty that individuals believe they can
attain.
• Strength- refers to whether the belief regarding magnitude is strong or weak
• Generality- indicates how generalized across different situations the belief in
capability is.

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 3-31

• Creativity- is a personality trait that

involves the ability to break away from
habit-bound thinking and produce novel
and useful ideas.
• Produces innovation and innovation is
the lifeblood of a growing number of
corporations.

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 3-32

How to Develop Employee Creativity

1. Encourage everyone to view old problems from
new perspectives
2. Make certain people know that it is OK to make
mistakes
3. Provide as many people with as many new work
experiences as you can
4. Set an example in your own approach to dealing
with problems and opportunities

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