Organizational Behavior 3 Discussion

Chapter 4

knowledge objectives After reading this chapter, you should be able to: 1. Describe the basic learning principles as described by operant conditioning theory and social cognitive theory, as well as the conditions which facilitate adult learning. 2. Understand the basic elements of training and how training can be accomplished through OB Mod, simulations, and learning from failure. 3. Discuss the three stages of perception. Understand the factors and biases influencing our perceptions of people and tasks. 4. Describe how we make causal attributions about behavior. exploring behavior in action The Strategic Importance of Learning and Perception VF Corporation, headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, is the world’s largest apparel manufacturer, with revenues of $11 billion plus annually. Chances are that you have several items of their clothing in your closet. Their more than 30 brands include Wrangler, Lee, Vans, The North Face, Nautica, Timberland, 7 For All Mankind, and Jansport. The success of the VF Corporation is due in part to a growth plan launched in 2004. The goal of this plan was to transform the VF Corporation in a global lifestyle apparel company. VF credits its strong financial performance to six growth drivers, one of which is enabling our future. The company described this goal as: “Taking our company to new heights requires new capabilities and skills, and we’ve invested in areas that are specifically designed to support our growth. . . . [W]e know that providing our leaders and associates with new tools and training that stretches their capabilities is crucial to our continued success.” Thus, associ- ate learning, development, and knowledge sharing has become one of the crucial drivers of the VF Corporation’s strategy. Tom Nelson, currently VF Corporation’s managing director and vice-president of product procurement, stated, “Learn- ing and development makes a significant contribution to the company’s ongoing success.” VF Asia Ltd., a subsidiary of VF Corporation located in Hong Kong, took this directive very seriously. This subsidiary totally reorganized its learning unit, which had previously been somewhat piecemeal, with a program here, a learning opportunity there. Tommy Lo, who was the learning and development manager at the time, guided the two-person regional training team by first creating a strategy. The compa- ny’s 780 employees were grouped into one of four learning cat- egories, determined by their level in the organization and the content that needed to be learned and skills developed. These categories are personal competencies, functional leadership, managerial leadership, and strategic leadership. Furthermore, all functions associated with training, performance review and development, feedback, and reward were grouped together in the same program. Thus, training and development were tied to on-the-job performance. A further part of the firm’s learning and development strategy was to keep as many programs and initiatives as possible in-house rather than outsourcing them to vendors and contractors. Not only is this cost-effective, but it makes the most use out of in-house knowledge and talent. Finally, although VF Asia is across the world from its parent company, learning and development at the subsidiary was well integrated with that which takes place at headquarters. VF Corporation has a Global Learning Community, which shares new ideas and best practices through conference calls, and cer- tain employees attend corporate learning programs such as the VF Leadership Institute. Specific initiatives were put in place, all of which were tied to company core competencies. One concern was leader- ship development. To that end, Lo and his team developed a senior executive curriculum and middle-manager-level cur- riculum. Another concern was turnover. Thus, they developed a program to improve managers’ interviewing skills, so that they would be better at judging job candidates. Turnover decreased from 26.8 percent in 2007 to 19.3 percent in 2008. In order to improve associates’ ability to deal with customers from diverse cultures, the SELF (Self Enhancement Learning Fundamentals) program was initi- ated. This is an online training pro- gram covering topics such as eti- quette and negotiations. Associates can use this program at their own leisure. Overall, the 780 associates at VF Asia Ltd. underwent 14,200 hours of training in 2008. The vast majority of organiza- tions do not assess the effectiveness of their training programs beyond getting participants’ reactions to the programs. Things are different at 360b/Shutterstock VF Asia Ltd. Learning goals are tied into individual performance evaluations and to the strategic goals of the organization. Monthly learning and development summaries are sent to executives. VF Asia Ltd. makes sure its Sources: ASTD BEST Awards. At http://www.astd.org/ASTD/aboutus/Awardsand- BestPractices/bestAwards/; ASTD Learning Circuits, (Nov. 17, 2009), http://www .astd.org/LC/news.htm. J.J. Salopek, P. Harris, P. Ketter, M. Laff, & J. Llorens, “Success Is in the Details,” T & D (Oct. 6, 2009), 10; pp. 36–38. VF Corporation, “About VF: Growth Drivers,” accessed May 27, 2014, http://www.vfc.com/about/ training and development dollars are well spent. In 2009, this focus on learning was recognized with a BEST award by the American Society for Training and Develop- ment (ASTD). The criteria for this award are: • Investment is made in learning and performance initiatives. our-strategy/growth-drivers; W. Loeb, “VF Corp. has the Midas touch,” Forbes (April 2, 2013), http://www.forbes.com/sites/walterloeb/2013/04/02/vf-corp-has- the-midas-touch/; VF Corporation, “About VF,” accessed May 27, 2014, at http:// www.vfc.com/about. The redevelopment of VF Asia Ltd.’s learning and development strategy illustrates the importance of learning to the overall strategic goals of the organization. The learning processes in this organization serve to develop current associates so that they have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to allow the organization to grow. Associates simply do not go through one-time training programs—what they learn in training is later assessed as part of their job performance and is thus tied to individual rewards. As we will soon discuss, rewards play an important role in the learning process. At a second level, learning processes help VF Asia tie individual training, development, performance evaluation, and rewards to the overall strategic vision of the organization. The corporate strategy and goals determine what is to be learned, and the success of training and development initiatives are evaluated at the executive level by the degree to which they achieve the firm’s strategic goals. Learning is fully integrated into the culture at VF Asia Ltd. and is therefore viewed as an important part of the organization’s success by associates and leaders at all levels in the firm. To be competitive in the dynamic twenty-first century, an organization must have associ- ates and managers who can effectively learn and grow. Continuous learning based on trying new things plays a critical role in an organization’s capability to gain and sustain a competitive advantage. Organizations can improve only when their human capital is enriched through learning. Their human capital must be better and produce more value for customers than their competitors to gain an advantage in the marketplace and to maintain that advantage.1 Fur- thermore, providing developmental opportunities to associates helps organizations attract and retain the people most interested in personal growth and becoming better at their work. Thus, managers need to develop the means for associates and all managers to continuously improve their knowledge and skills. To open this chapter, we explore the fundamentals of learning, including contingen- cies of reinforcement and various schedules of reinforcement. From there, we apply learn- ing principles to the training of newcomers and the purposeful modification of existing Learning and Perception learning A process through which individuals change their relatively permanent behavior based on positive or negative experiences in a situation. operant conditioning theory An explanation for consequence-based learning that assumes learning results from simple conditioning and that higher mental functioning is irrelevant. associates’ behavior. We focus on specific conditions helpful to learning, the use of behav- ior modification, simulations, and how people can learn from failure. Next, we move to a discussion of perception. Accurately perceiving characteristics of people, attributes of tasks, and the nature of cause-and-effect relationships is critical to properly assessing and learning from experiences. Several mental biases, however, can interfere with accurate perceptions. Fundamental Learning Principles When individuals first enter an organization, they bring with them their own unique experi- ences, perceptions, and ways of behaving. These patterns of behavior have developed because they have helped these individuals cope with the world around them. However, associates introduced to a new organization or to new tasks may need to learn new behaviors that will make them effective in the new situation. Associates and managers must therefore be acquainted with the principles and processes that govern learning. In the field of organizational behavior, learning refers to relatively permanent changes in human capabilities that occur as a result of experience rather than a natural growth pro- cess.2 These capabilities are related to specific learning outcomes, such as new behaviors, verbal information, intellectual skills, motor skills, attitudes, and cognitive strategies. Both parts of this definition are important. First, learning takes place only when changes in capabilities occur. Ultimately, these changes should result in changed behavior, since true learning represents adaptation to circumstances, and this must be reflected in behavior. Furthermore, this change should be relatively permanent until a new response is learned to the given situation. Second, learning is driven by experience with a particular situation. An associate may gain insights into a situation by thoughtfully trying different approaches to see what happens, by randomly trying different actions in a trial-and-error process, or by carefully observing others’ actions. In all cases, however, the associate has gained experi- ence in the situation—experience that affects behavior when the situation occurs again. Change in one’s capabilities due to a natural growth process (e.g., gaining muscle strength) is not learning. Operant Conditioning and Social Cognitive Theory Most behavior exhibited by associates and managers is intentional in the sense that a given behavior is designed to bring about a positive consequence or avoid a negative consequence. Some associates shake hands when they see each other in the morning because it feels good and expresses respect or affection. Other associates apply the brakes on a forklift to avoid an accident. Managers may not develop close social relationships with their organization’s associates in order to avoid the complications that can result. All of these behaviors have been learned. Operant conditioning theory and social learning theory both can be used to explain learning. Both are reinforcement theories based on the idea that behavior is a function of its consequences.3 Operant conditioning theory traces its roots at least back to a famous set of experiments involving cats, dogs, and other animals in the late 1800s.4 The goal of the experiments was to show that animals learn from the consequences of their behavior in a very straightforward way—that presentation of a reward, such as food, conditions an animal to repeat the rewarded behavior in the same or similar situations. In later years, research- ers such as B.F. Skinner emphasized this same conditioning in people.5 These researchers, known as behaviorists, adopted the position that higher mental processes typically ascribed to Punishment When behavior results in the introduction of a negative consequence, individuals are less likely to repeat the behavior. This is called punishment. Punishment differs from negative rein- forcement in that an undesirable consequence is introduced rather than removed. Punishment reduces the likelihood of a behavior, whereas negative reinforcement increases the likelihood. An associate who is reprimanded by peers for returning a few minutes late from lunch experi- ences punishment, as does an associate whose manager assigns him less preferred work hours in response to tardiness. Punishment must be used judiciously in organizations because it can create a backlash both among those punished and among those who witness the punishment.7 It is imperative when punishment is doled out that it be made contingent upon associates engaging in nega- tive behavior.8 Several examples illustrate this problem. At the Providence Journal, a newspaper organization in the northeastern United States, senior management reprimanded two indi- viduals and suspended a third for an editorial cartoon that seemed to poke fun at the publisher. Union officials and many union members believed the punishments were too harsh, resulting in ill will at a time when relations were already strained.9 At the IRS, some managers failed to discipline associates for tardiness, extended lunches, and so forth in a consistent manner, resulting in numerous problems.10 At Accent Signage Systems, a Minneapolis company that specializes in Americans-with-Disabilities-Act-compliant signs and other interior signage, the decision was made to terminate an employee for rude, abusive behavior after a series of failed efforts to address his actions. Although termination was probably a reasonable response, the result was far from reasonable; the terminated individual returned with a gun. He killed five people and injured three others before shooting himself, illustrating the complexity of manag- ing punishment.11 What constitutes an appropriate use of punishment in an organization? When associates exhibit minor counterproductive behaviors, such as rudeness to a peer or a lunch that lasts a few minutes too long, punishment involving a verbal reprimand can be delivered informally by peers or a manager. For more serious behaviors, such as intentional and repeated loafing or consistently leaving the workplace early, a more formal process should be used. Based on requirements set by the National Labor Relations Act, Union Carbide has successfully used the following formal process when dealing with problems as they unfold over time: (1) the problem is discussed informally, and the associate is reminded of expectations; (2) the associate receives one or more written reminders; (3) the associate is suspended for one day, with pay, and asked to consider his future with the organization; and (4) the associate is terminated.12 Whether they are imposing minor informal punishment or major formal punishment, associates and managers should follow several guidelines: • Deliver the punishment as quickly as possible following the undesirable behavior. • Direct the punishment at specific behaviors that have been made clear to the recipient. • Deliver the punishment in an objective, impersonal fashion. • Listen to the offending party’s explanation before taking action. The problems at Korean Air discussed in the Managerial Advice feature were caused at least in part by the overuse of punishment. Clearly, as the case illustrates, the use of punishment at this airline played a role in the crash. Being struck by a person above you in the organiza- tion is a particularly difficult situation, even for those in an authoritarian culture. Such an approach is inappropriate in a high-involvement organization. In complex situations, associ- ates and managers need the input of others to avoid making possibly serious errors such as those leading to the Korean Air crash. The changes implemented by the new president of the airline and the director of flight operations have helped to resolve the problem. Because Korean culture respects traditional authority, changing the culture at this airline was difficult.13 Yet the changes were important for the airline to compete in a global marketplace.

MANAGERIAL ADVICE Punishment Taken Too Far Sources: “Korean Air Is Restructuring Its Flight Operations Division,” Aviation Week & Space Technology, 152, no. 21 (2000): 21; “Cargo Airline of the Year: Korean Air Cargo,” Air Transport World, 40, no. 2 (2000): 30–31; W.M. Carley and A. Pasztor, “Pilot Error: Korean Air Confronts Dismal Safety Record Rooted in Its Culture,” Wall Street Journal (July 7, 1999); Z. Coleman and M. Song, “Inquiry Blames Cockpit Crew for KAL Crash,” Wall Street Journal (June 6, 2001), P.M. Perry, “Cage the Rage,” Warehousing Management, 8, no. 2 (2001): 37–40; P. Starobin, “The Oilman as Teacher,” BusinessWeek (June 25, 2001), G. Thomas, “Korean Air CEO Vows ’No More Excuses,’” Aviation Week & Space Technology, 153, no. 1 (2000): 48; G. Thomas, “The Yin and Yang of Korean Air,” Air Transport World, 39, no. 10 (2002): 26–29. At 1:00 a.m. on August 6, 1997, most clearly evident during training. the pilots of a Korean Air 747 prepared to land at the Guam airport. Because the airport’s glide slope guidance system had been turned off for maintenance and because the airport’s radio beacon was located in a nonstandard posi- tion, the landing was more difficult than usual. A rainstorm further complicated the situation. Under these conditions, the captain needed frank and timely advice from a fully informed and empowered co-pilot and flight engineer. Sadly, no such advice was given by the intimidated subordinates. The resulting crash claimed 228 lives. The suboptimal cockpit climate on board the aircraft that morning seems to have been caused in part by Korean Air’s authoritarian culture, which included heavy- handed punishment delivered by captains for unwanted subordinate input and mistakes. Park Jae Hyun, a former captain with the air- line and then a flight inspector with the Minis- try of Transportation, believed that teamwork in the cockpit was nearly impossible in the existing “obey or else” environment, where co-pilots “couldn’t express themselves if they found something wrong with the captain’s piloting skills.” This environment was perhaps An American working as a pilot for the airline reported, “I’ve seen a captain punch a co-pilot ... for a mistake and the co-pilot just said, ’Oh, sorry, sorry.’” Another Ameri- can reports being hit as well, but as an outsider he did not accept the abuse and said to the captain, “Do it again and I’ll break your arm.” Korean officials, American officials, and many others believed change was necessary to prevent additional accidents and to gen- erally improve the organization. Following another crash and the forced res- ignations of key leaders in the late 1990s, new leaders inside Korean Air took actions to change the authoritarian, punishment-ori- ented culture. Yi Taek Shim, the new presi- dent, vowed that cultural and technological problems would be addressed whatever the cost. Koh Myung Joon, who became the new director of flight operations, sought captains for training duty who had “the right tempera- ment,” meaning they would not use inappro- priate, heavy-handed punishment but rather would focus on positive reinforcement for desired behavior. These leaders clearly had Chris Parypa Photography/Shutterstock useful insights. Korean Air has had an excel- lent safety record in the twenty-first century, and crucial relationships with partner airlines have been strengthened. Consistent with actions and outcomes at Korean Air, Francis Friedman of Time & Place Strategies in New York has said that individuals in positions of authority should not “get into a kick-the-dog mentality.” Even Simon Kukes, a Russian who achieved noto- riety as CEO of Tyumen Oil, has suggested that managers should not “yell, scream, and try to find someone to punish.” This is interest- ing advice, given the general authoritarian culture in Russia. Sources: “Korean Air Is Restructuring Its Flight Operations Division,” Aviation Week & Space Technology, 152, no. 21 (2000): 21; “Cargo Airline of the Year: Korean Air Cargo,” Air Transport World, 40, no. 2 (2000): 30–31; W.M. Carley and A. Pasztor, “Pilot Error: Korean Air Confronts Dismal Safety Record Rooted in Its Culture,” Wall Street Journal (July 7, 1999); Z. Coleman and M. Song, “Inquiry Blames Cockpit Crew for KAL Crash,” Wall Street Journal (June 6, 2001), P.M. Perry, “Cage the Rage,” Warehousing Management, 8, no. 2 (2001): 37–40; P. Starobin, “The Oilman as Teacher,” BusinessWeek (June 25, 2001), G. Thomas, “Korean Air CEO Vows ’No More Excuses,’” Aviation Week & Space Technology, 153, no. 1 (2000): 48; G. Thomas, “The Yin and Yang of Korean Air,” Air Transport World, 39, no. 10 (2002): 26–29. he reinforcing consequences of some dysfunctional work behaviors, however, may be completely removable. For example, an associate may have developed a habit of regularly visit- ing the manager’s office to complain about her co-workers. Most of the complaints are trivial, and the manager wishes to extinguish this practice. However, the fact that the manager has appeared to be attentive and understanding is a positive, reinforcing consequence. The man- ager may therefore extinguish the behavior by refusing to listen whenever this associate com- plains about her co-workers. (During a useful conversation with the associate, the manager would, of course, be attentive; only the dysfunctional behavior should be extinguished.) To use extinction, then, managers must recognize the reinforcing consequences of a behavior, and these consequences must be controllable. Extinction is supposedly used to eliminate dysfunctional behavior. However, this phe- nomenon can also result in unintended consequences by extinguishing desirable behavior. In a study of hospital employees, some researchers found that when managers failed to provide feedback for good performance (a reward), employees performed more poorly and became unsatisfied with their jobs.14 Schedules of Reinforcement Positive and negative reinforcement are powerful tools in many situations. To fully leverage these two tools, it is important to understand schedules of reinforcement.15 These schedules determine how often reinforcement is given for desired behavior. Reinforcement does not necessarily need to follow every instance of a positive behavior. The simplest schedule is continuous reinforcement, whereby reward occurs after each instance of a particular behavior or set of behaviors. This schedule tends to produce reasonably high rates of the rewarded behavior because it is relatively easy for an individual to understand the connection between a behavior and its positive consequences.16 Behavior in organizations, however, often is not reinforced on a continuous schedule, for several reasons. First, once ini- tial learning has occurred through training and/or coaching, continuous reinforcement is not required to maintain learned behavior. Second, in today’s organizations, both managers and associates are presumed to be self-managing, at least to some degree. Thus, they do not need continuous reinforcement of positive actions. Intermittent reinforcement, then, is often used to maintain learned behavior. Sched- ules can vary by rewarding responses only after a specified number of correct behaviors have occurred or after a specified amount of time has passed. The four most common intermittent schedules found in organizations are as follows: 1. Fixed interval. With this schedule, a reinforcement becomes available only after a fixed period of time has passed since the previous reinforcement. For example, an associate at an airport car rental counter might receive a dollar and praise for saying “May I help you?” rather than using the grammatically incorrect “Can I help you?” Because the manager delivering the reinforcement has a limited amount of money and time to devote to this bonus plan, he might listen from his back office for the proper greeting only after two hours have passed since his last delivery of reinforcement. Upon hearing the greeting after the two-hour interval, the manager would provide the next reinforcement. A fixed-interval schedule like this one can make the desired behavior more resistant to extinction than the continuous schedule because the associate is not accustomed to being reinforced for every instance of the desired behavior. However, it can also yield lower probabilities of the desired behavior immediately after reinforcement has occurred because the person may realize that no additional reinforcement is possible for a period of time. Moreover, it can yield generally low probabilities of the desired behavior if the fixed interval is too long for the situation.17 Overall, this schedule of reinforcement tends to be the least effective. 2. Variable interval. With this second schedule, a reinforcement becomes available after a variable period of time has passed since the previous reinforcement. In our car rental example, the manager might listen for and reward the desired greeting one hour after the previous reinforcement and then again after one half hour, and then again after three hours. This schedule can produce a consistently high rate of the desired behavior because the associate does not know when reinforcement might be given next. If, however, the average time between reinforcements becomes too great, the variable-interval schedule can lose its effectiveness.18 3. Fixed ratio. With this third reinforcement schedule, a reinforcer is introduced after the desired behavior has occurred a fixed number of times. In our car rental example, the manager might listen closely to all of the greetings used by a given associate and reward the desired greeting every third time it is used. In industrial settings, managers may create piece-rate incentive systems whereby individual production workers are paid, for example, $5.00 after producing every fifth piece. Although the fixed-ratio schedule can produce a reasonably high rate of desired behavior, it can also result in a short period immediately following reinforcement when the desired behavior does not occur.19 Such outcomes occur because associates and managers relax following reinforcement, knowing they are starting over. 4. Variable ratio. With our final schedule, a reinforcement is introduced after the desired behavior has occurred a variable number of times. The manager of our car rental counter may listen closely all day to the greetings but, because of money and time constraints, reward only the first desired greeting, the fifth, the eight, the fifteenth, the seventeenth, and so on. This schedule of reinforcement tends to produce consistently high rates of desired behavior and tends to make extinction less likely than under the other schedules.20 The variable-ratio schedule is very common in many areas of life, including sports: baseball and softball players are reinforced on this schedule in their hitting, basketball players in their shot making, anglers in their fishing, and gamblers in their slot machine activities. In business organizations, salespersons are perhaps more subject to this schedule than others, with a variable number of sales contacts occurring between actual sales. Exhibit 4-2 summarizes various schedules of reinforcement. Social Cognitive Theory Although the principles of operant conditioning explain a great deal of learning that takes place, people also learn in other ways. Social cognitive theory argues that in addition to learn- ing through direct reinforcement, people can also learn by anticipating consequences of their behavior and by modeling others.21 In other words, learning occurs through the mental processing of information.22 According to these approaches to learning, one way that associates can learn is through symbolization and forethought.23 People have the ability to symbolize events and to anticipate consequences. This means that rather than having to directly experience possible consequences of one’s behavior, a person can try out various scenarios in his or her mind to determine what potential consequences may result from a particular behavior. For example, if a manager has to make a decision about whether to open a new branch office, she can rely on past experience to

come up with symbolic representation of the problem and then anticipate what outcomes may occur if she decides to open the new office. According to social learning theory, people also learn by observing others. Rather than having to experience consequences first-hand, associates can observe the behavior of others and the results of that behavior.24 When results are positive, then associates will model the behavior demonstrated by the other person. For example, if an associate is trying to learn how to give presentations, rather than try out many different presentation styles, he may observe his supervisor, who is a wonderful presenter, and then model the supervisor’s presentation style. Associates are most likely to model the behavior of people they perceive to be competent, powerful, friendly, and of high status within the organization.25 Social learning theory also states that an individual’s belief that he will be able to perform a specific task in a given situation is important to learning. This belief is referred to as one’s self-efficacy. When associates have high self-efficacy toward a particular task, they believe poorly when they do not believe that they are able to accomplish the task at a satisfactory level. Athletes are often trained to visualize themselves performing extremely well in order to increase their self-efficacy, and consequently their performance. A great deal of research has shown that self-efficacy increases performance and learning, beyond ability.27 If there are two people with the same ability, the person with the higher self-efficacy will tend to perform better and learn more. Training and Enhancing the Performance of Associates 115 Other Conditions for Learning In addition to learning through consequences and observing others, more recent research has noted that the following conditions help facilitate adult learning:28 • Associates need to know why they are learning what they are learning. People become more motivated to learn when they understand why what they are learning is important.29 For example, in order for associates to successfully train to engage in safe behaviors, they must first understand what constitutes safe behavior and then understand the consequences of not engaging in these behaviors.30 In order for associates to know why they are learning what they are learning, they must be provided with specific learning objectives.31 Also, allowing associates to either directly or vicariously experience the negative effects of not learning may help them understand why learning the material is important.32 We discuss learning from failure in more detail later in this chapter. • Associates need to use their own experiences as the basis for learning. Many teaching and learning experts believe that people learn best when they can tie newly learned material to their past experiences, take an active role in their own learning, and are able to reflect on their learning experiences.33 According to the experiential learning perspective, it is imperative for learning to include active experimentation and reflective observation.34 This is why many MBA programs include team exercises to teach teamwork skills. Rather than just reading about the importance of teamwork and how to achieve it, students actually experience their lessons and later are asked to reflect upon what they have learned. • Associates need to practice what they have learned. Practicing means repetitively demonstrating performance stated in the learning objectives. Overlearning due to constant practice improves the likelihood that associates will engage in newly learned behaviors once they leave the learning situation.35 Overlearning means that performing the new behavior takes little conscious thought, so that the performance becomes automatic. • Associates need feedback. A great deal of research has been conducted on the effects of feedback on learning.36 Feedback can facilitate learning by providing associates with information about what they should be learning and it can also act as a reward. Feedback is most conducive to learning when associates are comfortably familiar with the material to be learned or when the material is relatively simple.37 Training and Enhancing the Performance of Associates The learning concepts discussed thus far have been successfully used over the years to train new- comers as well as to improve the performance of existing associates. To achieve positive results when training a newcomer, managers often reinforce individuals as they move closer to the desired set of behaviors. The following steps capture the most important elements in the process: 1. Determine the new behaviors to be learned. 2. For more complex behavior, break the new behavior down into smaller, logically arranged segments. 3. Demonstrate desired behaviors to the trainee. Research indicates that modeling appropriate behaviors is very useful.38 Research also indicates that unless the key behaviors are distinctive and meaningful, the trainee is not likely to remember them on the job. 4. Have the trainee practice the new behaviors in the presence of the trainer. 5. Make reinforcement contingent on approximations of desired behavior. At the outset, mild reinforcement can be given for a good start. As the training continues, reinforcement should be given only as progress is made. Reinforcement should be immediate, and over time behavior should be reinforced only if it comes closer to the ultimate desired behavior.40 In newcomer training, managers in many organizations use this approach. Trilogy, a software firm based in Austin, Texas, uses positive reinforcement as new hires work through successively more difficult assignments in a boot camp that lasts several months.41 Google, named Fortune’s 100 best place to work for three years in a row, donates $50 for every five hours an employee volunteers. CEO Larry Page urges employees to be “audacious,” especially in philanthropy. New employees, called Nooglers, are made to feel special from the moment they are hired. It doesn’t hurt that Google has wellness centers and a seven-acre sports complex. One Noogler said, “I was really impressed with the openness and amount of information given at orientation and through- out the first week.”42 The Starbucks training program has played a big part in the company’s success. When executives visited Starbucks coffee shops, they noticed that good employees were reacting badly when faced with agitated customers. In response, they created new training material to eliminate the stress of these situations.43 Organizations use numerous methods to train employees.44 On-the-job training methods include orientation programs, organizational socialization experiences, apprenticeship train- ing, coaching, formal mentoring, job rotation, career development activities, and technology- based training. Off-site training methods include instructor-led classrooms, videoconferenc- ing, corporate universities and institutes, and virtual-reality simulators. Learning can also take place informally through trial-and-error, informal mentoring relationships, interactions with co-workers, and from learning from one’s mistakes. We highlight three learning methods next: OB Mod, simulation learning, and learning from failure. OB Mod To improve the performance of existing associates on ongoing tasks, organizations must be concerned not only with developing good habits but also with breaking bad ones. As an aid in this process, a formal procedure known as organizational behavior modification, or OB Mod, is often used.45 The basic goal of OB Mod, which some refer to as performance management, is to improve task performance through positive reinforcement of desirable behaviors and elimi- nation of reinforcements that support undesirable behaviors.46 Its value lies in the specific, detailed steps that it offers. As shown in Exhibit 4-3, the OB Mod framework can be represented as a simple flow- chart. In the initial steps, managers determine desirable and undesirable behaviors and assess the extent to which individuals are currently exhibiting those behaviors. Desirable behaviors may be as simple as using a production machine or answering the telephone in a different way. In the next step, the functional analysis, managers determine reinforcers that can be used to increase the frequency of desired behavior (e.g., praise, preferential work arrangements, time off) and reinforcers that must be eliminated to extinguish undesirable behaviors (e.g., social approval from co-workers for loafing). Next, managers apply the knowledge they have gained concerning reinforcers in an effort to alter behavior in a fruitful way. If successful in this step, they can develop an appropriate reinforcement schedule for the future. Finally, the impact of modified behaviors on job performance indicators, such as units produced per day, is assessed. Research has been generally supportive of OB Mod. One study found that PIGS (posi- tive, immediate, graphic, and specific) feedback, coupled with social reinforcement for desired behavior (e.g., praise, attention, compliments), improved the delivery of quality service by

tellers in a bank.47 Another study found that feedback coupled with social reinforcement and time off helped overcome significant performance problems among municipal workers.48 In Russia, a study determined that feedback and social reinforcement improved the quality of fabric produced by textile workers.49 Overall, research has found an average performance gain of 17 percent when OB Mod was explicitly used.50 OB Mod research reveals that performance improvements tend to be greater in manu- facturing organizations (33 percent on average) than in service organizations (13 percent on average).51 This difference across types of organizations highlights a weakness of the OB Mod approach. For jobs that are complex and nonroutine, such as those found in some service organizations (e.g., accounting firms, law firms, and hospitals), OB Mod tends to be less effec- tive. In complex jobs, where excellent performance in core job areas (successful audits, effective surgical procedures) is based on deep, rich knowledge and on skills that can take months or years to develop, short-term interventions based on the simple principles of operant condition- ing and social learning may not yield particularly strong performance gains.52 For organiza- tions seeking to develop their human capital for competitive advantage, this limitation must be considered. OB Mod research also reveals another important fact: performance feedback coupled with social reinforcements can be as effective as feedback coupled with monetary reinforcers.53 In the studies of bank tellers, municipal workers, and Russian textile workers, for example, no monetary reinforcement was involved. For managers and organizations, this is very important. Although managers, as part of high-involvement management, should provide fair financial compensation overall, they do not necessarily need to spend significant amounts of money to improve performance. Simulations In some situations, an associate or manager may take a particular action with unclear conse- quences.54 This happens when the effects of an action combine with the effects of other factors in unpredictable ways. Suppose, for example, that a team leader brings pizza to celebrate a week of high productivity. The team members express appreciation and appear generally pleased with the gesture, but the appreciation is not overwhelming. The team leader may conclude that having a pizza party is not worth the trouble. She may be correct, or she may be incorrect because other factors may have contributed to the situation. At the time of the pizza party, a key member of the team was out caring for a sick parent. In addition, rumors circulated among the team members that the new plant controller did not embrace high-involvement management. Did these two factors affect the team’s reaction to the pizza? In this example, the team leader could discuss the situation with team members in order to better understand their reactions. Other situations may be so complex that discussions with team members may not be adequate. Consider the complex situation facing the gen- eral manager at a Canadian curling club. He plans to increase the annual membership fee to enhance profits. As shown in Exhibit 4-4, the annual fee does influence profits, but the effects are not clear. On the one hand, increasing the annual fee has a positive effect on revenue from membership fees because members who stay are paying more, and this, in turn, has a positive effect on profits. On the other hand, increasing the annual fee puts upward pressure on the cancellation rate among members and therefore downward pressure on the total number of club members. As the number of club members declines, revenue is lost, which reduces profits. What actual effect, then, will an increase in the membership fee have? Is the overall effect posi- tive or negative? Perhaps an increase up to a point results in more revenue from the members who stay than is lost from the members who leave. But where is the point at which total rev- enue begins to decline? A further complication is that factors other than the membership fee influence revenues and costs and profits.

In situations where a complex system of variables exists and we have some understanding of how the variables affect one another, a simulation may be a useful tool for understanding the effects of a potential action. A simulation mimics the real system but allows us to take one action at a time to understand its effects. In our curling club example, the relationships among the variables shown in Exhibit 4-4 could be developed into a simulation. If the manager of the club wanted to change the annual fee to affect profits, he could implement various increases in this fee within the simulation to observe the effects. Although simulations are important and useful, they typically represent simplified models of development of technology for new products,56 and it has also been used in areas such as set- ting the strategic direction of the organization.57 Bank of America is one of many organizations that regularly conducts experiments.58 It has a number of branches specifically designated for testing new ideas in décor, kiosks, service procedures, and so on. Learning from Failure High-involvement firms often attempt to leverage their human capital in ways that will enhance innovation.59 Accordingly, they often empower associates and managers to experi- ment. In addition to the formal experimentation discussed earlier, these organizations often promote informal and smaller-scale experimentation in almost all areas of organizational life, ranging from a manager trying a new leadership style to an associate on the assembly line trying a new method of machine setup. Such experimentation yields learning that otherwise would not occur. A manager’s leadership style may have been working well, but trying a new style will provide him with information on the effectiveness of the new style. Experimentation, however, does not always result in success; by its nature, it often pro- duces failure. New approaches sometimes are less effective than old ways of doing things. New product ideas sometimes are not attractive in the marketplace. Qwikster (a spin-off of Netflix) was killed before it even launched due to customer outrage, Chevy Volt has never lived up to its hype. Abercrombie & Fitch’s Ashley Push-Up Triangle, a padded bikini for elementary school- girls, prompted a severe response from parents and child development experts, and Apple Maps was so inaccurate that Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote a public apology letter.60 The key is to learn from failure.61 A failure that does not result in learning is a mistake; a failure that results in learning is an intelligent failure. Intelligent failures are the result of certain kinds of actions:62 • Actions are thoughtfully planned. • Actions have a reasonable chance of producing a successful outcome. • Actions are typically modest in scale, to avoid putting the entire firm or substantial parts of it at risk. • Actions are executed and evaluated in a speedy fashion, since delayed feedback makes learning more difficult. • Actions are limited to domains that are familiar enough to allow proper understanding of the effects of the actions. Firms serious about experimentation and intelligent failure create cultures that protect and nurture associates and managers willing to take calculated risks and to try new things.63 Such cultures have visible examples of individuals who have been promoted even after having failed in trying a new approach. Such cultures also have stories of associates who have been rewarded for trying something new even though it did not work out. At IDEO, a product design firm based in Palo Alto, California, the culture is built on the idea that designers should “fail often to succeed sooner,” and at 3-M, the global giant based in St. Paul, Minnesota, the culture is built on the idea that thoughtful failure should not be a source of shame.64 Learning from failure, OB Mod, and simulations are just three ways in which organiza- tions can train associates. Many organizations, such as the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, use multiple methods. The Ritz-Carlton provides an excellent example of the strategic impor- tance of training and continuous employee learning. Although the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Com- pany spends much more on associate training than its competitors, the company sees payoff from its training on all important indicators. Customer satisfaction is higher and associates work harder and turn over less frequently at the Ritz-Carlton than they do at other hotels. This superb performance has led the Ritz-Carlton to win almost every prestigious business and training award, while making it an exceptionally successful company.

Perception As we have shown in the preceding sections, associates and managers who can effectively learn from experience, and help others to do so, contribute positively to an organization’s human capital and therefore contribute positively to its capacity to develop sustainable competitive advantage. To further develop the story of learning, we now turn to issues of perception. If an associate or manager does not perceive people, tasks, and events accu- rately, learning from experience is difficult. If an associate or manager does not perceive the world accurately, he will base his behavior on inaccurate perceptions of the world rather than on reality. Associates and managers are constantly exposed to a variety of sensory inputs that influ- ence their perceptions. Sensory inputs refer to things that are heard, seen, smelled, tasted, and touched. These inputs are processed in the mind and organized to form concepts pertaining to what has been sensed or experienced. For instance, an associate in a catering firm may sense a common item such as a loaf of bread. He touches it, squeezes it, smells it, looks at its shape and color, and tastes it. His mind processes all of the sensory inputs, and he forms ideas and attitudes about that loaf of bread and the bakery that produced it. He may determine that the bread is fresh or stale, good or bad, worth the price or not, and may subsequently decide whether products of this particular bakery are to be used. These are his perceptions of the bread and of the producer. Perception comprises three basic stages:65 1. Sensing various characteristics of a person, task, or event. This stage consists of using the senses (touch, sight, smell, and so on) to obtain data. Some environmental data, however, cannot be detected by the sensory organs. For example, operators of the Three Mile Island nuclear facility, which almost melted down in the 1970s, could not sense that a relief valve was stuck open in the nuclear core because they could not see it and the instrument panel indicated that it was closed.66 Some data, though accessible, are not sensed. Engineers and managers with NASA and Morton Thiokol failed to sense certain features of their booster rockets when considering whether to launch the ill-fated Challenger shuttle in the 1980s.67 In 2013, three people died and others were sickened over several weeks in a North Carolina hotel room when a carbon monoxide leak went undetected.68 2. Selecting from the data those facts that will be used to form the perception. An individual does not necessarily use all of the data that she senses. At times, a person may be overloaded by information and unable to use all of it. For example, US Defense Department officials dealt with overwhelming amounts of data from various sources with regard to the events of September 11 and the conflict in Iraq. At other times, a person may purposely exclude information that is inconsistent with her other existing perceptions. A manager who firmly believes an associate is a weak performer, for example, may discount and ultimately exclude information suggesting otherwise.69 Accurate perception, however, requires the use of all relevant information. 3. Organizing the selected data into useful concepts pertaining to the object or person. An individual must order and sort data in a way that is useful in establishing approaches to dealing with the world. We now explore this aspect of perception in discussing perceptions of people. Perceptions of People Shortcomings in the ability to sense the full range of data, to select appropriate data for further processing, and to organize the data into useful information can lead to inaccurate perceptions about people.70 These erroneous perceptions in turn can interfere with learning how to best interact with a person and can lead to poor decisions about and actions toward the person. Effective associates and managers are able to develop complete and accurate perceptions of the various people with whom they interact—customers, sales representatives, peers, and so on. An effective manager, for example, knows when a sales representative is sincere, when an associate has truly achieved superior performance, and when another manager is dependable. These accurate perceptions are crucial to a firm’s human capital that contributes to competitive advantage. Next, we discuss several factors that influence the process of perceiving other people. These factors are shown in Exhibit 4-5.

The Nature of the Perceiver Perception of the Person Problems in Person Perception Implicit Person Theories Halo Effect Projecting Stereotyping The perception process is influenced by several factors related to the nature of the perceiver. Impaired hearing or sight and temporary conditions such as those induced by alcohol or prescribed medications can, of course, affect perception. Beyond those challenges, the most important factors are the perceiver’s familiarity with the other person, the perceiver’s existing feelings about the other person, and the emotional state of the perceiver. Familiarity with the person is important. On the one hand, an individual may have more accurate perceptions of people with whom she has had a substantial history. Over time, the individual has had many opportunities to observe those people. On the other hand, an indi- vidual may pay more attention to newcomers, making extra efforts to notice and process data about them. If an individual has put a great deal of effort over time into properly understanding certain people, she probably has developed accurate perceptions of their characteristics and abilities. If, however, those characteristics and abilities change, or if the people act in ways that are not consistent with their longstanding characteristics and abilities, the perceiving individual may not accurately interpret the new characteristics or behaviors. In this case, the perceiver may be too focused on existing beliefs about the friends and associates to accurately interpret new characteristics or behaviors. A manager who has had an excellent, trusting relationship with an associate over many years may thus disregard evidence of lying or poor performance because it does not fit preexisting conceptions of the person.71 An individual’s feelings about another person also may affect the perception process. If the individual generally has positive feelings toward a particular person, he may view the person’s actions through a favorable lens and thus may interpret those actions more positively than is warranted. In contrast, if the individual generally has negative feelings toward a particular person, he may view the person’s actions through an unfavorable lens and thus interpret those actions more negatively than is warranted. Research conducted at a large multinational firm provides evidence for these common- sense effects. In this research, 344 middle managers were rated by 272 superiors, 470 peers, and 608 associates. The feelings of the 1,350 raters were assessed through measures of admira- tion, respect, and liking. Raters who had positive feelings toward a particular ratee consistently rated his or her performance more leniently than they should have. Raters who had negative feelings rated performance too severely.

An individual’s emotional state may also affect perceptions of others. If the individual is happy and excited, she may perceive others as more exuberant and cheerful than they really are. If the individual is sad and depressed, she may perceive others as more unhappy than they really are or even as more sinister than they really are. For example, in one study, several women judged photographs of faces after they had played a frightening game called “Murder.” Those women perceived the faces to be more menacing than did women who had not played the game.73 The Nature of the Situation Factors present in a situation can affect whether an associate or manager senses important information, and these factors can influence whether this information is used in perceptions. Relevant factors are numerous and varied. Three of them are discussed here: obvious charac- teristics of the other person, the other person’s apparent intentions, and the consequences of interactions with the person. As previously discussed, an individual’s perceptions of another person can be influenced by his own internal states and emotions. In addition, the individual’s perceptions of another person are affected by that person’s most obvious characteristics (those that stand out). For instance, the perceiver is likely to notice things that are intense, bright, noisy, or in motion. He is also likely to notice highly attractive and highly unattractive people, people dressed in expen- sive clothes and those dressed in clothes reflecting poor taste, and bright, intelligent people or extremely dull-witted ones. He is less likely to notice normal or average people. This effect on perceptions has been demonstrated in research.74 In organizations, extremely good and bad performers may be noticed more than aver- age associates. Managers must be aware of this tendency because most associates are average. Large numbers of associates may go unnoticed, unrewarded, and passed over for promotions, even though they have the potential to contribute to a firm’s goals and to the achievement of competitive advantage. An individual’s perceptions may also be affected by the assumed intentions behind another person’s actions. If, for example, assumed intentions are undesirable from the perceiver’s point Tobi Corney/Getty Images, Inc. of view, the other person may be seen as threatening or hostile.75 Finally, an individual may be affected by the conse- quences of a single interaction with another person. If the consequences are basically positive, the individual is likely to perceive the other person favorably. If, however, the results of the interaction are negative, the individual is more likely to view the other person unfavorably. In one study, a researcher’s accomplice was the only mem- ber of a work group to fail on the assigned task. The study included two conditions. In one condition, the accomplice’s failure prevented the other members from receiving payment for the task. This accomplice was perceived unfavorably (as less competent, less dependable, and less likable). In a second condition, the other members received payment despite the accomplice’s failure. This accomplice was seen as being more competent, dependable, and likable, even though the actual level of performance was the same as the first accomplice’s. Problems in Person Perception The preceding discussion shows that perceiving others accurately can be challenging. In fact, some of the most noteworthy conflicts in organizations have been the result of misperceiving others. In a well- known example involving Apple Computer, a midlevel manager in charge of distribution misperceived the character and motives of a manager in charge of one of the manufacturing operations, resulting in a battle that was unnecessarily protracted.77 The distribution man- ager almost resigned her job with the organization before realizing the other manager was not committed to dismantling the existing distribution function. Because perceptions influ- ence how associates and managers behave toward one another, it is important to strengthen our understanding of the perceptual process so that our perceptions of others reflect reality. The perceptual process is influenced by factors associated with both the perceiver and the general situation. The problems that prevent the formation of accurate perceptions arise from factors that can be ordered into four general problem groups: implicit personality theories, halo effect, projecting, and stereotyping. People hold implicit person theories,78 which are personal theories about what personal- ity traits and abilities occur together and how these attributes are manifested in behavior. For example, if an associate notices that her colleague’s office is brightly decorated and messy, she may infer that this associate will be very talkative and outgoing because her implicit personal- ity theory states that messiness and extraversion go together.79 One type of implicit personality theory that individuals hold concerns whether people believe that personality traits and abili- ties are fixed and unchangeable in people.80 Those who believe that people cannot change are called entity theorists, while those who believe that people’s attributes such as skills and abilities can change and develop are called incremental theorists. Research has shown that managers who hold an entity theorist perspective are less likely to help and coach their subordinates because they believe that their behavior is unchangeable.81 The halo effect occurs when a person makes a general assessment of another person (such as “good” or “bad”), and then uses this general impression to interpret everything that the per- son does, regardless of whether the general impression accurately portrays the behavior.82 With regard to the halo effect, if a person is perceived as generally “good,” a manager or associate will tend to view the person in a positive way in any circumstance or on any evaluative measure. Thus, if Marianne is perceived as being a generally “good” person, she may be seen as an active, positive force in the organization’s culture even if she is actually neutral in promoting a positive culture. If Ted is perceived as being a “bad” person, he may be considered insolent and cunning even if he does not truly exhibit those particular negative traits. In the many studies of this phenomenon, halo error has been found in ratings given to job candidates, teachers, ice skaters, and others.83 Assuming that most other people have the same values and beliefs as we do is known as projecting. For example, a production manager may think that lathe operators should always check with her on important decisions. The production manager may also believe that the lathe operators prefer this checking to making their own decisions. This may be an inaccurate perception, however, and the lathe operators may complain about the need to check with the manager. Obviously, falsely believing that other persons share our beliefs can lead to ineffective behavior. Specific problems include overestimating consensus, undervaluing objective assess- ments, and undervaluing those with opposing views.84 As already noted in Chapter 2, when an individual has preconceived ideas or perceptions about a certain group of people, stereotyping can occur. When the individual meets someone who is obviously a member of a particular group, he may perceive that person as having the general characteristics attributed to the group rather than perceiving the person as an individual with a unique set of characteristics.85 For example, a manager may perceive union members (a group) to be strong, assertive troublemakers. When he meets John, a union member, he perceives John to be a troublemaker simply because he is a union member. This type of percep- tual problem is commonly found among managers who deal ineffectively with union leaders, associates who deal ineffectively with members of the other gender, and associates who deal ineffectively with members of other ethnic groups. To fully leverage its human assets, an organization must have associates and managers who respect one other and appreciate the unique characteristics of each person. Stereotyping can interfere with these outcomes. Effective, productive interactions require accurate perceptions of people, and stereotypes are frequently incorrect, for two reasons. First, the stereotyped char- acteristics of a group may simply be wrong. Erroneous stereotypes may result from a number of factors, such as fear of a group and contact with only a select subset of a group. Obviously, when the stereotype itself is inaccurate, applying the stereotype to an individual can only result in error. Second, even if stereotyped characteristics of a group are generally correct, any given individual within the group is unlikely to have all, or even most, of the characteristics attributed to the group. One basis for stereotyping individuals is their physical attractiveness. Elysa Yanowitz was fired by L’Oreal USA, Inc. for not firing a Macy’s saleswoman who was “not good looking enough.”86 A company executive said, “Get me somebody hot” for the job. A manager told Annette McConnell, a sales company employee who weighed 300 pounds, that she was going to be laid off “because people don’t like buying from fat people.”87 It is well documented that people associate those who are physically attractive with positive qualities and those who are unattractive with negative qualities.88 Thus, perceptions of a person’s attractiveness and/or weight can influ- ence how they are evaluated on the job, and even how much they get paid.89 For example, over- weight women were found to earn 7 to 30 percent less than normal-weight women performing at the same level in the same jobs.90 Such bias, while usually not illegal, is strategically unsound for organizations. Bias of this type means that organizations are making less-than-optimal decisions about how to use their human capital.91 Furthermore, such unfair treatment can be demoral- izing and stressful and may lead associates to perform at less-than-optimal levels.92 In some cases, such as the L’Oreal case, such treatment can lead to charges of sex discrimination when men and women are held to different attractiveness standards.93 As discussed in Chapter 2, such cases are extremely costly for organizations, not to mention the individuals involved. Self-Perception It is widely recognized that perceptions of others have important consequences, but an individual’s perception of self may have important consequences as well. Individuals who perceive themselves as highly competent are likely to try new approaches to tasks and perhaps be more productive than their peers. Self-confidence is a powerful force. In an examination of lower-level managers, self-perceptions of competence were found to play a significant role in task performance.94 Attributions of Causality As individuals consider the behavior of others, they will perceive that actions have various causes. Different people, however, may see the same behavior as being caused by different factors. For example, suppose two people observe someone busily working at a task. Both may conclude that he is being positively reinforced for the task, but they may disagree about the nature of the reinforcement. One of the observers may believe that the person is making diligent efforts “because the boss is looking and smiling,” whereas the other observer may believe the efforts are caused by the satisfaction inherent in doing the task. As evidenced in the Experiencing Organizational Behavior section, Pilot Long inaccurately concluded that Ken Good’s lack of knowledge about how to radio was due to a general lack of knowledge, and thus, later ignored his expert advice about their location. He could have concluded that Ken Good’s lack of knowledge about the radio was simply due to his not knowing the correct password. The process of deciding what caused the behavior is known as attribution.

Great Bear Wilderness Crash Flight SEA04GA192 took off from Glacier National Park airport on September 20, 2004. On board were five people, including pilot Jim Long, 60; Chief of Party, Ken Good, 58; and forestry scientists Davita Bryant, 32; Mat- thew Ramige, 29; and Jodee Hogg, 23. They were heading for Schafer Meadows, an airstrip in 1.5 million acres of Montana wilderness. They were heading out to col- lect forestry data for the US Forest Service. The weather that day was horrible, with low clouds obscuring mountain peaks. Flight SEA04GA192 never reached her destina- tion. Two days later, only two of the crew members barely survived, Matthew Ramige and Jodee Hogg. The rest of the crew lay dead at the site of the plane crash in the Great Bear Wilderness. The weather, which had hampered visibility, led pilot Long to abandon the planned flight course. The plane flew into a boxed canyon with mountain walls on three sides and no way out. At the last minute, Long attempted to turn out of the canyon and crashed into the side of the mountain. Pilot Long and forestry scientist Bryant were killed at the time of the crash. Ken Good died at the crash site the following morning. The next day, Ramige and Hogg walked out of the canyon by themselves, without being rescued. They were found two days later when they reached civilization. Thus, apart from the disaster of the crash, there was also the failure of the search team to find the survivors. While weather seems the most obvi- ous cause of this problem, closer examina- tion reveals that human error, based on a lack of learning and misguided perceptions, played a role in this disaster. Based on rec- ollections of survivors Hogg and Ramige, there was confusion between pilot Long and Chief of Party Good when the plane ran into trouble. When trying to call in the plane’s location, Good was unable to do so. “Ken tried to radio in and Jim—I think Jim ended up actually making the radio because Ken didn’t know the code word. ... [H]e looked at Jim and said, What’s your number? ... He’s like, Okay, How do you do it? And Jim’s like, Here. Just let me do it. And Ken is like, I really want to do it, blah, blah, blah. . . .” Furthermore, while Good had supe- rior knowledge of the area, Long failed to take his advice, possibly because he did not know how to call in their location. Thus, he attributed Long’s inability to use the radio as being due to his general lack of knowledge, and may have assumed he didn’t know about anything. Indeed, right before the crash, pilot Long had radioed in a wrong position, after arguing with Good about it. Clearly, if these two men had been able to learn from each other, this disaster may have been avoided. Furthermore, Long was a retired chemist, who had very little experience flying in this type of terrain and certainly under these weather conditions. He just did not have the experience to handle the crisis situation. A second tragic aspect of this disaster is that the search party arrived at the site of the accident the next day, September 21, after searching the wrong location. They surveyed the crash site and declared that there were no survivors, when in fact Hogg and Ramige had left the site after realizing that the search © AP/Wide World Photos plane flying overhead had not seen them. Rather than looking for the survivors, it was just assumed that they were dead and that their bodies had been burned in the plane crash. Search efforts were canceled and the families were notified that their loved ones had perished. When asked to explain how they had made this mistake, the searchers blamed the survivors, rather than their own misreading of the scene. They stated, “There were no footprints leaving the site, no piled rocks, no written message—nothing indicat- ing anyone had survived or left the area.” Clearly, they had failed to learn from their error and engaged in making self-serving bias attributions for their failure to rescue the survivors. In the end, learning, or lack of it, played a big role in this disaster. If Long and Good had been willing or able to learn from each other, the crash may have been avoided. If the search team were more accurate in their perceptions, Ken Good’s life may have been saved and Jodee Hogg and Matthew Ramige would not have had to suffer for two days in the bitter cold wilderness while severely wounded. Sources: W.S. Becker, & M.J. Burke. “Shared decision making in a wilderness aviation accident.” In M. Burke (Chair), Shared Decision Making in Singular Events. Symposium at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Anaheim, California, 2008.; W.S. Becker, “Missed Opportunities: The Great Bear Wilderness Disaster,“ Organiza- tional Dynamics, 36 (2007); 363–376; National Transportation Safety Board, Aircraft Accident -Report: SEA04GA192, Essex, MT, September 20, 2004. Washington, D.C. Probable Cause and Narrative Report, 2005; US Department of Agriculture Forest Service (USFS), Accident Investigation Factual Report. Press Release FS-025A USDA Forest Service, Sept. 23, 2004.

Internal–External Attribution A person’s behavior is often interpreted as having been caused by either internal factors (such as personality, attitudes, and abilities) or external factors (such as organizational resources, luck, and uncontrollable influences). When making these internal–external attributions, we depend to a great extent on our perceptions of the consistency, consensus, and distinctiveness associated with the behavior. • Consistency is the extent to which the same person behaves in the same manner in the same situation over time (he returns from lunch late every day). • Consensus is the degree to which other people in the same situation behave in the same manner (everyone returns from lunch late). • Distinctiveness is the degree to which the same person tends to behave differently in other situations (he returns from lunch late every day but does not come to work late in the morning or leave work early at night).96 As shown in Exhibit 4-6, when we see a person’s behavior as high in consistency, low in consensus, and low in distinctiveness, we tend to attribute that behavior to internal factors. If the behavior is low in consistency, high in consensus, and high in distinctiveness, we tend to attribute the behavior to external factors. If the behavior is perceived as having a mixed profile (such as high in consistency and high in distinctiveness with consensus being neutral), we often are biased toward internal attributions. Studies have highlighted many situations in which internal and external attributions play major roles in attitudes and behavior. For example, one study suggests that unemploy- ment counselors and their clients are influenced by these attributions in contrasting ways. On the one hand, unemployed persons are at the greatest risk for mental depression when they believe their situation is caused by uncontrollable external factors. The less control we perceive ourselves to have over events, the more likely we are to become despondent. On the other hand, a counselor is more likely to help an unemployed person if she sees that the unemployment is caused by

uncontrollable external factors. If the counselor has attributed

the cause of a client’s unemployment to an internal factor (such as poor attitude or low moti- vation), she is less likely to be helpful.97 Interestingly, researchers suggest that, in general, observers tend to overestimate the impact of internal causes on other people’s behavior and underestimate the effect of external causes. This general tendency is called the fundamental attribution error.98 Attributions of Success and Failure Monitoring and responding to poor performance are important tasks for managers and, in high-involvement organizations, for associates as well. To respond appropriately, managers must accurately assess the cause of any poor performance they observe. If they are unable to accurately identify the cause, individuals could suffer or benefit unjustly. Unfortunately, several troublesome attributional tendencies play a role. First, the fundamental attribution error has an effect, although it may be minor. This error causes managers to attribute the behavior of others to internal factors. Thus, an individual’s poor performance may have an external cause, but a manager may attribute it to an internal cause. For example, equity fund managers who perform poorly are often subjected to unfair criticism from those above them in the firm. Although skill is involved, fund-manager perfor- mance is often determined by uncontrollable factors. Second, the self-serving bias plays a role, and it often has a significant effect on attribu- tions. This bias works as follows. We have a strong tendency to attribute our own successes to internal factors (a high level of skill or hard work) and our own failures to external causes (a difficult task or bad luck). Conversely, we tend to attribute someone else’s success to external factors and someone else’s failures to internal factors. We saw this bias at work when the rescue team in the Great Bear Wilderness case blamed the survivors for the team’s failure to recognize that there had been survivors. The fundamental attribution error and the self-serving bias work together to produce a significant bias toward assessments of internal causation for poor performance.99 This bias means that managers and others make evaluation errors more often than they should. Was the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster in the late 1970s a function of several unforeseeable events coming together unexpectedly or a function of simple operator error? Operators received much of the blame, but it is not clear that they deserved it.100 Are failures of new ventures typically a function of uncontrollable market developments or the missteps of entrepreneurs? Entrepreneurs receive much of the blame from venture capitalists,101 but they may not deserve as much blame as they receive. Task Perception As we have described, perceptions of people and their behavior are created in subjective ways. Similarly, perceptions of tasks develop through subjective and sometimes idiosyncratic pro- cesses. Factors such as intelligence, age, and gender have been found to influence perceptions of tasks. One study, for example, found that individuals with higher levels of intelligence per- ceive more complexity in various tasks than individuals with lower levels of intelligence.102 In addition, many studies have found that individuals with higher levels of satisfaction in the workplace perceive more autonomy and variety in their tasks than individuals with lower levels of satisfaction. In a study focused on past graduates of a Hong Kong university, satis- faction and job perceptions were assessed multiple times over a two-year period. Satisfaction was found to influence job perceptions to a greater extent than job perceptions were found to influence satisfaction. THE STRATEGIC LENS Organizations compete on the Given the importance of knowledge in absolutely essential to the effective operation of an organization. Critical Thinking Questions 1. How does the knowledge held by manag- ers and associates affect the performance of an organization? 2. What are some important ways in which associates can learn and thereby enhance their stock of knowledge? What role does perception play in the learning process? 3. What are the connections between learn- ing, perception, and organizational strate- gies? basis of their resources. The strongest organizations usually win the competitive battles if their manag- ers develop effective strategies and imple- ment them well. To be competitive, man- agers use the organization’s resources to create capabilities to act.107 A critical com- ponent of these capabilities is knowledge. In fact, Bill Breen of Fast Company suggests, “Companies compete with their brains as well as their brawn. Organizations today must not only outgun and outhustle competi- tors, they must also outthink them. Companies win with ideas.”108 gaining a competitive advan tage, learning is critical to organizational success. Manag- ers and associates must continuously learn if they are to stay ahead of the competition. Perception is a key component of learning. It is particularly important to top executives, as they must carefully and thoroughly analyze their organization’s external environment, with special emphasis on competitors. If they do not perceive their environment correctly, these executives may formulate ineffective strategies and cause the organization to lose its competitive advantage. Understanding the concepts of learning and perception, then, is How managers and associates perceive their jobs has important implications for behavior and outcomes. Task perceptions have been linked to intrinsic motivation as well as job per- formance.104 They have even been linked to mood.105 One group of researchers proposed that employees first perceive their jobs at an information level, then perceive the tasks at an evalua- tive level, and thereafter react to their jobs behaviorally and emotionally.106 The process of task perception and the resulting effects on behavior have important consequences for organiza- tions. We explore these issues in greater depth in Chapter 6. ? back to the knowledge objectives 1. Based on operant conditioning principles, Social Cognitive Theory, and conditions for learning, what aspects of managerial behavior, the work environment, and the individual are likely to influence associate learning? 2. Integrating what was covered about training, what are the important components of an effective associate training pro- gram? How do these components relate to the basic principles of learning? 3. What factors influence the way we perceive people? How might these factors influence the judgments an interviewer makes about a job applicant? 4. What information is likely to influence how we make causal attributions about others’ behavior? How might the attribution process influence a manager’s performance appraisal of an associate? What This Chapter Adds to Your Knowledge Portfolio In this chapter, we have discussed basic learning principles and described how they can be used in effectively training and develop- ing associates and managers. We have discussed problems that can occur in complex learning situations and how these problems can be avoided. Finally, we have seen many problems associated with perception processes. For individuals to function as effectively as possible, these perception issues must be understood and managed. At a more detailed level, we have covered the following points:

• Learning is the process by which we acquire new, relatively permanent, behaviors from experience. Operant conditioning theory and social learning theory are important explanations for how learning from experience works in practice. Learning new behaviors involves three basic elements: the situation, the behavioral response to the situation, and the consequences of that response for the person. • Positive reinforcement involves the presentation of positive consequences for a behavior, such as praise for working hard, which increases the probability of an individual repeating the behavior in similar settings. Negative reinforcement is the removal of a negative consequence following a behavior, such as taking an employee off probation, which also increases the probability of an individual repeating the behavior. Punishment involves the presentation of negative consequences, such as a reduction in pay, which reduces the probability of repeating a behavior. Extinction refers to the removal of all reinforcing consequences, which can be effective in eliminating undesired behaviors. • Various schedules of reinforcement exist for learning, including continuous reinforcement and several types of intermittent schedules. Although continuous schedules are rare in organizational settings, several applications of intermittent schedules can be found. Strategic use of reinforcement schedules helps in effectively shaping the behavior of newcomers and modifying the behavior of current associates and managers. • In addition to direct reinforcement or punishment, individuals also learn by anticipating potential outcomes associated with certain behaviors and by modeling similar or important others. • Self-efficacy is an important condition for learning to occur. Other important conditions are that people know why they are learning what they are learning, that they can tie the material to be learned to their own previous Thinking about Ethics 1. Should associates be punished for making mistakes? If so, for what types of mistakes should they be punished? Are there mistakes for which they should not be punished? If so, what are they? 2. Should all associates be given the opportunity to learn new skills? If not, explain. Should some associates have greater learning opportunities than others? If so, when should this occur? 3. Are there circumstances when it is acceptable to use perceptual stereotypes of others? Explain why or why not. experiences, that they have the opportunity to practice, and that they receive feedback. • People learn through many formal and informal mechanisms in organizations. Three examples are OB Mod programs, simulations, and learning from failure. • Perception refers to the way people view the world around them. It is the process of receiving sensory inputs and organizing these inputs into useful ideas and concepts. The process consists of three stages: sensing, selecting, and organizing. • Person perception is influenced by several factors associated with the nature of the perceiver, including the perceiver’s familiarity with the person, feelings toward the person, and general emotional state. Situational factors influencing person perception include the general nature of the other person, that person’s apparent intentions, and the anticipated or actual consequences of the interaction between perceiver and perceived. • Four general perceptual problems are implicit person theories, halo effect, projecting, and stereotyping. Implicit person theories are individuals’ beliefs about the nature of human personality and attributes that can influence how they perceive other people. Halo effect is similar but involves having a general impression of a person and allowing it to affect perceptions of all other aspects of the person. Projecting is the tendency to believe that other people have characteristics like our own. Stereotyping occurs when we have generalized perceptions about a group that we apply to an individual who belongs to that group. • Attribution refers to the process by which individuals interpret the causes of behavior. Whether behavior is seen as resulting from internal or external forces is influenced by three factors: distinctiveness, consistency, and consensus. Beyond these factors, there is a general tendency to attribute someone else’s failures to internal causes. 4. Are accurate perceptions always necessary? In what situations (if any) is it less important to ensure that perceptions are accurate? 5. You are a manager of a unit with 15 associates. These associates have varying levels of education (high school to college-educated) and varying levels of skills and motivation. In your organization, associates receive higher pay for acquiring new and valuable skills. How would you decide to whom you would give learning opportunities and to whom you would not provide such opportunities?

Key Terms learning, p. 108 operant conditioning theory, p. 108 social cognitive theory, p. 109 positive reinforcement, p. 109 negative reinforcement, p. 109 punishment, p. 110 extinction, p. 111 continuous reinforcement, p. 112 intermittent reinforcement, p. 112 self-efficacy, p. 114 OB Mod, p. 116 simulation, p. 119 perception, p. 121 implicit person theories, p. 125 halo effect, p. 125 projecting, p. 125 stereotyping, p. 125 fundamental attribution error, p. 129 self-serving bias, p. 129 Human Resource Management Applications Training is usually carried out with the human resource management (HRM) function. In addition to conducting the actual training, the HRM department may also conduct a needs analysis to determine what type of training is needed and by whom and follow through with an evaluation of the training. It may be the HRM department’s responsibility to make sure that the organization realizes a financial and/or performance return on their investment of training dollars. building your human capital Many companies also offer outside learning opportunities for their associates. For example, some companies may pay for college tuition or reimburse expenses for adult learning classes. This type of learning opportunity is often viewed as a benefit of employment, and the HRM function involves developing such benefit plans. Assessment of Approaches Used to Handle Difficult Learning Situations Associates and managers often face difficulties in learning from experience. When there is little opportunity to learn from experience and when experience is unclear, individuals at all levels in an organization may draw the wrong conclu- sions. Interestingly, individuals vary in how they handle these situations. Some are prone to contemplate major issues alone. Others tend to discuss major issues with others. Both approaches can be useful, but extremes in either direction may be risky. In this installment of Building Your Human Capital, we present an assessment tool focused on approaches to handling difficult learning situations. Instructions In this assessment, you will read 12 phrases that describe peo- ple. Use the rating scale below to indicate how accurately each phrase describes you. Rate yourself as you generally are now, not as you wish to be in the future, and rate yourself as you honestly see yourself. Keep in mind that very few people have extreme scores on all or even most of the items (a “1” or a “5” is an extreme score); most people have midrange scores for many of the items. Read each item carefully, and then circle the number that corresponds to your choice from the rating scale.

Scoring Key for Approaches to Handling Difficult Learning Situations To create your score, combine your responses to the items as follows: Private reflection 5 (Item 1 1 Item 2 1 Item 3 1 Item 4 1 Item 5 1 Item 7 1 Item 8 1 Item 9 1 Item 10 1 Item 12) 1 (12 2 (Item 6 1 Item 11)) Scores can range from 12 to 60. Scores of 50 and above may be considered high, while scores of 22 and below may be consid- ered low. Other scores are moderate. High scores suggest that a person prefers to spend time alone considering major issues (high private reflection). Such a person spends quality quiet time an organizational behavior moment It’s Just a Matter of Timing Teresa Alvarez ate dinner slowly and without enthusiasm. Mike, her husband of only a few months, had learned that Teresa’s “blue funks” were usually caused by her job. He knew that it was best to let her work out the problem alone. He excused himself and went to watch TV. Teresa poked at her dinner, but the large knot in her stomach kept her from eating much. She had been very excited when Vegas Brown had approached her about managing his small interior-decorating firm. At the time, she was a loan officer for a local bank and knew Vegas through his financial dealings with the bank. As Vegas explained to her, his biggest problem was in managing the firm’s financial assets, mostly because the firm was undercapi- talized. It was not a severe problem, he assured her. “Mostly,” he had said, “it’s a cash flow problem. We have to be sure that the customers pay their accounts in time to pay our creditors. With your experience, you should be able to ensure a timely cash flow.” Teresa thought this was a good opportunity to build her managerial skills, since she had never had full responsibility for a company. It also meant a substantial raise in salary. After explor- ing the opportunity with Mike, she accepted the job. During her first week with Vegas, she discovered that the financial problems were much more severe than he had led her to believe. The firm’s checking account was overdrawn by about $40,000. There was a substantial list of creditors, mostly compa- nies that sold furniture and carpeting to the firm on short-term credit. She was astonished that this financial position did not seem to bother Vegas. “All you have to do, Teresa, is collect enough money each day to cover the checks we have written to our creditors. As you’ll see, I’m the best sales rep in the business, so we have lots of considering the possibilities. Low scores suggest that a person prefers to talk through problems with others (low private reflec- tion). This type of person spends time exchanging information and viewpoints with others. Additional Task Think of a time when you faced a major problem with no clear answer. Did you handle the situation mostly by thinking alone, mostly by consulting with others, or with a mix of these two approaches? How effective was your approach? Explain. Source of the Assessment Tool: International Personality Item Pool (2001). A Scientific Collaboration for the Development of Advanced Measures of Personality Traits and Other Individual Differences, at http://ipip.ori.org. money coming in. It’s just a matter of timing. With you here, we should turn this problem around in short order.” Teresa, despite her misgivings, put substantial effort into the new job. She worked late almost every day and began to real- ize that it was more than simple cash-flow timing. For example, if the carpet layers made an error or if the furniture came in dam- aged, the customer would refuse to pay. This would mean that the customer’s complaint must be serviced. However, the carpet layers disliked correcting service complaints, and furniture reor- ders might take several weeks. Thus, Teresa personally began to examine all customer orders at crucial points in the process. Eventually, this minimized problems with new orders, but there remained a large number of old orders still awaiting corrections. Teresa also arranged a priority system for paying creditors that eased some financial pressures in the short run and that would allow old, noncritical debts to be repaid when old cus- tomer accounts were repaid. After six months, the day arrived when the checking account had a zero balance, which was sub- stantial progress. A few weeks later, it actually had a $9,000 positive balance. During all this time Teresa had made a point of concealing the financial status from Vegas. But with the $9,000 positive balance, she felt elated and told Vegas. Vegas was ecstatic, said she had done a remarkable job, and gave her an immediate raise. Then it was Teresa’s turn to be ecstatic. She had turned a pressure-packed job into one of promise. The future looked exciting, and the financial pressures had developed into financial opportunities. But that was last week. This morning Vegas came into Teresa’s office and asked her to write him a check for $30,000. Vegas said everything was ooking so good that he was buying a new home for his fam- ily ($30,000 was the down payment). Teresa objected violently. “But this will overdraw our account by $21,000 again. I just got us out of one hole, and you want to put us back in. Either you delay the home purchase or I quit. I’m not going to go through all the late nights and all the pressure again because of some stu- pid personal decision you make. Can’t you see what it means for the business to have money in the bank?” “No, I can’t!” Vegas said sternly. “I don’t want to have money in the bank. It doesn’t do me any good there. I’ll just go out and keep selling our services, and the money will come in like always. You’ve proved to me that it’s just a matter of timing. Quit if you team exercise Best Bet for Training Management-development programs are expensive. When orga- nizations are determining which of several managers to send to these programs, they must evaluate each person. Some of the criteria considered might be whether the manager has the ability to learn, whether the manager and the organization will benefit, and whether a manager is moving into or has recently moved into a new position. The purpose of this exercise is to evalu- ate three potential candidates for developmental training, thus gaining insight into the process. The exercise should take about 20 minutes to complete and an additional 15 to 20 minutes to discuss. The steps are as follows: 1. Read the following case about High Tech International. 2. Assemble into groups of four. 3. List the criteria you should consider for determining which of the three managers to send to the training program. 4. Choose the manager to send using the criteria developed in step 3. 5. Reassemble. Discuss your group’s choice with the rest of the class, and listen to other groups’ choices and criteria. Do you still prefer your group’s choice? Why or why not? 6. The instructor will present additional points for consideration. High Tech International High Tech International has reserved one training slot every other year in an off-site leadership-development program. The program emphasizes personal and professional assess- ment and requires six days of residency to complete. High Tech’s vice president for human resources must choose the manager to attend the next available program, which is to want, but I’m going to buy the house. It’s still my company, and I’ll do what I want.” Discussion Questions 1. What did Teresa learn? 2. Other than quitting, what can Teresa do to resolve the problem? What learning and perception factors should she consider as she analyzes the situation? 3. If you were an outside consultant to the firm, could you rec- ommend solutions that might not occur to Teresa or Vegas? What would they be? be run in three months. The cost of the program is high, including a tuition fee of $7,500, round-trip airfare, and lodging. The challenge is to choose the individual who has the greatest capacity to learn from the assessment and apply that learning back in the organization. Because of prior commitments and ongoing projects, the list of nominees has been narrowed to three: • Gerry is slated for a major promotion in four months from regional sales manager to vice president for market- ing. Her division has run smoothly during the past three years. Anticipating the move upward, she has asked for training to increase her managerial skills. Gerry is to be married in two months. • John was a supervisor over a portion of a production process for two years before being promoted one year ago to manager of the entire process. His unit has been under stress for the past eight months due to the implementation of new technology and a consequent decline in productivity and morale. No new techno- logical changes are planned in John’s unit for at least another year. • Bill has been considered a “fast-tracker” by his col- leagues in the organization. He came to the company four years ago, at the age of 37, as a vice president for foreign operations. Historically, this position has been the stepping stone for division president. In the past year, Bill has displayed less energy and enthusiasm for the work. Eight months ago, Bill and his wife sepa- rated, and two months ago he was hospitalized tempo- rarily with a mild heart problem. For one month twice a year Bill has to travel abroad. His next trip will be in four months

Chapter 5 personality, intelligence, attitudes, and emotions

knowledge objectives After reading this chapter, you should be able to: 1. Define personality and explain the basic nature of personality traits, the Big Five, and other traits important to organizational behavior. 2. Define intelligence and describe its role in the workplace.

3. Define an attitude and describe how attitudes are formed and how they can be changed. Explainthe causes andconsequences of job satisfaction and organizational commitment?

4. Discuss the role of emotions in organizational behavior and the concept of emotional intelligence. exploring behavior in action I Know She’s Smart and Accomplished ... But Does She Have “Personality”? Answer “true” or “false” to the following questions: It’s maddening when the court lets guilty criminals go free. Slow people irritate me. I can easily cheer up and forget my problems. I am tidy. I am not polite when I don’t want to be. I would like the job of a race car driver. My teachers were unfair to me in school. I like to meet new people. The way you answer these questions, or similar items, could determine whether you get the job or not. These questions are examples of the types found on personality tests commonly used to hire people for jobs. One survey found that over 80 per- cent of employers reported using some form of personality test when hiring employees. Another survey found that 29 percent of adults aged 18 to 24 took a personality test in the past two years in order to be considered for a job. One of the largest test- ing companies, Unicru (now a part of Kronos), tested over 11 million candidates in one year for companies such as Universal Studios. Personality testing has taken the employment field by storm. Employers are no longer relying only on stellar resumes and amazing experience; they also care about whether an appli- cant has the right temperament to carry out the job and fit in with the organization. “Although personality-based testing has been around for years, it’s now in the spotlight,” said Bill Byham, CEO of Development Dimensions International, a consulting firm that is a leader in the personality testing field. So, what are the right answers? That depends on what the employer is looking for. Common things that employers look for are conscientiousness, ability to handle stress, ability to get along with others, potential leadership, problem-solving style, and ser- vice orientation. Different employers look for different personal- ity profiles, and often it depends on the job being sought. For example, Karen Schoch, who hires employees for Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, states, “A person must be qualified to do the job, but they also require the right personality. We’re a hospital that puts a premium on patient care, and we want people who can deliver the concept.” Thus, she looks for people who have a blend of compassion, diplomacy, energy, and self-confidence. Harbor Group LLC, a Houston financial advisory firm, examines dominance, influence, steadiness, and conscientious- ness to predict how its associates will handle stress. David Han- son, a founding principal at First Harbor, states, “Stress can result in lower productivity, increased absenteeism, tardiness, and high employee turnover.” Thus, it is important for his company to identify how people deal with stress so that they can develop ways to counteract the effects of stress. Southwest Airlines, a company well known for its relaxed, fun culture, takes creating a relaxed, warm environment on its flights seriously. To accomplish this goal, Southwest Airlines carefully screens job applicants to ensure that only individuals with personalities and attitudes consistent with the desired cul- ture are hired. Libby Sartain, former vice president of the People Department at Southwest, put it this way: “If we hire people who don’t have the right attitude, disposition, and behavioral characteristics to fit into our culture, we will start to change that culture.” Herb Kelleher, former CEO, has said, “We look for attitudes; people with a sense of humor who don’t take them- selves too seriously. We’ll train you on whatever it is you have

to do, but the one thing Southwest cannot change in people is inherent attitudes.” Thus, Southwest tests people for kindness and creativity. These four organizations all have different cultures and work environments. There- fore, they all look for differ- ent personality traits in new employees. The extent to which the personality of asso- ciates fits with an organiza- tion’s culture has been found to have a positive impact on both associates and the orga- nization, and personality test- ing is one way to make sure that employees have the right disposition to mesh with the organization’s culture. This emphasis on cultural fit is found in many high-involve- ment organizations, where identifying and selecting individuals who complement a carefully developed and maintained culture is a highly important task. A popular and valid personality test used in organizations is the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI). The HPI measures seven everyday personality characteristics: adjustment, ambition, sociability, inter- personal sensitivity, prudence, inquisitiveness, and learning approach. In addition there is another assessment, Hogan Development Survey (HDS), which measures negative per- sonality characteristics. Using these tests to assess associates and to make staffing deci- sions has led to increases in associate performance, safety behavior, effective leadership behavior, and retention. For example, an international fra- grance manufacturer used the HPI and HDS to select sales representatives. Those selected with the HPI and HDS had an annual sales revenue of $4 million compared to $875,000 for representatives selected on other measures. pp. 34–39, accessed at www.workforce3.com, March 2007; www.kronos.com, accessed Mar. 2007; K. Brooker, “The Chairman of the Board Looks Back,” Fortune 143(11)(2001): 62–76; R. Chang, “Turning into Organizational Performance,” Training and Development 55(5)(2001): 104–111; K. Ellis, “Libby Sartain,” Training 38(1)(2001): 46–50; L. Ellis, “Customer Loyalty,” Executive Excellence 18(7)(2001): 13–14; K. Freiberg and J. Freiberg, Nuts!: Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success (Austin, TX: Bard Press, 1996); K. Freiberg and J. Freiberg. “Southwest Can Find Another Pilot,” Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition) (March 26, 2001), p. A22; H. Lancaster, “Herb -Kelleher Has One Main Strategy: Treat Employees Well,” Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition) (Aug. 31, 1999), p. B1; S. F. Gale, “Three Companies Cut Turnover with Tests,” Workforce 81(4) (2002): 66–69; Hogan Assessment Systems HPI + HDS: Combining Assessments to Predict Job Performance (January 18, 2014). At http://www.hoganassessments.com/sites/all//files/ HPI-HDS%20ROI%20Study.pdf. © sinseeho/iStockphoto Sources: S.E. Fallaw & T. Kranowitz, “CEB Global Assessment Trends Report,” SHL Talent Measurement (2013). At http://www.shl.com/us/forms/content/gatr ; Hogan Assessment Systems, Why Is Personality Testing Important to Recruitment? (January 12, 2010), at http://www.hoganassessments.com/_hoganweb/documents/Why%20Personal- ity%20Testing%20is%20Important%20to%20Recruitment.pdf; A.E. Cha, “Employers Relying on Personality Tests to Screen Applicants,” Washington Post (March 27, 2005), p. A01; A. Overholt. “True or False: You’re Hiring the Right People,” Fast Company 55 (Jan. 2002), p. 110; S. B. Fink, “Getting Personal: 10 Reasons to Test Personality Before Hiring,” Training 43 (Nov. 2006), p. 16; V. Knight. “Personality Tests as Hiring Tools,” Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition) (Mar. 15, 2006). p. B3A; B. Dattner. “Snake Oil or Science? That’s the Raging Debate on Personality Testing,” Workforce Management 83(10) (Oct. 2004), p. 90, at www.workforce3.com, accessed March 2007; E. Frauenheim. “The (Would Be) King of HR Software,” Workforce Management 85(15) (Aug. 14, 2006), the strategic importance of Personality, Intelligence, Attitudes, and Emotions The discussion of personality testing in Exploring Organizational Behavior in Action illustrates how important it is for organiza- tions to select the right individuals. Everyone has individual differences that cannot be easily changed. As Herb Kelleher mentioned above, organizations can train people to do only so much; there are individual differences in people that are not easily influenced. In this chapter we explore three such differ- ences: personality, intelligence, and emo- tions. We also explore another individual difference: attitudes that can be more eas- ily affected by one’s organizational experi- ence. All of these human attributes influence organizational effectiveness by influencing associates’ performance, work attitudes, motivation, willingness to stay in the orga- nization, and ability to work together in a high-involvement environment. In Chapter 1, we stated that an impor- tant part of high-involvement work systems was that organizations engage in selective hiring, illustrating the importance of hiring people with the right set of attributes. A great deal of research has been done that has shown that certain traits, such as conscientiousness1 and intelligence,2 are related to associates’ per- formance. Associates’ traits have also been linked to how likely they will be to engage in counterproductive work behavior, such as being frequently absent or stealing.3 In addi- tion to traits directly affecting performance, the degree to which associates’ traits fit the work environment and culture is also linked with how satisfied and committed associates are to their organization4 and how likely they will be to remain in the organization.5 Furthermore, the attributes of top leaders in the organiza- tion have a direct impact on organizational functioning by relating to the group dynamics among top decision makers6 and the strategic decisions they make.7 Thus, the individual traits and attitudes of everyone in the organi- zation can have an important impact on the functioning of that organization. Because personalities have such impor- tant effects on behavior in organizations, care must be taken in adding new people. For a manufacturing firm emphasizing stable, effi- cient operations because it competes on the basis of low cost, hiring newcomers who are serious, conscientious, and emotionally stable is logical. For a manufacturing firm competing on the basis of frequent process and product innovations, hiring newcomers who embrace change and are inquisitive is important. Fur- thermore, as you will learn in this chapter, it is critical to hire associates who fit the char- acteristics of the particular jobs they will hold. Inside the same firm, personalities suitable for the tasks required in sales may be less suitable for the tasks involved in research and devel- opment. Although personality, intelligence, attitudes, and emotions are not perfect pre- dictors of job performance and should never be used alone in selection decisions, they are important. In this chapter, we open with a discus- sion of fundamentals of personality, including its origins and the degree to which it changes over time. Building on this foundation, we examine a major personality framework, the Big Five, that has emerged as the most useful for understanding workplace behav- iors. Next, we discuss several cognitive and motive-based characteristics of personality not explicitly included in the major frame- work. Next, we examine intelligence, another individual difference that has become a con- troversial topic in employee selection. We then move on to an exploration of attitudes, including attitude development and change as well as several important types of work- place attitudes. Finally, we address emotions and their role in organizations. personality A stable set of characteristics representing internal properties of an individual, which are reflected in behavioral tendencies across a variety of situations. Fundamentals of Personality The term personality may be used in several ways. One common use—or, rather, misuse—of the word is in describing the popularity of our classmates or colleagues. We may think that Hank has a pleasant personality or that Sonya is highly personable. In your high-school year- book, someone was probably listed with the title of Mr. or Ms. Personality. When personality is used in this way, it means that person is popular or well liked. This meaning has little value, however, in understanding or predicting behavior. To know that some people are popular does not enable us to have a rich understanding of them, nor does it improve our ability to interact with them. For our purposes, personality describes a person’s most striking or dominant characteristics— jolly, shy, domineering, assertive, and so on. This meaning of personality is more useful because a set of rich characteristics tells us much about the behavior we can expect a person to exhibit and can serve as a guide in our interactions with her. More formally, personality is a stable set of characteristics representing the internal prop- erties of an individual, which are reflected in behavioral tendencies across a variety of situa- tions.8 These characteristics are often referred to as “traits” and have names such as dominance, assertiveness, and neuroticism. More important than the names of personality traits, however, is the meaning given to them by psychologists. The traditional meaning of personality traits rests on three basic beliefs: 1. Personality traits are individual psychological characteristics that are relatively enduring—for example, if a person is introverted or shy, he or she will likely remain so for a long period of time. 2. Personality traits are major determinants of one’s behavior—for example, an introverted person will be withdrawn and exhibit nonassertive behavior. 3. Personality traits influence one’s behavior across a wide variety of situations—an introverted person will be withdrawn and nonassertive at a party, in class, in sports activities, and at work

Some researchers and managers have criticized these traditional beliefs about personality traits, believing instead that personality can undergo basic changes. They believe, for example, that shy people can become more assertive and outgoing. Furthermore, by examining our own behaviors, we may learn that sometimes we behave differently from situation to situation. Our behavior at a party, for example, may be different from our behavior at work. Still, we often can observe consistencies in a person’s behavior across situations. For exam- ple, many people at various levels of Scott Paper saw Al Dunlap act in hard-hearted ways and exhibit outbursts of temper when he served this company as CEO. Many individuals at Sunbeam, where he next filled the CEO role, observed the same behaviors. Apparently, family members also experienced similar treatment. When Dunlap was fired by the board of directors at Sunbeam, his only child said, “I laughed like hell. I’m glad he fell on his. . . .”9 His sister said, “He got exactly what he deserved.”10 Determinants of Personality Development To properly understand personality, it is important to examine how it develops. Both heredity and environment play important roles in the development of personality. Heredity From basic biology, we know that parents provide genes to their children. Genes in turn deter- mine height, hair color, eye color, size of hands, and other basic physical characteristics. Simi- larly, genes seem to influence personality, as demonstrated in three different types of studies. The first type of study involves examinations of identical twins. Identical twins have iden- tical genes and should therefore have similar personalities if genes play an important role. Moreover, if genes influence personality, identical twins separated at birth should have more similar adult personalities than regular siblings or fraternal twins who have been raised apart. This is precisely the case, as has been found in a number of studies.11 Consider identical twins Oskar and Jack, who were parented by different people. Oskar was raised in Germany by his Roman Catholic maternal grandmother, whereas Jack was raised outside Germany by his Jewish father. As adults, however, both of the brothers were domineering, prone to anger, and absentminded.12 The second type of study involves assessments of newborns. Because newborns have had little exposure to the world, the temperaments they exhibit—including their activity levels, adaptability, sensitivity to stimula- tion, and general disposition—are probably determined to a large degree by genetics. If newborn temperament in turn predicts personality later in life, a link between genes and personality is suggested. Several studies have provided evidence for this relationship. In one such study, newborns rang- ing in age from 8 to 12 weeks were tracked into adult life. Temperament in the early weeks of life was found to predict personality later in life.13 The third type of study supporting genetic effects focuses directly on genes. In several studies, researchers have identified distinct genes thought to influence personality. Gene D4DR serves as a useful example. This gene carries the recipe for a protein known as dopamine receptor, which controls the amount of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is crucial because it seems to affect initiative and adventure-seeking. Individuals with a long version of the gene, where a key sequence of DNA repeats itself six or more times, are more likely to be adventure-seeking than individuals with a short version of the gene. Although genes clearly play an important role in personality, we must be careful not to overemphasize their effects. Researchers typically believe that 50 percent of adult personality is genetically determined. Furthermore, we should not conclude that a single magical gene con- trols a particular aspect of personality. The best information currently available suggests that combinations of genes influence individual personality traits.15 For example, gene D4DR plays an important role in how much adventure a person desires, but other genes also affect this trait. Environment Beyond genes, the environment a person experiences as a child plays an important role in personality. In other words, what a child is exposed to and how she is treated influence the type of person she becomes. Warm, nurturing, and supportive households are more likely to produce well-adjusted, outgoing individuals.16 Socioeconomic circumstances of the household may also play a role, with favorable circumstances being associated with value systems that promote hard work, ambition, and self-control.17 Events and experiences outside the home can also affect personality. Schools, churches, and athletic teams are important places for lessons that shape personality. Although research suggests that personality is reasonably stable in the adult years,18 events and experiences later in life can affect personality. Reports have described, for example, how a heart attack survivor reaches deep inside to change himself. In addition, some psychological theories suggest that change may occur over time. One theory proposes a model of personality that includes possible transitions at various points in life, including infancy, early childhood, late childhood, the teenage years, early adulthood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood, for instance.19 The specific changes that might occur are less important than the fact that change is possible. The Big Five Personality Traits For managers and associates to effectively use personality traits in predicting behavior, they must work with a concise set of traits. But thousands of traits can be used to describe a person. Which traits are most useful? Which correspond to the most meaningful behavioral tenden- cies in the workplace? These questions have puzzled researchers for many years. Fortunately, a consensus among personality experts has emerged to focus on five traits. These traits, collec- tively known as the Big Five, include extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, emotional stability, and openness to experience, as shown in Exhibit 5-1.

Extraversion The extraversion trait was an important area of study for many well-known psychologists in the early-to-middle portion of the twentieth century, including Carl Jung, Hans Eysenck, and Raymond Cattell. For Jung and many of his contemporaries, this aspect of personality was considered the most important driver of behavior. Extraversion is the degree to which a person is outgoing and derives energy from being around other people. In more specific terms, it is the degree to which a person: (1) enjoys being around other people, (2) is warm to others, (3) speaks up in group settings, (4) maintains a vigorous pace, (5) likes excitement, and (6) is cheerful.20 Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines clearly fits this mold. Research has shown that people scoring high on this dimension, known as extraverts, tend to have a modest but measurable performance advantage over introverts in occupa- tions requiring a high level of interaction with other people.21 Specific occupations where extraverts have been found to perform particularly well include sales and management. In contrast, introverts, who do not score high on extraversion, tend to do particularly well in occupations such as accounting, engineering, and information technology, where more olitary work is frequently required. For any occupation where teams are central, or in a high-involvement organization where teams are emphasized, extraverts may also have a slight edge, as teams involve face-to-face interaction, group decision making, and navigation of interpersonal dynamics.22 A team with a very high percentage of extraverts as members, however, may function poorly, for too many team members may be more interested in talk- ing than in listening. Research suggests that extraversion is related to job satisfaction, with extraverts exhibiting slightly more satisfaction regardless of the specific conditions of the job situation.23 Extraversion has even been found to relate to investors’ overconfidence and overreaction in financial markets. Conscientiousness The conscientiousness trait has played a central role in personality research in recent years. Many current personality researchers believe this dimension of personality has the greatest effect of all personality dimensions on a host of outcomes in the workplace. Conscientiousness is the degree to which a person focuses on goals and works toward them in a disciplined way. In specific terms, it is the degree to which a person: (1) feels capable, (2) is organized, (3) is reliable, (4) possesses a drive for success, (5) focuses on completing tasks, and (6) thinks before acting.25 Research has shown that individuals scoring high on conscientiousness have a perfor- mance edge in most occupations and tend to perform well on teams.26 This is to be expected, because irresponsible, impulsive, low-achievement-striving individuals generally are at a disadvantage in activities both inside and outside the workplace. In an important study, hundreds of individuals were tracked from early childhood through late adulthood.27 Their success was assessed in terms of job satisfaction in midlife, occupational status in midlife, and annual income in late adulthood. Conscientiousness, which was fairly stable over the participants’ lifetimes, positively affected each of these success measures. This is the reason companies such as Microsoft, Bain & Company, and Goldman Sachs emphasize conscien- tiousness when searching for new associates.28 Indeed, conscientiousness is also linked to leadership emergence.29 Interestingly, research shows that conscientiousness has a stronger positive effect on job performance when the person also scores high on agreeableness, the trait considered next.30 Agreeableness The agreeableness trait has also received a great deal of attention in recent years. Agreeable- ness is the degree to which a person is easygoing and tolerant—the degree to which a person: (1) believes in the honesty of others, (2) is straightforward, (3) is willing to help others, (4) tends to yield under conflict, (5) exhibits humility, and (6) is sensitive to the feelings of others.31 Research has not shown a consistent pattern of job outcomes for individuals scoring high or low on agreeableness. After all, being agreeable and disagreeable can be valuable at differ- ent times in the same job. A manager, for example, may need to discipline an associate in the morning but behave very agreeably toward union officials in the afternoon. A salesperson may need to be tough in negotiations on one day but treat a long-standing customer with gracious deference on the next day. Agreeable individuals do, however, seem to be consistently effective in teamwork.32 They create inter personal dynamics, as they are sensitive to the feelings of others and often try to ensure the participation and success of all team members. Teams with many members who are agreeable have been found to perform well.33 Having an extremely high percentage of very agreeable team members, however, may be associated with too little debate on important issues. When teams must make important decisions and solve non- routine problems, having some individuals with lower scores on agreeableness may be an advantage. Emotional Stability The trait of emotional stability relates to how a person copes with stressful situations or heavy demands. Specific features of this trait include the degree to which a person: (1) is relaxed, (2) is slow to feel anger, (3) rarely becomes discouraged, (4) rarely becomes embarrassed, (5) resists unhealthy urges associated with addictions, and (6) handles crises well.34 Research has shown that emotionally stable individuals tend to have an edge in task performance across a large number of occupations.35 This is reasonable, for stable individuals are less likely to exhibit characteristics that may interfere with performance, such as being anxious, hostile, and inse- cure. Similarly, emotionally stable individuals seem to have modest but measurable advantages as team members.36 Several studies reveal that teams perform more effectively when composed of members scoring high on this trait.37 Furthermore, when individuals are high on emotional stability, in combination with high extraversion and high conscientiousness, they are more likely to have team leadership potential, than those who do not have this personality profile.38 Finally, research shows that emotional stability is positively linked to job satisfaction, indepen- dent of the specific conditions of the job situation.39 Openness to Experience The openness trait is the degree to which a person seeks new experiences and thinks creatively about the future. More specifically, openness is the degree to which a person: (1) has a vivid imagination, (2) has an appreciation for art and beauty, (3) values and respects emotions in himself and others, (4) prefers variety to routine, (5) has broad intellectual curiosity, and (6) is open to reexamining closely held values.40 Research suggests that both individuals scoring high and individuals scoring low on openness can perform well in a variety of occupations and can function well on teams.41 Those who score high on this dimension of personality, however, are probably more effective at particular tasks calling for vision and creativity, such as the creative aspects of advertising, the creative aspects of marketing, and many aspects of working in the arts. At W.L. Gore and Associates, maker of world-renowned GORE-TEX® products (such as sealants and fabrics), strong openness is valued. “Gore has been a team-based, flat lattice organization that fosters personal initiative. There are no traditional organizational charts, no chains of command, nor predetermined channels of communication....We work hard at maximizing individual potential, maintaining an emphasis on product integrity, and cultivat- ing an environment where creativity can flourish.”42 Individuals with lower openness scores may be more effective in jobs calling for strong adherence to rules, such as piloting airplanes and accounting. The Big Five as a Tool for Selecting New Associates and Managers Given the links between important competencies and specific personality traits, it is not sur- prising that personality assessment can play a role in hiring decisions. Although no single tool should be used as the basis for hiring new associates and managers, personality assessment can be a useful part of a portfolio of tools that includes structured interviews and skills evaluations. In some reviews of available tools, Big Five assessments have been shown to provide useful predictions of future job performance.43 It is important, however, to develop a detailed under- standing of how personality traits predict performance in a specific situation. Such understand- ing requires that the general information just discussed be supplemented by: (1) an in-depth analysis of the requirements of a particular job in a particular organization and (2) an in-depth determination of which traits support performance in that particular job. In some cases, only certain aspects of a trait may be important in a specific situation. For example, being slow to anger and not prone to frustration may be crucial aspects of emotional stability for particular jobs, whereas being relaxed may be much less important for these jobs. Call center operator positions call for this particular combination of characteristics. They have to respond positively to customers, even when customers are rude or hostile.44 The Big Five and High-Involvement Management We now turn to competencies that are important for high-involvement management. Com- binations of several Big Five traits likely provide a foundation for important competencies. Although research connecting the Big Five to these competencies has not been extensive, the evidence to date suggests important linkages. Recall that high-involvement management focuses on developing associates so that sub- stantial authority can be delegated to them. Available research suggests that managers’ com- petencies in developing, delegating, and motivating are enhanced by high extraversion, high conscientiousness, and high emotional stability.45 This research is summarized in Exhibit 5-2 and is consistent with our earlier discussion, which pointed out that conscientious, emotion- ally stable individuals have advantages in many situations and that extraverts have a slight advantage in situations requiring a high level of interaction with people. As might be expected, available research also indicates that these same characteristics pro- vide advantages to associates in high-involvement organizations. For associates, competencies in self-development, decision making, self-management, and teamwork are crucial. Conscien- tious, emotionally stable individuals are likely to work at these competencies, and being an extravert may present a slight advantage.46 Agreeableness and openness do not appear to have consistent effects on the competencies discussed here.

Cognitive and Motivational Properties of Personality We turn next to several cognitive and motivational concepts that have received attention as separate and important properties related to personality. They are defined as follows (see Exhibit 5-3): • Cognitive properties—properties of individuals’ perceptual and thought processes that affect how they typically process information • Motivational properties—stable differences in individuals that energize and maintain overt behaviors Cognitive Concepts Differences in how people use their intellectual capabilities may result in vastly different per- ceptions and judgments. Personality concepts that focus on cognitive processes help us to understand these differences. Three such concepts are locus of control, authoritarianism, and self-monitoring.

he personality concept of locus of control refers to a person’s tendency to attribute the cause or control of events either to herself or to factors in the external environment. People who tend to believe that they have control over events are said to have an “internal” locus of control. Those who consistently believe that events are controlled by outside forces in the envi- ronment have an “external” locus of control.47 Internals believe they can control what happens to them. This often leads them to engage in work and leisure activities requiring greater skill48 and to conform less to group influences.49 Internals, then, tend to think they can be successful if they simply work hard enough, and this belief may be reflected in their work habits, especially on difficult tasks. They also tend to exhibit a greater sense of well-being, a finding that holds worldwide.50 Externals believe that what hap- pens to them is more a matter of luck or fate, and they see little connection between their own behavior and success or failure. They are more conforming and may therefore be less argumenta- tive and easier to supervise. Structured tasks and plenty of supervision suit them well. Overall, associates with an internal locus of control experience more positive work outcomes than people with an external locus of control, including higher motivation and less job stress.51 The original research on authoritarianism began as an effort to identify people who might be susceptible to anti-Semitic ideologies. Over time, the concept evolved into its present meaning—the extent to which a person believes in conventional values, obedience to author- ity, and the legitimacy of power and status differences in society.52 Authoritarianism has been extensively researched. Individuals who score high on this concept tend to believe that status and the use of power in organizations are proper. They are submissive to people in power and aggressive toward those who break rules.53 Furthermore, they may be more willing to accept unethical behavior in others when those others are in powerful or high-status positions.54 Such people tend to adjust readily to rules and regulations and emerge as leaders in situations requir- ing a great deal of control by the manager. Leaders who display authoritarian characteristics may result in their subordinates exerting effort on the job.55 Related to authoritarianism, is social dominance orientation (SDO).56 SDO refers to a general attitudinal orientation concerning whether one prefers social relationships to be equal or to reflect status differences. Furthermore, people with a high SDO view their own groups as superior and dominant over other “outgroups.”57 SDO is negatively related to the Big Five 58 personality traits agreeableness and openness to experience. People high in SDO have also been found to be more likely to discriminate against job applicants from different demographic groups59 and prefer to work in nondiverse organizations60 as compared with people low in SDO. Self-monitoring is an important personality concept that describes the degree to which people are guided by their true selves in decisions and actions. It determines whether people are fully consistent in behavior across different situations. Low self-monitors follow the advice given by Polonius to Laertes in Shakespeare’s Hamlet61: “To thine own self be true.” Low self- monitors ask, “Who am I, and how can I be me in this situation?”62 In contrast, high self- monitors present somewhat different faces in different situations. They have been referred to as “chameleon-like,” as they try to present the appropriate image to each separate audience.63 High self-monitors ask, “Who does this situation want me to be, and how can I be that person?”64 High self-monitors can be quite effective in the workplace, with a tendency to outperform low self-monitors in several areas.65 Because they are highly attentive to social cues and the thoughts of others, they are sometimes more effective at conflict resolution. Because they are attentive to social dynamics and the expectations of others, they frequently emerge as leaders. Because they are more likely to use interpersonal strategies that fit the desires of other people, they tend to perform well in jobs requiring cooperation and interaction. Management is one such job, and research indicates that high self-monitors are more effective managers. In one study, MBA graduates were tracked for five years after graduation. MBAs who were high self- monitors received more managerial promotions.66 Motivational Concepts Motivational concepts of personality are reflected more in a person’s basic needs than in his or her thought processes. Two important concepts in this category are achievement motivation and approval motivation. Achievement motivation is commonly referred to as the need for achievement (or n-Ach). It is an important determinant of aspiration, effort, and persistence in situations where perfor- mance will be evaluated according to some standard of excellence.67 Thus, need for achieve- ment is the strength of a person’s desire to perform in terms of a standard of excellence or to succeed in competitive situations. Unlike most conceptualizations of personality traits, need for achievement has been related to particular situations. That is, it is activated only in situa- tions of expected excellence or competition. The interaction of personality and the immediate environment is obvious in this theory, and it affects the strength of motivation. Persons with a high need for achievement set their goals and tend to accept responsibility for both success and failure. They dislike goals that are either extremely difficult or easy, tend- ing to prefer goals of moderate difficulty. They also need feedback regarding their performance. People with a high need for achievement are also less likely to procrastinate than people with a low need for achievement.68 This personality characteristic is often misinterpreted. For example, some may think that need for achievement is related to desire for power and control. High need achievers, however, tend to focus on task excellence rather than on power. Regulatory Focus Regulatory fit theory (RFT) is based on the premise that people are motivated to seek plea- sure and to avoid pain.69 According to RFT, people tend toward either being promotion- focused or prevention-focused. Promotion-focused individuals seek out growth and development opportunities (i.e., they are motivated to seek pleasure). When promotion-focused people achieve desired goals, they experience happy, joyful emotions. By contrast, prevention-focused indi- viduals seek out belonging, safety and security (i.e., they are motivated to avoid pain). When prevention focused individuals achieve desired goals, they are likely to experience calmness and contentment.70 A promotion focus has been shown to be related to risk taking, entrepreneurial behav- ior, work engagement, high job satisfaction, and positive relationships with one’s supervisor.71 A prevention focus has been shown to be related to workaholic behavior, low job satisfaction, and poor relationships with one’s supervisor.72 Although individuals tend to be predisposed to a promotion © RapidEye/iStockphoto or prevention focus, work conditions and leadership behaviors can influence what type of regulatory focus one adopts in a given work situation.73 Ironically, the assessment of one’s own personality is an evaluative situation, and people high in approval motivation tend to respond to personality tests in socially desirable ways. In other words, such people will try to convey positive impressions of themselves. Such tendencies lead individuals to “fake” their answers to personality questionnaires according to the perceived desirability of the responses. Many questionnaires contain “lie” scales and sets of items to detect this social approval bias. Such precautions are especially important when personality tests are used to select, promote, or identify persons for important organizational purposes. Some Cautionary and Concluding Remarks regulatory focus The extent to which an individual is promotion focused or prevention focused. Personality characteristics may change to some degree, and situational forces may at times overwhelm the forces of personality. People can adjust to their situations, particularly those who are high self-monitors. An introverted per- son may be somewhat sociable in a sales meeting, and a person with an exter- © Sergey Nivens/iStockphoto nal locus of control may, on occasion, accept personal responsibility for his failure. Furthermore, some people can be trained or developed in jobs that seem to conflict with their personalities. Fit between an individual’s personality and the job does, however, convey some advantages. Overall, the purpose of measuring personality is to know that some people may fit a given job situation better than others. For those who fit less well, we may want to provide extra help, training, or counseling before making the decision to steer them toward another position or type of work. We also note that personality testing in organizations should focus only on “normal” personality characteristics. According to the Americans with Disabili- ties Act (1990), it is illegal to screen out potential employees based on the results of personality tests designed to measure psychological disabilities (e.g., depression or extreme anxiety). The information on personality and performance presented in this chapter has been devel- oped largely from research in the United States and Canada. Research in Europe is reasonably consistent,74 but other parts of the world have been studied less. Great care must be taken in applying the results of U.S.- and Canadian-based research to other regions of the world. In conclusion, determining the personality and behavioral attributes of higher performers in an organization can help a firm to improve its performance over time, as suggested in the Experiencing Organizational Behavior feature. Patricia Harris, vice president of McDonald’s Corporation, USA, and global chief diversity officer, exemplifies such a high performer whose personality fits the organization’s strategies and goals. “I Have Ketchup in My Veins” Patricia Sowell Harris uses the above phrase to describe her commitment and fit with the McDonald’s Corporation. Ms. Harris, the global chief diversity officer, is in charge of developing and implementing McDonald’s award-winning diversity strategy at more than 34,000 restaurants in 118 countries. She began her career with the company in 1976 in a secretarial position and soon began rising through the ranks, while attend- ing college part-time and raising a family. Many of Ms. Harris’s positions have been in human resource management, and she is often attributed in making McDonald’s a cur- rent leader and early forerunner in promoting employee diversity, leading the company to win the coveted Equal Employment Oppor- tunity Commission’s “Freedom to Compete Award” in 2006, national Restaurant Associ- ation’s Diversity Award in 2009, and recently named one of the “Top 10 Diversity Champi- ons in the Country” by Working Mother mag- azine, among many other honors. Under Ms. Harris’s leadership, McDonald’s has become a company widely recognized as achieving excellence through diversity. Several attributes of Patricia Harris have led to her phenomenal career. First of all, she is high on conscientiousness. Ms. Harris’s col- leagues describe her as “driven,” and she has often “stepped out of her comfort zone” to take on new job challenges. She is also goal-driven to develop diversity processes and programs to help build McDonald’s business all over the world. While being extremely Nathan Mandell Photography performance-focused, Ms. Harris also dis- plays agreeableness by serving as a mentor to many other McDonald’s associates and crediting her own mentors and team members when asked about her success. Her high need for achievement came through when, early in her career, she told her boss and men- tor: “I want your job!” Ms. Harris also has a strong internal locus of control because she focuses on making her environment and the company’s a better place to work. Finally, she demonstrates a great deal of intelligence in dealing with her job. In addition to a tempera- ment that makes her very well suited for her career, she possesses the knowledge and intel- ligence that have helped make McDonald’s a leader in diversity. Rich Floersch, executive vice president in Charge of Human Relations, states: “She’s very well informed, a true stu- dent of diversity. She is good at analyzing U.S. diversity principles and applying them in an international market. She’s also a good listener who understands the business and cul- ture very well.” Patricia Harris would probably be a success anywhere she worked—yet her true passion for McDonald’s and its diversity ini- tiatives seems to set her apart from most other executives. In 1985, when Ms. Harris was first asked to become an affirmative action manager, she was apprehensive about tak- ing the job because affirmative action was not a popular issue at the time. She overcame her apprehension and started on her path to dealing with diversity issues. She states, “This job truly became my passion. It’s who I am, both personally and professionally.” By work- ing on diversity issues, Ms. Harris was able to realize not only her professional goals but also her personal goals of helping women and minorities. Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s, said, “None of us is as good as all of us,” focusing on the importance of inclusion and ownership by all employees. This value per- meates McDonald’s corporate vision, and also coincides with the personal vision of Patricia Harris. Harris says that her com- pany’s mission “is to create an environment in which everyone within McDonald’s global system is able to contribute fully regardless of role.” She illustrates how this occurs in her book None of Us Is as Good as All of Us. Patricia Sowell Harris exemplifies what happens when an individual’s traits, abilities, and passion line up with the vision of the organization. Sources: K. Whitney, “Diversity Is Everybody’s Business at McDonald’s,” Diversity Executive (Jan. 18, 2009, http://www .diversity-executive.com/article.php?article5480;”National Restaurant Association Honors McDonald’s with Diversity Award,” QSRWeb.com (May 14, 2009), http://www.qsrweb.com/news/national-restaurant-association-honors-mcdonalds- with-diversity-award/; A. Pomeroy, “She’s Still Lovin’ It,” HRMagazine (Dec. 2006), pp. 58–61; “An Interview with Pat Harris, Vice President Diversity Initiatives with McDonald’s Corporation,” http://www.employmentguide.com/ careeradvice/Leading_the_Way-in_Diversity. html, accessed Apr. 18, 2007; J. Lawn, “Shattered Glass and Personal Journeys,” FoodManagement (July 2006), at http://www.food-management.com/article/13670; “Ray Kroc: Founder’s Philosophies Remain at the Heart of McDonald’s Success,” Nation’s Restaurant News (April 11, 2005), http://findarticles. com/p/articles/mi_m3190/is_15_39/ai_n13649039; P.H. Harris, None of Us Is as Good as All of Us. (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2009); McDonald’s Corporation, “Writing the Book on Diversity: Pat Harris Tells How McDonald’s Does It,” http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/our_company/amazing_stories/people/writing_the_book_on_diversity.html, accessed Jan. 29, 2014; “Pat Harris,” Diversity Best Practices, http://www.diversitybestpractices.com/person/pat-harris, accessed January 29, 2014. Intelligence In the preceding section, we saw how important personality is to organizational behavior and achieving a high-involvement workplace. There is another stable individual difference that can greatly affect organizational behavior, particularly job performance. This trait is cognitive abil- ity, more commonly referred to as intelligence. Intelligence refers to the ability to develop and understand concepts, particularly more complex and abstract concepts.75 Despite its impor- tance, intelligence as an aspect of human ability has been somewhat controversial. Some psy- chologists and organizational behavior researchers do not believe that a meaningful general intelligence factor exists. Instead, they believe that many different types of intelligence exist, and that most of us have strong intelligence in one or more areas. These areas might include the following:76 • Number aptitude—the ability to handle mathematics • Verbal comprehension—the ability to understand written and spoken words • Perceptual speed—the ability to process visual data quickly • Spatial visualization—the ability to imagine a different physical configuration—for example, to imagine how a room would look with the furniture rearranged • Deductive reasoning—the ability to draw a conclusion or make a choice that logically follows from existing assumptions and data • Inductive reasoning—the ability to identify, after observing specific cases or instances, the general rules that govern a process or that explain an outcome—for example, to identify the general factors that play a role in a successful product launch after observing one product launch at a single company • Memory—the ability to store and recall previous experiences Most psychologists and organizational behavior researchers who have extensively studied intelligence believe, however, that a single unifying intelligence factor exists—a factor that blends together all of these areas. They also believe that general intelligence has meaningful effects on success in the workplace. Existing evidence points to the fact that general intelligence is an important determinant of workplace performance and career success.77 This is particu- larly true for jobs and career paths that require complex information processing, as opposed to simple manual labor. Exhibit 5-4 illustrates the strong connection between intelligence and success for complex jobs. Although the use of intelligence tests is intended to help organizations select the best human capital, as explained in the Experiencing Organizational Behavior feature on page 153, their use is controversial. It is controversial because some question the ability of these tests to accurately capture a person’s true level of intelligence. Also, there can be legal problems with intelligence tests if they result in an adverse impact. However, if a test accurately reflects indi- vidual intelligence, it can help managers select higher-quality associates. The superior human capital in the organization will then lead to higher productivity and the ability to gain an advantage over competitors. A competitive advantage, in turn, usually produces higher profits for the organization.78 Attitudes It is sometimes difficult to distinguish between an individual’s personality and attitudes. The behavior of Southwest associates and managers described in the opening case, for example, might be interpreted by some as based primarily on attitudes rather than personality, whereas others might believe that personality plays a larger role. Regardless, managers are concerned about the attitudes of associates because they can be major causes of work behaviors. Positive

attitudes frequently lead to productive efforts, whereas negative attitudes often produce poor work habits. An attitude is defined as a persistent mental state of readiness to feel and behave in a favorable or unfavorable way toward a specific person, object, or idea. Close examination of this definition reveals three important conclusions. First, attitudes are reasonably stable. Unless people have strong reasons to change their attitudes, they will persist or remain the same. People who like jazz music today will probably like it tomorrow, unless important reasons occur to change their musical preferences. Second, attitudes are directed toward some object, person, or idea; that is, we may have an attitude toward our job, our supervisor, or an idea the college instructor presented. If the attitude concerns the job (for example, if a person dislikes monotonous work), then the atti- tude is specifically directed toward that job. We cannot extend that negative job attitude to an attitude toward jazz music. Intelligence and Intelligence Testing in the National Football League Each spring, representatives of National Football League teams join a large group of college foot- ball players in Indianapolis, Indiana. They are in town to participate in the so-called draft combine, where the players are given the oppor- tunity to dem- onstrate their football skills. After showing their speed, strength, and agility, the players hope to be selected by a team early in the draft process and to command a large salary. For some, suc- cess at the combine is critical to being chosen by a team. For others, suc- cess is important because the combine plays a role in determining the amount of signing bonuses and other financial incentives. Talented football players work to achieve the best physical condition they can in anticipation of the important evaluations. They focus on the upcoming medical exami- nations, weightlifting assessments, 40-yard dashes, vertical- and broad-jump tests, and tackling-dummy tests. They may be less focused on another key feature of the draft combine—the intelligence test. The practice of testing general intelligence has been a fix- ture of the NFL since the early 1970s. The test that is used by all teams, the Wonderlic Per- sonnel Test, has 50 questions and a time limit of 12 minutes in its basic version. It has been in use in personnel testing since 1937, and over 130 million people have taken the test. The use of the Wonderlic in selecting NFL players has been somewhat controversial, with some commentators praising its ability to predict performance and others arguing that it is culturally biased and unfair. Teams place different levels of importance on the intelligence test. The Green Bay Packers, for example, historically have not put a great deal of emphasis on it. “The Wonderlic has never been a big part of what we do here,” said former Green Bay general manager and current consultant Ron Wolf. “To me, it’s [just] a signal. If it’s low, you better find out why it’s low, and if the guy is a good football player, you better sat- isfy your curiosity.” The Cincinnati Bengals, in contrast, have generally taken the test very seri- ously, in part “because it is the only test of its kind given to college players.” In Atlanta, former head coach Dan Reeves showed his faith in the intelligence-testing process by choos- ing a linebacker who was equal in every way to another linebacker, except for higher intelligence scores. In New York, intelligence and personality testing has been taken to an extreme for the NFL. The Giants organization has used a test with nearly 400 questions. The late Giants manager George Young stated, “Going into a draft without some form of psychological testing on the prospects is like going into a gunfight with a knife.” Can a player be too smart? Accord- ing to some, the answer is yes. “I’ve been around some players who are too smart to be good football players,” said Ralph Cin- drich, a linebacker in the NFL many years ago. Many others have the opinion that high intelligence scores are indicative of a player who will not play within the system but will want to improvise too much on the field and argue with coaches too much off the field. There isn’t much evidence, how- ever, to support this argument. Many suc- cessful quarterbacks, for example, have had high scores. Super Bowl winner Tom Brady of the New England Patriots scored well above average, as did the New York Giants’ Eli Manning. Quarterbacks score higher on the test than players in several other positions but do not score the highest. Average scores for various positions are shown below, along with scores from the business world for com- parison. A score of 20 correct out of 50 is considered average and equates to approxi- mately 100 on a standard IQ test. Any score of 15 (the lowest score shown below) or above represents reasonable intelligence. Offensive tackles—26 Centers—25 Quarterbacks—24 Fullbacks—17 Safeties—19 Wide receivers—17 Chemists—31 Programmers—29 News reporters—26 Halfbacks—16 Salespersons—24 Bank tellers—17 Security guards—17 Warehouse workers—15 Many players become tense over the NFL intelligence test. What types of questions are causing the anxiety? A sample of the easier questions follows (to learn more, go to www.wonderlic.com): 1. The 11th month of the year is: (a) Octo- ber, (b) May, (c) November, (d) February. 2. Severe is opposite of: (a) harsh, (b) stern, (c) tender, (d) rigid, (e) unyielding. 3. In the following set of words, which word is different from the others? (a) sing, (b) call, (c) chatter, (d) hear, (e) speak. 4. A dealer bought some televisions for $3,500. He sold them for $5,500, mak- ing $50 on each television. How many televisions were involved? 5. Lemon candies sell at 3 for 15 cents. How much will 11⁄2 dozen cost? 6. Which number in the following group of 5 seconds? numbers represents the smallest amount? (a) 6, (b) .7, (c) 9, (d) 36, (e) .31, (f) 5. 7. Look at the following row of numbers. What number should come next? 73 66 59 52 45 38. 8. A plane travels 75 feet in 1⁄4 second. At this speed, how many feet will it travel in 5 seconds?

9. A skirt requires 21⁄3 yards of material. How many skirts can be cut from 42 yards? 10. ENLARGE, AGGRANDIZE. Do these words: (a) have similar meanings, (b) have contradictory meanings, (c) mean neither the same nor the opposite? 11. Three individuals form a partnership and agree to divide the profits equally. X invests $4,500, Y invests $3,500, Z in- vests $2,000. If the profits are $2,400, how much less does X receive than if profits were divided in proportion to the amount invested? Sources: D. Dillon. “Testing, Testing: Taking the Wonderlic,” Sporting News.com (Feb. 23, 2001), at www.sportingnews. com/voices/dennis_dillon/20010223.html; K. Kragthorpe, “Is Curtis Too Smart for NFL?” Utah Online (Apr. 23, 2003), www.sltrib.com/2003/Apr/04232003/Sports/50504.asp; J. Litke, “Smarter Is Better in the NFL, Usually: But Not Too Smart to Be Good Football Players,” National Post (Canada), (May 1, 2003), p. S2; J. Magee, “NFL Employs the Won- derlic Test to Probe the Minds of Draft Prospects,” SignOnSanDiego.com (April 20, 2003), www.signonsandiego.com/ sports/nfl/magee/200304209999–ls20nflcol.html; J. Merron,. “Taking Your Wonderlics,” ESPN Page 2 (Feb. 2, 2002), www.espn.go.com/page2/s/closer/020228.html; T. Silverstein, “What’s His Wonderlic? NFL Uses Time-Honored IQ Test as Measuring Stick for Rookies,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (April 18, 2001), p. C1; A. Barra “Do These NFL Scores Count for Anything?” Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition) (April 25, 2006), p. D.6; “NFL Testing Provides Valuable Lesson for All Employers,” Assessment Psychology Online (March 1, 2005), http://www.assessmentpsychology.com/nfl.htm, accessed January 2014; M. Florio,. “We’re Officially out of the Wonderlic Business,” NBC Sports (April 18, 2013), http:// profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/04/18/were-officially-out-of-the-wonderlic-business/. Third, an attitude toward an object or person relates to an individual’s behavior toward that object or person. In this sense, attitudes may influence our actions. For example, if an individual likes jazz music (an attitude), he may go to a jazz club (a behavior) or buy a jazz CD (a behavior). If an associate dislikes her work (an attitude), she may avoid coming to work (absenteeism behavior) or exert very little effort on the job (poor productivity behavior). People tend to behave in ways that are consistent with their feelings. Therefore, to change an unproductive worker into a productive one, it may be necessary to deal with that worker’s attitudes. As illustrated in Exhibit 5-5, our behavior toward an object, person, or idea is influenced by our attitudes. In turn, our attitudes are constantly developing and changing as a result of our behaviors. It is important to recognize that our behaviors are also influenced by other factors, such as motivational forces and situational factors. We therefore can understand why behaviors are not always predictable from attitudes. For example, we may have a strong positive attitude about a close friend. But we might reject an opportunity to go to a movie with that friend if we are preparing for a difficult exam to be given tomorrow. Thus, attitudes include behavioral tendencies and intentions, but our actual behaviors are also influenced by other factors. Attitude Formation Understanding how attitudes are formed is the first step in learning how to apply attitude con- cepts to organizational problems. This understanding can be developed by examining the three essential elements of an attitude: (1) cognitive, (2) affective, and (3) behavioral.79 • The cognitive element of an attitude consists of the facts we have gathered and considered about the object, person, or idea. Before we can have feelings about something, we must first be aware of it and think about its complexities. The affective element of an attitude refers to the feelings one has about the object or person. Such feelings are frequently expressed as like or dislike of the object or person and the degree to which one holds these feelings. For example, an employee may love the job, like it, dislike it, or hate it. • Finally, most attitudes contain a behavioral element, which is the individual’s intention to act in certain ways toward the object of the attitude. As previously explained, how we behave toward people may depend largely on whether we like or dislike them based on what we know about them. The formation of attitudes may be quite complex. In the following discussion, we examine some ways in which attitudes are formed.

Learning Attitudes can be formed through the learning process.80 As explained in Chapter 4, when peo- ple interact with others or behave in particular ways toward an object, they often experience rewards or punishments. For example, if you touch a cactus plant, you may experience pain. As you experience the outcomes of such behavior, you begin to develop feelings about the objects of that behavior. Thus, if someone were to ask you how you felt about cactus plants, you might reply, “I don’t like them—they can hurt.” Of course, attitudes can also develop from watching others experience rewards and punishments. A person may not touch the cactus herself, but a negative attitude toward cacti could develop after she watches a friend experience pain. Self-Perception People may form attitudes based on simple observations of their own behaviors.81 This is called the self-perception effect, and it works as follows. An individual engages in a particular behav- ior without thinking much about that behavior. Furthermore, no significant positive rewards are involved. Having engaged in the behavior, the person then diagnoses his actions, asking himself what the behavior suggests about his attitudes. In many instances, this person will con- clude that he must have had a positive attitude toward the behavior. Why else would he have done what he did? For example, an individual may join co-workers in requesting an on-site cafeteria at work, doing so without much thought. Up to that point, the person may have had a relatively neutral attitude about a cafeteria. After having joined in the request, however, he may conclude that he has a positive attitude toward on-site cafeterias. Influencing people through the foot-in-the-door technique is based on the self-perception effect. This technique involves asking a person for a small favor (foot-in-the-door) and later asking for a larger favor that is consistent with the initial request. After completing the small favor with little thought, the target often concludes that she has a positive view toward what- ever was done, and therefore she is more likely to perform the larger favor. In one study of the foot-in-the-door technique, researchers went door-to-door asking individuals to sign a petition for safer driving.82 The request was small and noncontroversial; thus, most people signed the petition without much thought. Weeks later, colleagues of the researchers visited these same people and asked them to put a large, unattractive sign in their yards that read “Drive Care- fully.” These same colleagues also approached other homeowners who had not been asked for the initial small favor. Fifty-five percent of the individuals who had signed the petition agreed to put an ugly sign in their yards, whereas only 17 percent of those who had not been asked to sign the petition agreed to the yard sign. Need for Consistency A major concept associated with attitude formation is consistency.83 Two well-known theories in social psychology, balance theory and congruity theory, are important to an understanding of attitude consistency. The basic notion is that people prefer that their attitudes be consistent with one another (in balance or congruent). If we have a specific attitude toward an object or person, we tend to form other consistent attitudes toward related objects or persons. A simple example of attitude formation based on consistency appears in Exhibit 5-6. Dan is a young accounting graduate. He is impressed with accounting theory and thinks that accountants should work with data to arrive at important conclusions for management. Obvi- ously, he has a positive attitude toward accounting, as illustrated by the plus sign between Dan and accounting in the exhibit. Now suppose that Dan’s new job requires him to work with someone who dislikes accounting (represented by the minus sign between the new colleague and accounting). In this case, Dan may form a negative attitude toward the person in order

to have a consistent set of attitudes. Dan likes accounting and may have a negative attitude toward those who do not. Two Important Attitudes in the Workplace The two most thoroughly examined attitudes in organizational behavior are job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Job satisfaction is a broad attitude related to the job. A high level of satisfaction represents a positive attitude toward the job, while a low level of satisfaction represents a negative attitude. Organizational commitment, as defined here, is a broad attitude toward the organization as a whole. It represents how strongly an individual identifies with and values being associated with the organization. Strong commitment is a positive attitude toward the organization, whereas weak commitment is a less positive attitude. As we discuss below, these two attitudes can impact behavior that is important to the functioning of an orga- nization; thus, it is important to consider job satisfaction and organizational commitment as desirable aspects of human capital.84 Job Satisfaction and Outcomes Organizations need to be concerned with the satisfaction of their associates, because job satisfac- tion is linked to many important behaviors that can have an impact on the bottom line of an organization’s performance. Satisfaction has a highly positive effect on intentions to stay in the job and a modest effect on actually staying in the job.85 Factors such as attractive job openings during a booming economy and reaching retirement age can cause satisfied people to leave, but in general satisfaction is associated with low turnover. With the costs of replacing a departed worker generally quite high, maintaining higher levels of satisfaction is important. High satis- faction also has a modestly positive effect on regular attendance at work.86 Factors such as a very liberal sick-leave policy can, however, cause even highly satisfied associates and managers to miss work time. Satisfaction also has a moderately strong relationship with motivation.87 Job satisfaction has a reasonably straightforward relationship with intention to stay, actu- ally staying, absenteeism, and motivation. In contrast, the specific form of the relationship between satisfaction and job performance has been the subject of a great deal of controversy. Many managers and researchers believe that high satisfaction produces strong performance. This idea seems reasonable, for a positive attitude should indeed result in strong effort and accountability. Other managers and researchers, however, believe that it is strong performance that causes workers to be satisfied with their jobs. For this second group of investigators, a posi- tive attitude does not cause strong performance but strong performance does cause a positive attitude. Still others believe that satisfaction and performance are not related or are only weakly related. For this last group, factors other than attitudes, such as skills and incentive systems, are believed to have much stronger effects on job performance. A recent study has helped to put these differences of opinion into perspective.88 In this study, all previously published research on satisfaction and performance was synthesized using modern quantitative and qualitative techniques. The study concluded with an integrative model suggesting that all three of the groups mentioned are correct to some degree. High satisfaction causes strong performance, strong performance also causes high satisfaction, and the relationship between the two is weaker in some situations. On this last point, low con- scientiousness and the existence of simple work are examples of factors that may cause the relationship to be weaker. Individuals who have positive attitudes toward the job but who are lower in conscientiousness may not necessarily work hard, which weakens the effects of job satisfaction on performance. In addition, strong performance at simple work does not neces- sarily result in strong satisfaction, which weakens the effects of performance on satisfaction. For engineers, managers, and others with complex jobs, performance and satisfaction have a reasonably strong connection. Job Satisfaction Takes a Dive! In 1987, a majority, 61.1 percent, of Americans responded that they were satisfied with their jobs. This was the first year that the Conference Board, a global independent membership organization that collects and disseminates information for senior executives around the world, surveyed workers about their job satisfaction. At the end of 2009, following a steady decrease over the years, that figure had plummeted to 45.3 percent. While, the percentage of satisfied employees has slightly increased in recent years, 2013 marked the seventh straight year that less than half of all employ- ees report being satisfied with their jobs. A less-scientific MSNBC poll of almost 45,000 people found that less than 34 percent of respondents were satisfied or somewhat sat- isfied with their jobs, and 11.5 percent hated every part of their jobs. Why are Americans so unhappy with their jobs? One could argue it is because of the economic conditions. Associates are required to do more, are afraid of losing their jobs, and are likely to receive fewer extrinsic rewards (“No raises this year!”). However, this is not the entire story. “It says some- thing troubling about work in America. It is not about the business cycle or one grumpy generation,” says Linda Barrington, manag- ing director of human capital at the Confer- ence Board. One of the major reasons that respondents were dissatisfied with their jobs was because the jobs were uninteresting. Rat- ings of interest in one’s work dropped almost 19 percentage points between 1987 and 2009, with only about half of respondents currently finding their jobs interesting. Based on the 2013 survey, the following 20 aspects © Maica/iStockphoto of one’s job are important to job satisfaction. They are ranked in order of importance. 1. [MANL]Growth potential 2. Communication 3. Recognition 4. Performance Review 5. Interest in work 6. Workload 7. Work/life balance 8. Supervisor 9. Physical environment 10. Promotion policy 11. Quality of equipment 12. Wages 13. Training 14. People at work 15. Family leave 16. Flex time 17. Bonus 18. Sick days 19. Vacation 20. Pension These findings should be a wake-up call for employers. John Gibbons, program director of employee engagement research and services at the Conference Board, says, “Widespread job dissatisfaction negatively affects employee behavior and retention, which can impact enterprise-level success.” Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board’s Consumer Research Center, con- curs: “What’s really disturbing about grow- ing job dissatisfaction is the way it can play into the competitive nature of the U.S. work- force down the road and on the growth of the U.S. economy—all in a negative way.” Gad Levanon, director of macroeconomic research at the Conference Board, argues, “Given that job satisfaction is a key element of engagement that, in turn, partially deter- mines business performance, retention, and a host of other business metrics, improving job satisfaction should be on the top of the agenda for business leaders.” It is impera- tive that managers pay attention to these findings, given the effects that low satisfac- tion and commitment can have on the cli- mate, functioning, and bottom-line success of an organization.

Organizational Commitment and Outcomes in the Workplace Similar to satisfaction, commitment has important effects on intentions to stay in the job and modest effects on actually staying in the job and attending work regularly.89 Commit- ment also is significantly related to motivation. Interestingly, length of employment plays a role in the relationship between commitment and staying in the job. A high level of orga- nizational commitment tends to be more important in decisions to stay for associates and managers who have worked in their jobs for less time.90 For longer-term employees, simple inertia and habit may prevent departures independent of the level of commitment to the organization. Commitment also has positive effects on job performance, but the effects are somewhat small.91 This link to performance appears to be stronger for managers and pro- fessionals. Although the relationship between commitment and regular job performance is not extremely strong, organizational commitment does have a very strong relationship with discretionary organizational citizenship behaviors, such as helping others and taking on vol- untary assignments.92 Causes of Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment Given that job satisfaction and organizational commitment can impact on many important organizational behaviors, it is imperative that organizations understand what makes their asso- ciates satisfied and committed. Many of the same factors that lead to job satisfaction also lead to organizational commitment. These factors include: • • • • • • • Roleambiguity93 Supervision/leadership94 Pay and benefits95 Nature of the job96 Organizationalclimate97 Stress98 Perceptions of fair treatment99 Although these factors have all been linked to satisfaction and commitment, the relation- ships are not always so simple. For example, in order to best understand whether someone will be satisfied with a given dimension of her work, you need to consider her comparison standard. People compare desirable facets of their work with what they expect to receive or what they think they should receive.100 So, while one person may be very satisfied with earning $100,000 per year, another person may find this amount unsatisfactory because she was expecting to earn more. Another complication arises when we consider that associates may be committed to their organization for different reasons. There are three general reasons why people are com- mitted to their organizations.101 Affective commitment is usually what we think of when we talk about organizational commitment because it means someone has strong positive atti- tudes toward the organization. Normative commitment means that someone is committed to the organization because he feels he should be. Someone who stays with an organization because he does not want to let his co-workers down is normatively committed. Finally, associates may experience continuance commitment, which means that they are commit- ted to the organization because they do not have any better opportunities. Different factors affect different types of commitment.102 On the one hand, benefits may affect continuance commitment when a person is committed to an organization only because her retirement plan will not transfer to another organization. On the other hand, benefits may not influ- ence how positive one feels about the organization, so that benefits would be unrelated to affective commitment. One other thing to note about the factors affecting satisfaction and commitment is that the presence of high-involvement management is particularly important. Individuals usually have positive experiences working with this management approach, and thus strong satisfac- tion and commitment is likely to develop through the learning mechanism of attitude forma- tion. As part of high-involvement management, individuals are selected for organizations in which their values fit, they are well trained, they are encouraged to think for themselves, and they are treated fairly (e.g., receive equitable compensation). As described in the Managerial Advice feature on page 158, a recent Conference Board survey found these to be among the most important determinants of employee satisfaction. Finally, satisfaction and commitment are not totally dependent on situational factors; personality also can play a role. Some individuals have a propensity to be satisfied and commit- ted, whereas others are less likely to exhibit positive attitudes, no matter the actual situation in which they work.103 In addition to one’s personality disposition, emotions can also affect job attitudes. Thus, we discuss emotions in the workplace later in this chapter. Attitude Change Personality characteristics are believed to be rather stable, as we have seen, but attitudes are more susceptible to change. Social forces, such as peer pressure or changes in society, act on existing attitudes, so that over time attitudes may change, often in unpredictable ways. In addition, in many organizations, managers find they need to be active in changing employee attitudes. Although it is preferable for associates to have positive attitudes toward the job, the manager, and the organization, many do not. When the object of the attitude cannot be changed (e.g., when a job cannot be redesigned), managers must work directly on attitudes. In such cases, it is necessary to develop a systematic approach to change attitudes in favorable directions. We discuss two relevant techniques next. Persuasive Communication Most of us experience daily attempts by others to persuade us to change our attitudes. Televi- sion, radio, and Internet advertisements are common forms of such persuasive communica- tion. Political campaigns are another form. Occasionally, a person who is virtually unknown at the beginning of a political campaign (such as Barack Obama) can win an election by virtue of extensive advertising and face-to-face communication. The persuasive communication approach to attitude change consists of four elements:104 1. Communicator—the person who holds a particular attitude and wants to convince others to share that attitude 2. Message—the content designed to induce the change in others’ attitudes 3. Situation—the surroundings in which the message is presented 4. Target—the person whose attitude the communicator wants to change Several qualities of the communicator affect attitude change in the target. First, the com- municator’s overall credibility has an important effect on the target’s response to the persuasion attempt. Research shows that people give more weight to persuasive messages from people they respect.105 It is more difficult to reject messages that disagree with our attitudes when the com- municator has high credibility. Second, people are more likely to change their attitudes when they trust the intentions of the communicator. If we perceive that the communicator has something to gain from the atti- tude change, we are likely to distrust his or her intentions. But if we believe the communicator is more objective and less self-serving, we will trust his or her intentions and be more likely to change our attitudes. Individuals who argue against their own self-interests are effective at persuasion.106 Third, if people like the communicator or perceive that person to be similar to them in interests or goals, they are more likely to be persuaded.107 This is one reason that movie stars, athletes, and other famous people are used for television ads. These people are widely liked and have characteristics that we perceive ourselves to have (correctly or incorrectly) or that we would like to have. Finally, if the communicator is attractive, people have a stronger tendency to be per- suaded. The effects of attractiveness have been discussed in studies of job seeking and political elections. One of the most notable examples is the U.S. presidential election of 1960. By many accounts, Richard Nixon had equal, if not superior, command of the issues in the presidential debates that year, but the more handsome John Kennedy received higher ratings from the viewing public and won the election.108 The message involved in the communication can also influence attitude change. One of the most important dimensions of message content is fear arousal. Messages that arouse fear often produce more attitude change.109 For example, a smoker who is told that smoking is linked to heart disease may change his attitude toward smoking. The actual amount of fear produced by the message also seems to play a role. If the smoker is told that smoking makes teeth turn yellow, rather than being told of a link to heart disease, the fear is weaker, and the resulting attitude change also is likely to be weaker. Greater fear usually induces larger changes in attitudes, but not always. Three factors beyond amount of fear play a role:110 1. The probability that negative consequences will actually occur if no change in behavior is made 2. The perceived effect of changing behavior 3. The perceived ability to change behavior. Returning to our smoker, even if the message regarding smoking risk arouses a great deal of fear, he still may not alter his attitude if he does not believe that he is likely to develop heart disease, if he has been smoking for so many years that he does not believe that quitting now will help the situation, or if he does not believe he can stop smoking. So far, we have discussed how the communicator and the message affect attitude change. In general, each affects the degree to which the target believes the attitude should be changed. Frequently, however, people are motivated by factors outside the actual persuasion attempt. Such factors may be found in the situation in which persuasion is attempted. We can see a good example of this when a person is publicly reprimanded. If you have ever been present when a peer has been publicly chastised by an instructor, you may have been offended by the action. Instead of changing your attitude about the student or the student’s skills, you may have changed your attitude about the instructor. Other situational factors include the reactions of those around you. Do they smile or nod their heads in approval when the communicator presents her message? Such behaviors encourage attitude change, whereas disapproving behav- ior may influence you to not change your attitudes. Finally, characteristics of the target also influence the success of persuasion. For example, people differ in their personalities, their perceptions, and the way they learn. Some are more rigid and less willing to change their attitudes—even when most others believe that they are wrong. Locus of control and other characteristics also influence attitudes. People with high self-esteem are more likely to believe that their attitudes are correct, and they are less likely to change them. Therefore, it is difficult to predict precisely how different people will respond, even to the same persuasive communication. The effective manager is prepared for this uncertainty. Navigating Emotion in the New Workplace, says, “We all work all the time now. We need to demystify the role of emotion, so that employers show more empathy and employees find more balanced approaches.”115 Emotions are complex reactions that have both a physical and a mental component. These reactions include anger, happiness, anxiety, pride, contentment, and guilt. Emo- tional reactions include a subjective feeling accompanied by changes in bodily functioning such as increased heart rate or blood pressure.116 Emotions can play a part in organi- zational functioning in several ways. First, associates’ emotions can directly affect their behavior. For example, angry associates may engage in workplace violence117 or happy employees may be more likely to help other people on the job.118 Another way in which emotions come into play at work is when the nature of the job calls for associates to dis- play emotions that they might not actually be feeling. For example, on a rocky airplane ride, flight attendants have to appear calm, cool, and collected, while reassuring passengers that everything is okay. However, these flight attendants may have to do this while hiding their own fear and panic. This dynamic is called emotional labor. Finally, both business scholars and organizations have become concerned with what has been termed emotional intelligence. We turn now to discussions of these three roles that emotions play in organi- zational behavior. Direct Effects of Emotions on Behavior Emotions can have several direct causal effects on behavior. The relationship between emo- tions and other important behaviors, such as job performance, is less clear. While it would seem most likely that positive emotions would always lead to high performance, this is not always the case. In some instances, negative emotions, such as anger, can serve as a motiva- tor. Research on creativity demonstrates this point. Some researchers have found that positive emotions increase creativity,119 while others have found that negative emotions lead to greater creativity.120 Positive emotions should lead to greater creativity because when people feel good they are more likely to be active and inquisitive. On the other hand, negative emotions, such as fear, can serve as a signal that something is amiss, leading people to search for creative solu- tions to solve the problem. Indeed, a recent study found that people were most creative when they were experiencing emotional ambivalence—that is, both positive and negative emotions at the same time.121 The direct effects of emotions can be either beneficial or harmful to organizational effec- tiveness. The impact of these emotions, whether negative or positive, is even greater when one considers the phenomenon of emotional contagion. Emotional contagion occurs when emotions experienced by one or a few members of a work group spread to other members.122 One study found that leaders’ emotions were particularly important in influencing the emo- tions of followers.123 This study indicated that charismatic leaders have a positive influence on organizational effectiveness because they are able to induce positive emotions in their followers. Thus, angry and anxious leaders are likely to develop followers who are angry and anxious, whereas leaders who are happy and passionate about their work are likely to develop followers who experience the same emotions. Exhibit 5-7 summarizes the direct effects of emotions. Emotional Labor Many service and sales jobs require that individuals display certain emotions, regardless of what they are really experiencing. For example, flight attendants are expected to be warm and cordial, call center employees are expected to keep their cool when customers are hostile

toward them, and sales associates are expected to be enthusiastic about the product they are selling, no matter what they actually feel. The process whereby associates must display emo- tions that are contrary to what they are feeling is termed emotional labor.124 Organizations often indicate to employees what emotions they must express and under what circumstances. When these required emotions, or display rules, are contrary to what associates are actually feeling, they can experience stress, emotional exhaustion, and burnout.125 Emotional labor does not always lead to overstressed employees. When associates actually come to feel the emotions they are required to display, they can experience positive outcomes such as greater job satisfaction.126 Even when associates may not feel the emotions they are required to express, several fac- tors can influence whether this acting will have a negative outcome on associates’ well-being. First, the manner in which supervisors enforce display rules can influence whether emo- tional labor is harmful to associates.127 When supervisors are quite demanding, associates will become more exhausted. Another factor that influences the effects of emotional labor is the self-identities of associates.128 When associates have a strong self-identity as a service worker or a caregiver, then they will be less likely to experience negative effects from emotional labor. For example, a hospice care worker may feel tired and frustrated, but behave in a caring and nurturing manner with her patients. If the care worker has a strong self-identity as a caregiver, she will experience less exhaustion from her emotional labor. Finally, when associates have networks of supportive people and caring mentors, the negative effects of emotional labor will be mitigated.129 Emotional Intelligence Are some people just better dealing with emotions (theirs and others) than are other people? Around the end of the twentieth century, there was an explosion of studies concerning the role of emotional intelligence. The best-accepted definition of emotional intelligence (EI) is that it is the ability to • Accurately appraise one’s own and others’ emotions • Effectively regulate one’s own and others’ emotions • Use emotion to motivate, plan, and achieve130 A person displaying high emotional intelligence can accurately determine his or her own emotions and the effect those emotions will have on others, then go on to regulate the emo- tions to achieve his or her goals. Emotional intelligence has been linked to career success, leadership effectiveness, manage- rial performance, and performance in sales jobs.131 It also is the subject of many management development programs, popular books,132 and articles that may at times inflate the value of emotional intelligence relative to cognitive intelligence.133 The specific abilities generally asso- ciated with emotional intelligence include:134 • Self-awareness. Associates with high self-awareness understand how their feelings, beliefs, and behaviors affect themselves and others. For example, a supervisor knows that her reaction to a valuable (and otherwise high-performing) associate’s chronic lateness and excuses is one of anger, but she realizes that if she displays this anger, it will cause the associate to withdraw even further. • Self-regulation. Self-regulation is the ability to control one’s emotions. The supervisor may feel like yelling at the associate or being punitive in making work assignments; however, if she is high in self-regulation, she will choose her words and actions carefully. She will behave in a manner that will more likely encourage the associate to come to work on time rather than make the associate withdraw even more. • Motivation or drive. This characteristic is the same as achievement motivation, discussed previously in this chapter, and drive, discussed above under trait theories. Associates with high EI want to achieve for achievement’s sake alone. They always want to do things better and seek out feedback about their progress. They are passionate about their work. • Empathy. Effective empathy means thoughtfully considering others’ feelings when making decisions and weighting those feelings appropriately, along with other factors. Consider again our example of the supervisor dealing with the tardy associate. Suppose she knows that the associate is frequently late because the work group treats him poorly. The supervisor can display empathy by acknowledging this situation and can act on it by attempting to change work arrangements rather than punishing the associate for being late. Thus, she can remove an obstacle for the associate and perhaps retain an associate who performs well and comes to work on time. • Social skill. Social skill refers to the ability to build effective relationships with the goal of moving people toward a desired outcome. Socially skilled associates know how to build bonds between people. Often, leaders who appear to be socializing with co-workers are actually working to build relationships and exercise their influence in a positive manner. While emotional intelligence is quite a popular concept right now, it is not without its critics.135 One major criticism is that emotional intelligence is not intelligence at all, but, rather, a conglomeration of specific social skills and personality traits. Another criticism is that sometimes emotional intelligence is so broadly defined that it is meaningless. Nonetheless, the basic abilities that make up emotional intelligence are important influences on organizational behavior, whether they form one construct called emotional intelligence or are simply consid- ered alone.

What This Chapter Adds to Your Knowledge Portfolio In this chapter, we have discussed personality in some detail. We have seen how personality develops and how important it is in the workplace. We have also discussed intelligence. If an organization is to be successful, its associates and managers must understand the effects of personality and intelligence and be prepared to act on this knowledge. Moving beyond enduring traits and mental ability, we have examined attitude formation and change. Without insights into attitudes, associates and managers alike would miss important clues about how a person will act in the workplace. Finally, we have briefly examined emotions and their various roles in behavior and organi- zational life. More specifically, we have made the following points: major determinants of behavior, and influence behavior across a wide variety of situations. • Determinants of personality include heredity and environment. Three types of studies have demonstrated the effects of heredity: (1) investigations of identical twins, (2) assessments of newborns and their behavior later in life, and (3) direct examinations of genes. Studies of environmental effects have emphasized childhood experiences as important forces in personality development. • There are many aspects of personality. Five traits, however, have emerged as particularly important in the workplace. These traits, collectively known as the Big Five, are extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, emotional stability, and openness to experience. • Personality is a stable set of characteristics representing the internal properties of an individual. These characteristics, or traits, are relatively enduring, are Extraversion (the degree to which a person is outgoing and derives energy from being around people) tends to affect overall job performance, success in team interactions, and job satisfaction. For performance, fit with the job is important, as extraverts have at least modest advantages in occupations calling for a high level of interaction with other people, whereas introverts appear to have advantages in occupations calling for more solitary work. • Conscientiousness (the degree to which a person focuses on goals and works toward them in a disciplined way) also affects job performance, success as a team member, and job satisfaction. Higher levels of conscientiousness tend to be positive for these outcomes. • Agreeableness (the degree to which a person is easygoing and tolerant) does not have simple, easily specified effects on individual job performance but does appear to contribute positively to successful interactions on a team. • Emotional stability (the degree to which a person handles stressful, high-demand situations with ease) affects job performance, success as a team member, and job satisfaction. Higher levels of emotional stability tend to be positive. • Openness to experience (the degree to which a person seeks new experiences and thinks creatively about the future) does not have simple links to overall job performance, success at teamwork, or job satisfaction, but individuals scoring higher on this aspect of personality do appear to have an edge in specific tasks calling for vision and creativity. • The Big Five personality traits may play a role in high- involvement management. Certain combinations of these traits seem to provide a foundation for the competencies needed by managers and associates. Absent these trait combinations, individuals may still be effective in high-involvement systems, but they may need to work a little harder. • A Big Five assessment can be useful in selecting new associates and managers but must be combined with other tools, such as structured interviews and evaluations of the specific skills needed for a particular job. • Beyond the Big Five, several cognitive and motivational personality concepts are important in the workplace. Cognitive concepts correspond to perceptual and thought processes and include locus of control, authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and self-monitoring. Motivational concepts correspond to needs in individuals and are directly nvolved in energizing and maintaining overt behaviors. They include achievement motivation and regulatory focus. • There are many areas of intelligence, including number aptitude, verbal comprehension, and perceptual speed. Most psychologists who have extensively studied intelligence believe these various areas combine to form a single meaningful intelligence factor. This general intelligence factor has been found to predict workplace outcomes. • An attitude is a persistent mental state of readiness to feel and behave in favorable or unfavorable ways toward a specific person, object, or idea. Attitudes consist of a cogni- tive element, an affective element, and a behavioral element. • Attitudes may be learned as a result of direct experience with an object, person, or idea. Unfavorable experiences are likely to lead to unfavorable attitudes, and favorable experiences to favorable attitudes. Attitudes may also form as the result of self-perception, where an individual behaves in a certain way and then concludes he has an attitude that matches the behavior. Finally, attitudes may form on the basis of a need for consistency. We tend to form attitudes that are consistent with our existing attitudes. • Job satisfaction and organizational commitment are two of the most important workplace attitudes. Job satisfaction is a favorable or unfavorable view of the job, whereas organizational commitment corresponds to how strongly an individual identifies with and values being associated with the organization. Attitudes may change through exposure to persuasive communications or cognitive dissonance. • Persuasive communication consists of four important elements: the communicator, message, situation, and target. Dissonance refers to inconsistencies between attitude and behavior. Under certain conditions, a behavior that is inconsistent with an existing attitude causes the attitude to change. Key conditions include: (1) the behavior being substantially inconsistent with the attitude, (2) the behavior causing harm or being negative for someone, and (3) the behavior being voluntary. • Emotions are the subjective reactions associates experience that contain both a psychological and physiological component. Emotions can influence organizational behavior directly, as the basis of emotional labor, or through associates’ emotional intelligence.

Thinking about Ethics 1. Is it appropriate for an organization to use personality tests to screen applicants for jobs? Should organizations reject applicants whose personalities do not fit a particular profile, ignoring the applicants’ performance on previous jobs, their capabilities, and their motivation? 2. Should organizations use intelligence tests to screen applicants even though some people question the accuracy of such tests? Why or why not? 3. Are there right and wrong values? How should values be used to manage the behavior of associates in organizations? 4. Can knowledge of personality, attitudes, and values be used inappropriately? If so, how? 5. Is it appropriate to change people’s attitudes? If so, how can a person’s attitudes be changed without altering that person’s values? Key Terms personality, p. 140 extraversion, p. 142 conscientiousness, p.143 agreeableness, p. 144 emotional stability, p. 144 openness to experience, p. 144 locus of control, p. 147 authoritarianism, p. 147 social dominance orientation, p. 148 self-monitoring, p. 148 achievement motivation, p. 148 regulatory focus, p. 149 intelligence, p. 151 attitude, p. 152 affective commitment, p. 160 normative commitment, p. 160 continuance commitment, p. 160 cognitive dissonance, p. 162 emotions, p. 163 emotional contagion, p. 163 emotional labor, p. 164 emotional intelligence, p. 165 Human Resource Management Applications HRM departments conduct employee surveys and climate audits to assess the satisfaction and commitment of current employees. Exit interviews may also be conducted to determine why people leave the organization. Finally, Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) are part of the HRM function. These programs help employees cope with prob- lems resulting from emotional strain on the job. Personality traits and intelligence are often used in employee selection. Human resource management (HRM) depart- ments are often charged with developing selection procedures or choosing vendors of selection tests. Furthermore, HRM departments are often responsible for conducting job analyses to determine what traits and abilities are necessary to perform various jobs. building your human capital Big Five Personality Assessment Different people have different personalities, and these personalities can affect outcomes in the workplace. Under- standing your own personality can help you to understand how and why you behave as you do. In this installment of Building Your Human Capital, we present an assessment tool for the Big Five. Instructions In this assessment, you will read 50 phrases that describe people. Use the rating scale below to indicate how accurately each phrase describes you. Rate yourself as you generally are now, not as you wish to be in the future; and rate yourself as you honestly see yourself. Keep in mind that very few people have extreme scores on all or even most of the items (a “1” or a “5” is an extreme score); most people have midrange scores for many of the items. Read each item carefully, and then circle the number that corresponds to the rating scale.

9. Am relaxed most of the time. 1 2 3 4 5

10. Have difficulty understanding abstract ideas. 1 2 3 4 5

11. Feel comfortable around people. 1 2 3 4 5

12. Insult people. 1 2 3 4 5

13. Pay attention to details. 1 2 3 4 5

14. Worry about things. 1 2 3 4 5

15. Have a vivid imagination. 1 2 3 4 5

16. Keep in the background. 1 2 3 4 5

17. Sympathize with others’ feelings. 1 2 3 4 5

18. Make a mess of things. 1 2 3 4 5

19. Seldom feel blue. 1 2 3 4 5

20. Am not interested in abstract ideas. 1 2 3 4 5

21. Start conversations. 1 2 3 4 5

22. Am not interested in other people’s problems. 1 2 3 4 5

23. Get chores done right away. 1 2 3 4 5

24. Am easily disturbed. 1 2 3 4 5

25. Have excellent ideas. 1 2 3 4 5

26. Have little to say. 1 2 3 4 5

27. Have a soft heart. 1 2 3 4 5

28. Often forget to put things back in their proper place. 1 2 3 4 5

29. Get easily upset. 1 2 3 4 5

30. Do not have a good imagination. 1 2 3 4 5

31. Talk to a lot of different people at parties. 1 2 3 4 5

32. Am not really interested in others. 1 2 3 4 5

33. Like order. 1 2 3 4 5

34. Change my mood a lot. 1 2 3 4 5

35. Am quick to understand things. 1 2 3 4 5

36. Don’t like to draw attention to 1 2 3 4 5

37. Take time out for others. 1 2 3 4 5

38. Shirk my duties. 1 2 3 4 5

39. Have frequent mood swings. 1 2 3 4 5

40. Use difficult words. 1 2 3 4 5

41. Don’t mind being the center of attention 1 2 3 4 5

42. Feel others’ emotions. 1 2 3 4 5

43. Follow a schedule. 1 2 3 4 5

44. Get irritated easily. 1 2 3 4 5

45. Spend time reflecting on things. 1 2 3 4 5

46. Am quiet around strangers. 1 2 3 4 5

47. Make people feel at ease. 1 2 3 4 5

48. Am exact in my work. 1 2 3 4 5

49. Often feel blue. 1 2 3 4 5

50. Am full of ideas.1 2 3 4 5

Scoring Key for Your Big Five Personality Assessment To determine your scores, combine your responses to above as follows: Extraversion = (Item 1 + Item 11 + Item 21 + Item 31 + Item 41) + (30 – (Item 6 + Item 16 + Item 26 + Item 36 + Item 46)) Conscientiousness = (Item 3 + Item 13 + Item 23 + Item 33 + Item 43 + Item 48) + (24 – (Item 8 + Item 18 + Item 28 + Item 38)) Agreeableness = (Item 7 + Item 17 + Item 27 + Item 37 + Item 42 + Item 47) + (24 – = (Item 2 + Item 12 + Item 22 + Item 32)) Emotional stability = (Item 9 + Item 19) + (48 – (Item 4 + Item 14 + Item 24 + Item 29 + Item 34 + Item 39 + Item 44 + Item 49)) Opennesstoexperience=(Item 5 + Item 15 + Item 25 + Item 35 + Item 40 + Item 45 + Item 50) + (18 – (Item 10 + Item 20 + Item 30)) Scores for each trait can range from 10 to 50. Scores of 40 and above may be considered high, while scores of 20 and below may be considered low. Source: International Personality Item Pool. 2001. A Scientific Collaboration for the Development of Advanced Measures of Personality Traits and Other Individual Differ- ences (http://ipip.ori.org)

challenging. But for some reason there had been a trend in the past six months of decreasing loan volume and increasing pay- ment delinquency. The month-end report to which she reacted showed that the past month was the worst in both categories in several years. Vince Stoddard, the president, had been impressed by her cre- dentials and aggressiveness when he hired her. Marianna had been in the business for 10 years and was the head loan officer for one of the bank’s competitors. Her reputation for aggressive pursuit of business goals was almost legendary among local bankers. She was active in the credit association and worked long, hard hours. Vince believed that she was the ideal person for the position. When he hired her, he had said, “Marianna, you’re right for the job, but I know it won’t be easy for you. Dave Kattar, who heads one of the loan sections, also wanted the job. In fact, had you turned down our offer, it would have been Dave’s. He is well liked around here, and I also respect him. I don’t think you’ll have any problems working with him, but don’t push him too hard at first. Let him get used to you, and I think you’ll find him to be quite an asset.” But Dave was nothing but a “pain in the neck” for Mari- anna. She sensed his resentment from the first day she came to work. Although he never said anything negative, his aggravating way of ending most conversations with her was, “Okay, Boss Lady. Whatever you want is what we’ll do.” When loan volume turned down shortly after her arrival, she called a staff meeting with all of the section heads. As she began to explain that volume was off, she thought she noticed several of the section heads look over to Dave. Because she saw Dave only out of the corner of her eye, she couldn’t be certain, but she thought he winked at the other heads. That action mmediately angered her—and she felt her face flush. The meet- ing accomplished little, but each section head promised that the next month would be better. In fact, the next month was worse, and each subsequent month followed that pattern. Staff meetings were now more fre- quent, and Marianna was more prone to explode angrily with threats of what would happen if they didn’t improve. So far she had not followed through on any threats, but she thought that “now” might be the time. To consolidate her position, she had talked the situation over with Vince, and he had said rather coolly, “Whatever you think is necessary.” He hadn’t been very friendly toward her for several weeks, and she was worried about that, also. “So,” Marianna thought to herself, “I wonder what will happen if I fire Dave. If I get him out of here, will the others shape up? On the other hand, Vince might not support me. But maybe he’s just waiting for me to take charge. It might even get me back in good graces with him.” Discussion Questions 1. What role did personality play in the situation at the bank? Which of the Big Five personality traits most clearly influenced Marianna and Dave? Which of the cognitive and motivational aspects of personality played a role? 2. Working within the bounds of her personality, what should Marianna have done when trouble first seemed to be brew- ing? How could she have maintained Dave’s job satisfaction and commitment? 3. How should Marianna proceed now that the situation has become very difficult? team exercise Experiencing Emotional Labor Have you ever been forced to smile at someone who was annoy- ing you? Have you ever had to be calm when you felt very afraid? If so, you have probably engaged in emotional labor. The pur- pose of this exercise is to examine how emotional labor can affect us in different ways and the factors that impact the toll that emo- tional labor can take on us. STEPS 1. At the beginning of class, assemble into teams of six to eight people. 2. During the next 30 minutes of class, each individual will be required to follow emotional display rules for one of the following emotions: a. Happiness b. Anger c. Compassion and caring d. Fear Assign the display rules so that at least one person is displaying each emotion. 3. Each person is to display his or her assigned emotion during the next 30 minutes of class lecture or activity—no matter what he or she actually feels! 4. At the end of the 30 minutes (or when instructed by your teacher), re-form into groups and address the following questions: a. How difficult was it for you to display your assigned emotion? Was your assigned emotion different from how you actually felt? Did your felt emotions begin to change to coincide with your displayed emotion? b. To what extent did the type of emotion required (e.g., happiness versus anger) influence your reaction to this exercise? c. How much longer could you have continued displaying your assigned emotion? Why? 5. Appoint a spokesperson to present the group’s conclusions to the entire class. Source: Adapted from Donald D. Bowen, Roy J. Lewicki, Douglas T. Hall, and Fran- cine S. Hall, Experiences in Management and Organizational Behavior, 4th ed. (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997)