Final Topics

1. What are culture dimensions? How can they be applied in OB?

Ch. 3, p42

Answer:
Link (Culture is the learned and shared way of thinking and acting among a group of people or a
society.)

Some popular dimensions of culture include differences that can be observed in:
1. Language;
2. Time orientation;
3. Use of space; and
4. Religion;

Hofstedes five dimensions of national cultures and national cultures include:
1. Power distance: the willingness to accept status and power differences among its members.
2. Uncertainty avoidance: tendency to be uncomfortable with risk and ambiguity.
3. Individualism-collectivism: tendency to emphasize either individual or group interests.
4. Masculinity-femininity: tendency to value stereotypical masculine or feminine traits.
5. Long-term/short-term orientation: tendency to emphasize values associated with the future,
such as thrift and persistence, or values that focus largely on the present.

Note: on p46 there are 3 types of culture differences: (1) relationships with people, (2) attitudes
toward time, (3) attitudes toward the environment. In my opinion it is not the range of this question.
Please indicate if you think this is incorrect.

Application?


2. What are the major types of organization structures? Whats the application
of each of them?

Ch. 11, p215 (Horizontal specialization)

Prof. Blake said he preferred the bureaucracy types:

Pure types:
1. Mechanistic type (machine bureaucracy): emphasizes vertical specialization and control,
with impersonal coordination and a heavy reliance on standardization, formalization, rules,
policies, and procedures. It is often used to achieve efficiency.
2. Organic type (professional bureaucracy): emphasizes horizontal specialization, extensive
use of personal coordination, and loose rules, policies, and procedures. It is often used for
problem-solving and satisfying individual customer needs.

Hybrid types:
3. Divisional pattern: groups individuals and resources by products, territories, services,
clients, or legal entities. This structure is often used to respond to diverse external threats
and opportunities. This is used to allow different divisions to be more or less organic or
mechanistic.
4. Conglomerate: firms that own several different unrelated businesses. It is always used in the
organization is providing varies kinds of services. (not sure about this, double check)

/*

There are 3 pure forms of organization structures:

1. Functional structure: grouping individuals by skill, knowledge, and action yields. This
structure is often used in small firms. Even large firms use this structure in technically
demanding areas or when low cost is a major competitive focus.
2. Divisional structure: groups individuals and resources by products, territories, services,
clients, or legal entities. This structure is often used to respond to diverse external threats
and opportunities.
3. Matrix structure: a combination of functional and divisional patterns which assigns an
individual to more than one type of unit. This structure is often used when precise
integration and control are needed across many sophisticated functional specialties and
corporations.
4. Mixed structure of above three.

*/

3. What are high performance organizations?

Ch. 2, p26

A high performance organization is designed to bring out the best in people and achieve sustained
high performance.

The essential foundation for the high performance organization is intellectual capital, the sum total of
knowledge, expertise, and energy available from an organizations members.

HPOs tend to organize workflow around key business processes and follow human-resource policies
that are designed to increase employee flexibility, skills, knowledge, and motivation.

The key components of HPOs include:
1. Employee involvement
2. Self-directing work teams
3. Integrate production technologies
4. Organization learning
5. Total quality management



4. What roles do people play in organizations?

Chapter 4, Ch10? Pp 190 cant find maybe p189 types of new comer.

1. Tough battler.
2. Friendly helper.
3. Objective thinker.

If it is the managerial roles, that will be in Ch.1 p12



5. What are organizational change strategies? Whats the application of each of
them?

Ch. 19, p385

There are 3 strategies of organizational change.

1. Force-coercion strategy: uses authority, rewards, and punishments as the main reasons to
change. This strategy can be applied when you believe that people who run things are
basically motivated by self-interest and by what the situation offers them in potential
personal gains or losses.
2. Rational persuasion strategy: try to make change happen through the use of special
knowledge, empirical support, or rational arguments. This strategy can be applied when you
believe that people are basically rational and are guided by reason in their actions and
decision making.
3. Shared-power strategy: actively and sincerely involves the people who will be affected by a
change in planning and making key decisions about the change. This strategy can be applied
when you believe that people have complex motivations.



6. What styles are there to handle conflict? When is it appropriate to apply?



Ch. 18, p367

Conflict can be handled in many ways, but the important goal is to achieve or make it possible for
there to be true conflict resolution (occurs when the reasons for a conflict are eliminated).

There are several indirect conflict management approaches:
1. Reduced interdependence: when workflow conflicts exist, managers can adjust the level of
interdependency among the units or individuals. This can be applied when the units tasks
can be adjusted to reduce the number of required points of coordination.
2. Appeals to Common Goals: to common goals can focus the attention of potentially conflicting
parties on one mutually desirable conclusion. This can be applied when the potential dispute
is seen through a common framework that helps the parties recognize that they need each
other in order to achieve common goals.
3. Hierarchical Referral: uses the chain of command for conflict resolution, i.e. refer the
problem for more senior managers up the hierarchy to solve. This can be applied when the
problem is not severe or recurring.
4. Altering Scripts and Myths: The scripts become rituals that allow the conflicting parties to
express their frustrations and to recognize that they depend on each other through the
larger corporation. This can be applied in some situations that conflict is superficially
managed by scripts, or behavioural routines that become part of the organizations culture.

As well as the direct conflict management approaches: (cooperativeness attempting to satisfy the
other partys concerns, assertiveness attempting to satisfy ones own concerns)
1. Cooperative and unassertive solution (lose-lose) - smoothing or accommodation (involves
treating differences as being small and finding areas of agreement): letting the others
wishes rule. Smoothing over differences to maintain superficial harmony.
2. Uncooperative and unassertive solution (lose-lose) - avoidance (involves pretending a
conflict does really exist): downplaying disagreement. Failing to participate in the situation
and/or staying neutral at all costs.
3. Cooperative and assertive solution (win-win) collaboration (involves recognizing that
something is wrong and needs attention through problem-solving) and problem solving
(uses information to resolve disputes): seeking true satisfaction everyones concerns by
working through differences, finding and solving problems so everyone gains as a result.
4. Uncooperative and assertive solution (win-lose) competition (is trying to win by force,
superior skill, or domination) and authoritative command (uses formal authority to end
conflict): working against the wishes of the other party. Fighting to dominate in win-lose
competition and/or forcing things to a favourable conclusion through the exercise of
authority.
5. Medium state solution (lose-lose) - compromise (occurs when each party gives up
something of value to the other party): working toward partial satisfaction of everyones
concerns; seeking acceptable rather than optimal solutions so that no one totally wins or
loses.



7. What are the different media types of communication? Whats the
application of each of them?

Ch. 16, p330 (Channel richness)

1. Face-to-face
2. Telephone
3. Videoconferencing
4. E-mail
5. Written memos, letters
6. Posted notices and bulletins
The first 5 media are richer than the 6
th
one, they can be used to pass the complex and open-ended
information. The 6
th
medium is leaner, and it works well for more routine and straightforward
messages, such as announcing the location of a previously scheduled meeting.

Ch.1

*OB = the study of individuals and groups in orgs

Dramatic changes signal the emergence of a new workplace with
- high technology
- global competition
- demanding customers,
- high-perf sys.

*Workplace is changing
- Demise of command-and-control
- New workforce expectations
- Critical role of information technology
- Belief in empowerment
- Emphasis on teamwork
- Concern for work-life balance

*Valuing workforce diversity is a key theme

*workforces are increasingly diverse in terms of
- gender
- race and ethnicity
- language
- age
- able-bodiedness
- sexual orientation

Glass Celling Effect: a hidden barrier that limits the advancement of women and minorities in orgs.

Org learning is the process of acquiring knowledge and using info to adapt successfully to changing
circumstances.

Learning OB involves not only textbook reading but also commitment to continuous and life long
learning from exp.

Take a scientific approach
- Controlled systematic data collection
- Careful testing of proposed explanations
- Only accept proven explanations
- Field studies, lab studies, surveys, case studies, meta analyses


*Org = a collection of PPL working together to achieve a common purpose to produce goods or
services for society

*Each can be seen as an open system that transforms input resources (human (intellectual capital),
information, technology, materials, facilities, money) from the environment into outputs (finished
goods and services) returned to the environment

*A Mgr. performs a job that involves directly supporting the work efforts of others; and is now
thought more in terms of coordinator, coach, or team leader rather than boss; the focus is on guiding
and influencing ppl rather than telling them what to do

An effective Mgr. is a Mgr. whose work unit, team, or group accomplishes hi-lvl of perf that can be
sustained over the long term by enthusiastic workers.

A Mgr.
- works long hours
- is busy
- is often interrupted
- works mostly with other ppl
- is a communicator

Focuses on
- effective task performance and
- the satisfaction, commitment and involvement of employees

*Four functions of management
- Planning: to set directions: deciding what is to be achieved
- Organizing: to assemble resources and systems: deciding how goals are to be achieved
(who does what, when, with which resources)
- Leading: to create workforce enthusiasm: day-to-day interaction to motivate, guide,
communicate
- Controlling: to ensue desired results: ensuring things go as planned by monitoring
performance and taking corrective action when needed

*Management roles
- Interpersonal (as figurehead, leader, liaison)
- Informational (as monitor, spokesperson, disseminator)
- Decisional (as entrepreneur, disturbance handler, negotiator, resource allocator)
While working with networks of ppl both inside and outside the org

*Management skills
- Technical ability to perform specialized tasks
- Human ability to work well with others
- Including emotional intelligence, creating effective networks
- Conceptual ability to analyse and solve complex problems

*Ethical behaviour = behaviour that is morally accepted as good or right instead of bad or wrong

*Four criteria or ways of thinking to determine whether or not a behaviour is ethical
- Utilitarian view
- Individualism view
- Moral-rights view
- Justice view: Procedural justice, Distributive justice, Interactional justice

*Core value of organizational behaviour is a commitment to enhancing quality of work life, the
overall quality of human experiences in the workplace










Ch. 2

Total quality management involves
- making sure the customers are satisfied
- making sure all tasks are done right the first time
- working toward continuous improvement

Customer-driven orgs can be seen as upside-down pyramids where workers work in ways that
directly affect customers, and managers work in ways that directly support the workers.

Changing customer expectations
- Competitive environment and demand for high quality and strong service
- Focus remains on total quality management, continuous improvement
- Needs of customer are paramount

*Changing workforce:
- Greater diversity more women, more visible minorities, aging workforce
- Generation X workers want: greater autonomy, challenging work, flexible work
schedules; work in a team; loyalty not important to them
- Skill deficiencies in many high school graduates; in a knowledge-driven economy, lack
of basic skills means need for expensive remedial training

*Changing Organizations:
- Constant change sometimes deliberately pursued through process re-engineering
- Expanding use of information technology electronic commerce
- Movement towards a free-agent economy individuals contract their services to a
changing mix of employers

A Hi-perf org (HPO): is designed to bring out the best in ppl and achieve sustained hi-perf

HPO tend to organize workflow around key business processes and follow HR policies that are
designed to increase employee flexibility, skills, knowledge, and motiviation.

*Five key component of HPO:
1. Employee involvement
2. Self-directing work teams
3. Integrated production technologies
4. Organizational learning
5. TQM

*Five challenges of HPO:
1. Environmental linkages: HPO is an open system, influenced by external environment and
influencing it in turn
2. Internal integration: successfully working together (e.g. self-directed teams using production
technology, involved in decision making but also working with others above and below, also
involved in the decisions relevant to them, tracking appropriate info for organizational
learning and maintaining focus on high quality)
3. Middle-mgr. rolls:
- Resistance from employees
- Resistance from managers
- Tensions between components
4. Upper-lvl leadership:
- Determine how far to go towards becoming HPO (how many components to use)
- Extend business internationally
- Train middle-mgrs.
- Keep overall +ve momentum during times of great change
5. Greenfield Sites versus Redesigns

Westjet case studies:

*Component:
Employee involvement flat, lean hierarchy, with extensive empowerment; heavy team
emphasis
Integrated production technologies internet technology used for ticketless travel, dispatch,
revenue management, parts replacement
Organizational learning sharing of business information through letters and newsletters to
employees, recovery/learning centre doubles as back-up for main computer and training
facility
TQM WestJet Spirit comprised of strong work ethic, strong desire for quality work, desire
to go beyond the call of duty, helping others, doing the right thing

Other HPO aspects
- Has clear mission and vision, reflected in core values and company culture
- Hiring supports culture and mission through emphasis on WestJet Spirit, values of
hard work and fun
- Profit-sharing; over 80% of employees are shareholders; these compensation policies
support motivation and commitment
- Successful adaptation to environmental changes despite fierce competition
































Ch. 3

*Globalization = growing worldwide interdependence of resource suppliers, product markets, and
business competition

As a result of globalization:
constant movement of skills, investments, products, trends
increasingly multicultural workforce
regional economic alliances (e.g., EU, APEC) formed
global quality standards are emerging (e.g., ISO)

Todays mgr. need
Global awareness
Aware of how international events can affect the well-being of an organization
Cultural sensitivity
Know how to deal with people from other cultures and countries
Global mindset of cultural adaptability, patience, flexibility, and tolerance is a major asset
to successful adaptation and progress in todays business context

*Culture = the learned and shared way of thinking and acting among a group of people or a society

Factors associated with expatriate success:
Good technical and language skills
Strong desire to work overseas
Specific knowledge of overseas culture
Well-adjusted family situation
Complete support of spouse
Behavioral flexibility
Adaptability and open-mindedness
Good relational ability
Good stress management skills

*Dimensions of culture
1. Language (low-context vs. high-context)
2. Time orientation (monochronic vs. polychromic)
3. Use of space
4. Religion

*Hofstedes dimensions on varying cultural values
1. Power distance: Willingness of a culture to accept status and power differences among
its members, to respect hierarchy and rank in organizations
2. Uncertainty avoidance: The cultural tendency to be uncomfortable with uncertainty and
risk in everyday life
3. Individualism-collectivism: reflects likely preference for working as individuals or
working together in groups
4. Masculinity-femininity: The degree to which a society values assertiveness and
competition or interpersonal sensitivity and concern for relationships
5. Long-term/short-term orientation: Degree to which a culture emphasizes values
associated with the future or values that focus largely on the present; reflects whether
performance is viewed from a long-term or short-term perspective

Problems in intl dealing:
Parochialism (assuming the ways of your culture are the only ways of doing things)
Ethnocentrism (assuming the ways of your culture are the best ways of doing things)

*MultiNational Corporations (MNCs)
Have operations in more than one foreign country
May one day become transnational employers with a total world view and no national home
Have enormous economic impact and influence

*Multiculture workforce: requires everyone to work well with ppl of different cultural bgs.

*Expatriate employees work and live in another country for an extended time
Expensive investment with greatest problems when starting work in foreign culture and on
returning home
Stages in adjustment to new country:
Tourist stage (trouble of re-allocation)
Disillusionment stage (adjustment problem)
Culture shock stage (go abroad and return home)

Ethical challenges resulting from diversity in cultures, governments, legal systems
E.g., issues regarding bribery, corruption, child labour, prison labour, sweatshops
Ethical behaviour approached two opposite ways:
Cultural relativism believes there is no universal right way to behave; it depends on the
cultural context (When in Rome do as the Romans do)
Ethical absolutism believe single moral standard applies in all situations, to all cultures

Management theories are NOT universal
Adjustments needed for cultural factors
Culture is one of the contingencies that must be accounted for in organizational behaviour


Ch. 5

Perceptual Process:
- individuals use which to pay attention to and to select, organize, interpret, and retrieve
info from the world around them
- involves (will be influenced by):
* the perceiver: exp, needs or motives, values, attitudes
* the setting: physical, social, organizational
* the perceived: contrast, figure-ground separation, intensity, size, motion,
repetition/novelty
- Stages:
attention and selection: always overloaded info. Screen the info
sometimes the perceiver are aware that they are processing the info,
sometimes they dont (like thinking while driving).
Organization:
schemas are cognitive framworks that consist of organized knowledge
developed thru exp, of a specific concept or stimuls.
Person schemas are the way individuals sort others into categories.
A script schema is def. as a knowledge framework that describes the
appropriate seq of events in a particular situation.
Interpretation: attention has been drawn repeatly, then think about the
reason behind it.
Retrieval: memory
- Responses: thoughts, feelings, and xns.
Common Perceptual distortions:
- Stereotypes or Prototypes: also in personal schemas. Stereotypes compare to same
kinds of other ppl. Prototypes compare to the perceiver him/herself.
- Halo/Horm effects:
- Selective perception: consistent w/ ones needs, values, or attitudes.
- Projection: the assignment of ones personal attributes to other individuals. Can be
controlled thru a hi deg. Of self-awareness and empathy (the ability to view a situation
as others see it)
- Contrast effects: occurs when an individuals characteristics are contrasted w/ those of
recently encountered and who rank higher or lower on the same characteristics.
- Self-fulfilling prophecy:
Managing the perceptual process:
- Impression management of the self and others
- Managing the info attention and selection stages
- Managing the info organization stage
- Managing the info interpretation stage
- Managing the info storage and retrieval stage
- Being sensitive to the effects of the common perceptual distortions.
Attribution theory: is the attempt to understand the cause of an event, assign responsibility for the
outcomes of the event, and assess the personal qualities of the ppl involved.
- Emphasizes the interpretation stage. Internally or externally caused?
- 3 factors:
o Distinctiveness: how consistent a persons behaviour is in different situations
o Consensus: whether all persons facing a similar situation repond in the same
way.
o Consistency: whether an individual responds the same way as time passes.

- 2 errors:
o Fundamental attribution err: underest. the influence of situational (external)
factors and over estimate the influence of personal (internal) factors in
evaluating someones behaviour
o Self-serving bias: deny personal responsibility for performance problems but to
accept personal responsibility for performance success.
o An overemphasis on internal causes tends to lead to assigning responsibility for
failure to employees and results in disciplinary actions, negative performance
evaluations, and so on
o An underemphasis on external causes tends to lead to a lack of workplace
support.

Ch. 6

Motivation: refers to the forces inside an individual that lead to the level (how hard), direction
(choose of alternative), and persistence (how long on specific xn) of the effort he/she makes at work.

Theories of motivation can be divided into 3 categories:
- Reinforcement theories: emphasize the means used in the process of controlling an
individuals behavior by manipulating its consequences.
- Content theories: identify different needs that may motivate individual behavior.
- Process theories: seek to understand the thought processes that determine behavior.

Reinforcement: is the administration of a consequence as a result of behavior.

Classical conditioning: is a form of learning through association that involves the manipulation of
stimuli to influence behavior.

Operant conditioning: is the process of controlling behavior by manipulating or operating on, its
consequences.

Law of effect: behavior that results in a pleasant outcome is likely to be repeated, or vise and versa.

OB Mod: is the systematic reinforcement of desirable work behavior and the non-reinforcement or
punishment of unwanted work behavior. It includes 4 parts:
- +ve reinforcement: is the administration of +ve consequences that tend to increase the
likelihood of the behavior being repeated in similar settings.
o Law of contingent reinforcement: states that for a reward to have maximum
reinforcing value, it must be delivered only if the desired behavior is exhibited.
o Law of immediate reinforcement: states that the more immediate the delivery of
a reward after a desired behavior occurs, the greater the reinforcing effect on
that behavior.
o Shaping: is the creation of a new behavior by the +ve reinforcement of
successive approximations leading to the desired behavior.
o +ve reinforcement can be given according to either continuous (each time it
happen) or intermittent schedules (periodically). (see Figure 6.3 on pp102)

- -ve Reinforcement (Avoidance): is the w/draw of ve consequences, which tends to
increase the likelihood of desirable behavior being repeated in a similar setting.
- Punishment: is the administration of ve consequences that tent to reduce the likelihood
of the behavior being repeated in similar settings.
- Extinction: is the w/draw of the reinforcing consequences for a particular behavior.

Maslows hierarchy of needs theory: is a pyramid of physiological, safety, social (lower order needs),
esteem, and self-actualization needs (higher order needs).

Clayton Alderfers ERG theory:
- Reduced categories of hierarchy to 3:
o Existence needs desires for physiological and material well-being
o Relatedness needs desires for satisfying interpersonal relationships
o Grouth needs disires for continued personal grouth and development.
- Emphasizes a unique frustration-regression component.
- More than one need way be activated at the same time.


Acquired needs theory:
- Need for achievement(nAch): the desire to do better, solve problems, or master complex
tasks.
- Need for affiliation(nAff): the desire for friendly and warm relations with others
- Need for power(nPower): the desire to control others and influence their behavior.

Two-factor theory:
- Hygiene factors: sources of job dissatisfaction.
- Motivator factors: sources of job satisfaction.

Equity Theory: ppl will act to eliminate any inequity (unfairness) that they feel there is in the
rewards they receive for their work compared to what others receive.

Expectancy Theory: argues that motivation is determined by individual beliefs about effort-
performance relationships and work outcomes.
- Expectancy (E): is the probability that work effort will be followed by goal or task
achievement.
- Instrumentality (I): is the probability that performance will liead to particular work
outcomes.
- Valence (V): is the value to the individual of various work outcomes.
- Motivation (M) = E I V

Job satisfaction: is how +vely or vely individuals feel about their jobs. 5 facets:
- The work itself responsibility, interest, and growth
- Quality of supervision technical help and social support
- Relationships with co-workers social harmony and respect
- Promotin opportunities chances for further advancement
- Pay adequacy of pay and perceived equity vs. others.

Job satisfaction is linked to:
- Absenteeism: satisfied have less absenteeism
- Turn-over: dissatisfied more likely to quit
- Performance complex:
o Satisfication is NOT good predictor of individual performance
o Successful performance does seem to lead greater satisfaction
o Proper allocation of awards can increase both performance and satisfaction

Ch.7
HR strategic planning is the process of providing capable and motivated ppl who will carry out the
orgs mission and strategy.
Staffing function (a key part of strategic planning):
Job Analysis: collect and classify info about tasks the org needs to complete.
- Description: what to do
- Specification: requirement, etc.
Recruitment: attract and get the best qualified ind. to apply for a job (of the org.).
- Advertisement of a position vacancy
- Initial contact with potential job candidates (e.g. phone interview)
- First screening to obtain a pool of candidates.
* difference between external and internal recruitment.
* Realistic job previews give applicants an objective description of a job and org (in
order to reduce turn over and to better prepare new hires to handle their jobs.
Selection: series of steps from initial applicant screening to final hiring.
- Review completed application materials (include traditional application forms, e.g.
Resume)
- Conduct interview
- Administer any necessary tests (intelligence, personality, mechanical may be conduct
before interview)
- Invest background (employment history, educational records, criminal records, driving
records, reference checks)
- Decide to hire or not to hire
Socialization: orienting newly hired employees (hires) to the org. (familiarized w/ the firms
policies and procedures and begin to understand the orgs culture, co-workers)
Training and Career Dev.: long term career planning and development.
Training is a set of activities that provides the opportunity to acquire and improve job-
related skills.
- OJT(on-the-job training): involves job instruction as the job is being done in the actual
workplace.
- Off-the-job training: involves lectures, videos, and simulations.
Career Planning and Dev.: means working w/ managers and/or HR experts on career
issues. 5-step process in formal career planning:
- Personal assessment (strength/weaknesses, apitudes/abilities/values, work career
preference)
- Analysis of opportunities (Econ condns, labour market occupational choices)
- Selection of career objectives (long- (5~10yrs), intermediate- (3~5yrs), short-
(1~3yrs)term)
- Selection and implementation of plan (Job search, initial entry to career, continued
personal development)
- Evaluation of results and revision of plan as necessary( Monitor progress, solicit
feedback, compare results and objectives)
Career stages: different pts. Of work responsibility and achievement which ppl. pass
thru during their work lives.
Career plateau: is a position from which someone is unlikely to advance to a higher lvl
of responsibility.
Performance appraisal: process of systematically evaluating an employees performance
and providing feedback on which performance adjustments can be made.
- 4 functions:
1. Define the specific job criteria against which performance will be measured.
2. Measure past job performance accurately
3. Justify the rewards given to indls and/or groups, thereby discriminating between
high and low performance.
4. Define the dev exp the rated employee needs to undergo in or der to improve
performance in the current job and prepare for future responsibilities.
- 2 purposes of good performance-appraisal systems:
1. Evaluative decisions: involve such issues as promotions, transfers, termination and
salary increses.
2. Feedback and Development decisions: to let employees know how well they are
doing relative to the orgs expectations and performance objectives.
- Who does performance appraisal?
o Traditionally - supervisor
o Potentially - anyone in a position to observe the persons performance
E.g., 360 degree evaluation (a comprehensive approach that uses self-
ratings, customer ratings, and the rating from others who are outside
the work unit)
- Appraisal dimensions
o Output measures
o Activity measures
- Methods:
(3 comparative methods)
o Ranking: Rank order employees from best to worst
o Paired comparison: Each employee directly compared to each other
o Forced distribution: Forces certain proportion of employees into each
performance category
(4 absolute methods)
o Graphic rating scales: Dimensions thought relevant to performance are scored
o Critical incident diaries: Incidents of unusual success or failure are tracked
o Behaviourally anchored rating scales(BARS): Observable job behaviours
evaluated
o Management by objectives (MBO): Joint goal-setting between supervisor and
subordinate focused on subordinates job
- Measurement errors in performance appraisal:
o Halo error: results when a person rates another person on several different
dimensions and gives a similar rating for each dimension.
o Leniency/strictness error: tendency to give relatively high/low ratings to
almost everyone.
o Central tendency error: occurs when managers lump everyone together around
the average, or middle, category. (Both leniency/strictness and central tendency
error are low differentiation error)
o Recency error: is biased rating that results from using the inds most recent
behaviour as the measure of his or her overall performance on a particular
dimension.
o Personal bias error: occurs when a rater allows specific biases, such as race, age,
or gender, to affect the performance appraisal.
o Cultural bias error
- Improving performance appraisals:
o For improved usefulness:
Train raters
Regular ongoing observation of employees
Limit number appraised by one supervisor
Clear standards
Avoid ambiguous terms like average
o legal defensibility:
Dimensions based on accurate job analysis
Expectations clearly understood by employees
Based on observable evidence and documentation, avoiding abstract
concepts open to interpretation
System validated
Appeal process in place
Rewards:
o Extrinsic or Intrinsic
o Pay (most common extrinsic reward):
Pay can attract people to organization and motivate high performance
But dissatisfaction with pay can lead to major problems
Merit pay: a compensation system that bases an inds salary or wage increase on
a measure of the persons performance accomplishments during a specified
time period.
Creative pay practices:
Skill-based pay: is a system that rewards ppl for acquiring and
developing job-relevant skills that fit the orgs needs
Gain-sharing plans: is a pay system that links pay and performance by
giving the workers the opportunity to increase their earnings by
sharing in productivity gains
Profit-sharing plans: reward employees based on the entire orgs
performance
Employee stock ownership plans: like above, but measured by the stock
price rather than profit
Lump-sum pay increases: are a pay system in which ppl choose to
receive their wage or salary increase in one or more lump-sum
payments
Flexible benefit plans: allow workers to select their own benefits
according to their individual needs
o Managing intrinsic rewards involves the challenge of designing a work setting in
which employees can, in effect, reward themselves for a job well done.

Ch.9
Group: two or more ppl who work together regularly to achieve common goals.
Effective group: a group that achieves high levels of
- task performance: measures of quantity, quality, and timeliness of work results.
- member satisfaction: positive experience that meets members needs
- team viability: members willing to work together again or look forward to do so
Synergy: is the creation of a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
Superior performance (i.e., better than lone individuals) when:
- No clear expert to assign decision to
- Problem-solving can be handled by dividing work and sharing information
- Need for creativity and innovation (groups more willing to take risks than are
individuals)
Group is a forum to learn and share info, also satisfying needs for social interaction, security,
emotional support, and ego involvement in activities.
Social loafing: occurs when ppl work less hard in groups than they would by themselves.
- Reason:
o Individual contribution is less noticeable in the context of the group
o Prefer to see others carry the workload
- Ways to deal w/ it:
o Define members roles and tasks to maximize ind interests
o Make sure the rewards an ind receives depend on the individuals performance
contributions to the group
o Make members feel more responsible for their personal performance by
identifying what each ind has contributed to the group.
Social facilitation: tendency for ones behaviour to be influenced by the presence of others in a
group. The audience acts to create emotional arousal or excitement that:
- Enhances behaviour when one is proficient at the task (e.g., athlete at Olympics); or
- On the other hand, negatively affects behaviour when the task is not well learned
Formal group: one that is officially designated for a specific organizational purpose.
- Permanent workgroup/command group: unit with subordinates reporting to head who
links with other parts of organization, and perform specific function on regular basis
- Temporary work groups: e.g., committee, cross-functional task force
- Virtual groups: meet and work together electronically through computer networks
Informal group: one formed spontaneously by members without being officially designated by the
organization. Impact: informal groups can influence workflow through individuals helping each other
and can satisfy needs for belonging, security, social interaction
- Friendship groups: people who like each other and choose to spend time together.
- Interest groups: share common work or non-work interests.
Tuckmans five stages of group development:
- Forming: getting to know each other, exploring task and approach
- Storming: conflict over who will do what and how; dealing with tension and defining
group task
- Norming: initial integration of comfortable relationships and working together; sense of
harmony but not fully mature
- Performing: maturation in relationships and in task performance; can deal with complex
tasks and internal disagreements
- Adjourning: disbanding and celebrating accomplishments
Ten criteria for measuring the maturity of a group:
1. Poor/Excellent feedback mechanisms
2. Dysfunctional/Functional decision-making methods
3. Low/High group loyalty/cohesion
4. Inflexible/Flexible operating procedures
5. Poor/Excellent use of member resources
6. Unclear/Clear communications
7. Goals unaccepted/accepted by members
8. Independent/Interdependent authority relations
9. Low/High leadership participation
10. Low/High acceptance of minority views
Group can be considered as an open system:
- Inputs:
o Tasks: Group effectiveness influenced by:
Complexity of task demands: tasks routineness, difficulty, information
requirements
Complexity of social demands: challenge in deciding co-operatively
what is to be done and how
Both types of complexity make performance more challenging but also
lead to high satisfaction when successful
o Goals, rewards, resources: Groups performance can suffer from:
Goals that are unclear, unchallenging, arbitrarily imposed, or focused
too much on individuals
Poorly designed reward systems that focus too much on individual
achievements
Inadequate budgets, poor facilities
Effective performance rests partly on having appropriate goals, well-
designed rewards systems and adequate resources
o Technology: the means to get the work accomplished. Type of workflow
technology influences how people interact with each other
o Membership characteristics: ability, personality, status, diversity (see Ch.10)
o Group size:
Growth helps to a point by providing more people to share the work
but, beyond a point, advantages are countered by disadvantages of
communication and coordination problems, and by social loafing
Five to seven is effective for problem-solving
Odd number makes it easy to use majority voting for quick decisions
Even number preferred for careful deliberations when emphasis is on
consensus
- Throughputs: group process (how group members work together)
o Group dynamics: are the forces operating in groups that affect the way
members relate to and work w/ each other.
o Intergroup dynamics: are the relationships between groups that are co-
operating and competing w/ each other
o Homans describes groups as having two types of behaviour
Required behaviour: Behaviour that is formally defined and expected
by the organization
Emergent behaviour: Behaviour voluntarily performed by members
beyond formal job requirements; based on personal initiative
o Concept of empowerment relies on unlocking potential of effective emergent
behaviours
o Cooperation between groups in an organization desirable but relationships
often characterized by competition:
Positive competition: enhances motivation
Negative competition: leads to greater focus on dislike for other group
than performance of tasks
o Ways to deal w/ -ve competition:
Refocus groups on common enemy or goal
Arrange direct negotiations between groups
Train members to work more cooperatively
Change reward systems to focus on contributions to organization and
cooperation, not win-lose
Increase interaction between groups
- Outputs: task performance, membership satisfaction, team viability.
Group Decision-Making:
- 6 types:
o Decision by lack of response
o Decision by authority rule manager, supervisor with higher delegating all
members
o Decision by minority rule
o Decision by majority rule
o Decision by consensus
o Decision by unanimity
- Advantages:
o More information
o More alternatives considered
o Better understanding and acceptance of decision
o Greater commitment to decision
- Disadvantage:
o Social pressure to conform
o Minority domination
o Time demands
- Potential Problem Groupthink: tendency of group members of cohesive groups to lose
their ability to evaluate critically. To avoid groupthink:
o Assign role of devils advocate at meeting
o Impartial leader
o Subgroups work on same problem
o second-chance meetings
o Members discuss issues with outsiders and report back
How to improve group decision making:
- Brainstorming: generate ideas through free-wheeling and no criticism
- Nominal group technique: highly structured approach to generating and prioritizing
ideas
- Delphi technique: series of questionnaires used to generate and evaluate ideas
- Computer-mediated decision-making
Ch. 10
Team: small group of people with complementay skills who work together to achieve a common
purpose that together they hold themselves accountable for. There are 3 types of teams:
- To recommend things: Temporary group (e.g., task force, ad hoc committee) to study
problem and recommend solutions
- To run things: Management teams with responsibility for leading other groups
- To make or do things: Perform ongoing tasks
Teamwork: Occurs when group members work together in ways that use their skills well to
accomplish a puspose. High-performance teams characterized by:
- Sense of collective accountability
- Belief in team goals
- Strong core values
- General sense of purpose translated into specific performance objectives
- Right mix of technical, problem-solving and interpersonal skills
- Creativity
Diversity and team performance:
- Homogeneous teams: quickly build harmonious relationships but may be limited in
terms of ideas, viewpoints, creativity
- Heterogeneous teams: have more stresses in development stages but better long-term
performance potential due to pool of information, talent, and perspectives
Team building approaches:
- Formal retreat approach: Off-site intensive assessment and planning, often with
consultant
- Continuous improvement approach: Regular meetings by group committed to
monitoring group processes and making day-to-day changes to improve
- Outdoor experience approach: Members need teamwork to master variety of physically
challenging situations
Improving Team Processes:
- New Members:
o New members are concerned about issues of:
Participation
Goals
Control
Relationships
o Profiles of typical entry problems:
Tough battler
Friendly helper
Objective thinker
- Sharing Responsibility for Group Needs:
o Important that all members know expectations of self and other members;
problems occur with uncertainty or conflicting expectations
o Role = set of expectations for a team member or person in a job
o Role ambiguity = uncertainty about expectations
o Role overload = too much work expected of individual
o Role underload = too little work expected of individual
o Roles and Role Dynamics:
Role conflict: individual is unable to satisfy role expectations that
conflict with each other
Intrasender role conflict
Intersender role conflict
Person-role conflict
Interrole conflict
- Positive Norms:
o Norms = ideas or beliefs about how members of a group are expected to
behave; rules or standards of conduct for behaviour
o Functions of norms: Clarify expectations, make behaviour predictable, give
common sense of direction, reinforce team culture
o Potential danger of norms: Can work against organizations best interests (e.g.,
dont work too hard, never do anything extra beyond your job description)
Team Cohesiveness: the degree to which members are attached to and motivated to remain a part
of the team. Members of highly cohesive groups:
- Value membership
- Try to maintain positive relationships with other members
- Are energetic when working on team activities
- Are not prone to absenteeism or turnover
- Are genuinely concerned about team performance
- Tend to satisfy a broad range of individual needs
Use of Teams in High-Performance Workplace:
- Problem-solving teams:
o In employee-involvement teams, members meet regularly to examine work-
related problems and issues (e.g., better satisfy customers)
Effective use of workers knowledge
Gains commitment for implementing solutions
o Quality circle = special type of employee-involvement team that meets regularly
to focus on continuous improvement of quality operations
- Cross-functional teams: Members from different functions are brought together to work
on common task
o counters functional silos problem
o promotes lateral communication
o promotes integrative or total-systems thinking
o enhances problem-solving through more thorough information and power to
act quickly

- Virtual teams: Members linked together through networked computers (supported by
groupware)
o Advantages:
Allows meeting of people in different locations with diverse
background to exchange views and information, collaborate
Cost-effective and quick when face-to-face meetings impossible
Computer helps focus efforts on objective info, not emotion
o Disadvantages:
Lack of direct personal contact can mean less social rapport and less
direct interaction among members
May increase risk in decision making
May have too much focus on the technology itself
- Self-managing teams:
o Are empowered to manage themselves on a day-to-day basis
E.g., scheduling, allocating tasks, training, evaluating performance,
selecting new members, quality control (many tasks traditionally
belonging to supervisor)
o 5 to 15 members, multiskilled (pay may be linked to extent of multiskilling)
o Also known as self-directed teams, empowered teams
o Benefits:
Improvements in productivity and quality
Flexibility
Faster response to change
Decreased absenteeism and turnover
Improved work attitudes, quality of work life
o Challenges:
Loss of managers
Adjustment to new expectations (by workers and remaining managers)
Not suitable for all organizations