Chapter 1: Intro to OB

Organizational behaviour: study of what people think, feel, and do in and around organizations Concepts play an important role in working with other people OB and the bottom line Organizations: groups of people who work interdependently toward some purpose Organizational effectiveness: a broad concept represented by several perspectives, including the organizations fit with the external environment, internal subsystems, configuration for highperformance, emphasis on organizational learning, and ability to satisfy the needs of key stakeholders Open Systems Perspective Open systems: a perspective that organizations take their sustenance from the environment and in turn, affect that environment through their output Organizational efficiency: the amount of outputs relative to inputs in the organizations transformation process Organizational Learning Perspective Organizational learning (knowledge management): a perspective that organizational effectiveness depends on the organizations capacity to acquire, share, use, and store valuable knowledge Intellectual capital: companys stock of knowledge, including human capital, structural capital, and relationship capital Organizational memory: the storage and preservation of intellectual capital keep good employees, systematically transfer knowledge to other employees HPWP Perspective High performance work practices (HPWP): a perspective that effective organizations incorporate several workplace practices that leverage the potential of human capital human capital is valuable, rare, difficult to imitate, and nonsubstitutable employee involvement and job autonomy concern is that it may satisfy shareholder and customer needs at expense of employee well-being Stakeholder Perspective Stakeholders: individuals, organizations, or other entities who affect, or are affected by, the organizations objectives and actions Companies must take into account how their actions affect others, which requires them to understand, manage, and satisfy the interests of their stakeholders Values: relatively stable, evaluative beliefs that guide a persons preferences for outcomes or courses of action in a variety of situations

Ethics: the study of moral principles or values that determine whether actions are right or wrong and outcomes are good or bad Corporate social responsibility (CSR): organizational activities intended to benefit society and the environment beyond the firms immediate financial interests or legal obligations

Types of Work-related Behaviour Task Performance Refers to goal-directed behaviors under the individuals control that support organizational objectives Transform raw materials into goods and services or support and maintain the technical activities Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCBs) various forms of cooperation and helpfulness to others that support the organizations social and psychological context Counterproductive Work Behaviours (CWBs) Voluntary behaviours that have the potential to directly or indirectly harm the organization Joining and Staying with the Organization Attracting and retaining talented people Maintaining Work Attendance Organizations need everyone to show up for work at schedules times Situational factors, motivation Contemporary Challenges for Organizations Globalization Economic, social, and cultural connectivity with people in other parts of the world Increasing Workforce Diversity Surface-level diversity: observable demographic and other overt differences in people, such as their race, ethnicity, gender, age and physical capabilities Deep-level diversity: differences in the psychological characteristics of employees, including personalities, beliefs, values and attitudes Can become a competitive advantage by improving decision making and team performance Numerous communication problems and group dynamic difficulties Emerging Employment Relationships Work/life balance: the degree to which a person minimizes conflict between work and nonwork demands Virtual work: work performed away from the traditional physical workplace using information technology o Potentially reduces stress o Social isolation, reduced promotion opportunities Anchors of Organizational Behaviour Knowledge The Multidisciplinary Anchor OB should import knowledge from many disciplines, not just from its own isolated research base Systematic Research Anchor OB should study organizations using systematic research methods; forming research questions, systematically collecting data, and testing hypotheses against those data (evidence based management) Contingency Anchor

OB theory should recognize that the effects of actions often vary with the situation need to understand and diagnose the situation and select the strategy most appropriate under those conditions Multiple Levels of Analysis Anchor OB knowledge should include three levels of analysis; individual (motivation, perceptions, personalities, attitudes, and values), team (way people interact), organization

Chapter 2: Individual Behaviour, Personality and Values

MARS Model of Individual Behaviour and Performance Motivation Represents the forces within a person that affect his or her direction, intensity, and persistence of voluntary behaviour Exerting particular effort level (intensity), for a certain amount of time (persistence), toward a particular goal (direction) Ability Ability: the natural aptitudes (natural talents) and learned capabilities (skills and knowledge already required) required to successfully complete a task Competencies: skills, knowledge, aptitudes, and other personal characteristics that lead to superior performance; challenge is to match person and job

Role Perceptions Role perceptions: accuracy of how people understand their job duties (roles) assigned to them or expected of them Situational Factors Conditions beyond the employees immediate control that constrain or facilitate behaviour and performance Personality in Organizations Personality: relatively enduring pattern of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that characterize a person, along with the psychological processes behind those characteristics External traits observable behaviours Internal states thoughts, values, etc. inferred from behaviours Some variability, adjust to suit the situation Nature vs. Nurture of Personality Heredity explains about half of behavioural tendencies and 30% of temperament preferences Minnesota studies of twins, including those separated at birth, very similar behaviour patterns Nurture also counts socialization, life experiences, learning Personality stabilizes over time (executive function) Five-Factor Model of Personality Big Five

FFM: the five abstract dimensions representing most personality traits: conscientiousness, emotional stability, openness to experience, agreeableness, and extroversion 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Conscientiousness- careful, dependable, self-disciplined Agreeableness- courteous, good-natured, empathic, caring Neuroticism- anxious, hostile, depressed Openness to experience- imaginative, creative, curious, sensitive Extroversion- outgoing, talkative, sociable, assertive

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): a personality test that measures each of the traits in Jungs model sensing and intuition, thinking versus feeling, perceiving and judging Self-Concept Self-concept: an individuals self beliefs and self evaluations People function better when their self-concept has many elements (high complexity) that are compatible with each other (high consistency) and relatively clear Self enhancement and Self verification Self enhancement - Individuals have better personal adjustment and experience better health when they view their self concept in positive light Sometimes people get too confident Self verification - stabilizes our self concept providing an important anchor to guide our thoughts and actions Self-Evaluation Self esteem fundamental component of self-concept because it represents a global self-evaluation; the extent to which people like, respect, and are satisfied with themselves Self-efficacy refers to a persons belief that he or she has the ability, motivation, correct role perceptions, and favourable situation to complete a task Locus of control: a persons general belief about the amount of control he or she has over personal life events Social Self Social identity theory: a theory that explains self-concept in terms of the persons unique characteristics (personal identity) and membership in various social groups (social identity) People define themselves in terms of the groups to which they belong or have an emotional attachment Values in the Workplace Values stable, evaluative beliefs that guide our preferences for outcomes or courses of action in a variety of situations serve as amoral compass that directs out motivation Value system - hierarchy of preferences Personal values, shared values, organizational values, cultural values

Schwartzs Values Circumplex Openness to change o to the extent to which a person is motivated to pursue innovative ways Self-direction, stimulation Conservation o extent to which a person is motivated to preserve the status quo

Conformity, security, tradition Self enhancement o How much a person is motivated by self-interest Achievement, power Self transcendence o Motivation to promote the welfare of others and nature Benevolence, universalism

Values congruence: the extent to which a persons values hierarchy is similar to the values hierarchy of another entity Person organization values incongruence employees and organizations values differ Espoused-enacted values congruence how closely the values apparent in our actions are consistent with what we say we believe in Values Across Cultures Individualism: a cross-cultural value describing the degree to which people in a culture emphasize independence and personal uniqueness Collectivism: a cross-cultural value describing the degree to which people in a culture emphasize duty to groups to which people belong, and to group harmony high collectivists define themselves by their group membership and value harmonious relationships (Canadians generally have low collectivism) Power distance: a cross-cultural value describing the degree to which people in a culture accept unequal distribution of power in a society high power distance accept and value unequal power, low power distance expect relatively equal power sharing Uncertainty avoidance: degree to which people tolerate ambiguity (low uncertainty avoidance) or feel threatened by ambiguity and uncertainty (high uncertainty avoidance) - High scores tend to be high in Taiwan and very high in Japan Achievement-nurturing orientation: degree to which people in a culture emphasize competitive versus cooperative relations with other people high achievement orientation value assertiveness, competitiveness, and materialism Ethical Values and Behaviour Three Ethical Principles Utilitarianism- advises us to seek the greatest good for the greatest number of people, we should choose the option providing the highest degree of satisfaction to those affected Individual rights- reflects the belief that everyone has entitlements that let them act in a certain way freedom of movement, security, speech, fair trial Distributive justice- the principle suggests that people who are similar to each other should receive similar benefits and burdens Moral intensity: degree to which an issue demands the application of ethical principles Ethical sensitivity: a personal characteristic that enables people to recognize the presence and determine the relative importance of an ethical issue

Chapter 3: Learning in Organizations

Perception: The process of receiving information about and making sense of the world around us The Perceptual Process - Information from the world around us is filtered through the perceptual process 1. Environment stimuli are received by our senses (seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling and tasting) 2. Selective Attention is next, it attains to some of the information received by our sense and ignores other information 3. Selective attention and emotional marker response 4. Perceptual Organization and interpretation 5. Perceptual Organization and interpretation 6. Attitudes and behaviour Selective Attention: The process of attending to some information received by our sense and ignoring other information Categorical thinking: organizing people and objects into preconceived categories that are stored in our long term memory; things are grouped together based on their similarities

Mental Models: visual or relational images in our mind representing the external world- We rely on mental models to make sense of our environment through perceptual grouping Social Identity and Stereotyping -We define ourselves by the groups in which we belong to or have an emotional attachment with. Social Perception: How we perceive others. Influenced by 3 activities 1. Categorization: social identity is a comparison process, beginning with categorizing people into distinct groups. Ex. Albertans vs. Nova Scotians. 2. Homogenization: We tend to think that people within each group are similar to each other. 3. Differentiation: Social identity fulfills our inherent need to have a distinct and positive selfconcept. We differentiate groups by assigning more favourable characteristics to people in our groups than to people in other groups. Ex. Good guy, bad guy. Stereotyping in Organizations Stereotyping: The process of assigning traits to people based on their membership in a social category, 3 elements: 1. Develop social categories and assign traits 2. We assign people to one or more social categories based on observable information (gender, appearance...) 3. People who seem to belong to the stereotyped are assigned non observable non observable traits associated with the group. Ex. Learn that someone is a professor, we assume that they are smart. Problems with Stereotyping - They do not accurately describe every person in that social category - Most serious form of stereotype bias is: intentional discrimination or prejudice Attribution Process - The perceptual process of deciding whether an observed behaviour or event is caused largely by internal or external factors - Internal Factors: the persons ability or motivation - External: lack of resources, other people, or luck 3 Factors to Decide Whether Internal or External 1. Consistency: how often did the person act this way in the past? 2. Distinctiveness: How often does the person act this way in other settings?

3. Consensus: How often do other people act this way in similar situations? Attribution Errors Fundamental Attribution Error: The tendency to see the person rather than the situation as the main cause of that persons behaviour Self Serving Bias: The tendency to attribute our favourable outcomes to internal factors and our failures to external factors Self Fulfilling Prophecy: Occurs when our expectations about another person cause that person to act in a way that is consistent with those expectations 1. Supervisor forms expectations about the employees future behaviour and performance 2. Supervisors expectations affect his or her behaviour toward employee 3. Supervisors behaviour affects employees abilities and self confidence 4. Employees behaviour becomes consistent with supervisors expectations Halo Effect: An error when our general impression of a person, usually based on one prominent characteristic, colours our perception of other characteristics of that person. We use the genral impression of a person to fill in missing information about them. Primacy Effect: An error when we quickly form an opinion of people based on the first information we receive about them. Not everyone has good first impressions. Recency Effect: An error in which the most recent information dominates our perception of others. Ex. You recently read a chapter of a textbook; this information is going to shine through the rest. False-Consensus Effect: An error in which we overestimate the extent to which others have beliefs and characteristics similar to our own. Similar to me effect. Use our own beliefs and abilities to categorize others Improving Perceptions Awareness of the biases: just knowing that they exist Improving Self Awareness: provide evidence that the individuals own behaviour and decisions reflect these biases. - Johari Window: a model of mutual understanding that encourages disclosure and feedback to increase our own open area and reduce the blind, hidden and unknown areas - Main objective is to increase the size of the open area so that both you and colleagues are aware of your perceptual limitations Meaningful Interaction Contact Hypothesis: a theory stating that the more we interact with someone, the less we rely on stereotypes to understand that person Empathy: A persons understanding of and sensitivity to the feelings, thoughts, and situation of others Learning in Organizations Learning: a relatively permanent change in behaviour that occurs as a result of a persons interaction with the environment Explicit knowledge: reading information in a book Tactic Knowledge: embedded in our actions and ways of thinking, and transmitted only through observation and experience - acquired through observation and direct experience

Behaviour modification: a theory that explains learning in terms of the antecedents and consequences of behaviour. Also known as operant conditioning and reinforcement theory A-B-Cs of Behaviour Modification: A) Antecedents B) Behaviour C) Consequences Contingencies of Reinforcement Positive Reinforcement: occurs when the introduction of a consequence increases or maintains the frequency or future probability of a specific behaviour Punishment: Occurs when a consequence decreases the frequency or future probability of behaviour. Negative Reinforcement: Occurs when the removal or avoidance of a consequence increases or maintains the frequency or future probability of a specific behaviour. Extinction: when the target behaviour decreases because no consequence follows it. Schedules of Reinforcement: the frequency and timing of rein forcers influence employee behaviour Social Learning Theory: Learning by Observing Social Learning Theory: A theory stating that much learning occurs by observing others and then modelling the behaviours that lead to favourable outcomes and avoiding behaviours that lead to punishing consequences This form of learning occurs in 3 ways: behaviour modelling, learning behaviour consequences, and self reinforcement. 1. Behaviour modelling: people learn by observing the behaviours of a role model and critical task, remembering the important elements of the observed behaviour and then practising those behaviours 2. Learning Behaviour Consequences: people learn through consequences of behaviour through logic and observation, not just through direct experience 3. Self Reinforcement: Occurs whenever an employee has control over a reinforce but doesnt take it until completing a self-set goal Learning Orientation: a culture in which the organization rewards experimentation, accepts reasonable mistakes and encourages employees to question long-held assumptions about past practices Knowledge Acquisition Knowledge Sharing Knowledge Use

Chapter 4: Workplace Emotions, Attitudes, Stress

Emotions- physiological, behavioural and psychological episodes experienced toward an object, person, or event that create a state of readiness

Attitudes- the cluster of beliefs, assessed feelings, and behavioural intentions toward a person object or event (called an attitude object) Beliefs- a persons established perceptions about the attitude object Feelings- a positive or negative evaluation of the attitude object Behavioural Intentions- represent a motivation to engage in a particular behaviour with respect to the target Attitudes are a purely rational process in which beleiefs predict feelings, which predict behavioural intentions, which predict behaviour

Cognitive Dissonance- occurs when we perceive an inconsistency between our beliefs, feelings and behaviour Emotional Labour- the effort, planning and control needed to express organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal transactions Cultures also differ in the norms of displaying or concealing a persons true emotions

Emotional Dissonance- occurs when required and true emotions are incompatible with one another The larger the gap between the required and true emotions, the more employees tend to experience stress, job burnout and psychological separation from self

Emotional Intelligence- the ability to monitor our own and others feelings and emotions, to discriminate between them, and to use this information to guide our thinking and actions Self Awareness- refers to perceiving and understanding the meaning of our own emotions Self Management- refers to managing our own emotions, something that we all do to some extent Social Awareness- the ability to perceive and understand the emotions of other people Relationship Management- refers to managing other peoples emotions

Job Satisfaction- a persons evaluation of his or her job context Exit-Voice-Loyalty-Neglect (EVLN) Model- outlines four possible outcomes of employee dissatisfaction 1. Exit- refers to leaving the organization, transferring to another work unit, or at least trying to exit the dissatisfying situation 2. Voice- refers to any attempt to change, rather then escape from, the dissatisfying situation 3. Loyalty- refers to employees who respond to dissatisfaction by patiently waiting for the problem to work itself out or get resolved by others 4. Neglect- includes reducing work effort, paying less attention to quality, and increasing absenteeism and lateness

Organizational (effective) Commitment- the employees emotional attachment to, identification with, and involvement in a particular organization Continuance Commitment- an employees calculative attachment to the organization, whereby an employee is motivated to stay only because leaving would be costly 5 Strategies For Building Organizational Commitment

Justice and Commitment Shared Values Trust Organizational Comprehension Employee Involvement

Stress- an adaptive response to a situation that is perceived as challenging or threatening to the persons well-being General Adaption Syndrome- a model of the stress experience, consisting of three stages: alarm reaction, resistance and exhaustion Alarm Reaction- occurs when a threat or challenge activates the physiological stress responses such as heart race increasing, muscles tighten etc. Resistance- the second stage which activates various biochemical, physiological and behavioural mechanisms that give us more energy and engage coping mechanisms to overcome or remove the source of stress Exhaustion- the result of having limited resistance capacity, in which there is an increased risk of physiological and psychological damage

Job Burnout- the process of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment resulting in prolonged exposure to stress Stressors- any environmental conditions that place a physical or emotional demand on the person such as harassment and incivility, work overload and low task control Two people exposed to the same stressor may experience different stress levels Many interventions are available to manage work-related stress such as removing the stressor, withdrawing from the stressor, receiving social support etc.

Chapter 5: Employee Motivation

Motivation: the forces within a person that affect the direction, intensity, and persistence of voluntary behaviour Exerting particular effort level (intensity), for a certain amount of time (persistence), toward a particular goal (direction) Employee Engagement Emotional and cognitive motivation, self-efficacy to perform the job Drives and Needs Drives (aka primary needs, fundamental needs, innate motives) o Neural states that energize individuals to correct deficiencies or maintain an internal equilibrium o Prime movers of behaviour by activating emotions Needs o Goal directed forces that people experience o Drive-generated emotions directed toward goals o Goals formed by self-concept, social norms and experience Maslows Needs Hierarchy Lowest unmet need has strongest effect When lower need is satisfied, next higher need becomes the primary motivator Self-actualization a growth need Lack of support for theory People have different hierarchies dont progress through needs in the same order Needs change more rapidly than Maslow stated Contributions to motivation theory o More holistic integrative view of needs o More humanistic influence of social dynamics, not just instinct o More positivistic Whats wrong with models? o Wrongly assume that everyone has the same needs hierarchy o Likely that each person has a unique hierarchy Learned needs theory Needs are amplified or suppressed through self concept, social norms, past experiences Three learned needs o Need for achievement o Need for affiliation o Need for power Four Drive Theory Drive to acquire o Drive to take/keep objects and experiences Drive to bond o Form relationships and social commitments Drive to learn o Satisfy curiosity Drive to defend Features: o Innate and hardwired o Independent of each other o Complete set

How they affect motivation o Determine which emotions are automatically tagged to incoming information o Drives generate independent and often competing emotions that demand our attention o Social norms, personal values, and experience transform drive-based emotions into goal directed choice and effort Implications o Provide a balanced opportunity for employees to fulfill all four drives

Expectancy Theory of Motivation Increasing E to P Expectancies o Assuring employees they have competencies o Person job matching o Provide role clarification and sufficient resources o Behavioural modeling Increasing P to O Expectancies o Measure performance accurately o More rewards for good performance o Explain how rewards are linked to performance Goal Setting The process of motivating employees and clarifying their role perceptions by establishing performance objectives Evaluating Goal Setting and Feedback Goal setting has high validity and usefulness Limitations: o Focuses employees on measurable performance o Motivates employees to set easy goals o Goal setting interferes with learning process in new, complex jobs

Organizational Justice Distributive justice: perceived fairness in the outcomes we receive relative to our contributions and the outcomes and contributions of others Procedural justice: perceived fairness of the procedures used to decide the distribution of resources Giving employees voice in the process Higher when decision maker is perceived as unbiased, relies on complete and accurate information, applies existing policies consistently People feel better when they are treated with respect and given a full explanation of the decision Equity theory: explains how people develop perceptions of fairness in the distribution and exchange of resources People determine feelings of equity by comparing their outcome/input ratio to comparison other Main ways people correct inequity feelings when they are underrewarded: Reduce our inputs Increase our outcomes Increase the comparison others inputs Reduce comparison others outcomes

Change our perceptions Change the comparison other Leave the field

Equity sensitivity: an individuals outcome/input preferences and reaction to various outcome/input ratios

Chapter 6: Applied Performance Practices

Four Reward Objectives Membership and seniority based rewards Potentially attract job applicants and reduce turnover Do not directly motivate job performance

Job Status-Based rewards

Job evaluation: systematically evaluating the worth of jobs within an organization by measuring their required skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions Maintain feelings of equity and motivate employees to compete for promotions Enforces a status mentality and can encourage employees to exaggerate job duties and hoard resources

Competency-based Rewards Skill-based pay involves employees being rewarded for the number of skill modules mastered and jobs they can perform Improve workplace flexibility by motivating employees to learn a variety of skills and thereby perform a variety of jobs Reward employees who continuously learn skills that will keep them employed Often over-designed, difficult to communicate to employees Competency definitions are often vague Performance-based Rewards Individual o Commissions, individual bonuses or awards Team o Many organizations have shifted their focus to teams o Gainsharing plans: form of team-based compensation that calculates bonuses from the work units cost savings and productivity improvement encourages employees to buy company stock Organizational o Creates an ownership culture in which employees feel aligned with the organizations success o Employees may perceive weak connection between individual effort and corporate profits o Profit-sharing plans: employees earn bonuses based on the previous years level of corporate profits (less ownership but automatically adjusts employee compensation with prosperity reducing need for layoffs) o Employee share ownership plans (ESOP): reward system that encourages employees to buy company shares, usually at a discounted price or a nointerest loan o Share options: give employees the right to purchase shares from the company at a future date at a pre-determined price up to a fixed expiry date o Balanced scorecard (BSC): goal-oriented performance measurement system that pays bonuses for improved results on a composite of financial, customer, internal process, and employee factors (Specific but subjective) Improving Reward Effectiveness Link rewards to performance o Behaviour modification theory and expectancy theory recommend better performance should be rewarded more o To eliminate inconsistencies and bias, use objective performance measures Ensure that Rewards are Relevant Use team rewards for interdependent jobs Ensure that rewards are valued Watch out for unintended consequences (i.e. fast pizza man getting into accident) Job Design Practices Job design: the process of assigning tasks to a job, including the interdependency of those tasks with other jobs

Job specialization: the result of division of labour in which each job includes a subset of the tasks required to complete the product or service improves work efficiency, employees spend less time changing activities, specific skills can be matched to employees Scientific management: systematically partitioning work into its smallest elements and standardizing tasks to achieve maximum efficiency Introduced by Frederick Winslow Taylor in early 1900s Reduces labour waste by improving mechanical efficiency of work Can adversely affect employee attitudes and motivation tasks can become trivial and socially isolating can cause high employee turnover/absenteeism Motivator-hygiene theory: Hertzbergs theory proposes that employees experience job satisfaction when they fulfill growth and esteem needs (called motivators) and experience dissatisfaction when they have poor working conditions, job security, other lower order needs (called hygienes) theory has been soundly rejected Job characteristics model: identifies five core job dimensions (skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, feedback) that produce three psychological states (meaningfulness, responsibility, knowledge of results) and result in four outcomes (work motivation, growth satisfaction, general satisfaction, work effectiveness) Core job characteristics o Skill variety Extent to which employees must use different skills and talents to perform tasks within their jobs o Task identity Degree to which a job requires completion of a whole or an identifiable piece of work o Task significance Degree to which a job has a substantial impact on the organization and/or larger society o Autonomy Degree to which a job gives employees the freedom, independence, and discretion to schedule their work and determine the procedures used in completing it o Job feedback Job Design Practices that Motivate Job rotation: practice of moving employees from one job to another minimizes health risks from strain, supports multiskilling, reduces boredom Job enlargement: increasing number of tasks employees perform within their job Job enrichment: occurs when employees are given more responsibility for scheduling, coordinating and planning their own work Empowerment: a psychological concept in which people experience more self-determination, meaning, competence, and impact regarding their role in the organizations consists of all four dimensions: Self-determination empowered employees feel that they have freedom, independence, and discretion over their work activities Meaning employees who feel empowered care about their work and believe that what they do is important Competence empowered people are confident that their ability to perform the work well and have a capacity to grow with new challenges Impact empowered employees view themselves as active participants in the organization; that is, their decisions and actions have an influence on the companys success

Self leadership: the process of influencing oneself to establish the self-direction and selfmotivation needed to perform a task Self Leadership Strategies Personal Goal Setting Constructive Thought Patterns o Self-talk: talking to ourselves about our own thoughts or actions for the purpose of increasing our self-confidence and navigating through decisions in a future event o Mental imagery: mentally practicing a task and visualizing its successful completion Designing natural rewards Self-monitoring Self-reinforcement

Chapter 7: Decision Making and Creativity

Decision Making: A conscious process of making choices among alternatives with the intention of moving toward a desired state of affairs (Mcshane and Steen, 2009). Plato 2, 500 years ago created rational choice paradigm an ideology that links decision making to ones pure logic and rational (Mcshane and Steen, 2009). Logical decision-making is said to be one of the most important achievements. Passion and emotion can affect decision making this will be later covered in the presentation Scottish philosophers stated the best decision is the one that pulls the greatest good for the greatest number utilitarianism

Rational Choice Process:

1. Identify the Problem 2. Analyze decision process - Does an intermediary need to be involved ex. Boss, the law, mediator. Programmed decisions the problem or opportunity is fairly routine and past decisions and experiences can be applied to gain the optimal benefit from the situation Class Involvement ask some one 2x2 = 4 easy to answer have seen simple math problems throughout life Problem- hunger solution Eat Non programmed decisions all steps of the rational choice decision making process are needed as the situation is complex and new. Class involvement Manager asks you to chose the best and most beneficial supplier this is not a routine decision most likely you will use the rational choice process 3. Develop list of alternative decisions and outcomes can produce own decision process or look for already made decisions to similar problems 4. Choose best alternative subjective expected utility is the probability (expectation) of satisfaction (utility). Thus the alternative which, reaps the most benefits should be chosen. 5. Implement 6. Evaluate Criticisms of the model: Hard to practice in reality, people these days live life on the go and do not always have the time to go through all the steps to make a decision Difficulty recognizing what the problem actually is most important aspect. Hard to process information needed to apply paradigm Problems with identifying problems: Stakeholder Framing: employees clients or stakeholders i.e. people who are possibly affected by decision can spin frame of mind of decision makers through persuasion. Perpetual defence: People, Workers, Managers can interpret negative information differently some will block out negative information and others will react. Mental Models: are visual or relational images in out mind of the external world-vital s they help us navigate in our environments. Our mental models and perceptions can effect us when making the right decision or seeking an opportunity. If the process doesnt fit ones mental model it can be dismissed. Decisive leadership: leaders must be decisive to make proper decisions. Ability to quickly develop opinions or solutions. Subsequently this may affect the quality of decisions as the time and effort to identifying the problem and the Rational choice process was most likely not used. Solution Focused Problem: One should not be focused on just finding a solution but identify problem first. If the solution to the problem is solution-focused the real problem may not be being served. All problems do not have the same solution and vice versa. There are different circumstances to situations and solutions must be formulated with those circumstances in mind. Effective ways to identifying problems: Awareness of diagnostic and perceptual limitations Consider other perspectives of reality think outside own mental model Use teamwork and advice of others to make rational decisions avoid tunnel vision Bounded Rationality: When decisions are made decision makers usually have limited and imperfect information to chose the best alternative. Herbert Simon Organizational scholar.

The Exhibit below Compares Rational choice paradigm to Bounded rationality

Problems with Information Processing: People do not carry the capacity to outline every single alternative and the subsequent consequences in such they only evaluate a couple alternatives and their consequences. Implicit Favourite can take toll when making a decision for instance when purchasing a car you may have one favourite or preferred type of car in which a person will compare the alternatives to this implicit favourite. This can happen consciously and non consciously. Implicit favourite can skew the actual facts aboiut the alternatives such as ignoring advantages of alternatives and flaws of the implicit favourite. Satisficing: selecting a solution that is satisfactory or good enough rather than optima or the best Evaluate opportunities: can be seen as solutions to problems. Rare and exciting there is emotional attachment. Process differs from problem solving. Emotional attachment can motivate the wrong choice as emotions can derail the evaluation of the problem or opportunity. Emotions and Decision Making: as mentioned above emotions can manipulate our choices and evaluation. There are 3 main ways. 1. Emotions form early preferences: brain links specific emotions to particular alternatives quickly. These early emotions and preferences persuade the decision towards the preferred alternative. Logical analysis as well influences decisions but to change ones emotional preference the evidence supporting the logical analysis must be strong. Emotions are a motivator to preferred choice. 2. Emotions Change the Decision Evaluation process: moods and emotions can manipulate ones process of evaluating alternative. Attention to details when in negative mood something wrong, need attention. Positive mood pay less attention to details, use programmed decisions routine. Stereotypes and other shortcuts shorten decision process during anger. Anger more optimistic Fear less optimistic. Emotions affect not only choice but as well evaluation.

3. Emotions as Information when Evaluation Alternatives: emotions can guide us when making decisions. Many of our emotional experiences occur below level of consciousness humans are sensitive toward subtle emotions leads to increased self awareness of emotional intelligence when making a decision. Gut feeling and emotional reaction can take preference over facts and information. To an extent we all use emotions as information. ( Intuition gut instinct identify a problem or opportunity immediately and select best action without reasoning or using the rational choice process Gut feelings are emotional signals Not all signals are intuition Need immediate comparison of observations of situation and past experiences We use past experience and knowledge as a mental model We then use these models to make intuition based decisions Gut feeling should not always be trusted can be based on poor mental models Effective Decision Making: Be contemplative not decisive Logical evaluation Assess alternatives Use intuition and analysis coordinately Awareness of emotions and rational Teams can get too confident when making decision Divide in to smaller micro groups then meet again in one team and debate and evaluate decisions and make proper choice Scenario Planning anticipate future or possible situations and developing reactions and plans to fix situation or pursue opportunity Implementing Decisions Often forgot about Obstacle and important task When implementing decisions plans or policies can be misinterpreted The actual task of implementing the decision can be difficult May come at a cost to organization Barriers Evaluation: People have the propensity to support the decision they implemented while overlooking the negative aspects This is called post decisional justification Decision maker should not evaluate use a fresh thought Establish preset thought Escalation of commitment is common in the workplace When poor decisions are repeated or when additional allocation of resources to failing objectives occurs i.e. when British Columbia Ferry Services wanted to implement a new model of ferry which was supposed to be faster. The plan was supposed to cost 250 million although costs escalated almost double that amount. Causes of Escalation of commitment Self-Justification: when people are emotionally, or personally identified to a project due to reputation or monetary values at stake they are more committed to the

projects success. There is a high need for justification when this occurs thus causing need to continue the course of action. Prospect theory effect: negative emotions are stronger than positive ones thus tend to take a risk such as escalation of commitment than to take the loss and stop the project Perceptual blinders: Problems are sometimes not identified in the early stages, Can non consciously look over negative information, Misinterpretation Closing Costs: Cost of ending project could be higher then continued investment or unknown, Can leave penalties, political costs, bad image for organization

Employee involvement the degree to which employees influence how their work is organized and carried out also known as paricipitative management can improve quality and commitment recognize problems more quickly and define more accurately creates awareness of task at hand improves likely hood of choosingn best alternative staff can feel personally responsible for decision therefore increase commitment Contingencies of employee involvement Decision structure programmed decisions need less employee involvement Source of decision knowledge subordinates should be involved in some level of decision if manager does not have enough info to make a quality decision Decision commitment - participation = commitment. Employees most likely will not accept decision if they are not involved Risk of conflict two types o employee goals and norms conflict with the organizations goals then only a low level of employee involvement is advisable o degree of involvement depends on whether employees will reach agreement on the preferred solution Creativity: the development of original ideas that make a socially recognizable contribution Divergent thinking reframing the problem in a unique way and generating different approaches to the issue. Applies to all aspects of the decision process problems, alternatives, solutions

Characteristics of creative people Above average intelligence Persistence Relevant knowledge and experience Independent imagination Creative Work Environments Learning orientation o Encourage experimentation o Tolerate mistakes Intrinsically motivating work o Task significance, autonomy, feedback

Open communication and sufficient resources Team competition and time pressure have complex effect on creativity

Chapter 9: Communicating in Teams and Organizations

Communication - The process by which information is transmitted and understood between two or more people 1.Coordinating work activities 2.Organizational learning and decision making 3.Employee well-being Effective communication: Transmitting intended meaning (not just symbols) Communication process model

Improving Communication Coding/Decoding 1.Carry the same codebook 2.Similar mental models of the communication context 3.Familiarity with the message topic 4.Proficiency with the communication channel Communication Channel Verbal communication Voice innotations and silence Immediate feedback Ability to adjust emotional tone Computer mediated communication Email quickly transmitted Can be sent to many people with one click Messages can be sent and received at different times and in different time zones Email software is efficient filing cabinet Coordination Reduce stereotype biases Problems with email Poor at communicating emotions Reduces politeness and respect Poor medium for ambiguous complex and novel situations Requires moderate level of mutual understanding between sender and receiver

 Coordinating is complex on email Contributes to information overload Social networking communication Social network communication clusters people around interests/expertise Several types of social network communication Avatar sites (e.g. Second Life) Instant messaging Wikis collaborative web spaces in which anyone in group can write edit or remove material from website Facebook Nonverbal communication Actions facial gestures voice intonation physical distance Influences meaning of verbal symbols Less rule bound than verbal communication We have formal training on how to interpret and understand words but not for non verbal actions Susceptible to misinterpretation Important part of emotional labour Most is automatic and non conscious Nonverbal actions are rarely planned they are a reaction Emotional Contagion The automatic process of sharing another persons emotions by mimicking their facial expressions and other nonverbal behaviour Serves three purposes: o 1. Provides continuous feedback to speaker o 2. Increases emotional understanding of the other persons experience o 3. Communicates a collective sentiment -- sharing the experience Choosing Best Communication Medium Social acceptance o how well the medium is approved and supported by firm, teams and individuals o norms answer why telephone main communication o Communication channel norms o Individual communication channel preferences o Symbolic meaning of the communication channel Personal or impersonal cool or not cool methods wouldnt fire someone in email or text Media richness o The mediums data carrying capacity that is the volume and variety of information that can be transmitted during a specific time o Communication has high richness when able to convey multiple cues Both verbal and non verbal Allows for timely feedback from receiver to sender Allows sender to customize the message to the receiver and makes use of complex symbols Words and phrases with multiple meanings Face to face is the top of media richness o Allows verbal and non verbal communication at the same time o Receive feedback almost immediately from the receiver to quickly adjust message and style Media is lean when communication is non routine and ambiguous Factors that override media richness Ability to multi communicate

Engage in two types of communication at once Internet and technology has allowed this More varied proficiency levels Some experts point out richness of computer mediated communication is not fixed some people can push more information through channel because of higher proficiency o Blackberry users can whip through email fast o new users struggle o less variation in traditional channels social distractions of rich channels o channels with higher media richness tend to have higher social interaction Communication barriers Perceptions Filtering Language o Jargon o Ambiguity o Origin of language Information Overload o Occurs when the volume of information received exceeds the persons capacity to get through it Managing the Overload Solution 1: Increase info processing capacity o Learn to read faster o Scan through documents more efficiently o Remove distractions o Time management o Temporarily work longer hours Solution 2: Reduce information load o Buffering o Omitting o Summarizing Cross Cultural and Gender Communication Verbal differences o Language o Voice intonation o Silence/conversational overlaps Nonverbal differences o Interpreting nonverbal meaning o Importance of verbal versus nonverbal o Different countries cultures have different interpretations o We shake our head to say no in India it may be understood as I understand Gender Differences in communication o Men Engage in report talk Primary function is to be efficient and impersonal Assert power by giving direct advice View convos as negotiations relative to status and power Less sensitive to non verbal cues o Women Higher incidence of relationship building through rapport talk Indirect requests Seek advice more quickly than men Apologize more More sensitive to verbal cues

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Improving Interpersonal communication 1. Empathize 2. Repeat the message 3. Use timing effectively 4. Be descriptive Active listening process and strategies

Improving communication throughout hierarchy Workspace design o Clustering people in teams o Open office arrangements o Bathroom effect making employees leave normal pod to eat lunch, go to washroom, get mail, etc. Wikis, blogs, and e-zines o Wikis -- collaborative document creation o Blogs -- personal news/opinion for sharing o E-zines -- rapid distribution of company news Direct communication with management o Management by walking around (MBWA) o Communication practice in which executives get out of their offices and learn from others in the organization through face to face dialogue o Town hall meetings Grapevine An unstructured and informal network founded on social relationships rather than organizational charts or job descriptions Transmits info rapidly throughout Early research findings o Transmits information rapidly in all directions o Follows a cluster chain pattern o More active in homogeneous groups o Transmits some degree of truth Changes due to internet o Email becoming the main grapevine medium o Social networks are now global

o Public blogs and forums extends gossip to everyone Benefits o Fills in missing information from formal sources o Strengthens corporate culture o Relieves anxiety o Signals that problems exist Limitations o Distortions might escalate anxiety o Perceived lack of concern for employees when company info is slower than grapevine