PART 4 LEADING CHAPTER Foundations 9 of Individual Behavior Identify Describe 9.1 the focus and goals of perception 9.4 and the factors LEARNING organizational that behavior (OB). 233 Describe Discuss different 9.6 issues in OB. Satish Kaushik/Getty Images USA, Inc. 227 Discuss Explain learning the role that theories and attitudes play 9.5 their relevance in job in shaping performance.
237 Employees First “Employees first.” That’s the most important and crucial cultural value that HCL Technologies CEO Vineet Nayar believes will take his company into the future.1 Although most managers think that customers should come first, Nayar’s philosophy is that employee satisfaction needs to be the top priority. As one of the largest companies in India, HCL sells various information technology product services, such as laptop, custom software development, and technology consulting. Luring and keeping top talent is one of the challenges HCL faces. And at its size, it doesn’t have the atmosphere of a fun and quirky start-up.
Part of that “employee first” philosophy is a no-layoff policy, which was difficult to uphold during the pressures of the economic downturn. Like its competitors, HCL had excess employees and had suspended raises. But HCL kept its promise and didn’t lay off any HCLite (Nayar’s name for HCL employees). As business has picked up, however, employees begin looking at competitors’ job offers.
During the first quarter alone of 2010, HCL lost 22 percent of its workforce. Maybe it’s time to monitor and track employee satisfaction. 221 222 PAR T 4 | LEADING Although most managers will not go as far as Vineet Nayar to promote employee satisfaction, many organizations are concerned with the attitudes of their employees. Like him, they want to attract and retain employees with the right attitudes and personality.
They want people who show up and work hard, get along with coworkers and customers, have good attitudes, and exhibit good work behaviors in other ways. But as you’re probably already aware, people don’t always behave like that “ideal” employee. They job hop at the first opportunity or they may post critical comments in blogs. People differ in their behaviors and even the same person can behave one way one day and a completely different way another day.
For instance, haven’t you seen family members, friends, or coworkers behave in ways that prompted you to wonder: Why did they do that? In this chapter, we look at four psychological aspects—attitudes, personality, perception, and learning—and demonstrate how these things can help managers understand the behavior of those people with whom they have to work. We conclude the chapter by looking at contemporary behavioral issues facing managers. WHAT ARE THE FOCUS AND GOALS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR? Identify the focus and The material in this and the next four chapters draws heavily on the field 9.1 goals of of study that’s known as organizational behavior (OB). Although it’s organizational concerned with the subject of behavior—that is, the actions of people— behavior (OB).
organizational behavior is the study of the actions of people at work. One of the challenges in understanding organizational behavior is that it addresses issues that aren’t obvious. Like an iceberg, OB has a small visible dimension and a much larger hidden portion.) What we see when we look at an organization is its visible aspects: strategies, objectives, policies and procedures, structure, technology, formal authority relationships, and chain of command. But under the surface are other elements that managers need to understand—elements that also influence how employees behave at work.
As we’ll show, OB provides managers with considerable insights into these important, but hidden, aspects of the organization. What Is the Focus of OB? Organizational behavior focuses on three major areas. First, OB looks at individual behavior. Based predominantly on contributions from psychologists, this area includes such topics as EXHIBIT 9–1 Organization as Iceberg Visible Aspects Strategies Objectives Policies and procedures Structure Technology Formal authority Chains of command Hidden Aspects Attitudes Perceptions Group norms Informal interactions Interpersonal and intergroup conflicts CHAPTER 9 | FOUNDATIONS OF INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR 223 attitudes, personality, perception, learning, and motivation.
Second, OB is concerned with group behavior, which includes norms, roles, team building, leadership, and conflict. Our knowledge about groups comes basically from the work of sociologists and social psychol- ogists. Finally, OB also looks at organizational aspects including structure, culture, and human resource policies and practices. We’ve addressed organizational aspects in previous chapters.
In this chapter, we’ll look at individual behavior and in the following chapter, at group behavior. What Are the Goals of Organizational Behavior? The goals of OB are to explain, predict, and influence behavior. Managers need to be able to explain why employees engage in some behaviors rather than others, predict how employees will respond to various actions and decisions, and influence how employees behave. What employee behaviors are we specifically concerned with explaining, predicting, and influencing? Six important ones have been identified: employee productivity, Organizational behavior focuses on job absenteeism, turnover, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), job satisfaction, and satisfaction and how it influences employee workplace misbehavior.
Employee productivity is a performance measure of both work productivity, absenteeism, and turnover. efficiency and effectiveness. Managers want to know what factors will influence the Job satisfaction is high at the Lexus of efficiency and effectiveness of employees. Absenteeism is the failure to show up for work.
Westminster auto dealership where Trung Pham, shown here, works as a mechanic. It’s difficult for work to get done if employees don’t show up. Studies have shown that the Pham and the dealership’s 125 other total costs of all major types of absences cost organizations an average 35 percent of pay- employees have a positive feeling about roll with unscheduled absences costing companies around $660 per employee per year.2 their jobs and the company they work for. Although absenteeism can’t be totally eliminated, excessive levels have a direct and They say their employer, a family-owned and immediate impact on the organization’s functioning.
Turnover is the voluntary and involun- operated business, values the contributions they make, treats them with respect and tary permanent withdrawal from an organization. It can be a problem because of increased integrity, and entrusts them with great recruiting, selection, and training costs and work disruptions. Just like absenteeism, responsibility in providing customers with a managers can never eliminate turnover, but it is something they want to minimize, world-class Lexus ownership experience. especially among high-performing employees.
Organizational citizenship behavior is Satisfied employees help the dealership discretionary behavior that’s not part of an employee’s formal job requirements, but maintain low absenteeism and turnover rates and high worker productivity. which promotes the effective functioning of the organi- zation.3 Examples of good OCB include helping others on one’s work team, volunteering for extended job activities, avoiding unnecessary conflicts, and making constructive statements about one’s work group and the organization. Organizations need individuals who will do more than their usual job duties and the evidence indicates that organizations that have such employees outperform those that don’t.4 However, drawbacks to OCB arise if employees experience work overload, stress, and work-family conflicts.5 Job satisfaction refers to an employee’s general attitude toward his or her job. Although job satisfaction is an attitude rather than a behavior, it’s an outcome that concerns many managers because satisfied employees are more likely to show up for work, have higher levels of performance, Newscom and stay with an organization.
Workplace misbehavior is any intentional employee behavior that is potentially behavior absenteeism organizational citizenship behavior The actions of people The failure to show up for work Discretionary behavior that’s not part of an employee’s formal job requirements, but that organizational behavior turnover promotes the effective functioning of the The study of the actions of people at work Voluntary and involuntary permanent withdrawal organization from an organization employee productivity workplace misbehavior A performance measure of both work efficiency and Any intentional employee behavior that is effectiveness potentially harmful to the organization or individuals within the organization 224 PAR T 4 | LEADING harmful to the organization or individuals within the organization. Workplace misbehavior shows up in organizations in four ways: deviance, aggression, antisocial behavior, and violence.6 Such behaviors can range from playing loud music just to irritate coworkers to verbal aggression to sabotaging work, all of which can create havoc in any organization. In the following pages, we’ll address how an understanding of four psychological factors— employee attitudes, personality, perception, and learning—can help us predict and explain these employee behaviors. WHAT ROLE DO ATTITUDES PLAY IN JOB PERFORMANCE? Explain the role that Attitudes are evaluative statements, either favorable or unfavorable, 9.2 attitudes concerning objects, people, or events.
They reflect how an individual feels play in job about something. When a person says, “I like my job,” he or she is performance. expressing an attitude about work. What Are the Three Components of an Attitude? To better understand attitude, we need to look at its three components: cognition, affect, and behavior.7 The cognitive component of an attitude is made up of the beliefs, opinions, knowledge, and information held by a person.
For example, shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Congress debated for weeks as to whether airport baggage screeners should be federal employees. Some claimed the current private airport screeners were adequately doing their jobs, even though evidence presented during the debate showed that knives, pepper spray, and a loaded gun were missed by airport screeners.8 The belief held by some congressional leaders that private screeners were effective is an example of cognition. The affective component is the emotional or feeling part of an attitude. This component would be reflected in the statement, “I don’t like Erica because she smokes.” Cognition and affect can lead to behavioral outcomes.
The behavioral component of an attitude refers to an intention to behave in a certain way toward someone or something. So, to continue our example, I might choose to avoid Erica because of my feelings about her. Looking at attitudes as being made up of three components—cognition, affect, and behavior—helps to illustrate the complexity of attitudes. For the sake of clarity, keep in mind that the term usually refers only to the affective component.
What Attitudes Might Employees Hold? Naturally, managers are not interested in every attitude an employee might hold. Rather, they’re specifically interested in job-related attitudes, and the three most important and most studied are job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment.9 Job satisfaction is an employee’s general attitude toward his or her job. When people speak of employee attitudes, more often than not they mean job satisfaction. Job involvement is the degree to which an employee identifies with his or her job, actively participates in it, and considers his or her job performance important for self-worth.
Finally, organizational commitment represents an employee’s orientation toward the organization in terms of his or her loyalty to, identification with, and involvement in the organization. A new concept associated with job attitudes that’s generating widespread interest is employee engagement, which happens when employees are connected to, satisfied with, and enthusiastic about their jobs.10 Highly engaged employees are passionate about and deeply connected to their work. Disengaged employees have essentially “checked out” and don’t care. They show up for work, but have no energy or passion for it.
A global study of more than 12,000 employees found that respect ranked as the number one factor contributing to employee engagement. In addition to respect, the top five engagement factors included type of work, work/life balance, providing good service to customers, and base pay.11 CHAPTER 9 | FOUNDATIONS OF INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR 225 Having highly engaged employees produces both benefits and costs. Highly engaged employees are two-and-a-half times more likely to be top performers than their less-engaged coworkers. In addition, companies with highly engaged employees have higher retention rates, which help keep recruiting and training costs low.
And both of these outcomes—higher performance and lower costs—contribute to superior financial performance.12 Do Individuals’ Attitudes and Behaviors Need to Be Consistent?