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Individual Differences in Organizations
Hui WANGGuanghua School of Management
Peking University Email: [email protected]
Tel: 62753645 25 Sep. 2002
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Questions for Today What are key demographic characteristics? What are the two types of ability? What are the factors that determine an
individual’s personality? How do learning theories provide insights
into changing behavior? What are the differences between the four
schedules of reinforcement? What is the role of punishment in learning
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DemographicDemographicCharacteristicsCharacteristics
MaritalMaritalStatusStatus
GenderGender
TenureTenure
AgeAge
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Types of Ability What is “Ability”?
An individual’s capacity to perform the various tasks in a job.
Intellectual Abilities That required to do mental activities (e.g., number
aptitude, verbal comprehension, memory, reasoning, spatial visualization).
Physical Abilities That required to do tasks demanding stamina, dexterity,
strength, and similar characteristics. The Ability - Job Fit
Employee performance and job satisfaction are enhanced when there is a high ability - job fit
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Types of Ability
Intellectual Ability
Verbal Ability Numerical Ability Reasoning Ability Deductive Ability Memory Spatial Ability Perceptual Ability
Physical Ability Motor Skills (e.g.
reaction time, dexterity)
Physical Skills (e.g. strength, endurance)
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Nature and Nurture: The Determinants of Intellectual and Physical Abilities
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Managing Ability in Organizations:
Ability-Job Fit using Human Resource Management
Selection Placement Training Rewards
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Personality Differences among Individuals
The term personality is used to represent the overall profile or combination of characteristics that capture the unique nature of a person as that person reacts and interacts with others.
Tend to be fairly stable over time
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What Determines Personality?
Heredity (nature) Environment (nurture) Situation (high constrained vs low
constrained)
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Personality Tests
Personality tests are used for selection training workers for team work career development
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The Big Five Model
Extraversion - sociable, talkative and assertive.
Agreeableness - good-natured, cooperative and trusting.
Conscientiousness - responsible, dependable, persistent and achievement oriented.
Emotional stability - calm, enthusiastic, secure (positive)
Openness to experience - imaginativeness, artistic sensitivity and intellectualism.
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Major Personality Attributes Influencing OB
Locus of Control - the degree to which people believe they are masters of their own fate. (internal vs external)
Machiavellianism - pragmatic, emotional distance, ends justify means.
Self-Esteem - liking or disliking of themselves. Self-Monitoring - adjust behavior to external,
situational factors. Risk-Taking Type A Personality Type B Personality
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Type A and Type B Type A Personality
Always moving, walking, and eating rapidly
Feel impatient with the rate Strive to think or do two or more
things at once Cannot cope with leisure time Obsessed with numbers
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Type A and Type B (cont..) Type B Personality
Never suffer from a sense of time urgency
Feel no need to display or discuss either their achievements or accomplishments
Play for fun and relaxation Can relax without guilt
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Holland’s Typology of Occupational Personality
Realistic Investigative Artistic Social Enterprising Conventional
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Learning:
A relatively permanent change in knowledge or behavior that results from practice or experience.
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Three Types of Learning
Classical Conditioning Operant Conditioning Social Learning
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Classical Conditioning
Learning that takes place when the learner recognizes the connection between an unconditioned stimulus and a conditioned stimulus.
i.e. the learner responds to a stimulus that would not ordinarily produce a response.
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Operant Conditioning
Learning that takes place when the learner recognizes the connection between a behavior and its consequences.
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Operant Conditioning Keys Antecedents: Anything that tells
workers about desired and undesired behaviors and their consequences.
Behaviors: Desirable organizational behaviors and undesirable organizational behaviors.
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Operant Conditioning Keys Consequences of Behavior:
Include positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement for desirable organizational behaviors; and extinction and punishment for undesirable organizational behaviors.
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Consequences of Behavior Positive Reinforcement:
Administering positive consequences to workers who perform the desired behavior.
Negative Reinforcement: Removing negative consequences to workers who perform the desired behavior.
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Consequences of Behavior Extinction: Removing whatever is
currently reinforcing the undesirable behavior.
Punishment: Administering negative consequences to workers who perform the undesirable behavior.
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Operant Conditioning
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Shaping:
The reinforcement of successive and closer approximations to a desired behavior.
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Reinforcement Strategies:When
Immediate Reinforcement or
Delayed Reinforcement
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Reinforcement Strategies:How Often Continuous Reinforcement
or Partial (Intermittent)
Reinforcement
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Reinforcement Schedules(for Intermittent Reinforcement)
Fixed-Interval Schedule Variable-Interval Schedule Fixed-Ratio Schedule Variable-Ratio Schedule
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Schedules of Reinforcement
Fixed-Interval
Fixed-Ratio
Variable-Ratio
Variable-Interval
Interval Ratio
Vari
ab
leFix
ed
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Social Learning Theory
Individuals learn by observing what happens to other people, being told about something, as well as by direct experiences.
People use these observations to create a “model” in their own mind of what is occuring.
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Social Learning Theory
Necessary components include Attentional processes. Retention processes. Motor reproduction processes. Reinforcement processes. Self-efficacy.
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Definitions
Attentional processes. People learn from a model only when they recognize and pay attention to its critical features.
Retention processes. A model’s influence will depend on how well the individual remembers the model’s action after the model is no longer readily available.
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Definitions
Motor reproduction processes. After a person has seen a new behavior by observing the model, the watching must be converted to doing.
Reinforcement processes. Individuals will be motivated to exhibit the modeled behavior if positive incentives or rewards are provided.
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Definition
Self-efficacy: a person’s belief about his or her ability to perform a particular behavior successfully.
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To Encourage Self Efficacy
1. Encourage small successes2. Let subordinates know that others
like them have succeeded on especially challenging projects.
3. Have high expectations
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Specific Organizational Applications
Lotteries to Reduce Absenteeism
Well Pay Vs. Sick Pay Employee Discipline Developing Training Programs Creating Mentoring Programs Self Management
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Any More Applications?
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