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Individual Differences in Organizations

Hui WANGGuanghua School of Management

Peking University Email: wanghui@gsm.pku.edu.cn

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?