MGT262 - Psychology at Work

Course Focuses You Others Personal Three Related Topics Individual Processes Interpersonal Processes Team/Group Processes How do you first interact with someone? Start a general conversation by asking questions and seeking common ground to talk about Organizations are social inventions for accomplishing common goals through group effort Social - Coordinated presence of people, not things Goals - Organizational survival and adaptation to change are important goals Group Effort - The interact

What are Organizations? Organizations are social inventions for accomplishing common goals through group effort. Social Inventions By organizations are social inventions it is meant that their essential characteristic is the coordinated presence of people, not necessarily things. The field of organizational behaviour is about understanding people and managing them to work effectively. Goal Accomplishment All organizations have a goal The field of OB is concerned with how organizations can

Personality Dimensions and traits that are determined by genetic predisposition and one’s long term history Personality is not the same as behaviour Personality can change How is personality formed? Genetics Surrounding Environment Family, friends, culture, education Marshmallow Experiment Put one marshmallow in front of a child and told them if they waited for a certain amount of time without eating it, they could have 2 marshmallows instead Kids who could delay gratification now would be bett

Learning is a critical requirement for effective OB Employee learning must be continuous and lifelong While learning is necessary for people to change their behaviours, studies in OB have shown that behaviour is also a function of people’s personalities What is Personality? Some companies focus on personality when hiring Personality - The relatively stable set of psychological characteristics that influences the way an individual interacts with their environment How they think, feel, and behave

What is Perception? Perception - The process of interpreting the messages of our senses to provide order and meaning to the environment Key word of this definition is interpreting. People frequently bae their actions on t he interpretation of reality that their perceptual system provides, rather than on reality itself. Components of Perception Perception has 3 components A perceiver, a target that is being perceived, and some situational context in which the perception is occurring. Each o

Objectives Define Perception and discuss some of the general factors that influence perception Explain social identity theory and Bruner’s model of the perceptual process Describe the main biases in person perception Describe how people form attributions about the causes of behaviour and various biases in attribution What is Perception? The process of interpreting the messages of our senses to provide order and meaning to the environment People base their actions on the interpretation of realit

What is Learning? Learning occurs when practice or experience leads to a relatively permanent change in behaviour potential It is the way which beings acquire new knowledge, develop competencies, and change their behaviour An integrated process which provokes a qualitative transformation on the learner’s mental structure. This alteration can be noticed in behaviour terms Jean Piaget Humans are “equipped” to learn Some learning is innate (walk, talk, eat). But the majority of learning takes pla

What Are Values? Values - A broad tendency to prefer certain states of affairs over others Preferences aspect of this definition means that values have to do with what we consider good and bad. Values are motivational, since they signal the attractive aspects of our environment that we seek and the unattractive aspects that we try to avoid or change. Also signal how we believe we should and should not behave The words broad tendency mean that values are very general and that they do not predict

Why Study Motivation? What would a good motivational theory look like? Recognize human diversity and same conditions will not motivate everyone Should be able to explain why some people seem to be self-motivated while others need external motivation Recognize aspect of human beings What Is Motivation? Motivation - The extent to which persistent effort is directed toward a goal Basic Characteristics Of Motivation Effort Amount of effort the person exhibits on the job Persistence Persiste

Case Study: "Kyle Evans at Ruffian Apparel: Staffing a Retail Establishment" (p. 191-199) Related to chapters 5 and 6 How to address the issue? Not enough staff High turnover Performance expectations are too high (sales of $100 an hour are expected) Leaves remaining employees in a stressful position Inexperienced staff most experienced employee has been on holidays for 3 months Lack of training, maybe educational opportunities Lack of experienced staff to train management Lack of Effective Man

Importance of Empathy Try to understand others emotions Observe Active listening Without empathy, we would judge others, and never reach out. Creating barriers and labelling them as “others”, “enemy”, “problem” Empathy Listen more, ask more question (good questions) with good timing, listen more than talking to relate with others Don’t assume Bystander effect More people in group > less likely to help. Someone else will help Diffusion of responsibility > large group with many people think som

Learning Objectives Discuss group development Explain how group size and member diversity influence what occurs in groups Review how norms, roles, and status affect social interaction Discuss the causes and consequences of group cohesiveness Define a “Group” A group consists of two or more people interacting interdependently to achieve a common goal Interaction is the most basic aspect of a group Interdependence means that group members rely to some degree on each other to accomplish goals Gr

As a result of social influence, people often feel or act differently from how they would as independent operators This is because in many social settings, and especially in groups, people are highly dependent on others This dependence sets the stage for influence to occur Two kinds of dependence are information dependence and effect dependence Information Dependence Reliance on others for information about how to think, feel, act Information dependence gives others the opportunity to influence

Power, Politics, and Influence Objectives Define power and review the bases of individual power Explain how people obtain power in organizations Explain strategic contingencies and discuss and how sub-units obtain power Define organizational politics and discuss various forms Power is the capability to influence others who are in a state of dependence It is fluid: Not always perceived or exercised and can flow in any direction and organization Legitimate: Agreement that people in certain role

The psychology of the employment relationship (David E. Guest): A range of factors that are affecting the viability of traditional employment relations True or false? The numbers employed in many workplaces are getting bigger False getting smaller Makes it difficult to get union jobs or organize a workforce Easier to establish more personal relationships Increasing flexibility and fragmentation of the workforce within many establishments True Different patterns of working hours, growing sub-co