OB EXAM STUDY NOTES
Motivation
Motivation – the extent to which persistent effort is directed towards a goal
- Effort, persistence, direction
Intrinsic motivation – self applied, form the inside, stemming from the direct relationship between the worker and the task
Extrinsic motivation – stemming from the work environment external to the task, usually applied by others (managers), not long lasting
Content theories of motivation – WHAT motivates (Maslow’s theory, Alderfer’s ERG theory, McClelland’s theory)
Process theories – focus on the underlying processes involved in motivating employees – HOW motivation occurs (Expectancy theory, equity theory, goal setting theory)
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Physiological Needs – food, water, warmth, rest
Safety Needs – security, safety
Belongingness and Love Needs – relationships, friends
Esteem Needs – prestige and feeling of accomplishment
Self Actualization – achieving one’s full potential, including creative activities
- Once a need is satisfied, attention is turned to the next highest level (the satisfied need is no longer an effective motivator, except self actualization)
Alderfer’s ERG Theory
1. Existance Needs
2. Relatedness Needs
3. Growth Needs
- The more lower level needs are gratified, the higher level need satisfaction is desired
- The less higher level needs are gratified, the more lower level need satisfaction is desired
McClelland’s Theory
Need for Achievement
- Prefer work where they can take responsibility for outcomes, set moderately difficult goals that provide for calculated risk, obtain feedback
Need for Affinity
- Desire to establish friendly, compatible interpersonal relationships, social networks, avoid conflict
Need for Power
- Desire to have strong influence over other people
- Effective managers are low need for affinity, high need for power
Expectancy Theory
- More comprehensive explanation, strength of a tendency to act in a certain way depends on the strength of the expectation that the act will be followed by a given outcome and the attractiveness of that outcome to the individual
Effort PerformanceOutcome
Attractiveness (Valence) – the importance an employee places on a potential outcome (Will the outcomes be satisfying)
Performance reward linkage – instrumentality (If I perform well, will I receive outcomes?)
Effort performance linkage – Expectancy (if I exert a lot of effort, will I perform well?)
Force – The end product of the other components of the theory – it represents the relative degree of effort that will be directed towards various first level outcomes
F = E X SUM of all (I x V)
What should organizations do?
Boost expectancies – increase self efficacy
- Provide proper equipment, training and mentoring, developing correct work procedures, listening to employee problems and providing feedback
Boost Instrumentalities – clarify reward contingencies
- Fair rewarding system
- Appreciate diversity needs – be aware of value differences
- Realize that the expectancy, instrumentality and value is going to be different for everyone. (the role of perception and values)
Equity Theory
- Social comparison process based on human desire for fairness
- 4 Steps – 1 Own Treatment by Firm. 2. Comparison to others treatment 3. Own circumstances vs others circumstances. 4. Perception of equity vs Inequity
- Inputs vs outputs
If inequity is perceived
- Change the numerator or the denominator
- Alter perceptions of self or others
- Find new comparison basis
- Leave situation
If equity is perceived, maintain the status quo
Justice
Distributive justice – perceived fairness defined in terms of the outcomes people receive in social relationships
Procedural justice – perceived fairness of the way/process allocation decisions are made
Interactional justice - perceived fairness of the treatment received during the decision making process (respect and dignity)
Informational justice – adequacy and completeness
Perceived injustice such as underpayment will have a variety of negative motivational consequences for the organization
- Understanding the role of comparison people is especially crucial
- Awareness of the comparison people chosen by workers might suggest strategies for reducing perceptions of inequity.
Companies Should
- avoid over and underpayment
- make relative inputs and outcomes very clear
- have fir procedures
- provide employees with clear and thorough explanations about decisions that affect them
- Treat employees with dignity and respect
Goal Setting Theory – Locke and Latham
- Goals are motivators of human action, the theory lays out how goals are translated into motivation
Ho do goals affect behaviours
- Direct attention to a particular task
- Mobilize on task effort
- Encourage task persistence
- Facilitate strategy development
Goals lead to performance when – acceptance of goals and commitment to goals
- Participated in goal formation
- Perceived as realistic
- Goal achievement lead to desirable outcome
- Satisfaction leads to maintaining effort. Dissatisfaction leads to an increase in effort
SMART goals
- Feedback about progress toward goal attainment is provided
- Break down bigger goals into smaller goals
- Manager support and desire to assit, rewards, employee participation
Goal orientations
Learning goal orientation – mastering new situations/learning
- Desire to increase competence and continually improve
- Adaptive responses, increased effort to solve a problem / more perseverance when confronted with a difficult situation
- Working smart and hard
Performance prove goal orientation - seek favourable judgements
- Focus on outcome leads to increased anxiety and an inability to persist when faced with obstacles
Performance avoid goal orientation – avoid negative judgements

Conflict and Negotiation
Negotiation – A decision making process among interdependent parties who do not share identical preferences
Distributive bargaining – negotiation that seeks to divide up a fixed amount of resources – win lose
- Tactics that help you claim value for yourself (threats, promises, firmness, persuasion)
Integrative Bargaining – negotiation that seeks one of more settlements that can create a win win solution
- Tactics that help you create value (information exchange, framing differences as opportunities, cutting costs, increasing resources, finding superordinate goals)
- Build trust and share information
- Emphasize commonalities and minimize differences
- Asks lots of questions and gives away some information
- Makes multiple offers simultaneously
- Search for a novel situation that meets goals of both sides
How to Negotiate
- Assess personal goals, consider other’s goals, develop strategy
- Identify target and resistance points (target = what one would like to achieve) (Resistance= lowest outcome acceptable)
- Identify BATNA – best alternative to a negotiated agreement
BATNAs – the reason you negotiate is to produce something better than the results you can obtain without negotiating
- Alternative options are the key focus and the driving force behind a successful negotiator
- A party should generally not accept a worse resolution than its BATNA COMMON MISTAKES IN NEGOTIATION
1. Irrational escalation of commitment – continuing a previously chosen course of action beyond what a rational analysis would recommend
2. Belief in the mythical fixed pie – the assumption that your interests directly conflict with the other party – leads to win lose thinking
3. Anchoring and adjustment – an anchor is a standard against which future adjustments are measured. Very often, the choice of anchor is based on faulty or incomplete information. Do your homework!
Conflict and Stress
Conflict – a process that occurs when one person, group or organizational subunit frustrates the goal attainment of another
Conflict  Change  adaptation  survival
Conflict Stimulation – a strategy of increasing conflict to motivate change. The causes of conflict such as scarcity and ambiguity, could be manipulated by managers. Conflict in organizations often causes stress.
Reactions to conflict
Competition
- A conflict management style that maximizes assertiveness and minimizes participation
- It can be effective when you have a lot of power, you are sure of your facts, the situation is truly win-lose, you will not have to interact with the other party in the future.
Collaboration
- It is an attempt to secure an integrative agreement that fully satisfies the interests of both parties
- It works best when conflict is not intense and when each party has information that is useful to the other
Compromise
- A conflict management style that combines intermediate levels of assertiveness and cooperation
- It is a sensible reaction to conflict stemming from scarce resources and it is a good fall back position if other strategies fail.
Avoidance
- A conflict management style characterized by low assertiveness of one’s own interests and low cooperation with the other party
- It might be a sensible response when the issue is trivial, information is lacking, people need to cool down, the opponent is very powerful and hostile
Accommodation
- A conflict management style in which one cooperates with the other party while not asserting one’s one interest
- It can be an effective strategy when you are wrong, the issue is more important to the other party, you want to build good will
Stressors – environmental events or conditions that have the potential to induce stress.
Stress – a psychological reaction to the demands inherent in a stressor that has the potential to make a person feel tense or anxious

Model of a Stress episode Hindrance stressors – tend to impede your growth and achievement
Role stressors – role conflict, role ambiguity, role overload
Physical work stressors – noise, office design, pollution
Task stressors – future ambiguity, routine work
Interpersonal stressors – co worker rudeness, abusive leaders, workplace bullying
Non Work Role Stressors – work to family conflict, crossover, negative life effects
Challenges stressors – present opportunities for growth and achievement
Task stressors – time pressure, work complexity, work responsibility
Non work – family time demands, personal development, positive life events
Crossover – bringing the stress of work home with you and passing it on to other people in your life
- Eg demands and their consequent strain cross over between closely related persons
Stress Reactions
Adaptive coping reduces stress level
- Reactions that add to ones resources (problem solving, social support)
Maladaptive Coping leads to negative physiological, emotional (eg burnout) and behaviour outcomes
- Reactions that increase demands (withdrawal, substance abuse)
Personality
- People with external locus of control are more apt to feel anxious, deal with it poorly, negative affect, type A behaviour pattern
Burnout
Emotional Exhaustion  Depersonalization  Reduced personal accomplishment
- Most common among people who entered their job with especially high ideals
- Much of the boundary role stress stems from frequent need to engage in emotional behaviour
- Suppression of emotion takes a toll on cognitive and emotional resources over time
- Some people leave their job and/or occupation
- Job burnout can be a viscious downward cycle (Teachers, nurses, police)
- Withdrawal and feelings of low personal accomplishment
- When job demands are high, burnout symptoms increase – especially the emotional exhaustion component
- Confusion, conflict and ambiguity related to the job role, risk and safety factors, traumatic events on the job, being undermined by a supervisor (or believing this has happened)
- When job resources are low (low levels of social support) burnout symptoms increase
- Closely related to depression
Sources of Stress
Boundary roles – role conflict
Executives and Managers – heavy continuing workload, heavy responsibility
Operative Employees – poor physical conditions, poor job design
All employees – job insecurity and change, role ambiguity, interpersonal conflict, work family conflict, sexual harassment
Reactions to Stress – the reactions that people who experience organizational stress might exhibit can be divided into three categories
Behavioural reactions
- Overt activities the stressed individual uses in an attempt to cope with the stress (problem solving, performance, withdrawal, use of addictive substances)
- Problem solving is directed toward terminating the stressor or reducing its potency. It is reality oriented and reveals flexibility and realistic use of feedback (examples – delegation, time management, talking it out, asking for help, searching for alternatives)
- Performance – hindrance stressors damage performance. Challenge stressors can damage performance but they can sometimes stimulate via added motivation.
- Withdrawal – involves absence and turnover – dysfunctional reactions to stress for both the individual and the organization. Turnover can be dysfunctional unless it leads to a new job that is less stressful.
- Use of addictive substances – smoking, drinking and drugs are the least satisfactory behavioural responses to stress for both the organization and the individual. They fail to terminate stress episodes and leave employees less physically and mentally prepared for their jobs
Psychological reactions
- Primarily involve emptions and thought processes. The most common is the use of defense mechanisms – psychological attempts to reduce the anxiety associated with stress
- Rationalization – attributing socially acceptable reasons to one’s reactions.
- Projection – the official is corrupt
- Displacement
- Reaction formation – going with the majority
- Compensation
- Defense mechanisms can be useful when used occasionally to temporarily reduce anxiety but not as a chronic reaction to stress as they do not change the objective character of the stressor – the basic problem remains unsolved.
Physiological reactions
- Work stress is associated with ECG irregularities, increased BP, cholesterol and HR, and is associated with onset of various diseases (heart disease) due to its ill effects on the immune system. The accumulation of stress into burnout has been implicated in cardiovascular problems.
What can organizations do? – pay, supervisor support, role clarity, feedback
- Outcomes – engagement, OCB’s, Well being
- Job redesign, social support, family friendly human resource policies, stress management programs, work life balance programs

Leadership
In general, women use a democratic leadership style (encourage participation, share power and information, attempt to enhance followers self worth, prefer to lead through inclusion)
Men feel more comfortable with a directive command-and-control style (rely on formal authority)
Barriers to women in leadership
- Difficulty balancing work/life
- lack of negotiation and self promotion
- Lack of networking and mentors
- problems of access to key position
- cultures that “don’t take risks with women”
Leadership Theories
Trait Theories – characteristics of the person (Leaders are born)
- Personality traits, social traits, physical characteristics
- Effective leaders possess a common set of personal characteristics that enable them to influence others (Personality, abilities and skills, physical traits, demographic characteristics like age and gender)
DO traits make the leader or does the opportunity for leadership produce the traits? Does not tell us what leaders do to influence others successfully. Does not take into account the situation in which leadership occurs.
- Traits alone are not sufficient for successful leadership
Behavioural Theories – ways the leader acts
- Initiating structure and consideration (Can we train people to be leaders?)
- Effective leaders exhibit the same types of behaviours that motivate others toward a common goal.
- Ohio State and U of Michigan Studies ( initiating structure/task-oriented behaviours) and (consideration/relationship-oriented behaviours)
- Both dimensions link to effective leadership (motivation, job satisfaction, leader effectiveness)
Consequences of consideration and structure
- When subordinates are under a high degree of pressure due to deadlines, unclear tasks or external threat, initiating structure increases satisfaction and performance.
- When the task itself is intrinsically satisfying, the need for high consideration and high structure is reduced.
- When the goals and methods of performing the job are very clear and certain, consideration should promote subordinate satisfaction, while structure should promote dissatisfaction.
- When subordinates lack knowledge of how to perform a job or the job has vague goals or methods, consideration becomes less important, while initiating structure takes on additional importance.
Behaviour theories gained general support from studies and are well suited for application(leader selection, training) but they do not consider the situation in which the behaviour occurs.

Situational/Contingency theories – conditions affect leadership
- The situation refers to the setting in which influence attempts occur
- The effectiveness of a leadership style is contingent on the setting (employee characteristics, task at hand)
House’s Path Goal Theory
Leader’s job is to assist followers in attaining their goals (which should also match organizational goals)
- Remove any pitfalls and roadblocks – clear the path to the goal
Consider two sets of contingencies (environmental variables, characteristics of employees)
- Leaders should compensate for what is lacking in the work setting for employees
- The effective leader forms a connection between subordinate goals and organizational goals.
- Leaders clarify the paths to various goals that interest subordinates
- Subordinates are given the opportunity to reach their goals and therefore are more satisfied. Work harder and accept the leader.
The four types of leader behaviour:
Directive
- Informs subordinates of expectations gives guidance, shows how to do tasks
Supportive
- Friendly and approachable, shows concerns for status, wellbeing and needs of subordinates
Participative
- Consults with subordinates, solicits suggestions, takes suggestions into consideration
- Participative leaders – make sure that employees are involved in making important decisions
- More effective when employees have high levels of ability, internal locus of control and when decisions to make made are personally relevant to them
- Increases motivation of subordinates
- Enhances quality because decisions are not solely by the leader and because employees are empowered
- Involves acceptance of fairness
- Problems – time and energy, loss of power, lack of receptivity or knowledge
Achievement oriented
- Set challenging goals, expects subordinates to perform at highest level, continuously seeks improvement in performance, has confidence in employees.
- Effective when employees have both high levels of ability and high levels of achievement motivation.
Subordinates who are high need achievers should work well under achievement oriented leadership
Subordinated who prefer being told what to do should respond best to directive leadership
- When subordinates feel they have low task abilities, they should appreciate directive leadership and coaching behaviour
- When they feel capable of performing the task, they will view such behaviours as unnecessary and irritating

Strengths – generally supported by research, considers employees, situation and leader
Weaknesses – better at predicting job satisfaction and leader acceptance than job performance
- Can leaders actually adjust behaviours to various situations?
Fielder’s Contingency Theory
- The association between leadership orientation and group effectiveness is contingent on how favourable the situation is for exerting influence
- The situation is most favourable for leadership when leader member relations are good, task is structured, the more position power the leader holds.

Transformational Leadership (and others) (PERIODS OF CHANGE)
- Providing followers with a new vision that instills new commitment
- Explain how leaders can accomplish extraordinary things against the odds, such as turning around a failing company, founding a successful company, or achieving great military success against incredible odds.
- Inspiring subordinates admiration, dedication and unquestioned loyalty through articulating a clear and compelling vision.
Transformational leaders: intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration, inspirational motivation, charisma (confidence and dominance, conviction, ideological or moral goals, articulate followers’ repressed feelings) (Braveheart) (Hitler – the dark side)
- Servent leaders vs self serving leaders
- Leaders should be servants first – place the needs of employees, customers and the community above own interests in order to be effective : empathy, stewardship, commitment to the personal, professional and spiritual growth of their subordinates
Vroom and Jago – Recognized that there are various degrees of participation that a leader can exhibit
Autocratic
Consultive
Group
The most effective leadership behaviour depends on the situation or problem at hand
The leader’s goal should be to make high quality decisions to which subordinates will be adequately committed without undue delay
By tracing a problem through a decision tree, the leader encounters the prescribed degree of participation for that problem.
COMPLEX!
What leaders do – stage revolutions, challenge the status quo, determine what has to be done
- Focus activates, make things happen, develop culture and change culture as needed, develop other leaders
Path Goal approach to motivation – the effective leader forms a connection between subordinate goals and organizational goals.
- Leaders clarify the paths to various goals that interest subordinates
- Subordinates are given the opportunity to reach your goals and therefore are more satisfied, work harder and accept the leader
Task maturity – the capacity to set high but attainable goals; willingness and ability to take responsibility; education , experience
S1 – Telling
- Low task maturity
- One way communication in which the leader tells the followers what to do
S2- Selling
- Low to moderate task maturity
- Leader provides direction through two way communication and social emotional support
S3 – Participating
- Moderate to high task maturity
- Leader and subordinate share decision making through two way communication. The followers have the ability and knowledge to do the task
S4 – Delegating
- High task maturity
- The leader delegates since the followers are high in maturity, being both willing and able to take responsibility for directing their own behaviour.
RULES FOR DEVELOPING CREDIBILITY
1. Demonstrate Integrity
- Congruence in values, justice fairness = trust
2. Be clear and consistent = clarity
- Not wishy washy or consistent
3. Be positive
- optimistic and complementary, not critical of past leaders, members
4. Use commonality and reciprocity (eg. Political leaders)
- If you express views in the team that are held in common with team members, they are more likely to agree with your later statements
- Team members will agree with you more if they have received something from you in advance, even if it is merely agreement with their point of view.
5. Manage agreement and disagreement
- When team members initially agree with you, you are more effective when you use a one sided argument
- When team members initially disagree with you, you are more effective when you use more two sided arguments
- If agree- first statements remembered and carry the most weight
- If disagree – last statements more important and carry the most weight
6. Encourage and Coach
- Most powerful predictor of effective team leadership
- Helps others develop courage/self efficacy to challenge status quo = catalyst
- Coach and provide assistance (positively reinforcing comments and helpful advice and direction)
7. Be informed and share information (eg. Structural leader)
- Be knowledgeable about preferences and talents of other team members
- Be knowledgeable about structure systems and tasks, and experiment (frequent checking)
Articulating a motivating vision
1. An effective vision statement
- Contains objectives, targets and intended accomplishments
- Metaphors, colourful language and emotion
2. Interesting information that contradicts weekly held assumptions and challenges the status quo
3. Passion and Principles
- Effective visions are grounded in core values that members feel passionate about
- Making people happy vs increasing productivity
- Phenomenal performance vs successful

Communication
Problems:
1. Communication can be slow
2. Filtering Occurs
3. The chain of command fails to take informal communication into account
The mum effect – reluctance to communicate negative information
Low context vs high context cultures
Low context cultures
- Messages are very literal
- Meaning resides in the message more than the context
High Context cultures
- messages not very literal
- Meaning resides in the context more than the actual language
There are many cultural communication differences that are not limited to language. Beware of how you are presenting yourself when interacting with people from different cultures.

Culture
Compliance (1st Step – dissonance) Conformity to social norms prompted by the desire to acquire rewards or avoid punishment
Identification - conformity to a social norm promoted by perceptions that those who promote the norm are attractive or similar to one’s self.
Internalization – Conformity to a social norm promoted by true acceptance of the beliefs, values and attitudes that underlie the norm
What are Norms – implicit and explicit rules of behaviour that develop through interactions among members of a given group or society
- Influence the behaviour of group members with a minimum of external controls
Formalized norms were written up in organizational manuals that set out rules and procedures for employees to follow, but by far, most norms in an organization are informal. (dress code, reward norms)
The norms that are prominent at any one time vary as a function of the group and setting, and social norms become more salient when the situation calls attention to group membership.
Norms can be beneficial because they – keep the group intact, and protect the group when behaviours that threaten the group are punished.
- They provide regularity and predictability to the behaviours expected of group members, and in that way help group members predict and anticipate the actions of peers.
- Help the group avoid embarrassing interpersonal problems and ensure that no group member’s self image is damaged
- Express the central values of the group and clarify what is distinctive about its identity
Aberrant Behaviour
- On being assigned to a group, people appear automatically to think of that group as better for them than any alternative group.
- Motivated to keep a positive self image
- This can lead to increased attraction of in group members and devaluation and possible mistreatment of out group members.
- Often punishments for not complying with norms comes from social networks as opposed to formal systems established by the organization.
- Not conforming to social norms and values is likely to make followers quickly perceive a leader as incompetent and not deserving of that position, despite his or her personal achievements
- Individuals who breach norms that they accept may experience a range of negative emotional consequences such as extreme self-consciousness, embarrassment, guilt and shame
- Cultures high in uncertainty avoidance tend to be intolerant of ambiguity and thus likely to be distrustful of new ideas or behaviours. They stick dogmatically to norms, which in the extreme become inviolable in order to reduce uncertainty.
- People from low uncertainty avoidance society are more tolerant of deviations from social norms
Group Polarization – the tendancy of group members to shift toward more extreme position than those they initially held as a result of group discussion
- Individuals express slightly more extreme views that other members during discussion
- Risky Shift/Conservative Shift are characteristics of this phenomenon
Socialization
- Orientation programs
- Proactive socialization
- Mentors – gender / race issues (learn beliefs, values, assumptions – culture)
Organizational culture – a system of shared values and beliefs that produce norms and patterns of behaviour and establish an organizational way of life.
Strong cultures have coordination, conflict resolution and financial success as assets and resistance to change, culture clash and pathology as liabilities
Organizational Change
Lewin’s force field analysis model – driving forces are forces that push and organization towads change. Restraining forces are forces that maintain the status quo. In order to change, the driving forces have to outweigh the restraining forces.
Why do individuals resist change?
Individual resistance – habit, save face, security, direct costs (economic factors), fear of the unknown, selective information processing, selective perception, lack of awareness, social factors
Organizational resistance – structural inertia (overdetermination), limited focus of change, group inertia, threats to expertise, threat to established power relationships, threats to established resource allocations.
Sources of reisistance – resistant culture, politics and self interest, low tolerance for change, strong emotions, lack of trust, different assessments
Overcoming resistance
Top management support – the role of expert and referent power. Power tactics – Inspirational and personal appeals
Education and Communication – the role of informal justice. Power tactics – rationality
Participation and Involvement – those opposed are brought into decision process. The role of procedural justice. Power tactics: consultation and collaboration
Reward contrinuters/special incentives for change – reward people who help make change a success. Power tactics: Exchange, apprising
Manipulation and coercion – not recommended.

Power, Politics and Ethics
Power – the capacity to influence others who are in a state of dependence
- Does not imply a poor relationship
- Not always perceived (or accurately perceived)
- Power can flow in any direction in an organization
- Power applies to both individuals and groups
Legitimate Power – derived from a position or job in an organization (today in North America, employees question this, so it exists as long as followers accept the discretion)
- Those in high power distance cultures are more likely to comply with legitimate power
Reward Power – derived from the ability to provide positive outcomes and prevent negative outcomes (students and profs have reward power over each other) (360 degree feedback)
Coercive Power – is derived from the use of punishment and threat
- Managers have coercive power through their authority to reprimand, demote, and fire employees. Labour unions withholding services to influence management in collective bargaining negotiations
Expert Power – derived from having special information or expertise that is valued by an organization
- Employees are gaining expert as our society moves from an industrial to a knowledge based economy because employee knowledge becomes a means of production – others are more dependent on employees to achieve their corporate objectives.
- Job applicants can demand generous salaries and preferential working conditions because of their expert power.
Referent Power – derived from being well liked by others – associated with charismatic leadership
Reactions from Others to Power
1. Commitment – occurs when power is exercised and the subordinate willingly accepts the task and is motivated to fulfill it. The type of reaction is common when a subordinate identifies with the leader and the leader’s goals.
2. Compliance – the subordinate will carry out the leader’s request, but only if they can do so easily and without extra effort. Common when a subordinate has an indifferent reaction towards the leaders goals, or if they feel the task is unimportant.
3. Resistance – The response occurs when the subordinate ignores, rejects, or doesn’t comply with the leaders demands. This commonly occurs when the leaders use of power is thought to be inappropriate, coercive or harmful.
Coercive Power  Resistance
Reward, Legitimate Power  Compliance
Expert, Referent Power  Commitment
Developing Power – Leadership, doing the right things, extraordinary activities, visible activities, relevant activities, cultivating the right people.
Political Skills – the ability to understand others at work and to use the knowledge to influence others to act in ways that enhance one person’s organizational objectives, the pursuit of self interest in an organization.
- Social astuteness – careful observers, high EI
- Interpersonal Influence – convincing and persuasive
- Apparent sincerity – exhibiting genuineness and integrity
- Networking ability – establishing good relations
Power tactics – the ways people use to translate their power bases into specific actions and actual influences
- Assertiveness/Pressure – ordering, setting deadlines, using warnings and repeated demands,
- Ingratiation – using flattery, praise or friendly behaviours
- Rationality – logical arguments or factual evidence
- Exchange – giving rewards in exchange for compliance
- Coalitions – seeking other peoples support or aid to persuade another
What’s Most Effective
- Inspirational appeals – appeal to ones values and ideals, trying to create an emotional or attitudinal reaction
- Consultation – the target participates in deciding what to do
- Collaboration – the leader offers to help the target
- Personal Appeals – the requestor asks for something based on a personal friendship
- Apprising – explaining how the actions benefit the target personally
Organizational politics – all employees bring their own needs, interests, and desires to the workplace
Conditions that promote organizational politics – ambiguous goals, scarce resources, organizational change (because it creates an environment of ambiguity)
Solution – reduce uncertainty, clearly defined and well communicated procedures for decision making, justice
Ethics
Personality causes – external locus of control. Strong economic values, need for power, Machiavellianism, risk taking, moral identity
Situational Causes
- Gain – anticipation of reward or lack of punishment
- Role conflict
- Competition / scarce resources
- Pressures to conform
- Social modelling
- Anonymity/ lack of accountability
- Organization/industry culture – focus on the bottom line/reward system
Ethics – code of moral principles and values that governs the behaviours of a person or group with respect to what is right or wrong
- Set standards as to what is good or bad in conduct and decision making
Ethical decision making strategies
- Identify the impact on people (costs and benefits)
- Organizational systems (how does the organization usually do business,w hat policies and procedures help? Norms, laws, ethical codes)
- Choices (what are the risks)
Ethical Standards are anchored in values – the stronger the value, the stronger its impact on behaviour
- Derived from cultural experiences
Universal ethical standards
- Protect the young
- Don’t cause unnecessary pain
- Don’t murder innocent human beings
- Slavery is wrong
- The golden rule
The Utilitarian Approach
- Deliver the greatest good to the greatest number of people – Focus on people ; the ends justify the means
- Identify the courses of action available
- Ask who will be affected by each action and what benefits or harms will be derived from each
- Choose the action that will produce the greatest benefits and the least harm. The ethical action is the one that provides the greatest good for the greatest number
Advantages and Disadvantages
- Promotes efficiency, productivity
- Ignores the rights of some individuals
- Difficult to apply to values that cannot be easily quantified (health, life, employment)
The Rights Approach
- Behaviour is ethical is it respects the fundamental rights shared by all human beings
- Individual’s right to choose for him or herself – people have dignity based on their ability to choose freely what they will do with their lives and they have a fundamental moral right to have these choices respected.
- The right to truth, privacy, not to be injured, what is agreed.
- Does the action respect the moral rights of everyone
Advantages and Disadvantages
- Protects individuals from injury consistent with freedom and privacy
- Creates overly legalistic environment
- Hinders productivity and efficiency

The Fairness or Justice Approach
- Behaviour is ethical if it is fair and impartial in its treatment of people – impose and enforce rules fairly
- How fair is an action – favouritism/discrimination
Advantages and Disadvantages
- Protects the interests of the underrepresented and less powerful
- Encourages sense of entitlement
- Difficult to agree on the definition of fairness
- Reduces risk taking, innovation and productivity
Machiavellianism
- The political doctrine of Machiavelli – any means, however unscrupulous can be used by a ruler.
- A person’s tendency to deceive and manipulate other people for their personal gain
- Dark triad – with narcissism and psychopathy
Work best when they deal with others face to face, interact under emotional circumstances, confused/unstructured situations
Solution
- Meetings are conducted in a very formal way (agenda, minutes, motions, etc) to prevent confusion and domination
- Require the high Mach to commit him or herself constrains their future behaviour
- Useful is all work can be done in one work session to prevent the high mach from forming coalitions behind the scenes.
Formal Structure and Systems
- Assigning ethics committee or ethics officer
- Visibly reward ethical acts and punish unethical ones.
- Provide protective so that employees are able discuss ethical dilemmas and report behaviour against the code of ethics
- Used by an increasing number of organizations
- Not enough to have a policy – it must be followed.

Decision Making
- The process of developing a commitment to some course of action (based on a choice among alternatives)
Process – weigh information, compare alternatives, and evaluate decisions
Decision Biases
Overconfidence – affects risk perceptions, confirmation bias, minimizing the importance of evidence that is counter to our perspective, escalation of commitment
Group Level Effects
Risk taking – group level polarization – the tendency of group members to shift to more extreme positions than those they initially held as a result of group discussion
Conservative shift – less risky decisions than average initially advocated by individual members.
Risky Shift – more risky decisions than average initially advocated by individual members.
Social Comparison interpretation – group polarization occurs as a result of individuals’ desire to gain acceptance and be perceived in a favourable way by their group.
Self-Categorization (Social Identity theory) – hold that group polarization occurs because individuals identify with a particular group and conform to a prototypical group position.
Information pooling – group tends to focus more on information shared by all members and ignore information owned by a few.
Group Think – when a group makes faulty decisions because group pressures lead to a deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing and moral judgement. (Examples: The Bay of Pigs invasion, bombings at pearl harbour)
-Likely to occur when the group is cohesive, isolated from outsides, under stress due to external threat, has experienced recent failures or other decision making problems, lacks clear guidance from corporate policies or procedures.
- The leader expresses an opinion, rather than remaining impartial, and has a directive style rather than participative.
Symptoms of Group Think
- Illusion of vulnerability – comfortable with risky decisions because possible weaknesses are suppressed or glossed over – any decision will be successful.
- Assumption of morality – unquestioned belief in the inherent morality or rightness of the teams objectives – members don’t feel the need to debate whether actions are ethical
- Rationalization – underlying assumptions, new information and previous actions that seem inconsistent with the teams decisions are discounted or explained away
- Stereotyping out groups – oversimplifies the external threats; enemies are viewed as purely evil or moronic; valid claims made by others are dismissed.
- Self-censorship – team members supress their doubts in order to maintain harmony; avoid voicing opinions
- Illusion of unanimity – Self censorship results in harmonious behaviour o individual so members belief they alone have doubts, silence is automatically perceived as evidence of consensus
- Mind guarding
- Pressuring dissenters – members who raise their concerns about the decision are pressured to fall into line and be more loyal to the team
Consequences – reduced mental effort
- Incomplete search for alternatives and solutions, group members suggesting fewer alternatives, no consulting with outside experts, failure to examine risks of the preferred choice, failure to re-appraise initially rejected alternatives, selective bias in processing information at hand (using less, not more, available information)
Vigilant decision making
1. Identify a wide range of objectives to be achieved by the decision
2. Generate a comprehensive list of alternative course of action.
3. Search for information relevant to evaluate the alternatives
4. Process all in a way that minimizes biases
5. Reconsider the pros and cons of alternatives already rejected.
6. Carefully examines the costs, benefits and risks that flow from the preferred alternative.
7. Develop a plan for implementation, with special attention given to contingency plans.
Brainstorming , the nominal group technique and the Delphi technique
Nominal group technique – groups individually brainstorm and then share them in a round table fashion. Each person evaluates the ideas and anonymously votes. The Delphi Technique – a structured communication method which relies on a panel of experts.
Abilene Paradox – when a group of people collectively decide on a course of action that is counter to the preferences of any of the individuals in the group – it involves a common breakdown of group communication in which each member mistakenly believes that their own preferences are counter to the groups and do not raise objections.
Heuristics/Cognitive Biases – simplifying strategies or rules of thumb in making decisions (generally they are helpful but they can lead to errors)
Availability Heuristic – people predict the frequency of an event, or a proportion within a population, based on how easily or how readily available (vivid) an example that can be brought to mind (implications – performance appraisals; choice of suppliers) (example; death by homicide rated more prevalent than stomach cancer)
Representativeness Heuristic – people judge the probability or frequency of an event by considering how much the event resembles available data.
Gambler’s Fallacy – mistaken notion that the odds for something with a fixed probability increase or decrease depending on recent occurrences. Chance is viewed as a self-correcting process in which a deviation in the opposite direction to restore the equilibrium.
Anchoring and Adjustment – the common human tendency to rely too heavily or anchor on one trait or piece on information when making decisions
- People develop estimates by starting from an initial anchor based on whatever information is provided and adjusting from there to yield a final answer (ie. Salary negotiations)
Framing – decisions depend on how information is presented.
- If it is framed positively (gain frame) it encourages conservative decisions ( we take the sure thing over the chance of gaining more)
- If information is framed negatively (loss frame) it encourages risk. We take a chance at losing less rather than accept a sure loss
Sunk Costs – are permanent losses of resources incurred as the result of a decision – since these resources have been lost due to a past decision, they should not enter into future decisions.
Escalation of Commitment – refers to the tendency to invest additional resources in an apparently failing course of action.
- People want to reduce dissonance by recouping the sunk costs
- Social norms favour consistent behaviour
- Problem framing after a sunk cost (sure loss of x dollars vs uncertain loss of x + y dollars)
- Overconfidence bias (irrational belief that the investment will succeed)
- Groups are more prone than individuals to escalate commitment)
People in a negative mood are more likely to approach decisions in a more detailed, deliberate and systematic way. Positive mood promotes more creative, intuitive decision making
To prevent escalation of commitment
- Reframe
- Set goals
- Evaluate process of decision making, not the outcomes
- Separate initial and subsequent decision makers.