Organizational Behavior (Psicologia delle organizzazioni), Appunti di Psicologia Delle Organizzazioni

Scarica Organizational Behavior (Psicologia delle organizzazioni) e più Appunti in PDF di Psicologia Delle Organizzazioni solo su Docsity! Organizational Behaviour Selective attention This experiment reveals two things: a. we are missing a lot of what goes on around us, b. we have no idea that we are missing so much. What is perception? • A cognitive process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions to give meaning to their environment Human psychological mechanism: selecting information from the environment why? Our brain is not able to collect all the details in a situation ! RISK drawing an inaccurate picture of the reality (person, event, behaviours) • It is a cognitive process involving a series of interactive processes between the perceiver and the stimulus: • ENVIRONMENTAL STIMULI • Receiving and extracting information • Organizing information • Interpreting information • Behavioural response HOW HUMAN BEINGS PERCEIVE 1. We can not take in all the data that flood into our brains every second. WE USE A PROCESS CALLED SELECTIVE ATTENTION to filter out what is salient to us and what to discard it’s the base of Perception = a cognitive process by which an individual organize and interpret events to give meaning to them SELECTIVE PERCEPTION the tendency to selectively interpret what one sees on the basis of one’s interests, background, experiences and attitudes HALO EFFECT the tendency to draw a general about an individual on the basis of a singular characteristics CONTRAST EFFECT evaluation of a person’s characteristic that is affected by comparisons with other people recently encountered who rank higher or lower on the same characteristics your ability to perceive depends on how you interpret your ROLE • JOB ANALYSIS What is the AIM of the JOB? the selection depends on what is my experience background on HOW I can reach that aim Information is processed so fast that most of the time our perception is unconscious and we may not even be aware of how selective we are being. Two types of selective attention: • Controlled processing • Screening without conscious awareness (REMEMBER THE GORILLA!) • UNCONSCIOUS GUIDE = our perception (how we collect information) is the result of our SCHEMAS (=memory structures mental representation of knowledge), that is what we expect to see based on our past experience • We use our MENTAL PATTERNS (= MENTAL MAP schema in which you connect all the knowledge you have on a concept) to organize information and interpret them WORD -------------- CONCEPT-------------- MENTAL MAPS (-schemas; scripts) WE DETERMINE WHAT WE PROCESS VIA OUR EXPERIENCE, BACKGROUND, EXPECTATIONS, EMOTIONS, ABILITIES, VALUES AND NEEDS PAST EXPERIENCE Our perception is the result of what we expect to see based on our past experience and knowledge. We use mental schemas (memory structures) we fill in the gaps missing in the information based on our past information and existing knowledge This is known as the law of closure! SCHEMA PROCESSING IN THE SOCIAL WORLD: main characteristics We cannot pay attention to all. People select information • People use stored knowledge to make sense of incoming information. • If the information is ambiguous or incomplete, they fill in the blanks and interpret using stored schemas. Schemas = Mental representations of knowledge stored in the brain, developed through experience about a given concept or stimulus. In the process of organizing the stimuli we are looking for patterns that match our existing mental schemas (memory structures) Why? It helps us to interpret the situations very quickly and react quickly • How we select and organise information People tend to focus on information that is in line with their schemas memorize = creating associations people tend to ignore information that are not associated to their mental maps and in line with their schemas (e.g. in stereotyping). Confirmation bias (distorsion) = our tendency to selectively seek information that confirms our beliefs, ideas and assumptions • SCRIPT = it is a SCHEMA for an event A COGNITIVE FRAMEWORK THAT DESCRIBES THE APPROPRIATE SEQUENCE OF AN EVENT IN A GIVEN SITUATION ! Procedural knowledge = how to do something (e.g.: my mental model ABOUT THE APPROPRIATE STEPS TO MANAGE A MEETING) A script to solve problems TO SUM UP! Galatea effect: it is part of the Pygmalion process. It occurs not when the leader has expectations of subordinates, but when subordinates' raised expectations of themselves are realized in their higher performance. Golem effect: It occurs when subordinates realize leaders' low expectations (Eden, 1990a). It is the Pygmalion effect in a negative direction. Self-fulfilling prophecy • Pygmalion effect: Rosenthal and Jacobsen (1968) experiment Context: at an elementary school where students took intelligence pre-tests. Rosenthal and Jacobsen informed the teachers of the names of twenty percent of the students in the school who were showing “unusual potential for intellectual growth” and would bloom academically within the year. Unknown to the teachers, these students were selected randomly with no relation to the initial test. Rosenthal and Jacobson tested the students eight months later, they discovered that the randomly selected students who teachers thought would bloom, scored significantly higher. Why does the Pygmalion effect occur? “If you think your students can’t achieve very much, are not too bright, you may be inclined to teach simple stuff, give simple assignments calling for simplistic answers” (Rhem, 1999). In workplaces: e.g If mangers or colleagues expect only minimal performance, newcomer will likely do a low performance • The Galatea Effect A manager’s high expectation inuences her attitude toward her subordinates, and such attitude has positive effects on subordinates’ self-expectancy. The subordinates’ enhanced self-expectancy then improves their performance. In this process, the part that a person’s enhanced self-expectation improves his own performance is often called the Galatea effect. • The Halo Effect The tendency to draow a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single characteristic, such as • Intelligence • Sociability • Appearance as social animals, humans are naturally attracted by some individuals’ surface features linked to a specific feature to someone, without any rational reason i.e. BEAUTY INTELLIGENT IMPLICATIONS: FOR EXAMPLE • PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL: AN EMPLOYEE SEEN AS INEFFECTIVE IN ONE ASPECT OF HIS/HER JOB CAN BE GIVEN THE GENERAL LABEL OF INCOMPETENT • SELECTION: ATTRACTIVE INDIVIDUALS CAN BE PERCEIVED AS MORE COMPETENT, HONEST, FRIENDLY THAN LESS ATTRACTIVE PEOPLE Darley and Gross (1983): An experiment on Schema processing in the social world AIM: To investigate whether or not pre-existing ideas will make people form stereotypes for a particular person. METHOD: laboratory experiment PROCEDURE: The participants saw two videos of a girl. In the video 1 a girl was playing in a poor environment; In video 2 a girl was playing in a rich environment. Then they saw a video of the girl in what could be an intelligence test. FINDINGS: When the participants were asked to judge the future of the girls they all said that the "rich" girl would do well and the "poor" girl would do less well. INTERPRETATIONS OF FINDINGS: the participants probably used pre-stored schemas of what it means to be poor and rich and interpreted the ambiguous information accordingly. Participants processed information based on a few salient details to form an overall impression that may not be correct. PERCEIVED SIMILARITY EFFECT ▲ We will favour and group together those we perceive to be like us we assume that they share the same values, thoughts, opinions and behaviors HIGHER TRUST AND ATTITUDE HOMOGENEOUS GROUPS (language,skills, nationality) without any rules !! Natural tendency if people don’t know each other ▲ Those people who are not like us we see as different and we label negatively DISTRUST Why does perception matter to OB? Applications of shortcuts in work organizations 1. Employment interview Interviewers can make perceptual judgments that are inaccurate we use to perform our impression on others on the first glance, so in an interview what is elicited in the first moments is better evaluated and considered than what is said after some minutes; moreover, a good applicant is more probably one with less negative features with the one with more favourable characteristics 2. Performance expectations: the Self-fulfilling prophecy: a situation in which an individual inaccurately perceives a second person, and the resulting expectations cause that the second person behave in ways in line with the original perception an individual’s behavior can be determined by others’ expectations (that can become reality!) If a manger expects big thing from a worker he will perform great and vice-versa Managers should be aware of how and why their expectations affect subordinates (see Pygmalion effect, Golem effect, Galatea effect). 3. Performance evaluation Halo effect, perceived similarity effect, stereotyping sometimes performance ratings say much more on the manager than on the employee!! RECAP! INPUTS PROCESS OUTCOMES Individual level: • Demographic characteristics • Backgrounds • Personality and values Group level: Group properties (e.g. size, diversity, norms) Organizational level: • Structure • HRM practice • Management practices • Job design • Organizational Cultures Individual level: • Emotions and mood (e.g. emotion regulation) • Perception • Decision making • Motivation Individual level: Job Attitudes (e.g. Job satisfaction) Performance (task – context) Group level: Team attitudes Team performance Organizational level: • Productivity • Survival Why is perception relevant to understand people at work? “The impact of any ‘objective’ stimulus situation depends upon the personal and subjective meaning that the actor attaches to that situation. To predict the behavior of a given person successfully, we must be able to appreciate the actor’s construal of the situation—that is, the manner in which the person understands the situation as a whole.” (Ross & Nisbett, 1991) becoming AWARE of heuristic and biases A human NEED controlling the environment People have a basic need to predict and control the environment HOW TO PERCEIVE TO DO IT? Understanding and identifying the causes of behaviors and/or events helps people to do so. Are we able to identify the rules that our mind have interiorized to make ATTIRBUTIONS? => • Attribution is a specific type of perception defined as ascribing a cause for an observed action/ events/behavior ▲ WE MAKE A DISPOSITIONAL (INTERNAL) ATTRIBUTION internal aspects as causes ▲ WE MAKE A SITUATIONAL (EXTERNAL ) ATTRIBUTION something outside the person Attribution theory: • We judge people differently, depending on the meaning we attribute to a given behaviour • to develop alternatives and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses • ! Human beings are not able to collect all the detail in a situation • Tversky, A., & Kahneman (1974) studied heuristics (= mental shortcuts) in decision making. • They demonstrated that decision makers use mental shortcuts to make a decision more quickly and easily by reducing the amount of information they need to evaluate. Psychological function of heuristics they reduce cognitive load on an individual Consequence: they bias the way attention is allocated to processing data. Perceptual errors can affect the final outcomes COMMON BIASES IN DECISION MAKING: some examples 1. Confirmation bias = The tendency to seek out information that reaffirms past choices and to discount information that contradicts past judgments (our tendency to selectively seek information that confirms our beliefs) e.g. an interviewer views the initial profile of the applicant and makes an immediate conclusion about the applicant. Then he/she will search only information to confirm his/her conclusion. 2. Availability bias: The tendency for people to base their judgments on information that is readily available to them (more available in our memory because more recent or associated with strong emotions) (Examples: because the media give more attention to air accidents, we tend to overstate the risk of flying and understate the risk of driving; manager can give more weight in performance appraisals to recent behaviors than to the behaviors of 6 or 9 months earlier Negative experiences (emotions) are better memorized and so more available in my mind) 3. Anchoring bias: A tendency to fixate on initial information, from which one then fails to adequately adjust for subsequent information (e.g. emphasis to the first information in an employment interview) 4. Escalation of commitment: an increased commitment to a previous decision in spite of negative information 5. Randomness Error: the tendency of individuals to believe that they can predict the outcome of random events 6. Risk aversion: the tendency to prefer a sure gain of a moderate amount over a riskier outcome, even if the riskier outcome might have a higher expected payoff 7. Hindsight bias: the tendency to believe falsely, after an outcome of an event is actually known, that one would have accurately predicted that outcome NOTHING IS OBVIOUS!!!!! BOUNDED RATIONALITY MODEL • A process of making decisions by constructing simplified models that extract the essential feature from problems without capturing all their complexity ! The solution represents a satisficing choice (the first acceptable one) rather than the optimal one “Bounded awareness.” “Social and Cognitive psychology has documented the ability of the human mind to “see” (and use) specific information while failing to incorporate other information that is readily available and relevant” Bounded rationality We have limited information-processing capability because we are not able to assimilate all the information in the environment BUILDING A SIMPLIFIED MODEL OF THE EVENT IDENTIFYING SPECIF OPTIONS AND CONSEQUENT CHOICE ON THAT SIMPLIFIED MODEL • WHEN WE HAVE TO DECIDE AND SOLVE A PROBLEM we select information and construct simplified models that extract the essential features from problem; then we search options and identify alternatives on the base of our simplified models Intuitive decision making An unconscious process created out of distilled experience (it comes from holistic associations, links between disparate pieces of information; it’s fast and affectively charged engage emotions) • ! Not bad (irrational or ineffective) but not reliable supplement with evidence and good judgment PRINCIPLES: People do not usually think rationally or carefully, but instead take cognitive shortcuts when making inferences and forming judgments. These shortcuts (= heuristics) include using schemas, scripts, stereotypes, and other simplifying perceptual tactics in place of careful thought Motivated tactician (Fiske & Taylor, 1991) Internal motivators: • Basic needs • Values An individual is a ‘‘fully engaged thinker who has multiple cognitive strategies available and chooses among them based on goals, motives, and needs’’ … People sometimes think systematically, and sometimes think simplistically, but always think in order to satisfy their goals and motives (Fiske & Taylor, 1991). Individual differences in the decision making process • Personality does influence our decisions • Gender women ruminate more than men RUMINATION: in terms of DM, it means overthinking problems • Mental ability smart people are just likely to fall in decision making bias because intelligence doesn’t alert you to the possibility you’re too confident or emotionally defensive BUT once warned about DM errors, they learn more quickly how to avoid them and they are better able to avoid logical errors or incorrect interpretation of data • Cultural differences no differences in rational model and decision making process BUT cultures differ in their time orientation, the importance of rationality, their belief in the ability of people to solve problems, and their preferences for collective decision making. United States FOCUS ON PROBLEM SOLVING Thailand and Indonesia FOCUS ON ACCEPTING THE SITUATIONS AS THEY ARE Ethical decision criteria • Utilitarianism a system in which decisions are made on the outcomes, in order to provide the greatest good for the greatest number (efficiency and productivity but low fairness) • Rights respecting and protecting the basic rights of individuals and whistle blowers individuals who report unethical practices by their employer to outsiders (legalistic environment and low efficiency) • Justice equitable and fair distribution of benefits and costs (Union members point of view) (risk of higher sense of entitlement to reduce the effort on the productivity side) Creativity in the decision making process • Creativity the ability to produce novel and useful ideas • The three-component model of creativity individual creativity requires: Expertise the potential of creativity is enhanced when individuals have abilities, knowledge, proficiencies Creative-thinking skills ability to use analogies and the talent to see the familiar in a different light Intrinsic task motivation desire to work on something because it’s interesting, involving, personally challenging = what turns creativity potential into actual creative ideas Summing up: PERCEPTUAL ERRORS 1. Not collecting enough information about people. 2. Judgements made on irrelevant or insignificant info 3. Seeing what we expect to: Confirmation bias = our tendency to selectively seek information that confirms our beliefs 4. Allow our characteristics to influence our judgements (e.g. perception of similarity) 5. Accepting stereotypes 6. Basing attributions on irrelevant evidence (to protect ourselves and our self-esteem) HOW TO REDUCE BIASES AND ERRORS • When you judge a person: • Take more time • Collect and consciously use more information about other people • Develop self-awareness • Develop an understanding of how personal biases affect our perceptions and judgements • Check our attributions and assumptions • When you make a decision: • Focus on goals: without goals you don’t know what information you need, you don’t know which information is relevant and which is irrelevant. • Look for information that disconfirm your beliefs • Increase your options • Implications for managers • Behavior follows perception, so to influence behaviour at work, assess how people perceive their work. • Make better decisions by recognizing perceptual biases and decision making errors we tend to commit. Learning about these problem doesn’t always prevent us from making mistakes, but it helps. • Managers should be aware of how and why their expectations affect subordinates (see Pygmalion effect, Golem effect, Galatea effect). Assumptions: • Organism have needs that must be fulfilled to preserve, maintain and enhance their functioning. • Organisms are "built for“ the satisfaction of needs- that is, they have evolved functional structures and sensitivities that can lead to sustenance and integrity. • There are psychological nutriments as well as physiological nutriments. • Human beings strive for these nutriments and search for (gravitate towards) situations that provide them. • Motivation (=effort) is derived from a tension that results when one or more of our important needs are unsatisfied. Abraham Maslow – Hierarchy of needs 1943 (this theory was applied to the field of management by McGregor in 1960) • Main propositions: • People have needs that are hierarchically ranked • Some needs are basic; need to be fulfilled • Once basic needs are satisfied, higher-order needs become relevant and dominant • Once a lower-level need is satisfied, it no longer serves as a motivator Need Example Physiological Hunger, Thirst, Shelter, Body Needs Safety-security Security and protection from physical and emotional harm Social-belongingness Affection, Belongingness, Acceptance, Friendship Esteem Internal (Self-respect, Autonomy, Achievement), External (Status, Recognition, Attention) Self-actualization Growth, Achieving Potential, Self-Fulfillment Lower – order needs: needs that are satisfied externally (physiological and safety needs) High – order needs: needs that are satisfied internally • Managerial implication: You need to know which need your employee tries to fulfill at the moment Examples of situational factor to satisfy needs: • Physiological needs: Salary • Safety: health insurance, retirement plan, job security, pay • Social: friendly environment, collaboration and communication at work, after-work events • Esteem: promotion opportunities, recognition, job titles, pay • Self-actualization: providing development and growth opportunities, interesting/challenging work ! Critical evaluation: • Intuitive, logical, easy to understand, but based on clinical data (sample: people with psychological problems) • Research doesn’t support the hierarchy. • Doesn’t translate across cultures (congruence with U.S. culture): in some countries security needs are on top of hierarchy (e.g. In Mexico where the national cultures is characterized by high uncertainty avoidance). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ----------- The X-Y Theory ▲ Theory X the assumption that employees dislike work, are lazy, dislike responsibilities, and must be coerced to work ▲ Theory Y the assumption that employees like work, are creative, seek responsibility, and can exercise self-direction ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ----------- Frederick Herzberg 2-factor theory (1968) Frederick Herzberg interviewed 1700 employee and asked them: • What job aspects of work can lead you to extreme satisfaction? • What aspects can lead you to extreme dissatisfaction? He discovered that the things that led to satisfaction were not the same that led to dissatisfaction. 1. He called the aspects that cause satisfaction “motivator factors” 2. The aspects that led to dissatisfaction were called “hygiene factors” the hygiene factors don’t motivate Motivators factor cause internal motivation: they increase happy and engagement because you enjoy the work itself Motivators Called intrinsic factors Aspects that create satisfaction Satisfied employees report these causes for their satisfaction: • Achievement • Recognition • Work itself • Responsibility • Advancement, Growth Hygiene Factors called extrinsic factors: factors that, when adequate in a job, placate workers. When these factors are adequate, people will not be dissatisfied Aspects that create dissatisfaction Dissatisfied employees report these causes for their dissatisfaction: • Policy, • Supervision, Relationship with Supervisor • Physical Working conditions, • Security • Salary • Relationship with peers a theory that relates intrinsic factors to job satisfaction and associates extrinsic factors with dissatisfaction. Main propositions: 1. Satisfaction ≠ Dissatisfaction 2. Factors that lead to Satisfaction ≠ Factors that lead to Dissatisfaction 3. The psychological basis of hygiene needs is the avoidance of pain from the environment. When hygiene factors are adequate, people will not be dissatisfied; neither they will be satisfied. 4. The psychological basis of motivation is the need for personal growth. 5. If you want to motivate people, you have to emphasize factors associated with the work itself (growth opportunities; recognition; responsibilities) ! Critical evaluation: This theory has not been well supported. ! Critical Evaluation • Good support from research (more than for Maslow, Herzberg) • A lot of research on achievement motivation (for instance: entrepreneurs have higher achievement motivation than managers) • But: • Some difficulties to measure achievement, power, affiliation needs (more to be observed) • Internal motives, such as need for achievement, were asserted to be subconscious and hence measurable only by projective tests. • Difficult to generalize across countries/cultures • Managerial implication: people have different needs and therefore will be motivated differently Self- Determination Theory (the BASIC NEEDS theory) Self-Determination Theory concerned with the beneficial effects of intrinsic motivation and the harmful effects of extrinsic motivation Competence or Mastery Need to be effective and competent Need for Autonomy-Agency Need the need to perceive ourselves as the agent, actor, author of our life Relatedness Need desire to perceive ourselves in good relationships in a good environment • Cognitive Evaluation Theory a version of self determination theory which holds that allocating extrinsic rewards for behavior that had been previously intrinsically rewarding tends to decrease the overall level of motivation if the reward are seen as controlling !!! Self-concordance (recent outgrowth of the SD theory) the degree to which peoples’ reasons for pursuing goals are consistent with their interests and core values A DIFFERENT CONCEPTUALIZATION OF “NEEDS” 1. Needs are nutriments essential for psychological growth, integrity and well-being; Human beings innately seek out these nutriments They are natural, invariant, and universal; when any of the three basic psychological needs are frustrated or thwarted, the individual will exhibit diminished motivation and well-being. The satisfaction of the needs increases intrinsic motivation and engagement. RECAP ON NEEDS motivators (internal factors) McClelland Theory Self-Determination Theory (UNIVERSAL needs) Needs are nutriments that are essential for survival, growth and integrity of individual They are learned developed during life experiences They are treated as individual-difference variables The strength of a person’s need (i.e. desire) has to be assessed, and then used to predict work-related outcomes. Positive work-related outcomes predicted by P-O fit: modification of the Job Design in order to match Job Characteristics and employees’ needs Needs are basic nutriments that are essential for survival, growth and integrity of individuals (Ryan & Deci) They are innate. Everyone is assumed to have these basic needs. Their satisfaction is associate with health, growth and well-being Positive work-related outcomes predicted by The degree of basic need satisfaction Which external characteristics (e.g. related to the job design or the organization) can satisfy the basic needs and then improve motivation? Antecedent Processes Outcomes • Clear goals • Feedback • Supervisor’s support • Autonomy (e.g. control on methods; involvement in decision making) • Clear, well-timed communication • Participation in decision making • Cooperative environment BASIC NEED SATISFACTION = FEELINGS OF • Autonomy • Competence/mastery • Connection to others Intensity/persistence of EFFORT > Higher performance ▲ Higher Job satisfaction ▲ Higher work engagement ▲ Higher job crafting ▲ Lower Absenteeism ▲ Lower distress and Burnout Edwin Locke & Gary Latham Goal-Setting Theory Goal setting theory is one of the most influential and practical theories of motivation thousands of companies around the world are using goal setting in some form, including companies such as Coca-Cola, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Nike, Intel, and Microsoft… Based on the premise that conscious goals affect human action, this theory focuses on the effects of conscious goals as motivators of task performance. But: Is it enough to simply set any goals? To achieve higher performance, goal attributes (Locke & Lutham, 2002; 2006): • Specificity • Difficulty: perceived as challenging but achievable (Assigning difficult goals may not be effective when people view those goals as threatening. Whether a person appraises a high goal as a challenge versus a threat makes a difference for that person’s performance) • Feedback self generated feedbacks have more power than externally generated feedback Goals should be shared among employees WHY ARE these attributes (i.e. SPECIFICITY AND DIFFICULTY) RELEVANT? “We found that specific, difficult goals consistently led to higher performance than urging people to do their best. The effect sizes in meta-analysis ranged from .42 to .80. In short, when people are asked to do their best, they do not do so. This is because do-your-best goals have no external referent and thus are defined idiosyncratically. This allows for a wide range of acceptable performance levels, which is not the case when a goal level is specified. Goal specificity in itself does not necessarily lead to high performance because specific goals vary in difficulty. However, insofar as performance is fully controllable, goal specificity does reduce variation in performance by reducing the ambiguity about what is to be attained” (Locke & Lutham, 2002 • An application of the Goal setting theory: the Management by objectives programs Performance goals are effective when they are S.M.A.R.T.: • Specific Self-efficacy: an individual’s belief that he or she is capable of performing a task (Low -> no effect; High ->effect) to test before on employees 4 ways to increase self-efficacy: • Enactive mastery: gaining relevant experience with the task or job • Vicarious modeling: becoming more confident because you see someone else doing the task • Verbal persuasion: becoming more confident because someone convinces you that you have the skills necessary to be successful Pygmalion or Galatea Effect • Arousal: energized state leading the person gets “psyched up” • Values (Low match, high match) • Consciousness (Low emotional stability; high emotional stability) • Ability: goal effects also depend upon having the requisite task knowledge and skills. • Goal commitment: Commitment to goal is higher when: employee believes she can achieve goal (efficacy beliefs) & wants to achieve goal (personal relevance of goal) IMPORTANT! There are differences among these concepts: “Task and goal difficulty are not synonymous and can be measured separately. • An example of a difficult task would be solving a complex anagram or a student pilot landing a plane • The term performance goal refers to the score (quantity, result) one attains on the task (e.g., how many anagrams solved in three minutes or the proficiency level one attains in practice landings). • A learning goal refers to the number of ideas or strategies one acquires or develops to accomplish the task effectively.” if the goal is new it’s better to suggest as goals strategies to implement in order to realize a task (Locke & Latham, 2002) • Participative Leadership Style communication of an inspiring vision how to reach the goal? Leader and employees decide together methods and ways to achieve the goal (team discussion about resources, competences and so on..) ! Silos effect exist when people in different parts of an organisation don’t talk to each other or share information enough Is it always effective to set specific difficult performance goal ? When people are confronted with a task that is complex for them, specific, difficult distal outcome goals do not lead to better performance than simply urging people to do their best. This is because • Focusing on reaching a specific performance outcome on a new, complex task can lead to ‘‘tunnel vision’’— a focus on reaching the goal rather than on acquiring the skills required to reach it • a performance goal can make people so anxious to succeed that they scramble to discover strategies in an unsystematic way and fail to learn what is effective. This can create evaluative pressure and performance anxiety. Doing so can decrease rather than increase the person’s initial self-efficacy that the goals are attainable The antidote is to set specific challenging learning goals, such as to discover a certain number of different strategies to master the task. A learning goal facilitates or enhances metacognition—namely, planning, monitoring, and evaluating progress toward goal attainment. • As a manager I have to ask me a different question: 1. Are my goals PERCEIVED from my employees as clear, challenging and achievable, meaningful for them? 2. Are people involved in the formulation of the strategy in order to achieve goals? • How to know it? MONITORING AND ASKING TO EMPLOYEES (Goals are conscious =/ needs are unconscious) EFFORT MOTIVATION when we have to act we should have clear in our mind the causes (goals features) in order to have an effect EFFORT (persistence; direction; strategies) • A manger has to observe BEHAVIORS (explained by this abstract concepts) Motivators (Inputs) Process Outcomes (results) Setting goals that are perceived as • Specific • Challenging and achievable • Meaningful Effort (motivation) Performance Locke & Latham, 2002, 2006; Latham & brown 2006 Critical Evaluation Goal-Setting Theory • When focused on a goal, individual may not respond to new challenges that arise But adapting to unforeseen circumstances is also necessary. • Individuals focus attention on activities that are measured When Goals are only set for producing higher quantity, often quality suffers. Implication: goals need to incorporate all critical aspects of performance. • Aggressive pursuit of goals often leads to unethical behaviors If employees are only rewarded for reaching the goals but not when coming close to them many people will cheat (see financial crisis) Motivating by Job design: the Job Characteristics Model Weber first scholar who studied job design The managerial question: how can we design the jobs to foster internal work motivation? JOB DESIGN: THE WAY THE ELEMENTS IN A JOB ARE ORGANIZED. It means outlining • the tasks, • duties, • responsibilities, • methods • relationships • timing required to perform the given set of a job One of the earliest essays on the design of jobs was Adam Smith’s well-known description of how pins should be manufactured, published in 1850 “One man draws out the wire, another straights it, a third cuts, a fourth points it, a fifth grinds it at the top for receiving the head: To make the head requires two or three distinct operations: to put it on is a peculiar business, to whiten the pins is another; it is even a trade by itself to put them into the paper; and the important business of making a pin is, in this manner, divided into about eighteen distinct operations, which in some manufactories, are all performed by distinct hands, though in others the same man will sometime perform two or three of them” A brief history of perspective on job design Frederick W. Taylor (1911) Basic Idea: to design work systems with standardized operations and highly simplified work • dividing the job in specific tasks • attributing each task to a specific worker based on the characteristics of the workforce in the 90s (low abilities and knowledge + need of a lot of product) McGregor Theory Frederick Herzberg (1966, 1976) Basic Idea: to motivate employees to do good work, jobs should be enriched rather than simplified Technique: Job enrichment. Some principles: • Giving a person a complete, natural unit of work • Increasing the accountability of individuals for own work Skill Variety : combine tasks; establish client (interna and external) relationship Task Identity: form natural work units Task Significance: form natural work units Autonomy: Establish client relationship (internal and external); Give employees responsibilities and control Feedback: establish client (interna and external) relationship; Open feedback channels. Some examples: • Job rotation: the periodic shifting of an employee from one task to another (cross training) • Job enrichment: the vertical expansion of jobs, which increases the degree to which the worker controls the planning, execution, and evaluation of the work • Job enlargement • Flextime flexible work hours (see Smart working and Telecommuting: working from home at least two days a week on a computer that is linked to the employer’s office) • Job sharing: an arrangement that allows two or more individuals to split a traditional 40-hour-a-week job • Employee involvement: a participative process that uses the input of employees and is intended to increase employee commitment to an organization’s success • Participative management: a process in which subordinates share a significant degree of decision- making pwer with their immediate superiors • Representative participation: a system in which workers participate in organizational decision making through a small group representative employees How to pay? Rewarding the employees • Variable pay-program: a pay plan that bases a portion of an employee’s pay on some individual and/ or organizational measure of performance • Price-rate pay plan: a pay plan in which workers are paid a fixed sum for each unit of production completed • Merit-based pay plan: a pay plan based on performance appraisal ratings • Bonus: a pay plan that rewards employees for recent performance rather than historical performance =/ • Flexible benefits: a benefits plan that allows each employee to put together a benefits package individually tailored to his or her own needs and situations • SEE THE SUMMARY TABLE ON YOUR NOTEBOOK Stacy Adams Equity Theory 1969 a theory that says that individuals compare their job inputs and outcomes with those others and then respond to eliminate any inequ when we see the ratio as unequal and we feel underrewarded, we experience equity tension that creates anger Four referent comparisons: • Self inside: an employee’s experiences in a different position inside the employee’s current organization • Self outside: an employee’s experiences in a situation or position outside the organization • Other inside: another individual or group of individuals inside the employee’s organization • Other outside: another individual or group outside the employee’s organization Main propositions: 1. Individuals are motivated by a sense of fairness 2. Individuals tend to select information in order to compare what they put into their job (inputs) to what they get from the job (output) What are inputs? Time, effort, ability, skills, training, level of education, flexibility, integrity, commitment, reliability, personal sacrifice, loyalty What are outputs? Pay, bonus, benefits, security, recognition, interest, development, reputation, responsibility, Main propositions: 3. Sense of fairness is derived from a social comparison psychological process that evaluate the balance between inputs that I put in my action and the outcomes and result • People compare what they get from their job with that they put into it • People compare their input-output ratio to that of a referent If we believe our ratio to be equal to those with whom we compare ourselves, a state of equity exist and we perceive the situation as fair. 3. Perceptions of inequity (due to being under-rewarded) create distress and an action potential to reduce inequity Cognitive mechanism to evaluate the balance between: • My values • Comparison with others Referents Typically, someone similar: those performing similar tasks within the same organization or a different organization. • Similar job title in same organization • Similar job title in different organizations • Comparing with friends with similar education • Comparing with oneself in previous situation When individuals believe they are being treated fairly, they tend to exhibit • Higher levels of job performance • more organizational citizenship behavior • less counterproductive activity Important: • Equity perceptions are subjective. • Different people may look at exactly the same situation and perceive different levels of equity Reactions to inequity More than equity: organizational justice (Greemberg, 1987) Organizational justice = perception of being fairly treated at the workplace every employees evaluate if the organization offers JUSTICE 4 LEVEL: Distributive justice: perceived fairness of how resources and rewards are distributed (pay, bonuses, work schedule, titles, responsibility) • Control and give voice to the employees balance between the relevance to give voice and the temptation to close the door • COHERENCE ethical attitude and ability • Create PROCEDURES where people can be involved Procedural justice: perceived fairness of the processes and procedures to make allocation decisions (are promotion decisions made: ethical, free of bias, consistent across people?) Interpersonal justice: perceived fairness of treatment by supervisor (treatment with respect, dignity, no derogatory comments) Informational justice: perceived fairness of explanations and justification given (often when something goes wrong) • Be honest declarations behaviors • Explain why you take a decisions and inform on time • Sometimes you have to apologize If individuals perceive that their well-being is threatened and those in power would, could, and should have acted differently, the situation will be considered unfair. There is a strong ethical case for focusing on employee well-being. In addition, changes at work and in the conditions surrounding work risk eroding work-related well-being with harmful consequences for employees and, potentially, for organisations. These changes have been widely signalled but often ignored in the core HRM literature and justify prioritizing HR practices that can help to ameliorate their impact.” A greater focus of HRM Literature on well-being oriented HRM practices Why? Two explanations 1. Employee well-being is supposed to be an important mediator in the HRM-performance relationship (Peccei et al., 2013). Thus, in order to understand how HRM affects performance, it is important to understand how employees respond to HRM (Guest 2011). 2. Employee well-being might be a performance measure per se, since firms derive their right to exist by providing not only organizational effectiveness but individual and societal well-being as well ( Beer et al. 1984, 2015). What does it mean “employee well-being? Inputs Outcomes HRM PRACTICES Employee Well-being Employee well-being’ refers to the quality of employees’ psychological, physical, and social functioning Positive indicators: • job satisfaction, • work engagement Negative indicators: • Distress • burnout + Performance – Absenteism, turnover, deviant behaviors Work engagement: A POSITIVE MENTAL STATE characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption Vigor = high levels of energy; the willingness to invest effort in one’s job, and persistence in the face of difficulties Dedication = strong involvement in one’s work, accompanied by feelings of enthusiasm and significance, and by a sense of pride and inspiration Absorption = a pleasant state of total immersion in one’s work which is characterized by time passing quickly and being unable to detaching oneself from the job • Employee engagement how to design a people engagement strategy? Traditional idea: HRM practices performance: - individual; group; organizational recently this way of designing HRM practices was criticized • WELL BEING HRM STRATEGIES Why? 1. Relation with the performance 2. Organizational social responsibility Inputs Process Outcomes HRM Practices Mediators Motivation • Equity perception Employees’ Well-Being: • Psychological • Physical • Sociale What does it mean “distress”? It is a negative state accompanied by physical, psychological or social dysfunctions It results from individuals feeling unable to bridge a gap with the demands (=requirements) or expectations placed on them (EU Social Partners’ Agreement, 2004) Symptoms of distress Short term (acute )effects Some examples Long term (chronic) effects Some example Tension Headaches Tiredness Poor quality of sleep Poor diet Appetite changes (weight loss or gain) Abuse of smoke, Alcohol ….. Anxiety Depression Chronic fatigue Musculoskeletal problems High blood pressure Heart problems Diabetes High cholesterol Alcohol dependence Ulcers Chronic migraines Problems at home Burnout BURNOUT (Christina Maslach) a psychological syndrome in response to chronic interpersonal stressors on the job, characterized by three key dimensions • Emotional exhaustion • Depersonalization (= feelings of cynicism) • Reduced efficacy (a sense of ineffectiveness) 1) Emotional exhaustion: feelings of being emotionally overextended and exhausted by one's work. 2) Depersonalization: an unfeeling and impersonal response toward recipients of one's service. Other persons (e.g. clients; colleagues) are considered impersonal objects of one’s work 3) Reduced efficacy : feelings of incompetence and a lack of achievement and productivity at work The most often used instrument to measure BURNOUT is the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI): a 22- item survey that assesses professional burnout in human service, education, business, and government professions. Job demands can activate health impairment process (= stress process) Job demands those aspects of the work context that press/overstretch employees’ personal capacities and are therefore associated with psychological and/or physiological costs cognitive effort (concentration, attention) • Work pressure (e.g.: time pressure: I have to finish this assignment within two days) • Emotional demands • Mental demands • Physical demands When Job demands exceed employees’ adaptive capacities (employee’s resources) an health impairment process (= stress process) is activated and their effects can be negative (e.g. BURNOUT) Job demands are not necessarily negative, but they may turn into job stressors when meeting those demands require high effort from which the employee fails to recover adequately (Demerouti & Bakker, 2011) Emotional job demands arise from interactions with clients, customers, colleagues/supervisors. ! It refers to the requirement to regulate emotions on the job. It is a risk factor when the job requires people to display emotions inconsistent with their feelings or to suppress emotions. Stage 2: stage of resistance If the stressor continues, the body adapts to the stressors it is exposed to. Changes at many levels take place in order to reduce the effect of the stressor. For example, if the stressor is starvation, the person might experienced a reduced desire for physical activity to conserve energy, and the absorption of nutrients from food might be maximized. Stage 3: stage of exhaustion At this stage, the stressor has continued for some time. The body's resistance to the stressor may gradually be reduced, or may collapse quickly. Generally, this means the immune system, and the body's ability to resist disease, may be almost totally eliminated. People who experience long-term stressor may succumb to heart attacks or severe infection due to their reduced immunity. For example, a person with a stressful job may experience long-term stress that might lead to high blood pressure and an eventual heart attack. Eustress ADRENALINE The demographic variable of sex has not been a strong predictor of burnout. Some studies have found that those with a higher level of education report higher levels of burnout than less educated employees. It is not clear how to interpret this finding, given that education is confounded with other variables, such as occupation and status. It is possible that people with higher education have jobs with greater responsibilities and higher stress. Or it may be that more highly educated people have higher expectations for their jobs, and are thus more distressed if these expectations are not realized A recent model that explains both the stress process and the motivational process The job demands – resources model (JD-R) All environmental characteristics can be modeled using two different categories, namely, • Job demands • Job resources Job demands and resources are the triggers of two fairly independent processes, namely, a health impairment process (= stress process) and a motivational process Job demands are the most important predictors of such outcomes as exhaustion, psychosomatic health complaints, and burnout Job resources activate motivational process and are the most important predictors of work enjoyment, work engagement and job satisfaction. Job demand: those aspects of the work context that press/overstretch employees’ personal capacities and are therefore associated with psychological and/or physiological costs (e.g.: time pressure: I have to finish this assignment within two days) Job resources: personal, physical, social or organizational aspects of the work context that 1. are functional in achieving work goals; 2. stimulate personal growth, development and learning 3. can reduce the health-impairing impact of job demands; JD-R model: MAIN PREDICTIONS When JOB DEMANDS exceed employees’ adaptive capacities, their effects are negative JOB RESOURCES improve well-being (e.g. Work Engagement) JOB DEMANDS and resources initiate different processes, but they also have joint effects (see the figure) JOB RESOURCES (e.g. social support, performance feedback, opportunities for development; benefit plan) can buffer the impact of job demands (e.g. emotional demand) on strain. (buffer effect) (e.g., Bakker et al. 2005a, Xanthopoulou et al. 2007). THE COMBINATION OF HIGH DEMAND AND LOW RESOURCES produces the highest levels of burnout. THE COMBINATION OF HIGH DEMAND AND HIGH RESOURCES produces the highest levels of well-being (booster effect) Well-being has a positive impact on job performance; burnout has a negative impact on job performance. • • What are your general duties (describe a typical day)? • • What are the main problems faced by your and your colleagues at work? • • How do these [the problems] effect the health of you and your colleagues? • • Are there any health problems in your work group? • • What are the good things about your work? • Supplemented with open 'probe' questions such as: • - 'Can you tell me more about that please?' • - 'What do you mean by that?' • - 'Could you tell me about that in a little more detail?' • Planning well-being – oriented HRM practices includes • Observing and monitoring organizational behaviors PSYCHOSOCIAL RISKS: those aspects of the design and management of work , and its social and organizational contexts, that have the potential for causing psychological, physical and social harm” Some example: • Role ambiguity • Role conflict • Organizational injustice • work – life unbalance The job demands – resources model (JD-R):Interventions ORGANIZATIONAL – LEVEL INTERVENTIONS 1. Optimizing job demand (e.g. reducing role conflict, role ambiguity, life-work conflict) 2. Increasing job resources (e.g. • Redesigning work environment • redesigning jobs more meaningful work, more autonomy, more social support, increased feedback; • Increasing group and organizational communication) 3. Fostering personal resources (e.g. RESILIENCE; SKILLS & ABILITIES; SPECIFIC PERCEIVED SELF-EFFICACY (HOW? E.g . Training) SOCIAL/GROUP – LEVEL INTERVENTIONS Assumptions: employees need to take personal responsibility for their physical and mental health Increasing social support Fostering the ability of managers and employees to cultivate a supportive climate within teams INDIVIDUAL – LEVEL INTERVENTIONS Assumptions: employees need to take personal responsibility for their physical and mental health • Recovery training (relaxation techniques, mindfulness) • Wellness programs (e.g. fitness initiatives; workshops to help people quit smoking, lose weight, eat better) IMPLICATIONS of the field theory of behaviour (and of the JD-R Model) FOR HR MANAGERS AND HRM CONSULTANTS “We need to avoid offering pre-determined solutions. Instead, practitioners take the time and effort to study the specificity of each total situation and make a representation of the forces being experienced by people at work. From that analysis, we discuss working hypotheses with our clients/employees to assist them in changing their field (i.e. their behaviour and related surroundings and conditions). We may also be able to cooperate with them on experiments in moving towards their change goals.” (Kurt Lewin, 1946) • Each motivational theory help u sto find out resources: Job level Organizational level Personal level • Strategies combining our knowledge • Ex. I can’t reduce emotional stressors? INCREASE INDIVIDUAL OR JOB RESOURCES PAPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER EAV CASE 1. CEO: conductors are lazy INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERISTICS !Look at Mc Gregor Theory X and Y 2. CUNDUCTORS: aggressive behaviors of users LACK OF SECURITY (basic need according to Maslow) = fear, anxiety, STRESS • Problems: • Strike • Ticket evasion • Low quality of services customer dissatisfaction What are the actors? • Two ways of thinking (rooms): 1. SLOW WAY OF THINKING problem solving process GATHER DATA! (otherwise I use heuristic and biases) 2. FAST WAY OF THINKING fundamental attribution error judgment (= we tend to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors) • Management task creating a motivational environment • Autonomy • Responsibility • Derogation • Systematic approach what are the actors in my social system? JOB DEMANDS –RESOURCES THEORY (2017) Previous models: 1. Two-factor Theory (Herzberg) 2. Job characteristic models Core job characteristics: skill variety, task identity, task significance, feedback, autonomy 3 critical psychological states: experienced meaningfulness of the work, experienced responsibility for outcomes, knowledge of the results of work activities ▲ We need to consider the group dynamics to explain individual behaviors as well as the performance of the group itself.. Groups and teams: definitions GROUP =“two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent, who have come together to achieve particular objectives” work together in order to achieve a specific goal TEAM =two or more individuals who interact, dynamically, interdependently, and adaptively toward a common goal and who have each been assigned specific roles or functions to perform COMMON GOAL = perform in order to achieve What is a team? • A relatively small number of people • With complementary skills • Who are committed • To a common purpose, • Set of performance goals, • For which they hold themselves mutually accountable DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WORK GROUP AND WORK TEAM Work Group = a group that interacts primarily to share information and make decisions to help each member perform within his/her area of responsibility. It doesn’t engage in collective work that requires joint effort (group discussion) Work Team = a group that interacts to create a collective performance through coordinated effort. The individual efforts result in a level of performance greater than the sum of those individual inputs (problem- solving teams, plan to elaborate an intervention) Different types of groups at workplace • FORMAL: A designated workgroup defined by an organization’s structure with designed work assignments, establishing tasks, formal roles, goals. • INFORMAL: Natural formations that appear in response to the need for social contact, spontaneous (neither formally structured nor organizationally determined) Input Process Outcomes GROUP’S PROPERTIES (structural: belong to all the groups in order to survive and develop) • Norms • Roles • Size • Status • Diversity At group level • Decision making • Communication • Conflict and negotiation Leadership At group level • Team attitudes • Group productivity • The dynamic of the group depends on its structure Social identity theory: perspective that considers when and why individuals consider themselves members of groups • Similarity people who have the same values as others members of their organization have higher levels of group identifications • Distinctiveness people are more likely to notice identities that show how different they are from the groups • Status peoples are more interested in linking themselves to high-status group • Uncertainty reduction membership in a group helps people to understand how they fit into the world Five-stage group-development model: • Forming stage high uncertainty • Storming stage intragroup conflict • Norming stage close relationship and cohesiveness • Performing stage the group is fully functional • Adjourning stage concern with wrapping up activities rather than task performance A Group’s property: ‘norms’ DEFINITIONS: Norms are • A generally accepted way of thinking, feeling, or acting that most people in a group agree on and endorse as right and proper (Thibaut and Kelly, 1959) • acceptable standards of behavior shared by their members that express what they ought and ought not to do under certain circumstances (Robbins & Judge, 2014) When people talk about “the way we do things”, “the way things are”, they are talking about social norms. Social norms reflect group evaluations of what is right and wrong GROUP CULTURE Types of Norms FORMAL norms that a group is forced to adopt by the organization INFORMAL developed by the group, not explicit rules (sometime more powerful than formal) many scholar considered a SET OF NORMS (interiorized by members) could be referred to group culture = interiorized set of norms not declared, the informal norms the teams have developed (you cannot observe a group culture, only declared values/philosophy of a company) • Performance norms: are centered on how hard a person should work in a given group, what the level of output should be, how to get the job done, …. • Appearance norms: informs or guides us as to how we should look or what our physical appearance should be (e.g. dress code) • Social arrangement norms: are centered on how we should act in social settings (e.g. with whom to eat lunch, whether to form friendship on and off the job; when it is possible to express opinions) • Resource allocations norms: are centered on how we should distribute resources (e.g. pay, benefit, equipment) An influential experiment about the effects of social norms on group productivity THE BANK-WIRING ROOM EXPERIMENTS conducted by Elton Mayo (Harvard professor) and colleagues between 1931 and 1932 on a group of 14 men who put together telephone switching equipment PURPOSE of the bank wiring room experiments: to find out how payment incentives would affect group productivity. The company introduced a new pay system: workers were paid according to individual productivity Results: • payment incentives had no effect on productivity. • The men formed cliques, ostracized coworkers who worked harder than the others or who were lazy INTERPRETATION: • Productivity did not go up because the men were afraid that the company would lower the base rate. • the work-group arrived at a group consensus about what a fair days amount of work is, and they set their efforts in accordance with this goal, resolving together to not work further even in the face of a financial incentive NORMS SERVE THREE POSITIVE FUNCTIONS • to guide and direct members’ behavior • to make sense of and understanding of each other’s actions • to provide order and predictability in social relationships • The formation of social norms: the experiment of Asch Why is it important for a team manager to understand the group's norms? Because norms influence members’ behaviour Often unconscious influence Group pressure can be positive (e.g. where high effort or ethical behavior are the norms) ENCOURAGES HIGH PERFORMACE Group pressure can be negative • It can trigger bad decisions • It can encourage deviant workplace behavior • (also called counter-productive behavior) LOW PERFORMANCE • (e.g. where verbal abuse, rudeness and disregard are the norms) Negative effects of group pressure: deviant workplace behavior Typology of deviant workplace behaviour Category Examples PRODUCTION PROPERY POLITICAL PERSONAL AGGRESSION Leaving early Intentionally working slowly Wasting resources Sabotage Lying about hours worked Stealing from organization Showing favoritism Gossiping and spreading rumors Blaming co-workers Verbal abuse Sexual harassment Stealing from co-workers It encourage deviant workplace behavior (also called antisocial behavior or incivility behavior) = voluntary behavior that violates significant organizational norms and threatens the well-being of the organizations or its members “It is the workplace environment characteristics rather than individual personality characteristics that are a good predictor of workplace violence” Deviant workplace behavior is likely to flourish where it is supported by group norms (tolerance of the aggressive behaviour) Outcome Lower levels of group performance -> effect on the DECISION MAKING PROCESS (REDUCTION IN INFORMATION poorer and worse decisions Status characteristics theory a theory that states that differences in status ( a socially defined position or rank given to groups or group members by others) characteristics create status hierarchies within groups Cohesiveness the degree to which group members are attracted to each other and are motivated to stay in group Diversity the extent to which members of a group are similar to, or different from, one another ANOTHER NEGATIVE EFFECT OF GROUP PRESSURE: GROUPTHINK GROUPTHINK: A phenomenon in which the norm of consensus overrides the realistic appraisal of alternative course of action shared way of thinking in the group Florida 1996: The U.S. Space Shuttle Challenger was launched with a crew of seven. Seventy-three second after lift-off, an explosion killed everyone on board. Investigations proved that the disaster could be avoided. Only hours before launch, engineers had urgently warned the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) team that extremely cold temperatures might cause the explosion. Yet NASA proceeded with the launch. Why? The group was more interested in reaching agreement than in how that agreement was achieved Characteristics of groupthink Inputs Process Outcomes Members perceive themselves as • INVULNERABLE SUPERIOR TO OTHER GROUPS They assume they see the world in the exact way naïf way of thinking DECISION MAKING: * • INFORMATION BIAS: group members fail to consider all information • Divergent opinions , dissenting information are suppressed (wrong way to manage conflicts) *MODERATOR: complexity of the task Bad performance SUMMING UP Why is it important for a team manager to understand the group's norms? Because norms influence members’ behaviour Often unconscious influence Group/team norms (inputs) AT INDIVIDUAL LEVEL (processes) • PERCEPTION • DECISION MAKING AT INDIVIDUAL LEVEL (outcomes) • Organizational citizenship behavior • Performance AT GROUP LEVEL (processes) • PERCEPTION • DECISION MAKING • CONFLICT MANAGEMENT • STYLE OF LEADERSHIP AT GROUP LEVEL • Team satisfaction • Performance GROUP PROPERTY: ROLES Definition: a prescribed or expected set of behaviors attributed to someone occupying a given position in a social unit =/ Role perception an individual’s view of how he or she is supposed to act in a given situation Role expectations how others believe a person should act in a given situation psychological contract: an unwritten agreement that sets out what management expects from an employee and viceversa Role conflict a situation in which an individual is confronted by divergent role expectations • Roles are is the part people play as members of a group/team. FORMAL ROLES For these roles, members have been designated (designed by the organization-> HR manager, secretary) INFORMAL ROLES • these roles are not assigned, “official” • They emerge during the interactions among the group’ members relevant impacts Three categories of informal roles It’s possible to develop a mental map with different categories of informal roles Mudrack and Farrell (1995) designated three categories by which informal roles can be organized: • task roles: informal roles that move groups and teams toward their goals • maintenance roles: The central function is to gain and maintain cohesiveness (good atmosphere and relationships) of the group (Focus on the socio-emotional dimension of the group) • disruptive roles: Serve individual needs, desires or goals (Me-oriented) while impeding attainment of group goals When we observe, assess or manage a group, it’s important to assess if the role structure present in our group is enhancing or inhibiting members’ ability to attain their goals • Task roles informal roles that move groups and teams toward their goals. Extract the maximum productivity from the group • Information seeker: requests clarification; asks for suggestions and ideas from other members • Opinion seeker: encourages members to express their viewpoints; helping others to express their opinion (able to question) • Information giver: provides information as a result of experience or expertise; • Initiator-contributor: offers many ideas and suggests the group or team consider moving in new directions. • Clarifier-Elaborator: Explains, expands, extends the ideas of others; provides examples and alternatives • (see Self-fulfilling prophecy: an individual’s behavior can be determined by others’ expectations) Managerial implications: it’s important to assess if the role structure present in our group is enhancing or inhibiting members’ ability to attain their goals SUMMING UP Two aspects of role dynamics help explain and predict individual behavior within a group as well as the performance of the group 1. ROLE PERCEPTION = an individual view of how he or she is supposed to act in a given situation (Robbins & Judge, 2014) = Our beliefs on how we should act in a given situation 2. ROLE EXPECTATIONS = The way others believe you should act in a given context (Robbins & Judge, 2014) GROUP PROPERTY: SIZE DIMENSION Smaller groups (8- 12 members) • Faster at completing tasks • Higher percentage of individuals contribute to group discussion Larger groups • Wide range of skills • Smaller percentage of individuals contribute to group discussion (fear of participation; less time for individual s to express themselves) • decreased individual visibility and Increased risk of social loafing SOCIAL LOAFING Definition: the tendency for individual to expend less effort when working collectively than when working individually Maximilien Ringelmann (1861-1931), a French agricultural engineer, asked workers to pull as hard as they could on a rope, alone or with one, two, or seven other people. He used a strain gauge to measure how hard they pulled in kilograms of pressure. Result: their collective group performance was inferior to the sum of their abilities to pull it individually (Ringelmann, 1913). Definition: the tendency for individuals to expend less effort when working collectively than when working individually Experiment Researchers recruited subjects and put them in a semi-circle. Individually and in various group numbers, they asked people to either clap or shout as loud as they could. They measured noise level with a machine in sound pressure units Results As might be expected, the more people clapping or cheering together, the more intense the noise and the more the sound pressure produced. However, it did not grow in proportion to the number of people: The average sound pressure generated per person decreased with increasing group size. Replications of experiments confirmed that • Group performance increases with group size, but the individual productivity of each members can decline. Experiment 2 (Williams, Harkins, & Latane, 1981) If people thought their individual effort was able to be measured, would they have less of a tendency to loaf? Researchers attached microphones to each person in order to convince participants that their individual efforts would be measured The results suggest that the belief their personal efforts are measured does discourage social loafing. Three lines of explanation 1. Attribution and equity: if you see others as lazy or inept, you can re-establish equity by reducing your effort 2. Dispersion of responsibility: When one works in a group, the responsibility for the group’s success or failure is shared among group members. So, individuals may be tempted to become free riders and to benefit from the task efforts of other group members. This opportunity is taken when members think their individual performance can not be personally identified (anonymity) ! Action plan modify the system of incentives 3. Illusion of group productivity (Paulus et al., 1993; Smith & Mackie, 2014) If you think your group is performing at high level, you may conclude that your contribution can be dispensable. Low self-perceived task ability (low self-efficacy) can influence this judgment Social loafing occurs less often when tasks are attractive, and involving Individual contributions are essential for success Group members know that their individual contributions can be monitored • Individual effort is identifiable: others can praise or condemn individual effort) The group sets clear performance goal and there are clear standard against which the group’s performance can be measured There is a strong identification with group !Action plan training Ways to prevent or attenuate Social loafing: Set clear, specific, challenging group goals (Robbins & Judge, 2014) they help group focus; energize (see Goal -Setting Theory) Engage in peer evaluation so each member evaluates each other member’s contribution (Robbins & Judge, 2014) and support self evaluation, and team reflexivity (Simms & Nichols, 2014) Identify each individual’s contribution to a project and base group rewards in part on each member’s unique contributions (Robbins & Judge, 2014) Adopt a contingent pay system in which employees receive bonuses when group goals are met (Smith & Mackie, 2014) • Select members who have high interpersonal skills, and prefer to work in groups (Robbins & Judge, 2014) • Verify members’ ability (and self-efficacy) eventually provide training Increase intergroup competition which focuses on the intragroup shared outcome (it can increase cohesion within the group) (Robbins & Judge, 2014) but can reduce organizational performance RANDOM NOTES Norms actable standards of behaviour within a group that are shared by the group’s members how we develop our product • 3 positive functions: 1. Guide and members’ behaviour 2. Make sense of and understand each others’ actions 3. …. a group’s norm could be bad the direct direction of a group’s influence on the individual motivation could be depended by norms Cultural diversity • Problems from DIVERSITY Impostare un progetto per risanare le differenze culturali: • Improving the knowledge of a cultural • Bypass the surface personal characteristics How to design HR practices? 1. Formulating hypothesis 2. HR PRACTICES (process) 3. Goals High level of burnout implementing a strategy using the PROBLEM SOLVING PROCESS Roles: positive; negative; improve socialization Tuckman Model • How teams develop: 4 STAGE 1. FORMING: In the first moments, the group does not perceive itself as a group; members don’t know their objectives and their goals yet. Positive aspect: curiosity and surprise Negative aspect: anxiety and uncertainty Ethnocentrism is an orientation toward the world wherein one sees other cultures through the perspective of one’s own culture. Further one evaluates others’ values and beliefs based on one’s own (cultural) values and beliefs, making binary judgments of right and wrong using the standards of one’s own culture. evaluation of other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one's own culture • strong emotional attachment to the INGROUP • hostile responsesto the OUTGROUP • Members categorize people according to their social group memberships. Once members do so, they begin to respond to those people more as members of a social group than as individuals. evaluation of other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one's own culture Question 7 As emerged from the question, the actors in our case are individuals working in a group, so the first step is focusing on the meso-organizational behaviors at the level of the group. The second step is identifying the problem: ethnocentrism is a possible consequence where in a group there is cultural diversity ( the degree to which the members in a group are similar, or are different, to each other). When diversity at group level is not managed properly (it’s perceived as a complexity, an error despite of a difference, an enrichment); consequences are lower level of job satisfaction in the individuals, and an overall negative attitude from the group and a low group performance. Basing our intervention with these problems, as a researcher, we should gather and analyze the data present in the group environment: what we collect say us that in the group there is an ethno-centric view, a specific and limited point of view (mindset) of the own group as virtous and superior, the accepted and universal standard, in relation to the other group. In other words members considers other ethnicity wrong, not different. Analyzed our data, we should plan the development of our intervention: set clear goals, set out the target of our intervention, the methods, time and the method of evaluation. We can distinguish from an organization level goal, that should be promote an effective collaboration and cooperation at group level; at individual and group level, a shift from an ethno centric view to a an ethno-relative view (the acknowledgment of more culture equal, valid, respectful, diverse not wrong). Based on our analysis the learning goal of our analysis should be development of intercultural competence based on a theoretical framework that focuses on the change of the attitude at the individual level improving knowledge about other cultures and skills of cooperation and tolerance in order to change the expected behaviors (effective intercultural communication; proper intercultural behavior). How to do it (generation of solution and consequent selection of the best one)? The first strategy is implementing cross-cultural training: the learning goals are improve the knowledge about the other cultures and self-awareness about the differences; the subject to teach is everything related to an effective management of cultural diversity (style of communication); the methods can be various: frontal lessons, videos but also group activities; when? In the first stage of the group formation (forming) or as HRM program for all the employees. Another strategy is more focused on the group intervention and changes: according to literature, if the group is able to realize the diversity can turn into a learning opportunity, this bring to higher satisfaction and performance. The shift should take place to a focus on surface-level diversity (short-term) to a focus on deep-level diversities (long- term). The teams’ development interventions focus on the goal of increasing the interesting of the group for their output as shared, group performance (common interest to the success). Question 9 The shared mental models are, according to the shared mental model theories, the foundamental cognitive instrument to work as a group in an effective way. When we should achieve complex tasks or solve problem as a team, having shared mental models (mental representation of knowledge) help to understand each other and react to the system in a similar way. According to this theoretical framework we can distinguish 5 different types of shared mental model: task/job (shared knowledge about tasks, missions, strategies, environment constraints); Team interaction (shared k. on how to communicate and interact, the right channels to use, the direction of the flow of communication); team (shared k. on team components, their skills, abilities, preferences); equipment/technology (how the infrastructure works); tacit beliefs (how to react to mistakes, conflicts, failures cognitive consensus). In order to develop shared mental models, this framework provide three macro solutions: coaching by managers and team leaders (promote the acceptance of others’ viewpoints and group reflexivity); clear goals (stay focused on the task); supportive organizational context (opportunities to communicate and exchange information - trainings, meetings). Question 8 Burnout is an outcome at the individual level, a psychological syndrome in response to chronic interpersonal stressors: it is characterized by emotional exhaustation, depersonalization; reduced efficacy. Burnout is the end state of the stress process, or health impairment process, caused by job demands (elements of the job that press/stretch employees’ personal capacities and require some physical, psychological and social costs) when they exceed employee’s, personal and job/organizational, resources (personal, physical and organizational aspects of the work that are functional in achieving goals; stimulate personal growth and can reduce the stress process). Stress is a general adaptive syndrome that can lead, after 3 stages (alarm, resistence and exhaustion) to the burnout. According to the JD-R Model, jod demand (booster effect) and resources (buffer effect) are two categories of work elements always present on workplace: they can lead to two different and independent process, stress process and motivational process. According to this theory the combination low resources and high job demands products the highest level of burnout. On the contraty, high job demands and high job resources bring to the highest level of well-being (motivation process individual outcome) because: the satisfy universal needs; because they increase the equity perception. The work engagement monitor is a managerial instrument on which we can apply the JD-R theory. The first step is defining our goal: high level of work engagement and a low/average level of strain. To do so, we should gather data and analyze them. The method of the inquiry are both qualitative interviews and quantitative analysis of the JD and R. The aim is to check if the job demands exceed the employees’ adaptive capacities and if they turn into psycosocial risks (=demanding and stressful activities role ambiguity, role conflict, work-life unbalance, org. injustice). Once assessed the JD-R and their balance (or unbalance) we can plan interventions at organizational, group or individual level: individual (optimize org. resources; increase job resources; fostering personal resources); group (increasing social support and manager skills to create a supportive climate) individual (training; wellness programmes. To sum up: organizational level job redesigning; training and individual level job crafting; strength-based. SLIDE 30 COMMUNICATION AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT ON THE BOOK