Week 1 - Introduction of OB
What two fundamental dimensions do people evaluate others on?
1. Warmth, i.e. “do I like you?”; 2. Competence, i.e. “Are you good at what you do?”
What are are the different strengths of a situation
What is a flow state and give some examples.
Almost an out-of-body experience. Making art, playing a sport, playing a musical instrument, playing video games, solving puzzles
What are the two dimensions that capture the day-to-day leadership behaviours?
Initiating structure where it is production-centred → pursuit of goal attainment
Consideration where it is more employee-centered → concerned about the welfare of employees
List the five organizational behaviour research methods.
1. Observation, 2. Interviews, 3. Existing Cases/Case Studies/Archival Data Analyses, 4. Surveys, Questionnaires, 5. Experiments
What are the characteristics of Agreeableness?
Compassionate and cooperative or Suspicious and antagonistic
To get off the Hedonic treadmill, what should one do?
Gratifications and putting yourself in a flow state allow us to be happier for longer. Things like volunteering, mastering a skill, spiritual practice, cultivating deep relationships
What is the underlying assumption of the life cycle theory of leadership?
Argues that optimizing job satisfaction and commitment, depends not on the leadership style or behaviours but on how a leader should act depending on the readiness of employees
List the three types of organizational commitment.
1. Affective commitment, 2. Continuance commitment, 3. Normative commitment
What does the 5 Factor model of Personality stand for?
O – openness
C – conscientiousness
E – extraversion
A – agreeableness
N – neuroticism (sometimes called emotional stability)
What does hedonic adaptation mean?
We are “programmed” to quickly adapt to new things. What’s novel becomes the norm. We are also “programmed” to continue striving for and expecting more–never being satisfied with our current condition. So even when we get what we want, we aren’t happier. We want more!
What is an autocratic style of leadership and when can it be effective?
Leaders make decisions without asking for any input from employees
Effective for decisions that are inefficient and do not need employee input
Usually better in situations where the leader has high expertise and is trusted
What does the cognitive dissonance theory explain?
It explains why we do counterintuitive things to ensure our behaviour and beliefs match
What are some problems with the Myers-Briggs Personality Test?
It forces bi-modality (“either/or”)
It creates “false opposites” (some personality types are correlated. For example thinking and feeling (IQ vs. EQ has a correlation of 0.45)
What does the value percept theory equation mean?
It's the difference between wants and needs, which is multiplied by importance since existing discrepancies get magnified for important values and minimized for trivial values
What are the behaviours of transformational leadership that make it different from transactional leadership?
Idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration
Explain the contingency approach to organizational behaviour.
The contingency approach explains that there is rarely a straightforward answer to questions regarding humans and organizations. This is so as human behaviour encompasses the interaction of many variables, i.e. the person, and the situation at hand.
What are three primary ways to measure someone’s personality?
Self-Report Questionnaire
Informant (other people) Ratings
Personality Artifacts - “behavioral residue”
List the two types of motivation and explain the differences between them.
Extrinsic: motivation that stems from the work environment external to the task. It is usually applied by others.
Intrinsic: Direct relationship between the worker and the task and is usually applied by the self
Why are substitutes for leadership helpful in understanding leadership?
Through substitutes and neutralizers; it allows us to explain why a leader who does the right thing does not make a difference
Also explains what should be done when there is an ineffective leader with no replacement → we can use substitutes and neutralizers to make leadership less important