Lecture 1
Name one factor necessary for causation
Correlation, Temporal antecedence, No third factor driving both
What is Conscientiousness?
The Big Five personality trait that reflects the degree to which a person is organized, reliable, and self-disciplined
What is the theory where people want control over their actions, so anything that makes a task feel like they lack control can reduce motivation?
Self-determining theory.
What is social loafing?
A type of motivational loss resulting from members feeling less accountable for team outcomes.
How can we make correlations more trustworthy?
We should combine with other methods like experiments and meta-analyses
Why might a person with high extraversion be more successful in customer-facing roles?
They tend to be sociable, outgoing, and enjoy interacting with others, which is beneficial in roles requiring customer engagement.
Can you list two cases when money backfired as an incentive, and please also explain the event?
Hanoi Rat Debacle and Wells Fargo “Gr-eight Initiative where sales have to sell at least 8 financial products per customer.
What is the name of the phenomenon where a group prioritizes harmony and agreement over critical thinking, often leading to poor decisions?
Groupthink
What is survivorship bias, and why is it important to be aware of in business case studies?
Survivorship bias happens when we only look at successful cases and ignore failures, which can give a false idea of what works in business.
What is the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in the workplace?
Intrinsic motivation comes from personal satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment, while extrinsic motivation is driven by external rewards like money, recognition, or promotions.
Alex is a high-performing employee who recently discovered that a new hire with less experience is earning a higher salary for the same role. Since then, Alex has been putting in less effort and has started looking for other job opportunities. What theory comes into play, and why?
Equity Theory, motivation is also a function of relative treatments, fairness in social exchanges.
In what situations can task conflict be beneficial for team performance?
Task conflict can be beneficial when teams are working on complex decisions, as it encourages critical evaluation and idea refinement.
Why is hypothesis testing more reliable than simply relying on anecdotal evidence or case studies in research?
Hypothesis testing involves systematically gathering data and using statistical methods to validate theories, providing more objective and generalizable conclusions compared to anecdotal evidence or case studies, which can be biased and unrepresentative.
How does a growth mindset impact an employee’s ability to handle failure and challenges in the workplace?
Employees with a growth mindset see challenges and failure as opportunities for learning and improvement, leading to greater resilience and perseverance in the face of adversity.
Medicine sans frontiers, a non-profit organization, wants to encourage employees to work harder by offering cash bonuses for meeting fundraising targets. However, after implementing the policy, management notices that employees who were once passionate about the cause now seem disengaged and only focus on hitting the target. What psychological phenomenon might explain this decline in intrinsic motivation, and explain the effect?
Crowding out, introduction of extrinsic incentive "crowds out" intrinsic motivation.
Give 2 examples of how psychological safety can be beneficial in a corporate environment.
Promotes innovation, supports productive conflict, mitigates failure, increases accountability