Summary of Essentials of Organizational Behavior: An Evidence-Based Approach by Scandura - 2nd edition

What is organizational behavior? - Chapter 1

Organizational behavior (OB) refers to the study of individuals and their behaviors at work. Organizational behavior refers to a multidisciplinary and multilevel research field that stems from applied psychology, cultural anthropology, communication and sociology. In this book, all areas are considered, yet there is a focus on applied social psychology. Applied psychology is the study of how people interact in groups. In addition, research in the areas of sociology and anthropology help us understand organizational culture and leading change.

When and how did the study of organizational behavior emerge?

OB is a relatively young research field, originated with the human relations movement ignited by the Hawthorne studies, which led to a focus on the role of human behavior in organizations. The Hawthorne studies refer to two studies that were conducted by Elton Mayo between 1927 and 1932. In his first study, he experimented with the effects of lighting in the plants on worker productivity. Surprisingly, they found that productivity increased rather than decreased despite the lights being dimmed. The researchers decided to interview the workers, learning that the workers appreciated the attention of the research team and felt that they were receiving special treatment. Next, productivity declined after the researchers left the plant. This has been called the Hawthorne effect, referring to a positive response in attitude and performance when researchers pay attention to a particular group of workers.

The second study aimed to study a new incentive system. However, instead of the incentive system increasing workers' production, the social pressure from peers took over, having far more impact on the productivity of the workers than pay increases. Workers formed into small groups and set informal standards for production, requiring coworkers to reduce their production so pay was more equal among the group members.

The researchers of the Hawthorne studies concluded that the human element in organizations is more important than was previously thought. The researchers found that workers want attention. Based on these Hawthorne studies, the human relations movement followed and OB emerged as a distinct field of studies in the 1950s. In 1957 the term organizational behavior first appeared in a book by Chris Argyris.

How to go from theory to practice?

OB is an applied science. First, the goals of science are as follows:

1. Description: What does the process look like?
2. Prediction: Will the process occur again? And if so, when?
3. Explanation: Why is it happening?
4. Control: Can we change whether or not this happens?

For instance, human resource managers need to have an understanding of how many customers will visit the store based upon prior seasons (in other words, a theory) and to be able to describe their need for additional workers. Prediction is important, because managers have to project with some accuracy how many additional seasonal workers they will need to hire to ensure that customers are to be served and not have to wait a long time.

"There is nothing as practical as a good theory" (Kurt Lewin).

Next, the ability to translate research to practice is called evidence-based management (EBM). The term, evidence-based, originally emerges in the field of medicine to guide how doctors make decisions regarding their patients' care. There are many different definitions of EBM available, yet the most frequently quoted one is: EBM refers to making decisions about the management of employees, teams, or organizations through the conscious, explicit, and judicious use of four sources of information:

1. The best available scientific evidence (for instance: research published on OB)
2. The best available organizational evidence (for instance: interviews or surveys completed by workers of an organization)
3. The best available experiential evidence (for instance: the intuition of the leader and his or her expert opinions)
4. Organizational values and stakeholders' concerns (for instance: stock price or groups that focus on whether the organization employs environmentally friendly practices)

When leaders use EBM to ask questions and challenge their thinking about their organizations, they may apply the following standards:

1. Stop treating old ideas as if they were brand new.
2. Be suspicious of 'breakthrough' studies and ideas.
3. Develop and celebrate collective brilliance.
4. Emphasize drawbacks as well as virtues.
5. Use success (and failure) stories to illustrate sound practices, but not instead of a valid research study.
6. Adopt a neutral stance toward ideologies and theories.

What is critical thinking?

Critical thinking calls for persistent effort to examine any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of evidence that supports it and the further conclusions to which it tends. The process of critical thinking consists of three interrelated parts:

1. The elements of thought (reasoning)
2. The intellectual standards that apply to the elements of reasoning
3. The intellectual traits that are associated with a cultivated critical thinking, resulting from the consistent and disciplined application of the intellectual standards to the elements of thought.

Critical thinking includes a complex combination of skills. Among the main characteristics are the following:

• Rationality
  • Rely on reason rather than emotion.
  • Require evidence, ignore no known evidence, and follow evidence where it leads.
  • Are concerned more with finding the best explanation, rather than being right. Analyzing apparent confusion, and asking questions.
• Self-awareness
  • Weigh the influences of motives and bias.
  • Recognize or own assumptions, prejudices, biases, or point of view.
  • Recognize emotional impulses, selfish motives, nefarious purposes, or other modes of self-deception.
• Open-mindedness
  • Evaluate all reasonable inferences.
  • Consider a variety of possible viewpoints or perspectives.
  • Remain open to alternative interpretations.
  • Accept a new explanation, model, or paradigms because it explains the evidence better, is simpler, or has fewer inconsistencies or covers more data.
  • Accept new priorities in response to a reevaluation of the evidence or reassessment of our research interests.
  • Do not reject unpopular views out of hand.
• Discipline
  • Are precise, meticulous, comprehensive, and exhaustive.
  • Resist manipulation and irrational appeals.
  • Avoid snap judgements.
• Judgment
  • Recognize the relevance and/or merit of alternative assumptions and perspectives.
  • Recognize the extent and weight of evidence.

In summary, critical thinkers are skeptical by nature. They approach texts with the same skepticism and suspicion as they approach spoken remarks. Critical thinkers are active, not passive. They ask questions and analyze. They apply tactics and strategies consciously to unravel meaning or assure their understanding. They do not take an egotistical view of the world. Rather, they are open to new ideas and perspectives. They are willing to challenge their beliefs and examine competing evidence.

Translating this into organizational behavior, the following basic questions are considered important for any manager to ask him or herself:

• What businesses are we in?
• What businesses should we be in?
• What is our mission?
• What should our mission be?
• Who should our customers be?
• How should we react to a major crisis, in particular if we are (perceived to be) at fault?
• How will the outside world perceive our actions?
• Will others perceive the situation similar to how we do?

In OB, there is a systematic method to answer these questions. This systematic, scientific method, will be discussed next.

What is the scientific method?

How do OB researchers know what they know? First, it begins with a problem to solve. For instance, a problem could be a leader's concern that only 50% of the employees is satisfied with their work. First, the manager reviews the already available knowledge on job satisfaction, learning that the way supervisors treat their followers may improve job satisfaction. Based on this theory, the leader formulates hypotheses or predictions, regarding what might improve job satisfaction. Next, the leader collects observations from the organization, for example through interviews with employees. After data collection, the hypothesis is tested with statistical techniques. This process forms the basic research process.

The scientific method can also be drawn as a circle. In the middle, it says: refine, alter, expand, or reject hypotheses. Next, all the steps of the scientific method are drawn in a circle around this middle, constantly referring to the next step.

• Make observations
• Think of interesting questions
• Formulate hypotheses
• Develop testable predictions
• Gather data to test prediction (--> additional arrow to the middle)
• Develop general theories
• ... Make observations (and so on) ...

In this example, leader appreciation of workers is the independent variable (the 'cause'). Worker engagement is the dependent variables, that is, it depends on the independent variable (here: leader appreciation). Because OB is an applied science, the outcome variables are typically variables that leaders are interested in improving. Broadly speaking, five groups of outcome variables can be studied:

1. Performance (job productivity) measured by actual performance (e.g., number of records correctly processed) or rated by supervisors or co-workers.
   • Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is the willingness of the worker to go above and beyond what is required in his or her job description.
2. Work-related attitudes
   • Job satisfaction
   • Organizational commitment: loyalty to an organization
3. Employee well-being
4. Motivation
5. Employee withdrawal
   • Turnover intentions: reasons why employees think about quitting
   • Actual turnover
   • Absenteeism

The behavior of employees may be influenced by processes at different levels in the organization:

• Individual level

• Team-level

• Organizational level

• Industry level

Question: which level(s) do you think have the most influence on individual behavior in organizations and why?

Why does theory X/Y have such a strong influence on understanding leadership?

The Human Side of Enterprise is one of the most influential books in OB. It is written by Douglas McGregor and is so important, because it shows the idea that leader behaviors are influenced by fundamental assumptions and beliefs about human nature. Most leaders are not aware of this phenomenon, hence their influence on behavior is pervasive and difficult to detect. These assumptions can be divided into pessimistic (Theory X) and optimistic (Theory Y) views on human nature.

• Theory X leaders assume that people are basically lazy, do not like to work, and will accept responsibility. The manager tends to be directive, engaged in surveillance, and showing coercion.

• Theory Y leaders assume that people are internally motived, like to work, and will accept responsibility. These managers' related behaviors are to allow discretion, participation, and the encouragement of creativity on the job.

One of the major themes of this textbook is to encourage you to think critically about the theories and approaches presented. This Theory X/Y is no exception. Over the past years, this theory has been criticized for being too simple and not considering the situation leaders and workers find themselves in. In addition, research was hindered for a long time, because good measures of this theory did not exist. However, recently, Richard Kopelman and his associates developed a measure of Theory X and Y that shows promise for the valid assessment of these diverse management philosophies.

Does personality matter? - Chapter 2

Personality refers to the regularities in feeling, thought and action that are characteristic of an individual. Understanding your own personality and that of others is critical for an effective workplace. This is because the following two reasons:

• Personality and other individual differences are rather stable over the life course.
• Personality is linked to social behavior in organizations. It may affect our work habits and how we interact with colleagues.

However, it is important to be aware of the fact that personality and most individual differences are not like other areas of AB, where the manager can influence the outcomes by some sort of intervention. Instead, individual differences are aspects of OB that must be understood. Leaders must work with them rather than trying to change the people.

Is personality hereditary?

Are personality traits inborn or learned? Can a brilliant scientist who is introverted, change his personality to become an extraverted visionary leader? The role of heredity of personality has been studied by the famous Minnesota twin studies. Different studies showed that 40 to 50% of the variation in occupational choice and work motivation is due to heredity. The implications for a leader are that, although personality might change (a bit), it is a relatively stable individual difference. A leader should try to learn about personality differences, understand how different personalities operate at work, and then learn to work effectively with different types.

Exercise: think about the following question. Are leaders born or made? In other words, is leadership born (hereditary) or learned (through, for instance, training)? Motivate your opinion. If leadership is both hereditary and learned, as some researchers believe, what do you think is the best way to identify leadership potential?

What is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator?

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is the most frequently administered personality test that is used to nonpsychiatric populations (the 'well' people). This test is based upon four general personality preferences:

• Introversion (I) vs. extraversion (E)
• Sensing (S) vs. intuition (N)
• Thinking (T) vs. feeling (F)
• Judging (J) vs. perceiving (P)

Extraverts tend to be outgoing; introverts tend to be shy. Sensing types tend to be practical; intuitive people tend to be 'idea people'. Thinking types tend to use logical; feeling people tend to use emotion. Judging types tend to make quick decisions; perceiving people tend to be more flexible.

One limitation of the MBTI is that there is limited research support for the reliability and validity of this test. If you take the test again, you may receive a different score. In addition, the matter of whether people are actually classifiable into the sixteen categories is questionable. However, the MBTI still is the most popular personality test that is used for organizations. It is important to be aware that the MBTI is not validated for selection (hiring people). Its best use appears to be for conflict resolution and teambuilding.

Which of the factors of the Big Five theory best predicts job performance?

The Big Five theory of personality consists of the following five factors:

1. Openness
2. Conscientiousness
3. Extraversion
4. Agreeableness
5. Neurocitism

Openness refers to the willingness of a person to embrace new ideas and situations. Conscientiousness refers to the characteristic of being a person who follows through and gets things done. Extraversion refers to being outgoing, talkative, and sociable as well as enjoying social situations. Agreeableness refers to being a nice person in general. Lastly, neuroticism refers to the tendency to be anxious or moody. This characteristic if often referred to by its opposite: emotional stability.

A lot of research has been conducted on whether these five traits predict job performance. Results indicate that the second dimension (conscientiousness) best predicts job performance. Indeed, people who are more achievement-oriented and dependable are often better employees and also better leaders. Moreover, conscientiousness is related to job satisfaction, income and higher occupational status.

Does stress kill?

You probably heard the phrase that stress kills. But is there any truth to this? Researchers have identified the following four types of personality:

• Type A: competitive, aggressive
• Type B: relaxed, easygoing
• Type C: nice, hardworking people who try to please others
• Type D: distressed personality

Cardiologists revealed a link between type A behavior and cardiovascular heart disease. Their theory was based on observations of patients in their waiting room. Some patients sat patiently whilst reading a book or magazine, while others sat on the edge of their seats and stood up frequently. They asked their patients questions such as: Do you feel guilty if you use spare time to relax? Do you need to win in order to derive enjoyment from games and sports? Do you generally move, walk, and eat rapidly? Do you often try to do more than one thing at a time? All patients were classified into A, B or C. By the end of the study, it was found that 70% of the Type A had coronary heart disease. More recently, type D was added. In addition, research showed lower recovery rates for coronary heart disease patients with type D personality. To conclude, while research on personality and health risk continues, there indeed seems to be a relationship between certain personality traits and higher risk of disease, suppressed immune system functioning, and slower recovery from illness.

How do other relevant personality traits influence employees?

In this section, three other relevant personality traits are discussed briefly.

Machiavellianism (in short: Mach) refers to a person who believes that the end justifies the means. To put it differently, the person will do whatever is takes to win. The trait is named after Niccolo Machiavelli, who wrote a book titled The Prince, outlining his strategies for gaining and holding onto power in the sixteenth century. Characteristics of machiavellianism are: distrust of others, desire for status, desire for control, amoral manipulation. Mach employees engage in counterproductive work behaviors, such as purposely wasting office supplies. They report lower job satisfaction and experience more stress on the job.

The Dark Triad is a combination of Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. Narcissism is the expression of grandiosity, entitlement, dominance and superiority. Narcissist may appear charming or pleasant in the short term, but they have difficulty trusting others and fail to develop effective working relationships in the long term. Psychopathy refers to impulsivity and thrill seeking behavior combined with low empathy and anxiety. These individuals lack feelings of guilt, are impulsive, and seek for immediate gratification of their needs. A study of 793 workers in their early careers found that narcissism is positively related to salary and Machiavellianism is positively related to leadership position and career satisfaction. Psychopathy, on the other hand, was negatively related to all career outcomes. To conclude, the Dark Triad as a combination did not predict career satisfaction and success, but individual traits may have a relationship to higher salary.

Another trait is self-monitoring referring to self-observation and self-control guided by situational cues to social appropriateness. High self-monitors are very adaptable to situations, and low self-monitors are not able to pretend that they are someone that they are not. Self-monitors are true to themselves and do not take cues to change their behavior from social situations. For instance, a person may give honest feedback, even if it is hurtful. High self-monitors pay more attention to the actions of others and adjust to fit the situation. This type of person will withhold negative feedback to allow the other person to 'save face'. In the working environment, high self-monitors perform better and become leaders, but have lower organizational commitment. They do, however, develop better working relationships with their boss, which explains the higher performance ratings they receive.

Lastly, risk taking is a personality traits that refers to any purposive activity that entails novelty or danger sufficient to create anxiety in most people. Some people are naturally prone to taking risks. Others are avoiding risks as much as possible. Research from 77 countries suggests that risk taking declines across the life span. In other words, as we get older, we take fewer risks. However, this differs across countries. In countries where there is social unrest and economic strife, risk does not decline as people age. These findings suggest that when resources are scarce, people must continue to assume risk to compete for resources. In addition, the finding that risk taking may change during one's life supports the idea that some personality characteristics are state-like (relatively changeable over time) rather than trait-like (relatively stable over time).

What is psychological capital?

Positive organizational behavior (POB) refers to the study and application of positive-oriented human resource strengths and psychological capacities that can be measured, developed, and effectively managed for performance improvement in today's workplace. POB is an emerging field. These positive psychological capacities are considered state-like, hence they could develop through training programs and other engagement interventions. These interventions focus on improving the psychological capital (PsyCap). Psycap is more than what we know or who you know; it is focused on who you are and who you are becoming. PsyCap focuses on the following four state-like characteristics:

• Efficacy: a person's belief that he or she has the ability to execute a specific task in a given context.
• Optimism: a positive outcome outlook or attribution of events, including positive emotions and motivation.
• Hope: the will to succeed and the ability to identify and pursue the path to success.
• Resiliency: coping in the face of risk or adversity; the ability to bounce back after a setback.

Initial results of novel research suggests that the four elements predict job performance and satisfaction.

How does self-evaluation affect people?

Core self-evaluations (CSE) are defined as fundamental premises that individuals hold about themselves and their functioning in the world. People who score high on CSE see themselves as competent and in control. Research shows that CSE relates to job satisfaction. This is in part due to high CSE workers taking on more complex tasks and seeing their work as personally fulfilling. It also predicts employee voice; people with high CSE are more likely to speak up and make suggestions about how to improve the work situation. Research has also shown that it is related to job performance and higher salary.

Why is person-environment fit important for employees?

Person-environment (PE) fit: when an individual's personality aligns with his or her environment, it yields job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and better job performance. It also decreases the chances to quit their job. There are two different forms of PE fit.

• Person-Organization (PO) fit: the match between a person's values and those of the organization. Good PO fit is positively related to job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance.
• Person-Job (PJ) fit: match between the person's personality, motivation and abilities and the characteristics of the job. There are two forms of PJ fit:
  1. Demands-abilities (DA) fit, which refers to the job being not too difficult and not too easy for the employee, and;
  2. Needs-supplies (NS) fit, which addresses whether the job fulfills the needs of the employee for interesting work and a sense of meaning in his or her work.

A well-known research theory of PJ fit is the personality job-fit theory of John Holland (1997). He found six different personality types and studied occupations that match these six types. The six personality types are: Realistic (R), Investigative (I), Artistic (A), Social (S), Enterprising (E) and Conventional (C). This is also known as the RIASEC model. John Holland developed a questionnaire entitled the Vocational Preference Inventory to assess these personality types and their match to 160 different jobs. Types are closer to one another on the hexagon are more similar. Types that are opposite (e.g., R and S) are most dissimilar. These six types are linked to the following characteristic description:

• Realistic: doers
• Investigative: thinkers
• Artistic: creators
• Social: helpers
• Enterprising: persuaders
• Conventional: organizers

A recent meta-analysis of 92 studies showed that the match between personality traits and job demands significantly predicts job performance.

What should leaders of an organization do?

In summary, this chapter discussed various personality characteristics. It also described that personality is relatively stable over the life course with the exception of PsyCap which may be changed through training. Hence, leaders may not be able to change other people's personality. Thus, it is important for leaders to understand others and work effectively with different personality types. Leaders can, and should, do two important things: examine each applicant's personality type and vocational interests when making hiring decisions, and; assess personality characteristics of their team members (for instance using Big Five, Type A, and CSE). Personality has the potential of being both positive and negative on the work floor. Understanding personality differences is thus essential for leader effectiveness.

How do emotions and mood influence employees? - Chapter 3

This chapter discusses the role that emotions and moods play in the workplace. In early OB literature, emotions and moods were largely ignored. It was assumed that employees left their feelings at home when they came to work. However, in the mid-1980's and the 1990's, organizational researchers began examining the effects of emotions and moods. The study of emotions and moods has revolutionized thinking about OB. In fact, by 2003, scholars referred to this research as the affective revolution in OB. Nowadays, it is argued that emotions and mood play an important role in the workplace. The remainder of this chapter focuses on how this is the case.

How are emotions and mood related?

Affect is defined as the range of feelings that employees experience at work. Affect consists of both emotions and mood. You can visualize this as a triangle, with affect on top and emotions and mood at the bottom. An arrow is drawn from affect to emotions and from affect to mood. State affect refers to feelings that are experienced in the short term. They fluctuate over time. In contrast, trait affect refers to stable individual differences. Emotions are triggered by specific events. They are short, but intense enough to disrupt a person's thinking. Emotions last only seconds or minutes. Some emotions are internal to a person, such as pride or love, whereas other emotions emerge in relationship with others, such as shame and guilt. Moods, on the other hand, are general feeling states that are not connected to a specific event. In addition, they are not intense enough to disrupt regular thought patterns or work. Emotions are more fleeting than moods. A felt emotion, for instance anger at your boss, may pass. Emotions are directed at another person or situation. Obviously, emotions and moods are related. For instance, being in a good mood can result in the experience of feeling happy (an emotion).

Positive state affect (PA) refers to the extent to which a person feels enthusiastic, active, and alert. A person with high PA is in a state of high energy, full concentration, and pleasurable engagement. Negative state affect (NA), on the other hand, refers to a general dimension of subjective distress and unpleasant engagement that subsumes a variety of aversive mood states, for instance anger, contempt, disgust, guilt, fear, and nervousness.

What are the characteristics of the affective events theory?

The Affective Events Theory (AET) provides a useful framework for the material that is covered in this chapter. The work environment, events, personality, and moods combine to evoke emotional responses, which can be both positive and negative. The AET can be visualized as follows:

A review of AET resulted in the following statements of what we know about affective events at work:

• Satisfaction is not emotion.
• Events cause emotions.
• Affect-driven behaviors are different from judgment-driven behaviors.
• Affective experiences change over time.
• Affect is structured as emotions and moods.

A key feature in AET is the work environment. Research has shown that the overall emotional climate of the work group matters. This is also known as the affective climate. To put it differently, the affective climate refers to the shared affective experience of a work group of team. They can be either positive or negative. A positive affective climate includes participation, warmth, social rewards and cooperation. A positive affective climate in the work group enhances the effects of good leader-member relationships.

Emotions can both broaden experiences of employees and allow them to build better functioning in organizations. This is also known as broaden-and-build model. Positive emotions, for instance pride in one's work, can transform organizations and the people in the organization. This is because positive emotions open people's minds and they begin to build personal and social resources, which in turn enable them to work more effectively. In addition, positive emotions can be contagious; a person's positive outlook at work affects emotional reactions of that person's colleagues. The broadening and building of emotions is also related to creativity at work. Emotional contagion is defined as the negative mood of one employee spreading in the group. Both positive and negative emotions (and moods) are contagious.

• Convergent linkage occurs when individuals share the interpretations of emotional events.
• Divergent linkage occurs when interpretations of emotional events differ.
• Complementary linkage occurs when the other person is the stimulus. In other words, one individual identifies with another person and this identification causes the emotions to spread as in 'misery loves company'.

Gratitude is defined as a generalized tendency to recognize and respond with grateful emotion to the roles of other people's benevolence in the positive experiences and outcomes that one obtains. Gratitude has both been studies as a trait (that is; some people are more grateful than others) and a state (that is related to being in a particular work situation).

How does emotional labor influence organizational success?

Emotional labor refers to the management of feeling to create a publicly observable facial and bodily display. To put it differently, it is the effort required to effectively manage emotions to be successful on the job. When one has to act differently than true emotions it creates emotional dissonance. Emotional dissonance is the result of the difference between the organizationally expected emotions and the 'real' emotions of the worker. To put it differently: 'Fake it till you make it'.

• Deep acting occurs when a desired emotional expression is achieved by changing one's underlying felt emotion. Employees start to actually feel the emotions they are acting out.

• Surface acting refers to producing a desired outward emotional expression without modifying one's true underlying emotions.

When members of a team engage in deep acting, this spreads to their team members. Hence, not every person in a team has to deep act; there is an emotional division of labor in the team. Emotional division is defined as any implicit or explicit division of roles in which individuals vary in their requirements to use emotional abilities. Emotional labor causes stress. However, when properly managed, it increases performance. To engage in emotional labor, a worker has to be sensitive to their own emotions and those of others.

Can emotional intelligence be learned?

Emotional intelligence (EI) consists of four aspects:

1. The ability to perceive emotion in self an others.

2. The ability to use emotion to facilitate cognitive activities like thinking and problem solving.

3. The ability to understand emotional information.

4. The ability to manage emotion in self and others.

Can EI be learned? Many scholars believe it can. First, people need to develop emotional literacy and be able to label their own emotions. Second, they need to learn how to manage or regulate their emotions. For instance, FedEx Express implemented a training program for new managers following these three steps: know yourself, choose yourself, give yourself. Results of this training program indicated an 8% to 11% increase in EI competencies.

The following statements summarize what we can safely conclude about EI:

• EI is different from, but positively connected to, other intelligences (such as IQ).
• EI is an individual difference. Some people are more endowed than others.
• EI develops over one's life span. It can be enhanced through training.
• EI involves, at least partly, individual's abilities to effectively identify and perceive emotion, as well as possession of the skills to understand and manage those emotions successfully.

What are the implications for leaders?

We probably all have had the experience of asking someone what is wrong and receiving the answer: 'Nothing, I am fine'. But from the tone of voice and body language, you know that person is upset about something. The bottom line here, according to psychologist Leon F. Steltzer, is that people do not trust others to respond in caring, supportive ways. One way to improve this is through training mindfulness. Mindfulness is a state of open attention on what is happening in the present without thinking about the past or worry about the future. Being mindful is significantly related to well-being. The following three steps help a leader to prepare for a coaching session in mindfulness:

1. Make the familiar new again.
2. Focus on your breathing when you are preparing to listen to another person.
3. Prepare to pay attention.

Next, begin the coaching session by the following steps:

• Based on your preparation, start with an empty mind.
• Be nonreactive.
• Practice permissive attention.

With a bit of practice, leaders should be able to create an affective coaching environment where they attend with a focus on their followers' emotions. Mindful coaching is about preparation and execution of only a few steps in each phase. Like any skill, with practice, a leader can become more mindful and in turn use that skill to understand the entire range of emotions and moods expressed by his or her employees.

To conclude, emotions are a relatively new area of organizational behavior, but an affective revolution has taken place in the field, which has led to new implications for effective leadership.

How do attitudes and job satisfaction influence the workplace? - Chapter 4

Feeling part of the 'larger mission' of the organization increases workers' meaning in their work and their organizational commitment. This chapter discusses the importance of attitude and job satisfaction on the workplace. For a leader, the implication is as follows: create meaning at work.

What is an attitude?

An attitude is defined as a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of disfavor. In other words, attitudes are a person's evaluation of something else. These evaluations have three components:

1. Cognitive (belief): "My job is boring"
2. Affective (feelings): "I do not like my job"
3. Behavioral (intention): "I will spend more time on Facebook during working hours"

This three-part conceptualization helps us to understand that attitudes are a complicated construct; it is not just that we think something and believe it to be true. We also experience feelings that are related to our beliefs and contemplate thinking actions based on those feelings. These components thus are all related to one another.

Cognitive dissonance is defined as the incompatibility between two or more attitudes and behavior. This causes stress for the individual, and that person will be motivated to resolve the stress by making a change in one or both of the other components. Thoughts, feelings, and actions need to be aligned. Question: how can the theory of cognitive dissonance be used to change the attitude of an employee?

Why is the measurement of attitudes important for the workplace? Attitudes can be studied both as outcome and predictor variables in organizational behavior. Attitudes make a difference in employee behaviors such as job performance. The importance of an attitude and the relationship between the attitude and the behavior increases the prediction of behavior. Social pressure may also enhance this relationship.

What is job satisfaction and what are the consequences of dissatisfaction?

Job satisfaction is defined as a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one's job or job experience. Job satisfaction may change over time, resulting in (in the event of positive change) better job performance. Job satisfaction has many different facets. It is possible that a person is satisfied with one aspect of their work, but dissatisfied with others. One of the most commonly known measures of facet satisfaction is the Job Descriptive Index (JDI), measuring satisfaction with: pay, promotions, supervision, coworkers, and the work itself.

Job satisfaction is the most frequently studied work attitude. Each year, the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) conducts a survey of employee attitudes toward their work. Over time, the trend of job satisfaction shows an interesting pattern; overall job satisfaction (the global rating of how much a person is somewhat satisfied or very satisfied with their job) shows a positive trend from 2005 to 2009, peaking to 86% of workers claiming to be very satisfied. However, the following years show a downward trend (to 81%). This may partly be caused by the economic stress and uncertainty resulting from the recession of 2008. The rate recovered in the next ten years. This study also examined the reasons why people are satisfied with their job. They found the following reasons, starting with the most important ones being: respectful treatment; overall compensation and salary; benefits; trust between employees and senior management; opportunities to use their skills and abilities at work; having a positive relationship with their boss.

Job satisfaction is important, because progressive organizations care about the well-being of their workers. It is also important as it is related to other work attitudes (this will be discussed further in the next chapter). Dissatisfaction with work may produce one of the following four possible responses (E-V-L-N):

1. Exit: the employee searches for another job and leaves. This response is active and destructive.
2. Voice: the employee discusses his or her dissatisfaction with the supervisor, making suggestions for improvement. This is an active and constructive response.
3. Loyalty: the employee waits for the situation to improve, showing loyalty and trust in the management to address it in time. This is a passive, but constructive response.
4. Neglect: the employee allows the situation to get worse and may be late or absent from work and put it less effort. This is a passive and destructive response.

How do job involvement and organizational commitment influence the workplace?

Organizational commitment is defined as a psychological state that describes an employee's relationship with the organization and a propensity to continue the relationship with the organization. According to the three-component-model of organizational commitment, it captures three different aspects of work attitude. First, affective commitment refers to the emotional attachment of an employee to an organization. They stay, because they care about the organization and are loyal to it. Second, continuance commitment refers to the degree to which an employee is aware of the costs of leaving the organization. They stay, because they are not able to leave. Third, normative commitment refers to the moral obligation to stay with the organization. They stay, because it is the right thing to do.

Job involvement refers to how much an employee identifies with his or her job and vies their performance at work as an essential part of their self-esteem. Both job involvement and organizational commitment are related to employee turnover.

• High organizational commitment + high job involvement = "institutional stars"
  • Least likely to be absent or leave.
  • Focus on the work itself and a future with the organization, satisfaction with salary, co-workers, and supervision.
• High organizational commitment + low job involvement = "corporate citizens"
  • Less likely to leave on a voluntarily basis than the lone wolves.
  • Focus on satisfaction with co-workers
• Low organizational commitment + high job involvement = "lone wolves"
  • More likely to leave on a voluntarily basis than to corporate citizens.
  • Focus on the work itself, satisfaction with working conditions and salary.
• Low organizational commitment + low job involvement = "apathetics"
  • Most likely to leave on a voluntarily basis.
  • Focus on satisfaction with rewards.

What is psychological empowerment?

Employee engagement is defined as the investments of an individual's complete self into a role. It is connected to job involvement and enthusiasm for the work performed. Employee engagement plays a key role in the relationship between perceived organizational support (POS) and job performance. POS refers to whether an organization values the contributions of its employees and cares about their well-being. Engaged employees feel valued by their organization. They respond positively to the work environment. Employee engagement improves financial results.

Psychological empowerment refers to intrinsic task motivation manifested in a set of four cognitions reflecting an individual's orientation to his or her work role: competence, impact, meaning, and self-determination. These cognitions are defined as follows:

• Meaning: how much work aligns with your personal standards.
• Competence (or self-efficacy): your belief in your capabilities to show mastery in your work role.
• Self-determination: the degree to which you feel that you have a choice in your work and autonomy to carry it out according to your own preferences.
• Impact: how much you believe that you can influence important work outcomes.

Although all four components contribute to job outcomes, meaning is the driver of psychological empowerment. Psychological empowerment is positively related to managerial effectiveness, innovation, and organizational commitment. Leaders can develop their workers' feelings of empowerment. They may also create positive attitudes by developing a sense of meaning with respect to the work performed. By creating a sense of meaning, leaders might be able to activate other positive attitudes about work and improve employee motivation.

Why do people not see eye to eye? - Chapter 5

People may see things in organizations differently, because they make perceptual errors. Perceptual errors are flaws in perception due to mental shortcuts that people make to simplify information that is processed. There errors have several implications on the workplace: they affect interpretations of the behavior of leaders and coworkers; they affect how job applicants are seen in interviews, and; they affect performance appraisals. Therefore, leaders need to be aware of these perceptual biases and guard against them.

What are the most studied biases in workplace studies?

The most studied biases in workplace settings can be remembered by the acronym PRACH, which stands for primacy, recency, availability, contrast, and halo. Each of these will be discusses briefly below.

The primacy effect or belief perseverance refers to the first impression. It refers to the well-known statement "you never get a second chance to make a first impression". Indeed, first impressions do matter. They matter a lot. Stereotypes play an important role in these first impressions one has about for instance a job applicant. What can be done to address the primacy effect? Research has demonstrated that when people are asked to justify their decisions to others, they are more likely to process all the information that is available to them. Thus, accountability influences a person's vigilance and improves processing of all the information that is presented. Second, the leader should be willing to "hit the reset button" and look at a situation as if they had no prior exposure to it.

Not only do people remember what they experience first, they also remember the most recently presented items or experiences. This is referred to as the recency effect. For instance, if you hear a long list of names, you probably forget the ones in the middle, but you will remember those at the end. In a job interview, for example, it is important to end on a positive note by showing the interviewer appreciation for their time. People can, however, improve their short-term memory by employing control processes that affect how information is stored and retrieved. Two such techniques are rehearsal (repetition of information) and imaging (linking verbal information to visual images).

Availability bias is a form of bias in which a person's judgement is based upon what most readily comes into a person's mind. For example, when a person is read a list of names with 19 famous women and 20 less famous men, this person will probably say that there are more women on the list. In addition to information that is readily available, information that is more difficult has a higher chance of being forgotten. Thus, both the ease and difficulty of recall affects how well people remember information. How can a leader guard against making this availability bias mistake? First, he or she can make the things that are desired for decision making vivid and very easy to bring to mind, for example with repetition and visualization. Elaborative interrogation increases the willingness to let go of preconceived notions and learn material that challenges belief. This requires people to generate their own explanations of factual statements that are presented to them.

Contrast effects refers to a "shortcut" when we make comparisons based upon what has happened just before we make a decision or judgment. For example, when a leader has followers who are poor performers, the leader tends to give very high ratings to average-performing subordinates. Contrast effects may also happen during the interviewing process. An application may be rated more favorably if he or she follows a sequence of poor applicants, even though they may not be the best person for the job. To eliminate these contrast effects, leaders should be more aware of the potential risk. In addition, a structured interview may help. A structured interview uses standard and numerical score sheets, uses behavioral and situational questions, asks the same questions in the same order for each applicant, and avoids questions that are unrelated to the position one is interviewing for.

Halo error (the opposite is called horns error) occurs when the rater's overall positive (or negative in case or horns error) impression or evaluation strongly influences ratings of specific attributes. For instance, wearing a fraternity pin to an interview may invoke a positive impression if the interviewer is a person who assumes membership in the organization translates to high performance. Halo error results in an overall positive impression of a follower that clouds evaluation of actual performance, because it is assumed that if a follower is good at one aspect of the job, he or she is good at everything.

How do self-fulfilling prophecies influence the application process?

Employability refers to an attribution employers make about the probability that job candidates will make positive contributions to their organizations. What determines employability? Three determinants have been identified:

• Social, interpersonal compatibility --> rewarding to deal with
• Abilities, expertise, know how --> able to do the job
• Ambition, work ethic, drive --> willing to work hard

Which four roles do managers have in decision making?

Managers have four decisional roles according to Mintzberg:

1. Entrepeneur: looking for new ideas and opportunities
2. Disturbance handler: resolving conflicts and choosing strategic alternatives
3. Resource allocator: deciding how to prioritize the direction of resources
4. Negotiator: protecting the interests of the business by interacting within teams, departments, and the organizations

Some people, however, seem to be unable to make any decision. Why are some people more indecisive than others? It appears that personality traits play a role here. Less emotionally stable leaders who fear upsetting others allow debates to drag on for too long. As a result, they may make decisions that are not optimal. Indecisiveness may also affect students who are about to decide which job offer they take. Career indecision refers to the difficulties preventing individuals from making a career decision.

How to make decisions according to the rational decision-making model?

The decision-making model presents a series of logical steps one can follow to determine the optimal choice. The six steps of this model are:

1. Problem or opportunity identification
2. Information search and analysis
3. Generate alternatives
4. Evaluate alternatives
5. Make decision
6. Develop action plans

Sometimes, managers fail to identify the problem correctly (step 1). Also, some managers only consider a few alternatives rather than a broad set of possible options (step 3). Sometimes, managers suboptimize rather than choose an optimal alternative. Finally, decisions are sometimes made without complete information due to lack of availability of information that is relevant to the problem or due to time pressure. Frequently, people satisfice; they make a decision that is satisfactory but perhaps not optimal.

What is the prospect theory?

Suppose the following two scenarios:

1. 1. You have €1000,- and you must pick one of the following choices:

   • A. You have a 50% chance of gaining €1000,- and a 50% chance of gaining €0,-

   • B. You have a 100% chance of gaining €500,-

2. 2. You have €2000,- and you must pick one of the following choices:

   • A. You have a 50% chance of losing €1000,- and a 50% chance of losing €0,-

   • B. You have a 100% chance of losing €500,-

The majority of people chose B for question 1 and A for question 2. However, if people made decisions according to rational decision-making norms, they would pick either A or B in both situations. They should be indifferent because the expected value of both outcomes is the same. Why do most people decide differently? Well, it appears that people are willing to settle for a reasonable gain even if they have a reasonable chance of earning more, but they are willing to engage in risk-seeking behaviors when they can limit their losses. To put it differently, losses weigh more heavily emotionally in decision making than an equivalent gain.

Prospect theory explains why decisions are sometimes irrational. People tend to put more emphasis on gains instead of losses; they make decisions that increase their gains and avoid loss. According to the prospect theory, people treat the two types of risk (gain versus loss) differently to maximize their perceived outcome. This, however, may result in irrational decisions that are not based on a correct calculation of expected utility.

As such, framing is of great importance. Framing refers to whether questions are presented as gains or losses.

How does intuition influence decision making?

Leaders often rely on their gut feeling (intuition) when making important decisions. Although intuition in decision making has a bad reputation, most managers acknowledge that it plays a role in their decisions. It may lead to wicked organizational problems, known by the following characteristics:

• There are no clear boundaries, many actors, and high connections to other problems.
• They require holistic strategies, piecemeal solutions do not work.
• They have nonlinear cause-effect relationships that are difficult to determine.
• They lack finality of resolution.
• Patterns continually emerge, so predictability is impossible.
• They lack ultimately "right" answers; situational factors mean every solution is temporary.

These problems are "wicked" because they are complex, dynamic, and constrained, so there are limits to whether analysis or heuristics can be applied.

Three major decision traps are:

• Hindsight bias, also known as "I knew it all along effect": the tendency for individuals with outcome knowledge (hindsight) to claim they would have estimated a probability of occurrence for the reported outcome that is higher than they would have estimated in foresight (without the outcome information).
• Overconfidence bias (hubris): inflated confidence in how accurate a person's knowledge or estimates are.
• Escalation of commitment: when individuals continue a failing course of action after receiving feedback that shows it is not working. Continuing commitment, because a person is already invested in this course.

What is creative problem solving?

A famous quote by Albert Einstein on creativity is the following:

Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.

Creativity is defined as follows: discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought. Creativity refers to the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others.

The three components of the model of creativity are: expertise; creativity skills, and; task motivation. Given that the person has the expertise (knowledge: technical, processes, and academic) related to the problem, their creative thinking skills can be enhanced through training. Moreover, leaders can enhance the right processes and workplace climates to enhance creativity.

What are the implications for leaders?

This chapter showed how perceptions can be flawed and impact the quality of a leader's decision. Leaders should follow three fundamental ethical guidelines. First, utilitarianism refers to the consideration of decisions that do most good for the most people ("the end justifies the means"). Second, individual rights protect individuals, such as the right to appeal a decision that affects them. Third, justice emphasizes social justice. Decision makers are guided by equity, fairness and impartiality.

What makes a good leader? - Chapter 6

Leadership is, in most studies, assumed to be learned. Leaders' behaviors can be divided into two broad categories: initiating structure and consideration. A takeaway of this chapter is that leaders need to be flexible and adapt to both followers and the situation they are in. In adapting to the situation, leaders should follow the following steps:

1. Assess the individual differences of your followers in terms of abilities and motivation.
2. Assess the situation.
3. Pay attention to follower behaviors and take corrective actions and apply rewards as suggested by the full-range model of leadership.
4. Assess the moral component of every leadership decision you make.

What is leadership?

Leadership refers to the process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done and how to do it, and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared goals. Leadership is an influence process. It involves directing others (individuals and groups) toward organizational goals.

Leadership is different from management. A manager administers, a leader innovates. A manager maintains, a leader develops. A manager is a copy, a leader is an original. A manager does things right, a leader does the right thing. A manager has his or her eyes on the bottom line, a leader's eye is on the horizon. In other words, leadership involves inspiring a vision. Management involves controlling the operations. There is, however, some overlap between leadership and management: managerial leadership refers to adapting to situational demands.

Is leadership innate or acquired?

In the trait approach, it is assumed that leaders are born with the talent and ambitions for leadership. In contrast, many other leadership theories propose that leadership can be learned. When the trait approach was largely dismissed in the 1940s and 1950s, researchers turned their attention to what leaders do using so-called behavioral approaches. Following a research program in the 1950s, it was found that the things leaders do, can be divided into two categories. First, initiating structure refers to defining tasks for employees and focusing on goals. Second, consideration refers to the degree to which the leader shows trust, respect, and sensitivity to employees' feelings.

What is the path-goal theory?

A leader should be flexible and adapt their leadership behavior to followers and the situation. Leaders motivate their followers to accomplish objectives by establishing the paths to the goals. The path-goal theory (PGT) describes four different motivating leadership behaviors:

1. Directive leadership: giving followers specific instructions about their tasks, providing deadlines, setting standards for performance, and explaining rules.
2. Supportive leadership: showing consideration, being friendly and approachable, and paying attention the well-being of followers.
3. Participative leadership: allowing followers to have a voice in decisions that affect them, sharing information, inviting followers' ideas and opinions.
4. Achievement-oriented leadership: challenging followers to perform at high levels, setting standards for excellence, showing confidence in followers' ability to reach goals.

These four different types of leadership behavior influence follower's path perceptions, depending on the characteristics of the follower (ability level, personality, preference for structure, need for control) and of the situation (job design, formal authority system, workgroup norms). First, the E --> P expectancy is the follower's effort path to performance. In other words, if people try, they will achieve their goal. Second, the P --> O (performance-to outcome expectancy) is the belief that the leader will provide a reward that is wanted, and these rewards are of value to the follower or valences (Vs). In other words, the leader's behavior affects follower motivations to assure the leader will provide the rewards that are valued. The removal of barriers and strengthening of expectancies and instrumentalities results in follower satisfaction, effort, and performance.

Should a boss treat everyone alike?

Leaders treat their followers differently based upon their unique abilities and contributions to the work group and organization. The leader-member exchange (LMX) model is defined as the quality of the working relationship developed with each follower and is characterized by more delegation of authority to those with high quality. Leader decide, briefly, on their in-group members and their out-group members. Out-group members perform to the specifications in their job description, but they do not go above and beyond and do not take extra work. In-group members do.

LMX relationships develop through three steps: role taking, role making, and role routinization.

1. Role taking: the leader tests the commitment of the follower by offering extra work.
2. Role making: mutual expectations of the working relationship are established, and the follower's role is clearer.
3. Role routinization: once roles are made, they become stable, because both the leader and the follower know what to expect.

How to manage your boss?

Jean Kelly offers the following guidelines for effectively managing your boss.

• Find out from your boss what "good" looks like and who is involved in measuring good.
• Ask your boss what kind of follow-up he or she wants for his or her comfort level.
• Examine the style of your boss and adjust yourself to that style.
• Find the courage to tell your boss when you feel you have not been fully heard.
• Become aware of the styles of other managers, especially when they have a stake in the outcome of a project.
• Manage up (understanding your boss and teaching your boss how to work with you).

A part of being able to manage your boss, is to understand how you feel about authority. Some people are counterdependent; they resent authority and being told what to do. Others are overdependent; they are compliant and give in all of the time. Finally, some people are interdependent; they depend on one another to get things done in the group and organization.

What is the cause of one's behavior?

Attributions represent a person's attempt to assign a cause to a behavior or event they observe. In line with this, attribution theory proposes that the attribution people make about events and behavior can be either internal or external. In the event of internal attribution, people infer that an event of a person's behavior is due to his or her own traits and abilities. In the event of external attribution, people believe that a person's behavior is due to situational factors.

Attributions can bias how we process information and make decisions. One way in which this occurs is called the fundamental attribution error, referring to the tendency to attribute other people's behavior to internal factors such as character traits of abilities, but when explaining one's own behavior, people tend to attribute the cause to the situation. A second way of bias is called self-serving bias, that occurs when a person attributes successes to internal factors and failures to situational factors. The further an event is in the past, the more likely the cause of a failure will be attributed to the situation.

How can a leader avoid attribution bias? One should gather additional information when ascribing a cause to certain behavior. By paying attention to overall patterns of behavior, one can make more accurate conclusions by considering the following:

• Consensus information: information about how other people would behave if they were in the same situation. High consensus means other people would behave similar. Low consensus means other people would behave differently.
• Distinctiveness of information: information about how the individual behaves the same way in different situations. Low indistinctiveness means that one behaves the same way in different situations. High indistinctiveness means that someone behaves in a particular way toward a particular situation only.
• Consistency information: information about how the individual behaves toward a certain stimuli across time and circumstances. High consistency means that someone behaves the same way almost every time he or she is in a particular situation.

Following these patterns we can conclude the following: if a leader wants to improve judgments and avoid the attribution error, he or she should consider how well other people would do in the same situation. For example, do all employees make the same mistake when filling out forms for customers? If so, maybe the form needs to be revised. When the right attributions are made, the working relationship between a leader and a follower will develop into a high-quality one.

What is meant by mentoring?

One of the best things that can happen is when the leader becomes a mentor. Mentoring refers to an intense developmental relationship whereby advice, counseling, and developmental opportunities are provided to a protégé by a mentor, which, in turn, shapes the protégé's career experiences. Mentors provide both career support and social support.

Is trust important?

Trust refers to the willingness to be vulnerable. Trust is related to many importance outcomes, including risk taking, job satisfaction and job performance. Trust is thus very important for an effective and efficient organization. A three-part helpful framework to organize your thinking about how trust operates in organizations is discussed:

• Calculus-Based Trust (CBT) is a form of trust based upon keeping records of what another person does for you and what you do for them. It is an "arm's-length" kind of trust in which neither party really becomes vulnerable to the behavior of someone else.
• Knowledge-Based Trust (KBT) is the second level of trust. This level of trust is grounded in how predictable the other person is. Through interactions benefits are exchanged between two parties. People come to expect the other person to come through for them. It is based upon information that is gathered about the other person in a variety of circumstances.
• Identification-Based Trust (IBT) is characterized by the leader and follower sharing the same goals and objectives. The follower identifies with the vision of the leader. There is no need for record keeping, and the predictability of the behavior of the follower is assumed.

The development of trust is considered as tactical climbing, in which there are increasing levels of risk and vulnerability over time.

What to do when trust is broken? There are three important questions to ask in that situation:

• Is the trustee (the person who is the target of the trustor's trust) innocent or guilty of committing the transgression?
• If the trustee is guilty of the transgression, should this be attributed to the situation or to the person?
• If the transgression is attributed at least partly to the person, is the personal shortcoming fixable or is it an enduring characteristic of the trustee?

What are the characteristics of the full-range leader development model?

The full-range leader development model is based on research on transformational leadership. The idea is as follows: leadership is considered a continuum. People start at the lower end of the ladder, which is called transactional leadership (behaviors that motivate followers through rewards and corrective actions). At the highest end of the model, people are more engaged with their leaders when their leaders behave in certain ways. This is called transformational leadership.

Transactional leadership is characterized by (from worst to best):

• Nonleadership / "laissez-faire" leadership. Near avoidance of leadership.
• Management by exception (active or passive). In the active form (MBE-A), the leader looks for the follower to make errors and then corrects them. In the passive form (MBE-B), the leader does not actively look for errors, but when noticed, takes an corrective action.
• Contingent rewards.

Transformational leadership is characterized by the four I's behaviors:

• Idealized influence: being admired and respected by the followers.
• Inspirational motivation: leaders inspire others to work hard toward organizational objectives by providing challenge. They are positive and make others feel optimistic.
• Intellectual stimulation: leaders encourage innovation and new ideas.
• Individualized consideration: leaders treat each follower as a unique individual.

How is ethics involved in leadership?

Leadership and ethics are intertwined; ethical decision making is important to the practice of leadership and contemporary theories of leadership address morality. Four components have been found on ethical leadership:

• Moral sensitivity involves recognizing that our behavior impacts others.
• Moral judgment involves determining the right decision.
• Moral motivation is having the need to do the right thing.
• Moral action.

Two other theories on leadership have emerges: servant leadership and authentic leadership.

• The servant leader is servant first. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. That conscious decision brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from who is leader first (instead of servant), perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions. Servant leadership is also called humble leadership.
• Authentic leadership involves knowing oneself and behaving in a way that is consistent with what is intuitively right. Characteristics of an authentic leader are: self-awareness, relational transparency (one says exactly what one means), internalized moral perspective (ones beliefs that are consistent with ones actions) and balanced processing.

In sum:

• Authentic leadership: leader self-awareness, relational transparency, internalized moral perspective, balanced processing, moral person, relationships.
• (Minor components: moral manager, idealized influence and conceptual skills)
• Ethical leadership: internalized moral perspective, moral person, moral manager, idealized influence, behaving ethically.
• (Minor component: individualized consideration)
• Transformational leadership: internalized moral perspective, moral person, idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration, conceptual skills, helping subordinates grow and succeed, putting subordinates first, relationships.
• (Minor components: relationship transparency, balanced processing, moral manager, empowering)
• Servant leadership: leader self-awareness, moral person, moral manager, emotional healing, value for community, conceptual skills, empowering, helping subordinates grow and succeed, putting subordinates first, behaving ethically, relationships, servanthood.

How to apply critical thinking to leadership?

One important aspect of this book is to apply critical thinking. Despite many proponents of leadership, some researchers have criticized the emphasis on the leader and their behavior. An alternative view is to consider leadership in the eyes of the follower. Leadership, according to this view, is an attribution that a follower makes about another person.

The implicit leadership theory (ILT) studies how attributions about leadership affect follower perceptions of who you are in the role of the leader. People have implicit leadership schemas (models) in their minds of what constitutes an effective leader. In addition, people make significant attributions about the power of leaders. This is also called the romance of leadership: leaders are not powerful because of their expertise or behaviors, instead their power is derived from follower attributions of their influence over events.

How to use power in an organization? - Chapter 7

Four guidelines have been proposed for leaders to use power effectively in an organization. First, recognize that every organization has varying interests. The leader needs to first diagnose the political landscape. Second, figure out what point of view various individuals and units have on issues of concern. Third, understand that to get things done, you need power, so you need to understand where power comes from and how the sources of power can be developed. Fourth, understand the strategies and influence tactics through which power is developed and used in organizations.

What are the characteristics of power?

Power is the potential of one person or one group to influence another person or group. Having power does not mean one has to actually exercise it. For instance, it is an officer's potential power to write you a ticket and not the actual behavior of writing a ticket that slows you down. Influence, on the other hand, is the exercise of power to change the behavior, attitudes and/or values of an individual of group. In other words, influence is the power in use.

There are five bases of power in organizations. The first three are position power: they come with a person's position in the hierarchy. The last two are personal power: they come from the personal characteristics of the person and may have no relationship to one's position in the organization.

1. Coercive power: the ability to push. It may include threats. Most leaders claim to have this power, although they rarely use it.

2. Reward power: the ability to provide incentives of other things that are valued, for instance pay raises, bonuses, and promotions.

3. Legitimate power: the ability to make a request and get a response due to the nature of the roles between two people. Legitimate power is based upon the structural level in the organization and/or a feeling of obligation.

4. Expert power: the ability to influence others due to knowledge or a special skill set or expertise.

5. Referent power: the ability to influence based upon others' identification with the individual and the desire of the follower to emulate them. Referent power is based upon liking, respect, and admiration.

Three possible reactions of followers may result from these power bases.

1. Commitment (internalization): a strong effort made and enthusiasticallycarries out the request. Both attitudes and behavior change.

2. Compliance: willingness to complete the request, but does so in an apathetic manner giving minimal effort. Only behavior changes.

3. Resistance: refusal to do it. No change in behavior and attitude toward the request.

Common pathways are as follows (follower engagement level --> power base used (follower response) --> follower reaction to directives:

• Commitment --> Referent ("I admire you") --> High motivation and performance
  Commitment --> Expert ("I need your help") --> Zone of indifference

• Compliance --> Legitimate ("It is my job") --> Zone of indifference
  Compliance --> Reward ("I am in it for the money") --> Zone of indifference

• Resistance --> Coercive ("I resent being treated this way") --> Low performance and sabotage

What are the organizational sources of power?

Power is based upon how much people depend upon other necessary resources. There are three lines of power for leaders in organizations to use in order to gain productive power. First, lines of supply: leaders bring in the things that their group needs, such as money, materials and other resources such as rewards and prestige. Second, lines of information: leaders need to know what is happening in the organization that may affect the goals of the group. Also, it is important to know who to share information with (and who not to share it with). Third, lines of support: a leader needs to be able to innovate in order to have an impact on the organization. The leader needs to have support that allows for risk taking behavior beyond the typical organizational routines.

One can also influence another without authority. Remember that power is based upon the general dependence postulate: the greater someone depends upon another person, the more power they have over them. Hence, to influence someone over whom you have no formal authority, you need to assess whether and how much he or she depends upon you. Here, a model of influence without authority can be used. This model is based upon the law of reciprocity (paying back). The model without authority goes as follows: assume all potential allies --> clarify your goals and priorities --> diagnose the world of the other person --> identify relevant currencies (theirs, yours) --> dealing with relationships --> influence through give and take.

What are the eleven proactive influence tactics?

In this section, eleven proactive influence tactics are discussed:

1. Rational persuasion: using logical arguments and factual evidence to show a proposal or request is feasible and relevant for attaining important task objectives.

2. Apprising: explaining how carrying out a request or supporting a proposal will benefit the target personality or help advance the target person's career.

3. Inspirational appeals: making an appeal to values and ideals or seeking to arouse the target person's emotions to gain commitment for a request or proposal.

4. Consultation: encouraging the target person to suggest improvements in a proposal or to help plan an activity or change for which the person's support and assistance is desired.

5. Collaboration: offering to provide relevant resources and assistance if the target person will carry out a request of approves a proposed change.

6. Ingratiation: using praise and flattery before or during an influence attempt to express confidence in the ability of the target person to carry out a difficult request.

7. Personal appeals: asking the target person to carry out a request or support a proposal out of friendship or asking for a personal favor saying what it is.

8. Exchange: offering an incentive, suggesting an exchange of favors or indicating willingness to reciprocate at a later time if the target person will do what is requested.

9. Coalition tactics: seeking the aid of others to persuade the target person to do something or using the support of others as a reason for the target person to agree.

10. Legitimate tactics: seeking to establish the legitimacy of a request or to verify authority to make it by referring to rules, policies, contracts, or precedent.

11. Pressure: using demands, threats, frequent checking, or persistent reminders to influence the target person to carry out a request.

Only the last tactic, pressure, was negatively related to both task and relationship effectiveness. This relationship was neutral for rational persuasion and positive for all other tactics. Especially rational persuasion is very effective.

What is impression management?

Impression management is a set of behaviors that people use to protect their self-image or change the way they are seen by others (or both). There are three reasons why people are motivated to manage their impression: the relevance of the goal of the impressions, the value of these goals, and the difference between their desired and current image. There are two different goals for using impression management. First, minimizing the bad: to use them defensively to avoid blame for poor performance or ask for forgiveness. Strategies for this goal are: apologies, excuses, justifications. Second, maximizing the good: to generate respect and liking from other people. Strategies for this goal are: exemplification, ingratiation, and self-promotion. One can also manage impressions with body language.

How are politics and power related to one another?

Organizational politics refer to unsanctioned influence attempts that seek to promote self-interest at the expense of organizational goals. Perceptions of organizational politics (POP) refers to an individual's subjective appraisal of the extent to which the work environment is characterized as self-serving of various individuals and groups, to the detriment or at the cost of other individuals or groups.

Political skills are defined as follows: the ability to effectively understand others at work, and to use such knowledge to influence others to act in ways that enhance one's personal and/or organizational objectives. Political skills consist of four sets of behaviors.

1. Networking ability: the ability to create a diverse constellation of contacts both within and outside of the organization.

2. Social astuteness: being able to accurately interpret the behavior of others through attentive observation.

3. Interpersonal influence: having the ability to adapt influence strategies to different situations.

4. Apparent sincerity: appearing to others as genuine and honest.

Individuals need to have both the "will" and the "skill" for political acumen.

How is motivation related to performance? - Chapter 8

Leaders play a major role in how motivated their followers are to perform at high levels. Leaders should assure that followers understand their goals and are committed to those. In addition, leaders can design more motivating work or allow followers some discretion to craft their own work. Lastly, leaders strengthen the expectations of followers that they can perform at a high level (expectancy) and that they will receive rewards that they value for performing (instrumentality). Holding high expectations might enhance the positive effects of a Pygmalion effect (self-fulfilling prophecy) on follower motivation.

What is motivation?

Motivation refers to what a person does (direction), how hard a person works (intensity) and how long a person works (persistence). The motivation process describes three stages of motivation.

1. Energizing behavior: a leader must energize their followers' behavior by activating underlying needs and drives.
2. Directing behavior: once energized, the leader then directs the energized behavior toward goals that are important to the follower and the organization.
3. Sustaining behavior: this is often done through the provision of rewards that followers value, for instance pay raise.

For motivation to be effective, feedback is needed in order for the process to stay on track. Feedback is a core element in various theories of motivation, including goal setting.

What are the characteristics of common need theories?

Early theories of motivation focus on the first part of the motivation process: energizing behavior. They focus on what needs or drives motivate people. A well-known theory on need motivation is the Maslow hierarchy of needs, consisting of the following levels: psychological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs and, finally at the top self-actualization (the drive to meet our fullest capacity). This theory was the first to point out that there are individual differences in motivation. Even though this theory is appealing due to its simplicity and intuitive appeal, it is not supported by research evidence.

Another need theory considers three fundamental needs.

1. Need for achievement (nAch): the drive to succeed at high levels).
2. Need for power (nPow): the need to influence others to do what you want.
3. Need for affiliation (nAff): the need for close personal relationships.

Another theory, the two-factory theory connects lower- and higher-order needs to job satisfaction. This theory is also called the motivator-hygiene theory. What do people really want from their work? When people think about this question, they think of things like supervision, pay, company policies and so one. These are called hygienes. In contrast, what people think of what satisfies them, they are more likely to consider things like advancement, recognition, and achievement. These are called motivators. Hygienes can only lead people to the level of "no dissatisfaction". In order to motivate people, leaders need to focus on the motivators, for instance by providing followers a sense of achievement.

How to set goals?

For goals to motivate people, they must have certain characteristics. These goal-setting principles can be remembered by the acronym SMART, which stands for: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time based.

An alternative approach to understand how individuals strive to meet their goals is regulatory focus theory (RFT). According to RFT, individuals who are promotion-focused, are oriented toward growth and development. Promotion-focused individuals tend to have a learning goal orientation (LGO); they want to learn new things at work and see themselves adaptable. On the other hand, people who are prevention-focused are oriented toward the things they feel that have to be done and focus on their job responsibilities. Prevention-focused individuals are vigilant and careful. The motivating force is the avoidance of pain.

What is the role of the leader in goal setting? Each leader is expected to do the following:

• Discuss and document the commitments of all employees.
• Revisit and refresh commitment over time.
• Agree to success metrics for each commitment, thereby including the "how" behind execution, not just the "what".
• Align commitments across the company by cascading commitments and connecting them to organizational, team, and finally individual commitments.
• Drive management team calibration discussions so interdependencies and metrics are vetted across individuals.

What is the job characteristics theory?

The job characteristics theory (JCT) is based on the idea that the work itself may have characteristics that have the potential to motivate people to higher levels of performance. People are more satisfied when their work is interesting and they may be less likely to quit. The job characteristics model describes three steps, each formed by various components:

• Core job characteristics: skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, feedback.
• Critical psychological states: experienced meaningfulness of the work, experienced responsibility for outcomes of the work, knowledge of the actual results of the work activities.
• Personal and work outcomes: high internal work motivation, high quality work performance, high satisfaction with the work, low absenteeism and turnover.

Based on this theory, organizations have implemented work redesign to raise the motivating potential of work. The idea here is to load jobs with more of the core job characteristics that have shown to be motivating. This job loading can be horizontal, which means adding different tasks at the same level, or vertical, which means adding decision-making responsibility to the job. This is an example of job enrichment.

Job crafting refers to the extent to which individuals can demonstrate initiative in designing their own work. Examples are: changing the number, scope and type of job tasks, changing the quality and amount of interaction with others encountered in the job, and challenging cognitive task boundaries.

Why is fairness important for leadership?

Fairness is a necessary condition for leadership using equity theory and the four types of organizational justice. Workers expect the workplace to be fair. Concerns to fairness impede the workplace. Effective leaders need to be aware of how workers might react to their decisions.

The equity theory focuses on distributive justice: what people receive as a result of their knowledge, skills, and effort on the job. When this is disbalanced, people may become demotivated. When comparing the inputs (skills, abilities, effort) to the outputs (pay raise) of a person (the focal person or FP) to a coworker (CO), three situations may occur. First, the inputs and outcomes for the FP equal the inputs and outcomes for the CO. If the CO puts in more effort, the CO receives a higher pay raise. There is balance, because the FP recognizes that the CO works harder and gets a higher raise. Second, the inputs and outcomes for the FP are lower than the inputs and outcomes for the CO (underpayment inequity). This causes dissonance or stress and the FP may become demotivated to bring the ratios back to balance. Third, the inputs and outcomes for the FP are higher than the inputs and outcomes for the CO (overpayment inequity). This situation is interesting, because we expect the FP to work harder, but this typically does not happen. People are more likely to distort the perceptions of inputs and outcomes to justify or rationalize their relative overpayment inequity.

When people feel an event is unfair, they may even experience moral outrage: a severe reaction to the perceived injustice, including strong emotions such as anger and resentment.

Organizational justice is an umbrella term, consisting of the following four components:

• Interpersonal justice: "Has your leader treated you with respect?"
• Informational justice: "Has your leader explained the procedures thoroughly?"
• Procedural justice: "Have you bee able to express your views and feelings during the process?"
• Distributive justice: "Is your outcome justified given your performance?"

What are the three basic principles of the expectancy theory?

The expectancy theory has become a standard in motivation. It is a general framework consisting of three components, which together lead to high effort and motivation.

• Expectancy ("I can do this")
• Instrumentality ("I will receive a reward")
• Valence ("I value the reward")

The Pygmalion effect (self-fulfilling prophecy) shows that performance expectations by a leader play a significant role in improving the motivation and performance of followers. Leaders can communicate high expectations to followers by: creating a warm emotional climate, providing more and increasingly challenging opportunities to learn, inviting followers to ask questions or clarification, and providing feedback on performance.

The Galatea effect occurs when an individual sets high expectations for himelf or herself and then performs to those expectations. The person already has high self-esteem and believes in his or her ability to succeed. On the other hand, expectations may also work in the opposite direction, where lower expectations lead to lower performance. This is called the Golem effect.

Is every leader equally motivated to be a leader?

This question has been addressed by research on motivation to lead (MLT). This research found that leaders have different reasons for wanting to be a leader. Based on the measurement of MLT, there are three basic reasons for wanting to be a leader:

• Affective-identity MTL: the natural tendency to lead others.
• Social-normative MTL: the tendency to lead because of a sense of duty or responsibility.
• Noncalculative MTL: where people agree to lead without calculating the costs and benefits of assuming leadership. This reason is associated with a feelings of altruism.

How to motivate employees? - Chapter 9

The previous chapter discussed how motivation is related to work performance. In this chapter, the topic of motivation is extended by discussing concrete motivation applications. Leaders may, for example, use the reinforcement theory by adding pleasant events (positive reinforcement) or removing unpleasant events (negative reinforcement). Both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards can be used. These may even be combined via mechanisms such as "extrinsics in service of intrinsics" or "motivation-work cycle math". Money may be used as a reward, but only if the following guidelines are followed: define and measure performance accurately; make rewards contingent on performance; reward employees in a time manner; maintain justice in the reward system, and; use monetary rewards.

What are the characteristics of the reinforcement theory?

The reinforcement theory (also known as operant conditioning) is based upon the law of effect: past actions that led to positive outcomes tend to be repeated, while past actions that led to negative outcomes tend to diminish. This law of effect led to the development of the reinforcement theory, in which individual personality, thoughts, and attitudes do not motivate behavior. Instead, the psychologist B.F. Skinner found two kinds of reinforces that increase behavior. First, positive reinforcement is a favorable event or outcome presented after the behavior. For example, praise or a bonus. Second, negative reinforcement is the removal of an unpleasant event or outcome after the display of a behavior. For example, ending the daily criticism when an employee shows up for work on time.

In contrast, punishment is the presentation of an adverse event or outcome that causes a decrease (instead of an increase) in the behavior. There are two kinds of punishment. First, punishment by application is the presentation of an unpleasant event or outcome to weaken the response it follows. For example, writing a letter to an employee's file for failing to meet a deadline. Second, punishment by removal is when a pleasant event or outcome is removed after certain behavior occurs. For example, withholding praise when an employee underperforms.

In sum:

• Positive reinforcement = pleasant event + event is added.
• Punishment by removal (extinction) = pleasant event + event is removed.
• Punishment by application = unpleasant event + event is added.
• Negative reinforcement = unpleasant event + event is removed.

The schedules of partial reinforcement refer to how often an applied reward (or punishment) predicts learning and motivation. The schedules are based on time (interval) or the number of times the response is given by the worker (ratio). In addition, the schedule can be fixed or variable (random). These two dimensions result in the following four possible outcomes:

• Fixed + interval = reinforced after a certain amount of time has passed.
• Fixed + ratio = reinforced after a certain number of responses have occurred.
• Variable + interval = reinforced after an average amount of time has passed.
• Variable + ratio = reinforced after an average number of responses have occurred.

Organizational behavior modification using the reinforcement theory can be used as follows:

1. Pinpoint the specific behavior that needs to be changed.
2. Measure the baseline. For example, how many days per month is the worker on time?
3. Perform an A-B-C analysis.
   • Antecedents: what is causing the behavior? Consider both internal and external factors.
   • Behavior: what is the current behavior? What is the desired behavior?
   • Consequences: What is currently reinforcing the behavior? What needs to be changed?

What are the characteristics of the social learning theory?

A second theory of learning, perhaps the most influential one today, is the social learning theory of Albert Bandura. According to Bandura, operant conditioning (reinforcement) is useful, yet it does not explain all ways in which a person can learn. He introduced the social element into how people acquire new skills and described the various ways in which people learn by watching other people. This is also called observational learning (or modeling). In addition, external reinforcements are not the only factors that influence motivation. Internal reinforcements, related to pride, satisfaction and a sense of achievement, also are important.

The modeling process has four steps.

1. Attention: in order to learn, you have to pay attention to the behavior of other people.
2. Retention: the information must be stored for access in the future.
3. Reproduction: once information is noted and retained, one must imitate (perform) the behavior he or she recalls.
4. Motivation: for observational learning to work, one needs motivation to imitate.

Intrinsic motivation is when someone works on a task because they find it interesting and gain satisfaction from the task itself. Intrinsic motivation is a function of a person's needs for autonomy and competence in the theory of self-determination (also known as cognitive evaluation theory). Autonomy is the need to work alone without constant surveillance. Extrinsic motivation involves the performance to outcome instrumentality between the task and a tangible reward.

Two synergistic effects between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are described. First, extrinsics in service of intrinsics refers to how extrinsic rewards may support an employee's sense of competence if they do not undermine autonomy. This has been implemented in Google, where workers are given twenty percent of their work time to work on something that they are passionate about, even if it falls outside of the scope of their job or is unrelated to the mission of the company itself. Second, the motivation-work cycle math refers to the understanding that innovation occurs in phases and intrinsic motivation may be more important during the idea-generation phase. However, when the project is being implemented, extrinsic rewards may be needed to ensure that deliverables are produced on time and within the budget.

Should money be used as a motivational tool?

There are pros and cons to using money as a motivational tool.

• Pro: organizations that appropriately tie pay to performance and pay more have higher rates of return.
• Con: tying pay directly to performance can have dysfunctional or even unethical consequences.

Paying employees different levels of rewards for individual efforts can result in pay diversion, which may lead to jealousy among employees or harm team performance.

There are five evidence-based guidelines for money as a motivator:

1. Define and measure performance accurately.
2. Make rewards contingent on performance.
3. Reward employees in a time manner.
4. Maintain justice in the reward system.
5. Use monetary rewards.

For determination of compensation and other outcomes (such as promotion), performance management is essential. Typically, this appraisal involves the immediate supervisor only. Often, the appraisal is reviewed by the human resource department. However, in a 360-degree performance appraisal, the input from a number of sources is included to provide a more comprehensive view of one's performance. In doing so, both individual benefits and organizational benefits are considered. Another method is to use behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS) in which a vertical scale is presented with specific examples of performance provided. The performance dimension that are included here are: outstanding, exceeds expectations, meets expectations, below expectations, and unsatisfactory.

Common criticism to these performance reviews is that the process is unfair and shows favoritism. Others fear that the process is punitive. There may be perceptual biases, such as the central tendency error in which they rate all dimensions of performance as average. These perceptual biases may be avoided by rewarding for results rather than behaviors. For example via profit-sharing plans, stock options, and gain-sharing plans. Other forms of compensation are: flexible working hours, job sharing, remote working, sabbaticals.

How to empower a team? - Chapter 10

Research has shown, that effective teams have a shared purpose. It is thus of key importance to set proper team goals. In addition, team members need to feel connected to the team. They should feel a sense of cohesion. Nowadays, the focus of team leadership has shifted from the leader to the team. This is called team-centric leadership. A team-centric leader creates the tight climate for a team, which in turn increases followers' empowerment. Leadership climate is effective when a team leader gives its team many responsibilities, asks the team for advice when making decisions, is not too controlling, allows the team to set goals, stays out of the way when the team works on its performance problems, tells the team to expects a lot from itself, and lastly, trusts the team.

What is the difference between a working group and a team?

A team is defined as a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.

Another definition of a team is: two or more individuals who; socially interact (face-to-face or, increasingly in these days, virtually); possess one or more common goals; are brought together to perform organizationally relevant tasks; exhibit interdependencies with respect to workflow, goals, and outcomes; have different roles and responsibilities; and are together embedded in an encompassing organizational system, with boundaries and linkages to the broader system context and task environment.

A work group interacts primarily to share information with other members. For example, members of a work group attend a monthly staff meeting and share what they are working on. They are not responsible for a collective work effort, or their individual contributions can be added up to create something.

A work team, on the other hand, depends on one another and they must interact to create something that no one person could create. There is synergy on the team, meaning that the mean can produce something beyond the sum of individual member contributions.

What is the relationship between team purpose and performance?

Setting goals is just as important for a team as for an individual. Effective teams have a sense of a shared purpose. In addition, it is one of the components of the definition of a team. Once a team has set its goals, team norms emerge and have a powerful effect on the attitudes and behavior of the team members. Team norms are informal and interpersonal rules that the team members are expected to follow. Norms are not written down. Communication of norms depends on the ability of the leader (or team members) to effectively convey the expected behavior.

The relationship between team purpose and performance can be illustrated using a team charter. In creating a team charter, not only is the team purpose clarified but the expectations for behavior are set forth (for example, required on-time attendance at meetings). In addition, norms provide an important regulatory function. Strong team norms yield shared understandings within teams, also known as team mental models (MTT). These models are related to effective team process and performance, because they serve a number of functions, including:

• Allowing team members to interpret information similarly.
• Sharing expectations concerning the future.
• Developing similar reasoning as to why something happens.

What are the differences and similarities of the five-stage and team performance curve models?

The five-stage model is a classic model of team development, including the following five stages: forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning. Although the model proposes that teams move through these phases smoothly, in actuality, many teams may regress to a previous stage or run the risk of adjourning at any stage. Even more, in many student (and work) project teams, teams are temporary and have a clear deadline. Such teams do not follow the typical stages of development. In fact, there is a transition between an early phase of interactivity followed by a second phase of significant acceleration toward task completion. This process is also known as punctuated equilibrium. There is an initial meeting in which the group goals are discussed. Following this meeting, little gets done until about halway to the deadline. This midpoint transition occurs regardless of the total time that is allowed for the project.

Similar to the punctuated equilibrium model, the team performance curve recognizes that team performance is not always linear. Performance does not always increase over time.

These two models can be combined. Teams go through the five stages, but do not do so in a linear trend. There may, for example, be a performance decrease as the team goes through the storming phase.

A high-performance team is enabled by six key factors:

• team member competencies;
• skills, processes, tools and techniques;
• interpersonal skills, communication, understanding personality differences;
• a shared value system;
• shared vision, purpose, goals, direction;
• supporting organizational values, including openness.

What are the three main aspects of team effectiveness?

How to know if a team is effective? Team effectiveness has three dimension:

1. Input: the individual characteristics of team members (such as skills and abilities) and the resources they have at their disposal.
2. Process: how the team interacts
3. Output: three components:
   • Performance as rated by people outside the team.
   • How well team member individual needs are met.
   • the willingness of team members to stay on the team.

To measure team performance, team metrics can be used. There are different types of metrics for teamwork, related to the above mentioned three phases: task metrics, process metrics, individual development metrics.

How to assess the cohesion of a team?

Cohesion is the resultant of all the forces acting on the members to remain part of the group. Cohesion becomes a state in which a group tends to stick together and unite in the pursuit of team goals. To measure the extent to which your team is cohesive, you can ask the following questions:

• How well do members of your group get along with each other?
• How well do members of you group stick together?
• Would you socialize with the members of your group outside of class?
• How well do members of your group help each other on the project?
• Would you want to remain a member of this group for future projects or in future classes?

The feeling of cohesion may also be due to a person's allegiance to the social groups they belong to. Social identity refers to the individual's knowledge that he or she belongs to certain social groups together with some emotional and value significance to him or her of this group membership.

Groupthink is a result of high cohesiveness and group norms. It is defined as the conformity-seeking tendency of the group, which results in compromised decision making. The four symptoms of groupthink are: group rationalization, direct pressure, suppression, and illusion of unanimity.

What are the differences and similarities between consensus decision making and the nominal group technique (NGT)?

According to the normative decision-making model, team decisions fall on a continuum ranging from leaders making the decision themselves to delegating the decision to the team. In the middle of the continuum, there are consultative models of decision making. Here, the manager consults followers one-on-one or as a group. The normative decision-making model consists of the following dimensions:

• Decide
• Consult (individually)
• Consult (group)
• Facilitate
• Delegate

One of the most common forms of team decision making is brainstorming. This should be used when the team needs to produce a creative solution. It enhances the creative process because idea generation is separated from idea evaluation.

Another technique for decision making is consensus. Often, consensus is preferred over voting, although voting is more common. Voting yields winners and losers. In contrast, in a consensus decision-making process, everyone can say they have been heard and will support the final decision. To reach consensus, the following steps are suggested:

1. Introduction

2. Clarifying questions

3. Discussion

4. Establish basic direction

5. Synthesize or modify proposal (if needed)

6. Call for consensus

7. Record

The following responses can be recorded:

• Agreement: "I support this proposal and am willing to abide by and help implement it".
• Stand aside: "I have major concerns with the proposal and agree to stand aside and let the group proceed with it".
• Blocking: "I believe this proposal would be majorly detrimental to our group, since either it goes against our fundamental principles or it would lead to a disastrous outcome".
• Abstain: "I choose not to participate in the making of this decision".

Another decision-making technique is multivoting, which consists of the following seven steps:

1. Display the list of options.
2. Number (or letter) all items.
3. Decide how many items must be on the final reduced list.
4. Working individually, each member selects the five items (or whatever number of choices is agreed on) he or she considers to be most important.
5. Tally votes.
6. If a decision is clear, stop here. Otherwise, continue with a brief discussion of the vote.
7. Repeat the voting process in step 4 and 5.

The nominal group-theory (NGT) is a more structured process that may be effective if there are status differences in the team or if the team has one or more dominating participants. Here, the group meets face-to-face, but the discussion is more restricted than with brainstorming or consensus decision making. The steps for NGT are as follows:

1. Each team member independently writes their ideas on the problem on 3x5 cards or slips of paper.
2. Each member presents one idea to the team. The cards are collected by the facilitator who can either read them or redistribute them randomly to the team members who then read the ideas on the card. Using this, no one is identified with a particular idea.
3. The discussion continues until all ideas are heard and recorded.
4. The team discusses the ideas and asks questions to clarify them.
5. Each team member then silently tanks the ideas independently. The idea with the highest total ranking is the final decision.

A newer technique, which may also be effective to combat the challenge of dominating participants, is the stepladder, consisting of the following five steps:

1. Present the task.
2. Two-member discussion.
3. Add one member to the group.
4. Repeat, adding one member at a time.
5. Final discussion.

How can a team leader reduce social loafing?

Social loafing is defined as the reduction in motivation and effort when individuals work collectively compared with when they work individually or coactively. In other words, they work with others but do not combine inputs into a group product. You will recognize this if you have ever been in a team where you (or a subgroup of team members) did all the work but others got the credit while they did barely contribute. Social loafing occurs more in large teams where individuals can easily hide themselves.

Leaders can prevent social loafing by doing the following:

• Keep teams small (four to six people).
• Set meaningful team goals.
• Set clear roles for team members.
• Eliminate redundancy.
• Select members with high motivation and affinity for teamwork.
• Provide feedback and coaching to members who social loaf.

What are the challenges and benefits of team diversity?

Nowadays, work is more and more conducted online in virtual teams. Virtual teams are defined as functioning teams that rely on technology-mediated communication while crossing several different boundaries. One advantage of virtual teams is that team members can be geographically dispersed. They can be from anywhere in the world. Often, virtual teams are diverse and comprised of members from different cultures. Next to being virtual, cultural differences affect teams. Team diversity is a challenge for teams, but it also offers opportunities to increase team performance.

Team diversity is challenging, as people may have cultural different values and working attitudes. The leader plays a key role here.

What should leaders do to enhance effective virtual teams?

• Establish and maintain trust through the use of communication technology.
• Ensure diversity in the team is understood, appreciated, and leveraged.
• Manage virtual work-cycle and meetings.
• Monitor team progress through the use of technology.
• Enhance external visibility of the team and its members.
• Ensure individuals benefit from participating in virtual teams.

The benefits of team diversity are:

• Diverse teams can accomplish great things.
• Diversity may enhance team creativity.
• Diversity can increase flexibility, creativity, and problem solving.

What are the costs of workplace conflict? - Chapter 11

Conflict reduces (team) performance. However, a little bit of conflict is good. In fact, Duarte and Davies (2003) point to an optimum level of conflict, characterized by constructive debate, improved decisions and high performance. Being emotionally intelligent is critical for resolving conflict and effective negotiation. To do this, a leader needs to be able to see the situation from the other party's point of view. This is also known as perspective taking, defines as the cognitive process in which an individual adopts another person's view to better understand their preferences, values, and needs.

What are the causes of conflict in organizations?

Conflict is defined as the process that begins when one party perceives that the other has negatively affected, or is about to negatively affect, something that he or she cares about. Conflict is a perception. It does not always line up with reality.

There are three sources of organizational conflict:

1. Substantive conflict. This occurs when people have different opinions on key issues in the organization that affect them.
2. Affective conflict. A type of conflict that engenders strong emotions, such as anger or disgust. This may be due to personality differences or arguments.
3. Process conflict. Sometimes, people disagree on what course of action to pursue, or the best way to operate even after a decision has been made. Process conflict reduces team performance.

Some specific examples of where conflict in organizations may originate are: personality (differences), sensitivity or hurt, differences in perception and values, differences over facts, differences over goals and priorities, differences over methods, competition for scarce resources, competition for supremacy, misunderstanding and unfulfilled expectations.

Is conflict always bad?

No. In fact, Duarte and Davies (2003) found that there is a curvilinear relationship between task conflict and performance. They point to an optimum level of conflict, characterized by constructive debate, improved decisions and high performance. On the other hand, too little conflict is characterized by apathy and poor performance. Too much conflict is characterized by disruption and poor performance.

What are the five conflict resolution styles?

Conflict resolution can be seen as two dimensions in a space that reflect possible outcomes for handling interpersonal conflict. Those two dimensions are: concern for self (high / low) and concern for others (high / low). Based on these dimensions, the following five conflict resolution styles are found:

1. Integrating: high concern for self; high concern for others.
2. Obliging: low concern for self; high concern for others.
3. Dominating: high concern for self; low concern for others.
4. Avoiding: low concern for self; low concern for others.
5. Compromising: in the middle; average concern for self; average concern for others.

It depends on the situation whether a style is appropriate or not. For instance, a leader with a obliging style will have a predisposition toward giving in to the demands of others and neglecting his or her own concerns. This may be appropriate when issues are complex or when one party alone cannot solve the problem. However, it is inappropriate when the task or problem is simple, when immediate decisions are required, and when other parties do not have problem-solving skills. Styles like dominating and avoiding are appropriate when the issue is trivial, yet they are inappropriate when the issue is complex or not important to you.

How does team conflict affects team performance?

Team conflicts produces stress and arguments that distract the team from working on the task and thus harms performance. All types of conflict (task, relationship, and process) are detrimental to member satisfaction. However, moderate levels of task conflict actually improve team performance because it simulates information exchange among team members. Task conflict and differences of opinion may improve decision quality by forcing members to see other viewpoints and think in a creative manner. Effective teamwork results in higher performance when task conflicts exists, and this is particularly true when team members trust one another.

Another study found that teams improve or maintain top performance over time when they engage in the following three conflict resolution strategies:

• They focus on the content of interactions instead of on the delivery style.
• They explicitly discuss reasons behind any decisions when distributing work assignments.
• They assign work to members who have the relevant task experience instead of assigning by other common means such as volunteering, default, or convenience.

How to resolve conflict across cultures?

Research has shown that conflict resolution style may differ by culture. In order to work on resolving conflict with a person from another culture, one requires knowledge of cultural differences. The following guidelines have been suggested for resolving cross-cultural conflict (ranked in order of importance):

• Be a good listener.
• Be sensitive to the needs of others.
• Be cooperative instead of overly competitive.
• Advocate inclusive (participative) leadership.
• Compromise rather than dominate.
• Build rapport through conversations.
• Be compassionate and understanding.
• Avoid conflict by emphasizing harmony.
• Nurture others: develop and mentor.

How can third-party interventions reduce conflict?

When a leader intervenes to resolve a conflict it is called facilitation. Before engaging in facilitation, leaders should ask the following question in their attempt to resolve a conflict:

• Is intervention necessary or appropriate?
• If so, what type of intervention is most appropriate?
• Is the leader the appropriate person to intervene?
• If not, should the services of an independent resource person be provided? If so, how might the leader make use of the resource person?

If the answer to the third question is no, then the leader needs to consider other options to resolve the conflict by bringing in an independent resource person. Such methods to resolve conflict that both parties agree to without involving litigation, are known as alternative dispute resolution. Examples of such methods are: approaching an ombudsperson, a peer review process, conciliation, or mediation. In arbitration, both parties agree in advance to accept the decision, and it is made by a neutral third party.

What are the characteristics of the negotiation process?

Negotiation is one of the key applications of conflict resolution techniques. In consists of the following seven steps:

1. Preparation
2. Relationship building
3. Information gathering
4. Information using
5. Bidding
6. Closing the deal
7. Implementing the agreement

There are two general types of negation: distributive and integrative.

Distributive bargaining is characterized by the negotiator approaching the process as a zero-sum game. To put it differently, one person gains at the expense of the other. The possible outcomes are viewed as a fixed pie, meaning that there is a limited amount of goods to be divided, and the goal is to get the largest share. Each negotiator has a purpose, or target point, of what they want to get from the bargaining process. They may also have a best alternative to a negotiated agreement (BATNA). One should use the following guidelines in making the first offer: be confident in your speech and demeanor; be precise; avoid ranges; be aggressive but realistic.

Integrative bargaining is different from distributive bargaining on one key aspect: they parties do not see the process as a zero-sum game. They believe that and agreement can be reached that satisfies all parties. The possible outcomes are viewed as an expanding pie in which a win-win solution can be reached.

The four pillars (according to Fisher and Ury) or interest-based negotiation are:

• Focus on interests and not of positions.
• Imagine a wide range of solutions before making a decisions. Explore solutions providing a mutual benefit.
• Resolve disputes and choose solutions based on objective criteria to which everyone agrees.
• Distinctly address people issues and substantive issues.

How may communication affect organizations? - Chapter 12

Communication is of key importance to organizations, as it is related to both job performance and job satisfaction. Talk is the lifeblood of managerial work. Without a doubt, spoken communication is a powerful way to influence others. In addition, nonverbal communication can be used for various different purposes. Yet, it is important to be aware that leaders "cannot not communicate". Even not communicating is interpreted (for instance, remaining silent or not showing up for a meeting that is not deemed important).

What are the characteristics of the communication process?

Organizational communication refers to the process by which individuals stimulate meaning in the minds of other individuals by means of verbal and nonverbal messages in the context of a formal organization. Positive organizational communication is related to both job performance and job satisfaction.

To understand the two-party communication process, it is important to understand the Shannon-Weaver model of communication. They elements of this model are:

• The sender: the source transmission who selects a desired message (written, spoken, pictures, music, or a combination of these) out of a set of potential messages.
• Encoding: the transformation of the message into the signal (transmitter > communication channel > receiver).
• The channel: the medium that transmits the message.
• Decoding: translating the message by what is seen and heard into an understanding of the message. This is not a perfect process, because there is noise in the communication process that affects this decoding process. Noise is defined as any communication barrier that may affect how a person interprets the message. Examples are perceptual bias, language choice and cultural differences.
• The receiver: the person(s) who receive(s) the message.

How does communication apprehension affect the communication process?

As is mentioned at the decoding process, there may be barriers to effective communication. Some people are uncomfortable communicating with others, and it seems clear that this imposes a significant barrier to their success as a leader. Communication apprehension (CA) refers to an individual's level of fear or anxiety with either real or anticipated communication with other people. In other words, CA is anxiety or fear suffered by an individual of either actual or anticipated communication, with a group or a person, that can profoundly affect their oral communication, social skills, and self-esteem.

Words may have different meaning to different people, even if they are communicating in the same language. Due to noise and communication barriers, it is important for the receiver to provide feedback to the sender to ensure that the communicated message was understood correctly. One way to achieve this is via active listening, defined as the way of listening that is creative, active, sensitive, accurate, empathic and nonjudgmental. Leader must become active listeners as it allows them to verify their communications, clarify messages, and encourage more two-way communication with followers. The three components of active listening are:

1. It demonstrates moderate to high nonverbal involvement.
2. It reflects the message of the speaker, using verbal paraphrasing.
3. It may include asking questions that encourage speakers to elaborate on their experiences.

Guidelines for active listening in organizations can be summarized as follows: listen for total meaning, respond to feelings, and note all (nonverbal) cues.

What are the characteristics of the different forms of communication networks?

Communication often occurs through networks that flow in all directions; upward communication, downward communication and lateral communication. Upward communication is defined as the process by which employees communicate with others who are higher in the organizational hierarchy. This provides essential feedback to leaders, regarding whether employees understood their messages. Upward communication is essential for leaders to implement change. Another common way in which communication occurs is through the informal network, known as grapevine. Often, this includes rumor and gossip, but it is still an important source of information that leaders need to tap into. A study found that 89% of the 419 managers believed that the grapevine carried rumors that reflected a lack of trust in organizational leaders and their policies.

There are different forms of communication networks:

• The wheel network indicates that all communication flows through one person, most likely the group leader.
• In the circle network each person can communicate with two others that are located to them.
• The all-channel (or star) network is more decentralized and allows a free flow of information among all group members.
• The chain refers to a flow of information among members, even though the people are at the end of the chain.
• The Y-pattern is a bit less centralized than the all-channel network, because two persons are closer to the center of the network. It can be visualized as a (short) chain with a split into two branches.

Organizational communication can be both internal and external. Internal communication refers to the communication transactions between individuals or groups at various levels and in different areas of specialization that is intended to (re)design organizations, to complement designs, and to co-ordinate daily activities. External communication is defined as communication that is shared with the public through marketing and public relations efforts. These communication flows are important, since leaders should create a positive impression with various stakeholders, such as customers, shareholders, the government, and the general public. Nowadays, the distinction between external and internal communication is more blurred, because employees are now considered important stakeholders of an organization. Moreover, some employees communicate externally with suppliers, customers, or clients, also known as boundary spanners. Consequently, external and internal communications have become fused into one function in many organizations, representing "integrated communications".

What are the advantages and disadvantages of electronic communication?

Electronic communication, such as e-mail, is fast. Research found that more information is conveyed in e-mail than in other communication mediums; people pay less attention to social cues that suppress information and are more uninhibited in e-mails. Because of this inhibitation, harassment may be more likely to occur through e-mail than face-to-face. Therefore, organizations should have formal policies for e-harassment. Leader should avoid e-harassment. Over time, the internet has developed rules for how to be polite in e-mail, termed netiguette. Some netiguette rules are: be careful about forwarding messages. If you are not sure if the original sender would want to forward the message, do not do it. Also, do not expect answer right away. E-mails may be delivered quickly, but your recipient may not read it immediately. Other questions, related to after-hours communication, to consider are: is after-hours communication appropriate? How will after-hours communication be received? How can the potential negative impact of after-hours communication be minimized?

Text messages via smartphones and other mobile devices are a way of quickly checking e-mail and sending messages more frequently than ever, even during evenings and weekends. Due to their brevity, text messages will probably never replace e-mail as the primary mode for electronic business communication. Moreover, using mobile devices may be distracting and harm productivity.

Social networking may be of use in finding a job (via recruiters), promoting the organization, and communicating messages more broadly. Yet, it is important that social media sites are public, so discretion matters. Another challenge is cyberslacking: an increase in the use of the internet for personal use during working hours.

Lastly, videoconferencing (conducting virtual meetings) is becoming more and more popular, especially during the covid-19 crisis, making it possible to 'meet' with people from all over the world, saving (travel) time and expenses. Yet, cross-cultural communication is now more important than ever.

How to communicate effectively across cultures?

Cross-cultural communication refers to the ability to communicate effectively with people from other cultures. Nowadays, this is an essential leadership skill. Notice that it is different from intercultural communication in which the focus is on the behavior of two individuals' communication patterns. Instead, cross-cultural communication compares one culture to the other. Cultural differences may result in misunderstandings, even if communication is in the same language. Translation adds yet another layer of complexity that may lead to (more) misunderstandings.

Emotional intelligence (EI) is positively associated with communication competence. Other ways of improving communication are preparation for cross-cultural communication challenges, active listening and billangualism. Lastly, training in cross-cultural communication is also effective.

What is the significance of nonverbal face-to-face communication?

Nonverbal communication refers to the sending and receiving of thoughts and feelings via nonverbal behavior, such as facial expressions, posture, gestures, and tone of voice. Nonverbal communication serves the following functions in organizations:

• Display of personal attributes (personality, intentions, attitudes).
• Establishment of dominance and hierarchy.
• Promotion of social functioning.
• Fostering high-quality relationships.
• Display of emotions.

Why do employees remain silent or withhold information and how to address this?

Employee silence refers to the intentional withholding of meaningful information from management, which includes asking questions, expressing concerns, and offering suggestions. It forms a barrier to organizational change and compromises the ability to hear different points of view on important organizational matters. It also has negative consequences for the employee, as it is negatively related to job satisfaction and organizational commitment. To conclude, organizational silence has various negative outcomes for both employees and the organization.

The most common incidents to which respondents reported remaining silent are (from most common to least common):

• Experienced unfair treatment (21,0%)
• Someone else behaving unethically (17,6%)
• Concerns about a coworker's competence or performance (16,8%)
• Operational process concern and/or idea for improvement (13,3%)
• Disagreement or concerns with company policies or decisions (6,5%)
• Personal performance issue (6,2%)
• Concerns about supervisor or management competence (6,0%)
• Someone else being treated unfairly (3,5%)
• Personal career issue or concern (1,9%)
• Unclear (7,2%)

What to do about it? Research suggested that employee involvement and a participative climate both encourage employees to provide opinions, which reduce organizational silence. Moreover, ethical leadership supports employees and encourages them to be more confident to speak up in a constructive way.

What is the impact of diversity on organizational behavior? - Chapter 13

Diversity refers to differences between individuals at work on any attribute that may evoke the perception that the other person is different from the self. Diversity poses unique challenges for organizational behavior. In fact, these differences between individuals pose a challenge for leaders who must unite their followers in the pursuit of a common goal. Leadership is not possible outside of a community that is defined by shared values and vision. Nowadays, the millennials are the largest group in the general population. Due to their numbers and impact, employers need to transition from a "boomer-centric" workplace to a "millennial-centric" workplace.

What are the similarities and differences of surface-level and deep-level diversity?

Surface-level diversity are the demographic attributes that we typically think of when we think of "diversity", because they are observable to people. Surface-level diversity refers to differences among group members in overt, biological characteristics that are typically reflected in physical features. Examples are: sex, race and age. Research showed that these attributes have mixed results in the prediction of job performance and work attitude: sometimes they are related to performance and sometimes they are not.

Deep-level diversity refers to differences among the attitudes, beliefs and values of individuals. Prior studies showed that diverse groups had poor outcomes. However, recent research indicated that this finding should be interpreted with caution. This is because when deep-level diversity is considered, diversity may actually contribute positively to work group functioning and effectiveness. In fact, the values and attitudes of employees may matter more than surface characteristics.

Finally, an interesting diversity feature is age. Different generations have been shown to have different underlying mind-sets and this may be a source of conflict at the workplace.

How will millenials affect organizations?

Generational differences have a key impact on the organization. They affect everything, including recruiting, building teams, dealing with change, motivating, managing, and productivity. Nowadays, four generations are at the workplace.

First, the traditionals (1900 - 1945), of which most but not all are retired, are also known as veterans, the World War II generation and the silent generation. They typically spend a lifetime career with one company ("build a legacy"). Their career goals are security and fair rewards. They have a part-time schedule and they prefer support in maintaining a work/life balance.

Second, the boomers, born just after World War II (1946 - 1964) are the largest working group with 77 million people. They excel in career ("build a stellar career"). Their career goals are monetary gains and career progression. They prefer flexibility and to balance everyone else and find themselves.

Third, the gen Xers are born between 1965 and 1980. They are the second largest group with 44 million workers and are also called baby busters and post-boomers. On the job, they exhibit a repertoire of skills and experience ("build a portable career"). Their career goals are immediate rewards and career portability. They want to have a work/life balance now, not when they are 65 years old.

Fourth, the millenials, born between 1981 and 1999. They are also called nexters, generation Y or the Nintendo generation. They typically have several jobs simultaneously ("build parallel careers"). Their goals are to build parallel careers and have choices. For them, work is not everything. They need flexibility to balance all activities in life. The millennials are the largest group in the general population. Due to their numbers and impact, employers need to transition from a "boomer-centric" workplace to a "millennial-centric" workplace by:

• Making training and mentoring a priority.
• Setting clear objectives, from the start, with the different generations and diversity at the workplace.
• Consider the medium (Google, YouTube, TED Talks)
• Provide feedback early and often.
• Pause before reacting.

Vice versa, some advice is offered for the millennials:

• Do not "friend" your boss on Facebook or other social media platforms.
• Remember that social media is forever.
• Keep your need to text in check.
• Become an expert on your generation.
• View your manager as a role model.

The new generation (born between 1995 and 2010) is already emerging, known as generation Z or the net generation due to the highly developed digital era they were born into. Their norms differ from the other generations. They tend to use slang and expressions that may seem strange to other generations and this distances them from other groups. Since they were born into technology basically, they feel good in the digital world and surround themselves in the online environment. They are constantly online on various devices, with no interruption. Other forms of socialization may be difficult for them. They are more impatient, and they constantly look for new challenges. They are not afraid of change. They use the internet to solve problems and have a more global outlook and interactions with others than the previous generation. It is even states that kids today have more in common with their global peers than with adults in their own country.

Why is culture important for understanding organizational behavior?

Culture refers to the unstated operating procedures or ways of doing things. It is also defined as the collective mental programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another. Culture is comprised of things that we can see and things that we cannot see. Culture is not the same as a country. Different countries may share cultural values. Culture is shared by almost all members of a social group. Older members of the group pass it on to the younger members. It shaped behavior or structures one's perception of the world.

The culture iceberg indicates that only ten percent of culture is observable, (language, clothes, celebrations and holiday food). The other ninety percent is unobservable, for example: beliefs, expectations, acceptable body language, unwritten rules, assumptions, cultural values, importance of space, and myth systems.
High-context cultures rely heavily on situational cues for meaning when perceiving and communicating with others. For example, one may need to get to know a negotiating partner as a person before proceeding to business. We find high-context cultures in, for instance, Japan, Arab countries and Greece. In low-context cultures, written and spoken words carry the burden of shared meaning. So when negotiating with a person, you can expect that the person wants to see a written formal agreement early in the process as a reference. Examples of countries in which low-context cultures are common are North America, the Scandinavian countries and the German-speaking countries.
Hofstede and colleagues defined the following cultural values which can be used to characterize cultures:

• Power distance: deference to authority.
• Collectivism - individualism: group orientation.
• Uncertainty avoidance: risk aversion.
• Relationship orientation (masculinity - feminism): a focus on people over material things.
• Confucian dynamism (long-term orientation): a focus on the future rather than the past and present.
• Indulgence: how much each individual lacks control on their desires and impulses compared with its opposite of restraint (being repressed).

Cultural tightness-looseness refers to the strength of social norms and the level of sanctioning within societies. Tightness is related to order and efficiency, conformity and low rates of change. On the other hand, looseness is related with social disorganization, deviance, innovation, and openness to change.

What are the key findings from the GLOBE study of leadership effectiveness?

The Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) project international study of leadership effectiveness described and predicted the relationship of specific cultural variables to leadership and organizational processes and their effectiveness. This study identified nine cultural concepts that were shown to be relevant to perceptions of leadership. There is overlap with the values of Hofstede. The following cultural dimensions were identified on which cultures appear to vary:

• Power distance
• Uncertainty avoidance
• Humane orientation
• Institutional collectivism
• In-group collectivism
• Assertiveness
• Gender egalitarianism
• Future orientation
• Performance orientation

In addition, this research found that there are certain leadership attributes that may be universally effective. This is known as the culturally endorsed implicit leadership theory (CLT), which identified the following leadership behaviors that were perceived as effective across cultures:

• Charismatic / value-based: the ability to inspire and motivate others to high performance.
• Team-oriented: effective team building and implementing a common goal.
• Participative: involving others in decisions and implementations.
• Humane-oriented: being supportive and showing consideration, compassion, and generosity.
• Autonomous: independent and individualistic leadership.
• Self-protective: ensuring safety and security of individuals, including face-saving.

Why is it important to develop global leaders?

Global mind-set refers to a set of individual attributes that enhance the ability of a manager to influence others who are different from them. The global mind-set is developed through three interrelated skills: cultural intelligence (CQ), integrate acculturation (becoming bicultural) and cultural retooling (the psychological process of adapting to another culture). All of them are needed to develop effective working relationships with others that result from a mutual adjustment process resulting in a third culture (the construction of a mutually beneficial interactive environment in which individuals from two different cultures can function in a way beneficial to all involved).

How to cope with the symptoms of a culture shock?

Global mobility occurs when individuals, and often their families, are relocated from one country to another by an employer. These globally mobile employees, also known as expatriates, have grown in importance as firms expand their global reach.

Culture shock refers to the distress that is experienced by a traveler from the loss of familiar patterns of social interaction. Symptoms are: stress, having a sense of loss, feeling helpless and wanting to depend on people from one's home country, being angry at delays and inconveniences experienced, and feeling incompetent from not being able to cope with the new environment. For a leader, it is important to be aware of the stages of culture shock. It is not a linear process, but it comes and goes with ups and downs - from predeparture to going back home again.

Even when an expatriate has adjusted and performed well, the expatriate must also be prepared for repatriation (reentry), the transition of returning home. Expatriates may experience a similar sequence of culture shock when they return to their home culture. Reverse shock culture is the realization that time has moved on and things have not stood still while he or she was away from the home office.
Research suggest the following steps to cope with culture shock:

• Pinpoint the specific time when you felt different or uncomfortable.
• Define the situation.
• List the behaviors of the other person(s).
• List your own behavior.
• List your feelings in the situation.
• List the behaviors you expect from people in your own culture in that same situation.
• Reflect on the underlying value in your culture that prompts that behavior expectation.

How does culture impact an organization? - Chapter 14

Organizational culture refers to a set of shared meaning that people in organizations have with respect to how to adapt to the environment and cope with change. Organizational culture is about innovation and risk taking, people orientation, team orientation, stability and so forth. Culture is not just one aspect of the game; it is the game. An organization is more than the collective capacity of its people to create value. Three key managerial tools for leaders for leveraging culture for performance change are the following. First, recruiting and selecting people for culture fit. Second, managing culture through socialization and training. Third, managing culture through the reward system.

What are the characteristics of organizational culture?

Organizational culture refers to the pattern of basic assumptions, that a given group has invented, discovered, or developed in learning to cope with its problems of external adaption and internal integration, and that have worked well enough to be considered valid, and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems.

Culture refers to a set of shared meaning that people in organizations have with respect to how to adapt to the environment and cope with change. Regarding what constitutes the culture, norms emerge.

Organizational culture norms have three distinct dimensions:

1. The content of what is deemed important (for instance: teamwork, accountability, innovation).
2. The consensus or how widely shared norms are held across people in the organization.
3. The intensity of feelings about the importance of the norm (for instance: are people willing to sanction others for violating culture norms?)

The seven characteristics of organizational culture are:

1. Innovation and risk taking
2. Attention to detail
3. Outcome orientation
4. People orientation
5. Team orientation
6. Aggressiveness (easygoingness reversed)
7. Stability

What are the differences and similarities of market bureaucracy and clan cultures?

Organizational cultures can be examined by the mechanisms that are used for control when they are faced with goal incongruence and performance ambiguity. Goal incongruence occurs when organizational members do not agree on what the goals of the organization are or should be. Performance ambiguity occurs when revenue streams are unpredictable or uneven. Broadly speaking, there are three ways that organization address these issues.

Market control occurs when prices determine how social interactions between people are formed. For instance, you and your friends go for beverages and you choose the bar that has the best happy-hour prices. Social interaction requirements focus on reciprocity and exchange. Information needs focus on competitive pricing; supply and demand. Employee commitment is low, self-interest is based on price and compliance. The method of controlling people is self-selected, based on price mechanisms. The costs of maintaining the control systems are low, but market costs may vary.

Bureaucratic control occurs when legitimate authority governs social interactions. For instance, when you organize an end of the semester happy hour on campus, purchase food and drinks for a large group, and then charge them for attending; provide a wristband and only those with a wristband are served. Social interaction requirements are legitimate authority. Information needs are rules and regulations, which are created or designed for the specific purpose. Employee commitment is moderate, motivated by training, close supervision, and evaluation. Employees are selected based on little screening, then trained, monitored and evaluated. The costs of maintaining the control system are moderate. There are high costs for training and supervision.

Clan control occurs when shared values and beliefs govern how people interact socially. For instance, when a group of friends just get together at the house of one person and everyone chips in money for drinks and pizza. The group has this tradition at the end of every school year, and they know they can depend upon one another to share the costs and have a good time. Social interaction requirements are shared values and beliefs. They have implicit norms; traditions that emerge over time. Employee commitment is high, there is interest for the common good of the organization, based on shared values, internalization. Employees are carefully screened for fit to the clan culture. They are screened both on skills and values. The costs of maintaining the control system are high; there are high costs for job searches and training, but low costs for supervision.

What is the relationship between national culture and organizational culture?

Organizational culture is a term that is used both for national and international cultures. This may be a bit confession. Yet, research showed quite some overlap between these. Four organizational culture values appear to be important in most cultures: adaptability, involvement, mission, and consistency. Adaptability refers to the ability to transfer the demands of the market into organizational actions. Involvement refers to building human capability, ownership, and responsibility. Consistency refers to defining values and subsystems that are the basis of a strong culture.

When is a culture a strong culture?

Strong cultures are based upon two characteristics: high levels of agreement among employees about what they value and high intensity toward these values. If both are high, a strong culture exists.

Zappos, an online seller of shoes and clothing, defined the following 10 core values of culture:

1. Deliver wow through service.
2. Embrace and drive change.
3. Create fun and a little weirdness.
4. Be adventurous, creative, and open-minded.
5. Pursue growth and learning.
6. Build open and honest relationships with communication.
7. Build a positive team and family spirit.
8. Do more with less.
9. Be passionate and determined.
10. Be humble.

In most organization, three general subcultures exist:

• Operators: the line managers and employees who are involved in making products, delivering services, and interacting with customers directly. The operators value teamwork and desire engagement with the work they do.
• Engineers: this group focuses on designing systems to support the work of operations, such as employees who design a manufacturing facility.
• Executives: they have worked their way up organizational career ladders and they are financially responsible to their board of directors and shareholders. This group often has to make the tough financial decisions based on imperfect information. Executives manage many people and divisions and rely on policies and reward systems to maintain control. They may lose touch with their customers and employees at lower levels in the organizational hierarchy.

What are the steps of the socialization process?

Organizational socialization refers to the process an organization utilizes to ensure that new members acquire necessary attitudes, behaviors, knowledge, and skills to become productive organizational members.

The socialization process is defined as follows: anticipatory socialization > entry and assimilation > metamorphosis > outcomes (job performance, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, lower turnover).

Organizational anticipatory socialization is the process an individual goes through as he or she attempts to find an organization to join. It involves the following two basic processes: recruiting and selection.

During the final stage, metamorphosis, a person transforms from a new employee to an established contributor who is valued and trusted by other members of the organization. Metamorphosis completes the socialization process. The new employee is comfortable with the organization, their boss and their work group. He or she has internalized the organizational culture and understands the job and the rules, procedures and norms. Succesful metamorphosis positively affects job performance, job satisfaction and commitment to the organization.

How do employees learn organizational culture?

There are four ways in which employees learn culture:

• Stories: storytelling is recognized as an important way to understand how employees make sense of what happens at work.

• Rituals: a form of social action in which a group's values and identity are publicly demonstrated or enacted in a stylized manner, within the context of a specific occasion or event.

• Symbols: the sharing of knowledge through access and exposure to images, diagrams, or objects that represent or illustrate a culture value or idea.

• Language: employees may communicate using culture-specific language, jargon, or acronyms that can be confusing to a new employee. These terms and usage may be unique to the organization. For instance, some organizations have stopped using the term 'employees' in favor of 'team members'.

What are the two differences between organizational culture and climate?

Organizational climate refers to the shared perceptions of the way things are around here. While the analysis of culture relies on understanding an organization's fundamental assumptions, climate research is concerned with representing employees' shared perceptions of values in a static way that they experience at a point in time. A second key difference between culture and climate is that culture is viewed as evolving over time. Climate can be altered through management interventions. Culture is an evolved context, climate is a situation that employees are in.

How can leaders change organization culture?

Leaders can change organizational culture through the following processes:

• Make strategy and culture important leadership priorities.

• Develop a clear understanding of the present culture.

• Identify, communicate, educate, and engage employees in the cultural ideas.

• Role model desired behaviors.

• Recruit and develop for culture.

• Align for consistency between strategy and culture.

• Recognize and reward desired behaviors and practices.

Use symbols, ceremonies, socialization, and stories to reinforce culture.

• Appoint a culture team.

• Monitor and manage the culture.

How does change affect the organization? - Chapter 15

When faced with organizational change, employee reactions may vary from resistance, compliance or commitment with change. Resistance to change has been associated with negative health, including insomnia and lower well-being. Leadership makes a difference: A study of planned organizational change in a hospital system found that authentic leadership influenced the processes of unfreezing, change, and refreezing (Lewin's Three-Step Model of Organizational Change). For leaders, compassion is key, which refers to noticing, feeling, and understanding the suffering of a follower. Based upon this understanding, the leader takes action to alleviate the person's suffering. Leaders should promote compassionate organizational practices such as the prevention interventions that are discussed later in this chapter.

What are the forces driving organizational change?

There are many forces that may drive organizational change, such as:

• Workforce diversity: sex, race/ethnicity, cultural differences, LGBTQ, age or generation.
• The economy: recession, government policy, rising health care costs.
• Technology: mobile devices, social media, internet, security, robotics.
• Globalization: multinational corporations, political instability, fair trade, sustainability, outsourcing, emerging markets.
• Competition: global competition, mergers and acquisitions, customer standards, time to market.

Why is planned organizational change necessary?

The forces for organizational change have resulted in the need for organizations to be proactive instead of reactive in reading the environment they operate in. Planned organizational change can have a number of targets, including structure, technology, processes, teams and people.

There are four types of planned organizational change:

• Incremental and reactive: "put out small fires", solve problems on a daily basis. Quick fixes to short-term concerns.
• Incremental and proactive: "tweaking". Anticipate and plan. Improve current ways of doing things. Fine tune. Guided evolution.
• Radical and reactive: "stop the bleeding". Crisis management. Industry shakeups, economic turmoil, financial shocks.
• Radical and proactive: "transformation". Do things fundamentally differently. Change of basic assumptions. Revolution.

Planned organizational change involves four organizational subsystems: formal organization, social factors, technology and physical setting.

What is organizational development?

Organizational development (OD) is a collection of social psychology methods that are employed to improve organizational effectiveness and the well-being of employees. Examples of organizational development interventions are: survey feedback, workout, process consultation, team building and appreciative inquiry (AI). The latter in an OD intervention that is based upon the basic assumption that people move in the direction they visualize for the future. Participants begin by reflecting on a peak experience and then engage in conversation about it with others in a group setting. AI may be an effective way to increase psychological capital as the participant needs to be competent and learn from others.

How to overcome resistance to organizational change?

Resistance to change implies that the employee fights the change and tries to undermine it. Resistance to change has a negative impact on employee health. It has been related to insomnia and lower levels of well-being.

An article in Harvard Business Review offers the following guidelines to help overcome resistance to change:

• Being educated and communicating reduces misinformation about the change and helps convince employees that change is needed.
• Participation matters.
• Building support and commitment reduces resistance because employees have the support through counseling or sabbaticals to ease the strain.
• Develop positive relationships through trust in management increases commitment to operational change.
• Implementing changes fairly improves the changes since research shows that people have personality traits that enable them to be more flexible when it comes to coping with change.

In addition, the articles provides some tactics, but they may backfire and should only be used as last resorts:

• Manipulation and co-optation tactics are sometimes used in organizational transitions, because they are relatively less expensive than the tactics listed above.
• Coercion should be used rarely, if at all.

Which models for leading organizational change are there?

Lewin's Three-Step Model for Organizational Change is based on three steps in the change process:

1. Unfreezing challenges the status quo by shaking up assumptions.
2. Changing represents movement toward a new desired state.
3. Refreezing the changes by reinforcing and restructuring in order to make the changes permanent.

Leadership makes a difference: A study of planned organizational change in a hospital system found that authentic leadership influenced the processes of unfreezing, change, and refreezing.

To implement organizational change using the three-step model, a force field analysis of the forces for and against organizational change should be conducted. The steps in force field analysis are as follows:

1. Define the problem (current state) and the target situation (target state).
2. List forces working for and against the desired changes.
3. Rate the strength of each force.
4. Draw a diagram (the length of the line denotes the strength of the force).
5. Indicate how important each force is.
6. List how to strengthen each important supporting force.
7. List how to weaken each important resisting force.
8. Identify resources needed to support forces for change and reduce forces against change.
9. Make an action plan: timing, milestones, and responsibilities.

Another important model for leading change is the Kotter eight-step model, consisting of the following steps:

1. Establish a sense of urgency.
2. Form a powerful guiding coalition.
3. Create a vision.
4. Communicate the vision.
5. Empower others to act on the vision.
6. Plan for and create short-term wins.
7. Consolidate improvements and sustain the momentum for change.
8. Institutionalize the new approaches.

Research has shown that executive leadership, top management support, is important during organizational change. A key attitude is commitment to change. Organizational restructuring and downsizing is one of the most challenging types of organizational change. In doing so, communication and fostering innovation helps to maintain employee morale.

What is stress and how does it relate to organizational change?

Stress is related to organizational change. Change is more likely to lead to stress when the change has consequences that threaten employees' sense of identity.

Psychological job strain is defined as the combinatiom of greater psychological job demands and lower job control. This results in organizational stress, which has been shown to have serious consequences to employees in terms of well-being and health. In addition, stress costs organizations billions of dollars each year.

Strains resulting from stressors trigger a stress episode. Responses may be psychological (high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, high cholesterol), psychological (anxiety, burnout, emotional exhaustion, fatigue) or behavioral (accidents and errors, alcohol use, caffeine intake, drug use, workplace deviance).

Some tips to help survive the stress of organizational change:

• Do not count on anyone else coming alone to relieve your stress.
• The organization is going to change, it must, if it is to survive and prosper.
• Accept fate, and move on.
• Study the situation, figure out how the game has changed, how priorities have been reordered.
• Do not fall into the trap of believing there is such a thing as a low-stress organization that is on track to survive.
• Ask yourself if the struggle makes sense.
• Keep in step with the organization's intended rate of change.
• Reengineer your job.
• Speed up.
• Now is the time for some serious mind control.
• Remember the advice of Jonathan Kozol: Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.
• Fall in love with your job and keep the romance alive.
• Stretch yourself today so you will be in better shape tomorrow.
• Develop a greater tolerance for constant changes in the game plan. For mid-course correction. For raw surprises.
• Be careful in what you use as evidence to evaluate how much the organization cares about people.

How can roles cause stress?

Roles are the behaviors that are expected of a person in a particular organizational context. People learn their roles in organizations and "act" them out on a daily basis. Roles can be a source of stress in various situations because they place demands on a person to fulfil expectations. Role ambiguity occurs when there is a lack of specificity or predictability about what the role of a person is. Role conflict occurs when there are incompatible demands regarding what a person's role is. For instance, the boss may want the employee to work late, but the employee's coworkers want them to leave when they do so they do not look bad (intersender role conflict). Role conflict may also occur when organizational requirements conflict with personal values (person - role conflict). A third form of role-related stress is called role overload, which is caused by too much work, time pressure, and deadlines that a person feels unable to meet. Role overload may be quantitative (the number of demands) or qualitative (which refers to employees not having the qualifications to perform their work role). Other stressors related to roles are conflict with family roles (work life balance), work - school conflict, and family to work conflict.

How to cope with stress during change?

Coping refers to constantly changing cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage specific external and/or internal demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding the resources of the person. Generally, there are two types of coping: behavioral methods (problem - solving behaviors, such as keeping a positive outlook, working harder, and seeking advice and help) and cognitive methods (managing thought and emotions, such as reordering life priorities and convincing oneself that work is not all that important).

In addition to these two methods, coping strategies can be problem-focused or emotion-focused. Together, these four dimensions yield the following coping strategies:

• Behavioral methods and problem-focused
  • Working harder
  • Seeking assistance
  • Acquiring more resources
• Behavioral methods and emotion-focused
  • Engaging in non-work activities
  • Seeking support
  • Venting anger
• Cognitive methods and problem-focused
  • Planning and organizing
  • Focusing on job duties
  • Take one step at a time
• Cognitive methods and emotion-focused
  • Tell yourself you always come through
  • Escape and detachment
  • Convince yourself work does not matter

Buffering effects (support during a stress episode) can result from social support, the help that people receive when they experience job demands. It is called the buffering effect because help from others serves as a buffer from stress and strain. Social support may be emotional or instrumental. Social support aids in stress management by building up the person's sense of identity and belonging, by improving self-image, and by enhancing the sense of control and mastery over the stressful situation.

Which organizational interventions and policies are there to help employees cope with stress?

Preventive stress management is a set of methods that promotes health at the workplace and avoids distress. There is a clear trend in organizations being more proactive regarding stress management. Many organizations have wellness programs that offer workshops on time management, weight loss, alcohol and/or drug abuse, smoking, cessation, and physical exercise. Research has shown that they minimally impact well-being and performance, but that they are in fact effective in helping employees cope with workplace stress. A final intervention is called employee assistance program (EAP) which may provide counseling, information, and referrals appropriate for treatment and support services.