BUS603: Managing People

1a. Classify individual attributes (values, personality, and individual perspectives) that people bring into the workplace

• How do personality, values, and attitudes differ from each other?
• What attitudes are important in the workplace?
• What can a manager do to create job satisfaction and organizational commitment?

Our personality are traits that explain or predict our behavior. Most researchers believe that our personality is developed through both nature (we are born with our personality) and nurture (family values, religion, past experiences, and societal influences). Our values help determine our personality; our values are those things that are most important to us. What do you value? Creativity? Hard work? Trust? What might happen if you work in an environment that does not value what you value? Our attitudes can be positive or negative. Attitudes are our opinions about people, things or situations. Our attitudes can change, especially if an important event occurs that causes us to rethink our attitude toward something.

In the workplace, job satisfaction and organizational commitment are the attitudes most important. Job satisfaction is the feeling people have toward their job. Organizational commitment is the emotional attachment people have toward their place of work. Although these job attitudes can be situational, based on your position and the organization, it's vital to recognize how much job satisfaction and organizational commitment affect your human resources.

Because job satisfaction and organizational commitment are situational, there are things managers can do to build positive job satisfaction and strong organizational commitment: be supportive and provide motivation, provide constructive criticism, lead by example, empower individuals, develop a positive, healthy work environment, encourage teamwork and collaboration, develop core values of the organization, reward success, update technology

To review, see Personality, Work Attitudes, and Employee Productivity.

 

1b. Describe how an individual's attributes affect their work behavior

• Why do people behave like they do in the workplace? What are key workplace behaviors to focus on as a manager?
• What can organizations do if these key behaviors exist?
• How can you, as an employee, display professionalism?

The first key behavior is job performance, which is our performance level on factors included in our job description. Job performance is highly correlated with our general mental ability, our ability to think and reason, and communication. How we are treated in an organization can have a positive (treated fairly) or negative (treated unfairly) impact on our job performance. Our stress levels also affect our job performance – during times of high stress, our job performance might fall. As mentioned above, job satisfaction has a moderate impact on our job performance. Finally, our personality can affect our job performance – people who are organized, reliable, conscientious, and achievement-oriented seem to have higher job performance.

The second key behavior is citizenship, or Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCB). OCB are the voluntary behaviors we perform to help others and benefit the organization. With citizenship behaviors, we help others around us if we feel motivated to do so. When we are in a high-quality relationship with our peers, manager, or organization, we feel obligated to help those around us. One's personality can impact OCB; people who are conscientious and have positive attitudes tend to perform citizenship behaviors more often than others. Our attitude also affects OCB. Happy people tend to display more citizenship behaviors, while unhappy people disengage from their organization and rarely put effort into citizenship behaviors. Finally, as we age, we tend to display more citizenship behaviors.

The third key behavior is absenteeism, or unscheduled absences from work. Absenteeism can be a huge cost for an organization. Some absenteeism is related to health issues; providing wellness programs and encouraging healthy behaviors – including a good work/life balance – can help organizations reduce health-related absenteeism. Poor work attitudes can also lead employees to be absent. Determining the root causes of these poor attitudes and correcting them can again help an organization reduce absenteeism. Finally, age has been shown to predict absenteeism; interestingly, age is actually negatively related to the frequency and duration of absenteeism. Older workers might have a stronger work ethic or a higher organizational commitment than younger workers.

The fourth key behavior is turnover, when an employee leaves an organization. Turnover can be costly as it requires an organization to recruit, hire, and train new workers. Turnover of high-performing employees is particularly difficult; however, if a poor performer leaves the organization, an opportunity exists for the organization to improve productivity. To reduce turnover of high-performing workers, organizations can use many factors discussed above – creating job satisfaction and organization commitment, developing good work/life balance, and reducing stress in the workplace – all these factors could help keep turnover to a minimum.

Behaving professionally at work is a key attribute for employees. Arriving on time, or early, for appointments or the work day is important. Likewise, not sprinting to the door at 5 p.m. is also important. If you can, remain for a few minutes to finish your emails, straighten your work area, or create your To Do List for the next day. These activities show your commitment to your work. While the COVID pandemic has led to more casual work attire, particularly when you telecommute, be sure to return to professional dressing and hygiene when you return to the workplace. Keep your workspace organized and neat. What is your reaction when you walk into a colleague's office to ask for a document and see piles and piles of paperwork everywhere? Are you confident the colleague will find the document you need? Respond to emails and voicemails promptly and professionally. Communicate effectively with your co-workers and always prepare for meetings.

To review, see Organizational Behavior and Professionalism in the Workplace.

 

1c. Examine how person-job fit and person-organization fit affect work behaviors and job satisfaction

• How does person-job fit affect work behaviors and job satisfaction?
• How does person-organization fit affect work behaviors and job satisfaction?
• How do generational differences affect satisfaction?

Person-job fit (P-J fit) is the relationship between a person's characteristics relating to the job or tasks performed at work. P-J fit can be broken down into two assumptions: demand abilities where the employee's knowledge, skills, and abilities match with their job requirements; supply-value fit occurs when the employee's needs, desires, or preferences are met by the jobs they perform. Research has shown that P-J fit positively relates to job satisfaction, quality of work life, and positive adjustments in new organizations.

Person-organization fit (P-O fit) is the compatibility between individuals and organizations. P-O fit can be divided into two main types: supplementary fit occurs when the individual possesses attributes that are similar to those of other members in the organization; complementary fit occurs when an individual's characteristics add something new to fill a gap missing in the organization. In contrast to P-J fit, P-O fit is mainly concerned with organizational-level outcomes rather than personnel outcomes.

Organizations today are composed of multiple generations of people: baby boomers, generation X, generation Y, and even generation Z. Each of these sociological groups has been affected by different social, economic, and political conditions. As a manager, it's important to understand how each generation defines job satisfaction. In a recent study, researchers looked at how generation X and generation Y perceived job satisfaction. According to these researchers, generation X people find work very important; they are conscientious and hard workers who may experience an imbalance between work and personal life. The job satisfaction of generation X depends on success at work, high position, and work image. Generation Y people are better educated, particularly in technological progress. They also attach greater importance to the quality of life. Generation Y can communicate well through technology but have more difficulty with face-to-face conversations. This weaker relationship with colleagues can impact their job satisfaction as generation Y workers strive to become a member of a dedicated and motivated team and work with positive managers who provide them with regular feedback.

To review, see Job Satisfaction of Generations X and Y Workers and Matching Employees With Jobs.

 

1d. Compare decision-making models (rational, intuitive, creative, or using the P-O-L-C framework) for individual and organizational decision making

• What is the P-O-L-C framework?
• How do programmed decisions and nonprogrammed decisions differ?
• How might we use the rational, bounded rational, intuitive, and creative decision-making models to make decisions?

The P-O-L-C framework focuses on the four major functions of management: Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling. Within each of these four management functions, decisions must be made for the organization. Planning entails making decisions on the organization's vision and mission, setting goals, and determining the actions necessary to achieve those goals. In the organizing function, we must decide our organizational structure, our resource allocation, and our job design. In leading, we must decide our leadership style and direction, how to motivate our employees, and how to coordinate and communicate with our employees. Finally, in the controlling function, we make decisions that involve our processes and standards; we must review and evaluate what we have done to take corrective action.

Not all decisions we make require a lot of time or major consequences. What to wear each day to work, whether to drive or take the bus to work, what to do in the evening after work – we can make these decisions quickly with very little consequence. These types of decisions are called programmed decisions. In dealing with the P-O-L-C framework, however, many of our business decisions can require substantial time and can have serious consequences. These types of decisions are called nonprogrammed decisions. With nonprogrammed decisions, we have different models of decision-making from which to choose: rational, bound-rational, intuitive, and creative.

The rational decision-making model provides formal steps to consider if your goal is to make the best possible choice: identify the problem, establish decision criteria, weigh decision criteria, generate alternatives, evaluate the alternatives, choose the best alternative, implement the decision, and evaluate the decision. Establishing decision criteria and generating many alternatives are two key steps in this model. While the rational model might look easy, rarely are people able to generate all possible alternatives or can make optimal decisions.

To account for the disadvantages in rational decision-making, the bounded rational model allows people to limit their options to be more manageable and to choose the best alternative without conducting an exhaustive search for alternatives. When you purchase a new cell phone, do you look at every cell phone on the market and compare features across all the models? Or do you choose 2 or 3 models to make your comparison? The first example is a rational model – and could take months to evaluate all cell phone models. The second example is a bounded rational model – you choose 2 or 3 cell phones with which to make your comparison. Your decision takes less time and effort.

In the intuitive decision-making model, people rely on their experience, training, and knowledge to evaluate one option at a time. Intuitive decision-makers have a mental model they follow: they think through the first option, and if that option will not work based on their mental model, they think through the next option. If that option will not work, they think of another option. This mental processing continues until the decision-maker identifies a workable solution – that solution is then implemented. Can you see that only people with experience, training, and knowledge in their field can use this model?

The creative decision-making model focuses on the generation of new, imaginative ideas. You only have to watch episodes of Shark Tank to see how creative entrepreneurs are in developing new and imaginative products. But can anyone be creative? Brainstorming can be used to generate a lot of ideas. Idea quotas can be used alone or in conjunction with brainstorming to ensure many ideas. In wildstorming, people look at impossible ideas and then imagine what would happen to make the idea possible. Do you think the first airplane, the first electric car, or the first cell phone resulted from wildstorming?

To review, see Decision Making in Management.

 

Unit 1 Vocabulary

This vocabulary list includes terms you will need to know to successfully complete the final exam.

• absenteeism
• attitudes
• bounded rational decision-making model
• brainstorming
• complementary fit
• creative decision-making model
• demand abilities
• general mental ability
• idea quotas
• intuitive decision-making model
• job performance
• job satisfaction
• nonprogrammed decisions
• Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCB)
• organizational commitment
• P-O-L-C framework
• person-job fit (P-J fit)
• person-organization fit (P-O fit)
• personality
• programmed decisions
• rational decision-making model
• supplementary fit
• supply-value fit
• turnover
• values
• wildstorming