13. What Is Stress? Stress is a dynamic condition in which an individual is confronted with an opportunity, demand, or resource related to what the individual desires and for which the outcome is perceived to be both uncertain and important.”4” Lourdes Mu ñoz 9029835433
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Editor's Notes
Perception is a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment. However, what one perceives can be substantially different from objective reality. Why is perception important in the study of OB? Simply because people’s behavior is based on their perception of what reality is, not on reality itself.
Attribution theory has been proposed to develop explanations of the ways in which we judge people differently, depending on what meaning we attribute to a given behavior.”2” Basically, the theory suggests that when we observe an individual’s behavior, we attempt to determine whether it was internally or externally caused. That determination, however, depends largely on three factors: (1) distinctiveness, (2) consensus, and (3) consistency. Internally caused behaviors are those that are believed to be under the personal control of the individual. Externally caused behavior is seen as resulting from outside causes; that is, the person is seen as having been forced into the behavior by the situation. Distinctiveness refers to whether an individual displays different behaviors in different situations. If everyone who faces a similar situation responds in the same way, we can say the behavior shows consensus. An observer looks for consistency in a person’s actions. The more consistent the behavior, the more the observer is inclined to attribute it to internal causes. Selective Perception: Any characteristic that makes a person, object, or event stand out will increase the probability that it will be perceived. Halo Effect When we draw a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single characteristic, such as intelligence, sociability, or appearance, a halo effect is operating. “3”
Individuals in organizations make decisions. That is, they make choices from among two or more alternatives. Decision making occurs as a reaction to a problem.”3” The Rational Decision-Making Process: We often think that the best decision maker is rational. That is, he or she makes consistent, value-maximizing choices within specified constraints.”5” These choices are made following a six-step rational decision-making model.”6” Moreover, specific assumptions underlie this model. Improving Creativity in Decision Making: Although following the steps of the rational decision-making model will often improve decisions, the rational decision maker also needs creativity, that is, the ability to produce novel and useful ideas.”6”
Expertise is the foundation for all creative work. The second component is creative-thinking skills. This encompasses personality characteristics associated with creativity, the ability to use analogies, as well as the talent to see the familiar in a different light. The final component in the three-component model of creativity is intrinsic task motivation. This is the desire to work on something because it’s interesting, involving, exciting, satisfying, or personally challenging.
The anchoring bias is a tendency to fixate on initial information. Once set, we then fail to adequately adjust for subsequent information.”7” The confirmation bias represents a specific case of selective perception. We seek out information that reaffirms our past choices, and we discount information that contradicts past judgments.”8” Availability bias, which is the tendency for people to base their judgments on information that is readily available to them The winner’s curse is a decision-making dictum that argues that the winning participants in an auction typically pay too much for the winning item. The hindsight bias is the tendency for us to believe falsely that we’d have accurately predicted the outcome of an event, after that outcome is actually known.”9”
What are the goals of planned change? Essentially there are two. First, it seeks to improve the ability of the organization to adapt to changes in its environment. Second, it seeks to change employee behavior. Who in organizations is responsible for managing change activities? The answer is change agents. “1” Change agents can be managers or nonmanagers, current employees of the organization, newly hired employees, or outside consultants.
Resistance to Change One of the most well-documented findings from studies of individual and organizational behavior is that organizations and their members resist change. In a sense, this is positive. It provides a degree of stability and predictability to behavior. Overcoming Resistance to Change : Education and Communication, Participation, Building Support and Commitment, Negotiation, Manipulation and Cooptation, Selecting People Who Accept Change, Coercion.
Kurt Lewin argued that successful change in organizations should follow three steps: unfreezing the status quo, movement to a desired end state, and refreezing the new change to make it permanent.”2” See oil company example,
What’s a Learning Organization? A learning organization is an organization that has developed the continuous capacity to adapt and change. “ All organizations learn, whether they consciously choose to or not—it is a fundamental requirement for their sustained existence.””3” However, some organizations just do it better than others.
More typically, stress is associated with demands and resources. Demands are responsibilities, pressures, obligations, and even uncertainties that individuals face in the workplace. Resources are things within an individual’s control that can be used to resolve the demands. This demands-resources model has received increasing support in the literature.”5” See Exhibit 19-9 in the book for models of stress.