This document provides an overview of individual differences and how they influence work behavior. It discusses key individual variables like diversity factors, abilities/skills, personality, perceptions, and attitudes. Specific topics covered include the big five personality dimensions, locus of control, self-efficacy, creativity, job satisfaction and its relationship to performance, and the attraction-selection-attrition cycle. The goal is to help managers understand individual behavior differences and how to account for them to be effective.

1. Individual differences and
work behavior
Presented by:
Mengot Nkongho
Jonathan Acevedo
Mohamad Skaf
Okoye Chukwudi

2. Chapter objectives:

Identify individual variables that influence work behavior.

Understand how diversity influences the workplace.

Explain what an attitude is and identify its three components.

Discuss the relationship between job satisfaction and
performance.

Describe the major forces influencing personality.

Identify the big five personality dimensions.

Discuss several important personality factors.

3. Why individual differences are
important.

Individual differences have a direct effect on behavior

People who perceive things differently behave differently

People with different attitudes respond differently to
directives

People with different personalities interact differently
with bosses, coworkers, subordinates, and customers

4. Why individual differences are
important



Individual differences help explain:
Why some people embrace change and others are
fearful of it
Why some employees will be productive only if
they are closely supervised, while others will be
productive if they are not
Why some workers learn new tasks more
effectively than others

5. Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA)
Cycle
Different people are attracted to different careers and
organizations as a function of their own:

abilities

interests

personalities

6. Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA)
Cycle
Organizations select employees on the basis of
the following:

the organization’s needs (skills and abilities)

individual attributes such as values and personality

7. Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA)
Cycle
Attrition occurs when:


individuals discover they do not like being part of
the organization and elect to resign, or
the organization determines an individual is not
succeeding and elects to terminate

8. Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA)
Cycle
Each phase of the ASA cycle is significantly
influenced by the individual differences of
each person

9. Effective managerial practice requires that
individual behavior differences be recognized,
and when feasible, taken into consideration
while carrying out the job of managing
organizational behavior.

10. The basis for understanding work
behavior.
To understand individual differences a manager
must:

Observe and recognize the differences

Study relationships between variables that
influence behavior

11. Individual Differences
Influencing Work Behavior:
.
Hereditary and
Diversity
Factors
Ability and
Skills
Personality
Perception
Attitudes

12. Diversity Factors






Primary Dimensions
(stable)
Age
Ethnicity
Gender
Physical attributes
Race
Sexual / affectional
orientation
Secondary Dimensions
(changeable)
 Educational background
 Marital status
 Religious beliefs
 Health
 Work experience

13. 
Generational diversity

Disability Diversity

14. Generational diversity
 1- Gen Y : 20s and younger
 2- Gen X: 30s to low 40s
 3- baby bommers: mid 40s and older
 Gen X and baby bommers can use Gen Y on
virtual team projects

15. Disability Diversity:
 A disabled person is someone who has a
physical or mental impairment that
substantially limits one or more of his major
life activities .

16. As managers we may be asked to :
 Make existing facilities accessible
 Restructure jobs
 Modify work schedules
 Reassign employees

17. Abilities and Skills


Ability – a person’s
talent to perform a
mental or physical task
Skill – a learned talent
that a person has
acquired to perform a
task
Key Abilities
Mental Ability
Emotional
Intelligence
Tacit Knowledge

18. Attitudes

Are determinates of behavior because they
are linked with perception, personality,
feelings, and motivation

Attitude – a mental state of readiness


learned and organized through experience
exerting a specific response to people, objects,
and situations with which it is related

19. Attitudes: Implications for the
Manager
1.
2.
3.
4.
Attitudes are learned
Attitudes define one’s predispositions
toward given aspects of the world
Attitudes provide the emotional basis of
one’s interpersonal relations and
identification with others
Attitudes are organized and are close to
the core of personality

20. Stimuli
Work
environmen
t factors
Cognition
Affect
Behavior
Manager style
Manager style
Technology
Technology
Noise
Noise
Peers
Peers
Reward system
Reward system
Compensation plan
Compensation plan
Career opportunities
Career opportunities
Beliefs and values
Beliefs and values
Feelings and emotions
Feelings and emotions
Intended behavior
Intended behavior
The Three
Components of
Attitudes:
Cognition, Affect,
Behavior
“My supervisor is unfair.”
“Having a fair supervisor is
important to me.”
“I don’t like my supervisor.”
“I’ve submitted a formal
request to transfer.”

21. Cognition



What individuals know about themselves
and their environment
Implies a conscious process of acquiring
knowledge
Evaluative beliefs – favorable or
unfavorable impressions that a person holds
toward an object or person

22. Affect


The emotional component of an attitude
Often learned from




parents
teachers
peer group members
The part of an attitude that is associated
with “feeling” a certain way about a
person, group, or situation

23. Cognitive Dissonance

A discrepancy between attitudes and
behaviors

A mental state of anxiety

Occurs when there is a conflict among an
individual’s various cognitions after a
decision has been made

24. Changing Attitudes
The Communicator
The Message
The Situation

25. How to Increase Your
Effectiveness in Changing
Attitudes: (1 of 2)
1.
2.
Concentrate on gradually changing the
attitude over a period of time
Identify the beliefs or values that are part of
the attitude and provide the attitude holder
with information that will alter those beliefs or
values

26. How to Increase Your Effectiveness
in Changing Attitudes: (2 of 2)
3.
4.
Make the setting (in which the attempted
change occurs) as pleasant and enjoyable as
possible
Identify reasons that changing the attitude is to
the advantage of the attitude holder

27. Attitudes and Job Satisfaction



Job satisfaction – an
attitude people have
about their jobs
Results from people’s
perception of their
jobs
Results from the
degree of fit between
the individual and the
organization

Key factors associated
with job satisfaction:












Pay
Promotion opportunities
Supervision
Coworkers
Working conditions
Job security

28. Satisfaction-Performance
Relationships:
Three Views
Causes
1. Job Satisfaction
2. Job Performance
“The satisfied worker is more
productive.”
Causes
“The more productive worker is
satisfied.”
Job Performance
Performance
Job Satisfaction
Perceived Equity
3. Job Performance
Rewards
Rewards
Job Satisfaction
Job Satisfaction

29. Personality

A relatively stable set of feelings and behaviors
that have been significantly formed by genetic
and environmental factors

The relationship between behavior and
personality is one of the most complex matters
that managers have to understand

30. Some Major Forces Influencing
Personality
Cultural forces
Hereditary forces
Individual
Personality
Family relationship
forces
Social class / group
membership forces

31. Personality and Behavior in
Organizations
The Big Five
Personality
Dimensions
Locus of Control
Self-efficacy
Creativity

32. The Big Five Personality
Dimensions
Extroversion
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Emotional
Stability
Openness to
Experience

33. Locus of Control

Locus of control of individuals –



Determines the degree to which they believe
their behaviors influence what happens to them
Internals – believe they are masters of their
own fate
Externals – believe they are helpless pawns of
fate, success is due to luck or ease of task

34. Self-Efficacy

Feelings of self-efficacy have managerial
and organizational implications:

Selection decisions

Training programs

Goal setting and performance

35. How to Develop Employee
Creativity
1.
2.
3.
4.
Encourage everyone to view old problems
from new perspectives
Make certain people know that it is OK to
make mistakes
Provide as many people with as many new
work experiences as you can
Set an example in your own approach to
dealing with problems and opportunities