Chapter 3

Individual Differences and

Work Behavior

Organizational Behavior 1 Chapter 3

Chapter Overview
This chapter introduces the variables that influence
individual behavior/performance by focusing on five
major variables: demographic factors, abilities and skills,
perception, attitudes, and personality.
The discussion begins by explaining the importance of
individual differences and how demographic factors, in
combination with genetic factors, attitudes, personality,
and locus of control influence work behavior and job
satisfaction
The chapter concludes with a discussion of creativity and
its value in the workplace.

Organizational Behavior 2 Chapter 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

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➢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

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Individual Differences in the Workplace
Individual Differences

Personality

Perception Ability and Skills Attitudes

Work Behavior
• Productivity
• Creativity
• Performance

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 Individual Differences Influencing Work
Behavior:

Hereditary and
Diversity Personality
Factors

Ability and Attitudes

Perception
Skills

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Diversity Factors
Diversity refers to those attributes that make people different from
one another.
Primary Dimensions Secondary Dimensions
(stable) (changeable)
Age Educational background
Ethnicity Marital status
Gender Religious beliefs
Physical attributes Health
Race Work experience

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Abilities and Skills

Ability – a person’s talent to

Key Abilities
perform a mental or physical
task
Mental Ability

Skill – a learned talent that Emotional

a person has acquired to Intelligence
perform a task

Tacit Knowledge

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Mental Ability: refers to one’s level of intelligence and can be divided
into subcategories, including verbal fluency, comprehension,
inductive and deductive reasoning, associative memory, and spatial
orientation

Emotional Intelligence: refers to a person’s ability to be self-aware of

feelings, to manage emotions, to motivate oneself, to express
empathy, and to handle relationships and interactions with others

Tacit Knowledge: The work-related practical know-how that

employees acquire through observation and direct experience on the
job.

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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

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 Stimuli Manager style
Technology The Three
Work
environment
Noise Components of
Peers
factors Reward system Attitudes: Cognition,
Compensation plan Affect, Behavior
Career opportunities

“My supervisor is unfair.”

Cognition Beliefs and values
“Having a fair supervisor is important
to me.”

Affect Feelings and emotions “I don’t like my supervisor.”

Behavior Intended behavior “I’ve submitted a formal request to

transfer.”

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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

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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

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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

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Changing Attitudes

The Communicator

The Message

The Situation

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Managers are often faced with the task of changing
their employees’ attitude in order to get them to work
harder and achieve higher job performance. This
process depends on three factors:
The Communicator: The employees are more likely to
change their attitudes if they trust the manager, like the
manager, and perceive the manager as having prestige.

The Message: Even if the manager is trusted, liked, and

seen as having prestige, the message needs to be clear,
understandable, and convincing
The Situation: Managers’ ability to change employees’
attitudes depends partly on the situation in which the
effort takes place.

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Attitudes and Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction – an Key factors associated

attitude people have with job satisfaction:
about their jobs – Pay
Results from people’s – Promotion opportunities
perception of their jobs – Supervision
Results from the degree – Coworkers
of fit between the – Working conditions
individual and the – Job security
organization

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 Satisfaction-Performance Relationships:
Three Views

Causes
1. Job Satisfaction Job Performance
“The satisfied worker is more
productive.”
Causes
2. Job Performance Job Satisfaction
“The more productive worker is
satisfied.”

Perceived Equity

3. Job Performance Rewards Job Satisfaction

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Personality

A relatively stable set of feelings and behaviors

that have been significantly formed by genetic
and environmental factors

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Some Major Forces Influencing Personality

Cultural forces

Individual Social class / group

Hereditary forces
Personality membership forces

Family relationship
forces

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Personality and Behavior in Organizations

The Big Five

Personality Locus of Control
Dimensions

Self-efficacy Creativity

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The Big Five Personality Dimensions

Extroversion Agreeableness

Conscientiousness

Openness to
Emotional
Experience
Stability

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 The Big Five Personality Dimensions
Conscientiousness: the extent to which individuals are
hardworking, organized, dependable, and persisting, versus
lazy, disorganized, and unreliable.
Extraversion-Introversion: the degree to which individuals
are gregarious, assertive, and social, versus, reserved, timid,
and quiet.
Agreeableness: the extent to which individuals are
cooperative, worm, and agreeable, versus belligerent, cold,
and disagreeable.
Emotional Stability: the degree to which individuals are
insecure, anxious, and depressed versus secure, calm, and
happy.
Openness to Experience: the extent to which individuals are
creative, curious, and cultured versus practical, and having
narrow interests.
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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

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Self-Efficacy
Self-efficacy reflects a person’s belief that he or
she has the competency to complete a job
successfully.
It has three dimensions…
– Magnitude refers to the level of task difficulty that
individuals believe they can attain
– Strength refers to whether the belief is weak
or strong
– Generality indicates how generalized across different
situations the belief in capability is

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 Feelings of self-efficacy have managerial and organizational
implications:
• Selection decisions: organizations should select
individuals who have a strong sense of self-efficacy.
• Training programs: organizations should consider
employees level of self-efficacy when choosing among
candidates for training programs.
• Goal setting and performance: organizations can
encourage higher performance goals from employees who
have high level of self-efficacy.

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 Creativity

• Creativity is a personality trait that involves the

ability to break away from habit-bound thinking
and produce novel and useful ideas
• Creativity produces innovation, which is the
lifeblood of corporations
• It can be encouraged and developed by giving
people the opportunity and freedom to think in
unconventional ways

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How to Develop Employee Creativity

1. Encourage everyone to view old problems from

new perspectives
2. Make certain people know that it is OK to make
mistakes
3. Provide as many people with as many new work
experiences as you can
4. Set an example in your own approach to dealing
with problems and opportunities

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