Joe Schmoe Business 1010 Dr. Somebody Define

Joe Schmoe

Business 1010

Dr. Somebody

Define personality and discuss its general role in influencing organizational behavior.

Personality is the psychological characteristics that influence the way people react to other individuals, situations, and problems in their environment. Personality influences an organization the most in "weak" situations where roles and rules are unclear. In "strong" situations where roles and rules are more strictly defined, personality has less of an impact.

Describe the dispositional, situational, and interactionist approach to organizational behavior.

According to the dispositional approach, people's characteristics influence their attitudes and behaviors, while in the situational approach, the traits of the organization influence people's attitudes and behavior. The interactionist approach marries the two and says that organizational behavior is a result of the interaction of dispositions and situations.

Discuss the consequences of locus of control, self-monitoring, and self-esteem.

People with an external locus of control see their lives as controlled by fate, luck, and other, more powerful people. "Internals" believe their lives are products of self-initiative, personal actions, and free will. People with an internal locus of control feel better about their jobs, maintain a higher income, achieve higher positions in a hierarchy, perceive less stress, and plan their careers carefully because they feel these things are within their power to control.

People low in self-monitoring act how they feel and say what they think with little regard to the situation. People high on self-monitoring show concern for socially appropriate behavior, and this regard means they generally emerge as leaders.

People with low self-esteem are more vulnerable to external influences, react badly to negative feedback, and do not react well to ambiguous or stressful situations. Organizations do better with a workforce with high self-esteem because these people tend to make more satisfying career decisions, show fulfillment in their jobs, and are generally more resilient.

4. Discuss positive and negative affectivity, proactive personality, general self-efficacy, and core self-evaluations.

Positive affectivity is where people look at things in a positive light and negative is just the opposite. The principle here is that positive people like their jobs and negative people are constantly stressed out.

A proactive personality means one actively tries to affect one's environment and this trait is directly correlated with job performance, stress tolerance, effective leadership, participation in initiatives, team work, entrepreneurship, and career success.

General self-efficacy (GSE) refers to the belief in a person's ability to perform successfully in multifarious situations. People with high GSE adapt well and have higher job satisfaction and performance.

Self-esteem, GSE, locus of control, and neuroticism make up a person's core self-evaluations, which refers to a broad personality concept that embodies the evaluations people make about themselves and their self-worth. This, like everything else, is positively related to job satisfaction and performance as well as life satisfaction.

5. Define values and discuss the implications of cross-cultural variation in values for organizational behavior.

Values are the states of affairs people prefer over other states of affairs. People from different cultures have different values that can be put into five basic categories: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity/femininity, individualism/collectivism, and long-term/short-term orientation.

In small power distance cultures, there is less emphasis on hierarchy whereas in large power distance societies, inequality is natural, and power differences are highlighted.

Strong uncertainty avoidance cultures stress hard work, and conformity in favor of security. Cultures with weak uncertainty avoidance don't care so much about rules or security, and hard work is not really a virtue, risk taking is valued.

Masculine cultures differentiate gender roles, support male dominance, and stress economic performance, while feminine cultures have more fluid gender roles, support sexual equality, and emphasize quality of life.

Individualistic cultures emphasize independence and privacy, whereas collective cultures stress interdependence and loyalty.

Cultures with a long-term orientation value persistence, economy, and close attention to status differences. Cultures with a short-term orientation favor personal stability, face-saving, and social niceties.

The important idea here is that your values may not translate well to a different culture, and if you're considering globalization, there's more to consider than how to reduce your payroll.