chapter 13 business. copyright © houghton mifflin company. all rights reserved.13 | 2...

Chapter 13Business

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 13 | 2

Industrial/Organizational Psychology

• The study of human behavior in the workplace.• Hawthorne plant studies found that simply

observing workers increased their productivity.– “Hawthorne effect”


Personnel Selection


Although flawed, job interviews consistently make for better hiring decisions.

Answer: False… Let’s see why!

Putting Common Sense to the Test…


Traditional Employment Interviews

• Do interviews promote sound hiring?• Research suggests interviewing has mixed

effects.– Live interviews may actually diminish the tendency

to make simple stereotyped judgments.– But one source of bias may be physical

attractiveness.


Figure 13.2: Job Interviews:A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy?

Phillips & Dipboye, 1989.


“Scientific” Alternatives to Traditional Interviews

• Polygraph or lie-detector test as a screening device

• Standardized tests measuring:– Intellectual and cognitive abilities– Job specific knowledge and skills– Relevant personality traits– Integrity


Structured Interviews

• Structured Interview: Each applicant is asked a standard set of questions and evaluated on the same criteria.

• Assessment Center: Structured setting in which job applicants are exhaustively tested and judged by multiple evaluators.


Personnel Selectionas a Two-Way Street

• Concrete, job-specific tests and interview situations seen as most fair.

• Dislike for more general standardized tests of intelligence, personality, and honesty.

• Preference for in-person interviews.


Affirmative Action

• The policy whereby preferences in recruiting, hiring, admissions, and promotion are given to women and underrepresented minority groups.

• The debate:– Preferential treatment is necessary to overcome past

inequities– Policy results in unfair reverse discrimination


Figure 13.4: American Attitudes Toward Affirmative Action

USA Today Gallup Poll, 6/23/03


Why Can Preferential Selection Policies Have Negative Effects?

• People perceive a procedure as unjust to the extent that it excludes those who are qualified simply because of their nonmembership in a group.

• Recipients become less able to attribute success on the job to their own abilities and efforts.

• Seen as a form of assistance.


Figure 13.6: Varying Effects of Affirmative Action on Women

Heilman et al., 1998.


Table 13.1: ManagingAffirmative Action


Performance Appraisals


Performance Appraisals

• The process of evaluating an employee’s work within the organization.

• Objective, quantifiable measures are often not available for assessing a worker’s performance.

– So, performance appraisals are usually based on subjective measures.


Supervisor Ratings

• How accurate and fair are supervisors’ ratings of subordinates’ performances?

• Appraisal-related problems:– Halo effect– Contrast effect– Restriction of range problem


A problem with having workers evaluate their own job performance is that self-ratings are overly positive.

Answer: True… Let’s see why!



Self-Evaluations

• Workers are sometimes asked to evaluate their supervisors (“upward feedback”).

• Self-evaluations are subject to many biases because people like to present themselves favorably to others.

• Self-evaluations put both subordinates and female employees at a disadvantage.


New and Improved Methods of Appraisal

• Make evaluations right after performance.• Increase the number of evaluators used.• Teach evaluators some of the skills necessary

for making accurate appraisals.


Due Process Considerations

• Principle #1: There should be adequate notice of expected performance standards.

• Principle #2: Employees should receive a fair hearing.

• Principle #3: Appraisals should be based on evidence of job performance.


Leadership


The most effective type of leader is one who knows how to win support through the use of reward.




The Classic Trait Approach

• What traits characterize “natural-born” leaders?• Some traits have been found to be characteristic

of people who become leaders.• More situationally-oriented theories posit that the

emergence of a given leader depends on time, place, and circumstances.


Fiedler’s ContingencyModel of Leadership

• Leaders are either primarily task oriented or relations oriented.

• Task oriented leaders are most effective in clear-cut situations that are either low or high in control.

• Relations oriented leaders perform better in situations that afford a moderate degree of control.


Vroom & Yetton’s NormativeModel of Leadership

• Leadership effectiveness is determined by the amount of feedback and participation leaders invite from workers.

• Effective long-term leadership depends on having the right amount of worker participation.

– The “right amount” depends on situational factors.


Transactional Leadership

• Compliance and support from followers is gained primarily through goal setting and the use of rewards.

• Depends on the leader’s willingness and ability to reward subordinates who perform as expected.

– As well as the willingness and ability to correct those who do not


Transformational Leadership

• Motivates followers to transcend personal needs in the interest of a common cause.

– Particularly in times of growth, change, and crisis

• Articulates a clear vision of the future and then mobilizes others to join in that vision.


Table 13.3: Characteristics of Transformational Leaders

Based on Bass & Avolio, 1990.


Leadership among Women and Minorities

• Women and minorities are extremely underrepresented in top leadership positions.

• Are there gender differences with respect to leadership?

– Only difference seems to be that men are more controlling and women more democratic in their approaches.


Why Are There So Few Womenin Top Leadership Positions?

• Conflicted about having to juggle career and family responsibilities.

• Some shy away from competitive hierarchical positions that offer the potential for leadership.

• Societal stereotypes of women as followers, not as leaders.


Motivation


Vroom’s (1964) Expectancy Theory

• Workers become motivated and exert effort when they believe that:

– Their effort will result in an improved performance– Their performance will be recognized and rewarded– The money and symbolic rewards that are offered

are valuable and desirable


Figure 13.7: Goal-Settingand Performance Cycle

Locke & Latham, 2002.


Figure 13.8: The Effect of Payment on Intrinsic Motivation: Turning Play into Work

From E.L. Deci, "Effects of Externally Mediated Rewards on Intrinsic Motivation," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 18, 105-115, 1971. Copyright © 1971 by the American Psychological Association. Reprinted with permission.


Bonuses, Bribes,and Intrinsic Motivation

• How a reward is interpreted determines its effect on motivation.

– Controlling rewards such as bribes can lower intrinsic motivation.

– Informational rewards such as bonuses can have a positive effect on intrinsic motivation.


People who feel “overpaid” work harder on the job than those who see their pay as appropriate.

Answer: True… Let’s see why!



Equity Considerations

• According to equity theory, people want rewards to be equitable.

• Being overpaid or underpaid should cause distress.

• To relieve the distress from inequity, a person can:

– Restore actual equity – Convince oneself that equity already exists


Figure 13.9: Equity in the Workplace

From J. Greenberg, "Equity and Workplace Status: A Field Experiment" Journal of Applied Psychology, 73, 606-613, 1988. Copyright © 1988 by the American Psychological Association. Reprinted with permission.


Equity Considerations (cont.)

• Satisfaction may depend not only on equity outcomes but also on the perceived fairness of how the outcomes were determined.

• Equity in the workplace may be more important for men than for women.


Economic Decision Making


Social Influences in the Stock Market

• The stock market is influenced by social psychological factors as much as by rational economic factors.

– Social comparison and conformity revisited.

• Misperceptions of random events, misattributions, and even unpublished rumors can influence decisions of investors.


People losing money on an investment tend to cut their losses rather than hang tough.




Commitment, Entrapment, and Escalation

• People can become entrapped by own initial commitments.

• Explanations for the escalation effect– Loss aversion– Feelings of personal responsibility


Sunk Cost Principle

• People often violate the sunk cost principleof economics.

– The principle that only future costs and benefits, not past commitments, should be considered in making a decision.

• Economic decisions are biased by past investments of time, money, and effort.

chapter 13 business. copyright © houghton mifflin company. all rights reserved.13 | 2...

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