Organizational behavior
Section: 101
Dr. MAGUIRE, RICHAR
Abdullah al milhem
201002511
Khalid alhazmi
201002487
Muhannad Aabdullah
201002409
Perception is a process by which individuals organize and intercept their sensory
impressions in order to give meaning to their environment. There are factors that
influence perception like:
Factors in the perceiver:
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Attitudes
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Motives
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Interests
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Experience
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Expectations
Factors in the situations:
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Time
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Work setting
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Social setting
Factors in the target:
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Novelty
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Motion
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Sounds
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Size
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Background
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Proximity
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Similarity
(Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 203)
There is also something called attribution theory is an attempt to determine whether an
individual’s behavior is internally or externally caused. Fundamental attributing error is
the tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the
influence of internal factors when making judgments about the behavior of others
(Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 204). Self-serving bias is the tendency for individuals to
attribute their own successes to internal factors and put the blame for failures on external
factors. Common shortcuts in judging others are selective perception which is the
tendency to selectively interpret what one sees on the basis of one’s interests,
background, experience, and attitudes (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 206). Halo effect is
the tendency to draw a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single
characteristic. Contrast effect is evaluation of a person’s characteristics that is affected by
comparisons with other people recently encountered who rank higher or lower on the
same characteristics. Stereotyping is judging someone on the basis of one’s perception of
the group to which that person belongs (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 207) .The specific
applications of shortcuts in organizations are employment interview which is to make
interviewers make perceptual judgments that are often inaccurate and draw early
impressions that quickly become entrenched (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 207).
Performance expectations which are people attempt to validate their perceptions of reality
even when they are faulty. Performance evaluation depends on the perceptual process in
which an employee future is closely tied to the appraisal-promotions, pay raises, and
continuations of employment are among the most obvious outcomes (Robbins & Judge,
2011, pp 207). We have also something called self-fulfilling prophecy, which is a
situation in which a person inaccurately perceives a second person, and the resulting
expectations cause the second person to behave in ways consistent with the original
perception. There is the link between perception and individual decision making.
Decisions are choices made from among two or more alternatives. A problem is a
discrepancy between the current state of affairs and some desired state. We have also the
decision making in organizations (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 208). Rational is a
characterized by making consistent, value-maximizing choices within specified
constraints. The rational decision-making model is a decision-making model that
describes how individuals should behave in order to maximize some outcome.
Steps in the rational decision-making model:
1. Define the problem
2. Identify the decision criteria
3. Allocate weights to the criteria
4. Develop the alternative
5. Evaluate the alternatives
6. Select the best alternative
(Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 210)
Bounded rationality is a process of making decisions by constructing simplified models
that extract the essential features from the problems without capturing all their
complexity. We have also intuitive decision making which is an unconscious process
created out of distilled experience (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 211).
Common biases and errors in decision making, people always make an error when they
make a final decision. Moreover, I will list and explain all of them. Overconfidence,
many people are overconfidence, which means that if they are confident about something
70% they are actually right about 50% present of the time. Anchoring bias, a tendency to
fixate on initial information from which one then fails to adequately adjust for subsequent
information (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 212). Conformation bias, the tendency to seek
out information that reaffirms past choice and discount information that contradicts past
judgments. Availability bias, the tendency for people to base their judgment on
information that is readily available to them (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 213). Escalation
of commitment, an increased commitment to pervious decision in spite of negative
information. Randomness error, the tendency of individuals to believe that they can
predict outcome of random events (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 215). Risk aversion, the
tendency to prefer a sure gain of moderate amount over riskier outcome even if the riskier
outcome might have a higher expected payoff. Hindsight bias, the tendency to believe
falsely after an outcome of an event is actually known (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 216).
There are some influences that may change the final decision also there is a different
between the individual and the organization constraints. The individual effect is the
personality, gender and mental ability (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 217). The
organization constraints effects are performance evaluation, reward system, formal
regulations, and system imposed time constraints. Ethics is one of the important things in
our life, without a good ethics you might not succeed in your life. There are three ethical
decision criteria, which are:
Utilitarianism: a system in which decisions are made to provide the greatest good for the
greatest number.
Whistle-blowers: individuals who report unethical practice by their employer to outsider
Creativity: the ability to produce novel and useful ides (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 211).
There are three models of creativity:
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Expertise.
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Creative thinking skills.
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Intrinsic task motivation.
Global impaction contain three differences:
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Attributions

Decision

Ethics
(Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 220)
1) Job Characteristics Model Identifies five job characteristics and their relationship to
personal and work outcomes.
Characteristics: Skill variety, Task identity, Task significance, Autonomy,
Feedback
These characteristics directly affect three psychological states of employees:
Knowledge of results
Meaningfulness of work
Personal feelings of responsibility for results
Increases in these psychological states result in increased motivation,
performance, and job satisfaction.
(Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 221)
2)Job Rotation: The periodic shifting of a worker from one task to another.
Job Enlargement: The horizontal expansion of jobs.
Job Enrichment: The vertical expansion of jobs.
3)Flextime: Employees work during a common core time period each day but have
discretion in forming their total workday from a flexible set of hours outside the core.
Job Sharing: The practice of having two or more people split a 40-hour-a-week
job.
Telecommuting: Employees do their work at home at least two days a week on a
computer that is linked to their office.
Advantages: Larger labor pool, Higher productivity, Less turnover, Improved
morale, Reduced office-space costs.
Disadvantages:
Employer: Less direct supervision of employees, Difficult to coordinate
teamwork, Difficult to evaluate non-quantitative performance
Employee: May not be as noticed for his or her efforts
(Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 223)
4) Employee Involvement: A participative process that uses the input of employees to
increase their commitment to the organization’s success.
By increasing worker autonomy and control over work lives (involvement), organizations
employee motivation will increase.
5) A portion of an employee’s pay is based on some individual and/or organization
measure of performance
(Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 224)
6)Benefits plan that allows each employee to put together a benefits package individually
tailored to his or her own needs and situation. However, that will help the employee to
motivate them and let them do their best in their jobs.
7) Intrinsic motivation is a concept described by psychologists as the motivation that
comes from within a person to accomplish a task or goal. Intrinsically motivated people
are not influenced by external rewards or punishments for their work, such as earning
money for doing a job or getting a poor grade on a school assignment. Individuals with
intrinsic motivation choose to perform tasks because of the inherent pleasure or sense of
accomplishment that comes from a job well done. Countless studies have shown that
children and adults who develop intrinsic motivation are much more likely to succeed on
long-term projects and goals than those who are motivated by external factors.
(Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 225)
Job design is the way the elements in a job are organized. Job Characteristics model is a
model that proposes that any job can be described in terms of five core job dimensions;
skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. Skill variety is the
degree to which a job requires a variety of different activates (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp
234). Task identity is the degree to which a job requires completion of a whole and
identifiable piece of work. Task significance s the degree to which a job has substantial
impact on the lives or work of other people. Autonomy the degree to which a job
provides substantial freedom and discretion to the individual in scheduling the work and
in determining the procedures to be used in carrying it out (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp
235). Feedback is the degree to which carrying out the work activities required by a job
results in the individual obtaining direct and clear information about the effectiveness of
his or her performance (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 235).
MPS=((skill variety +task identity+ task significance ) / 3) *Autonomy *Feedback
Motivating potential score is a predictive index that suggests the motivating potential
in a job. Job rotation is the periodic shifting of an employee from one task to another
(Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 238). Job enrichment is the vertical expansion of jobs, which
the worker controls the planning, execution, and evaluation of the work. Flextime is the
flexible work hours. Job sharing is an arrangement that allows two or more individuals to
spilt a traditional 40 hour-a-week job (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 239). Telecommuting
working from home at least two days a week on a computer that a linked to the
employer’s office (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 240).
Employee involvement a participative process that uses the input of employees and is
intended to increase employee commitment to an organization’s success. Participative
management is a process in which subordinates share a significant degree of decisionmaking power with their immediate superiors (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 243).
Representative participation is a system in which workers participate in organizational
decision making through a small group of representative employees (Robbins & Judge,
2011, pp 243). Variable-pay program is a pay plan that bases a portion of an employee’s
pay on some individual and organizational measures of performance. Piece-rate pay plan
is a pay plan in which workers are paid a fixed sum for each unit of production completed
(Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 245).
Merit-based pay plan is a pay plan based on performance appraisal ratings. A bonus is
a pay plan that rewards employees for recent performance rather than historical
performance (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 247). Skill-based pay is a pay plan that sets pay
levels on the basis of how many skills employees has or how many jobs they can do.
Profit-sharing plan is an organization wide programs that distributes compensation based
on some established formula designed around a company’s profitability (Robbins &
Judge, 2011, pp 255). Gain sharing is a formula-based group incentive plan. Employee
stock ownership plan is a company-established benefits plan in which employees acquire
stock, often at below-market prices, as part of their benefits. Flexible benefits are a
benefits plan that allows each employee to put together a benefits package individually
tailored to his or her own needs and situation (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 257).
Foundations of group behavior:
We are going to defined group and distinguish the different types of groups. First, group
it self which means two or more individuals interacting and interdependent who have
come together to achieve a particular objectives (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 268).
Second, formal group which is a designated work group defined by an organizations
structure. Third, Informal group which is a group that is neither formally structured nor
organizationally determined. Forth, command group that is a group composed of the
individuals who report directly to given manger. Fifth, task group which is a people
working together to complete a job task. Sixth, interest group which is people working
together to attain a specific objective with which each is concerned. Last, friendship that s
people brought together because they share one more common characteristic (Robbins &
Judge, 2011, pp 272).
Why do people join group:
 Security
 Status
 Self-steam
 Affiliation
 Power
 Goal achievement
(Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 313)
There are five stages of group development:
Forming Stage
The first stage in-group development, characterized by much uncertainty.
Storming Stage
The second stage in-group development, characterized by intragroup conflict.
Norming Stage
The third stage in group development, characterized by close relationships and
cohesiveness.
Performing Stage
The fourth stage in group development, when the group is fully functional.
Adjourning Stage
The final stage in group development for temporary groups, characterized by concern
with wrapping up activities rather than performance (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 317).
An Alternative Model: Temporary Groups with deadlines
Punctuated- Equilibrium Model Temporary groups under time constrained deadlines go
through transitions between inertia and activity-at the half-way point, they experience an
increase in productivity. However, they sequence of actions are:
1.Setting group direction
2.First phase of inertia
3.Half-way point transition
4.Major changes
5.Second phase of inertia
6.Accelerated activity (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 319)
Here is all the Group property :Rule 1
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Role(s)
A set of expected behavior patterns attributed to someone occupying a given
position in a social unit.
Role Identity
Certain attitudes and behaviors consistent with a role.
Role Perception
An individual’s view of how he or she is supposed to act in a given situation.
Role Expectations
How others believe a person should act in a given situation.
Psychological Contract
An unwritten agreement that sets out what management expects from the
employee and vice versa.
Role Conflict
A situation in which an individual is confronted by divergent role expectations.
(Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 321)
Group property 2-Norm:
Norms Acceptable standards of behavior within a group that are shared by the group’s
members.
Classes of Norms:
• Performance norms • Performance norms
• Appearance norms • Appearance norms
• Social arrangement norms • Social arrangement norms
• Allocation of resources • Allocation of resources norms
Group Norms & The Hawthorne Studies
A series of studies undertaken by Elton Mayo at Western Electric Company’s
Hawthorne Works in Chicago between 1924 and 1932 (Robbins & Judge, 2011,
pp 323).
Research Conclusions:
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Worker behavior and sentiments were closely related.
Group influences (norms) were significant in affecting individual behavior.
Group standards (norms) were highly effective in establishing individual worker
output.
Money was less a factor in determining worker output than were group standards,
sentiments, and security (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 327).
Conformity
Adjusting one’s behavior to align with the norms of the group (Robbins & Judge,
2011, pp 332).
Reference Groups
Important groups to which individuals belong or hope to belong and with whose
norms individuals are likely to conform (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 335).
Deviant Workplace Behavior
Antisocial actions by organizational members that intentionally violate
established norms and result in negative consequences for the organization, its
members, or both. Group norms can influence the presence of deviant behavior
(Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 335).
Group Properties – Cohesiveness
Cohesiveness
Degree to which group members are attracted to each other and are motivated to stay in
the group.
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Increasing group cohesiveness:
Make the group smaller.
Encourage agreement with group goals.
Increase time members spend together.
Increase group status and admission difficultly.
Stimulate competition with other groups.
Give rewards to the group, not individuals.
Physically isolate the group.
(Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 335)
Group Decision Making
Decision-making
 Large groups facilitate the pooling of information about complex tasks.
Smaller groups are better suited to coordinating and facilitating the
implementation of complex tasks (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 335).
Simple, routine standardized tasks reduce the requirement that group processes be
effective in order for the group to perform well (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 335).
Strengths
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More complete information
Increased diversity of views
Higher quality of decisions (more accuracy)
Increased acceptance of solutions
Weaknesses
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More time
consuming (slower) – Increased pressure
to conform
– Domination by one
or a few members – Ambiguous
Responsibility
(Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 336)
Groupthink
Phenomenon in which the norm for consensus overrides the realistic appraisal of
alternative course of action (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 336).
Groupshift
A change in decision risk between the group’s decision and the individual
decision that member within the group would make; can be either toward
conservatism or greater risk (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 337).
Group Decision-Making Techniques:
interacting Groups Typical groups, in which the members interact with each other faceto-face (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 337).
Nominal Group Technique A group decision-making method in which individual
members meet face-to-face to pool their judgments in a systematic but independent
fashion (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 337).
Brainstorming An idea-generation process that specifically encourages any and all
alternatives, while withholding any criticism of those alternatives (Robbins & Judge,
2011, pp 337).
Electronic Meeting A meeting in which members interact on computers, allowing for
anonymity of comments and aggregation of votes (Robbins & Judge, 2011, pp 337).
References:
Stepehn, P. R., & Timothy, A. J. (2011). Organizational behavior . (Fourteenth ed., pp.
202-227). San Diego: Pearson.
Stepehn, P. R., & Timothy, A. J. (2011). Organizational behavior . (Fourteenth ed., pp.
236-265). San Diego: Pearson.
Stepehn, P. R., & Timothy, A. J. (2011). Organizational behavior . (Fourteenth ed., pp.
274-299). San Diego: Pearson.
Stepehn, P. R., & Timothy, A. J. (2011). Organizational behavior . (Fourteenth ed., pp.
308-337). San Diego: Pearson.