Foundations of Individual Behavior
Foundations of Individual Behavior
Foundations of Individual Behavior
An organizations human resource policies and practices represent important forces for shaping
employee behavior and attitudes. In this chapter, we specifically discussed the influence of
selection practices, training and development programs, performance evaluation systems, and
the existence of a union. Human resource policies and practice influence organizational
effectiveness. Human resource management includes: employee selection, training
performance management, and union-management relations and how they influence
organizations effectiveness.
BIOGRAPHICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Other factors are more easily definable and readily availabledata that can be obtained from
an employees personnel file and would include characteristics such as:
- Age
- Gender
- Marital status
- Tenure
A. Age
The relationship between age and job performance is increasing in importance.
First, there is a widespread belief that job performance declines with increasing age.
Second, the workforce is aging; workers over 55 are the fastest growing sector of the
workforce.
They see a number of positive qualities that older workers bring to their jobs,
Older workers are also perceived as lacking flexibility and as being resistant to new technology.
Some believe that the older you get, the less likely you are to quit your job. That conclusion is
based on studies of the age-turnover relationship.
Most studies do show an inverse relationship, but close examination finds that the age- absence
relationship is partially a function of whether the absence is avoidable or unavoidable.
In general, older employees have lower rates of avoidable absence. However, they have higher
rates of unavoidable absence, probably due to their poorer health associated with aging and
longer recovery periods when injured.
There is a widespread belief that productivity declines with age and that individual skills decay
over time.
Reviews of the research find that age and job performance are unrelated.
This seems to be true for almost all types of jobs, professional and
nonprofessional.
B. Gender
There are few, if any, important differences between men and women that will affect their job
performance, including the areas of:
Problem-solving
Analytical skills
Competitive drive
Motivation
Sociability
Learning ability
Women are more willing to conform to authority, and men are more aggressive and more likely
than women to have expectations of success, but those differences are minor.
There is a difference between men and women in terms of preference for work schedules.
Mothers of preschool children are more likely to prefer part-time work, flexible work schedules,
and telecommuting in order to accommodate their family responsibilities.
The research on absence consistently indicates that women have higher rates of
absenteeism.
The logical explanation: cultural expectation that has historically placed home and family
responsibilities on the woman.
C. Marital Status
There are not enough studies to draw any conclusions about the effect of marital status on job
productivity.
Research consistently indicates that married employees have fewer absences, undergo fewer
turnovers, and are more satisfied with their jobs than are their unmarried coworkers.
More research needs to be done on the other statuses besides single or married, such as
divorce, domestic partnering, etc..
D. Tenure
The issue of the impact of job seniority on job performance has been subject to misconceptions
and speculations.
Extensive reviews of the seniority-productivity relationship have been conducted:
Tenure has consistently been found to be negatively related to turnover and has been
suggested as one of the single best predictors of turnover.
The evidence indicates that tenure and satisfaction are positively related.
Individual differences can be divided into personality and ability differences. Understanding the
nature, determinants, and consequences of individual differences is essential for managing
organizational behavior. An appreciation of the nature of individual differences is necessary to
understand why people behave in certain ways in an organization.
ABILITY
We were not all created equal; most of us are to the left of the median on some normally
distributed ability curve. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses in terms of ability in
performing certain tasks or activities; the issue is knowing how people differ in abilities and
using that knowledge to increase performance. Ability refers to an individuals capacity to
perform the various tasks in a job. It is a current assessment of what one can do. Individual
overall abilities are made up of two sets of factors: intellectual and physical.
Physical ability is defined as the ability to perform some physical act. It is generally determined
through nutrition, exercise, and how much we rest. It permits or facilitates achievement or
accomplishment, of some activity.
Physical abilities can be classified into nine categories. Practical examples of those nine types
of physical abilities are as follows:
Many factors must be taken into consideration when using physical ability tests. First,
employment selection based on physical abilities can be litigious. Legal challenges have arisen
over the years because physical ability tests, especially those involving strength and endurance,
tend to screen out a disproportionate number of women and some ethnic minorities. Therefore,
it is crucial to have validity evidence justifying the job-relatedness of physical ability measures.
Second, physical ability tests involving the monitoring of heart rate, blood pressure, or other
physiological factors are considered medical exams under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Administering medical exams to job applicants prior to making a job offer is expressly
prohibited. Finally, there is the concern of candidates injuring themselves while performing a
physical ability test (e.g., a test involving heavy lifting may result in a back injury or aggravate an
existing medical condition).
LEARNING
Learning is the act of acquiring new, or modifying and reinforcing existing, knowledge,
behaviors, skills, values, or preferences which may lead to a potential change in synthesizing
information, depth of the knowledge, attitude or behavior relative to the type and range of
experience. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals, plants [2] and some machines.
Progress over time tends to follow a learning curve. Learning does not happen all at once, but it
builds upon and is shaped by previous knowledge. To that end, learning may be viewed as a
process, rather than a collection of factual and procedural knowledge. Learning produces
changes in the organism and the changes produced are relatively permanent.
THEORIES OF LEARNING
Systematically reinforcing each successive step that moves an individual closer to the desired
response.
2 SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT
K
K Two Major Types:
SYNTHESIS
CHAPTER 2
FOUNDATIONS OF INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR
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Date:
February 4, 2017