Page 180 - DMGT402_MANAGEMENT_PRACTICES_AND_ORGANIZATIONAL_BEHAVIOUR

Unit 8: Foundations of Organisational Behaviour

Believing in one's own capability to get something done is an important facilitator of Notes
success. There is strong evidence that self-efficacy leads to high performance on a wide
variety of physical and mental tasks. Managers can help employees develop their self-
efficacy. This can be done by providing avenues for showing performance, and rewarding
an employee's achievements.
5. Self-monitoring: A characteristic with great potential for affecting behaviour in
organisations is self-monitoring. Self-monitoring refers to an individual's ability to adjust
his or her behaviour to external situational factors.
High self-monitors pay attention to what is appropriate in particular situations and to the
behaviour of other people, and they behave accordingly. Low self-monitors, in contrast,
are not as vigilant to situational cues, and act from internal states rather than paying
attention to the situation. As a result, the behaviour of low self-monitors is consistent
across situations. High self-monitors, because their behaviour varies with the situation,
appears to be more unpredictable and less consistent. High self-monitors are capable of
presenting striking contradictions between their public persona and their private self.
Low self-monitors can't disguise themselves this way.
6. Positive/Negative Affect: Individuals who focus on the positive aspects of themselves,
other people, and the world in general are said to have positive affect. In contrast, those
who accentuate the negative in themselves, others, and the world are said to possess
negative affect. Employees with positive affect are absent from work less often. Individuals
with negative affect report more work stress. Negative individual affect produces negative
group affect and this leads to less cooperative behaviour in the work group. Managers can
do several things to promote positive affect, including allowing participative decision
making and providing pleasant working conditions.

7. Risk-taking: People differ in their willingness to take chances. This propensity to assume
or avoid risk has been shown to have an impact on how long it takes managers to make a
decision and how much information they require before making their choice. High-risk-
taking managers make more rapid decisions and use less information in making their
choices than low-risk-taking managers.
While, it is generally correct to conclude that managers in organisations are risk aversive,
there are still individual differences on this dimension. As a result, it makes sense to
recognize these differences and even to consider aligning risk-taking propensity with
specific job demands. For example, a high-risk-taking propensity may lead to more effective
performance for a stockbroker but these personality characteristics might prove a major
obstacle for an auditor.

8. Type A Personality: Type A behaviour pattern is a complex of personality and behavioural
characteristics, including competitiveness, time urgency, social status, insecurity,
aggression, hostility and a quest for achievements. Type A personality individual is
"aggressively involved in a chronic, incessant struggle to achieve more and more in less
and less time, and if required to do so, against the opposing efforts of other things or other
persons".
Type A Personalities

(a) Are always moving, walking, and eating rapidly;
(b) Feel impatient with the rate at which most events take place;
(c) Strive to think or do two or more things simultaneously;
(d) Cannot cope with leisure time; and

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