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Chapter 3: Individual Behavior

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Factors Influencing Individual Behavior
1. Personal Factors (Biographic & Learned Characteristics)
2. Environmental Factors
3. Organizational Factors
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Personal Factors

Biographic Characteristics
Physical
Age
Gender
Religion
Marital Status
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Personal Factors

Learned Characteristics
Personality
Perception
Values
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Environmental FactorsStructural Components of AttitudesWhat Drives Attraction, Retention, & Engagement Across GenerationsEx: Feeling “in a good mood” all
morning even without a clear reason.
Employment level
Wages Rate
General Economic Environment
Political Factors
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Organization Factors
Physical Facilities
Structure and Design
Reward System
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is a person’s set of beliefs and feelings about a specific idea, object, person, or situation.

shape how we interpret events and how we act in the workplace.
attitude
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Structural Components of Attitudes
1. Cognition:
2. Affect:
3. Intention:
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knowledge a person presumes to have about something
Cognition:
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Example: “I enjoy working with my team because it makes me happy.”
Cognition:
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a person’s feelings toward something
Affect:
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Example: “I enjoy working with my team because it makes me happy.”
Affect:
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component of an attitude that guides a person’s behavior
Intention:
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Example: “I will volunteer to help with the next group task.”
Intention:
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are generally formed around a sequence of cognition, affect, and behavioral intention.
Attitudes
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we come to know something that we believe to be true
(cognition).
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This knowledge triggers a feeling
(affect).
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____ and ____ then together influence how we intend to behave in the future.
Cognition and affect
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An incompatibility or conflict between behavior and an attitude or between two different attitudes.
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
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HOW TO REDUCE COGNITIVE DISSONANCE?
• Change the conflicting attitude
• Change the conflicting behavior
• Seek additional information to better reason that the benefits of one of the
• conflicting attitudes or behaviors outweigh the costs of the other
• Recognize that attitudes can change
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Key Work-Related Attitudes
• Job Satisfaction
• Job Involvement
• Organizational Commitment
• Employee Engagement
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the overall positive or negative feeling an employee has about their job. How content they are with tasks, pay, work environment, and relationships at work.
Job Satisfaction
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High job satisfaction usually leads to
to better morale, performance, and lower turnover.
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the degree to which an employee psychologically identifies with their job and considers performance important to their self- worth. How personally invested or “absorbed” someone is in what they do.
Job Involvement
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Employees with high job involvement tend to
put in more effort and stay committed to their roles.
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the emotional attachment and loyalty a person feels toward their organization.
Organizational Commitment
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Strong commitment often predicts
lower absenteeism and higher retention.
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Componments of Organizational Commitment
1. Affective commitment:
2. Continuance commitment
3. Normative commitment:
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Staying because you want to (emotional bond).
Affective commitment:
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Staying because you need to (COL)
Continuance commitment:
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Staying because you feel you ought to (SOB)
Normative commitment:
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a broader concept than satisfaction — it reflects energy, dedication, and absorption in work. How passionate and focused employees are while performing their tasks.
Employee Engagement
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Engaged employees show
higher productivity, creativity, and willingness to go the extra mile.
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What Drives Attraction, Retention, & Engagement Across Generations
1. Career Growth & Opportunity
2. Work-Life Balance & Flexibility
3. Meaningful Work & Feeling Valued / Recognition
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Younger people want learning, flexibility in roles, chances to move up; chances to move up; older might want sustaining legacy, mentoring.
Career Growth & Opportunity
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Remote work, flexible schedules, mental health support are top priorities especially for younger employees or those with family responsibilities.
Work-Life Balance & Flexibility
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Everyone likes to feel valued, but younger generations often also want alignment of work with personal values (social impact, sustainability).
Meaningful Work & Feeling Valued / Recognition
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Ways of behaving or end-states that are desirable to a person or to a group.
VALUES -
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TYPES OF VALUES
1. Terminal:
2. Instrumental:
3. Intrinsic:
4. Extrinsic:
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reflect long-term life goals such as prosperity, happiness, secure family, and a sense of accomplishment
Terminal:
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preferred means of achieving terminal values or preferred ways of behaving
Instrumental
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relate to the work itself
Intrinsic
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relate to the outcomes of doing work
Extrinsic:
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CONFLICTS AMONG VALUES
1. Intrapersonal Value Conflict
2. Interpersonal Value Conflict
3. Individual–Organization Value Conflict
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clash between two values held by the same individual.
Intrapersonal Value Conflict
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Ex. Someone values ambition (working long hours to get promoted) but also values happiness or leisure.
Intrapersonal Value Conflict
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Ex. A manager values efficiency and strict deadlines, while an employee values creativity and taking time to explore ideas.
Interpersonal Value Conflict
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a disagreement between two or more people because their values are different.
Interpersonal Value Conflict
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when an employee’s personal values are inconsistent with those of their organization.
Individual–Organization Value Conflict
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Ex. An employee who values environmental sustainability may struggle in a company that prioritizes profit over eco-friendly practices, causing dissatisfaction or ethical dilemmas.
Individual–Organization Value Conflict
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intense, short-lived reactions—physiological (body), behavioral (actions), and psychological (mind)—triggered by a specific object, person, or event.
Emotions
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They prepare us to respond quickly and effectively.
Emotions
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Ex: Feeling fear when a car suddenly swerves toward you helps you jump out of the way.
Emotions
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short-term emotional states not tied to a particular trigger;usually milder than emotions but can last longer.
Moods
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Ex: Feeling “in a good mood” all morning even without a clear reason.
Moods
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a person’s tendency to consistently experience a particular mood or react emotionally in a certain way.
Affectivity
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Types of Affectivity
1. Positive affectivity:
2. Negative affectivity:
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Generally cheerful, optimistic, enthusiastic.
Positive affectivity:
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Frequently anxious, irritable, or downhearted.
Negative affectivity
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is the process by which we notice, interpret, and give meaning to the information we receive from our surroundings. It shapes how we understand people, events, and situations.
Perception
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We focus on information that supports our existing beliefs or makes us comfortable, while ignoring data that challenges us.
Selective perception
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We make assumptions about people based on a single characteristic (e.g., age, gender, race), rather than considering them as unique individuals.
Stereotyping
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We can misinterpret behaviors or jump to conclusions when our perceptions are biased or incomplete.
Perception Errors
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Basic Perceptual Processes
1. Selective perception
2. Stereotyping
3. Perception Errors
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is how we explain the reasons behind our own and others’ behaviors:
Attribution
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personal qualities such as effort, ability, or motivation.
Internal factors –
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circumstances such as luck, resources, or other people’s actions.
External factors
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Three rules for deciding between internal and external causes:
1. Consistency
2. Distinctiveness
3. Consensus
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Does the person usually act this way in similar situations?
Consistency
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Does the person act the same in different contexts?
Distinctiveness
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Would most people behave the same in this situation?
Consensus
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When people create excuses or obstacles for themselves to protect self-esteem if they fail (e.g., procrastinating so failure can be blamed on lack of time).
Self-Handicapping
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Employees’ sense that workplace policies and decisions are just.
Organizational fairness
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Whether outcomes (promotions, pay, rewards) are shared fairly.
Distributive fairness
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Whether the methods used to make decisions are consistent and transparent.
Procedural fairness
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Whether people feel respected, informed, and treated well during decision-making.
Interactional fairness
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The belief that others will not take advantage of you, even if you can’t fully monitor or control them.
Trust
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is the body’s natural reaction to demands or challenges. It happens when a situation places heavy psychological (mental/emotional) or physical demands on a person.
Stress
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Sources of Stress
1. Eustress
2. Distress
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“Good stress.” It comes with positive events (e.g., a promotion or exciting project).
Eustress
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“Bad stress.” It results from negative events (e.g., conflict, job loss).
Distress
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Common Causes of Stress

Organizational Stressors (workplace factors)
1. Task demands
2. Physical demands
3. Role demands
4. Interpersonal demands
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Pressure linked to the specific job tasks.
Task demands
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Challenges from the work setting (noise, temperature, long hours).
Physical demands
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Unclear or conflicting expectations about your role.
Role demands
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Difficult relationships, group pressure, or leadership issues.
Interpersonal demands
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Workload, Stress, and Performance

boredom, apathy, low performance.
Too little stress
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anxiety, tension, errors, burnout.
Too much stress
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just enough pressure to create focus, energy, and high
performance.
Optimal stress
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Consequences of Stress

Individual
Behavioral -
Psychological -
Medical -
• Behavioral – Absenteeism, aggression, withdrawal.
• Psychological – Anxiety, depression, irritability.
• Medical – Headaches, high blood pressure, heart problems.
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Organizational

Feeling exhausted and demotivated because demands outweigh rewards or resources.
Burnout
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Managing & Controlling Stress

1. Individual Coping Strategies
2. Organizational Coping Strategies
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Exercise regularly, Practice relaxation or mindfulness, Build and maintain support systems (family, friends, peers)
Individual Coping Strategies
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good job design, reasonable workloads, healthy culture.
Institutional programs
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stress-management training, wellness & fitness programs, career development.
Collateral programs
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Balance means maintaining healthy boundaries between work and personal life.
Work–Life Balance
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