Organizational Behavior 3e by Hitt, Miller, Colella

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Organizational Behavior 3e by Hitt, Miller, Colella is the 3rd edition of the textbook authored by by Michael A. Hitt, Texas A&M University, C. Chet Miller, University of Houston, and Adrienne Colella, Tulane University, and published in 2011 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

  • Achievement motivation. The degree to which an individual desires to perform in terms of a standard of excellence or to succeed in competitive situations.
  • Achievement-oriented leadership. Leadership behavior characterized by setting challenging goals and seeking to improve performance.
  • Acute stress. A short-term stress reaction to an immediate threat.
  • Affective commitment. Organizational commitment due to one's strong positive attitudes toward the organization.
  • Agreeableness. The degree to which an individual is easygoing and tolerant.
  • Ambidextrous organization. An organization structure that balances formalization and standardization to help to achieve efficiency and flexibility.
  • Anchoring bias. A cognitive bias in which the first piece of information that is encountered about a situation is emphasized too much in making a decision.
  • Approval motivation. The degree to which an individual is concerned about presenting himself or herself in a socially desirable way in evaluative situations.
  • Ascribed status. Status and power that is assigned by cultural norms and depends on group membership.
  • Aspiration-performance discrepancies. Gaps between what an individual, unit, or organization wants to achieve and what it is actually achieving.
  • Associates. The workers who carry out the basic tasks.
  • Attitude. A persistent tendency to feel and behave in a favorable or unfavorable way toward a specific person, object, or idea.
  • Attitudinal structuring. Activities aimed at influencing the attitudes and relationships of the negotiating parties.
  • Authoritarianism. The degree to which an individual believes in conventional values, obedience to authority, and legitimacy of power differences in society.
  • Brainstorming. A process in which a large number of ideas are generated while evaluation of the ideas is suspended.
  • Burnout. A condition of physical or emotional exhaustion generally brought about by stress; associates and managers experiencing burnout show various symptoms, such as constant fatigue, or lack of enthusiasm for work, and increasing isolation from others.
  • Business strategy. How a firm competes for success against other organizations in a particular market.
  • Centralization. The degree to which authority for meaningful decisions is retained at the top of an organization.
  • Centralized networks. A communication network in which one or a few network members dominate communications.
  • Changes in top management. Involve the replacement of top management team members who retire or depart the company for other reasons.
  • Charisma. A leader's ability to inspire emotion and passion in his followers and to cause them to identify with the leader.
  • Chronic stress. A long-term stress reaction resulting from ongoing situations.
  • Coalition. A group whose members act together to actively pursue a common interest.
  • Coercive power. Power resulting from the ability to punish others.
  • Cognitive biases. Mental shortcuts involving simplified ways of thinking.
  • Cognitive dissonance. An uneasy feeling produced when a person behaves in a manner inconsistent with an existing attitude.
  • Common information bias. A bias in which group members overemphasize information held by a majority or the entire group while failing to be mindful of information held by one group member or a few members.
  • Communication audit. An analysis of an organization's internal and external communication to assess communication practices and capabilities and to determine needs.
  • Communication climate. Associates' perceptions regarding the quality of communication within the organization.
  • Communication medium or communication channel. The manner in which a message is conveyed.
  • Communication. The sharing of information between two or more people to achieve a common understanding about an object or situation.
  • Competitive advantage. An advantage enjoyed by an organization that can perform some aspect of its work better than competitors can or in a way that competitors cannot duplicate, such that it offers products/services that are more valuable to customers.
  • Confirmation bias. A cognitive bias in which information confirming early beliefs and ideas is sought while potentially disconfirming information is not sought.
  • Conflict escalation. The process whereby a conflict grows increasingly worse over time.
  • Conflict. A process in which one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party.
  • Conscientiousness. The degree to which an individual focuses on goals and works toward them in a disciplined way.
  • Consideration. A behavioral leadership style demonstrated by leaders who express friendship, develop mutual trust and respect, and have strong interpersonal relationships with those being led.
  • Contingency theory of leadership effectiveness. A theory of leadership that suggests that the effectiveness of a leader depends on the interaction of his style of behavior with certain characteristics of the situation.
  • Continuance commitment. Organizational commitment due to lack of better opportunities.
  • Continuous reinforcement. A reinforcement schedule in which a reward occurs after each instance of a behavior or set of behaviors.
  • Corporate strategy. The overall approach an organization uses in interacting with its environment. The emphasis is placed on growth and diversification.
  • Cultural audit. A tool for assessing and understanding the culture of an organization.
  • Cultural fluency. The ability to identify, understand, and apply cultural differences that influence communication.
  • Cultural intelligence. The ability to separate the aspects of behavior that are based in culture from those unique to the individual or all humans in general.
  • Culture shock. A stress reaction involving difficulties coping with the requirements of life in a new country.
  • Culture. Shared values and taken-for-granted assumptions that govern acceptable behavior and thought patterns in a country and give a country much of its uniqueness.
  • DADA syndrome. A sequence of stages -- denial, anger, depression, and acceptance -- through which individuals can move or in which they can become trapped when faced with unwanted change.
  • Decentralized networks. A communication network in which no single network member dominates communications. decisions Choices of actions from among multiple feasible alternatives.
  • Decoding. The process whereby a receiver perceives a sent message and interprets its meaning.
  • Delphi technique. A highly structured decision-making process in which participants are surveyed regarding their opinions or best judgments.
  • Demand-control model. A model that suggests that experienced stress is a function of both job demands and job control. Stress is highest when demands are high but individuals have little control over the situation.
  • Dense networks. A communication network in which most or all network members communicate with many other members.
  • Departmentalization. The grouping of human and other resources into units, typically based on functional areas or markets.
  • Destructive individual roles. Roles involving self-centered behaviors that put individual needs and goals ahead of the team.
  • Devil's advocacy. A group decision-making technique that relies on a critique of a recommended action and its underlying assumptions.
  • Dialectical inquiry. A group decision-making technique that relies on debate between two subgroups that have developed different recommendations based on different assumptions.
  • Directive leadership. Leadership behavior characterized by implementing guidelines, providing information on what is expected, setting definite performance standards, and ensuring that individuals follow rules.
  • Discrimination. Behavior that results in unequal treatment of individuals based on group membership.
  • Distributive bargaining. A strategy that: (1) involves a competing, win-lose approach and (2) tends to be used when one party's goals are in direct conflict with the goals of another party.
  • Distributive justice. The degree to which people think outcomes are fair.
  • Diversification. Related to the number of different product lines or service areas in the organization.
  • Diversity. A characteristic of a group of people where differences exist on one or more relevant dimensions such as gender.
  • Diversity-based infighting. A situation in which group members engage in unproductive, negative conflict over differing views.
  • Divisible tasks. Tasks that can be separated into subcomponents.
  • Downward communication. Communication that flows from superior to subordinate.
  • Dysfunctional conflict. Conflict that is detrimental to organizational goals and objectives.
  • Dystress. Negative stress; often referred to simply as stress.
  • Ease-of-recall bias. A cognitive bias in which information that is easy to recall from memory is relied upon too much in making a decision.
  • Effort-reward imbalance model. A model that suggests that experienced stress is a function of both required effort and rewards obtained. Stress is highest when required effort is high but rewards are low.
  • Emotional contagion. Phenomenon where emotions experienced by one or a few members of a work group spread to other members.
  • Emotional intelligence. The ability to accurately appraise one's own and others' emotions, effectively regulate one's own and others' emotions, and use emotion to motivate, plan, and achieve.
  • Emotional labor. The process whereby associates must display emotions that are contrary to what they are feeling.
  • Emotional stability. The degree to which an individual easily handles stressful situations and heavy demands.
  • Emotions. Complex subjective reactions that have both a physical and mental component.
  • Emotions. States corresponding to specific feelings, such as anger, that tend to be associated with particular events, people, or other stimuli.
  • Employee-centered leadership style. A behavioral leadership style that emphasizes employees' personal needs and the development of interpersonal relationships.
  • Encoding. The process whereby a sender translates the information he or she wishes to send in a message.
  • Environmental uncertainty. The degree to which an environment is complex and changing; uncertain environments are difficult to monitor and understand.
  • Equity theory. A theory that suggests motivation is based on a person's assessment of the ratio of outcomes she receives (e.g., pay, status) for inputs on the job (e.g., effort, ability) compared to the same ratio for a comparison other.
  • ERG theory. Alderfer's theory that suggests people are motivated by three hierarchically ordered types of needs: existence needs (E), relatedness needs (R), and growth needs (G). A person may work on all three needs at the same time, although satisfying lower-order needs often takes place before a person is strongly motivated by higher-level needs.
  • Ethnocentrism. The belief that one's culture is better than others.
  • Eustress. Positive stress that results from facing challenges and difficulties with the expectation of achievement.
  • Expatriate. An individual who leaves his or her home country to live and work in a foreign land.
  • Expectancy theory. Vroom's theory that suggests that motivation is a function of an individual's expectancy that a given amount of effort will lead to a particular level of performance, instrumentality judgments that indicate performance will lead to certain outcomes, and the valences of outcomes.
  • Expectancy. The subjective probability that a given amount of effort will lead to a particular level of performance.
  • Expert power. Power resulting from special expertise or technical knowledge
  • Exploitative learning. Learning how to more effectively use current knowledge.
  • Exploratory learning. Creating new knowledge and being innovative.
  • Extinction. A reinforcement contingency in which a behavior is followed by the absence of a previously encountered positive consequence, thereby reducing the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated in the same or similar situations.
  • Extraversion. The degree to which an individual is outgoing and derives energy from being around other people.
  • Feedback. The process whereby a receiver encodes the message received and sends it or a response to it back to the original sender.
  • Feeling. A decision style focused on subjective evaluation and the emotional reactions of others.
  • Formal communication. Communication that follows the formal structure of the organization (e.g., superior to subordinate) and entails organizationally sanctioned information.
  • Formal groups. Groups to which members are formally assigned.
  • Formalization. The degree to which rules and operating procedures are documented on paper or in company intranets.
  • Functional conflict. Conflict that is beneficial to organizational goals and objectives.
  • Fundamental attribution error. A perception problem in which an individual is too likely to attribute the behavior of others to internal rather than external causes.
  • Glass border. The unseen but strong discriminatory barrier that blocks many women from opportunities for international assignments.
  • Global strategy. A strategy by which a firm provides standard products and services to all parts of the world while maintaining a strong degree of central control in the home country.
  • Globalization. The trend toward a unified global economy where national borders mean relatively little.
  • Goal-setting theory. A theory that suggests challenging and specific goals increase human performance because they affect attention, effort, and persistence.
  • Gossip. Information that is presumed to be factual and is communicated in private or intimate settings.
  • Group. Two or more interdependent individuals who influence one another through social interaction.
  • Groupthink. A situation in which group members maintain or seek consensus at the expense of identifying and debating honest disagreements.
  • Growth. Relates to increases in sales as well as associates and managers.
  • Halo effect. A perception problem in which an individual assesses a person positively or negatively in all situations based on an existing general assessment of the person.
  • Hardiness. A personality dimension corresponding to a strong internal commitment to activities, an internal locus of control, and challenge seeking.
  • Height. The number of hierarchical levels in an organization, from the CEO to the lower-level associates.
  • Hierarchy of needs theory. Maslow's theory that suggests people are motivated by their desire to satisfy specific needs, and that needs are arranged in a hierarchy with physiological needs at the bottom and self-actualization needs at the top. People must satisfy needs at lower levels before being motivated by needs at higher levels.
  • Hierarchy. The reporting relationships depicted in an organization chart.
  • High-context cultures. A type of culture where individuals use contextual cues to understand people and their communications and where individuals value trust and personal relationships.
  • High-involvement management. Involves carefully selecting and training associates and giving them significant decision-making power, information, and incentive compensation.
  • Horizontal communication. Communication that takes place between and among people at the same level.
  • Human capital imitability. The extent to which the skills and talents of an organization's people can be copied by other organizations.
  • Human capital rareness. The extent to which the skills and talents of an organization's people are unique in the industry.
  • Human capital value. The extent to which individuals are capable of producing work that supports an organization's strategy for competing in the marketplace.
  • Human capital. The sum of the skills, knowledge, and general attributes of the people in an organization.
  • Hygienes. Job factors that can influence job dissatisfaction but not satisfaction.
  • Identity groups. Groups based on the social identities of members.
  • Implicit person theories. Personal theories about what personality traits and abilities occur together and how these attributes are manifested in behavior.
  • Incivility. Slightly deviant behavior with ambiguous intent to harm another person.
  • Informal communication. Communication that involves spontaneous interaction between two or more people outside the formal organization structure.
  • Informal groups. Groups formed spontaneously by people who share interests, values, or identities.
  • Information technology. An overall set of tools, based on microelectronic technology, designed to provide data, documents, and commentary as well as analysis support to individuals in an organization.
  • Initiating structure. A behavioral leadership style demonstrated by leaders who establish well-defined patterns of organization and communication, define procedures, and delineate their relationships with those being led.
  • Instrumentality. Perceived connections between performance and outcomes.
  • Integrative bargaining. A strategy that: (1) involves a collaborative, win-win approach and (2) tends to be used when the nature of the problem permits a solution that is attractive to both parties.
  • Intelligence. General mental ability used in complex information processing.
  • Intermittent reinforcement. A reinforcement schedule in which a reward does not occur after each instance of a behavior or set of behaviors.
  • International ethics. Principles of proper conduct focused on issues such as corruption, exploitation of labor, and environmental impact.
  • Interpersonal cohesion. Team members' liking or attraction to other team members.
  • Interpersonal communication. Direct verbal or non verbal interaction between two or more active participants.
  • Intuition. A decision style focused on developing abstractions and figurative examples for use in decision making, with an emphasis on imagination and possibilities.
  • Job enlargement. The process of making a job more motivating by adding tasks that are similar in complexity relative to the current tasks.
  • Job enrichment. The process of making a job more motivating by increasing responsibility.
  • Job redesign. Enlargement or enrichment of jobs; enrichment is the better method to enhance motivation for effective problem solving, communication, and learning.
  • Job stress. The feeling that one's capabilities, resources, or needs do not match the demands or requirements of the job.
  • Job-centered leadership style. A behavioral leadership style that emphasizes employee tasks and the methods used to accomplish them.
  • Lateral relations. Elements of structure designed to draw individuals together for interchanges related to work issues and problems.
  • Leader-member exchange. A model of leadership focused on leaders developing more positive relationships with some individuals and having more positive exchanges with these individuals.
  • Leader-member relations. The degree to which a leader is respected, is accepted as a leader, and has friendly interpersonal relations.
  • Leadership. The process of providing general direction and influencing individuals or groups to achieve goals.
  • Learning. A process through which individuals change their relatively permanent behavior based on positive or negative experiences in a situation.
  • Legitimate power. Power derived from position; also known as formal authority.
  • Life-cycle forces. Natural and predictable pressures that build as an organization grows and that must be addressed if the organization is to continue growing.
  • Locus of control. The degree to which an individual attributes control of events to self or external factors.
  • Low-context cultures. A type of culture where individuals rely on direct questioning to understand people and their communications and where individuals value efficiency and performance.
  • Management by objectives (MBO). A management process in which individuals negotiate task objectives with their managers and then are held accountable for attainment of those objectives.
  • Managing organizational behavior. Actions focused on acquiring, developing, and applying the knowledge and skills of people.
  • Mass customization. A manufacturing technology that involves integrating sophisticated information technology and management methods to produce a flexible manufacturing system with the ability to customize products for many customers in a short time.
  • Maximization tasks. Tasks with a quantity goal.
  • Modern racism. Subtle forms of discrimination that occur despite people knowing it is wrong to be prejudiced against other racial groups and despite believing they are not racist.
  • Monochronic time orientation. A preference for focusing on one task per unit of time and completing that task in a timely fashion.
  • Monolithic organization. An organization that is homogeneous.
  • Moods. States corresponding to general positive or negative feelings disconnected from any particular event or stimulus.
  • Motivation. Forces coming from within a person that account for the willful direction, intensity, and persistence of the person's efforts toward achieving specific goals, where achievement is not due solely to ability or to environmental factors.
  • Motivators. Job factors that can influence job satisfaction but not dissatisfaction.
  • Multicultural organization. An organization in which the organizational culture values differences.
  • Multidomestic strategy. A strategy by which a firm tailors its products and services to the needs of each country or region in which it operates and gives a great deal of power to the managers and associates in those countries or regions.
  • Need for achievement. The need to perform well against a standard of excellence.
  • Need for affiliation. The need to be liked and to stay on good terms with most other people.
  • Need for power. The desire to influence people and events.
  • Negative reinforcement. A reinforcement contingency in which a behavior is followed by the withdrawal of a previously encountered negative consequence, thereby increasing the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated in the same or similar situations.
  • Negotiation. A process through which parties with different preferences and interests attempt to agree on a solution.
  • Nominal group technique. A process for group decision making in which discussion is structured and the final solution is decided by silent vote.
  • Nonverbal communication. Communication that takes place without using spoken or written language, such as communication through facial expressions and body language.
  • Normative commitment. Organizational commitment due to feelings of obligation.
  • Norms. Informal rules or standards that regulate the team's behavior.
  • OB Mod. A formal procedure focused on improving task performance through positive reinforcement of desired behaviors and extinction of undesired behaviors.
  • Openness to experience. The degree to which an individual seeks new experiences and thinks creatively about the future.
  • Operant conditioning theory. An explanation for consequence-based learning that assumes learning results from simple conditioning and that higher mental functioning is irrelevant.
  • Optimization tasks. Tasks with a quality goal.
  • Organization development (OD). A planned organizationwide continuous process designed to improve communication, problem solving, and learning through the application of behavioral science knowledge.
  • Organization. A collection of individuals forming a coordinated system of specialized activities for the purpose of achieving certain goals over an extended period of time.
  • Organizational behavior. The actions of individuals and groups in an organizational context.
  • Organizational culture. The values shared by associates and managers in an organization.
  • Organizational politics. Behavior that is directed toward furthering one's own self-interests without concern for the interests or well-being of others.
  • Organizational structure. Work roles and authority relationships that influence behavior in an organization.
  • Participative leadership. Leadership behavior characterized by sharing information, consulting with those who are led, and emphasizing group decision making.
  • Path-goal leadership theory. A theory of leadership based on expectancy concepts from the study of motivation, which suggests that leader effectiveness depends on the degree to which a leader enhances the performance expectancies and valences of her subordinates.
  • Perception. A process that involves sensing various aspects of a person, task, or event and forming impressions based on selected inputs.
  • Personal conflict. Conflict that arises out of personal differences between people, such as differing values, personal goals, and personalities.
  • Personality. A stable set of characteristics representing internal properties of an individual, which are reflected in behavioral tendencies across a variety of situations.
  • Planned change. A process involving deliberate efforts to move an organization or a unit from its current undesirable state to a new, more desirable state.
  • Plural organization. An organization that has a diverse workforce and takes steps to be inclusive and respectful of differences, but where diversity is tolerated rather than truly valued.
  • Political skill. The ability to effectively understand others at work and to use this knowledge to enhance one's own objectives.
  • Polychronic time orientation. A willingness to juggle multiple tasks per unit of time and to have interruptions, and an unwillingness to be driven by time.
  • Position power. The degree to which a leader can reward, punish, promote, or demote individuals in the unit or organization.
  • Positive organizational behavior. An approach to managing people that nurtures each individual's greatest strengths and helps people use them to their and the organization's advantage.
  • Positive reinforcement. A reinforcement contingency in which a behavior is followed by a positive consequence, thereby increasing the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated in the same or similar situations.
  • Power. The ability to achieve desired outcomes.
  • Prejudice. Unfair negative attitudes we hold about people who belong to social or cultural groups other than our own.
  • Procedural conflict. Conflict that arises over how work should be completed.
  • Procedural justice. The degree to which people think the procedures used to determine outcomes are fair.
  • Process loss. The difference between actual and potential team performance that is caused by diverting time and energy into maintaining the team as opposed to working on substantive tasks.
  • Projecting. A perception problem in which an individual assumes that others share his or her values and beliefs.
  • Punctuated equilibrium model (PEM). A model of team development that suggests that teams do not go through linear stages but that team formation depends on the task at hand and the deadlines for that task.
  • Punishment. A reinforcement contingency in which a behavior is followed by a negative consequence, thereby reducing the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated in the same or similar situations.
  • Reference point. A possible level of performance used to evaluate one's current standing.
  • Referent power. Power resulting from others' desire to identify with the referent.
  • Refreezing. A phase in the change process in which leaders lock in new approaches by implementing evaluation systems that track expected behaviors, by creating reward systems that reinforce expected behaviors, and by ensuring that hiring and promotion systems support the new demands.
  • Resistance to change. Efforts to block the introduction of new approaches. Some of these efforts are passive in nature, involving tactics such as verbally supporting the change while continuing to work in the old ways; other efforts are active in nature, involving tactics such as organized protests and sabotage.
  • Reward power. Power resulting from the ability to provide others with desired outcomes.
  • Risk-taking propensity. Willingness to take chances.
  • Risky shift. A process by which group members collectively make a more risky choice than most or all of the individuals would have made working alone.
  • Role ambiguity. A situation in which goals, expectations, and/or basic job requirements are unclear.
  • Role conflict. A situation in which different roles lead to conflicting expectations.
  • Roles. Expectations shared by group members about who is to perform what types of tasks and under what conditions.
  • Rumors. Unsubstantiated information of universal interest.
  • Satisficing decisions. Satisfactory rather than optimal decisions.
  • Self-contained tasks. An integration technique whereby a department is given resources from other functional areas in order to reduce the need to coordinate with those areas.
  • Self-efficacy. An individual's belief that he or she will be able to perform a specific task in a given situation.
  • Self-monitoring. The degree to which an individual attempts to present the image he or she thinks others want to see in a given situation.
  • Self-serving bias. A perception problem in which an individual is too likely to attribute the failure of others to internal causes and the successes of others to external causes, whereas the same individual will be too likely to attribute his own failure to external causes and his own successes to internal causes.
  • Sensing. A decision style focused on gathering concrete information directly through the senses, with an emphasis on practical and realistic ideas.
  • Servant leadership. An approach to leadership focused on serving others.
  • Simulation. A representation of a real system that allows associates and managers to try various actions and receive feedback on the consequences of those actions.
  • Slack resources. An integration technique whereby a department keeps more resources on hand than absolutely required in order to reduce the need for tight communication and coordination with other departments.
  • Social dominance orientation. A general attitudinal orientation concerning whether one prefers social relationships to be equal or to reflect status differences.
  • Social facilitation effect. Improvement in individual performance when others are present.
  • Social identity. A person's knowledge that he or she belongs to certain social groups, where belonging to those groups has emotional significance.
  • Social learning theory. An explanation for consequencebased learning that acknowledges the higher mental functioning of human beings and the role such functioning can play in learning.
  • Social loafing. A phenomenon wherein people put forth less effort when they work in teams than when they work alone.
  • Socialization model. A model proposing that all leaders in a particular organization will display similar leadership styles, because all have been selected and socialized by the same organization.
  • Socialization. A process through which an organization imparts its values to newcomers.
  • Socioemotional roles. Roles that require behaviors that support the social aspects of the organization.
  • Span of control. The number of individuals a manager directly oversees.
  • Sparse networks. A communication network in which most or all network members communicate with only a few other members.
  • Specialization. The degree to which associates and managers have jobs with narrow scopes and limited variety.
  • Standardization. The degree to which rules and standard operating procedures govern behavior in an organization.
  • Stereotype. A generalized set of beliefs about the characteristics of a group of individuals.
  • Stereotyping. A perception problem in which an individual bases perceptions about members of a group on a generalized set of beliefs about the characteristics of a group of individuals.
  • Strategic contingencies model of power. A model holding that organizational units and people gain power by being able to address the major problems and issues faced by the organization.
  • Strategic OB approach. An approach that involves organizing and managing people's knowledge and skills effectively to implement the organization's strategy and gain a competitive advantage.
  • Stress response. An unconscious mobilization of energy resources that occurs when the body encounters a stressor.
  • Stress. A feeling of tension that occurs when a person perceives that a situation is about to exceed her ability to cope and consequently could endanger her well-being.
  • Stressors. Environmental conditions that cause individuals to experience stress.
  • Structural characteristics. The tangible, physical properties that determine the basic shape and appearance of an organization's hierarchy.
  • Structural-cultural model. A model holding that because women often experience lack of power, lack of respect, and certain stereotypical expectations, they develop leadership styles different from those of the men.
  • Structuring characteristics. The policies and approaches used to directly prescribe the behavior of managers and associates.
  • Subcultures. In the organizational context, groups that share values that differ from the main values of the organization.
  • Substantive conflict. Conflict that involves work content, tasks, and task goals.
  • Sunk-cost bias. A cognitive bias in which past investments of time, effort, and/or money are heavily weighted in deciding on continued investment.
  • Supplemental organizational processes. Processes in which associates and/or managers have ongoing meetings for the purpose of understanding and addressing important problems.
  • Supportive leadership. Leadership behavior characterized by friendliness and concern for individuals' well-being, welfare, and needs.
  • Survey feedback. Data obtained from questionnaires; managers receive the data for their units and are expected to hold unit meetings to discuss problems.
  • Swift trust. A phenomenon where trust develops rapidly based on positive, reciprocated task-related communications.
  • Synergy. An effect wherein the total output of a team is greater than the combined outputs of individual members working alone.
  • Task cohesion. Team members' attraction and commitment to the tasks and goals of the team.
  • Task roles. Roles that require behaviors aimed at achieving the team's performance goals and tasks.
  • Task structure. The degree to which tasks can be broken down into easily understood steps or parts.
  • Team building. A process in which members of a team work together and with a facilitator to diagnose task, process, and interpersonal problems within the team and create solutions.
  • Team orientation. The extent to which an individual works well with others, wants to contribute to team performance, and enjoys being on a team.
  • Team. Two or more people with work roles that require them to be interdependent, who operate within a larger social system (the organization), performing tasks relevant to the organization's mission, with consequences that affect others inside and outside the organization, and who have membership that is identifiable to those on the team and those not on the team.
  • T-group training. Group exercises in which individuals focus on their actions, how others perceive their actions, and how others generally react to them; participants often learn about unintended negative consequences of certain types of behavior.
  • Thinking. A decision style focused on objective evaluation and systematic analysis.
  • Training. A process used in OD to help managers and associates to gain skills and capabilities needed to accomplish tasks in their jobs.
  • Transactional leadership. A leadership approach that is based on the exchange relationship between followers and leaders. Transactional leadership is characterized by contingent reward behavior and active management-by-exception behavior.
  • Transformational leadership. A leadership approach that involves motivating followers to do more than expected, to continuously develop and grow, to increase self-confidence, and to place the interests of the unit or organization before their own. Transformational leadership involves charisma, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration.
  • Transforming. A phase in the change process in which leaders help to implement new approaches by providing information that supports proposed changes and by providing resources and training to bring about actual shifts in behavior.
  • Transnational strategy. A strategy by which a firm tailors its products and services to some degree to meet the needs of different countries or regions of the world but also seeks some degree of standardization in order to keep costs reasonably low.
  • Two-factor theory. Herzberg's motivation theory that suggests that job satisfaction and dissatisfaction are not opposite ends of the same continuum but are independent states and that different factors affect satisfaction and dissatisfaction.
  • Type A personality. A personality type characterized by competitiveness, aggressiveness, and impatience.
  • Unfreezing. A phase in the change process in which leaders help managers and associates move beyond the past by providing a rationale for change, by creating guilt and/ or anxiety about not changing, and by creating a sense of psychological safety concerning the change.
  • Unitary tasks. Tasks that cannot be divided and must be performed by an individual.
  • Upward communication. Communication that flows from subordinate to superior.
  • Valence. Value associated with an outcome.
  • Values. Abstract ideals that relate to proper life goals and methods for reaching those goals.
  • Virtual electronic teams. Teams that rely heavily on electronically mediated communication rather than faceto-face meetings as the means to coordinate work.
  • Virtual teams. Teams in which members work together but are separated by time, distance, or organizational structure.