Organizational Behavior 3e by Stroh, Northcraft, Neale

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Organizational Behavior 3e by Stroh, Northcraft, Neale is the 3rd edition of the Organizational Behavior: A Management Challenge textbook authored by Linda K. Stroh, Loyola University Chicago, Gregory B. Northcraft, University of Illinois, and Margaret A. Neale, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, and published in 2002 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Mahwah, New Jersey.

  • Accommodating. A strategy for interpersonal conflict that maximizes the other party's concerns or outcomes.
  • Accommodation. The process of selecting among a number of available sensory inputs.
  • Active listening. A form of communication in which the receiver accepts responsibility for ensuring the proper transmission of the intended meaning.
  • Adjourning. The stage of group development in which a group disbands.
  • Affect. A favorable or an unfavorable evaluation of an individual's beliefs.
  • Alderfer's ERG theory. A theory of motivation which states that there are three broad categories of needs: existence, relatedness, and growth.
  • Alternative source. Another way to fulfill a resource dependency, thereby reducing an individual's dependence on any one source; a form of slack.
  • Anchoring-and-adjustment effect. The tendency of individual perceptions or judgments to be similar to a reference point, even when the reference point is arbitrary or irrelevant.
  • Anticipation. Making internal changes in the organization to respond to the environment's demands.
  • Approach-approach conflict. A type of conflict that occurs when an individual must choose between two equally attractive options, both with positive outcomes.
  • Approach-avoidance conflict. A type of conflict that occurs when an individual must choose among options with both positive and negative outcomes.
  • Arbitration. The resolution of a conflict by a neutral third party who, after hearing both sides of a dispute, determines a final, binding outcome.
  • Attention. An individual's choice of where to direct and how to ration his or her limited sensory input system.
  • Attitude. Beliefs and feelings that lead an individual to respond consistently to people, ideas, and situations.
  • Attribution. The process of perceiving the causes of actions and outcomes; provides models of how other people function, what their motives are, and what determines their behaviors.
  • Attribution model of leadership. A model of leadership that deals specifically with perceptions and subsequent behaviors of organizational actors. The model has two facets: leader attributions for and reactions to poor performance by subordinates, and observer attributions for and reactions to poor performance by the leader.
  • Availability bias. An assessment of the frequency or likelihood of an event's occurrence based on how easily it is remembered, even though memory recall is influenced by factors unrelated to the frequency of an event.
  • Avoidance-avoidance conflict. A type of conflict that occurs when an individual must choose between two equally unattractive options, both with negative outcomes.
  • Avoiding. A strategy for interpersonal conflict that is suitable when one has little concern for his or her position or little concern for the position and desires of the other party.
  • Balanced scorecard. A tool used by managers as a substitute for leadership that is a comprehensive snapshot of the organization, incorporating four main perspectives: the financial perspective, the internal business perspective, the innovation perspective, and the learning perspective.
  • Behavioral observation scale. A scale that is used to assess employees' performance by asking raters to report and describe the frequency of specific job-related behaviors.
  • Behaviorally anchored rating scale (BARS). An employee evaluation format in which the organization analyzes a particular job to determine what types of behavior reflect varying degrees of performance, using actual descriptions of behavior to define the ratings.
  • Behaviorally healthy organization. An organization whose internal interaction patterns -- including successful communication, adaptation, innovation, and succession -- put it in a position to become and remain financially sound.
  • Belief system. A stored set of theories and expectations about how and why the world works.
  • Beneficence. Generosity, leniency, and helpfulness of the environment concerning needed resources.
  • Bottom-up problem solving. A type of problem solving that involves workers in all phases of the change process, beginning with diagnosis.
  • Boundaries. Domains where interactions among organizations and elements in the environment (other organizations, customers, etc.) take place.
  • Boundary spanner. An individual such as a liaison who represents an organization in interactions with the forces in its environment.
  • Boundaryless organizations. Organizations without barriers of hierarchy, function, and geography, where cross-functional teams are empowered to act quickly and in partnership with customers and suppliers.
  • Bounded rationality. A model of individual decision making that diverges from the rational ideal in that it is based on a limited perspective, the sequential evaluation of alternatives, satisficing, and the use of judgmental heuristics.
  • Brainstorming. A group creativity technique that facilitates free discussion and exchange of ideas by withholding criticism of ideas, encouraging unusual ideas, generating as many ideas as possible, and piggybacking ideas.
  • Buffer. A mechanism that reduces the environmental shocks or interdepartmental conflict to allow an organizational unit to complete its task more smoothly.
  • Bystander apathy. Failure of observers to lend assistance in emergency situations; an example of the results of social anchoring effects on judgment.
  • Career ladder. A specific series of jobs or experiences necessary to advance in an organization.
  • Career path. A job-progression routes along which employees advance through an organization.
  • Cautious shift. The tendency of a group as a whole and each group member to be less willing to accept risk after a group discussion than prior to it.
  • Centralization. Resting decision-making power with one or a few individuals, based on the competing needs or coordination and division of labor.
  • Charisma. Persuasiveness derived from personal characteristics desired or admired by a reference group.
  • Charismatic leadership. A technique used by transformational leaders to develop a common vision of what could be, discover or create opportunities, and strengthen organizational members' control of their own destinies.
  • Closed system. A completely self-contained organization that functions apart from and is unaffected by what goes on around it.
  • Coalition. A collection of individuals who band together to combine their individual sources of power.
  • Coercion. The threat of punishment for not engaging in appropriate behaviors.
  • Collaborating. A strategy for interpersonal conflict that is suitable when both parties concerns are equally important, when the issue is too important to compromise, when trying to engender commitment among the parties, or when trying to gain insight.
  • Commanding. A management function of directing and motivating the workforce, often by generating direction and enthusiasm of work through leadership.
  • Communication. The transmission of information and understanding through the use of symbols.
  • Compensation system. A major way an organization conveys to its employees what it wants done and how they should behave, consisting of wages or salaries, benefits, nonrecurring financial rewards, and noneconomic rewards.
  • Competing. A strategy for interpersonal conflict that is suitable when the individual is concerned about his or her own needs, issues, or outcomes, such as in an emergency or critical situation, when the other party is untrustworthy, or when the individual or group is sure of the correct solution.
  • Complex learning. A form of learning that requires acquisition of new behaviors not yet available in a worker's behavioral repertoire.
  • Complexity. An overabundance of inputs that managers must keep track of, consider, and manage.
  • Compromise coalition. A coalition in which all members are interested in the same issues but each is flexible enough about specifics to make sure the coalition gets its way.
  • Compromising. A strategy for interpersonal conflict that is suitable when both parties' goals are important but not worth the potential disruption of more aggressive strategies.
  • Conditioning. The use of reinforcement and punishment to create habits.
  • Conflict. Differences among the perceptions, beliefs, and goals of organization members.
  • Conformity. A form of social inhibition in which a group member engages in a behavior and professes to be part of a group even though the member believes it is incorrect or inappropriate.
  • Consequences. The good or bad result following from a behavior. Consequence is a central concept of the law of effect.
  • Construction. The process of the perceiver organizing and editing sensory inputs in a way that makes them potentially meaningful; subject to both input source and perceiver influences.
  • Content theories of motivation. Theories that focus on the factors within people that motivate them to perform (e.g., the theories of Maslow, Herzberg, and McClelland).
  • Context enrichment. A way to increase decisionmaking responsibility in a job by giving workers decision-making control over the context of their work, rather than control over the work itself. Examples of context enrichment include flextime work scheduling and telecommuting.
  • Contingency. The relationship between actions and their outcomes. Contingency is a central concept of the law of effect.
  • Contingency model of leadership. A theory which suggests that leadership effectiveness is determined both by the characteristics of the leader and by the level of situational favorableness that exists.
  • Contract. A legally binding document that guarantees an organization delivery of and terms for a particular resource. A contract may be used as part of a control strategy to manage environmental demands.
  • Contrast effect. The tendency of individual perceptions of judgments to be seen as very different from an extreme reference point.
  • Control. Strategies organizations use to control their environments such as contracts, buffers, and joint ventures.
  • Coordinating. A management function of creating a structure through which members can produce the organization's central goods or services.
  • Controlling. Monitoring and correcting the progress of an organization toward its goals.
  • Corporate social responsibility. The actions an organization chooses to take (or avoid) and how these actions meet society's expectations related to moral and ethical standards.
  • Covariation. A central principle of attribution theory, stating that behaviors are attributed to causes that are present when the behaviors are present and absent when the behaviors are absent; covariation is judged by distinctiveness, consensus, and consistency.
  • Creativity. An individualistic, novel, idea-generating process.
  • Cross-training. Encouraging workers to learn their coworkers' jobs; provides challenges for workers and flexibility for management.
  • Custodial leadership. A process used by transactional leaders to improve working conditions, compensation, and fringe benefits.
  • Decentralization. The act of spreading decision-making power and authority among a broad group of individuals.
  • Decoding. The process by which receivers extract meaning from a message.
  • Deindividuation. Submersion of personal identities and personal responsibility of group members in the identity group.
  • Delegator . One who returns responsibility for dispute resolution to the involved parties or passes that responsibility to someone else.
  • Delphi technique. A group decision-making technique that minimizes interaction among members in which members complete mailed questionnaires and a coordinator summarizes results.
  • Departmentalization. Grouping tasks into organizational units according to the knowledge and skills required or based on similar levels of skills and abilities.
  • Diagnosis. The first stage in the process of change, which involves figuring out what actions to take in response to signals that change is needed and includes identifying the problem, causes, and an appropriate and effective solution.
  • Diffusion of responsibility. Sharing the credit or blame for the outcomes of a group's actions over the entire group.
  • Distributive justice. Fair treatment of employees in awarding organizational rewards or in administering organizational punishment.
  • Distributive negotiation. A common negotiation strategy in which parties decide only how to allocate a fixed amount of resources.
  • Diversity. The heterogeneity of a group with respect to the members' personalities, genders, attitudes, backgrounds, and experience levels.
  • Downsizing. Reducing the size of an organization's workforce.
  • Effectiveness. The ability of an organization to accomplish an important goal, purpose, or mission.
  • Efficiency. The amount of effort required to deliver a promised good or service; it can be increased through specialization and economies of scale.
  • Emotional intelligence . One's ability to effectively deal with ambiguity and use sound judgement in performing their job.
  • Empathy. The ability of an individual to appreciate another's perspective.
  • Employability. The notion that employees should be concerned about their own career development, including acquiring the skills needed to keep a job or obtain a new position.
  • Employee (socioemotional)-oriented leadership. A technique used by a leader that emphasizes the individual worker's needs in managing group performance; also called initiating consideration.
  • Employee stock ownership plan (ESOP). A groupbased incentive plan in which an organization contributes to a trust fund to buy stock, which is allocated to employees based on seniority.
  • Enacted environment. The idea that the environment in which an organization functions is sensitive to the organization's perception of that environment.
  • Encoding. A process of creating a message for a receiver.
  • Enhancement. An attempt to augment the positive consequences of one's behavior to increase the perception of fairness among employees; the opposite of justification.
  • Entitling tactic. An attempt to gain responsibility for positive events and their consequences in order to increase the perception of fairness among employees; the opposite of excuse.
  • Environmental complexity. The number of environmental cues that an organization must monitor because they are critical to its functioning.
  • Environmental instability. The rate of change in the environment.
  • Environmental scanning. The process in which the organization collects information from the environment.
  • Equity theory. The theory that workers exchange appropriate work behaviors for desired consequences; a basis of distributive justice.
  • Escalation. The committing of additional resources to failing causes based on the slim hope that there will be a dramatic change.
  • Expectancy. Workers' cognitions concerning the likely consequence of their actions.
  • Expectancy theory. The theory that worker behaviors are a function of workers' beliefs about consequences and contingencies.
  • Expected value. The value of an option, determined by summing the values assigned to each possible consequence of an action, multiplied by the probabilities that each of these possible consequences will occur.
  • Expert power. Individual power based on the possession of special information, knowledge, or ability.
  • Explicitness. The extent to which an individual cannot deny that a behavior occurred; serves to commit individuals to their actions.
  • Exploring stage. The second stage in the organizational life cycle, characterized by few guidelines, changing rules, and informal and loose organizational structures. At this stage, people create the organization as they develop, focusing primarily on developing and marketing the product or service.
  • Exposure. The extent to which an individual openly and candidly divulges feelings and information when communicating.
  • External change agent. An expert consultant from outside an organization whom management brings in specifically to facilitate a change.
  • Externality. A cause of workers' behaviors or the consequences of those behaviors that are beyond the worker's control.
  • Factfinding. A form of third-party intervention in which a neutral third party determines a reasonable solution based on evidence presented by the parties, who are not bound to follow the recommendation.
  • Feedback. The receiver's reaction to a sender's message.
  • Five-stages perspective. A theory of group development which proposes that all groups pass through a predetermined sequence of developmental phases.
  • Flextime work scheduling. A method of context enrichment in which management gives workers limited discretion in arranging tier work hours.
  • Forecasting. A process of environmental anticipation in which the organization uses mathematical models to predict future environmental demands.
  • Forming. A stage of group development in which group members decide whether to join the group, learn the traits and strengths of other members, and identify a leader.
  • Framing. A judgmental heuristic that decision makers use to deal with risk in which they become increasingly likely to take risks when confronting potential losses and increasingly likely to avoid risks when confronting possible gains.
  • Free rider. A person who accepts the benefits of being a member of a group but is unwilling to contribute to the good of the group.
  • Fundamental attribution error. The tendency of individuals to perceive others' behaviors as being caused primarily by stable, internal characteristics (such as personality) and to perceive their own behavior as primarily a response to environmental characteristics.
  • Gainsharing. A group incentive plan in which employees are rewarded for improvements in the organization's performance above a predetermined baseline.
  • Generation Xers (GenXers). Individuals born between 1960 and 1980.
  • Glass ceiling. A barrier that keeps women as a group from advancing to executive management simply because they are women and not because of their individual abilities.
  • Goals. Specific directions for action and a specific quantity of work to be accomplished.
  • Goal commitment. The extension of effort, over time, toward the accomplishment of a goal and an unwillingness to give up or lower the goal.
  • Graphic rating scale. A scale that assesses employees' performance that asks the rater to provide general evaluations of employees' performance in various areas of the job.
  • Group. An organized system of two or more individuals who are interrelated so that the system performs some function, has a standard set of role relationships among its members, and has a set of norms that regulate the function of the group and each of its members.
  • Group development. The process of identifying and resolving present and future group interaction problems.
  • Group objectives. The goals, purposes, and functions that a group is trying to achieve.
  • Groupthink. The tendency in highly cohesive groups for members to seek consensus so strongly that they lose the willingness and ability to critically evaluate one another's ideas.
  • Growth need strength (GNS). The interest of a worker in growing and developing on the job.
  • Habit. The tendency of a person or an organization to do things the same way, over and over again.
  • Halo effect. The tendency for an individual's perception of an input on one dimension to influence his or her perceptions of that input on other dimensions.
  • Herzberg's two-factor theory. A theory of motivation developed by Frederick Herzberg that focuses on two categories: hygiene factors and motivators.
  • Horizontal conflict. Conflict between people at similar organizational levels.
  • Hygiene factors. In two-factor theory, workers' basic needs or pay, safety on the job, quality of supervision, a social environment; fulfillment of these needs prevents dissatisfaction.
  • Idiosyncrasy credits. Leeway given to group members to violate group rules and norms because of consistent past adherence to those rules and norms.
  • Image advertising. Attempts to influence the environment's overall perception of an organization.
  • Inclusion. A modern view of diversity that shifts the emphasis from employees' differences to their similarities.
  • Inertia. The tendency of an object to continue in the same direction with the same velocity or intensity unless impacted by some force of change.
  • Information overload. The state of perceivers when their sensory input systems are overwhelmed with new, unusual, attention-grabbing inputs.
  • Information richness. The information-carrying capacity of an item of data.
  • Input source influence. A characteristic of a source object or event that affect perceivers' attempts to direct their attention, including motion, distinctiveness, novelty, vividness, contrast effect, anchoring-and-adjustment effect, and halo effect.
  • Instrumentality. Workers' belief that attaining the required levels of performance will produce desired personal outcomes.
  • Integrating device. A strategy of conflict management aimed at enhancing communication across groups and maintaining appropriate levels of interaction.
  • Integrating stage. The fourth and final stage of the organizational life cycle, characterized by a shift in attention from day-to-day work to sharing corporate visions.
  • Integrative bargaining. A cooperative negotiation strategy which assumes that there can be an expanding amount of resources for the parties to divide.
  • Interactional justice. A form of justice in which employees determine whether the quality of the interpersonal treatment they receive is fair.
  • Interlocking directorates. A negotiation strategy for managing environmental demands in which a corporation appoints to its board of directors representatives from a variety of organizations on which it is dependent.
  • Interpretation. The process of assigning meaning to a constructed representation of an object or event.
  • Irreversibility. The extent to which behavior cannot easily be revoked or undone, serving to commit individuals to their actions.
  • Jargon. Special words or common words used with special meaning that summarize a group's common experiences and history and allow simple communication of complex meanings.
  • Job analysis. The gathering of information about a job in an organization, including a description of tasks and activities, results (of products or services), and the equipment, materials, and working conditions that characterize the job.
  • Job characteristics model. A theory of job enrichment in which the presence of five job characteristics (skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback) leads to critical psychological states (meaningfulness of work, responsibility for work outcomes, and knowledge of work activity results) that in turn result in positive work-related outcomes such as productivity and worker satisfaction.
  • Job description. A written document that specifies an individual's role in the organization.
  • Job enlargement. A redesign of work tasks that increases the number of tasks in a job to make it more interesting and involving.
  • Job enrichment. A redesign of work tasks that makes a job more interesting and involving by allowing workers to fulfill higher-order needs such as achievement and control.
  • Job rotation. A method of increasing workers' skill variety by allowing them to switch jobs occasionally.
  • Job specialization. The division of the overall mission of an organization into various smaller tasks.
  • Johari window. A device for assessing and categorizing managers' communication styles along the dimensions of exposure and feedback.
  • Joint venture. A collaboration in which two or more unrelated organizations pool their resources to work together on projects.
  • Judgmental heuristics. Rules of thumb, or shortcuts, that reduce the information-processing demands on decision makers.
  • Knowledge management. The ability to retrieve, capture, combine, create, distribute, and secure knowledge.
  • Law of effect. The primary principle managers defer to as they attempt to build good work habits.
  • Leader-member exchange model (LMX model). A model based on exchange theory that stresses the importance of individual relationships between the leader and subordinates. Each relationship is termed a vertical dyad.
  • Leadership. An increment of influence over and above an employee's mechanical compliance with routine directives of the organization.
  • Learned needs theory. A content theory of motivation which proposes that three categories of needs -- affiliation, power, and achievement -- are learned, not innate, desires.
  • Learning organization. An organization that continually strives to expand its storehouse of knowledge.
  • Least-preferred coworker scale (LPC scale). A questionnaire that measures how respondents characterize their feelings about a person with whom they work least effectively. A high LPC score (favoring the least preferred coworker) suggests that the leader derives satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment from relationships with others; a low LPC score suggests that the leader emphasizes completing tasks, even at the expense of interpersonal relationships.
  • Legitimate power. A type of power that is based on individuals' authority to control the behavior of others for their own good and for the good of a social system.
  • Line-staff conflict. A conflict between employees who are involved directly in some aspect of producing the organization's product and employees who provide technical and advisory assistance to the line.
  • Lobbying. A negotiation strategy for managing environmental demands in which a representative of an organization convinces source of resource dependence in the environment of the correctness of the organization's perspective.
  • Locus of control. The extent to which people think they can control the consequential events in their lives.
  • Logrolling. A form of coalition in which participants lend each other power so that each can pursue interests not shared by other coalition members.
  • Loose coupling. The relationship of an organization and its environment in which what happens in the environment may or may not be reflected by immediate changes in the organization.
  • Machine bureaucracy. An organizational structure that uses highly specialized and routine tasks, formalized procedures for the transformation process, a proliferation of rules and communication channels, a functional departmentalization structure, a large span of control, and an elaborate administrative and technical structure.
  • Managerial function. An activity that must be performed for an organization to outperform individuals, including planning, organizing, staffing, and controlling.
  • Managerial grid. A leadership training program conducted by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton that reflects two dimensions of leader behavior: concern for production (task-oriented leadership) and concern for people (socioemotional leadership).
  • Managerial leadership. The second stage of leadership, according to David Berlew, which emphasizes providing subordinates with work that is less routine and more challenging, building cohesive work teams, and giving employees more say in decisions that affect them directly.
  • Maslow's needs-hierarchy theory. The prototype among several hierarchical theories of human motivation, which divides human wants into five distinct categories that are pursued in hierarchical order: basic physiological needs, safety needs, belonging/affiliation needs, and self-actualization needs.
  • Matrix structure. An organizational structure characterized by dual reporting. Employees report to both a long-term manager, who manages their professional and technical development, and to a separate project manager.
  • Mediation. Resolution of a conflict by a neutral third party who can control the interaction between the disputants but has no authority to force a solution on them.
  • Mentor. A senior employee whose primary' role is to instruct a less experienced protege.
  • Moderating variable. A variable that influences the effects of another variable on behavior.
  • Motivators. In two-factor theory, factors that provide worker satisfaction, such as the opportunity for achievement, responsibility, and recognition through work.
  • Movement. The third stage in the process of change; implementation of the change plan.
  • Naive realism. A person's thinking that his or her own perceptions represent objective reality.
  • Negotiation. A process whereby two or more parties decide what each will give and take in an exchange between them; a class of strategies for managing environmental resource dependence.
  • Neutralizers of leadership. Factors that paralyze, destroy, or counteract the effectiveness of leader behaviors, making it difficult for them to have an impact.
  • Noise. A characteristic in the immediate context of communicating individuals that interferes with communication.
  • Nominal group technique (NGT). A group decision-making technique that focuses on generating alternatives and selecting among them by asking group members to independently write down ideas, present them in turn, clarify them for the group, and rank them by voting privately.
  • Nonverbal communication. Interpersonal communication that occurs through any channel other than formal verbal communication.
  • Norm. An informal, unstated rule that governs and regulates group behavior.
  • Norming. A stage of group development in which group members define a set of rules and roles to coordinate group interaction and make pursuit of the goals effective.
  • Objective self-awareness. An individual's perception of his or her own role in causing behaviors and their consequences.
  • Organizational ombudsman. An individual who interprets policy, counsels disputing parties, resolves disputes, provides feedback, and identifies potential problem areas for senior management.
  • Open system. An organization whose activities are inescapably influenced by its environment.
  • Organic structure. A flexible organizational structure that can respond efficiently and effectively to new demands.
  • Organization. A form of human association for the attainment of a common purpose that combines the talents and efforts of its members.
  • Organizational atrophy. An organization's use of a particular response to a situation long after the situation has changed.
  • Organizational behavior. The description and explanation of how people behave in organizations.
  • Organizational behavior modification (OB-Mod). The systematic application of simple conditioning and reinforcement theory principles to the management of organizational behavior.
  • Organizational commitment. The relative strength of an individual's identification with and involvement in a particular organization.
  • Organizational culture. The expectations and practices of an organization, including shared philosophy; attitude toward employees, leaders, heroes, rituals, and ceremonies; and belief about the direction of the organization.
  • Organizational decline. A decrease in the size of an organization's workforce, budget, resources, clients, and so on; a mature organization's inability to stay in touch with changing markets, technologies, and client preferences, leading to stagnation, bureaucracy, and passivity.
  • Organizational design. The creation of organizational structure, involving grouping roles and activities so that the interdependencies among organizational actors are coordinated effectively and efficiently.
  • Organizational development (OD). Systemwide application of behavioral science knowledge and reinforcement of organizational strategies, structures, and processes for improving an organization's effectiveness.
  • Organizational life cycle. A predictable pattern of evolution of an organization's structure, leadership style, and administrative systems.
  • Organizational socialization. A process of conveying the organization's goals, norms, and preferred ways of doing things to new employees.
  • Organizational structure. The skeleton of an organization based on the relationship among its positions or roles.
  • Organizing. In Fayol's management functions, arranging for an organization's material and personnel resources.
  • Outplacement program. A program that focuses on finding new jobs for displaced employees or those who choose not to stay on after a major corporate reorganization.
  • Path-goal model. A model of leadership which suggests that if leaders are able to link effort, performance, and desired outcomes, subordinates will experience high job satisfaction because the path to job performance and subsequent rewards is more direct.
  • Perception. The process by which individuals receive and interpret sensations from the environment so they may act on them.
  • Perceptual set. The expectations that a perceiver brings to a task, based on suggestions, beliefs, and previous experiences.
  • Performing. The stage of group development in which group members work within the group's structure to pursue the group's and members' goals.
  • Personality. The characteristics that lead an individual to behave in consistent ways over time.
  • Person-organization fit. The compatibility between an individual and the organization for which he or she works.
  • Piece-rate plan. An incentive plan in which employees are paid a given rate for each unit produced.
  • Planning. Management thought processes that precede action in an organization.
  • Political conflict. A problem that occurs when different members of an organization pursue different personal (rather than organizational) agendas.
  • Political system. A collection of individuals or groups that must work together and speak with one voice, even though each has a private agenda to pursue.
  • Procedural justice. Equitable treatment of employees in the processes by which organizational rewards are allocated and punishments are administered.
  • Procedural justice theory. A theory which suggests that workers are most satisfied with the outcomes they receive at work when they believe that the processes used to determine those outcomes are fair.
  • Process theories of motivation. Theories that focus on the process by which rewards direct behavior, such as the expectancy, equity, and reinforcement theories.
  • Professional bureaucracy. A bureaucracy that trains its workers to internalize a set of performance and professional standards.
  • Profit sharing. A group incentive plan in which employees receive a percentage of the organization's profits on a regular basis.
  • Providing-impetus tactic. Delegating conflict back to the involved parties, with the implied threat that if they don't resolve it, someone else will, and the resolution will not be to either parly's liking.
  • Psychological contract. A set of unwritten, reciprocal expectations between an employee and an organization.
  • Public relations. Negotiations strategies for managing environmental demands in which an organization actively controls its interactions with the environment using activities such as image advertising.
  • Punctuated equilibrium. A theory that a project team's development is triggered by the project's deadline.
  • Punishment. The administration of an unpleasant consequence (e.g., docking a worker's pay) in response to inappropriate work behaviors.
  • Quality circles (QC). Voluntary groups of workers that meet periodically to discuss and develop solutions to problems related to quality, productivity, or product cost.
  • Quality-of- work-life program (QWL program). A systemwide attempt to simultaneously enhance organizational effectiveness (usually defined in terms of productivity) and employee well-being through a commitment to participative organizational decision making.
  • Rationality. The basing of a decision on careful and calculated action alternatives and their consequences.
  • Realistic job preview. A mechanism used by an organization to present both the desirable and undesirable aspects of the job and the organization, to provide the potential employee with more complete and accurate information about the position.
  • Reengineering. Making fundamental changes in the way work is performed throughout the organization, focusing on improvements in cost, customer service, quality, and speed of production.
  • Referent power. Individual power based on a high level of identification with, admiration of, or respect for the powerholder.
  • Refreezing. The final stage in the process of change, which consists of institutionalizing the change and monitoring the systems that have been put in place to track the consequences of implementing the change.
  • Regulation. The legal restriction of behaviors in or by organizations.
  • Reinforcement. A reward for a behavior that increases the probability that the behavior will be repeated.
  • Relationship marketing. A form of marketing that involves the development of a long-term relationship with prospective customers via intensive information exchange.
  • Representativeness. An outcome's resemblance of its cause.
  • Resource dependence theory. A theory which suggests that firms enter into relationships in search of much-needed resources that are lacking in their operations.
  • Resource dependency. An individual's need for resources, which exposes the individual to influence.
  • Resource pooling. Combining the perspectives, ideas, suggestions, and information of all members of a group.
  • Resource redundancy. A means of preventing the lack of a particular resource by maintaining relationships with several suppliers.
  • Resource scarcity. The lack of a particular commodity (e.g., food, love, attention, cars, clothes, opportunities) for all to accomplish their goals.
  • Reward power. Individual power based on the control of resources valued by another; the opposite of coercive power.
  • Risk. The uncertainty associated with a particular decision alternative of choice.
  • Risk averse. A quality in a decision maker that makes him or her willing to pay a premium to avoid risk by ignoring the expected-value solution.
  • Risk neutral. A quality in a decision maker that gives him or her the same attraction to risky and certain outcomes if they have the same expected value.
  • Risk seeking. A quality in a decision maker that makes him or her willing to pay a premium to experience risk.
  • Risky shift. The tendency of a group as a whole and each member individually to be more willing to accept greater levels of risk after a group discussion than prior to it.
  • Role. The set of behaviors appropriate to a particular position occupied by individuals in a group or an organization.
  • Role conflict. A type of conflict that occurs when two or more role-specific activities, or expectations of other organizational members, are incompatible.
  • Role differentiation. Establishment of clear concepts for group members of how their specific duties and responsibilities contribute to the realization of the group's goals.
  • Role therapy. A training technique in which someone from outside the group comes in temporarily to act as a catalyst to improve the effectiveness of group interaction by ensuring that role differentiation has been accomplished appropriately.
  • Satisficing. Forgoing the optimal solution in favor of one that is acceptable or reasonable in order to save the time and effort needed to make extended comparisons.
  • Scanlon plan. A group-level incentive plan aimed at achieving organizationwide cost reductions.
  • Selection. The process of collecting and evaluating information about an individual in order to extend an offer of employment.
  • Self-efficacy. A worker's beliefs that he or she can produce required levels of performance by engaging in appropriate work behaviors.
  • Self-esteem. An individual's self-respect.
  • Self-fulfilling prophecy. An expectation about how someone is likely to act that actually causes the person to meet the expectation.
  • Self-leadership. An individual-level approach to job redesign aimed at developing workers' self-direction and self-motivation and ultimately, their effectiveness in the workplace.
  • Self-managed team. A team that assumes the tasks of the former supervisor.
  • Self-perception. A person's examination of his or her own actions that decides his or her attitudes.
  • Self-reinforcement. A person's punishment or reward of himself or herself in the hopes of acquiring desired actions.
  • Self-serving bias. The tendency of perceivers to attribute the causes of actions or their outcomes in a way that reflects well on the perceivers or absolves the perceivers from responsibility for poor outcomes.
  • Simple structure. An organizational structure common in young or small organizations in which coordination is largely a function of direct supervision, the top manger or entrepreneur has significant control, employees have very little discretionary decision-making power, and there is little formal policy or procedure.
  • Situated expertise. A group's transactive memory system and an understanding of group members' external ties.
  • Situational leadership model. A model of leadership which states that leaders are effective when they use the most appropriate leadership style for the situation.
  • Skill-based pay. An individual incentive system in which employees are rewarded based on the number of skills they have or on the number of jobs they can do.
  • Slack. Excess resources that can minimize conflict because they reduce the amount of necessary interaction.
  • Social anchoring. Forming perceptions or judgments in an extremely uncertain situation by relying on the opinions of others.
  • Social audit. A mechanism an organization uses to see where it stands with respect to corporate-responsibility demands by identifying important issues in the social environment, cataloging the actions presently being taken, and assessing the effectiveness of these actions.
  • Social comparison theory. A theory of perception in which individuals construct a perception, judgment, or belief about the world, and then check its accuracy by comparing it to the perceptions and judgments constructed by others.
  • Social context. The influential context for all behavior that is created by the individuals in groups and organizations.
  • Social facilitation. The tendency for the presence of others to enhance an individual's energy level.
  • Social identity theory. A theory of perception in which individuals classify themselves and others into various categories, such as race, age, gender, religious affiliation, professional membership, and other groups.
  • Social information processing. A framework of job design that emphasizes the importance of perception and social cues from coworkers and supervisors in understanding how workers react to their jobs.
  • Social learning theory. A learning theory proposed by Albert Bandura which states that people learn from watching others and that the likelihood that the learned behavior will be repeated is determined by modeling (i.e., people display behaviors that they have observed as being good and avoid behaviors that are seen as producing negative outcomes).
  • Social loafing. An individual's decreasing the amount of effort he or she puts into a task because he or she is working on that task with other people.
  • Sociotechnical systems. Frameworks to bridge the concerns and fit of people with the advantages of automation.
  • Span of control. The number of people reporting to a manager.
  • Standard hour rate plan. An hourly payment rate based on the amount of time, determined by industrial engineering standards, that it should take to produce each unit.
  • Status. A position or role in the social hierarchy.
  • Stereotype. A complex set of expectations ad beliefs associated with specific personal characteristics, such as gender, race, or occupation.
  • Stockpile. A store of resources set aside for future use, such as money put into savings for a "rainy day"; a form of slack.
  • Storming. The stage of group development in which the group decides what its goals and priories will be.
  • Strong situation. A situation in which contextual demands are likely to cause everyone to behave the same.
  • Substitute for leadership. An individual, organizational, and task characteristic that has the capacity to serve the same purposes as leader behaviors.
  • Succession. Turnover, retirement, or promotion of personnel.
  • Successive approximation. Reinforcement of increasingly better attempts at a final desired behavior; it may include shaping or chaining.
  • Support systems. Elements in an organization that assist personnel in accomplishing their work tasks effectively, such as production technology.
  • Survey-guided development. The use of questionnaires to construct a picture of an organization's internal process and problems; also called survey feedback.
  • Synergy. A mutual influence process of stimulation and encouragement among members of a group.
  • Systematizing stage. The second stage of the organizational life cycle, typically called the adolescence of an organization. At this stage, the primary concern is the need to establish structures, accountabilities, clear roles, and procedures.
  • Task identity. The sense of completion and achievement that occurs when the set of assigned tasks allows the worker to see a process through from start to finish.
  • Task interdependence. Power accruing to a particular job or group of jobs in an organization when two or more employees must depend on each other to complete assigned tasks.
  • Task significance. A worker's sense that a good or poor performance on the job makes a difference to someone.
  • Team development. A team's inward look at its own performance, behavior, and culture for the purposes of correcting dysfunctional behaviors and strengthening functional ones.
  • Telecommuting. A type of job design that permits employees to work at home or near home for all or part of the week.
  • Theory of social exchange. The theory which states that social behavior is an exchange of material and nonmaterial goods (such as approval and prestige), and that in relationships people continually monitor the rewards and costs of working out balanced exchanges.
  • Third-party intervention. An involvement in a conflict of someone not directly concerned, as in arbitration, mediation, or factfinding.
  • Top-down problem solving. The diagnosis of a problem by management, with the rest of the workforce being informed only during unfreezing.
  • Trait. A characteristic, usually expressed as a dimension in which every person can be measured.
  • Transactional leader. A leader who motivates followers by exchanging rewards for services.
  • Transactive memory. The combination of knowledge related to each individual within a team and the team's awareness of who knows what.
  • Transformational leader. A leader who arouses intense feeling and generates turbulent one-to-one relationships with followers and is inspirational and concerned with ideas rather than processes.
  • Two-way communication. Communication in which receivers can return messages to senders.
  • Uncertainty. Not knowing for sure; may include future actions or events, or relationships between actions and consequences. Also, the consequences of an action that can be known only in terms of a perceived likelihood of occurrence.
  • Unfreezing. The second stage in the process of change, which involves lowering barriers to change by selling the diagnosis, understanding the implementation, and preparing for the consequences.
  • Union. A group of workers who have banded together to give themselves more bargaining power with their employer.
  • Valence. The perceived value of a behavior's consequences.
  • Values. An individual's core understanding of what is important to him or her.
  • Variable pay plan. A compensation plan that rewards employees with extra pay for extra organizational achievements.
  • Venturing stage. The third stage in the organizational life cycle, in which employees are given greater freedom and responsibility in order to promote innovative thinking and creativity to compete in the marketplace. The organization defines itself by its results, and empowerment of employees is critical.
  • Vertical conflict. A conflict between people at different levels in an organization.
  • Vicarious learning. The acquisition of desirable behaviors through observation of the behaviors of other people; also called social learning.
  • Virtual structures. An evolving network of organizations or firms joined together to share skills, costs, and resources.
  • Visibility. The observability of behavior, serving to commit individuals to organizations by making their association with them public knowledge.
  • Vision. A view of what the organization wishes to become, often used as a substitute for leadership.
  • Volition. The extent to which individuals believe they have a choice in their behaviors, serving to commit them to their actions.
  • Weak situation. A situation in which the appropriate behavior is not at all obvious and in which people therefore are fairly free to decide for themselves what to do.
  • Work simplification. The design of work tasks to make them simple and easily mastered so that each worker can become expert at some small number of tasks and learn to do them repeatedly with lightning speed and no mistakes.
  • Work standards. Specific instructions for doing a task, including expected time for completion and expected volume of output.
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