Organizational management
Introduction
4 frames of analysis (structural, human resources, political, symbolic)
Structural Frame
Emphasize structure, goals, technology, formal relationship, coordination.
Organizations create rules, procedures, systems, and hierarchies, in order to coordinate diverse activities into a unified effort.
Humans relations frame
Focus on the interpersonal relationship.
The organization is made up of individuals with feelings, needs, skills, and limitations.
Find ways for people to get the job done while feeling good about themselves and their work.
Political Frame
People with various interests compete for power and resources.
Conflict, bargaining, negotiation, coercion, and compromising are a normal part of everyday life in organizations.
Symbolic Frame
Emphasizes organizations’ culture, symbols, and spirit, as keys to success.
Organizations are propelled by rituals, ceremonies, heroes, stories, and myths.
Change – STRUCTURAL FRAME
Reasons for change
Organizational change
System of compensation, return policy, organizational structure (e.g. teamwork), technological change, new markets, etc.
Internal and external reasons for change
-Change in costumer’s habits (Mcdo)
-New price competition (cellular/cable)
-Criticism of the ecological behavior of the organization (ikea)
-New and competing products (Nokia)
Resistance to change
Emotional: Negative emotions towards the change and those who initiated it.
- Emotional symptoms: Sadness, hostility, hatred, anger …
- Psychological symptoms: Stress, low concentration, anxiety, pessimism, detachment, aggression …
- Physiological symptoms: Tiredness, high blood pressure, insomnia …
Behavioral: Actions designated to hurt the initiators of change or its implementation.
- Active (strikes, petitions, complaints, verbal violence…)
- Passive or hidden (lack of cooperation, disloyalty, hiding information, increased number of sick days, low initiative…)
Cognitive: Reasons why change is wrong or not beneficial.
- Presenting the advantages of the current situation and the flaws in the planned change. (Length of women’s military service
El AL and the Open Skies amendment)
Kurt Lewin’s force field analysis and three step process of change Voir diapositive 27
To change or not to change à Equilibrium between forces that drive change and other that resist change
Unfreezing: Establish the need for change; show that the old ways of doing things are no longer adequate.
Changing: Define the new ways to do things and empower followers to achieve them.
Refreezing: Institutionalize change in the organizational culture so it will last. A new balance between driving and restraining forces.
Kotter’s model: 8 roles of the leader in change implementation
Unfreezing:
Establish a sense of urgency
Form a powerful guiding coalition
Develop a compelling vision
Communicate the vision widely
Changing:
Empower employees to act on the vision
Generate short-term wins
Tackle bigger problems
Refreezing:
Anchor changes in the corporation’s culture
Perception – HUMANS RELATIONS FRAME
The process of perception Attribution theory
A process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment.
People’s behavior is based on their perception of what reality is, not on reality itself.
Perception is:
- Subjective and relative (hands in water)
- Selective (how many pregnant women have you seen today?)
- Affected by context (the “beauty grade”, chess …)
- Bases on familiar patterns (“can you read this?”)
Biases: Fundamental attribution error, actor-observer effect, self-serving bias,
above average effect/illusory superiority, overconfidence bias, illusion of control, optimism bias, halo effect, contrast effect, projection, stereotyping, the primacy effect, the recency effect.
Attribution Theory: Trying to understand …
- People want to understand the behaviors they see around them.
- Attributions about the reasons for someone’s behavior may affect judgement about that person, and, consequentially, behavior towards them.
- If the boss never gives raises, or if I feel she personally hates me, my my reaction might be …..
- If we know there is a temporary cash flow problem in the organization, and we know that in the past the boss did give raises, or if I asked for a raise when the boss was upset, my reaction might be …
Attribution theory
Our perception and judgment of others’ behavior is influenced by our assumptions of whether it is caused by internal or external factors:
- Internal factors relate to the person (skills, effort, character, values …)
- External causes relate to something outside the person (resources, circumstances, other people …)
Causation is judged based on the combination of:
- Consistency
- The person behaves in the same way in similar situations over time (late on Sundays)
- Consensus
- Others, when faced with the same situation, behave in a similar way (late on Sundays)
- Distinctiveness
- The person does not behave in that way in other situations (he is not late to family meetings, social events, etc.)
Fundamental Attribution Error: (culture dependent)
The tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors, and overestimate the influence of internal factors when making judgments about the behavior of others We “blame” people first, disregarding the situation (a bad salesperson / knowledge test / acceptance to PhD / Canadian hockey / ADHD / Seinfeld …).
Reasons for happening:
We discount the strong effects that social roles have on behavior.
We fail to realize that we tend to see that person only in very distinct situations.
In organizations:
Poor performers will be judged as “lazy” or “incapable”, instead of taking under consideration training or a bad sales territory.
Will happen less the more the manager has personal experience with the employee’s job.
Errors and Biases in Attributions (con’t.)
Actor-Observer Effect:
The tendency of the observer to commit the fundamental attribution error, while the actor emphasizes the role of the situation in determining his/her behavior.
Reasons for happening:
The actor is more aware of the constraints/advantages that the environment offers.
The actor is more aware of his/her own thoughts, feelings, and intentions.
Errors and Biases in Attributions
Self-Serving Bias:
The tendency for individuals to attribute their own successes (take credit for it) to internal factors (ability or effort), while putting the blame for failures on external factors (task difficulty or luck).
It is “our” success but “their” failure (investors and the bubble / aced or failed the exam)
Reasons for happening:
Making excuses for failure, and self promoting when succeeding.
Promoting internal good feeling.
Looking for, and hanging on to real, though small factors, as a reason for failing.
In organizations:
Problematic during performance appraisal; makes it hard to acknowledge mistakes and learn from them.
Frequently used (and often biased) shortcuts when judging ourselves
Above average effect / illusory superiority / the Dunning-Kruger effect
Overestimating our own qualities and abilities when comparing them to the same qualities and abilities in others.
Overconfidence Bias
Believing too much in our own ability to make good decisions – especially when outside of our expertise (British Royal Academy of Science, 1895)
Control Bias/ Illusion of control (and randomness error)
Overestimating our ability to control events (between sky-scrappers, dice, pen/underwear J, Bnei Yehuda’s rooster, “it won’t happen to me”, rape victims)
Optimism (unrealistic) Bias
A person’s belief that they are at a lesser risk of experiencing a negative event compared to others (married forever / penguins can fly!!)
Judging others…
Halo Effect
Drawing a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single characteristic. The rating we give an individual on one, important, trait, will effect the rating we give them on other traits (markers and a ruler, “blondes have more fun”, ”he was a pilot …”)
Can work both for and against the person we rate.
Contrast Effect
Evaluation of a person’s characteristics are affected by comparisons with other people recently encountered, who rank higher or lower on the same characteristics (job interviews, talent shows, grading exams, beauty grade …).
Projection
A tendency for people to see their own traits in other people; projecting their own feelings, attitudes, personality characteristics, or motives onto others (lack of awareness of individual differences).
Projection can be especially strong for undesirable traits that the projector has, but fails to recognize in themselves (being dishonest, disorganized, vindictive, etc.).
Stereotyping
Judging someone on the basis of one’s perception of the group to which that person belongs. A generalization that is not always accurate (based on age, race, gender, social status, occupation).
The Primacy Effect
A tendency for the first items presented to have a powerful effect, and influence (“color”) the way we perceive the following items (a list of qualities, first impression at a job interview).
The Recency Effect
The tendency of people to be most influenced by the last thing they heard or saw (performance evaluation, Oscar awards, Elections).
Consequences of perception biases
Advantages:
Increases self confidence
Disadvantages:
Lack of search for information (overconfidence)
Not enough preparation for the future (optimism, control)
Underestimating competition (fundamental attribution error)
Not learning from mistakes (self serving bias)
Attitudes
Theory X/Y
Theory X
Pessimistic view
Not motivated
Lazy and irresponsible
Prefer to be directed
Coercive methods, external incentives
Theory Y
Optimistic view
Motivated
Values achievement
Personal growth
Internal incentives,
job well done
Mental models
- Theories people hold about the way the world, and people in it, function.
- Shaped by our assumptions (Theory X and Y).
- Govern the way we interpret our experiences, and how we react to people around us.
- Following the conventional way to do things may be the surest way to failure.
- Leaders must challenge their assumptions, and, when needed, break away from outdated mental models, question the status quo, and look for new ideas and strategies (contextual intelligence).
Examples:
- McDonalds vs. Burger King(salads, French mustard)
- KFC (in China / Israel)
- Ikea (rain-forests, halogen light)
- Starbucks (how do French people like their coffee?)
Cognitive dissonance
A relatively stable feeling, belief, and behavioral tendency we have towards a specific object / person.
Comprised of 3 components:
Affective/evaluative: Our emotional reaction towards something.
Behavioral: The way we behave when we are exposed
that “something”.
Cognitive: The opinion, belief we have regarding that “something”
Example:
Cognitive: I think that male chauvinism is a bad thing.
Affective/evaluative: My boss is a chauvinist so I dislike him.
Behavioral: I try to avoid my boss and I never go out of my way to help him.
Attitudes in the organizational context:
- Cognitive component can predict behavior
(the way we think effects how we behave: “I’m not being paid enough” / political vote)
But not always ……
Relevance (coming to demonstrate against SAT?)
Specific (want to adapt a dog?)
Contradiction with another attitude
- Behavioral component can predict the cognitive one (what we do effects what we think)
Cognitive dissonance (Leon Festinger)
Individuals strive for internal consistency between their various attitudes, or between the various component of a single attitude.
Lack of consistency creates a feeling of dissonance (discomfort).
People will be motivated to reduce the cognitive dissonance by changing something.
Dissonance can be reduced by:
Changing the belief (the cognitive component)
changing behavior
Rationalizing the gap between them
Personality- HUMANS RELATIONS FRAME
The big 5 personality traits model (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness neuroticism, openness to experiences)
MTBI test (Five main factors of personality)
- Extroversion: A tendency to seek stimulation and enjoy the company of others
- Agreeableness: A tendency to be compassionate towards others
iii. Conscientiousness: A tendency to show self-discipline to strive for
competence and achievement
- Neuroticism: A tendency to experience unpleasant emotions easily
- Openness: A tendency to enjoy new experiences and ideas
Locus of control and Proactive personality
Locus of control:
Many of the problems people have are a result of bad luck OR must of the problems people have are a result of mistakes they are making.
Very often people do not get the appreciation they deserve, no matter how hard they try. OR Most often than not people receive the appreciation they deserve.
A small number of people run the world and others cannot influence them OR almost anyone can have an influence on the world.
Internal locus of control: Believe that their own behaviours determine many of the events in their lives. More active politically and socially, actively seek information about their situation, more likely to try to influence others more achievement oriented.
External locus of control: Chance, fate , or other people, primarily determine what happens to them. Prefer more directive style of supervision, adjust less easily to changes, lower job and life satisfaction.
Proactive personality:
- Initiate and take charge in order to create better situations.
- Identify opportunities, career planning.
- Create positive changes in their environment.
- Perceived by others as leaders
- Object if they do not agree with the situation
- May leave to start their own initiative
Machiavellianism:
- Reference au livre “ The Prince” à do whatever to defeat others or gain advantage over them.
- Never show humility; Arrogance is far more effective
- Morality and ethics are for the weak, Powerful people feel free to lie , cheat and deceive.
- It is much better to be feared than loved
- Manipulative, persuasive
Narcissism:
- A grandiose sense of self importance
- “Bigger than life”
- Requires excessive admiration, needs to be at the center.
- Has a sense of entitlement
- Arrogant and selfish
- Treat others as inferiors
- Ambivalent correlation with leadership
Emotions
Affective events theory
Emotional labor
Emotional Labor:
When employees express emotions which are dictated to them by organization they are performing an emotional labor.
The need to project one emotion while simultaneously feeling another, creates an emotional dissonance. This can be very damaging and can lead burnout.
In order to deal with their true emotions, employees can engage in:
Surface acting: displaying the required emotions but not feeling those emotions internally
Deep acting: changing internal emotions to match the ones they are expected to express.
Emotional intelligence
Emotional Intelligence:
A person’s ability to perceive, identify and understand emotions in self and others. Being emotionally intelligent means being able to effectively manage ourselves and our emotions.
Components of Emotional Intelligence:
- Self-awareness: recognize and understand your own emotions, accurately assess your strengths and limitations, healthy sense of self confidence.
- Self management: control unproductive, disruptive and harmful emotions. Includes optimism
- Social awareness: Ability to understand others. Also relates organizational and service Includes empathy
- Relationship management: Ability to connect with others and build positive relationship.
Why some Teams are smarter than others:
- Members contribute more equally to team discussions
- Members scored high on the ability to “read” complex emotions of others
- Having more women
Emotions and organizational behavior:
- EI is a factor in selecting new employees, especially for social jobs.
- Positive emotions lead to better decision making, flexibility and problem solving.
- Positive moods affect expectations of success and create motivation.
- Emotions are important for leaders when communicating vision
- Emotional crossover ( from home to work and vice-versa)
- Emotional contagion ( between employees and customers)
- Skillfully played emotions can affect negotiations
- Negative emotions can create deviant work behavior
Effecting other’s emotions:
- Demonstrate positive emotions (emotional contagion)
- Use humor
- Have personal interactions
Communication – HUMANS RELATIONS FRAME
The Johari window
Effective and ineffective feedback (including active listening and defensive vs. supportive communication)
Active Listening:
- Non-verbal Demonstration of attention
-Put aside other things
-Resist distractions
-Establish eye contact
2) Verbal/cognitive reactions to the message
-Keep an open mind, be aware of your internal voice
– Don’t interrupt/plan your answer/jump to conclusions
-Learn to tolerate pauses
-Paraphrase and reflect
– Show empathy
-Use open-ended questions
-Don’t invalidate feelings
Paraphrasing and reflecting:
It seems that you…
What I hear you saying is…
Do you mean..?
Questioning:
- Debate
Purpose: to send information
Questions: rethorical
- Interrogation
Purpose: to receive information
Questions: closed, loaded
- Dialogue/feedback/coaching
Purpose: to generate new information/understanding
Questions: open, curious, not loaded
Closed-ended questions:
- Encourages specific responses or ideas
- Can get a yes/ no response
Loaded Questions:
- Include the speaker’s assumptions
- Often predetermine or suggests a response
Open-ended Questions:
-Invite thinking about a topic
– Encourage the flow of ideas and creativity
– Open ares for future discussion
– Should be non-judgmental
– Often starts with the 4 W’s ( what, when, who,where)
3) Listen for total meaning:
Be aware of non-verbal signals: tone of voice,pace of speech, facial expressions,…
Communication traits:
Personality traits: are relatively stable patterns of behaviour, thoughts and emotions that people tend to use consistently across their life span.
Communication traits: are a subset of these, and focus on how people communicate.
Communication Apprehension:
Individual’s level of fear or anxiety associated with either real or anticipated communication with others.
-Trait apprehension
-Context-based apprehension
-Audience-based apprehension
-Situational apprehension
Communicator Style:
Friendly, Animated, Relaxed, Attentive,…
Argumentativeness:
A person’s ability to defend his/her position on a controversial issue and refute another person’s position on the sa
me issue.
A constructive communication trait.
Verbal Agressiveness:
A verbally aggressive person does not attach the topic or the issue, rather he/she attacks some attribute of the other person.
A destructive communication trait.
Organizational communication
- Downward Communication:
Used by management to assign goals, provide instructions, inform employees of policies, offer feedback…
In order to reduce problems:
-provide very clear instructions
-Fully explain the reasons for the decisions
-Clearly explain the proposed procedures
-Use various channels of communication
-Directly contact the relevant people
EX: KQED, management defined the “area of freedom”
- Upward Communication:
Used to provide feedback to higher-ups , inform them of progress, propose ideas, relay problems…
To reduce problems:
-Filter the messages
-Communicate in headlines not paragraphs
EX: KQED, management assigned time to talk with the employees
- Lateral Communication:
Takes place among horizontally equivalent personnel.
Could be both beneficial and harmful to the organization.
To reduce problems:
-Develop interpersonal communication skills
-Create openness and trust between departments
-Compensate for cooperation
4) Formal and informal communication:
Formal: structured, designed by the organization, could take any of the above-mentioned directions;
Informal: not controlled by management, often is employees’ emotions can serve personal interests.
Barriers to effective communication
-Filtering
-Selective perception
-Information overload
-Emotions
-Language
Stages of Coaching for a specific situation:
- Pure inquiry
- Exploratory and diagnostic inquiry
- Confronting inquiry
First phase: Pure inquiry
-Collect information
-use active listening to create openness and trust: open ended questions, empathy, paraphrasing, pauses,..
-Avoid judgement, interpretation, jumping to conclusions and consulting.
Second phase: Exploratory and diagnostic inquiry
-Direct the process of analysis
-Promote analysis of feelings, causes and actions taken or contemplated
-Use active listening
Third Phase: Confronting Inquiry
-Guide the coachee to see the situation in a new perspective
-Express observations and offer suggestions
-Avoid superiority, evaluation, imposing solutions
-You don’t have to solve the problem
The consultant: collected enough infos, used open-ended questions, avoid judgment,…
Motivation – HUMANS RELATIONS FRAME
Need theories: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, McClelland’s Need Theory, Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory.
- Fulfillment of higher order needs is not motivating until lower order needs are fulfilled.
- Lower order needs are only motivating up to a threshold.
- Some empirical support, but:
- Progression is not always supported
- Importance of needs is culture-specific (needs for affiliation, status, achievements are learned)
- Interpretation of specific rewards can be problematic (i.e. salary can be about safety, appreciation and/or advancement)
- Key insight: Different people have different needs at different times.
- What motivates me doesn’t necessarily motivate them
- What motivates one person doesn’t necessarily motivate others
- What motivated a person yesterday will not necessarily motivate them tomorrow.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: Problems
-Scientific support is not strong
-Some needs are learned and culture-dependent
– The same reward can be interpreted in various ways
– “ The starving artist”
1.2 McClelland’s Need Theory
Need for achievement – desire to accomplish something difficult (not routine), attain personal success, excel. Enjoy challenging but attainable goals and can delay gratification.
Need freedom, and personal responsibility.
Need for affiliation – desire for warm and friendly interpersonal relations, avoidance of conflict. Good at coordinating others.
Need for power – desire to influence others and have authority.
Appreciate being placed in high positions. Personal Vs. Social need for power.
1.3 Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory
- Satisfaction and dissatisfaction are not opposites, but separate constructs.
- Hygiene factors: Extrinsic (salary, working conditions, company policies). When present, help avoid dissatisfaction.
- Motivators: Intrinsic (growth, responsibility, achievement, recognition). When present, help cause satisfaction.
- The presence of hygiene factors does not cause satisfaction, it just helps avoid dissatisfaction
Situation theories : Goal Setting Theory, Equity Theory, Expectancy Theory.
Changing followers’ thoughts and beliefs will increase their motivation
Goal setting theory:
- Goals should be SMART: Specific and Stretched (increase focus and persistence)
Measurable (self-generated feedback about progress)
Agreed upon
Reasonable (challenging but attainable)
(clear) Timetable
- Followers need to see how the goal can be attained, and feel
committed to it.
- Leader should express confidence in the followers’ ability to get the job done (the Pygmalion effect).
- Higher self-efficacy is better.
Equity Theory
People value fairness in leader-followers exchange relationships.
They compare the ratio between their efforts and rewards to that of their peers.
Efforts: Time, reliability, cooperation,..
Reaction to a feeling of inequity:
A sense of inequity is a change motivator.
A cognitive or a behavioural change: change inputs, distort perception of self,…
If you earn less/more than the people you compare yourself to…
Fairness:
People are affected not only by what they receive, but also how the decisions were made and communicated.
They asked questions like:
- Do I understand why the decision was made?
- Have my perspectives/ needs/ opinions been considered?
Expectancy theory
People will be motivated to work (or do anything) if:
They believe they can perform the task
They know they will be rewarded for their performance
They value the reward.
Effort à Performance level/goal à Outcome (valued rewards)
Things people value . . .
(can be extrinsic or intrinsic)
- An employee of the month plaque
- Complimenting email sent by the manager (for everyone to see)
- Dinner with the boss at a nice restaurant
- Promotion to a more influential position (even without a raise)
- Accumulate frequent flyer miles for personal use
- Purchase software of choice
- Tickets for theatre, concert, massage, vacation …
- Assign new equipment for your own use (a new phone, computer, chair …)
- Private corner office with a great view
Situational Theories :
A)Operant Approach:
-Specify which behaviors are important
-Determine if these behaviors are now being rewarded, punished or ignored
-Problems created by the “culture of praise”
-punishment should: focus on the act not the person, be consistent,..
- B) Empowerment:
Combines delegation and development components
Delegate, Leadership and decision making down to the lowest level possible.
Develop, Followers by giving the knowledge, information, training, and skills , necessary to accomplish the task.
Why delegate? Saves time, develops the followers, strengthen the organization.
Why not delegate? Takes time, risky, lose status and control the job will not be done as well.
Effective delegation, decide hat, whom to specify responsibilities and authority, check comprehension, offer support,..
Motivation rewards and performance:
-People can be intrinsically and extrinsically motivated
-Adding intrinsic motivation to existing extrinsic motivation and boost overall motivation + performance.
-Adding extrinsic motivation to existing intrinsic motivation and harm overall motivation + performance.
Stanford: Customer Satisfaction:
“Happy techs make happy customers”- satisfaction is important to performance.
-Operant approachà ask for one thing but reward another
Public measurements:
-constant feedback= goal setting theory
-Mutual accountability= decrease free riders
-Transparency = Equity theory
-natural competitiveness
- Elected member= empowerment
- Management comes on holidays= affiliation
- Change the environment= HR frame: emotions, satisfaction,..
- Bottom-up-culture= informal learning from the best
Rewards:
Edward Deci
Harry Harlow
Power-POLITICAL FRAME
Expressions of power; Sources of power
People have different levels of need for power (Personalized vs. Socialized).
Power is the capacity / potential to influence others, to create change.
Power does not have to be exercised in order to be effective.
Influence is the degree of actual change. It is a function of the leader’s ability to exert change, and the follower’s ability, and desire, to resist this change.
How is Power is expressed?
- Non-verbal expressions of Power:
- Staring
- Pointing
- Touching
- Sit – Stand
- Situations Hints
- Choice of clothes
- Arrangement of furniture (J.E. Hoover)
- Shape of the table
- Private office space # Open space
- Displaying symbols (Milgram’s studies
Source of leader’s Power
1.Expert power
- Based on the leader’s knowledge, skills, or expertise in a certain area.
- Followers comply because they believe the leader has more knowledge then they do.
- The downside of expert power (Dell).
- When followers have more expert power….
- Recommendation: Fill the gap.
How to increase and use expert power
- Explain the reasons for your requests.
- Provide evidence that the proposal will be successful.
- Do not make careless or inconsistent statements.
- Promote image of expertise.
- Maintain credibility.
- Act confident and decisive.
- Keep informed.
- Listen to employees’ concerns and suggestions
- Referent power
- Can help counteract problems stemming from lack of expertise.
- Based on strong inter-personal relations between the leader and his followers.
- The followers comply because of their respect and their liking of the leader (role model).
- Problems: Takes time to develop, and limits the leader’s ability to discipline.
How to increase and use referent power
- Treat subordinates fairly.
- Defend their interests.
- Be sensitive to followers’ needs and feeling.
- Select followers similar to oneself.
- Engage in role modeling.
- Legitimate Power
- Based on the leader’s formal position.
- The followers comply because of their belief in the legitimacy / authority of the power-holder.
- Followers can also use their legitimate power to influence the leader.
How to increase and use legitimate power
- Exercise power regularly.
- Make polite, clear, requests, and follow up to verify understanding.
- Follow proper channels.
- Make sure request is appropriate (don’t exceed your authority).
- Be confident.
4.Reward Power
- Based on the leader’s access to and control over desired resources / rewards.
- The followers comply because of their desire to receive rewards.
- Problems: increase compliance but not commitment; the rewards have to match the individual; equity is important; may be perceived as manipulation.
Followers also have reward power
How to increase and use reward power
- Offer the type of rewards that people desire.
- Offer rewards that are fair and ethical.
- Don’t promise more than you can deliver.
- Explain the criteria for giving rewards.
- Provide rewards as promised if requirements are met.
- Coercive Power
- Based on the leader’s ability to punish.
- Can be done either by administering negative outcomes or removing positive ones.
- Can be informal, implicit, and non-verbal.
- Can be used appropriately and inappropriately (totalitarian societies; Jim Jones).
- The followers comply because of fear.
- Follower’s coercive power (“blue flu”) ….
How to increase and use coercive power
- Inform subordinates of rules and penalties.
- Warn before punishing.
- Investigate to get the facts before using reprimands or punishment, and avoid jumping to conclusions or making hasty accusations.
- Use punishments that are legitimate, fair, and commensurate with the seriousness of the infraction.
Use of power : Follower outcomes
Compliance
Willingness to follow the directions of the person in power. Followers satisfy the leader’s requests, but do not contribute their full potential.
Resistance
Followers deliberately try to avoid carrying out instructions, or attempt to disobey orders.
Commitment
Followers adopt the leader’s viewpoint and identify with him/her. They carry out instructions enthusiastically
Influence-POLITICAL FRAME
Principles of persuasion: Liking, consistency, reciprocity, social proof, scarcity, relativity.
Liking
Principle:
We like people who are similar to us and, and we are willing to do more for them.
Application:
Uncover real similarities and offer genuine praise.
Establish bonds early on in the relationship.
Use praise to cultivate positive relationship or to repair damaged ones.
Goal:
Make people feel they know us and like us (as early as possible in the relationship, ”colors” subsequent interactions
Consistency
Principle:
People align with their previous commitments.
Application:
Elicit active, public, and voluntary commitments.
Insert “a foot in the door” and then ask for something bigger.
Goal:
At first, make them agree to something small
Reciprocity
Principle:
People repay in kind.
Application:
Give what you want to receive. You can elicit a desired behavior by displaying it first (trust, cooperation, listening).
Goal:
Creating a psychological feeling of obligation, a desire to pay back.
People will “pay back” even if they did not ask for the favor
Social proof
Principle:
People follow the lead of similar others.
Application:
Use peer power to influence others (influence is best when exerted horizontally and not vertically).
Goal:
Create social evidence to support the behavior you want to elicit.
scarcity
Principle:
People want more of what they can have less of (things are seen to be more valuable as they become less available).
Application:
Highlight unique benefits and exclusive information.
Frame things in terms of what people stand to lose instead of what they stand to gain.
Goal:
Create a feeling that something is scarce, running out …
Relativity
Principle:
Relative to a a big request, it’s hard to refuse a smaller one.
Application:
Make a large request that the respondent will most likely turn down (”Door-in-the-face”), and then ask for what you really want.
Goal:
Making your request seem reasonable.
Conflicts-POLITICAL FRAME
Task and relationship conflict
Conflict
Having opposing interests. Disagreement regarding goals, values, concerns, ideas ….
A process in which one party (person or group) perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party.
Types of conflict :
Affective / Relationship Conflict: Incompatibilities in interpersonal relations (not directly related to the task, e.g. attitudes, personality, etc.).
Task / Substantive Conflict:
Disagreement about the task being performed (priorities, goals, alternatives, strategies).
Affective conflict:
- Negatively affects satisfaction and productivity.
- Causes people to be negative, stressed, irritable, suspicious, frustrated, and resentful.
- Has detrimental effects on group function.
Task conflict:
- Can improve decision making quality and group productivity.
- Promotes constructive criticism.
- Moderate levels of task conflict were found to be constructive to group performance.
Risk of task conflict:
- People associate conflict with stress and threat, and take criticism as a personal attack. As a result, task conflict can deteriorate into an affective conflict.
- Group communication norms can moderate the effect of conflict.
Conflict handling style
Avoiding
Reflects an aversion to tension. Manifests in staying away from conflict, ignoring disagreements, or hoping the conflict will work itself out.
Forcing / Competing
Represents a win-lose approach to conflicts. Those who use this style try to achieve their own goals without concern for others.
Accommodating
May represent an unselfish act, a long term strategy to encourage cooperation, or just complying with the wishes of others.
Compromising
Assuming that neither side can achieve all their goals, each side gives in a little and gains something in return. Does not maximize mutual satisfaction.
Collaborating
A win-win approach to conflict handling. A person using this approach desires to maximize joint results, and tend to 1) see conflict as helpful 2) trusts and respects others 3) recognizes that satisfaction leads to commitment.
Decision making-POLITICAL FRAME
Anchoring & adjustment heuristic, confirmation bias, availability heuristic, escalation of commitment, groupthink, the Abilene paradox, group polarization, conformity.
- Decision making calls for choosing between options or estimating something.
- Decisions are affected by the available information, the person making the decision, and the context.
- We use heuristics to simplify and shorten the process of decision making.
- Despite their advantages, using heuristics entails the possibility of error.
Anchoring and adjustment heuristic
- The first piece of information made available during a decision making process (such as an initial estimate, or offer) strongly affect our judgement.
- Decision makers make assessments by starting with an initial “anchor”, and then adjusting from it.
- Problems:
- The anchor can be irrelevant, or the adjustment – insufficient.
- Percentage of African countries in the UN
- Estimated interest next year
- Correlation between request of prosecution and punishment given by judge
- Negotiating salary
To avoid:
- – Do not use the other side’s proposal / offer as an anchor
- – Beware of “floaters”
- – Don’t anchor your advisors by telling them what you think before they express their opinion
- – Make your initial estimation before asking others, to avoid being anchored
To use to your benefit:
- – When negotiating give a first offer that is a little above your final request
- – “Plant” pieces of information you want others to use as anchors (“when do you want to meet, 6:00PM?”)
Confirmation bias
- Decision makers collect information in a selective way (look for information that supports our existing point of view, beliefs, and hypotheses, while avoiding information that contradicts them).
- Information that supports our view is accepted easily, and given a lot of weight, whereas information that contradicts our view is ignored, or looked upon with criticism and distrust.
- Influences our choice of source of information.
Availability heuristic
- The tendency to form judgements about the commonness of an event based on ease of recall.
- Assumption: The ease and speed of recall indicate how prevalent the phenomenon is in reality.
- Problems: The availability of information is affected not only by prevalence but by additional factors (vividness, time of experience, relevance, personal experience, emotions triggered)
Escalation of commitment
The tendency to continue investing in an initial course of action, even when considerable evidence suggests we should give up and pursue another.
Related to sunk cost (throwing good money after bad).
Can be caused by refusing to admit we made a mistake.
Groupthinking
A situation in which team members’ desire for consensus overrides all other priorities, including the ability to realistically appraise alternative courses of action.
Involves deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment, as a result of group pressure toward conformity of opinion.
The Abilene Paradox :
The tendency of groups to do something that none of the members wants to do. Ex: Meet the family
Group Polarization
Teams are not inherently more risky or cautious than individuals, rather they are more extreme.
Group polarization is the tendency for groups to intensify group opinion, producing more extreme judgment than might be obtained by individuals separately.
Conformity
The tendency of individuals to accept the opinion presented by the group, or behave in ways that are consistent with the group’s norms and standards.