DSST Organizational Behavior key terms

An early approach that studied work tasks to find the one best method, then matched workers to that method through selection, training, and incentive pay. It treats efficiency and output as the main goals of organizing work.

A technique that breaks a job into small movements, times each one, and redesigns the sequence to remove wasted effort. It is the core measurement tool of scientific management and a precursor to modern work design.

A series of workplace experiments at a Western Electric plant in which productivity rose whether lighting improved or worsened. Researchers concluded that attention and social factors, not just physical conditions, shape worker output.

A change in behavior that results from being observed or singled out for attention rather than from the treatment itself. It is a standing threat to validity in workplace experiments and intervention studies.

A school of thought that shifted attention from machines and pay to employee needs, informal groups, and supervisory style. It grew out of the Hawthorne findings and laid groundwork for later motivation and leadership research.

The view that no single management practice fits every situation; the right choice depends on factors such as task uncertainty, technology, and environment. It replaced one-best-way thinking with situational fit.

Treating an organization as a set of interdependent parts that take inputs from the environment, transform them, and return outputs. It highlights feedback loops and the idea that a change in one part affects others.

Douglas McGregor's contrast between two manager assumptions: Theory X holds that people dislike work and need close control, while Theory Y holds that people seek responsibility and self-direction. Each set of beliefs tends to produce matching behavior.

A study in which the researcher manipulates an independent variable in a real workplace and compares outcomes across randomly assigned groups. It offers strong causal evidence but limited control over outside influences.

A study that measures two or more variables as they naturally occur and tests whether they move together. It can show association and support prediction but cannot by itself establish which variable causes the other.

Placing participants into experimental or control conditions by chance so the groups are statistically equivalent before treatment. It is the key feature that lets a study attribute outcome differences to the manipulation.

The degree to which a study's results can be credited to the variable the researcher manipulated rather than to confounds, history, maturation, or selection. Random assignment and control groups are its main safeguards.

The extent to which findings generalize to other people, settings, and times beyond the study sample. Laboratory precision often costs generalizability, while field studies tend to gain it.

A statistical procedure that pools effect sizes from many studies of the same question to estimate an overall relationship and reveal moderators. It is common in organizational behavior because single studies are often small.

A variable that changes the strength or direction of the relationship between two other variables, answering the question of when or for whom an effect holds. For example, autonomy may moderate the link between workload and strain.

A survey format in which respondents rate agreement or another attitude on an ordered set of response options, usually five or seven points. Item scores are often summed to form a composite measure of a construct.

The consistency of a measure: whether it yields similar results across repeated administrations, raters, or items. A measure can be reliable without being valid, but it cannot be valid without being reliable.

Evidence that a measure actually captures the concept it is meant to represent, shown through relationships with related and unrelated variables. It is the central concern when operationalizing abstract ideas such as engagement or trust.

Data collected without the subjects' awareness or without direct contact, such as archival records, absenteeism logs, or physical traces. It reduces reactivity but may reflect recording practices rather than the intended construct.

A five-factor model describing individual differences as openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Conscientiousness in particular predicts job performance across many occupations and settings.

A person's belief about whether outcomes depend on their own actions (internal) or on outside forces such as luck and powerful others (external). Internals tend to take more initiative and respond better to participative management.

A person's belief in their capacity to organize and carry out the actions needed for a specific task. It is built through mastery experiences, vicarious models, persuasion, and arousal, and it strongly predicts effort and persistence.

A belief that leads to behavior which makes the belief come true; in management, high expectations can raise subordinate performance. It also describes how biased impressions of employees can create the conduct they expect.

The process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting sensory information to give it meaning. Perceptual biases such as stereotyping and the halo effect distort judgments about people and can shape appraisal and hiring decisions.

An explanation of how people infer causes for behavior, distinguishing internal causes such as ability from external causes such as task difficulty. Observers tend to overemphasize disposition and underemphasize situation.

The tendency to explain other people's behavior by their character while explaining one's own behavior by circumstances. In organizations it can produce unfair blame for failures that were largely situational.

A motivation theory holding that people compare their input-to-outcome ratio with a referent and act to remove perceived inequity. Underpayment typically produces reduced effort or exit, while overpayment may produce guilt or rationalization.

A model stating that motivation equals expectancy times instrumentality times valence: believing effort leads to performance, performance leads to outcomes, and those outcomes are valued. A zero on any component eliminates motivation.

The finding that specific, difficult goals with feedback produce higher performance than vague or easy goals, provided the person is committed and able. Goal specificity also makes performance easier to measure and self-regulate.

Shared, often unspoken standards that specify acceptable behavior and attitudes for members of a group. Norms can enforce high or low output, so managers need to know what a work group actually rewards.

The strength of attraction and commitment that binds members to a group. Cohesiveness raises performance mainly when group norms favor high output; combined with poor norms it can lower productivity.

A deterioration in decision quality that occurs when the desire for unanimity overrides realistic appraisal of alternatives. Symptoms include illusions of invulnerability, self-censorship, and pressure on dissenters.

The tendency for individuals to expend less effort when working collectively than when individually accountable. It grows with group size and is reduced by making contributions identifiable and tasks meaningful.

Leadership that inspires followers through idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration. It typically supplements transactional exchange and is linked to extra effort and commitment.

Leadership based on exchange: setting expectations, monitoring performance, and rewarding or correcting accordingly. Contingent reward and management by exception are its main forms, and it works best when tasks are clear.

A theory describing how leaders develop different quality relationships with individual subordinates, forming in-groups and out-groups. Higher-quality exchanges bring more trust, support, and responsibility, with consequences for satisfaction and turnover.

The shared values, assumptions, and behavioral patterns that guide how members of an organization act. Culture is transmitted through stories, rituals, symbols, and language, and it strongly shapes newcomer socialization.

The formal arrangement of tasks, reporting lines, and coordination mechanisms that determines who does what and who decides. Common dimensions include centralization, formalization, span of control, and departmentalization.

The number of subordinates who report directly to a single manager. Wide spans produce flatter hierarchies and more autonomy but can strain supervision, while narrow spans add layers and cost.

Perceived fairness in the workplace, commonly split into distributive fairness of outcomes, procedural fairness of decision processes, and interactional fairness of treatment. Perceptions affect trust, citizenship behavior, and retaliation.

The process by which newcomers learn the values, norms, and skills needed to function as members. Effective socialization reduces early turnover and speeds up performance, and it may be formal or informal.

Redesigning a job to add responsibility, autonomy, and feedback so the work itself becomes motivating. It draws on job characteristics theory and differs from job enlargement, which only adds tasks of similar difficulty.

Reducing a job to a narrow set of repetitive tasks to raise efficiency and shorten training time. It often lowers satisfaction and increases turnover, which motivates later enrichment and rotation programs.

A three-stage model of change as unfreezing existing behavior, moving to a new state, and refreezing so the change persists. It emphasizes that change requires disrupting the current equilibrium, not just announcing a new practice.

Behavioral opposition to a change initiative, arising from habit, fear of loss, misunderstanding, or threatened power. It can be reduced through participation, clear communication, and visible support from leaders.

A planned, long-term effort to improve organizational effectiveness and health through behavioral science methods such as survey feedback, team building, and process consultation. It typically relies on a collaborative action-research cycle.

A change method that cycles through diagnosis, data collection, feedback, joint planning, and evaluation with the client's participation. It treats change as iterative learning rather than a one-time top-down program.