Shared Flashcard Set

Details

Organizational Behavior
Chapter 7
36
Other
Graduate
02/18/2012

Additional Other Flashcards

 


 

Cards

Term
GOALS
Definition
future outcomes (results) that individuals and groups desire and strive to achieve
Term
GOAL SETTING
Definition

the process of specifying desired outcomes toward which individuals, teams, departments, and organizations will strive and its intended to increase ogranizational efficiency and effectiveness

 

*the process of developing, negotiating, and establishing targets that challenge the individual

Term
4 Motivational Aspects of Goal setting
Definition
  1. Goals Direct Attention: they focus employee's attention on what is relevant and important
  2. Goals Regulate Effort: they motivate us to act
  3. Goals Increase Persistence: persistence represents represents the effort expended o a task over an extended period of time.  Persistent people find ways to overcome obstacles and avoid making excuses if they fail
  4. Goals Foster Strategies and Action Programs: goals encourage people to develop strategies and action programs that enable them to achieve their goals
Term
Performance is likely to be high when...
Definition
  1. challenging goals have been set
  2. the moderators (ability, goal commitment, feedback, and task complexity) are present
  3. the mediators (direction, effort, persistence, and task strategy) are operating
 
Term
GOAL DIFFICULTY
Definition
A goal should be challenging but not impossible to achieve
Term
GOAL CLARIFY
Definition
a goal must be clear and specific if it is to be used in directing effort
Term
MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTIVES (MBO)
Definition

management system that uses goal difficulty and goal clarify as its foundation for motivating employees

 

* in essense, this system involves managers and employees in jointly setting goals for pefromance and personal development, periodically evaluating employees' progress torward achieveing these goals, and then rewarding employees

Term
3rd key factor that influences the establishment of challenging goals is...
Definition

Self-Efficacy: individual's estimate of his or her own ability to perform a specific task in particular situation

 

Individuals who set high goals perform at a high level when they also have high self-efficacy

 

A person's self efficacy is dependant on the task

Term
Moderators
Definition

* act like a volume control on a TV set

*by increasing or decreating moderators, the strength between challenge and the mediators changes

*4 Moderators that buffer the relationship between goals and performance are: Ability, Goal Commitment, Feedback, and Task Complexity

Term
Moderator #1) Ability
Definition
Performance levels off as the limits of a person's ability are approached
Term
Moderator #2) GOAL COMMITMENT
Definition

refers to an individual's determination to reach a goal, regardless of whether the goal was set by that person or someone else

 

Term
Moderator #3) FEEDBACK
Definition

provides information to the employe about how well he or she is doing

 

It enables the individual to relate received rewards to those expected in terms of actual performance.  this comparison, in turn, can influence changes in the degree of goal commitment

Term
Moderator #4) TASK COMPLEXITY
Definition
refers ot the cognitive processing that is needed b a person to solve a task
Term
Mediators
Definition
Links that join challenge and performance
Term
4 Links/Mediators that affect performance
Definition
  1. Direction of attention: focuses behaviors on activities expected to result in goal achivement and steers the individual away from activities irrelevant to achieving the goals
  2. Effort: the effort a person exerts usually depends on the difficulty of the goal
  3. Persistence: involves a person's willingness to work at the tast over an extended period of time until the results are achived
  4. Task strategy: the way in which an individual often through experience and instruction decides to tackle a task.  that is, what to do first
Term
Performance: Quantitative indicators to assess
Definition
  • Units of production or quality (amount produced or number of errors)
  • Dollars (profits, costs, income, or sales)
  • Time (attendance and promptness in meeting deadlines
Term
Performance: Qualitative goals used to assess
Definition
  • Customer Satisfaction
  • Teamwork
  • Code of Ethics
Term
Rewards
Definition

***when an employee attains a high level of performance, ______ are important inducements for individuals to continue performing at that level

 

***______ can be external (bonuses, paid vacations) or internal (a sense of achievement, pride in accomplishment, feelings of success)

Term
Satisfaction
Definition

employees to set extremely high, difficult goals may experience less job satisfaction than employees who set lower, more easily achievable goals.  

 

Difficult goals are less frequently achieved, and satisfaction with performance is associated with success

 

Thus, some compromise on a goal difficulty may be necessary in order to maximize both satisfaction and performance

Term
Consequences
Definition
_________ of a person reaching his or her goal include both a willingness to accept future challenges and to increase his or her commitment to the organization.
Term
5 Conditions for Effective Goal Setting
Definition
  1. Empl must have the knowledge and ability to attain the goal
  2. Empl must be commited to the goal, especially if the goal is difficult
  3. Feedback enables employees to adjust their effort and behavior necessary for goal attainment
  4. Tasts that are complex need to be broken down so that the employee can set subgoals that can be attained
  5. Situational constraints can make goal attainment difficult
Term
Goal Setting impact on performance
Definition
  1. Difficult but achievable goals prompt employees to concentrate on achievement of the goals
  2. difficult goals motivate employees to spend lots of time ad effort on developing methods for achieving them
  3. Difficult goals increase employes' persistence in trying to achieve them
Term
Difficult goals affect motivation and performance by:
Definition
  • Encouraging individuals to develop action programs to reach these goals
  • focusing individual's attention on these goal-relevant actions
  • Causing individuals to exert the effort necessary to achieve the goals
  • Spurring individuals to persists in the face of obstacles
Term
Limitations to Goal Setting
Definition
  1. When employees lack the skills and abilities needed to perform at a high level, goal setting doesn't work
  2. Successful goal setting takes longer when employees are given complicated tasks that require a considerable amount of learning
  3. Goal setting can lead to major problems when it rewards the wrong behaviors
Term
Goal-Setting model implications
Definition
  1. provides an excellent framework to assist the leader or team in diagnosing the potential problems with low-or average-performing employees (How were these goals set?  Are the goals challenging? What is affecting goal commitment?  Does the employee know when he has done a good job?)
  2. Provides concrete advice to the leader on how to create a high-performance work environment
  3. Portrays the relationships and interply among key factors, such as goal difficulty, goal commitement, feedback, and rewards to achive high performance
Term
The ability of rewards to motivate individuals or teams to high performance depends on 6 factors:
Definition
  1. Availability: for rewards to reinforce desired performance, they must be available
  2. Timeliness: must be timely to be effective
  3. Performance contingency: rewards should be closely linked with particular performance
  4. Durability: some rewards last longer than others.  Intrinsic rewards (autonomy, challenge, accountability, tend to last longer than extrinsic rewards, such as a gift card to a restaurant)
  5. Equity: employees' motivation to perform is improved when they elieve that the reward policies are fair
  6. Visibility: ensure rewards are visible throughout an organization
Term
INFORMAL PROGRAMS
Definition
  • refer to those that result from interactions between people
  • deisgned to encourage continuous improvement
Term
Characteristics of Informal Rewards
Definition
  • directly reinforce the desired behavior
  • given immediately
  • delivered personally
  • valued by the individual
Term
PROFIT-SHARING PROGRAMS
Definition

*provide employees with a portion of the company's earnings

 

*these bonuses are based on the company's overall performance

Term
SKILL-BASED PAY PROGRAMS
Definition
  • based on the number and level of job-related skills that an employee has learned. 
  • compensates employees for the skills they can use in the organization, rather than for the specific jobs they are performing
  • recognize learning and growth
  • employees are paid according to the number of different skills they can perform 

 

Term
Limitations of Skill-Based Pay Programs
Definition
  • tendency to "top out"- occurs when employees learn all the skills there are to master and, hence, reach the top end of the pay scale, with no higher levels to attain
  • inadequate management commitment to the program
  • conflicts between the employees included and those exluded from the program
  • inadequate training of managers
  • poor program designs that increase labor costs without providing offseting organizational benefits
Term
FLEXIBLE BENEFIT PROGRAMS
Definition

**allow employees to choose the benefits they want, rather than having management choose for them

**Often called cafeteria-style benefit programs

 

Term
Important practives to Improve Effectiveness
Definition
  1. Leaders need to link rewards to performance and set a measurement system in place that measures the behaviors that lead to effectiveness
  2. Leaders need to make sure that rewards are relevant and valued by employees (ask employees what they value)
  3. Leaders need to watch out for unintended consequences (performance-based rewards systems sometimes have undesirable effects on behavior)
Term
Rewards Practices in high Power Distance cultures
Definition
  • Rewards are based on one's level within the managerial hierarchy
  • side salary ranges between the top and lower level employees
  • Reward system includes: pay based on individual performance, status symbols are important, pay tied to level in the organization's hierarchy, stock options to MBO
Term
Reward practices in Individualistic cultures
Definition
  • organizations expect individuals to look out for their own personal interests
  • employee-employer comp. relationship is a business deal based on what the "labor market" will pay
  • incentives are given to individuals
  • skill-based programs and MBO progams are popular because they reward an individual's achievements
Term
Rewards Practices in Uncertainty Avidance cultures
Definition
  • rewards emphasize seniority
  • there is strong loyalty to the company that leads to long-term employmet
  • expose the employee to litle risk because they are based on the performance of the company and not on individual and/or team efforts
  • there is high fear of failure
Supporting users have an ad free experience!