Human Relations 12e by DuBrin

Human Relations 12e by DuBrin is the 12th edition of the Human Relations: Interpersonal Job-Oriented Skills textbook authored by Andrew J. DuBrin, College of Business, Rochester Institute of Technology, and published in 2015 by Pearson Education Limited, which holds the copyright.

• Acceptance of power and authority. The degree to which members of a society expect, and should expect, power to be distributed unequally.
• Action plan. A series of steps to achieve a goal.
• Active listener. A person who listens intensely, with the goal of empathizing with the speaker.
• Assertiveness. Being forthright in expressing demands, opinions, feelings, and attitudes. In relation to cultural values, the degree to which individuals are (and should be) assertive, confrontational, and aggressive in their relationships with one another.
• Authentic leader. A leader who is genuine and honest about his or her personality, values, and beliefs, as well as having integrity.
• Backstab. An attempt to discredit by underhanded means, such as innuendo, accusation, or the like.
• Behavioral feedback. Information given to another person that pinpoints behavior rather than personal characteristics or attitudes.
• Blind spots. Areas of unawareness about our attitudes, thinking, and behaviors that contribute to poor decisions.
• Brainstorming. A group problem-solving technique that promotes creativity by encouraging idea generation through noncritical discussion.
• Brainwriting. Brainstorming by individuals working alone.
• Bullies. People who verbally, and sometimes physically, attack others frequently.
• Burnout. A condition of emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion in response to long-term stressors.
• Business etiquette. A special code of behavior required in work situations.
• Carpal tunnel syndrome. A condition that occurs when repetitive flexing and extension of the wrist causes the tendons to swell, thus trapping and pinching the median nerve.
• Casual time orientation. A cultural characteristic in which people view time as an unlimited and unending resource and therefore tend to be patient.
• Challenge stressors. Stressful events that have a positive direct effect on motivation and performance.
• Charisma. A special quality of leaders whose purposes, powers, and extraordinary determination differentiate them from others. (However, people besides leaders can be charismatic.)
• Coaching. A method of helping workers grow and develop and improve their job competence by providing suggestions and encouragement.
• Cognitive behavioral approach to stress management. A method for people learning to recognize how pessimistic and distorted thoughts of gloom and doom create stress.
• Cognitive fitness. A state of optimized ability to remember, learn, plan, and adapt to changing circumstances.
• Cognitive restructuring. Mentally converting negative aspects into positive ones by looking for the positive elements in a situation.
• Cognitive style. A mode of problem solving.
• Collective efficacy. A group's belief that it can handle certain tasks.
• Collectivism. A feeling that the group and society should receive top priority, rather than the individual.
• Commitment. A perceived psychological bond that employees have with some target associated with their jobs, often another person.
• Communication. The sending, receiving, and understanding of messages.
• Compromise. Settlement of differences by mutual concessions.
• Concern for others. An emphasis on personal relationships and a concern for the welfare of others.
• Conflict. A situation in which two or more goals, values, or events are incompatible or mutually exclusive.
• Conflict of interest. A situation that occurs when a person's judgment or objectivity is compromised.
• Confrontation. Taking a problem-solving approach to differences and identifying the underlying facts, logic, or emotions that account for them.
• Consensus. General acceptance by the group of a decision.
• Constructive gossip. Unofficial information that supports others, is based on truth, and respects confidential information.
• Corporate athletes. Workers who engage in high-level performance for sustained periods.
• Cross-functional team. A work group composed of workers from different specialties, and about the same organizational level, who come together to accomplish a task.
• Cultural fluency. The ability to conduct business in a diverse, international environment.
• Cultural intelligence (CQ). An outsider's ability to interpret someone's unfamiliar and ambiguous behavior the same way that person's compatriots would.
• Cultural sensitivity. An awareness of and willingness to investigate the reasons why people of another culture act as they do.
• Cultural training. A set of learning experiences designed to help employees understand the customs, traditions, and beliefs of another culture.
• Customer-centric sales process. An approach to sales that emphasizes a low-pressure environment in which the sales staff acts as consultants, offering information and explaining how the product or service can help solve a customer's problem.
• Cycle-of-service chart. A method of tracking the moments of truth with respect to customer service.
• Defensive communication. The tendency to receive messages in such a way that our self-esteem is protected.
• Defining moment. Choosing between two or more ideals in which one deeply believes.
• Deliberate practice. A strong effort to improve target performance over time.
• Denial. The suppression of information we find uncomfortable.
• Developmental need. A specific area in which a person needs to change or improve.
• Difficult person. An individual who creates problems for others, even though he or she has the skill and mental ability to do otherwise.
• Diversity training. Training that attempts to bring about workplace harmony by teaching people how to get along better with diverse work associates.
• Effort-to-performance expectancy. The probability assigned by the individual that effort will lead to performing the task correctly.
• Emergent leaders. Group members who significantly influence other group members even though they have not been assigned formal authority.
• Emotional intelligence. Qualities such as understanding one's own feelings, empathy for others, and the regulation of emotion to enhance living.
• Emotional labor. The process of regulating both feelings and expressions to meet organizational goals.
• Empathy. In communication, imagining oneself in the receiver's role and assuming the viewpoints and emotions of that individual.
• Employee network group (or affinity group). A group composed of employees throughout the company who affiliate on the basis of group characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or physical ability status.
• Empowerment. The process of managers transferring, or sharing, power with lower-ranking employees.
• Ethical screening. Running a contemplated decision or action through an ethics test.
• Ethics. The moral choices a person makes. Also, what is good and bad, right and wrong, just and unjust, and what people should do.
• Expectancy theory. A motivation theory based on the premise that the effort people expend depends on the reward they expect to receive in return.
• Extreme job. One in which the incumbent works at least 60 hours per week in a position that usually requires tight deadlines and heavy travel.
• Extreme job hunting. An offbeat way of attracting an employer's attention, with a small probability of success.
• Feedback. In communication, messages sent back from the receiver to the sender.
• Fight-or-flight response. The body's physiological and chemical battle against a stressor in which the person tries to cope with the adversity head-on or tries to flee from the scene.
• Formality. A cultural characteristic of attaching considerable importance to tradition, ceremony, social rules, and rank.
• Frame of reference. The fact that people perceive words and concepts differently because their vantage points and perspectives differ. Also, a lens through which we view the world.
• G factor (general factor). A factor in intelligence that contributes to the ability to perform well in many tasks.
• Galatea effect. A type of self-fulfilling prophecy in which high expectations lead to high performance.
• Gender egalitarianism. The degree to which a culture minimizes, and should minimize, gender inequality.
• Group decision making. The process of reaching a judgment based on feedback from more than one individual.
• Group norms. The unwritten set of expectations for group members.
• Groupthink. A deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment in the interest of group solidarity.
• Hindrance stressors. Those stressful events that have a negative effect on motivation and performance.
• Humane orientation. The degree to which a society encourages and rewards, and should encourage and reward, individuals for being fair, altruistic, caring, and kind to others.
• Impression management. A set of behaviors directed at enhancing one's image by drawing attention to oneself.
• Incivility. In human relations, employees' lack of regard for each other.
• Individual differences. Variations in how people respond to the same situation based on personal characteristics.
• Informal learning. The acquisition of knowledge and skills that take place naturally outside a structured learning environment.
• Information overload. A phenomenon that occurs when people are so overloaded with information that they cannot respond effectively to messages.
• In-group collectivism. The degree to which individuals express, and should express, pride, loyalty, and cohesiveness in their organizations and families.
• Integrity (a). Consistency of words and deeds, and (b) being true to oneself.
• Intelligence. The capacity to acquire and apply knowledge, including solving problems.
• Intermittent reward. A reward that is given for good performance occasionally, but not always.
• Interpersonal skill training. The teaching of skills in dealing with others so they can be put into practice.
• Intuition. An experience-based way of knowing or reasoning in which the weighing and balancing of evidence are done automatically.
• Leader-exchange model. A theory explaining that group leaders establish unique working relationships with group members, thereby creating in-groups and out-groups.
• Leadership. The ability to inspire support and confidence among the people who are needed to achieve company goals.
• Leadership efficacy. A form of efficacy associated with confidence in the knowledge, skills, and abilities associated with leading others.
• Learning style. The way in which a person best learns new information.
• Locus of control. The way people look at causation in their lives.
• Mentor. An individual with advanced experience and knowledge who is committed to giving support and career advice to a less experienced person.
• Message. A purpose or idea to be conveyed.
• Metacommunication. To communicate about your communication to help overcome barriers or resolve a problem.
• Microinequity. A small, semiconscious message we send with a powerful impact on the receiver.
• Micromanager. One who closely monitors most aspects of group members' activities, sometimes to the point of being a control freak.
• Mirroring. Subtly imitating someone.
• Mixed message. A discrepancy between what a person says and how he or she acts.
• Moments of truth. Situations in which a customer comes in contact with a company and forms an impression of its service.
• Moral intensity. In ethical decision making, how deeply others might be affected by the decision.
• Motivation. An internal state that leads to effort expended toward objectives; an activity performed by one person to get another to accomplish work.
• Motivational state. Any active needs and interests operating at a given time.
• Multiple intelligences. A theory of intelligence contending that people know and understand the world in distinctly different ways and learn in different ways.
• Multitasking (a). You have two or more projects that you are working on, but you do not work on these projects at the same time. (b) The person does two or more things simultaneously.
• Narcissism. An extremely positive view of the self, combined with limited empathy for others.
• Negative affectivity. A tendency to experience aversive emotional states.
• Negative reinforcement (avoidance motivation). Rewarding people by taking away an uncomfortable consequence of their behavior.
• Negotiating. Conferring with another person to resolve a problem.
• Networking. Developing contacts with influential people, including gaining their trust and confidence. Also, contacting friends and acquaintances and building systematically on these relationships to create a still-wider set of contacts that might lead to employment.
• Noise. Anything that disrupts communication, including the attitudes and emotions of the receiver.
• Nominal group technique (NGT). A group problem-solving technique that calls people together in a structured meeting with limited interaction.
• Nomophobia. The fear of being without a mobile phone.
• Nonverbal communication. The transmission of messages through means other than words.
• Nurturing person. One who promotes the growth of others.
• Organization culture. A system of shared values and beliefs that influence worker behavior.
• Organizational citizenship behavior. The willingness to go beyond one's job description without a specific reward apparent.
• Organizational politics. Gaining power through any means other than merit or luck.
• Paraphrase. To repeat in your own words what the sender says, feels, and means.
• Participative leadership. Sharing authority with the group.
• Peak performance. Exceptional accomplishment in a given task.
• Peer coaching. A type of helping relationship based on qualities such as high acceptance of the other person, authenticity, mutual trust, and mutual learning.
• Perceived control. The belief that an individual has at his or her disposal a response that can control the negative aspects of an event.
• Performance orientation. The degree to which a society encourages, or should encourage, and rewards group members for performance improvement and excellence.
• Performance-to-outcome expectancy. The probability assigned by the individual that performance will lead to outcomes or rewards.
• Personal brand. For career purposes, what makes you unique, thereby distinguishing you from the competition.
• Personality. Persistent and enduring behavior patterns that tend to be expressed in a wide variety of situations.
• Personality clash. An antagonistic relationship between two people based on differences in personal attributes, preferences, interests, values, and styles.
• Personality disorder. A pervasive, persistent, inflexible, maladaptive pattern of behavior that deviates from expected cultural norms.
• Personal productivity. The amount of resources, including time, you consume to achieve a certain level of output.
• Person–organization fit. The compatibility of the individual and the organization.
• Person–role conflict. The situation that occurs when the demands made by the organization clash with the basic values of the individual.
• Political correctness. Being careful not to offend or slight anyone and being extra civil and respectful.
• Political decision-making model. The assumption about decision making that people bring preconceived notions and biases into the decisionmaking situation.
• Positive psychological capital. A positive psychological state of development in which you have hope, self-efficacy, optimism, and reslience.
• Positive self-talk. Saying positive things about yourself.
• Positive reinforcement. Increasing the probability that behavior will be repeated by rewarding people for making the desired response.
• Positive visual imagery. Picturing a positive outcome in your mind.
• Power. The ability or potential to control anything of value and to influence decisions.
• Practical intelligence. An accumulation of skills, dispositions, and knowledge, plus the ability to apply knowledge to solve everyday problems.
• Proactive personality. A person who is relatively unconstrained by situational forces and who brings about environmental change.
• Procrastination. Delaying action for no good reason on tasks that need to be done.
• Prosocial motivation. The desire to expend effort to help other people.
• Protégé. The less experienced person in a mentoring relationship who is helped by the mentor.
• Pygmalion effect. The phenomenon that people will rise (or fall) to the expectations that another person has of them.
• Rational decision-making model. The traditional, logical approach to decision making based on the scientific method.
• Relationship conflict. Conflict that focuses on personalized, individually oriented issues.
• Role. A tendency to behave, contribute, and relate to others in a particular way.
• Role ambiguity. A condition in which the job holder receives confusing or poorly defined expectations.
• Role conflict. The situation that occurs when a person has to choose between two competing demands or expectations.
• Role overload. Having too much work to do.
• Role-person conflict. A situation that takes place when the role(s) your organization expects you to occupy is in conflict with your basic values.
• S factors (special factors). Specific components of intelligence that contribute to problem-solving ability.
• Self-compassion. Treating yourself kindly.
• Self-efficacy. The confidence in your ability to carry out a specific task.
• Self-esteem. The overall evaluation people make about themselves, whether positive or negative.
• Self-respect. How you think and feel about yourself.
• Self-sacrificing personality. A tendency to be more concerned about the welfare and interests of others than of oneself.
• Sexual harassment. Unwanted sexually oriented behavior in the workplace that results in discomfort and/or interference with the job.
• Social intelligence. An understanding of how relationships with bosses and colleagues and family and friends, shape our brains and affect our bodies.
• Social loafing. The psychological term for shirking individual responsibility in a group setting.
• Social support seeking. The degree to which people seek out others to help them with difficult problems through such means as listening, offering sympathy, and giving advice.
• Stress. An adaptive response that is the consequence of any action, situation, or event that places special demands on a person.
• Stressor. The external or internal force that brings about stress.
• Strong customer orientation. A set of individual predispositions, and an inclination to provide service and to be courteous and helpful in dealing with customers and associates.
• Support network. A group of people who can listen to your problems and provide emotional support.
• Synergy. A situation in which the group's total output exceeds the sum of each individual's contribution.
• Task conflict. Conflict that focuses on substantive, issue-related differences related to the work itself.
• Team. A small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.
• Time orientation. The importance nations and individuals attach to time.
• Toxic person. One who negatively affects others because he or she dwells on the negative.
• Training. The process of helping others acquire a job-related skill.
• Type-A behavior. A behavior pattern in which the individual is demanding, impatient, and overstriving, and therefore prone to negative stress.
• Universal training need. An area for improvement common to most people.
• Unwritten boundaries. Dividing lines of behavior appropriate to different roles.
• Upward ethical leadership. The leadership displayed by individuals who take action to maintain ethical standards, even though higher-ups engage in questionable moral behaviors.
• Urgent time orientation. A cultural characteristic of perceiving time as a scarce resource and tending to be impatient.
• Utilitarian predisposition. A belief that the value of an act's outcomes should determine whether it is moral.
• Valence. The value, worth, or attractiveness of an outcome.
• Value. The importance a person attaches to something.
• Virtual office. A place of work without a fixed physical location, where the output is communicated electronically.
• Virtual team. A small group of people who conduct almost all of their collaborative work by electronic communication rather than face-toface meetings.
• Win–win. The belief that after conflict has been resolved, both sides should gain something of value.
• Workaholism. An addiction to work in which not working is an uncomfortable experience.
• Work engagement. High levels of personal investment in the work tasks performed in a job.
• Work–family conflict. A state that occurs when an individual's roles of worker and active participant in social and family life compete with each other.
• Work orientation. The number of hours per week and weeks per year people expect to invest in work versus leisure or other nonwork activities.