Organizational Behavior 6e by Colquitt, Lepine, Wesson
Organizational Behavior 6e by Colquitt, Lepine, Wesson is the 6th edition of the Organizational Behavior: Improving Performance and Commitment in the Workplace textbook authored by Jason A. Colquitt, University of Georgia, Jeffery Lepine, Arizona State University, and Michael Wesson, Texas A&M University, and published in 2019 by McGraw-Hill Education, New York, NY.
- Ability. Relatively stable capabilities of people for performing a particular range of related activities.
- Ability to focus. The degree to which employees can devote their attention to work.
- Abuse. Employee assault or endangerment from which physical and psychological injuries may occur.
- Abusive supervision. The sustained display of hostile verbal and nonverbal behaviors on the part of supervisors, excluding physical contact.
- Accommodating. A conflict resolution style by which one party gives in to the other and acts in a completely unselfish way.
- Accomplishment striving. A strong desire to accomplish task-related goals as a means of expressing one's personality.
- Action learning. Team process training in which a team has the opportunity to work on an actual problem within the organization.
- Action processes. Teamwork processes, such as helping and coordination, that aid in the accomplishment of teamwork as the work is actually taking place.
- Action teams. A team of limited duration that performs complex tasks in contexts that tend to be highly visible and challenging.
- Activation. The degree to which moods are aroused and active, as opposed to unaroused and inactive.
- Active management-by-exception. When the leader arranges to monitor mistakes and errors actively and takes corrective action when required.
- Adaptive task performance. Thoughtful responses by an employee to unique or unusual task demands.
- Additive tasks. Tasks for which the contributions from every member add up to determine team performance.
- Adjourning. The final stage of team development, during which members experience anxiety and other emotions as they disengage and ultimately separate from the team.
- Affect-based trust. Trust that depends on feelings toward the authority that go beyond rational assessment.
- Affective commitment. An employee's desire to remain a member of an organization due to a feeling of emotional attachment.
- Affective events theory. A theory that describes how workplace events can generate emotional reactions that impact work behaviors.
- Agreeableness . One of the "Big Five" dimensions of personality reflecting traits like being kind, cooperative, sympathetic, helpful, courteous, and warm.
- Alternative dispute resolution. A process by which two parties resolve conflicts through the use of a specially trained, neutral third party.
- Ambassador activities. Boundary-spanning activities that are intended to protect the team, persuade others to support the team, or obtain important resources for the team.
- Analytics. The use of data (rather than just opinions) to guide decision making.
- Anticipatory stage. A stage of socialization that begins as soon as a potential employee develops an image of what it would be like to work for a company.
- Apathetics. Employees with low commitment levels and low task performance levels who exert the minimum amount of effort needed to keep their jobs.
- Apprising. An influence tactic in which the requestor clearly explains why performing the request will benefit the target personally.
- Arbitration. A process by which a third party determines a binding settlement to a dispute between two parties.
- ASA framework. A theory (attraction-selection-attrition) that states that employees will be drawn to organizations with cultures that match their personality, organizations will select employees that match, and employees will leave or be forced out when they are not a good fit.
- Autocratic style. A leadership style where the leader makes the decision alone without asking for opinions or suggestions of the employees in the work unit.
- Autonomy. The degree to which a job allows individual freedom and discretion regarding how the work is to be done.
- Availability bias. The tendency for people to base their judgments on information that is easier to recall.
- Avoiding. A conflict resolution style by which one party wants to remain neutral, stay away from conflict, or postpone the conflict to gather information or let things cool down.
- Bargaining. The third stage of the negotiation process, during which each party gives and takes to arrive at an agreement.
- Basic underlying assumptions. The ingrained beliefs and philosophies of employees.
- BATNA. A negotiator's best alternative to a negotiated agreement.
- Behavior modeling training. A formalized method of training in which employees observe and learn from employees with significant amounts of tacit knowledge.
- Behavioral coping. Physical activities used to deal with a stressful situation.
- Behavioral modeling. When employees observe the actions of others, learn from what they observe, and then repeat the observed behavior.
- Behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS). Use of examples of critical incidents to evaluate an employee's job performance behaviors directly.
- Benevolence. The belief that an authority wants to do good for an employee, apart from any selfish or profit-centered motives.
- Benign job demands. Job demands that are not appraised as being stressful.
- Big Five. The five major dimensions of personality including conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness to experience, and extraversion.
- Boosterism. Positively representing the organization when in public.
- Boundary spanning. Interactions among team members and individuals and groups who are not part of the team.
- Bounded rationality. The notion that people do not have the ability or resources to process all available information and alternatives when making a decision.
- Brainstorming. A team process used to generate creative ideas.
- Bureaucratic structure. An organizational form that exhibits many of the facets of a mechanistic organization.
- Burnout. The emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion from coping with stressful demands on a continuing basis.
- Business environment. The outside environment, including customers, competitors, suppliers, and distributors, which all have an impact on organizational design.
- Causal inference. The establishment that one variable does cause another, based on covariation, temporal precedence, and the elimination of alternative explanations.
- Centrality. How important a person's job is and how many people depend on that person to accomplish their tasks.
- Centralization. Refers to where decisions are formally made in organizations.
- Ceremonies. Formal events, generally performed in front of an audience of organizational members.
- Chain of command. Answer to the question of "who reports to whom?" and signifies formal authority relationships.
- Challenge stressors. Stressors that tend to be appraised as opportunities for growth and achievement.
- Citizens. Employees with high commitment levels and low task performance levels who volunteer to do additional activities around the office.
- Citizenship behavior. Voluntary employee behaviors that contribute to organizational goals by improving the context in which work takes place.
- Civic virtue. Participation in company operations at a deeper-than-normal level through voluntary meetings, readings, and keeping up with news that affects the company.
- Clear purpose tests. Integrity tests that ask about attitudes toward dishonesty, beliefs about the frequency of dishonesty, desire to punish dishonesty, and confession of past dishonesty.
- Client structure. An organizational form in which employees are organized around serving customers.
- Climate for transfer. An organizational environment that supports the use of new skills.
- Closing and commitment. The fourth and final stage of the negotiation process, during which the agreement arrived at during bargaining gets formalized.
- Coalitions. An influence tactic in which the influencer enlists other people to help influence the target.
- Coercive power. A form of organizational power based on the ability to hand out punishment.
- Cognition-based trust. Trust that is rooted in a rational assessment of the authority's trustworthiness.
- Cognitive abilities. Capabilities related to the use of knowledge to make decisions and solve problems.
- Cognitive coping. Thoughts used to deal with a stressful situation.
- Cognitive distortion. A reevaluation of the inputs an employee brings to a job, often occurring in response to equity distress.
- Cognitive moral development. As people age and mature, they move through several states of moral development, each more mature and sophisticated than the prior one.
- Cohesion. A team state that occurs when members of the team develop strong emotional bonds to other members of the team and to the team itself.
- Collaboration. Seen as both a conflict resolution style and an influence tactic whereby both parties work together to maximize outcomes.
- Communal culture. An organizational culture type in which employees are friendly to one another and all think alike.
- Communication. The process by which information and meaning is transferred from a sender to a receiver.
- Communion striving. A strong desire to obtain acceptance in personal relationships as a means of expressing one's personality.
- Communities of practice. Groups of employees who learn from one another through collaboration over an extended period of time.
- Company size. The number of employees in a company.
- Company strategy. An organization's objectives and goals and how it tries to
- Comparison other. Another person who provides a frame of reference for judging equity.
- Compensatory forms model. A model indicating that the various withdrawal behaviors are negatively correlated; engaging in one type of withdrawal makes one less likely to engage in other types.
- Competence. The capability to perform work tasks successfully.
- Competing. A conflict resolution style by which one party attempts to get his or her own goals met without concern for the other party's results.
- Compliance. When targets of influence are willing to do what the leader asks but do it with a degree of ambivalence.
- Comprehensive interdependence. A form of task interdependence in which team members have a great deal of discretion in terms of what they do and with whom they interact in the course of the collaboration involved in accomplishing the team's work.
- Compromise. A conflict resolution style by which conflict is resolved through give-andtake concessions.
- Conjunctive tasks. Tasks for which the team's performance depends on the abilities of the team's weakest link.
- Conscientiousness . One of the "Big Five" dimensions of personality reflecting traits like being dependable, organized, reliable, ambitious, hardworking, and persevering.
- Consensus. Used by decision makers to attribute cause; whether other individuals behave the same way under similar circumstances.
- Consideration. A pattern of behavior where the leader creates job relationships characterized by mutual trust, respect for employee ideas, and consideration of employee feelings.
- Consistency. Used by decision makers to attribute cause; whether this individual has behaved this way before under similar circumstances.
- Consultation. An influence tactic whereby the target is allowed to participate in deciding how to carry out or implement a request.
- Consultative style. A leadership style where the leader presents the problem to employees asking for their opinions and suggestions before ultimately making the decision himself or herself.
- Contingencies of reinforcement. Four specific consequences used by organizations to modify employee behavior.
- Contingent reward. When the leader attains follower agreement on what needs to be done using rewards in exchange for adequate performance.
- Continuance commitment. An employee's desire to remain a member of an organization due to an awareness of the costs of leaving.
- Continuous reinforcement. A specific consequence follows each and every occurrence of a certain behavior.
- Coordination. The quality of physical movement in terms of synchronization of movements and balance.
- Coordination loss. Process loss due to the time and energy it takes to coordinate work activities with other team members.
- Coping. Behaviors and thoughts used to manage stressful demands and the emotions associated with the stressful demands.
- Corporate social responsibility. A perspective that acknowledges that the responsibility of a business encompasses the economic, legal, ethical, and citizenship expectations of society.
- Correlation. The statistical relationship between two variables. Abbreviated r, it can be positive or negative and range from 0 (no statistical relationship) to 1 (a perfect statistical relationship).
- Countercultures. When a subculture's values do not match those of the organization.
- Counterproductive behavior. Employee behaviors that intentionally hinder organizational goal accomplishment.
- Courtesy. Sharing important information with coworkers.
- Coworker satisfaction. Employees' feelings about their coworkers, including their abilities and personalities.
- Creative task performance. The degree to which individuals develop ideas or physical outcomes that are both novel and useful.
- Creativity culture. A specific culture type focused on fostering a creative atmosphere.
- Cultural values. Shared beliefs about desirable end states or modes of conduct in a given culture that influence the expression of traits.
- Culture. The shared values, beliefs, motives, identities, and interpretations that result from common experiences of members of a society and are transmitted across generations.
- Culture strength. The degree to which employees agree about how things should happen within the organization and behave accordingly.
- Customer service culture. A specific culture type focused on service quality.
- Daily hassles. Minor day-to-day demands that interfere with work accomplishment.
- Decision informity. The degree to which team members possess adequate information about their own task responsibilities.
- Decision making. The process of generating and choosing from a set of alternatives to solve a problem.
- Deep-level diversity. Diversity of attributes that are inferred through observation or experience, such as one's values or personality.
- Delegating. When the leader turns responsibility for key behaviors over to employees.
- Delegative style. A leadership style where the leader gives the employee the responsibility for making decisions within some set of specified boundary conditions.
- Differential exposure. Being more likely to appraise day-to-day situations as stressful, thereby feeling that stressors are encountered more frequently.
- Differential reactivity. Being less likely to believe that one can cope with the stressors experienced on a daily basis.
- Discretion. The degree to which managers have the right to make decisions on their own.
- Disjunctive tasks. Tasks with an objectively verifiable best solution for which the member with the highest level of ability has the most influence on team effectiveness.
- Disposition-based trust. Trust that is rooted in one's own personality, as opposed to a careful assessment of the trustee's trustworthiness.
- Distinctiveness. Used by decision makers to attribute cause; whether the person being judged acts in a similar fashion under different circumstances.
- Distributive bargaining. A negotiation strategy in which one person gains and the other person loses.
- Distributive justice. The perceived fairness of decision-making outcomes.
- Diversity culture. A specific culture type focused on fostering or taking advantage of a diverse group of employees.
- Economic exchange. Work relationships that resemble a contractual agreement by which employees fulfill job duties in exchange for financial compensation.
- Embeddedness. An employee's connection to and sense of fit in the organization and community.
- Emotion-focused coping. Behaviors and cognitions of an individual intended to help manage emotional reactions to stressful demands.
- Emotion regulation. The ability to recover quickly from emotional experiences.
- Emotional contagion. The idea that emotions can be transferred from one person to another.
- Emotional cues. Positive or negative feelings that can help or hinder task accomplishment.
- Emotional intelligence. A set of abilities related to the understanding and use of emotions that affect social functioning.
- Emotional labor. When employees manage their emotions to complete their job duties successfully.
- Emotional support. The empathy and understanding that people receive from others that can be used to alleviate emotional distress from stressful demands.
- Emotions. Intense feelings, often lasting for a short duration, that are clearly directed at someone or some circumstance.
- Encounter stage. A stage of socialization beginning the day an employee starts work, during which the employee compares the information as an outsider to the information learned as an insider.
- Engagement. A term commonly used in the contemporary workplace to summarize motivation levels.
- Equity distress. An internal tension that results from being overrewarded or under-rewarded relative to some comparison other.
- Equity theory. A theory that suggests that employees create a mental ledger of the outcomes they receive for their job inputs, relative to some comparison other.
- Erosion model. A model that suggests that employees with fewer bonds with coworkers are more likely to quit the organization.
- Escalation of commitment. A common decision-making error in which the decision maker continues to follow a failing course of action.
- Espoused values. The beliefs, philosophies, and norms that a company explicitly states.
- Ethics. The degree to which the behaviors of an authority are in accordance with generally accepted moral norms.
- Ethnocentrism . One who views his or her cultural values as "right" and values of other cultures as "wrong."
- Evidence-based management. A perspective that argues that scientific findings should form the foundation for management education.
- Exchange tactic. An influence tactic in which the requestor offers a reward in return for performing a request.
- Exchanging information. The second stage of the negotiation process, during which each party makes the strongest case for its position.
- Exit. A response to a negative work event by which one becomes often absent from work or voluntarily leaves the organization.
- Expectancy. The belief that exerting a high level of effort will result in successful performance on some task.
- Expectancy theory. A theory that describes the cognitive process employees go through to make choices among different voluntary responses.
- Expert power. A form of organizational power based on expertise or knowledge.
- Expertise. The knowledge and skills that distinguish experts from novices.
- Explicit knowledge. Knowledge that is easily communicated and available to everyone.
- External comparisons. Comparing oneself to someone in a different company.
- Extinction. The removal of a positive outcome following an unwanted behavior.
- Extraversion . One of the "Big Five" dimensions of personality reflecting traits like being talkative, sociable, passionate, assertive, bold, and dominant.
- Extrinsic motivation. Desire to put forth work effort due to some contingency that depends on task performance.
- Facilitative style. A leadership style where the leader presents the problem to a group of employees and seeks consensus on a solution, making sure that his or her own opinion receives no more weight than anyone else's.
- Faking. Exaggerating responses to a personality test in a socially desirable fashion.
- Family time demands. The amount of time committed to fulfilling family responsibilities.
- Feedback. In job characteristics theory, it refers to the degree to which the job itself provides information about how well the job holder is doing. In goal setting theory, it refers to progress updates on work goals.
- Financial uncertainty. Uncertainties with regard to the potential for loss of livelihood, savings, or the ability to pay expenses.
- Fixed interval schedule. Reinforcement occurs at fixed time periods.
- Fixed ratio schedule. Reinforcement occurs following a fixed number of desired behaviors.
- Flexibility. The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach.
- Flow. A state in which employees feel a total immersion in the task at hand, sometimes losing track of how much time has passed.
- Focus of commitment. The people, places, and things that inspire a desire to remain a member of an organization.
- Forced ranking. A performance management system in which managers rank subordinates relative to one another.
- Formalization. The degree to which rules and procedures are used to standardize behaviors and decisions in an organization.
- Forming. The first stage of team development, during which members try to get a feel for what is expected of them, what types of behaviors are out of bounds, and who's in charge.
- Four-component model. A model that argues that ethical behaviors result from the multistage sequence of moral awareness, moral judgment, moral intent, and ethical behavior.
- Fragmented culture. An organizational culture type in which employees are distant and disconnected from one another.
- Functional structure. An organizational form in which employees are grouped by the functions they perform for the organization.
- Fundamental attribution error. The tendency for people to judge others' behaviors as being due to internal factors such as ability, motivation, or attitudes.
- General cognitive ability. Capabilities related to the use of knowledge to make decisions and solve problems.
- Geographic structure. An organizational form in which employees are grouped around the different locations where the company does business.
- Goal commitment. The degree to which a person accepts a goal and is determined to reach it.
- Goal interdependence. The degree to which team members have a shared goal and align their individual goals with that vision.
- Goal setting theory. A theory that views goals as the primary drivers of the intensity and persistence of effort.
- Gossiping. Casual conversations about other people in which the facts are not confirmed as true.
- Groupthink. Behaviors that support conformity and team harmony at the expense of other team priorities.
- Growth need strength. The degree to which employees desire to develop themselves further.
- Harassment. Unwanted physical contact or verbal remarks from a colleague.
- Helping. Assisting coworkers who have heavy workloads, aiding them with personal matters, and showing new employees the ropes when they are first on the job.
- Heuristics. Simple and efficient rules of thumb that allow one to make decisions more easily.
- Hierarchical sensitivity. The degree to which the team leader effectively weighs the recommendations of the members.
- Hindrance stressors. Stressors that tend to be appraised as thwarting progress toward growth and achievement.
- History. A collective pool of experience, wisdom, and knowledge created by people that benefits the organization.
- Human resource management. Field of study that focuses on the applications of OB theories and principles in organizations.
- Hybrid outcome interdependence. When team members receive rewards based on both their individual performance and that of the team to which they belong.
- Hypotheses. Written predictions that specify relationships between variables.
- Idealized influence. When the leader behaves in ways that earn the admiration, trust, and respect of followers, causing followers to want to identify with and emulate the leader.
- Identity. The degree to which a job offers completion of a whole, identifiable piece of work.
- Impact. The sense that a person's actions "make a difference" -- that progress is being made toward fulfilling some important purpose.
- Incivility. Communication that is rude, impolite, discourteous, and lacking in good manners.
- Independent forms model. A model that predicts that the various withdrawal behaviors are uncorrelated; engaging in one type of withdrawal has little bearing on engaging in other types.
- Individualism-collectivism. The degree to which a culture has a loosely knit social framework (individualism) or a tight social framework (collectivism).
- Individualistic roles. Behaviors that benefit the individual at the expense of the team.
- Individualized consideration. When the leader behaves in ways that help followers achieve their potential through coaching, development, and mentoring.
- Influence. The use of behaviors to cause behavioral or attitudinal changes in others.
- Information richness. The amount and depth of information that is transmitted in a message.
- Informational justice. The perceived fairness of the communications provided to employees from authorities.
- Ingratiation. The use of favors, compliments, or friendly behavior to make the target feel better about the influencer.
- Inimitable. Incapable of being imitated or copied.
- Initiating structure. A pattern of behavior where the leader defines and structures the roles of employees in pursuit of goal attainment.
- Inspirational appeals. An influence tactic designed to appeal to one's values and ideals, thereby creating an emotional or attitudinal reaction.
- Inspirational motivation. When the leader behaves in ways that foster an enthusiasm for and commitment to a shared vision of the future.
- Instrumental support. The help people receive from others that can be used to address a stressful demand directly.
- Instrumentality. The belief that successful performance will result in the attainment of some outcomes.
- Integrative bargaining. A negotiation strategy that achieves an outcome that is satisfying for both parties.
- Integrity. The perception that an authority adheres to a set of acceptable values and principles.
- Integrity tests. Personality tests that focus specifically on a predisposition to engage in theft and other counterproductive behaviors (sometimes also called "honesty tests").
- Intellectual stimulation. When the leader behaves in ways that challenge followers to be innovative and creative by questioning assumptions and reframing old situations in new ways.
- Interests. Expressions of personality that influence behavior through preferences for certain environments and activities.
- Internal comparisons. Comparing oneself to someone in the same company.
- Internalization. A response to influence tactics where the target agrees with and becomes committed to the request.
- Interpersonal citizenship behavior. Going beyond normal job expectations to assist, support, and develop coworkers and colleagues.
- Interpersonal justice. The perceived fairness of the interpersonal treatment received by employees from authorities.
- Interpersonal processes. Teamwork processes, such as motivating and confidence building, that focus on the management of relationships among team members.
- Intrinsic motivation. Desire to put forth work effort due to the sense that task performance serves as its own reward.
- Intuition. An emotional judgment based on quick, unconscious, gut feelings.
- Job analysis. A process by which an organization determines requirements of specific jobs.
- Job characteristics theory. A theory that argues that five core characteristics (variety, identity, significance, autonomy, and feedback) combine to result in high levels of satisfaction with the work itself.
- Job crafting. Proactively shaping and molding the characteristics contained within one's job.
- Job enrichment. When job duties and responsibilities are expanded to provide increased levels of core job characteristics.
- Job satisfaction. A pleasurable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one's job or job experiences. It represents how a person feels and thinks about his or her job.
- Justice. The perceived fairness of an authority's decision making.
- Knowledge and skill. The degree to which employees have the aptitude and competence needed to succeed on their job.
- Knowledge of results. A psychological state indicating the extent to which employees are aware of how well or how poorly they are doing.
- Knowledge transfer. The exchange of knowledge between employees.
- Knowledge work. Jobs that primarily involve cognitive activity versus physical activity.
- Laissez-faire leadership. When the leader avoids leadership duties altogether.
- Language. The jargon, slang, and slogans used within an organization.
- Leader effectiveness. The degree to which the leader's actions result in the achievement of the unit's goals, the continued commitment of the unit's employees, and the development of mutual trust, respect, and obligation in leader-member dyads.
- Leader emergence. The process of becoming a leader in the first place.
- Leader-member exchange theory (LMX). A theory describing how leader-member relationships develop over time on a dyadic basis.
- Leader-staff teams. A type of team that consists of members who make recommendations to the leader who is ultimately responsible for team decisions.
- Power. The use of power and influence to direct the activities of followers toward goal achievement.
- Learning. A relatively permanent change in an employee's knowledge or skill that results from experience.
- Learning orientation. A predisposition or attitude according to which building competence is deemed more important by an employee than demonstrating competence.
- Legitimate power. A form of organizational power based on authority or position.
- Life cycle theory of leadership. A theory stating that the optimal combination of initiating structure and consideration depends on the readiness of the employees in the work unit.
- Life satisfaction. The degree to which employees feel a sense of happiness with their lives in general.
- Locus of control. Whether one believes the events that occur around him or her are self-driven or driven by the external environment.
- Lone wolves. Employees with low commitment levels and high task performance levels who focus on their own career rather than what benefits the organization.
- Loyalty. A passive response to a negative work event in which one publicly supports the situation but privately hopes for improvement.
- Management by objectives (MBO). A management philosophy that bases employee evaluations on whether specific performance goals have been met.
- Management teams. A relatively permanent team that participates in managerial-level tasks that affect the entire organization.
- Masculinity-femininity. The degree to which a culture values stereotypically male traits (masculinity) or stereotypically female traits (femininity).
- Matrix structures. A complex form of organizational structure that combines a functional and multi-divisional grouping.
- Maximum performance. Performance in brief, special circumstances that demand a person's best effort.
- Meaning of money. The idea that money can have symbolic value (e.g., achievement, respect, freedom) in addition to economic value.
- Meaningfulness. Captures the value of a work goal or purpose, relative to a person's own ideals and passions.
- Meaningfulness of work. A psychological state reflecting one's feelings about work tasks, goals, and purposes, and the degree to which they contribute to society and fulfill one's ideals and passions.
- Mechanistic organizations. Efficient, rigid, predictable, and standardized organizations that thrive in stable environments.
- Mediation. A process by which a third party facilitates a dispute resolution process but with no formal authority to dictate a solution.
- Mental models. The degree to which team members have a shared understanding of important aspects of the team and its task.
- Mentoring. The process by which a junior-level employee develops a deep and long-lasting relationship with a more senior-level employee within the organization.
- Mercenary culture. An organizational culture type in which employees think alike but are not friendly to one another.
- Meta-analysis. A method that combines the results of multiple scientific studies by essentially calculating a weighted average correlation across studies (with larger studies receiving more weight).
- Method of authority. When people hold firmly to some belief because some respected official, agency, or source has said it is so.
- Method of experience. When people hold firmly to some belief because it is consistent with their own experience and observations.
- Method of intuition. When people hold firmly to some belief because it "just stands to reason" -- it seems obvious or self-evident.
- Method of science. When people accept some belief because scientific studies have tended to replicate that result using a series of samples, settings, and methods.
- Moods. States of feeling that are mild in intensity, last for an extended period of time, and are not directed at anything.
- Moral attentiveness. The degree to which people chronically perceive and consider issues of morality during their experiences.
- Moral awareness. When an authority recognizes that a moral issue exists in a situation.
- Moral identity. The degree to which a person views himself or herself as a moral person.
- Moral intensity. The degree to which an issue has ethical urgency.
- Moral intent. An authority's degree of commitment to the moral course of action.
- Moral judgment. When an authority can accurately identify the "right" course of action.
- Moral principles. Prescriptive guides for making moral judgments.
- Motivation. A set of energetic forces that determine the direction, intensity, and persistence of an employee's work effort.
- Motivational loss. Process loss due to team members' tendency to put forth less effort on team tasks than they could.
- Multi-divisional structure. An organizational form in which employees are grouped by product, geography, or client.
- Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). A personality framework that evaluates people on the basis of four types or preferences: extraversion versus introversion, sensing versus intuition, thinking versus feeling, and judging versus perceiving.
- Needs. Groupings or clusters of outcomes viewed as having critical psychological or physiological consequences.
- Negative affectivity. A dispositional tendency to experience unpleasant moods such as hostility, nervousness, and annoyance.
- Negative emotions. Employees' feelings of fear, guilt, shame, sadness, envy, and disgust.
- Negative life events. Events such as a divorce or death of a family member that tend to be appraised as a hindrance.
- Negative reinforcement. An unwanted outcome is removed following a desired behavior.
- Neglect. A passive, destructive response to a negative work event in which one's interest and effort in work decline.
- Negotiation. A process in which two or more interdependent individuals discuss and attempt to reach agreement about their differences.
- Network structure. The pattern of communication that occurs regularly among each member of a team.
- Networked culture. An organizational culture type in which employees are friendly to one another, but everyone thinks differently and does his or her own thing.
- Neuroticism . One of the "Big Five" dimensions of personality reflecting traits like being nervous, moody, emotional, insecure, jealous, and unstable.
- Neutralizers. Situational characteristics that reduce the importance of the leader and do not improve employee performance in any way.
- Newcomer orientation. A common form of training during which new hires learn more about the organization.
- Nominal group technique. A team process used to generate creative ideas, whereby team members individually write down their ideas and then take turns sharing them with the group.
- Nonprogrammed decisions. Decisions made by employees when a problem is new, complex, or not recognized.
- Normative commitment. An employee's desire to remain a member of an organization due to a feeling of obligation.
- Norming. The third stage of team development, during which members realize that they need to work together to accomplish team goals and consequently begin to cooperate.
- Numerous small decisions. People making many small decisions every day that are invisible to competitors.
- Observable artifacts. Aspects of an organization's culture that employees and outsiders can easily see or talk about.
- Occupational Information Network (O*NET). An online database containing job tasks, behaviors, required knowledge, skills, and abilities.
- Openness to experience . One of the "Big Five" dimensions of personality reflecting traits like being curious, imaginative, creative, complex, refined, and sophisticated.
- Organic organizations. Flexible, adaptive, outward-focused organizations that thrive in dynamic environments.
- Organizational behavior (OB). Field of study devoted to understanding, explaining, and ultimately improving the attitudes and behaviors of individuals and groups in organizations.
- Organizational chart. A drawing that represents every job in the organization and the formal reporting relationships between those jobs.
- Organizational citizenship behavior. Going beyond normal expectations to improve operations of the organization, as well as defending the organization and being loyal to it.
- Organizational commitment. An employee's desire to remain a member of an organization.
- Organizational culture. The shared social knowledge within an organization regarding the rules, norms, and values that shape the attitudes and behaviors of its employees.
- Organizational design. The process of creating, selecting, or changing the structure of an organization.
- Organizational politics. Individual actions directed toward the goal of furthering a person's own self-interests.
- Organizational structure. Formally dictates how jobs and tasks are divided and coordinated between individuals and groups within the company.
- Other awareness. The ability to recognize and understand the emotions that other people are feeling.
- Outcome interdependence. The degree to which team members share equally in the feedback and rewards that result from the team achieving its goals.
- Parallel teams. A team composed of members from various jobs within the organization that meets to provide recommendations about important issues.
- Participating. When the leader shares ideas and tries to help the group conduct its affairs.
- Passive management-by-exception. When the leader waits around for mistakes and errors, then takes corrective action as necessary.
- Past accomplishments. The level of success or failure with similar job tasks in the past.
- Pay satisfaction. Employees' feelings about the compensation for their jobs.
- Perceived organizational support. The degree to which employees believe that the organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being.
- Perceptual ability. The capacity to perceive, understand, and recall patterns of information.
- Performance-avoid orientation. A predisposition or attitude by which employees focus on demonstrating their competence so that others will not think poorly of them.
- Performance-prove orientation. A predisposition or attitude by which employees focus on demonstrating their competence so that others think favorably of them.
- Performing. The fourth stage of team development, during which members are comfortable working within their roles, and the team makes progress toward goals.
- Person-organization fit. The degree to which a person's values and personality match the culture of the organization.
- Personal aggression. Hostile verbal and physical actions directed toward other employees.
- Personal appeals. An influence tactic in which the requestor asks for something based on personal friendship or loyalty.
- Personal clarification. Training in which members simply receive information regarding the roles of the other team members.
- Personal development. Participation in activities outside of work that foster growth and learning.
- Personality. The structures and propensities inside a person that explain his or her characteristic patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior. Personality reflects what people are like and creates their social reputation.
- Physical structures. The organization's buildings and internal office designs.
- Physical withdrawal. A physical escape from the work environment.
- Pleasantness. The degree to which an employee is in a good versus bad mood.
- Political deviance. Behaviors that intentionally disadvantage other individuals.
- Political skill. The ability to understand others and the use of that knowledge to influence them to further personal or organizational objectives.
- Pooled interdependence. A form of task independence in which group members complete their work assignments independently, and then their work is simply added together to represent the group's output.
- Positional modeling. Training that involves observations of how other team members perform their roles.
- Positional rotation. Training that gives members actual experience carrying out the responsibilities of their teammates.
- Positive affectivity. A dispositional tendency to experience pleasant, engaging moods such as enthusiasm, excitement, and elation.
- Positive emotions. Employees' feelings of joy, pride, relief, hope, love, and compassion.
- Positive life events. Events such as marriage or the birth of a child that tend to be appraised as a challenge.
- Positive reinforcement. When a positive outcome follows a desired behavior.
- Potency. A team state reflecting the degree of confidence among team members that the team can be effective across situations and tasks.
- Power, 410-440. The ability to influence the behavior of others and resist unwanted influence in return.
- Power distance. The degree to which a culture prefers equal power distribution (low power distance) or an unequal power distribution (high power distance).
- Preparation. The first stage of the negotiation process, during which each party determines its goals for the negotiation.
- Pressure. An influence tactic in which the requestor attempts to use coercive power through threats and demands.
- Primary appraisal. Evaluation of whether a demand is stressful and, if it is, the implications of the stressor in terms of personal goals and well-being.
- Problem-focused coping. Behaviors and cognitions of an individual intended to manage the stressful situation itself.
- Procedural justice. The perceived fairness of decision-making processes.
- Process gain. When team outcomes are greater than expected based on the capabilities of the individual members.
- Process loss. When team outcomes are less than expected based on the capabilities of the individual members.
- Product structure. An organizational form in which employees are grouped around different products that the company produces.
- Production blocking. A type of coordination loss resulting from team members having to wait on each other before completing their own part of the team task.
- Production deviance. Intentionally reducing organizational efficiency of work output.
- Programmed decisions. Decisions that are somewhat automatic because the decision maker's knowledge allows him or her to recognize the situation and the course of action to be taken.
- Progression model. A model indicating that the various withdrawal behaviors are positively correlated; engaging in one type of withdrawal makes one more likely to engage in other types.
- Project GLOBE. A collection of 170 researchers from 62 cultures who examine the impact of culture on the effectiveness of leader attributes, behaviors, and practices.
- Project teams. A team formed to take on one-time tasks, most of which tend to be complex and require input from members from different functional areas.
- Projection bias. The faulty perception by decision makers that others think, feel, and act the same way as they do.
- Promotion satisfaction. Employees' feelings about how the company handles promotions.
- Property deviance. Behaviors that harm the organization's assets and possessions.
- Psychological contracts. Employee beliefs about what employees owe the organization and what the organization owes them.
- Psychological empowerment. An energy rooted in the belief that tasks are contributing to some larger purpose.
- Psychomotor ability. Capabilities associated with manipulating and controlling objects.
- Punctuated equilibrium. A sequence of team development during which not much gets done until the halfway point of a project, after which teams make necessary changes to complete the project on time.
- Punishment. When an unwanted outcome follows an unwanted behavior.
- Quantitative ability. Capabilities associated with doing basic mathematical operations and selecting and applying formulas to solve mathematical problems.
- Rational decision-making model. A stepby-step approach to making decisions that is designed to maximize outcomes by examining all available alternatives.
- Rational persuasion. The use of logical arguments and hard facts to show someone that a request is worthwhile.
- Readiness. The degree to which employees have the ability and the willingness to accomplish their specific tasks.
- Realistic job previews (RJPs). The process of ensuring that a potential employee understands both the positive and negative aspects of the potential job.
- Reality shock. A mismatch of information that occurs when an employee finds that aspects of working at a company are not what the employee expected it to be.
- Reasoning ability. A diverse set of abilities associated with sensing and solving problems using insight, rules, and logic.
- Reciprocal interdependence. A form of task interdependence in which group members interact with only a limited subset of other members to complete the team's work.
- Referent power. A form of organizational power based on the attractiveness and charisma of the leader.
- Relational contracts. Psychological contracts that focus on a broad set of open-ended and subjective obligations.
- Relationship conflict. Disagreements among team members with regard to interpersonal relationships or incompatibilities in personal values or preferences.
- Reputation. The prominence of an organization's brand in the minds of the public and the perceived quality of its goods and services.
- Resistance. When a target refuses to perform a request and puts forth an effort to avoid having to do it.
- Resource-based view. A model that argues that rare and inimitable resources help firms maintain competitive advantage.
- Responsibility for outcomes. A psychological state indicating the degree to which employees feel they are key drivers of the quality of work output.
- Restructuring. The process of changing an organization's structure.
- Reward power. A form of organizational power based on the control of resources or benefits.
- RIASEC model. An interest framework summarized by six different personality types including realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional.
- Rituals. The daily or weekly planned routines that occur in an organization.
- Role. The behavior a person is generally expected to display in a given context.
- Role ambiguity. When an individual has a lack of direction and information about what needs to be done.
- Role conflict. When others have conflicting expectations of what an individual needs to do.
- Role making. The phase in a leader-follower relationship when a follower voices his or her own expectations for the relationship, resulting in a free-flowing exchange of opportunities and resources for activities and effort.
- Role overload. When an employee has too many demands to work effectively.
- Role taking. The phase in a leader-follower relationship when a leader provides an employee with job expectations and the follower tries to meet those expectations.
- Routine task performance. Well-known or habitual responses by employees to predictable task demands.
- Rule of One-Eighth. The belief that at best one-eighth, or 12 percent, of organizations will actually do what is required to build profits by putting people first.
- Sabotage. Purposeful destruction of equipment, organizational processes, or company products.
- Safety culture. A specific culture type focused on the safety of employees.
- Satisficing. When a decision maker chooses the first acceptable alternative considered.
- Schedules of reinforcement. The timing of when contingencies are applied or removed.
- Scout activities. Boundary-spanning activities that are intended to obtain information about technology, competitors, or the broader marketplace.
- Secondary appraisal. When people determine how to cope with the various stressors they face.
- Selective perception. The tendency for people to see their environment only as it affects them and as it is consistent with their expectations.
- Self-awareness. The ability to recognize and understand the emotions in oneself.
- Self-determination. A sense of choice in the initiation and continuation of work tasks.
- Self-efficacy. The belief that a person has the capabilities needed to perform the behaviors required on some task.
- Self-serving bias. When one attributes one's own failures to external factors and success to internal factors.
- Self-set goals. The internalized goals that people use to monitor their own progress.
- Selling. When the leader explains key issues and provides opportunities for clarification.
- Sensory ability. Capabilities associated with vision and hearing.
- Sequential interdependence. A form of task interdependence in which group members perform different tasks in a prescribed sequence, and members depend on only the member who comes before them in the sequence.
- Service work. Providing a service that involves direct verbal or physical interactions with customers.
- Short-term vs. long-term orientation. The degree to which a culture stresses values that are past- and present-oriented (short-term orientation) or future-oriented (long-term orientation).
- Significance. The degree to which a job really matters and impacts society as a whole.
- Similarity-attraction approach. A theory explaining that team diversity can be counterproductive because people tend to avoid interacting with others who are unlike them.
- Simple structures. An organizational form that features one person as the central decision-making figure.
- Situational strength. The degree to which situations have clear behavioral expectations, incentives, or instructions that make differences between individuals less important.
- S.M.A.R.T. goals. Acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-Based, Time-Sensitive goals.
- Social exchange. Work relationships that are characterized by mutual investment, with employees willing to engage in "extra mile" sorts of behaviors because they trust that their efforts will eventually be rewarded.
- Social identity theory. A theory that people identify themselves based on the various groups to which they belong and judge others based on the groups they associate with.
- Social influence model. A model that suggests that employees with direct linkages to coworkers who leave the organization will themselves become more likely to leave.
- Social learning theory. Theory that argues that people in organizations learn by observing others.
- Social loafing. A type of motivational loss resulting from members feeling less accountable for team outcomes relative to independent work that results in individually identifiable outcomes.
- Social support. The help people receive from others when they are confronted with stressful demands.
- Socialization. The primary process by which employees learn the social knowledge that enables them to understand and adapt to the organization's culture.
- Socially complex resources. Resources created by people, such as culture, teamwork, trust, and reputation. The source of competitive advantage is known, but the method of replicating the advantage is unclear.
- Span of control. Represents how many employees each manager in the organization has responsibility for.
- Spatial ability. Capabilities associated with visual and mental representation and manipulation of objects in space.
- Specific and difficult goals. Goals that stretch an employee to perform at his or her maximum level while still staying within the boundaries of his or her ability.
- Sportsmanship. Maintaining a positive attitude with coworkers through good and bad times.
- Staff validity. The degree to which team members make good recommendations to the team leader.
- Stamina. The ability of a person's lungs and circulatory system to work efficiently while he or she is engaging in prolonged physical activity.
- Stars. Employees with high commitment levels and high task performance levels who serve as role models within the organization.
- Status striving. A strong desire to obtain power and influence within a social structure as a means of expressing one's personality.
- Stereotypes. Assumptions made about others based on their social group membership.
- Stories. Anecdotes, accounts, legends, and myths passed down from cohort to cohort within an organization.
- Storming. The second stage of team development, during which conflict occurs due to members' ongoing commitment to ideas they bring with them to the team.
- Strain. Negative consequences of the stress response.
- Strategic management. Field of study devoted to exploring the product choices and industry characteristics that affect an organization's profitability.
- Strength. The degree to which the body is capable of exerting force.
- Stress. The psychological response to demands when there is something at stake for the individual, and where coping with these demands would tax or exceed the individual's capacity or resources.
- Stressors. Demands that cause the stress response.
- Subcultures. A culture created within a small subset of the organization's employees.
- Substance abuse. The abuse of drugs or alcohol before coming to work or while on the job.
- Substitutability. The degree to which people have alternatives in accessing the resources a leader controls.
- Substitutes. Situational characteristics that reduce the importance of the leader while simultaneously providing a direct benefit to employee performance.
- Substitutes for leadership model. A model that suggests that characteristics of the situations can constrain the influence of the leader, which makes it more difficult for the leader to influence employee performance.
- Supervision satisfaction. Employees' feelings about their boss, including his or her competency, communication, and personality.
- Surface-level diversity. Diversity of observable attributes such as race, gender, ethnicity, and age.
- Sustainability culture. A specific culture type focused on promoting sustainability both inside and outside of the organization.
- Symbols. The images an organization uses, which generally convey messages.
- Tacit knowledge. Knowledge that employees can only learn through experience.
- Task complexity. The degree to which the information and actions needed to complete a task are complicated.
- Task conflict. Disagreements among members about the team's task.
- Task coordinator activities. Boundary-spanning activities that are intended to coordinate task-related issues with people or groups in other functional areas.
- Task interdependence. The degree to which team members interact with and rely on other team members for information, materials, and resources needed to accomplish work for the team.
- Task performance. Employee behaviors that are directly involved in the transformation of organizational resources into the goods or services that the organization produces.
- Task strategies. Learning plans and problem-solving approaches used to achieve successful performance.
- Taskwork processes. The activities of team members that relate directly to the accomplishment of team tasks.
- Team(s). Two or more people who work interdependently over some time period to accomplish common goals related to some task-oriented purpose.
- Team building. Fun activities that facilitate team problem solving, trust, relationship building, and the clarification of role responsibilities.
- Team-building roles. Behaviors that directly facilitate the accomplishment of team tasks.
- Team composition. The mix of the various characteristics that describe the individuals who work in the team.
- Team diversity. The degree to which team members are different from one another.
- Team process training. The use of team experiences that facilitates the team's ability to function and perform more effectively as an intact unit.
- Team processes. The different types of activities and interactions that occur within a team as the team works toward its goals.
- Team states. Specific types of feelings and thoughts that coalesce in the minds of team members as a consequence of their experience working together.
- Team task roles. Behaviors that directly facilitate the accomplishment of team tasks.
- Team viability. Team commitment; the likelihood a team can work together effectively into the future.
- Teamwork processes. The interpersonal activities that promote the accomplishment of team tasks but do not involve task accomplishment itself.
- Technology. The method by which an organization transforms inputs to outputs.
- Telling. When the leader provides specific instructions and closely supervises performance.
- Theft. Stealing company products or equipment from the organization.
- Theory. A collection of verbal and symbolic assertions that specify how and why variables are related, as well as the conditions in which they should (and should not) be related.
- Time-driven model of leadership. A model that suggests that seven factors, including the importance of the decision, the expertise of the leader, and the competence of the followers, combine to make some decisionmaking styles more effective than others in a given situation.
- Time pressure. The sense that the amount of time allotted to do a job is not quite enough.
- Training. A systematic effort by organizations to facilitate the learning of job-related knowledge and behavior.
- Trait(s). Recurring trends in people's responses to their environment.
- Trait activation. The degree to which situations provide cues that trigger the expression of a given personality trait.
- Transactional contracts. Psychological contracts that focus on a narrow set of specific monetary obligations.
- Transactional leadership. A pattern of behavior where the leader rewards or disciplines the follower based on performance.
- Transactional theory of stress. A theory that explains how stressful demands are perceived and appraised, as well as how people respond to the perceptions and appraisals.
- Transactive memory. The degree to which team members' specialized knowledge is integrated into an effective system of memory for the team.
- Transfer of training. Occurs when employees retain and demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and behaviors required for their job after training ends.
- Transformational leadership. A pattern of behavior where the leader inspires followers to commit to a shared vision that provides meaning to their work while also serving as a role model who helps followers develop their own potential and view problems from new perspectives.
- Transition processes. Teamwork processes, such as mission analysis and planning, that focus on preparation for future work in the team.
- Transportable teamwork competencies. Team training that involves helping people develop general teamwork competencies that they can transport from one team context to another.
- Trust propensity. A general expectation that the words, promises, and statements of individuals can be relied upon.
- Trustworthiness. Characteristics or attributes of a person that inspire trust, including competence, character, and benevolence.
- Type A Behavior Pattern. People who tend to experience more stressors, appraise more demands as stressful, and be prone to experiencing more strains.
- Type B Behavior Pattern. Typical performance Performance in the routine conditions that surround daily job tasks.
- Uncertainty avoidance. The degree to which a culture tolerates ambiguous situations (low uncertainty avoidance) or feels threatened by them (high uncertainty avoidance).
- Understanding and adaptation. The final stage of socialization, during which newcomers come to learn the content areas of socialization and internalize the norms and expected behaviors of the organization.
- Use of emotions. The degree to which people can harness emotions and employ them to improve their chances of being successful in whatever they are seeking to do.
- Valence. The anticipated value of the outcomes associated with successful performance.
- Value in diversity problem-solving approach. A theory that supports team diversity because it provides a larger pool of knowledge and perspectives.
- Value-percept theory. A theory that argues that job satisfaction depends on whether the employee perceives that his or her job supplies those things that he or she values.
- Values. Things that people consciously or unconsciously want to seek or attain.
- Variable interval schedule. Reinforcement occurs at random periods of time.
- Variable ratio schedule. Behaviors are reinforced after a varying number of them have been exhibited.
- Variety. The degree to which a job requires different activities and skills.
- Veiled purpose tests. Integrity tests that do not directly ask about dishonesty, instead assessing more general personality traits associated with dishonest acts.
- Verbal ability. Various capabilities associated with understanding and expressing oral and written communication.
- Verbal persuasion. Pep talks that lead employees to believe that they can "get the job done."
- Vicarious experiences. Observations of and discussions with others who have performed some work task.
- Virtual teams. A team in which the members are geographically dispersed, and interdependent activity occurs through e-mail, web conferencing, and instant messaging.
- Visibility. How aware others are of a leader and the resources that leader can provide.
- Voice. When an employee speaks up to offer constructive suggestions for change, often in reaction to a negative work event.
- Volunteering. The giving of time or skills during a planned activity for a nonprofit or charitable group.
- Wasting resources. Using too many materials or too much time to do too little work.
- Whistle-blowing. When employees expose illegal actions by their employer.
- Withdrawal behavior. Employee actions that are intended to avoid work situations.
- Wonderlic Cognitive Ability Test. A 12-minute test of general cognitive ability used to hire job applicants.
- Work complexity. The degree to which job requirements tax or just exceed employee capabilities.
- Work-family conflict. A form of role conflict in which the demands of a work role hinder the fulfillment of the demands in a family role (or vice versa).
- Work responsibility. The number and importance of the obligations that an employee has to others.
- Work specialization. The degree to which tasks in an organization are divided into separate jobs.
- Work teams. A relatively permanent team in which members work together to produce goods and/or provide services.
- Zero acquaintance. Situations in which two people have just met.