MNO1706 Organizational Behavior

Lesson 2: Moods, Emotions,

Perceptions, & Decision
Processes

Instructor: A/P Lim Ghee Soon

 Lesson 2:
Moods, Emotions, Perceptions, &
Decision Processes
• Readings for Lesson 2: R & J, Chapters 4 & 6
– Chapter 4 (Emotions at Work)
• Affect = People’s Feelings
A. Emotions: intense; directed at someone or something; diverse types with sometimes
distinct facial expressions (affected by culture); action oriented; very brief in duration
(fleeting); cause by specific event
I. Anger, contempt, fear, enthusiasm, envy, frustration, disappointment,
embarrassment, sadness, happiness, disgust, surprise, hate, terror, rage, love,
hope, jealousy, gratitude, joy, pride, shock, excitement, elation, boredom,
depression, fatigue, nervousness, stress, anxiety, contentedness, calmness,
serenity
II. Bolded ones are “basic emotions”: H Su F Sa A D
III. In some culture, smilesexual interest; in others, facial
expressionrelationship quality
B. Moods: less intense; cause is general and unclear; stays longer (enduring); cognitive in
nature (in the brain)
– Moods and emotions influence each other
– People think about negative events 5 times as long as positive one
» Positivity offset: mildly positive mood if nothing is going on (58%)
» Negative emotions lead to negative moods
• Positive Affect (Mood State) Versus Negative Affect (Mood
State)
– Positive emotions (constructive) vs negative emotions (destructive)
– Some cultures value positive emotions more; others value negative
ones
» China: less intense & fewer positive or negative emotions
• Taiwan and US: more positive and less negative emotions
» Emotion leads to irrationality/bitterness/weakness?
• Negative affects may be beneficial:
• Prompt people to accept unfavorable circumstances &
cope better
• Think more critically & fairly
• Better able to discern truthful info
• Moral judgment is largely based on feelings rather than on
cognition
– Factors affecting moods and emotions
• Personality traits
– People differ on affect disposition & affect intensity
• Time of the day
– Least positive at 4 am; most positive around midnight; least negative after dinner; most negative
around midnight)
• Day of the week
– Most positive on Sat/Sun; most negative on Sun/Mon
• Weather?
– Not true; just an illusory correlation
• Stress
– Negative; effects are cumulative
• Social activities
– Positive: Physical, informal, & epicurean (eating with others)
– Not as positive: Formal & sedentary
– No impact on negative affect
• Sleep: Poor sleep impairs job satisfaction
– Sleep deprivation makes people feel fatigued, irritable, and less alert
• Exercise
– Sweat therapy works well to improve positive mood
• Age:
– Older people experience less of negative emotions, longer positive emotions, and shorter bad moods
• Gender difference
– Women more expressive about positive & negative emotions (except anger); experience more
emotions, longer, and more intensely
• Emotional Labor
– Expression of Organizationally Desired Emotions
• Felt versus displayed emotions
• Surface acting
– Hiding inner feelings and express in response to display rules
» Emotional dissonance arises
• Leads to burnout, poor job performance/satisfaction
• Mindfulness (objectively evaluate emotional situation) and rest/relax
help to improve well-being
• Deep acting: modify inner feelings based on display rules (also may help)
– Affect Events Theory (AET)
• Work environmentwork events (+/-ve)emotional reactions (moderated
by personality/mood)emotional reactions (+/-ve)Job
satisfaction/performance
– Emotional Intelligence
• Conscious (awareness), cognitive (understand), emotional stability
(regulate emotion)
• Definitions & measurements vary but popular with managers & consultants
• Some supportive evidence found
– Emotional regulation (modify feelings)
• Venting or deep acting rather surface acting
• Linked to job performance and OCB
• Harder/less likely for people with higher neuroticism or lower
self-esteem
– Employ people with positive mindset and train people to manage
mood/attitude
– Applications of emotions
• Selection:
– Choose people with high emotional intelligence & positivity
• Decision Making:
– Negative mood improves judgment but reduces decision quality
• Creativity:
– Activating feelings (anger, fear, elation) promote creativity
– Deactivating feelings (sorrow, depression, serenity) retard creativity
• Motivation:
– Feedbackgood moodmore motivated, helpful, & feel better
– Leadership:
• Leader sadness improves subordinate analytical performance
• Leader good mood and focus on inspirational goals lead to higher subordinate
optimism/enthusiasm, performance & creativity, evaluation of leaders
– Negotiation:
• Angeradvantage in favor of displayer over opponent
– “I really can’t do any better than this offer”
• Anger + less power/info lead to weaker outcome for displayer
• Losers have bad mood and become hardened in future negotiations
• Emotionally detached negotiators perform best in negotiations
– Customer service:
• Emotional contagion: catching emotions from others
• Employee moodcustomer moodemployee mood…
– Job attitudes:
• Work mood life moodwork mood (spillover to spouse as well; a rest/break helps to
remove negative mood)
– Deviant Work Behaviors
• Against established norms and threaten organization/members
• Negative moods lead to increased short-term deviant behavior (gossip, cyber loafing)
• Anger leads to production deviation & abuse against others (sadness doesn’t)
• Anger and sadness do not lead to withdrawal
– Safety and injury
• Negative moodsanxiousless able to cope with hazards
• Fearpessimism about efficacy of prevention or panic/freeze up when in danger
– Chapter 6 (Perception and Decision Processes)
• Perception: Process by which individuals organize and interpret
sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment
– Challenge: What we perceive may differ from objective reality and yet we
behave based on our perception of reality
– Distortions may arise due to:
» The perceiver (attitudes, personality, motives, interests, past
experiences, expectations)
» The target (more noticeable when one is loud, attractive/unattractive,
stands out in contrast to the background, or bears similarity with
others (e.g., Asians/Westerners look alike)
» The situation (location, timing, light, heat, etc.)
• Person Perception:
– Attribution Theory: We judge people based on the meaning we attribute to
their behavior
» “Externally caused” if the behavior is high on distinctiveness, high on
consensus, and low on consistency
» Internally caused if the behavior is low on distinctiveness (consistent
with one’s behavior in other situations), low on consensus
(inconsistent with other individuals’ behavior), and high on
consistency (consistent with one’s behavior at other times)
– Fundamental Attribution Theory:
» People tend to underestimate the influential of external factors
and overestimate influence of personal/internal factors
– Self-serving bias:
» People tend to attribute ambiguous info as flattering, accept
positive feedback, and reject negative feedback
» Korean managers blame themselves “because I was not a capable
leader”
• Other Asian managers: Blame the organization
• Westerners: Individual managers should get the blame
• Asians: Tend to make group-based stereotypes
– Common Shortcuts in Judging Others
» Selective perception (based on interests, background, experience,
attitudes)
» Halo effect (draw impression about an individual based on one
characteristic, e.g., warmwise, humorous, popular, imaginative)
» Contrast effects (actors look bad against animals, children, etc)
» Stereotyping (heuristic): Judge someone based on our perception
of the group to which he/she belongs (age, race, religion, ethnicity,
weight (widespread generalizations)
• The Link Between Perception and Individual Decision Making
– Decision Making: A reaction to a problem
» Discrepancy between the current and desired state requiring people
to consider alternative courses of action
» Perceptual differences mean people interpret and evaluate
info/problem/objectives/alternatives differently
• Decision Making in Organizations
– Rational Model: rational, consistent, value-maximizing with complete info
via
» Define the problem
» Identify decision criteria
» Allocate weights to criteria
» Develop alternatives
» Evaluate alternatives
» Select the best alternative
– Bounded Rationality: People satisfice and not optimize by using simplified
models that extracts the essential features from problems due to:
» Limited info processing capability
» Problems are too complicated to understand/comprehend
» Practical reasons especially if limited time, energy, money is available
– Intuition: Nonconscious process crated from distilled experiences based on
holistic associations in a fast and affectively charged instance
» Good for setting up hypotheses/hunches for further testing
• Common Biases & Errors in Decision Making
– Overconfidence bias (about the abilities of ourselves and others;
especially among people weak on intellectual & interpersonal abilities;
entrepreneurs who are more confident perform worse)
– Anchoring bias: People tend to fixate on initial info
– Confirmation bias: Seek out info that affirms past choices; discount info
that contradicts them
– Availability bias: Base our judgments on readily available info
– Escalation of commitment: Staying with a decision even if there is evidence
it’s wrong (because one feels that he/she is responsible for the outcome)
– Risk aversion: 50-50 for $200 is less attractive than $50 for sure!
– Hindsight bias: Believe falsely, after the outcome is known, that we would
have accurately predicted it.
• Organizational Constraints on Decision Making
– Performance Evaluation: If a boss believes everything is fine, subordinates
will screen out any negative info before it reaches the boss
– Reward System: If managers are rewarded for risk aversion, risky decisions
will pass on to committees.
– Formal Regulations: Too many rigid SOP reduce decision choices
– System-imposed time constraints: Reduce rigor of decision made
– Historical precedents: Decisions are made based on past years data
• What About Ethics in Decision Making
– Utilitarianism: greatest good for the greatest number
– Rights: Fundamental liberties and privileges, e.g., right to privacy, free
speech, due process; whistle blower: right to free speech
– Justice: Equitable distribution of benefits and costs or “fairness” and
impartiality”; yardsticks of fairness differ---e.g., labor unions may give
more weight to seniority than performance
– Behavioral ethics: Individual choices in ethical dilemmas may violate
their organizations’ or even their own standards
• Creativity in Organizations
– Ability to create new and useful ideas
– Cause of Creative Behavior: Creative Potential/Expertise + Creative
Environment
– Creative Behavior: Problem formulation, info gathering, idea
generation, idea evaluation
– Creative Outcomes (Innovation): New and useful; creative ideas create
uncertainty, so people avoid, ignore, suppress, reject, creative ideas/
individuals