Midterm paper 8 pages long
Overview of the Midterm Paper
Main topics are,
1 Perception (perceptual errors ) (chapter 3)
2 Equity theory (Chapter 5)
3 Self-leadership practices (chapter 6)
I divided the main sections in capital letters, Intro, Analysis. For each main topic, I wrote down my own notes and textbook notes for referral. Textbook notes are a bit long but you don't need to include every topic. Just add as you need it. Or you can use online resources. Whatever makes the paper rich. If you need to put more detailed information about work and personal experiences etc. you can make up your own but realistically of course.
Introduction
Work environment, provide the relevant background.
In the Japanese Restaurant where I worked couple of years ago as a waitress, I felt unfairly treated. I worked 45 hours per week and earned only 600 USD while a male employee earned 750 USD for 35 hours per week. I was putting much more effort and thought that I was underpaid only for the fact that I was a female employee.
I became more and more frustrated and my service quality began to decline. This problem created tension between me and my employer.
Eventually I had a meeting with my supervisor and explained him that my work with them gave me enormous stress. He told me that the male employee had two handicapped sons and the higher salary and less working hours meant to support his family. Certainly, I felt a relief but told him that I should have been informed earlier about this fact.
He told me that the confidentiality was an important reason not to disclose the information however the male employee was asked to allow the manager to tell me so that the problem could be resolved by explaining me the situation surrounding him. My manager at the time improved the situation by taking the step to ask the male employee if he could disclose the information about himself.
Personal development, introduce the main topics you’re covering and why they’re important to you.
Perceptual errors
Equity theory
Self-leadership
I also learned about Perceptual errors that people make in work enviroments and how to deal with it the best way.
I learned a lot about how to cope with difficult situations such as working in an environment that is equal (equity theory, Equity theory is based in the idea that individuals are motivated by fairness, and if they identify inequities in the input or output ratios of themselves and their referent group, they will seek to adjust their input to reach their perceived equity.).
I learned about self-leadership how to motivate yourself to do the best job you can do.
Analysis
Perceptual errors (my notes)
I have definitely experienced Primary effect as one of the perceptual errors as a victim. I am a very reserved shy person especially around people that I do not know yet.
Although I try to be and present the best of me, I cannot help it sometimes. People tend to think that I am very imperious and full of myself. In reality, I am simply shy and not showing my emotions well. People around me has the tendency to misjudge me with their first impressions. When I give some advice to other employees how they can improve their project for example, I only have good intentions. Due to my shyness, sometimes they feel as if I am bashing them thinking that my opinion matters most. Since this was an issue in my life, I applied the Johari window method without knowing what it was at the time. I was aware of others perceptual bias towards me. My main issue was that I was not good at portraying my actual intentions in my communications. So I started to have more meaningful interactions by talking to others on a personal level. I believe that perceptual biases are inevitable therefore Primary effect takes time to be balanced. There was an instance in one of my old workplaces where there was so much tension between me and others and I had no idea why at the time. I was always punctual, respectful towards others, did my work promptly therefore I couldn't think of any reason that created tension. One day I asked one of my colleagues why people acted this way which was the first step to Johari window method where my colleague provided feedback about my behavior. It was that I seemed to be imperious in my actions. Then came the second step where I offered disclosure about myself and why I might have been understood this way. It was due to my shyness and I had no intention to be arrogant. This definitely helped me improve myself and the situation that I had at work. Now I know what the Johari method is and I will always keep it in my mind, and apply it.
Textbook notes about perceptual errors what I will be talking about is Primary Effect
Discuss three ways to improve perceptions, with specific applications to organizational situations.
One way to minimize perceptual biases is to become more aware of their existence. Awareness of these biases makes people more mindful of their thoughts and actions, but this training sometimes reinforces rather than reduces reliance on stereotypes and tends to be ineffective for people with deeply held prejudices. A second strategy is to become more aware of biases in our own decisions and behaviour. Self-awareness increases through formal tests such as the IAT and by applying the Johari Window, which is a process in which others provide feedback to you about your behaviour, and you offer disclosure to them about yourself. The third strategy is meaningful interaction, which applies the contact hypothesis that people who interact will be less prejudiced or perceptually biased toward one another. Meaningful interaction is strongest when people work closely and frequently with relatively equal status on a shared meaningful task that requires cooperation and reliance on one another. Meaningful interaction helps improve empathy, which is a person's understanding and sensitivity to the feelings, thoughts, and situations of others.
Perception is the process of receiving information about and making sense of the world around us. It entails determining which information to notice, how to categorize this information, and how to interpret it within the framework of our existing knowledge.
The process of attending to some information received by our senses and ignoring other information is called selective attention. Selective attention is influenced by characteristics of the person or object being perceived, particularly size, intensity, motion, repetition, and novelty. For example, a small, flashing red light on a nurses' work station console is immediately noticed because it is bright (intensity), flashing (motion), a rare event (novelty), and has symbolic meaning that a patient's vital signs are failing.
Characteristics of the perceiver also influence selection attention, usually without the perceiver's awareness.35 When information is received through the senses, our brain quickly and nonconsciously assesses whether it is relevant or irrelevant to us and then attaches emotional markers (worry, happiness, boredom) to the retained information.36 Emotional markers help us to store information in memory; those emotions are later reproduced when recalling the perceived information. The selective attention process is far from perfect, however.
Another selective attention problem, called confirmation bias, is the nonconscious tendency for people to screen out information that is contrary to their decisions, beliefs, values, and assumptions, whereas confirming information is more readily accepted through the perceptual process.39 This bias includes overweighting positive information, perceiving only positive information, and restricting cognitive attention to a favoured hypothesis. When we make important decisions, such as investing in a costly project, for example, we tend to pay attention to information that is consistent with the success of that decision and to ignore contrary or seemingly irrelevant information.
Attribution error. Errors We are strongly motivated to assign internal or external attributions to someone's behaviour, but this perceptual process is also susceptible to errors. One such error is self-serving bias—the tendency to attribute our failures to external causes (such as bad luck) more than internal causes (e.g., inefficiency), while successes are due more to internal than external factorsSimply put, we take credit for our successes and blame others or the situation for our mistakes.
A second problem is that cross-cultural studies often assume that each country has one culture.100 In reality, many countries have become culturally diverse. As more countries embrace globalization and multiculturalism, it becomes even less appropriate to assume that an entire country has one unified culture.
A third concern is that cross-cultural research and writing continues to rely on a major study conducted almost four decades ago of 116,000 IBM employees across dozens of countries. That study helped to ignite subsequent cross-cultural research, but its findings are becoming out of date as values in some cultures have shifted over the years. For example, value systems seem to be converging across Asia as people in these countries interact more frequently with each other and adopt standardized business practices.101 At least one recent review has recommended that future studies should no longer rely on the IBM study to benchmark values of a particular culture.
Self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when our expectations about another person cause that person to act in a way that is consistent with those expectations. In other words, our perceptions can influence reality.
Primacy Effect The primacy effect is our tendency to quickly form an opinion of people on the basis of the first information we receive about them.73 It is the notion that first impressions are lasting impressions. This rapid perceptual organization and interpretation occurs because we need to make sense of the world around us. The problem is that first impressions—particularly negative first impressions—are difficult to change. After categorizing someone, we tend to select subsequent information that supports our first impression and screen out information that opposes that impression.
Improving perceptions
We can't bypass the perceptual process, but we should try to minimize perceptual biases and distortions. Three potentially effective ways to improve perceptions include awareness of perceptual biases, self-awareness, and meaningful interaction
AWARENESS OF PERCEPTUAL BIASES
One of the most obvious and widely practised ways to reduce perceptual biases comes from being aware that they exist. For example, diversity awareness training tries to minimize discrimination by making people aware of systemic discrimination as well as prejudices that occur through stereotyping. This training also attempts to dispel myths about people from various cultural and demographic groups. Awareness of perceptual biases can reduce these biases to some extent by making people more mindful of their thoughts and actions. However, awareness training has only a limited effect.75 One problem is that teaching people to reject incorrect stereotypes has the unintended effect of reinforcing rather than reducing reliance on those stereotypes. Another problem is that diversity training is ineffective for people with deeply held prejudices against those groups.
Self-fulfilling-prophecy awareness training has also failed to live up to expectations.76 This training approach informs managers about the existence of the self-fulfilling prophecy effect and encourages them to engage in more positive rather than negative self-fulfilling prophecies. Unfortunately, research has found that managers continue to engage in negative self-fulfilling prophecies after they complete the training program.
IMPROVING SELF-AWARENESS
A more successful way to minimize perceptual biases is by increasing self-awareness.77 We need to become more aware of our beliefs, values, and attitudes and, from that insight, gain a better understanding of biases in our own decisions and behaviour. This self-awareness tends to reduce perceptual biases by making people more open-minded and nonjudgmental toward others. Self-awareness is equally important in other ways. The emerging concept of authentic leadership emphasizes self-awareness as the first step in a person's ability to effectively lead others (see Chapter 12). Essentially, we need to understand our own values, strengths, and biases as a foundation for building a vision and leading others toward that vision.78
But how do we become more self-aware? One approach is to complete formal tests that indicate any implicit biases we might have towards others. The Implicit Association Test (IAT) apparently reveals biases. Although the accuracy of the IAT is being hotly debated by scholars, it attempts to detect subtle racial, age, and gender bias by associating positive and negative words with specific demographic groups.79 Many people are much more cautious about their stereotypes and prejudices after discovering that their test results show a personal bias against older people or individuals from different ethnic backgrounds.80
Another way to reduce perceptual biases through increased self-awareness is by applying the Johari Window.82 Developed by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingram (hence the name “Johari”), this model of self-awareness and mutual understanding divides information about you into four “windows”—open, blind, hidden, and unknown—based on whether your own values, beliefs, and experiences are known to you and to others (see Exhibit 3.6). The open area includes information about you that is known both to you and to others. The blind area refers to information that is known to others but not to you. For example, your colleagues might notice that you are self-conscious and awkward when meeting the company chief executive, but you are unaware of this fact. Information known to you but unknown to others is found in the hidden area. Finally, the unknown area includes your values, beliefs, and experiences that aren't known to you or others
MEANINGFUL INTERACTION
The Johari Window relies on direct conversations about ourselves and others, whereas meaningful interaction is a more indirect, yet potentially powerful, approach to improving self-awareness and mutual understanding.84 Meaningful interaction is any activity in which people engage in valued (meaningful, not trivial) activities. The activities might be work-related, such as when senior executives work alongside frontline staff. Or the activities might occur outside the workplace, such as when sales staff from several countries participate in outdoor challenges.
Meaningful interaction is founded on the contact hypothesis,. This theory states that, under certain conditions, people who interact with each other will be less perceptually biased because they have a more personal understanding of the other person and their group.85 Simply spending time with members of other groups can improve this understanding to some extent. However, meaningful interaction is strongest when people work closely and frequently with each other on a shared goal that requires mutual cooperation and reliance. Furthermore, everyone should have equal status in that context, should be engaged in a meaningful task, and should have positive experiences with each other in those interactions.
Global Connections 3.1 describes several examples of meaningful interaction where executives work beside frontline staff or frontline staff work with employees in other parts of the organization. However, meaningful interaction events sometimes occur naturally. As an example, several years ago executives at Daishowa-Marubeni's Peace River Pulp Division in Alberta were working through difficult discussions with environmentalists. During those meetings, the river threatened to flood, so everyone got involved sandbagging the dyke. One Peace River Pulp executive vividly recalls the occasion, because he was sandbagging alongside one of the most active environmental critics. “We both looked at one another and I think we both realized we had more in common than we may have thought,” he says.86
Meaningful interaction reduces dependence on stereotypes because we gain better knowledge about individuals and experience their unique attributes in action. Meaningful interaction also potentially improves empathy toward others. Empathy refers to understanding and being sensitive to the feelings, thoughts, and situations of others.88 People empathize when they visualize themselves in the other person's place as if they are the other person. This perceptual experience is both cognitive and emotional, meaning that empathy is about understanding as well as feeling what the other person feels in that context. Empathizing with others improves our sensitivity to the external causes of another person's performance and behaviour, thereby reducing fundamental attribution error. A supervisor who imagines what it's like to be a single mother, for example, would become more sensitive to the external causes of lateness and other events among such employees. However, trying to empathize with others without spending time with them might actually increase rather than reduce stereotyping and other perceptual biases.
Equity theory
My notes
In the Japanese Restaurant where I worked couple of years ago as a waitress, I felt unfairly treated. I worked 45 hours per week and earned only 600 USD while a male employee earned 750 USD for 35 hours per week. I was putting much more effort and thought that I was underpaid only for the fact that I was a female employee.
I became more and more frustrated and my service quality began to decline. This problem created tension between me and my employer.
Eventually I had a meeting with my supervisor and explained him that my work with them gave me enormous stress. He told me that the male employee had two handicapped sons and the higher salary and less working hours meant to support his family. Certainly, I felt a relief but told him that I should have been informed earlier about this fact.
He told me that the confidentiality was an important reason not to disclose the information however the male employee was asked to allow the manager to tell me so that the problem could be resolved by explaining me the situation surrounding him. My manager at the time improved the situation by taking the step to ask the male employee if he could disclose the information about himself.
Textbook notes
Feelings of equity are explained by equity theory, which says that employees determine feelings of equity by comparing their own outcome/input ratio to the outcome/input ratio of some other person.86 As Exhibit 5.7 illustrates, the outcome/input ratio is the value of the outcomes you receive divided by the value of the inputs you provide in the exchange relationship. Inputs include such things as skill, effort, reputation, performance, experience, and hours worked. Outcomes are what employees receive from the organization, such as pay, promotions, recognition, interesting jobs, and opportunities to improve one's skills and knowledge.
EXHIBIT 5.7
Equity Theory Model
Equity theory states that we compare our outcome/input ratio with that of a comparison other.87 The comparison other might be another person or group of people in other jobs (e.g., comparing your pay with the CEO's pay) or another organization. Some research suggests that employees frequently collect information on several referents to form a “generalized” comparison other.88 For the most part, however, the comparison other varies from one person to the next and is not easily identifiable.
The comparison of our own outcome/input ratio with the ratio of someone else results in perceptions of equity, underreward in equity, or overreward inequity. In the equity condition, people believe that their outcome/input ratio is similar to the ratio of the comparison other. In the underreward inequity situation, people believe their outcome/input ratio is lower than the comparison other's ratio. In the overreward inequity condition, people believe their ratio of outcomes/inputs is higher than the comparison other's ratio.
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Inequity and Employee Motivation How do perceptions of equity or inequity affect employee motivation? The answer is illustrated in Exhibit 5.8. When people believe they are under- or overrewarded, they experience negative emotions (called inequity tension). As we have pointed out throughout this chapter, emotions are the engines of motivation. In the case of inequity, people are motivated to reduce the emotional tension. Most people have a strong emotional response when they believe a situation is unfair, and this emotion nags them until they take steps to correct the perceived inequity.
EXHIBIT 5.8
Motivational Effects of Inequity Perceptions
There are several ways to try to reduce the inequity tension.89 Let's consider each of these in the context of underreward inequity. One action is to reduce our inputs so the outcome/input ratio is similar to the higher-paid coworker. Some employees do this by working more slowly, offering fewer suggestions, and engaging in less organizational citizenship behaviour. A second action is to increase our outcomes. Some people who think they are underpaid ask for a pay raise. Others make unauthorized use of company resources. A third behavioural response is to increase the comparison other's inputs. You might subtly ask the better-paid coworker to do a larger share of the work, for instance. A fourth action is to reduce the comparison with other's outcomes. This might occur by ensuring that the coworker gets less desirable jobs or working conditions. Another action, although uncommon, is to ask the company to reduce the coworker's pay so it is the same as yours.
A fifth action is perceptual rather than behavioural. It involves changing our beliefs about the situation. For example you might believe that the coworker really is doing more (e.g., working longer hours) for that higher pay. Alternatively, we might change our perceptions of the value of some outcomes. For example, you might initially feel it is unfair that a coworker gets more work-related travel than you do, but later you conclude that this travel is more inconvenient than desirable. A sixth action to reduce the inequity tension is to change the comparison other. Rather than compare yourself with the higher-paid coworker, you might increasingly compare yourself with a friend or neighbour who works in a similar job. Finally, if the inequity tension is strong enough and can't be reduced through other actions, you might leave the field. This occurs by moving to another department, joining another company, or keeping away from the work site where the overpaid coworker is located.
Individual Differences: Equity Sensitivity People vary in their equity sensitivity, that is, how strongly they feel about outcome/input ratios with others.92 At one end of the equity sensitivity continuum are people who are tolerant of situations where they are underrewarded. They might still prefer equal outcome/input ratios, but they don't mind if others receive more than they do for the same inputs. In the middle are people who fit the standard equity theory model; they want their outcome/input ratio to be equal to the outcome/input ratio of the comparison other. At the other end of the equity sensitivity continuum are people who feel more comfortable when they receive proportionately more than others.
Evaluating Equity Theory Equity theory is widely studied and quite successful at predicting various situations involving feelings of workplace injustice.94 However, equity theory isn't so easy to put into practice because it doesn't identify the comparison other and doesn't indicate which inputs or outcomes are most valuable to each employee. The best solution here is for leaders to know their employees well enough to minimize the risk of inequity feelings. Open communication is also a key, enabling employees to let decision makers know when they feel decisions are unfair. A second problem is that equity theory accounts for only some of our feelings of fairness or justice in the workplace. Experts now say that procedural justice is at least as important as distributive justice.
Self-leadership practices
My notes
People working from home require self-leadership and self-discipline. Can this be learned or will only some people be motivated by the arrangement? Explain.
I believe that working from home can be definitely learned. It indeed requires self-leadership and self-discipline but these skills can be acquired by learning and practicing.
It is something to get used to since it is not a typical way of working. It is less likely to find someone known who works from home that could help or inspire. Therefore, it requires a lot of self-discipline to teach oneself.
I haven’t worked from home but I can relate to it by taking classes online. Prior to this course I have taken only one SFU online class and the other classes I took were at the Vancouver and Burnaby campuses. I am very used to the conventional way of learning by going to the classroom, listening to the teacher, asking questions etc. However, taking my first online course at SFU, I found it a little less motivating to self-teach myself instead of having an experienced teacher explaining everything in detail directly. It wasn't necessarily more difficult since the tasks were the same, but I seemed to prioritize other things and worked less on my online course. I then started to make my own schedule to work on it making sure that I put in certain hours to really learn every concept. Then I started getting used to taking online courses and this one being my second one, it has got much easier for me.
It is also very important to create the right environment to work. It would be ideal to have an office room that is clutter-free with no distractions. I believe that working in an environment that would simulate an actual office would be beneficial for being motivated. Though you would probably have more snacks and coffee breaks.
I think that anybody can be motivated to do it, if they acquired enough skills but I think that it would be more suitable for certain people such as travelers who don't want to live in a certain location since working from home gives you the flexibility to work anywhere in the world.
To answer this question, yes it can be learned and anyone can be motivated to do it.
I was planning to work as a graphic designer working from home. This chapter helped me learn how to be a successful self-leader.
Notes from textbook
Describe the five elements of self-leadership and identify specific personal and work environment influences on self-leadership.
Self-leadership is the process of influencing oneself to establish the self-direction and self-motivation needed to perform a task. This includes personal goal setting, constructive thought patterns, designing natural rewards, self-monitoring, and self-reinforcement. Constructive thought patterns include self-talk and mental imagery. Self-talk occurs in any situation in which a person talks to himself or herself about his or her own thoughts or actions. Mental imagery involves mentally practising a task and imagining successfully performing it beforehand. People with higher levels of conscientiousness, extroversion, and a positive self-concept are more likely to apply self-leadership strategies. It also increases in workplaces that support empowerment and have high trust between employees and management.
Self-Leadership Practices
Although self-leadership consists of several processes, the five main activities are identified in Exhibit 6.4. These elements, which generally follow each other in a sequence, are personal goal setting, constructive thought patterns, designing natural rewards, self-monitoring, and self-reinforcement.80
Personal Goal Setting
Personal Goal Setting The first step in self-leadership is to set goals for your own work effort. In self-leadership, these goals are self-determined, rather than being assigned by or jointly decided with a supervisor. Research suggests that employees are more focused and perform better when they set their own goals, particularly in combination with other self-leadership practices.81 Personal goal setting also requires a high degree of self-awareness, because people need to understand their current behaviour and performance before establishing meaningful goals for personal development.
Constructive Thought Patterns
Constructive Thought Patterns Before beginning a task and while performing it, employees should engage in positive (constructive) thoughts about that work and its accomplishment. In particular, employees are more motivated and better prepared to accomplish a task after they have engaged in positive self-talk and mental imagery.
Positive Self-Talk. Do you ever talk to yourself? Most of us do, according to a major study of Canadian college students.82 Self-talkrefers to any situation in which we talk to ourselves about our own thoughts or actions. The problem is that most self-talk is negative; we criticize much more than encourage or congratulate ourselves. Negative self-talk undermines our confidence and potential to perform a particular task. In contrast, positive self-talk creates a “can-do” belief and thereby increases motivation by raising our self-efficacy and reducing anxiety about challenging tasks.83 We often hear that professional athletes “psyche” themselves up before an important event. They tell themselves that they can achieve their goal and that they have practised enough to reach that goal. They are motivating themselves through self-talk.
Mental Imagery. You've probably heard the phrase “I'll cross that bridge when I come to it!” Self-leadership takes the opposite view. It suggests that we need to mentally practise a task and imagine successfully performing it beforehand. This process, known as mental imagery, has two parts. One part involves mentally practising the task, anticipating obstacles to goal accomplishment, and working out solutions to those obstacles before they occur. By mentally walking through the activities required to accomplish the task, we begin to see problems that may occur. We can then imagine what responses would be best for each contingency.84
While one part of mental imagery helps us to anticipate things that could go wrong, the other part involves visualizing successful completion of the task. You might imagine the experience of completing the task and the positive results that follow, such as being promoted, receiving a prestigious award, or taking time off work. This visualization increases goal commitment and motivates people to complete the task effectively. This is the strategy that Tony Wang applies to motivate himself. “Since I am in sales, I think about the reward I get for closing new business—the commission check—and the things it will allow me to do that I really enjoy,” explains the sales employee. “Or I think about the feeling I get when I am successful at something and how it makes me feel good, and use that to get me going.”85
Designing Natural Rewards
Designing Natural Rewards Self-leadership recognizes that employees actively craft their jobs. To varying degrees, they can alter tasks and work relationships to make the work more motivating.86 One way to build natural rewards into the job is to alter the way a task is accomplished. People often have enough discretion in their jobs to make slight changes to suit their needs and preferences.
Self-Monitoring
Self-Monitoring Self-monitoring is the process of keeping track at regular intervals of one's progress towards a goal by using naturally occurring feedback. Some people can receive feedback from the job itself, such as members of a lawn maintenance crew who can see how they are improving the appearance of their client's property. But many of us are unable to observe our work output so readily. Instead, many people need to design feedback systems. Salespeople might arrange to receive monthly reports on sales levels in their territory. Production staff might have gauges or computer feedback systems installed so they can see how many errors are made on the production line. Research suggests that people who have control over the timing of performance feedback perform their tasks better than do those with feedback assigned by others.87
Self-Reinforcement
Self-Monitoring Self-monitoring is the process of keeping track at regular intervals of one's progress towards a goal by using naturally occurring feedback. Some people can receive feedback from the job itself, such as members of a lawn maintenance crew who can see how they are improving the appearance of their client's property. But many of us are unable to observe our work output so readily. Instead, many people need to design feedback systems. Salespeople might arrange to receive monthly reports on sales levels in their territory. Production staff might have gauges or computer feedback systems installed so they can see how many errors are made on the production line. Research suggests that people who have control over the timing of performance feedback perform their tasks better than do those with feedback assigned by others.