Glossary

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Glossary Entries
Word(s)	Definition	Image	Caption	Link	Source
Sample Word 1	Sample Definition 1
360 assessment	An evaluation tool that collects feedback from manager, peers, direct reports, and customers.
9-box	A matrix tool used to evaluate an organization’s talent pool based on performance and potential factors.
ability	The knowledge, skills, and receptiveness to learning that an individual brings to a task or job.
abundance-based change	Leaders assume that employees will change if they can be inspired to aim for greater degrees of excellence in their work.
access discrimination	A catchall term that describes when people are denied employment opportunities because of their identity group or personal characteristics such as gender, race, or age.
access-and-legitimacy perspective	Focuses on the benefits that a diverse workforce can bring to a business that wishes to operate within a diverse set of markets or with culturally diverse clients.
adaptation	Technique of working with or around differences
Adhocracy culture	Creates an environment of innovating, visioning the future, accepting of managing change, and risk taking, rule-breaking, experimentation, entrepreneurship, and uncertainty.
Administrative orbiting	An ineffective strategy for resolving conflict.
Affect	Dealing with a person’s feelings toward the person or object.
Affective conflict	Seen in situations where two individuals simply don’t get along with each other.
age discrimination	Treating an employee or applicant less favorably due to their age.
Age Discrimination in Employment Act	Forbids discrimination against individuals who are age 40 and above, including offensive or derogatory remarks that create a hostile work environment.
ADEA	Forbids discrimination against individuals who are age 40 and above, including offensive or derogatory remarks that create a hostile work environment.
Alienation	The experience of being isolated from a group or an activity to which one should belong, or in which one should be involved.
ADA	Prohibits discrimination in employment, public services, public accommodations, and telecommunications against people with disabilities.
Americans with Disabilities Act	Prohibits discrimination in employment, public services, public accommodations, and telecommunications against people with disabilities.
angel investors	Individual investors or groups of experienced investors who provide venture financing from their own funds.
anxiety	A feeling of inability to deal with anticipated harm.
appreciative conversations	Intense, positively framed discussions that help people to develop common ground as they work together to cocreate a positive vision of an ideal future for their organization.
Appreciative Inquiry model	A model specifically designed as an abundance-based, bottom-up, positive approach.
Assertiveness	Can range from assertive to unassertive on one continuum.
Assessment center	Consists of a series of standardized evaluations of behavior based on multiple inputs.
Attitude	A predisposition to respond in a favorable or unfavorable way to objects or persons in one’s environment.
Attribution biases	Covers both the fundamental attribution error and the self-serving bias.
Attribution theory	Concerns the process by which an individual interprets events as being caused by a particular part of a relatively stable environment.
Authoritarianism	Refers to an individual’s orientation toward authority.
Authority	Represents the right to seek compliance by others.
Avoidance learning	Refers to seeking to avoid an unpleasant condition or outcome by following a desired behavior.
avoidance learning	Occurs when people learn to behave in a certain way to avoid encountering an undesired or unpleasant consequence.
Bases of power	The five bases of power are referent, expert, legitimate, reward, and coercive power.
Basic incongruity thesis	Consists of three parts: what individuals want from organizations, what organizations want from individuals, and how these two potentially conflicting sets of desires are harmonized.
BATNA	An acronym popularised by Roger Fisher and William Ury which stands for ‘Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement’. BATNA answers the question: ‘What would you do if you weren’t able to agree a deal with your negotiation counterparty?’ Your BATNA is the alternative action you’ll take should your proposed agreement fail to materialize.
Behavior modification	The use of operant conditioning principles to shape human behavior to conform to desired standards defined by superiors.
Behavioral conflict	Exists when one person or group does something that is unacceptable to others.
Behavioral criteria	Defining what constitutes acceptable behavior in terms that employees can understand in objective, measurable terms.
Behavioral dilemmas	The process of getting people to substitute what have been called low-probability behaviors for high-probability behaviors.
Behavioral justification	The need to ensure that one’s behaviors are consistent with their attitudes toward the event.
Behavioral observation scale	Identifies observable behaviors as they relate to performance and is less demanding of the evaluator.
Behavioral self-management	The use of operant conditioning principles to shape your own behavior to conform to desired standards defined by superiors.
Behaviorally anchored rating scale	A system that requires considerable work prior to evaluation but, if the work is carefully done, can lead to highly accurate ratings with high inter-rater reliability.
Body language	The manner in which people express their inner feelings subconsciously through physical actions such as sitting up straight versus being relaxed or looking people straight in the eye versus looking away from people.
boundaries	Lines that make the limits of an area; team boundaries separate the team from its external stakeholders
boundary conditions	Define the degree of discretion that is available to employees for self-directed action.
Bounded rationality	The concept that when we make decisions, we cannot be fully rational because we don’t have all the possible information or the cognitive processing ability to make fully informed, completely rational decisions.
Brainstorming	A process of generating as many ideas or alternatives as possible, often in groups.
Bureaucratic gamesmanship	A situation where the organizations own policies and procedures provide ammunition for power plays.
bureaucratic model	Max Weber’s model that states that organizations will find efficiencies when they divide the duties of labor, allow people to specialize, and create structure for coordinating their differentiated efforts within a hierarchy of responsibility.
burnout	A general feeling of exhaustion that can develop when a person simultaneously experiences too much pressure to perform and too few sources of satisfaction.
business model	Rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value.
business model canvas	A tool to describe and assess a business model, encompassing nine components: customer segments, value propositions, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partnerships, and cost structure.
Central tendency error	The failure to recognize either very good or very poor performers.
centralization	The concentration of control of an activity or organization under a single authority.
change agents	People in the organization who view themselves as agents who have discretion to act.
change management	The process of designing and implementing change.
Character assassination	An ineffective resolution technique where the person with a conflict attempts to discredit and distance an individual from the others in the group.
charisma	A special personal magnetic charm or appeal that arouses loyalty and enthusiasm in a leader-follower relationship.
charismatic leader	A person who possesses legitimate power that arises from “exceptional sanctity, heroism, or exemplary character.”
Clan culture	Focuses on relationships, team building, commitment, empowering human development, engagement, mentoring, and coaching.
Classical conditioning	The process whereby a stimulus-response bond is developed between a conditioned stimulus and a conditioned response through the repeated linking of a conditioned stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus.
Coalition	A situation where one unit can effectively increase its power by forming an alliance with other groups that share similar interests.
Coercive power	Involves forcing someone to comply with one’s wishes.
cognitive complexity	The ability to view situations from more than one cultural framework
Cognitive conflict	Can result when one person or group holds ideas or opinions that are inconsistent with those of others.
Cognitive consistency	The need for behavioral justification to ensure that a person’s behaviors are consistent with their attitudes toward an event.
Cognitive dissonance	Finding one’s self acting in a fashion that is inconsistent with their attitudes and experiencing tension and attempting to reduce this tension and return to a state of cognitive consistency.
cognitive diversity	Differences between team members regarding characteristics such as expertise, experiences, and perspectives.
cognitive diversity hypothesis	Multiple perspectives stemming from the cultural differences between group or organizational members result in creative problem-solving and innovation.
collaboration	The action of working with someone to produce or create something
Command group	A group that is permanent.
command-and-control	The way in which people report to one another or connect to coordinate their efforts in accomplishing the work of the organization.
communicator	The individual, group, or organization that needs or wants to share information with another individual, group, or organization.
Competencies	A set of defined behaviors that an organization might utilize to define standards for success.
Competing Values Framework	Developed by Kim Cameron and Robert Quinn this model is used for diagnosing an organization’s cultural effectiveness and examining its fit with its environment.
CAS	A model that views organizations as constantly developing and adapting to their environment, much like a living organism.
Complex Adaptive Systems	A model that views organizations as constantly developing and adapting to their environment, much like a living organism.
Complex-Stable environments	Environments that have a large number of external elements, and elements are dissimilar and where elements remain the same or change slowly.
Complex-Unstable environments	Environments that have a large number of external elements, and elements are dissimilar and where elements change frequently and unpredictably
Conditioned response	The process of conditioning through the repeated linking of a conditioned stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus.
Confirmation bias	The tendency to pay attention to information that confirms our existing beliefs and to ignore or discount information that conflicts with our existing beliefs.
Conflict	The four types of conflict are goal conflict, cognitive conflict, affective conflict, and behavioral conflict.
consideration	A “relationship-oriented” leader behavior that is supportive, friendly, and focused on personal needs and interpersonal relationships.
Constructive confrontation	A conflict that leads to a positive result.
content motivation theories	Theories that focus on what motivates people.
contingency theory of leadership	A theory advanced by Dr. Fred E. Fiedler that suggests that different leadership styles are effective as a function of the favorableness of the leadership situation least preferred.
Continuous reinforcement	Rewards desired behavior every time it occurs.
conventional mindset	Leaders assume that most people are inclined to resist change and therefore need to be managed in a way that encourages them to accept change.
Cooperativeness	The extent to which someone is interested in helping satisfy the opponent’s concerns.
Corporate culture	Defines how motivating employees’ beliefs, behaviors, relationships, and ways they work creates a culture that is based on the values the organization believes in.
corporate entrepreneurship	The creation of new products, processes, and ventures within large organizations.
Counterpower	Focuses on the extent to which person B has other sources of power to buffer the effects of person A’s power.
covert discrimination (interpersonal)	An interpersonal form of discrimination that manifests in ways that are not visible or readily identifiable.
Creativity	The generation of new or original ideas.
Critical incident technique	A technique where supervisors record incidents, or examples, of each subordinate’s behavior that led to either unusual success or unusual failure on some aspect of the job.
Critical thinking	A disciplined process of evaluating the quality of information, especially by identifying logical fallacies in arguments.
crowdfunding	Process of raising new venture funds from a large “crowd” audience, typically virtually from the Internet.
cultural intelligence	A skill that enables individuals to function effectively in cross-cultural environments
Culture	The collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one human group from another; the interactive aggregate of common characteristics that influences a human group’s response to its environment.
culture change	Involves reshaping and reimagining the core identity of the organization.
debt capital	Borrowed money that must be repaid at some agreed-upon future date.
Decision-making	The action or process of thinking through possible options and selecting one.
decoding	Interpreting and understanding and making sense of a message.
Decoupling	Involves separating two groups—physically or administratively—in such a way that the required tasks of the organization are fulfilled while the interaction between the two groups is minimized.
deep-level diversity	Diversity in characteristics that are nonobservable such as attitudes, values, and beliefs, such as religion.
deficit-based change	Leaders assume that employees will change if they know they will otherwise face negative consequences.
Dependability	Individuals who are seen as self-reliant, responsible, and consistent, are viewed as dependable.
design thinking	Processes used by designers and entrepreneurs to find the solution to complex issues, navigate new or uncertain environments, and create a new product for the world.
designated leader	The person placed in the leadership position by forces outside the group.
Devil’s advocate	A group member who intentionally takes on the role of being critical of the group’s ideas in order to discourage groupthink and encourage deep thought and discussion about issues prior to making decisions.
differentiation	The process of organizing employees into groups that focus on specific functions in the organization.
direction	What a person is motivated to achieve.
disability discrimination	Occurs when an employee or applicant is treated unfavorably due to their physical or mental disability.
discrimination-and-fairness perspective	A culturally diverse workforce is a moral duty that must be maintained in order to create a just and fair society.
Dispositional approach	Argues that attitudes represent relatively stable predispositions to respond to people or situations around them.
Distributive bargaining	Where the goals of one party are in fundamental and direct conflict with those of the other party. Resources are fixed and limited, and each party wants to maximize its share of these resources.
Distributive justice	Where employees receive (at least a portion of) their rewards as a function of their level of contribution to the organization.
disturbances	Can cause tension amongst employees, but can also be positive and a catalyst for change.
diversified mentoring relationships	Relationships in which the mentor and the mentee differ in terms of their status within the company and within larger society.
diversity	Identity-based differences among and between people that affect their lives as applicants, employees, and customers.
Divisional structure	An organizational structure characterized by functional departments grouped under a division head.
Dogmatism	Refers to a particular cognitive style that is characterized by closed-mindedness and inflexibility.
Domain	The purpose of the organization from which its strategies, organizational capabilities, resources, and management systems are mobilized to support the enterprise’s purpose.
Drive	An internal state of disequilibrium; it is a felt need. It is generally believed that drive increases with the strength of deprivation.
Due process nonaction	The strategy of wearing down a dissatisfied employee while at the same time claiming that resolution procedures are open and available. This technique has been used repeatedly in conflicts involving race and sex discrimination.
effort-performance expectancy	E1, the perceived probability that effort will lead to performance (or E ? P).
emergent leader	The person who becomes a group’s leader by virtue of processes and dynamics internal to the group.
emergent or bottom-up approach	Organizations exist as socially constructed systems in which people are constantly making sense of and enacting an organizational reality as they interact with others in a system.
Emotional intelligence	The ability to understand and manage emotions in oneself and in others.
emotional intelligence	The capability of individuals to recognize their own emotions and others’ emotions
Employee life cycle	The various stages of engagement of an employee—attraction, recruitment, onboarding, development, retention, separation.
Employer-employee relationship	The employment relationship; the legal link between employers and employees that exists when a person performs work or services under specific conditions in return for payment.
encoding	Translating a message into symbols or language that a receiver can understand.
entrepreneurs	Individuals who recognize and pursue opportunities, take on risk, and convert these opportunities into value-added ventures that can survive in a competitive marketplace.
entrepreneurship	The process of designing, launching, and running a new business.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission	An organization that enforces laws and issues guidelines for employment-related treatment according to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Equal Pay Act of 1963	An amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
equity capital	Owner’s investment in the company; does not have a specific date for repayment.
equity theory	States that human motivation is affected by the outcomes people receive for their inputs, compared to the outcomes and inputs of other people.
ERG theory	Compresses Maslow’s five need categories into three: existence, relatedness, and growth.
Escalation of commitment	The tendency of decision makers to remain committed to poor decision, even when doing so leads to increasingly negative outcomes.
established business owners	Individuals who are still active in a business that is more than three and a half years old.
Ethics	Moral principles that govern a person's behavior or the conducting of an activity.
Ethics	Values that help us determine appropriate standards of behavior and place limits on our behavior both inside and outside the organization.
Eustress	Beneficial stress.
Evidence-based decision-making	A process of collecting the best available evidence prior to making a decision.
Executive managers	Generally, a team of individuals at the highest level of management of an organization.
exit	Technique of last resort—removal of a team member
expectancy theory	Posits that people will exert high effort levels to perform at high levels so that they can obtain valued outcomes.
Expert power	Occurs when person A gains power because A has knowledge or expertise relevant to person B.
Extinction	The principle that suggests that undesired behavior will decline as a result of a lack of positive reinforcement.
extinction	Occurs when a consequence or lack of a consequence makes it less likely that a behavior will be repeated in the future.
extrinsic motivation	Occurs when a person performs a given behavior to acquire something that will satisfy a lower-order need.
extrinsic outcomes	Are awarded or given by other people (like a supervisor).
Extrinsic rewards	Rewards that are external to the work itself.
Extroversion	Refers to people who direct more of their attention to other people, objects, and events.
FMLA	Provides new parents, including adoptive and foster parents, with 12 weeks of unpaid leave (or paid leave only if earned by the employee) to care for the new child and requires that nursing mothers have the right to express milk on workplace premises.
Family and Medical Leave Act	Provides new parents, including adoptive and foster parents, with 12 weeks of unpaid leave (or paid leave only if earned by the employee) to care for the new child and requires that nursing mothers have the right to express milk on workplace premises.
family entrepreneurship	A business is owned and managed by multiple family members, usually for more than one generation.
figurehead role	A necessary role for a manager who wants to inspire people within the organization to feel connected to each other and to the institution, to support the policies and decisions made on behalf of the organization, and to work harder for the good of the institution.
first mover	Introducing a new product or service category first can potentially define an innovation’s characteristics in the minds of buyers, gaining valuable name recognition and brand loyalty.
First-line management	The level of management directly managing nonmanagerial employees.
flat organization	A horizontal organizational structure in which many individuals across the whole system are empowered to make organizational decisions.
Flexible benefits system	A rewards program where employees are allowed some discretion in the determination of their own packages and can make trade-offs, within certain limits.
Formal group	Work units that are prescribed by the organization.
formal leader	That individual who is recognized by those outside the group as the official leader of the group.
formal organization	A fixed set of rules of organizational procedures and structures.
formalization	The process of making a status formal for the practice of formal acceptance.
Forming	The first stage of team development—the positive and polite stage
Friendship group	Friendship groups tend to be long lasting.
Frustration	May be caused by a wide variety of factors, including disagreement over performance goals, failure to get a promotion or pay raise, a fight over scarce economic resources, new rules or policies, and so forth.
frustration	Refers to a psychological reaction to an obstruction or impediment to goal-oriented behavior.
Functional structure	The earliest and most used organizational designs.
Fundamental attribution error	The tendency to underestimate the effects of external or situational causes of behavior and to overestimate the effects of internal or personal causes.
Gain sharing	An incentive plan in which employees or customers receive benefits directly as a result of cost-saving measures that they initiate or participate in.
general adaptation syndrome	Consists of three stages: the first stage, alarm; the second stage of resistance; and the third stage, exhaustion.
Geographic structure	An Organizational option aimed at moving from a mechanistic to more organic design to serve customers faster and with relevant products and services; as such, this structure is organized by locations of customers that a company serves.
glass ceiling	An invisible barrier based on the prejudicial beliefs of organizational decision makers that prevents women from moving beyond certain levels within a company.
goal commitment	The degree to which people dedicate themselves to achieving a goal.
Goal conflict	Can occur when one person or group desires a different outcome than others do. This is simply a clash over whose goals are going to be pursued.
goal theory	States that people will perform better if they have difficult, specific, accepted performance goals or objectives.
Government and political environment forces	The global economy and changing political actions increase uncertainty for businesses, while creating opportunities for some industries and instability in others.
Graphic rating scale	A performance appraisal technique where the supervisor or rater is typically presented with a printed or online form that contains both the employee’s name and several evaluation dimensions (quantity of work, quality of work, knowledge of job, attendance). The rater is then asked to rate the employee by assigning a number or rating on each of the dimensions.
great man theory of leadership	The belief that some people are born to be leaders and others are not.
ground rules	Basic rules or principles of conduct that govern a situation or endeavor
Group	An organized system of two or more individuals who are interrelated so that the system performs some function, has a standard set of role relationships among its members, and has a set of norms that regulate the function of the group and each of its members.
Group cohesiveness	The extent to which individual members of a group are motivated to remain in the group.
group-level change	Centers on the relationships between people and focuses on helping people to work more effectively together.
Groupthink	The tendency of a group to reach agreement very quickly and without substantive discussion.
Habit	The experienced bond or connection between stimulus and response.
Halo effect	The influence of positive arbitrary biases.
harassment	Any unwelcome conduct that is based on characteristics such as age, race, national origin, disability, gender, or pregnancy status.
hardiness	Represents a collection of personality characteristics that involve one’s ability to perceptually or behaviorally transform negative stressors into positive challenges.
head, body, and heart	Techniques for becoming more adept in cross-cultural skills—learning about cultures (head), physical manifestations of culture (body), and emotional commitment to new culture (heart)
health promotion programs	Represent a combination of diagnostic, educational, and behavior modification activities that are aimed at attaining and preserving good health.
hedonism	Assumes that people are motivated to satisfy mainly their own needs (seek pleasure, avoid pain).
Heuristics	Mental shortcuts that allow a decision maker to reach a good decision quickly. They are strategies that develop based on prior experience.
hidden diversity	Differences in traits that are deep-level and may be concealed or revealed at discretion by individuals who possess them.
Hierarchy culture	Emphasizes efficiency, process and cost control, organizational improvement, technical expertise, precision, problem solving, elimination of errors, logical, cautious and conservative, management and operational analysis, careful decision making.
highly structured interviews	Interviews that are be structured objectively to remove bias from the selection process.
high-technology entrepreneurship	Ventures in the information, communication, and technology space; typically have high growth expectations.
Horizontal organizational structures	A “flatter” organizational structure often found in matrix organizations where individuals relish the breath and development that their team offers.
Human capital	The skills, knowledge, and experience of an individual or group, and that value to an organization.
Human resource management	The management of people within organizations, focusing on the touchpoints of the employee life cycle.
Human resources compliance	The HR role to ensure adherence to laws and regulations that govern the employment relationship.
hygienes	Factors in the work environment that are based on the basic human need to “avoid pain.”
identity group	A collective of individuals who share the same demographic characteristics such as race, sex, or age.
inclusion	The degree to which employees are accepted and treated fairly by their organization.
incremental change	Small refinements in current organizational practices or routines that do not challenge, but rather build on or improve, existing aspects and practices within the organization.
individual-level change	Focuses on how to help employees to improve some active aspect of their performance or the knowledge they need to continue to contribute to the organization in an effective manner.
Industrial competitiveness	The ability to provide products and services more effectively and efficiently than competitors.
Informal group	Groups that evolve naturally out of individual and collective self-interest among the members of an organization and are not the result of deliberate organizational design.
informal leader	That individual whom members of the group acknowledge as their leader.
informal organization	The connecting social structure in organizations that denotes the evolving network of interactions among its employees, unrelated to the firm's formal authority structure.
Information flow	To be successful, groups need the appropriate amount of information.
initiating structure	A “task-oriented” leader behavior that is focused on goal attainment, organizing and scheduling work, solving problems, and maintaining work processes.
input	Any personal qualities that a person views as having value and that are relevant to the organization.
instincts	Our natural, fundamental needs, basic to our survival.
Instrumental values	Represent those values concerning the way we approach end-states and whether individuals believe in ambition, cleanliness, honesty, or obedience.
integration-and-learning perspective	Posits that the different life experiences, skills, and perspectives that members of diverse cultural identity groups possess can be a valuable resource in the context of work groups.
Integrative bargaining	A negotiation strategy in which parties collaborate to find a "win-win" solution to their dispute. This strategy focuses on developing mutually beneficial agreements based on the interests of the disputants.
intensity	(1) The degree to which people try to achieve their targets; (2) the forcefulness that enhances the likelihood that a stimulus will be selected for perceptual processing.
intentionality	The degree to which the change is intentionally designed or purposefully implemented.
interaction attentiveness/ interaction involvement	A measure of how the receiver of a message is paying close attention and is alert or observant.
Interaction process analysis	A technique that records who says what to whom, and through using it illustrates that smaller groups typically exhibit greater tension, agreement, and opinion seeking, whereas larger groups show more tension release and giving of suggestions and information.
Interest group	A network that forms due to mutual interests such as working women or minority managers.
Intergroup conflict	Usually involves disagreements between two opposing forces over goals or the sharing of resources.
Internal dimensions of organizations	How an organization’s culture affects and influences its strategy.
Interorganizational conflict	Disputes between two companies in the same industry, two companies in different industries or economic sectors, or two or more countries.
Interpersonal conflict	Where two individuals disagree on some matter.
Intrapersonal conflict	A conflict within one person.
Intrinsic motivation	The desire to do a task because you enjoy it.
intrinsic outcomes	Are awarded or given by people to themselves (such as a sense of achievement).
Intrinsic rewards	Rewards that are external to the work itself.
Introversion	Refers to people who focus their energies inwardly and have a greater sensitivity to abstract feelings.
invisible social identities	Membership in an identity group based on hidden diversity traits such as sexual orientation or a nonobservable disability that may be concealed or revealed.
Job involvement	Refers to the extent to which a person is interested in and committed to assigned tasks.
Job satisfaction	A pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experience.
Jurisdictional ambiguities	Situations where it is unclear exactly where responsibility for something lies.
justification-suppression model	Explains under what conditions individuals act on their prejudices.
knowledge economy	The information society, using knowledge to generate tangible and intangible values
Kotter’s change model	An overall framework for designing a long-term change process.
latent needs	Cannot be inferred from a person’s behavior at a given time, yet the person may still possess those needs.
Law of effect	States that of several responses made to the same situation, those that are accompanied or closely followed by satisfaction (reinforcement) will be more likely to occur; those that are accompanied or closely followed by discomfort (punishment) will be less likely to occur.
Leadership	The ability of one individual to elicit responses from another person that go beyond required or mechanical compliance.
Least-preferred coworker (LPC)	The person with whom the leader least likes to work.
Legitimate power	Exists when person B submits to person A because B feels that A has a right to exert power in a certain domain.
Leniency error	Fails to distinguish adequately between good and bad performers and instead relegates almost everyone to the same or related categories.
level of organization	The breadth of the systems that need to be changed within an organization.
Lewin’s change model	Explains a very basic process that accompanies most organizational changes.
lifestyle entrepreneurship	Creating a venture to suit a personal lifestyle and not for the sole purpose of making profits.
Linking role	A position or unit within the organization that is charged with overseeing and coordinating the activities of two or more groups.
Locus of control	Refers to the tendency among individuals to attribute the events affecting their lives either to their own actions or to external forces; it is a measure of how much you think you control your own destiny.
Long-range planning	A process of setting goals that outlines the path for the company's future.
Lump-sum pay increase	A technique that allows employees to decide how (that is, in what amounts) they wish to receive their pay raises for the coming year.
Macro-organizational behavior	Macro-organizational behavioral research steps back and looks at an organization as a whole.
managed change	How leaders in an organization intentionally shape shifts that occur in the organization when market conditions shift, supply sources change, or adaptations are introduced in the processes for accomplishing work over time.
Management	The process of planning, organizing, directing, and controlling the activities of employees in combination with other resources to accomplish organizational objectives.
Management by objectives	Closely related to the goal-setting theory of motivation.
managerial intervention	Technique of making decisions by management and without team involvement
managing diversity	Ways in which organizations seek to ensure that members of diverse groups are valued and treated fairly within organizations.
manifest needs	Are needs motivating a person at a given time.
manifest needs theory	Assumes that human behavior is driven by the desire to satisfy needs.
Market culture	Focuses on delivering value, competing, delivering shareholder value, goal achievement, driving and delivering results, speedy decisions, hard driving through barriers, directive, commanding, competing and getting things done.
Matrix structure	An organizational structure close in approach to organic systems that attempt to respond to environmental uncertainty, complexity, and instability.
McKinsey 7-S model	A popular depiction of internal organizational dimensions.
mechanistic bureaucratic structure	Describes organizations characterized by (1) centralized authority, (2) formalized procedures and practices, and (3) specialized functions. They are usually resistant to change.
Mechanistic organizational structures	Best suited for environments that range from stable and simple to low-moderate uncertainty and have a formal “pyramid’ structure.
Mental abilities	An individual’s intellectual capabilities and are closely linked to how a person makes decisions and processes information. Included here are such factors as verbal comprehension, inductive reasoning, and memory.
Merit matrix	A calculation table that provides a framework for merit increases based on performance levels.
Micro-organizational behavior	Micro-organizational behavioral studies focus on individual and group dynamics within an organization.
Middle management	The managers in an organization at a level just below that of senior executives.
mining	To delve in to extract something of value; a technique for generating discussion instead of burying it
model minority myth	A stereotype that portrays Asian men and women as obedient and successful and is often used to justify socioeconomic disparities between other racial minority groups.
motivation	A force within or outside of the body that energizes, directs, and sustains human behavior. Within the body, examples might be needs, personal values, and goals, while an incentive might be seen as a force outside of the body. The word stems from its Latin root movere, which means “to move.”
motivators	Relate to the jobs that people perform and people’s ability to feel a sense of achievement as a result of performing them.
motive	A source of motivation; the need that a person is attempting to satisfy.
nascent entrepreneurs	Individuals who have set up a business they will own or co-own that is less than three months old and has not yet generated wages or salaries for the owners.
national origin discrimination	Treating someone unfavorably because of their country of origin, accent, ethnicity, or appearance.
Natural disaster and human induced environmental problems	Events such as high-impact hurricanes, extreme temperatures and the rise in CO2 emissions as well as ‘man-made’ environmental disasters such as water and food crises; biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse; large-scale involuntary migration are a force that affects organizations.
need	A human condition that becomes energized when people feel deficient in some respect.
need for achievement	The need to excel at tasks, especially tasks that are difficult.
need for affiliation	The need to establish and maintain warm and friendly relationships with other people.
need for power	The need to control things, especially other people; reflects a motivation to influence and be responsible for other people.
negative reinforcement	Occurs when a behavior causes something undesirable to be removed, increasing the likelihood of the behavior reoccurring.
Negotiation	The process by which individuals or groups attempt to realize their goals by bargaining with another party who has at least some control over goal attainment.
Networked-team structure	A form of the horizontal organization.
new business owners	Former nascent entrepreneurs who are actively involved in a business for more than three months but less than three and a half years.
noise	Anything that interferes with the communication process.
Nonprogrammed decisions	Decisions that are novel and not based on well-defined or known criteria.
nonreinforcement	Occurs when no consequence follows a worker’s behavior.
Normative power	Rests on the beliefs of the members in the right of the organization to govern their behavior.
Norming	The third stage of team development—when team resolves its differences and begins making progress
Norms	These regulate the function of the group and each of its members.
OD consultant	Someone who has expertise in change management processes.
Operant conditioning	Measures the effects of reinforcements, or rewards, on desired behaviors.
operant conditioning theory	Posits that people learn to behave in a particular fashion as a result of the consequences that followed their past behaviors.
organic bureaucratic structure	Used in organizations that face unstable and dynamic environments and need to quickly adapt to change.
Organic organizational structures	The opposite of a functional organizational form that works best in unstable, complex changing environments.
organization development (OD)	Techniques and methods that managers can use to increase the adaptability of their organization.
Organization theory	The study of organization designs and organization structures, relationship of organizations with their external environment, and the behavior of managers and workers within organizations.
Organizational behavior	The study of the actions and attitudes of individuals and groups toward one another and toward the organization as a whole.
Organizational change	The movement that organizations take as they move from one state to a future state.
Organizational commitment	Represents the relative strength of an individual’s identification with and involvement in an organization.
Organizational design	A formal methodology that identifies dysfunctional aspects of workflow, procedures, structures and systems, and then realigns them to fit current business goals and develops plans to implement change.
organizational development (OD)	Specialized field that focuses on how to design and manage change.
Organizational processes	The activities that establish the business goals of the organization and develop processes, product and resource assets that when used will help to achieve business goals.
Organizational structures	A broad term that covers both mechanistic and organic organizational structures.
organization-level change	A change that affects an entire organizational system or several of its units.
outcome	Anything a person perceives as getting back from an organization in exchange for the person’s inputs.
overreward inequity	Occurs when people perceive their outcome/input ratio to be greater than that of their referent other.
paradox	A self-contradictory statement or situation
Partial reinforcement	Rewards desired behavior at specific intervals, not every time desired behavior is exhibited.
Participative pay decisions	Involving employees in pay raise decisions.
participatory management	Includes employees in deliberations about key business decisions.
passing	The decision to not disclose one’s invisible social identity.
path-goal theory of leadership	A theory that posits that leadership is path- and goal-oriented, suggesting that different leadership styles are effective as a function of the task confronting the group.
Pay-for-performance model	The process and structure for tying individual performance levels to rewards levels
Perception	The process by which one screens, selects, organizes, and interprets stimuli to give them meaning.
Perceptual defense	A defense that perceives emotionally disturbing or threatening stimuli as having a higher recognition threshold than neutral stimuli. Such stimuli are likely to elicit substitute perceptions that are radically altered so as to prevent recognition of the presented stimuli that arouse emotional reactions even though the stimuli are not recognized.
Perceptual organization	When meaning has been attached to an object, individuals are in a position to determine an appropriate response or reaction to it.
Perceptual selectivity	Refers to the process by which individuals select objects in the environment for attention.
Performance appraisals	A system that provides a means of systematically evaluating employees across various performance dimensions to ensure that organizations are getting what they pay for.
Performance audit	Aims to identify discrepancies between what management sees as desired or acceptable behavior and actual behavior.
performance environment	Refers to those factors that impact employees’ performance but are essentially out of their control.
Performance management	The process by which an organization ensures that its overall goals are being met by evaluating the performance of individuals within that organization.
performance-outcome expectancy	E2, the perceived relationship between performance and outcomes (or P ? O).
Performing	The fourth stage of team development—when hard work leads to the achievement of the team’s goal
personal control	Represents the extent to which an employee actually has control over factors affecting effective job performance.
Personal values	Represent an important force in organizational behavior for several reasons.
Personality	A stable set of characteristics and tendencies that determine those communalities and differences in the psychological behavior (thoughts, feelings, and actions) of people that have continuity in time and that may not be easily understood as the sole result of the social and biological pressures of the moment.
Physical abilities	Basic functional abilities such as strength, and psychomotor abilities such as manual dexterity, eye-hand coordination, and manipulation skills.
planned change	An intentional activity or set of intentional activities that are designed to create movement toward a specific goal or end.
Politics	Involves those activities taken within an organization to acquire, develop, and use power and other resources to attain preferred outcomes in a situation in which there is uncertainty and disagreement over choices.
Pooled interdependence	Occurs when various groups are largely independent of each other, even though each contributes to and is supported by the larger organization.
positive or appreciative mindset	Leaders assume that people are inclined to embrace change when they are respected as individuals with intrinsic worth, agency, and capability.
Positive reinforcement	Consists of presenting someone with an attractive outcome following a desired behavior.
potential entrepreneurs	Individuals who believe that they possess the capacity and knowledge to start a business.
Power	The probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a position to carry out his own will despite resistance.
Power dependencies	A state where all people are not subject to (or dependent upon) the same bases of power.
pregnancy discrimination	Treating an employee or applicant unfairly because of pregnancy status, childbirth, or medical conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth.
Pregnancy Discrimination Act	Prohibits any discrimination as it relates to pregnancy in hiring, firing, compensation, training, job assignment, insurance, or any other employment conditions.
primary needs	Are instinctual in nature and include physiological needs for food, water, and sex (procreation).
Process conflict	Conflict about the best way to do something; conflict that is task-oriented and constructive, and not focused on the individuals involved.
process motivation theories	Theories that focus on the how and why of motivation.
Product structures	Occurs when businesses organize their employees according to product lines or lines of business.
Programmed decisions	Decisions that are repeated over time and for which an existing set of rules can be developed.
Psychomotor abilities	Examples are manual dexterity, eye-hand coordination, and manipulation skills.
Punishment	The administration of unpleasant or adverse outcomes as a result of undesired behavior.
race discrimination	Treating employees or applicants unfairly because of their race or because of physical characteristics typically associated with race such as skin color, hair color, hair texture, or certain facial features.
rate of life change	The variety of life events were identified and assigned points based upon the extent to which each event is related to stress and illness.
Reactive system	System of decision-making in the brain that is quick and intuitive.
real-time permission	A technique for recognizing when conflict is uncomfortable, and giving permission to continue
receiver	The individual, group, or organization for which information is intended.
Recency error	Occurs when, in an evaluation, a supervisor may give undue emphasis to performance during the past months—or even weeks—and ignore performance levels prior to this.
Reciprocal determinism	This concept implies that people control their own environment as much as the environment controls people.
Reciprocal interdependence	Occurs when two or more groups depend on one another for inputs.
referent others	Workers that a person uses to compare inputs and outcomes, and who perform jobs similar in difficulty and complexity to the employee making an equity determination.
Referent power	A state where allegiance is based on interpersonal attraction of one individual for another.
Reflective system	System of decision-making in the brain that is logical, analytical, and methodical.
Reinforcement	Anything that causes a certain behavior to be repeated or inhibited.
Relationship conflict	Conflict between individuals that is based on personal (or personality) differences; this type of conflict tends to be destructive rather than constructive.
Reliability	The extent to which the instrument consistently yields the same results each time it is used.
religious discrimination	When employees or applicants are treated unfairly because of their religious beliefs.
Resistance price	The point beyond which the opponent will not go to reach a settlement.
Resource dependence	When one subunit of an organization controls a scarce resource that is needed by another subunit, that subunit acquires power.
resource-based view	Demonstrates how a diverse workforce can create a sustainable competitive advantage for organizations.
Response disposition	The tendency to recognize familiar objects more quickly than unfamiliar ones.
Response salience	The tendency to focus on objects that relate to our immediate needs or wants.
revealing	The decision to disclose one’s invisible social identity.
reverse discrimination	Describes a situation in which dominant group members perceive that they are experiencing discrimination based on their race or sex.
Reward power	Exists when person A has power over person B because A controls rewards that B wants. These rewards can cover a wide array of possibilities, including pay raises, promotions, desirable job assignments, more responsibility, new equipment, and so forth.
Role ambiguity	A condition that arises when messages sent to an individual may be unclear.
Role conflict	A condition that can arise when individuals receive multiple and sometimes conflicting messages from various groups, all attempting to assign them a particular role.
Role episode	An attempt to explain how a particular role is learned and acted upon.
Role overload	A condition where individuals may simply receive too many role-related messages.
role perceptions	The set of behaviors employees think they are expected to perform as members of an organization.
Role set	The sum total of all the roles assigned to one individual.
role underutilization	Occurs when employees are allowed to use only a few of their skills and abilities, even though they are required to make heavy use of them.
Satisficing	Choosing the first acceptable solution to minimize time spent on a decision.
schedules of reinforcement	The frequency at which effective employee behaviors are reinforced.
schema theory	Explains how individuals encode information about others based on their demographic characteristics.
scope of change	The degree to which the required change will disrupt current patterns and routines.
second movers	Second-to-market organization that can learn from and improve on the first mover’s efforts.
secondary needs	Are learned throughout one’s life span and are psychological in nature.
Selective perception	The process by which we systematically screen out information we don’t wish to hear, focusing instead on more salient information.
self-determination theory (SDT)	Seeks to explain not only what causes motivation, but also the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation.
self-efficacy	A belief about the probability that one can successfully execute some future action or task, or achieve some result.
Self-esteem	One’s opinion or belief about one’s self and self-worth.
Self-regulation	The belief that individuals are capable of self-control if they want to change their behavior.
Self-reinforcement	The stage in Kanfer’s model where, by evaluating the situation and taking corrective action if necessary, one would assure themselves that the disruptive influence had passed and everything was now fine.
Self-serving bias	The tendency for individuals to attribute success on an event or project to their own actions while attributing failure to others.
Self-talk	The process of convincing ourselves that the desired outcome is indeed possible.
Sequential interdependence	Exists when the outputs of one unit or group become the inputs for another.
serial or habitual entrepreneurship	Individuals who start several businesses, simultaneously or one after another.
sex-based discrimination	When employees or applicants are treated unfairly because of their sex, including unfair treatment due to gender, transgender status, or sexual orientation.
sexual harassment	Harassment based on a person’s sex, and can (but does not have to) include unwanted sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or physical and verbal acts of a sexual nature.
Shaping	The process of improving performance incrementally, step by step.
similarity-attraction paradigm	Individuals’ preferences for interacting with others like themselves can result in diversity having a negative effect on group and organizational outcomes.
Simple-Stable environments	Environments that have a small number of external elements, and elements are similar, and the elements remain the same or change slowly.
Simple-Unstable environments	Environments that have a small number of external elements, and elements are similar and where elements change frequently and unpredictably.
Situational approach	This approach argues that attitudes emerge as a result of the uniqueness of a given situation.
Skills-based incentives	Rewards employees on the basis of the skills they possess and not just the skills they are allowed to use at work.
social entrepreneurship	Creating innovative solutions to immediate social and/or environment problems and mobilizing resources to achieve social transformation.
social identity theory	Self-concept based on an individual’s physical, social, and mental characteristics.
Social learning theory	The process of molding behavior through the reciprocal interaction of a person’s cognitions, behavior, and environment.
Social loafing	A tendency for individual group members to reduce their effort on a group task.
Social perception	Consists of those processes by which we perceive other people.
social support	The extent to which organization members feel their peers can be trusted, are interested in one another’s welfare, respect one another, and have a genuine positive regard for one another.
Social-information-processing approach	Asserts that attitudes result from “socially constructed realities” as perceived by the individual.
Society for Human Resource Management	The world’s largest HR professional society, with more than 285,000 members in more than 165 countries. It is a leading provider of resources serving the needs of HR professionals.
Socio-cultural environment forces	Include different generations’ values, beliefs, attitudes and habits, customs and traditions, habits and lifestyles.
span of control	The scope of the work that any one person in the organization will be accountable for.
specialization	The degree to which people are organized into subunits according to their expertise—for example, human resources, finance, marketing, or manufacturing.
Stakeholders	Individuals or groups who are impacted by the organization. These include owners, employees, customers, suppliers, and members of the community in which the organization is located.
state of equity	Occurs when people perceive their outcome/input ratio to be equal to that of their referent other.
Status incongruence	A situation that exists when a person is high on certain valued dimensions but low on others, or when a person’s characteristics seem inappropriate for a particular job.
Status inconsistencies	Situations where some individuals have the opportunity to benefit whereas other employees do not. Consider the effects this can have on the nonmanagers’ view of organizational policies and fairness.
Status system	Serves to differentiate individuals on the basis of some criterion or set of criteria.
stereotypes	Overgeneralization of characteristics about groups that are the basis for prejudice and discrimination.
Stereotyping	A tendency to assign attributes to people solely on the basis of their class or category.
Storming	The second stage of team development—when people are pushing against the boundaries
strain	The damage resulting from experiencing stress.
strategic change	A change, either incremental or transformational, that helps align an organization’s operations with its strategic mission and objectives.
Strategic contingencies	A requirement of the activities of one subunit that is affected by the activities of other subunits.
strategic human resources management (SHRM)	System of activities arranged to engage employees in a manner that assists the organization in achieving a sustainable competitive advantage.
stress	A physical and emotional reaction to potentially threatening aspects of the environment.
Strictness error	Fails to distinguish adequately between good and bad performers and instead relegates almost everyone to the same or related categories.
structural change	Changes in the overall formal relationships, or the architecture of relationships, within an organization.
structural intervention	Technique of reorganizing to reduce friction on a team
Succession planning	The process of identifying and developing new leaders and high-potential employees to replace current employees at a future time.
Suppression of dissent	When a group member exerts his or her power to prevent others from voicing their thoughts or opinions.
surface-level diversity	Diversity in the form of characteristics of individuals that are readily visible, including, but not limited to, age, body size, visible disabilities, race, or sex.
Symbolic coding	When people try to associate verbal or visual stimuli with the problem.
Talent acquisition	The process of finding and acquiring skilled candidates for employment within a company; it generally refers to a long-term view of building talent pipelines, rather than short-term recruitment.
Talent development	Integrated HR processes that are created to attract, develop, motivate, and retain employees.
Talent review calibration process	The meeting in which an organization’s 9-box matrix is reviewed and discussed, with input and sharing from organizational leadership.
Task force	Serves the same purpose as a linking role except that the role is temporary instead of permanent.
Task group	Serves the same purpose as a command role except that the role is temporary instead of permanent.
Task interdependencies	The greater the extent of task interdependence among individuals or groups, the greater the likelihood of conflict if different expectations or goals exist among entities, in part because the interdependence makes avoiding the conflict more difficult.
Task uncertainty	When groups are working on highly uncertain tasks, the need for communication increases. When task uncertainty is low, less information is typically needed.
technological change	Implementation of new technologies often forces organizations to change.
Technological forces	Environmental influence on organizations where speed, price, service, and quality of products and services are dimensions of organizations’ competitive advantage in this era.
Technology	The application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes.
Terminal values	End-state goals that we prize.
Theory	A set of principles on which the practice of an activity is based.
Third-party consultation	An outside consultant that serves as a go-between and can speak more directly to the issues because she is not a member of either group.
tolerance for ambiguity	Individuals measure and affect by role ambiguity (in terms of stress, reduced performance, or propensity to leave) than others with a low tolerance for ambiguity.
top-down change	Relies on mechanistic assumptions about the nature of an organization.
Total rewards strategy	As coined by World at Work, includes compensation, benefits, work-life effectiveness, recognition, performance management, and talent development.
Training, stretch assignments, individual assessments, individual development plans	These are tools that may be used in talent development:
transformational change	Significant shifts in an organizational system that may cause significant disruption to some underlying aspect of the organization, its processes, or its structures.
transformational leader	A leader who moves and changes things “in a big way” by inspiring others to perform the extraordinary.
treatment discrimination	A situation in which people are employed but are treated differently while employed, mainly by receiving different and unequal job-related opportunities or rewards.
Type A personality	Type A personality is characterized by impatience, restlessness, aggressiveness, competitiveness, polyphasic activities, and being under considerable time pressure.
Unconditioned response	From classical conditioning, a response to an unconditioned stimulus that is naturally evoked by that stimulus.
underreward inequity	Occurs when people perceive their outcome/input ratio to be less than that of their referent other.
unplanned change	An unintentional activity that is usually the result of informal organizing.
Utilitarian power	Power based on performance-reward contingencies; for example, a person will comply with a supervisor in order to receive a pay raise or promotion.
valences	The degree to which a person perceives an outcome as being desirable, neutral, or undesirable.
Validity	The extent to which an instrument actually measures what it intends to measure.
venture capital	Financing obtained from venture capitalists, investment firms that specialize in financing small, high-growth companies and receive an ownership interest and a voice in management in return for their investment.
vertical organizational structure	Organizational structures found in large mechanistic organizations; also called “tall” structures due to the presence of many levels of management.
Vicarious learning	Learning that takes place through the imitation of other role models.
Virtual structure	A recent organizational structure that has emerged in the 1990’s and early 2000’s as a response to requiring more flexibility, solution based tasks on demand, less geographical constraints, and accessibility to dispersed expertise.
visionary leader	A leader who influences others through an emotional and/or intellectual attraction to the leader’s dreams of what “can be.”
War for talent	Coined by McKinsey & Company in 1997, it refers to the increasing competition for recruiting and retaining talented employees.
Work	All activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result.
Work centrality	The more interconnected subunit A is with other subunits in the organization, the more central it is.
Work ethic	Refers to the strength of one’s commitment and dedication to hard work, both as an end in itself and as a means to future rewards.
work motivation	The amount of effort a person exerts to achieve a level of job performance
Work role	An expected behavior pattern assigned or attributed to a particular position in the organization.
Work technology	Includes the equipment and materials used in manufacture, the prescribed work procedures, and the physical layout of the work site.
Work to rule	Occurs when employees diligently follow every work rule and policy statement to the letter; this typically results in the organization’s grinding to a halt as a result of the many and often conflicting rules and policy statements.
work visa	A temporary documented status that authorizes individuals from other countries to permanently or temporarily live and work in the United States.
Workflow immediacy	Relates to the speed and severity with which the work of one subunit affects the final outputs of the organization.
Workflow pervasiveness	The degree to which the actual work of one subunit is connected with the work of the subunits.
working group	Group of experts working together to achieve specific goals; performance is made up of the individual results of all members
workplace discrimination	Unfair treatment in the job hiring process or at work that is based on the identity group, physical or mental condition, or personal characteristic of an applicant or employee.