2.8: Glossary
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Authoritarianism Refers to an individual’s orientation toward authority.
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.
Cognitive complexity Represents a person’s capacity to acquire and sort through various pieces of information from the environment and organize them in such a way that they make sense.
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.
Dependability Individuals who are seen as self-reliant, responsible, and consistent, are viewed as dependable.
Dogmatism Refers to a particular cognitive style that is characterized by closed-mindedness and inflexibility.
Ethics Values that help us determine appropriate standards of behavior and place limits on our behavior both inside and outside the organization.
Extroversion Refers to people who direct more of their attention to other people, objects, and events.
Instrumental values Represent those values concerning the way we approach end-states and whether individuals believe in ambition, cleanliness, honesty, or obedience.
Introversion Refers to people who focus their energies inwardly and have a greater sensitivity to abstract feelings.
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.
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.
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.
Psychomotor abilities Examples are manual dexterity, eye-hand coordination, and manipulation skills.
Self-esteem One’s opinion or belief about one’s self and self-worth.
Terminal values End-state goals that we prize.
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.