OB Notes Chapter 3Self-Concept: How We Perceive OurselvesSelf-conceptrefers to an individual’s self-beliefs and self-evaluations.3It is the “Who am I?” and “How do I feel about myself?” that people ask themselves and that guide their decisions and actions.Whether contemplating a career in information technology or any other occupation, we compare our images of that job with our current (perceived self) and desired (ideal self) images of ourselves. We also evaluate our current and desired abilities to determine whether there is a good fit with that type of work. Our self-concept is definedat three levels: individual, relational, and collective.Specifically, we view ourselves in terms of our personal traits (individual self), connections to friends and coworkers (relational self), and membership in teams, organizations, social groups, and other entities (collective self).Self-Concept Complexity, Consistency, and ClarityAn individual’s self-concept can be described by three characteristics: complexity, consistency, and clarity (seeExhibit 3.1).Complexityrefers to the number of distinct and important roles or identities that people perceive about themselves.5Everyone has multiple selves; that is, each person views himself or herself in different roles at various times (student, friend, daughter, sports fan, etc.). People are generally motivated to increase their complexity (calledself-expansion) as they seek out new opportunities and social connections. A person’s self-concept becomes morecomplex, for example, as he or she moves from being an accountant to a manager because the person has acquired additional roles. Self-concept complexity isn’t just how many identities a person considers; it is also the separation of those identities. An individual may have many identities, but his or her self-concept has low complexity when those identities are highly interconnected, such as when they are all work related (manager, engineer, family income earner). Complexity is higher when the multiple identities are linked to fairly distinct spheres of life.
refers to an individuals self-beliefs and self evaluation; The Who am I, and, How do I feel about myself
what levels are our self concept defined at
individual, relational, collective
in terms of our personal traits
connections to friends and coworkers
membership in teams, organization, social groups, other entities
what can an individual's self-concept be described by
complexity, consistency, clarity
refers to the number of distinct and important roles or identities that people perceive about themselves; more than one because different roles at different times
high consistency exists when the individual identities are compatible with each other and with the person's actual personality and values; low consistency occurs when some self views require personal characteristics that conflict with attributes required for other self views
the degree to which a person's self concept is clear, confidently defined, and stable; confident about who we are
when individuals rate themselves above average; better than average probability of success, attribute their success to personal motivation or ability while blaming situation for their mistakes
positive of self enhancement
tend to experience better mental and physical health and have more of a "can do" attitude
negatives of self enhancement
overestimate future returns in investment, engage in unsafe behavior; repeating poor decisions
confirm and maintain their existing self concept; stabilizes an individuals self view, which in turn provides an important anchor that guides his or her thoughts and actions; different because it seeks feedback
pieces of self verification
more likely to remember information that is consistent with their self-concept, high self concept will dismiss feedback that contradicts that, prefer interacting with those who affirm their self views
defined by three elements; self esteem, self efficacy, locus of control
the extent to which people like, respect, and a re satisfied with themselves; high self esteem are less influenced by others
refers to a persons belief about successfully completing a task; high has a "can do" attitude
defined by a persons general beliefs about the amount of control he or she has over personal life events; internal means caused by personal characteristics, eternal means fate, luck, conditions, etc.
two opposing human motives; be distinctive and different from other people, inclusion and assimilation with other people
says that people define themselves by the groups to which they belong or have an emotional attachment
the mostly non conscious process of organizing people and objects into preconceived categories that are store in our long term memory
how are people normally grouped together
observable similarity (gender, age, race, clothing style, so forth, proximity to each other, filling in missing information about people or places
road maps of the environments in which we live; knowledge structures that we develop to describe, explain, and predict the world around us; visual or relational images in our mind; partly rely on perceptual grouping
the perceptual process in which we assign characteristics to an identifiable group and then automatically transfer those features to anyone we believe is a member of that group
non conscious energy saving process that simplifies our understanding of the world; innate need to understand and anticipate how others will behave (fill in the missing pieces that don't have when we are first meeting someone); motivated by the observers need for social identity and self-enhancement
categorizing people into a distance group
simplify comparison process, tend to think that people within each group are very similar to each other
assign more favorable characteristics to people in our groups than to people in other groups
problems with stereotyping
inaccurate because they do not describe everyone, stereotype threat, lays the foundation for discriminatory attitudes and behaviors
whereby members of a stereotyped group are concerned that they might exhibit a negative feature of the stereotype; negatively affects their behavior and performance which makes them fall into the actual stereotype that was being said
unintentional (systematic) discrimination
decision makers rely on stereotypes to establish notions of the "ideal" person in specific roles
intentional discrimination or prejudice
in which people hold unfounded negative attitudes toward people belonging to a particular stereotyped group
occurs when our expectations about another person cause that person to act in a way that is consistent with those expectations
self fulfilling prophecy cycle; subordinate
supervisor forms expectation about the employee, supervisors expectations affect his/her behavior toward the employee, supervisor's behavior affects the employee's ability and motivating (self confidence), employees behavior becomes more consistent with the supervisors initial expectations
when does the self fulfilling prophecy have the strongest effect
the beginning of a relationship, such as when they are first hired; also when several people hold the same expectations
positive organizational behavior
suggests that focusing on the positive rather than the negative aspects of life will improve organizational success and individual well being
occurs when our general impression of a person, usually based on one prominent characteristic, distorts our perception of other characteristics of that person; late for work a couple times, he becomes that guy and the good in him can't be seen
occurs when people overestimate the extent to which others have similar beliefs to our own; the promotion from the TBL, thought it was good/ thought they were trying to get rid of her cause of gender and race
tendency to rely on the first information we receive about people to quickly form an opinion of them; heard boss was scary, that's what we think they are
occurs when the most recent information dominates our perceptions; employee doing performance reviews at end of year, things completed more toward end are remembered more easily
how to improve perceptions
awareness of perceptual biases, self-awareness, and meaningful interaction
awareness of perceptual biases
by knowing they exist; like diversity training (although can reinforce by bringing it all up)
complete formal tests that indicate any biases we might have toward one another, johavi window
objective is to increase the size of the open area so that both you and your colleagues are aware of your perceptual limitations; conversations about ourselves
more indirect, yet potentially powerful, approach to improving self awareness and mutual understanding; anytime people engage in meaningful activities
theory stating that the more we interact with someone, the less prejudice we will be against that person
a person's understanding of and sensitivity to the feelings, thoughts, and situations