OB and Organisational Culture: Revision Notes

The Big Five are openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism (low = emotional stability); conscientiousness predicts performance across most jobs (Barrick and Mount, 1991), extraversion helps in sales and leadership, emotional stability under pressure. HEXACO adds honesty–humility; the Dark Triad (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy) predicts counterproductive behaviour. MBTI has weak retest reliability and predictive validity: use it for team conversations, never for selection.

Locus of control (Rotter) and self-efficacy (Bandura) affect initiative and persistence. Emotional intelligence: Goleman’s five components (self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, social skills) versus Salovey and Mayer’s ability model; useful in emotionally demanding roles but often overstated. The Johari Window (open, blind, hidden, unknown) explains how feedback and disclosure build self-awareness.

Rokeach separates terminal and instrumental values; OCB is discretionary helpful behaviour; cognitive dissonance (Festinger) explains why involving people in change can shift their attitudes.

Kelley’s attribution theory uses consistency, distinctiveness and consensus to judge whether behaviour is internally or externally caused. The fundamental attribution error over-blames the person (“careless operator” when the guard is badly designed); the self-serving bias credits success to self and failure to circumstances. HR-relevant biases include halo and horn, contrast, similarity, stereotyping, selective perception and recency.

Simon’s bounded rationality: people satisfice. Kahneman and Tversky’s heuristics produce anchoring (current salary anchors the offer), availability (one resignation looks like a trend), representativeness, confirmation, overconfidence and escalation of commitment (sunk-cost persistence). Groupthink (Janis): cohesive groups suppress dissent; remedies are devil’s advocates, outside experts, leaders speaking last and parallel subgroups. De-bias HR processes with structure, diverse panels, independent judgements and outcome analysis.

Content theories say what motivates: Maslow (a broad, not strict, hierarchy), Alderfer’s ERG (existence, relatedness, growth; frustration–regression), Herzberg (hygiene factors prevent dissatisfaction; motivators create satisfaction) and McClelland (achievement, power, affiliation).

Process theories say how: Vroom (motivation = expectancy × instrumentality × valence; any zero kills it), Adams’ equity theory (comparison of outcome/input ratios drives fairness reactions: the key theory for pay), goal-setting (specific, challenging goals with feedback) and self-determination theory (autonomy, competence, relatedness; controlling rewards can crowd out intrinsic motivation). Reinforcement: positive (add good), negative (remove bad), punishment, extinction. Pink: autonomy, mastery and purpose for complex work.

Teams pass through Tuckman’s stages; Belbin’s nine roles (Plant, Resource Investigator, Co-ordinator, Shaper, Monitor Evaluator, Teamworker, Implementer, Completer Finisher, Specialist) should be covered; social loafing falls when contributions are identifiable and teams are small.

Moderate task conflict can help; relationship conflict harms. Thomas–Kilmann modes by assertiveness and cooperativeness: competing (urgent, safety, ethics), collaborating (important, long-term), compromising (time pressure, equal power), avoiding (trivial issues) and accommodating (preserving relationships). Principled negotiation (Fisher and Ury): separate people from the problem, focus on interests, invent options, use objective criteria, know your BATNA.

French and Raven’s power bases: legitimate, reward, coercive, expert, referent, plus information. Personal power builds commitment; coercion builds compliance or resistance.

Leadership theory moved from traits to behaviours (initiating structure and consideration; Blake and Mouton’s grid) to contingency: Fiedler matches a fixed style to the situation, Hersey–Blanchard adapts style to follower readiness (directing, coaching, supporting, delegating) and path–goal (House) clears paths to goals. Transactional leaders exchange rewards for performance; transformational leaders use the 4 Is (idealised influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individualised consideration). Other approaches: servant (Greenleaf), authentic, LMX (in-groups and out-groups) and Level 5 (humility plus will, Collins). Kotter: management handles complexity, leadership handles change; organisations need both.

Schein: culture lives in artifacts, espoused values and basic assumptions; when values and assumptions clash, assumptions win. Leaders embed culture through what they attend to and measure, crisis reactions, resource allocation, role-modelling, rewards and status, and hiring and promotion. The Competing Values Framework (Cameron and Quinn) crosses internal/external focus with flexibility/stability: clan, adhocracy, market, hierarchy; the OCAI measures current versus preferred culture.

Hofstede’s six dimensions: India scores high on power distance (≈ 77), intermediate on individualism (≈ 48), moderately masculine (≈ 56), low-moderate on uncertainty avoidance (≈ 40), intermediate on long-term orientation (≈ 51) and restrained (≈ 26). Use it to adapt imported practices (e.g., 360s need anonymity in high power distance), not to stereotype; data is old and India is diverse.

Psychological safety (Edmondson, 1999) is the top team-effectiveness factor in Google’s Project Aristotle; leaders build it by admitting mistakes, asking before telling and running blameless reviews. DEIB: diversity (differences present), equity (barriers removed), inclusion (full participation), belonging (feeling valued). India: female LFPR about 42% (PLFS 2023–24), one woman director rule, RPwD Act 2016, Transgender Persons Act 2019, BRSR disclosures, plus caste, region and language dimensions.