Bullying Bosses?

Of the three types of organizational justice, which one does workplace bullying most closely resembles?Out of the three types of organizational justice, bullying most closely resembles interactional justice in which the individual’s perception of the degree to which he or she is treated with dignity, concern and respect. What one person may see as unfair another may see as perfectly appropriate (Judge, Robbins, 2006).

What aspects of motivation might workplace bullying reduce? For example, are there likely to be effects on employee’s self efficacy? If so, what might those effects be?Workplace bullying may reduce an employee’s esteem, safety and security, and self actualization according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Workplace bullying can also affect one’s self efficacy. An employee with low self efficacy, when bullied, can experience a decline in their already low self efficacy which may decrease his/her need for achievement, need for power, and need for affiliation based on McClelland’s theory of needs. There are not too many people, which if they are being bullied would want to achieve a new position, attain power, or even want to belong to such a company where other employee’s are bullies.

If you were a victim of workplace bullying, what steps would you take to try to reduce its occurrence? What strategies would be most effective? What strategies might be ineffective? What would you do if one of your colleagues was a victim of an abusive supervisor?If I were a victim of workplace bullying, I would first approach my bully and inform him/her of the inappropriate behavior. If the behavior continued and the bully was not management, then I would go to management and let them know there is a problem. If the bully was a part of management, I would seek help from the special groups in most companies that are dedicated to unfair behavior within the company. If the company had no such group, I would do the opposite of what the bully expects my reaction to be. I think going to the special group would be effective, but if there is no such group then going to management would be the next best thing. Retaliation and confrontation would not be effective strategies. There would be nothing worse than having workplace bullying turn into workplace violence. I would help a colleague who is or was victims of an abusive supervisor seek the necessary help in the most effective manner.

What factors do you believe contribute to workplace bullying? Are bullies a product of the situation, or are they flawed personalities? What situations and what personality factors might contribute to the presence of bullies?Insecurity, lack of confidence, and low self esteem are a few factors that could contribute to workplace bullying. Authoritarian personalities are driven by the fear of being weak and summarized them as people with a blind belief in authority and readiness to attack those who are regarded as weak or as socially acceptable as victims. An employee who may be insecure or threatened about loss of his/her position may resort to bullying. Within a negative social climate, low satisfaction with leadership was found to be an organizational feature strongly identified with bullying (O’Moore, Lynch, 2007). An employee with low confidence and low self esteem may find an outlet to deal with these issues by bullying others. Bullies are both products of situation and flawed personalities. Numerous studies have demonstrated that bullying is associated with a negative and stressful working environment (O’Moore, Lynch, 2007).

Goal Setting Theory & PredictionsBy Kat Consador, eHow Contributor

Goal Setting Theory & Predictions

Goal setting theory is a theory in motivation that was developed by Edwin A. Locke and Gary P. Latham in 1968. The theory can be found in organizational psychology and therefore, applied in the workplace. Goal setting theory places emphasis on focused efforts on high performance toward a goal.

Goal1. According to Gareth R. Jones and Jennifer M. George's book, "Contemporary Management," a

goal is defined as "what a person is trying to accomplish through his or her efforts and behaviors." For a student, a goal can be getting an A on his report card. For those within a sales-based organization, a goal can mean reaching a certain sales quota.Goal Setting Theory

2. Jones and George define goal setting theory as "a theory that focuses on identifying the types of goals that are most effective in producing high levels of motivation and performance and explaining why goals have these effects." In a workplace environment, consider how well leaders or managers can ensure that subordinates focus their work, time and energy toward the direction of high performance and the overall achievement of organizational goals.Specific and Difficult

3. Goal setting theory suggests that in order to stimulate high levels of motivation and performance, goals must be specific and difficult. Specific goals are quantitative. For example, it may be a salesperson's goal to sell $500 of merchandise on a daily basis, a writer's goal to complete a novel in 1 year, or a CEO's goal to decrease debt by 50 percent.Action Plans and Feedback

4. An action plan can be a strategy, timetable or schedule to complete different activities or mini-goals that are vital toward goal attainment. The specific and difficult aspect of goal setting theory may inspire individuals or teams to create action plans toward a goal

Organizational members need to receive feedback on how they are doing. This can be done through a performance appraisal. Feedback helps make sure that efforts are aligned toward the goal after a period of time. They can also help improve future goal setting activities.Predictions

5. According to Jones and George, "easy and moderate goals have less motivational power than difficult goals". By allowing subordinates to participate in the goal setting process, this may help

boost acceptance and commitment toward the goals. 

Having specific and difficult goals boosts performance. For example, when a salesperson is told to sell as much as possible, she may have a higher chance of stopping on a slow day, whereas having a specific and difficult goal allows her to keep trying. They also help people focus their work into the right direction. 

Specific and difficult goals may also detract from performance, depending the conditions and situations. When performing complicated and challenging tasks that also require learning, difficult goals can impair performance and may take away from learning and understanding. For work that requires room for creativity, difficult goals can be a detriment.

Goal Setting TheoryBy Shane Thornton, eHow Contributor

Goal setting theory is one of the most popular managerial theories in organizational psychology and motivating employees. Setting goals guides and motivates employees to what is seen as important to the overall success of an organization.

History1. Goal setting theory has been used to increase success and achievement since the early 1800s.

In the early 1900s, Napoleon Hill researched and conducted extensive studies with regard to goal setting and the effects on the business world; his research was the foundation for many books including most notably "The Laws of Success" and "Think and Grow Rich". The advancement of goal setting theory continued in the 1960s with the beginning of Edwin A. Locke's 30-year research into goal setting. In 1968, Locke published an article titled "Toward a Theory of Task Motivation and Incentives" where he stressed the importance of clear goal setting and helpful feedback in motivating employees. Locke coined the popular phrase of SMART goals which is still widely used today.Purpose

2. Setting goals serves the purpose of increasing effort and persistence and directing these efforts and attention toward goal-relevant activities. Edwin A. Locke stressed that to benefit from goal setting and motivate employees, goals must be SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. Goals need to be clear, easy to objectively measure, challenging but still attainable, relevant to the overall success of the organization, and have a time frame for accomplishing the goal.Significance

3. Setting the correct goals for a workforce is just as important as the employees' efforts to accomplish these goals. When setting goals, there are four factors that affect the efforts of the employees: difficulty, commitment, clarity and acceptance. To increase performance, goals need to be challenging, because easily attainable goals correlate with low performance and underachievement. Employees need to be committed and interested in completing the goal or the whole process of goal setting is useless. Goals need to be clear, specific, and precise to motivate and direct the employee toward success. Finally, the employee needs to accept and adopt the goal as an indicator of individual success.

Benefits4. Goal setting enhances performance by increasing motivation and efforts, but most importantly

through increasing and improving the quality of feedback. The main benefit of goal setting is the constant feedback while working toward accomplishing the goal. Most quality feedback requires constant supervisor interaction, but clear goal setting can give employees consistent knowledge about their progress and aid them in self-evaluations and decisions such as increasing effort or changing methods.Considerations

5. To achieve the benefits of goal setting, goals must be aligned throughout the organization; if managerial or individual goals do not reflect the entire organization goals as a whole, performance will suffer. Furthermore, goal setting can have negative effects on performance for two reasons: an employee can become too preoccupied with accomplishing the goal rather than just performing the necessary tasks, and some tasks are too complicated, innovative, and complex to set simple goals for.Reinforcement theory of motivation was proposed by BF Skinner and his associates. It states that individual’s behaviour is a function of its consequences. It is based on “law of effect”, i.e, individual’s behaviour with positive consequences tends to be repeated, but individual’s behaviour with negative consequences tends not to be repeated.

Reinforcement theory of motivation overlooks the internal state of individual, i.e., the inner feelings and drives of individuals are ignored by Skinner. This theory focuses totally on what happens to an individual when he takes some action. Thus, according to Skinner, the external environment of the organization must be designed effectively and positively so as to motivate the employee. This theory is a strong tool for analyzing controlling mechanism for individual’s behaviour. However, it does not focus on the causes of individual’s behaviour.The managers use the following methods for controlling the behaviour of the employees:

Positive Reinforcement- This implies giving a positive response when an individual shows positive and required behaviour. For example - Immediately praising an employee for coming early for job. This will increase probability of outstanding behaviour occurring again. Reward is a positive reinforce, but not necessarily. If and only if the employees’ behaviour improves, reward can said to be a positive reinforcer. Positive reinforcement stimulates occurrence of a behaviour. It must be noted that more spontaneous is the giving of reward, the greater reinforcement value it has.

Negative Reinforcement- This implies rewarding an employee by removing negative / undesirable consequences. Both positive and negative reinforcement can be used for increasing desirable / required behaviour.

Punishment- It implies removing positive consequences so as to lower the probability of repeating undesirable behaviour in future. In other words, punishment means applying undesirable consequence for showing undesirable behaviour. For instance - Suspending an employee for breaking the organizational rules. Punishment can be equalized by positive reinforcement from alternative source.

Extinction- It implies absence of reinforcements. In other words, extinction implies lowering the probability of undesired behaviour by removing reward for that kind of behaviour. For instance - if an employee no longer receives praise and admiration for his good work, he may feel that his behaviour is generating no fruitful consequence. Extinction may unintentionally lower desirable behaviour

Goal-Setting Theory

says that specific goals increase performance, and difficult goals, when accepted, result in higher performance than easy goals. What do we know about goals as motivators?

1. Intention to work toward a goal is a major source of job motivation. Specific and challenging goals are superior motivating forces. Specific hard goals produce a higher level of output than do generalized goals.

2. Is there a contradiction between achievement motivation and goal setting? No, and here’s why.

a. Goal-setting theory deals with people in general; achievement theory is based only on people who have a high need for achievement. Difficult goals are still recommended for the majority of employees.

b. The conclusions of goal-setting theory apply to those who accept and are committed to the goals.

Difficult goals will lead to higher performance only if they are accepted.

3. Will employees try harder if they participate in the setting of goals?

a. We can’t say that participation is always desirable.

b. However, participation is probably preferable to assigning goals when the manager expects resistance.

4. Will people do better when they get feedback on how well they’re progressing toward their goals?

a. Feedback acts to guide behavior.

b. Self-generated feedback has been shown to be a more powerful motivator than externally generated feedback.

5. What contingencies exist in goal-setting theory? There are four contingencies we need to know about. a. Feedback influences the goal-performance relationship.

b. Goal commitment is another contingency. Commitment is most likely to occur when goals are made public, when the individual has an internal locus of control, and when the goals are self-set rather than assigned.

c. Self-efficacy is another contingency and refers to an individual’s belief that he or she is capable of performing a task. The higher your self-efficacy, the more confidence you have in your ability to succeed in a task.

d. The last contingency that affects goal setting is national culture.

6. Our conclusion about motivation from goal-setting theory is that intentions, as defined by hard and specific goals, are a powerful motivating force.

a. In the proper conditions, they can lead to higher performance.

b. However, there’s no evidence that such goals are associated with increased job satisfaction.

Reinforcement Theory

is counter to goal-setting theory. It proposes that behavior is a function of its consequences.

1. Reinforcement theory argues that behavior is externally caused.

2. What controls behavior are reinforcers, which are consequences immediately following a response that increase the probability that the behavior will be repeated.

3. Reinforcement theory ignores factors such as goals, expectations, and needs.

4. It focuses solely on what happens when a person takes some action.

5. How can the concept of reinforcement be used to explain motivation?

a. People will most likely engage in a desired behavior if they are rewarded for doing so.

b. These rewards are most effective if they immediately follow a desired response.

c. Behavior that isn’t rewarded or is punished is less likely to be repeated.

6. Managers can influence employees’ behavior by reinforcing the work behaviors they desire.

Whistle Blowers: Saints or Sinners

1. Do you believe that whistle-blowing is good for organizations and its members, or is it, as David Stetler

believes, often a means to extort financial gains from companies?

Is having strong ethics whether they are ethical or unethical

practices makes it easier for a person to take action than for that person

to process the making of decisions and choices for today's ethically

working environment?

In this week's case "whistle blowing" is a new topic and issue for me

in which I only heard of a few months ago. I heard of it through a

discussion board from a previous class in which students were trying to

prevent employees from revealing confidentiality and security from an

organization to others who were not suppose to have this information.

"Whistle blowing" was one of the solutions to preventing this act.

I feel that in this case of Douglas Duran former VP of sales for TAP,

it was his good ethics and intuition to correct the wrongdoing of the

organization while using the precise process of decision-making and chose

to go through the court system to punish the company for what they may have

been doing towards the insurance company.

My reasoning is that Duran is innocent from unethical practices from

extorting financial gains from TAP. According to Senator Charles Grassley,

"having informants report on company wrongdoings is the best way to prevent

illegal activity. There can never be enough bureaucrats to discourage

fraudulent use of taxpayer's money but knowing colleagues might squeal can

be deterrent" (Judge, 2007) p.179.

The reason was for his innocence is there were 500 boxes of evidence

and the case settled. In addition, it cost TAP over 1 billion dollars of

legal fees to clear them of all wrongdoing. David Stetler's, job as a

defense attorney is to defend whether the defendant is right or wrong.

In this case, it clearly shows by its lesson that "whistle blowing" is

good for an organization and those who are unethical to "whistle blow" to

extort money are most likely behaving with the same attitude as

organizations who commit unethical practices or crime.

2. How might self-fulfilling prophecy affect a whistle-blower’s search for incriminating evidence against a

company?

In the book Miracles it states, "That the Universal Law is impartial

and unemotional. It has no way of knowing what you want, or does it

discriminate between your hopes and aspirations, likes and dislikes - it is

pure energy. It accepts whatever thoughts, feelings, and actions you

project and reflects them back to you unemotionally in the form of events

that you experience day to day" (Wilde, 1983) p.2.

To make a long definition short, a self-fulfilling prophecy is simply

an idea someone gets into his or her head and subconsciously makes it a

reality. A "whistle-blower" has the intention to find incriminating

evidence, so even if the company is innocent, the whistle-blower may make

false assumptions, even subconsciously, in order to incriminate the

company, thus creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

3. When frivolous lawsuits occur, how might these cases affect future whistle-blowers who have a valid legal

claim against their company? Would they be more or less likely to come forward? How might their claims be

evaluated? What should companies and the government do to prevent frivolous lawsuits?

When frivolous lawsuits occur, it affects future "whistle blowers" by

having them perceive the process of reporting their grievances by being

discouraged in investing the time and effort to follow through with their

claims because they may feel it might be a waste of time and they may not

be took seriously.

Because of this dilemma, if a person had a legal claim and lack the

three components model of creativity as well as have biases, errors, and

preconceived notions in their own mind while lacking the process of

decision-making and problem solving, they would less likely to come forward

to make a claim against an organization (Judge, 2007).

In this case, if employees provided strong evidence, have an open and

shut case against a company and they had good ethics, authorities would

evaluate their claim. On the other hand, if they were an unethical person

by providing a weak case, authorities may not evaluate their claim.

For companies to prevent frivolous law suits there is only one

solution, don't do any wrong doing and create stricter guidelines toward

making claims against a company. The government on the other hand should

make stricter laws by taking away the reward of paying a "whistle blower"

30 percent of legal fees and by not providing them protection of reporting

a wrongdoing unless a person can prove a company guilty. I guess what I am

trying to say is a company and the government must really screen a person

to find out if they are making a frivolous lawsuit.

4. Do you believe that employees of a company have an ethical obligation to first attempt to report wrong-doing

to members of the company itself, or should they go straight to the authorities when they suspect illegal activity?

What are some advantages and disadvantages of both actions?.

This is a very tender and touchy question to answer because companies

and most organizations are set up upon ranks of hierocracy and an

organizational tree system.

Therefore, reporting wrongdoing to members of a company first or

authorities really depend on where in a company the wrongdoing is taking

place. My opinion would be that if it is a large company and the wrongdoing

is taking place on the lower end of the company I would most likely report

it to member who are higher up in the company. If the wrongdoing does not

stop or the company from the top is committing the wrongdoing, I will first

proceed to report it to the authorities.

The advantages of reporting illegal activity to a company first is

that it allows a company the chance to correct their wrongdoings. However,

the disadvantages could be harmful. An employee could lose their job, when

reported they could go through many red tape, receive manipulation

politically, and even die.

Reporting illegal activity to authorities first has advantages like

the "NWC" National Whistle Blower Center who broadcast the Whistleblower

Protection Enhancement Act of 2009 on their website of what their

protection should be(Williams, 1997 - 2008).

The advantages are to relieve fear and retaliations that may occur

which are amoungst the disadvantages. Other advantage if it is authenthic

honest and truthful is that reporting wrongdoings of a company the

whistleblower recieves percentages of the legal fees incurred which could

results in the millions of dollars.

Lastly I would like to add to an disadvantage of reporting illegal

activity. Besides from experiecining the process of a lawsuit and trial if

a person is found to have claimed a friviluos lawsuit that would tarnish

their reputation as an ethical person and prevent them from getting a job

in the future.