Strategic management II

TOPIC 1. INDIVIDUALITIES
Among the people in the organisation, we can find different characteristics
(biological, psychological).

The biographical characteristics are those personal characteristics, such as age,

gender and marital status, that are objective and easily obtained from personnel
records.

The ability, intellect and intelligence are multiple intelligences from everyone that
surrounds us.

Ability: an individuals capacity to perform the various tasks in a job.

Intellectual ability: the capacity to do mental activities.

Multiple intelligences: intelligence contains four subparts: cognitive, social,

emotional, and cultural.

Social intelligence is how well we interact with people, deal with problems,
conflicts
Emotional intelligence is very important, determines whether you are able to control
your emotions and project the adequate emotions in each moment, also detect the
others emotions.

WHAT ARE EMOTIONS?

Detect the others emotions help to detect

how they are going to behave. It is not the
employees fault, it is the managers fault
to well organise them and know them.
We need to understand that our employees
dont necessary show what they really feel.

Emotional labor is a situation in which an

employee expresses organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal
transactions.

Emotional dissonance is a situation in which an employee must project one

emotion while simultaneously feeling another. What people project doesnt need to
be exactly what they feel. A manager needs to know that things arent always as
they seem, so managers need to go beyond the face value.

The fact of knowing what the rest feel helps managers to manage their workers
better. We need to observe how they behave, feel and interact with the team. The
emotional state is one of the most important determinants of the productivity of a
team.

The managers also need to control their emotions, and to know how and when to
display them. Employees are constantly reading the emotions of their superiors. If
the boss looks stressed, employees may believe that something is not going well,
and therefore they can start rumouring and the panic and stress among employees
can start.
 Strategic management II

Felt emotions: an individuals actual emotions

Displayed emotions: emotions that are organizationally required and considered

appropriate in a given job.

EMOTION CONTINUUM
The closer any two emotions are to each other on the continuum, the more likely
people are to confuse them. There is a continuum in emotions, that goes from
happy to disgust. You may be sad, but can be perceived by the rest as anger or fear.
The more negative emotions are, the more difficult are to read.

EXTERNAL CONSTRAINTS ON EMOTIONS

Cultural influences: for example, people in America dont tend to complain

publicly, while in Europe it is most common to complain.

Organizational influences: some organizations are more open, close relation

among employees and bosses, others are more hierarquical.

UNDERSTANDING EMOTIONS

The emotions are a key aspect influencing behaviour. The emotions affect:
- Ability and selection: emotions affect employee effectiveness.
- Decision making: emotions are an important part of the decision-making
process in organizations.
- Motivation: emotional commitment to work and high motivation are
strongly linked.
- Leadership: emotions are important to acceptance of messages from
organizational leaders.

ABILITY AND SELECTION

Emotional intelligence is an assortment of non-cognitive

skills, capabilities, and competencies that influence a
persons ability to succeed in copying with environmental
demands and pressures.
Emotional intelligence is a key factor to be a manager, you
need to show those abilities, charisma, leadership it is
more valued than the traditional skills. You have to become
a coach, which motivates them.
It is important to know how people perceives you as a
manager. You need to empathise, be self-aware, self-confident
 Strategic management II

Self-management and self-motivation is the ability to put your own goals, self-
reinforcement, people wont tell you how well you are doing, you need to find your
own motivation.

Social skills are need to interact with employees. Not to close in your office. To say
the right things at the right time, so that people understands you and wants to
follow you.

LEARNING

Is any relatively permanent change in behaviour that occurs as a result of

experience. Learning:
- Involves change
- Is relatively permanent
- Is acquired through experience

You need to recognise how people learn. Learning is a permanent change in

behaviour as a result of behaviour. Learning involves change. If there is a change
between behaviour before and after, there is learning.
You teach your employees so that their activities and behaviour is coherent with the
organizational culture. Every person learns different, so you need to recognise it and
adapt to each. Learning is related to problem solving.

Firstly, you feel and observe something, then you think about it, then you try to
understand and finally you test out to see if what you see is what you thought.

For example, you see vainilla cappuccino, you think that you will like it, so you test
it, but you dont like it. Then you see it in another shop, you want to test whether
the problem was the coffee or the shop, so you test it in that other place. Then 2
things can happen; that you dont actually dont like that coffee, or that this time
you like it, so previously it had been a problem of the other shop. Some people learn
better by doing, others by looking, by feeling

People is a key value provider in the firm. Managing them is very important, so we
need to motivate them. A manager wants to maximize the output of its team.
Learning and problem solving have the same cycle.

From a manager point of view, it is important to study and know the learning cycle
and way of learning because each person has different learning styles. We need to
understand the specificities in order to better manage and teach them and to
achieve the organization objective.
 Strategic management II

THEORIES OF LEARNING: Shaping behaviour

Shaping behaviour is to systematically reinforce each successive step that moves

and individual closer to the desired response.

Key concepts:
- Reinforcement is required to change behaviour.
- Some rewards are more effective than others.
- The timing of reinforcement affects learning speed and permanence.
Social learning: people learn from what happens to others.

TYPES OF REINFORCEMENT

Positive reinforcement: providing a reward for a desired behaviour.

Negative reinforcement: removing an unpleasant consequence when the desired
behaviour occurs.
Punishment: applying an undesirable condition to eliminate an undesirable
behaviour.
Extinction: withholding reinforcement of a behaviour to cause its cessation.
We cant use reinforcement or punishment alone, both of them need to be
combined to get better results.

SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT

Continuous reinforcement: a desired behaviour is reinforced each time it is

demonstrated.
Intermittent reinforcement: a desired behaviour is reinforced often enough to
make the behaviour worth repeating but not every time it is demonstrated.
Fixed-interval schedule: rewards are initiated after a fixed or constant number of
responses.