Monthly Archives: February 2017

( This blog is based on Lucian’s blog: Are people seeing the same “blue”? )

Last year, there was a popular picture which created heated discussion of individual perception. As Zane analyzed in his blog, such discussion illustrates that the differences between people are universal, and just because of this, making consistent decisions in a team is difficult.

Based on what Zane said, it is essential to understand members’ perceptions and personalities to improve team work. I strongly agree with his opinion since personality has significant influence on one’s decision making. For example, introverted people may have a conservative style while extroverted people dare to take risks. What is more, I think it is also important to consider people’s experiences and backgrounds when we evaluate their ideas. For instance, to give advice to a technology company, a consultant who graduated from a business school may consider the financial part more, and a consultant who has a degree in engineering may think from technology view. Therefore, understanding teammates is really important for a team’s harmony and efficiency.

For team members, understanding and support may help to deal with differences. Leaders also need to know how to make final decisions from an overall perspective. In the current background of a diverse working environment, differences among individuals brings both uniqueness and conflicts. If we can avoid weakness and make use of advantages, the team will be successful. Thus, leaders are supposed to consider every member’s ability, what clients want and the resources they have, so as to maximize the benefits of the whole group rather than any individuals.

1. Zhang, L. (2017, January 14). Are people seeing the same “blue”? [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://blogs.ubc.ca/zanezhang/2017/01/14/are-people-seeing-the-same-blue/

Organizational Behavior is a science based on daily life. By studying OB, I find many behavior patterns that usually happen in daily life, which I hardly ever had noticed before, for example, the self-concordance, self-determination theory and reinforcement theory. When I correlate the theories with my life experience, I found that there is circular and cumulative causation among them.

I would like to use my learning experience of playing the violin to analyze the relationship of these theories. First of all, I am interested in playing violin so I am willing to practice and continue to study further. The time I spent and the energy I put into violin study increases the likelihood of success, and I do have good performance in playing violin. This is the positive outcome of high self-concordance. During study, whenever I have improvement, there will be a sense of achievement since I got a higher level of skills. This is what OB calls “intrinsic rewards”. Thus, intrinsic rewards motivated me to put in effort and achieve goals in every stage. These positive results are the driving force that inspire me to keep going. To say it in OB term, it is reinforcement theory.

From my own experience, I believe that interest is an important factor to one’s achievement. Personal goals and positive psychological suggestions are the driving force to further success. Hence, when we contribute tasks, we need to consider workers’ interests and personal goal settings. As a leader, it is important to guide workers to success in the initial stage, in order to make positive consequences. Thereafter, it is easy to have a virtuous cycle.