Organizational Behavior Report: Power, Teams, and Belief

This report provides a detailed analysis of three articles focused on organizational behavior. The first article explores the relationship between power and overconfident decision-making, examining how power dynamics can influence executives and lead to potentially detrimental outcomes for organizations. The second article investigates the impact of team leadership on performance, particularly in extreme conditions such as space and polar exploration, highlighting the importance of sense-making and planning. The third article delves into the connection between belief in fate and the importance of tasks, analyzing how the perceived significance of a task can influence an individual's faith and effort. The report summarizes each article, analyzes their key findings, and offers recommendations for future research, providing a comprehensive overview of these critical aspects of organizational behavior.

Organizational behavior
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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Article summary..........................................................................................................................................2
Article analysis............................................................................................................................................3
Recommendations.......................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................7
References...................................................................................................................................................8
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Introduction
The purpose of the paper is to summarize and analyze three articles on the topic of organizational
behavior. The first article depicts the relationship between power and overconfident decision-
making process of the power-holders of an organization. The article discusses the relationship
with the help of five experiments conducted to understand the relationship between these two
factors. Moreover, this essay will review how the sense of power can be altered and how this will
affect the decision-making process. The second article, explains how team leaders can affect the
efficiency of the team performance working in extreme conditions. This article also explains the
how the structural team leadership functions can affect the performance of the team. The third
article focuses on the relationship between belief in faith and importance of the tasks. A pilot
study and three other studies are conducted to understand the relationship between these two
factors. Increase in the importance of tasks increases belief in the faith of a person. Furthermore,
this essay will also discuss several factors that influence the performance of the team in extreme
situations. Moreover, this paper will also evaluate how the relationship between fate and
importance of tasks can be altered or broken.
Article summary
Approach or inhibition theory of power states, sense of power can lead an individual to be
sensitive towards their responsibilities (Tang et al., 2018). This article reviews the relationship
between power and overconfident decision-making process. It also focuses on how the social and
psychological factors influence the power-holders of an organization. This article explores the
relationship between power and overconfident decision-making with the help of five
experiments. The first experiment investigates the effect of power on the confidence and
performance of the participants. The second experiment is conducted to further analyze the
results of the previous experiment in a professional domain like hockey. The third experiment
investigates the psychological factors that play a crucial role in developing a relationship
between power and overconfidence. In the next experiment, the relationship between these two
factors is tested in a field. The final experiment explores how the sense of power can be altered
and the results of this alteration.
Performance of these teams is affected by the quality of leadership and the decision-making
process of the team leader (Shuffler et al., 2010). This article explores how team leaders can
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increase the effectiveness of the team performance in extreme conditions. It analyzes the
previous documents related to the topic of leadership in extreme conditions. It explains the
different concepts of team leadership and the different results of the study along with their
implications. At first, isolation and confinement are identified as an extreme condition for this
analysis. Next, various documents are selected on the basis of this extreme conditions and the
teams selected are space exploration, polar exploration, and long duration sailboat racing teams.
Along with historiometric analysis, the critical incident technique is also used to determine the
effect of leadership on team performance. The results of this study show that effective
leadership plays a crucial role in increasing the efficiency of team performance in extreme
conditions.
Psychologists define fate as a belief of a person that the results of a particular situation is
predetermined and nothing can be done to change it (Burke et al., 2017). This article explores
the concept of fate and how it is related to the importance of work. It will review if with the
increase in the importance of the task, people will tend to believe more in fate. It will also
evaluate if the increase in the belief of fate will ultimately have any effect on the effort
associated with the task. The pilot study tests the link between belief in fate and importance of
the task. With the help of study 1, the article explores the effect of belief in fate and its effects on
the effort. In the next study, the importance of the task is manipulated and the effects of this
manipulation are measured. The third study explores whether the belief of fate is associated with
the importance of tasks or not.
Article analysis
The relationship between power and overconfident decision-making process is studied in this
article with the help of five experiments. Power can increase the sense of optimism and the
individual can believe they can control the results of the specific task. It can increase the
tendency of the executives of the company to participate in risk-taking behaviors.
Overconfidence is defined as a state of mind where an individual tends to view their capacities as
more positive than in reality (Fast et al., 2012). According to this article, it is considered to be a
great deal among the power-holders of a firm as it can lead to significant loss of the company in
terms of revenue and profit. All five experiments showed that sense of power can lead an
individual to make erroneous judgment due to their overconfidence (Day, 2014). In the first
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three experiments, confidence and performance of the participants are measured awareness and
they are asked to recall their previous experience with power.
Two situations arise from these experiments, high-power, and low-power depending on the type
of power they had. The participants with more power have given wrong answers due to they're
overconfidence in their accuracy and judgment. In the third experiment, it is seen that power and
not mood lead to overconfident decision making (Yukl, 2013). According to this article, the link
between these two factors can be broken if a person does not have any important and powerful
position. It can also be disturbed by giving negative feedback about the leadership and their
decision-making capacity. Thus it can be said, the link is ensured by the sense of power and the
importance of power can modulate the relationship between these two factors. However,
powerful decision makers can reduce the level of overconfidence by placing themselves in an
environment where there will be people with diverse opinions.
This article evaluates the how team leaders can affect the performance of the teams working in
extreme conditions. Effective leadership will develop a supportive environment for their teams
by reducing the number of stressful elements (Northouse, 2018). The leaders are responsible to
identify the problem areas and developing proper plans to overcome these problems. Space
exploration, polar exploration, and long duration sailboat racing teams are selected for this study.
All these teams perform in extreme conditions away from their families and friends. One wrong
decision taken by the leaders can result in life-threatening situations. Therefore, it is quite
difficult for the team leaders to maintain the efficiency of their team performance. According to
this article, sense-making and planning are considered to be critical transition phase leadership
functions. During the study, it is found that sense-making and structural planning are the most
important leadership functions to be performed in extreme conditions (Kozlowski et al., 2016).
These teams are working in isolation, it is quite difficult for the team leaders to monitor and
challenge their teams. Three other leadership functions related to action phase is also considered
important in this study. These functions are problem-solving, monitoring the team and creating a
supportive environment. Leaders who actively participate in sense-making and planning
activities within the team are more easily to form a more coordinated team, thus increasing the
efficiency of their team performance. Monitoring allows the team to be more aware of the
specific task or any problem areas rising within the team (Gunderson, 2017). Leaders do have a
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high power position within the team, which may cloud their judgment according to the previous
article (Mihalache et al., 2014). These sense of power can lead these leaders to become
overconfident about the accuracy of their judgment. This overconfidence can lead these leaders
to make some important decisions which may have some negative consequences.
According to this article, the relationship between the significance of task has a direct influence
on belief in the faith of a person (McShane and Von Glinow, 2016). Importance of task tends to
increase the amount of threat and other psychological discomforts associated with it, thus
increasing the belief in the faith of a person. During the study, it is found that tasks that have
greater personal relevance tend to increase the level of trust in faith. People from different fields
of the profession have a tendency to believe in faith when the stakes associated with their task is
higher. Students tend to believe in faith when they face a high level of anxiety and stress
regarding their exams (Geier, 2016). This belief can help people to cope with some devastating
losses and provide a way of comfort in this situation. However, people with high belief in faith
tends to think that the outcome is pre-determined and nothing can be done to change these results
(Miner, 2015).
These people tend to give less effort in their task and they do not remain persistent in their effort
during performing their tasks (Hogan, 2017). A pilot study and three main studies are conducted
to study the relationship between these factors. The importance of the tasks is manipulated
during these studies to understand the effect of the manipulation on them. This tendency to
believe in faith can have a crucial effect on productivity, action, and wellbeing of a person. The
experiments prove that importance of tasks motivates the sense of faith in people (Rosinha et al.,
2017). The experiments reveal that modulating the importance of the tasks does have a crucial
effect on the effort of the person. They also reveal that perceived importance of task does not
have any negative effect on the effort of the participants. In contrast to the first article, this article
expresses that people in high-power positions with highly important tasks have more tendency to
believe in faith than others (Nofsinger, 2016).
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Recommendations
The relationship between power and overconfidence should be studied on a greater and
systematic level with more number of participants. These studies should be conducted in both
field and laboratory settings. The greater number of participants will help to understand the
relationship between these factors on a greater scale. Studies can be conducted to understand the
effects of various factors that can play a vital role in eliminating the level of overconfidence
among the power-holders. Future studies must be conducted to understand the longitudinal
effects of power and how it affects overconfidence of a person. Further research should be
conducted to understand the effects of structured leadership on various team processes of a team
working in isolation and confinement. Proper measures should be taken to eliminate any sorts of
bias during the collection of the information regarding the effects of leadership on team
performance. More research should be conducted to understand the relationship between the
significance of tasks and believe in the faith of a person. Faith has a huge effect on the
persistence and effort of an individual, thus it is important to study its effects on a greater scale.
It is also important to understand the nature of the relationship between these factors. Further
studies should be conducted how the effects of the importance of tasks on believe of faith can be
altered or broken.
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Conclusion
This paper concludes that sense of power has a huge influence on the overconfident decision-
making process of a person or an organization. Overconfidence can lead the power-holders of the
company to make wrong decisions thus hurting their overall reputation. Overconfidence can be
removed by meeting with people who have different opinions. However, this paper is not able to
provide enough information on how power-holders can remove overconfidence from their minds
thus enabling them to make informed decisions. This essay is not able to provide a thorough
understanding of the effects of structured leadership on various team processes of a team
working in extreme conditions. Moreover, it can be concluded that faith can have a significant
effect on the performance of the individual. Perceived importance of tasks does not have any
negative effect on the effort and persistence of performance of the person. The more important
the task is, the greater is the chance of belief in faith. Furthermore, this essay does not provide
any information how the effects of the significance of tasks on the belief of faith can be broken
or altered.
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References
Burke, C., Shuffler, M. and Wiese, C. (2017). Examining the behavioral and structural
characteristics of team leadership in extreme environments. Journal of Organizational Behavior.
Day, D.V. ed., 2014. The Oxford handbook of leadership and organizations. Oxford Library of
Psychology.
Fast, N.J., Sivanathan, N., Mayer, N.D. and Galinsky, A.D., 2012. Power and overconfident
decision-making. Organizational behavior and human decision processes, 117(2), pp.249-260.
Geier, M.T., 2016. Leadership in Extreme Contexts: Transformational Leadership, Performance
Beyond Expectations?. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 23(3), pp.234-247.
Gunderson, E.E., 2017. Individual behavior in confined or isolated groups. In Man in isolation
and confinement (pp. 144-165). Routledge.
Hogan, R., 2017. Personality and the fate of organizations. Psychology Press.
Kozlowski, S.W., Mak, S. and Chao, G.T., 2016. Team-centric leadership: An integrative
review. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 3, pp.21-54.
McShane, S.L. and Von Glinow, M.A., 2016. Organizational Behavior 5/e.
Mihalache, O.R., Jansen, J.J., Van den Bosch, F.A. and Volberda, H.W., 2014. Top management
team shared leadership and organizational ambidexterity: A moderated mediation
framework. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 8(2), pp.128-148.
Miner, J.B., 2015. Organizational behavior 1: Essential theories of motivation and leadership.
Routledge.
Nofsinger, J.R., 2016. The psychology of investing. Routledge.
Northouse, P.G., 2018. Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.
Rosinha, A.P., Matias, L.J.S. and de Souza, M.A., 2017. Leadership in Extreme Conditions and
Under Severe Stress: Case Study Analysis. In Leadership in Extreme Situations (pp. 93-112).
Springer, Cham.
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Shuffler, M.L., Wiese, C.W., Salas, E. and Burke, C.S., 2010. Leading one another across time
and space: Exploring shared leadership functions in virtual teams. Revista de Psicología del
Trabajo y de las Organizaciones, 26(1).
Tang, S., King, M. and Kay, A.C., 2018. Fate as a motivated (and de-motivating) belief:
Evidence for a link from task importance to belief in fate to effort. Organizational Behavior and
Human Decision Processes, 144, pp.74-84.
Yukl, G.A., 2013. Leadership in organizations. Pearson Education India.
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