Skip to ContentGo to accessibility page
OpenStax Logo
Organizational Behavior

Key Terms

Organizational BehaviorKey Terms

Key Terms

anxiety
A feeling of inability to deal with anticipated harm.
burnout
A general feeling of exhaustion that can develop when a person simultaneously experiences too much pressure to perform and too few sources of satisfaction.
Eustress
Beneficial stress.
frustration
Refers to a psychological reaction to an obstruction or impediment to goal-oriented behavior.
general adaptation syndrome
Consists of three stages: the first stage, alarm; the second stage of resistance; and the third stage, exhaustion.
hardiness
Represents a collection of personality characteristics that involve one’s ability to perceptually or behaviorally transform negative stressors into positive challenges.
health promotion programs
Represent a combination of diagnostic, educational, and behavior modification activities that are aimed at attaining and preserving good health.
locus of control
The concept that much of what happens in one’s life is either under or outside of their own control.
personal control
Represents the extent to which an employee actually has control over factors affecting effective job performance.
rate of life change
The variety of life events were identified and assigned points based upon the extent to which each event is related to stress and illness.
role ambiguity
Occurs when individuals have inadequate information concerning their roles.
role conflict
The simultaneous occurrence of two (or more) sets of pressures or expectations; compliance with one would make it difficult to comply with the other.
role overload
A condition in which individuals feel they are being asked to do more than time or ability permits.
role underutilization
Occurs when employees are allowed to use only a few of their skills and abilities, even though they are required to make heavy use of them.
social support
The extent to which organization members feel their peers can be trusted, are interested in one another’s welfare, respect one another, and have a genuine positive regard for one another.
strain
The damage resulting from experiencing stress.
stress
A physical and emotional reaction to potentially threatening aspects of the environment.
tolerance for ambiguity
Individuals measure and affect by role ambiguity (in terms of stress, reduced performance, or propensity to leave) than others with a low tolerance for ambiguity.
Type A personality
Type A personality is characterized by impatience, restlessness, aggressiveness, competitiveness, polyphasic activities, and being under considerable time pressure.
PreviousNext
Order a print copy
Citation/Attribution
Reuse and redistribution of this content in digital or print format:
  • This book may not be used in the training of large language models or otherwise be ingested into large language models or generative AI offerings without OpenStax's prior written permission.
  • This book uses the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License, which means that you can reuse and modify the material only for noncommercial purposes, must attribute OpenStax, and must distribute any derivative works under the same license.
  • Any commercial printing of this textbook, including using a local or custom printer, must be approved by OpenStax, and proper citation provided.
  • OpenStax-copyrighted images, activities, assessments, and similar components of this book are subject to the same licensing – CC-BY-NC-SA. They can be used for noncommercial purposes with attribution. Commercial use requires permission.
  • Permission requests: Anyone who intends to incorporate this content (including text, images, and other components) into large language models, use it in AI offerings, use it commercially (including in print), and/or has questions about another use case is welcome to complete our reuse request form.
Attribution information
  • If you are redistributing all or part of this book in a noncommercial print format, then you must include on every physical page the following attribution:

    Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/organizational-behavior/pages/1-introduction

  • If you are redistributing all or part of this book in a noncommercial digital format, then for every page that includes OpenStax content, you must license the derivative work under the same CC-BY-NC-SA license as the original, and include on every digital page view the following attribution:

    Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/organizational-behavior/pages/1-introduction

Citation information

The information below includes the information needed to generate citations in most major styles (APA, MLA, etc.); you must reformat and organize the information as needed to fit the requirements of the style. Use the information below to generate a citation. We recommend using a citation tool such as this one.

© Jun 11, 2026 OpenStax. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License. The OpenStax name, OpenStax logo, OpenStax book covers, OpenStax CNX name, and OpenStax CNX logo, and Rice University name, and Rice University logo trademarks, or wordmarks are not subject to the Creative Commons license and may not be reproduced without the prior and express written consent of Rice University.