Introduction

In order to be effective organizations need to develop their interpersonal or people skills According to Robbins( 2003), Organizational behavior (OB) is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within an organization, then applies that knowledge to make organizations work more effectively. Specifically, OB focuses on how to improve productivity, reduce absenteeism and turnover, and increase employee citizenship and job satisfaction. An organization is more than a formal arrangement of functions, more than an organization chart, more than a vision statement, more than a set of accounts. An organization consists of people and so it is also a social system. The field of organizational behavior (OB) draws primarily from the behavioral science disciplines of psychology, social psychology, and cultural anthropology. The areas on which OB focuses are individuals who will often be working within groups, which themselves work within organizations, as well as all the interrelationships between them. Some of the specific themes embraced by OB are personality theory, attitudes and values, motivation and learning, interpersonal behavior, group dynamics, leadership and teamwork, organizational structure and design, decision-making, power, conflict, and negotiation. Some OB thinkers go further and suggest that the behavior within the organization has to be viewed partly in the wider context of the outside world’s effect on the organization and its human resources, missions, objectives, and strategies.

Definitions of OB

Buchanan and Huczynski (1997) have defined Organizations as “social arrangements, constructed by people who can also change them. Organizations can be repressive and stifling, but they can also be designed to provide opportunities for self-fulfillment and individual expression. The point is that human consequences depend on how organizations are designed and run.’ Barnard (1938) defined Organizations “as system of co-operative activities – and their co-ordination requires something intangible and personal that is largely a matter of personal relationships”. There are a number of definitions that we can draw on to illuminate and deepen our understanding of the concept of organizational behavior. One of the earliest, and certainly one of the most succinct definitions, comes from Pugh, (1971) for whom, OB is concerned with ”the study of the structure, functioning and performance of organizations, and the behavior of groups and individuals within them”. Ivancevich and Matteson, (1998) in their book Organizational Behavior and Management, offers a broader definition. They opine that OB is about ”the study of human behavior, attitudes and performance within an organizational setting; drawing on theory, methods, and principles from such disciplines as psychology, sociology, and cultural anthropology to learn about individual perception, values, learning capabilities, and actions while working with groups and within the total organization; analyzing the external environment’s effect on the organization and its human resources, missions, objectives and strategies”.

 

 

What emerges from these two definitions is a view of OB as:

1. A way of thinking 2. An interdisciplinary field 3. Having a distinctly humanistic outlook 4. Performance oriented 5. Seeing the external environment as critical 6. Using scientific method 7. Having an applications orientation

 

Levels of analysis:

Wood (1997) provides a useful model for exploring behavioral events. He suggests that different levels of analysis can be applied when examining the significance of an organizational issue. He proposes eight, namely:

1. Individual

2. Team

3. Inter-group

4. Organizational

5. Inter-organizational

6. Societal

7. International

8. Global.

 

The basic issue is that the level of explanation that one chooses, determines the view of the causes of an event or problem. It also affects the actions that one takes, and the solutions that one seeks. In an organization, inappropriate intervention at the wrong level can make a problem worse rather than better.

 

Three points are important in this regard:

People tend to pick their favorite level of analysis to explain events, and then behave accordingly. This is often particularly true of external consultants brought in to perform a ‘quick fix’.

People are most familiar with, and often prefer, explanations at the individual level of behavior. Trying to change people by sending them on a training course is simpler than changing structures or upgrading technology. However, such explanations are often too simplistic, inaccurate, or incomplete. It may not solve organizational problems, nor provide the base for creating self sufficiency and sustenance, particularly in a competitive and volatile market.

As a general principle, any organizational problem can be usefully analyzed at an increasingly higher level of abstraction. By considering a problem progressively at the individual, group, inter-group, and organizational levels, a deeper understanding of its causes can be gained.

As a result, the tools needed to tackle the problem can be chosen more precisely, and applied more effectively. Looking at a problem systemically will always yield a better understanding than simply leaping in with fixed preconceptions. Therefore a contingency approach is what is now preferred rather than any absolute solutions in OB.

 

Historical Evolution Of OB As A Discipline

A large number of people have contributed to the growth of OB as a discipline. The most important ones have been described below:

 

A. Early Theorists

Adam Smith’s discussions in the Wealth of nations published in 1776 stated that organizations and society would reap from the division of labor. He concluded that division of labor increased productivity by raising each worker’s skill and dexterity, by saving time other wise lost in changing tasks. The development of assembly line production process in the early 20th century was obviously stimulated by the economic advantages of work specialization (arising out of division of labor) as stated in the work of Smith.

 

The other significant work which influenced this philosophy was that of the work of Charles Babbage in 1832 titled On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures. He added the following to Smith’s list of advantages that can be accrued from division of labor:

It reduces the time needed to learn a job Reduced wastage of material during the learning process Allowed attainment of increased skill levels

Careful match of people’s skills and physical abilities with specific tasks

 

Thus in the writings of these writers the benefits of division of labor were being highlighted where the maximum emphasis was on raising productivity and minimizing wastage of resources and time. Very little were no consideration was given towards the human elements in the workplace.

 

B. The Classical Era

We see this trend to continue in what is called as the classical era which covers the period between 1900 to mid 1930s. the first general theories of management began to evolve and the main contributors during this era were Frederick Taylor, Henri Fayol, Max Weber, Mary parker Follet and Chester Barnard.

 

Frederick Taylor’s main emphasis was on finding one best way of doing each job. He stressed on selecting the right people for the job , train them to do it precisely in one best way. He favored wage plans to motivate the workers. His scientific principles of management stressed the following principles:

 

Shift all responsibility for the organization of work from the worker to the manager; managers should do all the thinking relating to the planning and design of work, leaving the workers with the task of implementation.

Use scientific methods to determine the most efficient way of doing work; assign the worker’s task accordingly, specifying the precise way in which the work is to be done.

Select the best person to perform the job thus designed. Train the worker to do the work efficiently. Monitor worker performances to ensure that appropriate work procedures are followed

and that appropriate results are achieved.

 

Taylor was one of the first to attempt to systematically analyze human behavior at work. He insisted the use of time-and-motion study as a means of standardizing work activities. His scientific approach called for detailed observation and measurement of even the most routine work, to find the optimum mode of performance.

The results were dramatic, with productivity increasing significantly. With passing time, new organizational functions like personnel and quality control were created. Of course, in breaking

down each task to its smallest unit to find what Taylor called ”the one best way” to do each job, the effect was to remove human variability. Hence he lay the ground for the mass production techniques that dominated management thinking in the first half of the twentieth century.

 

Henri Fayol, a mining engineer and manager by profession, defined the nature and working patterns of the twentieth-century organization in his book, General and Industrial Management, published in 1916. In it, he laid down what he called 14 principles of management. This theory is also called the Administrative Theory. The principles of the theory are:

 

1. Division of work: tasks should be divided up with employees specializing in a limited set of tasks so that expertise is developed and productivity increased.

2. Authority and responsibility: authority is the right to give orders and entails enforcing them with rewards and penalties; authority should be matched with corresponding responsibility.

3. Discipline: this is essential for the smooth running of business and is dependent on good leadership, clear and fair arguments, and the judicious application of penalties.

4. Unity of command: for any action whatsoever, an employee should receive orders from one superior only; otherwise authority, discipline, order, and stability are threatened.

5. Unity of direction: a group of activities concerned with a single objective should be co-coordinated by a single plan under one head.

6. Subordination of individual interest to general interest: individual or group goals must not be allowed to override those of the business.

7. Remuneration of personnel: this may be achieved by various methods but it should be fair, encourage effort, and not lead to overpayment.

8. Centralization: the extent to which orders should be issued only from the top of the organization is a problem which should take into account its characteristics, such as size and the capabilities of the personnel.

9. Scalar chain (line of authority): communications should normally flow up and down the line of authority running from the top to the bottom of the organization, but sideways communication between those of equivalent rank in different departments can be desirable so long as superiors are kept informed.

10. Order: both materials and personnel must always be in their proper place; people must be suited to their posts so there must be careful organization of work and selection of personnel.

11. Equity: personnel must be treated with kindness and justice.

 

12. Stability of tenure of personnel: rapid turnover of personnel should be avoided because of the time required for the development of expertise.

13. Initiative: all employees should be encouraged to exercise initiative within limits imposed by the requirements of authority and discipline.

14. Esprit de corps: efforts must be made to promote harmony within the organization and prevent dissension and divisiveness.

 

The management function, Fayol stated, consisted of planning, organizing, commanding, co-coordinating and controlling. Many practicing managers, even today, list these functions as the core of their activities. Fayol was also one of the first people to characterize a commercial organization’s activities into its basic components. He suggested that organizations could be sub-divided into six main areas of activity:

1. Technical 2. Commercial 3. Financial 4. Security 5. Accounting 6. Management.

In defining the core principles governing how organizations worked and the contribution of management to that process, Fayol laid down a blueprint that has shaped organization thinking for almost a century.

 

Max Weber developed a theory based on authority relations and was he a pioneer in looking at management and OB from a structural viewpoint. His theory is also known as bureaucratic theory in management. he described an ideal types of organization and called it a bureaucracy. This was a system marked by division of labor, a clearly defined hierarchy, detailed rules and regulations and impersonal relationships. He wanted this ideal types construct to be taken as a basis for creating organizations in real world. The detailed features of Weber’s ideal bureaucratic structure are a follows:

 

1. Jurisdictional areas are clearly specified, activities are distributed as official duties (unlike traditional form where duties delegated by leader and changed at any time).

2. Organization follows hierarchical principle — subordinates follow orders or superiors, but have right of appeal (in contrast to more diffuse structure in traditional authority).

2. Intention, abstract rules govern decisions and actions. Rules are stable, exhaustive, and can be learned. Decisions are recorded in permanent files (in traditional forms few explicit rules or written records).

3. Means of production or administration belong to office. Personal property separated from office property.

4. Officials are selected on basis of technical qualifications, appointed not elected, and compensated by salary.

5. Employment by the organization is a career. The official is a full-time employee and looks forward to a life-long career. After a trial period they get tenure of position and are protected from arbitrary dismissal.

 

C. The Human Relations Movement

Since the industrialists of the early decades of the twentieth century followed Taylor’s lead and put the emphasis on efficiency, it was some years before any significant attention was paid to the needs and motivations of that other major factor involved in the work process – the workers. One of the early pioneers of a view that actually people were central to the world of business was Mary Parker Follett. With this started the beginning of what may be termed as the Human relations Movement as contributor to the field of OB

 

Follet believed that organizations should be based on a group ethic rather than on individualism. The manager’s work was to harmonize and coordinate group efforts. Managers and workers need to look at each other as partners. Therefore managers should rely more on workers’ expertise and knowledge than on formal authority of their position to lead their subordinates. Thus in her writing one can trace the importance of motivation and group togetherness , so much required in modern day organizational situations.

 

Another major influence in the human relations movement came from the work of Chester Barnard. Barnard viewed organizations as consisting of people who have interacting social relationships. Barnard viewed organizational success in terms of fostering cooperation from various stakeholders such as, employees and others like customers, investors, suppliers and other external constituencies. Thus irrespective of excellent production systems, Barnard emphasized the need for boundary spanning activities and development of skills and motivation of employees for organizational effectiveness and success.

 

Elton Mayois known as the founder of the Human Relations Movement, and is known for his research including the Hawthorne Studies, and his book The Social Problems of an Industrialised Civilization(1933). The research he conducted under the Hawthorne Studies of the 1930s showed the significance of groups in affecting the behavior of individuals at work. However, it was not Mayo who conducted the practical experiments but his employees Roethlisberger and Dickinson. This helped him to make certain deductions about how managers should behave. He carried out a number of investigations to look at ways of improving productivity, for example changing lighting conditions in the workplace.

 

His findings were that work satisfaction depended to a large extent on the informal social pattern of the workgroup. Where ever norms of cooperation and higher output were established it was due to a feeling of importance. Physical conditions or financial incentives had little motivational value. People will form workgroups and this can be used by management to benefit the organization. He concluded that people’s work performance is dependent on both social issues and job content. He suggested a tension between workers’ ‘logic of sentiment’ and managers’ ‘logic of cost and efficiency’ which could lead to conflict within organizations.

 

Summary of Mayo’s Beliefs:

Individual workers cannot be treated in isolation, but must be seen as members of a group. Monetary incentives and good working condition are less important to the individual than the need to belong to a group. Informal or unofficial groups formed at work have a strong influence on the behavior of those workers in a group Managers must be aware of these ’social needs’ and cater for them to ensure that employees collaborate with the official organization rather than work against it.

Another contributor whose work revolutionized thinking about workplaces was Dale Carnegie. His book -How to Win Friends and Influence people is a classic which is referred by management experts even today. His main theme centered on the idea that the way to success was through winning the cooperation of people. He advised:

 

To make others feel important through a sincere appreciation of their efforts Seek to make a good impression Win people to your way of thinking by letting others do the talking, being sympathetic

and never telling others that they are wrong Change people by praising their good traits and giving chance to others to save their face

 

The next contributor who influenced the human aspects of management in workplace was Abraham Maslow. Maslow proposed the need hierarchy theory (physiological, safety, social esteem and self actualization needs) and stated thateach step in the hierarchy must be satisfied before the next can be activated and once a need was substantially satisfied, it no longer motivated an individual. Self actualization was the ultimate goal of human existence. Managers who accepted this hierarchy theory attempted to alter the organization and management practices to reduce barriers to employees’ self actualization

Douglas McGregor was another contributor to the human relations movement. He formulated two sets of assumptions – Theory X and Theory Y about human nature. Theory X posited a negative view of people stating that this category have little ambition, dislike work, want to avoid responsibility and need to be closely directed at workplace. Theory Y category on the other hand proposed a positive view of people stating that they can exercise self direction, assume responsibility and considered work as a natural activity. McGregor personally believed that Theory Y described best the nature of people at work and therefore form the basis of all management practices in organizations. Managers should give freedom to their subordinates in order to unleash their full creative and productive potential

 

D. Behavioral Science Theorists

These theorists engaged in objective research of human behavior in organizations. Some of the major theorists who contributed to the growth of OB as a discipline are briefly given below.

 

B. F. Skinner - His research on conditioning (classical and operant) and behavior modification influenced the design of organization training programs and reward systems. Behavior is a function of consequence according to Skinner and he stated that people engage in a desired behavior only if they are rewarded for it and less likely to be repeated if an individual is not rewarded or punished for it

 

David McClelland - his work has helped organizations to match people with jobs and in redesigning jobs for high achievers in order to maximize their motivation potential. For example, people who have undergone achievement training in India, have been found to work longer hours, initiate more new business ventures, made greater investments in productive assets than those who did not undergo such training

 

Fred Fiedler - work in the field of leadership has contributed immensely to the growth of OB as a discipline. His work on the subject is important since it emphasized the situational aspects of leadership and attempted to develop a comprehensive theory of leadership behavior

 

Fredrick Herzberg- his primary interest was in finding out answer to the question: what do individuals want from their jobs? He concluded from his study that people preferred jobs that provided opportunities for recognition, achievement, responsibility and growth. Only providing the hygiene factors were insufficient to motivate people in work places. This work is significant to OB as it has helped in enriching jobs and the quality of work life in modern organizations.

 

E. OB is present times

What is realized today is that no one theory by itself can improve organizational functioning and effectiveness. What, therefore, is suggested is a contingency approach. While the 1960s and 70s witnessed the development of new theories the efforts since then has been on refining existing theories, clarifying previous assumptions and identifying significant contingency variables. The emphasis today is on understanding the situational factors and how they influence a behavior pattern of individuals in organizational contexts.

 

Landmark publications on organizational behavior

 

» 1911: Frederick Taylor: Principles of Scientific Management

» 1916: Henri Fayol: General and Industrial Management

» 1924: MaxWeber: The Theory of Social and Economic Organization

» 1933: Elton Mayo: Human Problems of an Industrial Civilization

» 1938: Chester Barnard: The Functions of the Executive

» 1954: Abraham Maslow: Motivation and Personality

» 1956: William Whyte: The Organization Man

» 1959: Frederick Herzberg: The Motivation to Work

» 1960: Douglas McGregor: The Human Side of Enterprise

» 1964: Robert Blake and Jane Mouton: The Managerial Grid

» 1973: Henry Mintzberg: The Nature of Managerial Work

» 1978: Chris Argyris and Donald Schon: Organizational Learning

» 1979: Reg Revans: Action Learning

» 1981: Richard Pascale and Anthony Athos: The Art of Japanese Management

» 1982: Tom Peters and Bob Waterman: In Search of Excellence

» 1984: Meredith Belbin: Management Teams

» 1985: Edgar Schein: Organizational Culture and Leadership

» 1986: Gareth Morgan: Images of Organization

» 1989: Charles Handy: The Age of Unreason

» 1990: Peter Senge: The Fifth Discipline

» 1990: Richard Pascale: Managing on the Edge

» 1993: James Champy and Mike Hammer: Re-engineering the Corporation

1995: Karl Weick: Sensemaking in Organizations

» 1997: Arie de Geus: The Living Company

» 1997: Thomas Stewart: Intellectual Capital

» 2000: Richard Pascale: Surfing the Edge of Chaos

»2001: Daniel Pink: Free Agent Nation

 

Knowledge about the Contributing Disciplines to the OB field

 

Contributing Disciplines To The OB Field

Organizational behavior is an applied behavioral science that is built upon contributions from a number of behavioral disciplines. The main areas are psychology, sociology, social psychology, anthropology, and political science.

 

Psychology :

Psychology is the science that attempts to measure, explain, and at times change the behavior of humans and other animals. Early industrial/organizational psychologists were concerned with problems of fatigue, boredom, and other factors relevant to working conditions that could disrupt/ impede efficient work performance. More recently, their contributions have been expanded to include learning, perception, personality, emotions, training, leadership effectiveness, needs and motivational forces, job satisfaction, decision making processes, performance appraisals, attitude measurement, employee selection techniques, work design, and job stress.

 

Sociology

Sociologists study the social system in which individuals fill their roles; that is, sociology studies people in relation to their fellow human beings. Their significant contribution to OB is through their study of group behavior in organizations, particularly formal and complex organizations.

 

Social Psychology

Social psychology blends the concepts of psychology and sociology. It focuses on the influence of people on one another. The major challenge deals with the issue of how to implement it and how to reduce barriers to its acceptance.

 

Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of societies to learn about human beings and their activities. Anthropologists work on cultures and environments; for example, they have aided in understanding differences in fundamental values, attitudes, and behavior among people in different countries and within different organizations.

 

Political Science

Political science studies the behavior of individuals and groups within a political environment. It focuses on areas, such as, conflict, intra-organizational politics and power.

 

Summary

Organizational behavior (OB) is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within an organization, then applies that knowledge to make organizations work more effectively. Specifically, OB focuses on how to improve productivity, reduce absenteeism and turnover, and increase employee citizenship and job satisfaction. An organization is more than a formal arrangement of functions, more than an organization chart, more than a vision statement, more than a set of accounts. An organization consists of people and so it is also a social system. The field of organizational behavior (OB) draws primarily from the behavioral science disciplines of psychology, social psychology, and cultural anthropology. The areas on which OB focuses are individuals who will often be working within groups, which themselves work within organizations, as well as all the interrelationships between them. Some of the specific themes embraced by OB are personality theory, attitudes and values, motivation and learning, interpersonal behavior, group dynamics, leadership and teamwork, organizational structure and design, decision-making, power, conflict, and negotiation. OB is an interdisciplinary field, it has distinctly humanistic outlook, it is performance oriented, it considers external environment as critical, it uses scientific method and it has an applications orientation. Wood (1997) provides a useful model for exploring behavioral events. He suggests that different levels of analysis can be applied when examining the significance of an organizational issue. He proposes eight, namely: Individual, Team, Inter-group, Organizational, Inter-organizational, Societal, International, and Global. A large number of people have contributed to the growth of OB as a discipline. Some of the most important works have been done by Adam Smith, Frederick Taylor, Henri Fayol, Max Weber, Mary parker Follet, Abraham Maslow, B. F. Skinner, to name a few. Organizational behavior is an applied behavioral science that is built upon contributions from a number of behavioral disciplines. The main areas are psychology, sociology, social psychology, anthropology, and political science.

 

Introduction

Organizational Behavior emphasizes on intellectual capital as represented by the sum total of knowledge, expertise, and dedication of an organization’s workforce. It recognizes that even in the age of high technology, people are the indispensable human resources whose knowledge and performance advance the organization’s purpose, mission, and strategies. Only through human efforts can the great advantages be realized from other material resources of organizations, such as, technology, information, raw materials, and money. A Fortune survey (1998) of America’s most-admired firms reported that “the single best predictor of overall success was a company’s ability to attract, motivate, and retain talented people.”

Learning

Structure

Introduction

Learning refers to a process that enhances the knowledge, skill and attitude (KSA) of individuals, to increase his/her willingness to adopt those newly acquired KSA and to implement them at the workplace. Such learning should be sustainable and comparatively stable for people and for the institutions that serves people. Learning definitely includes academic studies and occupational training through high school and beyond. But it also encompasses the physical, cognitive, emotional and social development of children in the earliest years of their lives.

Learning can be defined as “any relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of experience” (Robbins, 2003).

Following are the characteristics of learning:

First, learning involves change. Second, the change must be relatively permanent. Third, learning is concerned with behavior. Finally, some form of experience is necessary for learning

 Theories of Learning

 There are three theories of learning namely – classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning

1. Classical conditioning:

Classical Conditioning is a form of associative learning process proposed by Pavlov (1927). This process involves presentations of a neutral stimulus along with a stimulus of some significance. The neutral stimulus does not lead to an overt behavioral response from the organism. This is called as Conditioned Stimulus (CS). Significant stimulus evokes an innate, often reflexive, response. This is called Unconditioned Stimulus (US) and Unconditioned Response (UR), respectively. If the CS and the US are repeatedly paired, eventually the two stimuli become associated and the organism begins to produce a behavioral response to it. It is the Conditioned Response (CR).Classical conditioning was first experimented by Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov, to teach dogs to salivate in response to the ringing of a bell. During his research on the physiology of digestion in dogs, Pavlov used a bell before giving food to his dog. Rather than simply salivating in the presence of meat (a response to food – unconditioned response), after a few repetitions, the dog started to salivate in response to the bell. Thus, a neutral stimulus (bell) became a conditioned stimulus (CS) as a result of consistent pairing with the unconditioned stimulus (US – meat). Pavlov referred to this learned relationship as a Conditioned Response.

 

2. Operant Conditioning:

The operant conditioning theory is proposed by B.F. Skinner (1953, 1954). This is based on the idea that learning is a function of change in overt behavior. Changes in behavior are the result of an individual’s response to stimuli. When a particular Stimulus-Response (S-R) pattern is reinforced (rewarded), the individual is conditioned to respond. Reinforcement is the key element in Skinner’s S-R theory. A reinforcer is anything that strengthens the desired response.

Principles of operant conditioning are as follows:

 1. Behavior is learned.

2. Behavior that is positively reinforced will reoccur.

3. Information should be presented in small amounts so that responses can be reinforced (”shaping”)

4. Reinforcements will generalize across similar stimuli (”stimulus generalization”) producing secondary conditioning.

5. Rewards are most effective if they immediately follow the desired response.

For example, if a subordinate is praised by his boss for looking good in a certain attire, the subordinate is likely to wear that attire and present himself in front of boss, especially when he needs to please the boss.

 

3. Social Learning

The social learning theory was proposed by Bandura. It recognizes the importance of observing and modeling the behaviors, attitudes, and emotional reactions of others. According to Bandura (1977), most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action. Social learning theory explains human behavior in terms of continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioral, and environmental influences.

 Social learning has four processes:

Attentional processes – People learn from a model only when they recognize and pay attention to its critical features.

Retention processes – A model’s influence will depend on how well the individual remembers the model’s action after the it is no longer readily available.

Motor reproduction processes – After a person has seen a new behavior by observing the model, the watching must be converted to doing.

Reinforcement processes- Individuals will be motivated to exhibit the modeled behavior if positive incentives or rewards are provided.

Principles of social learning are as follows:

1. The highest level of observational learning is achieved by first organizing and rehearsing the modeled behavior symbolically and then enacting it overtly. Coding modeled behavior into words, labels or images results in better retention than simply observing.

2. Individuals are more likely to adopt a modeled behavior, if it results in outcomes they value.

3. Individuals are more likely to adopt a modeled behavior, if the model is similar to the observer and has admired status and the behavior has functional value

 Shaping behavior

When a systematic attempt is made to change individuals’ behaviour by directing their learning in graduated steps, it is called shaping behavior.

There are four methods of Shaping Behavior. They are as follows:

 Positive reinforcement – This is the process of getting something pleasant as a consequence of a desired behavior, to strengthen the same behavior. For example, one get a commission, if he/she achieves sales target

 Negative reinforcement – This is the process of having a reward taken away as a consequence of a undesired behavior. For example, scholarship is withdrawn from the student who has not done well on the examination

Punishment is causing an unpleasant condition in an attempt to eliminate an undesirable behavior. This is the process of getting a punishment as a consequence of a behavior. Example: having your pay docked for lateness

Extinction—eliminating any reinforcement that is maintaining a behavior. So, if a person puts in extra effort, but gets no recognition for it, he will stop doing it

Both positive and negative reinforcement result in learning. They strengthen a response and increase the probability of repetition. Both punishment and extinction weaken behavior and tend to decrease its subsequent frequency

 

Schedules of reinforcement

 

The two major types of reinforcement schedules are: 1) continuous and 2) intermittent.

 

1. A Continuous reinforcement schedule reinforces the desired behavior each and every time it is demonstrated. It is the traditional reinforcement schedule and is called a continuous reinforcement schedule. Each time the correct behavior is performed it gets reinforced.

 

2. An Intermittent reinforcement schedule are fixed and variable categories. In an intermittent schedule, not every instance of the desirable behavior is reinforced, but reinforcement is given often enough to make the behavior worth repeating. The intermittent, or varied, form of reinforcement tends to promote more resistance to extinction than does the continuous form.

 

Intermittent techniques be placed into following categories:

 Fixed-interval reinforcement schedule—rewards are spaced at uniform time intervals; the critical variable is time, and it is held constant.

 Variable-interval reinforcements—rewards are distributed in time so that reinforcements are unpredictable.

In a fixed-ratio schedule, after a fixed or constant number of responses are given, a reward is initiated.

When the reward varies relative to the behavior of the individual, he or she is said to be reinforced on a variable-ratio schedule

For example, honesty pay is fixed interval reinforcement, and piece rate is fixed ratio reinforcement scheme.

In general, variable schedules tend to lead to higher performance than fixed schedules. Continuous reinforcement schedules may lead to early satisfaction and behavior may weaken when reinforcers are withdrawn. Continuous reinforcers, thus, are appropriate for newly desired, unstable, or low-frequency responses. Intermittent reinforcers do not follow every response and thus, they also may lead to early satisfaction. They are appropriate for stable or high-frequency responses. Variable-interval schedules generate high rates of response and more stable and consistent behavior because of a high correlation between performance and reward.

 Understand the Behavior modification and its organizational application.

 The typical OB Modification program follows a five-step problem-solving model:

Identifying critical behaviors Developing baseline data Identifying behavior consequences Developing and implementing an intervention strategy Evaluating performance improvement

 

Critical behaviors make a significant impact on the employee’s job performance; Developing baseline data determines the number of times the identified behavior is

occurring under present conditions. Identifying behavioral consequences tells the manager the antecedent cues that emit the

behavior and the consequences that are currently maintaining it. Developing and implementing an intervention strategy will entail changing some

elements of the performance-reward linkage-structure, processes, technology, groups, or the task—with the goal of making high-level performance more rewarding.

Evaluating performance improvement is important to demonstrate that a change took place as a result of the intervention strategy.

OB Modification has been used by a number of organizations to improve employee productivity and to reduce errors, absenteeism, tardiness, accident rates, and improve friendliness toward customers.

Specific organizational application

Using lotteries to reduce absenteeism

For example, Continental Airlines has created a lottery that rewards its 40,000 employees for attendance. Twice a year, Continental holds a raffle and gives away eight new sport utility vehicles. Only employees who have not missed a day of work during the previous six months are eligible. This lottery system thus, follows a variable-ratio schedule where management credits the lottery with significantly reducing the company’s absence rate (Robbins, 2003).

 

Well pay vs. sick pay

Organizations with paid sick leave programs experience almost twice the absenteeism of organizations without such programs. One of the Midwest organizations in USA implemented a well-pay program. It paid a bonus to employees who had no absence for any given four-week period and then paid for sick leave only after the first eight hours of absence. The well-pay program produced increased savings to the organization, reduced absenteeism, increased productivity, and improved employee satisfaction. Forbes magazine used the same approach to

cut its health care costs. It rewarded employees who stayed healthy and did not file medical claims by paying them the difference between $500 and their medical claims, then doubling the amount. By doing this, Forbes cut its major medical and dental claims by over 30 percent (Robbins, 2003).

 

Employee discipline

 

a. Every manager will, at some time, have to deal with problem behaviors in his/her organization.

b. Managers will respond with disciplinary actions such as oral reprimands, written warnings, and temporary suspensions. However, the use of discipline carries costs. It may provide only a short-term solution and result in serious side effects.

c. Disciplining employees for undesirable behaviors gives them a message to what not to do. However, it does not tell them what alternative behaviors are preferred.

d. Discipline does have a place in organizations.

e. In practice, it tends to be widely used because of its ability to produce fast results in the short run.

f. Developing training programs

g. Most organizations have some kind of systematic training program.

h. In one recent year, U.S. corporations with 100 or more employees spent in excess of $58 billion on formal training for 47.3 million workers (Robbins, 2003).

 

Social-learning theory suggests that training should

a. Offer a model to grab the trainee’s attention.

b. Provide motivational properties

c. Help the trainee to file away what he or she has learned for later use and provide opportunities to practice new behaviors.

d. Offer positive rewards for accomplishments.

e. If the training has taken place off the job, allow the trainee some opportunity to transfer what he/she learned to the job.

 

5. Self-management

1. Organizational applications of learning concepts can also be used to allow individuals to manage their own behavior.

2. Self-management requires an individual to deliberately manipulate stimuli, internal processes, and responses to achieve personal behavioral outcomes.

The basic processes involve observing one’s own behavior, comparing the behavior with a standard, and rewarding oneself if the behavior meets the standard.

 

Summary

Learning refers to a process that enhances the knowledge, skill and attitude (KSA) of individuals, to increase his/her willingness to adopt those newly acquired KSA and to implement them at the workplace. Characteristics of learning are: learning involves change; change must be relatively permanent; learning is concerned with behavior; and some form of experience is necessary for learning. There are three theories of learning namely – classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning. Classical Conditioning is a form of associative learning process proposed by Pavlov. This process involves presentations of a neutral stimulus along with a stimulus of some significance. The neutral stimulus does not lead to an overt behavioral response from the organism. This is called as Conditioned Stimulus (CS). Significant stimulus evokes an innate, often reflexive, response. This is called Unconditioned Stimulus (US) and Unconditioned Response (UR), respectively. If the CS and the US are repeatedly paired, eventually the two stimuli become associated and the organism begins to produce a behavioral response to it. It is the Conditioned Response (CR). The operant conditioning theory is proposed by B.F. Skinner. This is based on the idea that learning is a function of change in overt behavior. Changes in behavior are the result of an individual’s response to stimuli. When a particular Stimulus-Response (S-R) pattern is reinforced (rewarded), the individual is conditioned to respond. Reinforcement is the key element in Skinner’s S-R theory. A reinforcer is anything that strengthens the desired response. The social learning theory was proposed by Bandura. It recognizes the importance of observing and modeling the behaviors, attitudes, and emotional reactions of others. According to Bandura (1977), most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action. Social learning theory explains human behavior in terms of continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioral, and environmental influences. When a systematic attempt is made to change individuals’ behavior by directing their learning in graduated steps, it is called shaping behavior. There are four methods of Shaping Behavior. They are: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment, and extinction. Both positive and negative

reinforcement result in learning. They strengthen a response and increase the probability of repetition. Both punishment and extinction weaken behavior and tend to decrease its subsequent frequency. The typical OB Mod program follows a five-step problem-solving model: Identifying critical behaviors, Developing baseline data, Identifying behavior consequences, Developing and implementing an intervention strategy, and Evaluating performance improvement.

 

Value, Ethics And Job Satisfaction

 

Introduction

Values represent basic convictions that “a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence” (Rokeach, 1973). When the values are ranked in terms of their intensity, i.e., when the value are prioritized in terms of their intensity, it is called value system. Types of values include, ethical/moral values, doctrinal/ideological (political, religious) values, social values, and aesthetic values.

Values have both content and intensity attributes.

The content attribute signifies that a mode of conduct or end-state of existence is important.

The intensity attribute specifies how important it is. Ranking an individual’s values in terms of their intensity equals that person’s value

system.

Values build the foundation for the understanding of attitudes and motivation of an individual, since, value has a great impact on perceptions. Values shape relationships, behaviors, and choices. The more positive our values, more positive are people’s actions. A significant portion of the values an individual holds is established in the early years—from parents, teachers, friends, and others.

Types of Values

Rokeach, in his Value Survey (Rokeach Value Survey- RVS), proposed two sets of values. They are :Terminal values and Instrumental values. Each set contains 18 individual value items. Terminal values refer to desirable end-states of existence, the goals that a person would like to achieve during his/her lifetime. Instrumental values refer to preferable modes of behavior, or

means of achieving the terminal values. This survey proposed that people in the same occupations or categories tend to hold similar values. The terminal values and instrumental values proposed by RVS are listed below:

 

Terminal values

1. Equality (brotherhood and equal opportunity for all)2. A comfortable life (a prosperous life)3. An Exciting Life (a stimulating, active life)4. Family Security (taking care of loved ones)5. Freedom (independence and free choice)6. Health (physical and mental well-being)7. Inner Harmony (freedom from inner conflict)8. Mature Love (sexual and spiritual intimacy)9. National Security (protection from attack)10. Pleasure (an enjoyable, leisurely life)11. Salvation (saved; eternal life)12. Self-Respect (self-esteem)13. A Sense of Accomplishment (a lasting contribution)14. Social Recognition (respect and admiration)15. True Friendship (close companionship)16. Wisdom (a mature understanding of life)17. A World at Peace (a world free of war and conflict)18. A World of Beauty (beauty of nature and the arts)

 

Instrumental values

1. Ambitious (hardworking and aspiring)2. Broad-minded    (open-minded)3. Capable (competent; effective)4. Clean (neat and tidy)5. Courageous (standing up for your beliefs)6. Forgiving (willing to pardon others)7. Helpful (working for the welfare of others)8. Honest (sincere and truthful)9. Imaginative (daring and creative)10. Independent (self-reliant; self-sufficient)11. Intellectual (intelligent and reflective)12. Logical (consistent; rational)13. Loving    (affectionate and tender)14. Loyal (faithful to friends or the group)15. Obedient (dutiful; respectful)

16. Polite (courteous and well-mannered)17. Responsible (dependable and reliable)18. Self-controlled    (restrained; self-disciplined)

 

5.3 Contemporary Work Cohort

Robbins (2003) has proposed Contemporary Work Cohort, in which the unique value of different cohorts is that the U.S. workforce has been segmented by the era they entered the workforce. Individuals’ values differ, but tend to reflect the societal values of the period in which they grew up. The cohorts and the respective values have been listed below:

 

1. Veterans—Workers who entered the workforce from the early 1940s through the early 1960s. They exhibited the following value orientations:

They were influenced by the Great Depression and World War II

1. Believed in hard work2. Tended to be loyal to their employer3. Terminal values: Comfortable life and family security

 

2. Boomers—Employees who entered the workforce during the 1960s through the mid-1980s belonged to this category. Their value orientations were:

 

1. Influenced heavily by John F. Kennedy, the civil rights and feminist movements, the Beatles, the Vietnam War, and baby-boom competition

2. Distrusted authority, but gave a high emphasis on achievement and material success3. Organizations who employed them were vehicles for their careers4. Terminal values: sense of accomplishment and social recognition

 

3. Xers—began to enter the workforce from the mid-1980s. They cherished the following values:

 

1. Shaped by globalization, two-career parents, MTV, AIDS, and computers

2. Value flexibility, life options, and achievement of job satisfaction3. Family and relationships were important and enjoyed team-oriented work4. Money was important, but would trade off for increased leisure time5. Less willing to make personal sacrifices for employers than previous generations

Terminal values: true friendship, happiness, and pleasure

4. Nexters—most recent entrants into the workforce.

 

1. Grew up in prosperous times, have high expectation, believe in themselves, and confident in their ability to succeed

2. Never-ending search for ideal job; see nothing wrong with job-hopping3. Seek financial success4. Enjoy team work, but are highly self-reliant5. Terminal values: freedom and comfortable life

 

Attitudes

 

Attitudes are evaluative statements that are either favorable or unfavorable concerning objects, people, or events. Attitudes are not the same as values, but the two are interrelated. There are three components of an attitude:

1. Cognition2. Affect3. Behavior

Cognition – It is the mental process involved in gaining knowledge and comprehension, including thinking, knowing, remembering, judging, and problem solving.

Affect – is the emotional or feeling segment of an attitude.

Behavior - The behavioral component of an attitude refers to an intention to behave in a certain way toward someone or something.

 

Types of Attitudes

 

Most of the research in OB has been concerned with three attitudes: job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment.

Job satisfaction

1. It is defined as an individual’s general attitude toward his/her job. A high level of job satisfaction equals positive attitudes toward the job and vice-a-versa.

 

Job involvement

1. It is the measure of the degree to which a person identifies psychologically with his/her job and considers his/her perceived performance level important to self-worth.

 

Organizational commitmento It is defined as a state in which an employee identifies with a particular

organization and its goals, and wishes to maintain membership in the organization. Research evidence has shown a negative relationship between organizational commitment and both absenteeism as well as turnover. An individual’s level of organizational commitment is a better indicator of turnover than the far more frequently used job satisfaction predictor, because, it is a more global and enduring response to the organization as a whole than is job satisfaction.

 

Attitudes and Consistency

When there is an inconsistency, forces are initiated to return the individual to an equilibrium state where attitudes and behavior are again consistent, by altering either the attitudes or the behavior, or by developing a rationalization for the discrepancy.

 

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

 

Festinger (1957), while linking attitudes with behavior, argued that, any form of inconsistency is uncomfortable and individuals will attempt to reduce the dissonance. The desire to reduce dissonance would be determined by the importance of the elements creating the dissonance, the degree of influence the individual believes he/she has over the elements and the rewards that may be involved in dissonance

 Importance: If the elements creating the dissonance are relatively unimportant, the pressure to correct this imbalance will be low.

 Influence: If the dissonance is perceived as an uncontrollable result, they are less likely to be receptive to attitude change. Though dissonance exists, it is possible to rationalize and justify it.

 Rewards: The inherent tension in high dissonance tends to be reduced with high rewards.

However, it is not possible for any individual to completely avoid dissonance. Due to moderating factors, individuals will not necessarily move to reduce dissonance—or consistency.

Contemporary research has shown that attitudes can significantly predict future behavior and has confirmed Festinger’s original view that relationship can be enhanced by taking moderating variables into account( Robbins, 2003). The most powerful moderators are:

1. Importance2. Specificity3. Accessibility4. Social pressures5. Direct experience

 

Importance: refers to fundamental values, self-interest, or identification with individuals or groups that a person values.

Specificity: The more specific the attitude and the more specific the behavior, the stronger the link between the two.

Accessibility: Attitudes that are easily remembered are more likely to predict behavior than attitudes that are not accessible in memory.

Social pressures: Discrepancies between attitudes and behavior are more likely to occur where social pressures to behave in certain ways hold exceptional power.

 

Direct experience: The attitude-behavior relationship is likely to be much stronger if an attitude refers to an individual’s direct personal experience.

 

Self-perception theory

Self-perception theory (Bem, 1967) proposes that attitudes are used to make sense out of an action that has already occurred rather than devices that precede and guide action. In contrast to the cognitive dissonance theory, attitudes are just casual verbal statements and they tend to create plausible answers for what has already occurred.

While the traditional attitude-behavior relationship is generally positive, the behavior-attitude relationship is stronger especially when attitudes are unclear and ambiguous or little thought has been given to it earlier.

 

Attitude Surveys

 

The most popular method for getting information about employee attitudes is through attitude surveys. It provides with valuable feedback about the way employees perceive their working conditions. Managers present the employee with set statements or questions to obtain specific information. What may be viewed by management as fair policies and practices, and as objective, may be seen as inequitable by employees in general, or by certain groups of employees, and may result in negative attitudes about the job and the organization. The use of regular attitude surveys can alert management to potential problems and employees’ intentions well in time, so that action can be taken to prevent repercussions (Robbins, 2003).

 

Measuring Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is the sense of fulfillment and pride felt by people who enjoy their work and do it well. For an organization, satisfied work force ensures commitment to high quality performance and increased productivity Job satisfaction helps organizations to reduce complaints and grievances, absenteeism, turnover, and termination. Job satisfaction is also linked to a more healthy work force and has been found to be a good indicator of longevity. And although only little correlation has been found between job satisfaction and productivity, it has also been found that satisfying or delighting employees is a prerequisite to satisfying or delighting customers, thus protecting the “bottom line (Brown, 1996).

Creating Job Satisfaction

Probably the most important point to bear in mind when considering job satisfaction is that there are many factors that affect job satisfaction and that what makes workers happy with their jobs varies from one worker to another and from day to day. Organizations aspiring to create a work environment that enhances job satisfaction need to incorporate the following:

1. Flexible work arrangements2. Task variety and significance3. Job security4. A supportive work environment5. Competitive salary

6. Career opportunities

Job enrichment

It is a deliberate upgrading of responsibility, scope, and challenge in the work itself. Job enrichment usually includes increased responsibility, recognition, and opportunities for growth, learning, and achievement. Large companies that have used job-enrichment programs to increase employee motivation and job satisfaction include, AT&T, IBM, and General Motors (Daft, 1997).

Workers’ role in job satisfaction

A worker should also take some responsibility for his or her job satisfaction. Everett (1995) proposed the following questions which employees ask themselves in regard to job satisfaction at the workplace:

1. When have I come closest to expressing my full potential in a work situation?2. What did it look like?3. What aspects of the workplace were most supportive?4. What aspects of the work itself were most satisfying?5. What did I learn from that experience that could be applied to the present situation?

The following suggestions can help a worker find personal job satisfaction:

1. Seek opportunities to demonstrate skills and talents.2. Develop communication skills.3. Acquire job related skills and try to implement them.4. Demonstrate creativity and initiative.5. Improve team building and leadership skill.6. Learn to de-stress.

The ways of expressing job dissatisfaction

 

There are a number of ways in which employees can express dissatisfaction (Robbins, 2003). They are:

1. Exit2. Voice3. Loyalty4. Neglect

 

1. Exit: Behavior directed toward leaving the organization, actions like looking for a new position as well as resigning.

2. Voice: Actively and constructively attempting to improve conditions, including suggesting improvements, discussing problems with superiors, and some forms of union activity.

3. Loyalty: Passively, but optimistically waiting for conditions to improve, including standing up for the organization in the face of external criticism/ crisis, and reposing trust in the organization and its management to take the right decisions and set things in order.

4. Neglect: Passively allowing conditions to worsen, including chronic absenteeism or lateness, reduced effort, and increased error rate

 

Summary

Values represent basic convictions that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence. Types of values include, ethical/moral values, doctrinal/ideological (political, religious) values, social values, and aesthetic values. Values build the foundation for the understanding of attitudes and motivation of an individual, since, value has a great impact on perceptions. Values shape relationships, behaviors, and choices. The more positive our values, more positive are people’s actions. A significant portion of the values an individual holds is established in the early years from parents, teachers, friends, and others. Rokeach, in his Value Survey (Rokeach Value Survey- RVS), proposed two sets of values. They are :Terminal values and Instrumental values. Each set contains 18 individual value items. Terminal values refer to desirable end-states of existence, the goals that a person would like to achieve during his/her lifetime. Instrumental values refer to preferable modes of behavior, or means of achieving the terminal values. Hofstede proposed four dimensions of national culture: Power distance (this dimension measures the ’social equality’), Uncertainty avoidance (this is a representation of a society’s tolerance for uncertain situations), Individualism vs. collectivism (individualism gauges to what extent individuals in a country consider themselves as distinct entities rather than as members of cohesive groups and collectivism emphasizes on ’social ties or bonds’ between individuals) and Masculinity vs. femininity (this dimension refers to what extent dominant values in a society emphasizes masculine social values like a work ethic expressed in terms of money, achievement and recognition as opposed to feminine social role which show more concern for people and quality of life). Attitudes are evaluative statements that are either favorable or unfavorable concerning objects, people, or events. Attitudes are not the same as values, but the two are interrelated. There are three components of an attitude: Cognition (the mental process involved in gaining knowledge and comprehension), Affect (the emotional or feeling segment of an attitude) and Behavior (an intention to behave in a certain way toward someone or something). Festinger (1957), while linking attitudes with behavior, argued that, any form of inconsistency is uncomfortable and individuals will attempt to reduce the dissonance. The desire to reduce dissonance would be determined by the importance of the elements creating the dissonance, the degree of influence the individual believes he/she has over the elements and the rewards that may be involved in dissonance. Self-perception theory (Bem, 1967) proposes that attitudes are used to make sense out of an action that has already occurred rather than

devices that precede and guide action. In contrast to the cognitive dissonance theory, attitudes are just casual verbal statements and they tend to create plausible answers for what has already occurred.

.

Personality

 

Introduction

The term ‘personality’ has been derived from the Latin term ‘persona’ which means to ’speak through’. The Latin word denotes the masks worn by actors in ancient Greece and Rome. Therefore, a very common meaning of the term personality is the role which the person (actor) displays in the public domain at large. Personality is a dynamic concept describing the growth and development of a person’s whole psychological system-it looks at some aggregate whole that is greater than the sum of the parts. Allport (1937) defined personality as “the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environment”.

 

Learning objective- 1

 

Know about different determinants of Personality.

 

Personality Determinants

The factors affecting personality development are illustrated below:

 

1. Heredity – The relationship of heredity with personality is a well-accepted fact. Traits like physique, eye color, hair color, height, temperament, energy level, intelligence, reflexes, etc. are generally referred to describe the influence of heredity in developing personality. The heredity approach argues that the ultimate explanation of an individual’s personality is the molecular structure of the genes, located in the chromosomes. Robbins

(2003) has argued that the three different streams of research lend some credibility to the argument that heredity plays an important part in determining an individual’s personality. The first looks at the genetic underpinnings of human behavior and temperament among young children. The second addresses the study of twins who were separated at birth and the third examines the consistency in job satisfaction over time and across situations.

2. Environment – Environment comprises of culture, family, social and situational factors. The environmental factors influence personality of an individual since they provide the basis of certain experiences which determine the individual’s view about life, both positive and negative.

3. Culture – Culture establishes norms, attitudes and values that are passed on from generation to generation and create consistencies over time. Every culture expects and trains its members to behave in the ways that are acceptable to the group. People from different cultural groups have different attitudes towards independence, aggression, competition, cooperation, artistic talent, etc. However, on the basis of culture, an individual’s personality cannot be always assessed, since individuals within the same culture (but from different family and sub-cultural background) have been seen to differ in their behavior.

4. Family - One of the most important determinants of the personality of a person is the immediate family. Families influence the behavior of a person especially in the early stages of life. The nature of such influence will depend upon the socio-economic level of the family, family size, race, religion, parent’s educational level and geographic location.

1. Situation – Situational factors also play a crucial role in determining the personality of a person. Every individual goes through different type of experiences and events in his/her life. Some of the events and experiences, which an individual goes through in his/her life, can serve as important determinants of his/her personality. A trauma suffered by a person in the childhood can sometime change the structure of his/her own personality.

Personality Theories

Traits are underlying tendencies to behave in a consistent and distinctive style and they describe the frequency or intensity of a person’s feelings, thoughts, or behaviors. Possession of a trait is, therefore, a matter of degree.

Some of the most important research works on personality traits are mentioned below:

 

Cattell’s 16 Personality Factor Model

Early research on personality traits resulted in isolating large numbers of traits, which made it impossible to predict behavior. Cattell’s (1973) is one of the most important personality trait theory, where the number of traits have been reduced. Cattell referred to these 16 factors as primary factors.

 

Primary Factors and Descriptors in Cattell’s 16 Personality Factor Model (Adapted From Conn & Rieke, 1994).

 

 

Descriptors of Low Range Primary Factor

Descriptors of High Range

Reserve, impersonal, distant, cool, reserved, impersonal, detached, formal, aloof (Sizothymia)

Warmth Warm, outgoing, attentive to others, kindly, easy going, participating, likes people (Affectothymia)

Concrete thinking, lower general mental capacity, less intelligent, unable to handle abstract problems (Lower Scholastic Mental Capacity)

Reasoning

Abstract-thinking, more intelligent, bright, higher general mental capacity, fast learner (Higher Scholastic Mental Capacity)

Reactive emotionally, changeable, affected by feelings, emotionally less stable, easily upset (Lower Ego Strength)

Emotional Stability

Emotionally stable, adaptive, mature, faces reality calm (Higher Ego Strength)

Deferential, cooperative, avoids conflict, submissive, humble, obedient, easily led, docile, accommodating (Submissiveness)

Dominance Dominant, forceful, assertive, aggressive, competitive, stubborn, bossy (Dominance)

Serious, restrained, prudent, taciturn, introspective, silent (Desurgency)

Liveliness

Lively, animated, spontaneous, enthusiastic, happy go lucky, cheerful, expressive, impulsive (Surgency)

Expedient, nonconforming, disregards rules, self indulgent (Low Super Ego Strength)

Rule-Consciousness

Rule-conscious, dutiful, conscientious, conforming, moralistic, staid, rule bound (High Super Ego Strength)

Shy, threat-sensitive, timid, hesitant, intimidated (Threctia)

Social Boldness

Socially bold, venturesome, thick skinned, uninhibited (Parmia)

Utilitarian, objective, unsentimental, tough minded, self-reliant, no-nonsense, rough (Harria)

Sensitivity Sensitive, aesthetic, sentimental, tender minded, intuitive, refined (Premsia)

Trusting, unsuspecting, accepting, unconditional, easy (Alaxia)

Vigilance Vigilant, suspicious, skeptical, distrustful, oppositional (Protension)

Grounded, practical, prosaic, solution orientated, steady,

Abstractedness Abstract, imaginative, absent minded, impractical, absorbed in

conventional (Praxernia) ideas (Autia)

Forthright, genuine, artless, open, guileless, naive, unpretentious, involved (Artlessness)

Privateness Private, discreet, nondisclosing, shrewd, polished, worldly, astute, diplomatic (Shrewdness)

Self-Assured, unworried, complacent, secure, free of guilt, confident, self satisfied (Untroubled)

Apprehension

Apprehensive, self doubting, worried, guilt prone, insecure, worrying, self blaming (Guilt Proneness)

Traditional, attached to familiar, conservative, respecting traditional ideas (Conservatism)

Openness to Change

Open to change, experimental, liberal, analytical, critical, free thinking, flexibility (Radicalism)

Group-oriented, affiliative, a joiner and follower dependent (Group Adherence)

Self-Reliance Self-reliant, solitary, resourceful, individualistic, self sufficient (Self-Sufficiency)

Tolerated disorder, unexacting, flexible, undisciplined, lax, self-conflict, impulsive, careless of social rues, uncontrolled (Low Integration)

Perfectionism

Perfectionistic, organized, compulsive, self-disciplined, socially precise, exacting will power, control, self –sentimental (High Self-Concept Control)

Relaxed, placid, tranquil, torpid, patient, composed low drive (Low Ergic Tension)

Tension Tense, high energy, impatient, driven, frustrated, over wrought, time driven. (High Ergic Tension)

 

 

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

 

The MBTI classifies human beings into four opposite pairs (dichotomies), base on their psychological opposites. These four opposite pairs result into 16 possible combinations. In MBTI, Individuals are classified as (McCrae and Costa, 1989) :

a. Extroverted or introverted (E or I).

b. Sensing or intuitive (S or N).

c. Thinking or feeling (T or F).

d. Perceiving or judging (P or J).

These classifications are then combined into sixteen personality types. For example:

 

a. INTJs are visionaries. They usually have original minds and great drive for their own ideas and purposes. They are characterized as skeptical, critical, independent, determined, and often stubborn.

 

b. ESTJs are organizers. They are realistic, logical, analytical, decisive, and have a natural head for business or mechanics. They like to organize and run activities.

 

c. The ENTP type is a conceptualizer. He or she is innovative, individualistic, versatile, and attracted to entrepreneurial ideas. This person tends to be resourceful in solving challenging problems but may neglect routine assignments.

 

The big five model

 

Many researchers argue that five basic dimensions underlie all other personality dimensions (e.g; McCrae and Costa, 1990; Digman, 1997). The five basic dimensions are:

 

1. Extraversion. Comfort level with relationships. Extraverts tend to be gregarious, assertive, and sociable. Introverts tend to be reserved, timid, and quiet.

2. Agreeableness. Individual’s propensity to defer to others. High agreeableness people—cooperative, warm, and trusting. Low agreeableness people—cold, disagreeable, and antagonistic.

3. Conscientiousness. A measure of reliability. A high conscientious person is responsible, organized, dependable, and persistent. Those who score low on this dimension are easily distracted, disorganized, and unreliable.

4. Emotional stability. A person’s ability to withstand stress. People with positive emotional stability tend to be calm, self-confident, and secure. Those with high negative scores tend to be nervous, anxious, depressed, and insecure.

5. Openness to experience. The range of interests and fascination with novelty. Extremely open people are creative, curious, and artistically sensitive. Those at the other end of the openness category are conventional and find comfort in the familiar.

 

Research suggested important relationships between these personality dimensions and job performance (Barrick, & Mount , 1991). For example, conscientiousness predicted job performance for all occupational groups. Individuals who are dependable, reliable, careful, thorough, able to plan, organized, hardworking, persistent, and achievement-oriented tend to have higher job performance. Employees higher in conscientiousness develop higher levels of job knowledge. For the other personality dimensions, predictability depended upon both the performance criterion and the occupational group. Extraversion predicted performance in managerial and sales positions. Openness to experience is important in predicting training proficiency.

 

Locus of control

A person’s perception of the source of his/her fate is termed locus of control. Locus of control was formulated within the framework of Rotter’s (1954) social learning theory of personality. Rotter (1975) pointed out that internality and externality represent two ends of a continuum, not an either/or typology. Internals tend to attribute outcomes of events to their own control. Externals attribute outcomes of events to external circumstances. For example, college students with a strong internal locus of control may believe that their grades were achieved through their own abilities and efforts, whereas, those with a strong external locus of control may believe that their grades are the result of good or bad luck, or to a professor who designs bad tests or grades capriciously; hence, they are less likely to expect that their own efforts will result in success and are therefore less likely to work hard for high grades.

Individuals who rate high in externality are less satisfied with their jobs, have higher absenteeism rates, are more alienated from the work setting, and are less involved on their jobs than are internals. Internals, facing the same situation, attribute organizational outcomes to their own actions. Internals believe that health is substantially under their own control through proper habits; their incidences of sickness and, hence, of absenteeism, are lower.

 

 

Internals generally perform better on their jobs, but one needs to consider differences in jobs. Internals search more actively for information before making a decision, are more motivated to achieve, and make a greater attempt to control their environment, and hence, internals do well on sophisticated tasks. Internals are more suited to jobs that require initiative and independence of action and want autonomy and independence in their jobs. Externals are more compliant and willing to follow directions and be led, and do well on jobs that are well structured and routine and in which success depends heavily on complying with the direction of others.

 

Machiavellianism

Machiavellianism is the term that some social and personality psychologists use to describe a person’s tendency to deceive and manipulate others for personal gain. The concept is named after Renaissance diplomat and writer Niccolò Machiavelli, who wrote Il Principe (The Prince). Christie and Geis (1970) developed a test for measuring a person’s level of Machiavellianism. This eventually became the MACH-IV test, a twenty-statement personality survey that is now the standard self-assessment tool of Machiavellianism. An individual high in Machiavellianism is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, and believes that ends can justify means. High Machs manipulate more, win more, are persuaded less, and persuade others more. High Mach outcomes are moderated by situational factors and flourish when they interact face to face with others, rather than indirectly, and when the situation has a minimum number of rules and regulations, thus, allowing room for improvisation. High Machs make good employees in jobs that require bargaining skills or that offer substantial rewards for winning.

 

Self-esteem ( SE)

Self-esteem is defined as the degree to which people like or dislike themselves (Robbins, 2003). Individuals with high self-esteem tend to take more risks in job selection and are more likely to choose unconventional jobs in contrast to people with low self-esteem. Low SEs are more susceptible to external influence than are high SEs. Low SEs are dependent on the receipt of positive evaluations from others. In managerial positions, therefore, low SEs will tend to be concerned with pleasing others.

 

 

Self-monitoring

It refers to an individual’s ability to adjust his or her behavior to external, situational factors. Individuals high in self-monitoring show considerable adaptability. They are highly sensitive to external cues, and are capable of behaving differently in different situations, and presenting striking contradictions between their public persona and their private self. Low self-monitors cannot disguise themselves in that way. They tend to display their true dispositions and attitudes in almost every situation resulting in a high behavioral consistency between who they are and what they do. High self-monitors tend to pay closer attention to the behavior of others. High self-monitoring managers tend to be more mobile in their careers and receive more promotions. High self-monitor is capable of putting on different “faces” for different audiences.

 

Type A and Type B personality

Type A personality is a set of characteristics that includes, being impatient, excessively time-conscious, insecure about one’s status, highly competitive, hostile and aggressive, and incapable

of relaxation (Friedman & Rosenman 1974). They are always moving, walking, and eating rapidly, are impatient with the rate at which most events take place, are doing do two or more things at once and cannot cope with leisure time. They are obsessed with numbers, measuring their success in terms of how many or how much of everything they acquire. Type ‘A’s operate under moderate to high levels of stress. They expose themselves to continuous time pressure, are fast workers, give preference to quantity over quality, work long hours, and are also rarely creative.

 

Type B personality is rarely hurried by the desire to obtain an increasing number of things or participate in events demanding an ever-decreasing amount of time (Friedman & Rosenman, 1974). Type Bs never suffer from a sense of time urgency with its accompanying impatience and feel no need to display or discuss either their achievements or accomplishments unless otherwise demanded by the situation. They can relax without guilt.

 

Achieving Personality-Job- Fit

According to Holland (1997), workers are not passive victims of their environments, but actively seek potentially compatible work environments. If an individual’s personality and the work environment “fit”—that is, if the personality is congruent with the work environment—the individual will most likely enjoy the work and develop and grow in the career. Matching people to the organizational culture at the time of hiring should result in higher employee satisfaction and reduced turnover. Holland has proposed Six themes of people and work environments, within which all jobs can be classified:

1. Realistic2. Investigative3. Artistic4. Social5. Enterprising6. Conventional

The above-mentioned classification is shown in more details in the following chart:

 

Type    Personality Characteristics Congruent OccupationRealistic: Prefers physicalactivities that require skill,strength, and coordination

Shy, genuine, persistent, stable,conforming, practical

Mechanic, drill press operator,assembly-line worker, farmer

Investigative: Prefers activitiesthat involve thinking,

Analytical, original, curious,independent

Biologist, economist,mathematician, news reporter

organizing, and understandingSocial: Prefers activities thatinvolve helping anddeveloping others

Sociable, friendly, cooperative,understanding

Social workers, teacher,counselor, clinical psychologist

Conventional: Prefers rule-regulated, orderly, andunambiguous activities

Conforming, efficient, practical,unimaginative, inflexible

Accountant, corporatemanager, bank teller, file clerk

Enterprising: Prefers verbalactivities in which there areopportunities to influenceothers and attain power

Self-confident, ambitious,energetic, domineering

Lawyer, real estate agent,public relations specialist, smallbusiness manager

Artistic: Prefers ambiguous andunsystematic activities thatallow creative expression

Imaginative, disorderly, idealistic,emotional, impractical

Painter, musician, writer,interior decorator

 

 

 

Summary

The term ‘personality’ has been derived from the Latin term ‘persona’ which means to ’speak through’. The factors affecting personality development are Heredity, Environment, Culture, Family, and Situation. Personality Traits are underlying tendencies to behave in a consistent and distinctive style and they describe the frequency or intensity of a person’s feelings, thoughts, or behaviors. Possession of a trait is, therefore, a matter of degree. Early research on personality traits resulted in isolating large numbers of traits, which made it impossible to predict behavior. Cattell’s (1973) is one of the most important personality trait theory, where the number of traits have been reduced. Cattell referred to these 16 factors as primary factors. The MBTI classifies human beings into four opposite pairs (dichotomies), base on their psychological opposites. These four opposite pairs result into 16 possible combinations. Many researchers argue that five basic dimensions underlie all other personality dimensions (e.g; McCrae and Costa, 1990; Digman, 1997). The five basic dimensions are Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional stability, and openness to experience. A person’s perception of the source of his/her fate is termed locus of control. Locus of control was formulated within the framework of Rotter’s (1954) social learning theory of personality. Rotter (1975) pointed out that internality and externality represent two ends of a continuum, not an either/or typology. Internals tend to attribute outcomes of events to their own control. Machiavellianism is the term that some social and personality psychologists use to describe a person’s tendency to deceive and manipulate others for personal gain. Self-esteem is defined as the degree to which people like or dislike themselves (Robbins, 2003). Individuals with high self-esteem tend to take more risks in job selection and are more likely to choose unconventional jobs in contrast to people with low self-

esteem. Low SEs are more susceptible to external influence than are high SEs. Low SEs are dependent on the receipt of positive evaluations from others. Self-monitoring refers to an individual’s ability to adjust his or her behavior to external, situational factors. Individuals high in self-monitoring show considerable adaptability. Type A personality is a set of characteristics that includes, being impatient, excessively time-conscious, insecure about one’s status, highly competitive, hostile and aggressive, and incapable of relaxation. Type B personality is rarely hurried by the desire to obtain an increasing number of things or participate in events demanding an ever-decreasing amount of time. According to Holland (1997), workers are not passive victims of their environments, but actively seek potentially compatible work environments. If an individual’s personality and the work environment “fit”—that is, if the personality is congruent with the work environment—the individual will most likely enjoy the work and develop and grow in the career. Matching people to the organizational culture at the time of hiring should result in higher employee satisfaction and reduced turnover.

Perception

Introduction

Individuals behave in a given manner based not on the way their external environment actually, is but, rather, on what they see or believe it to be. A supervisor may try to help his subordinates to achieve their target by advising and suggesting solutions. An employee may believe the supervisor is controlling and interfering. As a result of that, the employee may continuously try to avoid the boss. The same boss may be perceived as a ‘father figure’ to another employee for his helping attitude. As a result of that, the specific employee may acknowledge the supervisor and seeks his guidance. These two employee’s perception about the supervisor that becomes the basis for their different behavior. Perception can be defined as a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment. Since people’s behavior is based on their perception of what reality is, not on reality itself.

Individuals differ in their perceptions with regard to people and inanimate objects. An individual makes inferences about the actions of people not the same way as they do for inanimate objects. Non-living objects are subject to the laws of nature. People have beliefs, motives, or intentions. Therefore, an individual’s perception and judgment of another person’s actions are influenced by these assumptions.

 Factors Influencing Perception

 Three factors shape perception of an individual:

1. Perceiver 2. Target 3. Situation

 

Perceiver – Refers to the most prevalent personal characteristics affecting perception of the perceiver, which are attitudes, motives, interests, past experiences, and expectations.

 Target -. Characteristics of the target can also affect what is being perceived. This includes, attractiveness, gregariousness, and an individual’s tendency to group similar things together.

 Situation – The context in which objects or events are seen by individuals also influence their attention. This includes time, heat, light, or other situational factors.

 Attribution Theory

 An important element in perception is attribution process. Attribution theory (Kelley, 1972) suggests that when we observe an individual’s behavior, we attempt to determine whether it was internally or externally caused. Internally caused behaviors are those that are believed to be under the personal control of the individual. Externally caused behavior is seen as resulting from outside causes; that is, the person is seen as having been forced into the behavior by the situation.

There are three determining factors in this regard:  

Distinctiveness Consensus Consistency

 Distinctiveness refers to whether an individual displays different behaviors in different situations. What we attempt to know is whether the observed behavior is unusual. If it is, the observer is likely to give the behavior an external attribution. If this action is not unusual, it will probably be judged as internal.

Consensus occurs, if, everyone who is faced with a similar situation responds in the same way. If consensus is high, one would be expected to give an external attribution to the employee’s tardiness, whereas, in case of other employees taking the same route and making it work on time, the causation for the same will be attributed to internal causation.

Consistency refers to the pattern that is reflected regularly in a person’s actions. Does the person respond the same way over time? The more consistent the behavior, the more the observer is inclined to attribute it to internal causes.

 

Fundamental Attribution Error (Ross, 1977)

 

Research evidence shows that individuals have a tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal or personal factors. There is also a tendency for individuals to attribute their own successes to internal factors, such as, ability or

effort while putting the blame for failure on external factors, such as, luck. This is called the “self-serving bias” and suggests that feedback provided to employees will be distorted by recipients. The question is whether or not these errors or biases that distort attribution are universal across different cultures? While exact answers may not exist, there is some preliminary evidence that indicates cultural differences (Robbins, 2003):

 

Korean managers found that, contrary to the self-serving bias, they tended to accept responsibility for group failure.

 

Attribution theory was developed largely based on experiments with Americans and Western Europeans.

 

The Korean study suggests caution in making attribution theory predictions in non-Western societies, especially in countries with strong collectivist traditions. More studies are required to provide conclusive evidences in this regard.

Shortcuts In Judging Others

 

Individuals have a tendency to use a number of shortcuts when they judge others. An understanding of these shortcuts can be helpful toward recognizing when they can result in significant distortions.

 

Selective Perception

Any characteristic that makes a person, object, or event stand out will increase the probability that it will be perceived. It is impossible for an individual to internalize and assimilate everything that is seen .Only certain stimuli can be taken in selectively. Selectivity works as a shortcut in judging other people by allowing us to “speed-read” others, but, not without the risk of drawing an inaccurate picture. The tendency to see what we want to see can make us draw unwarranted conclusions from an ambiguous situation.

 

Halo Effect

 The halo effect (Murphy & Anhalt, 1992) occurs when we draw a general impression on the basis of a single characteristic. For example, while appraising the lecturer, students may give prominence to a single trait, such as, enthusiasm and allow their entire evaluation to be tainted by how they judge the instructor on that one trait which stood out prominently in their estimation of that person. Research suggests that it is likely to be most extreme when the traits to be perceived are ambiguous in behavioral terms, when the traits have moral overtones, and when the perceiver is judging traits with which he or she has had limited experience.

 

Contrast Effects

 Individuals do not evaluate a person in isolation. Their reaction to one person is influenced by other persons they have encountered recently. For example, an interview situation in which one sees a pool of job applicants can distort perception. Distortions in any given candidate’s evaluation can occur as a result of his or her place in the interview schedule.

 

 

Projection

 This tendency to attribute one’s own characteristics to other people—which is called projection—can distort perceptions made about others. When managers engage in projection, they compromise their ability to respond to individual differences. They tend to see people as more homogeneous than they really are.

 Stereotyping

 Stereotyping—judging someone on the basis of our perception of the group to which he or she belongs. Generalization is not without advantages (Hilton & Hippel, 1996). It is a means of simplifying a complex world, and it permits us to maintain consistency. The problem, of course, is when we inaccurately stereotype. In organizations, we frequently hear comments that represent stereotypes based on gender, age, race, ethnicity, and even weight. From a perceptual standpoint, if people expect to see these stereotypes, that is what they will perceive, whether or not they are accurate.

 

Specific Applications In Organizations

 

Employment Interview

Evidence indicates that interviewers make perceptual judgments that are often inaccurate and they rarely agree while perceiving the candidates. Different interviewers see different things in the same candidate and, thus, reach different conclusions about the applicant. Furthermore, interviewers generally draw early impressions and most interviewers rarely change their decisions after the first four or five minutes of the interview. Therefore, judgments of the same candidate can vary widely in an interview situatiion.

 

Performance Expectations

It is seen that individuals seek to validate their perceptions of reality, even when those perceptions are not appropriate. Self-fulfilling prophecyis a very good example of this.It is the tendency for someone’s expectations about another to cause that person to behave in a manner consistent with those expectations (Wilkins, 1976). Self fulfilling prophecy can be of two types:

 

Pygmalion Effect: A positive instance of the self-fulfilling prophecy, in which people holding high expectations of another tend to improve that individual’s performance.

 

Golem Effect: A negative instance of the self-fulfilling prophecy, in which people holding low expectations of another tend to lower that individual’s performance.

 

A study was conducted on 105 soldiers in the Israeli Defense Forces who were taking a fifteen-week combat command course. Soldiers were randomly divided and identified as having high potential, normal potential, and potential not known. Instructors were seemed to get better results from the high potential group because they expected it, confirming the effect of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

Performance Evaluation

An employee’s performance appraisal is very much dependent on the perceptual process. Although the appraisal can be objective, many jobs are evaluated in subjective terms. Subjective measures are, by definition, judgmental. To the degree that managers use subjective measures in appraising employees, what the evaluator perceives to be good or bad employee characteristics or behaviors will significantly influence the outcome of the appraisal.

 

Employee Effort

An individual’s future in an organization is usually not dependent on performance alone. An assessment of an individual’s effort is a subjective judgment susceptible to perceptual distortions and bias.

 

Link Between Perception And Individual Decision Making

Decision-making occurs as a reaction to a problem. Problem is defined as a discrepancy between some current state of affairs and some desired state, needing attention for alternative courses of action. The awareness that a problem exists and that a decision needs to be made is a perceptual issue. Every decision requires interpretation and evaluation of information. The perceptions of the decision maker will address these two issues.

 

Data are typically received from multiple sources. Which data are relevant to the decision and which are not

 

Alternatives will be developed, and the strengths and weaknesses of each will need to be evaluated.

For example, senior managers determine their organization’s goals, what products or services to offer, how best to finance operations, or where to locate a new manufacturing plant. Middle- and lower-level managers determine production schedules, select new employees, and decide how pay raises are to be allocated. Non-managerial employees also make decisions, including, whether or not to come to work on any given day, how much effort to put forward once at work, and whether or not to comply with a request made by the boss.

 

The Decision-Making Process

 

The optimizing decision maker is rational. He or she makes consistent, value-maximizing choices within specified constraints. This also includes the resource crunch and other limitations as well.

 

The rational decision making model

This model proposes six steps, which are as follows:

 

Step 1: Defining the problem

 

A problem is a discrepancy between an existing and a desired state of affairs. Many poor decisions can be traced to the decision-maker overlooking a problem or

defining the wrong problem.

 

Step 2: Identify the decision criteria important to solving the problem.

The decision maker determines what is relevant in making the decision. Any factors not identified in this step are considered irrelevant to the decision maker.

This brings in the decision maker’s interests, values, and similar personal preferences.

 

Step 3: Weight the previously identified criteria in order to give them the correct priority in the decision.

 

Step 4: Generate possible alternatives that could succeed in resolving the problem.

Step 5: Rating each alternative on each criterion.

Critically analyze and evaluate each alternative. The strengths and weaknesses of each alternative become evident as they are compared

with the criteria and weights established in the second and third steps.

 

Step 6: The final step is to compute the optimal decision:

Evaluating each alternative against the weighted criteria and selecting the alternative with the highest total score.

 

The above-mentioned model works with following assumptions (March, 1994):

 

Problem clarity. The decision maker is assumed to have complete information regarding the decision situation.

Known options. It is assumed the decision maker is aware of all the possible consequences of each alternative.

Clear preferences. Criteria and alternatives can be ranked and weighted to reflect their importance.

Constant preferences. Specific decision criteria are constant and the weights assigned to them are stable over time.

No time or cost constraints. The rational decision maker can obtain full information about criteria and alternatives because it is assumed that there are no time or cost constraints.

Maximum payoff. The rational decision maker will choose the alternative that yields the highest perceived value.

 

Creativity in Decision Making

Creativity is the ability to produce novel and useful ideas. These are ideas that are not only different from what has been done before, but, that are also appropriate to the problem or opportunity presented. People differ in their inherent creativity. A study of lifetime creativity of 461 men and women found that fewer than one percent were exceptionally creative. Ten percent were highly creative, and about sixty percent were somewhat creative.

 

Model of creativity

This model proposes that individual creativity essentially requires expertise, creative-thinking skills, and intrinsic task motivation.

 

Expertise is the foundation for all creative work. The potential for creativity is enhanced when individuals have abilities, knowledge, proficiencies, and similar expertise in their field of endeavor.

Creative thinking skills. This encompasses personality characteristics associated with creativity, the ability to use analogies, as well as the talent to see the familiar in a different light.

 

Intrinsic task motivation. The desire to work on something because it is interesting, involving, exciting, satisfying, or personally challenging. This turns creativity potential into actual creative ideas. It determines the extent to which individuals fully engage their expertise and creative skills

 

Most decisions in the real world do not follow the rational model. Decision-makers generally make limited use of their creativity. Choices tend to be confined to the neighborhood of the problem symptom and to the neighborhood of the current alternative.

 

Two of the most important ways of decision-making in organizations are :

Bounded Rationality Intuitive decision making

 

Bounded rationality

When faced with a complex problem, most people respond by reducing the problem to a level at which it can be readily understood, due to limited information-processing capability. As a result, people seek solutions that are satisfactory and sufficient. This is called bounded rationality (Simon, 1947). Individuals operate within the confines of bounded rationality. They construct simplified models that extract the essential features.

 

How does bounded rationality work? Once a problem is identified, the search for criteria and alternatives begins. The decision maker will identify a limited list made up of the more conspicuous choices, which are easy to find, tend to be highly visible, and they will represent familiar criteria and previously tried-and-true solutions. Once this limited set of alternatives is identified, the decision-maker will begin reviewing it. The decision-maker will begin with alternatives that differ only in a relatively small degree from the choice currently in effect. The first alternative that meets the “good enough” criterion ends the search. The order in which alternatives are considered is critical in determining which alternative is selected. Assuming that a problem has more than one potential solution, the satisficing choice will be the first acceptable one the decision-maker encounters. Alternatives that depart the least from the status quo are the most likely to be selected.

 

Intuitive decision making

 

It is an unconscious process created out of distilled experience. It operates in complement with rational analysis. On one hand, some researchers consider it a form of extrasensory power or sixth sense, and on the other hand, some believe it is a personality trait that a limited number of people are born with.

 

Eight conditions when people are most likely to use intuitive decision making are:

 

when a high level of uncertainty exists when there is little precedent to draw on when variables are less scientifically predictable when “facts” are limited when facts do not clearly point the way to go when analytical data are of little use when there are several plausible alternative solutions to choose from, with good

arguments for each when time is limited, and there is pressure to come up with the right decision

 

Decision making process

 

A. Problem Identification

Problems that are visible tend to have a higher probability of being selected than ones that are important. Visible problems are more likely to catch a decision-maker’s attention. If a decision-maker faces a conflict between selecting a problem that is important to the organization and one that is important to the decision-maker, self-interest tends to win out. The decision-maker’s self interest also plays a part. While selecting a decision to solve a problem, decision maker puts more importance to his/her self-interest over the organizational interest.

B. Alternative Development

Since decision-makers seek a satisficing solution, there is a minimal use of creativity in the search for alternatives. Efforts tend to be confined to the neighborhood of the current alternative. Evidence indicates that decision-making is incremental rather than comprehensive. Decision-makers make successive limited comparisons. The picture that emerges is one of a decision-maker who takes small steps toward his or her objective.

 

C. Making Choices

In order to avoid information overload, decisionakers rely on heuristics or judgmental shortcuts in decision making. There are two common categories of heuristics—availability and representativeness. Each creates biases in judgment.

 

The availability heuristic – It is “the tendency for people to base their judgments on information that is readily available to them.” Events that evoke emotions, that are particularly vivid, or that have occurred more recently tend to be more available in our memory. Fore example, many more people suffer from fear of flying than fear of driving in a car.

 

Representative heuristic – To assess the likelihood of an occurrence by trying to match it with a preexisting category, managers frequently predict the performance of a new product by relating it to a previous product’s success.

 

D. Escalation of commitment

It is an increased commitment to a previous decision in spite of negative information. It has been well documented that individuals escalate commitment to a failing course of action when they view themselves as responsible for the failure.

 

E. Individual Differences: Decision-Making Styles

 

People differ along two dimensions. The first is their way of thinking. Some people are logical and rational. They process information serially. Some people are intuitive and creative. They perceive things as a whole. The other dimension is a person’s tolerance for ambiguity. Some people have a high need to minimize ambiguity. Others are able to process many thoughts at the same time. These four decision making styles can be represented in the following way:

 

Directive:

Low tolerance for ambiguity and seek rationality

Efficient and logical Decisions are made with minimal information and with few alternatives assessed. Make decisions fast and focus on the short-run.

Analytic:

Greater tolerance for ambiguity Desire for more information and consideration of more alternatives Best characterized as careful decision makers with the ability to adapt to or cope with

new situations

 

Conceptual:

Tend to be very broad in their outlook and consider many alternatives Their focus is long range, and they are very good at finding creative solutions to

problems.

 Behavioral:

Characterizes decision makers who work well with others Concerned with the achievement of peers and subordinates and are receptive to

suggestions from others, relying heavily on meetings for communicating Tries to avoid conflict and seeks acceptance

 F. Organizational Constraints

 Following are the organizational constraints that affect decision-makers.

Performance evaluation – Managers are strongly influenced in their decision making by the criteria by which they are evaluated. Their performance in decision making will reflect expectation.

 

Reward systems – The organization’s reward system influences decision makers by suggesting to them what choices are preferable in terms of personal payoff.

 

Programmed routines – All, but the smallest of organizations create rules, policies, procedures, and other formalized regulations in order to standardize the behavior of their members.

 

Time constraints – Decisions must be made quickly in order to stay ahead of the competition and keep customers satisfied. Almost all important decisions come with explicit deadlines.

 

Historical Precedents – Decisions have a context. Individual decisions are more accurately characterized as points in a stream of decisions. Decisions made in the past are ghosts which continually haunt current choices. It is common knowledge that the largest determining factor of the size of any given year’s budget is last year’s budget.

 

Cultural Differences – The cultural background of the decision maker can have significant influence on:

 

Ethics in Decision Making

Ethical considerations should be an important criterion in organizational decision making. There are three Ethical Decision Criteria:

 

Utilitarian criterion—decisions are made solely on the basis of their outcomes or consequences. The goal of utilitarianism is to provide the greatest good for the greatest number. This view tends to dominate business decision making.

 

Focus on rights—calls on individuals to make decisions consistent with fundamental liberties and privileges as set forth in documents such as the Bill of Rights.

 

o An emphasis on rights means respecting and protecting the basic rights of individuals, such as the right to privacy, to free speech, and to due process.

 

3. Focus on justice—requires individuals to impose and enforce rules fairly and impartially. There is an equitable distribution of benefits and costs.

 

Summary

Individuals behave in a given manner based not on the way their external environment actually, is but, rather, on what they see or believe it to be. Perception can be defined as s a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment. Since people’s behavior is based on their perception of what reality is, not on reality itself. Three factors that shape perception of an individual are perceiver, target and situation. An important element in perception is attribution process. Attribution theory (Kelley, 1972) suggests that when we observe an individual’s behavior, we attempt to determine whether it was internally or externally caused. Internally caused behaviors are those that are believed to be under the personal control of the individual. Externally caused behavior is seen as resulting from outside causes; that is, the person is seen as having been forced into the behavior by the situation.

Research evidence shows that individuals have a tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal or personal factors. There is also a tendency for individuals to attribute their own successes to internal factors, such as, ability or effort while putting the blame for failure on external factors, such as, luck. This is called the “self-serving bias” and suggests that feedback provided to employees will be distorted by recipients. Individuals have a tendency to use a number of shortcuts when they judge others. An understanding of these shortcuts can be helpful toward recognizing when they can result in significant distortions. Any characteristic that makes a person, object, or event stand out will increase the probability that it will be perceived. It is impossible for an individual to internalize and assimilate everything that is seen .Only certain stimuli can be taken in selectively. The halo effect (Murphy & Anhalt, 1992) occurs when we draw a general impression on the basis of a single characteristic. Individuals do not evaluate a person in isolation. Their reaction to one person is influenced by other persons they have encountered recently. This tendency to attribute one’s own characteristics to other people—which is called projection—can distort perceptions made about others. When managers engage in projection, they compromise their ability to respond to individual differences. They tend to see people as more homogeneous than they really are. Stereotyping is the process of judging someone on the basis of our perception of the group to which he or she belongs. Generalization is not without advantages (Hilton & Hippel, 1996). Decision-making occurs as a reaction to a problem. Problem is defined as a discrepancy between some current state of affairs and some desired state, needing attention for alternative courses of action. The awareness that a problem exists and that a decision needs to be made is a perceptual issue. Every decision requires interpretation and evaluation of information. The optimizing decision maker is rational. He or she makes consistent, value-maximizing choices within specified constraints. This also includes the resource crunch and other limitations as well. Most decisions in the real world do not follow the rational model. Decision-makers generally make limited use of their creativity. Choices tend to be confined to the neighborhood of the problem symptom and to the neighborhood of the current alternative. When faced with a complex problem, most people respond by reducing the problem to a level at which it can be readily understood, due to limited information-processing capability. As a result, people seek solutions that are satisfactory and sufficient. This is called bounded rationality (Simon, 1947). Individuals operate within the confines of bounded rationality. They construct simplified models that extract the essential features.

.

Motivation 

Introduction

Many people incorrectly view motivation as a personal trait—that is, some have it and others do not. Motivation is the result of the interaction of the individual and the situation. Motivation is “the processes that account for an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal” (Robbins, 2003). Intensity is concerned with how hard a person tries. This is the element most of us focus on when we talk about motivation. Direction is the orientation that benefits the organization. And Persistence is a measure of how long a person can maintain his/her effort. Motivated individuals stay with a task long enough to achieve their goal.

  

Early Theories Of Motivation

 

In the 1950s three specific theories were formulated and are the best known: Hierarchy of Needs theory, Theories X and Y, and the Two-Factor theory.

 

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory

According to this theory, proposed by Maslow (1943), human beings have wants and desires which influence their behaviour; only unsatisfied needs can influence behavior, satisfied needs cannot. The needs are arranged in order of importance, from the basic to the complex. The person advances to the next level of needs only after the lower level need is at least minimally satisfied. The further they progress up the hierarchy, the more individuality, humanness and psychological health a person will show. The five needs are:

 

Physiological: Includes hunger, thirst, shelter, sex, and other bodily needs Safety: Includes security and protection from physical and emotional harm Social: Includes affection, belongingness, acceptance, and friendship Esteem: Includes internal esteem factors, such as, self-respect, autonomy, and

achievement; and external esteem factors, such as, status, recognition, and attention Self-actualization: The drive to become what one is capable of becoming; includes

growth, achieving one’s potential, and self-fulfillment

 

Maslow separated the five needs into higher and lower orders. Physiological and safety needs are described as lower-order. Social, esteem, and self-actualization are classified as higher-order needs. Higher-order needs are satisfied internally, whereas, Lower-order needs are predominantly satisfied, externally.

 

Theory X and Theory Y

Douglas McGregor argued that a manager’s view of the nature of human beings is based on a certain grouping of assumptions and he or she tends to mould his or her behavior toward employees according to these assumptions.

 

Theory X –

In this theory management assumes employees are inherently lazy and will avoid work, if they can. Workers need to be closely supervised and a comprehensive system of controls and a hierarchical structure is needed to supervise the workers closely. It is also assumed that workers generally place security above all other factors and will display little ambition.

 

Theory Y –

In this theory management assumes employees may be ambitious, self-motivated, anxious to accept greater responsibility, and exercise self-control, self-direction, autonomy and empowerment. It is believed that employees enjoy their mental and physical work duties. It is also believed that, if given the chance employees have the desire to be creative and forward thinking in the workplace. There is a chance for greater productivity by giving employees the freedom to perform to the best of their abilities without being bogged down by rules.

 

From the above, it is clear that Theory X assumes that lower-order needs dominate individuals. Theory Y assumes that higher-order needs dominate individuals.

 

Herzberg’s Two Factor theory

 

Herzberg (1959) constructed a two-dimensional paradigm of factors affecting people’s attitudes about work. These two factors are motivators and hygiene factors and this theory is also called motivation-hygiene theory.

Motivators are intrinsic factors, such as, advancement, recognition, responsibility, and achievement. Presence of these factors ensure job satisfaction. Extrinsic factors, such as, company policy, supervision, interpersonal relations, working conditions, and salary are hygiene factors. The absence of hygiene factors can create job dissatisfaction, but their presence does not motivate or create satisfaction.

In summary, motivators describe a person’s relationship with what she or he does, many related to the tasks being performed. Hygiene factors on the other hand, have to do with a person’s relationship to the context or environment in which she or he performs the job. The satisfiers relate to what a person does while the dissatisfiers relate to the situation in which the person does what he or she does.

Removing dissatisfying characteristics from a job does not necessarily make the job satisfying. Job satisfaction factors are separate and distinct from job dissatisfaction factors. When hygiene factors are adequate, people will not be dissatisfied; neither will they be satisfied. To motivate people, emphasize factors intrinsically rewarding that are associated with the work itself or to outcomes directly derived from it.

 

Contemporary Theories Of Motivation

 

The following theories are considered contemporary , since they represent the current state of the art in explaining employee motivation

 

ERG Theory

Alderfer (1972) classifies needs into three categories into hierarchical order. They are:

The existence category

Provides our basic material existence requirements. They include Maslow’s physiological and safety needs.

Relatedness category

 

1. The desire we have for maintaining important interpersonal relationships.2. These social and status desires require interaction with others.3. They align with Maslow’s social need and the external component.

 

Growth category

 

An intrinsic desire for personal development. These include the intrinsic component from Maslow’s esteem category, and the

characteristics included under self-actualization.

This theory is very similar to Maslow’s theory. Existence need corresponds with Maslow’s physiological and safety needs, Relatedness need corresponds with Maslow’s social needs and Growth need corresponds with Maslow’s esteem and self-actualization needs.

 

Alderfer’s ERG theory differs from Maslow’s in the following arguments:

 

1. More than one need may be operative at the same time.2. If, the gratification of a higher-level need is stifled, the desire to satisfy a lower-level

need increases.3. ERG theory does not assume that there exists a rigid hierarchy. A person can be working

on growth even though existence or relatedness needs are unsatisfied, or all three need categories could be operating at the same time.

 

ERG theory also contains a frustration-regression dimension. Maslow argued that an individual would stay at a certain need level until that need was satisfied. ERG argues that multiple needs can be operating as motivators at the same time. ERG theory notes that when a higher-order need level is frustrated, the individual’s desire to increase a lower-level need takes place (Robbins, 2003).

McClelland’s Theory of Needs

McClelland’s (1961) theory focuses on three needs: achievement, power, and affiliation. They are defined as follow:

Need for achievement (nAch) – The need to excel and to achieve in relation to a set of standards, to strive to succeed.

Need for power (nPow): The need to make others behave in a way that they would not have behaved, otherwise.

Need for affiliation (nAff): The desire for friendly and close interpersonal relationships.

People with high need for achievement have a compelling drive to succeed. They have a desire to do something better or more efficiently than it has been done before. This drive is the achievement need. High achievers differentiate themselves from others by their desire to do things better. They seek situations in which they can attain personal responsibility for finding solutions to problems.

Individuals high in need for power enjoy being “in charge” of any situation. They strive for influence over others and prefer to be placed into competitive and status-oriented situations. They are also more concerned with prestige and gaining influence over others than with effective performance.

Individuals with high need for affiliation motive strive for friendship, prefer cooperative situations rather than competitive ones, and desire relationships that involve a high degree of mutual understanding.

Based on this theory, the following assumptions can be made (Robbins, 2003):

Individuals with a high need to achieve prefer job situations with personal responsibility, feedback, and an intermediate degree of risk. When these characteristics are prevalent, high achievers will be strongly motivated.

 

A high need to achieve does not necessarily lead to being a good manager, especially in large organizations. People with a high achievement need are interested in how well they do personally and not in influencing others to do well.

 

The needs for affiliation and power tend to be closely related to managerial success. The best managers are high in their need for power and low in their need for affiliation.

Cognitive Evaluation Theory

This theory proposes (Deci & Ryan, 1985) that when extrinsic rewards are used by organizations as payoffs for superior performance, the intrinsic rewards, which are derived from individuals doing what they like, are reduced. The popular explanation is that the individual experiences a loss of control over his or her own behavior so that the previous intrinsic motivation diminishes. Furthermore, the elimination of extrinsic rewards can produce a shift—from an external to an internal explanation—in an individual’s perception of causation of why he or she works on a task (Robbins, 2003). Therefore, pay or other extrinsic rewards should be made contingent on an individual’s performance.

 

This theory may have limited applicability to work organizations, because most low-level jobs are not inherently satisfying enough to foster high intrinsic interest, and many managerial and professional positions offer intrinsic rewards

 

Goal-Setting Theory

Locke and Latham (1990) proposed that challenging goals produce a higher level of output than do the generalized goals. More difficult the goal, the higher the level of performance will be. People will do better when they get feedback on how well they are progressing toward their goals. A goal serves as a motivator, because, it causes people to compare their present capacity to perform with that required to succeed at the goal.

 

There are four contingencies in goal-setting theory:

 

1. Goal commitment: Goal-setting theory presupposes that an individual is committed to the goal.

2. Adequate self-efficacy: Self-efficacy 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.

3. Task characteristics: Individual goal setting does not work equally well on all tasks. Goals seem to have a more substantial effect on performance when tasks are simple, well-learned, and independent.

4. National culture: Goal-setting theory is culture bound and it is well adapted to North American cultures.

Reinforcement Theory

Reinforcement theory (Komaki et. al., 1991) argues that reinforcement conditions human behavior. According to this theory, behavior is a function of its consequences. Behavior is environmentally caused. It can be modified (reinforced) by providing (controlling) consequences. Reinforced behavior tends to be repeated.

 

Equity Theory

According to this theory (Adams, 1965), employees make comparisons of their job inputs and outcomes relative to those of others.

If, an individual perceives the input-outcome ratio to be equal to that of the relevant others with whom he/she compares his/herself, a state of equity is said to exist. He/she perceives the situation as fair. If the ratio appears to be unequal, the individual experience inequity.

 

There are four referent comparisons that an employee can use:

 

Self-inside: An employee’s experiences in a different position inside his or her current organization

Self-outside: An employee’s experiences in a situation or position outside his or her current organization

Other-inside: Another individual or group of individuals inside the employee’s organization

Other-outside: Another individual or group of individuals outside the employee’s organization

 

There are certain issues which are crucial regarding Equity theory. They are as follows:

1. Employees with short tenure in their current organizations tend to have little information about others.

2. Employees with long tenure rely more heavily on co-workers for comparison.3. Upper-level employees will make more other-outside comparisons.

 

When employees perceive an inequity, they can be predicted to make one of six choices:

Change their inputs. Change their outcomes. Distort perceptions of self. Distort perceptions of others. Choose a different referent. Leave the field.

 

Organizational justice

People’s perceptions of fairness in organizations, consisting of perceptions of how decisions are made regarding the distribution of outcomes and the perceived fairness of those outcomes themselves.

1. Distributive Justice: The perceived fairness of the way rewards are distributed among people.

2. Procedural Justice : Perceptions of the fairness of the procedures used to determine outcomes.

3. Interactional Justice: The perceived fairness of the interpersonal treatment used to determine organizational outcomes.

 

Motivational tips

Certain tips, which may be important in this regard, are as follows:

Avoid underpayment.

4. Avoid overpayment.5. Give people a voice in decisions affecting them.6. Explain outcomes thoroughly using a socially sensitive manner.

 

Expectancy Theory

Expectancy theory is one of the most widely accepted explanations of motivation. Victor Vroom’s (1964) expectancy theory has its critics but most of the research is supportive. Motivation is based on people’s beliefs, goals and linkage between effort and performance, performance and reward, and reward and individual goal satisfaction. Expectancy theory argues that the strength of a tendency to act in a certain way depends on the strength of an expectation that the act will be followed by a given outcome and on the attractiveness of that outcome to the individual.

 

Determinants of motivation according to this theory are as follows:

Expectancy: The belief that one’s efforts will positively influence one’s performance.

Instrumentality: An individual’s beliefs regarding the likelihood of being rewarded in accord with his or her own level of performance.

Valence: The value a person places on the rewards he or she expects to receive from an organization.

Other Determinants: Skills and abilities, role perceptions, opportunities to perform, etc.

 

Three key relationships in Expectancy theory are:

Effort-performance relationship: the probability perceived by the individual that exerting a given amount of effort will lead to performance

Performance-reward relationship: the degree to which the individual believes that performing at a particular level will lead to the attainment of a desired outcome

Rewards-personal goals relationship: the degree to which organizational rewards satisfy an individual’s personal goals or needs and the attractiveness of those potential rewards for the individual.

 

Performance formula

A popular way of thinking about employee performance is as a function of the interaction of ability and motivation; that is,

 

Performance = f (Ability x Motivation x Opportunity).

If either of motivation or ability is inadequate, performance will be negatively affected. Furthermore, when an employee performs, he/she needs opportunity to be allowed to perform and prove his/her worth.

 

Motivating Employees In Organizations

 

A number of motivation theories have been discussed above. Based on these theories, the following suggestions summarize the essence about motivating employees in organizations.

Recognize individual differences – Employees have different needs. Therefore, managers need to understand what is important to each employee. This will allow to individualize goals, level of involvement, and rewards to align with individual needs.

Use goals and feedback – Employees should have tangible and specific goals. Feedback should also be provided regularly to inform the employees about their performance in pursuit of those goals.

Include employees in decision-making – Employees should be included in making decisions that affect them, for example, choosing their own benefits packages and solving productivity and quality problems.

Link rewards to performance – Rewards should be contingent on performance and employees must perceive a clear linkage.

 

Maintain equity – Rewards should be perceived by employees as equating with the inputs they bring to the job, i.e; experience, skills, abilities, effort, and other obvious inputs should explain differences in performance and, hence, pay, job assignments, and other obvious rewards.

Motivational Tools

Some of the most important motivational tools have been discussed below.

Management by Objective (MBO)

Management by objectives emphasizes participatively set goals that are tangible, verifiable, and measurable. Four ingredients common to MBO programs are: goal specificity, participative decision-making, an explicit time period, and performance feedback (Robbins, 2003).

 

Goal specificity:

The objectives in MBO should be concise statements of expected accomplishments.

 

Participative decision making:

1. The manager and employee jointly choose the goals and agree on how they will be measured.

 

An explicit time period:

Each objective has a specific time period in which it is to be completed.

 

Performance feedback

Continuous feedback on progress toward goals is provided so that workers can monitor and correct their own actions.

 

MBO and Goal-Setting Theory is closely linked. Goal-setting theory proposes that tangible goals result in a higher level of individual performance than do easy goals. Feedback on one’s performance leads to higher performance. MBO also directly advocates specific goals and feedback, implies that goals must be perceived as feasible and is most effective when the goals are difficult enough to require stretching.

 

Employee Recognition Programs

Employee recognition programs consist of personal attention, expressing interest, approval, and appreciation for a job well done. They can take numerous forms. Employee Recognition Programs has close link with Reinforcement Theory. Both the concept advocate that rewarding a behavior with recognition would lead to its repetition. Recognition can take many forms, such as, personally congratulating an employee, sending a handwritten note or an e-mail message or declaring the employee as a valuable contributor to the organizational objective.

 

Employee Involvement

Employee involvement includes, participative management, workplace democracy, empowerment, and employee ownership. Employees’ involvement in the decision making would positively affect them and by increasing their autonomy and control over their work lives, employees will become more motivated, more committed to the organization, more productive, and more satisfied with their jobs.

Some forms of employee involvement have been discussed here: participative management, representative participation, quality circles, and employee stock ownership plans.

Participative management:

 

The logic behind participative management is:

a. Managers often do not know everything their employees do.

b. Better decisions

c. Increased commitment to decisions

d. Intrinsically rewarding employees makes their jobs more interesting and meaningful

The two most common forms of participative management are:

 

a. Works councils – They are groups of nominated or elected employees who must be consulted when management makes decisions. .

b. Board representatives – they are employees who sit on a company’s board of directors and represent the interests of the firm’s employees.

 

Quality circles (QC):

QC consists of a work group of eight to ten employees and supervisors who have a shared area of responsibility. Key components of QC are (Robbins, 2003):

They meet regularly on company time to discuss their quality problems, investigate causes of the problems, recommend solutions, and take corrective actions

 

They take over the responsibility for solving quality problems and they generate and evaluate their own feedback.

 

Management typically retains control over the final implementation decision.

A review of the evidence indicates that they are likely to positively affect productivity, however, they tend to show little or no effect on employee satisfaction.

The failure of many quality circle programs to produce measurable benefits has also led to a large number of them being discontinued.

Employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs):

In the typical ESOP, an employee stock ownership trust is created. Companies contribute either stock or cash to buy stock for the trust and allocate the stock to employees. Employees usually cannot take physical possession of their shares or sell them as long as they are still employed at the company.

Special Issues In Motivation

Some of the special issues in motivation are discussed below.

 

Motivating Professionals

The professional employees likely to seek more intrinsic satisfaction from their work than blue-collar employees. They generally have strong and long-term commitment to their field of expertise are perhaps more loyal to their profession than to their employer. They need to regularly update their knowledge, and their commitment to their profession.

Therefore, extrinsic factors such as money and promotions would be low on their priority list. Rather, job challenge tends to be ranked high. They like to tackle problems and find solutions.

 

Managerial Implications:

Provide them with ongoing challenging projects. Give them autonomy to follow their interests and allow them to structure their work. Reward them with educational opportunities. Also reward them with recognition.

 

Motivating temporary Workers

Temporary workers may be motivated if:

They are provided with permanent job opportunity The opportunity for training is provided to them

 

Motivating Low-Skilled Service Workers

One of the most challenging managerial tasks in to motivate low-skilled workers who are involved in repetitive physical work, where higher education and skills are not required. For this category of people, flexible work schedules and higher pay package may be proved effective motivational factors.

 

Summary

Motivation is “the processes that account for an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal”. According to Maslow’s theory, human beings have five needs, which influence their behavior. Those five needs are Physiological, Safety, Social, Esteem, and Self-actualization needs. In theory X and Y, McGregor argued that a manager’s view of the nature of human beings is based on a certain grouping of assumptions and he or she tends to

mould his or her behavior toward employees according to these assumptions. Herzberg (1959) constructed a two-dimensional paradigm of factors affecting people’s attitudes about work. These two factors are motivators and hygiene factors and this theory is also called motivation-hygiene theory. Alderfer classified needs into three categories into hierarchical order. They are: the existence category, the Relatedness category and the Growth category. This theory is very similar to Maslow’s theory. Existence need corresponds with Maslow’s physiological and safety needs, Relatedness need corresponds with Maslow’s social needs and Growth need corresponds with Maslow’s esteem and self-actualization needs. McClelland’s theory focuses on three needs: achievement, power, and affiliation. According to this theory, people with high need for achievement have a compelling drive to succeed. Individuals high in need for power enjoy being “in charge” of any situation. Individuals with high need for affiliation motive strive for friendship, prefer cooperative situations rather than competitive ones, and desire relationships that involve a high degree of mutual understanding. Cognitive Evaluation theory proposes that when extrinsic rewards are used by organizations as payoffs for superior performance, the intrinsic rewards, which are derived from individuals doing what they like, are reduced. Goal-Setting Theory proposes that challenging goals produce a higher level of output than do the generalized goals. More difficult the goal, the higher the level of performance will be. Reinforcement theory argues that reinforcement conditions human behavior. According to this theory, behavior is a function of its consequences. Behavior is environmentally caused. According to Equity theory, employees make comparisons of their job inputs and outcomes relative to those of others. If, an individual perceives the input-outcome ratio to be equal to that of the relevant others with whom he/she compares his/herself, a state of equity is said to exist. He/she perceives the situation as fair. If the ratio appears to be unequal, the individual experience inequity. Expectancy theory argues that the strength of a tendency to act in a certain way depends on the strength of an expectation that the act will be followed by a given outcome and on the attractiveness of that outcome to the individual.

Techniques Of Decision Making In Groups

 

Schein (1988) observes that groups may make decisions through any of the following six methods:

 

Decision in lack of response- In this type of decision making, ideas are forwarded without any discussion taking place. When the group finally accepts an idea, all others have been bypassed and discarded by simple lack of response rather than by critical evaluation.

 

Decision by authority rule- The leader makes a decision for the group, with or without discussion.

Decision by minority rule- Two or three people are able to dominate the group into making a decision to which they agree.

Decision by majority rule - Here, viewpoint of the majority is considered as the group’s decision.

Decision by consensus – One alternative is accepted by most members and the other members agreeing to support it.

Decision by unanimity- All group members agree totally on the course of action to be taken. This is a “logically perfect” group decision method that is extremely difficult to attain in actual practice.

 

 

Group productivity: the advantages and disadvantages of group decision making

 

The potential advantages of group decision making include (Maier, 1967):

 

1. Information—more knowledge and expertise is applied to solve the problem.

2. Alternatives—a greater number of alternatives are examined, avoiding tunnel vision.

3. Understanding and acceptance—the final decision is better understood and accepted by all group members.

4. Commitment—there is more commitment among all group members to make the final decision work.

 

The potential disadvantages of group decision makinginclude:

1 Social pressure to conform—individuals may feel compelled to go along with the apparent wishes of the group.

2. Minority domination—the group’s decision may be forced by one individual or a small coalition.

3. Time demands—with more people involved in the dialogue and discussion, group decisions usually take longer to make than individual decisions.

 

Stress Management

Introduction

Stress has been defined as a physical, mental or emotional response to events which cause mental or bodily tension. In the modern day life stress is a part and parcel of our lives. At the same time, it should not exceed the capacity of an individual to handle it. If it exceeds in proportion to a person’s abilities to cope with it, it would cause mental and physical imbalance in the person. Therefore, a major challenge for every one today is to make stress work for you as a productive force rather than as a deterrent which can cause imbalance in an individual.

 

While handling a stressful situation, the brain signals the release of stress hormones. These chemical substances in turn trigger a set of responses that provides the body with extra energy: blood-sugar levels rise, the heartbeat speeds up and blood pressure increases. The muscles tense for action. The blood supply is diverted away from the gut to the extremities to help the body deal with the situation at hand.

 

Types Of Stress

 

Stress can manifest itself in a number of ways depending upon the suddenness of an even to be dealt with and types of stressors to be handled by an individual. It may manifest itself either physically, emotionally and / mentally, as certain symptoms.

 

Physical – This happens when the body as a whole suffers due to stressful situation. There are many symptoms like, headaches, tension in the neck, forehead, and shoulder muscles. Long periods of stress can cause other serious symptoms like digestive problems, ulcers, insomnia (sleeplessness), fatigue, high blood pressure, nervousness, excessive sweating, heart ailments, strokes and hair loss as well.

 

Emotional – These responses are due to stress affecting the mind and include, anxiety, anger, depression, irritability, frustration, over-reaction to everyday problems, memory loss and a lack of concentration for any task.

Anxiety is exhibited as a response to loss, failure, danger or a fear of the unknown. Anger is a response to frustration or social stress and can become a danger to other individuals, if not kept in check. Depression is frequently seen as an emotional response to upsetting situations, such as, the death of a loved one, illness and failure.

Psychological – Long-term stress can cause psychological problems in some individuals. Symptoms may include social isolation, phobias, compulsive behaviors, eating disorders and night terrors.

 

Stress may be classified into two types: positive stress (Eustress) and negative stress (Distress). Moderate and manageable levels of stress for a reasonable period of time can be handled by the body through mobilization of resources and is accompanied by positive emotions, such as, enjoyment, satisfaction, excitement and so on. This beneficial element in stress has been defined by Selye (1974) as Eustress (EU- meaning – good). However, an overload of stress resulting from a situation of either over arousal or under arousal for long periods of time causes the following: first an unpleasant feeling, followed by physical damage, fatigue and in extreme cases, even death of an individual. This has been termed by Selye as distress (dys- meaning – bad).

 

Potential Sources Of Stress

 

While environmental factors are forces outside the organization, which may act as potential sources of stress due to uncertainties and threats that they create for any organization and its members, factors within organization can also act as potential source of stress. Together or singly they may create a tense and volatile working environment which can cause stress for organizational members because the inability of individuals to handle the pressures arising out of these sources.

 

The following may be seen to be the potential sources of stress:

 

Environmental factors:o Environmental uncertainty influences stress levels among employees in an

organization. o Changes in the business cycle create economic uncertainties. o Political uncertainties can be stress inducing. o Technological uncertainty can cause stress because new innovations can make an

employee’s skills and experience obsolete in a very short period of time.

 

Organizational factors:o Pressures to avoid errors or complete tasks in a limited time period, work

overload, a demanding and insensitive boss, and unpleasant coworkers are a few examples.

o Task demands are factors related to a person’s job. They include the design of the individual’s job (autonomy, task variety, degree of automation), working conditions, and the physical work layout.

o Role demands relate to pressures that are a function of the role an individual plays in an organization.

 

a. Role conflicts create expectations that may be hard to reconcile or satisfy.

b. Role overload is experienced when the employee is expected to do more than time permits.

c. Role ambiguity is created when role expectations are not clearly understood.

 

Interpersonal demands are pressures created by other employees. Organizational structure defines the level of differentiation in the organization, the degree

of rules and regulations, and where decisions are made. Excessive rules and lack of participation in decisions might be potential sources of stress.

 

Organizational leadership represents the managerial style of the organization’s senior executives. CEOs, by virtue of their managerial styles create an organizational culture which reflects tension, fear, and anxiety. They overemphasize tight control, hire and fire policies which keep organizational members on hot seat and create stress among them.

 

Individual factors:

o These are factors in the employee’s personal life. Primarily, these factors are family issues, personal economic problems, and inherent personality characteristics.

o Broken families, wrecked marriages and other family issues may create stress at workplace as well.

o Economic problems created by individuals overextending their financial resources. Spending more than earnings stretches financial positions, create debt situation leading to stress among individuals.

o A significant individual factor influencing stress is a person’s basic dispositional nature. Over-suspicious anger and hostility increases a person’s stress and risk for heart disease. These individuals with high level of mistrust for others also cause stress for themselves.

 

Stressors are additive–stress builds up.

 

Individual Differences-

Five individual difference variables moderate the relationship between potential stressors and experienced stress:

 

a. Perception

b. Job experience

c. Locus of control

d. Self-efficacy

e. Hostility

 

a. Perception: Moderates the relationship between a potential stress condition and an employee’s reaction to it. Stress potential doesn’t lie in objective conditions; it lies in an employee’s interpretation of those conditions.

b. Job experience: The evidence indicates that experience on the job tends to be negatively related to work stress.

 First is the idea of selective withdrawal. Voluntary turnover is more probable among people who experience more stress.

 Second, people eventually develop coping mechanisms to deal with stress.

Collegial relationships with coworkers or supervisors can buffer the impact of stress.

 c. Locus of control: Those with an internal locus of control believe they control their own destiny. Internals perceive their jobs to be less stressful than do externals.

Internals are likely to believe that they can have a significant effect on the results.

Those with an external locus believe their lives are controlled by outside forces.

Externals are more likely to be passive and feel helpless.

d. Self-efficacy: The confidence in one’s own abilities appears to decrease stress.

e. Hostility: People who are quick to anger, maintain a persistently hostile outlook, and project a cynical mistrust of others are more likely to experience stress in situations.

 

Consequences Of Stress

 

Stress shows itself in three ways—physiological, psychological, and behavioral symptoms.

 

Physiological symptoms:o Most of the early concern with stress was directed at physiological symptoms due

to the fact that specialists in the health and medical sciences researched the topic. o Physiological symptoms have the least direct relevance to students of OB.

Psychological symptoms:o Job-related stress can cause job-related dissatisfaction. o Job dissatisfaction is “the simplest and most obvious psychological effect” of

stress (Robbins, 2003). o Multiple and conflicting demands—lack of clarity as to the incumbent’s duties,

authority, and responsibilities—increase stress and dissatisfaction. o The less control people have over the pace of their work, the greater the stress and

dissatisfaction. Behavioral symptoms:

o Behaviorally related stress symptoms include changes in productivity, absence, and turnover, as well as changes in eating habits, increased smoking or consumption of alcohol, rapid speech, fidgeting, and sleep disorders.

  

Managing Stress

 

High or low levels of stress sustained over long periods of time, can lead to reduced employee performance and, thus, require action by management.

 

Individual approaches:

 

Effective individual strategies include implementing time management techniques, increasing physical exercise, relaxation training, and expanding the social support network.

Practicing time management principles also leaves as an important element in managing stress, such as:

 

a. making daily lists of activities to be accomplished.

b. prioritizing activities by importance and urgency.

c. scheduling activities according to the priorities set.

d. knowing your daily cycle and handling the most demanding parts of your job during the high part of your cycle when you are most alert and productive.

 

Non-competitive physical exercise has long been recommended as a way to deal with excessive stress levels.

Individuals can teach themselves to reduce tension through relaxation techniques, such as, meditation, hypnosis, and biofeedback.

Having friends, family, or work colleagues to talk to provides an outlet for excessive stress.

 

Organizational approacheso Strategies that management might want to consider include:

a. Improved personnel selection and job placement leading to right person-job-fit thereby reducing chances of non-performance and stress level.

b. Use of realistic goal setting, redesigning of jobs can help in aligning the individuals and job effectively and reduce stress.

c. Training in stress management techniques can be helpful.

d. Increased employee involvement improves motivation, morale, commitment, and leads to better role integration and reduction in stress.

e. Improved organizational communication helps in creating transparency in organizations and reduces confusion, thereby decreasing stress level at work.

f. Establishment of corporate wellness programs is an important component in managing stress among organizational members by rejuvenating and refreshing them from time to time leading to increased productivity with renewed energy.

 

 

A Suggested Framework For Stress Management

 

As there is a positive side to stress and provides, drive, excitement and motivation for individuals to push themselves to achieve more in their lives in the fulfillment of their set goals, there is no requirement to eliminate stress form one’s life. Managing stress should be given importance rather than elimination. The goal should be to find the optimal level of stress that can be handled effectively by an individual which will motivate the person and not overwhelm and distress an individual.

 

How can one find out what is optimal stress for an individual?

 

There is no single level of stress that is optimal for all people. We are all motivated or distressed by different levels of stimulations in a given situation. Age, mental strength, upbringing and cultural factors can be important elements that my influence our abilities to handle stress. How much resilience a person can exhibit while handling stressful situations would vary across

individuals as they are likely to differ in their physiological responses to it. Researches have shown the following regarding our capabilities to handle stress:

 

1. The person who enjoys arbitrating disputes and moves from job site to job site would be stressed in a job which was stable and routine, whereas the person who thrives under stable conditions would very likely be stressed on a job where duties were highly varied.

2. Our personal stress requirements and the amount which we can handle before we succumb to stress changes with age.

3. It has also been found that many illnesses are related to unrelieved stress. If one is experiencing stress symptoms, one has gone beyond the optimal stress level; then it is necessary to reduce the stress in the individual’s life and/or improve the ability to manage it.

 

How Can One Manage Stress Better?

 

Identifying unrelieved stress and being aware of its effect on an individual’s life is insufficient for reducing its harmful effects. Just as there are many sources of stress, there are many possibilities for its management. There are two choices in this regard- either change the source of stress and / change your reaction to it.

 

What is the path for doing so?

 

1. Become aware of the stressors and the emotional and physical reactions.

 

Notice what causes distress. Ignoring them is not a solution. Listing out all the events that cause distress is important. What does an individual tell himself/ herself about the meaning of these events? Determining how the body responds to the stress. Does the individual become nervous or physically upset? If so, in what specific ways?

 

2. Recognizing what can be changed.

 

Is it possible to change the stressors by avoiding or eliminating them completely? Can their intensity be reduced? Is it possible to shorten an individual’s exposure to stress? Can one devote the time and energy necessary to make a change (for example, goal setting, time management techniques may be used)?

 

Reduce the intensity of the emotional reactions to stress.

 

The stress reaction is triggered by our perception of danger: physical danger and/or emotional danger. Are we viewing your stressors in exaggerated terms and/or taking a difficult situation and making it a disaster? Are we trying to please everyone? Are we overreacting and viewing things as absolutely critical and urgent? Do we feel you must always prevail in every situation? Work at adopting more moderate views; try to see the stress as something you can cope with rather than something that overpowers us is a solution for reducing stress, internally.

4. Learning to moderate our physical reactions to stress.

 

Slow, deep breathing will bring your heart rate and respiration back to normal. Relaxation techniques can reduce muscle tension. Electronic biofeedback can help you gain voluntary control over such things as muscle tension; heart rate, and blood pressure. Medications, when needed and prescribed by a doctor can help in moderating the physical reactions. However, these alone cannot do the job. Learning to moderate these reactions on our own is a desirable solution in the long run.

 

5. Build our physical reserves.

 

Exercising for cardiovascular fitness three to four times a week (moderate, prolonged rhythmic exercise is best, such as walking, swimming, cycling, or jogging). Eating well-balanced and nutritious meals are a must. Maintaining the ideal weight is essential. Avoiding nicotine, excessive caffeine, and other stimulants can be a great help in reducing stress. Mixing leisure with work and taking breaks from routine work can relax and reduce stress in a person. Getting adequate sleep is of utmost importance. Being consistent with the sleep schedule helps in reducing stress to a large extent.

 

Maintaining our emotional reserves.

 

Developing some mutually supportive friendships and stable relationships help in sharing bottled-up emotions and reduce stress. Pursuing realistic goals which are meaningful to, rather than goals others have for set for us which we do not identify with can help in reducing stress. Expecting some frustrations, failures, and sorrows as apart of life can make us gear up mentally in handling stressful situations rather than succumb to them.