Transcript
Page 1: Ability & Biographical Characteristics

Biographical characteristics; AbilityBiographical characteristics; Ability

Unit II

Individual Behaviour

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Basic OB levels: 3 levels of analysis in OBBasic OB levels: 3 levels of analysis in OB

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Individual levelIndividual level

Important topics to be studied:

Biographical Characteristics; Ability; Values; Attitudes; Personality; Emotions; Learning; Perception.

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Introduction Introduction

"Intelligence is but one characteristic that people bring with them when they join an organization.

In this chapter, we look at how basic individual differences like biographical characteristics (such as gender and age) and ability(which includes intelligence) affect employee performance and satisfaction.

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 INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR

•Individuals are different not only in the physical appearance such as sex, age, height, weight, complexion and so on but also different in their psychological traits such as intelligence, attitude, motivation and perception. •Individual differences mean that the management has to treat them differently to get the best out of them. The following are the factors that have an impact upon individual behavior in organizations:

Physical/Biological Differences •Height•Weight•Body Shape•Appearance•Complexion

Psychological Differences•Personality & ability •Values & Attitudes•Perception•Motivation•Learning 

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Biographical characteristicsBiographical characteristics

Biographical Characteristics

Personal characteristics—such as age, gender, marital status, length of tenure/service with an organization—data that are objective and easily obtained from an employee’s personnel file.

These individual variables surely have an impact on employee productivity, absence, turnover, job satisfaction, etc.

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AGEAGE

The most important conclusions regarding age are: Age  seems to have no relationship to productivity i.e. age & job

performance are unrelated. Thus, older workers are as productive as younger employees.

Older workers and those with longer tenure are less likely to resign or quit their jobs;

But what value can this information have for managers?

The obvious answer is that it can help in making choices among job applicants.

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GENDERGENDER

•Given the significant changes that have taken place in the last 25 years in terms of increasing female participation rates in the workforce, it is concluded that there are no significant difference in job productivity between men and women. Also, there are no consistent male-female differences in problem-solving ability, analytical skills, competitive drive, motivation, sociability, learning ability, etc.

•The research on absence, however, is a different story. The evidence indicates that women have higher rates of absenteeism that men do as our culture has historically placed home and family responsibilities on the woman.

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MARITAL STATUSMARITAL STATUS

Research indicates that married employees have fewer absences, less turnover, and are more satisfied with their jobs than are their unmarried co-workers.

Marriage imposes increased responsibilities that may make a steady job more valuable and important.

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TenureTenure

•Tenure can be defined as time/work experience on a particular job.

•Based on research, we can say that there is a positive relationship between seniority and job productivity.

•Also, research studies demonstrate seniority to be negatively related to absenteeism & turnover.

•The research also indicates that tenure and satisfaction are positively related.

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ABILITYABILITY

Ability: An individual's capacity/skill to perform effectively the various tasks in a job such as physical, mental or interpersonal work.

Ability is thus, a current assessment of what one can do.

Everyone has strengths & weaknesses in terms of ability that make him relatively superior or inferior to other in performing the various tasks.

"Regardless of how motivated you are, it is unlikely that you can act as well as Shahrukh Khan, run as fast as Usain Bolt, play cricket as well as Sachin Tendulkar or sing as well as Lata Mangeshkar“ i.e. we weren’t all created equal.

So, we aren’t all equal in abilities.

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TWO TYPES OF ABILITY in an individual:TWO TYPES OF ABILITY in an individual:

INTELLECTUAL ABILITIES

PHYSICAL ABILITIES

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INTELLECTUAL ABILITYINTELLECTUAL ABILITY

•"Intellectual abilities are those needed to perform mental activities for thinking, reasoning & problem solving.

•Intelligent people have high intellectual abilities & are thus better job performers.

•IQ tests, admission tests like CAT(CAT has 3 components: logical reasoning, quantitative analysis & verbal ability), GMAT, Job hiring interviews, etc. are designed to ascertain one’s general intellectual abilities/intelligence.

•"Of course, a high IQ is not a requirement for all jobs. In fact, for many jobs – in which employee behavior is highly routine and there are no opportunities to exercise discretion – a high IQ is not as important to performing well. Eg: the job of a sanitation worker.•Thus, the more complex a job is in terms of information processing demands, the more IQ will be necessary to perform it successfully.

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• Number aptitude

• Verbal comprehension

• Perceptual speed

• Inductive reasoning

• Deductive reasoning

• Spatial visualization

• Memory

• Number aptitude

• Verbal comprehension

• Perceptual speed

• Inductive reasoning

• Deductive reasoning

• Spatial visualization

• Memory

7 Dimensions ofIntellectual Ability

7 Dimensions ofIntellectual Ability

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Dimension Description Job Example

Number aptitude Ability to do speedy and accurate arithmetic

Accountant: Computing thesales tax on a set of items

Verbal comprehension Ability to understand what is read orheard and the relationship of wordsto each other

Plant manager: Followingcorporate policies on hiring

Perceptual speed Ability to identify visual similaritiesand differences quickly andaccurately

Fire investigator: Identifyingclues to support a charge ofarson

Inductive reasoning Ability to identify a logical sequence in a problem and then solve the problem i.e. from specific to general

Market researcher: Forecastingdemand for a product in thenext time period

Deductive reasoning Ability to use logic and assess the implications of an argument i.e. from general to specific

Supervisor: Choosing betweentwo different suggestionsoffered by employees

Spatial visualization Ability to imagine how an objectwould look if its position in space were changed

Interior decorator:Redecorating an office

Memory Ability to retain and recall pastexperiences

Salesperson: Rememberingthe names of customers

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Intelligence is of 4 typesIntelligence is of 4 types

Intelligence is of 4 types (& not just limited to mental abilities) -  

Cognitive Social Emotional Cultural

Cognitive:- Refers to the traditional intelligence (i.e. mind/mental power) Social Intelligence: Person’s ability to relate effectively to others.  Emotional Intelligence: Ability to identify, understand & manage emotions i.e. be emotionally mature. Cultural Intelligence: Awareness of cross – cultural differences & the ability to function successfully in cross – cultural situations.  All the above four when taken together form Multiple Intelligence.

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Physical AbilitiesPhysical Abilities

Physical Abilities

The capacity to do tasks demanding stamina, manual dexterity, strength, and similar characteristics.

Just like intellectual abilities play a larger role in doing complex jobs, physical abilities gain importance for successfully doing less skilled & more standardized jobs.

Physical abilities such as strength, flexibility, endurance and stamina can be developed with exercise and training.

Mental abilities such as reasoning, memory visualization, comprehension, etc can also be developed through practice and education.

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Other Factors

7. Body coordination

8. Balance

9. Stamina

Other Factors

7. Body coordination

8. Balance

9. Stamina

Nine Physical AbilitiesNine Physical Abilities

Strength Factors(fighters,gym persons)

1. Dynamic strength

2. Trunk strength

3. Static strength

4. Explosive strength

Strength Factors(fighters,gym persons)

1. Dynamic strength

2. Trunk strength

3. Static strength

4. Explosive strength

Flexibility Factors(yoga persons, dancers)

5. Extent flexibility

6. Dynamic flexibility

Flexibility Factors(yoga persons, dancers)

5. Extent flexibility

6. Dynamic flexibility

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Physical AbilitiesPhysical AbilitiesStrength Factors

Dynamic Strength Ability to exert muscular force repeatedly or continuously over time

Trunk Strength Ability to exert muscular strength using the trunk (particularly abdominal) muscles

Static Strength Ability to exert force against external objects

Explosive Strength Ability to expend a maximum of energy in one or a series of explosive acts

Flexibility Factors

Extent flexibility Ability to move the trunk and back muscles as far as possible

Dynamic flexibility Ability to make rapid, repeated flexing movements

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Other Factors

Body coordination Ability to coordinate the simultaneous actions of different parts of the body

Balance Ability to maintain equilibrium despite forces pulling off balance

Stamina Ability to continue maximum effort requiring prolonged effort over time

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Ability-JobFit

The Ability-Job Fit: Employee performance depends on the interaction of the two

The Ability-Job Fit: Employee performance depends on the interaction of the two

Employee’sEmployee’sAbilitiesAbilities

Job’s AbilityJob’s AbilityRequirementsRequirements

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The Ability-Job FitThe Ability-Job Fit

•Employee performance increases when there is a high ability – job fit.

•The specific ability requirements varies from one job to another. For eg – Airline Pilots need strong spatial – visualization abilities, beach lifeguards need both spatial – visualization abilities & also body co-ordination, senior officers require verbal abilities, construction workers require balance, etc.  •If employees lack the required abilities, they would fail. Eg: if you’re hired as a computer operator & you can’t meet the job’s basic keyboard typing requirements, your performance is going to be poor irrespective of your positive attitude or high motivational levels.

• At the same time if an employee has abilities that exceed the requirements of the job, although job performance might be achieved but there will be organizational inefficiencies & a decline in employee satisfaction.  

 

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Thus, Ability directly influences an employee’s level of performance and satisfaction through the ability-job fit.

So to get a compatible fit, what can be done?

First, an effective selection process will improve the fit. A job analysis will provide information about jobs currently being done and the abilities that individuals need to perform the jobs adequately. Applicants can then be tested, interviewed, and evaluated on the degree to which they possess the necessary abilities.

Second, promotion and transfer decisions affecting individuals already working in the organization should reflect the abilities of candidates

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