Unit 1IntroductionOrganization Behavior ConceptUnderstanding one individual's behavior is a challenging problem in and of itself. The work of organizations gets done through the behavior of people, individually or collectively, on their own or in collaboration with technology. Thus, central to the management task is the management of organizational behavior. To do this, there must be the capacity to understand the patterns of behavior at individual, group, and organization levels, to predict what behavior responses will be elicited by different managerial actions, and finally to use understanding and prediction to achieve control.

Organizational behavior is the study of what people do in an organization and how that behavior affects the performance of the organizations. It is an academic discipline concerned with describing, understanding, predicting, and controlling human behavior in an organizational environment.

According to S.P. Robbins, "Organizational Behavior (OB) is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within organizations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization's effectiveness."Like other inputs into an enterprise, the human beings employed by that enterprise constitute a resource -- in this case, a human resource. Other resources must be managed to ensure both the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization. It takes economists, accountants, and financial analysts to understand and utilize the firm's monetary resources. Similarly, technologists, engineers, and trades people serve to help management utilize the firm's material and production facilities efficiently. It is the role of the Human Resource Manager, and others, skilled in the analysis of human interaction with the work environment, to assist management in the proper utilization of human resources. The study of Organizational Behavior facilitates the process of explaining, understanding, predicting, maintaining, and changing employee behavior in an organizational setting.

Figure: Organizational Behavior Elements

In summary, to understand behavior in the organization, we must examine the interaction of individuals with the various factors the individuals encounter in that organizational setting. The behaviors encountered in the organization are, of course, very diverse. The diversity of personalities interacting with varied organizational environments results in considerable variation in associated behavior. The employees of the firm are resources -- human resources. Just as accountants provide the expertise the firm requires to best manage its financial resources, so the Organizational Behavior specialist provides the expertise needed to manage the firm's human resources.

Figure: Individual Behavior in the Organizational Setting

The Historical Evolution of Organizational Behavior

Today, Organizational Behavior is considered as an important aspect in organizational effectiveness. However, OB as a distinct field of study was emerged at 1940s. Prior to this, before the sixteenth century, Greek philosopher Plato wrote about the essence of leadership for job satisfaction. Aristotle addressed the topic of persuasive communication in organization. The writings of 16th century Italian philosopher Niccol Machiavelli laid the foundation for contemporary work on organizational power and politics. In 1776, Adam Smith advocated a new form of organizational structure which is based on the division of labour. One hundred years later, German sociologist Max Weber wrote about rational organizations and initiated discussion of charismatic leadership. Soon after, Frederick Winslow Taylor, also known as father of scientific management, introduced the systematic use of goal setting and rewards to motivate employees. In the 1920s, Australian-born Harvard professor Elton Mayo and his colleagues conducted productivity studies at Western Electric's Hawthorne plant in the United States.

Although the above contributions traces its roots back to Max Weber and earlier scientists, organizational behavioral studies is generally considered to have begun as an academic field with the advent of scientific management of F.W. Taylor. In the Taylorism, rationalizing the organization with specific sets of instructions and time-motion studies, individual compensation system can lead lead to the increased productivity and efficiency.

After the First World War, the focus of organizational studies shifted to analysis of how human factors and psychology affected organizations, a transformation propelled by the identification of the Hawthorne Effect of Elton Mayo. This Human Relations Movement focused on teams, motivation, and the actualization of the goals of individuals within organizations, the Prominent scholars for it were, Frederick Herzberg, Abraham Maslow, David McClelland, and Victor Vroom, those have contributed in motivational theories.The Second World War further shifted the field, as the invention of large-scale logistics and operations research and the management science. Interest grew in theory and methods to the sciences of management rather that art, including systems theory, the study of organizations with a complexity theory perspective and complexity strategy. The major contributors were Herbert Alexander Simon and James G. March.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the field was strongly influenced by social psychology also and the emphasis in academic study was on quantitative research. An explosion of theorizing, much of it at Stanford University and Carnegie Mellon, produced Bounded Rationality, Informal Organization, Contingency Theory, Resource Dependence, Institutional Theory, and Population Ecology theories, among many others.

Starting in the 1980s, cultural explanations of organizations and change became an important part of study. Qualitative methods of study became more acceptable, informed by anthropology, psychology and sociology.

Specific ContributionsFrederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915):Taylor was the first person who attempted to study human behavior at work using a systematic approach. Taylor studied human characteristics, social environment, task, physical environment, capacity, speed, durability, cost and their interaction with each other. His overall objective was to reduce and/or remove human variability. Taylor worked to achieve his goal of making work behaviors stable and predictable so that maximum output could be achieved. He relied strongly upon monetary incentive systems, believing that humans are primarily motivated by money. He faced some strong criticism, including being accused of telling managers to treat workers as machines without minds, but his work was very productive and laid many foundation principles for modern management study.

Elton Mayo:Elton Mayo, an Australian national, headed the Hawthorne Studies at Harvard. In his classic writing in 1931, Human Problems of an Industrial Civilization, he advised managers to deal with emotional needs of employees at work.

Mary Parker Follett:Mary Parker Follett was a pioneer woman management consultant in the industrial world, which was mainly dominated by males. As a writer, she provided analyses on workers as having complex combinations of attitude, beliefs, and needs. She told managers to motivate employees on their job performance, apull rather than a "push" strategy.

Douglas McGregor:Douglas McGregor proposed two theories/assumptions, which are very nearly the opposite of each other, about human nature based on his experience as a management consultant. His first theory was Theory X, which is pessimistic and negative; and according to McGregor it is how managers traditionally perceive their workers. Then, in order to help managers replace that theory/assumption, he gave Theory Y which takes a more modern and positive approach. He believed that managers could achieve more if managers start perceiving their employees as self-energized, committed, responsible and creative beings. By means of his Theory Y, he in fact challenged the traditional theorists to adopt a developmental approach to their employees. He also wrote a book The Human Side of Enterprise in 1960; this book has become a foundation for the modern view of employees at work.

Organizational Behavior as Interdisciplinary field

OB is considered as an academic discipline. However, it is widely considered as an interdisciplinary field of study because of covering varieties of academic discipline within it. The filed of studies can be shown from the figure below.Psychology

Psychology refers to the science that tries to measure, explain, predict and sometimes change the behavior of humans. OB focuses on human psychology through learning, perception, personality emotions, training, leadership, motivation, job satisfaction etc.

Sociology

It is the study of people in the organization in relation with others which includes, group, teams, communication, power, conflict etc.

Source: Stephen P. Robbins

Social psychology

It is the combine of both Psychology and Sociology which focuses on influence of people on one another. The fields of study are: Behavioral change, attitude change, communication, group process and group decision making. Anthropology

It is the study about societies to identify about human beings and their activities such as cultures and environments.

Political Science

Political science primarily focuses on studying the behavior of individuals and groups within the political environment within the organization which includes conflict, Intraorganizational politics and power.

Challenges and Opportunities for Organizational Behavior

Organizational behaviour is becoming more important in the global economy as people with diverse backgrounds and cultural values have to work together effectively and efficiently. The followings are the points of challenges and how can OB help coping those challenges.1. Responding to Globalization:

The world is being the global village and organizations are not constrained by national border in the recent days. To satisfy the customers of the world in highly competitive globalized market, organizations need to provide the products and service of their choice, preference and taste. Organizations need working in foreign countries in a multicultural diversity environment. The management practices need to be modified from countries to countries to cope with the diversity. In the globalization, the companies tend to establish the business firms where they can have lower costs of labor to reduce the cost of production for global competition 2. Managing Workforce diversity

The most important and most emerging challenge for today's managers is workforce diversity because the focus of globalization is on people from different countries. It is the concept that the industries have heterogeneity in people regarding the gender, age, race, religion, language, ethnicity, physical abilities, nationalities, culture and inclusion of diversified individuals.

3. Improving Quality and Productivity

The business is becoming highly the customer focused in the recent days. The product quality should continuously be improved to compete in the market and to satisfy the customers. However, the productivity should not be decreased. The organizational improvement is needed, the accurate measurement and employee empowerment should be focused to improve the both, quality and productivity. Total quality management (TQM) (a management philosophy for the quality improvement) and process engineering (the process of reconsidering the methods and organization structure) is to be adopted.4. Responding to Outsourcing

Outsourcing involves the transfer of the management and/or day-to-day execution of an entire business function to an external service provider.information technology HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsourcing" \l "cite_note-1#cite_note-1" \o ""

The client organization and the supplier enter into a contractual agreement that defines the transferred services. Under the agreement the supplier acquires the means of production in the form of a transfer of people, assets and other resources from the client. The client agrees to procure the services from the supplier for the term of the contract. Business segments typically outsourced include , human resources, facilities, real estate management, and accounting. It is the both challenge and opportunity for the organization and responding to it in the benefit of the firm is certainly the difficult job. Eventhough it has many opportunites to the firm, it may create problem damaging the local market, low social responsibility, low quality in product or service, high staff turnover, fraud, security related issues etc.

5. Improving Customer Service: Customers are treated as the 'god' for the organizations in the recent days. The service to be rendered by the employees should be pleased by the clients in service industries like teaching, technical support, fast-food counters, airlines etc. OB can contribute to improving in organization's performance to the managers through identifying about the employee attitudes and behavior associated with customer satisfaction creating the customer-responsive culture. OB can help the managers in creating customer-friendly culture, prompt responding to customer needs and providing the guidance about pleasing them.

6. Improving People Skills:OB helps managers improving the necessary skills required to manage effectively including the motivational skills, communication and team work. It not only imparts the knowledge and skills needed to enhance the learning ability but about the perception of individual. 7. Empowering People

Managers are giving up controls to the lower levels, they are becoming highly flexible, organization encourages the employee participation in decision making and forming self-managed teams in modern organizations. Workers are accepting responsibility and managers are granting them the authority. Empowering changes leadership style, power relationships, needs skills and abilities about understanding and predicting employees' behavior and for this, OB is inevitable.

8. Stimulating Innovation and Change

The challenge for the today's managers is stimulating the product and service innovation for the survival and growth in competitive environment the change to adjust to it. The employees may resist the change and innovation having the stumbling block to it. OB provides the adequate ideas and techniques to remove the block and go further ahead.

9. Coping with "Temporariness"

Globalization, advance in product and services, technology changes make the organization compelled to change the nature of job, flexibility in structure, jobs are regularly redesigned. Even the organizations are also changing. The part-time workers, temporary workers or short-term contractors are increasing especially in developed countries to cope with increased work pressure, use expert knowledge and reduce labour cost. The developing countries like Nepal also facing challenges about the part time and temporary workers. However, the human resource managers are getting challenges to manage such contingent workers. Part time workers are frequently moving from one job to another. It is very difficult to fully retain them and keep then in the organization for long time. Managers need to cope those "temporariness" in job and workers. They need to learn about flexibility, to predict, creating the organizational culture, overcome the barriers to change, which can be learnt through OB.10. Working in Networked Organizations

The use of computer and internet in workplace is increasing day by day. The interlink between the organizations and workplace using communication technologies is rapidly expanding, resulting the networked organizations. Organization becomes complex allowing maximum number of people without any physical distance, like a global village. Motivating, leading and communicating those virtually connected employees is highly challenging. OB can be the important insight for getting knowledge to help managing those logically connected people.

11. Helping Employees Balance Work/Life Conflicts

In recent days, employees often feel that they are unable to create balance between the work and their personal life. They blame that their job create problem in their family life because of lacking take care about their family, spouse or children since they almost busy in office work even in home. The fast growing organizations, these days, have no office hours, specially no closing hours. It sometimes, creates conflict, bore and interfere in personal life and they are not happy.

It has been seen that there should be the balance between the work and personal life. They need flexibility in their work schedules, with equal emphasis on "life" and "job". And if this happens, it is very difficult to attract the most capable and motivated employees. OB offers different ideas, suggestions and guidance in maintaining balance between these two and resolving the conflict.

12. Improving Ethical Behavior

Employees in the organization are finding difficult to differentiate what is right and what is wrong. They always see people around them are in unethical practices like taking bribe and padding expense accounts, favoritism and nepotism. It creates decreasing the confidence and trust in management.

Managers try to provide in-house advice about DOs and DONTs regarding ethical behavior. They Create protection mechanisms write and distribute codes of ethics to their employees and sometimes they also offer seminars, workshops, and training to improving the ethical behavior13. Declining Employee LoyaltyBecause of global completion, unemployment and inflation, employees are unable to be loyal and honest although they do not like it. Management can not easily trust to employee, they do not like delegating authority because of fear of misuse. Officials take bribe for bread and butter and they increase their expense accounts. Workforce motivation is becoming highly challenging because of temporariness and brain-drain. OB of course can provide the techniques to increasing the employee loyalty determining the code of ethics or ethical behavior, motivating them, communicating effectively. Emerging Trends in Organizational Behavior

Different writers explained differently about the emerging trends to OB. The following points can be traced out as the recent trends to OB.1. Globalization of products and services

2. The revolution in middle level management: Maximum cut in the middle level managers, restructuring and redefining the roles

3. Decentralization of business, government, political and social institutions

4. High level of diversity among people, groups, institutions and geographic locations

5. Computerization in organizations

6. Use of technologies in communication

7. Priority and reservation opportunities for minorities and women

8. Inclusion of different race, caste, religion, language, region etc.9. Unionization

10. Flat structure and wide span of control

11. Team and Group Approach with dynamic leadership12. Virtual team and virtual organizations

13. Innovative plan for special career needs: Flexible working hours, reduced hours, quality of work life

14. Contingent workforce

15. Ethical behavioral issues

(Unit 2

Perception

Concept

Perception is our sensory experience of the world around us and involves both the recognition of environmental stimuli and actions in response to these stimuli. Through the perceptual process, we gain information about properties and elements of the environment that are critical to our survival. Perception not only creates our experience of the world around us; it allows us to act within our environment.

"Perception is a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impression in order to give meaning to their environment." S.P. Robbins

It is the process of becoming aware of something through the senses and achieving understanding of it; the process of interpretation based on sensation; the psychological ability to process or use information received through the sense organs

So that perception is the set of psychological processes by which people recognize, organize, synthesize, and give meaning (in the brain) to the sensations received from environmental stimuli (in the sense organs)

Why is it Important?

Study about perception is very important because peoples behavior is based on their perception of what reality is, not on reality itself. The world that is perceived is the world that is behaviorally important.

Sensation usually refers to the immediate, relatively unprocessed result of stimulation of sensory receptors in the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, or skin. Perception, on the other hand, better describes one's ultimate experience of the world and typically involves further processing of sensory input. In practice, sensation and perception are virtually impossible to separate, because they are part of one continuous process.

Perceptual Process

The perceptual process is a sequence of steps that begins with the environment and leads to our perception of a stimulus and an action in response to the stimulus.

We speak of a 'sense of humor' because different people sense humor in different things. What one person perceives (senses) to be funny, another person might not.

On the other hand when one has managed to perceive humor in something, laughter (in one register or another) follows rather automatically. It is the behavioral response to the perception of humor.

The perceptual process involves brain structuring, and how it organizes incoming stimuli, determines what we experience.

The perceptual process is a sequence of steps that starts with the stimuli that happen in our surroundings and leads through nerve transmission through peripheral and central nerves and the brain to our perception of what is going on. It also includes our resulting action to the original stimulus.

So, the perceptual process involved when we go outside from a room with no windows on a rainy day is that the stimulus from the environment - the fact that it is raining and cold and we are getting wet - is recognized by our senses. Our eyes, ears, cold receptors and touch receptors all send signals to the brain, which works out that its raining.

The cognitive process within the brain then comes up with the decision to go back inside and pick up a coat and an umbrella before we set out again. This is our response to the stimulus.

Person Perception: Making Judgments About OthersAttribution Theory

Attribution theory is proposed to develop the analysis of the ways in which we judge people differently. When individuals observe behavior, they attempt to determine whether it is internally (under the personal control of the individual) or externally (outside causes force you to behave a certain way) caused.

Internal factors: The behavior that are believed to be under the personal control of the individual.

(Late: Over slipping)

External factors: The result from outside cause; that is the person is seen as having been forced into

the behavior by the situation. (Late: Traffic Jam)

Distinctiveness: Whether an individual displays different behaviors in different situations.

(Unusual behavior)

Consensus:

Everyone who is faced with a similar situation responds in the same way

Consistency:

Responding the same way in over a time.

Frequently Used Shortcuts in Judging OthersSelective Perception People selectively interpret what they see on the basis of their interest, background, experience, and attitudes. (Student asked: Which subject is most useful? Each teachers reply that their own subject is highly useful and most important to study)

Halo EffectDrawing a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single characteristic. (Students rate the teacher low because of unfriendliness even though he is knowledgeable, experienced and talented)

Contrast EffectsEvaluations of a persons characteristics that are affected by comparisons with other people recently encountered who rank higher or lower on the same characteristics. (In the interview, if the former candidate is strong, you might get low score, and the former is weak, you get high score.)

ProjectionAttributing ones own characteristics to other people. (If you are highly talented, others too have)

Stereotyping Judging someone on the basis of ones perception of the group to which that person belongs. (All Muslims are not terrorists)

Factors Influencing Perception

We see that the same thing is perceived by the individuals differently. When the individual looks at any thing and tries to interpret what he or she sees, that interpretation is heavily influenced by personal characteristics like attitudes, personality, interests etc. The following figure explains the factors that influencing perception

1. Factors that shape (and can distort perception):

Perceiver

Target

Situation

2. When an individual looks at a target and attempts to interpret what he or she sees, that interpretation is heavily influenced by personal characteristics of the individual perceiver.

3. The more relevant personal characteristics affecting perception of the perceiver are attitudes, motives, interests, past experiences, and expectations.

4. Characteristics of the target can also affect what is being perceived. This would include attractiveness, gregariousness, and our tendency to group similar things together. For example, members of a group with clearly distinguishable features or color are often perceived as alike in other, unrelated characteristics as well.

5. The context in which we see objects or events also influences our attention. This could include time, heat, light, or other situational factors.

Perception and Individual Decision Making

It is the truth that how individuals in organization make decisions and the quality to their final choices are largely influenced by their perceptions.

The Link between Perception and Individual Decision MakingDecisions = Choosing between two or more alternatives

Problems = A discrepancy between some current state of affairs and some desired state

How should we make decisions in organizations?To maximize a particular outcome, try the rational decision making model

Steps in the Rational Decision-Making Model Define the problem

Identify the decision criteria.

Allocate weights to the criteria.

Develop the alternatives.

Evaluate the alternatives.

Select the best alternative.

Assumptions of the Rational Decision-Making ModelProblem Clarity-: The problem is clear and unambiguous.

Known Options: The decision-maker can identify all relevant criteria and viable alternatives.

Clear Preferences: Rationality assumes that the criteria and alternatives can be ranked and weighted.

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

No Time or Cost Constraints: Full information is available because there is no time or cost constraints.

Maximum Payoff: The choice alternative will yield the highest perceived value.

So, how are decisions actually made in organizations?1. Bounded Rationality: Individuals make decisions by constructing simplified models that extract the essential features from problems without capturing all their complexity.

2. Intuitive Decision Making: Intuition = an unconscious process created out of distilled experience.

Intuition is often used when there is a high level of uncertainty, there is little precedent to go on, when the variable in question are less predictable, when facts are limited, these facts dont lead you in one particular direction, data is of little use, when there are several plausible choices, and there is time pressure

3. Problem IdentificationProblems that are visible tend to have a higher probability of being selected than ones that are important. Why?

It is easier to recognize visible problems.

Decision-Makers want to appear competent and on-top of problems.

Decision-Makers self-interest affects problem selection because it is usually in the Decision-Makers best interest to address problems of high visibility and high payoff. This demonstrates an ability to perceive and attack problems.

4. Alternative Development: Decision makers rarely seek optimum solutions but satisfying or good enough ones.

Efforts made are simple and confined to the familiar.

Efforts are incremental rather than comprehensive.

Many successive limited comparisons rather than calculating value for each alternative.

This approach makes it unnecessary for the decision maker to thoroughly examine an alternative and its consequences.

Thus the decision makers steps are small and limited to comparisons of the current or familiar options.

Common Biases & Errors We tend to take shortcuts in decision making and this allows error and bias to enter our decisions. Common biases and errors include:

Overconfidence Bias We tend to be overly optimistic (especially when our intellect and interpersonal abilities are low)

Anchoring Bias Tendency to focus on initial information as a starting point.

Confirmation Bias We tend to seek out info that reaffirms our past choices and we discount info that contradicts our past judgments.

Availability Bias --or the tendency of people to base their judgments on information readily available to them.

Representative Bias -- The tendency to assess the likelihood of an occurrence by drawing analogies and seeing identical situations in which they dont exist.

Escalation of Commitment --an increased commitment to a previous decision in spite of negative information (all too often creeps into decision making)

Randomness Error We tend to create meaning out of random events (and superstitions).

Hindsight Bias We tend to believe falsely that wed have accurately predicted the outcome of an event, after that outcome is actually known.

Summary and Implications for ManagersIndividuals behave based not on the way their external environment actually is but, rather, on what they see or believe it to be. Evidence suggests that what individuals perceive from their work situation will influence their productivity more than will the situation itself. Absenteeism, turnover, and job satisfaction are also reactions to the individuals perceptions.

Individuals think and reason before they act. Under some decision situations, people follow the rational decision-making model. However, this doesnt happen very often. So, what can managers do to improve their decision making?

Analyze the situation.

Be aware of biases.

Combine rational analysis with intuition.

Dont assume that your specific decision style is appropriate for every job.

Try to enhance your creativity(Unit 3

Learning

Concept

Learning is one of the most important mental functions of humans, animals and artificial cognitive systems. It relies on the acquisition of different types of knowledge supported by perceived information. It leads to the development of new capacities, skills, values, understanding, and preferences. Its goal is the increasing of individual and group experience.

According to S.P. Robbins, Learning is any relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of experience.

So that learning is the process of acquiring knowledge, skills, attitudes or values through study, experience or teaching that causes a change of behaviour that is persistent, measurable and specified or allows an individual to formulate a new mental construct or revise a prior mental conduct. It is an ongoing process in occurring at all times.

Steps in Learning

The followings four are the steps in learning process:

1. Input: The communication or message, information or any other that you get from the sensory organs is the input for learning.

2. Response: The response after getting input as an understanding of input It is the acting shown by the learner, your immediate response whether you motivate or not.

3. Motivation: The drive towards the learning process, showing the activity, interest and attitude to learn. Individuals need high degree of motivation towards learning

4. Reinforcement: The final outcome of learning determines the reinforcement. It is the process of forcing the learner to change his or her behavior. The learner is reinforced to learn something using positive as well as negative ways. For eg., students get punishment if they became unable to answer.

Models of Learning

Also known as theories of learning, models of learning explain about how individuals learn in their life. The scientific investigation of the learning process was begun at the end of the 19th century by Ivan Pavlov in Russia and Edward Thorndike in the United States. Three models are currently widely used to explain changes in learned behavior.

1. Classical Conditioning TheoryAccording to S.P. Robbins, "Classical conditioning is a type of conditioning in which an individual responds to some stimulus that would not ordinarily produce such a response."

The first model of learning, classical conditioning was initially identified by Pavlov to teach dogs to salivate in response to the ringing of a bell.

When he presented the dong with a piece of meat, the dog exhibited a noticeable increase in salivation. When he postponed the presentation of meat and only rang the bell, the dog did not salivate. Then Pavlov proceeded to link the meat and the ringing of the bell. After repeatedly hearing the bell before getting food, the dog began to salivate as soon as the bell rang. After some times, the dog started salivating only on the bell ring without meat. The effect is the dog had learned to respond-that is, to salivate-to the bell.

Salivation is an innate reflex, or unconditioned response, to the presentation of food, an unconditioned stimulus. Pavlov showed that dogs could be conditioned to salivate merely to the sound of a buzzer (a conditioned stimulus), after it was sounded a number of times in conjunction with the presentation of food. Learning is said to occur because salivation has been conditioned to a new stimulus that did not elicit it initially. The pairing of food with the buzzer acts to reinforce the buzzer as the prominent stimulus.

So that Stimulus-response theory, referred to as S-R theory, is a theoretical model of behavioral psychology that suggests humans and other animals can learn to associate a new stimulus- the conditioned stimulus (CS)- with a pre-existing stimulus - the unconditioned stimulus (UCS), and can think, feel or respond to the CS as if it were actually the UCS.

2. Operant Conditioning Theory

A second type of learning, known as operant conditioning, was developed around the same time as Pavlov's theory by Thorndike, and later expanded upon by B. F. Skinner. Here, learning takes place as the individual acts upon the environment. Operant behavior can be defined as the voluntary or learned behavior in contrast to unlearned behavior.

Robbins defines that "Operant conditioning is a type of conditioning in which desired voluntary behavior leads to a reward or prevents a punishment." Operant condition claims that people can learn to behave to get something they want or avoid something the don't want. While classical conditioning involves natural/normal reaction, operant conditioning requireticular technique was responsible for a particular behavior change.

There is a strong emphasis on accountability for everyone involved in a behavior modification program.

Techniques of Behavior Modification

a. Positive reinforcement: Positive reinforcement occurs when a behavior (response) is followed by a favorable stimulus (commonly seen as pleasant) that increases the frequency of that behavior. Appreciation for well done in job is an example.

b. Negative reinforcement: Negative reinforcement occurs when a behavior (response) is followed by the removal of an aversive stimulus (commonly seen as unpleasant) thereby increasing that behavior's frequency. When teacher asks a question to you, you try to see note book so that teacher would not punish you.

c. Punishment:

Positive punishment (also called "Punishment by contingent stimulation") occurs when a behavior (response) is followed by an aversive stimulus, such as introducing a shock or loud noise, resulting in a decrease in that behavior.

Negative punishment (also called "Punishment by contingent withdrawal") occurs when a behavior (response) is followed by the removal of a favorable stimulus, such as taking away a child's toy following an undesired behavior, resulting in a decrease in that behavior.

d. Extinction: Eliminating any reinforcement, maintaining the current behavior

In shaping behavior, reinforcement is very important tool rather then punishment or extinction. So that whether it is positive or negative, you need to apply reinforcement but schedules can be varied. It can be continuous or intermittent, fixed interval or variable-interval type.

(Unit 4

Personality

Concept

As we meet different people in our daily lives, we talk about their personality. We need to see personality not at parts of the person, but as a whole. Personality is the different physical and mental characteristics that reflect how a person looks, feels, decides, acts and reacts which comprises internal (invisible) and external (visible) character.

Personality can be defined as:

the complex of all the attributes--behavioral, temperamental, emotional and mental--that characterize a unique individual

A set of qualities that make a person (or thing) distinct from another; An assumed role or manner of behavior; A celebrity; Charisma, or qualities that make a person stand out from the crowd; Pertaining to personality

means (1) the sum of the characteristics which make up physical and mental being, including appearance, manners, habits, tastes and moral character; (2) the characteristics that distinguish one person from another (this is equivalent to individuality); (3) the capacity for having mental states

"Personality is the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts and interacts with others."- S.P. Robbins

Personality is made up the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that make a person unique. Personality originates within the individual and remains fairly consistent throughout life.

Personality psychologists are interested in the unique characteristics of individuals, as well as similarities among groups of people. Personality is displayed through thoughts, feelings, behaviors and many other ways.

Determinants of Personality

Heredity

Researchers have discovered that almost fifty percent of human behavior and personality characteristics are genetically inherited. Those are the parental and biological factors, physiological and psychological factors.

Environment

The environment the individual grows up, the family background, culture and society, norms and belief, values and attitude, education, income, employment influences the personality. Positive & negative aspects of upbringing affect personality.

Situation

Even though environment and heredity determines the personality, the situation may modify in individual's personality. The demand of the current situation, the place, function and position greatly influences in showing the certain behavior. Some situations are: in temple, at employment interview, at Picnic, Public Park.

Personality Traits

Personality traits are the bearing or enduring characteristics that describes the behavior of an individual like shy, aggressive, lazy, ambitious, loyal, timid (fearful) etc.. Individuals show those traits repetitively in a noticeable form and those characters become personality traits. Researchers believe that the personality traits could help in employee selection, placement and career development.

Different scientists tried to identify the common personality traits and they spent many years . The two popular models of Personality Traits are explained below.

A. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

Personality Type or Psychological Type are terms most commonly associated with the model of personality development created by Isabel Briggs Myers the author of the world's most widely used personality inventory, the MBTI or Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

The Basic Model: 2 Kinds of Mental Processes, 2 Kinds of Mental Orientations2 Kinds of Mental Processes

a) The first set of mental preferences relates to how people "Perceive" or take in information.

Those who prefer Sensing Perception favor clear, tangible data and information that fits in well with their direct here-and-now experience. They like practical and prefer routine and order.

In contrast, those who prefer Intuition Perception are drawn to information that is more abstract, conceptual, big-picture, and represents imaginative possibilities for the future.

Sensing Characteristics Mentally live in the Now, attending to present opportunities

Using common sense and creating practical solutions is automatic-instinctual

Memory recall is rich in detail of facts and past events

Best improvise from past experience

Like clear and concrete information; dislike guessing when facts are "fuzzy" Intuitive Characteristics

Mentally live in the Future, attending to future possibilities

Using imagination and creating/inventing new possibilities is automatic-instinctual

Memory recall emphasizes patterns, contexts, and connections

Best improvise from theoretical understanding

Comfortable with ambiguous, fuzzy data and with guessing its meaning.

b) The second set of mental preferences identifies how people form "Judgments" or make decisions. In the Myers MBTI Type Code, this is the third letter.

Those who prefer Thinking Judgment have a natural preference for making decisions in an objective, logical, and analytical manner with an emphasis on tasks and results to be accomplished.

Those whose preference is for Feeling Judgment make their decisions in a somewhat global, visceral, harmony and value-oriented way, paying particular attention to the impact of decisions and actions on other people.

Thinking Characteristics

Instinctively search for facts and logic in a decision situation.

Naturally notices tasks and work to be accomplished.

Easily able to provide an objective and critical analysis.

Accept conflict as a natural, normal part of relationships with people. Feeling Characteristics

Instinctively employ personal feelings and impact on people in decision situations

Naturally sensitive to people needs and reactions.

Naturally seek consensus and popular opinions.

Unsettled by conflict; have almost a toxic reaction to disharmony.

2 Kinds of Mental Orientations

a) Introversion vs ExtroversionThose who prefer Introversion draw their primary energy from the inner world of information, thoughts, ideas, and other reflections. When circumstances require an excessive amount of attention spent in the "outside" world, those preferring Introversion find the need to retreat to a more private setting, they are very quit and shy.

In contrast, those who prefer Extraversion are drawn to the outside world as their elemental source of energy. Rarely, if ever, do extraverted preference people feel their energy batteries are "drained" by excessive amounts of interaction with the outside world. They must engage the things, people, places and activities going on in the outside world for their life force, they are sociable and outgoing

Extraverted Characteristics Act first, think/reflect later

Feel deprived when cutoff from interaction with the outside world

Usually open to and motivated by outside world of people and things

Enjoy wide variety and change in people relationships Introverted Characteristics

Think/reflect first, then Act

Regularly require an amount of "private time" to recharge batteries

Motivated internally, mind is sometimes so active it is "closed" to outside world

Prefer one-to-one communication and relationships

b) Judging vs Perceiving

Those who prefer Judging typically leads to a style oriented towards closure, organization, planning, or in some fashion managing the things and or people found in the external environment. The drive is to order the outside world. They want control, to be ordered and well structured.

Those who prefer Perceiving typically results in an open, adaptable, flexible style of relating to the things and people found in the outside world. The drive is to experience the outside world rather than order it; in general lack of closure is easily tolerated.

Judging Characteristics

Plan many of the details in advance before moving into action.

Focus on task-related action; complete meaningful segments before moving on.

Work best and avoid stress when keep ahead of deadlines.

Naturally use targets, dates and standard routines to manage life. Perceiving Characteristics

Comfortable moving into action without a plan; plan on-the-go.

Like to multitask, have variety, mix work and play.

Naturally tolerant of time pressure; work best close to the deadlines.

Instinctively avoid commitments which interfere with flexibility, freedom and variety

B. Big Five Personality Traits

The "Big Five" personality traits are five broad factors or dimensions of personality discovered through empirical research by John Bearden.

The five factors are as follows:

1. Openness to experience - appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, unusual ideas, imagination, curiosity, and variety of experience.

Openness is a general appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, unusual ideas, imagination, curiosity, and variety of experience. The trait distinguishes imaginative people from down-to-earth, conventional people. People who are open to experience are intellectually curious, appreciative of art, and sensitive to beauty. In compared to closed people, they tend to be,more creative and more aware of their feelings and unconventional beliefs.

Sample Openness items I am full of ideas.

I am quick to understand things.

I have a rich vocabulary.

I have a vivid imagination.

I have excellent ideas.

I spend time reflecting on things.

I use difficult words.

I am not interested in abstract ideas. (reversed)

I do not have a good imagination. (reversed)

I have difficulty understanding abstract ideas. (reversed)

2. Conscientiousness - a tendency to show self-discipline, responsible, act dutifully, and aim for achievement; planned rather than spontaneous behaviour.

Conscientiousness is a tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement. The trait shows a preference for planned rather than spontaneous behaviour. It influences the way in which we control, regulate, and direct our impulses. Conscientious individuals avoid trouble and achieve high levels of success through purposeful planning and persistence. They are also positively regarded by others as intelligent and reliable.

Sample Conscientiousness items I am always prepared.

I am exacting in my work.

I follow a schedule.

I get chores done right away.

I like order.

I pay attention to details.

I leave my belongings around. (reversed)

I make a mess of things. (reversed)

I often forget to put things back in their proper place. (reversed)

I shirk my duties. (reversed)

3. Extroversion - energy, positive emotions, surgency, and the tendency to seek stimulation and the company of others.

Extraversion, also called "extroversion," is characterized by positive emotions, surgency, and the tendency to seek out stimulation and the company of others. Extraverts enjoy being with people, and are often perceived as full of energy. They tend to be enthusiastic, action-oriented individuals who are likely to say "Yes!" or "Let's go!" to opportunities for excitement. In groups they like to talk, assert themselves, and draw attention to themselves. Introverts lack the exuberance, energy, and activity levels of extraverts. They tend to be quiet, low-key, deliberate, and less involved in the social world. Their lack of social involvement should not be interpreted as shyness or depression. Introverts simply need less stimulation than extraverts and more time alone.

Sample Extraversion items I am the life of the party.

I don't mind being the center of attention.

I feel comfortable around people.

I start conversations.

I talk to a lot of different people at parties.

I am quiet around strangers. (reversed)

I don't like to draw attention to myself. (reversed)

I don't talk a lot. (reversed)

I have little to say. (reversed)

4. Agreeableness - a tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others.

Agreeableness is a tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others. The trait reflects individual differences in concern for social harmony. Agreeable individuals value getting along with others. They are generally considerate, friendly, generous, helpful, and willing to compromise their interests with others. Agreeable people also have an optimistic view of human nature. They believe people are basically honest, decent, and trustworthy.

Disagreeable individuals place self-interest above getting along with others. They are generally unconcerned with others well-being, and are less likely to extend themselves for other people. Sometimes their skepticism about others motives causes them to be suspicious, unfriendly, and uncooperative.

Sample Agreeableness items I am interested in people.

I feel others emotions.

I have a soft heart.

I make people feel at ease.

I sympathize with others feelings.

I take time out for others.

I am not interested in other peoples problems. (reversed)

I am not really interested in others. (reversed)

I feel little concern for others. (reversed)

I insult people. (reversed)

5. Emtional Etsbility (Neuroticism) - a tendency to experience unpleasant emotions easily, such as anger, anxiety, depression, or vulnerability; sometimes called emotional instability.

Neuroticism is the tendency to experience negative emotions, such as anger, anxiety, or depression. It is sometimes called emotional instability. Those who score high in neuroticism are emotionally reactive and vulnerable to stress. They are more likely to interpret ordinary situations as threatening, and minor frustrations as hopelessly difficult. Their negative emotional reactions tend to persist for unusually long periods of time, which means they are often in a bad mood. These problems in emotional regulation can diminish a neurotic's ability to think clearly, make decisions, and cope effectively with stress.

At the other end of the scale, individuals who score low in neuroticism are less easily upset and are less emotionally reactive. They tend to be calm, emotionally stable, and free from persistent negative feelings. Freedom from negative feelings does not mean that low scorers experience a lot of positive feelings.

Sample Neuroticism items I am easily disturbed.

I change my mood a lot.

I get irritated easily.

I get stressed out easily.

I get upset easily.

I have frequent mood swings.

I often feel depressed.

I worry about things.

I am relaxed most of the time. (reversed)

I seldom feel depressed.(reversed)

Major Personality Influencing Organizational Behavior

The followings are the major personality traits which influences organizational behavior

1. Locus of Control: The locus of control is the belief of the indivudla whether they are the master of their fate. It can either be internal (meaning you believe that you control yourself and your life) or external (meaning you believe that your environment, some higher power or other people control your decisions and your life). It was developed by Julian B. Rotter in 1954 as an important aspect of personality.

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.

Researches have shown that individulas who are externals are less satisfied with their jobs, they have higher abseentism, do less effort and they are more dissatisfied because they perceive as having little control by them in success and outcomes and vice versa for internals.

2. Machiavellianism

Machiavellianism is primarily the term some social and personality psychologists use to describe a person's tendency to deceive and manipulate others for personal gain. The trait is named after Niccol Machiavelli, propounded the theory in using power and gaining, can also refer to the doctrine of Machiavelli who described about the politics of sixteenth century's political leaders who used to deceive people to influence others. We can categories into two: High Mach and Low Mach personality.

High Machs: They tend to take a more detached, calculating approach in their interaction with other people. They tend to believe most people are concerned only with their own well-being, selfish and to depend too much on anyone else is foolish. They believe some of the most efficient ways to achieve a goal are to use deception, rewards, promises, flattery (sweet talk) and even punishments to manipulate others into doing their bidding.

Low Machs: They tend to take a more personal, empathic approach in their interaction with other people. They tend to be more trusting of others and more honest. They believe humans are essentially good natured. At the extreme, low Machs are passive, submissive, and highly agreeable. They also tend to believe that everyone has a good and bad side.

3. Self-Esteem

Self-esteem is a person's overall self-appraisal of his or her own worth. It is the degree they like or dislike themselves. Self-esteem encompasses beliefs (for example, "I am competent /incompetent") and emotions (for example, success/failure, pride/ humiliation).

Self-esteem can apply specifically to a particular dimension (for example, "I believe I am a good writer, and feel proud of that in particular") or have global extent (for example, "I believe I am a good person, and feel proud of myself in general").

4. Self-Monitoring

The theory is proposed by Mark Snyder in 1974. The theory refers to the process through which people regulate their own behavior in order to "look good" so that they will be perceived by others in a favorable manner. It disintinguishes between high self-monitors, who monitor their behaviour to fit different situations, and low self-monitors, who are more cross-situationally consistent.

Some people are sensitive to how other sees them, and they always adjust their behavior to external situational factors. People who are high self-monitors constantly watch other people, what they do and how they respond to the behavior of others and will hence usually adapt well to differing social situations. On the other hand, low self-monitors are generally unaware to how other see them and hence show to their own different style.

5. Risk Taking

It is the willingness to take risk or chances. Some people want to take high risk for gaining something while others do not like taking risk. Such personality highly influences the managerial decision making and information needed for it. High risk taking managers make more rapid decisions and use less information in making their decisions than do the low risk taking managers.

6. Type A PersonalityThe Type A and Type B are a personality type theory that describes a pattern of behaviors of the individuals.

Type A individuals can be described as impatient, excessively time-conscious, insecure about their status, highly competitive, aggressive, and incapable of relaxation. Type B individuals, in contrast, are described as patient, relaxed, and easy-going.

Type A's

1. Are always moving, walking and eating rapidly

2. fell impatient with the rate at which most events take place

3. strive two think or do two o more things at once

4. cannot cope with leisure time

5. are obsessed with numbers, measuring their success in terms of how many or how much of everything they acquire

Type B's

1. Never suffer from sense of time urgency with its accompanying impatience

2. feel no need to display or discuss either their achievements or accomplishments unless such exposure is demanded by the situation

3. play for fun and relaxation, rather than to exhibit their superiority at any cost

4. can relax without guilt (fault)

Source: S.P. Robbins and Seema Sanghi, 2007 p.p 105

7. Proactive Personality

Proactive personality is the trait of the individual who identify opportunities, show initiative, take action and preserve until meaningful change occurs. They create a positive change in environment to remove obstacles and go forward. These people are highly suitable for entrepreneurship, management and they are likely to be success. Nevertheless, they may leave the organization to establish their own business. They are very clever in maintaining relationship, influencing work situations and career planning.

Matching Personality and Jobs

Matching the individual's personality and his or her job is a great challenge not only for the managers but also the individuals who seek their career. The best fit between the personality and their occupation of course leads to success in their life.

1. Person-Job Fit

In this context, John Holland Development Personality-Job Fit Theory. He explained it

Holland presents six personality types and proposes that satisfaction and the propensity to leave a job depend on the degree to which individuals successfully match their personalities to an occupational environment.

Each one of the six personality types has a congruent occupational environment. The theory argues that satisfaction is highest and turnover lowest when personality and occupation are in agreement.

TypePersonal CharacteristicsCongruent Occupation

Realistic: Prefers physical activities that require skill, strength and coordinationShy, genuine, persistent, stable, conforming, practicalMechanic, drill press operator, assembly-line worker, farmer

Investigative: Prefers activities that involve thinking, organizing and understandingAnalytical, original, curious, independentBiologist, economist, mathematician news reporter

Social: Prefers activities that involve helping and developing othersSociable, friendly, cooperative, understandingSocial worker, teacher, counselor, clinical psychologists

Conventional: Prefers rule-regulated, orderly, and unambiguous activitiesConforming, efficient, practical, unimaginative, inflexibleAccountant, corporate manager, bank teller, file clerk

Enterprising: Prefers verbal activities in which there are opportunities to influence others and attain powerSelf-confident, ambitious, energetic, domineeringLawyer, real state agent, public relation specialist small business manager

Artistic: Prefers ambiguous and unsystematic activities that follow creative expressionImaginative, disorderly, idealistic, emotional, impracticalPainter, musician, writer, interior decorator

2. The Person-Organization Fit

The Person-Organization Fit argues that people leave organizations that are not compatible with their personalities. Organizations need to use Big-Five Personality Traits to make the organizational environment favorable to the employees so that they can keep the individuals for long.

Most important for an organization facing a dynamic and changing environment, and requiring employees who are able to readily change tasks and move fluidly between teams.

It argues that people leave jobs that are not compatible with their personalities.

Matching people to the organizational culture at the time of hiring should result in higher employee satisfaction and reduced turnover.

(Unit 5

Motivation

Concept and Process

Since motivation influences productivity, supervisors need to understand what motivates employees to reach peak performance. It is not an easy task to increase employee motivation because employees respond in different ways to their jobs and their organization's practices.

Motivation is the set of processes that moves a person toward a goal. Thus, motivated behaviors are voluntary choices controlled by the individual employee. The supervisor (motivator) wants to influence the factors that motivate employees to higher levels of productivity.

Factors that affect work motivation include individual differences, job characteristics, and organizational practices. Individual differences are the personal needs, values, and attitudes, interests and abilities that people bring to their jobs. Job characteristics are the aspects of the position that determine its limitations and challenges. Organizational practices are the rules, human resources policies, managerial practices, and rewards systems of an organization. Supervisors must consider how these factors interact to affect employee job performance.

"The process that account for an individual's intensity direction and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal." - S.P. Robbins

"Motivation is the set of forces that causes people to behave in certain ways." R.W. Griffin

On any given day, an employee may choose to work as hard as possible at a job, to work just a hard enough to avoid a reprimand (warning), or to do as little as possible. The Level of motivation varies both between individual and within individuals at different times which lead to show the aforementioned behavior.

The Motivation Framework (Process of Motivation)

Importance of Motivation

1. Optimum use of resources

2. Productivity improvement

3. Efficiency and effectiveness

4. Understand Employee behaviour

5. Employee retention

6. Creativity promotion

7. Job Satisfaction

8. Other employee factors

Low employee turnover

Reduce absenteeism

Reduce rate of accidents

Better employee discipline

Reduced employee grievances

Harmonious labour relation

Motivation Theories

Early Theories

The theories which have not held up well under examination

1. Maslow's Need Hierarchy Theory

2. Hertzberg's Motivation Hygiene Theory

3. Theory X and Theory Y

Contemporary Theory

There are number of contemporary theories that have one ting in common-each has a reasonable degree of valid supporting documentation.

1. Expectancy Theory

2. ERG Theory

3. Equity Theory

4. McClelland's Need Achievement Theory

1. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs TheoryThere is a hierarchy of five needs-physiological, safety, social, esteem an self actualization; each need is substantially satisfied, the next need becomes dominant.

Criticisms

1. Theoretical difficulties

2. Not research based

3. Superfluous classification scheme: The model is based more on wisher of what an 'SHOULD BE' rather than what he 'ACTUALLY' is.

4. Individual difference

2. Theory X and Theory Y (Douglas McGregor)

Theory X

The assumptions that employees dislike work, are lazy, dislike responsibility, and must be coerced to perform.

Theory Y

The assumption that employees like work, are creative, seek responsibility and can exercise self direction.

Assumption of Theory X

1. Employees inherently dislike work and, wherever possible, will attempt to avoid it.

2. Since employee dislike work, they must be coerced, controlled, or threatened punishment to achieve goals.

3. Employees will avoid responsibility and seek formal direction whenever possible

4. Most workers place security above all other factors associated with work and will display little ambition.

Assumption of Theory Y

1. Employees can view work as being a natural as rest play

2. People will exercise self-direction and self-control if they are committed to the objectives.

3. The average person can learn to accept, even seek responsibility.

4. The ability to make innovative decision is widely dispersed throughout the population and is not necessarily the sole province of those in management positions.

3. Hertzberg's Motivation-Hygiene Theory (Duel Factor Theory)

Hygiene Factors (Intrinsic)

(dissatisfiers)

These factors are necessary to avoid dissatisfaction.

a. Company policy and administration

b. Technical supervision

c. Interpersonal relations with superiors, peers and subordinates

d. Salary

e. Job Security

f. Personal life

g. Work conditions

h. Status

Motivational Factors

a. Achievement

b. Recognition

c. Work itself

d. Responsibility

e. Advancement

f. Growth

Contrasting views of Satisfaction

Traditional View

Satisfaction

Dissatisfaction

Herzberg's view

Motivators

Satisfaction

No satisfaction

Hygiene Factors

No dissatisfaction

Dissatisfaction

Criticisms

1. The procedure that Hertzberg used is limit by its methodology. When things are going well, people tend to take credit themselves. They blame failure on the extrinsic environment.

2. The reliability of Hertzberg's methodology is questioned.

3. No overall measure of satisfaction was used.

4. The theory is inconsistent with previous research. It ignores situational variables.

5. No relationship between satisfaction and productivity.

Comparisons between Hierarchy of Needs Theory and Motivation-Hygiene Theory

4. ERG Theory (Clayton Alderfer)

There are three groups of core needs: existence, relatedness and growth.

Growth

(Esteem, Self actualization

needs)

Relatedness

(Social needs)

Existence

(Physiological and

safety needs)

ERG Theory argues that satisfied lower-order needs lead to desire to satisfied higher-order needs; but multiple needs can be operating as motivators at the same time, and frustrations in attempting to satisfy a higher-level need can result in regression to a lower level need.

5. McClelland's Need Achievement Theory (David McClelland)

1. Need for achievement( nAch)

The desire to accomplish a goal or task more effectively than the past-personal responsibility etc.

2. Need for affiliation (nAff)

The desire for human companionship and acceptance (social interaction, offer opportunities to make friends

3. Need for Power (nPow)

The desire to be influential in a group and to control one's environment. (supervisory positions)

6. Equity Theory (J Stacy Adams)Equity theory suggests that people are motivated to seek social equity in the rewards they receive for performance.

An employee selects adds to the complexity of equity theory. There are four referent comparisons that an employee can use:

1. Self-inside : An employee's expectations in a different position inside his or her current organization

2. Self-outside : An employee's experiences in a situation or position outside his or her current organizations.

3. Other-inside : Another individuals or group of individuals inside the employees organization.

4. Other-outside : Another individual or group of individuals outside the employee's organization.

The equity comparison process

Outcomes (Self)?

=Outcomes (Others)

Inputs (Self)Input (Others)

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

1) Change their inputs-effort

2) Change their outcomes-result (product)

3) Distort perception of self

4) Distort perception of others

5) Choose different referent

6) Leave the field/quit job

7. Expectancy Theory (Victor Vroom)A theory of motivation that suggests that motivation depends on two things, how much we want something and how likely we think we are to get it.

Motivation = Expectancy X Valence

1. Effort-to-performance expectancy relationship

2. Performance -to-outcome (Reward) relationship

3. Rewards -to-personal goals relationship

Valence = Outcome

Recap of Motivational Theories

TheoryIndividualSummary

Hierarchy of NeedsAbraham MaslowFive needs in an hierarchical order from lowest to highest: physiological, safety, social, esteem, self actualization.

An individual moves up the hierarchy and, when a need is substantially realized, moves up to the next need.

Theory X-Theory YDouglas McGregorProposes two alternative sets of assumptions that managers hold about human beings' motivation-one basically negative, labeled Theory X; and the other basically positive, labeled Theory Y.

McGregor argues that Theory Y assumptions are more valid that Theory X and that employee motivation would be maximized by giving workers greater job involvement and autonomy

Motivation-HygieneFrederick HertzbergArgues that intrinsic job factors motivate whereas extrinsic factors only placate employees.

ERG TheoryClayton AlderferThere are three groups of core needs: existence, relatedness and growth.

Existence: Physiological and safety needs

Relatedness: Social needs

Growth: Esteem, Self actualization needs

Need AchievementDavid McClellandProposes that there are three major needs in workplace situations: achievement, affiliation and power: A high need to achieve has been positively related to higher work performance when jobs provide responsibility, feedback, and moderate challenge.

Equity TheoryJ. Stacey AdamsAn individual compares his or her input/outcome ratio to that of relevant others. If there is a perceived inequity, the individual will change his or her behaviour or compare themselves with someone else.

Expectancy TheoryVictor VroomProposes that motivation is a function of valence (value) of the effort performance and the performance reward relationships.

(Unit 6

Groups in Organization

Concept

Group can be defined as two or more humans that interact with one another, accept expectations and obligations as members of the group, and share a common identity. A true group exhibits some degree of cohesion and is more than a simple collection or aggregate of individuals, such as people waiting at a bus stop. Characteristics shared by members of a group include interests, values, ethnic or social background, and kinship ties. According to Paul Hare, the defining characteristic of a group is social interaction.

So that group can be defined as two or more freely interacting individuals who share a common identity and purpose.

"Group is defined as two or more persons who interact regularly to accomplish a common purpose or goal." - Gary Dessler

"A work group is a collection of two or more people who interact with each other, share similar interests and come together to accomplish some work activity." - Arnold & Feldman

"Two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent, who have come together to achieve particular objectives."- S.P. Robbins

Characteristics of group

a) Two or more people

b) Interaction and interdependence

c) Similar interests

d) Common identity

e) Common purpose or goals

f) Informal leadership

g) Individual accountability

h) Behavioural norms

i) Cohesiveness

Why do People Join Group?

Security. By joining a group, individuals can reduce the insecurity of "Standing alone." People feel stronger, have fewer self-doubts, and are more resistant to threats when they are part of a group.

Status. Inclusion in a group that is viewed as important by others provides recognition and status for its members.

Self-Esteem. Groups can fulfil social needs. People enjoy the regular interaction that comes with group membership. For many people, these on-the-job interactions are their primary source for fulfilling their needs for affiliation.

Power. What cannot be achieved individually often becomes possible through group action. There is power in numbers.

Goal Achievement. There are times when it takes more than one person to accomplish a particular task-there is a need to pool talents, knowledge, or power in order to complete a job. In such instances, management will rely on the use of a formal group.

(Source: S.P. Robbins and Seema Sanghi, 2007 p.p. 229)Types of groups

1) Formal group:

Formal group is a collection of people created to do something productive that contributes to the success of the larger organization. Formal group is defined by organizational structure and established under formal authority.

a) Command group: A group created by the organization that report directly to the specified manager and are controlled by him/her.

b) Task Groups: A group with cross command relationship who are not limited to their hierarchical form and work together to complete a job or task. They need high coordination among the group members and are responsible for specific non-routine activities.

2) Informal group: A group created by its members for purpose that may or may not be relevant to the organization's goals. It is not defined by organizational structure and it does not have formal authority. It is a collection of people seeking friendship and acceptance that satisfies esteem needs.

a) Interest group: Those who form a grouping to fulfil the certain interest which is concerned by each member.

b) Friendship group: The group which is formed for social alliance and they come together that have common characteristics for fostering friendship. (Ethnic groups/Religious Groups of other )

Nature and Significance of Informal Group

Nature of Informal Group:

Influenced by personal goal (rather than organizational goal)

Not defined by organizational structure

No formal reporting relationship and authority

Personal interest

Common characteristics of the group members

Temporary in nature(Ethnic groups, politics affiliated unions are some examples)

Significance of Informal Group

To fulfill relatedness needs

To enhance affiliation among organizational members

To increase social identity of the group members

To accomplish tasks that are not possible individually through formal relations alone

To influence people outside the group

Group Formation Process

A well functioning group does not just form in ad hoc. It needs to follow a systematic process and takes time to develop to a point where it can be effective and where all members feel connected to it. There are popular five stages of group development which is explained below:

Forming

This is the initial stage when the group comes together and members begin to develop their relationship with one another and learn what is expected of them. This is the stage when team building begins and trust starts to develop and individuals test themselves whether they can be the part of group. Group members will start establishing limits on acceptable behavior through experimentation. In this stage, it is uncertain about the purpose, structure of group and leader.

Storming

During this stage of group development, interpersonal conflicts arise and differences of opinion about the group and its goals will surface. If the group is unable to clearly state its purposes and goals or if it cannot agree on shared goals, the group may collapse at this point. It is important to work through the conflict at this time and to establish clear goals. It is necessary for there to be discussion so everyone feels heard and can come to an agreement on the direction the group is to move in.

Norming

Once the group resolves its conflicts, it can now establish patterns of how to get its work done. In this stage, we find the close relationship and cohesiveness among the group members. Expectations of one another are clearly articulated and accepted by members of the group. Formal and informal procedures are established in delegating tasks, responding to questions, and in the process by which the group functions. Members of the group come to understand how the group as a whole operates.

Performing

It is the final stage for the permanent work group. During this fourth stage of group development, issues related to roles, expectations, and norms are no longer of major importance. The group is now focused on its task, working intentionally and effectively to accomplish its goals. The group will find that it can enjoy its accomplishments and that members will be learning new skills and sharing roles.

After a group enters the performing stage, it is unrealistic to expect it to remain there permanently. When new members join or some people leave, there will be a new process of forming, storming, and norming engaged as everyone learns about one another. External events may lead to conflicts within the group. To remain healthy, groups will go through all of these processes in a continuous circle.

Adjourning

The final stage of group development is adjourning which is only for the temporary groups. In this stage, the temporary group members who has specific goal enclose all their activities and formally end the group.

When conflict arises in a group, do not try to silence the conflict or to run from it. Let the conflict come out into the open so people can discuss it. If the conflict is kept under the surface, members will not be able to build trusting relationships and this could harm the groups effectiveness. If handled properly, the group will come out of the conflict with a stronger sense of cohesiveness then before.

Group Structure:

Concept

Group structure is the process of shaping the behavior of the individual members to make it possible to explain and able to predicting their behavior for increasing the group performance. We study the different variables of those group structure which helps understanding and shaping the behavior.

The structural variables

There are different variables that structure the group which are: roles, norms, group size, composition and cohesiveness. Those individual variables are explained below.

Leadership

Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. Leaders carry out this process by applying their leadership attributes, such as beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge, and skills. To be an effective leader, your followers must have trust in you and they need to be sold on your vision.

Some leadership attributes:

Beliefs are what we hold dear to us and are rooted deeply within us. They could be assumptions or convictions that you hold true regarding people, concepts, or things. They could be the beliefs about life, death, religion, what is good, what is bad, what is human nature, etc.

Values are attitudes about the worth of people, concepts, or things. For example, you might value a good car, home, friendship, personal comfort, or relatives. Values are important as they influence a person's behavior to weigh the importance of alternatives. For example, you might value friends more than privacy, while others might be the opposite.

Skills are the knowledge and abilities that a person gains throughout life. The ability to learn a new skill varies with each individual. Some skills come almost naturally, while others come only by complete devotion to study and practice.

Traits are distinguishing qualities or characteristics of a person, while character is the sum total of these traits. There are hundreds of personality traits, far too many to be discussed here. Instead, we will focus on a few that are crucial for a leader. The more of these you display as a leader, the more your followers will believe and trust in you. Some traits of leadership are: Honest, Forward-Looking, Competent, Inspiring, Intelligent etc.

Leaders have clear visions and they communicate these visions to their employees. At another word, leadership means working with and through people by providing them with a vision of the future which is meaningful to them and motivating. Leadership is both strategic and pragmatic (realistic) and encourages all members of a team to deliver their best as an individual and as a team member.

In contrast to individual leadership, some organizations have adopted group leadership. In this situation, more than one person provides direction to the group as a whole. Some organizations have taken this approach in hopes of increasing creativity, reducing costs, or downsizing. Others may see the traditional leadership of a boss as costing too much in team performance. In some situations, the maintenance of the boss becomes too expensive - either by draining the resources of the group as a whole, or by impeding the creativity within the team, even unintentionally.

Roles

A role is a set of connected behaviors, rights and obligations as conceptualized by actors in a social situation. It is mostly defined as an expected behavior in a given individual social status and social position. A set of expectations govern the behavior of persons holding a particular role in group; a set of norms that defines how persons in a particular position should behave.

According to S.P. Robbins, Role is a set of expected behavior patterns attributed to someone occupying a given position in a social unit.

Role Identity: It is the certain behaviors and attitudes of the individual which are consistent with a role. Individuals have the ability to shift or change their roles rapidly when the situation or environment changes. For Example, employee changes his or her role rapidly after the promotion.

Role Perception: Role perception is the view of the individuals how they need to act while playing roles in a given situation. We perceive to act in different situations by the friend, society, teachers, videos or other source. An employee perceives managerial roles observing the activities of seniors.

Role Expectation: It is the expectation from others how should you act in a given situation. Psychological contract is an example in which management and employees do unwritten contract what management expects and vice versa.

Role confusion is a situation where an individual has trouble determining which role he/she should play. For example, one could be a college student who would attend a convention of a particular recreational interest and find his or her teacher there. Conflict between behaving as a student and as an enthusiast who shares the same interest emerges, leading to confusion.

Role conflict characterises a situation where fulfilling a certain role has a conflict with fulfilling another role. For example, you found your teacher made a mistake and should you report that? If you did, you might disgrace him and if you didn't, you might not fulfil your role as student. While role conflict takes place across different role sets, role strain happens within the same role set.

Every member of a group plays a certain role within that group. Some roles relate to the task aspect of the group, while others promote social interaction. Here are the examples of some roles that group members play.

Task-Oriented Roles Roles which relate to the completion of the group's task:

Initiator-contributor: Generates new ideas.

Information-seeker: Asks for information about the task.

Opinion-seeker: Asks for the input from the group about its values.

Information-giver: Offers facts or generalization to the group.

Opinion-giver: States his or her beliefs about a group issue.

Elaborator: Explains ideas within the group, offers examples to clarify ideas.

Coordinator: Shows the relationships between ideas.

Orienter: Shifts the direction of the group's discussion.

Evaluator-critic: Measures group's actions against some objective standard.

Energizer: Stimulates the group to a higher level of activity.

Procedural-technician: Performs logistical functions for the group.

Recorder: Keeps a record of group actions.

Social Roles Groups also have members who play certain social roles:

Encourager: Praises the ideas of others.

Harmonizer: Mediates differences between group members.

Compromiser: Moves group to another position that is favored by all group members.

Gatekeeper/expediter: Keeps communication channels open.

Standard Setter: Suggests standards or criteria for the group to achieve.

Group observer: Keeps records of group activities and uses this information to offer feedback to the group.

Follower: Goes along with the group and accepts the group's ideas.

Individualistic RolesThese roles place the group member above the group and are destructive to the group.

Aggressor: Attacks other group members, deflates the status of others, and other aggressive behavior.

Blocker: Resists movement by the group.

Recognition seeker: Calls attention to himself or herself.

Self-confessor: Seeks to disclose non-group related feelings or opinions.

Dominator: Asserts control over the group by manipulating the other group members.

Help seeker: Tries to gain the sympathy of the group.

Special interest pleader: Uses stereotypes to assert his or her own prejudices.

Status

Status is a position or rank given to groups or group members by the organization. It can be the job title, benefits and services, facilities etc. which differentiates the status from one to another. Status plays a dominant role in organizational behavior since it affects motivation, leadership, job satisfaction and other behavioral consequences.

In organization, people who control the group using their power tend to be in high status. The leader or manager of a group will be in high status than the members or employees. Besides this, status also depends upon to the contribution to the group. For instance, in a playgroup, the individual who has extra performance can have higher status event though they are in same group.

Norms

Norms are the standards (degrees of acceptability and unacceptability) for conduct that helps individuals judge what is right or wrong and good or bad in a given social setting. They:

Are culturally derived and vary from one culture to another.

Are usually unwritten, yet have a strong influence on individual behavior.

May go above and beyond formal rules and written policies.

According to S.P. Robbins, Norms are acceptable standards of behavior within a group that are shared by the groups