Human Behavior in the Organizatrion

Individual Behavior and Differences

The basis for Understanding Behavior
Why do people behave the way they do?
The environment
The individual
To understand individual differences and behavior, managers must:
Observe and recognize the differences
Study variables that influence individual behavior
Discover relationships among the variables
Kurt Lewin (1890-1947) German born Charismatic psychologist; also as Father of Social Psychology and one of the
first researchers who studied group dynamics and organizational development, originally proposed:
= (, )
Where: an employees behavior (B) is a function of individual (I), and environment (E) variables.
Behavior:
1. Behavior is caused
2. Behavior is goal directed
3. Behavior that can observed is measurable
4. Behavior thats not directly observable (e.g. thinking, perceiving) is also important in accomplishing goals.
5. Behavior is motivated
Achieving Effective Performance:
Does the employee have skills and abilities to perform job?
Does the employee have the necessary resources to perform the job?
Is the employee aware of the performance problem?
When did the performance problem surface?
How do the employees co-workers react to the performance problem?
What can I do as a manager to alleviate the performance problem?
Individual Differences
Ability is a trait (innate and learned) that permits a person to do something mental or physical.
Skill are tasked related competencies, such as the skill to operate a computer, or the skill to clearly
communicate a groups mission and goals.
Job Analysis
- The process of defining and studying a job in terms of behavior or tasks and specifying the responsibilities,
education, and training needed to perform the job successfully.
The effort to match jobs involves the following activities:
Employee selection
Training and development
Career planning