What Is Organizational Behavior?

Organizational behavior (OB) is the academic study of the ways people act
within groups. It studies Behavior of people or group to know their attitude
towards particular circumstances. Its principles are applied primarily in
attempts to make businesses operate more effectively.

The study of organizational behavior includes areas of research dedicated

to improving job performance, increasing job satisfaction, promoting
innovation, and encouraging leadership.

Organizational Behavior Relevance in today’s business

1. Understanding the relationship between an organisation and its

employees: The study of Organisational Behaviour helps in the
better understanding of the relationship between an organisation and
its employees thereby helping in the development of better Human
Resource strategies in creating a better work environment, employee
loyalty and increasing the overall value of the human capital for the
organisation.

2. Motivating employees: Studying Organisational Behaviour help

managers to better understand their employees and motivate them,
applying different motivational tools as per individual requirements
resulting in the better performance of the organisation as a whole.

3. Improving industrial/ labour relations: Organisational Behaviour

help in understanding the cause of a problem, predict its future
course and control its consequences. As a result, managers are able
to maintain better relations with their employees by nipping any
problem in the bud.
 4. Effective utilisation of Human Resource: Knowledge of
Organisational Behaviour help managers to effectively and efficiently
manage their employees, inspiring and motivating them to higher
efficiency and productivity through a better understanding and
analysis of human behaviour.

5. Predicting human behaviour: This is probably the most important

reason for studying Organisational Behaviour in management.
Knowledge of Organisational Behaviour prepares students to become
better managers by becoming a student of human behaviour from a
management perspective and thereby contributing to organisational
effectiveness and profitability.

Contributing Disciplines to the Organization Behavior Field

There are some important disciplines in the organizational behavior field

which developed it extensively.

Due to an increase in organizational complexity, various types of

knowledge are required and help in many ways.

1. Psychology

Psychology has perhaps the first influence on the field of organizational

behavior because it is a science of behavior. A psychologist studies almost
all aspects Of behavior. Psychology deals with studying human behavior
that seeks to explain and sometimes change the behavior of humans and
other animals.

Psychologists are primarily interested in predicting the behavior of

individuals to a great extent by observing the dynamics of personal factors.
Those who have contributed and continued to add to the knowledge of OB
are teaching theorists, personality theorists, counseling psychologists and
primary, industrial and organizational psychologists.
 2. Sociology

The major focus of sociologists is on studying the social systems in which

individuals fill their roles. The focus is on group dynamics.

They have made their greatest contribution to OB through their study of

group behavior in organizations, particularly formal and sophisticated
organizations. Sociological concepts, theories, models, and techniques
help significantly to understand better the group dynamics, organizational
culture, formal organization theory and structure, corporate technology,
bureaucracy, communications, power, conflict, and intergroup behavior.

3. Social Psychology

It has been defined as the scientific investigation of how the thoughts,

feelings, and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined
or implied the presence of others.

It deals with how people are affected by other individuals who are
physically present or who are imagined to be present or even whose
presence is implied. In general, sociology focuses on how groups,
organizations, social categories, and societies are organized, how they
function, how they change. The unit of analysis is the group as a whole
rather than the individuals who compose the group. Social Psychology
deals with many of the same phenomena but seeks to explain whole
individual human interaction and human cognition influences culture and is
influenced by culture.

4. Anthropology

The main aim of anthropology is to acquire a better understanding of the

relationship between the human being and the environment.

Adaptations to surroundings constitute culture. The manner in which people

view their surroundings is a part of the culture.

The world is the laboratory of anthropologists, and human beings must be

studied in the natural habitat. Understanding the importance of studying
man in natural settings over time enables one to grasp the range of
anthropology.
Familiarity within some of the cultural differences of employees can lead to
greater managerial objectivity and depth in the interpretation of behavior
and performance.

Anthropologists contribute to study some aspects of organizational settings

– similar values, comparative attitudes, cross-cultural analysis between or
among the employees.

5. Political Sciences

Contributions of political scientists are significant to the understanding of

behavior in organizations. Political scientists study the behavior of
individuals and groups within a political environment.

They contribute to understanding the dynamics of power centers,

structuring of conflict and conflict resolution tactics, allocation of power and
how people manipulate power for individual self-interest.

In a business field, organizations wanted to attain supremacy in their field

and indulge in politicking activities to gain maximum advantages by
following certain tasks like Machiavellianism, coalition formation,
malpractices, etc.

The knowledge of political science can be utilized in the study the behavior
of employees, executives at micro as well as macro level.

6. Economics

Economics contributes to organizational behavior to a great extent

in designing the organizational structure. Transaction cost economics
influence the organization and its structure.

Transaction costs economics implies cost components to make an

exchange on the market.

This transaction cost economics examines the extent to which the

organization structure and size of an organization varies in response to
attempts to avoid market failures through minimizing production and
transaction costs within the constraints of human and environmental
factors. Costs of transactions include both costs of market transactions and
internal coordination.

A transaction occurs when a good or service is transferred across a

‘technologically separable barrier’ Transaction costs arise for many
reasons.

So we can assume that there are various types of disciplines that involve
organizational behavior. They, directly and indirectly, influence the overall
activities of OB.

Challenges and Opportunities for Organizational Behaviour:

1. Increased Foreign Assignments: The challenge lies particularly in

terms of the workforce employed by the companies. As they expand their
global footprint, companies have to look beyond the borders to recruit
talent.

2. Working with people from different cultures: Even in your own

country, you’ll find yourself with bosses, peers and other employees born
and raised in different cultures. What motivates you may not motivate them.
Or your communication style may be straightforward and open, which
others may find uncomfortable and threatening. To work efficiently with
people from different cultures, you need to understand how their,
geography and religion have shaped them and how to adapt your
management style to their differences.

3. Improving customer service: Many organization has failed because

its employees failed to please customers. Management needs to create a
customer responsive culture. Organizational behaviour can provide
considerable guidance in helping managers create such cultures in which
employees are friendly and courteous, accessible, knowledgeable, prompt
in responding to customer needs, and willing to do what’s necessary to
please the customer.

4. Stimulating innovation and change: Today’s successful

organizations must foster innovation and master the art of change, or they’ll
become candidates for extinction. Victory will go to the organizations that
maintain their flexibility, continually improve their quality and beat their
competition to the marketplace with a constant steam of innovative
products and services.

5. Coping with temporariness: Globalization, expanded capacity, and

advances in technology have required organizations to be fast and flexible
if they are to survive. The result is that most managers and employees
today work in a climate best characterized as temporary. Employees must
continually update their knowledge and skills to perform new job
requirements.

6. Helping employees balance work life conflicts: Employees are

increasingly complaining that the line between work and non-work time,
has become blurred, creating personal conflicts and stress. Organizations
are asking employees to put in longer hours. Recent studies suggest
employees want jobs that gives them flexibility in their work schedules so
they can better manage work life conflicts. Try to help employees to
achieve wok life balance in a bid to attract and retain the most capable and
motivated employees.

7. Improving ethical behavior: In an organizational world characterized

by cutbacks, expectations of increasing productivity, and tough competition,
it’s not surprising many employees feel pressured to cut corners, break
rules, and engage in other questionable practices. Increasingly they face
ethical dilemmas and ethical choices in which they are required to identify
right and wrong conduct. Managers must create an ethically healthy climate
for employees where they can do their work productively with minimal
ambiguity about what right and wrong behaviours are. Companies that
promote a strong ethical mission can influence employee decisions to
behave ethically and encourage employees to behave with integrity

Individual behavior in organization

Human behavior is complex and every individual is different from another,

the challenge of an effective organization is in successfully matching the
task, the manager and the subordinate. Under ideal situation, a manager
would first analyze the task, then determine the required skills and
assemble a team that complement each other skills; thereby creating an
enriching & conflict free team. In reality, a manager has to use the existing
resources for a given task, and must have the ability to understand the
differences in individual behaviors and use them appropriately to increase
the synergy.

Factors Influencing Individual Behavior

Abilities. Abilities of a person are the natural or learnt traits. Abilities can be
classified into mental and physical abilities and different task requires
different level of the two. Mental abilities represent the intelligence,
person’s deductive reasoning, and memory, analytical and verbal
comprehension. Physical abilities include muscular strength, stamina, body
coordination and motor skills. An individual’s self awareness of his own
abilities determines how he feels about the task, while the manager’s
perception of his abilities determines the kind of task he assigns to the
individual.

Gender. Although, research concludes that men and women are equal in
their mental abilities and job performance, society does emphasize
differences. However, absenteeism is one area where differences are
found and can be attributed to being primary caregiver to children.
However, this creates a difference in self perception of one’s abilities,
personal values and social behavior. Similarly, a manager’s personal
values might influence how he considers gender as factor in his task
assignment and evaluation.

Race. Race and culture exert significant influence when both workplace
and society have considerable diversity. Stereotyping and attributing
behavior based on race and culture are common mistakes that influence
individual behavior. It is important for both management and the staff of
diverse workforce to learn about different cultures, their values, common
artifacts and communication protocols. This would create a more
comfortable corporate culture and would subdue behaviors that might be
perceived as insensitive and offensive.

Perception perception is the basic cognitive process that transforms

sensory stimuli into meaningful information. Most real life problems are
multidimensional and the rational approach is often entwined with the gut
feeling, resulting in individual perception. This quells the famous notion that
reality is objective and thus everyone must perceive it the same way. Both
managers and subordinates must recognize that perceptual differences
exist and often are the reason for mutual dissatisfaction.

Attribution Attribution is the process of observing behavior and then

determining its cause based on individual’s personality or situation.
Attribution based on personality is due to internal causes and is termed as
dispositional attribution. It includes personality traits like shyness,
arrogance, intelligence, etc. Attribution based on external influences and
situations that are outside the control of individual are termed as situational
attribution

Attitude An attitude is the abstract learnt response of an individual’s entire

cognitive process over a period of time. It is experienced as a quick
response to a familiar situation without any deep reasoning; it forms the
basis of biases and attribution errors. As an example, an individual who has
worked in various organizations might develop an attitude of indifference
towards organizational citizenship.

Personality is the relatively stable set of psychological attributes that

distinguishes one individual from another. The `integrated individual
behavior model’ proposed above, is a framework to understand the process
by which the personality develops over a period of time.

Learning: Meaning, Nature, Theories of Learning

Learning is a key process in human behaviour. The individual is constantly

interacting with and influenced by the environment. This experience makes
him to change or modify his behaviour in order to deal effectively with it.
Therefore, learning is a change in behaviour, influenced by previous
behaviour. As stated above the skills, knowledge, habits, attitudes,
interests and other personality characteristics are all the result of learning.
Learning is defined as “any relatively permanent change in behaviour that
occurs as a result of practice and experience”. This definition has three
important elements.

a. Learning is a change in behaviour—better or worse.

b. It is a change that takes place through practice or experience, but
changes due to growth or maturation are not learning.
c. This change in behaviour must be relatively permanent, and it must
last a fairly long time.

All learning involves activities. These activities involve either physical or

mental activities. They may be simple mental activities or complex,
involving various muscles, bones, etc.

1. Classical conditioning theory:

This method of conditioning got its name from the fact that, it is a kind of
learning situation that existed in the early classical experiments of Ivan P
Pavlov (1849-1936), Russian physiologist who was awarded Nobel Prize,
in 1904 for his experiments.

Pavlov designed an apparatus to measure the quantity of saliva produced

in response to food (meat power). At the beginning of his experiment
Pavlov noted that no saliva flowed when he rang the bell. He then trained
the dog by sounding the bell, and shortly afterwards presenting food.

After the sound of the bell had been paired with food a few times, he tested
the effects of the training by measuring the amount of saliva that flowed
when he rang the bell and did not present food. He found that some saliva
was produced in response to the sound of the bell alone. He then resumed
the training-paired presentation of bell and food a few times and then
tested again with the bell alone.

As the training continued, the amount of saliva on tests with the bell alone
increased. Thus, after training the dog’s mouth watered-salivated-
whenever the bell was sounded. This is what was learned; it is the
conditioned response.
This theory states that CS (bell) becomes a substitute after pairing with
UCS (food) and acquires the capacity to elicit a response. It is because the
association (conditioning) is formed between CS and UCS. This may be
symbolically presented as follows:

UCS<———————————à UCR

(Food) (Saliva)

↓ (Conditioning)

CS<————————————-à CR

(Bell) (Saliva)

a. Extinction and spontaneous recovery:

In this experiment when only bell is presented without food for a number of
trials, the dog stopped salivation gradually.

In spontaneous recovery the dog required less number of trials than the
first time, because the association between CS and UCS still existed in the
brain of the animal.

b. Stimulus generalization:
A tendency to respond to a stimulus which is similar to original one is called
stimulus generalization, the greater the similarity, the more the
generalization. In this experiment, the dog started salivating even for the
sound of a buzzer which was similar to bell.

c. Stimulus discrimination:
When there is much difference between two stimuli, the animal can
discriminate between the two. For example, if the dog is conditioned to
salivate at the signal of red light, it will not salivate when green light is
presented.

2. Operant Conditioning theory:

This method of conditioning was developed by an American psychologist
BF Skinner. This theory is also known as ‘Instrumental conditioning’,
because the animals use certain operations or actions as instruments to
find solution.

Skinner conducted his famous experiment by placing a hungry rat in a box

called after his name ‘Skinner box’. This box was containing a lever and a
food tray in a corner of the box. It was so arranged, that the animal was
free to move inside the box, but the pressing of the lever would get the
animal a pallet of food in the tray as reinforcement.

Arrangement was also made to record the number of pressings of the lever
by a mechanical device. It was found in the beginning that the rat pressed
the lever occasionally and used to get food as reinforcement for each
pressing.

Gradually, as the animal learnt the pressing of lever would give some food,
it repeated the responses very rapidly. This rapid increase in pressing the
lever is the indication of the animal conditioned to get food.

In day-to-day’s life also, much learning takes place in animals as well as in

human beings by this method. The reinforcement will be the motivating
factor. It will make the organism to repeat its action.

It is on the basis of these experiments, Skinner made his famous statement

“Rewarded behaviour is repeated”. Instrumental conditioning involves more
activity by the learner than classical conditioning. Skinner conducted his
experiments on different animals like pigeons, rats, etc.

Reinforcement which is the most important aspect of this experiment is

divided into two types: positive reinforcement is used in reward training.
Negative reinforcement-like punishment is used to stop undesired
responses or behaviours. Operant conditioning is useful in shaping
undesirable behaviour and also in modification of behaviour.

This is also useful in training of mentally retarded children to learn dressing,

eating and toilet training skills, treatment of phobias, drug and alcohol
addictions, and psychotherapy and to teach needed behaviour in children.
Further, these experiments have proved that intermittent reinforcement
yields better results than continuous reinforcement.

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY (BANDURA)

Social Learning Theory, theorized by Albert Bandura, posits that people

learn from one another, via observation, imitation, and modeling. The
theory has often been called a bridge between behaviorist and cognitive
learning theories because it encompasses attention, memory, and
motivation.

People learn through observing others’ behavior, attitudes, and outcomes

of those behaviors[1]. “Most human behavior is learned observationally
through modeling: from observing others, one forms an idea of how new
behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information
serves as a guide for action.” (Bandura). Social learning theory explains
human behavior in terms of continuous reciprocal interaction between
cognitive, behavioral, and environmental influences.

NECESSARY CONDITIONS FOR EFFECTIVE MODELING

Attention — various factors increase or decrease the amount of attention
paid. Includes distinctiveness, affective valence, prevalence, complexity,
functional value. One’s characteristics (e.g. sensory capacities, arousal
level, perceptual set, past reinforcement) affect attention.
Retention — remembering what you paid attention to. Includes symbolic
coding, mental images, cognitive organization, symbolic rehearsal, motor
rehearsal
Reproduction — reproducing the image. Including physical capabilities,
and self-observation of reproduction.
Motivation — having a good reason to imitate. Includes motives such as
past (i.e. traditional behaviorism), promised (imagined incentives) and
vicarious (seeing and recalling the reinforced model)
Behavior modification theory
Behavior modification relies on the concept of
conditioning. Conditioning is a form of learning. There are two major types
of conditioning; classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
Classical conditioning relies on a particular stimulus or signal. An
example of this would be if a family member came to the kitchen every time
you baked cookies because of the delicious smell. The second type is
known as operant conditioning, which involves using a system of rewards
and/or punishments. Dog trainers use this technique all the time when they
reward a dog with a special treat after they obey a command.
Behavior modification was developed from these theories because they
supported the idea that just as behaviors can be learned, they also can be
unlearned. As a result, many different techniques were developed to either
assist in eliciting a behavior or stopping it. This is how behavior
modification was formed.

Techniques
The purpose behind behavior modification is not to understand why or how
a particular behavior started. Instead, it only focuses on changing the
behavior, and there are various different methods used to accomplish it.
This includes:

 Positive reinforcement
 Negative reinforcement
 Punishment
 Flooding
 Systematic desensitization
 Aversion therapy
 Extinction

Positive reinforcement is pairing a positive stimulus to a behavior. A good

example of this is when teachers reward their students for getting a good
grade with stickers. Positive reinforcement is also often used in training
dogs. Pairing a click with a good behavior, then rewarding with a treat, is
positive reinforcement.
Negative reinforcement is the opposite and is the pairing of a behavior to
the removal of a negative stimulus. A child that throws a tantrum because
he or she doesn't want to eat vegetables and has his or her vegetables
taken away would be a good example.
Punishment is designed to weaken behaviors by pairing an unpleasant
stimulus to a behavior. Receiving a detention for bad behavior is a good
example of a punishment.
Flooding involves exposing people to fear-invoking objects or situations
intensely and rapidly. Forcing someone with a fear of snakes to hold one
for 10 minutes would be an example of flooding.

UNIT 2

Meaning and Definition of Perception:

“Perception is the process through which the information from outside
environment is selected, received, organised and interpreted to make it
meaningful to you. This input of meaningful information results in decisions
and actions.”

Perception may be defined as a process by which individuals organize and

interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their
environment.

According to Joseph Reitz, “Perception includes all those processes by

which an individual receives information about his environment—seeing,
hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling.

Nature of perception

1. Perception is the intellectual process.

2. Perception is the basic cognitive or psychological process.

 3. Perception becomes a subjective process and different people may
perceive the same event differently.

4. Perception includes the 5 senses; touch, sight, taste smell and sound. It
also includes what is known as perception, a set of senses involving the
ability to detect changes in body positions and movements.

5. It also involves the- cognitive processes required to process information,

such as recognizing the face of a friend or detecting a familiar perfume

Importance of Perception

Perception not only creates our experience of the world around us; it allows
us to act within our environment.

1. Perception is very important in understanding human behavior because

every person perceives the world and approaches life problems differently.
Whatever we see or feel is not necessarily the same as it really is. When
we buy something, it is not because it is the best, but because we take it to
be the best.

2. If people behave on the basis of their perception, we can predict their

behavior in the changed circumstances by understanding their present
perception of the environment. One person may be viewing the facts in one
way which may be different from the facts as seen by another viewer.

3. With the help of perception, the needs of various people can be

determined, because people’s perception is influenced by their needs.

4. Perception is very important for the manager who wants to avoid making
errors when dealing with people and events in the work setting. This
problem is made more complicated by the fact that different people
perceive the same situation differently. In order to deal with the
subordinates effectively, the managers must understand their perceptions
properly.

5. Perception can be important because it offers more than objective output; it

ingests an observation and manufactures an altered reality enriched with
previous experiences.
6. Perception builds character (not necessarily good or bad character) that
defines different roles individuals fall into the clown, the hypocrite, the self-
righteous, the victim, etc..

7. It is vitally important if we want to get along with others to try to see things
from their perspective or walk in their shoes for a while. If we walk in their
shoes we will gain a new perspective about things and in that understand
the other and also can love and help the other more appropriately.

Thus, for understanding human behavior, it is very important to understand

their perception, that is, how they perceive the different situations.

Perceptual Process

Perception is a process of receiving, selecting, organising, interpreting,

checking and reacting to stimuli. This is like an input-through put-output
process in which the stimuli can be considered as 'inputs' transformation of
'input' through selection, organization and interpretation as 'through puts'
and the ultimate behaviour/action as 'output'. The whole perceptional
process can be presented as follows : These are explained one by one

1. Receiving Stimuli : The first process in the perception is the presence

of stimuli. The stimuli are received from the various sources. Through the
five organs. It is a physiological aspect of perception process. Stimuli may
be external to us (such as sound waves) and inside us (such as energy
generation by muscles).

2. Selection of Stimuli : After receiving the stimuli or data, some are

selected. Others are screened out. Two types of factors affect selection of
stimuli for processing : external and internal factors. External factors relate
to stimuli such as intensity of stimuli, its size, movement, repetition, etc.
Internal factors, relate to the perceiver such as his/her age, learning,
interest, etc. Normally, he will select the objects which interest him and will
avoid that for which he is indifferent. This is also called 'selective
perception'.

3. Organization of Stimuli : Organising the bits of information into a

meaningful whole is called "organization". There are three ways by which
the selected data, i.e., inputs are organised. These are :

(i) Grouping, (ii) Closure and (iii) Simplification.

 (i) Grouping : In grouping, the perceiver groups the various stimuli on the
basis of their similarity or proximity. For example, all the workers coming
from the same place may be perceived as similar on the basis of proximity.

(ii) Closure : When faced with incomplete information, people fill up the
gaps themselves to make the information meaningful. This may be done on
the basis of past experience, past data, or hunches. For example, in many
advertisement, alphabets are written by putting electric bulbs indicating the
shape of the concerned alphabets but broken lines. In such cases, people
tend to fill up the gap among different bulbs to get meaning out of these.

(iii) Simplification : People identify main stimulus features and assesses

how they are organized. He interprets a stimulus situation, the perceiver
simples the information..

Factors Influencing Perceptual Set External Factors

1. Size : Bigger size attracts the attention

2. Intensity : A loud sound, strong odor or bright light is noticed more as

compared to a soft sound, weak odour or dimlight.

3. Repetition : A repeated external stimulus is more attention getting

than a single one. Advertisers use this principle.

4. Novelty and Familiarity : A novel or a familiar external situation can

serve as attention getter.

5. Contrast : It is a kind of uniqueness which can be used for attention

getting. Letters of bold types, persons dressed differently than others, etc.,
get more attention.

6. Motion : A moving object draws more attention as compared to a

stationary object. Advertisers use this principle.

Internal Factors
 Self-concept : The way a person views the world depends a great deal
on the concept or image he has about himself. The concept plays an
internal role in perceptual selectivity.

Beliefs : A person's beliefs have profound influence on his perception.

Thus, a fact is conceived not on what it is but what a person believes it to
be.

Expectations : These affect what a person perceives. A technical

manager may expect ignorance about the technical features of a product
from non-technical people.

Inner Needs : The need is a feeling of tension or discomfort, when one

thinks he is missing something. People with different needs experience
different stimuli. According to Freud, wishful thinking is the means by which
the Id attempts to achieve tension reduction.

Perceptual error
A perceptual error is the inability to judge humans, things or situations fairly
and accurately. Examples could include such things as bias, prejudice,
stereotyping, which have always caused human beings to err in different
aspects of their lives.
There are many types of perceptual errors:-
1. SELF FULFILLING PROPHECY

2. SELF SERVING BIAS

3. FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR

4. SIMILAR TO ME EFFECT

5. RECENCY EFFECT

6. HALO EFFECT
7. STEREO TYPING.

1.Stereo Typing “Making positive or negative generalizations about a

group or category of people, usually based on inaccurate assumptions and
beliefs and applying these generalizations to an individual member of the
group.” For e.g. Girls are very talkative, Rich is cruel to poor.

2. Halo Effect- drawing a general impression of the individual on the basis

of a single characteristic. I.e. if someone is good at one dimension, he/she
is perceived to be good at other dimensions as well.

3. Recency Effect -when the most RECENT information influences our

judgment, even though we have a whole of other information on the
Person.

4. The Similar-to-Me Effect- We tend to favour/like or give favourable

judgment to those who are similar to us. Example two candidates came
along for interview, one from Delhi and the other from Bihar. As interviewer
is from Delhi, he tends to select to the candidate from Delhi, better
evaluation.
5- Fundamental Attribution Error The tendency to underestimate the
influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal
factors when making judgments about the behaviour of others.

6-Self-Serving Bias The tendency for individuals to attribute their own

successes to internal factors while putting the blame for failures on external
factors.

7-Self-fulfilling prophecy -People’s preconceived expectations and beliefs

determine their behaviour, thus, serving to make their expectations come
true Example when a teacher, labelled a kid as stupid (because he has
illegible handwriting). Soon the kid believed on teacher and behave like
one.

Attitude Definition:

An attitude is a negative or positive evaluation of an object which influences

human’s behavior towards that object’. – Michael Hogg.

We come across different people, ideas, things and situations. We may

form a negative or a positive view of them in our mind. For example, if I
think that junk foods are unhealthy as it has high sugar and fats, It means I
have a negative attitude towards junk food consumption. Attitude is an
evaluation of a thing in terms of liking or disliking, favoring or disfavoring,
positive or negative and pro or anti.

Attitudes comprise of three basic components: emotional, informational and

behavioural.

Attitudes comprise of three basic components: emotional, informational and

behavioural.

These three components are described below:

1. Informational or Cognitive Component:
The informational component consists of beliefs, values, ideas and other
information a person has about the object. It makes no difference whether
or not this information is empirically correct or real. For example, a person
seeking a job may learn from his own sources and other employees
working in the company that in a particular company the promotion
chances are very favourable. In reality, it may or may not be correct. Yet
the information that person is using is the key to his attitude about that job
and about that company.

2. Emotional or Affective Component:

The informational component sets the stage for the more critical part of an
attitude, its affective component. The emotional components involve the
person’s feeling or affect-positive, neutral or negative-about an object. This
component can be explained by this statement.” I like this job because the
future prospects in this company are very good”.

3. Behavioural Component:
The behavioural component consists of the tendency of a person to behave
in a particular manner towards an object. For example, the concerned
individual in the above case may decide to take up the job because of good
future prospects. Out of the three components of attitudes, only the
behavioural component can be directly observed. One cannot see another
person’s beliefs (the informational component) and his feelings (the
emotional component). These two components can only be inferred. But
still understanding these two components is essential in the study of
organisational behaviour or the behavioural component of attitudes.

IMPORATANCE OF ATTITUDE

1. ATTITUDE’S CONTRIBUTION TO SUCCESS •The foundation of

success, regardless of your chosen field, is attitude. •Studies have
found that recruitment or promotion in a job is 85% of the time
because of his/her attitude and only 15% of the time beacause of
intelligence and knowledge.

2. Importance Of Attitude To Organization • The most valuable asset of

an organization is PEOPLE. • People with better attitude would be
better team players, cut back on waste and become more loyal.

3. TQP The right foundation’ Who Are Total Quality People? Total
Quality People are people with ---- • Good character – The good
qualities that distinguishes someone from others. • Integrity– The
quality of being honest, having strong moral principles. • Good Values
– Faithful, dedicated, devoted, loyal, generous, trustworthy, noble. •
Positive Attitudes – Taking any situation in a positive manner and
thinking
 4. Right attitude at work Trust your work Respect your work Enjoy your
work Passion for work

5. THE BENEFITS OF A POSITIVE ATTITUDE Benefits For You- •

Makes for a pleasing personality • Is energizing • Increases your
enjoyment of life • Inspires others around you • Helps you become a
contributing member of society and an asset to your country.

6. Benefits For The Organization • Increases productivity • Solves

problem • Improves quality • Makes for a congenial atmosphere •
Breeds loyalty • Increases profits • Fosters better relationships with
employers, employees and customers • Reduces stress

WORK RELETED ATTITUDE

A person can have thousands of attitudes, but organizational behavior

focuses our attention on a very limited number of work-related attitudes.

Most of the research in organizational behavior has been concerned with

three attitudes.

3 types of attitudes are;

 Job Satisfaction,

 Job Involvement,

 Organizational Commitment.

Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is the level of contentment a person feels regarding

his or her job. This feeling is mainly based on an individual’s perception of
satisfaction. A person with a high level of job satisfaction holds positive
attitudes about the job, while a person who is dissatisfied with his or her job
holds a negative attitude about the job. A person having a negative attitude
shows a personality disposition that is inclined to experience nervousness,
tension, upset, distress, etc. whereas those with a positive attitude will feel
happy themselves, others and their work. Generally, it is deemed a high
level of job satisfaction means positive attitudes towards the job and vice
versa.

When people speak of employee attitudes, more often than not they mean
job satisfaction. In fact, the two are frequently used interchangeably.

Job Involvement

Job involvement refers to the degree with which an individual identifies

psychologically with his or her job and perceives his or her perceived
performance level important to self-worth. High levels of job involvement
are related to fewer absences and lower resignation rates. However, it
seems to more consistently predict turnover than absenteeism, according
to as much as 16 percent of the variance in the former.

Organizational Commitment

The last job-attitude refers to organizational commitment. It is understood

as one’s identification with his or her organization and feels proud of being
its employee.

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

organization and, its goals, and wishes to maintain membership in the
organization. Different studies demonstrate that an individual’s level of
organizational commitment is a better indicator of turnover than the far
more frequently used job satisfaction predictor, explaining as much as 34
percent of the variance. Basically, turnover and absenteeism are low when
employees have an organizational commitment.

PERSONALITY

The word personality is derived from a Greek word “persona” which means
“to speak through.” Personality is the combination of characteristics or
qualities that forms a person’s unique identity. It signifies the role which a
person plays in public. Every individual has a unique, personal and major
determinant of his behavior that defines his/her personality.
Personality Determinants -
Personality is not determined by a single factor, but by an accumulation of
many factors. Some of those factors are psychological, while others are
physical, biological, and hereditary. I have compiled some of the most
influential factors when it comes to determinants of personality.
1. Brain
The brain is one of the most important personality determinants. It is
generally believed the father and the child adopt almost the same type of
brain stimulatio
2. Physical Characteristics
One of the most important factors in determining personality are an
individual's physical characteristics. These factors play a vital role in
determining one’s behavior in a social organization. Physical characteristics
include, but are not limited to:
 Height
 Skin tone
 Weight
 Hair color
 Beauty
These factors influence interactions with other people, contributing to
personality development.
3. Social Experiences
Social experiences play a vital role in determining one’s personality. The
things that occur around a person on a regular basis determine how that
person will behave and perceive themselves. A person's social experiences
affect:
 Coordination
 Cooperation
 Family relationships
 Organizational relationships
 Workplaces relationships
  Involvement in communities
4. Culture and Religion
The culture in which one lives almost always involves:
 Traditional practices
 Norms
 Customs
 Procedures
 Rules and regulations
 Precedents
 Values.
These are all highly influential determinants of personality.
5. Heredity
Perhaps the most surprising and astonishing personality determinant is
heredity. The example given below is quite interesting, and comes from the
book Essentials of Organizational Behavior by Stephen P. Robbins,
Timothy A. Judge, and Seema Sanghi:
Researchers in my many different countries have studies thousands of sets
of identical twins who were separated at birth and raised separately. For
instance, one set of twins who had been separated for 39 years and raised
45 miles apart, were found to drive the same model and color car. They
also chain-smoked the same brand of cigarette, owned dogs with the same
name, and regularly enjoyed vacations within three blocks of each other in
a beach community 1,500 miles away.
Heredity is perhaps the most important factor in determining personality,
since mostly all other determinants, such as physical characteristics,
gender, psychology, and more, are passed down through genes.

Personality Traits

Broadly there are five parameters which describe an individual’s

personality. These five dimensions are also called as “Big Five” Factors,
and the model is referred to as Five Factor Model also abbreviated as FFM.
The Five Factor Model was initially proposed by Costa & McCrae in the
year 1992 and often describes the relation between an individual’s
personality and various behaviours.
Following are five personality traits of an individual:

1. Openness to experience

Individuals with openness to experience are generally very active,

have a tremendous inclination towards creativity and aesthetics and
listen to their heart i.e. follow their inner feelings. Such individuals are
generally open to new learnings, skill sets and experiences. People
who score high on openness are quite broadminded and modern in
their outlook as compared to individuals who score low on the same
parameter. Such individuals are conservative, reluctant to changes
and have a traditional approach in life.

2. Conscientiousness

As the name suggests, individuals with a Conscientiousness

personality trait listen to their conscience and act accordingly. Such
individuals are extremely cautious and self disciplined. They never
perform any task in haste but think twice before acting. People with
this personality trait are generally methodical and tend to become
perfectionists in the long run. People who score high on
conscientiousness are proactive, goal oriented and self disciplined.
They strive hard to accomplish goals and objectives within the
stipulated time frame. Individuals who score less are little laid back
and are not much goal oriented.

3. Extraversion and Introversion

Carl Jung popularized both the terms - “Extraversion” and

“Introversion”.

a. Extraversion: Extraversion refers to a state where individuals

show more concern towards what is happening outside. Such
individuals love interacting with people around and are
generally talkative. They do not like spending time alone but
love being the centre of attraction of parties and social
gatherings. Such individuals love going out, partying, meeting
 people and often get bored when they are all by themselves.
They admire the company of others and hate staying alone.
b. Introversion: Introversion, on the other hand refers to a state
when an individual is concerned only with his own life and
nothing else. Such individuals do not bother about others and
are seldom interested in what is happening around. They prefer
staying back at home rather than going out and spending time
with friends. Such individuals speak less and enjoy their own
company. You would never find them in meetings, clubs,
parties or social get-togethers. They generally do not have
many friends and tend to rely on few trusted ones.
4. Agreeableness

Agreeableness is a personality trait which teaches individuals to be

adjusting in almost all situations. Such individuals do not crib and
face changes with a smile. They accommodate themselves to all
situations and are friendly and kind hearted. People who score high
on agreeableness are ready to help others and flash their trillion
dollar smile whenever a problem arises. Individuals who score low on
agreeableness on the other hand find difficulties in adjusting with
others and are little unfriendly.

5. Neuroticism

Neuroticism is a trait where individuals are prone to negative thoughts

such as anxiety, anger, envy, guilt and so on. Such individuals are
often in a state of depression and do not how to enjoy life. They
always look at the negative sides of life and find extremely difficult to
cope up with stress.

Motivation

‘Motivation is a desire that fuels an individual to perform or continue an

action based on needs and wants of the individual’.

Meaning: Human beings engage in various actions. For example, a student

studies his books, a man is striving to get a job, a man is taking an injured
from a road to a hospital to save his life, a person is eating a meal and so
on. Behind each of these actions, there is a driving force which compels the
person to engage in that action – which is called motivation. For example, a
student studies his books because he wants to get high marks in his exam.
The aim of getting high marks is a motivation for the students studying his
books.

TYPES OF MOTIVATION

There are two major types of Motivation.

1. Intrinsic Motivation 2. Extrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic Motivation

It is a type of motivation in which the motives originates from inside the

human body. It refers to the internal driving state stimulating an individual
to behave in a specific way. It includes all biological drives such as hunger,
thirst, sleep, relief from pain, temperature regulation, need for oxygen and
so on. For example, the hunger is driving force coming from inside to
compel an individual to eat food. Similarly, after doing all day activities, the
individual feels tired and requires a good amount of sleep to relax for the
next day. Our curiosity, internal fears, psychological needs and desires
also serve as intrinsic motives. It includes the following motives:

Biological drives: e.g. hunger, thirst, relief from pain, sleep, temperature
regulation, Curiosity Internal fears e.g. fear of rejection. Psychological
needs e.g. need for being accepted and appreciated by others. Internal
desires e.g. desire to gain power or dominance.

Extrinsic Motivation

In this type of motivation, the motives originate from outside the human
body. The driving force exists outside the human body that stimulates the
individual for certain actions. Though these motives are external to the
human body but they have a rewarding or punishing impact for the
individual. It includes the following motives:
 Incentives, Bonuses, Allowances, Promotion and demotion Rewards and
punishment, Merit and Distinction certificates, Appreciation certificates and
prizes.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory

This theory was produced in order to answer the question “What motivates
an individual”. Every second need comes to force when the first need is
satisfied completely. Maslow explained the hierarchy of needs by grouping
them into two: deficiency needs and growth needs

Physiological Needs

Every individual needs to take care of the basic requirements required to

sustain. These requirements include food to eat, clothing to wear and
shelter to live in. These necessities are relatively independent of each
other but are finite.

Safety Needs

Everybody wants to stay in a protected environment with minimal danger

so that they can have a peaceful life. Safety needs basically includes
protection from physiological danger like accident and having economic
security like bank accounts, health insurance
In an enterprise, it includes job security, salary increment, etc. The
managerial practice to satisfy this involves offering pension scheme,
provident fund, gratuity etc.

Social Needs

We have all heard that man is a social animal, we want to be there with
those people where we are loved and we are accepted as we are; nobody
wants to be judged. This is a common requirement every human desires.
This theory helps managers to think about encouraging their employees by
identifying employee needs. In short, it presents motivation as constantly
changing force, expressing itself to the constant need for fulfilment of new
and higher levels of needs.
 Esteem

Esteem means the typical human desire to be accepted and valued by

others. People often involve in a profession or hobby to gain recognition,
earn fame and respect. According to Maslow, the needs of humans have
strict guidelines - the hierarchies rather than being sharply separated, are
interrelated. This means that esteem and the consequent levels are not
strictly separated but are closely related.

Self-Actualization

Self-actualization means realizing one’s full potential. Maslow describes

this as a desire to complete everything that one can, to become the most
that one can be.
Herzberg’s Motivation
Herzberg’s Motivation Theory model, or Two Factor Theory,
argues that there are two factors that an organization can
adjust to influence motivation in the workplace.
These factors are:
 Motivators: Which can encourage employees to work harder.
 Hygiene factors: These won’t encourage employees to work harder but they
will cause them to become unmotivated if they are not present.
 Motivating factors include
 Achievement: A job must give an employee a sense of achievement. This will
provide a proud feeling of having done something difficult but worthwhile.
 Recognition: A job must provide an employee with praise and recognition of
their successes. This recognition should come from both their superiors and
their peers.
 The work itself: The job itself must be interesting, varied, and provide enough
of a challenge to keep employees motivated.
 Responsibility: Employees should “own” their work. They should hold
themselves responsible for this completion and not feel as though they are
being micromanaged.
 Advancement: Promotion opportunities should exist for the employee.
 Growth: The job should give employees the opportunity to learn new skills.
This can happen either on the job or through more formal training.
Hygiene factors include:
 Company policies: These should be fair and clear to every employee. They
must also be equivalent to those of competitors.
 Supervision: Supervision must be fair and appropriate. The employee should
be given as much autonomy as is reasonable.
 Relationships: There should be no tolerance for bullying or cliques. A
healthy, amiable, and appropriate relationship should exist between peers,
superiors, and subordinates.
 Work conditions: Equipment and the working environment should be safe, fit
for purpose, and hygienic.
 Salary: The pay structure should be fair and reasonable. It should also be
competitive with other organizations in the same industry.
 Status: The organization should maintain the status of all employees within
the organization. Performing meaningful work can provide a sense of status.
 Security: It is important that employees feel that their job is secure and they
are not under the constant threat of being laid-off.