Lesson 1: INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATION

I. Individual Behavior in Organization

A. Individual in the Organization: Fallacies
1. Organizations are systems that suppress their victim, the individual;
2. Individuals live in conformity, stripped of self-esteem in an artificial environment;
3. Individuals are too numb to rebel

B. Conformity - a dependence on the norms of others without independent thinking

 Argyris believed that people want to be treated as mature individuals, but the large corporations
expect them to conform to rules and practices in an unquestioning immature way. The lack of
agreement between expectations and reality lead to conflict and frustration.
 On the basic philosophy of conformity, Argyris has this to say: "An analysis of the basic properties of
relatively mature human being and formal organization leads to the conclusion that there is an
inherent incongruency which creates a situation of conflict, frustration, and failure among the
participants.”

i. TO WHAT DOES ONE CONFORM?

A person may conform to an organization when there is something that could be called conformity by
which one "abides by" to the requirements of the company.
Such response must involve the norms of others.

There are THREE MAJOR GROUPS to which one may conform.

[1.] the organization itself
[2.] the informal work group
[3.] the external community

C. Areas of Legitimate Organizational Influence- Everyday organization prescribes policies and

requirements for performance. If the organization and an individual define the boundaries of legitimate
influence differently then organizational conflict may develop. Said conflict can be a sufficient cause or
interference to effectiveness.

1. Off-the-Job Conduct
 A business organization uses its power to regulate employee activities off the job. When the
activity is not job-related, there is little justification for the employer to become involved.
However, some activities off the job may affect the employer, so questions on organizational
influence or interference arise
 "The more job-related one's conduct is, when off the job, the more support there is for
organizational influence (interference), on the employees."

2. Rights of Privacy - The organizational invasion of a person's private life and unauthorized release of
confidential information about person.
a. Business activities that may involve employees' right of privacy are:
 Lie detector  Medical examination  Surveillance devices
 Personality tests  Treatment of alcoholism  Computer data banks
 Encounter groups  Treatment of drug abuse  Confidential records
b. Surveillance Devices - Protection of the psyche means that except for compelling reasons,
surveillance of private places such as lockers, rooms or secret surveillance unknown to a person
should not be allowed. But when there is a compelling reason to do so, it is not considered to be an
undue infringement of privacy

Human Behavior in Organization || jcp

Lesson 1: INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATION
c. Polygraph - An instrument that tends to invade privacy. When a person tells a significant lie,
science has proven that the conscience usually causes physiological changes. The polygraph is used
by organizations primarily to control theft, in a way to protect employees.

d. Psychological Stress Detector - Another type of lie detector that analyzes changes in the voice
patterns to determine whether a lie is being told. No hookup to any machine is made. The test takes
one's own conscience to provide the evidence by showing stress when a lie is told.

e. Treatment of Alcoholism - Alcoholism results in absenteeism, poor work, lost productivity, and
other related costs. On account of the minor medical and job problems that they present, employees
need to develop policies and program to deal with alcoholism without encroaching on the right to
privacy.

f. Justification of Company Program - A number of executives believe that firms play a very
important role in helping alcoholics control or break their vicious habit. Among the reasons given in
this regard are:
1. The firm and the employee already have a working relationship on which they can build;
2. That any success with the employee will save both a valuable person for the company and a
valuable citizen for society;
3. That the job appears to be the best environment for helping an alcoholic retain a self-image as
a useful person in society.

g. Drug Abuse - such as heroin or marijuana, may cause severe problems for both employers and
other employees. Drug addicts generally resort to sealing company property and sell them to support
their drug habit.

II. Developing Sound Climate

A. Behavioral Climate
 it refers to the working climate that people experience in an organization arises from the combined
effects of the organization's culture, traditions, and management methods of course of action.
 People tend to stay in an organization wherein the organizational climate is compatible with their
expectations or desires.
 Changes in organizational climate is rather slow such that the organization may be virtually tied-up to
its past, unless it improves its behavioral climate.
B. Incremental Nature of Human Values
 Human values are generated internally in an individual, and are non-objective in nature.
 Fulfillment, dignity, and sound human relations are human values that are incremental

C. Basic Human Relation Factors

 It greatly influences the organizational climate.
 Human relations philosophy emanates from both fact and value premises.
 Fact premises (represents people's view of how realities in this world are)
 Value Premises (represent people's view on the desirability of desires or goals)

D. Formal Organization
 The formal organization's main instruments through which its philosophies and objectives are
interpreted and made operational are its organizational plans, policies, structure, system and
procedures.
 It focuses on positions, in terms of authority, job responsibilities and accountabilities.

Human Behavior in Organization || jcp

Lesson 1: INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATION
E. Informal Organization
 The informal organization arises from social interaction that evolves spontaneously as people get
together.
 It focuses on people and relationships

F. Control System
 Controls are institutes to secure performance as planned.
 To give emphasis in human value which are desired, controlled are necessary.
 Standards or criteria for comparing actual performance with planned performance are largely based
on quality, quantity and time.
 Cost - is a quality variable and is principally a center of control in most organizations.
(“However, human relations are more significant; it is difficult to relate cost directly with human
relations practices”)
 Quality - is the principal control of human relations

G. Social System
 It interacts with a person's attitudes and with situational factors to bring about a specific motivation
for a person at a certain time.
 Motivation is affected by a change in controls, attitudes or situations.
 Productive motivation is an outcome of the effective interaction of the human relation factors.

H. Theories in Organizational Behavior

 This guides management development and their interpretations of the events they encounter.
 Theories which predominate in an organizational management determine the nature of its
behavioral climate
 The theories of organizational behavior that have been recognized lately are the autocratic theory,
custodial theory, and supportive theory.

1. Autocratic Theory
… Management's orientation is formal official authority.
… Management does the thinking and the decision-making and the employees merely obey
orders.
… This result in personal dependency of the employees on their boss clothed with the power
to hire, fire and the right to compel, in an almost absolute degree.
2. Custodian Theory
… Whenever employers look after the needs of workers through welfare programs they are
applying the custodial theory of organizational behavior.
… A successful custodial approach is contingent on the availability of economic resources.
… “... the great desire of man is to stand on his own, and his life is one great fight against
dependency. Making the individual a ward of the organization will likely make him bitter
instead of better.”
… A reasonable amount of both the custodial theory and power are desirable in an
organization.
3. Supportive Theory
… Instead of mere obedience and security, the employee responds to intrinsic motivations in
his job.
… The morale measure of the supportive theory is motivation.

Human Behavior in Organization || jcp

Lesson 1: INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATION
… “The leadership and other processes of the organization must be such as to ensure a maximum
probability that in all interactions and all relationship with the organization, each member
will, in the light of his supportive and one which builds and maintains his sense of personal
worth and importance.”

III. Characteristics of Achievers

A. Characteristics of Achievers
1. Self-Motivated Self-Directed
2. Goal Oriented
3. Set Challenging but Realistic Goals
4. Goal is accomplishment or challenge itself
5. Assume personal responsibility for
problem solving
6. Calculate risks
7. Set moderate objectives
8. Sequence tasks in relation to goals
9. Prioritize tasks to attain goals
10. Want frequent feedback on results
11. Evaluate by monitoring results and
establishing checkpoints
12. Non-traditional
13. Independent at an earlier age

B. Six Motives
1. Achievement - Characterized by concern for excellence, competition with the standards of excellence
set by others or by oneself, the setting of challenging goals for oneself, awareness of the hurdles in the
way of achieving those goals, and persistence in trying alternative paths to one’s goals.

2. Affiliation - Characterized by a concern for establishing and maintaining close, personal relationships;
a value on friendship; and a tendency to express one’s emotions.

3. Influence - Characterized by concern with making an impact on others, a desire to make people do
what one thinks is right, and an urge to change matters and (develop) people.

4. Control - Characterized by a concern for orderliness, a desire to be and stay informed, and an urge to
monitor and take corrective action when needed.

5. Extension - Characterized by concern for others, interest in subordinate goals, and an urge to be
relevant and useful to larger groups, including society.

6. Dependence - Characterized by a desire for the help of others in one’s own self-development,
checking with significant others (those who are more knowledgeable or have higher status, experts, close
associates, etc.), submitting ideas or proposals for approval, and having an urge to maintain an “approval”
relationship.

Motivation Approach (hope of) Approach (fear of)

Achievement Success Failure
Affiliation Inclusion Exclusion
Influence Concern Rejection
Extension Relevance Impotence
Control Order Chaos
Dependency Growth Loneliness

Human Behavior in Organization || jcp

Lesson 1: INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATION

IV. Human Side of the Enterprise

A. Theory X
 Theory X assumes that workers dislike work. So, managers should force them to attain the goals of
the enterprise.
 The managers make all the decisions while the workers just take orders.

i. Approaches of Theory X
a) Soft Approach - the methods for directing behavior involve being permissive, satisfying
people’s demands, achieving harmony then they will be tractable, accept direction. This results
to people taking advantage and worker continue to expect more but give less.
b) Hard Approach - relies on coercion, implicit threats, close supervision, tight controls and
essentially an environment of command and control. This results to restriction of output,
antagonism, and militant unionism.

ii. The best way to indicate why theory X of management is inadequate is to consider the subject
of motivation:

a. Psychological and Safety Needs

… Man is a wanting animal—as soon as one of his needs is satisfied, another appears in its
place. This process is unending.
… A satisfied need is not a motivator of behavior - This is a fact of profound significance. It
is a fact that is regularly ignored in the conventional approach to the management of people.
… Safety Needs - needs for protection against danger, threat, deprivation.
… Man is in a dependent relationship where he fears arbitrary deprivation, he does not
demand security. When he is confident of this, he is more than willing to take risks. But
when he feels threatened or dependent, his greatest need is for guarantees, for protection,
for security.
… Arbitrary management actions refer to behavior that arouses uncertainty with respect to
continued employment or which reflects favoritism or discrimination, unpredictable
administration of policy.

b. Social Needs
… It refers for belonging, for association, for acceptance by his fellows, for giving and receiving
friendship and love
… Management knows of the existence of these needs, but it often assumes quite wrongly that
they represent a threat to the organization.
… If the organization control and direct human efforts in ways that are inimical to the natural
“groupiness” of human beings, man becomes resistant, antagonistic, uncooperative.

c. Ego Needs
… It does not become motivator until lower needs are reasonably satisfied
… Kinds:
1. Those needs that relate to one’s self-esteem—needs for self-confidence, for
independence, for achievement, for competence, for knowledge.
2. Those needs that relate to one’s reputation—needs for status, for recognition, for
appreciation, for the deserved respect of one’s fellows.

Human Behavior in Organization || jcp

Lesson 1: INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATION
d. Self Fulfillment Needs
… The needs for realizing one’s own potentialities, for continued self-development, for being
creative in the broadest sense of that term.
… Life give only limited opportunity for these relatively weak needs to obtain expression. The
deprivation most people experience with respect to other lower-level needs diverts their
energies into the struggle to satisfy those needs, and the needs for self-fulfillment remain
dormant.

B. Theory Y
 In the case of Theory Y, it assumes that work is an important part of the lives of people; that people
are responsible and therefore committed to the goals of the enterprise if these provide them
personal rewards; and that enterprises do not, in general, fully use their human resources.
 Management is responsible for organizing the elements of productive enterprise—money, materials,
equipment, people—in the interest of economic ends.
 People are not by nature passive or resistant to organizational needs. They have become so as a
result of experience in organizations.
 The motivation, the potential for development, the capacity for assuming responsibility, the
readiness to direct behavior toward organizational goals are all present in people. Management does
not put them there.
 It is a responsibility of management to make it possible for people to recognize and develop these
human characteristics for themselves.
 The essential task of management is to arrange organizational conditions and methods of operation
so that people can achieve their own goals best by directing their own efforts toward organizational
objectives.
 This is a process primarily of creating opportunities, releasing potential, removing obstacles,
encouraging growth, providing guidance.
 It is what Peter Drucker has called “management by objectives” in contrast to “management by
control.”

A. Implications of Theory Y
 Decentralization and Delegation - If firms decentralize control and reduce the number of
levels of management, each manager will have more subordinates and consequently will be
forced to delegate some responsibility and decision making to them.
 Job Enlargement - Broadening the scope of an employee's job adds variety and opportunities to
satisfy ego needs.
 Participation and Consultative Management - Consulting employees in the decision making
process taps their creative capacity and provides them with some control over their work
environment.
 Performance Appraisal - Having the employee set objectives and participate in the process of
evaluating how well they were met.

C. Theory Z
i. WILLIAM OUCHI - American professor and author in the field of business management
a) First book in 1981: “THE THEORY Z” - How American Management Can meet the Japanese
Challenge
b) Second book “THE M FORM SOCIETY“ - How American Teamwork can be Recapture the
Competitive Edge

Human Behavior in Organization || jcp

Lesson 1: INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATION
ii. Theory Z definition
 focused on increasing employee loyalty to the company by providing a job for life with a strong
focus on the well-being of the employee, both on and off the job
 tends to promote stable employment, high productivity, and high employee morale and
satisfaction

iii. The Required Operational Environment

 operational environment is the alternative term for external environment
 There must be a stress on high productive norms.

a. Careful selection is paramount for success. This calls for a continuous follow-up of every move
of the individual within the organization as would expose him to all aspects of firm life which will
benefit and enhance the employee’s development and contribution.

b. Specialization opportunities. After a careful selection has placed the individual in his proper
place and statues, placement should not preclude the possibility or desirability of moving people into
other areas as they rise within the corporate structure.
c. Maslow’s eight development of needs must be satisfied, i.e. physiological, safety/security,
belongingness and love, esteem, cognitive and aesthetic, self actualization and self-transcendence.

d. Mutual trust must exist throughout the firm. Backbiting and politicking must be eliminated or
minimized.

e. Interaction of ideas and concepts with this peers and possible for the individual.

f. The opportunity for the individual to undertake “tough’ assignments that stretch and
challenge” should present corresponding rewards.

g. Recognition is essential to fulfill both the ego satisfaction and self-actualization principles
put forth by Maslow.

h. Opportunity to develop – opportunities for the employee to develop his talents and potentials.

i. Success – there must be security for the individual to stretch and reach for the stars, with
security from failure, meaning without elimination from the firm. Failure in this instance is in the
pursuit of excellence rather that the result of incompetence.

iv. Foundations of Theory Z

 The spirit of inquiry  Motivation drives of a new form
 Achievement … the desire for autonomy by the individual
 Inner direction … the desire for creative tasks for the individual to perform
… real motivation is the product of self direction

VI. Training and Developing an Individual in an Organization

 Training and Development Defined - the formal and ongoing efforts that are made within
organizations to improve the performance and self fulfillment of their employees through a variety of
educational methods and programs
 Training - refers to a planned effort by a company to facilitate employees’ learning of job-related
competencies. Training programs have very specific and quantifiable goals

Human Behavior in Organization || jcp

Lesson 1: INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATION
 Development - includes activities that improve awareness and identity, develop talents and potential,
build human capital, and facilitate employability. Developmental programs concentrate on broader skills
that are applicable to a wider variety of situations.

7 Ways of Training and Developing Individuals in the Organization (Mr. Jucutan)

1. Management must have clear vision, mission, objectives, and strategies for the individuals to follow in
order to attain success
2. Management must initiate strategical plans and processes that can be easily understood by individuals in
the organization
3. There are personal factors that can contribute to gaining power from individuals, but these should not be
confused with RESPECT
4. When a manager is truthful and honest with his personnel, the latter will respect his desire for telling the
truth
5. Managers should sincerely want their personnel to succeed and grow
6. Managers should make it clear to everyone that he has an open-door policy as far as his office is concerned
7. Managers may become mentors

Human Behavior in Organization || jcp