ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR CBU2105

1 An Introduction to Organisational Behaviour

1.1 Definition of OB

“Organizational behavior (OB) is the field of investigation into the managing of people at work

within organizations” (Carrell, Jennings & Heavrin, 1997:4). “The study of organizational
behavior is ‘the study of the structure, functioning and performance of organizations, and the
behavior of groups and individuals within them’” (Pugh cited in Huczynski & Buchanan, 1991:2).
Organizational behavior “is a field of study that investigates the impact of individuals, groups,
and structure on behavior within organizations for the purpose of applying such knowledge
toward improving an organization’s effectiveness” (Robbins, 1996:10).

 Behaviour of people within organisations.

 Activities and interactions of people in organizations like factories, hospitals, schools,
banks etc. All type of organisations.
 Focus is on three levels: individuals, groups and the organization (Robbins – structure).
The aim is to cover enough topics in all three levels.
 Unlike accounting, finance or marketing OB studies the whole organization and not
individual functions or disciplines.
 OB will help us understand and predict human behaviour in organizations.
Organizational behaviour refers to the way individuals and groups interact within and towards an
organization. The combined behaviours create a company climate that can bolster or undermine an
organization's success. Operating from within a company's system, both management and staff might
have difficulty recognizing patterns of behaviour and also how profoundly those patterns can influence a
company's performance. To make sure that influence is positive, leaders must help others grasp the
importance of organizational behaviours so that everyone involved in a company's future can better
understand and shape the internal conditions of an organization.
 OB isolates important aspects of manager’s job and offers specific perspectives on the
human side of management. A study of OB can clarify the factors that affect how
managers manage.
Task: What is the importance of the study of organisationl behaviour?
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1.2 OB concepts and practices: past and present (History)
 OB theories and their application have evolved over 100 years.
 Today’s issues can be better understood by realizing what was practical in the past =
may help us better understand how successful organization can be managed.

1.2.1 Traditional Management

 Period prior to 1880s = American work force.
 Beliefs and values of agricultural workers were carried into their new jobs.
 Often referred to as the Protestant Work Ethics. This included (1) work itself is
rewarding; (2) hard work will be recognised and rewarded by others and by God; (3)
owners have been chosen by God for their efforts and wisdom. Therefore should be
followed without question. Hence role of owner was to provide all direction and control
while role of worker was to follow those directions without questioning them. All
employees are equal in skill and ability (equal in motivation as well) = given simple
routine jobs and interchangeable as all were equally productive employees.
 Limitations = employees not equal in skill and abilities.

1.2.2 Scientific Management

 Period: 1880 to 1920.
 Scientific management was systematic analysis of work, people and how work can be
accomplished most efficiently.
 The work of Frederick W. Taylor (father of scientific management), Frank & Lilian
Gilbreth, and Henry Gantt was based on scientific collection of data rather than the
intuition of managers.
 Taylor and others believed that managers should (1) study how work can be most
efficiently accomplished; (2) select workers on ability to perform a particular job; (3) and
train workers to perform the job according to the ‘one best way’.
 Taylor viewed workers as being primarily motivated by economic gain – maximise their
productivity only if they were offered financial incentives. Taylor analysed the time

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 needed to perform tasks and then set performance standards for each job. Excess of
standard earned worker a financial incentive – thus one’s pay would vary according to
his/her productivity. Still used in some organisations.
 Scientific managers designed jobs to be specialised and routine (workers seen as stupid
– had little or no formal education or training those days), involving no mental effort on
their part.
Task
Discuss differences between traditional and scientific management.
1.2.3 Human Relations
 Period: 1920s to 1940s.
 Reaction to some principles of scientific management.
 Focused on workers as human beings who are affected by their social setting.
“Hawthorne” studies by Mayo and Roethlisberger conducted at the Western Electric
Company’s Hawthorne plant was the basis of the human relations movement. Studies
produced evidence that complex human factors – feelings, emotions, group
relationships, leadership styles, and the attitude of management – could have a
significant impact on the productivity of employees.
 Movement emphasised: (1) managers should get to know their employees and pay
attention to their individual needs; (2) they should allow participation by employees in
those decisions which affect their work; and (3) satisfied (or happy) workers are
productive workers and thus managers should strive to keep employees happy.
 Scientific management saw employees as a factor of production but human relations
philosophy recognised employee as an individual with human feelings and needs. Thus
employee productivity not only affected by design of the job and economic incentives
(Taylor) but also by certain social and psychological factors.
Criticisms
 Several other factors also affect the productivity of individuals.
 Workers are complex with different needs and values. What motivates one person may
or may not motivate others.

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  Approach failed to recognise need for production and quality standards and need to
achieve organisational goals as well as employee goals.

1.2.4 Contingency Approach

 Period: 1950s to 1960s.
 Emphasised need for managers and decision makers to realise that previous OB theories
had each advocated one universal theory to managing organisations. It emphasised that
there is no one best way of managing all people in all situations. Managers should
carefully analyse facts of given situation and choose technique or tool which might best
accomplish the objective.
 Keys to success were: (1) manager to correctly analyse situation; (2) manager is well
versed in various managerial techniques and thus can choose best alternative; and (3)
technique selected can be successfully implemented considering other internal and
external constraints.
 Benefit of approach – permanently laid to rest idea that one universal approach to
managing organisations should be applied in all situations.

1.2.5 Human Capital

 Period: 1970s to 1980s.
 Product of behavioural science research and management practices in the 1970s.
 Viewed employees as resources rather than factors of production or human beings who
only on the basis of feelings and emotions.
 Viewed employees as investments which, if effectively developed and utilised will
provide long-term benefits to the organisation. The knowledge, abilities, and skills which
employees developed over several years were viewed as valuable assets of the
organisation that should be valued and protected.
 Management must provide an environment in which both goals of organisation and
goals of employees can be successfully met.

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1.2.6 The OB “New Agenda”
 Period: 1990s to current.
 Almost a revolution in the management of organisations.
 Concepts at centre of revolution are:
(1) Right-sizing and employee teams – ‘right-sizing’ means eliminating layers of middle
management which previously checked the work of others. Made possible by transfer of
authority from centralized offices to independent groups of employees or self-directed
teams.
(2) Boss: from bully to coach – in this new information-based world, managers recognise
that workers closest to the process understand it best. So today’s boss does not look
over the shoulders of people but listens to them and facilitates changes needed by
employees.
(3) Focus on customers – inward-looking companies did well in post WW2 era when
customers had few choices. But today they are doomed to fail. Focus now is on pleasing
customers e.g. success of discount chain Wal-Mart stores (USA).
(4) Large organisations are non-responsive and must be broken into manageable parts –
Prof. William G. Ouchi of UCLA’s John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management,
contends: “Companies should never grow beyond the limits to of knowledge of a normal
human being. We are seeing large-scale disaggregation of big companies into their
constituent pieces” (Carrell et al, 1997:9).
(5) Company walls must be removed to form the “boundary-less” corporation – GE CEO John
F. Welch came up with this revolutionary concept. In this vision, workers spring from
one project to another without regard to permanent structure.
(6) Diversified work force – in USA (1990s) organisations discovered that the labour force
was increasingly more female, minority, and foreign born. Those organisations that
successfully attract and develop members of this diversified labour force will have a
competitive edge over those which do not.

1.3 Organisations

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 All organisations are formed for a similar purpose – to produce goods or services. They
all consist of certain assets: land, building and equipment, capital, materials, and people.
It is the behaviour of the people within organisations that forms the central focus of
inquiry of the field of organisational behaviour.
Mission
 Mission statement states the products, services, and objectives of the organisation as
well as the strategies, values, and commitments which provide direction and guidance
to its employees, stockholders, and customers.

 VISION = NUST
To be an international centre of excellence in science and technology, and entrepreneurship
for sustainable development by 2025.

 MISSION
To spearhead human capital development for industrial and socio-economic transformation
through science and technology based solutions

 VALUES
Integrity – trust derived from honesty
Innovativeness – developing a culture of creativity by all
Equity – fairness
Excellence – best service
Corporate citizenship – responsiveness to environmental needs
Client-focus – client centredness.

Management Functions
 Achievement of organisational goals is determined by management.
 Management refers to persons whom owners have chosen to run the organisation =
make decisions, allocate resources, and direct the activities of employees in a
coordinated effort to achieve the specified goals.
 In 1916 Henri Fayol came up with 5 managerial functions: planning, organising,
directing, staffing, and controlling. Now combined into 4 functions:
(a) Planning – setting goals and objectives; developing implementation strategies; and
deciding timetables of future events (to achieve set objectives).
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 (b) Organising – deciding how tasks and jobs are accomplished. Grouping work and
people into efficient units. Determining the structure of the organisation.
(c) Leading – directing and motivating employees. Making decisions, resolving conflicts,
providing ethical values. Communicating information to the appropriate parties.
(d) Controlling – comparing actual performance to planned standards (quality
assurance). Providing budgetary oversight (costs within budgeted levels). Taking
corrective actions when warranted.

1.4 Contributing disciplines to the organisational behaviour field.

 OB is an applied behavioural science and thus draws upon other areas of study.
 These other fields include economics, anthropology, psychology, sociology, political
science, and social psychology.
Psychology
 Study of individual human behaviour (study of the mind).
 Contributions to OB include learning theories, motivation research, industrial
psychology, personality theory, training effectiveness, job design, recruitment and
selection techniques, and performance appraisal.
Economics
 It is the allocation of scarce resources to alternative uses.
 Contributions to OB include compensation programmes (pay), incentive programmes,
employee perceptions of equity & fairness and labour relations.
Sociology
 It is the study of the interaction of individuals within groups and organisations.
 Contributions to OB include group behaviour, organisation theory, culture & change,
work force diversity and group decision making.
Social psychology
 It is the study of the influences individuals have on each other and their environment.
 Contributions to OB include organisation change, communications, conflict resolution,
leadership and problem solving.

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 Anthropology
 It is the study of the historical development of human culture.
 Contributions to OB include organisation culture, societal influences on organisation,
demographics of the labour force and global cultural differences.
Political Science
 It is the study of government and public affairs.
 Contributions to OB include government influences, laws & regulations, power &
conflict, conflict resolution and unions/labour relations.

1.5 Conclusion
 The purpose of OB study and research is to identify, develop, and apply methods and
concepts which can be successfully applied to organisations by managers, owners, and
employees. This goal require us to think critically and question methods which might be
called “quick fixes”, “intuition”, “gut reactions”, or simply “best guesses” with careful
study and scientific investigation.
 Human behaviour is a complex phenomenon. Therefore, a method which is highly
successful for one manager or organisation may not produce identical results in another
organisation.

Task
 Write brief notes on Henry Mintzberg’s ten managerial roles. Show how these roles are
applicable in the work environment.
References
 Carrell, M.R.; Jennings, D.F. & Heavrin, C. (1997) Fundamentals of Organisational
Behavior, New Jersey (USA): Prentice –Hall, Inc.

 Greenberg, J. & Baron, R. A. (1995) Behavior in Organizations: Understanding and

managing the Human side of work, 5th Edition, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey (USA):
Prentice Hall.

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  Huczynski, A.A. & Buchanan, D. A. (1991) Organizational Behavior: An Introductory
text, 2nd Edition, New York: Prentice Hall, Inc.

2. Individual Personality Development and Attitudes.

2.1 Foundations of Individual behaviour
2.1.1 Some key Concepts
Dependent variables are the key factors you want to explain or predict. What are the primary
dependent variables in OB? = Productivity, absenteeism, turnover, and job satisfaction. These
are critical determinants of an organisation’s human resources effectiveness.
 What is productivity? It implies both effectiveness (achievement of goals, meeting
clients’ needs) and efficiency (implies that something is done at a low cost).
 What is absenteeism? = Failure to report to work.
 What is turnover? = Voluntary and involuntary permanent withdrawal from the
organisation.
 What is job satisfaction? = It is a general attitude towards one’s job, the difference
between the amount of rewards workers receive and the amount they believe they
should receive.
An independent variable is the presumed cause of some change in the dependent variable.
There are three broad possible causes of change in the dependent variable:
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  Individual – level variables = managers work with that have already met other people
before. They are like used cars, some have low mileage and others are worn out as a
result of rough roads. Hence people enter organisations with certain characteristics that
will influence their behaviour at work. These characteristics include age, gender, and
marital status (biographical), values and attitudes, and basic ability levels. Other
variables that affect employee behaviour include perception, individual decision making,
learning and motivation.
 Group-level variables = people’s behaviour in groups is different from their behaviour
when they are alone. Behaviour of people in groups is more than the sum total of each
individual acting on their own way.
 Organisation system-level variables = organisations are more than the sum of their
member groups. The design of the formal organisation, technology and work processes,
and jobs; the organisation’s human resource policies and practices (i.e. selection
processes, training programmes, performance appraisal methods); the internal culture;
and levels of work stress all have an impact on the dependent variables.
2.1.2 Biographical characteristics
Age
 Is there a relationship between age and performance? – Widespread belief that job
performance declines with increasing age. N.B. developed countries like USA, UK,
France, Germany etc. Workforce has been aging since 1990s (e.g. USA between 1990
and 2005 expected to jump to 43, 7%) (Robbins, 1996:83). Does age affect turnover,
absenteeism, productivity, and job satisfaction? Research shows that older workers are
less likely to leave their jobs because they have fewer alternative job opportunities.
They are also less likely to resign because longer tenure tends to provide them with
higher wage rates, longer paid vacations and more attractive pension benefits.
 Older workers have lower rates of avoidable absence than do younger employees. But
older workers have higher rates of unavoidable absence (poorer health and longer
recovery period that older workers need when injured).

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  Recent research show that age and job performance were unrelated. Why? Speed,
agility, strength and coordination may decay over time thus slowing productivity but this
is offset by gains due to experience.
Gender
 Psychological studies show that women are more willing to conform to authority and
men are more aggressive and more likely than women to have expectations of success.
However differences between the two are minor.
 There is no evidence to indicate that an employee’s gender affects job satisfaction.
 Turnover = evidence is mixed.
 Absence = women have higher rates of absenteeism than men do (research done in
North America show that home and family responsibilities are placed on females).
Marital status
 Research indicates that married employees have fewer absences, undergo fewer
turnovers and are more satisfied with their jobs than their unmarried co-workers.
 Marriage imposes increased responsibilities that may make a steady job more valuable
and important.
 Issues needing investigating: Does being divorced or widowed have an impact on an
employee’s performance and satisfaction? What about couples who live together
without being married? How about the effect of the number of dependents on
productivity and satisfaction?
2.1.3 Ability
 The ability of individuals is not the same but not that some individuals are inferior to
others. Ability in any set up follows a normal distribution curve.
Management = the issue is not whether or not people differ in terms of their abilities
(they differ in abilities). The issue is knowing how people differ in abilities and using that
knowledge to increase the likelihood that an employee will perform his/her job well.
 Ability is an individual’s capacity to perform the various tasks in a job. It is the current
assessment of what one can do.
Intellectual abilities = these are abilities required to mental activities.

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  Jobs differ in demands they place on incumbents to use their intellectual abilities.
 Generally the more information processing demands that exist in a job, the more
general intelligence and verbal abilities will be necessary to perform the job successfully.
IQ is not a prerequisite for all jobs – in many routine jobs, high IQ may be unrelated to
performance.
 However, research in Africa is needed in this area.
Physical abilities = these are abilities required to do tasks demanding stamina, dexterity,
strength, and similar skills.
 Specific physical abilities gain importance for successfully doing the less skilled and more
standardized jobs.
 Research on requirements needed in hundreds of jobs has identified nine basic abilities
involved in the performance of physical tasks. For more details of these 9 basic abilities
see Robbins, S.P. (1996) Organizational Behavior: Concepts. Controversies.
Applications, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, inc.
2.2 Personality types and traits
2.2.1 Definition of Personality
“The individual’s personality is ‘the total pattern of characteristic ways of thinking, feeling and
behaving that constitute the individual’s distinctive method of relating to the
environment’”(Huczynski & Buchanan, 1991: 116).
Personality is “the unique and relatively stable pattern of behaviour, thoughts, and emotions
shown by individuals. In short, personality is the lasting ways in which any one person is
different from all others” (Greenberg & Baron, 1995:90).
 Personality refers to habitual features, characteristics or properties of an individual’s
behaviour.
 An individual’s way of coping with life.
 N.B. personality can develop over time and therefore becomes a process while
personality itself is not a process.

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  Personality properties are stable & distinctive. Stable = properties that appear in
different contexts and that endure through time e.g. people who are not punctual tend
to be late for all occasions. Hardworking, cheerful etc.
 Distinctive = pattern of dispositions that are unique to the individual. “Most of us can
recognise consistency in our own thoughts, emotions and behaviour. We do have
established, routine ways of relating to others, of meeting our needs, of solving our
problems, of coping with our frustration and stress, and so on. Our behaviour is not
random, inconsistent and irrational. There are regularities in the ways that we think and
in what we do that can be identified and studied” (Huczynski & Buchanan, 1991:117).
 Usually personality focuses on key characteristics of an individual’s behaviour or
prominent features.

2.2.2 Personality types and traits

 “Personality is whatever makes you, the individual, different from other people”
(Huczynski & Buchanan, 1991:123). Attempts to describe the components and structure
of personality have focused on the concepts of type and trait.
 Type approaches attempt to fit people into predetermined categories possessing
common patterns of behaviour.
 Type A’s are simply in too much in a hurry to complete work that demands careful,
considered judgement to do the work in an effective manner.
 Greenberg and Baron (1995:98) report that a survey showed that most top executives
are Type B’s rather than Type A’s. Why? Type A’s simply do not last long enough on their
jobs to rise to the highest management levels. Health risks especially coronary heart
disease often linked to the Type A behaviour pattern may remove them from contention
before they’re experienced enough to advance. The impatient, always-in-a-hurry style of
Type A’s is incompatible with the deliberate, careful studied decision style required of
top-level managers. The impatient, hostile style of Type A’s may irritate people around
them so much that it interferes with their chances for promotion.

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 “A personality trait on the other hand is any enduring or habitual behaviour pattern that
occurs in a variety of circumstances. Punctuality is a personality trait on which
individuals can be compared. A trait can also be regarded as a disposition to behave in a
particular way. Some individuals seem to be disposed always to arrive late for meetings,
for example” (Huczynski & Buchanan, 1991:123).
 Trait approaches assume that there is a common set of traits on which we can all be
compared. Adjectives like reserved, outgoing, emotional, stable, trusting, suspicious,
conservative, experimenting, relaxed and tense are trait labels.
 Individuals have different traits and have different strengths of the same traits. This
appears to do more justice to the uniqueness and complexity of the individual
personality than type approaches.
 Traits belong to individuals but individuals belong to type categories.
 Hans Jurgen Eysenck (1967: German who works in Britain) developed a nomothetic
approach to personality (nomothetic leads to the generation of laws of human
behaviour). He identified two major dimensions on which personality can vary: the
extroversion – introversion or E dimension, and the neuroticism – stability or N
dimension. His approach is nomothetic but explanations of personality are based on
genetics.
 He argues that personality structure is hierarchical. Each individual possesses more or
less of a number of identifiable traits – Trait 1, Trait 2, Trait 3 etc. Individuals who have a
particular trait, say Trait 1, are more likely to possess another, say Trait 3, than people
who do not have Trait 1 or who have it weakly. This means traits tend to ‘cluster’ in
systematic patterns. These clusters identify a ‘higher order’ of personality description, in
terms of what Eysenck calls personality types, as this simple diagram shows:

Type A Type B

Trait 1 Trait 3 Trait 5 Trait 2 Trait 4 Trait 6

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 This does not mean that every individual who has Trait 1 has a Type A personality. It
means that questionnaire analysis has shown that individuals with high scores on Trait 1
are more likely to haves scores on Traits 3 and 5 also, putting them into the Type A
category.
 The E dimension divides the human world into two broad categories of people –
extroverts and introverts. Extroverts are tough-minded individuals who need strong and
varied external stimulation. They are sociable, like parties, are good at telling stories,
enjoy practical jokes, have many friends, need people to talk to, do not enjoy studying
and reading on their own, crave excitement, take risks, act impulsively, prefer change,
are optimistic, carefree, active, aggressive, quick-tempered, display their emotions and
are unreliable. Seven personality traits cluster to generate the personality type
extroversion. These are:
Expressiveness Impulsiveness

Activity EXTROVERSION Risk-taking

Irresponsibility Practicality Sociability

 Introverts are tender-minded people who experience strong emotions and who do not
need the extrovert’s intensity of external stimuli. They are quiet, introspective, retiring,
prefer books to people, are withdrawn, reserved, plan ahead, distrust impulse,
appreciate order, lead careful sober lives, have little excitement, suppress emotions, are
pessimistic, worry about moral standards, and are reliable. The seven traits that cluster
to form the personality type introversion are:

Inactivity Carefulness

Inhibition INTROVERSION Responsibility

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 Unsociability Reflectiveness Control

 Most people fall somewhere between these extremes and a few are at the two
extremes = on a continuum.
 The N dimension assesses personality on a continuum between neuroticism and
stability. Neurotics are also labelled emotional, unstable and anxious. Stable people can
be described as adjusted.
 Neurotics tend to have low opinions of themselves and feel that they are unattractive
failures. They tend to be disappointed with life, pessimistic and depressed. They worry
unnecessarily about things that may never happen and are easily upset when things go
wrong. They are also obsessive, conscientious, finicky people who are highly disciplined,
staid and get annoyed by untidiness and disorder.
 They are not self-reliant and tend to submit to institutional power without question.
They feel controlled by events, by others and by fate. They often imagine that they are
ill and demand sympathy. They blame themselves excessively and are troubled by
conscience. Seven traits that cluster to form emotional instability are:

Low self-esteem Anxiety

Lack of autonomy EMOTIONAL INSTABILITY Guilt

Unhappiness Hypochondriasis Obsessiveness

 Stable individuals are self-confident, optimistic, resist irrational fears, are easy-going,
realistic, solve their own problems, have few health worries, and have few regrets about
their past.

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 Self-esteem Calm

Autonomy EMOTIONALLY STABLE Guilt freedom

Happiness Sense of health Casualness

 The questionnaire used by Eysenck to measure the E and N dimensions of personality

has ninety-six questions, forty for each dimension, and sixteen ‘lie detector’ questions to
assess the subjects’ honesty. The questions are mainly in the yes/no format. The E and N
dimensions are not themselves correlated – if you are extroverted you could be either
stable or neurotic. An individual’s score on one of these dimensions does not appear to
influence the score on the other.
Task
Discuss the relevance of Eysenck’s personality theory to the world of work as well as
learning in organisations.

 Extroverts will work well with public but are unreliable, fickle in friendships.
 An open display of emotion is desirable in some settings and embarrassing in others.
 Emotions are a major source of motivation and an inability to display or share feelings
can be a serious drawback.
 Sharing feelings of frustration and anger can be as important in an organisational setting
as showing positive feelings of, for example, praise, satisfaction and friendship.
 There is need to understand one’s personality in order to understand other people at
work.

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  Because extroverts need and enjoy the presence of others they will sit in the busiest and
noisiest sections of the library while introverts prefer the peace and quiet of solitude i.e.
they will find areas of the library where they will not be interrupted by extroverts.
Crowded areas give extroverts more opportunities for short study breaks and prevent
boredom.
 Eysenck’s theory is based on the knowledge of the biochemistry of the brain. Extroverts
need higher levels of stimulation to get their grey matter going and need frequent
changes in stimulation to maintain their interest. Introverts need less stimulation to
arouse them and can sustain their concentration without interruption.
 Hence the argument that personality is determined by genetic and biological factors
rather than by environment and culture. What personality types and traits are needed
to make one a successful manager, banker, machine tool operator, typist, lecturer, pilot,
policeman or nurse?
 Personality only one influence and ability, opportunity, luck etc have significant
influence on an individual’s job performance.
 Personality assessments are fairly easy to falsify and therefore may not be considered
for job selection and promotion purposes but are useful in clinical and research settings.

2.3 Psychometrics
 Story of storekeeper who had come 9th in the interview but had been accidentally
offered the job. He went on to become the best storekeeper company had had in years.
 Choosing the right candidate for a job, or selecting the right person for promotion is a
critical organisational decision for a number of reasons. Incorrect decisions can lead to
frustrated employees and poor performance levels for the organisation.

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 Selection and appraisal procedures can be costly and time-consuming and it is
frustrating to have to repeat them to recover from previous errors.
 A selection or a promotion decision is a prediction about the ability of the person
chosen to perform well in their new position. Predictions are based on understanding of
position to be filled, and on information about potential candidates. Information about
the candidate has come from an application form, from testimony of referees, and from
a face-to-face interview. An application form is impersonal. Referees notoriously reveal
only pleasant things about their candidates. Interviews can be very unreliable guides to
future job performance too (evidence from research).
 Selecting the right people, many of whom may have limited previous work experience,
becomes more difficult especially in industrialised countries with limited young people
& plenty of elderly people. And making the wrong decisions is expensive.
 Psychometrics offer organisations as a way to improve the quality of selection and
promotion decisions by systematically collecting information about candidates in a way
that improves on the predictive power of traditional sources of selection.
 Psychometrics have been developed rapidly during the 1980s and 1990s. They are
significantly superior in predictive ability to traditional methods. Over 5000 such tests
are in use.
 The British consultancy firm Saville and Holdsworth have developed a widely used
Occupational Personality Questionnaire (available in nine levels of complexity for
different use). The OPQ is based on thirty personality dimensions or traits, and the
scoring norms were derived from the 4000 British managers who took part in the
developmental trials.
 Predictive power of tests of this kind is in doubt – effective to test a large applicant
group, hire them all, wait for appropriate period (five years), assess performance and
see if those with ‘good’ profiles showed ‘good’ performance or not. Hence cannot be
used in isolation.
Tasks

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 1. What role do psychometric test play in the selection and promotion processes in
organisations?
2. Identify and explain any five personality styles that may affect the work of managers.
Show how these styles may be used productively for organisations.

2.4 Values, Attitudes and Attitude Change

2.4.1 Definition of Values
 Rokeach (cited in Carrell, Jennings & Heavrin, and 1997:98) define “values as beliefs that
guide actions and judgments across a variety of situations”. They contain a judgmental
element in that they carry an individual’s ideas as to what is right, good or desirable.

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  Rokeach’s extensive research led him to believe “that different value systems contribute
toward explaining individual differences in behavior”(Carrell, Jennings & Heavrin,
1997:98).
 Values affect the attitudes, perceptions, needs and motivations of individuals at work.

2.4.2 Sources of values

 Values develop from the cultural setting in which individuals live, that is, from parents,
friends, teachers, and other external reference groups and are formed early in life.
 Values are relatively stable and enduring although significant life events such as failing
in business, surviving a serious accident, experiencing a death of a loved one or having
children can reshape an individual’s value system during adult life.
 Different learning situations and experiences lead to individuals having different values.
2.4.3 Types of Values
Four approaches have been developed to depict values.
2.4.3.1 Allport and Associates (1939)

In the 1930s psychologist Gordon Allport and his associates identified six types of values:
(a) Theoretical = places high importance in the discovery of truth through reasoning and
systematic thinking.
(b) Economic = focuses on usefulness, practicality, and accumulation of wealth.
(c) Aesthetic = places highest value in beauty, form, and artistic harmony.
(d) Social = assigns the highest value to the love of people and human relationships (mother
Theresa).
(e) Political = places emphasis in gaining power and influencing other people.
(f) Religious = is concerned with the unity of experience and an understanding of the
cosmos as a whole (cosmos is the universe).
Allport and his associates used a questionnaire and asked respondents to preference-rank a
fixed set of answers. Using this approach, it was found that people in different occupations
placed different importance in the six value types e.g. church ministers would value religious

21
and social needs as most important (economic values least important) while company
executives are more likely to consider economic and political values. Scientists, on the other
hand, are more likely to value theoretical values over the others (social values).
2.4.3.2 Milton Rokeach
He classified values into two sets with eighteen items per set as illustrated below.
Terminal Values Instrumental Values
1. A comfortable life 1. Ambitious
2. An exciting life 2. Broadminded
3. A sense of accomplishment 3. Capable
4. A world at peace 4. Cheerful
5. A world of beauty 5. Clean
6. Equality 6. Courageous
7. Family security 7. Forgiving
8. Freedom 8. Helpful
9. Happiness 9. Honest
10. Inner harmony 10. Imaginative
11. Mature love 11. Independent
12. National security 12. Intellectual
13. Pleasure 13. Logical
14. Salvation 14. Loving
15. Self-respect 15. Obedient
16. Social recognition 16. Polite
17. True friendship 17. Responsible
18. Wisdom 18. Self-controlled.
One set, terminal values, reflects a person’s belief about ‘ends’ (goals that a person would like
to achieve during his life time) to be achieved. The other set, instrumental values, reflects
beliefs about the ‘means’ for achieving desired ends (preferable modes of behaviour).

22
N.B. studies confirm that Rokeach’s values vary among groups. As with Allport’s findings,
people in the same occupations or categories e.g. managers, union members etc. tend to hold
similar values which however differ among the different groups.

2.4.3.3 Cognitive Moral Development

Laurence Kohlberg (1958) argued that as individuals mature, they pass through a series of six
stages of moral development from middle childhood to adulthood as detailed below.
Stage What is considered to be right
1. Obedience and Punishment Obeying rules to avoid physical punishment.
2. Exchange orientation Obeying rules only when it is one’s immediate
interest.
3. Mutual Expectations Living up to what people close to you expect.
4. Societal Contribution Obeying laws; fulfilling obligations and duties that
have previously been agreed upon.
5. Individual Rights Upholding non-relative rights and values regardless
of majority opinion.
6. Ethical Principles Following self-chosen ethical principles; acting in
accordance with principles when laws
violate those principles.
Kohlberg argues that a person moves from stage to stage in an irreversible sequence. Fewer
than 20% of American adults are believed to reach Stage Five. Research studies support
existence of these stages. Individuals at higher stages of moral development are less likely to
cheat, more likely to engage in whistle-blowing, and more likely to make ethical decisions.

2.4.3.4 Meglino and Associates

In the early 1990s, Bruce Meglino and his associates categorized four types of values with
respect to people at work.
1. Achievement – working hard to accomplish difficult things in life.

23
 2. Concern for and helping others – having a concern for other people and an interest in
helping them.
3. Honesty – being truthful in dealings with others.
4. Fairness – doing what is fair and being impartial in all activities.

2.4.4 Importance of values to Organisational Behaviour

 Values lay the foundation for the understanding of attitudes and motivation and
influence individual’s perceptions.
 Individuals enter organisations with preconceived notions of what ought
to be or not to be and these values can cloud objectivity and rationality e.g. awarding
pay on seniority rather than performance.
 An understanding that individual values differ but tend to reflect societal values of the
period in which they grew up can be a valuable aid in explaining and predicting
behaviour e.g. conservative old employees versus dynamic young employees.

2.5 Attitudes and attitude change

2.5.1 Definition of attitude
“An attitude is a predisposition to respond to objects, people, or events in either a positive or
negative way. An employee who states, ‘I really like my job’, is expressing a personal attitude
about work” (Carrell, Jennings and Heavrin, 1997:101). Greenberg, J and Baron, R.A. (1995:164)

24
say “Attitudes are composed of the three fundamental components shown here: the evaluative
component, the cognitive component, and the behavioral component”.
 Evaluative component = refers to our liking or disliking of any particular person, item, or
event (attitude object, the focus of our attitude). You may, for example, feel positively
or negatively towards your boss etc.
 Cognitive component = knowledge or what you believe to be the case about an attitude
object e.g. you might believe that one of your co-workers is paid much more than you.
These beliefs (accurate or false) comprise the cognitive component of attitudes.
 Behavioural component = a predisposition to act in a certain way. Things you believe
about something (e.g. my boss is embezzling company funds) and the way you feel
about it (e.g. I can’t stand working for him) may have some effect on the way you are
predisposed to behave (e.g. I think I’m going to look for a new job).
 As a result of the above, Greenberg and Baron (1995:164) define “attitudes as relatively
stable clusters of feelings, beliefs, and behavioural predispositions (i.e. intentions)
toward some specific object”.
 Relatively stable = something once formed, tends to persist. Changing them may require
considerable effort.
 Work-related attitudes are those lasting feelings, beliefs and behavioural tendencies
towards various aspects of the job itself, the setting in which the work is conducted and
the people involved.
2.5.2 Sources of attitudes
Research shows that attitudes are based on important beliefs and values.

BELIEFS + VALUES create ATTITUDES that INTENDED

influence BEHAVIOR

“I am not receiving “I dislike “I’m going to ask for a

adequate job my job” transfer” (Behavior)
training” (belief) (attitude)
“Job training is

25
 important” (value)

As shown in the figure above, beliefs and values precede attitudes that influence behaviour.
Beliefs may change over time as relevant information is received.

2.5.3 Cognitive Dissonance (changing our own attitudes)

 Generally people’s attitudes towards selected alternatives become more positive and
their attitudes towards rejected alternatives become more negative e.g. suppose as
your college graduation approaches you receive two job offers – eventually select one of
them. Attitudes towards selected becomes positive (It’s a great place, I’m fortunate to
be working there) and negative towards other alternative (It’s really not such a good
company. I’m glad I decided against it). Why change in attitude? It comes from the
process known as cognitive dissonance.
 Cognitive dissonance is the uneasy feeling about the inconsistencies between words and
deeds (Greenberg & Baron, 1995:165) or between our various attitudes and are
motivated to change our attitudes so as to resolve this dissonance.
 Job example = fact that you selected one job may be dissonant with the fact that you
once considered the advantages of the other. So, to justify your decision and avoid
cognitive dissonance, you simply change the way you feel, bringing your attitudes into
line with your feelings  positive attitude to job you accepted and a less positive
attitude towards the rejected job.
 Strong believer in protecting environment plus strongly loyal employee (doing what
your boss asks for good of company). The company then requires you to pollute
environment = experience cognitive dissonance. Now behaviour is dissonant with
attitude, prompting you to change your attitude towards environment.

2.5.4 Situational Aspects of Attitudes

26
Two organizational behaviour researchers, Gerald Salancik and Jeffrey Pfeffer, argue that
attitudes evolve from information received from the social context. As illustrated in figure
below, through cues and guides, social information shapes and influences attitudes.

SOCIAL CONTEXT provides INFORMATION that ATTITUDES

shapes

New employee Employee is Attitudes of new

enters the exposed to current employees are
workplace employees’ shaped and
attitudes about: influenced by the
 Boss social context as
 Rewards reflected by current
 Work employees.
conditions
 Output
norms
 Stress

Herb Kelleher, CEO of Southwest Airlines- airline was established in 1990s, by 1994 profits up
nearly 64% -- why? “One reason is that Southwest workers often go out of their way to amuse,
surprise, or somehow entertain passengers. During delays at the gate, ticket agents will award
prizes to the passenger with the largest hole in his or her sock. Flight attendants have been
known to hide in the overhead luggage bins and then pop out when passengers start filling on
board. Veteran Southwest fliers looking for a few yuks have learned to listen to announcements
over the intercom. A recent effort: ‘Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Those of you who
wish to smoke will please file out to our lounge on the wing, where you can enjoy our feature
film, Gone with the Wind’. On the same flight, an attendant later made this announcement:

27
‘Please pass all plastic cups to the center aisle so we can wash them out and use them for the
next group of passengers’.

Clearly, not everyone is cut out to be a Southwest employee. ‘What we are looking for, first and
foremost, is a sense of humor’, says Kelleher. ‘Then we are looking for people who have to
excel to satisfy themselves and who work well in a collegial environment. We don’t care that
much about education and expertise because we can train people to do whatever they have to
do. We hire attitudes’.”(Carrell, Jennings and Heavrin, 1997:105).

N.B. attitudes are responsible for job performance, absence from work, voluntary turnover etc.

Tasks
1. Define and explain the term prejudice. Show how this type of attitude may affect
relations within organizations. What can be done to reduce its negative effects?
2. With the aid of at least three theories explain how values lay foundations for good
ethical behaviour in organisations.

3. Perception and perceptual distortions

3.1 Definition of Perception
“Perception is the active psychological process in which stimuli are selected and organized into
meaningful patterns”(Huczynski and Buchanan, 1991:37). Carrell, Jennings and Heavrin
(1997:112) say “perception is the process that individuals go through in order to organize and
interpret their sensory impressions to give meaning to their environment”.
 It is an active process of interpretation.
 It modifies the raw data that the senses collect.

28
  Individuals may look at the same thing but perceive it differently (see Carrell et al,
1997:113). An employee may be viewed by one colleague as a hard worker who puts
forth sincere effort and by another colleague as a poor worker who expends no effort at
all.
 It modifies sensory information in a systematic way = but there is selectivity and
organization in this process.
 Daily our senses are bombarded with vast amounts of information = from inside 
hunger, lust, pain etc.; from people, objects and events. Sensory apparatus detects this
variety of information for processing by the human brain.
 Difference between sensation and perception  sensation refers to senses = sight,
hearing, touch, taste and smell. These senses collectively form our reaction to stimuli.
 Our knowledge and understanding of the world around us depends upon sensory
stimulation. But our brains interpret incoming information and this active interpretation
makes the process of perception different from mere sensation.
 Our sensory apparatus acts as filter preventing stimuli that are sensed from entering our
consciousness. Thus information that is familiar, non-threatening and unnecessary to
the task in hand is screened out and is prevented from entering our awareness.

3.2 The Perception Process

There are too many environmental stimuli around at any one time for us to pay adequate
attention to all of them. What gets inside our heads passes through two screening stages,
sensation and perception. The process through which we filter or screen out information that
we do not need is perceptual selectivity.
 Hence human beings behave according to how they perceive reality.
 Perceptual selectivity is determined by external and internal factors as shown below:

The factors that affect perceptual selectivity

External stimulus context
Factors factors factors

29
 Perceptual selectivity

Internal Learning Expectations Motivation

Factors

Past experiences Personality

External factors include stimulus and context factors – generally our attention tends to be
drawn to stimuli that are:

Large rather than small

Bright dull

Loud quiet

Strong rather than weak

Unfamiliar familiar

Standing out from their surroundings part of their surroundings

Moving stationary

Repeated (but not repetitive) one off

 Some road hazard warning signs tend to be flashing and bright rather than dull and
static to attract attention of motorists.

 Advertisers often try to place their products into unusual surroundings to improve their
position in the competition for attention of consumers.

 Context = an army commander at a strategic point during a battle and a housewife in

the kitchen may both have occasion to shout ‘fire’. The two identical utterances will
mean different things to those within earshot one to take human life, and the other
to save it.
30
  Personality = will an extrovert perceive the same things as an introvert? Re-visit lecture
on personality development. Motivation and learning will be done later in course.

 However, most of our perceiving can be described as categorization or classification e.g.

male or female, energetic or lazy, extrovert or shy etc. Classifications lead to
development of concepts. You have never seen my neighbour’s dog called Poppy, but if
you did, you would know that he was a dog without having to be told. Why? Because
dog and this image or concept, enables you to distinguish effortlessly between all those
objects in the world that are dogs and those that are not.

 Past experiences = from culture e.g. the West’s revulsion at the thought of eating dog
meat, the Hindu’s revulsion at the thought of eating beef, the Muslim avoidance of
alcohol etc. are all culturally transmitted emotions based on learnt values. However
different people within the same culture have different experiences and develop
different expectations from each other.

 Internal factors contribute to creation within us of expectations about world around us,
what we want from it, and what will happen in it. Hence, we select information that fits
our expectations and ignore information that does not.

A WALK IN THE

THE FOREST

Most people expect a walk in the forest, therefore the extra ‘THE’ is not expected and is
ignored.

3.2.1 Organizing Incoming Stimuli

 Constant search for pattern, meaning and order in the world around us is a key feature
of our perceptual process.

31
  In 1923 Max Wertheimer identified the process of perceptual organization. The eye for
example tends to group together or to classify stimuli that are close to each other. This
is called the proximity principle:

a b c d e f

o o o o o o

 Most people tend to ‘see’ three sets or pairs of motor car headlights, and do not simply
see six lights. The lights in each pair of symbols are perceived as ‘belonging’ to each
other because they are closer to each other.

 The eye also tends to group together stimuli that are similar in appearance to each
other. This is called the similarity principle.

[] [] o o [] [] o o

Here we perceive four pairs of people = two pairs of women, two pairs of men, not just
eight people.

 We are also able to fill gaps in incomplete or ambiguous patterns of stimuli in ways that
make them meaningful. This is called the closure principle e.g. “You sh uld h ve no dif
icul y in un erst nding th s sent n e ev n tho gh s me of the le ter” have been missed out
deliberately. These principles apply to other senses, particularly hearing.

3.2.2 Factors that influence the individual’s perceptual world

Motives

Needs Goals

Psychological characteristics Perceptual world Past experiences

32
 Physical environment Social & cultural environment
Behaviour

The above factors clearly allow room for individual differences.

3.3 Perceptual distortions

3.3.1 Selective Perception

Because individuals cannot assimilate all they observe, they engage in selective perception,
selecting pieces of information on the basis of their own interests, background, experience, and
attitudes. For example, a manager is concerned primarily with an employee’s final output.
Because the employee is often negative during interactions with the manager, other managers
conclude that the employee will probably receive a poor performance evaluation. Instead, the
manager selects the employee’s final performance, discarding the negative interactions, and
evaluates the employee solely on the basis of the final results.

3.3.2 Projection

Individuals often assume that others are similar to themselves. The tendency for people to
attribute their own feelings or characteristics to others is called projection. E.g. if a particular
manager is status conscious or has a strong desire for power, then he or she may rationalize
these traits to other managers. Lecturer understands a concept and thinks students also
understand it the same way. Individuals frequently use their own personal characteristics as
benchmarks for perceiving others. If a manager wants challenges and responsibility, for
example, then the manager will assume that others want the same. This could be right some of
the time and wrong some of the time.

3.3.3 Expectancy

This occurs when individuals expect to see or hear certain things. People may actually “see”
what is expected rather than what is actually occurring. A walk in the the forest.

3.3.4 Stereotyping

33
This is the process of judging people on the basis of what the observer perceives about the
group to which they belong. For example, a category of people is identified by their race, ethnic
background, or occupation. An assumption is then made that individuals in this category have
certain traits. Next, a perception is formed that everyone in this category possesses these
common traits. E.g. some managers may perceive that employees and union officials are
unreasonable and disruptive over trivial issues while employees perceive that they have a
genuine grievance and that management cares nothing for them.

3.3.5 Halo effect

It occurs when one characteristic of an individual is used to develop an overall impression of

the individual. E.g. a person may perform his/her job well but is constantly late. This may cause
the individual’s supervisor to devalue the employee’s work efforts. Halo effects may occur from
something which is either favourable or unfavourable that influences how the individual is
perceived.

3.3.6 Self-fulfilling Prophecy

It occurs when an individual’s expectations or beliefs determine his or her behaviour and
performance, thus making his or her expectations come true.

Two groups of classes = normal potential, average but one assigned as high potential. Teachers
did not know real potential of two groups except what they were told. Taught for a long time
and then tested – students who had been designated as having high potential, achieved
significantly higher scores in both the IQ and reading ability tests than did students in the
control group. Because of their expectations, teachers of the supposedly high potential group
gave harder assignments, more feedback and more recognition of achievement. Normal class
did not excel because their teachers did not expect outstanding results.

Research studies in a variety of organizational settings indicate that when managers’

expectations are raised for individuals performing a wide variety of tasks, higher levels of
performance and achievement can be obtained.

34
3.3.7 Self-serving Bias

Individuals have a tendency to take credit and responsibility for positive outcomes of their
behaviour and to deny credit and responsibility for negative outcomes. This tendency is called
self-serving bias and indicates that the same behaviour will be explained differently according
to events that happen after the behaviour has occurred. E.g. if a marketing manager champions
a product that becomes successful, he or she might attribute success to his or her
understanding of the customers and the market place. However, if the same process is
unsuccessful, the marketing manager might attribute this to poor performance by a marketing
research firm that was used.

3.3.8 Attribution Theory

Attribution is the process in which an observer assigns causes or motives to people’s behaviour.
Implications for managers: if an employee exhibits poor performance then an interesting
question is what caused this performance? One reason might be lack of effort; another might
be lack of ability, while a third might be lack of support (environmental factors or situational
factors such as the way the job is structured or the firm’s rules and regulations). If a manager
perceives the reason that an employee is not performing well is due to a lack of effort, then the
manager will probably use some attempt to motivate the employee to work harder. In this
scenario, the possibility of situational factors being possible causes of poor performance is
ignored. This oversight might sacrifice major performance gains. Research shows that much of
conflict between managers and subordinates results from managers acting on their own
interpretations of a given situation which may be quite different from those of their
subordinates.

Hence, the need for them to see a situation as it is perceived by others by avoiding perceptual
distortions.

3.4 Conclusion

 Managers should be concerned about how they can teach employees to behave in ways
to benefit the organization.
35
  Managers should compliment subordinates for hard work (when they put out extra
effort)  motivate them to perform a lot better in future. Even encouraging those who
do not perform satisfactorily will lead to success.

 Managers who are constantly late for work take 2hours for lunch or help themselves to
company office supplies for personal use are inviting the same behaviour their
subordinates.

Task: Discuss the other implications of perception and perceptual distortions to the world of
work.

4. Job Satisfaction

4.1 Definition of Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is “an employee’s attitude about his or her job based on factors present in the
work environment” (Carrell, Jennings and Heavrin, 1997:135).

 Work environment = the supervisor’s style, organizational policies and procedures,

work-group affiliation, working conditions, and fringe benefits.

 Job satisfaction may be more intrinsic to the person than to the job.

 An individual’s needs and aspirations can also affect job satisfaction. A person finishing
her college degree may take a particular job on a temporary basis to pay educational

36
 expenses. This person may be satisfied with the job while in school but less satisfied
with the same job on a permanent basis. Greenberg and Baron (1995:169) “define job
satisfaction as an individual’s cognitive, affective, and evaluative reactions toward their
jobs”. This entails attitudes towards one’s job  hence cognitive and evaluative as in
attitude.

4.2 Measuring job satisfaction

 It is difficult to measure and therefore we rely on what people tell us. But people are not
entirely open about their attitudes and keep much of what they feel to themselves.

 But the last 60 years have seen measurement techniques such as rating scales or
questionnaires, critical incidents, and interviews being developed.

 With questionnaires (most common approach), people answer questions allowing them
to report their reactions to their jobs. Several different scales have been developed for
this purpose, and these vary greatly in form and scope. One of the most popular
instruments is the Job Descriptive Index (JDI), a questionnaire in which people indicate
whether or not each of several adjectives describes a particular aspect of their work.
Questions on the JDI deal with five distinct aspects of jobs: the work itself, pay,
promotional opportunities, supervision, and people (co-workers).

 Another widely used measure, the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) uses a
different approach. People completing this scale rate the extent to which they are
satisfied or dissatisfied with various aspects of their jobs (e.g. their pay, chances for
advancement). Higher scores reflect higher degrees of job satisfaction.

Task: Identify differences between the JDI and the MSQ.

 The Pay Satisfaction Questionnaire (PSQ) is concerned with attitudes towards various
aspects of pay. The PSQ provides valid measures of such critical aspects as satisfaction
with pay level, pay raises, fringe benefits, and the structure and administration of the
pay system.

37
  Benefit of rating scales is that they can be completed quickly and efficiently by large
numbers of people. Since questionnaire has already been administered to thousands of
individuals average scores for people in many kinds of jobs are available. It is possible to
compare scores of people in a given company with these averages and obtain measures
of relative satisfaction.

 Critical Incidents are a second procedure for assessing job satisfaction. In this method
individuals describe events relating to their work that they found especially satisfying or
dissatisfying. Replies are then examined to uncover underlying themes.

 Interviews and Confrontation Meetings are a third procedure for assessing job
satisfaction. It involves carefully interviewing employees in face-to-face sessions. By
questioning people in person about their attitudes, it is possible to explore them more
deeply than by using highly structured questionnaire. Interviews assist researchers learn
about the causes of various work-related attitudes.

4.3 Theories of Job Satisfaction

What makes some people more satisfied with their jobs than others? What underlying
processes account for people’s feelings of job satisfaction? Various theories attempt to answer
these questions.

4.3.1 Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory (1959)

Frederick Herzberg asked 200 accountants and engineers to think about something that may
have happened to them on their job that made them feel especially satisfied or dissatisfied. He
found that different factors accounted for job satisfaction and dissatisfaction.

MOTIVATORS HYGIENE FACTORS

 Promotional opportunities -- Quality of supervision

38
  Opportunities for -- Pay

personal growth -- Company policies

 Recognition -- Physical working conditions

 Responsibility -- Relationship with others

 Achievement -- Job security

JOB SATISFACTION JOB DISSATISFACTION

The above diagram shows that satisfaction stemmed from factors associated with the work
itself or to outcomes directly derived from work such as promotion opportunities, opportunities
for personal growth, recognition, responsibility, and achievement. Herzberg called these factors
motivators.

Dissatisfaction was associated with conditions surrounding the job: quality of supervision, pay,
company policies, physical working conditions, relations with others, and job security. These he
called hygiene or maintenance factors because they seemed to prevent negative reactions.

Research has generated mixed results. Some studies have supported Herzberg’s findings while
other studies reported that hygiene factors and motivators had strong effects on both job
satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The theory stimulated research on job enlargement and job
enrichment.

4.3.2 Locke’s Value Theory (1976)

Locke claimed that job satisfaction occurs when the job outcomes (rewards) that an individual
receives matches those outcomes that are desired. The theory focuses on any outcomes that
people value. The theory is based on the discrepancy that exists between what people have and
what they want with respect to various aspects (such as pay and learning opportunities) of their
job. The smaller the discrepancy, the more satisfied they are with their jobs. The larger the
discrepancy, the more dissatisfied people are with their jobs. Recent studies have found good
support for Locke’s value theory of job satisfaction.
39
4.3.3 Moorhead and Griffin’s Causes and Consequences (1989)

ORGANISATIONAL
FACTORS LOW
Pay TURNOVER
Promotion opportunities JOB
Work itself SATISFACTION
Policies and procedures LOW
Working conditions ABSENTEEISM

GROUP FACTORS
Co-workers
Supervisor HIGH
JOB TURNOVER
PERSONAL FACTORS DISSATISFACTION
Needs
Aspirations HIGH
Instrumental benefits ABSENTEEISM

The diagram above shows that Moorhead and Griffin argue that the primary causes of job
satisfaction or dissatisfaction can be grouped into three categories: organizational factors;
group factors and personal factors. The two primary consequences of job satisfaction and
dissatisfaction relate to absenteeism and turnover.

The above theories lead one to ask the question, to what extent are people satisfied with their
job? Do people really like their work? Not everyone doing every type of job is equally satisfied,
therefore who tends to be most satisfied with their jobs? Research in USA, Mexico and Spain
made the following revelations:

- White-collar personnel (e.g. managerial and professional people) tend to be more satisfied
than blue-collar personnel (e.g. physical labourers, factory workers).

- Older people are generally more satisfied with their jobs than younger people. Generally
people become more satisfied with their jobs in their 30s (as they become more successful),
they level off in their 40s (become disenchanted) and become more satisfied again in their late
50s (as they resign themselves to their lot in life).
40
- The more experienced on their jobs tend to be more highly satisfied than those who are less
experienced. Cognitive dissonance assumes that the longer one stays on a job, the more
strongly one is likely to feel compelled to justify their tenure by seeing the job in a positive light.

- Those in lower-level jobs and positions with limited opportunities for advancement tend to be
more dissatisfied with their jobs than those in good jobs.

- Job satisfaction is a relatively stable disposition (like attitudes). Research in USA indicates that
over 5000 men who changed jobs between 1969 and 1971 found that expression of job
satisfaction were relatively stable. Despite having different jobs those who were satisfied or
dissatisfied in 1969 were equally satisfied or dissatisfied in 1971 (Greenberg and Baron,
1995:170).

Task Discuss how each of these organizational and personal factors determine job satisfaction:

(a) Reward system;

(b) Perceived quality of supervision;

(c) Decentralization of power;

(d) Work and social stimulation;

(e) Pleasant working conditions;

(f) Personality variables;

(g) Status and seniority;

(h) Job congruent with interests; and

(i) General life satisfaction (See Greenberg & Baron, 1995:175-178).

4.4 The major effects of job satisfaction

4.4.1 Employee withdrawal

41
When employees are dissatisfied with their jobs they tend to find ways of minimizing their
exposure to them, that is, they withdraw. Two forms of withdrawal are absenteeism and
voluntary turnover. By not showing up to work or by quitting to take a new job, people might
be expressing their dissatisfaction with their jobs or attempting to escape from the unpleasant
aspects they may be experiencing.

Absenteeism = research shows that the lower the individuals’ satisfaction with their jobs, the
more likely they are to be absent from work. Relationship between two is moderate because
dissatisfaction with one’s job is likely to be just one of the many factors influencing employee’s
decisions to report or not to report to work. This is not a reliable reaction to job dissatisfaction
but one of its most important consequences. It is costly to the organization – hence most
companies are extremely interested in controlling the problem of absenteeism.

Voluntary turnover = also a costly form of withdrawal. The lower people’s levels of satisfaction
with their jobs, the more likely they are to consider resigning and to actually do so. The
relationship between the two is modest. Many factors relating to the individuals, their jobs, and
economic conditions shape decisions to move from one job to another. A recent study revealed
that voluntary turnover was depended on people’s affective dispositions, that is, on their
tendency to be generally satisfied (happy with life in general) or dissatisfied. Generally in
individuals with positive dispositions (personality trait), the negative correlation between job
satisfaction and turnover were much stronger than it was among those with negative
dispositions. Why? When someone who is generally positive about things is dissatisfied with
his/her job, that reaction is so special that it prompts the individual into action – quitting. By
contrast, someone who is generally dissatisfied with life is probably also dissatisfied with his or
her job, and this reaction is not so unique as to trigger any concrete reaction.

Other factors/variables in voluntary turnover = job dissatisfaction leads employees to think

about quitting, a decision to search for another job and if the search is successful, individual will
develop definite intentions to quit or remain on the job concrete actions. Economic
conditions may not make it possible for the search for alternative jobs as in the case with

42
Zimbabwe. High unemployment conditions tend to limit alternative job options, leading to
people to stay with their present jobs despite their dissatisfaction with them.

4.4.2 Task performance

Is it true that “happy workers are productive workers”? Research seems to prove this but not
especially strong. Task performance seems to be tied to the receipt of various rewards. Job
satisfaction and performance are not directly linked but are connected by the fact that both are
related to the receipt of various rewards. But rewards lead to job satisfaction (positively or
negatively). A study carried by Ostroff (Greenberg & Baron, 1995:180) among 13 808 junior and
high school teachers in USA and Canada showed that most measures of school performance
were significantly linked to employee satisfaction -- schools with more satisfied teachers were
more effective than those with less satisfied ones.

If rewards are perceived as fair, they may encourage high levels of effort, and therefore good
performance. This may lead to high levels of job satisfaction. To the extent that your job makes
you feel good, you are likely to reciprocate by helping the organization and the others who
have contributed to those good feelings. This is called organizational citizenship = positive
contribution to an organization by an employee who is job satisfied.

4.4.3 Organizational commitment

This is an attitude that reflects the extent to which people are involved with their organization
and are unwilling to leave it. Why do people get committed?

1. The side-bets orientation = an employee tends to remain in an organization because the

person cannot afford to leave. E.g. a person may lose their investments in time, effort, and
benefits if they leave their present organization and they cannot replace these investments.

2. Individual-organizational goal-congruence theory = people are willing to accept and work

towards organizational goals if these goals are similar to their own personal goals. Further,
employees have a strong desire to remain in an organization because of these factors: (1) a
belief in the goals and values of the organization; (2) a willingness to put forth effort on behalf

43
of the organization; and (3) a desire to remain a member of the organization. Managers should
be concerned about the organizational commitment because committed employees tend to
reduce organizational costs. Studies also show that it is related to lower rates of absenteeism,
increased productivity, and higher quality of work. Committed individuals are less likely to quit
and accept other jobs, which eliminates the cost of high turnover.

To foster organizational commitment, managers and supervisors need to implement reward

systems that focus on personal importance or self-esteem and to integrate organizational and
individual goals. N.B. employees who are not satisfied with their jobs will tend to be less
committed to their organizations and therefore likely to quit when opportunities avail
themselves.

4.4.4 Job enrichment

Job satisfaction hinges on the actual job being performed by the employee modern job
design models created specialisation and therefore boredom as employees repeated tasks.
Hence the job enrichment model tries to move away from boring, routine tasks at work. The
worker decides how the job is performed, planned, and controlled and makes decisions
concerning the entire process. The overall purpose is to improve a job by making it more
challenging and rewarding. Various tasks are grouped together so that the worker can see the
process through from the start to the finish, a process called task identity. The worker can see
his/her role in production of the overall product, that is, the quality of workmanship can be
seen.

The model requires a great deal of commitment and planning by top-level management,
retraining of employees, and changes in leadership styles from supervisors and managers.
When properly implemented it may result in substantial increases in profits, higher job
satisfaction and salaries for employees as well as improved customer relations.

Task Read and write further detailed notes on job enrichment in organizations.

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4.5 Conclusion

Job satisfaction is very important to both individuals and organizations as it enhances

productivity.

5 Stress in the Work Environment

5.1 Definition

Jobs create pressure. Employees are impelled, either by themselves or by their bosses, to fulfil
work assignments and respond to deadlines. The effect of these tensions is stress. Therefore,
stress is “the effect of tensions on an employee by job pressure to fulfil job assignments and to
respond to deadlines” (Carrell, Jennings and Heavrin, 1997:141). Greenberg and Baron
(1995:244) “define stress as the pattern of emotional states and physiological reactions
occurring in response to demands from within or outside organizations (i.e. stressors)”.

Stressors = any demands, either physical or psychological in nature, encountered during the
course of living e.g. your boss tells you that you are the only employee who will not be getting a
salary increase this year. For stress to occur people must perceive (1) that the situation they
face is somehow threatening to them, and (2) that they will be unable to cope with these
potential dangers or demands – that the situation is, in essence, beyond their control.

“Stress is a discrepancy between an employee’s perceived state and desired state, when such a
discrepancy is considered important by the employee. Stress influences two behaviours: (1) the
45
employee’s psychological and physical well-being, and (2) the employee’s efforts to cope with
the stress by preventing or reducing it” (Carrell, Jennings and Heavrin, 1997:142). Managers are
interested in maintaining a lower level of job stress because high levels of stress can result in
low productivity, increased absenteeism and turnover, and other problems like alcoholism,
drug abuse, hypertension and a host of cardiovascular problems.

5.2 Sources of stress (causes).

Stressors Stress Reaction to Stress

A stressor is the external agent that disturbs the individual’s equilibrium e.g. your boss says “I
want that project completed tomorrow” – when it’s far from complete. See also earlier
example.

5.2.1 Task demands

Task demands are stressors associated with the specific job an individual performs. Some jobs
or occupations, by their nature are more stressful than others. E.g. the job of a professional
football coach is more stressful than that of the football team’s equipment manager or medic.
Check each football tournament, World Cup, African Cup of Nations, European Nations Cup etc.
always has one or two coaches fired after poor results but rarely equipment poor medic
manager.

Some task demands may pose physical threats to an individual’s health such as handling toxic
waste or being a police officer. The lack of job security may cause dramatic increases in stress
levels. Repetitive jobs that are not mentally challenging create frustration for employees. This
frustration manifests itself in the form of dissatisfaction, stress, and ultimately tardiness,
absenteeism, and turnover.

5.2.2 Physical demands

These are the physical strain and exertion that a particular job involves. Strenuous labour such
as loading heavy cargo can result in stress (river-sand, pit-sand loaders – building materials etc.

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5.2.3 Physical Work Environment

Physical work environment plays a role in the amount of stress that an employee experiences.
Working outdoors in extremely hot or cold temperatures can result in stress as can working in
an improperly heated office or building. Research studies indicate that some occupations are
more stressful than others. E.g. such jobs as air-traffic controller, waitress/waiter, and mine
employee were found to have high levels of stress while the jobs of college lecturer, stock
handler, craft workers, and heavy equipment operators had low levels of stress. White-collar
and blue-collar employees both have high and low levels of stress as do skilled and unskilled
jobs. Further research indicates that the repetitive and ‘dehumanizing’ work environment
created by assembly lines has been linked to high incidents of stress.

5.2.4 Overload and under-load

Overload = employees are asked to do more work than they can handle in a given period of
time. It is very common in situations where there is downsizing. Quantitative over-load =
individuals are asked to do more work than they can complete in a specific period of time.
Qualitative overload = employees believe that they lack the required skills or abilities to
perform a given job. Both types of overload are unpleasant and can lead to high levels of stress.
Under-load leads to boredom and monotony can be stressful. Quantitative under-load is the
boredom that results when employees have so little to do that they find themselves sitting
around much of the time. Qualitative under-load is the lack of mental stimulation that
accompanies many routine, repetitive jobs. A recent study by Fox, Dwyer, and Ganster (cited in
Greenberg & Baron, 1995:250) has demonstrated that a combination of high quantitative
overload and low control is highly stressful  studies full-time nurses working in a private
hospital (low control over type of tasks performed, their order, pacing and scheduling). They
felt stressed especially when overload was accompanied by lack of control they had.

5.2.5 Responsibility for others: a heavy burden

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Some people deal primarily with the production side of the business (supplies, maintaining
equipment) others on financial matters (budgets, taxes, and accounting) and still others
(supervisors/managers) deal primarily with people. Research suggests that individuals
responsible for other people – who must motivate them, reward or punish them, communicate
with them – experience higher levels of stress than individuals who work in other organizational
functions. Why? Such managers deliver negative feedback and then witness the distress it often
generates. It is their task to listen to endless complaints, mediating disputes, promoting
cooperation, and exercising leadership. Hence managers need to have a firm understanding of
the field of organizational behaviour.

5.2.6 Lack of social support: the costs of isolation

“Misery loves company” (Greenberg & Baron, 1995:251) – if we have to face stressful
conditions, it’s better to do so along with other rather than alone. A study of managers by
Oullette-Kobasa and Pucetti at a large public utility was experiencing high levels of stress. Those
who felt they had the support of their immediate supervisors reported fewer physical
symptoms associated with stress than those who did not have such support. Having friends to
turn to in times of difficulty may help individuals perceive stressful events as less threatening
and more under control than would otherwise be the case. Also, friends can often suggest
useful strategies for dealing with sources of stress. By providing a pleasant distraction, friends
can help reduce the negative feelings that often result from stressful events.

5.2.7 Role conflict

It occurs when two or more sets of demands are placed on an employee in such a manner that
compliance with one demand makes it difficult to comply with the other. E.g. a supervisor may
find that top management wants severe reprimands for employee absenteeism while
employees themselves expect consideration of their needs and personal problems. Also, a

48
university professor may find that he or she is expected to spend considerable time in teaching
and at the same time is expected to publish in highly competitive scholarly journals.

Research indicates that job satisfaction decreases as role conflict increases.

5.2.8 Role Ambiguity

It exists when there is a lack of clarity regarding the goals of one’s job or the methods of
performance. Imagine a university professor assigning a term paper to a class without telling
the students: (1) what topics to include, (2) the due date, (3) the required length, (4) how the
paper will be evaluated, and (5) how much the paper will count towards the final course grade.
Would this assignment create any stress for you?

5.3 Consequences of Stress

The diagram above shows the relationship between normal stress and high stress levels. This
diagram shows that some stress is beneficial to performance. It also illustrates that an
extremely high stress level contributes to decline in performance.

49
Eustress is the positive consequences of healthy, normal stress. This includes increased
performance, bursts of physical strength, enhanced focus in an emergency, and increased
cardiovascular efficiency.

Distress is unhealthy stress and its consequences include medical illnesses, behavioural
problems, psychological disorders, decreased performance, and participation problems.

5.3.1 Burnout

Burnout is more than stress – it occurs when a person believes he or she cannot or will not
continue to do the job they have been performing. Burnout, in essence, is the overall
perception that a person is giving more than he or she is receiving either in monetary rewards,
recognition, support, or advancement. It can occur at all organizational levels, all pay levels, and
in all age groups. A person who is stressed can take an extended vacation and return rested and
ready to get back to work. If that person has experienced burnout, within a few days after
returning to work he or she feels as miserable as before the vacation.

Burnout is a general feeling of exhaustion that develops when an individual simultaneously

experiences too much pressure and too few sources of satisfaction. Its primary symptoms
include being drained or used up and occur among individuals who work in some capacity with
people. Organizations interested in assisting their employees in controlling burnout begin with
recognizing the symptoms that may indicate that an individual is experiencing burnout. The
following are symptoms of employee burnout:

(1) Physical

--A change in physical appearance, decline in grooming or wardrobe.

--Complaints such as headaches, backaches, or gastrointestinal problems.

--Increased absenteeism for health reasons.

--Signs and symptoms of depression, such as a change in weight, eating habits, or chronic
fatigue.

--Frequent infections, especially respiratory infections.

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(2) Emotional

--Depressed appearance, such as sad expression, slumped posture or rounded shoulders.

--Appearing bored or speaking of boredom.

--Attitudes of cynicism, resentfulness, apathy or anxiety.

--Expressions of frustration and hopelessness.

(3) Behavioural

--Decreased productivity, inability to focus on the job or complete a task.

--Tardiness.

--More frequent absenteeism.

--Withdrawal or listlessness.

--Expressions of irritability or hostility.

--Overworking.

--Abuse of drugs, alcohol, or caffeine, increased smoking.

--Excessive exercise, often to the point of injury (Carrell, Jennings & Heavrin, 1997:149).

The following procedures will allow managers to reduce the occurrence of burnout in their
organizations:

(1) Acknowledge the problem – let employees know about burnout through policy, orientation,
and training that the organization has policies to help them should it occur.

(2) Train managers to recognize the symptoms of employee burnout and refer potential victims
to counselling.

(3) Time limits are a key to preventing burnout. Constant excessive overtime is a common cause
of stress and burnout.

(4) Recognize people’s contributions – positive feedback helps people psychologically refuel and
increase their self-image.

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(5) Provide outlets for anger, frustration, helplessness, and depression. Employees must often
deal with these emotions alone. By providing a person (often a boss) who can help them cope
can often avoid burnout.

(6) Retraining – implementing a programme of lateral moves for employees who feel stuck in a
“dead end” position can keep a valuable employee motivated and at work.

5.4 Dealing with Stress

Several approaches have been identified to assist organizations and individuals cope with
stress.

5.4.1 Organizational Stress Management

Top level management can implement the following strategies to reduce the intensity and
number of stressors on employees.

(1) Providing emotional support – superiors, co-workers and subordinates can provide
emotional support to help individuals cope with stressors. Management style should build a
perception of caring, empathy, and trust that can provide emotional support within an
organization.

(2) Utilizing a participative process for setting objectives – this reduces and resolves role
conflicts and uncertainties, which are major sources of stress and burnout. Encouraging
employees to participate in decisions that affect their work lives can reduce their stress levels.

(3) Adapting physical environment – three strategies can be utilized here. (a) To alter the
physical relationship to noise or to institute better temperature control. (b) To protect
employees from the environment by instituting or improving safety programmes. (c) To use
ergonomics. Ergonomics is an applied science that involves the purposeful design of equipment
and the arrangement of things to fit the requirements of the human body. Research indicates
that ergonomics tends to reduce accidents, errors, stress and mental fatigue.

52
(4) Providing special programmes – An increasing number of organizations are providing
physical-fitness facilities to improve employee morale and to reduce stress. These facilities offer
exercise programmes as well as aerobics, weight training, and running. Wellness programmes
are being implemented to help employees reduce their susceptibility to illness and the effects
of stressors by changing the way they live. These programmes include courses in stress
management, exercise, weight reduction, and giving up smoking.

5.4.2 Individual Stress Management

Actions that can be taken to reduce stress depend on personal preferences, needs, and
lifestyles and include the following:

(1) Proper Nutrition – includes planning a balanced diet, eating regular meals, maintaining a
recommended weight, not smoking, and using alcohol and caffeine moderately.

(2) Exercise Habits – Physical exercise is one of the least expensive strategies for reducing
stress. Research indicates that a sound programme of physical fitness can improve mental
health as well as physical well-being.

(3) Meditation – can reduce anxiety and improve work performance and job satisfaction.
Regular relaxation techniques include transcendental meditation, prayer, and healing
visualization.

(4) Self-Awareness – Individuals can manage stress by modifying their behaviours. Setting
reasonable objectives, improving time management, and simply reducing the total number of
tasks can all help individuals reduce or avoid negative stress. Also, stressors resulting from
conflict incidents can be reduced by making more use of the collaborative and compromise
conflict-management styles and less use of the forcing and avoidance styles.

(5) Withdrawal – in the form of being absent or changing jobs or careers is perhaps the simplest
way of coping with stressors. Transferring to another department or looking for another job can
be a realistic coping strategy. However, withdrawal can also be an unhealthy means of
attempting to escape reality.

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5.5 Conclusion

Stress was defined and its sources explored. The consequences of stress were also examined.
Burnout was also looked at as well as strategies for dealing with stress.

Task

Describe symptoms of employee burnout and then discuss procedures managers can take to
reduce the occurrence of burnout in their organizations.

6. Groups in Organizations

6.1 Definition

Greenberg and Baron (1995:286) define a group as “a collection of two or more interacting
individuals with a stable pattern of relationships among them, who share common goals and
who perceive themselves as being a group”. “A psychological group is any number of people
who (a) interact with each other, (b) are psychologically aware of each other, and (c) perceive
themselves to be a group” (Huczynski and Buchanan, 1991:164).

--Group members consider themselves as being part of an identifiable unit (perceive

themselves to be a group).

--Group members relate to each other in a meaningful fashion (stable group structure).

--They have a shared sense of collective identity (common goals).

--An example of a group is a football team. Groups exclude aggregates of people who are simply
individuals who happen to be collected together at any particular time e.g. bus travellers,
theatre audience or rain shelterers etc. The need for all members to interact has led to the

54
suggestion that in practice, a group is unlikely to exceed twelve or so persons. Beyond that
number, the opportunity for frequent interaction between members and hence group
awareness, is considerably reduced.

N.B. a problem may pull aggregates of people to interact (hence form a group)  a disaster –
sinking ship, hijacked aeroplane, tsunami etc.

6.2 Characteristics of a group

(1) A minimum membership of two people – the more members a group has the greater the
number of possible relationships that can exist between them. Less than two does not form a
group.

(2) A shared communication network – each member of a group must be capable of

communicating with every other member – hence exchange the aims and purposes of the
group. Communication is used to set and enforce standards of group behaviour.

(3) A shared sense of collective identity – each group member must identify with the other
members of the group and not see themselves as individuals acting independently. They must
see themselves as members of, and participants in the group  distinct from other people.

(4)Shared goals – common interests and goals that are shared are only achievable by the
members working together, not as individuals. Each member feels obliged to contribute to the
attainment of shared goals.

(5) Group structure – individuals in the group will have different roles e.g. initiator/ideas man,
suggestion – provider, compromiser etc. Roles tend to become fixed, indicate what members
expect of each other. The structure should keep group members together and functioning as a
unit.

(6) Norms – a common characteristic of groups is the development of norms. Work-group

norms are the standards of behaviour or performance that the members of a group expect
from each other. Peer pressure on a person to perform according to what other group

55
members expect can be a very powerful influence on one’s behaviour. Nonconformity with the
group’s norm can threaten the existence of the group.

An accepted group norm may cause an individual to perform at a lower level than if he or she
worked independently  situation whereby union workers negotiate easy performance
standards and bonuses for work above those standards. A new member who works above
those standards may be called a “rate buster” by his/her co-workers – could influence
management to raise performance standards to match the “rate buster’s” standards for all
workers.

6.3 Types of Groups (Formal and informal groups)

For an organization to achieve its goals it has to create a formal organization (in order to
function efficiently and effectively). The overall collective purpose or aim is broken into sub-
goals or subtasks. These are assigned to different subunits in the organization. Tasks are
grouped together and departments thus formed – formation of groups along functional lines.
This process of identifying the purpose, dividing up tasks and so on, is referred to as the
creation of the formal organization. Groups formed as a result of this process are therefore
known as formal groups. Hence, a company dividing itself into departments responsible for
sales, production, quality control, finance, personnel, training etc.

By definition, “formal groups are those groups in an organization which have been consciously
created to accomplish the organization’s collective purpose. These formal groups perform
formal functions such as getting work done, generating ideas, liaising and so on. The formal
group functions are the tasks which are assigned to it, and for which it is officially held
responsible” (Huczynski and Buchanan, 1991:167). Managers make choices represented as
decisions that run departments. Whatever type of formal group one examines, they have
certain common characteristics:

56
(1) They have a formal structure;

(2) They are task oriented;

(3) They tend to be permanent;

(4) Their activities contribute directly to the organization’s collective purpose; and

(5) They are consciously organized by somebody for a reason.

Two different types of formal groups can be identified – (a) permanent formal groups such as a
permanent committee (e.g. union-management consultative board), a management team or a
staff group providing specialist services (e.g. computer unit, training section). (b) temporary
formal groups e.g. ad hoc committee, a task group which is formally designed to work on a
specific project  formed because a serious defect occurs in some area of manufacture, the
aim is to identify the causes and suggest remedies. It is then disbanded once the objective has
been achieved. Note that some temporary groups may last for years – it is critical that members
feel they may be disbanded at any time. Example: JOMIC during the GNU in Zimbabwe (2009 to
2013).

“An informal group is a collection of individuals who become a group when members develop
interdependencies, influence one another’s behaviour and contribute to mutual need
satisfaction” (Huczynski and Buchanan, 1991:168). Key factor in formation of informal group is a
common interest shared by its members e.g. a group of employees who band together to seek
union representation or who march together to protest their company’s pollution of the
environment, may be called an interest group (Greenberg & Baron, 1995:288). A common goal
unites workers at many different organizational levels but membership is voluntary – it is not
forced by the organization but encouraged by an expression of common interest.

6.4 Reasons for joining groups

A critical factor in the development and continuation of successful work groups is the group’s
ability to satisfy the needs of its own members. People join groups for various reasons
including:
57
(1) To achieve security – “Most people feel relieved and motivated when they hear that others
have the same problems, concerns, and desires. Alone they may feel powerless to act – fearing
their thoughts are out of line, or worse, fearing reprisals from their superiors for bringing up the
situation” (Carrell, Jennings & Heavrin, 1997:345). Once they realise problems are commonly
shared by others, people feel reinforced and may act on their concerns. Hence the slogan
“Strength in numbers”; “There’s safety in numbers”  security of group membership. Labour
unions largely developed because their members perceived that collectively they could achieve
goals that could not be achieved alone.

(2) To fill social needs – According to Maslow people are social animals – they have a basic need
to interact with others. Groups provide good opportunities for friendships to develop – for
social needs to be fulfilled. If we spend 8 hours a day with a group of people, it is only natural
that some members of that group become our closest friends. If you made a list of your best
friends (nonfamily) chances are the majority would be people you worked with or are working
with.

(3) To fill need for self-esteem – Group memberships can be a very effective way of nurturing
self-esteem. For example, if a group to which one belongs is successful# (such as a sales group
that meets its quota), the self-esteem of all members (and supporters) may be boosted.

# A group that has reached a high level of achievement. Examples?

(4) Self-actualisation – People who are lucky enough to achieve self-actualisation, that is,
believe they have utilized their abilities to the fullest extent, seldom take the credit for their
success. They will cite “those who helped me...” – highly successful striker (like Peter Ndlovu)
will mention other members of the team who made it possible for him to set records.

6.5 Stages in the development of groups

Tuckman and Jensen (1977) suggested that groups mature and develop, and have a fairly
clearly defined five-stage cycle of growth (cited in Huczynski & Buchanan, 1991:174):

58
(1) Forming – individuals not yet become a group. Individuals are busy finding out who the
other people are. They seek to know one another’s attitudes and backgrounds, and to establish
ground rules. Members are also keen to establish their personal identities in the group and
make a personal impression on others. Group issues are cohesion and involvement.

(2) Storming – this stage is characterised by a high degree of conflict within the group as
members bargain with each other as they try to sort out what each of them individually, and as
a group, want out of the group process. Individuals reveal their personal goals and it is likely
that interpersonal hostility is generated when differences in these goals are revealed. Members
may resist the control of other group members and may show hostility. The early relationships
established in forming stage may be disrupted. The key issues in this stage are group direction
and the management of conflict.

(3) Norming – the group becomes more cohesive, and identification as a member of the group
becomes greater. Close relationships develop, shared feelings become common, and a keen
interest in finding mutually agreeable solutions develop. Feelings of camaraderie and shared
responsibility for the group’s activities are heightened. The norming stage is complete when the
members of the group accept a common set of expectations that constitutes an acceptable way
of doing things.

(4) Performing – questions about relationships and leadership have been resolved and the
group is ready to work. Having fully developed, the group may now devote its energy to getting
the job done – the group’s good relations and acceptance of its leadership helps the group
perform well.

(5) Adjourning – the group may disband, either because the task has been achieved (an ad hoc
group created to raise money for a charity project) or because the norms that have developed
are no-longer effective for the group.

6.6 The structure of work groups

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Group structure refers to the inter-relationships between individuals constituting a group, the
characteristics that make group functioning orderly and predictable (Greenberg & Baron,
1995:291).

(1)Roles – a role is the typical behaviours that characterize a person in a special context. A
member tends to play specific roles in group interaction, sometimes more than one. In
organizations, many roles are assigned by virtue of an individual’s position within an
organization e.g. a boss may be expected to give orders, and a teacher may be expected to
teach and to give exams. These are behaviours expected of the individual in that role. The
person holding the role is known as a role incumbent, and the behaviours expected of that
person are known as role expectations.

The role incumbent’s recognition of the expectations of his or her role helps avoid the social
disorganisation that would surely result if clear role expectations did not exist. When workers
are sometimes confused about things that are expected of them on the job, such as their level
of authority or their responsibilities that is called role ambiguity. This is normally experienced
by new members – often results in job dissatisfaction, a lack of commitment to the
organisation, and an interest in leaving the job. Role differentiation is when various group
members come to play different roles in the social structure. The emergence of different roles
in groups is a naturally occurring process – check someone who has worked for 5 or more years
– the number of committees they have belonged to – was there someone who joked and made
people feel better, and another member who worked hard to get the group to focus on the
issue at hand? How about a ‘gossiper’ or ‘grand old man’ who tells newcomers the stories
about the company’s ‘good old days’?

In a group someone may help the group reach its goal – this person plays the task-oriented
role. A member who is supportive – makes everyone else feel good is said to play a socio-
emotional or relations-oriented role. Self-oriented role people do things for themselves at the
expense of the group.

(2) Norms – these are “generally agreed-on informal rules that guide group members’
behaviour” (Greenberg & Baron, 1995:293). They represent shared ways of viewing the world.
60
Norms differ from organisational rules in that they are not formal and written. Norms regulate
behaviour of groups  foster workers’ honesty and loyalty to company, establish appropriate
ways to dress, dictate when it is acceptable to be late for or absent from work. Norms can be
either prescriptive (dictating behaviours that should be performed) or proscriptive (dictating
behaviours that should be avoided) e.g. groups may develop prescriptive norms to follow their
leader or help a group who needs assistance. Groups may also develop proscriptive norms to
avoid absences or to refrain from blowing the whistle on each other. Sometimes peer pressure
to conform to norms is subtle e.g. dirty looks given a manager for going to lunch with one of the
assembly-line workers. Other times it may be quite severe one production worker sabotages
another’s work because he is performing at too high a level, making his co-workers look bad.

Task: Read to find out more about how group norms develop.

(3) Status – this is the “relative social position or rank given to groups or group members by
others” (Greenberg & Baron, 1995:294). Formal status refers to attempts to differentiate
between degrees of formal authority given employees by an organisation. This is done using
status symbols  objects reflecting the position of an individual within an organisation’s
hierarchy e.g. job title “Director” with perks such as reserved parking space, luxurious working
conditions (large, private office), serving on important committees etc. Symbols of informal
status within organisations are widespread. This refers to the prestige accorded individuals with
certain characteristics that are not formally dictated by the organisation e.g. employees who
are older and more experienced may be perceived as higher in status by their co-workers.
Those who have special skills may be regarded as having higher status than others.

(4) Cohesiveness – it is “the strength of group members’ desires to remain part of their groups”
(Greenberg & Baron, 1995:295). Highly cohesive work groups are ones in which the members
are attracted to each other, accept the group’s goals, and help work towards meeting them. In
very un-cohesive groups, members dislike each other and may even work at cross- purposes. In
essence, cohesiveness refers to a “we” feeling, a sense of belonging to a group.

Factors that influence the extent to which group members tend to ‘stick together’ include:

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(1) The severity of initiation into the group – the greater the difficulty people overcome to
become a member of a group, the more cohesive the group will be. Rigorous requirements to
join a sports team, medical school, graduate school etc create cohesiveness. ‘Passing the test’
tends to keep individuals together and separates them from those unable to ‘pay the price’ of
admission.

(2) Conditions of high external threat or competition. When workers face a ‘common enemy’,
they tend to draw together, feel safer and better protected – encourages them to work closely
together and coordinate their efforts towards the common enemy. Petty disagreements are put
aside.

(3) Cohesiveness generally tends to be greater the more time group members spend together.

(4) Cohesiveness tends to be greater in smaller groups. Groups that are too large make it
difficult for members to interact – fail to reach a high level of cohesiveness.

(5) Groups with a history of success tend to be highly cohesive – “everyone loves a winner”. The
success of a group tends to help unite its members as they rally around their success –
employees tend to be loyal to successful companies.

Benefits of cohesive groups:

Cohesive groups tend to work together quite well and are sometimes exceptionally productive.
Cohesive groups are also associated with low levels of voluntary turnover. “People’s willingness
to work together quite well and to conform to the group’s norms is often responsible for their
success and their willingness to stay with the group” (Greenberg & Baron, 1995:296).

6.7 Group Decision Making

Carrell, Jennings and Heavrin(1997:346 -352) argue that many decision making tasks are
performed by interactive groups – groups whose members work together in unstructured, face-
to-face interactions. For example, employees in an automobile firm’s TQM group who are
solving a production problem may meet as an interactive group. A management team
discussing the merits of a cost reduction programme may meet as an interactive team. Also,
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decision-making groups such as committees, teams, and task forces have the responsibility for
making decisions.

6.7.1 Potential Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages include:

(1) A greater understanding of the decision because group members participate in the various
stages of the decision-making process;

(2) Groups have more knowledge and information through the pooling of member resources;

(3) Groups generate more ideas than individuals and are able to evaluate ideas better than
individuals;

(4) Increased commitment to, and acceptance of, the decision because group members had a
voice in it.

Disadvantages include:

(1) Time required to reach a decision is more than in individuals since groups work slower (than
individuals);

(2) A group may be dominated by a strong individual or clique who may ramrod (hijack)
decisions;

(3) Pressure on members to conform or to “fit in” with the group often develops;

(4) On poorly structured, creative tasks, individuals may perform better than groups.

Research shows that:

-In a complex learning task groups as a whole performed better than either the average or best
individual member of the group. When performing complex problems, groups are superior to
individuals if certain conditions prevail (group members have heterogeneous, complementary
skills, ideas can be freely shared, and good ideas are accepted).

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-When performing simple problems, groups will perform only as well as the best individual in
the group – if that person has correct answer and response is accepted by the group.

-Individuals are more productive in solving creative problems than are groups. Creativity may
be inhibited when individuals are in groups and groups may slow down the process of bringing
creative ideas to fruition.

The following two factors may limit the functioning of group decision making:

Groupthink

It is “a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive
group, when the members’ desire for unanimity overrides their personal motivation to
realistically appraise alternative courses of action” (Carrell, Jennings & Heavrin, 1997:347).
Public policy fiascos caused by groupthink include decisions by members of the Reagan
administration to exchange arms for hostages with Iran and to continue commitment to the
Nicaraguan contras despite official U.S. policy against such actions. President Reagan’s national
security advisor Robert McFarland testified the mistake occurred because he didn’t “have the
guts to stand up and tell the President that...” which is what groupthink can cause – reluctance
of individual group members to object to group decisions they believe are wrong and instead
go along with the majority. There are plenty of examples in history – when President Mugabe
appointed 8 provincial governors contrary to public feelings and economic/monetary thinking
to the contrary. The groupthink phenomenon will occur when:

-Group members ignore warning signals that are contrary to group thinking;

- Group members believe the group’s position is moral and ethical, while all others are evil;

- Members see outsiders in negative terms; therefore their position is expected;

- Members are discouraged from expressing dissenting opinions. Members that do may be
ostracized or expelled e.g. Mavhaire explusion, Prof. Jonathan Moyo in 2005.

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- Members keep counter-arguments to themselves;

- Members share the false belief that everyone in the group agrees with their judgments.

Guidelines for preventing groupthink include:

-Group leader should not state his position on an issue prior to the group’s decisions;

- Members should each assume the role of critical evaluator – actively voicing objections or
doubts;

- Have several groups that simultaneously work on the decisions;

- Use outside experts to evaluate the group’s process;

- Appoint a devil’s advocate to question the group’s decision;

- Carefully evaluate the competition;

- After a consensus has been reached, rethink the alternatives.

Group Polarisation

A graduate student, James Stoner (cited in Carrell, Jennings & Heavrin, 1997: 348) noticed that
individuals tended to make less risky decisions while groups favoured riskier actions. Placed in a group
setting individuals shifted to a riskier position. The situation in which a group endorses a riskier position
than would its individual members is called the “risky shift”. Other studies showed that groups can
choose a more cautious action than individuals – this is a “cautious shift”. Research studies (by other
researchers) on shifts were carried involving pre-meeting with group members on an individual basis
before group discussions. Results showed that if pre-meeting inclination is towards the extreme of the
caution the group’s decision tends to go towards the extreme of the caution direction. Risky pre-
meeting inclination – the group’s decision tends to be towards the risky extreme. The tendency of the
group to move towards extremes is known as group polarisation. Reasons – individuals prior to group
discussions believe they hold better views than other members. During group discussions, these
members see that their views are close to average of others, so they shift to more extreme positions.
Also discussions expose members to arguments they had not previously considered – hence individuals

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initially against an issue become more radically opposed to it while those in favour of the issue become
more strongly supportive following discussion.

N.B. managers should be aware of the above possibilities.

6.7.2 Improving group decisions

Brainstorming, nominal group technique, delphi technique and electronic brainstorming can be
used to improve group decision making.

Brainstorming

Groups are used to generate new ideas for analysing problems. Brainstorming is the use of a
diverse group of knowledgeable people to generate ideas. For brainstorming sessions to be
successful:

(1) Include 3 to 12 people knowledgeable about the issue.

(2) The group leader introduces the problem that requires innovative ideas or concepts.
Members are encouraged to “expand the boundaries”, “break the mould” and disregard costs,
time, and resource constraints.

(3) Group members asked to give any ideas that occur to them. No one is allowed to criticise or
evaluate any idea – but build upon thoughts of others and try to generate as many ideas as
possible.

(4) Group leader records all ideas generated – these will be discussed and analysed at a later
time.

This method can generate new ideas or identify potential solutions to problems. Problems:

- Productivity declines if group exceeds 12 members.

- Some members may feel apprehensive about vocalising their ideas if they feel their ideas may
be ridiculed or rejected or if intimidated by higher-status members in a group.
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- Production blocking – an individual cannot express their ideas because another person is
talking especially if there are one or two domineering people in the group.

Nominal Group Technique

This is similar to brainstorming except that group member acts independently and is given
anonymity. The process is as follows:

(1) Three or more knowledgeable people meet, but without discussion, and each writes down
his or her ideas.

(2) The group leader asks each member to contribute ideas that are displayed on a flipchart,
chalkboard etc. Ideas are not explained or evaluated until all are presented.

(3) The group members explain and discuss each idea without criticism or evaluation.

(4) A final comparison is made by each group member rank-ordering ideas independently. An
aggregate ranking then determines the final comparison.

Advantages of this method over brainstorming are:

(1) It minimises production blocking since members are independently generating ideas and
each is given a chance to contribute and explain his/her suggestion.

(2) By providing anonymity to the listing of ideas, members are less inhibited by higher-status
members.

(3) It eliminates arguments and hostilities that can occur during group meetings.

(4) It produces a final rank-ordered comparison of ideas which is not the goal of a pure
brainstorming session.

(5) A group decision can be developed in only a few hours.

(6) The method can be used in situations in which participants fear criticism from others.

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Disadvantage – it is a highly structured format and only one narrowly defined problem can be
considered at a time.

The Delphi Technique

Group members are never brought together in one location – the questionnaires are utilised to
communicate with the group members. The use of electronic mail and Fax machines ensures
that it is no-longer more time-consuming than others. It allows members in different locations
to contribute in a successful group-decision making process. The steps are as follows:

(1) The group leader develops and distributes questionnaires that state the problem and
requests solutions/ideas.

(2) Potential solutions or ideas are submitted anonymously by group members.

(3) The group leader summarises the input from members in a new questionnaire that is
distributed to group members.

(4) Members respond to the initial set of ideas or solutions presented in the second
questionnaire. If no decision is reached, the group leader can repeat the process.

Disadvantages include:

(1) It works better with individuals who are self-starters.

(2) Its impersonal – it is too mechanical or statistical and allows no room for clarifications.

(3) May not get feedback if members are not committed to the organisation.

(4)Thinking is influenced by the structure of the questionnaire.

(5) There are poor internal controls and therefore needs a group leader who is ethical or born
again. Otherwise results of brainstorming may be seriously tempered with.

Advantage – it is very cheap.

Electronic Brainstorming
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Group members utilise computer technology in the generation of ideas and solutions. Members
simultaneously type their suggestions into a computer that then distributes them to computer
screens of all group members at the appropriate time. It combines the advantage of traditional
brainstorming (synergy created by simultaneous sharing of ideas) with advantages of nominal
group process (generate ideas without inhibitions or production blocking). Steps are as follows:

(1) The group leader explains rules of brainstorming and how electronic brainstorming
functions to members who are seated around a U-shaped table. Each member has a computer
monitor and keyboard.

(2) The group leader types in problem that is displayed on each member’s screen.

(3) The group members then simultaneously type in their ideas that are displayed on screens.

(4) The group leader records all ideas. Members may be asked to rate/rank the order of the
ideas to produce an aggregate evaluation.

Advantages of electronic brainstorming include:

(1) Participants feel satisfied with the process and believe they can express their ideas quickly.

(2) Anonymity reduces the inhibiting effects of traditional brainstorming. Lower-status

members are less apprehensive about presenting their ideas.

(3) Increasing group size does not constrain the generation of ideas that can occur with larger
groups in non-electronic brainstorming settings.

(4) Production-blocking does not occur since all members can contribute ideas simultaneously.
The process also prevents one or two members from dominating the process.

(5) Group members can be at separate locations and still generate ideas interactively.

Disadvantage – all group members must have access to computer technology/equipment and
be willing to use it. The challenges of electricity and computer technology in developing
countries are a hindrance to the use of electronic brainstorming.

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6.8 Employee Teams

This is also known as “autonomous work groups” – had their origins in the quality circles of the
1970s. Employee teams avoided highly specialised jobs and centralised management control.
The team members were trained in a dozen or more skills, and the group was given the
authority and responsibility previously handled by supervisors. The management hierarchy was
flattened to only three levels and this had the effect of increasing efficiency and productivity.

Formal employee teams can be divided into three categories: special project teams, problem-
solving teams, and self-managed teams.

Project Teams

They began in the 1980s with a handful of U.S.A. companies. They consist of 10 to 15 people
from different functions such as research and development, engineering, manufacturing, and
marketing brought together to design and develop a new product quickly and successfully. All
project teams use some form of pacing to complete special projects – most use midpoint
(target time) as the critical point to assess their progress, agree upon completed work, and
move on to final phases of their efforts. Why use project teams?

(1) Global competition has greatly increased the need to reduce the time required to
successfully put a new product on the market;

(2) Employees are able to provide greater meaningful input into development of new products;

(3) Past successes of project teams have convinced more managers to relinquish their authority
to project teams; and

(4) The synergy factor drives team members to be more creative, work harder, and achieve
greater productivity than they would if they were given only a limited view of the project. There
are 3 types of project team structures, namely:

1. The ‘lightweight’ structure

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This is similar to the traditional structure in that team members remain in their functional areas
but each functional group of employees working on the project designates a ‘liaison’ person to
represent it on a project committee. These liaisons work with a ‘lightweight project manager’
who coordinates activities of the project. The project manager is ‘lightweight’ because they are
usually a junior-level person with little decision-making authority – resources and functional
employees are still controlled by the functional manager. The advantage of this structure over
the traditional one is that it offers improved communications, minimal disruption to the
organisation’s normal operations etc. But the structure does not guarantee the speed or
success of a new project to the extent the last two structures provide.

2. The ‘heavyweight’ structure

The project manager is usually a senior manager who outranks the functional managers, has
direct authority and responsibility for all people working on the project, and has control of the
project from concept to market. Employees in functional areas remain assigned to those areas
and report to their functional manager once the project is complete. There is greater control of
resources and employees involved in the project, the structure is more likely to be successful
but more disruptive to the functional team structure.

Task: Discuss the differences between ‘heavyweight’ structure and ‘lightweight’ structure.

3. The ‘autonomous’ structure

The structure formally assigns and physically locates the employees involved in the project to
the project manager, who is the sole evaluator of performance. Total control of resources
allows it to focus on the rapid completion of the project. The team can attract and select team
members with the needed talents and commitment. All employees involved in the project work
for the project manager from the concept stage to market. One disadvantage is the entire
separation of the employees involved from their functional areas.

5 keys to selecting and developing successful project teams:

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(1) Priority – the organisation must be willing to specify the project as a top priority and give
the team the needed resources and total control of the project.

(2) Recruiting team members – joining a project team is a high risk especially the possibility of
project failure. It is therefore important to recruit management superstars accustomed to
taking risks and ‘rock solid’ middle managers thrilled at the chance for a new challenge. It is
critical to pick team players who can work together with people from other disciplines and
focus entirely on one objective.

(3) Team management – successful teams work together within the space in the company, not
in isolation, report only to top management, make all decisions on the project, and receive
significant bonus incentives if the team meets or exceeds goals.

(4) Team leader, members – the team leader keeps the team focused on the goal and secures
the resources the members request. Members should assume equality during project
regardless of differences in salary, status, or job function.

(5) Managing expectations – success or failure may largely be due to expectations the team sets
for itself and communicates with others. Under-promising and over-delivering is often a
successful team strategy:

There are plenty of companies that successfully utilised project teams in the 1990s e.g. AT&T –
needed a cordless phone in half time taken to design similar products in the past. The project
team created by John Hanley, vice president of Product Development – quality requirements
set by management, rest by team (cost, physical appearance, how it would operate etc.). The
new phone was on the market in under a year (compared to two years for similar new phones)
and quality, design, and operational requirements were met.

Problem-solving Teams

These are used to lesser extent (than special project and self-managed teams) but can be highly
successful. Through the exchange of ideas and sharing of information, groups of employees
analyse and solve assigned problems. Their main focus is solving problems in organisations e.g.

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the Wallace Company Inc., a Houston, Texas – based pipe Distribution Company. While oil
industry suffered its worst slumps during mid-1980s, Wallace increased sales per employee for
six straight years – as they switched focus from sales to repair and maintenance. They also
moved away from a functional conventional company to a set of teams mostly appointed to
solve a specific problem. Hence in 1990 it became only the second smallest company (280
employees) to win the highly acclaimed Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

Self-managed Teams

They are also called autonomous work groups or self-directed teams. It is “a small group of
employees responsible for an entire work process or segment. Team members work together
to improve their operation or product, plan their work, resolve day-to-day problems, and
manage themselves” (Carrell et al, 1997:360). These teams are permanent components within
the organisation that ‘get the work out’ on a daily basis. Characteristics include:

(1) They plan, control, and make decisions about their work; they self-manage!

(2) They set their own productivity goals and inspect their own work, within limits.

(3) They set their own work schedules.

(4) Members select, appraise, and discipline each other.

(5) They are responsible for the quality of their work.

Organisations that have chosen to organise work to be performed by self-managed teams are
quite different than traditional organisations with highly specialised jobs. They often have far
fewer levels of management, teams perform many of the functions normally performed by the
additional layers of management – assign work, check to see that it is done properly, discipline
people when necessary, hire employees, appraise performance, etc. The supervisor’s role
vanishes as members supervise themselves. A lot of money is saved when a number of
supervisors and managers are eliminated by self-managed teams. All members of the team
must learn all the tasks and jobs, not just a single job as they would in a traditional company.

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Major benefits from self-managed teams include:

(1) Improved quality, productivity, service – to stay competitive companies must continually
improve quality, service, costs, and speed. The Japanese call it Kaizen, which means continuous
improvement. The sense of ownership that members of a team develop makes continuous
improvement possible.

(2) Greater flexibility – companies must be able to constantly respond to changing customer
needs. Work teams communicate better, identify new opportunities faster, and implement
needed changes more quickly because of the reduced hierarchy.

(3) Reduced operating costs – costs are reduced by eliminating layers of middle management as
the teams plan and solve problems etc.

(4) Faster response to Technological Change – teams provide an environment for easy
introduction of new technologies. These (technologies) demand greater skills, communication
among workers and greater coordination among work activities (factors already found in
teams).

(5) Fewer job classifications – increased technology demands multi-skilled employees with
greater flexibility to perform many related job functions. Self-managed teams train their
members to perform all tasks – thus each work team has only one job classification.

(6) Ability to attract and retain good people – modern employees want greater autonomy,
challenge, and responsibility in their jobs. Teams offer the type of jobs desired by the most
creative and talented members of the work force.

Research also reports that job satisfaction or employee morale tends to improve significantly
once self-managed teams are fully established in a company.

Potential work team problems

Case studies of organisations that try to change to work teams report the following potential
problems:

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(1) Supervisor turnover – significant change is always difficult for employees to accept. First-
line supervisors see their jobs change from managers to coaches and realise a substantial loss in
their authority. The transition from supervisor to team member is not an easy one – hence
research reports 25% of first-line supervisors leave their jobs than become team members.

(2) Social loafing – focus of productivity shifts from individual to the group, hence one or more
members may decrease their output because they feel the reduction cannot be detected –
people perceive they have a low visibility. Once job satisfaction is achieved social loafing is also
eliminated.

(3) Higher absenteeism and turnover – transition from a traditional organisation to work teams
often requires up to two years. The period has a high number of absences and turnover – may
result from the longer hours and greater training required.

Research involving over 500 organisations with operational teams found two major factors that
can limit their success – individual and organisational.

Individual factors:

(1) An unwillingness of team members to set aside position and power.

(2) Diverse levels of ability, knowledge, and skill among group members tend to place more
burden on some members than on others.

(3) Challenges to and conflicts arising from individual members’ personal beliefs.

Organisational factors:

(1) Rewards and compensation that focus on individual performance only.

(2) Performance appraisals that ignore the employee’s team performance.

(3) Unavailability of pertinent information.

(4) Lack of commitment of top management.

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(5)Internal competition that limits effectiveness.

However, team training and team incentives are useful tools that can be used to develop
successful cohesive self-managed teams.

Task

Read further on team training and team incentives. Also note that the automobile industry has
successfully utilised both project-development teams and self-managed teams. Examples
include Volvo in Sweden, Ford Motor Company’s project team “Team Taurus”, Ford’s “Team
Mustang” etc.

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7. Power and Politics within Organisations.

7.1 Definition of Power

“Power involves the capacity of one party (the agent) to influence another party (the target)”
(Yukl, 2002:142). It is the absolute capacity of an individual agent to influence the behaviour or
attitudes of one or more designated target persons at a given point in time. “Webster’s
Dictionary defines power as the possession of control, authority, or influence over others, and
the ability to act or produce an effect. In the workplace, power is seen as the ability to get
things done by exerting influence over others” (Carrell et al, 1997:315). Authority – “the rights,
prerogatives, obligations, and duties associated with particular positions in an organization or
social system” (Yukl, 2002:142). A leader’s authority includes the right to make particular types
of decisions for the organisation. A manager has legitimate right to establish work rules and
give work assignments to subordinates. Also has right to exercise control over resources,
money, equipment and materials – this control is another source of power. Organisational
politics is often the term used to describe the use of power to influence decisions within the
organisation.

7.2 Why fear Power?

Everyone within an organisation, from CEO, managers, foremen, workers to cleaning staff have
a job to perform. In filling a “need” each individual has some power, possesses some ability to
get things done. Some level of power is, therefore, a normal attribute for everyone within an
organisation. An organisation exists for a purpose – it relies upon its members to fulfill that
purpose. Without the use of each individual’s ability to get things done, power, the
organisation does not function. To achieve its goals someone has to make decisions and
exercise power. In theory, why do we resist the exercise of power within organisations?

(1) Experiences people have had with the misuse of power. Most people observe the exercise
of power when someone steps out of their assigned role and influences the organisation.
Exercise of power is noticed when harm results from that exercise. Positive use of power also
requires accountability.

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(2) Lack of appreciation for the interdependency of most jobs. Education system has prized
individual learning and achievement. Power is based upon need – if you need something from
someone, they have power over you. Within an “individualistic” society, such dependence is
resisted.

(3) Exercise of power is resisted because we would like to believe there is one right way of
doing something (there is one right answer) – one right solution to a problem and it eliminates
the need for anyone exerting influence in reaching a decision/solution to a problem. In reality
there may be many decisions/solutions to a problem – evaluation of the best decision/solution
only possible after the act.

Task: Read and write more notes on why people fear the exercise of power.

7.3 Dependency

Why do others respond to the exercise of power? The answer is quite simply – they must. First
issue is to understand when discussing power is dependency. This means, one person or entity
has what others need or want. Their dependency is such that they are willing to respond to the
exercise of power by another. Niccolo Machiavelli’s (1513) book The Prince illustrates
dependency clearly. The Prince offered a well-fortified city to his subjects in order to get their
allegiance. The citizens needed his leadership in order to survive and were, therefore, willing to
support him against an invading Prince. At the same time, the Prince needed the support of his
citizens in order to fortify the city against attack. Both parties had needs the other could fill.
Both, therefore, had power over the other.

Within a typical organisation, power is found with those who have formal authority or the
personal attributes to influence others and with those who control the organisation’s resources
or information. A base of power can also be found in empowered employees. Within these
bases of power, there are a number of sources of power. Five bases of social power: reward
power (controlling resources that could reward), coercive power (controlling resources that
could punish), expert power (controlling necessary knowledge or information), reference power

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(being attractive to others so they seek you out) and legitimate power (authority vested in you
by your position).

7.4 How to develop Power

Power is a dynamic concept but five bases of power discussed above gave insight into how
power can be developed.

1. By the situation. In developing situational power an individual is able to put herself in a

situation to gain power, such as a line position, a position within an organisation where the
product is produced. To produce situational power one needs: (a) performance must be
extraordinary, such as, initiating new or innovative solutions to organisation problems or taking
risks and succeeding in pushing the organisation’s objectives forward.

(b) Performance must be visible – those higher up the organisation must be impressed by the
success of activity.

(c) Activity must be relevant to organisation --goals must be enhanced by the activity.

2. By the person. The situation is not enough to enable one to acquire power – a person must
have the desire and ability to acquire and use power. The following attributes have been used
(observed) to acquire power:

(a)Energy, endurance and physical stamina – managers who work productively for 60 to 65
hours a week succeed over their competition by outlasting and out-producing them. Such a
manager becomes a role model that others emulate.

(b) Focus – success is possible if manager sees the big picture as well as pay attention to details
and move the organisation towards a desired goal.

(c) Sensitivity – influencing others is possible if one is able to understand others’ perspectives.
This is important to motivating them.

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(d) Flexibility – it is important to be able to listen to others and to continue learning. There are
few “right” or “wrong” answers within an organisation’s daily activities – just opportunities to
influence its operations.

(e) Tolerate conflict – power acquired, retained, and used involves the probability of conflict.
One who shrinks from conflict cannot exercise influence.

(f) Share limelight – effective managers know how and when to submerge their own ego and
make sure others participate in the exercise of power. There is need for executives to reward
talent, share power, and develop a clear plan for succession.

3. By the location. A study in 1984 (newspaper publishing company) identified three networks
in which a party could be exercising influence depending upon their position within that
network. (a) Workflow network power can be found in position holder whose task is critical to
the continuation of the flow of work. That position holder’s influence is decreased or increased
by dependence or independence on others to keep the work flowing. And position holder’s
influence is greatly increased if they hold a position that encounters uncertainty and can handle
such uncertainty on his or her own.

(b) Communication network – being central within the department one works is as important as
being central to the whole organisation. The degree to which one is sole central source of
information within one’s subunit has a very positive effect on the influence one is able to wield.

(c) Friendship network – refers to informal flow and exchange of work/information within an
organisation, was not found to be a significant source of power when the overlap with the
communication network was eliminated.

7.5 Organisational Politics

It is the “ethical acquisition and use of power within an organization to further the objectives of
an organization through the dynamic process of office politics” (Carrell, et al, 1997:329).

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7.5.1 When is Power used?

The exercise of power occurs when certain factors exist. A necessary element for the use of
power and, therefore, office politics is interdependence. If the parties are dependent upon
each other, then they have the incentive to work together, coordinate their activities and, in
fact, forge common goals. There is more interdependence higher up the organisation –
direction of organisation is decided at top levels – line positions control resources by virtue of
their function, therefore limited interdependence at that level. Office politics increases when
there is a scarcity of resources as opposed to an abundance of resources. During cutbacks,
layoffs, and reductions in force, the exercise of power becomes critical. Even in good times, the
competition for scarce resources can lead to high interdependence and more office politics.

A difference of opinion needs to exist for the exercise of power to become necessary. If the
decision makers agree, there is no need for a power play. To avoid conflict the group needs to
reach consensus on the goal that is being sought but in complex organisation consensus is
difficult. An engineering solution to corporate challenge may not satisfy the accountants, and
vice versa.

7.5.2 Recognising organisational Politics

Understanding how power is used within an organisation means recognising the players,
assessing their relative strengths and their interdependence.

The players – any one of the following may indicate the makeup and importance of a person or
subunit: (a) location of office;

(b) Tenure of person or employee;

(c) Department assignment;

(d) Staff or line positions;

(e) Rank (officers, managers, etc.);

(f) Academic background or training etc.

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Reputation – within an organisation a person or unit that can get things done will have a
reputation for getting things done. Reputation will indicate power.

Representation – an observer may be able to assess a person or a subunit’s power by the

breadth or depth of its representation throughout the organisation. When President Bill Clinton
/Obama, an attorney, took office, the predominance of attorneys throughout his top level
appointments was noted as a contrast to the business people they replaced. R.G. Mugabe’s
cabinet has been dominated by ex-liberation cadres since 1980.

Consequences – previous power struggles may indicate where the power exists. Salary
differentials across department lines within an organisation may indicate the relative political
power of a person or a department. Budget allocations may indicate political power, especially
in the distribution of discretionary funds.

Symbols – symbols of power include reserving highest floors for top management, etc. When
reorganisations take place, persons or units moved closest to the centre of corporate decision
making have, at least, a symbol of power.

7.5.3 The Techniques.

The use of power to influence decisions can be identified by techniques often employed by
parties in the workplace.

Individual Influences – nice, attractive, pleasant people tend to have more influence. “Watch
how you treat people on the way up, you may meet them again on the way down” is a useful
wise saying. While being flattering one needs to be sincere. One needs to be articulate and
sensitive. Being socially adept, competent and self-confident help create a positive image. Being
cooperative and generous can gain one allies. Negative attributes can be used in organisational
politics – blaming or attacking others or being devious are ways individuals use to wield
influence in the workplace.

Use of information – framing is one such technique. If someone, for example, wants to pursue
an expensive product change, the change is compared and contrasted with another option that

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costs more. The more expensive and therefore, least desirable option is presented first. In
comparison, the option one wants pursued will appear more favourable to the organisation.
The scarcity of an item may determine its value – in framing an issue to one’s advantage, if an
aspect of scarcity can be include, it influences the decision.

The order of presenting things for consideration is a way to influence a decision. Approach 1 – if
one is advocating two things, place the weaker first. Win or lose on that proposal, the second,
stronger proposal will have a better chance of being adopted. The point is, if one loses the first
time, there will be a tendency to accept the second.

Approach 2 – if one is committed to only one proposal, it might be advisable to limit discussion
to that one item. If only one item can be discussed, it is more likely to be adopted than not,
since people prefer action to inaction.

In framing an issue, the ability both to ask and answer the question influences the decision e.g.
when Johnson & Johnson’s CEO, James Burke, was faced with the tampering of Tylenol capsules
that resulted in 3 deaths, he asked the question “how can we guarantee no more deaths?” –
resulted in voluntary withdrawal of all bottles of Tylenol from market until source of poisoning
could be determined. But Beech-nut took a different approach – when its apple juice was found
to have no actual apple juice in it, it hid the finding and continued selling the juice in USA and
abroad – this resulted in prison sentences for Beech-nut executives and huge loss of profits.

Analysis of information – to cut down on power plays within organisation provide facts and
figures, that is, provide analysis and information to support that decision. However, get context
of those facts and figures understood as well.

Timing – sometimes the element of surprise can give one advantage (getting out ahead of
others). The best way to stop something from happening (especially if solution being pushed is
a departure from organisation’s previous activities) when you don’t have enough power to do
so directly is to delay its happening. Calling for further study or consideration can almost always
delay a decision. Delay can cause those pushing a solution to lose the momentum necessary to

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carry it off. Delay may result in proponents of the idea being gone when a decision is finally
made.

7.5.4 Productive use of Power.

Using the above techniques to acquire and wield power will not necessarily result in a better
organisation. In fact, organisational politics can be harmful to the organisation if it results in
rewards not based on merit, if it allows for unwise allocation of resources or relies on hasty
decisions.

The harmful effects of organisational politics can be minimised by insuring an even distribution
of resources; agreeing upon clear, achievable goals for the organisation; and avoiding conflicts
that are “personal” as opposed to “programmatic” in nature. To manage with power is to
incorporate the skill necessary to acquire power with the self-control to use that power
productively.

Recognise varying interests – figure out the various interest groups within an organisation and
their relative importance in the organisation’s politics.

Understand others’ perspectives – it is important to understand the perspective held by various

sub-units in an organisation – see if such interests can be met.

Accept the need for power – there is going to be influence used in the workplace. Power is the
ability to get things done. Without power one will not be able to manage effectively.

Understand power strategies and tactics – by understanding the dynamics involved in acquiring
and using power one is better able to utilise an appropriate technique when necessary and
more able to understand the exercise of power by others in the organisation.

Recognise how power is lost – one cannot manage with power unless they realise how power is
lost. A reorganisation can strip someone of power – sometimes purposefully and sometimes as
a result of one’s inability to change with a changing organisation. If political power comes with
a position and no effort is made to shore up that power through control over resources or
knowledge, such power can be easily lost. Lack of patience, pride, or excessive privilege can
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lead to a loss of power. Machiavelli (in The Prince) pointed out that the “goodwill” of the
governed is necessary for holding power. If the members of the organisation do not accept the
influence of the person who is thought to have power, then obviously he or she doesn’t have
power.

7.6 Conclusion

Leaders influence others to understand and agree about what needs to be done.... and “power
involves the capacity of one party to influence another party”. Therefore, power and leadership
are closely related. Power compliments our understanding of leadership.

Task

Discuss strategies that may be used by people to develop power within organisations. Why is it
important to understand how power is lost? How can power be productively used within
organisations?

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