HBO (Chapter 3: Individual Behavior in the Organization)
Introduction
Fallacies regarding Individuals in the Organization:
1. Organizations are systems that suppress their
victim, the individual
2. Individuals live in conformity, stripped of self-
esteem in an artificial environment
3. Individuals are too numb to rebel
Mutual social system – people and organizations live
in some degree of mutual interest and harmony
because individuals use organizations as instruments
to achieve their goals just as organizations use people
to realize their objectives
Issues about Conformity
Conformity – dependence on the norms of others
without independent thinking
Argyris believed that people want to be treated as
mature individuals, but the large corporations expect
them to conform to rules and practices in an
unquestioning immature way
On the basic philosophy of conformity, Argyris has
this to say: “An analysis of the basic properties of
relatively mature human being and formal
organization leads to the conclusion that there is an
inherent incongruency which creates a situation of
conflict, frustration, and failure among
theparticipants”
To what does One Conform?
Conformity – which one “abides by” to the
requirements of the company
3 major groups to which one may conform:
1. The organization itself
2. The informal work group
3. The external community
The last 2 = conformity expressed inside the
organization but not conformity to organization
Areas of Legitimate Organizational Influence
If the organization and an individual define the
boundaries of legitimate influence differently, then
organizational conflict may develop
(Example: telephone calls – management control
personal telephone calls; employees believe that
telephone calls are their own private right)
As long as there is mutual; agreement on the
legitimacy of influence among the parties, they
become satisfied with the power approval in their
relationship
 Off-the-job Conduct – some activities off the job
may affect the employer
o The basic relationship may be stated as
follows: “The more job-related one’s conduct
s, when off the job, the more support there is
for organizational influence (interference), on
the employees”
Rights of Privacy – organizational invasion of a
person’s life and unauthorized release of confidential
information about a person
 Business activities that may involve employees’
right of privacy are:
1. Lie detector
2. Personality tests
3. Encounter groups
4. Medical examination
5. Treatment of alcoholism
6. Treatment of drug abuse
7. Surveillance devices
8. Computer data banks
9. Confidential records
Policy Guidelines on Privacy
The following guidelines enable management to
establish uniform practices and make it easier to
handle unusual situations that may take place
1. Relevance – only necessary and useful data
should be recorded and retained, obsolete
information should be discarded or removed
periodically
2. Notice – no personal data system that is
unknown to an employee, personal data systems
must be disclosed
3. Fiduciary duty – custodian of information is
responsible for its security
4. Confidentiality – information should be given
only to those who are entitled and to those only
with the employee’s permission
5. Protection of the psyche – employee’s inner
self should not be invaded or exposed except
with prior consent and for justifiable and
compelling reasons
Surveillance Devices – protection of the psyche
means that except for compelling reasons,
surveillance of private places unknown to a person
should not be allowed
 Polygraph - also known as lie detector, is an
instrument that tends to invade privacy. When a
person tells a significant lie, science has proven
that the conscience usually causes physiological
changes
 Psychological stress evaluator – another type
of lie detector that analyzes changes in the voice
patterns to determine whether a lie is being told.
No hook-ups and takes one’s own conscience by
showing stress
 Treatment of Alcoholism – alcoholism results
in absenteeism, poor work, lost productivity, and
other related costs
Justification of Company Programs
Executives believe that firms play a very important
role in helping alcoholics control or break their
vicious habits. Employers treat alcoholism as an
illness. Reasons are:
1. The firm and the employee already have a
working relationship on which they can build
2. That nay success with the employee will save
both a valuable person for the company and a
valuable citizen for society
3. That the job appears to be the best environment
for helping an alcoholic retain a self-image as a
useful person in society
Drug Abuse – such as heroin or marijuana, may
cause severe problems for both employers and other
employees.
Developing a Sound Behavioral Climate
Factors that contribute to determine the behavioural
climate in each organization are:
 Attitude of top executives
 Company policies
Behavioral Climate
 working climate arises from combined effects of
the organization’s culture, traditions, and
management methods or course of action
 a sound climate is an organizational asset
The Incremental Nature of Human Values
 Human values are generated internally in an
individual, and re non-objective in nature
 Fulfillment, dignity, and sound human relations
are human values that are incremental
Basic Human Relations Factors
 Basic human relations factors – influences the
organizational climate
 Every individual has his own psychological,
social, and economic wants
 Human relations philosophy emanates from both
fact and value premises
o Fact premises – people’s view of how realities
on this world are
o Value premises – people’s view on the
desirability of certain desires or goals
o Of these two premises, value premises by and
large govern and are more significant
Formal and Informal Organization
 Leadership – plays an important role in
implementing philosophies, vision, mission and
goals, through both formal and informal
organizations
 Formal organization – organizational plans,
policies, structure, system, and procedures;
emphasis on authority, job responsibilities and
accountabilities
 Informal organization – social interaction;
emphasis is on people and relationships
Control Systems
 Controls are instituted to secure performance as
planned
 Institutions influence their constituents by
means of a control system which is reflected by
the interrelationships of the formal and informal
organization and the social environment
 Standards or criteria for comparing actual
performance with planned performance are:
o Quantity
o Quality – principal control of human relations
o Time
 Cost is a quality variable and is principally a
center of control in organizations
The Social Sytem
 Motivation is affected by a change in controls,
attitudes, or situations
 Productive motivation is an outcome of the
effective interaction of the human relations
factors; this scheme results in power with
people, rather than power over them
Theories of Organizational Behavior
Basic human relations factors in an organization are:
 Philosophy and goals
 Formal and informal organization
 Social environment
 System of controls
 Social system at work
The theory of organizational behaviour guides
management development and their interpretations
of the events they encounter
The theories that have been recognized lately are:
 Autocratic theory
 Custodial / Custodian theory
 Supportive theory
The Autocratic Theory
 Management orientation is formal official
authority
 Authority over the people is delegated by right of
command
 Management does the thinking and decision-
making and the employees merely obey orders
 Tight control of the employees’ work
 Employee orientation is obedience
The Custodian Theory
 Employers look after the needs of workers
through welfare programs
 Management’s orientation is more on material or
economic rewards
 Organizational dependency is the result
 Morale results to employee satisfaction
 Employee orientations is security of his job
The Supportive Theory
 Rensis Likert referred to supportive theory of
organizational behaviour as the “principle of
supportive relationships”
 Leadership and other processes of the
organization must ensure maximum probability
that each member will view the experience as
supportive and builds and maintains his sense of
personal worth and importance
 Employee orientation responds to intrinsic
motivations
Characteristics of Achievers
 McClelland defines a high need for achievement
as a self-motivation to high levels of
accomplishments
High Achievers
 High achievers are “turned on” by the following:
o Accomplishment of task
o Attainment of skill
o Meeting of challenge
o Invention of something new
Low Achievers
 Vacillate, seek direction, motivation,
reinforcement
 Task-oriented
Characteristics of High Achievers (5/13)
 Self-motivated, self-directed
 Goal oriented
 Set challenging but realistic goals
 Calculate risks
 Non-traditional
6 Primary Needs or Motivators to understand the
behaviour of people (Udai Parrek):
 Achievement: Concern for excellence,
competition, set challenging goals for oneself,
awareness, and persistence
 Affiliation: Concern for establishing and
maintaining close personal relationships, values
friendship, express emotion
 Influence: Concern with making an impact on
others, do what one thinks is right, change
matters and people
 Control: Concern for orderliness, desire to be
informed, monitor and corrective action
 Extension: Concern for others, subordinate
goals, relevant, useful to larger groups
 Dependence: desire for the help of others in
one’s self-development, checking significant
others, ideas for approval, maintain an
“approval” relationship
Each of the 6 motives can have 2 dimensions:
Approach (positive) and Avoidance (negative)
Approach and Avoidance Dimensions of Typical
Motives
Motives Approach Avoidance
(hope of) (fear of)
Achievement Success Failure
Affiliation Inclusion Exclusion
Influence Concern Rejection
Extension Relevance Impotence
Control Order Chaos
Dependency Growth Loneliness
The Human Side of Enterprise
 Whyte stated that “a new ethics had developed
to rationalize the organization’s demands for
whole-hearted dedication and loyalty”
 Social Ethics – contemporary body of thought
which makes orally legitimate the pressures of
society against the individual
 2 propositions that Whyte claims social
ethics upholds are:
o Belief in “belongingness” as the ultimate need
of the individual
o Belief in the application to achieve the
“belongingness”
 Chris Argyris – explained the conflict between
man and organization. Employees desire
independence while organizations wants
dependence
Conformity in Organizations
 Organization-man theory – man is required to
conforms to the organization rather than the
organization conforming to the individual
 Business organizations encourage initiative and
creativity and have been among the supporters
of individuality
 Conformity is not a hallmark of business culture
Organizational Influence
 Conformity may either be of action or of thought
 Conformity is of action, it may be on the job or
off the job
 Legitimacy of organizational influence can be
the subject of agreement among the parties
Rights to Privacy
 Privacy – refers to the employee’s thoughts,
opinions, and motives, to his private psyche
more than his private activities
People’s Complex Needs
 Abraham H. Maslow – presented a hierarchy of
needs to understand and account for human
behaviour (physiological needs, safety needs,
love and belonging, need for self-esteem, need
for self-actualization) or (physiological needs,
safety needs, love and belonging, esteem,
cognitive, aesthetic, need for self-actualization,
self-transcendence needs)
 Physiological needs – food, clothing, shelter
85%
 Safety needs – protection against danger, threats
70%
 Love and belonging – acceptance by others,
giving and receiving friendship and love 50%
 Ego needs (2 kinds): 40%
o Needs related to self-esteem, self-respect,
self-confidence
o Needs related to one’s reputation
 Need for self-fulfillment 10%
Douglas McGregor in his article “The Human Side of
Enterprise” claims that “Man is a wanting animal…
This process is unending. It continues from birth to
deaths…”
Joherer, Hibler, Replogie have this to say “…Men do
worry about the survival of their particular level of
spending…This type of security manifests itself by
the pressure to go on to what we have –tenure”
Theory X and Theory Y (Douglas McGregor –
advocate of Human Relations)
Theory X is negative, manifesting immaturity and
distrust. Theory Y is positive, manifesting one of trust
and maturity
Theory X – autocratic form of management
1. The typical person dislikes works and will avoid
it if possible
2. The typical person lacks responsibility, has little
ambition, and seeks security above all
3. Most people must be coerced, controlled, and
threatened with punishment to get them to work
Theory Y
1. Work is as natural as play or rest
2. People are not inherently lazy. They have
become that way as a result of experience
3. People will exercise self-direction and self-
control in the service of objectives to which they
are committed
4. People have potentials. Under proper conditions,
they learn to accept and seek responsibility.
They have imagination, ingenuity, and creativity
that can be applied to work
Coaching Guidelines formulated by Paul Mali in
eliminating Theory X and in increasing individual
potential to attain maximum performance:
A supervisor must…
1. Have daily face-to-face, two-way interaction with
his subordinates
2. Use good timing in offering correction
3. Not excessively criticize or discipline
4. Recognize the expenditure of effort that yields
good results for the firm
5. Set up and control the situation
6. Limit his coaching aims to a specific few
7. Confine his coaching to the work and
subordinate’s ability to accomplish it
8. Make subordinates feel responsible and
accountable
9. Show a keen and sincere personal interest in a
subordinate
10. Allow a subordinate to express his individuality
in his work
Theory Z (William Ouchi)
Based on this hypothesis, “Innovation and motivation
are inseparable. One cannot exist without the other”
The Operational Environment Required for
Theory Z
Key Concepts in motivation and innovation are:
1. Stress on high productive norms
2. Careful selection is paramount for success
3. Specialization opportunities
4. Maslow’s eight level of needs must be satisfied
5. Mutual trust must exist throughout the firm
6. Identification with the job must be possible
7. Interaction of ideas and concepts
8. Opportunity to take “tough” assignments that
“stretch and challenge” him
9. Recognition is essential
10. Opportunity to develop
11. Success, “reach for the stars”
The Theory Z Organization (the foundations of this
are the ff)
1. The spirit of inquiry
2. Achievement
3. Inner direction
4. Motivational drives of a new form:
a. Desire for autonomy
b. Desire for creative tasks
c. Real motivation is the product of self-
direction
Principles that would evolve or develop through
Theory Z
1. Growth Professionalism – loyalty to scientific
method
2. Higher level of education – more knowledgeable
individual, less constrained and less easily
influenced by propaganda
3. Full communication as a result of higher levels of
education
4. Project organization will become the rule
5. Matrix organization structure will be found to
best fit the conditions and situations
6. Tasks will become increasingly complex
Employing the Whole Man
 Peter Drucker in his book “Employing the whole
man” stated that a company cannot just hire “a
hand”. This means that the firm also hires the
values, attitudes the worker brings to the
workplace
 Peter Drucker said that “the human resource…is,
of all resources…the most productive, the most
versatile, the most resourceful”
Training and Developing Individuals in the
Organization
According to M.L. Jucutan, there are 7 ways:
1. Management must have a clear vision, mission,
objectives, and strategies for the individuals to
follow in order to attain success
2. Management must initiate tactical pans and
processes that can be easily understood by
individuals in the organization
3. There are personal factors that can contribute to
gaining power from individuals
4. When you are truthful and honest with your
personnel, your subordinates will respect your
desire for telling the truth even with painful
process
5. Managers should sincerely want their personnel
to succeed and grow
6. Make it clear to everyone that you have an open-
door policy as far as your office is concerned
7. Managers may have become mentors