ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

The meaning people give to what they see and hear differ from person to person because we all
see things in different ways due to our uniqueness. Even the most identical twins may see and hear
differently observing the same situation. It is for this reason that two people may give different
view on the same person, group, object or situation. There is a general statement that “we most of
the time see things as we are” and not as it is. This is to say that our past experiences, traits,
exposure among other factors make us see and understand situations differently.

Perception can be defined as the process of selecting, organizing and interpreting of stimuli, in
order to make sense of our immediate environment.
Bratton et al., 2007 defined Perception as “The process of selecting, organizing and interpreting
information in order to make sense of the world around us “. Each and every person has a unique
way of thinking about himself or herself as well as thinking of others hence our perception of
ourselves and others.
It is very significant to note that, perception is always influenced by three major factors, which
include; the object (what is being perceived), the environment (the context in which the perception
is taking place) and the perceiver (the person perceiving what is there to be seen).

Perception – Reference to Undercover Boss

“Undercover Boss” gives the impression that a superior is presenting him/herself disguised to a
subordinate to observe the work ethics and attitude of the subordinate on the field.

In the Video, the President after working with his subordinates shared his perception about them.
The employees he worked with include Brad, Terrel, Chris and Lexi. The employees mentioned
were also given the opportunity to share their opinion about Loius (John Hartmann).

Altering his identity, John was able to observe the workers and even had the opportunity to know
them on a personal level, their behavior, passion, plans and what motivates them to do what they
do. Some of the perception he share concerning the subordinates were:

Brad: Loius first impression about Brad was not positive. The impression he had was that he was
lazy and his action towards the women who visited the store and comments passed about them
were inappropriate. However, he was of the opinion that he was knowledgeable, has good customer
service and understands the products, displays incredible positive characteristics and is one of the
guys they should keep around.

Terrel: He described him as a very special young man who though have seen a hard life is having
the presence mind to extract himself from that environment and seek a good job.

Chris: His opinion about Chris was that he is a remarkable young man, who has got energy and
passion. He was also of the opinion that he is very Knowledgeable and knows his customers. To
him, Chris is one of the associates they need to stay relevant for consumers.

Lexi: John spoke highly of Lexi describing her as a terrific associate, full of energy, well spoken,
brilliant and very impressive and a great coach.

With reference to the video, the CEO of True Value is the perceiver, the employees at the different
store location are the target perception and the situation where the event happened is the various
stores.

Perceptions are not entirely true so this leads us to perceptual errors; that is the judgment of a
situation might be entirely wrong or half true. There are various types of perception error.

Perceptual Errors

It uncommon for two people to see the world in the same way. Error is the unequal assessment
between two alternatives, which typically puts one option in a favorable position and the other in
an unfavorable one.

According to Robbins et al. (2009), When an individual looks at a target and attempts to interpret
what he or she sees, that interpretation is heavily influenced by the personal characteristics of the
individual perceiver. Personal characteristics that affect perception include a person’s attitudes,
personality, motives, interests, past experiences, and expectations. Aside these, other factors that
can equally influence ones perception is language, cultural differences, nature, location, intensity,
novelty among others.

Primacy Effect: This type of perception error talks about the impression you get about target
perceiver upon your first meeting or encounter and this was evident in the video with the first shop
(True Value) the CEO after meeting Brad, and they were about to start work with the first
customer, the comment Brad passed about smoking cigarettes and getting phone numbers gave the
CEO a different view of him and if he was to leave at that moment, then he would not have gotten
the chance to know how well Brad knew his job and his satisfaction after helping people in need.
Also, in the second shop, the CEO’s first impression was that the gentleman called Terrell is hard
working but the systems is pulling him a little bit behind which turned out to be true despite
challenges. The CEO saw that the employee loved his job and was putting in his very best.
Another perception error is recency effect which suggest that, the last information a perceiver
receives about a target dominates the perceiver’s perception and evaluation. Staying and working
with them for the whole day gave him his last impression of them. Also, similar to me effect came
to play when the CEO found out that one of his employees had the passion to read CRIMINAL
JUSTICE which was what he read to become an FBI and for that matter took the initiative to
sponsor as well as mentor this gentleman.

In addition to the above, the halo effect is introduced when the perceiver’s positive impression of
the target influences his or her perception of the target. An example in the video is when the CEO
had a positive impression about Lexi due to the reception she had for customers who came to the
counter and those who had just walk in.

Robbins and judge (2007) define motivation as the processes that account for an individual's
intensity, direction and persistence of effort towards attaining a goal. To motivate is to create
desire, willingness to performance in a manner in which managers want to get work done.

Employers all over mostly try to find out what they should do to motive employees. Many writers
like Fredrick Taylor of Scientific management (1911), ERG Theory by Alderfer (1972), Equity
Theory of motivation by Adams (1963), have different theories which in what they think are the
best ways to motivate employees and that is because the employer cannot tell what his employee
is motivated by which leads us to the content theory and the process theory of motivation.

Content theory is also sometimes called Needs theory because it talks about our needs and
aspiration. Under this theory, we can talk about Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs which says that
needs at the bottom of the hierarchy must be satisfied before moving to the next. For example, in
the video, the female shop attendant, Lexi, even though was working to save for college but her
most pressing need at that moment was to pay for her housing needs. The 5 levels of Maslow’s
hierarchy are;

1. Physiological needs such as water and food,

2. Safety needs such as having a secured job, having peace of mind,
3. Social needs such as having relationships and belonging to a group,
 4. Esteem needs such as recognition and
5. Self-actualization needs such as wanting to be the best we can.

Additionally, Theory X and Y which is a content theory talks about team members who are
intrinsically lazy and unmotivated and will not do any work at the least opportunity (this group is
referred to as theory X) whiles theory Y assumes that team members are ambitious and self-
motivated.

Process theory looks at how people are motivated and is concerned with the process to which
motivation occurs.

Additionally, Adam’s equity theory says that high levels of employee motivation can only be
achieved when each employee perceives their treatment to be fair relative to others.

(c) Management by Walking Around

From the undercover boss video, it clearly shows that managers are to walk around the office with
these reasons below.

1. A walk around the organization might be a source of idea and innovation that might further
improve various processes. For instance, in the video where the CEO only found that the
computer freezes when there is pressure on it.
2. It will also provide them insight about the core activities that are carried out in the organization.

2. As employees, we will very much be appreciative if our supervisors regularly spend time with
us because it gives us the opportunity to be able to open up to them so as to be able to make some
complains known and having that kind of environment helps to feel free and happy when carrying
out our duties because makes you also feel your supervisor cares about you and the job you are
carrying out.

3. Also, organizational executives have several ways of knowing the day to day business of the
organization without going undercover and they include having a good relationship with
employees, by encouraging writing complains a suggestions into the suggestion box.
4. Ideally, employees will feel being spied on if managers walk around the organization but
notwithstanding, it is largely a healthy practice since it will help employers to know what the core
issues are as well as putting the employees at their toes. Furthermore, rewarding of good,
hardworking employees will be a wakeup call to lazy employees.

Q2.
Transformational leadership is an exceptional form of influence that moves followers to
accomplish more than what is usually expected of them. When one is said to be engaged in
transformational leadership, four elements of transformational leadership must show, these are:
inspiration motivation; intellectual stimulation; idealized influence and individual consideration

In the case study, Dr. Francis Ahin stated the aim of the project and the fact that they needed to
accomplish it with a given period and this tied the followers to the fact that there were there for a
reason and need to accomplish the set target within the time. Returning without achieving their
main aim of being there meant they didn’t achieve the goal hence their goal became the ultimate
aim and this Dr. Francis Ahin did through inspirational motivation.

Dr. Francis Arhin was being an ideal influence to the students. He acts as role model to the students
for which reason he wins their trust and respect through their action, and that was what he had
begun imbibing in the current students.

Dr. Francis Arhin acted as mentors to the students and presented a leadership style to the different
personalities, needs and skills in the team. Even though their backgrounds in terms of Academic
and University differed, he was able to treat them differently according to their talents and
knowledge. This is what makes him a transformational leader.

b. strength
1. Transformational leadership changes low morale conditions of employees. The
inspirational motivation from the leader give strength to the low morale situation of the
followers and repower them for task accomplishment.
2. Transformational leadership reduces labour turnover and reduces cost of recruiting new
employees. Since the leader is willing to understand each individual and assist them with
their personal situation, it would be difficult for a follow
Weaknesses
Transformational leadership style requires a constant and consistent feedback because
followers are made to be responsible for the success of the organizational objective, as a
result, they try to find out the outcome of their activities from the leaders. This feedback
must be regular for the team to rely on for the successful accomplishment.
REFERENCES
Bratton, John (2010). Work and organizational behaviour (2nd ed). Palgrave Macmillan,
Basingstoke ; New York.
Robbins, S.P ,Odendaal, A., & Roodt, G. (2009). Organisational Behaviour: Global and Southern
African Perspective. 13th Edition., Pearson Education, Inc. Prentice Hall.
Robbins, S.P. and Judge, T.A. Organizational behaviour.12th edition New Jersey: Pearson Education,
Incorporated, 2007