ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

1. Ability is defined as the capability of an individual to perform his/her job effectively.

In every occupation, it is the skills and abilities of the employee that play an important role,
along with the qualifications of the employee, to determine if they will be a good fit for the job.
The abilities are categorized into two broad types, Intellectual ability and Physical ability, both of
which may define whether an employee matches the job requirements.

I work as a Tarot Card Reader based on a popular social media platform. As a Tarot card
reader, my role requires me to provide my clients with guidance and insight into their problems
and possible solutions and outcomes regarding their questions with the help of tarot cards and
my intuition. As a job, this does not require physical abilities to perform effectively, however
intellectual ability is a must in my occupation. Intellectual ability is the ability to perform jobs
involving mental capabilities. Physical ability is the ability to perform jobs involving physical
capabilities; as a tarot card reader, this aspect is not required.

As a Tarot Card reader, clients book readings with me online to receive guidance
regarding areas of their lives or certain problems that they are facing. My job then requires me to
understand their questions or concerns, figure out the root cause of their problems, and offer
them guidance and insight, in a manner that will show them the bigger picture so they can take a
decision for themselves. This measures my intellectual ability and mental capabilities as a Tarot
reader. The top 5 abilities that help me perform my role effectively are:

Verbal Comprehension: It is the ability to understand the meaning of any verbal stimuli,
which includes understanding spoken and written language, which further extends not only
towards processing verbal stimuli through sound discrimination and voicabulary recognition, but
towards being able to express in a meaningful manner as well, and applying reasoning to the
verbal cues.

As a Tarot Reader, I receive questions both through online messages and video calls, thus
verbal comprehension is one of the first abilities that is required of me for my job. In a broader
sense of view; language plays an important part in this, as my clientele comprises both Indian
and International people. Thus, verbal communication is further extended towards language,
dialect, vocabulary, accent, and cultural differences. In a narrower effect; I am required to
understand the situation of the client, their problems, concerns and questions, and subsequently
provide them with answers that are not only truthful in their nature, but in a manner that they
understand what I am conveying to them so they can receive better insight and guidance
regarding their situation, so ultimately they are able to take the best decision for themselves.

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 Inductive Reasoning: It is the ability to to determine a logical sequence in a problem and
then solving it accordingly; being able to draw a conclusion from a set of observations.

As a Tarot Card Reader, inductive reasoning is an important ability that is required to

understand the questions of the clients, and what makes me good at my job, is to be able to
recognize the deep rooted problems that even the clients may be unaware of and not know the
cause of their problems. Through my inductive reasoning ability, I am able to not only recognise
the deep rooted cause of the problem, but draw conclusions from their questions into the problem
area to provide them with a different perspective and to sequentially and systematically tackle
the problems step by step to reach a solution that is in the best interest of the client.

Perceptual Speed: It is the ability to rapidly compare similarities and differences among
different events with precision and accuracy. This extends towards different sets of letters,
numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns, or to be able to recognize symbols or figures, or to carry
out other simple tasks involving visual perception.

In Tarot Reading, my ability of perceptual speed comes in play when I have to link
different situations that arose in my client’s life to understand cause and effect of a situation or
the problem that they are concerned with, in their life, to realise what they are not able to, and to
see the bigger picture, events that seem unrelated that could play a big hand in an undesired
situation that they are going through. This ability is further extended into Tarot cards
themselves, Tarot cards are composed of 78 cards, all with different meaning and pictures and
symbols that are meant to be read intuitively. My ability to compare themes, motifs and symbols
within the cards to accurately portray the meaning of the card and relate it to the answer of the
question to provide a detailed insight into the reading for the client is very important. To be able
to perceive the question with non-judgement and to relay the answer in a non-biased manner is
very important, and speed also plays a significant role as answers are expected immediately
during a tarot reading session,

Deductive Reasoning: It is the ability to apply and measure the outcome of an argument.
Deductive reasoning relies on making logical conclusions based upon multiple premises that are
presented to be true.

As a Tarot Card Reader, deductive reasoning requires both inductive reasoning and
perceptual speed abilities to draw conclusions to deduce what is the best way to help a client,
since sometimes the Tarot cards predict an outcome which is not favourable, going from this
point, to answering subsequently what can the client do in a different unexpected outcome.
Deductive reasoning also allows me to deduce whether the client would be satisfied with the
answers, despite whether they would be in favor of the client or not, and thus help me determine
whether my services have been of help to them or not; and if the clients have healed through the

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reading or not. Another important aspect of Tarot Reading is whether a tarot reading would truly
help the client or not, or whether they should go for other services or are in need of therapy or
counseling.

Memory: It is the ability to be able to retain information, experience or past events and
being able to recall them in a timely manner. This ability is most important in any field or job.

As a Tarot Card reader, being able to memorise the meanings of the cards is important.
There are 78 cards, each with multiple meanings and different meanings under different contexts
and their meanings are also influenced if the cards come paired with different cards, i.e. certain
card combinations have different meanings. Moreover, this further extends into the Client base as
well, being able to recall the previous reading and the situations that the client have gone through
and if the reading has thus helped them or not; being able to remember such small details not
only creates a connection with the client, it creates a bond wherein the client feels catered to, and
would thus become a regular client.

Ability-Job Fit is defined as recognizing the employee's capabilities; their personality,

values, abilities, skills, and knowledge to the requirements of the job and determine if they would
be a good fit and possess the ability to fulfill all the requirements of the job. Thus from an
employer or recruiter’s point of view, it is imperative that an employee fit the description of the
role they are being hired for, and are qualified for the job. A balance is necessary between the
abilities of the employee and the job requirements, if the employee lacks certain abilities that are
a requirement of the job, then they won't be able to perform their role effectively and lead to
employer dissatisfaction, whereas if they are overqualified for the job description, then this
would lead to employee dissatisfaction. For example, an Airline Pilot would require strong
spatial visualisation, without it, which would not only affect the job, but also the endanger the
lives of all the passengers. An architect with the ability of dynamic strength and no spatial
visualisation or number aptitude would result in poorly designed buildings, that could eventually
crumble and collapse; the person with dynamic strength ability would be much better to a role
that requires physical abilities such as construction worker. Thus it is imperative that an
employee possess the abilities required for the job and match the description.

Reference
Organizational Behaviour. Paramjit S. Lamba. NMIMS

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 2. Perception is the process of recognizing a stimulus and interpreting it through the
sensory organs, thus allowing us to understand our environment. Our senses allow us to see,
hear, touch, taste and smell, through which we are able to interpret our surroundings. The process
of perception is multifaceted and includes four sub processes; stimulus, registration,
interpretation and reaction. Perception can be divided into two types; visual perception allows
for the eyes to see and interpret factors about the stimulus, such as light, depth, etc., the second
type is auditory perception by which the brain is able to interpret sounds and what an individual
hears. Perception is an important factor for organisational behaviour because perception
influences and determines the attitude and behaviour in organisations of employees and
managers alike.

Perception management is the practice of ensuring the message a person wishes to send is
understood by the specific individuals or groups they want to reach. It also means influencing
how people interpret what others say about a person or influencing how people interpret what
others say about someone. Perception is very important for the manager who wants to avoid
making errors when dealing with people and events in the work setting. Perception is also
important because it offers more than objective output, it ingests an observation and
manufactures an altered reality enriched with previous experiences.

With the current pandemic changing the way that people work overnight, companies are
trying to figure out if working from home actually is better or worse for their employees. The
current perception of working from home is negative though the amount of people that are
working from home is continuously increasing. However, there are many positives and a lot of
opportunities for change of perception while also maintaining the current culture. Below are the
steps and measures that help manage the perception process.

High levels of self-awareness: Managers and employees should be aware that perceptual
errors such as primacy effect, recency effect, or initial expectations can create hindrance in how
they perceive other individuals. To manage the perception process, an individual should be aware
when and how he or she is inappropriately distorting a situation because of perceptual errors.

Support perception through information from various sources: It is normal for

managers to form perceptions of the employees or events around them. However, they should
attempt to confirm personal impressions before drawing a conclusion. An individual should seek
to minimise the influence of personal perception by taking the views of all the people around
him. The insights gained through such information should decide the attitudes and behaviour.

Empathy: Managers and Employees should restrain from drawing conclusions about
other people, objects, or events without analysing the situation appropriately, especially in a

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virtual work environment. They should attempt to understand the point of view of the target so as
to avoid forming notions on the basis of how others perceive it.

Rising above personal impressions: A virtual work environment may develop personal
impressions in the minds of managers about their employees, object, or event. However, they
should attempt to perceive the employees without getting affected by personal impressions.
Similarly, employees should avoid influencing the perception of managers based on their
personal impressions as well.

Avoiding common perceptual distortions: Perceptual distortions are incorrect or

abnormal interpretations of a perceptual experience. Perceptual distortions may create biases in
the minds of managers and employees and interference in a normal perceptual process. These
distortions include judging other individuals, objects or events on the basis of stereotyping and
halo effects.

Avoiding inappropriate attributions: Managers and employees have a tendency to

contemplate about why an event happened in a particular way for instance, reasoning as to why
people behaved the way they did. To avoid errors of perception, they should be able to establish
the actual reason behind a particular event, incident or behaviour.

Working from home does pose major challenges to employers. There are no ways to
determine how many hours an employee has spent on working from home since the system
permits flexible hours. Yet, data from various sources clearly indicates that working from home
is a trend that will grow in future. Thus it is imperative that perception management be
maintained from a virtual perspective from both employee and manager to maintain the attitude
and behaviour of a work environment even when working from home. But leniency should be
provided from the employer's end on working hours as long as the deadlines are being met.

Reference
Organizational Behaviour. Paramjit S. Lamba. NMIMS

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 3a: Nikita should use the Social Learning Theory for faster results along with Cognitive
Learning Theory. People observe and learn through attitudes, behaviour, and outcomes of other
people around them. Social learning theory can be explained as "Most human behaviour is
learned observationally through modelling: from observing others, one forms an idea of how new
behaviours are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for
action". The social learning theory encompasses the cognitive, behavioural, and environmental
influences. The necessary factors for social learning are Attention, Retention, Reproduction, and
Motivation. These factors are necessary for effectively learning through social behaviour.
Paying attention to various factors and observing others and retaining the information for your
own task and then being able to reproduce the same results allows for motivation in the right
direction, and thus effectively learning through attitude and behaviour patterns of others allows
employees to model behaviours of others. Thus Nikita should select Social Learning for her
employees so they can easily and rapidly learn model behaviours demonstrated by leaders.
Cognitive learning theory should also be applied as cognitive learning holds the capability to
combine, extend, and alter a person’s schema. Therefore, if the employees are required to unlearn
certain aspects and learn new approaches then cognitive learning allows for this learning
approach. Cognitive learning combined with social learning theory allows for both unlearning of
certain aspects and learning of new model behaviours that are demonstrated by leaders.

3b: Learning through reinforcement is one of the oldest approaches, used by

organisations for changing the behaviour of individuals at a workplace. This is also called
behaviour modification. According to behaviour modification, learning is dependent on the
environment. It states that the environment teaches an individual to change his or her behaviour
to maximise positive consequences and minimise undesirable behaviour.

Behavior modification involves a procedure involving three stages, which are as follows:

Antecedents (A): Antecedents are the events that occur before the behaviour depicted by
an individual. For example, the supervisor of an employee asked him/her to complete a particular
task by end-of-day. In this case, the employee knows that his/her action will lead to a
consequence.

Behaviour (B): Behaviour is the response of the individual to the antecedent. For
example, in the above example, the employee either starts performing the task given by the
supervisor immediately, or he/she may have a discussion with the supervisor that the task cannot
be completed by end-of-day.

Consequences (C): In behaviour modification, consequence is the result of the

response/action taken by the individual. In the example, if the employee starts working on the
given task and completes it by end-of-day, the supervisor will be happy and may praise him/her.

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On the other hand, if the employee has a discussion with the supervisor, the supervisor may not
be satisfied with the argument given by the employee, or the supervisor may want that the task
be completed by end-of-day only. As a result, the employee may be scolded by the supervisor or
he/she may form an unfavourable impression of the employee. This consequence leads to change
in the behaviour of the employee. If the consequence is positive, he/she will repeat that
behaviour. However, if the behaviour leads to a negative consequence, he/she will modify his/her
behaviour.

Reference
Organizational Behaviour. Paramjit S. Lamba. NMIMS