ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

14 MSU 04

UNIT 1

Organisational Behaviour - nature, foundations of OB, scope - role of OB - evolution of

OB - Behavioural Sciences that have contributed to OB – OB models- Individual
Behaviour – Intelligence - types of intelligence, factors influencing intelligence

Why study OB?

Today’s challenges bring opportunities for managers to use OB concepts. The following are
the most critical issues confronting managers for which OB offers solutions—or at least
meaningful insights toward solutions.

Responding to Economic Pressures

When times are bad, though, managers are on the front lines with employees who must be
fired, who are asked to make do with less, and who worry about their futures. The difference
between good and bad management can be the difference between profit and loss or,
ultimately, between survival and failure. In good times, understanding how to reward, satisfy,
and retain employees is at a premium. In bad times, issues like stress, decision making, and
coping come to the fore.

Responding to Globalization

Organizations are no longer constrained by national borders. The world has become a global
village. In the process, the manager’s job has changed.

Increased Foreign Assignments

A manager or an employee is required to be transferred to employer’s subsidiary in another

country, one have to manage a workforce having different needs, aspirations, and attitudes.

Working with People from Different Cultures

To work effectively with people from different cultures, you need to understand how their
culture, geography, and religion have shaped them and how to adapt your management style
to their differences.

Overseeing Movement of Jobs to Countries with Low-Cost Labor

In a global economy, jobs tend to flow where lower costs give businesses a comparative
advantage.
Managing Workforce Diversity

One of the most important challenges for organizations is adapting to people who are
different. Globalization focuses on differences among people from different countries,
workforce diversity addresses differences among people within given countries.

It acknowledges a workforce of women and men; many racial and ethnic groups; individuals
with a variety of physical or psychological abilities; and people who differ in age and gender
orientation.

Improving Customer Service

Management needs to create a customer-responsive culture. OB can provide considerable

guidance in helping managers create such cultures—in which employees are friendly and
courteous, accessible, knowledgeable, prompt in responding to customer needs, and willing
to do what’s necessary to please the customer.

Improving People Skills

One has to gain insights into specific people skills that he can use on the job. One can learn
ways to design motivating jobs, techniques for improving listening skills, and how to create
more effective teams.

Stimulating Innovation and Change

An organization’s employees can be the impetus for innovation and change. The challenge
for managers is to stimulate their employees’ creativity and tolerance for change. The field of
OB provides a wealth of ideas and techniques to aid in realizing these goals.

Coping with Temporariness

Today most managers and employees today work in a climate best characterized as
temporary. Permanent employees are replaced with temporary workers. Managers and
employees must learn to cope with temporariness, flexibility, spontaneity, and
unpredictability. The study of OB can help you better understand a work world of continual
change, overcome resistance to change, and create an organizational culture that thrives on
change.

Working in Networked Organizations

Networked organizations use e- mail, the Internet, and video-conferencing allow employees to
communicate and work together even though they are thousands of miles apart. The
manager’s job in a networked organization requires different techniques from those used
when workers are physically present in a single location.

Helping Employees Balance Work–Life Conflicts

Employees increasingly recognize that work infringes on their personal lives, and they’re not
happy about it. Recent studies suggest employees want jobs that give them flexibility in the ir
work schedules so they can better manage work–life conflicts. OB offers a number of
suggestions to guide managers in designing workplaces and jobs that can help employees
deal with work–life conflicts.

Creating a Positive Work Environment

Organizations are trying to realize a competitive advantage by fostering a positive work

environment which means practicing engagement, hope, optimism, and resilience in the face
of strain.

Improving Ethical Behaviour

Employees see people all around them engaging in unethical practices. Employees paid
expense accounts or take bribes; corporate executives inflate profits so they can cash in
lucrative stock options; and university administrators look the other way when winning
coaches encourage scholarship athletes to take easy courses. Managers and their
organizations are responding to the problem of unethical behaviour in a number of ways.
They’re writing and distributing codes of ethics to guide employees through ethical
dilemmas. They’re offering seminars, workshops, and other training programs to try to
improve ethical behaviours.

ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

DEFINITIONS

Organizational behaviour (often abbreviated OB) is a field of study that investigates the
impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behaviour within organizations, for the
purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization’s effectiveness.

The key elements of OB are People, Structure, Technology and Environment.

People – consists of individuals and groups
Structure – Formal relationship of people in the organisation
Technology - The knowledge and resources available allows the employees to work better
Environment – Internal environment includes both physical and mental working conditions
External environment includes government, competitors, society, culture etc.

OB is the study of what people do in an organization and how their behaviour affects the
organization’s performance.

OB refers to the behaviour of individuals and groups within organisations and the interaction
between organisational members and their external environments.
NATURE OF OB

1. It is a field of study emerged as a distinct field due to the significance of human behaviour
in organisations.

2. OB is a part of general management and not whole management because it is a behavioural

approach to the study of the organisations’ human resources.

3. OB integrates the knowledge drawn from psychology, sociology, anthropology etc for
organisational analysis. Hence it is an interdisciplinary approach.

4. Both art and science. OB contains systematic knowledge about human behaviour and
hence it is a science. But it is an art to provide creative and specific solutions to the problems.

5. OB involves analysis of human behaviour at 3 levels – individual, group and organisation

which interact with each other. Therefore OB exists at multiple levels.

6. Goal oriented – OB seeks to fulfil both organisational goals and individual needs.

7. As a systems approach, OB takes into account all the variables like personal, social,
cultural and other factors that influence the organisational functioning.

SCOPE OF OB

In a very broad sense, the scope of OB is the extent to which it can govern or influence the
operations of an organization. The scope of OB integrates 3 concepts respectively:

Individual Behaviour

It is the study of individual’s personality, learning, attitudes, motivation, and job satisfaction.
In this study, we interact with others in order to study about them and make our perception
about them.

Example: The personal interview round is conducted to interact with candidates to check
their skills, apart from those mentioned in the resume.

Inter-individual Behaviour

It is the study conducted through communication between the employees among themselves
as well as their subordinates, understanding people’s leadership qualities, group dynamics,
group conflicts, power and politics.

Example: A meeting to decide list of new board members.

Group Behaviour

Group behaviour studies the formation of organization, structure of organization and

effectiveness of organization. The group efforts made towards the achievement of
organization’s goal is group behavior. In short, it is the way how a group behaves.

Example: Strike, rally etc.

FOUNDATIONS OF OB

 Scientific Management

The theory of Scientific Management argues that a task given to an employee should be
optimized for maximum efficiency.

 Leadership Research

Since 1940s time, a wide variety of personal characteristics have been evaluated with the
hope of discovering which traits can be associated with successful leadership and relationship
between leadership and power. Because leadership is such an important factor in determining
the success of an organization, leadership research is one of the most defining aspects of OB
research.

 Job Satisfaction, Health and Employee Behavior

Employee health is important to OB practitioners because maximizing the health of

employees can positively improve behavior and work satisfaction, creating a competitive
advantage for the firm.

 Significant Research in Organizational Behavior

The Hawthorne effect refers to how the social influence of an informal group can determine
individual behavior. Mayo's finding that working conditions, satisfaction, and relationships
with other workers can all influence employee behavior gave rise to the human relations
approach to management, which held that there is no one best way of managing employees.

 Motivation

The first motivation theories were developed toward the end of the 1930s. These theories are
based on the assumption that behavior is largely determined by immediate needs. They show
how the various physical, psychological, and social needs of a person will predict behavior.

 Changes in Organizational Behavior Concepts

In addition to significant research that contributed to the development of organizational

behavior — namely, scientific management, the Hawthorne studies, and early leadership
studies — there have been a number of other influences as well.
Contributions of Henry Fayol – 14 principles

Contributions of Kurt Lewin – Group Dynamics

Contributions of Richard Lazarus - Perceptions

Contributions of Robert Blake and Jane Mouton – Managerial Grid

As organizations continue to adapt to changes in technology, to the political and social

environment, and to an evolving marketplace, we expect that there will be continual changes
to theories and research in organizational behavior.

EVOLUTION OF OB

The evolution of OB has happened through various stages:

1. Stage One: Industrial revolution:

Industrial revolution in the year 1776 brought as many changes in the manufacturing units.
People working in the factories faced materialism, discipline, monotony in work, boredom,
job displacements, increased production etc. Industrialists understood the human needs of
employees.

2. Stage Two: Scientific management:

F. W. Taylor working at the Midvale Steel Company in the US during 1870s discovered that
applications of scientific methods to complete the tasks effectively. He advocated that:

 selection of right worker for the right jobs,

 train, teach and develop every worker and
 adequate remuneration to be provided.
This resulted in improved recognition and productivity of industrial workers. Thus the
neglected fact of giving importance to human resources was awakened.

3. Stage Three: Human Relations Movement:

a. In 1920s the dominant American market faced the trade cycle of depression/recession. The
management of every factory recognised the importance the functional areas like production,
marketing, finance and personnel to survive in the market and grow. Thus human relations
received increased significance.
b. Production area was still found to be the dominant business operation. Human aspects like
hours of work, wages, working conditions led the workers to protest against the management.
Thus labour movements led to the formation of trade unions.

The above reasons influenced the management to realise that workers need to be
distinguished from non- human factors like capital, money, machine etc. Thus human
relations movement further contributed to the significance of humanistic approach in
factories.
4. Stage Four: Hawthorne studies:
Following F.W. Taylor, Elton Mayo and his team began the research in the area of
organisational behaviour. In 1924 the team from Harvard Business School, US began to
research into human aspects of work and working conditions at the Hawthorne Plant of
Western Electric Company at Chicago. The experiments conducted resulted in findings like
importance of social factors, formation of groups in organisations, style of leadership, flow of
communication and information shared, conflicts and the supervisory climate.

These findings finally led to the genesis of Organisational behaviour.

HAWTHORNE EXPERIMENT

In November 1924, a team of research professors from the Harvard Business School of USA
began investigating into the human aspects of work and work conditions at the Hawthorne
plant of Western electric Company, Chicago. The company was producing bells and other
electric equipments for telephone industry. The team consists Elton Mayo (Psychologist),
Roethlisberger and Whitehead (Sociologists) and William Dickson (Company
Representative). The team conducted four separate experiments and behavioural studies over
7 year period.

1. Illumination experiments (1924-1927) to find out the effect of illumination on workers

productivity.

2. Relay Assembly Test Room Experime nts (1927-1928) to find out the effects of changes
in number of work hours and related workers working conditions on worker productivity.

3. Experiments in intervie wing worke rs (1928-1930) to find out workers attitudes and
sentiments toward work.

4. Bank Wiring Room Expe riments (1931-1932) to find out social system of an
organisation.

1. Illumination experiments (1924-1927)

It consisted of a series of studies of test groups in which the levels of illumination varied but
the conditions were held constant. The purpose behind it was to examine the relation of the
quality and quantity of illumination to the efficiency of workers. It was found that
productivity increased to almost the same rate in both test and control groups selected for the
experiments. In the final experiment, it was discovered that output decreased with the
decreased illumination level.

The researchers did not find any positive relationship between illumination and productivity.
But they found that people behave in a different manner when they are observed and in casual
manner if not observed.

2. Relay Assembly Test Room Experiments (1927-1928)

In this experiment the workers were divided into groups on the basis of the working
conditions. The working condition variables are room temperature, humidity, work schedule,
rest breaks and the food consumed by the workers. Five women were selected for the test and
their activities are consistently recorded.

The variables of working conditions did not account any results of relationship with
productivity. But the researchers suspected employee attitude and sentiments.

3. Experiments in interviewing workers (1928-1930)

In 1928, researchers directly met the workers to ask their opinion about the things important
to them. Around 20 thousand workers were interviewed over a period of two years. The
interviewers skilfully listened to the workers thought about themselves and about their job.

They found relationships in an informal way between the workers in the formal
organisational set up. This experiment led to a richer understanding of the social,
interpersonal dynamics of people at work.

4. Bank Wiring Room Experiments (1931-1932)

This study was conducted between 1931 and 1932. A group of 14 men who wired telephone
banks were observed in a standard shop condition.

Firstly, the workers had to work with the presence of the observer. The observer had no
conversations with the workers. The workers were natural and relaxed with their behaviour
after 3 weeks (initially workers were conscious about the observer).

Secondly, the observer found that the workers had set themselves to work up to 6600 units
per person per day. They worked in the pace that they can only produce 6600 units. Even
though they can produce more than 6600 units and also the y would be paid according to the
output, they did not do more. It was set as norm like set by them and if anyone tries to prove
that they could produce better, they would be harassed.

It was concluded that the behavioural norms set by the work group had a powerful influence
over the productivity of the group.

Contribution of the Hawthorne experiment is that it laid the foundation of

understanding people’s social and psychological behaviour at the work place. It is that the
behaviours of managers and workers in the work setting are critical in determining the
performance of the organisation.

ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR – ROLES

1. Understanding Human Behaviour

Organisational Behaviour provides a way for understanding human behaviour in the

organisation.
Organisational Behaviour can be understood at the individual level, interpersonal level, group
level and intergroup level.

(a) Individual Level:

It provides for analysing why and how an individual behaves in a particular way.

Human behaviour is a complex phenomenon and is affected by a large number of factors:

1. Psychological
2. Social
3. Cultural
Organisational Behaviour integrates these factors to provide simplicity in understanding
human behaviour.

(b) Interpersonal Level:

Interpersonal interaction is normally in peer relationship which represents mans most natural
attempt at socialisation. Two person relationship is inevitable in the organization. Analysis
of-

i. Reciprocal relationship
ii. Role analysis and
iii. Transitional Analysis
Are some of the common methods which provide such understanding.

(c) Group Level:

Group pressures become a force in shaping human behaviour. Research in group dynamics
has contributed vitally to organisational behaviour and shows how a group behaves in its:

i. Norms
ii. Cohesion
iii. Goals
iv. Procedures
v. Communication pattern
vi. Leadership and
vii. Membership
Understanding group relationships is very important for organisational morale and
productivity.

(d) Intergroup Level:

The organisation is made up of many groups that develop a complex of relationships to build
its process and substance.

Intergroup relationship may be in the form of cooperation or competition.

Organisational Behaviour helps in understanding and achieving cooperative group
relationships through:

i. Interaction
ii. Rotation of members among groups
iii. Avoidance of win-lose situation
iv. Focus on total group objectives
2. Controlling and Directing Behaviour

After understanding the mechanism of human behaviour, managers are required to control
and direct the behaviour so that it conforms to standards required for achieving organisational
objectives.

Organisational Behaviour helps managers in the following areas:

(a) Use of Power and Sanction:

i. Organisational Behaviour can be controlled and directed by the use of power and sanctions
which are formally prescribed by the organisation.

ii. Power is referred to as capacity of an individual to take certain action and may be utilised
in many ways.

iii. Organisational Behaviour explains how various means of power and sanction can be
utilised so that both organisational and individual objectives are achieved simultaneously.

(b) Leadership:

Organisational Behaviour brings new insights and understanding to the theory of leadership.

It identifies various leadership styles available to a manager and analyses which style is more
appropriate in a given situation.

(c) Communication:

i. It is communication through which people come in contact with others.

ii. To achieve organisational effectiveness the communication must be effective.

iii. The communication process and how it works in interpersonal dynamics has been
evaluated by Organisational Behaviour.

(d) Organisational Climate:

i. Organisational climate refers to the total organisational situations affecting human

behaviour.

ii. Organisational Behaviour suggests the approach to create organisational climate in totality
rather than merely improving the physiological conditions or increasing employees
satisfaction by changing isolated work process.
iii. Organisational Behaviour states that it is very important to create an atmosphere of
effective supervision, the opportunity for the realisation of personal goals, congenial relations
with others at the work place and a sense of accomplishment.

3. Organisational Adaptation

i. Organisations, as dynamic entities, are characterised by pervasive change.

ii. Organisations have to adapt themselves to the environmental changes by making suitable
internal arrangement.

iii. Managers have to face dual problems- Identifying need for change and then implementing
the changes without adversely affecting the need for satisfaction of organisational people.

CONTRIBUTING DISCIPLINES

OB is an applied behavioural science that is built upon contributions from various disciplines.
The main areas are psychology, sociology, social psychology, anthropology, and political
science. As we will learn, psychology’s contributions have been mainly at the individual or
micro- level of analysis. The other four disciplines have contributed to our understanding of
macro concepts, such as group processes and organization. The following Exhibit presents an
overview of the major contributions to the study of OB.
1. Psychology

It is the study of behaviour of both of humans and of animals. It helps to measure, explain
and even change the behaviour of people and animals.

2. Sociology

This refers to the study of group behaviour. The focus is on the behaviour of people in
relation to their fellow human beings.

3. Anthropology

This refers to the study of the human race, particularly its culture. The focus is on how human
race adjusts itself to the environment.

4. Social Psychology

This blends the concepts from psychology and sociology. It focuses on the influence of the
people on one another. Change, communication patterns, group decision making processes
and attitudinal changes are studied through social psychology.

5. Political Science

It is the branch of knowledge that deals with the state and system of governing things; the
scientific analysis of political activity and behaviour.
MODELS OF OB

There are four models of organisational behaviour. They are autocratic, custodial, supportive
and collegial.

Models Autocratic Custodial Supportive Collegial

Basis of model Power Economic Leadership Partnership
sources
Managerial Authority Money Support Teamwork
orientation
Employee Obedience Security and Job performance Responsible
orientation benefits behaviour
Employee Dependence on Dependence on Participation Self discipline
psychological boss organisation
result
Employee needs Subsistence- Security Status and Self
met meeting recognition actualisation
expenses related
to food, lodging,
travelling etc.
Performance Minimum Passive Stimulated Moderate
result (inactive) drives enthusiasm
cooperation

Autocratic – uses carrot and stick approach to satisfy physiological needs

This model represents traditional thinking of economic concept of man. Employees become
dependent on the boss who has power to hire or fire. Under this model workers reluctantly
perform due to fear of punishment. Their morale and productivity tends to be low due to
insecurity feeling and frustration. However this model can be successful when workers are
lazy. It may be appropriate for blue collar workers who seek satisfaction of their
physiological needs.

Custodial – uses incentives to meet security needs

This model depends on the economic resources of the organisation to pay wages and other
benefits to the employees. The employees are able to satisfy their security needs. They
become dependent on the organisation instead of on the boss. Employees feel satisfied and
happy but are not motivated to work hard for the organisation. Managers decide what is good
for their employees and psychological needs of employees are not satisfied

Supportive – serves the need for affiliation and esteem

This model depends on managerial leadership. Management provides a climate that helps
employees grow and accomplish. The focus is on the participation and involvement of
employees in the decision making process. Supportive model feel a sense of task involvement
and participation in the organisation. This model is effective with executive and professional
employees who seek satisfaction of higher order needs.
Collegial – attempts to fulfil self actualisation needs

The term collegial means a body of persons having a common purpose. It is based on team
concept wherein each employee has high degree of understanding towards others and shares
common goals. The organisational climate is conducive to self fulfilment. Direction and
control from management is not required due to Self discipline of employees.

As the need hierarchy changes with the level of a person in the organisation, the suitability of
model also changes.

INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOUR

Individual behaviour refers to the way in which an individual reacts or behaves at his place of
work.

It can be defined as a combination of reactions to internal and external stimuli. Individual

behaviour defines how a person will respond under distinct conditions and will express
different emotions such as happiness, rudeness, love, anger etc.

It refers to some concrete action by an individual. Study of individual behaviour reveals the
behaviour of human at the working environment.

FACTORS AFFECTING THE INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOUR

 Personal Factors
 Environmental Factors
 Organizational Factors

I Personal Factors

Personal factors are of 2 types: Biographic and Learned Characteristics

1. Biographic Characteristics: Biographic characteristics are genetic nature and are

inherited by individual by their parents or forefathers. These are gifted features that an
individual possesses by birth. All of these biographic characteristics are listed below: –

Psychical Characte ristics- Personal characteristics relates to skin, complexion, vision,

height, weight, size of nose etc. which influence the performance of individual. A person with
good physical characteristics have an attractive personality, they dress well and behave gently
in an organization.

Age- Age is an individual inherited characteristic that is determined by date of birth. Young
people are expected to be more efficient, energetic, risk-taking, innovative and ambitious.

Gende r- Gender is an inherited characteristic as being a men or women is genetic in nature.

Woman are expected to be more emotional than men and generates high turnover rates. It is
due to more likeness of woman quitting their job citing personal reasons.
Religion- Religious values of individual influence distinct aspects of his/her behaviour in
organization. Highly religious person is stricter towards following moral values, ethics and
code of conduct while performing their roles.

Marital Status- Researcher indicated that with marital status, responsibilities of individual
get inclined and for them having steady proper job becomes more important. Such employees
have less absences, low turnovers and more job satisfaction.

2. Learned Characte ristics : Learned characteristics refers to the changes in persons

behaviour that comes from his/her interactions with environment.

Personality- Personality solely do not refer to physical characteristics of person b ut indicates

the growth of individual’s psychological system. These are the personal traits of persons that
comprises of patience, extrovertness, dominance, aggressiveness etc.

Perception- It is a viewpoint of individual through which it interprets a particular situation.

Perception is defined as a process via which information enters mind and an interpretation
takes place for providing some sensible meaning to world.

Values- These are global beliefs that guides distinct actions and judgements in several
situations. It comprises of idea of an individual that is based on good, right and desirable
opinions.

II Environmental Factors

The external environment has an effective role in influencing the individual behaviour.

Employme nt level- Employment opportunities available within the country act as a major
determinant of individual behaviour. In case of less employment opportunities, he/she will
remain stick to same job level irrespective of how much satisfaction is attained. However, if
there are more employment opportunities available then employees will shift to other jobs.

Wage Rate- Monetary compensation is a major factor that every employee considers before
joining any organization. Therefore, a decision whether to stay in a particular company or
shift anywhere else is taken on the basis of wages he/she is getting.

General Economic Environment- Economic cycle in a country greatly influences the

behaviour of individual in an organization. They are subject to retrenchment and layoffs. Job
security and a stable income are the most relevant factors of motivation. Whereas, employees
of public sector undertakings are not affected by economic position within the country as they
receive their fixed salaries irrespective of economic conditions.

Political Factors- Political factors indirectly influences the behaviour of an individual. In a

politically stable environment, there will be large opportunities of steady job positions. It will
provide better freedom to individual which will influence their career choice, perfor mance
and jib design.
III Organizational Factors

Wide range of organizational factors influence behaviour of individual which are listed
below: –

Physical Facilities- Physical environment at work place have a great influence on behaviour
of individual. It comprises of factors like lighting, cleanliness, heat, noise level, office
furnishing, strength of workers etc.

Structure and Design- It is concerned with set-up design of departments within an

organization. Individual behaviour is influenced by where an individual perfectly fits in a
hierarchy of organization.

Reward System- Fair reward system adopted by company for compensating its employees
enhances the overall performance and behaviour of individual.

INTELLIGENCE

Meaning/Definitions

Intelligence is a cognitive process of reasoning and understanding.

Intelligence is defined as an ability to adapt to a variety of situations both old and new: an
ability to learn, or the capacity for education; and an ability to employ abstract concepts and
use to use a wide range of symbols and concepts.

Intelligence refers to a property of the mind that contains several capacities to reason, to plan,
to solve problems, to think abstract, to comprehend ideas, to use a language, and to learn.

Kinds of Intelligence

1. Cognitive intelligence
It involves the ability to understand complex ideas, to adapt effectively to the environment, to
learn from experience and to overcome obstacles by careful thought.
2. Emotional intelligence
It is the awareness and ability to manage one’s own emotions as well as the ability to be self-
motivated, to feel and to be socially skilled.

Factors influencing Intelligence

https://p.dw.com/p/39ae0

1. Heredity
It appears to be partly dependent on brain structures and genes shaping brain development.
The ratio of brain weight to body weight also contributes to the IQ of a person. Age also
influences the IQ level. At initial ages, one develops the intelligence, applies the IQ in the
mid-age and as people grow older their level of intelligence declines as their deterioration of
health, deficiencies of eye sight, hearing etc.

2. Environment
The environmental conditions like nutrition, health, quality of encouragement, emotional
climate at home, educational opportunities and appropriate rewards for accomplishments
determines the development of individual intelligence.

Intelligence and its relevance to OB

1. Intelligence tests are used in hiring people.

2. More than the conceptual intelligence, emotional intelligence is emphasised.

MENTAL INTELLIGENCE

Individual’s mental intelligence comprises of multiple capabilities. It may be general or

special. These are measurable by tests.

General intelligence is a person’s ability to reason and solve problems.

Specific intelligence is a person’s ability to excel in certain areas such as music, business or
arts.

Type of intelligence Description

Verbal/Linguistic Ability to use language
Musical Ability to compose and/or perform music
Logical/Mathematical Ability to think logically and to solve mathematical
problems
Visual/Spatial Ability to understand how objects are oriented in space
Bodily Movement/ Kinesthetics Ability to control one’s body motions
Interpersonal Ability to understand others and motivate others
Intrapersonal Ability to control emotions and self guiding
Naturalist Ability to recognise the patterns found in nature
Existentialist Ability to see the big picture

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Meaning

Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to an assortment of non-cognitive skills, capabilities, and

competencies that influence a person’s ability to succeed in coping with environmental
demands and pressures.
Dimensions of Emotional Intelligence

It’s composed of five dimensions:

• Self-awareness. It is exhibited by self-confidence, realistic self-assessment, and a self-

deprecating sense of humour.
• Self- management. It is the ability to manage own emotions and impulses. It is exhibited by
trustworthiness and integrity, comfort with ambiguity, and openness to change.
• Self- motivation. It is the ability to persist in the face of setbacks and failures. It is exhibited
by a strong drive to achieve, optimism, and high organizational commitment.
• Empathy. It is the ability to sense how others are feeling. It is exhibited by expertise in
building and retaining talent, cross-cultural sensitivity, and service to clients and customers.
• Social skills. It is the ability to handle the emotions of others. It is exhibited by
persuasiveness, and expertise in building and leading groups and teams.
EI differs from emotional labour because the latter is a job requirement (the demand to smile,
express enthusiasm, etc.) while the former is regarded as a personality trait. A person with
low EI may control his emotions because of a request from a manager (thus engaging in
emotional labour), but might otherwise not do so.