Notepad….

Unit-II

PERCEPTION

People often see the same phenomenon differently both within the organizational context and
outside the organisation. For example: when there is any accident in the factory, the supervisor may
treat it as the carelessness of workers while workers may see it as accident that happened due to
heavy workload of workers.

Perception :- “ A process by which individual organize and interpret their sensory impression to
give meaning to their environment”

It shows that what we perceive can be substantially different from objective reality.

Perception is the intellectual process through which a person selects the data from the environment,
organize it and obtain meaning from it. So, perception is the basic cognitive or psychological
process.

1. Factors that influence perception

Many factors shape and sometimes distor perception. These factors can reside:

 in the Perceiver
 the object or Target being perceived or
 the Context of the Situation in which the perception is made.

Perceiver :- When you look at a target, your interpretation of what you see is influenced by your
personal characteristics - that is, your attitude, personality, motives, interest, past experience and
expectations. In some ways, we hear what we want to hear and we see what we want to see – not
because it’s truth, but because it confirms to our thinking. Example: if you want to buy a car, your
purchase will be influenced by your perception on different cars on roads, and it specifically shows
your attitude and interest. Moreover, unsatisfied needs or motives stimulate individuals and may
exert strong influence on their perception. Example: Research on hunger, proved that unsatisfied
needs of people influence their perception. Similarly, a manager has been experiencing the high
level of lateness of workers in a B-section of the company and he may perceives that B-section
workers will be late to arrive tomorrow (It is because of managers experience on workers arrival at
B-section). Finally, your expectations do influence your perception.

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 Factors in the Perceiver
 Attitudes
 Motives
 Interest
 Experience
 Expectations

Factors in the Situation

 Time Perception
 Work Setting
 Social Setting

Factors in the Target

 Novelty
 Motion
 Sounds
 Size
 Background
 Proximity
 Similarity

Target :- The characteristics of the target also affect what we perceive. The relationship of a target
to its background influences the perception, as does our tendency to group close things and similar
things together. We can also perceive. We can also perceive Africans, Americans, Asians or
members of any group that has clearly distinguishable characteristics. But sometimes our
assumptions will be wrong.

Context of the Situation:- Context matters too. The time at which we see an object or event can
influence our attention, as can location, light, heat, or situational factors. For Example : you may
notice, If a student does not normally wear formal attire to Management class. People are not
aware of the factors that influence their view of reality.

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Hence, Perception relates to the process through which we receive and interpret information from
our environment and create a meaningful word out of it.

2. Perception Process
Perception is a process consisting of several sub-process. We can take an input-through output
approach to understand the dynamics of the perceptual process.

Perceptual Inputs Perceptual Throughputs Perceptual Outputs

Stimuli Receiving Selecting Organizing Interpreting Action

A stimulus is anything that can trigger a physical or behavioural change. Stimuli is external or
internal.

Eg: of external stimuli is ‘ your body responding to a medicine’

Eg: of internal stimuli are ‘your vital signs changing due to a change in the body’

1. Stimuli:- The first process in the perception is the present of stimuli which confront the human
beings. These may be in the form of people, objects events information, conversation..etc.

2. Receiving Stimuli:- The actual perception process starts with the receipt of stimuli. Once sees
things, hears them, smells, tastes or touches them and learn other aspects of the things. Thus,
reception of stimuli is a physiological aspects of perception process.

3. Selection of Stimuli:- After receiving the stimuli or data, some are selected for further processing
while others are screened out because it is not possible for a person to select all stimuli for
processing to attach meaning which he receives from the environment. Two type of factors affect
the selection of stimuli for processing; they are external factors ( factors related to stimuli) and
internal factors (factors related to the perceiver). Important external factors are intensity of stimuli,
its size, contrast, movement, repetition, familiarity..etc. internal factors are important to selection of
stimuli, like perceiver’s self acceptance…etc.

4 Organisation of Stimuli:- After the data have been selected, these are organised in some form in
order to make sense out of them such organisation of stimuli are:

a) Figure ground- People tend to organize information on what is known as the figure-ground
principle. This involves that in perceiving stimuli or phenomena, the tendency is to keep
certain phenomena in focus and other ore in background. More attention is paid to
phenomena which have been kept as figures and less attention to background. Eg: While

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 reading a book the letters printed are treated as figures, while the page on which the letters
have been printed as taken as ground.
b) Grouping :- Here, the perceiver groups the various stimuli on the basis of their similarity or
proximity. Thus, all such stimuli which have been grouped together are likely to be
perceived as having same characteristics
c) Simplification:-when ever people are over loaded with information, they try to simplify it to
make it more meaningful and understandable.
d) Closure:-When faced with incomplete information, people fill up the gap themselves to
make the information meaningful. Eg: BHIMA (if missing one letter we can easily fill it
up)

5.Interpretation:- People interpret the meaning of what they have selectively perceived and
organised in terms of their own assumptions of people, things and situations. They also become
judgmental.

6.Action:- It means acting in relation to what has been perceived. This is the output aspect of
perceptual process.

3. Perceptual Selectivity
Perception is a selective process. As the people can sense only limited amount of information in the
environment. They are naturally selective. By selection certain aspects of stimuli are screened out
and other are admitted. Those which are admitted are the awareness of people. There are number of
factors which affect the selectivity, they are:

a. Self Concept :- The way a person views the world depends a great deal on the
concept or image he has about himself. The concept plays an internal role in
perceptual selectivity. People’s own characteristics affect the characteristics which
they are likely to see in others.

b. Beliefs: - A person beliefs have deep influence on his perception. The individual
normally censors stimulus inputs to avoid disturbance of his existing beliefs.

 An Individual self-censors his intake of communications.

 An individual seeks out communication which supports his beliefs and
practices.
 The above point is true when the beliefs and practices in question.

c. Expectations: - Expectations affect what a person perceives. Thus a technical

manager may expect ignorance about the technical features of a product from non-
technical people or union officials.

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d. Inner needs:- People perception is determined by their inner needs. The need is a
feeling of tension or discomfort when one thinks he is missing something. People
with different needs, select different items to remember or respond to when people
are not able to satisfy their needs they are engaged wishful thinking, which is a way
to satisfy the need.
e. Response Disposition:- Response disposition refers to a person’s tendency to perceive familiar
stimuli rather than unfamiliar ones. In an experiment; persons having dominant religious values
took lesser time in recognizing such related words like ‘Priest’.

f. Response Salience :- Response salience is the set of dispositions which are determined not by the
familiarity of the stimulus situations but by the persons own cognitive predispositions. ( for your
information Eg:- Wee can see this in TV news discussions)

g. Perceptual Defence :- Perceptual defence refers to the screening of those elements which creates
conflicts and threatening situations in people. They may even perceive other factors to be present
that are not a part of the stimulus situations.

h. External factors:- The above factors are related to the person involved in perception process.
Various factors such as intensity, size, contrast, repetition, familiarity and novelty affect the
selectivity by forcing the subject to take, or not to take.

Social perception allows individuals to make judgments and form impressions about other people .
These judgments are primarily based on observation, although pre-existing knowledge influences
how observed information is interpreted.

Therefore, Social perception (or interpersonal perception) is the study of how people form
impressions of and make inferences about other people as sovereign personalities. People learn
about others' feelings and emotions by picking up information they gather from physical
appearance, verbal, and nonverbal communication.

In social psychology, the term "person perception" refers to the different mental processes that we
use to form impressions of other people. This includes not just how we form these impressions, but
the different conclusions we make about other people based on our impressions.

4. Distortion in Perception
(Distortion means = act of giving a misleading impression)

In person perception, there many factors which affect the correctness of perception, thus
perception distortion occurs. Perceptual distortion is a position, where the person does not perceive
the thing, particularly person, as it may be. There are many factors related with person perceiving.

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1. Personality :- Personality of the perceiver greatly influences the perception of the person.
Researchers suggest that (i) secure people perceive others as warm individuals rather than
indifferent. (ii) Self-accepting people perceive others as liking as accepting people. (iii) People tend
to perceive others more accurately when they are more like the ones that they perceive.

2. Mental Set :- People have tendency to perceive about others on the basis of the ir mental set.

3. Attribution:-Attribution refers how a person tries to understand the behaviour or events and
interpret them as caused by certain factors. Individual perceive the information around them and
learn to behave accordingly. It has been observed that different person have different views about
what they believe in a particular way

Eg: The failure of subordinate due to external factors – which is uncontrollable

4.First Impression:-It is very common that people evaluate others on the basis of first impression.
The evaluation of first impression may be correct -if it is based on sufficient evidence. But, first
impression is not based on adequate information, so it may not be true .People continue to evaluate
on the basis of first impression.

5. Halo Effects or Horns Effects:- When we draw a positive impression about an individual based
on a single characteristics, such as intelligence, sociability or appearance, a halo effect is operating.

The Horns effects is the other hand, is when we draw a negative impression form a single
characteristics

6 Stereotyping:- When we judge someone based on our perception of the group to which he or she
belongs. This means that the perceiver sees the person on the basis of a single class or category.
Besides this categorization also implies general agreement on the attributed traits. Thus stereotype
may attribute favourable or unfavourable traits to the person being perceived.

7.Person Perceived:- There are certain characteristics of person being perceived which also
influence the perception. The first factor is the status of the person, the second factor is the
visibility of traits,

8. Situational Factors:-This may be characteristics of the place/situation which influence….

5. Managerial Implication of Perception Or Management of Perception

A manager is primarily concerned with the achievement of organisational objectives through
specified behaviour of its members. Perception affects the outcomes of behaviour. This is so
because people act on the basis of what they see. Hence, in understanding behaviour, the managers
must recognize that fact people do not perceive.. Sometimes, incorrect things will influence in their

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perception. Thus the understanding of human perception is important to control their behaviour. The
major areas which require special attention are:

1, Interpersonal Working Relationship:- organisations are intended to bring about integrated

behaviour. Therefore, managers in the organization need to know whether or not members share
similar or at least compatible perception. So require efforts to make their perception more
compatible.

2. Selection of Employees:- Organisation select new employees on the basis of selection tests,
interviews and reviews of the applicant backgrounds. In many cases much of the information is
vague and mangers are subject to many of the perceptual problems when they make the selection
decisions. The major areas of the problems in this case are that (i) the managers emotional state
may vary from day to day causing unfair perception of the same applicants (ii) they may b e strong
tendencies towards logical error and stereotyping specially during initial interviews.

3. Performance Expectation:- People attempt to validate their perception, even if it is faulty. The
expectations from employee must be real and not in exaggerated way. If manager expect big
things from his people, they are in capable of doing the same. If, manger expect minimal
performance, the employee will likely meet those low expectation. It explains, manager must frame
clear cut performance expectation from employees

4. Performance Appraisal ( Performance Evaluations ):-The appraisal of a subordinate

performance is highly affected by the accuracy of a managers perceptions. Here, the major areas
are: (i) the managers may have tendencies to positively evaluate some employees, because the y are
better liked by the manager or particularly noticeable by the manager (ii) because of ‘hallo effects’
performance evaluations will be affected adversely.

6. Developing Perceptual Skills:

1. Perceiving oneself accurately :- one of the major reasons, why people misperceive others that
they fail perceive themselves accurately. The more accurate he understand himself, the more
accurate he can perceive others.

2.Enhancing Self Concept:- it is normally a function how successfully people accomplish the things
they attempt to do.

3. Having Positive attitude :-

4 Being Empathetic::- Empathy means being able to see a situation as it is experienced by others. A
person can understand the problem in true perspective when he looks at it form others point of view
also.

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4. Communicating more openly:- Lot of misperception arises in the organisation because of lack of
adequate communication.

5. Avoiding common perceptual distortions :-

VALUES

Is capital punishment is Good or Bad ?

1. Someone will say “Yes”, because they believe that capital punishment is perfect for serious
crimes like murder.

2. Some others will say “No”, because they believe that no one has right to take someone life.

This is the difference in answers, because the answers are made from the VALUE which a person
hold.

1. Definition of Values :-

Values defined as ‘the collective conceptions of what is considered good, desirable, and proper or
bad, undesirable, and improper in a culture”.

Characteristics of Values

1. Values provides standards of competence and morality

2. Values contain a judgmental element, because they carry individual ideas about what is
right, good or desirable.
3. Values have two attributes; they are content attribute and intensity attribute
4. Content attribute says a mode of conduct.
5. Intensity attribute specifies how importance a mode of conduct.
6. When we rank values in terms of intensify, we obtain that person’s Value System. This
means, we all have hierarchy of values according to the relative importance we assign to
values.
7. Many of the values we hold are established in our early years – by parents, teachers, friends
and others.
8. So, Values are relatively permanent and resistant to change
9. There is also evidence linking personality to values.
10. Values may be partially determined by genetically transmitted traits.

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Values lay the foundation for understanding attitudes and motivation and they influence our
perceptions.

2. Types of Values
According to ‘Milton Rokeach’ - classified the values into two categories

1. Terminal Values

2. Instrumental Values.

1. Terminal Values :- Terminal value is an ultimate goal in a desired status or outcome. These are
the goal a person would like to achieve during a lifetime.

Some Examples are:

1. Comfortable life
2. Family Security
3. Self respect
These are the goal that a person would like to
4. Freedom
5. .Social recognition achieve in his life time.
6. Happiness …etc

2. Instrumental Values:- Instrumental values refers to preferable mode of bahaviour or means to

achieve the terminal values. It is a tool for acquiring a terminal value.

Some Example are :

1. Ambitious
2. Capable
3. Intellectual These are the mode of behaviour or means that a
4. Helpful person used to achieve the terminal values
5. Logical
6. Loving
7. Polite …etc

Another frequently used classification of human values has been developed by psychologist
Gordon Allport and his associates. These values fall into six major types :-:

1. Theoretical:- interest in the discovery of truth through reasoning and systematic thinking

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 2. Economic:- interest in usefulness and practicality, including the accumulation of wealth
3. Aesthetic:-interest in beauty, form, and artistic harmony
4. Social:- interest in people and love as a human relationship
5. Political:-interest in gaining power and influencing other people
6. Religious:-interest in unity and in understanding the cosmos as a whole

3. Bruce Maglino’s Workplace Values

The previous value classifications have had a major impact on the values literature, but they were
not specifically designed for people in a work setting. A more recent values schema,
developed by Bruce Maglino and associates, is aimed at people in the workplace.

1. Achievement :- Getting things done and working hard to accomplish difficult things in life
2. Helping and concern for others :- Being concerned with other people and helping others
3. Honesty:- Telling the truth and doing what you feel is right
4. Fairness:- Being impartial and doing what is fair for all concerned

These four values have been shown to be especially important in the workplace; thus, the
framework should be particularly relevant for studying values in Organisational Behaviour

EMOTIONS

Emotions can greatly influence our attitude towards others, our decision making and our
behaviours. We cannot set aside our emotions, but we can acknowledge and work with them and
not all emotions have negative influence on us. Emotions in the workplace play a large role in how
an entire organization communicates within itself and to the outside world. Emotions shape an
individual's belief about the value of a job, a company, or a team.

Definition:-“Emotions are intense, discrete and short-lived feeling experiences that are often caused
by a specific event”.

Emotions

 Caused by specific event

 Very brief in duration ( seconds or minutes)
 Specific and numerous in nature ( many specific emotions such as anger, fear,
sadness, happiness, disgust, surprise)
 Usually accompanied by distinct facial expressions 10
 Action oriented in nature
 Not everyone reacts to the same situation in the same way. For example, a manager’s way of
speaking can cause one person to feel motivated, another to feel angry, and a third to feel sad.
Emotions can influence whether a person is receptive to advice, whether they quit a job, and how
they perform individually or on a team

1. Types of Emotions

How many emotions are there?. There are dozens, including anger, contempt, enthusiasm, jealousy,
fear, frustration, disappointment, embarrassment, disgust, happiness, hate, hope, joy, love, pride,
surprise and sadness.

Generally, we can classify emotions into: positive emotions and negative emotions.

a. Positive emotions: Positive emotions such as joy, love, and surprise result from our reaction to
desired events. In the workplace, these events may include achieving a goal or receiving praise from
a superior. Individuals experiencing a positive emotion may feel peaceful, content, and calm. A
positive feeling generates a sensation of having something you didn’t have before. As a result, it
may cause you to feel fulfilled and satisfied.

Emotions are also useful for creative tasks, because positive individuals tend to be more creative
and open to new ideas. In addition to helping with employee creativity, companies such as
Microsoft Corporation often want to understand which features of their products produce not just
high ratings for usability but also high emotional ratings.

Positive emotions have acquired less attention than negative emotions, for several reasons: they are
less differentiated, they are not associated with specific problems needing solutions, and they are
not associated with specific action tendencies thought to be necessary for survival

Positive emotions should promote a number of important organizational processes, such as skill
building, creativity, effective social relations, organizational commitment and collective
orientations.

b. Negative emotions: Negative emotions such as anger, fear, and sadness can result from
undesired events. In the workplace, these events may include not having your opinions heard, a lack
of control over your day-to-day environment, and unpleasant interactions with colleagues,
customers, and superiors. Negative emotions play a role in the conflict process.

The unwanted side effects of negative emotions at work are easy to see: An angry colleague is left
alone to work through the anger; a jealous colleague is excluded from office gossip, which is also
the source of important office news. Negative emotions can be destructive in the workplace.

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2 Universal Emotions
There are six basic emotions that are universally experienced in all people irrespective of their
cultures. These emotions are sadness, happiness, disgust, surprise, fear and anger.

Emotions can be joined together to form different feelings. Just like the way we can mix different
colors to form different shades. Mixed emotions build complex emotions.

For example, basic emotions such as trust and joy can be combined to create a greater emotion such
as love.

The major universal emotions are listed below:-

1. Happiness:- Happiness is a pleasant emotional state, and it is characterized by the feeling of joy,
contentment, satisfaction, gratification, and well-being. Happiness is one of the basic emotions, but
things that create happiness are majorly influenced by culture. For example: buying a home or
having a high-paying job will result in happiness. The realities of what actually contributes to
happiness are often much more complex and more highly individualized. According to research,
happiness plays a major role in mental and physical health.

Conversely, we can link unhappiness to a variety of things such as anxiety, stress, loneliness,
depression and more.

2. Sadness:- Sadness is another type of emotion often defined as a short-lived emotional state.. It is
typically characterized by feelings of grief, disappointment, disinterest, hopelessness, and a
dampened mood. Sadness. In some cases, people experience severe and prolonged periods of
sadness that can become depression. The type and severity of sadness can vary depending upon the
root cause, and how people cope with such feelings can also differ

3. Fear:-This is a very powerful emotion, and it can play an important role in survival. When you
face some sort of danger and experience fear, you go through what is known as the fight or flight
response. . Your heart rate increases, your muscles become tense, and your mind becomes more
alert. This primes your body either to stand and fight or to run from danger. The response ensures
that you are prepared to deal with the threats in your environment which can be an organizational
setting. People experience fear in different ways. Some people may be more sensitive to certain
objects that may trigger fear. Fear can be defined as an emotional response to a sudden threat.

4.Disgust:- This is a basic emotion that can be displayed in numerous ways such as turning away
from things of disgust, facial expressions such as curling the upper lip and wrinkling the nose and
physical reactions such as retching or vomiting. Different things can cause disgust such as
unpleasant smell, sight or taste. Experts believe that disgust evolved as a reaction to harmful foods .
There is also moral disgust when people observe other people engaging in behaviors that they find
immoral, distasteful or evil.

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5. Anger:-This is a very powerful emotion, and it is characterized by feelings of agitation, hostility,
antagonism, and frustration towards others. Anger is similar to fear in that it can trigger a flight or
fight response in the body. Anger can be displayed through body language such as turning away
from someone, facial expressions such as glaring or frowning, tone of voice such as yelling or
speaking gruffly, a physiological response such as turning red or sweating, and aggression such as
kicking, hitting or throwing objects. Anger can negatively affect the productivity of employees in an
organization.

6. Surprise:- It is typically brief, and we can characterize surprise by a physiological startle

response due to unexpected things. Surprise can be negative, positive or neutral. We can
characterize surprise by facial expressions such as widening the eyes raising the brows and opening
the mouth. We can also characterize surprise through physical responses such as jumping up or
back and verbal reactions such as gasping, screaming and yelling. Positive surprises to employees in
an organization can increase their productivity.

3. Emotional Intelligence (EI)

Emotional intelligence (EI) :- “The ability to detect and to manage emotional cues and
information”. Hence emotional intelligence:

 Is a person’s ability to perceive emotions in the self and others

 Understand the meaning of these emotions and
 Regulate his or her emotions accordingly

It means the ability to express and control emotions are essential. Several studies suggest that EI
plays an important role in job performance, teamwork effectiveness as well as to understand
citizenship behaviour.

Researchers suggest the following levels of emotional intelligence including emotional perception,
and ability to reason using emotions, the ability to understand emotions, and the ability to manage
emotions.

1. Perceiving emotions and reasoning with emotions :- It means to perceive emotions accurately.
It might involve understanding nonverbal signals such as body language and facial expressions.
Then promote thinking, which helps what we pay attention and react to;

2, Understanding emotions:-The emotions that we perceive can carry a wide variety of meaning.
If someone is expressing angry emotions, the observer must interpret the cause of the person’s
anger and what it could mean

3 Regulate or manage emotions :- The ability to regulate or manage emotions effectively is a

crucial part of EI. Here, regulating emotions and responding appropriately.

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A Model of Emotional Intelligence

Carefulness Perceive Emotions in Self and Others

car

Cognitive Ability Understanding the meaning of emotions

Emotional Stability Regulate Emotions

ANXIETY

Anxiety is a feeling of fear, dread, and uneasiness. It might cause you to sweat, feel restless and
tense, and have a rapid heartbeat. It can be a normal reaction to stress. For example, you might feel
anxious when faced with a difficult problem at work.

When you feel anxious, your body goes on high alert, looking for possible danger and activating
your fight or flight responses. As a result, some common symptoms of anxiety
include: nervousness, restlessness, or being tense. feelings of danger, panic, or dread.

Signs and Symptoms

1. Feeling restless, wound-up, or on-edge.

2. Being easily fatigued.
3. Having difficulty concentrating; mind going blank.
4. Being irritable.
5. Having muscle tension.
6. Difficulty controlling feelings of worry.
7. Having sleep problems, such as difficulty falling or staying asleep, restlessness, or
unsatisfying sleep.

Anxious employees are more likely to leave the job, resulting in costly high turnover rates. Other
problems such as missed deadlines can occur because an anxious employee does not perform as
well as an employee who feels comfortable and safe in their job. For some people, extra -long work
hours, high stress, a lack of support from managers and co-workers, and related factors can lead to
someone developing anxiety at work.

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Anxiety Management Strategies

Slow breathing.:-When you’re anxious, your breathing becomes faster and shallower. Try
deliberately slowing down your breathing

Progressive muscle relaxation:- Find a quiet location. Close your eyes and slowly tense and then
relax each of your muscle groups from your toes to your head. Hold the tension for three seconds
and then release quickly

Stay in the present moment:-.

Healthy lifestyle :-Keeping active, eating well, going out into nature, spending time with family
and friends, reducing stress and doing the activities you enjoy are all effective in reducing anxiety
and improving your wellbeing.

Take small acts of bravery. . Try approaching something that makes you anxious – even in a small
way.

Challenge your self-talk :- How you think affects how you feel. Anxiety can make you
overestimate the danger in a situation and underestimate your ability to handle it. Try to think of
different interpretations to a situation that’s making you anxious, rather than jumping to the worst-
case scenario.

Plan worry time :- It’s hard to stop worrying entirely so set aside some time to indulge your
worries. Even 10 minutes each evening to write them down or go over them in your head can help
stop your worries from taking over at other times.

Get to know your anxiety:- Keep a diary of when it’s at it’s best – and worst. Find the patterns and
plan your week – or day – to proactively manage your anxiety.

Learn from others:- Talking with others who also experience anxiety – or are going through
something similar – can help you feel less alone. Visit our Online Forums to connect with others.

Be kind to yourself:- Remember that you are not your anxiety. You are not weak. You are not
inferior. You have a mental health condition. It’s called anxiety.

In the organisational settings, companies are promoting and training their workers to keep away
from disruptive anxiety by following above anxiety management strategies. Eg: Mostly all
Multinational Companies.

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 PERSONALITY

The term personality has been derived from Latin word ‘Per sonare’ which means ‘to speak
through’ This Latin term denotes the masks which the actors used to wear in ancient Greece and
Rome. Thus personality is used in terms of influencing others through appearance. However the
external appearance does not make the whole personality.
Defining Personality: - “Personality as the sum of ways in which an individual reacts to and
interacts with others’
We most often describe personality in terms of the measureable traits a person exhibits. The unique
way of responding to day to day life situations is the heart of human behaviour. So, personality
embraces all the unique traits, individual in his relationship with others and his environmental.

Personality Theories
The most logica l grouping of personality theories:
1. Psychoanalytic Theory:-……….( by Sigmund Freud, and Associates)
Psychoanalytic theory is based on the motion that man is motivated more by unseen forces
than he is controlled by conscious and rational thought. ‘Sigmund Freud, and associates are closely
related with this theory. Their clinical finding led to conclude that major motivating force in man
was unconscious framework. This framework contains three aspects; they are interrelated at the
same time often conflicting.

An example
a) The Id:- The “Id”is the source of psychic energy and seeks immediate gratification for biological
or instinctual needs. Eg: hunger, thirst…etc. As the individual matures, he learns to control the
‘id’. But even then, it remains a driving force throughout life and an important source of thinking
and behaving.
b) The Ego :- The Ego is the conscious and logical part of the human personality and is associated
with the reality principle. While ‘Id’ represents the unconscious part. ‘Ego’ is conscious. Thus
‘ego’ keeps ‘id’ in check through the realities of the external environment through intellect and
reasoning. Here, many conflicting situations arise because ‘id’ want immediate pleasure, while
‘ego’ indicates the postponement. In order to resolve the conflict, the ego gets support from the
‘super ego’.
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c) The Super Ego :- The super ego represents social and personal norms and serves as an ethical
constant behaviour, The super ego provides norms to ego to determine what is wrong or right.
Here, super ego also adopts cultural values and norms of the society.
2. Socio-Psychological Theory:-……….( by Adler, Horney, Fromm and Sullivan)
Socio-Psychological theory recognizes the interdependence of the individual and society.
The individual strives to meet the needs of the society, while society helps the individual to attain
his goal. Out of this interaction, the personality of an individual is determined. The socio-
psychological theory offers, to a very great extent to understand the emergence of psychology and
the social factors that shaping personality. The managers in the organization can take a clue form
the theory in shaping the bahaviour of their employees.
3. Trait Factor Theory:-……….( by Alport)
The trait factor theory represents a quantitative approach to the study of personality.
Individual personality composed of an inclination of attributes called traits. There are basically
three assumptions of this theory.
a) Traits are common to many individual and vary between individual
b) Traits are relatively stable.
c) Traits can be concluded from the measurement of behaviour indicators.
Under theory, common traits are used to compare people. In this theory, identified six categories of
values to compare people, they are: social, economical, political, religious, aesthetic and theoretical.

4.Self Theory:-……….( by Carl Rogers)

The theory emphasizes on the totality and interrelatedness of all behaviour. There are four
factors in self concept:

a) Self Image -= Self image s the way one-sees oneself. Every person has concept about who or
what he is; taken together, these beliefs are a person’s self image.

b) Idea Self:- The idea of self denotes he was one would like to be. The idea self-differs from self-
image. Self – image indicates the reality of a person as he perceived by him while idea self the ideal
position as perceived by him.

c) Looking glass-self:-The looking glass self is the perception of a person about how others are
perceiving his qualities and characteristics. This is the perception of others that how do they think
about him.

d) Real self :-The real-self is what one really is. The first three aspects of self-concept are the
functions of individual perception and they may be same or different.

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5. Situation Strength Theory:-

Situation strength theory proposes that the way personality translates into behaviour depends
on the strength of the situation. By situation strength we mean the degree to which norms, cues or
standards dictate appropriate behaviour. Strong situation shows us what the right behaviour is, but
weak situation, may be we would not have right behaviour. Thus personality traits better predict
bahaviour in weak situation than in strong situation.

6) Trait Activation Theory (TAT).

TAT predicts that some situations, events or interventions “activate” a trait more than others.
TAT, we can foresee which jobs suit certain personalities. For example: A commission-based
compensation plan would likely activate individual differences because someone looking for
additional income. TAT also applies to personality tendencies. For example: People learning
online respond differently when their behaviour was being electronically monitored .

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Personality tests and Measurement

Throughout the history people have sought to understand what makes individuals behave in
different ways. Many of our behaviour stem from our personalities, so understanding the
components of personality helps us predict behaviour. Psychologists seek to measure personality
through a number of methods. The most common personality assessments in workplace are:
1. Objective test
An objective test is a psychological test that measures an individual’s characteristics in a way that
is not influenced by the examiner’s own beliefs. They usually involve the administration of a
questions that are marked and compared against standardized scoring mechanisms.
2.Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is based on Carl Jung’s theory of personality, is one of
the widely used personality assessment in the world. It is a 100-question personality test that asks
people how they usually feel or act in situations. Respondents are classified as Extraverted or
Introverted (E or I), Sensing or Intuitive ( S or N), Thinking or Feeling (T or F) and Judging
or Perceiving ( J or P)

 Extraverted (E) versus Introverted (I): Extraverted individuals are outgoing, sociable and
assertive. Introverts are quiet and shy.
 Sensing (S) versus Intuitive (N):- sensing types are practical and prefer routine and order
and they focus on details. Intuitive rely on unconscious processes and look a big picture.
 Thinking (T) versus Feeling (F)-Thinking type use reason and logic to handle problems.
Feeling types rely on their personal values and emotions.

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  Judging (J) versus Perceiving (P):- Judging types want control and prefer order and
structure. Perceiving types are flexible and spontaneous.

The MBTI describes personality types by identifying one trait from each of the four pairs.
3.The Big Five Personality Model
The big five model means ‘a personality assessment model that describes five basic dimensions of
personality. Big five model, which comprises that five basic dimensions to assess human
personality. How do the Big Five Traits predict behaviour at work are explained below:
(i) Conscientiousness:-
It measures the personal consistency and reliability. A highly conscientious person is reliable,
organized, dependable and persistent. As researchers have stated that attribute related to
conscientiousness are important for success across many jobs. Employee who score higher in
conscientiousness develop higher levels of job knowledge, preferably because highly consc ientious
people learn more. Conscientiousness people are also more able to maintain their job performance
even when faced with abusive supervision, according to a recent study in India. Conscientious
people more likely engage in more organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) and less likely
engage in counterproductive work behaviour (CWD). Hence, Conscientiousness is important to
overall organizational success
(ii) Emotional Stability:-
The emotional stability dimension taps a person’s ability to withstand stress. People with emotional
stability tend to be clam, se lf-confident and secure. High score are more likely to be positive and
optimistic. People with less emotional stability score may be unable to cope with the organizational
requirements, they many have the experience burnout. These people also tend to experience work-
family conflict, which can affect work outcome.
(iii) Extraversion:-
Extraverts perform better in jobs with significant interpersonal interaction. They are socially
dominant and are usually more self confident than introverts. Extraverts also tend to have
generally high job satisfaction and reduced burnout.
(vi) Openness to experience:-
Open people tend to be the most creative and innovative compared with the othe r traits. Open
people are more likely to be effective leaders and more comfortable with ambiguity. They cope
better with the organisational change and are more adaptable. Open people also experience less
work-family conflict.
(v) Agreeableness:-

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Agreeable people are cooperative, warm and trusting. They should perform well in interpersonally
oriented jobs such as customer services. They experience less work-family conflict and less subject
to turnover. They also contribute to organisational performance

4. Projective Measures

Projective tests seek to expose people’s unconscious perceptions by using vague stimuli to reveal
the inner aspects of an individual’s personality. Two of the most popular projective measures are
the Thematic Apperception Measure and the Rorschach test.

(i) Rorschach Test

The Rorchach test consists of ten inkblots, on paper and then folding over the paper to create a
symmetrical design. During the test, participants are shown the inkblots and asked what ea ch one
looks like. The test administrator then asks questions about the responses, such as which part of the
inkblot was linked to each response. This test can be used to examine a person’s personality
characteristics and emotional functioning, and is thought to measure unconscious attitudes and
motivations.

(ii) Thematic Apperception Test ( TAT)

The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) consists of 30 cards (including one blank card) depicting
ambiguous drawings. Test-takers are asked to tell a story about each picture, including the
background that led up to the story and the thoughts and feelings of the characters. Like the
Rorschach test, the results are thought to indicate a person’s personality characteristics and
emotional functioning

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Personality Typology
or Classification of Personality in an Organization Setup

There are several personality types of people in an organization that can dictate the behavior of
individuals. By figuring out how these personality types fit into the culture of the organization. If
there is a high level of dissimilarity among the personalities of the employees and the culture of the
organization, communication, cooperation and working relationships can suffer to the detriment of
the organization as a whole.

1. Extrovert Personality

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The extrovert is a friendly person who is quick to establish relationships with others. Extroverts
display a high level of social engagement. They enjoy being with people and like to be in the
company of large groups. Extroverts are active and tend to get involved in many activities.

2. Agreeable Personality

The agreeable person can cooperate well with other people by putting aside personal needs while
getting along with peers. These people trust others and rely on their integrity, character and abilities.
Often the agreeable personality feels the need to help other people, and can derive fulfillment by
offering support.

3. Conscientious Personality

Conscientious people exude confidence and feel capable of accomplishing goals. They may be
over-achievers who want to be viewed as successful.

4. Cautious Personality

Cautious people will look at problems from every angle before acting or making a decision, while
those who are not cautious often act or speak before they think things through.

5. Self-Conscious Personality

Self-conscious people are highly sensitive to what others think and say about them. They dislike
criticism and are sensitive to rejection, while those who are not all that self-conscious are not
bothered by being judged by other people.

6. Adventurous Personality

People with an adventurous personality seek out new experiences and dislike routine. They may be
unafraid to challenge authority and conventions, while those who are less adventurous may have
traditional values and prefer security over adventurousness. Those with an adventurous personality
enjoy having power and may be more amenable to taking risks.

Reference:

1. Prasad, L M. Organisational Behaviour. New Delhi: Sultan Chand & Sons, 1999.
2. Robbins, Stephen P, Timothy A Jude, and Neharika Vohra. Organisational Behaviour.
India: Pearson, 2020
3. Robert G. Lord Ruth Kanfer: Emotions and Organizational Behavior.
4. Kendra Cherry, Steven Gans (2021) : Basic Emotions and Their Effect on Human Behavior
5. https://www.beyondblue.org.au/the-facts/anxiety/treatments-for-anxiety/anxiety-
management-strategies
6. https://bizfluent.com/info-8677816-types-personalities-organizational-behavior.html

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