IGNOU

MMPC-11

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q1) What are the characteristics of open system?

A) 1. Importation of Energy: An open system takes energy — various types of inputs —

from the environment. Without these inputs, no open system can survive.

2. Throughput: An open system converts the inputs into some kind of outputs. This
process is known as throughput or transformation process. A business organization
may convert inputs like materials, energy, information into goods and services through
the transformation process.

3. Outputs: An open system exports some outputs to the environment. Organizations

export goods and services. The manner in which they export outputs determines their
viability and existence.

4. System as Cycles of Events: The pattern of activities — inflow of inputs, throughput,

outflow of outputs — has a cyclic character. The outputs exported to the environment
furnish sources of inputs for the repetition of cycle of activities.

5. Negative Entropy: Entropy is the law of nature which suggests that all organized
forms move towards disorganization and demise. In order to survive, open systems
must move to arrest the entropic process; they must acquire negative entropy. This is
possible by importing more energy from the environment than what a system spends.
For example, a business organization must earn profit in order to survive on long-term
basis.

6. Feedback Mechanism: An open system has.feedback mechanism through which it

imports information from the environment. The simplest type of information input is in
the form of negative feedback. Information feedback of negative type enables the
system to correct its deviations from the desired course of actions.

7. Steady State: The importation of energy from the environment to maintain negative
entropy has some constancy in energy exchange so that the system has steady state.
However, this steady state is not motionless or a true equilibrium. Since energy import
and export is a continuous process, a new equilibrium may be formed.

8. Differentiation: An open system moves in the direction of differentiation and

elaboration. Old patterns are changed by new specialized functions. Organizations, like
other open systems, move towards well-differentiation and specialization of roles and
functions. As the conditions permit, organizations bring more specialists and create
specialized departments to have better control over the environment.

9. Integration and Coordination: As differentiation progresses, the system must provide

some mechanisms for integrating and coordinating various parts. In the case of an
organization, this is done through devising various processes and procedures.

10. Equifinality: An open system is characterized by the principle of equifinality which

suggests that a system can reach the same final state from differing initial conditions
and by a variety of paths. It implies that not all organizations may choose the same
course of actions and strategies to be successful.

Q2) Explain the concept of and approaches to Organisational Behaviour (OB)

A) 1. Human Resources Approach:

This approach recognizes that human resources in an organisation are the central force.
Their development will contribute to the success of the organisation. Human resources
approach provides for the changes in the managerial role. It requires that the managers,
instead of controlling the employees, should provide active support to them by treating
them as part of the group.

The superiors and managers should practice a style where workers are given the
opportunities and encouragement to perform under loose supervision. By treating
individuals as mature adults, organisations can increase productivity and at the same
time meet the needs of individuals for independence and growth.

2. Contingency Approach:

The approach stresses that there is no single way to manage effectively under all
circumstances. The methods of behaviours which work effectively in one situation may
fail in another. The organisational structure and the processes of management are
governed by the external environment and several aspects of the internal environment.
Effective management processes will vary in different situations depending on the
individuals and groups in the organisation, the nature of the job and technology, the
environment facing the organisation and its structure.

The manager’s task therefore, is to identify which method will, in a particular situation,
under particular circumstances and at a particular time, best contribute to the
attainment of organization’s goals. Thus, the manager will have to analyze each
situation prior to action and different managerial practices and styles are needed for
effective management.
3. Productivity Approach:

Productivity means the numerical value of the ratio of output to input. Higher the value
of this ratio, greater is the efficiency and effectiveness of the management. The
traditional concept of productivity was concerned with economic inputs and output
only. But nowadays human and social inputs and outputs are equally important.
Productivity, a significant part of organisational behaviour decisions, is recognized and
discussed extensively. These decisions relate to human, social and economic issues. For
example if better organisational behaviour can reduce worker’s turnover or the number
of absentees, a human output or benefit occurs.

4. System Approach

The systems approach is of the view that an organisation is a powerful system with
several subsystems which are highly and closely interconnected. Any action taken to
solve the problems in one subsystem will have its effect on the other subsystems as
well; since all the parts of the organisation are closely connected. Thus, this approach
gives the managers a way of looking at the organisation as a whole, whole group, and
the whole social system. Systems approach has become an integral part of modern
organisational theory. Organisations are termed as complex systems comprising of
interrelated and interlocking systems.

Q3) Discuss the models of OB. How the systems model is important and what are
its components?

A) Five Models of Organisational Behaviour

The five models of organisational behaviour are the:

 autocratic model,
 custodial model,
 supportive model,
 collegial model and
 system model.
Autocratic model

Autocratic model is the model that depends upon strength, power and formal authority.

In an autocratic organisation, the people (management/owners) who manage the tasks

in an organisation have formal authority for controlling the employees who work under
them. These lower-level employees have little control over the work function. Their
ideas and innovations are not generally welcomed, as the key decisions are made at the
top management level.

The guiding principle behind this model is that management/owners have enormous
business expertise, and the average employee has relatively low levels of skill and needs
to be fully directed and guided. This type of autocratic management system was
common in factories in the industrial revolution era.

One of the more significant problems associated with the autocratic model is that the
management team is required to micromanage the staff – where they have to watch all
the details and make every single decision. Clearly, in a more modern-day organisation,
where highly paid specialists are employed an autocratic system becomes impractical
and highly inefficient.

The autocratic model is also a detractor to job satisfaction and employee morale. This is
because employees do not feel valued and part of the overall team. This leads to a low-
level of work performance. While the autocratic model might be appropriate for some
very automated factory situations, it has become outdated for most modern-day
organisations.

Custodial model

The custodial model is based around the concept of providing economic security for
employees – through wages and other benefits – that will create employee loyalty and
motivation.

In some countries, many professional companies provide health benefits, corporate

cars, financial packaging of salary, and so on – these are incentives designed to attract
and retain quality staff.

The underlying theory for the organisation is that they will have a greater skilled
workforce, more motivated employees, and have a competitive advantage through
employee knowledge and expertise.

One of the downsides with the custodial model is that it also attracts and retains low
performance staff as well. Or perhaps even deliver a lower level of motivation from
some staff who feel that they are “trapped” in an organisation because the benefits are
too good to leave.

Supportive model

Unlike the two earlier approaches, the supportive model is focused around aspiring
leadership.

It is not based upon control and authority (the autocratic model) or upon incentives
(the custodial model), but instead tries to motivate staff through the manager-employee
relationship and how employees are treated on a day-to-day basis.

Quite opposite to the autocratic model, this approach states that employees are self-
motivated and have value and insight to contribute to the organisation, beyond just
their day-to-day role.
The intent of this model is to motivate employees through a positive workplace where
their ideas are encouraged and often adapted. Therefore, the employees have some
form of “buy-in” to the organisation and its direction.

Collegial model

The collegial model is based around teamwork – everybody working as colleagues

(hence the name of the model).

The overall environment and corporate culture need to be aligned to this model, where
everybody is actively participating – is not about status and job titles – everybody is
encouraged to work together to build a better organisation.

The role of the manager is to foster this teamwork and create positive and energetic
workplaces. In much regard, the manager can be considered to be the “coach” of the
team. And as coach, the goal is to make the team perform well overall, rather than focus
on their own performance, or the performance of key individuals.

The collegial model is quite effective in organisations that need to find new approaches
– marketing teams, research and development, technology/software – indeed anywhere
the competitive landscape is constantly changing and ideas and innovation are key
competitive success factors.

System model

The final organisational model is referred to as the system model.

This is the most contemporary model of the five models discussed in this article. In the
system model, the organisation looks at the overall structure and team environment,
and considers that individuals have different goals, talents and potential.

The intent of the system model is to try and balance the goals of the individual with the
goals of the organisation.

Individuals obviously want good remuneration, job security, but also want to work in a
positive work environment where the organisation adds value to the community and/or
its customers.

The system of model should be an overall partnership of managers and employees with
a common goal, and where everybody feels that they have a stake in the organisation.

Q4) Explain the Components of Formal Organisation System

A) Formal organisation is a well-defined structure of authority and responsibility that
defines delegation of authority and relationships amongst the organisational members.
It works along pre-defined set of policies, plans, procedures, schedules and
programmes. Most of the decisions in formal organisation are based on pre-determined
policies.

Formal organisation is “a system of well-defined jobs, each bearing a definite measure

of authority, responsibility and accountability, the whole consciously designed to enable
the people of the enterprise to work most effectively together in accomplishing their
objectives.”

It is a deliberately designed structure with formal authority, responsibility, rules,

regulations and channels of communication. Some degree of formalization is necessary
for organisations to function effectively; to avoid taking time-consuming decisions, to
handle conflicting situations and exercise control over the activities of subordinates.

Features of Formal Organisation:

Formal organisation has the following features:

1. Deliberately created structure:It is a deliberately created structure that defines

official relationships amongst people working at different job positions.

2. Job-oriented:

It focuses more on jobs than people. It allocates jobs to people and defines the structure
of relationships to achieve the formal organisational objectives.

3. Division of work:

Work is divided into smaller units and assigned to individuals on the basis of their skills
and abilities. Division of work results in specialisation and increases organisational
output.

4. Departmentation:

Departmentation is the foundation of organisation structure, that is, organisation

structure depends upon departmentation. Departmentation refers to division of work
into smaller units and their re-grouping into bigger units (departments) on the basis of
similarity of activities. The functional departmentation divides organisation structure
into production, finance, personnel and marketing departments. Departmentation helps
in fixing responsibility of various departmental heads.

5. Formal authority:
People exercise authority by virtue of their position in the organisational hierarchy.
Authority is linked to position and through it, in the person occupying the position. It
involves the right to command, to perform, to make decisions and spend resources.

6. Delegation:

Work is officially delegated from top to lower levels. The work load is divided into units,
a part is assigned to subordinates with authority to carry out the assigned task. The
concept of division of work and its assignment to people down the scalar chain is called
delegation.

“Delegation is the process by which a manager assigns tasks and authority to

subordinates who accept responsibility for those jobs.”

“Delegation is a process the manager uses in distributing work to the subordinates.”

7. Coordination:

Managers integrate the activities of individuals and units into a concerted effort so that
departments and individuals work towards a common goal. Managers coordinate the
activities of organisation by communicating organisational goals to each department,
setting departmental goals and linking the performance of each department with others
so that all the departments collectively contribute to organisational goals. Coordination
is “the process of linking the activities of the various departments of the organisation”.

8. Principles of organising:

Formal organisation is based on formal principles of organising, that is, unity of

objectives, organisational efficiency, division of labour, authority – responsibility,
delegation, scalar chain, span of control, unity of command, balance, flexibility,
continuity, exception, simplicity, departmentation, decentralisation, unity of direction
and co-operation.

Q5) Summarise the main features of the neo-human relations approach to

organization and management. How does it differ from other approaches?

A) Neoclassical theory (also referred to as human relations of thoughts) was introduced

based on classical theory. It has added, modified, and in some way extended classical
theory. The basic assumption of this theory is that the physiological and social aspects
of a worker as an individual and his workgroup ought to be focused on. In classical
theory, the organization emphasized order, structure, economic factors, formal
organization, and objective rationality. Whereas neo-classical theory emphasized social
factors and emotions at work. Human relation is a general term that is frequently used
to describe how a manager interacts with their employees. The importance of human
relations is included in two aspects: The organization situation should be observed in
social terms as well as economical and technical terms, and in terms of clinical method,
it is similar to the doctor’s diagnosis of the human organisms.

What is Neo Classical Theory?

The Neoclassical approach was developed many years ago because it was believed that
the classical theory did not achieve complete production efficiency and workplace
harmony. Managers still observe the frustrations and difficulties because people always
do not prefer to follow estimated or rational patterns of behavior.
Hence, there was a greater interest in assisting managers to deal more effectively with
the “people side” of the organization. The neo-classical approach reflects a slight
modification over the classical approach.
The neoclassical approach identifies the importance of physiological and social aspects
of workers as an individual and their relationships within and among the group of the
organization. The Neoclassical Theory gained importance specifically in the rise of the
“Hawthorne Experiment” at Western Electric Company by the father of human relation
management named Elton Mayo from 1924 to 1932.

The Inception of Neo-Classical Theory

The neoclassical theory is the extensive version of the classical theory that includes
behavioural science in business management. In this theory, the organization is the
social system, and its performance is affected by human efforts.

The classical theory emphasized the mechanical and physiological variables and
deemed them the primary factor in inferring its efficiency. However, when the efficiency
was checked, it was found that the positive aspect of these factors did not evoke a
positive response in work behaviour.

Hence, the researchers tried to specify the reasons for human behaviour at a job. This
eventually led to the arrangement of the neoclassical theory of economists. This mainly
emphasizes human behaviour in the organization. This approach is often referred to as
human relations or behavioural theory of organization.

The neoclassical theory states that an organization is a mix of both informal and formal
aspects of the organization. This aspect was ignored in classical theory. The
organization’s informal structure is majorly formed due to the social interaction with
workers; this affects and gets affected by an organization’s formal structure. Generally,
disputes between the organization and workers often exist but this needs to be resolved
immediately as the problems persist.

What are the Features of Neo-Classical Theory?

 Business Organizations are identified as a social system.

 Human factors are regarded as the most important elements in the organization.
 The theory revealed the importance of social and psychological factors in
determining the worker's productivity and satisfaction.
  The management aims to develop social and leadership skills along with
technical skills. It must be done for the welfare of the workers and the
organization.

 Morale and productivity work together in an organization.

Organization Structure in Neo-Classical Theory

The neoclassical writers offered the following organizational structure:

Flat Structure: In the case of flat structure, the wide span of control in an organization
helps in motivating the employees more effectively, a shorter chain of communication
and it is free from hierarchical control.
Decentralization: Neo-classical theory adopted a decentralized organizational
structure which is close to the flat structure due to the wider span of control. It permits
autonomy and initiative at lower levels. It also encouraged people to occupy higher
positions in the organization.
Informal Organizations: The neoclassical theorists emphasized the need for both
formal and informal organizations. The formal organization indicates the motive of top
management for interactions among the people. Informal organization is significant to
promote the inadequacy of formal organization and to satisfy the social and
psychological needs of people. The management uses informal organization for
overcoming resistance to change on the part of workers and also for a fast
communication process. Both formal and informal organizations are interdependent
upon each other.
The Criticism of Neoclassical Theory
The assumptions on which neoclassical theory is formulated is sometimes not true.
Thinking that there is always the possibility to find a solution that is acceptable to all is
not always true. There are several conflicting interests among distinct groups that are
merely structural and not physiological. This aspect is not covered in neo-classical
theory. No specific organizational structure is suitable for all organizations. Various
organizational formats introduced by the neoclassicists are not acceptable in all
situations.
Neoclassical theory is only a modification of classical organization theory. It also
suffered from similar drawbacks from which classical organization theory suffered. It
lacked a unified approach to organization. This theory has been criticized by the fact it is
nothing more than “ a commonplace of descriptive and empirical information as it has
mainly relied on the Harthword Experiment”.

Q6) Contrast approaches to improving organizational performance based on

attention to technical and structural requirements with those based on concern
for psychological and social factors.

A) Management has been as old as the human beings and with the evolvement of
humans management has also evolved. The history of management and its theories can
be traced back to thousands of years. However, systematic development of the theories
of management is generally viewed from the end of nineteenth century with the
emergence of large industrial organizations and the ensuing problems associated with
their structure and management. This is the time when work of various writers on the
management has started to come into the light. These works can be clubbed together to
form different approaches to the theory of management.

Two of the most popular and widely accepted approaches to management are:

Classical Approach to Management, and

Behavioral Approach or Human Relation Approach to Management

In order to be able to compare and understand the contrast of these two approaches to
management, let’s understand the basics of these two approaches to management.

Classical Approach to Management

The classical writers thought of the organisation in terms of its purpose and formal
structure. They placed emphasis on the planning of work, the technical requirements of
the organisation, principles of management, and the assumption of rational and logical
behavior. The analysis of organisation in this manner is associated with work carried
out initially in the early part of the twentieth century, by such writers as Frederick
Winslow Taylor, Henri Fayol, Lyndall Fownes Urwick, James Mooney and Alan C.
Reiley. Such writers were laying the foundation for a comprehensive theory of
management.

The Classical School seeks to generalize the nature of management based on the
experience of successful managers. The basic theme of this assumption is that if a
particular business operation is successful, or if a particular problem was effectively
tackled by application of a particular strategy, then the methods of strategies through
which success was achieved by the managers could be equally effectively used by others
in the case of similar business situations in future. The classical writers were concerned
with improving the organisation structure as a means of increasing efficiency. They
emphasized the importance of principles for the design of a logical structure of
organisation.

Mooney and Reiley set out a number of common principles which relate to all types of
organisations. They place particular attention on:

The principle of co-ordination — the need for people to act together with unity of
action, the exercise of authority and the need for discipline;

The scalar principle — the hierarchy of organisation, the grading of duties and the
process of delegation; and

The functional principle — specialization and the distinction between different kinds of
duties.
The classical writers have been criticized generally for not taking sufficient account of
personality factors and for creating an organisation structure in which people can
exercise only limited control over their work environment.

Research studies have also expressed doubt about the effectiveness of these principles
when applied in practice. However, the classical approach prompted the start of a more
systematic view of management and attempted to provide some common principles
applicable to all organisations. These principles are still of relevance in that they offer a
useful starting point in attempting to analyse the effectiveness of the design of
organisation structure. The application of these principles must take full account of:

the particular situational variables of each individual organisation; and

the psychological and social factors relating to members of the organisation.

The major sub-grouping of classical approach to management are:

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT: This school of thought was the firm believer that machine
and man put together in an organized manner will yield more productivity and will be
beneficial for workers and organizations alike.. A major contributor to this approach
was F. W. Taylor (the ‘father’ of scientific management). Taylor believed that in the
same way that there is a best machine for each job, so there is a best working method by
which people should undertake their jobs. He considered that all work processes could
be analysed into discrete tasks and that by scientific method it was possible to find the
‘one best way’ to perform each task. Each job was broken down into component parts,
each part timed and the parts rearranged into the most efficient method of working.

BUREAUCRACY: A form of structure to be found in many large-scale organisations is

bureaucracy. The ideas and principles were derived mainly from practical experience.
Writers on bureaucracy, however, tend to take a more theoretical view. Weber, a
German sociologist, showed particular concern for what he called ‘bureaucratic
structures’, although his work in this area came almost as a side issue to his main study
on power and authority. He suggested that ‘the decisive reason for the advance of
bureaucratic organization has always been its purely technical superiority over any
other form of organization’.

Behavioral Approach to management

The main emphasis of the classical writers was on structure and the formal
organisation, but during the 1920s, the years of the Great Depression, greater attention
began to be paid to the social factors at work and to the behavior of employees within
an organisation — that is, to human relations.

The turning point in the development of the ‘behavioral management’ came with the
famous experiments at the Hawthorne. Among the people who wrote about the
Hawthorne experiments was Elton Mayo, who is often quoted as having been a leader of
the researchers. However, there appears to be some doubt as to the extent to which
Mayo was actually involved in conducting the experiments and his exact contribution to
the human relations movement. There were 4 main experiments carried out at
Hawthrone:

Illumination experiments;

Relay assembly test room;

Interviewing programme;

Bank wiring observation room.

Another important constitute of Behavioral approach to management is McGregor’s

Thoery X and Theory Y. His theory X postulates that a worker is lazy, lacks ambition,
self-centric, resistant to change and is not bright, where as his Theory Y postulates that
a worker is willing to work, ambitious, self-controlled and creative.

The human relations approach has been subjected to severe criticism. The Hawthorne
experiments have been criticized, for example, on methodology and on failure of the
investigators to take sufficient account of environmental factors — although much of
this criticism is with the value of hindsight. The human relations writers have been
criticized generally for the adoption of a management perspective, their ‘unitary frame
of reference’ and their oversimplified theories.

Other criticisms of the human relations approach are that it is insufficiently scientific
and that it takes too narrow a view. It ignores the role of the organisation itself in how
society operates. Whatever the interpretation of the results of the Hawthorne
experiments, they did generate new ideas concerning the importance of work groups
and leadership, communications, output restrictions, motivation and job design. They
placed emphasis on the importance of personnel management and gave impetus to the
work of the human relations writers. The Hawthorne experiments undoubtedly marked
a significant step forward in providing further insight into human behavior at work and
the development of management thinking.

Q7) Critically examine the psychoanalytic approach to personality

A) Personality development refers to enhancing an individual’s personality for him to

stand apart from the rest and make a mark of own. An individual with a pleasing
personality is respected and appreciated by all.

Freud’s Psychoanalytic theory of Personality Development

According to Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality development, there are two

basic factors which drive an individual and help in shaping his/her personality. These
two basic drivers are love and aggression which have a direct impact on what an
individual does and thinks. According to Freud, love and aggression have a direct
control on our minds and thoughts.

Freud referred to Love and Aggression as “Eros” and “Thanatos” respectively.

“Eros” refers to intimate and passionate love between two partners. It is often defined
as a kind of madness which one experiences for his/her partner.

“Thanatos” was a figure in Greek mythology, though he never really existed as a person.
Thanatos symbolizes death.

Freud believed that Eros represents an individual’s instinct to survive. Eros refers to an
individual’s determination to live, where sex is the major driving force.

Thanatos on the other hand represents aggression which ultimately leads to death.

Structure of Personality

According to Freud, an individual’s mind has a fixed amount of desire towards

sexual activity, often called as libido. No two individuals would have similar desire
for sexual activity and the same would vary as per an individual’s situation,
circumstance at the moment.

An adult personality generally has three determinants: Id, Ego and Super Ego

The outcome of the combination of all the three determinants shapes an adult
personality. Freud believed than an individual’s personality has three parts and thus is
often called as tripartite personality.

 Id
 Ego
 Superego

Id - refers to irrational needs and demands, something which has nothing to do with the
reality of the situation. Freud believed that Individuals seek immediate pleasure in
order to satisfy their biological and physiological needs without taking into
consideration the reality.Id gives immediate pleasure to individuals and is often
irrational.

Ego - Ego develops when individuals start interacting with people around. Ego helps in
the fulfillment of id, taking into consideration the reality of the situation.

Super Ego - Super ego is often the third stage which includes the moral constraints
imposed on an individual by his parents or family.

Defense Mechanisms

According to Freud’s theory, Repression is one of the most powerful defense

mechanisms which push irrational impulses into unconscious mind. Defense
mechanisms play an important role in pushing unrealistic thoughts out of awareness.
Stressful thoughts which are threatening to an individual’s survival should be pushed
into unconscious mind to reduce anxiety through repression.
Q8) Explain the Freudian and Erikson’s stages of personality development.

A) Erikson and Freud are two names that one cannot miss while talking about
psychology. Sigmund Freud is called the father of psychology. In terms of theories,
Freud is known for his psychosexual theory, and Erikson is known for his psychosocial
theory.

Though both believed that personality develops in a series of predetermined stages,

both of them have different explanations.

While Freud based his theory on sex, Erikson did not give much importance to the
sexual drive of an individual. On the other hand, Erikson focused on identity.

Freud believed that an individual’s identity developed during adolescence. Erikson

believed, however, that an individual’s identity developed and evolved throughout a
person’s life. Unlike Freud’s thoughts that maturation had an important role, Erikson
placed more importance to the cultural demands on a child.

Freud’s psychosexual theory talks about different stages of development like: Oral
stage, Anal region, Phallic Stage, stage of Latency, Genital Stage. Erikson’s psychosocial
theory also talked about different stages like: Trust vs. Mistrust, Autonomy vs. Doubt,
Initiative vs. Guilt, Industry vs. Inferiority, Identity vs. Role Confusion, Intimacy vs.
Isolation, Generativity vs. Stagnation, and Integrity vs. Despair.

According to the Oral stage, (from birth to one year), a child’s primary source of
pleasure is through the mouth by sucking, tasting, and eating. Erickson says that it is a
period (Trust vs. Mistrust) when children try to learn to trust and mistrust their
caregivers. In the Anal stage (1 to 3 years), a child gains a sense of mastery by
controlling bowel and bladder movements. However, Erikson says it is a period
(Autonomy vs. Doubt) when children develop self-sufficiency by controlling activities
such as eating, toilet training, and talking.

In the next stage of Freud’s Phallic stage (3-6 years), the libido’s energy focuses on the
genitals, and they begin to identify with their same-sex parent. To Erikson, however, it is
a period of Initiative vs. Guilt where a child begins to take more control over their
environment.

During the ages of 7 to 11 years, Freud’s Latent Period says that the libido energy is
suppressed and children focus more on school, hobbies, and friends. Erikson’s Industry
vs. Inferiority stage says that a child develops a sense of competence.
Coming to the Adolescence stage, Freud’s Genital Stage says that it is a period when
children look for romantic relationships. Conversely, Erikson’s Identity vs. Role stage
says that it is a period when a child develops a personal identity.

In adulthood, Freud only talks of a single stage called Genital Stage which he says would
last all through life. However, Erikson has divided this Adulthood stage into three.
Intimacy vs. Isolation is a stage when an adult explores romance. The Generativity vs.
Stagnation stage is when middle-aged adults have a sense of the society, and the
Integrity vs. Despair stage talks of older adults.

Summary:

1.Freud is known for his psychosexual theory, and Erikson is known for his psychosocial
theory.

2.Unlike Freud’s thoughts that maturation had an important role, Erikson placed more
importance to the cultural demands on a child.

Q9) What are the determinants of personality? Which of them do you feel are
more important in shaping personality?

A) Personality, as we understand it, says MacIver, “is all that an individual is and has
experienced so far as this “all” can be comprehended as unity.” According to Lundberg
and others, “The term personality refers to the habits, attitudes, and other social traits
that are characteristic of a given individual’s behaviour.” By personality Ogburn means
“the integration of the socio psychological behaviour of the human being, represented
by habits of action and feeling, attitudes and opinions.” Davis regards personality “a
psychic phenomenon which is neither organic nor social but an emergent from a
combination of the two.”

Determinants of Personality:

Personality is a result of the combination of four factors, i.e., physical environment,

heredity, culture, and particular experiences. Here we discuss each factor determining
personality separately.

Personality and Environment:

Above we described the influence of physical environment on culture and pointed out
that geographical environment sometimes determines cultural variability. That the
Eskimos have a culture different from that of the Indians is due to the fact that the
former have a geography different from the latter.
Man comes to form ideas and attitudes according to the physical environment he lives
in.

To the extent that the physical environment determines cultural development and to
the extent, that culture in turn determines personality, a relationship between
personality and environment becomes clear. Some two thousand years ago, Aristotle
claimed that people living in Northern Europe were owing to a cold climate, full of spirit
but lacking in intelligence and skill. The natives of Asia, on the other hand, are
intelligent and inventive but lack in spirit, and are, therefore, slaves.

Montesquieu, in the eighteenth century, claimed that the bravery of those blessed by a
cold climate enables them to maintain their liberties. Great heat enervates courage
while cold causes a certain vigour of body and mind. At high temperatures, it is said
there is disinclination to work and so civilizations have grown up where the
temperatures have been average near or below the optimum.

The people of mountains as well as deserts are usually bold, hard and powerful.
Huntington’s discussion of the effects of physical environment on man’s attitudes and
mental make-up is very exhaustive. However, as told previously, the physical conditions
are more permissive and limiting factors than causative factors. They set the limits
within which personality can develop.

Heredity and Personality:

Heredity is another factor determining human personality. Some of the similarities in

man’s personality are said to be due to his common heredity. Every human group
inherits the same general set of biological needs and capacities. These common needs
and capacities explain some of our similarities in personality. Man originates from the
union of male and female germ cells into a single cell which is formed at the moment of
conception.

He tends to resemble his parents in physical appearance and intelligence. The nervous
system, the organic drives and the duchess glands have a great bearing upon
personality. They determine whether an individual will be vigorous or feeble, energetic
or lethargic, idiot of intelligent, coward or courageous.

A man with a good physical structure and health generally possess an attractive
personality. A man of poor health, pigmy size and ugly physical features develops
inferiority complex. The growth of his personality is checked. Rejected and hated by the
society he may turn out to be a thief, dacoit, or drunkard. It is also probable that he may
become a leader, or a genius like Socrates and Napoleon. Likewise the nervous system
and glandular system may affect the personality of an individual.
The nervous system affects the intelligence and talent of the individual. The hormones
affect the growth of personality. Too many or too less of hormones are harmful. Some
men are over-patient, overzealous, overactive and overexcited while others are lazy,
inactive, and weak. The reason may be secretion of more hormones in the first case and
less hormones in the latter case. For a normal personality there should be a balanced
secretion of hormones.

Heredity may affect personality in another way, i.e., indirectly. If boys in a society
prefers slim girls as their companion, such girls will receive greater attention of the
society providing them thereby more opportunities to develop their personality.
According to Allport, Gordon, W. no feature of personality is devoid of hereditary
influence.

However, heredity does not mould human personality alone and unaided. “For the
present, we can only assume that there are -genes for normal personality traits just as
there are genes for other aspects of human make-up and functioning. Where in
members of the same family, in a similar environment, we can see great differences in
personality, we may ascribe these in part at least to differences in gene contributions.

We can also guess that some of the family similarities in personality are genetically
influenced. But we are still a long way from identifying specific ‘personality’ genes,
gauging their effects or hazarding predictions as to what the personality of a given child
will be on the basis of what we know about its parents.” However, according to a news
report (Times of India, Jan. 3, 1996) the scientists have identified a gene which
influences impulsiveness, excitability and extravagance.

Personality and Culture:

There can be little doubt that culture largely determines the types of personality that
will predominate in the particular group. According to some thinkers, personality is the
subjective aspect of culture. They regard personality and culture as two sides of the
same coin.

Spiro has observed, ‘The development of personality and the acquisition of culture are
not different processes, but one and the same learning process.” Personality is an
individual aspect of culture, while culture is a collective aspect of personality.” Each
culture produces its special type or types of personality.

In 1937 the anthropologist Ralph Linton and the psychoanalyst Abram Kardinar began a
series of joint explorations of the relationship between culture and personality by
subjecting to minute study reports of several primitive societies and one modern
American village. Their studies have demonstrated that each culture tends to create and
is supported by a “basic personality type.” A given cultural environment sets its
participant members off from other human beings operating under different cultural
environments.
According to Frank, ‘culture is a coercive influence dominating the individual and
moulding his personality by virtue of the ideas, conceptions and beliefs which had
brought to bear on him through communal life.” The culture provides the raw material
of which the individual makes his life. The traditions, customs, mores, religion,
institutions, moral and social standards of a group affect the personality of the group
members. From the moment of birth, the child is treated in ways which shape his
personality. Every culture exerts a series of general influences upon the individuals who
grow up under it.

Ogburn as we noted above, divided culture into “material” and “non-material.”

According to him, both material and non-material culture have a bearing on personality.
As for the termer he provides examples of the influence of plumbing on the formation of
habits and attitudes favourable to cleanliness and the relation of time-pieces to
punctuality. The American Indians who have no clocks or watches in their culture have
little notion of keeping appointments with any exactness.

According to him, they have no sense of time. The personality of an American Indian
differs from that of a white man in the matter of punctuality and this is because of
differences in their culture. Similarly, some cultures greedy value cleanliness as
witnessed by the saying: “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” This trait of cleanliness is
greatly encouraged by the technology of plumbing and other inventions that are found
with it.

The Eskimos are dirty because they have to hang a bag of snow down their backs to
melt it in order to get water. A man who has just to turn on a tap of water will naturally
be more clean than an Eskimo. Cleanliness, therefore, is a matter not of heredity but of
the type of culture. As for the connection between the non-material culture and
personality, language affords an instructive example. We know that one of the principal
differences between man and animals is that he alone possesses speech.

Language can be learnt only in society. People who cannot speak exhibit warped
personality. Since language is the essential medium through which the individual
obtains his information and his attitudes, therefore, it is the principal vehicle for the
development of personality. Moreover, speech itself becomes a trait of personality. The
coarse voice of woodcutter can be readily distinguished from the hushed tones of a man.

The short, crisp, guttural speech of the German seems to be part of his personality, as
does the fluid, flowing voluble speech of the Spaniard. Movements of the hands and
shoulders in speech are regarded as part of the very core of the personalities of Italians
and Jews. The Jews use their gestures for emphasis only, while Italians depend upon
them to convey part of the meaning.
Another illustration of the influence of culture on personality is the relationship of men
and women. In the earlier period when farming was the principal business, women
generally had no occupations outside the home, and naturally, therefore, they were
economically dependent upon their fathers or husbands. Obedience was a natural
consequence of such conditions. But today hundreds of women work outside the homes
and earn salaries.

They enjoy equal rights with men and are not so dependent upon them as they were in
the past. Attitude of independence instead of obedience has today become a trait of
women’s personality. With the growing realisation of the importance of culture for
personality, sociologists have recently made attempts to identify the factors in
particular cultures which give a distinctive stamp to the individuals within the group.
Ruth Benedict analyzed the cultures of three primitive tribes and found that cultures
may be divided into two major types—The Apollonian and the Dionysian.

The personality of the Hindus in India differs greatly from that of Englishmen. Why ?
The answer is ‘a different Hindu culture’. The Hindu culture lays emphasis not on
material and worldly things, but on things spiritual and religious. In every Hindu family
there is a religious environment. The mother gets up early in the morning, takes bath
and spends an hour in meditation. When the children get up, they go and touch the feet
of their parents and bow before the family gods or goddesses. The Hindu child from the
very birth begins to acquire a religious and philosophical personality built on the “inner
life.”

From the various illustrations cited so far it is thus clear that culture greatly moulds
personality. The individual ideas and behaviour are largely the results of cultural
conditioning. There is a great difference of ideas between the Hindu devotee immersed
in religion and the Russian Communist who thoroughly rejects it.

However, it should not be concluded that culture is a massive die that shapes all who
come under it with an identical pattern. All the people of a given culture are not of one
cast. Personality traits differ within any culture, some people in any culture are more
aggressive than others, some are more submissive, kind and competitive. Personality is
not totally determined by culture, even though no personality escapes its influence. It is
only one determinant among others. Ruth Benedict writes, “No anthropologist with a
background of experiences of other cultures has ever believed that individuals were
automatons, mechanically carrying out the decrees of their civilizations.

No culture yet observed has been able to eradicate the difference in the temperaments
of the persons who compose it. It is always a give and take affair.” Linton classified
cultural influence into the universals, specialities and alternatives and came to the
conclusion that culture makes for uniformity of personality only through the universals
and since universals are few in number as compared with specialities and alternatives,
the effect of culture is to make for variety as well as uniformity.
Q10) Discuss the essence of social learning theory of personality.

A) Social learning theory is the philosophy that people can learn from each other
through observation, imitation and modeling. The concept was theorized by
psychologist Albert Bandura and combined ideas behind behaviorist and cognitive
learning approaches. Social learning theory endeavors to study socialization and how it
affects human behavior.

History of social learning theory

Bandura was a psychologist who studied human behavior. He is most widely known for
his Bobo Doll study. In these experiments, Bandura had children watch adults model
positive and negative behaviors towards a toy balloon resembling a clown. In some
cases, the adults were aggressive and violently beat the doll. After observing this
footage, the children were given hammers and asked to interact with the doll. Most
children who witnessed the aggressive behavior towards the doll also acted violently
towards it, while most children who witnessed positive, non-aggressive behavior
responded less aggressively. Bandura concluded that the children learned their social
behaviors through observation.

This study acted as the basis for Bandura's theory. The social learning theory is still
commonly used in social psychology today and relates with other behaviorist theories
such as nature versus nurture, symbolic interaction, situated learning, reinforcement
learning and social development.

Stages of social learning theory

The basis behind social learning theory is that people observe the behavior, attitudes
and consequences of others and then use that information to form their own actions.

The key concepts behind this process include four basic learning requirements. These
four concrete stages of social learning within social learning theory include attention,
retention and memory, initiation and motor behavior, and motivation.

Attention. For a lesson or experience to have an impact on an observer, the observer

must be actively observing their surroundings. It helps if the observer identifies well
with the model or feels positive feelings about them. In addition, it helps if the observer
is invested in the process of observing or feels strong feelings about the experience that
they are observing. Factors that might affect attention include complexity,
distinctiveness and functional value.

Retention and memory. For any learned experience to make a lasting impact, the
observer needs to be able to remember it later. Once the observer can recall the
experience, it also helps if they go over the experience, either revisiting it cognitively in
their mind or even acting it out physically. For example, a toddler may learn from an
adult not to throw things and later they may be observed teaching one of their stuffed
animals that it's not okay to throw.

Initiation and motor capability. In order to carry out the lesson learned, the observer
needs to be able to actually reenact it. Learning the necessary skills is an important part
of the process before a behavior can be modeled. When a person has effectively paid
attention to modeled behavior and repeats or demonstrates it, they have achieved the
necessary skills.

Motivation. Even if an observer has focused on a lesson, remembered all the details and
learned the necessary skills to do it, they still need to have the motivation to make it
happen. The source of motivation could include anything from external rewards and
bribes, observations that similar behavior is rewarded, desire to be like the model who
demonstrated the behavior or internal motivation to improve or learn. Other factors
that impact motivation include personal characteristics, past experiences, promised
incentives, positive reinforcement and punishments.

These principles make up the social learning theory modeling process that determines
whether the influence is successful or not. The behavioral models used in social learning
theory can be demonstrated live, verbally or even symbolically.

Applications of social learning theory

Social learning theory can be applied to several use cases outside of psychology:

Human resources (HR) - In HR, professionals can increase employee retention by

applying social learning theory techniques. For example, correcting mistakes as they
happen before they become routine habits, incentivizing positive behavior and giving
mistakes weight.

Training and educational development - Social learning theory in training is similar to

the concept of learning by doing. New employees may best learn their role by imitating
or repeating the behaviors of their boss or someone in the same position.

Marketing - Advertisements and marketing materials can incorporate the social

learning theory to reach target audiences and encourage the purchase of a product. For
example, a company might suggest that a certain desired lifestyle or characteristic will
be the outcome of buying their service.

Machine learning - Social learning theory can be applied in training machine learning
algorithms for purposes such as cognitive computing and robotics.

Law enforcement - Criminal justice professionals often use social learning theory to
explain or identify learned illicit behavior. Additionally, it can be used to research the
effect of media violence on human behavior. Sometimes, criminal justice professionals
can discover patterns of behavior in large communities and create programs and
educational tools to help intervene when a crime would likely be committed. For
instance, in an area with a high rate of theft in a secluded public parking lot, simply
putting up signs reminding people to take their belonging with them or lock up their
cars can greatly reduce the number of thefts in that location. In other situations, helping
young adults to have healthy resources to deal with loss or grief can prevent them from
acting out and getting in trouble later in life.

Personality development and social learning theory

Personality development is the establishment of a set of patterns involving the

behavior, temperament and character that a person displays on a regular basis. Social
learning theory postulates that a large amount of the features of people's personalities
may come from observing others in their family or society.

People's temperaments may be determined by their genetics as well as their

environment. This includes how they approach and view the world, and how they
interact with others. If a person spends a lot of time witnessing others who have a
negative temperament, he or she is more likely to model those behaviors. The
environment, often described as nurture, has a large impact on a child's personality.
Even as a baby, a person who is loved and cared for is more likely to develop trust and
optimism than an infant who is neglected or abused.

Social learning theory and personality theory measurement

Social learning theory also deals with personality theory and measurement. One
established set of four main personality theories include psychoanalytic, trait,
humanistic and social-cognitive. Social learning theory falls within the social-cognitive
umbrella, and involves personality being shaped by a person's expectations about the
world and the people he or she interact with, observing and judging the actions of
others, and the environment.

Social learning theory is directly tied to social psychology, which deals with the
personality traits and behaviors of members of a civilization or society.

The foundation of social learning theory involves an understanding of a person's self-

concept, as well as their social cognition, attribution theory, social influence, group
traditions, prejudice, discrimination, interpersonal interactions, attitudes and
aggression. A person may better be able to hone these abilities by increased interactions
and social behavioral observations, as well as through third-party experiences like film,
reading and television.

Family and social learning theory

Social learning theory often directly influences family psychopathology. People who
observe pathological behaviors in their direct family members may see them as normal
and even if they don't remember observing them, may repeat them later in life.
On the flip side, families who embody strong positive traits will very likely raise
offspring who demonstrate and value those same behaviors.

Social learning therapy

Social learning theory is also sometimes incorporated in psychotherapy. A method

called social learning therapy uses the aspects of social learning theory along with the
basic techniques of therapy treatment.

Social learning therapists may treat any number of conditions including post-traumatic
stress disorder, anxiety, anorexia, substance abuse, anorexia, bulimia, attention-deficit
hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorder, anxiety, phobias or obsessive-compulsive
disorder. Since social learning theory is all about learning behaviors from watching
other people, social learning therapy involves observing people behaving in ways that a
patient finds challenging.

In social learning therapy, a model performs the behaviors that a therapist wants to
teach his or her patient. The model or therapist provides verbal instruction, helping the
observer to understand the desired behavior. Social learning therapists think that a
patient's behavior is equally influenced by his or her environment, actions, and
personality traits and patterns.

Social learning therapy also involves examining a patient's symbolic social influences --
how books, plays, poems, music, internet, movies, and television may have a large
impact on a person's behavior, feelings and thoughts.

Attention: The therapist directs the observer to carefully watch the behavior of a model.

Retention and memory: The therapist helps the observer commit their experiences and
observations to memory through various questions, reinforcements and exercises.

Initiation and motor skills: This involves establishing the muscle memory to recreate
what the observer has learned later when they are on their own. A therapist might help
their patient to build up these skills through various forms of role playing, practice
exercises and brainstorming activities. One example is a recovering alcoholic who may
need to practice how to react in various scenarios when they may be pressured to have
a drink.

Motivation: A therapist can work closely with a patient to plan out the best methods to
keep them on track by getting to know them over time.

Social learning therapy may be used to achieve a large variety of outcomes, but some
common goals include reducing aggression, increasing family unity, reducing conflicts,
supporting healthy relationships or healthy coping mechanisms to deal with change,
encouraging empathy or strengthening problem-solving skills. Sessions of social
learning therapy are also broken up into stages of pre-treatment, followed by active
treatment, then generalization and follow-up. During follow-up, the therapist makes
sure that the lessons learned in treatment are maintained and that the patient does not
need additional support. The sessions of social learning therapy focus on different areas
of social learning. These might include willpower, support for conquering unhealthy
behaviors, family, goals, communication, self-control and reinforcement of helpful
behaviors.

Q11) What is learning? What are its distinguishing features?

A) Learning can be defined as any relatively permanent change in behaviour or

behavioural potential produced by experience. Changes that occur due to practice and
experience, and are relatively permanent, are a component of learning.

Its distinguishing features are:

(i) Learning always involves some kind of experience. For instance, a child gets lost at a
place on leaving the hands of the parents, would learn not to leave the hand of elders
the next time.

(ii) Behavioural changes that occur due to learning are relatively permanent and are
different from temporary behavioural changes caused by habituation, drugs or fatigue.
For example, feeling tired after studying is a temporary change and does not involve
learning.

(iii) Learning is an inferred process that involves a series of psychological events. It is

also different from a performance.

Q12) Define learning curves. Differentiate between positive and negative

reinforcement.

A) A learning curve is a mathematical concept that graphically depicts how a process is

improved over time due to learning and increased proficiency. The learning curve
theory is that tasks will require less time and resources the more they are performed
because of proficiencies gained as the process is learned. The learning curve was first
described by psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus in 1885 and is used as a way to
measure production efficiency and to forecast costs.
A learning curve is typically described with a percentage that identifies the rate of
improvement. In the visual representation of a learning curve, a steeper slope indicates
initial learning translates into higher cost savings, and subsequent learnings result in
increasingly slower, more difficult cost savings.

Definition of Positive Reinforcement

Positive Reinforcement can be understood as the operation of encouraging an approved

behaviour by offering a reward as a stimulus, on showing that behaviour. In short, after
performing an action, it results in a positive response or reward, then the response
tends to be reinforced.

The aim is to increase the probability of the pattern or behaviour. Positive reinforcers
can be the desirable outcome, which satisfies the needs such as food, water, money,
status, medals, etc. or eliminates the obstacle, in need satisfaction.

For Example:

 Commercial Ad for a health drink presenting an increase in height, as result of

consuming it, is an example of Positive Reinforcement, whereby increased height
is the reinforcer to buy the health drink.
 Income Tax Authorities offering gifts to the genuine assessee.
 Promotion as a reinforcement offered to the employees if they achieve the
desired sales target.

One thing is to be noted that, a positive reinforcer, can be different to different people,
as an appreciation from the manager, can act as an effective reinforcer for some
employees, but not for everyone, as promotion or increment can be a reinforcer for
others.

Definition of Negative Reinforcement

By the term ‘negative reinforcement’, we mean that a reinforcer, i.e. stimulus is

removed, on performing a certain behaviour. The frequency of occurrence of the
behaviour will be increased in future, as a result of removing negative outcome. In
short, negative reinforcement encompasses the application of the aversive stimulus. It is
also known as escape or avoidance learning, as the reinforcer is negative and the person
attempts to avoid or escape from it.

It is not same as punishment because in punishment the likelihood of the behaviour is

reduced, whereas, in negative reinforcement, the repetitiveness increases.

For Example:

 A person learns to wear a raincoat, during the rainy season, to avoid getting wet.
 People wear helmets, to avoid getting injured, in case of a road accident, or
getting fined by cops.
Key Differences Between Positive and Negative Reinforcement

To understand the difference between positive and negative reinforcement in detail,

check out the points given below:

1. Positive Reinforcement implies a process of adding a stimulus when a certain

behaviour is shown, to increase the likelihood of recurrence of that behaviour.
On the other hand, negative reinforcement refers to a process in which the
experimenter, in spite of adding something undesirable, he/she removes the
unwanted stimuli, to motivate the organism to perform a certain activity again.
2. In positive reinforcement, a favourable stimulus is added, whereas, in negative
reinforcement, an unfavourable stimulus is removed.
3. Stimuli involved in positive reinforcement, have pleasant outcomes. Conversely,
in negative reinforcement, the stimuli can have unpleasant or even painful
outcomes.
4. In positive reinforcement, the stimuli act as a reward, for doing something,
whereas in negative reinforcement, the stimuli act like a penalty, for not doing
something.
5. Positive Reinforcement strengthens or maintains the probability of recurrence of
response. On the contrary, in negative reinforcement, the organism learns to get
rid of nasty responses.

Q13) What is learning organisation? What are its distinguishing characteristics?

A) A learning organization has structures that facilitate team learning with features
such as boundary crossing and openness. Team learning requires individuals to engage
in dialogue and discussion. Therefore team members must develop open
communication, shared meaning, and shared understanding. A learning organization
typically has excellent knowledge management structures, allowing creation,
acquisition, dissemination, and implementation of this knowledge in the organization.

Team learning is viewed as ‘the process of aligning and developing the capacities of a
team to create the results its members truly desire. It builds on personal mastery and
shared vision – but these are not enough. Employees need to be able to act together.
When teams learn together then not only there are good results for the organization but
the team members also grow more rapidly which could not have happened otherwise.

The discipline of team learning starts with ‘dialogue’, the capacity of members of a team
to suspend assumptions and enter into a genuine ‘thinking together’.
The notion of dialogue amongst team members helps them to become open to the flow
of a larger intelligence. When the dialogue is joined with systems thinking, there is the
possibility of creating a language more suited for dealing with complexity, and of
focusing on deep-seated structural issues and forces rather than being diverted by
questions of personality and leadership style.

Benefits of a learning organization

A learning organization does not rely on passive or ad hoc process in the hope that
organizational learning will take place through serendipity or as a by-product of normal
work. A learning organization actively promotes, facilitates, and rewards collective
learning. The main benefits of a learning organization are as follows.

 Maintaining levels of innovation and remaining competitive

 Being better placed to respond to external pressures

 Having the knowledge to better link resources to customer needs

 Improving quality of outputs at all the levels

 Improving the corporate image of the organization by becoming more people

oriented

 Increasing the pace of change within the organization

Q14) Define perception. Explain the perception process

A) Perception is a process by which people regard, analyze, retrieve and react to

any kind of information from the environment. For example, some people feel happy
about earning money while others feel happy about spending money.

Factors affecting Perception

The factors which affect the perception are shown in the figure below:
 Process of Perception

 Reception: In this process, a person receives the information through stimuli.

 Selection: This is governed by two types of factors:
o External factors: These are size, intensity, proximity, motion and novelty.
o Internal factors: These are attitude, motives, experiences, interests and expectations.
 Organization: It is the process by which we sort stimuli into a meaningful pattern. It
involves the following:
o Grouping: Assembling of stimuli on the grounds of similarity.
o Proximity: This is the closeness of stimuli to one another that affects perception.
o Closure: It is the ability to organize stimuli so that together they form a whole pattern.
 Interpretation: It is the formation of an idea about the information that is sensed,
selected and organized. It involves the following phenomena: primacy effect, selective
perception, stereotyping, halo effect, projection and expectancy effect. They are the
types of perceptual errors.
o Primacy/ Recency Effect: The first impression is given the most important which is
known as the primacy effect. Recency effect, on the other hand, is that human beings
remember latest events more than the less recent ones.
o Stereotyping: It is the effect caused by forming a certain belief about a category of
stimuli and generalizing that notion to encounters with each member of that category.
In reality, there is a difference between the perceived notion of each category and the
actual traits of the members. It may affect the interview process in an organization.
o Halo effect: It is the process of generalizing from a comprehensive analysis to a single
attribute or trait. A negative halo effect is known as the reverse halo effect. It affects the
performance appraisal of employees in a company.
o Projection: It is a psychological defence mechanism which makes a person compare his
negative traits with other people and conclude that they are better off than
others. Perceptual checking minimizes the negative effects of projection.
o Selective Perception: This means a person sees, feels or hears what he wants to and
skips other information which are inconsistent to his view.
o Expectancy effect: It is the tendency of an individual to interpret any person or object
based on how he expects the person or object to be in the first place. It is also called as
Pygmalion effect.

Perception is an intellectual, psychological process which is subjective as individuals

perceive similar incident differently.

Q15) What do you mean by perceptual errors? Cite suitable examples.

A) A perceptual error is the inability to judge humans, things or situations fairly and
accurately. Examples could include such things as bias, prejudice, stereotyping, which
have always caused human beings to error in different aspects of their lives

Sources of errors in perception

The main sources of errors in perception include the following:

Not collecting enough information about other people.

Basing our judgements on information that is irrelevant or insignificant.

Seeing what we expect to see and what we want to see and not investigating further.

Allowing early information about someone to affect our judgement despite later and
contradictory information.

Accepting stereotypes uncritically.

Allowing our own characteristics to affect what we see in others and how we judge
them.

Attempting to decode non-verbal behaviour outside the context in which it appears.

Basing attributions on flimsy and potentially irrelevant evidence.

The process of making evaluations, judgements or ratings of the performance of

employees is subject to a number of systematic perception errors. This is particularly
problematic in a performance appraisal context. These are:

Central tendency: Appraising everyone at the middle of the rating scale.

Perception Contrast error: Basing an appraisal on comparison with other employees

rather than on established performance criteria.

Different from me: Giving a poor appraisal because the person has qualities or
characteristics not possessed by the appraiser.

Halo effect: Appraising an employee undeservedly on one quality (performance, for

example) because s/he is perceived highly by the appraiser on another quality
(attractiveness).

Horn effect: The opposite of the halo effect. Giving someone a poor appraisal on one
quality (attractiveness) influences poor rating on other qualities. (performance).

Initial impression: Basing an appraisal on first impressions rather than on how the
person has behaved throughout the period to which appraisal relates.

Latest behavior: Basing an appraisal on the person’s recent behavior.

Lenient or generous rating: Perhaps the most common error, being consistently
generous in appraisal mostly to avoid conflict.

Performance dimension error: Giving someone a similar appraisal on two distinct but
similar qualities, because they happen to follow each other on the appraisal form.

Same as me: Giving a good appraisal because the person has qualities or characteristics
possessed by the appraiser.

Spill over effect: Basing this appraisal, good or bad, on the results of the previous
appraisal rather than on how the person has behaved during the appraisal period.

Status effect: Giving those in higher level positions consistently better appraisals than
those in lower level jobs.

Strict rating: Being consistently harsh in appraising performance.

Types of perceptual errors in workplace

There are many types of perceptual errors in workplace

1.Selective Perception-People generally interpret according to their basis of

interests,idea and backgrounds.It is the tendency not to notice and forget the stimuli
that cause emotional discomfort.For example we might think that fresher graduates
with above 80 % marks will exceptionally do well in technical interviews of respective
subjects

2.Halo Effect-We misjudge people by concentrating on one single behavior or trait.It has
deep impact and give inaccurate result most of the time.For example we always have an
impression of a lazy person can never be punctual in any occasion.

3.Stereotypes-We always have a tendency to classify people to a general groups

/categories in order to simplify the matter.For example-Women are always good
homemakers and can do well in work life balance

4.Contrast Effect-We again sometimes judge people in comparison to others . This

example generally found in sports,academics and performance review

5.Projection-This is very common among Perceptual errors.Projection of one’s own

attitude,personality or behavior into some other person.For example- To all honest
people,everybody is honest.

6.Impression-We all know the term “first impression is the last impression” and we
apply that too .For example-During the time of hiring, thought like this “The most decent
and modest person in the interview can do very well in every roles and responsibilities
” always arise.

Managing the perception process

In order to decrease the errors involved in perception, one has to keep in mind the way
the perceptual process works. By understanding the process one can do a better job at
minimizing their negative effect.

Secondly, one can compare one’s perception with other people, if they are representing
different backgrounds, cultures or training. This may lead to agreements or otherwise,
communications can help to sort out the differences.

Thridly, one should understand other person’s point of view, it may help to know when
one is wrong. The point is that one should listen and understand the other person
rather than try to convince him or her that one is right. Fourthly, one should be willing
to change, when one comes across new information.
Finally, one should view the world in dynamic terms, because one’s behaviour can alter
the phenomenon that is the basis for one’s perceptions, so, one must notice the impact
of one’s own behaviour.

Errors in perception can be overcome by

Taking more time and avoiding instant or `snap’ judgements about others.

Collecting and consciously using more information about other people.

Developing self-awareness and an understanding of how our personal biases are

preferences affect our perceptions and judgements of other people.

Checking our attributions – particularly the links we make between aspects of

personality and appearance on the one hand and behaviour on the other.

Q16) What is attribution theory? What is its application in OB?

A) What is Attribution Theory?

Attribution theory, proposed by Fritz Heider (1958), is a social psychology theory that
deals with how individuals relate and make sense of the social world. More specifically,
it is concerned with how people translate events around them and how their
translations affect their thinking and behavior.

The Attribution Theory is concerned with how individuals perceive the information
they receive, interpret events, and how these form causal judgements.

No individual would take an action or decision without attributing it to a cause or

factor.

According to Heider, this is aimed at assessing the explanation that people give to
certain behaviors, it considers how individuals interpret their behaviors.

The theory of attribution posits that attribution, whether done internally or externally,
has great influence on how people feel and relate to others.

Heider says that all behavior is considered to be determined by either internal or by

external factors:

 External Attribution (Situational Attribution): Causality is assigned to an

outside factor, agent or force. Outside factors fall outside your control. You
perceive you have no choice. So your behavior is influenced, limited or even
completely determined by influences outside your control. Therefore you feel
not responsible. A generic example is the weather.
 Internal Attribution (Dispositional Attribution): Causality is assigned to an
inside factor, agent or force. Inside factors fall inside your own control. You can
 choose to behave in a particular way or not. So your behavior is not influenced,
limited or even completely determined by influences outside your control.
Therefore you feel responsible. A typical example is your own intelligence.

This is also dependent on individual personality and cognitive behaviors.

As a complex psychological process, there have been diverse attempts to explain this
concept using many theories.

From an attribution theory perspective, individuals exhibit creativity when dealing with
others people and external factors.

What are the Steps in the Attribution Theory Process?

There is a three-stage process underlying attribution:

1. Perception. Observe. The person must perceive or observe the behavior.

2. Judgment. Determine deliberateness. The person must believe that the behavior
was intentionally performed.
3. Attribute. The person must determine if he believes the other person was forced
to perform the behavior (in which case the cause is attributed to the situation) or
not (in which case the cause is attributed to the other person).

Q17) Explain how motivation plays an important role in organisations

A) Motivation is a very important for an organization because of the following benefits it

provides:

1. Puts human resources into action

Every concern requires physical, financial and human resources to accomplish

the goals. It is through motivation that the human resources can be utilized by
making full use of it. This can be done by building willingness in employees to
work. This will help the enterprise in securing best possible utilization of
resources.

2. Improves level of efficiency of employees

The level of a subordinate or a employee does not only depend upon his
qualifications and abilities. For getting best of his work performance, the gap
between ability and willingness has to be filled which helps in improving the
level of performance of subordinates. This will result into-

a. Increase in productivity,
b. Reducing cost of operations, and
c. Improving overall efficiency.
3. Leads to achievement of organizational goals
 The goals of an enterprise can be achieved only when the following factors take
place :-

a.
There is best possible utilization of resources,
b.
There is a co-operative work environment,
c.
The employees are goal-directed and they act in a purposive manner,
d.
Goals can be achieved if co-ordination and co-operation takes place
simultaneously which can be effectively done through motivation.
4. Builds friendly relationship

Motivation is an important factor which brings employees satisfaction. This can

be done by keeping into mind and framing an incentive plan for the benefit of the
employees. This could initiate the following things:

a. Monetary and non-monetary incentives,

b. Promotion opportunities for employees,
c. Disincentives for inefficient employees.

In order to build a cordial, friendly atmosphere in a concern, the above steps

should be taken by a manager. This would help in:

iv. Effective co-operation which brings stability,

v. Industrial dispute and unrest in employees will reduce,
vi. The employees will be adaptable to the changes and there will be no
resistance to the change,
vii. This will help in providing a smooth and sound concern in which
individual interests will coincide with the organizational interests,
viii. This will result in profit maximization through increased productivity.
5. Leads to stability of work force

Stability of workforce is very important from the point of view of reputation and
goodwill of a concern. The employees can remain loyal to the enterprise only
when they have a feeling of participation in the management. The skills and
efficiency of employees will always be of advantage to employees as well as
employees. This will lead to a good public image in the market which will attract
competent and qualified people into a concern. As it is said, “Old is gold” which
suffices with the role of motivation here, the older the people, more the
experience and their adjustment into a concern which can be of benefit to the
enterprise.

From the above discussion, we can say that motivation is an internal feeling which can
be understood only by manager since he is in close contact with the employees.

Needs, wants and desires are inter-related and they are the driving force to act.
These needs can be understood by the manager and he can frame motivation plans
accordingly. We can say that motivation therefore is a continuous process since
motivation process is based on needs which are unlimited. The process has to be
continued throughout.
We can summarize by saying that motivation is important both to an individual and a
business.
Motivation is important to an individual as:

1. Motivation will help him achieve his personal goals.

2. If an individual is motivated, he will have job satisfaction.
3. Motivation will help in self-development of individual.
4. An individual would always gain by working with a dynamic team.

Similarly, motivation is important to a business as:

1. The more motivated the employees are, the more empowered the team is.
2. The more is the team work and individual employee contribution, more
profitable and successful is the business.
3. During period of amendments, there will be more adaptability and creativity.
4. Motivation will lead to an optimistic and challenging attitude at work place.

Q18) Distinguish between Motivation and Morale.

A) Definition of Motivation

Motivation refers to that spark within us, which demands a change, either in self or the
environment surrounding us, leading to engaging a person in a specific behaviour. It
induces an individual to initiate and sustain an action to accomplish the work.

It is when you encounter a strong desire for doing or achieving something, and you
work wholeheartedly to pursue the goal. It can arise from different sources, internal or
external. Indeed people have various motives for adopting specific behaviour.

Motivation is something that encourages, directs and maintains goal-oriented

behaviour. It is regulated by the satisfaction of needs which are essential for sustaining
life or necessary for welfare and growth.

It is the task of the organization’s management to develop the willingness to perform

the work, in the best possible manner, among the employees.

It is a well-known fact that when an employee is highly motivated, their productivity

level and work quality are also high, as well as they will be more engaged and feel more
committed to their work.

Types of Motivation

Positive Motivation: It is the reward and recognition for good performance. To be

precise, positive motivation is the actual motivation which is related to the individual’s
pay, prestige, promotion and praise.

Negative Motivation: When the behaviour of a person is motivated by fear or

anticipation that if the employee does not perform the task effectively, then it may
attract an undesirable outcome such as fear of losing a job, fear of punishment, transfer,
etc.

Motivation is the internal drive that moves an individual into a specific behaviour or
action and pushes him to continue the same. It impels a person to transform his
potential to work into practice.

Definition of Morale

Morale can be defined as the combination of psychic qualities which shows courage,
enthusiasm, and confidence to carry out the task. It is an intangible factor which is
associated with the conditions of the person and the work environment as regards
determination, confidence and zeal while performing the work.

It is a mental attitude, an emotional force and the state of being comfortable, healthy
and happy. It has the capability to influence the output, product quality, costs,
enthusiasm, initiative and other success components.

The morale of an employee is based on the total satisfaction derived by an individual

from his/her job, work team, supervisor, organization and the work environment.

Factors Influencing Employee’s Morale

Credibility of the organization

Attitude of management towards human resource

Job satisfaction

Nature of work, in terms of risk, monotony, goals etc.

Supervision

Degree of motivation

Reward and punishment

Morale is greatly influenced by feelings. Hence, the organizations in which the morale of
employees is high, their approach towards work is enthusiastic, passionate and
energetic. It can be seen in their cooperation in achieving the objectives, discipline,
loyalty, participation and involvement, and reasonable initiative.

Key Differences Between Motivation and Morale

Upcoming points will discuss the differences between motivation and morale:

Motivation refers to an internal process, which improves, encourages and stimulates the
employees resulting in goal-oriented behaviour. On the other hand, morale is the
psychological state of an individual, which is reflected in his mood, confidence,
discipline, enthusiasm, cooperation and loyalty towards the work and organization.

Motivation is nothing but the inner psychological impulse, which induces the employee
to behave in a particular manner. As against, morale is a social-emotional association.

Motivation is given priority over morale in every organization because when an

employee is highly motivated, the productivity will also be higher.

Motivation is an individual concept, as it considers the individual differences between

employees. As against, morale is a group concept, as it takes into account those factors
which have an impact on the entire work environment and the people working in that
environment.

The factor that affects the motivation of an employee are related to the individual’s
performance, say pay, promotion, achievement or non-achievement of goals etc. In
contrast, the factors influencing employee’s morale are concerned with the overall work
environment, including the supervision, reward and recognition, job satisfaction, work
climate, etc.

Motivation supplements, i.e. complete or enhance the morale of an employee.

Conversely, morale is one of the determinants of motivation, i.e. a factor which affects
the motivation of an employee.

Q19) What can organisations do to improve Motivation and Morale?

A) Low employee morale can adversely affect your ability to attract and retain the best
employees and have a detrimental effect on productivity. Maybe you suspect that you
may have a problem with low morale because employees are exhibiting signs of low
morale or because a survey that you've done of your employees indicates it. If this is the
case, you need to determine which aspects of your workplace are creating
dissatisfaction with the job and find ways to remedy them.

Even if you don't have a low morale problem, you may want to jump-start your
workforce into higher levels of productivity. Being proactive in this area makes good
business sense.

So whether your employees are disgruntled or not, you should check out these
strategies to see how you can make their work lives more satisfying and productive:

building employees' involvement in the business

building employees' self-esteem

recognizing and rewarding employees

Building employees' involvement

Every employer's dream is to have employees who care as deeply for the success of the
business as they would if the business were their own. While you may never get
employees to care that much, you can build a sense that what's good for the business is
good for them. Here are some steps to building that type of commitment and
involvement:

Identify any problems that might stand in the way. Again, the types of problems that
lead to absenteeism, turnover, and generally low morale will be barriers to developing
the type of commitment to the business that you're seeking.

Share your vision and the mission of the business. As the leader, you need to have some
goals for the business. If your goal is to have the best reputation for customer service,
for example, employees know what to strive for and have a goal. Getting them involved
creates ownership of the business's vision. If employees understand why the goal is
important, they will feel personally responsible for making it a success.

Give some power to employees. If you want employees to care, you have to give them
some responsibility and some decision-making latitude. Employees have to believe that
the decisions they make and the work they perform has a direct impact on the product
or service you provide. This may be easier to achieve and demonstrate in a small
business than it would be in a larger one.

Encourage risk-taking. Let employees experiment and try to find new ways to help the
business reach its goals. Don't create a culture where employees are afraid to try
anything new because if they fail they will be punished. Allow a certain amount of
failure, and reward people for trying.

Use reward systems. When your employees do well, reward them. Tailor your reward
systems to specific accomplishments. If you have one employee who sells 25 percent
more than everyone else, but everyone gets the same bonus, your star sales rep. isn't
going to be particularly motivated to excel in the future.

Plan social and athletic activities. These types of activities allow people to interact with
each other on a level that can build stronger professional bonds. If your business is
small, perhaps just an annual dinner or picnic somewhere is enough. If you have several
employees with a similar hobby or athletic interest, maybe your business can sponsor a
team in a local league.

Warning: Be sure to protect yourself from workers' compensation liability by making

the event completely voluntary. Also, arrange for the event to take place during non-
work hours. If you have questions about whether a particular event will expose your
business to liability, consult an attorney.
Q20) Explain the various determinants of group productivity.

A) There are several factors influencing performance of groups. The prominent among
these are as follows:

(1) Composition of the Group:

It refers to the extent of homogeneity in members of the group. If members of the group
are similar in one or more ways such as their age, teaching experience, qualifications,
expertise, cultural background and several other such variables which are important for
work performance, then the group is said to be homogeneous. In a command group it is
essential that the members are homogeneous in terms of expertise though they may be
differing in terms of age or teaching experience.

It has been empirically found that a group, heterogeneous in terms of age or experience,
exhibits frequent turnover in terms of changes in membership. Other researchers have
found conflicting results with reference to the age of employees.

In some studies it was found that managers in business establishments found older
employees to be rigid, difficult to re-train and very expensive in terms of salaries.

On the other hand, some studies have found older employees to be more regular in
attendance, less frequently changing their jobs, have a stronger work ethics compared
to younger employees and once trained, perform equally well as younger employees.

Moreover, if the work group is heterogeneous in terms of opinions, there could be

positive benefits in that the group is forced to pay complete attention to the activity, and
proceedings and sometimes leads to creative solutions to problems.

A homogeneous group is likely to be more beneficial when:

(i) The tasks are simple

(ii) The tasks are arranged in a sequential order;

(iii) Co-operation is necessary in task performance; and

(iv) The task is to be completed in short time span.

A heterogeneous group is likely to be more beneficial when:

(i) The tasks are complex;

(ii) The tasks require a collective effort;

(iii) The tasks require new and creative alternatives/solutions; and

(iv) There is ample time to perform the tasks;

A homogeneous group could have fewer differences of opinions and conflicts, more
interaction and better communication as compared to a heterogeneous group.

The foregoing discussion suggests that the extent of homogeneity of a group, i.e., its
composition and the nature of the task have an interactive influence on work
performance.

If a group is culturally heterogeneous, the principal could expect mutual distrust among
the members of the group, stereotyped labeling of each other as well as communication
problems. Thus, initially, such a group may not function effectively but as the group
matures, its functioning may improve.

(2) Size of the Group:

It refers to the number of members in the group. The size of the group influences group
performance. If, on account of its size, the group has more resources at its disposal, it
may be able to perform many independent tasks. It may be able to generate more ideas
and solutions.

However, if a group is very large, the interactions among the members become complex
and communication may become more difficult thereby leading to disagreements. But if
such a large group has prepared a formal procedure or agenda discussions can be
controlled and work may proceed smoothly.

Besides in a large group, some People may dominate the proceedings whereas the shy
ones may remain in the background. There are possibilities that in a group some people
may not contribute at all to the tasks and while away their time purely social
interactions.

The effectiveness of work in a very large group, therefore, depends on the nature of the
task, characteristics of members of the group and the ability of the leader to understand
the problem and take action to make the group function effectively.

The optimum and effective group size depends on:

(a) Members’ interactions and mutual influence;

(b) Maturity of individual members of the group;

(c) Task-it nature;

(d) Maturity of the group;

(e) Ability of the manager in handling the group, managing communications, handling
conflicts and handling procedures,

There is no specified group size for effective task performance. It depends of the
situation and can vary between three and fifteen or more.

(3) Norms:
According to Davis (1964), a norm refers to a standard against which the
appropriateness of behaviour is judged. Thus, a norm determines expected behaviour in
a particular circumstance. A group determines its norms during the second stage of its
formation and continues it till the fourth stage. Norms help in predicting other people’s
behaviours and enable people to behave in an acceptable manner. Norms prevent chaos.

A norm is developed through an interaction of factors such as the traditions of the

group, the nature of tasks, the situation and the personality characteristics members. If
a norm is not conformed to by an individual, he/she may receive verbal abuse or
physical threat, boycott or removal from group.

For example, if the institutional norm for women employees is to wear a sari to convey a
traditional image to students and parents, then a teacher wearing a salwar kameez or a
western outfit will be viewed as violating the group norm and will immediately face the
consequences.

Functions of Norms:
There are four major functions fulfilled by norms:

(a) Norms enable group members avoid embarrassing situations. They help individuals
in preserving their self-image and help members in not hurting each other.

(b) Norms help in a group’s survival by rejecting deviant behaviour that do not help in
accomplishing the group’s goals. Following a norm implies that a group’s survival is not
threatened but ensured. An effective group is one which is more tolerant towards
deviant behaviour.

(c) Norms signify the values that are important to the institution and provide the group
with a unique identity. This identity could be expressed in the form of clothes,
behaviour, mannerisms and so on.

(d) Norms help group members in expecting other people’s behaviour. This saves them
from analyzing other people’s behaviour, attitudes or response. Members can anticipate
each other’s actions based on group norms which ultimately enhances performance and
goal accomplishment.

However, norms can only regulate behaviour of its members. It has no control on their
thoughts, beliefs, feelings or personal emphasis on values.

(4) Cohesiveness:
It refers to a group’s commitment towards staying together resulting from the forces
operating on members to do so. The forces responsible for cohesiveness are attraction
to the group, motivation to stay in the group and resistance to leave the group.

If the group is composed of homogeneous individuals, has reached maturity in its

development, its size is not vary large, interactions among its members are frequent, its
goals are clear, there is competition with outsiders or threats from external factors and
is concerned about effectiveness with regard to reaching the goals enhance
cohesiveness of groups. High levels of cohesiveness lead to goal accomplishment, job
satisfaction, improved interactions and synergy.

As opposed to this, group cohesiveness will be low if the group is heterogeneous in

composition, newly formed, large in size, its members are dispersed physically, its goals
are ambiguous or have failed in reaching its goals.

Low levels of group cohesiveness leads to problems and difficulties in attaining goals,
more chances of the group getting broken down, decrease in interactions, orientation
towards self rather than the group and reduced commitment to group goals.

Q21) Define teams and describe various types of teams.

A) 6 types of teams in the workplace with teamwork examples

Here are six teamwork examples to consider which style is most effective for your
unique team dynamic:

1. Functional teams

Functional teams include members of the same department. When working within these
teams, you share different responsibilities than other members. Functional teams have
leaders or supervisors whom members report to and who designate responsibilities.
Organizations commonly use functional teams, which require communication and trust.
This type of team may be beneficial to contribute to and prioritize workplace culture.

Example: An organization establishes a team within the marketing department to

determine which campaigns are most effective. The members of this functional team
have a strong understanding of their campaigns and already have the information to
make decisions. Team members then use analytics to determine the most effective
campaigns and discuss how to write their reports.

2. Cross-functional teams

Cross-functional teams share similarities with functional teams, with the primary
difference being that team members come from various departments. These teams are
useful for jobs and projects that require different expertise and viewpoints. These teams
function best when supervisors and team leaders prioritize communication. Leaders
typically delegate responsibilities to members depending on their individual skill sets.

Example: A company wants to reallocate funding to develop a new sales department.

This company creates a cross-functional team with members from every department.
The members of this team analyze their departments to determine how to reallocate
funding.

3. Self-managed teams

In self-managed teams, employees working within the same organization collaborate to

accomplish a common goal. These teams are autonomous and don't need the same
supervision as other types of teams. Self-managed teams share both leadership and
responsibilities. Startup companies and small businesses often use self-managed teams.
When engaging in a self-managed team, you may find it helpful to provide constructive
feedback to team members.

Example: A sales team wants to redesign their sales pitch. A self-managed team helps
members succeed because all members can collaborate to determine a solution.

4. Troubleshooting teams

When issues arise within an organization, troubleshooting teams find solutions for
those issues. Their goal is to improve processes for organizations. These teams require
strong communication skills to discover solutions for complex obstacles. These teams
make recommendations to affected departments, who then implement their
recommendations.

Example: A company wants to know how to increase the efficiency of their computer
systems. It establishes a troubleshooting team from people in the IT department, so
experienced staff members apply their specialized skills to the situation. The employer
can then decide which changes to make based on what the team finds during their
troubleshooting.

5. Project team

Project teams work on specific projects for their employers. Members of project teams
typically come from several departments and perform tasks depending on their
abilities. These teams have project leaders who assign responsibilities and monitor
work.

Example: A team needs to create a new company website. Members from the marketing
and web development departments collaborate to create the website. Everyone on the
team continues to work together on this project until its completion.

6. Task-force teams

Organizations need task force teams when emergencies arise. These teams comprise the
most efficient employees within an organization. In task-force teams, employees work
exclusively on their tasks within the team. This differs from other teams, which
frequently combine an employee's regular caseload with that of the team. The goal of
the task force is to complete projects quickly and efficiently.

Example: A recent update to an organization's network corrupts their sensitive

computer files. The employer establishes a task-force team to determine whether they
can save these files.

Q22) Explain the aspects of effective team building.

A) Clarity

Clarity of purpose focuses a team on what to accomplish and how it fits within an
organization’s larger priorities. Clarity of roles and responsibilities help team members
understand, agree on, and accept their individual roles. With clarity, teams will find it
easier to make decisions and work together.

Capability

The core of team performance is developing a team that balances between members
who already possess necessary skills with those who still need skill development. The
team’s skill set determines how individuals should apply their skills to the work. Work
should be assigned based on the right person with the best capability to handle it.

Collaboration

Before a team can achieve a collective goal, individuals must be able to work
independently as well as team members. Research confirms that the most effective
teams are collaborative. It’s what enables the synergy required for teams to achieve
their goals and forms the basis for problem solving, decision making, and change
management.

Commitment

Commitment is really two factors: accountability and trust. Without these, teams cannot
succeed. Commitment motivates, strengthens, and prepares teams to face tough
challenges. When a team is committed, it is more likely to deliver the best results.

Communication

Teams must employ all available technologies to be connected, informed, and

coordinated. High-performing teams have an open communication structure that
enables all members to participate. Open, honest dialogues lead to better choices and
decisions.

Continuous Improvement

Teams oriented towards continuous improvement are better able to face new
challenges with skill and confidence. High-performing teams are not only committed to
individual performance, but are more likely to evaluate performance, evolve team
processes, and improve interpersonal dynamics.

Creativity

When an organization encourages creativity, team members can solve problems more
effectively. To foster creativity, organizations must create an environment that supports
risk-taking, encourages diversity of membership, and tolerates ambiguity. Creativeness
allows a team to solve problems by thinking outside the box.

Q23) Describe various problems affecting team work

A) 1. Lack of clarity

When an employee is working on a project, it's important for them to understand what
you expect from them so that they are best prepared to deliver satisfactory results.
When an employee does not know what their goal is, it can lead to inefficiency from a
lack of focus or from performing work that does not fit into the larger goals of the
project.
The most effective way to ensure staff understand your expectations is to speak with an
employee at the start of an assignment, then check in over the course of it to ensure
their work shows an understanding of the project's needs. Putting key expectations in
writing removes any uncertainty and provides a reference for the employee when
needed.

2. Trust issues

Establishing trust between coworkers is important for team productivity. Trust allows
an employee to request assistance or offer help to others, which can help everyone on
the team solve problems more quickly and effectively.

Often, trust can form naturally both through professional performance and personal
bonds. When a team is low on trust, team-building activities may help you establish
those bonds between your staff so they are better prepared to work cohesively.

3. Personality conflicts

Individuals all have their own preferences and personalities, and occasionally this can
lead to situations in which two employees have a tendency to disagree. This can lead to
decreased morale or poor cooperation.

You can help minimize the likelihood of personality clashes by considering your work
culture and existing staff when hiring new employees. When clashes occur between two
current employees, you can resolve them by adjusting assignments to reduce their
interaction or providing mediation services to resolve disagreements.

4. Withholding information

Sharing project-related information helps teams succeed, so when one or more

employees keep information away from a coworker, it can have a detrimental effect on
team performance. When an employee operates with incomplete information, they may
miss an opportunity or perform unnecessary work.

It's beneficial to emphasize the importance of sharing valuable information throughout

the staff and to model this behavior when you share new information with relevant
team members. This can help employees understand that personal or professional
motivations should not overrule the best interests of the team.

5. Lack of communication

Open communication helps every employee know what to expect from their coworkers
as well as what their coworkers expect from them. This raises the overall reliability of
the team, minimizing productivity loss due to duplicate work or delays.
One of a manager's responsibilities is ensuring staff have several methods of
communicating and coordinating with each other. Besides encouraging staff
communication, organizing meetings, creating an email chain or using a group
messaging software can help facilitate important conversations.

6. Reduced engagement

Employees who feel a connection to their work are more likely to produce positive
results. Engagement helps an employee maintain focus and enthusiasm, which can
increase both the quantity and quality of their output. When an employee loses their
connection to a project, it can lead to a reduction in productivity.

As a manager, you can emphasize the importance of an employee's work and

communicate how they're equipped to do the work well. Additionally, by showing
results, you may help an employee find meaning in their work.

7. Excessive staff numbers

While you can often expect a larger staff to produce more results, when your staff grows
too large for the project, it can result in a drop in overall efficiency. By attaching too
many team members to a project, there may not be enough work to go around, and you
may also experience duplicate work or increased tensions.

To maintain staff productivity, you may need to reassign or remove staff members from
a large project. In doing so, you may be able to delegate other work to the reassigned
staff, allowing your organization to be productive in other areas while still maintaining
its project goals.

8. Interior competition

While some competition within your staff can be beneficial, with employees
encouraging one another to perform at their best, some staff members may be too
competitive. When staff are overly competitive, they may be less likely to communicate
or to help each other, which can increase the chances of mistakes happening or team
members withholding important information from one another.

Managing employee competition requires a fair application of reward structures and a

continued emphasis on collaborative work. One way to minimize harmful competition is
to reward goals that a team achieves together, calling attention to each employee's
contributions.

9. Philosophical differences

Even when staff are working toward the same goal, they may have different beliefs
about the best way to pursue this goal, and this may lead to inefficiency when each staff
member operates according to their personal preferences.
Having firm leadership can help reduce the effect of philosophical differences. By
allowing all team members to express their concerns and preferences while still making
a final decision for the team, you can balance listening to your staff with executing a
unified project approach.

10. Habitual clashes

Although clear work expectations and documents provide structure for your staff, an
employee's personal habits may still dictate some of their workplace behavior, which
may cause conflict with coworkers. Habitual differences can include dining,
organizational and sanitary habits.

Creating an employee code of conduct is one way to reduce the opportunity for habitual
clashes. An effective code of conduct should balance personal freedoms with rules that
benefit the entire staff by identifying potentially inconsiderate or confrontational
behaviors.

Q24) Discuss Stress Management techniques.

A) Work-life Balance: One of the most important mechanisms to manage stress and
improve coping with it is to strike a balance between personal life and work life. The
balancing act will affect our physical and psychological well-being and will help us to
cope up with the demands, challenges, and various stresses at personal level and at
work place. It has been observed that the people whose life revolves around work
related issues, experience more stress. Working continuously is unhealthy for physical
and mental health. There might be chances where a person has to devote extra time or
sacrifice some personal time, but the same should not be practiced for long-term
approach. This is not productive at the personal as well as organizational level.

Positive mindset and Resilience: How we respond to a potentially stressful situation

depends on the mindset that the person is having. Positive attitude alters our subjective
experiences of stress when it occurs. Positive thinking can be learned overtime.
Negative thinking or pessimism is found to be related to depression, physical problems,
and low levels of achievement. As Martin Seligman, father of Positive Psychology uses
the term PERMA and says ‘our cognitive appraisal of a situation influences whether or
not we will experience it as stressful’. PERMA refers to Positive emotion, Engagement,
Positive relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment. Learned optimism is one of the
five dimensions of Positive Organizational Behaviour. The others are selfefficacy,
emotional intelligence, subjective well-being, and hope.

Social support: It is one of the mediating factors of how people cope with stress. Social
support acts as a buffer to many types of stressors, especially at workplace. Laughter
and positive humour at workplace has been associated with positive emotions, low
stress and enhancement of productivity. Social support system provides emotional
caring, information, feedback, support and mentoring.
Time Management: It is one of the most significant strategies to prevent stress. One
should manage time effectively, thereby setting priorities and accomplishing goals and
commitments. The symptoms of poor time management are missing deadlines, constant
rush, insufficient rest time and indecisiveness. If a person is able to manage time, then
s/he can track her/his accomplishments and avoid unnecessary confusion and stress at
the last hour.

Coping skills: Refers how to deal with the conflict. One should try to improve coping
skills by focusing on what the person can change and control, instead of focusing on
what one cannot change.

Leisure Time Activities: Such activities should help in reducing stress. Leisure activities
should promote joy, spontaneity and connectedness with significant others and nature.

Physical Exercise: Aerobic exercises are found to be positively correlated-improvement

in person’s responsiveness to stressful activities. Flexibility training also helps in
reducing unnecessary muscular tension that accrues because of distress

Diet: Good dietary practices help in reducing stress. Food with high sugar content, and
foods high in cholesterol, alters the blood chemistry and hence make her/him
vulnerable to stress.

Professional Help: Person should be able to identify the symptoms at the earliest, and
thus, early detection of strain symptoms, along with professional help will help in
preventing physical and psychological damage. A person may have the markers like,
loss of appetite or increased appetite, loss of sleep or oversleeping, and mood swings
that are indicative to seek professional help.

Q26) What can organisation do to overcome stress?

A) What is Employee Stress ?

Employees stress is a growing concern for organizations today. Stress can be defined
as a lively circumstance in which people face constraints, opportunities, or loss of
something they desire and for which the consequence is both unpredictable as well as
crucial. Stress is the response of people to the unreasonable/excessive pressure or
demands placed on them.

Stress is not always negative. It may also bring out the best in individuals at times. It
may induce an individual to discover innovative and smarter way of doing things. This
positive dimension of stress is called as enstress. But usually, the term stress has a
negative implication and this negative aspect of stress is termed as distress. For
instance - When a subordinate is harassed or warned by his superior, unhappiness of
unsuitable job, etc. We can say that “Stress causes some people to break, and other to
break records.”

Symptoms of Stress
Some of the symptoms of stress at workplace are as follows-

 Absenteeism, escaping from work responsibilities, arriving late, leaving early,

etc.
 Deterioration in work performance, more of error prone work, memory loss, etc.
 Cribbing, over-reacting, arguing, getting irritated, anxiety, etc.
 Deteriorating health, more of accidents, etc.
 Improper eating habits (over-eating or under-eating), excessive smoking and
drinking, sleeplessness, etc.

It is thus very essential to have effective stress management strategies in an

organization so that the detrimental repercussions of stress on the employees as well as
their performance can be reduced and controlled.

Sources/Causes of Stress

The factors leading to stress among individual are called as stressors. Some of the
factors/stressors acting on employees are-

1. Organizational factors- With the growth in organizational stress and

complexity, there is increase in organizational factors also which cause stress
among employees. Some of such factors are-
a. Discrimination in pay/salary structure
b. Strict rules and regulations
c. Ineffective communication
d. Peer pressure
e. Goals conflicts/goals ambiguity
f. More of centralized and formal organization structure
g. Less promotional opportunities
h. Lack of employees participation in decision-making
i. Excessive control over the employees by the managers
2. Individual factors- There are various expectations which the family members,
peer, superior and subordinates have from the employee. Failure to understand
such expectations or to convey such expectations lead to role ambiguity/role
conflict which in turn causes employee stress. Other individual factors causing
stress among employees are inherent personality traits such as being impatient,
aggressive, rigid, feeling time pressure always, etc. Similarly, the family issues,
personal financial problems, sudden career changes all lead to stress.
3. Job concerning factors- Certain factors related to job which cause stress among
employees are as follows-
a. Monotonous nature of job
b. Unsafe and unhealthy working conditions
c. Lack of confidentiality
d. Crowding
4. Extra-organizational factors- There are certain issues outside the organization
which lead to stress among employees. In today’s modern and technology savvy
world, stress has increased. Inflation, technological change, social
responsibilities and rapid social changes are other extra-organizational factors
causing stress.
Strategies for Managing Stress

Stress experienced by the employees in their job has negative impact on their health,
performance and their behaviour in the organization. Thus, stress needs to be managed
effectively so as to set off these harmful consequences. Strategies for managing stress
are as follows-

Organizational strategies for managing stress

1. Encouraging more of organizational communication with the employees so that

there is no role ambiguity/conflict. Effective communication can also change
employee views. Managers can use better signs and symbols which are not
misinterpreted by the employees.
2. Encourage employees’ participation in decision-making. This will reduce role
stress.
3. Grant the employees greater independence, meaningful and timely feedback, and
greater responsibility.
4. The organizational goals should be realistic, stimulating and particular. The
employees must be given feedback on how well they are heading towards these
goals.
5. Encourage decentralization.
6. Have a fair and just distribution of incentives and salary structure.
7. Promote job rotation and job enrichment.
8. Create a just and safe working environment.
9. Have effective hiring and orientation procedure.
10. Appreciate the employees on accomplishing and over-exceeding their targets.

Individual strategies for managing stress

1. The employees should make a “to-do” list daily, prioritize the acts in the list and
plan the acts accordingly. Take regular breaks during work to relax you. By
effective time management, the employees can achieve their targets timely and
can meet work pressures and, thus, avoid stress.
2. Do hard work. Strive to achieve your goals but do not do it to the harm of family,
health, or peer.
3. Indulge in physical exercises. It helps in effective blood circulation, keeps you fit,
diverts mind from work pressures.
4. Encourage a healthy lifestyle. Take a regular sleep, have plenty of water, have
healthy eating habits. Promote relaxation techniques such as yoga, listening
music and meditation.
5. The employees should have optimistic approach about their work. They should
avoid connections with negative approach employees.
6. The employees should have emotional intelligence at workplace. They should
have self-awareness, self-confidence and self-control at workplace.
7. The employees should build social support. They should have close connections
with trustworthy peer who can listen to their problems and boost their
confidence level. This social network will help the employees to overcome stress.
 8. Employee counselling is a very good strategy to overcome employee stress.
Through counselling, employees can become aware of their strengths and how to
develop those strengths; their weaknesses and how to eliminate them; and they
can develop strategies for changing their behaviour. Employees are also given
career counselling which helps in reducing their ambiguities with regard to
career.
9. Find a fun way to release stress, such as, cracking jokes, playing tennis, golf, etc.
10. Do not remain pre-occupied with yourself. Turn your focus outwards. Help
others. This will release some stress.

Q27) Discuss the models of conflict process with examples.

A) The conflict process can be seen as comprising five stages (1) potential opposition or
incompatibility (2) Cognition and personalization (3) intentions (4) Behavior (5)
Outcome.

Stage 1: Potential opposition or incompatibility: The first step in the conflict process
is the presence on conditions that create opportunities for conflict to rise. These cause
or create opportunities for conflict to rise. These causes or sources of conflict have been
condenses into three general categories – (1)Communications (2) Structure (3)
Personal Variables.
(1)Communications: Different words connotations, jargon insufficient exchange of
information and noise in communication channel are all antecedent conditions to
conflict. Too much communication as well as too little communication can rely
foundation for conflict.
(2)Structure: The term structure is used, in this context to include variables such as size,
degree of specialization in the tasks assigned to group members, jurisdictional clarity,
members/ goal compatibility, leadership styles, reward systems and the degree of
dependence between groups.
The size and specialization act as forces to stimulate conflict. The larger the group and
the more specialized its activities, the greater the likelihood of conflict. Tenure and
conflict have been found to be inversely related,. The potential for conflicts tends to be
greatest when group members are younger and when turnover is high. The greater the
ambiguity in defining where responsibility for action lies, the greater the potential for
conflict to emerge. Such Jurisdictional ambiguity increases inter group fighting for
control or resources and territory.
(3)Personal Variables: Certain personality types- for example individuals who are
highly authoritarian and dogmatic- lead to potential conflict. Another reason for conflict
is difference in value systems. Value differences are the best explanations of diverse
issues such as prejudice disagreements over one’s contribution to the group and
rewards one deserves.
Stage 2: Cognition and personalization: conflict must be perceived by the parties to it
whether or not conflict exists is a perception issue. If no one is aware of a conflict, then
it is generally agreed that no conflict exists. Because conflict is perceives does not mean
that is personalized. For e.g. ” A may be aware that B and A are in serious disagreements
but it may not make A tense or nations and it may have no effect whatsoever on A’s
affection towards B” It is the felt level , when individuals become emotionally involved
that parties experience anxiety , tension or hostility.
Stage2 is the place in the process where the parties decide what the conflict is about and
emotions plays a major role in shaping perception.

Stage 3: Intentions: Intentions are decisions to act in a given way intentions intervene
between people’s perception and emotions and their overt behavior.
Using two dimensions cooperativeness (the degree to which one party attempts to
satisfy the other party’s concerns)and assertiveness (the degree to which one party
attempts to satisfy his or her own concerns)- five conflict handling intentions can be
identified.
1) Competing: when one person seeks to satisfy his or her own interests regardless of
the impact on the other parties to the conflict, he is competing.
2) Collaborating: A situation in which the parties to a conflict each desire to satisfy
fully the concerns of all the parties. In collaborating, the intention o the parties are to
solve the problem by clarifying differences rather than by accommodating various
points of view.
3) Avoiding: a person may recognize that a conflict exists and want to withdraw from it
or suppress it. Avoiding included trying to just ignore a conflict and avoiding others
with whom you disagree.
4) Accommodating: The willingness of one partying a conflict top lace the opponent’s
interest above his or her own.
5) Compromising: A situation in which each party to a conflict is wiling to give up
something.
Intentions provide general guidelines for parties in a conflict situation. They define each
party’s purpose. Yet people intention is not fixed. During the course of conflict, they
might change because of reconceptualization or because of an emotional reaction to the
behavior of other party.
Stage 4: Behavior: This is a stage where conflict becomes visible. The behavior stage
includes the statements, actions and reactions made by the conflicting parties. These
conflict behaviors are usually overt attempt to implement each party’s intentions.
Stage 5 Outcomes: The action reaction interplay between the conflicting parties result
in consequences. These outcomes may be functional in that the conflict results in an
improvement in the group’s performance, or dysfunctional in that it hinders group
performance.
Conflict is constructive when it improves the quality of decisions simulates creativity
and innovations encourages interest and curiosity among group members provides the
medium through which problems can be aired and tensions released and fosters an
environment of self evaluation and change.
Conflict is dysfunctional when uncontrolled opposition breeds discontent, which acts to
dissolve common ties and eventually leads to the destruction of the group. Among the
more undesirable consequences are a retarding of communication, reductions in group
cohesiveness and subordination of group goals to the primacy of infighting between
members.

Q28) Differentiate between Distributive and Integrative Bargaining

A) Definition of Distributive Negotiation

Distributive Negotiation refers to a competitive negotiation strategy which is used when

the parties seek to distribute a fixed resource such as money, assets, etc. between
themselves. It is also known as zero-sum, or win-lose negotiation, in the sense that the
parties to negotiation try to claim the maximum share for themselves and due to which
when one party wins or reaches its goals and the other one loses.

Distributive negotiation is chosen by competitive communicators when there is lack of

mutual trust and cooperation. It is often considered as the best approach to negotiating.

Definition of Integrative Negotiation

Integrative Negotiation implies a collaborative negotiation strategy, in which parties

seek a win-win solution to settle the conflict.

In this process, the parties aims and goals are likely to be integrated in such a way that
creates a combined value for both the parties and thus results in enlarging the pie. It
stresses on reaching a mutually beneficial and acceptable outcome, keeping in mind the
interest, needs, concerns, and preferences of the parties concerned.

The technique is based on the concept of value creation, that yields substantial gain to
each party. In this type of negotiation, two or more issues are negotiated at a time.

Key Differences Between Distributive Negotiation and Integrative Negotiation

The difference between distributive and integrative negotiation are explained

hereunder:

1. Distributive Negotiation connotes a negotiation technique wherein the parties

try to gain maximum value for themselves, from definite resources. Conversely,
Integrative Negotiation can be described as negotiation strategy which attempts
to settle the dispute, with a mutually acceptable solution.
2. Distributive Negotiation is a competitive strategy, whereas integrative
negotiation uses a collaborative approach.
3. Distributive Negotiation has a win-lose orientation. On the contrary, integrative
negotiation is based on win-win orientation.
4. When the resources are limited, distributive negotiation is better. As against, the
integrative negotiation is used when the resources are in abundance.
5. In distributive negotiation, the parties self-interest and individual profit
motivate the parties. Unlike, in integrative negotiation mutual interest and gain
act as a motivation for the parties involved.
6. Distributive Negotiation discusses only one issue at a time, whereas multiple
issues are taken into account in an integrative negotiation.
7. The communication climate is open and constructive in an integrative
negotiation. In contrast, controlled and the selective environment is there in a
distributive negotiation.
 8. When the relationship between parties does not have a high priority, distributive
negotiation is used. On the other hand, integrative negotiation is used when the
parties try to develop a long-term relationship with one another and have a very
high priority.

Q29) What is employee empowerment? Discuss the theories associated with it

citing examples

A) Meaning

Empowerment is the process of enabling or authorizing an individual to think, behave,

act, and control work and decision-making in autonomous ways.

According to Richard Kath Nelson, ’Empowerment is the process coming to feel and
behave as if one is in power and to feel as if they owned the firm.’

According to Bowen and Lawler, ’Employee empowerment refers to the management

strategies for sharing decision-making power.’

Empowerment is the ongoing process of providing the tools, infrastructure, training,

resources, encouragement and motivation your workers need to perform at the
optimum level. If you focus on employee empowerment, it will speed up processes with
quality production and services. An employee feels much more control in their work life
since authority is given to an individual to make decisions. There is hidden potential
among employees, which can be revealed through empowerment.

Theoretical Approaches to Empowerment

The Socio-structural perspective concentrates on redesigning or advancing

organizational policies, practices, and structures to provide power, authority, and
influence over their work to employees

The Psychological approach concentrates on empowering employee effectiveness by

developing their competence and self-determination

The Critical perspective challenges the concept of employee empowerment and argues
that empowerment leads to less precise control over employees.

Principle of Employee Empowerment

The principle of employee empowerment applicable to management allowing

employees to make decisions that affect their jobs rather than having to clear
everything with managers. Two of the key elements of employee empowerment are
efficient hiring system and constant training
Q30) Explain how the employee empowerment inventory is measured?

A) After all, there is a need to measure how well employees are empowered. Regarding
this point, Employee Empowerment Inventory (EEI) has been developed. It is an
“inventory” rather than a survey as it is trying to measure the current state of everyone
in the organization.

The inventory is usually scheduled to be issued every six months so that an organization
can track its progress.

The general form of the inventory is as follows:

• Does the employee feel empowered by their direct supervisor?

• Which of the five components, if any, is the major barrier to their empowerment?

• Does the employee have the knowledge necessary to accomplish the job

• What is the most important barrier to attaining the knowledge necessary to

accomplish the job?

Does the employee have the tools necessary to accomplish the job?

• What is the most important barrier to attaining the tools necessary to accomplish the
job?

• Does the employee understand the responsibilities necessary to accomplish the job?

• What is the most important barrier to attaining an understanding of the

responsibilities necessary to accomplish the job?

• Does the employee and others around them have the accountability necessary to
accomplish the job?

• What is the most important barrier to attaining the accountability necessary to

accomplish the job?

• Does the employee have the authority necessary to accomplish the job?

• What is the most important barrier to attaining the authority necessary to accomplish
the job?

• Beyond the control of the direct supervisor, is the employee empowered?

• Beyond the control of the direct supervisor, what barriers exist to being empowered?

• (Optional) What percent of the employee’s time is spent in crises or unplanned

activities that are not part of their job?
• (Optional) What percent of the employee’s time do they spend in meetings that are a
waste of their time?

Q31) Write an essay on the evolution forms and dimensions of OCB

A) The term ‘Organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB)’ was coined in the late 1980.
Since then it has undergone few revisions, though the basic concept remains the same.
OCB refers to any spontaneous action that is executed by the employee, as desired by
him/her, which is not mandated by the organization or demanded by the seniors even.
The basic understanding of OCB as going ‘the extra mile’ or ‘above and beyond’ to help
others at work is what many are familiar with, and that is how OCB is conceptualised.
An employee extending a helping hand to a newcomer, or helping a colleague in his task
or volunteering to change shifts are few typical examples of OCB. Apart from these
organizational related acts like extending the shift to complete the task or volunteering
to organise events without expecting any additional remuneration, also come under
OCB. Even before the term OCB was coined, Barnard (1938) came out with a definition
that would rightly define OCB. He stated that “the willingness of individuals to
contribute cooperative efforts to the organization was indispensable to effective
attainment of organizational goals.

Dimensions of OCB

Initially Organ and his colleagues (Smith, Organ, & Near, 1983) described organization
citizenship behaviour as having two basic dimensions— altruism and generalized
compliance. Altruism in general is defined as a helping behavior, directed towards
individuals. For example when co-workers need some assistance in completing a task,
altruistic people go beyond their job description to assist them. Generalised Compliance
is defined as “people doing things ‘right and proper’ for their own sake rather than for
any specific person. Later Organ (1988) attempted to further define OCB by identifying
five specific categories of discretionary behavior and also explained how they could
translate into organizational efficiency.

Altruism is typically directed toward other individuals but contributes to group

efficiency by enhancing individuals’ performance. For eg. Extending a helping hand for a
new comer in the organization.

Conscientiousness enhances the efficiency of both an individual and the group. For eg.
Completes assigned task before schedule and is available for tasks which are not
obligatory.

Sportsmanship improves the amount of time spent on constructive endeavours in the

organization. For eg. Tend to find a solution rather than complaining the situation.

Courtesy helps prevent problems and facilitates constructive use of time. For eg.,
sharing of knowledge and information among co-workers

Q32) What is inclusion and why organization inclusiveness important these days?
A) Diversity in recent years has garnered a lot of attention, specifically in business and
within companies. Many have taken up initiatives to promote these ideas, but many
people have different definitions of diversity and inclusion. Diversity is the full range of
ways a person can identify including, but not limited to, race, gender, cultural
background, educational background, personality and religion. Inclusion is when every
single person in the community is valued, heard, respected, empowered and feels a true
sense of belonging. Diversity alone doesn’t move your entire business forward—
inclusion is an integral part. Even if the room is vastly diverse, if those unique
perspectives aren’t being heard and people do not feel a sense of belonging, the impact
is lost.

6 Reasons Why Diversity and Inclusion Is So Important

Diversity and inclusion have become more than just something HR can check off a list;
they’ve grown into a cultural phenomenon that—when executed correctly—have a
direct effect on the bottom line. These days, it’s more crucial than ever to ensure that
the workplace is properly utilizing and embracing diversity and inclusion.

Whether your employees are part of the LGBTQ+ community, belong to minority groups
based on gender or ethnicity, or come from a variety of different educational or cultural
backgrounds, it is just as important for them to be included and supported in the day-to-
day workplace for their personal successes, as well as those of the company. But why,
exactly, is a strong diversity and inclusion program something to welcome and
emphasize?

Diversity and inclusion give your company a better competitive edge

Companies that embrace diversity gain a higher market share and a competitive edge in
entering new markets, according to a study by the Center for Talent Innovation (CTI).
Inclusive behaviors in the workforce can unlock the innovative potential of a diverse
workforce, enabling companies to not only increase their share of existing markets, but
also open brand-new ones.

Diversity often means higher financial performance

In addition to gaining a larger market share and competitive edge, diversity often means
higher financial performance, in part due to the diversity of thought within the
organization. In the 18th annual global CEO survey by PwC, 85% of the surveyed CEOs
whose companies have a formal diversity and inclusiveness strategy said it improved
their bottom line. In addition, two reports from McKinsey noted that a 10% increase in
racial and ethnic diversity on the senior executive team resulted in a 0.8% rise in
earnings in the U.S., while a 10% increase in gender diversity resulted in a 3.5% rise in
earnings in the U.K. Their research showed that companies that are more gender
diverse are 21% more likely to outperform others; those which are ethnically diverse
are 33% more likely to outperform others.

Diversity and inclusion often signal adaptability

 A greater variety of backgrounds, talents and experiences enable businesses to have
higher flexibility in adapting to dynamic markets. Diversity enables unique thinking and
improved decision-making through a deeper and more comprehensive worldview.
Adaptability means faster and more effective planning, development and execution of
business strategies.

Diversity promotes creativity and innovation

While homogenous groups may be susceptible to groupthink, diverse teams can

leverage a greater variety of perspectives and are likely to consider information more
thoroughly and accurately. Teams are as much as 158% more likely to understand
target consumers when they have at least one member who represents their target’s
gender, race, age, sexual orientation or culture. Diversity is a key ingredient for better
decision-making among teams due to different viewpoints or thinking styles, which
helps solve problems faster. In a study on the decision-making behaviors of board
directors, “deep-level diversity,” differences in background, personality and values,
contributed to a higher degree of creativity.

Q33) Differentiate between intellectual and physical Ability.

A) Intellectual ability commonly refers to the ability measured by performance on an

intelligence test. It is a measure of intelligence, and involves understanding complex
concepts and thinking critically. Physical ability can identify individuals who are
physically able to perform the essentials function of a job without risking injury to
others. It is the capability of performing physical accomplishments, such as flexibility,
coordination, basic motor skills. The difference between intellectual and physical
abilities are given below:

Intellectual Ability:

 Intellectual ability is the capacity to do mental activities — thinking and reasoning

and problem-solving. It is related to the skills of the mind. It is an ability to do speedy
and accurate arithmetic.
 Intellectual ability is doing with the mind. It is also sometimes used in the context of
discussing the performance of someone in an academic or real-world setting. It is the
ability to see the logic and assesses the implication of an argument.
 It measured by performance on an intelligence test. The seven most frequently cited
dimensions making up intellectual abilities are number attitude, verbal
comprehension, perceptual speed, inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning, and
memory. It is the ability to retain and recall past experiences.
 Intellectual ability is the ability of the mind – i.e. how clever, intuitive, etc. a person is.
It plays a vital role in complex jobs with demanding information processing
requirements. It is the ability to understand what is read and heard and the
relationship of words to each other.
 Types of intellectual ability are number attitude, verbal comprehension, perception
speed, inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning, and memory. It is the ability to
identify a logical sequence in a problem and then solve the problem.
 Physical Ability:

 Physical ability is the capacity to do tasks that demand stamina, desired, strength and
similar characteristics. It is related to the capabilities of the physical structure. It is
the ability to exert muscular force continuously overtime.
 Physical ability is doing with the body. Research on the requirements needed in
hundreds of jobs has identified nine physical abilities involved in the performance of
physical tasks. It is the ability to expand a maximum of energy in one or a series of
explosive acts.
 It measured by performance on a physical test. It is the ability to make rapid, repeated
flexing movements. It is the ability to co-ordinate the simultaneous actions of
different parts of the body.
 Physical ability is the ability of the body – i.e. how strong, agile, etc. a person is. It
gains importance for successfully doing less-skilled and more standardized jobs. It is
the ability to move the trunk and back muscles as far as possible.
 Types of physical ability are dynamic strength, static strength, trunk strength,
explosive strength, extent flexibility, dynamic flexibility, body coordination, balance,
and stamina. It is the ability to maintain equilibrium despite forces pulling off balance.

Q34) Describe the concept of spiritual intelligence and its importance at

workplace.

A) Emotionally Intelligent Manager

The emotionally intelligent manager is one who has an inner rudder, defers
gratification, and is empathic towards his or her coworkers. An emotionally
intelligent manager creates a working environment that is as much driven by
performance as it is by greater cooperation and greater sensitiveness towards each
other. In other words, an emotionally intelligent manager creates a working
environment is free from rancor and prejudice and at the same time is characterized by
high performance that emanates from the ability to focus on results and at the same
time not swayed by petty conflicts. The point here is that the emotionally intelligent
manager manages his or her employees according to their needs for intrinsic and
extrinsic motivation apart from making them realize their true potential by targeting
their need for self-actualization. This means that an emotionally intelligent manager
ensures performance through empathy, awareness, and emotional connect between the
employees rather than mere performance driven by cold calculations of profits and
bottom lines.

The Spiritually Aware Manager

We have discussed the characteristics of emotionally intelligent managers. Continuing

along the same lines, the spiritually intelligent manager derives performance
through understanding, support, and targeting the innate strengths of the
employees. Whereas an emotionally intelligent manager is able to derive high
performance through empathy and awareness of the employees’ needs, the spiritually
intelligent manager is able to derive performance through the premise that each
individual has talents that can manifest themselves through nurturing and mentoring.
The point here is that in many organizations, it is the case that the working environment
is characterized by intense competition and driven solely by profits. However,
emotional and spiritual intelligence can also result in higher profits because by
targeting the latent potential of employees, it is possible to make them perform at their
best. In other words, contemporary management thought is finally recognizing the fact
that emotionally and spiritually intelligent managers are a boon and an asset to the
organizations as they have the ability to get the best out of people in a manner that
leads to a workplace that is fulfilling for the employees. Further, emotional, and spiritual
intelligence are very much needed in these turbulent times when the obsession about
profits alone has us into a situation where humanistic values have been abandoned in
the pursuit of money and greed.

The Need for Emotional Quotient or EQ and Spiritual Quotient or SQ

The key aspect about EQ or Emotional Quotient and SQ or Spiritual Quotient is that
these terms mean that organizations have to move from competition to cooperation and
from sympathy to empathy if they are to survive the challenges of the 21s century.
Considering the fact that the world now needs these qualities more than the pursuit of
profit alone, it is the case that EQ and SQ are very much needed if we are to survive the
present times. Further, change takes time and must be accompanied by nurturing and
patience and therefore, SQ and EQ are badly needed for our species to make the next
evolutionary leap. The point to be noted here is that unless we move to the next level of
our evolution through awareness, understanding, support, empathy, and cooperation,
we are likely to miss the chance in our collective evolution. Further, challenges like
social and environmental concerns can only be met through the actualization of these
aspects and therefore, there is an urgent need to embrace EQ and SQ among managers
and employees.

Concluding Remarks

Finally, while we do not advocate abandoning the need to make profits and say that
there must be utopia, we mean to say that unless the working environment becomes
something closer to humaneness and is more towards actualizing one’s potential, we
are likely to move on the same path that is leading us to ruin.

Q35) Define emotional intelligence and enumerate therole of emotional

intelligence in organisations.

A) Five components of emotional intelligence at work

Psychologist Daniel Goleman is known for developing the five components of emotional
intelligence at work in the 1990s. The following are those components, along with
examples of how they are used in the workplace:

1. Self-awareness

Self-awareness is the ability to identify your emotions and emotional triggers. Being
aware of your feelings helps you understand how others might perceive your emotions.
You might use self-awareness at work to understand how you are viewed by your
coworkers, clients or managers.

2. Self-regulation

Self-regulation is the ability to control and adjust your emotions to create a more
positive effect. Being in control of your feelings is essential in any situation because
your emotions strongly affect other people. You might control your emotions on the job
by adjusting your feelings to keep a professional appearance in front of clients.

3. Motivation

Motivation is the urge and desire to do something, and it relates to emotional

intelligence because your desires can promote different feelings toward something. For
example, having a desire to complete all your daily tasks successfully might be displayed
as intrinsic motivation to your employer — and a way of fulfilling your own inner needs
and goals.

4. Empathy

Empathy is the ability to identify and understand the feelings of another person.
Understanding the feelings of others allows you to handle workplace situations more
effectively. For instance, when a coworker is showing signs of dismay, you can react
with empathy to alleviate a situation that might have become worse.

5. Social skills

Social skills are the tools used to communicate and interact with other people. Having
stronger social skills — like effective communication and respect — allows you to listen,
speak and resolve conflicts more effectively. Social skills can be used in the workplace to
develop your career and are essential tools for leaders.