OB (MODULE-1)

Organisational Behaviour
 According to Davis and Newstram, “Organisational behaviour is the study and
application of knowledge about how people act within organisations.”
 According to Fred Luthans, “Behaviour is directly concerned with the understanding,
prediction and control of human behaviour in organisations.”

 In words of John Newstram and Keith Devis, “Organisational behaviour is the study
and application of knowledge about how people as individuals and as groups act
within organisations. It strives to identify ways in which people can act more
effectively.”

 OB is the study of individual behaviour in isolation, when in group and as a part of

an organisation. The study of individual behaviour only, would be incomplete
because behaviour is affected by the people surrounding us as well as by the
organisation, in which we work. Studying only individuals or only organisations
would be of no use. It is essential to study both simultaneously.

 Personality, perception, learning, attitude, family background, training, motivation,

job satisfaction, performance appraisal, leadership effectiveness, norms, values and
ethics are the factors which affect the individual behaviour. Group dynamics,
communication, organisational environment, individual and organisational culture
affect group behaviour. Organisational structure, power & politics, status, relation
with juniors & seniors, conflicts and culture affect the individual behaviour in the
organisation.

 Organizational Behaviour (OB) is the study of human behaviour in organizational

settings, the interface between human behaviour and the organization, and the
organization itself.
Features of Organizational Behaviour
 Organizational Behaviour is the study and application of knowledge about how
people, individuals, and groups act in organizations. It does this by taking a
system approach.

 That is, it interprets people-organization relationships in terms of the whole

person, the whole group, the whole organization, and the whole social system.

 Its purpose is to build better relationships by achieving human objectives,

organizational objectives, and social objectives.

1. Behavioural Approach to Management

2. Cause and Effect Relationship
3. Organisational Behaviour is a Branch of Social Sciences
4. Three Levels of Analysis
5. A Science as well as an Art
6. A Body of Theory, Research and Application
7. Beneficial to both Organisation and Individuals
8. Rational Thinking
1.Behavioural Approach to Management:
Organisational behaviour is that part of whole management which represents the
behavioural approach to management. Organisational behaviour has emerged as a distinct
field of study because of the importance of human behaviour in organisations.

2. Cause and Effect Relationship:

Human behaviour is generally taken in terms of cause and effect relationship and not in
philosophical terms. It helps in predicting the behaviour of individuals. It provides
generalizations that managers can use to anticipate the effect of certain activities on human
behaviour.

3. Organisational Behaviour is a Branch of Social Sciences:

Organisational behaviour is heavily influenced by several other social sciences viz.
psychology, sociology and anthropology. It draws a rich array of research from these
disciplines.

4. Three Levels of Analysis:

Organisational behaviour encompasses the study of three levels of analysis namely
individual behaviour, inter-individual behaviour and the behaviour of organisations
themselves. The field of organisational behaviour embraces all these levels as being
complementary to each other.
5. A Science as well as an Art:
Organisational behaviour is a science as well as an art. The systematic knowledge about
human behaviour is a science and the application of behavioural knowledge and skills is an
art. Organisational behaviour is not an exact science because it cannot exactly predict the
behaviour of people in organisations. At best a manager can generalize to a limited extent
and in many cases, he has to act on the basis of partial information.

6. A Body of Theory, Research and Application:

Organisational behaviour consists of a body of theory, research and application which helps
in understanding the human behaviour in organisation. All these techniques help the
managers to solve human problems in organisations.

7. Beneficial to both Organisation and Individuals:

Organisational behaviour creates an atmosphere whereby both organisation and individuals
are benefitted by each other. A reasonable climate is created so that employees may get
much needed satisfaction and the organisation may attain its objectives.

8. Rational Thinking:
Organisational behaviour provides a rational thinking about people and their behaviour. The
major objective of organisational behaviour is to explain and predict human behaviour in
organisations, so that result yielding situations can be created.
 Models of Organizational Behaviour
Organizational behaviour reflects the behaviour of the people and management all together, it is considered
as field study not just a discipline. A discipline is an accepted science that is based upon theoretical
foundation, whereas OB is an inter-disciplinary approach where knowledge from different disciplines like
psychology, sociology, anthropology, etc. are included. It is used to solve organizational problems,
especially those related to human beings.
There are four different types of models in OB. We will throw some light on each of these four models.

1. Autocratic,
2. Custodial,
3. Supportive, and
4. Collegial.

1. Autocratic Model
The root level of this model is power with a managerial orientation of authority. The employees in this
model are oriented towards obedience and discipline. They are dependent on their boss. The employee
requirement that is met is subsistence. The performance result is less.
The major drawbacks of this model are people are easily frustrated, insecurity, dependency on the superiors,
minimum performance because of minimum wage.

2. Custodial Model
The root level of this model is economic resources with a managerial orientation of money. The employees
in this model are oriented towards security and benefits provided to them. They are dependent on the
organization. The employee requirement that is met is security.
This model is adapted by firms having high resources as the name suggest. It is dependent on economic
resources. This approach directs to depend on firm rather than on manager or boss. They give passive
cooperation as they are satisfied but not strongly encouraged.

3. Supportive Model
The root level of this model is leadership with a managerial orientation of support. The employees in this
model are oriented towards their job performance and participation. The employee requirement that is met
is status and recognition. The performance result is awakened drives.
This model is dependent on leadership strive. It gives a climate to help employees grow and accomplish the
job in the interest of the organization. Management job is to assist the employee’s job performance.
Employees feel a sense of participation.

4. Collegial Model
The root level of this model is partnership with a managerial orientation of teamwork. The employees in
this model are oriented towards responsible behavior and self-discipline. The employee requirement that is
met is self-actualization. The performance result is moderate zeal.
This is an extension of supportive model. The team work approach is adapted for this model. Self-discipline
is maintained. Workers feel an obligation to uphold quality standard for the better image of the company.
A sense of “accept” and “respect” is seen.
Impact of Global & Cultural Diversity on OB
 Values and Attitude
Values:
 Values are important area of study in organization, because they set the foundation to
understand attitudes and motivation and influence perceptions of people.
 Values are defined as constellation of likes, dislikes, viewpoints, inner inclination, rational
and irrational judgement, prejudices and association pattern that determine a person’s view
of the world.
 Values symbolize basic beliefs that “a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is
personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of
existence”.
 Values are the ideas and philosophy that influence and direct choices and actions of people.

Values in Workplace
 Comparison of intrinsic and extrinsic values

Intrinsic work values Extrinsic work values

Interesting work High pay
Challenging work Job security
Learning new things Job benefits
Making important contributions Status in wider community
Reaching full potential at work Social contacts
Responsibility and autonomy Time with family
Being creative Time with hobbies

Types of Values
1. Social
2. Theoretical
3. Economic
4. Political
5. Religious

1. Social: It assigns the highest value to the love of people.

2. Theoretical: Places high importance on the discovery of truth through a critical and rational
approach. A scientist, for example, values truth.
3. Economic: Highlights the useful and practical.
4. Political: Places emphasis on acquisition of power and influence.
5. Religious: Is associated with the unity of experience and understanding of the cosmos as a whole.

Meaning of Attitude
 In management studies, it is established that values are linked to attitudes that a value serves
as a way of organizing.
 Theorists stated that attitudes are formed by the interaction of situations, experiences and
values. Attitudes are learned, and carried into the work environment.
 Attitudes are an essential part of the place of work that directly affects behaviour of
employee.
 Attitudes are generally positive and negatives views of person, place, thing or event.
Company managers can improve counterproductive attitudes and gain success in
marketplace through proper understanding of how people form attitudes, how those
attitudes affect work behaviour.
 Components of Attitudes
 It is important to know the components of attitudes. Attitudes are composed of three
components that include cognition, affect and behaviour which assist in understanding their
complexity and the potential relationship between attitudes and behaviour.
a) Cognitive: This element of attitude shows person’s thoughts, beliefs and ideas about something.
Characteristically these come to light in generalities or stereotypes.
b) Affective: This component is associated with feelings or emotions that are brought to the surface
about something, such as fear or hate.
c) Conative: This is also known as the behavioural component and centres on individuals acting a
certain way towards something.
 Theories of Attitude
1) Cognitive Consistency Theories
a. Balance Theory
b. Congruity Theory
c. Affective Cognitive Consistency Theory
d. Cognitive Dissonance Theory
2) Functional Theory
3) Social Judgment Theory
1. Cognitive Consistency Theories:
 Research has generally concluded that people seek consistency among their
attitudes and between their attitudes and their behaviour. This means that
people seek to reconcile divergent attitudes and align their attitudes and
behaviour so that they appear rational and consistent. When there is an
inconsistency, forces are initiated to return the individual to an equilibrium state
where attitudes and behaviour are again consistent. This can be done by either
altering the attitude or the behaviour or by developing a rationalization for the
discrepancy.
 The cognitive consistency theories are concerned with inconsistencies that arise
between related beliefs, bits of knowledge and evaluation about an object or an
issue. Though various consistency theories differ in several respects, all of them
have a common object that is reducing the inconsistency and returning the
individual to the equilibrium state.
There are four important theories under this grouping:
(A) Balance Theory:
F. Heider provided the basic model of balance theory. The theory is basically
concerned with the consistency in the judgment of people and/or issues that are linked
by some form of relationship.
According to this theory there are three elements in attitude formation:

Between these three elements two generic types of relationships are considered to
exist: Sentiment relations and unit relations.
The sentiment or linking relations include all form of sentiments or effect and the unit
relations express the fact that two elements are perceived as belonging together. Both
sentiment relations and the unit relations can be positive and negative.
According to this theory there are three elements in attitude formation:

Between these three elements two generic types of relationships are considered to
exist: Sentiment relations and unit relations.
The sentiment or linking relations include all form of sentiments or effect and the unit
relations express the fact that two elements are perceived as belonging together. Both
sentiment relations and the unit relations can be positive and negative.
B. Congruity Theory:
This theory focuses on the changes in the evaluation of a source and a concept that
are linked by an associative or dissociative assertion. Congruity exists when a source
and concept that are positively associated have exactly the same evaluations and
when a source and concept that are negatively associated have exactly the opposite
evaluations attached to them.
Congruity is a stable state and incongruity is an unstable one. As a result, incongruity
leads to a change of attitude. This theory states that how much change should be there
in the attitudes towards the source and the concept so that incongruity is resolved.
C. Affective Cognitive Consistency Theory:
M.I. Rosenberg has suggested the affective-cognitive consistency theory which is
concerned with the consistency between a person’s overall attitude or effect towards
an object or issue and his beliefs about its relationship to his more general values.
This theory is concerned mainly with what happens within the individual when an
attitude changes. It assumes that the relationship between the affective and cognitive
components of the attitude change when an attitude is altered.
D. Cognitive Dissonance Theory:
Leon Festinger, in the late 1950s proposed the theory of cognitive dissonance.
Dissonance means an inconsistency. Cognitive dissonance refers to any
incompatibility that an individual might perceive between two or more of his attitudes
or between his behaviour and attitudes. Festinger argued that any form of
inconsistency is uncomfortable and that individuals will attempt to reduce the
dissonance and hence the discomfort.
2. Functional Theory:
The functional theory considers how attitudes and efforts are related to the
motivational structure of the individual.
This theory focuses on two things:
(i) The meaning of the influence situation in terms of both the kinds of motives that it
arouses and
(ii) The individual’s method of coping and achieving his goals.
An understanding of the functions served by attitudes is important for attitude change
procedures since a particular method may produce change in individuals whose
attitudes serve one particular function, but may produce no change in individuals for
whom the attitudes serve a different function.
The most prominent person who visualized functional theory is Katz and
he suggested four functions of attitudes. However, Katz functional theory has not
stimulated much research except for the work on changing ego defensive attitudes.
3. Social Judgment Theory:
The social judgment theory was originally formulated by Sherif and Hoveland. This
theory attempts to explain how existing attitudes produce distortions of attitude
related objects and how these judgments mediate attitude change. Thus, a person’s
initial attitude towards an issue, serves as an anchor for the judgment of attitude
related stimuli. The person’s initial attitude on an issue provides a point of reference
against which he evaluates other opinions.
These views can be considered in terms of attitudinal continuum and can be
considered as comprised of latitudes. The latitude of acceptance, which is the range of
opinions the individual finds acceptable, encompasses the opinion that best
characterises his own stand. The attitude of rejection, which is the range of opinions
the individual finds objectionable, encompasses the opinion he finds most
objectionable. The attitude of non-commitment is the range of opinions that the
person finds neither acceptable nor unacceptable.
 Meaning of Personality
 Personality can be defined as those inner psychological characteristics that both
determine and reflect how a person think and act in an environment.
 The inner characteristics of personality are specific qualities, attributes, traits, factors
and mannerism that distinguish one individual from other individuals. Personalities are
likely to influence the individual’s product and store choices. They also affect the way
consumer responds to a firm’s communication efforts.

Personality in Organisational Behaviour

 Personality in Organisational Behaviour of an individual plays an extremely important
role in assessing the behaviour of a person at an organization.
 In case an individual who is holding a senior position in an organization has a wrong
type of personality, it may lead to a very bad impact on the relationship and ultimately it
may lead to protests and unrest at the workplace.

Determinants of Personality
The determinants of personality can be grouped in five broad categories:
1. Biological Factors
2. Cultural Factors
3. Family Factors
4. Social Factors
5. Situational Factors
 1. Biological Factors
The study of the biological contributions to personality may be studied under three heads:

Heredity
Heredity refers to those factors that were determined at conception. Physical stature, facial
attractiveness, sex, temperament, muscle composition and reflexes, energy level, and biological
rhythms are characteristics that are considered to be inherent from one’s parents.
The heredity approach argues that the ultimate explanation of an individual’s personality is the
molecular structure of the genes, located in the chromosomes.

Brain
The second biological approach is to concentrate on the role that the brain plays in personality.
The psychologists are unable to prove empirically the contribution of the human brain in
influencing personality.

Preliminary results from the electrical stimulation of the brain (ESB) research give
an indication that a better understanding of human personality and behaviour might come
from the study of the brain.

2. Cultural Factors
Among the factors that influence personality formation is the culture in which we are raised,
early conditioning, norms prevailing within the family, friends and social groups and other
miscellaneous experiences that impact us.
The culture largely determines attitudes towards independence, aggression, competition,
cooperation and a host of other human responses.

According to Paul H Mussen, “each culture expects, and trains, its members to behave in
ways that are acceptable to the group. To a marked degree, the child’s cultural group defines
the range of experiences and situations he is likely to encounter and the values and personality
characteristics that will be reinforced and hence learned.”

3. Family Factors
Whereas the culture generally prescribes and limits what a person can be taught, it is the
family, and later the social group, which selects, interprets and dispenses the culture. Thus, the
family probably has the most significant impact on early personality development.

A substantial amount of empirical evidence indicates that the overall home environment
created by the parents, in addition to their direct influence, is critical to personality
development.

 Identification can be viewed as the similarity of behaviour including feelings and

attitudes between child and model.
  Identification can be looked at as the child’s motives or desires to be like the model.

 It can be viewed as the process through which the child actually takes on the
attributes of the model.
From all three perspectives, the identification process is fundamental to the understanding of
personality development. The home environment also influences the personality of an
individual. Siblings (brothers and sisters) also contribute to personality.

4. Social Factors
 Socialization involves the process by which a person acquires, from the enormously
wide range of behavioural potentialities that are open to him or her, those that are
ultimately synthesized and absorbed.

 Socialization starts with the initial contact between a mother and her new infant. After
infancy, other members of the immediate family – father, brothers, sisters and close
relatives or friends, then the social group: peers, school friends and members of the work
group – play influential roles.
 Socialization process is especially relevant to organisational behaviour because the
process is not confined to early childhood, taking place rather throughout one’s life. In
particular, the evidence is accumulating that socialization may be one of the best
explanations for why employees behave the way they do in today’s organisations.

5. Situational Factors
Human personality is also influenced by situational factors. The effect of the environment is
quite strong. Knowledge, skill and language are obviously acquired and represent important
modifications of behaviour.

An individual’s personality, while generally stable and consistent, does change in different
situations. The varying demands of different situations call forth different aspects of one’s
personality.

According to Milgram, “Situation exerts an important press on the individual. It exercises

constraints and may provide a push. In certain circumstances, it is not so much the kind of
person a man is, as the kind of situation in which he is placed that determines his actions”. We
should therefore not look at personality patterns in isolation.
Personality Traits - Meaning and
Different Types of Traits
An individual’s behaviour towards others, attitude, characteristics, mindset make his personality.
Personality development is defined as a process of enhancing one’s personality. Personality development
sessions guide an individual as to how he/she can develop his/her personality.

Personality Traits

Broadly there are five parameters which describe an individual’s personality. These five dimensions
are also called as “Big Five” Factors, and the model is referred to as Five Factor Model also abbreviated
as FFM.

The Five Factor Model was initially proposed by Costa & McCrae in the year 1992 and often describes the
relation between an individual’s personality and various behaviours.

Following are five personality traits of an individual:

1. Openness to experience

Individuals with openness to experience are generally very active, have a tremendous inclination
towards creativity and aesthetics and listen to their heart i.e. follow their inner feelings. Such
individuals are generally open to new learnings, skill sets and experiences. People who score high
on openness are quite broadminded and modern in their outlook as compared to individuals who
score low on the same parameter. Such individuals are conservative, reluctant to changes and
have a traditional approach in life.

2. Conscientiousness

As the name suggests, individuals with a Conscientiousness personality trait listen to their
conscience and act accordingly. Such individuals are extremely cautious and self disciplined. They
never perform any task in haste but think twice before acting. People with this personality trait are
generally methodical and tend to become perfectionists in the long run. People who score high on
conscientiousness are proactive, goal oriented and self-disciplined. They strive hard to accomplish
goals and objectives within the stipulated time frame. Individuals who scoreless are little laid back
and are not much goal oriented.
3. Extraversion and Introversion

Carl Jung popularized both the terms - “Extraversion” and “Introversion”.

a. Extraversion: Extraversion refers to a state where individuals show more concern towards
what is happening outside. Such individuals love interacting with people around and are
generally talkative. They do not like spending time alone but love being the centre of
attraction of parties and social gatherings. Such individuals love going out, partying,
meeting people and often get bored when they are all by themselves. They admire the
company of others and hate staying alone.
b. Introversion: Introversion, on the other hand refers to a state when an individual is
concerned only with his own life and nothing else. Such individuals do not bother about
others and are seldom interested in what is happening around. They prefer staying back at
home rather than going out and spending time with friends. Such individuals speak less
and enjoy their own company. You would never find them in meetings, clubs, parties or
social get-togethers. They generally do not have many friends and tend to rely on few
trusted ones.
4. Agreeableness

Agreeableness is a personality trait which teaches individuals to be adjusting in almost all

situations. Such individuals do not crib and face changes with a smile. They accommodate
themselves to all situations and are friendly and kind hearted. People who score high on
agreeableness are ready to help others and flash their trillion-dollar smile whenever a problem
arises. Individuals who score low on agreeableness on the other hand find difficulties in adjusting
with others and are little unfriendly.

5. Neuroticism

Neuroticism is a trait where individuals are prone to negative thoughts such as anxiety, anger,
envy, guilt and so on. Such individuals are often in a state of depression and do not how to enjoy
life. They always look at the negative sides of life and find extremely difficult to cope up with stress.