Mr. Kumar Satyam Amity University Jharkhand, Ranchi

Mr.
Kumar Satyam
Amity University Jharkhand, Ranchi
Every organization develops certain policies and requirements for performance. As
long as the parties agree on the legitimacy of influence, each party should be satisfied
with the power balance in the relationship.
However, if the organization and an individual define the boundaries of influence
differently, then organizational conflict is likely to develop.
Areas of agreement and disagreement:

 Job conduct: Such as the appearance of one's workspace and one's working hours
(which carries a relatively high legitimacy of influence).
 Personal activities off the Job: Such as the place of worship one attends, where
charge accounts are maintained, and where one goes on vacation (which carries a
low legitimacy of influence).
The power of business to regulate employee conduct off the job is very limited.
However, some activities off the job may affect the employer, so questions of
organizational influence still arise.
The basic relationship is as follows: the more job-related one's conduct is when off the
job, the more support there is for organizational influence on the employee.
1. Rights of privacy: Rights of privacy become contentious issues when an
organization invades a person's private life or make's an unauthorized release of
confidential information about a person in a way that would cause emotional harm
or suffering.
Business Activities That May Involve Employee Rights of Privacy:

Lie detectors, personality tests, location trackers, medical examinations, confidential
records, computer data banks, etc.
Policy Guidelines Relating to Privacy:

 Relevance- Only necessary, useful information should be recorded and obtained.
 Recency- Obsolete information should be removed periodically.
 Notice- No personal data system unknown to an employee should be used.
 Fiduciary Duty- The keeper of the information is responsible for its security.
 Confidentiality- Information should be released only to those who have a need to
know.
 Due Process- The employee should be able to examine records and challenge
them if they appear incorrect.
 Protection of the Psyche- The employee's inner self should not be invaded except
with prior consent.
2. Discrimination: Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) laws generally prohibit

job discrimination on the basis of race, colour, national origin, sex, religion,
handicapped status, and other factors.
Forms of discrimination also include sexual harassment cases, which occurs when an
employee's colleagues or supervisors engage in any verbal or physical conduct that
creates an offensive working environment.
In order to protect potential victims and prevent harassment, many employers have
developed policies to prevent it.
They also have conducted training programs to educate employees about the relevant
law, identified actions that constitute sexual harassment, and communicated both the
possible liabilities involved and the negative effects of harassment on its victims.
3. Discipline: Discipline is a management action to enforce organizational standards.
There are two types of discipline:

 Preventative Discipline: Actions taken to encourage employees to follow
standards and rules so infractions don't occur (i.e. making company standards
known and understood in advance).
 Corrective Discipline: Actions that follow infractions of a rule; it seeks to
discourage further infractions, so that future acts will be in compliance with
standards (i.e. penalties, suspensions, etc.).
Most employers apply a policy of Progressive Discipline, which means that there are
stronger penalties for repeated offenses.
The purpose is to give an employee an opportunity for self-correction before more
serious penalties are applied.
4. Quality of work life: Quality of work life (QWL) is a term that refers to the
favourableness or unfavourableness of a total job environment for people.
QWL programs are another way in which organizations recognize their
responsibility to develop jobs and working conditions that are excellent for people
as well as for the economic health of the organization.
One of the ways organizations increase the quality of work life is through Job
Enlargement and Job Enrichment.
Job enlargement means to add more duties, and an increased workload to their
workers (i.e. taking charge of more duties and responsibilities which are not
mentioned in the job description).
Job enrichment means to add additional motivators to a job to make it more
rewarding, such as giving workers more control, responsibility, and discretion over
how their job is performed.
How can jobs be enriched?
J. Richard Hackman and Greg Oldham developed a job characteristics approach to job
enrichment that identifies:
Five Core Dimensions:

a. Skill Variety
b. Task Identity
c. Task Significance
d. Autonomy
e. Feedback
a. Skill Variety: It permits employees to perform different operations that often

require different skills. Variety provides employees a greater sense of competence,
as they can perform different kinds of work in different ways.
b. Task Identity: It allows employees to perform a complete piece of the work.
When tasks are broadened to produce a whole product, then task identity has been
established.
c. Task Significance: It refers to the amount of impact the employee perceives his
work has on other people. Workers should believe they are doing something
important in their organization and/or society.
d. Autonomy: It gives employees some discretion and control over job-related

decisions. Job autonomy seems to be essential in creating a sense of responsibility
in workers.
e. Feedback: It refers to information that tells workers how well they are
performing.
Workers must receive complete job feedback, both positive and negative.
Feedback can come directly from the job itself, management, or from other
employees.
The individuals’ responsibility to the organization:
 Employment is a mutual transaction and a social exchange. Each employee makes
certain membership investments in the organization and expects profitable returns
in exchange. The organization also invests in the individual, and it too, expects
profitable returns.
 Applying the social exchange idea makes it evident that employees are expected to
be good organizational citizens. Typical categories include helping others,
attending employee meetings, complying with rules, showing courtesy to fellow
employees, and supporting organizational practices.
 Included in the idea of being a good organizational citizen is the responsibility for
the employee to expose misconduct and alleged dishonest or illegal activity
occurring in the organization. This phenomenon is better known as whistle-
blowing. Whistle-blowers often deal with these issues internally and sometimes
even publicly.
Concept/Definition of Attitude:
Attitude may be understood as a tendency, set or readiness to respond to some social
object.
Allport has defined attitude as follows:

“Attitude is mental and neural state of readiness organised through experience,
exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects
and situations with which it is related.”
Katz and Scotland define attitude as, “a tendency or predisposition to evaluate an

object or symbol of that object in a certain way.”
Reitz has defined attitude as, “a persistent tendency to feel and behave in a favourable
or unfavourable way towards some object, person or idea.”
Features of Attitude:
a. It affects behaviour of an individual by putting her/him ready to respond
favourably or unfavourably to things in her/his environment.
b. It is acquired through learning over a period of time.
c. It is invisible as it constitutes a psychological phenomenon which cannot be
observed directly.
d. It is pervasive and every individual has some kind of attitude towards the objects
in her/his environment.
Attitude alone does not influence behaviour but it acts with other factors in the
individual influencing behaviour such as personality, perception, motivation, etc.
Functions of Attitude:
Attitudes have been thought as serving four functions and thereby influencing the
behaviour. These are as follows:
a. Instrumental/Utilitarian: It serves as a means to reach a desired goal or to avoid
an undesired one.
b. Ego defensive: It may be acquired and maintained to protect the person from
facing threats in the external world or from becoming aware of her/his own
unacceptable impulses.
c. Value orientation: The value-orientation function takes into account attitudes that
are held because they express a person’s values or enhance her/his self-identity.
d. Knowledge: The knowledge function of attitudes is based on a person’s need to
maintain a stable, organised and meaningful structure of the world.
Factors in Attitude formation:
The various factors which affect an individual’s attitude are as follows:
1. Group factors
a. Family
b. Reference groups
c. Social classes
2. Personality factors
These factors are important in attitude formation. However, many personality
characteristics themselves are determined by group and social factors.
Attitudes relevant for Organisational Behaviour:
People develop attitudes towards other persons, objects and ideas. Thus, there may be
numerous attitudes in a person. However, not all such attitudes are fully relevant for
organisational behaviour.
For an organisation, the attitudes held by its members about its practices are important.
Such attitudes are often termed as organisationally-relevant attitudes or employee
attitudes.
The following are the employee attitudes:

1. Job satisfaction
2. Job involvement
3. Organisational commitment
1. Job satisfaction: It reflects the extent to which employees find gratification or
fulfillment in their work.
There are a variety of factors which affect job satisfaction of an employee such as-
• Personal factors like an employee’s needs and aspirations.
• Group factors like relationships with co-workers and superiors.
• Organisational factors like working conditions, work policies, compensation,
etc.
Job satisfaction is closely related to an employee’s performance and her/his work-

related behaviour.
2. Job involvement: It is the degree to which employees immerse themselves in their
jobs, invest time and energy in them, and view work as a central part of their
overall lives.
As a result, they are willing to work long hours and they will attempt to be high
performers.
Attitudes of employees towards job involvement are important for organisational

effectiveness.
3. Organisational commitment: It is the degree to which an employee identifies
with the organisation and wants to continue actively and meaningfully
participating in it.
It is also known as employee loyalty to organisation.
Organisationally-committed employees usually have good attendance records,
demonstrate a willing adherence to organisational policies, and have lower
turnover rates.
Organisational commitment of employees is a strong force for organisational

effectiveness.
Effects of Employee Attitudes:
a. Employee performance
b. Employee turnover
c. Absence and Tardiness
d. Violence
e. Other effects: In particular, employees demonstrate organisational citizenship
behaviours which are discretionary actions that promote organisational success if
they have positive attitudes.
Organisational citizenship is often marked by its spontaneity, its voluntary nature,
its constructive impact on results, its unexpected helpfulness to others, and the fact
that it is optional.
Methods of Attitude change:
There are various methods through which a positive change in attitudes may be
brought.
 In the social context, Cohen has suggested four methods for attitude change:
1. Communication of additional information
2. Approval and disapproval of a particular attitude
3. Group influence, and
4. Inducing engagement in discrepant behaviour
 From organisation’s point of view, manager can take following actions in bringing
change in attitudes of organisational members:
1. Manipulating reward system
2. Clearly defining employees’ roles
Methods of Attitude change…Contd.:
3. Setting challenging targets for high achievers
4. Providing immediate feedback to employees
5. Providing opportunities for employees
6. Exhibiting a caring, considerate orientation, and
7. Refraining from attacking the employees’ attitudes
Developing positive attitudes by individuals:
 Developing of positive attitudes is necessary for the betterment of life because
negative attitudes often result into bitterness, resentment, high stress, ill health, and
purposeless life.
 As against these, positive attitudes lead to better personality development,
meaningful life, feeling of being important, and contribution to self and society.
Following actions on the part of individuals may be relevant for developing positive
attitudes:
1. Identification of attitudes
2. Looking for positive
3. Building positive self-esteem
4. Setting challenging targets
5. Avoiding procrastination
6. Continuous learning
Introduction:
Like attitude, values that a person has are one of the major forces shaping behaviour.
Values are convictions and a framework of philosophy of an individual on the basis of

which she/he judges what is good or bad, desirable or undesirable, ethical or unethical.
Definition:
Rokeach, a noted socio-psychologist, has defined values as “global beliefs that guide
actions and judgments across a variety of situations.”
He further adds that,

“Values represent basic convictions that a specific mode of conduct is personally or
socially preferable to an opposite mode of conduct.”
Features/Characteristics:
1. Part of Culture: Values are elements of culture, and culture is the complex of
values, ideas, attitudes and other meaningful symbols to shape human behaviour in
the society.
2. Learned responses: Human behaviour represents learned phenomenon. Unlike

other animals, human beings have to learn almost everything about how to be
human from experience.
3. Inculcated: Values are inculcated and passed through generation to generation by

specific groups and institutions like family, educational, religious and ethnic
institutions.
4. Social phenomenon: Values are a social phenomenon, that is, cultural habits are
shared by aggregates of people living in organised society. An individual’s way of
thinking and behaving is not culture, rather group behaviour constitutes culture.
Features/Characteristics…Contd.:
5. Gratifying responses: Values exist to meet the biological and other needs of the
individuals in the society. The society rewards behaviours which are gratifying for
its members.
Determinants of Values:
a. Family factors: Parents, etc.
b. Social factors: Schools, friends, etc.
c. Cultural factors: Passed on from generation to generation.
d. Personal factors: Personal attributes
40% of one’s values are genetically determined.

Types/Two sets of values:
a. Terminal Values
b. Instrumental Values
a. Terminal Values: These are the goals that a person would like to achieve during
her/his lifetime. e.g., a comfortable life, a world at peace, wisdom, salvation, etc.
b. Instrumental Values: These are the means of achieving the terminal values. e.g.,
ambition, broad-mindedness, cheerful, honest, forgiving, courageous, obedient,
polite, etc.
Importance of Values:
a. They are general principles to regulate over day-to-day behaviour.
b. They build up societies, integrate social relations.
c. They mould the ideal dimensions of personality, and range and depth of culture.
d. They influence people’s behaviour and serve as criteria for evaluating the actions
of others.
e. They help in creating norms to guide day-to-day behaviour.
f. They play an important role in the integration and fulfillment of man’s basic
impulses and desires in a stable and consistent manner appropriate for her/his
living.
Introduction:
The personality implies psychological and social character that an individual acquires
by hereditary biological endowment which provides her/him the basis for development
and social growth of environment within which she/he springs forth.
The continuing process whereby the child is influenced by others (especially the
parents) is called socialisation. It is a course of learning whereby the child comes to
act in accordance with the special demands that membership in a certain society
imposes upon her/him.
The term personality is used in various senses. Generally, it is used to indicate the
external outlook of an individual. In philosophy it means the internal quality. But in
social psychology the term personality indicates neither the external or outward pattern
nor does it indicate the internal quality. It means an integrated whole.
Definitions:
According to K. Young, “Personality is a patterned body of habits, traits, attitudes and
ideas of an individual, as these are organised externally into roles and status and as
they relate internally to motivation, goals, and various aspects of selfhood.”
As G.W. Allport has defined, “Personality is the dynamic organisation with the
individual of those psycho-physical system that determine her/his unique adjustment
to her/his environment.”
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.”
According to Lundberg and others, “the term personality refers to the habits, attitudes
and other social traits that are characteristics of a given individual’s behaviour”.
Definitions…Contd.:
Personality is the sum of physical, mental and social qualities in integrated manner.
On the basis of definitions, it may be said that there are two main approaches to the
study of personality: (i) the psychological and, (ii) the sociological.
The psychological approach considers personality as a certain style peculiar to the
individual. This style is determined by characteristic organisation of mental trends,
complexes, emotions and sentiments.
The sociological approach considers personality in terms of status of the individual in

the group, in terms of her/his own conception of her/his role in the group of which
she/he is a member.
Thus, personality is the sum of the ideas, attitudes and values of a person which
determine her/his role in society and form an integral part of her/his character.
Personality is acquired by the individual as a result of her/his participation in group
life.
Features:
1. Personality is something which is unique in each individual: Personality refers
to internal as well as external qualities, some of which are quite general. But it is
unique to each individual.
It is not possible for any other individual to reproduce or imitate the qualities of
the personality of the individual.
2. Personality refers particularly to persistent qualities of an individual: Every

individual has certain feeling as well as other permanent traits and qualities.
Personality is mainly composed of the persistent or permanent qualities that
exhibit themselves in form of social behaviour and attempt to make adjustment
with the environment.
3. Personality represents a dynamic orientation of organism to environment:

Personality represents the process of learning. It takes place in reference to the
environment. We do not acquire all the traits of personality all at once.
Features…Contd.:
4. Personality is greatly influenced by social interactions: Personality is not an
individual quality. It is a result of social- interaction.
In other words, it means that when we come in contact with other members of the
society, we acquire certain qualities while we exhibit certain others.
5. Personality represents a unique organisation of persistent dynamic and social

predisposition: In personality various qualities are not put together. They are, in
fact, integrated into one. This integration is nothing but a result of organisation
which may be different from man to man.
The behaviour of a person directed to one particular individual may differ from the
behaviour of another person. That is why, we put the condition of suitable
environment. This suitability is concerned with individual specificity.
Determinants:
Personality is a result of the combination of four factors, i.e., physical environment,
heredity, culture, and particular experiences.
1. Physical environment: Climate and topography determine to a great extent the
physical and mental traits of a people, but it cannot be said that they alone
determine human behaviour.
Most kinds of personality are found in every kind of culture.
2. Heredity: 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.
Determinants…Contd.:
3. 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.
4. Particular experiences: Personality is also determined by another factor, namely,

the particular and unique experiences.
There are two types of experiences one, those that stem from continuous
association with one’s group, second, those that arise suddenly and are not likely
to recur.
The type of people who meet the child daily has a major influence on his
personality. The personality of parents does more to affect a child’s personality.
Traits: The Big Five Personality Traits
The Big Five personality traits, also known as the five-factor model (FFM), and the
OCEAN model, is a taxonomy for personality traits.
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 learning, skill sets and experiences.
People who score high on openness are quite broadminded and modern in their
outlook.
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.
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.
Traits: The Big Five Personality Traits…Contd.
3. 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.
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.
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.
Traits: The Big Five Personality Traits…Contd.
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.
Theories:
Personality psychology is the focus of some of the best-known psychology theories by
a number of famous thinkers including Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson.
Some of these theories attempt to tackle a specific area of personality while others
attempt to explain personality much more broadly.
1. Biological Theories: Biological approaches suggest that genetics are responsible

for personality. Research on heritability suggests that there is a link between
genetics and personality traits.
2. Behavioural Theories: Behavioural theories suggest that personality is a result of

interaction between the individual and the environment.
Behavioural theorists study observable and measurable behaviours, rejecting
theories that take internal thoughts and feelings into account.
Theories…Contd.:
3. Psychodynamic Theories: Psychodynamic theories of personality are heavily
influenced by the work of Sigmund Freud and emphasize the influence of the
unconscious mind and childhood experiences on personality.
Freud believed the three components of personality were the id, the ego, and the
superego. The id is responsible for all needs and urges, while the superego for
ideals and morals. The ego moderates between the demands of the id, the
superego, and reality.
4. Humanist Theories: Humanist theories emphasize the importance of free will and
individual experience in the development of personality.
Humanist theorists also focused on the concept of self-actualisation, which is an
innate need for personal growth that motivates behaviour.
Theories…Contd.:
5. Trait Theories: The trait theory approach is one of the most prominent areas
within personality psychology. According to these theories, personality is made up
of a number of broad traits.
A trait is basically a relatively stable characteristic that causes an individual to
behave in certain ways. Some of the best-known trait theories include Eysenck's
three-dimension theory and the five-factor theory of personality.
Eysenck concluded that there were three major dimensions of personality:
extroversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism (aggression, empathy, and
sociability).
Often referred to as the Big Five theory of personality, this theory suggests that the
five major personality dimensions are Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion,
Agreeableness, and Neuroticism, sometimes identified with the useful acronym
OCEAN.
Matching of Personality with Jobs:
Obviously, individual personalities differ. So, too do jobs.
Following this logic, efforts have been made to match the proper personalities with the
proper jobs.
John Holland's "personality-job fit theory" is concerned with matching the job
requirements with personality characteristics.
The personality-job fit theory identifies 6 personality types and proposes that the fit
between personality type and occupational environment determines satisfaction and
turnover.
Six major personality types have been identified.

Matching of Personality with Jobs…Contd.:
Matching of Personality with Jobs…Contd.:
What does all these mean?

The theory argues that satisfaction is highest and turnover lowest where personality
and occupation are in agreement.
The key points of this model are that:

1. There does appear to be intrinsic personality differences among individuals;
2. There are different types of jobs; and
3. People in job environments congruent with their personality type should be more
satisfied and less likely to resign voluntarily than people in incongruent jobs.
Introduction:
Perception is the cognitive process. It is the process of selecting, organising and
interpreting or attaching meaning to the events happening in the environment.
Robbins has defined perception as follows:

“It may be defined as the process by which individuals organise and interpret their
sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment.”
Features:
Based on the definition of perception, we may identify its following features:
1. Perception is an intellectual process, through which a person selects the data from
the environment, organises it and obtains meaning from it.
2. Perception is the basic cognitive or psychological process. The manner in which a

person perceives the environment affects her/his behaviour.
3. Perception, being an intellectual and psychological process, becomes a subjective

process and different people may perceive the same environmental event
differently.
Sensation and Perception:
Sensation may be described as the response of a physical sensory organ. The physical
senses are vision, hearing, touch, smell and taste.
Perception is something more than sensation. It correlates, integrates and comprehends

diverse sensations and information from many organs of the body by means of which a
person identifies things and objects, the sensation relates to.
Thus, perception is determined by both physiological and psychological characteristics

of an organism.
Distinction between Sensation and Perception:
Based on the observations, distinction between sensation and perception may be made
as follows:
1. Sensation is a simple mental process whereas perception is comparatively a
complex mental process.
2. By sensation, the person just becomes cautious of the quality of stimulus, but by
perception, she/he derives meaning of the stimulus.
3. The person is comparatively inactive in sensation whereas she/he becomes more

active in perception.
4. Sensation may be considered as a part of perception, because the former is the first
stage of the latter.
Perceptual Process:
Perception is a process consisting of several sub-processes.
Perceptual Mechanism
Perceptual Receiving Perceptual
Inputs Selecting Outputs
(Stimuli) Organising (Actions)
Interpreting
Figure: Process of Perception

Perceptual Process:
 Perceptual Inputs: Stimuli may be in the form of objects, events or people.
Everything in the setting where events occur, or which contributes to the
occurrence of events can be termed as perceptual inputs.
 Perceptual Mechanism: It involves three elements- selection of stimuli,

organisation of stimuli and interpretation of stimuli.
 Perceptual Outputs: These outputs may be in the form of covert actions like
development of attitudes, opinions, beliefs, impressions about the stimuli.
These outputs along with other factors affecting human behaviour may result in
overt behaviour.
Perceptual Selectivity:
By selection, certain aspects of stimuli are screened out and others are admitted. Those
which are admitted remain in the awareness of the people and those which are
screened out fall below the threshold. This is known as perceptual selectivity.
 External Factors in Perceptual Selectivity:

a. Size
b. Intensity
c. Repetition
d. Novelty and Familiarity
e. Contrast
f. Motion
Perceptual Selectivity…Contd.:
 Internal Factors in Perceptual Selectivity:

a. Self-Concept
b. Beliefs
c. Expectations
d. Inner Needs
e. Response Disposition: It refers to a person’s tendency to perceive familiar
stimuli rather than unfamiliar ones.
f. Response Salience: It is the set of dispositions which are determined not by
the familiarity of the stimulus situations, but by the person’s own cognitive
predispositions.
g. Perceptual Defence: It refers to the screening of those elements which create
conflict and threatening situation in people.
Perceptual Organisation:
Perceptual Organisation deals with the manner in which selected stimuli are organised
in order to make sense out of them.
People organise the various stimuli on the principles of the following:

 Figure-Ground
 Grouping
• Proximity
• Similarity
 Simplification
 Closure
Attribution Theory:
It has been proposed to develop explanations of the ways in which we judge people
differently, depending on what meaning we attribute to a given behaviour.
The theory suggests that when we observe an individual’s behaviour, we attempt to
determine whether it was internally or externally caused.
Internally caused behaviours are those that are believed to be under the personal
control of the individual.
Externally caused behaviour is seen as resulting from outside causes, i.e., the person is
seen as having been forced into the behaviour by the situation.
For example, if one of your employees is late for work, you might attribute his lateness
to his/her partying into the wee hours of the morning and then oversleeping. This
would be an internal attribution.
Attribution Theory…Contd.:
But, if you attribute his/her arriving late to a major automobile accident that tied up
traffic on the road that this employee regularly uses, then you would be making an
external attribution.
One of the more interesting findings from attribution theory is that there are errors or
biases that distort attributions. They are:
Fundamental attribution error: The tendency to underestimate the influence of the
external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors when making
judgments about the behaviour of others. e.g., sales manager attributing the poor
performance of his/her sales agent to laziness rather than to the innovative product line
introduced by a competitor.
Self-serving bias: The tendency for individuals to attribute their own successes to
internal factors while putting the blame for failures on external factors.
The Link between Perception and Individual Decision Making:
Introduction:
Individuals in organisations make decisions. i.e., they make choices from among two
or more alternatives.
Top managers determine their organisation’s goals, what products or services to offer,
how best to finance operations, or where to locate a new manufacturing plant.
Middle and lower-level managers determine production schedules, select new

employees, and decide how pay raises are to be allocated.
Making decisions is not the sole responsibility of managers. Non-managerial

employees also make decisions that affect their jobs and the organisations they work
for.
The Link between Perception and Individual Decision Making…Contd.:
Introduction…Contd.:
Individual decision making, therefore, is an important part of organisational
behaviour. But how individuals in organisations make decisions and the quality of
their final choices are largely influences by their perceptions.
Decision making occurs as a reaction to a problem. i.e., there is a discrepancy between

some current state of affairs and some desired state, requiring consideration of
alternative courses of action.
One person’s problem is another person’s satisfactory state of affairs.
Moreover, every decision requires interpretation and evaluation of information. Data

are typically received from multiple sources and they need to be screened, processed,
and interpreted.
The Link between Perception and Individual Decision Making…Contd.:
How should decisions be made?
How should individuals behave in order to maximise or optimise a certain outcome?
We call this the rational decision-making process.
The Rational Decision-Making Process:

A decision-making model that describes how individuals should behave in order to
maximise some outcome.
The six steps involved are as follows:
1. Define the problem.
2. Identify the decision criteria.
3. Allocate weights to the criteria.
4. Develop the alternatives.
5. Evaluate the alternatives.
6. Select the best alternative.
Managerial Applications of Perception:
1. Interpersonal Working Relationships
2. Selection of Employees
3. Performance Appraisal
Developing Perceptual Skills:
1. Perceiving Oneself Accurately
2. Enhancing Self-Concept
3. Having Positive Attitude
4. Being Empathetic
5. Communicating More Openly
6. Avoiding Common Perceptual Distortions
Introduction:
Definition:
Sanford has defined Learning as “a relatively enduring change in behaviour brought
about as a consequence of experience.”
Mitchell has defined learning as “the process by which new behaviours are acquired. It
is generally agreed that learning involves changes in behaviours, practicing new
behaviours, and establishing permanency in the change.”
Nature of Learning:
Based on the definition of learning, we may identify the following nature of learning:
1. Learning involves a change in behaviour.
2. The behavioural change must be relatively permanent.
3. The behavioural change must be based on some form of practice or experience.
4. The practice or experience must be reinforced in order for learning to occur.
Components of Learning Process:
To understand the process of learning, it is important to understand the various
components of learning. They are as follows:
1. Drive: Learning frequently occurs in the presence of drive, i.e., any strong
stimulus that impels action.
2. Cue Stimuli: They are any objects existing in the environment as perceived by the
individual. It is common to speak of cue stimuli simply as stimuli.
3. Generalisation: It occurs when a response is elicited by a similar but new

stimulus. Because of generalisation, a person does not have to completely relearn
each of the tasks or objects which constantly confront her/him.
4. Discrimination: It is the opposite of generalisation. This is a process whereby an

organism learns to emit a response to a stimulus but avoids making the same
response to a similar but somewhat different stimulus.
Components of Learning Process…Contd.:
5. Responses: The stimulus results into responses. Responses may be in the physical
form or may be in terms of attitudes, familiarity, perception, or other complex
phenomenon.
6. Reinforcement: It is a fundamental condition of learning. Without reinforcement,

no measurable modification of behaviour takes place.
7. Retention: The stability of learned behaviour over time is defined as retention and
the converse in forgetting.
8. Extinction: It may be defined as a loss of memory.
9. Spontaneous Recovery: The return of response strength after extinction, without

intervening reinforcement, is called spontaneous recovery.
Factors affecting Learning:
1. Motivation: It is something that moves a person to action and continues her/him
in the course of action already initiated.
2. Mental Set: It refers to the preparation for an action.
3. Nature of Learning Materials: It affects learning by providing the clue for

understanding.
4. Practice: The more a person practices, more she/he absorbs learning contents.
5. Environment: It refers to the situational set up for learning. Environmental factors

can either strengthen or weaken the innate ability to achieve and learn.
Learning theories can be grouped into three categories:
1. Conditioning Theory (Connectionist or Behaviouristic theory)
2. Cognitive Learning Theory
3. Social Learning Theory
1. Conditioning Theory: Conditioning is the process in which an ineffective

object or situation becomes so much effective that it makes the hidden response
apparent.
In the absence of this stimulus, hidden response is a natural or normal response.
This is based on the premise that learning is establishing association between
response and stimulus.
Conditioning has two main theories:

A. Classical Conditioning, and
B. Operant Conditioning
A. Classical Conditioning:
It states that behaviour is learned by repetitive association between a stimulus and
a response (S-R association).
The organism learns to transfer a response from one stimulus to a previously
neutral stimulus.
Four elements are always present in classical conditioning. These are:
i. Unconditioned Stimulus (US)- like food which invariably causes to react in a
certain way, i.e., salivation.
ii. Unconditioned Response (UR)- takes place whenever the US is presented, i.e.,
whenever the organism (dog in the original experiment) is given food (US), it
salivates.
iii. Conditioned Stimulus (CS)- the object that does not initially bring about the
desired response like the sound of the bell.
iv. Conditioned Response (CR)- a particular behaviour that the organism learns to
produce to the CS, i.e., salivation.
Classical Conditioning…Contd.:
The Experiment
• The work of the famous Russian physiologist and Nobel Prize winner, Ivan
Pavlov, demonstrated the classical conditioning process.
• In the experiments, when Pavlov presented a piece of meat (US) to the dog, he
noticed a great deal of salivation (UR).
• On the other hand, when he merely rang a bell (neutral stimulus), the dog had
no salivation.
Thus, it was established that ringing of bell was having no effect on the
salivation of dog.
• In the next step, Pavlov accompanied meat with ringing of the bell. On this,
dog salivated. This experiment was repeated several times.
• After that, Pavlov rang the bell without presenting the meat. This time, the dog
salivated to the bell alone which was originally a neutral stimulus having no
effect on the behaviour (salivation).
The Experiment…Contd.
• In the new situation, the dog had become classically conditioned to salivate
(CR) to the sound of the bell (CS).
Pavlov went beyond the simple conditioning of his dogs to salivate to the sound
of the bell.
• He next paired a black square with a bell. After a number of trials with this
pairing, the dogs salivated to the black square alone.
• The original conditioned stimulus (bell) had become a reinforcing
unconditioned stimulus for the new conditioned stimulus (black square).
• This was called second-order conditioning. Pavlov could go for third-order
conditioning but not more.
However, most behavioural scientists agree that human beings are capable of
being conditioned higher than the third order.
The Experiment…figure
I. Before Conditioning
Meat (US) Salivation (UR)
Bell (Neutral stimulus) No response
II. During Conditioning

Meat (US) + Bell (CS) Salivation (UR)
III. After Conditioning

Bell (CS) Salivation (CR)
Implications of Classical Conditioning
Classical conditioning, though offers explanation for learning, fails to explain total
behaviour of human beings.
Robbins has observed that “classical conditioning is passive. Something happens

and we react in a specific or particular way. It is elicited in response to a specific,
identifiable event and, as such, it explains simple and reflective behaviour. But
behaviour of people in the organisations is emitted rather than elicited, and it is
voluntary rather than reflective.”
B. Operant Conditioning:
Operant is defined as behaviour that produces effects.
Operant conditioning suggests that people emit responses that are rewarded and
will not emit responses that are either not rewarded or punished.
Operant conditioning implies that behaviour is voluntary and it is determined,
maintained and controlled by its consequences.
It presupposes that human beings explore their environment and act upon it.
The basic principle of learning new behaviour (operant/instrumental) involves the

relationship between three elements:
i. Stimulus situation,
ii. Behavioural response to the situation, and
iii. Consequence of the response to the person
A simple example of the operant behaviour is the application of brake by a
vehicle driver to avoid accident.
Operant Conditioning…Contd.:
Implications of Operant Conditioning
Operant conditioning has much greater impact on human learning than classical
conditioning.
Most behaviours in organisations are learned, controlled, and altered by
consequences.
Management can use the operant conditioning process successfully to control and
influence the behaviour of employees by designing the suitable reward system.
Connection
Organism Classical
Stimulus (S) Response (R)
Stuck by a pain Flinches
Shocked by electrical Jumps
Individual person
current
Surprised by a loud sound Screams
Operant
Response (R) Stimulus (S)
Works Paid
Individual person Works hard Praised, promoted
Greeted by others Feels happy
Examples of classical and operant conditioning
2. Cognitive Learning Theory:
It is based on the cognitive model of human behaviour.
Cognitive model is used in a number of psychological processes like perception,
learning, attitude formation, and motivation.
The cognitive approach emphasises the positive and free-will aspects of human
behaviour.
Cognition refers to an individual’s ideas, thoughts, knowledge, interpretations, and
understanding about herself/himself and her/his environment.
Applying the concept of cognition in learning implies that organism learns the
meaning of various objects and events, and learned responses depend on the
meaning assigned to stimuli.
Cognitive Learning Theory…Contd.:
Cognitive theorists argue that the learner forms a cognitive structure in memory,
preserves and organises information about the various events that occur in a
learning situation.
The Experiment
• In his famous place-learning experiments, Tolman trained a rat to turn right in
a ‘T’ maze in order to obtain food.
• Then, he started the rat from the opposite part of the maze; according to
operant conditioning theory, the rat should have turned right because of past
conditioning.
• But the rat, instead, turned towards where the food had been placed.
• This phenomenon forced Tolman to conclude that the rat formed a cognitive
map to figure out how to get food and reinforcement was not a precondition
for learning to take place.
Cognitive Learning Theory…Contd.:
Implications
Cognitive theory of learning has a number of implications.
Most of the early human relations training programmes were based on this
concept.
Various training programmes were designed to strengthen the relationship between
cognitive cues (organisational, supervisory, and job procedures) and workers’
expectations (incentive payments for good performance).
In the context of the modern organisational behaviour, this theory has relevance in
the field of motivation (expectancy theories) as it is a cognitive process.
3. Social Learning Theory:
Social learning theory combines and integrates both behaviouristic and cognitive
concepts and emphasises the integrative nature of cognitive, behavioural, and
environmental determinants.
It postulates that learning can also take place via vicarious or modelling.
Modelling Processes:
The vicarious or modelling processes essentially involve observational learning.
Learning does not result from discrete stimulus-response-consequence
connections.
Instead learning can take place through imitating others.
Bandura, who has contributed a lot to the development of social learning theory,
has observed that: “Most of the behaviours that people display are learned either
deliberately or inadvertently, through the influence of the example.”
Social Learning Theory…Contd.:
Modelling Processes…Contd.:
According to social learning theory, learning occurs in two steps:
i. The person observes how others act and then acquires a mental picture of the
act and its consequences (reward and punishment).
ii. The person acts out the acquired image and if the consequences are positive,
she/he will tend to do it again. If the consequences are negative, the person
will not do it again.
A simple example of this phenomenon is that people learn that ‘fire burns the
body’ from others and not necessarily by touching the fire.
Social Learning Theory…Contd.:
Modelling Applications:
Modelling has some practical applications in developing desirable behaviours in
the organisations.
People behave not necessarily according to the prescribed mode of behaviour but
they engage in the types of behaviour which are demonstrated by their seniors.
The role of practice is more important than precept.
Organisational Behaviour Modification:
Organisational behaviour modification (briefly called as OB Mod) is a sophisticated
tool for improving the organisational effectiveness.
Derived and developed from the concept of Skinner’s operant conditioning, this
technique is used to modify or eliminate undesirable behaviour and replace it with
behaviour that is more comfortable with goal attainment.
OB Mod can be defined as the techniques for modifying behaviour of the

organisational members so that they are engaged in desirable behaviour.
Robbins has defined OB Mod as follows:

“It is a programme where managers identify performance-related employee behaviours
and then implement an intervention strategy to strengthen desirable behaviours and
weaken undesirable behaviours.”
Organisational Behaviour Modification…Contd.:
Steps in OB Mod:
i. Identification of Critical Behaviours: In order to apply OB Mod, it is necessary
that critical behaviours which have significant impact on the performance outcome
of the employees should be identified, like absenteeism or attendance, tardiness or
promptness, complaints or constructive criticisms, and doing or not doing a
particular task or procedure.
ii. Measurement of Behaviours: After the critical behaviours are identified, these
are measured in terms of the rate at which these are occurring.
If the rate of occurrence is within the acceptable limit, no action may be required.
iii. Functional Analysis of Behaviours: It involves a detailed examination of present

behaviours of the employees to determine what consequences each of the
behaviours produces, what conditions lead to their occurrence, etc.
Steps in OB Mod…Contd.:
iv. Intervention: It is the action taken for changing the undesirable critical
behaviours.
Its main objective is to strengthen and accelerate desirable performance
behaviours and/or weaken and decelerate undesirable behaviours. e.g., positive
reinforcement, negative reinforcement, and withdrawal of positive reinforcement.
v. Systematic Evaluation: The final step in OB Mod is the systematic evaluation

whether the intervention strategies are working properly or not.
Changed behaviours can be compared with baseline behaviours and deviations can
be noted. If there is positive change, it suggests that the strategies are successful.
Contributions of OB Mod:
OB Mod has been applied successfully in many organisations starting from service
organisations to manufacturing organisations, ranging from some people in the
organisation to the entire organisation.
The major strengths of OB Mod are as follows:
i. It deals with observed behaviours. Therefore, it can be put to testing.
ii. It presents a set of tools by which people can learn new behaviours and skills
thereby replacing undesirable behaviours.
iii. It provides managers various tools for effectively controlling and influencing the
behaviours of employees in the organisation.
iv. The understanding of OB Mod techniques is comparatively easy. Therefore,
managers can use these without much problems.
Introduction:
The Transactional Analysis refers to the psychoanalytic process wherein the
interpersonal behaviours are studied.
In other words, a social psychological model that talks about the personal growth and
personal change, i.e., identifying the ego states of each individual to understand their
behaviours and altering them to solve the emotional problems.
This model was originally developed by Dr. Eric Berne, who during his observation
found that his patients behaved in a way as if several different people were inside
them.
This forced him to study the personality and dynamics of self and its relationship with
others which helped in determining the kinds of behaviours that an individual shows in
different real time situations.
Now, this study has become a well-established approach and is being widely used in
several fields such as psychotherapy, counselling, education, organisational
development, etc.
The transactional analysis gives birth to several models that help in explaining the
relationship formed between the individuals as a result of their interactions. It mainly
involves:
Johari Window:
Definition: The Johari Window is the psychological model developed by Joseph Luft
and Harrington Ingham, that talks about the relationship and mutual understanding
between the group members.
In other words, a psychological tool that helps an individual to understand his

relationship with himself and with other group members is called as a Johari Window.
The objective behind the creation of a Johari window is to enable an individual to

develop trust with others by disclosing information about himself and also to know
what others feels about himself through feedback.
Johari Window…Contd.:
The Johari Window model is made up of four quadrants that explain the overall
relationship of an individual with himself and with other group members. These are as
follows:
Open Self: This quadrant shows the behaviour, motives, attitudes, knowledge skills of
an individual that he is aware of and is willing to share it with others.
The open self is characterized as a state wherein the individual is open and straight
forward to himself and others about what he is doing, how is he doing and what are his
intentions.
Blind Self: The blind self shows the state of an individual known to others but not
known to him.
It usually happens, when an individual or a subject copies the behaviour of some
significant personalities unconsciously since his childhood.
Hidden Self: This quadrant of the Johari window shows the state of an individual
known to him but not known to the others.
This is generally seen in the individuals who are introvert and do not like to share their
private lives with anyone. The individual keeps his feelings, ideas or thoughts to
himself and do not disclose it in front of the others.
Unknown Self: The unknown self is the mysterious state of an individual neither
known to him, nor others know about it.
Often the feelings, thoughts or ideas go so deep down the individual that it becomes
difficult for the individual as well for the other people to understand it.
Ego States:
Definition: The Ego States are an important aspect of transactional analysis that talks
about how a person feels, behave or think at any point of time.
According to Dr Eric Berne, people usually interact with each other in terms of three
psychological and behavioural patterns classified as parent ego, adult ego and child
ego, often called as a PAC Model.
This classification is not made on the basis of the age group of an individual rather
these are related to the ways in which an individual behaves.
Thus, it is observed that a person of any age group may possess varying degrees of
these ego states.
Ego States…Contd.:
Parent Ego: The parent ego, refers to the behaviour and attitude of an emotionally
significant individual who acted with quite a maturity when he was a child.
He possesses the parental traits of being overprotective, dogmatic, distant,
indispensable and upright and behaves very judiciously at any time.
Adult Ego: The adult ego shows the logical thinking and reasoning ability of an
individual.
The person behaving or interacting with adult ego seeks all the information properly,
validate it using his reasoning skills and then provide it to the other people.
The person possessing the adult ego can be judged through his discussions and the
way he thinks about a situation before arriving at the conclusion.
Ego States…Contd.:
Child Ego: The child ego, refers to the state of an individual when he behaves
illogically and takes quick actions to satisfy the immediate needs without thinking
much about its consequences.
The creativity, depression, conformity, dependence, hate, fear, etc. are some of the
main characteristics of this ego state.
The child ego represents the childhood state when an individual has not become social
and is in its initial stage of development.
Life Script:
Definition: The Life Script refers to the meaning that one attributes to the events that
happened to him at the early stage of life.
Psychologists believe that an individual’s life script gets created in his childhood when
he learns things unconsciously from the transactions between father, mother and the
child.
Whenever an individual face any situation, he acts with reference to the script created
as a result of the past experiences and the way he views his life positions.
An individual can determine his life script by understanding how his thoughts,
behaviour, ideas, etc. get influenced due to his past experiences.
The life scripts can be changed with the time since these are not inborn but rather
learned.
Life Positions:
Definition: The Life Positions refers to the specific behaviour towards others that an
individual learns on the basis of certain assumptions made very early in the life.
The life positions can be categorized as follows:
Life Positions…Contd.:
I am O.K., You are O.K.: This life position shows that an individual has several O.K.
experiences with others. This means, an individual encountered no severe problems or
issues with others in his childhood and had a normal relationship with them.
People with such life positions about themselves and others around him can solve any
problem very easily and realizes the significance of others being in his life.
I am O.K., You are not O.K.: This life position is created when an individual was too
much ignored when he was a child. Here, an individual believes that he is right, and all
the others around him are wrong.
These are the individual who possesses the rebellion child ego and put blame on others
for anything that goes wrong with them.
Life Positions…Contd.:
I am not O.K., you are O.K.: This life position gets created when an individual feels
that others do things better than him. He feels inferior to others and believes that
others can do many things which he cannot do by himself.
These kinds of people always complain about one thing or the other and remain highly
dissatisfied with their lives.
I am not O.K., you are not O.K.: This kind of life position is created by those who
lacks interest in living. They feel life is not worth living and are the ones who have
been neglected by their parents in their childhood and were brought up by the servants.
Such kind of people commits suicide or homicide to end their lives.
Analysis of Transactions:
Definition: The interactions between people give rise to the Social Transactions, i.e.
how people respond and interact with each other depends on their ego states.
The transactions routed through ego states of persons can be classified as
complementary, crossed and ulterior.
Complementary Transactions: A transaction is said to be complementary when the

person sending the message gets the predicted response from the other person.
Thus, the stimulus and response patterns from one ego state to another are parallel.
These are:
1. Adult-Adult Transaction
2. Adult-Parent Transaction
3. Adult-Child Transaction
Analysis of Transactions...Contd.:
4. Parent-Parent Transaction
5. Parent-Adult Transaction
6. Parent-Child Transaction
7. Child-Parent Transaction
8. Child-Adult Transaction
9. Child-Child Transaction
Non-Complementary Transactions: A transaction is said to be non-complimentary or
crossed when the person sending the message does not get the predicted response, or
the stimulus and response lines are not parallel.
In the above transaction, The manager is trying to interact on an adult-to-adult basis,

but the employee responds on the child-to-parent basis, this would block the
communication, and no further transaction could be done.
Ulterior Transaction: This is the most complex transaction because the
communication has the double meaning.
Such as, on the surface level the communication may have a clear adult message, but it
may carry some hidden message on the psychological level and gets misinterpreted.
Early Theories of Motivation:
It is important to know these early theories because they:
• Represent the foundation from which contemporary theories grew, and
• Still are used by practicing managers to explain employee motivation.
1. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory:

• Abraham Maslow—a psychologist—proposed that within every person is a
hierarchy of five needs.
• Each level must be substantially satisfied before the next need becomes
dominant; an individual moves up the hierarchy from one level to the next.
• Lower-order needs are satisfied predominantly externally, and higher-order
needs are satisfied internally.
1. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory...Contd.:
2. McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y:
Based on two assumptions about human nature:
Theory X: A negative view of people that assumes workers have little ambition,
dislike work, want to avoid responsibility, and need to be closely controlled to work
effectively.
Theory Y: A positive view that assumes employees enjoy work, seek out and accept
responsibility, and exercise self-direction.
To maximize employee motivation, use Theory Y practices—allow employees to

participate in decisions, create responsible and challenging jobs, and encourage good
group relations.
No evidence to confirm either set of assumptions or that being a Theory Y manager is

the only way to motivate employees.
3. Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory:
Frederick Herzberg’s two-factor theory (also called motivation-hygiene theory)—
intrinsic factors are related to job satisfaction, while extrinsic factors are associated
with job dissatisfaction.
• Popular theory from the 1960s to the early 1980s.
• Criticized for being too simplistic.
• Influenced today’s approach to job design.
• When people felt good about their work, they tended to cite intrinsic factors
arising from the job content (job itself), such as achievement, recognition, and
responsibility.
• When they were dissatisfied, they tended to cite extrinsic factors arising from the
job context, such as company policy and administration, supervision, interpersonal
relationships, and working conditions.
3. Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory...Contd.:
3. Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory...Contd.:
• Herzberg concluded that the traditional view—the opposite of satisfaction is
dissatisfaction—was wrong.
• He believed that the factors that led to job satisfaction were separate and distinct
from those that led to job dissatisfaction.
• Removing dissatisfying characteristics from a job didn’t necessarily make that job
more satisfying (or motivating); it simply made you “less” dissatisfied.
• Proposed a dual continuum: The opposite of “satisfaction” is “no satisfaction,” and
the opposite of “dissatisfaction” is “no dissatisfaction.”
Motivating Employees:
• When hygiene factors are adequate, people won’t be dissatisfied, but they won’t be
motivated, either.
• To motivate people, use the motivators.
4. McClelland’s Three-Needs Theory:
David McClelland and his associates proposed the three-needs theory, which says
three acquired (not innate) needs are major motives in work, including:
a. Need for Achievement (nAch), which is the drive to succeed and excel in relation
to a set of standards.
b. Need for Power (nPow), which is the need to make others behave in a way that
they would not have behaved otherwise.
c. Need for Affiliation (nAff), which is the desire for friendly and close
interpersonal relationships.
The Four Factors of Motivation:
There are four factors of motivation that exist in every organization or business. These
factors determine the levels of motivation of the staff, whether positive or negative.
These four factors are:

a. Leadership style,
b. Reward system,
c. Organizational climate, and
d. Structure of the work.
Introduction:
Motivation is the reason for people's actions, willingness and goals.
Motivation is derived from the word motive which is defined as a need that requires
satisfaction. These needs could also be wants or desires that are acquired through
influence of culture, society, lifestyle, etc. or generally innate.
Motivation is one's direction to behaviour, or what causes a person to want to repeat a

behaviour, a set of force that acts behind the motives.
An individual's motivation may be inspired by others or events (extrinsic motivation)

or it may come from within the individual (intrinsic motivation).
Motivation has been considered as one of the most important reasons that inspires a
person to move forward.
Motivating people to perform better and thus to achieve organizational objectives has
been the greatest challenge to managers.
Why do some people perform better than others?

Why does the same person act differently at different times?
These and many other questions related to work performance have been confronting
managers continuously.
Motivating people to perform, higher than their normal physical and mental capacities,
and to keep them satisfied is a very complex function of management.
Definition:
Motivation is an inspirational process which impels the members of the team to pull
their weight effectively to give their loyalty to the group, to carry out the tasks
properly that they have accepted, and generally to play an effective part in the job that
the group has undertaken.
In the words of Michael Jucious, ‘motivation is the act of stimulating someone or

oneself to get a desired course of action, to push the right button to get a desired
reaction’.
S. Zedeek and M. Blood define, ‘Motivation is a predisposition to act in a specific

goal-directed way’.
Definition...Contd.:
Berelson and Steiner:
“A motive is an inner state that energizes, activates, or moves and directs or channels
behaviour goals.”
Vance:
“Motivation implies any emotion or desire which so conditions one’s will that the
individual is properly led into action.”
Vitiles:
“Motivation represents an unsatisfied need which creates a state of tension or
disequilibrium, causing the individual to move in a goal-directed pattern towards
restoring a state of equilibrium by satisfying the need.”
Characteristics/Features of Motivation:
1. Interaction between the individual and the situation: Motivation is not a
personal trait but an interaction between the individual and the situation.
2. Goal-directed behaviour: Motivation leads to an action that is goal oriented.

Motivation leads to accomplishment of organizational goals and satisfaction of
personal needs.
3. Systems oriented: Motivation is influenced by two forces:

a. Internal forces: These forces are internal to the individual, i.e., their needs,
wants and nature.
b. External forces: These forces are external to the individual, which may be
organizational related such as management philosophy, organizational
structure, and superior-subordinate relationship, and also the forces found in
the external environment such as culture, customs, religion and values.
Characteristics/Features of Motivation...Contd.:
4. Positive or negative: Positive motivation or the carrot approach offers positive
incentives such as appreciation, promotion, status and incentives.
Negative motivation or stick approach emphasizes penalties, fines and
punishments.
5. Dynamic and complex in nature: Human behaviour is highly complex, and it

becomes extremely difficult to understand people at work.
Motivation is a dynamic and complex process.
Importance:
Following are the importance of motivation in an organization:
1. Greater efficiency: Motivation enhances the efficiency of the employees and of
organization.
2. Reduction in absenteeism and labour turnover: Motivated employees may not

remain absent or leave the organization. They develop a sense of belonging
towards the organization and thus improve their overall performance.
3. Team spirit: Motivation improves team spirit of employees, and this improves the
work environment and the overall performance of the employee and the
organization.
4. Reduction in wastages and breakages: Motivated employees take great care in

handling machines and other resources. This will reduce wastages and breakages,
thus resulting in higher benefits to the organization.
Importance...Contd.:
5. Cordial relations: Motivation enables cordial and healthy relationship in the
organization. Motivation helps reduce labour grievances and disputes.
6. Promotion of innovation: Motivated employees use their initiative to find out

innovative ways in the performance of their operations.
7. Optimum use of resources: Motivation leads to greater employee involvement

and lesser wastages. This leads to optimum utilization of resources.
8. Corporate image: Motivated employees are more loyal to the organization. They
work with a sense of commitment and dedication. This improves the overall
performance of the employee, which enables better results for the company. This
results in better relations with all the stakeholders.
Nature:
Motivation is a psychological phenomena which generates within an individual. A
person feels the lack of certain needs, to satisfy which she/he feels working more. The
need satisfying ego motivates a person to do better than he normally does.
From definitions given earlier the following inferences can be derived:

a. Motivation is an inner feeling which energizes a person to work more.
b. The emotions or desires of a person prompt her/him for doing a particular work.
c. There are unsatisfied needs of a person which disturb her/his equilibrium.
d. A person moves to fulfill her/his unsatisfied needs by conditioning her/his
energies.
e. There are dormant energies in a person which are activated by channelising them
into actions.
Applications of Motivation:
It is very important to apply the various motivational concepts to the organizations so
that organizational effectiveness can be achieved. Various motivation techniques and
programs have gained varying degrees of acceptance in organizations.
Some of the applications of motivation and their linking with motivational theories as
depicted by Robbins have been discussed below.
1. Management by Objectives
2. Employee Recognition Programs
3. Employee Involvement Programs
4. Variable Pay Programs
5. Skill-Based Pay Plans
Applications of Motivation...Contd.:
1. MBO Principles:
• Cascading of organizational goals and objectives
• Specific objectives for each member
• Participative decision making
• Explicit time period
• Performance evaluation and feedback
Linking MBO and Goal-Setting Theory:

Goal Setting Theory exhibits that:
• hard goals result in a higher level of individual performance,
• specific hard goals result in higher levels of performance than do no goals or
generalized goals, and
• feedback on one’s performance leads to higher performance
2. Employee Recognition Programs:
Employee Recognition Programs are the programs that use multiple sources and
recognize both individual and group accomplishments.
A recognition program does not have to be expensive. The structure of a
recognition program is limited only by your imagination.
An effective program has the following components:

• Fairness
• High visibility and consistency
Linking Employee Recognition Programs and Reinforcement Theory:

In accordance with the reinforcement theory, rewarding a behaviour with
recognition immediately following that behaviour is likely to encourage its
repetition.
3. Employee Involvement Programs:
Ways of Employee Involvement:

• Participative Management
• Representative Participation
• Work Councils
• Board Representatives
• Quality Circles
• Employee Stock Ownership Plans
3. Employee Involvement Programs…Contd.:
Linking Employee Involvement Programs and Motivation Theories:

Many motivational theories can be linked with employee involvement programs.
Theory Y of motivation shows consistency with participative management while in

case of hygiene theory; employee involvement programs could provide employees
with intrinsic motivation by increasing opportunities for growth, responsibility, and
involvement in the work itself.
Employee involvement is attuned with ERG theory and efforts to stimulate the
achievement need.
4. Variable Pay Programs:
Some of the more widely used variable pay programs are:
Piece-rate pay plans: Workers are paid a fixed sum for each unit of production
completed.
Profit-sharing plans: Programs that distribute compensation based on some
established formula designed around a company’s profitability.
Gain sharing plans: An incentive plan where improvements in group productivity
determine the total amount of money that is allocated.
Linking Variable-Pay Plans and Expectancy Theory:

Evidence supports the importance of this linkage, especially for operative
employees working under piece-rate systems.
Group and organization wide incentives reinforce and encourage employees to
sublimate personal goals for the best interests of their department or organization.
5. Skill-Based Pay Plans:
Skill-based pay refers to a pay system in which pay increases are linked to the
number or depth of skills an employee acquires and applies and it is a means of
developing broader and deeper skills among the workforce.
Such increases are in addition to, and not in lieu of, general pay increases
employees may receive.
Linking Skill Based Pay Plans and Motivational Theories:

There is a link between equity theory and skill based pay.
Employees whose lower order needs are substantially satisfied, the opportunity to
experience growth can be a motivator.
Paying people to expand their skill levels is also consistent with research on the
achievement need. High achievers have a compelling drive to do things better or
more efficiently.
Complexities in Motivation:
We need to take note of certain complexities in motivating staff, seemingly common
sense but often overlooked:
a. The psychology of fair process, or procedural justice, stresses that a fair process
builds trust and commitment, which, in turn, leads to voluntary cooperation and
drives performance.
b. Diversity in an organisation can act as a motivating force or a source of conflict.

Motivation, because of the competition it inspires, and conflict, because of the
friction that may be caused among people of diverse backgrounds.
Complexities in Motivation...Contd.:
c. Demographic characteristics: There are a number of demographic characteristics
contributing to diversity, which act as a major hurdle in motivating employees.
The most widely recognised are:

• Age
• Gender
• Education
• Social Norms
Some myths about motivation:
a. People can be motivated: Not really – they have to motivate themselves. We
can't motivate people any more than we can empower them. Employees
have to motivate and empower themselves. However, an environment can be
created where they can best motivate and empower themselves.
b. Money motivates: Certain things like money, a nice office and job security can
prevent people from becoming less motivated, but they usually don't help
people become more motivated. It is very important to understand what
motivates whom, as at an individual level each of us is different.
c. Playing with fear psychosis: Fear is a great motivator, but for a very short time.
That's why a lot of yelling from the boss won't seem to "light a spark under
employees" for a very long time.
Some myths about motivation...Contd.:
d. Increased job satisfaction means increased job performance: Research
shows that this isn't necessarily true at all. Increased job satisfaction
does not necessarily mean increased job performance.
If the goals of the organisation are not aligned with the goals of
employees, then employees will never put in their 100% towards the achievement
of organisational goals.
e. Motivation is too complex to comprehend: Not at all. There are some very basic
steps that should be taken so that a culture can be developed where employees feel
trusted, supported, empowered and, above all, generate a sense of
belongingness. In fact, this will result in greater productivity, lesser
absenteeism and turnover in the long run.
Handling Motivational Complexity:
Jack Welch believes that for motivating employees to work harder it is necessary to
instil in them a sense of empowerment, a feeling that they are the “owners” of their
business.
a. Each individual is unique and so should be the way to handle individual

problems and factors motivating them.
b. Giving a generalised approach to solve the problem of diversity, keeping

other things constant, the following two work as a panacea:
• Learning
• Empathy
Introduction:
After an employee has been selected for a job, has been trained to do it and has
worked on it for a period of time, her/his performance should be evaluated.
Performance evaluation or appraisal is the process of deciding how employees do their

jobs. Performance here refers to the degree of accomplishment of the tasks that make
up an individual’s job.
It indicates how well an individual is fulfilling the job requirements.
Performance appraisal is a method of evaluating the behaviour of employees in the

work setting, including both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of job
performance.
It is a systematic and objective way of evaluating both work-related behaviour and

potential of employees.
It is a process that involves determining and communicating to an employee how
she/he is performing the job and ideally, establishing a plan of improvement.
Definition:
According to Mathis and Jackson, “Performance Appraisal is the process of evaluating
how well employees perform their jobs when compared to a set of standards and then
communicate that information to those employees.”
According to Dessler, “Performance Appraisal is the process of evaluating an

employee’s current and/or past performance relative to her/his performance standards.
Features:
• Systematic Process.
• Picture of employee strengths and weaknesses.
• Indicates how well an individual is doing on the job.
• Not a one-shot deal.
• It is different from job evaluation.
• It may be formal or informal.
Objectives:
• Offer feedback on performance to employees.
• Identify employee training needs.
• Document criteria used to allocate organisational rewards.
• Form a basis for personnel decisions such as salary increases, promotions and
disciplinary actions.
• Provide the opportunity for organisational diagnosis and development.
• Facilitate communication between employee and administrator.
• Validate selection technique and human resource policies to meet equal
employment opportunity requirements.
Appraisal Process:
• Establish performance standards.
• Communicate the standards.
• Measure actual performance.
• Compare actual performance with standards and discuss the appraisal.
• Taking corrective actions.
Who will appraise performance (Appraisers)?
• Supervisors
• Peers
• Subordinates
• Self-appraisal
• Users of services
• Consultants
Benefits:
For Organisation:
• Communicates corporate goals.
• Provides management with decision-making information on human resources.
• Provides objective basis for raises, promotions, trainings, and other personnel
actions.
• Builds stronger working relationships.
• Improves overall organisational productivity.
• Provides documentation for inquiries on general promotion policies or individual
claims of discrimination.
Benefits:
For Supervisor:
• Builds management skills.
• Develops and improves rapport with employees.
• Identifies and rewards high performers.
• Identifies performers needing improvement for training.
• Improves individual employee productivity.
• Identifies general training needs.
• Demonstrates fairness to employees.
• Improves group morale.
Benefits:
For Employee:
• Finds out how they are doing.
• Provides recognition for accomplishments.
• Allows for two-way communication on goals and performance.
• Encourages taking responsibility for their performance and progress.
• Helps set goals and direct efforts.
• Provides opportunities for career development and improvement.
• Assures fair individual evaluation.
How to Reward Employee Performance?
Major Myths About Rewarding Employees:
Myth #1: “Money is the best reward.”
No. Research shows that money does not constitute a strong, ongoing reward in and of
itself. It is like having a nice office; it can give a temporary boost in morale and
energy.
Myth #2: “Employees are professionals. They should just ‘accept’ and do their jobs.”
That view is outdated. Times have changed dramatically. Workers can no longer be
treated like machines.
They come at a high price and can cost as much to replace. Workers expect to be
valued as human beings.
Major Myths About Rewarding Employees...Contd.:
Myth #3: “If I reward every time they do something useful, I will have to reward all
the time.”
Employees are mature adults. They do not need to be, and do not expect to be,
rewarded for every useful thing they do in the workplace.
Myth #4: “We’re working to address critical problems, not to make our workers
happy.”
That is like saying, “This is a wood saw. It should be able to saw wood all the time. It
should not ever have to be sharpened!”
Guiding Principles of Effective Reward Systems:
There are a variety of ways to reward people for the quality of the work they do in the
workplace.
For example, rewards can be in the form of money, benefits, time off from work,
acknowledgement for work well done, affiliation with other workers or a sense of
accomplishment from finishing a major task.
1. Rewards should support behaviours directly aligned with accomplishing

strategic goals: The goal of carefully tying employees’ behaviours to strategic
goals has only become important over the past decade or so.
Recently, the term “performance” is being used to designate behaviours that really
contribute to the “bottom line.”
An employee can be working as hard as anyone else, but if his/her behaviours are
not tied directly to achieving strategic goals, then the employee might be engaged
only in busy-work.
Guiding Principles of Effective Reward Systems...Contd.:
2. Rewards should be tied to passion and purpose, not to pressure and fear: Fear
is a powerful motivator, but only for a short time and then it dissipates. If, instead,
management motivates by reminding workers of their passion for the mission, the
motivation will be much more sustainable.
3. Workers should be able to clearly associate the reward to their

accomplishments: If employees understand what behaviours they are being
rewarded for, they are more likely to repeat those behaviours.
4. Rewards should occur shortly after the behaviours they are intended to
reinforce: The closer the occurrence of the reward to the occurrence of the desired
behavior in the workplace, the easier it is for the employee to realize why he/she is
being rewarded.
Guidelines to Rewarding Employees:
There is not a set of standard rewards to be used for employees everywhere. Instead,
each person has his/her own nature and needs.
The following guidelines will help you to determine what might be the best ways to
reward your employees:
1. Reward employees by letting them hear positive comments from customers about
how the employees’ activities benefited the customer.
2. Occasionally have a Board member come to an employee meeting to thank them.

This usually means a lot to employees, almost as much as having customers
provide positive feedback about the employees’ activities.
Guidelines to Rewarding Employees...Contd.:
3. Understand what motivates each of your employees. You can do this by applying
the “Checklist of Categories of Typical Motivators”.
A major benefit of this approach is that each employee is afforded the opportunity
to explain what motivates him or her.
4. In each monthly staff meeting, take a few minutes to open the meeting by
mentioning major accomplishments of various employees.
Guidelines to Rewarding Employees...Contd.:
5. Present gift certificates to employees who have made major accomplishments.
Guidelines for determining who gets this reward should be clearly explained in
your personnel policies in order to ensure all employees perceive the practice as
fair and equitable.
6. Probably the most fulfilling for employees is to be able to do useful work.

Be sure that each employee understands the mission of the business and how
his/her work is contributing to that mission.
Discuss the action-planning section of your strategic plan with employees so that
they see how their activities tie directly to achieving the strategic goals of the
organization.

Mr. Kumar Satyam Amity University Jharkhand, Ranchi

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Areas of agreement and disagreement:

Business Activities That May Involve Employee Rights of Privacy:

Policy Guidelines Relating to Privacy:

2. Discrimination: Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) laws generally prohibit

There are two types of discipline:

Five Core Dimensions:

a. Skill Variety: It permits employees to perform different operations that often

d. Autonomy: It gives employees some discretion and control over job-related

Allport has defined attitude as follows:

Katz and Scotland define attitude as, “a tendency or predisposition to evaluate an

The following are the employee attitudes:

Job satisfaction is closely related to an employee’s performance and her/his work-

Attitudes of employees towards job involvement are important for organisational

Organisational commitment of employees is a strong force for organisational

Values are convictions and a framework of philosophy of an individual on the basis of

He further adds that,

2. Learned responses: Human behaviour represents learned phenomenon. Unlike

3. Inculcated: Values are inculcated and passed through generation to generation by

40% of one’s values are genetically determined.

By personality, Ogburn means “the integration of the socio-psychological behaviour

The sociological approach considers personality in terms of status of the individual in

2. Personality refers particularly to persistent qualities of an individual: Every

3. Personality represents a dynamic orientation of organism to environment:

5. Personality represents a unique organisation of persistent dynamic and social

2. Heredity: Heredity is another factor determining human personality. Some of the

4. Particular experiences: Personality is also determined by another factor, namely,

2. Conscientiousness: As the name suggests, individuals with a Conscientiousness

4. Agreeableness: Agreeableness is a personality trait which teaches individuals to

1. Biological Theories: Biological approaches suggest that genetics are responsible

2. Behavioural Theories: Behavioural theories suggest that personality is a result of

Six major personality types have been identified.

What does all these mean?

The key points of this model are that:

Robbins has defined perception as follows:

2. Perception is the basic cognitive or psychological process. The manner in which a

3. Perception, being an intellectual and psychological process, becomes a subjective

Perception is something more than sensation. It correlates, integrates and comprehends

Thus, perception is determined by both physiological and psychological characteristics

3. The person is comparatively inactive in sensation whereas she/he becomes more

Figure: Process of Perception

 Perceptual Mechanism: It involves three elements- selection of stimuli,

 External Factors in Perceptual Selectivity:

 Internal Factors in Perceptual Selectivity:

People organise the various stimuli on the principles of the following:

Middle and lower-level managers determine production schedules, select new

Making decisions is not the sole responsibility of managers. Non-managerial

Decision making occurs as a reaction to a problem. i.e., there is a discrepancy between

One person’s problem is another person’s satisfactory state of affairs.

Moreover, every decision requires interpretation and evaluation of information. Data

The Rational Decision-Making Process:

3. Generalisation: It occurs when a response is elicited by a similar but new

4. Discrimination: It is the opposite of generalisation. This is a process whereby an

6. Reinforcement: It is a fundamental condition of learning. Without reinforcement,

8. Extinction: It may be defined as a loss of memory.

9. Spontaneous Recovery: The return of response strength after extinction, without

2. Mental Set: It refers to the preparation for an action.

3. Nature of Learning Materials: It affects learning by providing the clue for

5. Environment: It refers to the situational set up for learning. Environmental factors

1. Conditioning Theory: Conditioning is the process in which an ineffective

Conditioning has two main theories:

II. During Conditioning

III. After Conditioning