Organisational

BehaviourPaper: MBA1C11

UNIT II

AMIR JAFAR

Associate Professor

Department of Business Administration

Aligarh Muslim University Centre

Jangipur, Murshidabad

Unit II: Individual Dimensions in OB

– Nature of Human Behaviour

– Personality- Meaning , Theories & Determinants

– Perception & Individual Decision Making

– Values

– Attitudes

– Job Satisfaction

Nature of Human Behaviour

– Human behaviour refers to the way humans act and interact. It is based on and

influenced by several factors, such as genetic make-up, culture and individual

values and attitudes. (nature.com)

– Behaviour is what a person does. It is the observable activities of human beings

– There may be differences in behaviour of an individual over time (intra-

individual) and differences in behaviour among individuals at the same

stimuli(inter-individual).

Determinants of

Human Behaviour

INDIVIDUAL VARIABLES:• Physiological Variables like Age; Gender; Physical

Characteristics & Heredity • Psychological Variables like Aptitude; Intelligence;

Personality; Education; Experience; Value system; & Cultural background

SITUATIONAL VARIABLES • Organizational Variables like Type of organization; Type

of supervision; Training; Type of incentives; & Social environment at workplace

• Job Variables like Method of work; Design of work; Work equipment & Physical conditions of work

The behaviour is the result of interaction between the individual characteristics and the characteristics of the environment in which the behaviour occurs.

An individual’s behaviour is influenced by several factors. These factors may be grouped as—environmental factors, organisational factors, personal/biographical factors, and psychological factors.

– The environmental factors are mainly external in nature and they exercise considerable amount of influence on an individual’s behaviour. It includes economic, social and political factors.

– The organisational factors include physical facilities, organisational structure and design, leadership, and reward system.

– The personal/biographical factors like age, sex, education, abilities, marital status, do affect the performance of employees.

– The psychological factors, which are unique to every individual and have immense influence over an individual’s behaviour, include personality, perception, attitudes, emotions, values, and learning.

Models of Man

– Human Behaviour is caused or autonomous?

There are two perspectives:

– Perspective I

– Behaviour is orderly systematic

– Behaviour is caused(cause-effect relationship)

– Behaviour may be predicted based on cause

– Perspective II

– Behaviour is random, arbitrary

– Behaviour is autonomous(not caused)

– Behaviour cannot be predicted

Based on behaviour various models of man have been proposed:Edgar Schien• Rational Economic Man • Social Man • Self-actualizing Man • Complex ManWhyte : Organization Man

Process of Human Behaviour

– S-R Model

– S-O-R Model

– S-O-B-A Model

Personality

– Personality is an individual’s characteristics and behaviours, organized in a way that

reflects the unique adjustment the person makes to his or her environment.

– It is generally believed that an individual’s personality remains relatively stable over

time, but behaviour will differ from situation to situation (Hodgetts, 1991, pp. 56).

– Personality refers to those relatively stable and enduring aspects of an individual

that distinguish him /her from other people and at the same time form a basis for

our predictions concerning his/her behaviour (Wright et al., 1970).

– Greenberg and Baron- “personality is the unique and relatively stable patterns of

behaviour, thoughts and emotions shown by individuals”.

Theories of Personality

– There are two major approaches to the study of personality—idiographic and nomothetic.

– Idiographic theories view personality as an integrated whole. They attempt to capture the essence of an individual’s total personality and, from this, draw inferences about how the person will react in different situations.

– In contrast, the nomothetic approach is concerned with identifying basic personality characteristics that are common to all people, but which can vary in degree from person to person. They are based on an underlying assumption that personality is relatively fixed and resistance to change.

– Neither approach is inherently right or wrong.

– They approach personality with different sets of underlying assumptions.

Theories of Personality (contd.)

IDIOGRAPHIC PERSONALITY THEORIES(A) The Psychodynamic Perspective

– 1. The Freudian Conception of Personality Structure and Dynamics

– 2. Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual Development

(B) Interpersonal Theories

– Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory

(C) Humanistic Perspectives: Carl Rogers’ Person-centred Theory

THE NOMOTHETIC APPROACH

(A) Trait Theories

– 1. Cattell’s Sixteen Personality Factor

Scheme

(B) Type theories

– 1. Eysenck’s Type Theory

The Myers-Briggs Type IndicatorIt is the most widely used personality-assessment instrument in the world. MBTI is a 100-

question personality test that asks people how they usually feel or act in particular

situation. On the basis of the answers individuals give to the test, they are classified as

extraverted or introverted (E or I), sensing or intuitive (S or N), thinking or feeling (T or F)

and judging or perceiving (J or P).

– Extraverted or Introverted: Extraverted individuals are outgoing, sociable and assertive. Introverts are quite and shy.

– Sensing or Intuitive: Sensing types ate practical and prefer routine and order. They focus on details. Intuitives rely on unconscious processes and look at the “big picture”

– Thinking or Feeling: Thinking types use reason and logic to handle problems. Feeling types rely on their personal values and emotions.

– Judging or Perceiving: Judging types want control and prefer their world to be ordered and structured. Perceiving types are flexible and spontaneous.

– These classifications are then combined into 16 personality types. (Robbins & Judge, 2007, pp. 109)

The Big Five ModelThe Big Five model is a halfway house between trait

and type theory.

– Extraversion: This dimension captures one’s comfort level with relationships. Extraverts tend to be gregarious, assertive, and sociable. Introverts tend to be reserved, timid and quiet.

– Agreeableness: This dimension refers to an individual’s propensity to defer to others. Highly agreeable people are cooperative, warm and trusting. People who score low on agreeableness are cold, disagreeable, and antagonistic.

– Conscientiousness: This dimension is a measure of reliability. A highly conscientious person is responsible, organized, dependable and persistent. Those who score low on this dimension are easily distracted, disorganized, and unreliable.

– Emotional Stability: This dimension taps a person’s ability to withstand stress. People with positive emotional stability tend to be calm, self-confident and secure. Those with high negative scores tend to be nervous, anxious, depresses and insecure.

– Openness to experience: Extremely open people are creative, curious and artistically sensitive. The opposites are conventional and find comfort in the familiar. (Robbins & Judge, 2007, pp. 110)

MAJOR DETERMINANTS OF

PERSONALITY

– Genetic Factors: The genes we inherit play a vital role in the formation and development of many of our mental characteristics, including that of personality. Genetically inherited physical structure, reflexes, innate drives, and intelligence have a bearing on how others behave towards a person in social settings. This has a direct impact on our personalities.

– The theory of genetic determinism of Sheldon (1954) associates three body shapes with personality types. The endomorphic person has a soft, round, stocky body, a large trunk and short legs and is said to have a relaxed, easy-going sociable temperament and fondness for bodily comforts. Ectomorphic people are with a delicate, slender build, and they tend to be aesthetic, inhibited and socially withdrawn. The mesomorph is the muscular athletic type and is highly energetic, assertive, boisterous, and possibly aggressive.

– Social Factors: Humans are social animals and their psychological characteristics are in part a reflection of their interactions with other members of the species. Therefore early socialization, which includes interactions with parents, siblings and peers, has an effect on personality and behaviour in later life.

– Cultural factors: A culture embraces patterns of belief, values and motives that are acceptable in a particular society, and these give individuals a set of predispositions to behave in certain set ways. Hence people brought up in different societies having diverse cultures are bound to have different personalities.

– Situational Factors: Situational factors are spontaneous or unpredictable events that have a significant influence on future behaviour. These events may be cultural, social, or environmental and have a major impact on the person. Various situations bring out different aspects of a personality.

Perception and Decision-Making

– According to S. P. Robbins, perception is a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment.

– Fred Luthans has defined perception as a complicated interaction of selection, organization and interpretation.

– Rollinson has defined perception as an active mental process which involves the selection, organisation, structuring and interpretation of information in order to make inferences and give meaning to the information.

– From the analysis of the above definitions, we may remark that the main features of perception are:

– Perception is the intellectual process.

– Perception is a selective process.

– Perception is the basic cognitive process that yields a unique picture of the world, a picture that may be quite different from reality.

– It is the fundamental basis of human behaviour.

– Because people’s behaviour is based on their perception of what reality is, not on reality itself.

– The world as it is perceived is the world that is behaviourally important.

THE PERCEPTUAL

PROCESS

Source: Organisational Behaviour and Analysis- An Integrated Approach, Rollinson, D, 3rd

Edition, 2005, pp.105

Factors that Influence Perception

Perception

The Target

• Novelty

• Motion

• Sounds

• Size

• Background

• Proximity

The Perceiver

• Attitudes

• Motives

• Interests

• Experience

• Expectations

The Situation

• Time

• Work setting

• Social setting

ATTRIBUTION THEORYWhen individuals observe behaviour, they attempt to determine whether it is internally or externally caused.Internal causes of behaviour: Explanations based on actions for which the individual is responsible.External causes of behaviour: Explanations based on situations over which the individual has no control.

– The determination, whether an individual’s behaviour is internally or externally caused, depends largely on three factors— distinctiveness, consensus and consistency.

– Distinctiveness refers to the extent to which a person behaves in the same manner in other contexts. If he or she behaves in the same manner in other situations, distinctiveness is low; if he or she behaves differently, distinctiveness is high.

– Does individual displays different behaviours in different situations?

– Consensus refers to the extent to which other people behave in the same manner as the person whom we’re judging. If others do behave similarly, consensus is considered high; if they do not, consensus is considered low.

– Does individual act the same as others in same situation?

– Consistency refers to the extent to which the person we are judging acts the same way at other times. If the person acts the same way at other times, consistency is high; if he or she does not, then consistency is low.

Source: Organizational Behavior, Luthans, F., 10th Edition, 2005, pp. 185

Perceptual Errors

– Selective Perception– People selectively interpret what they see based on their interests, background,

experience, and attitudes

– Halo Effect– Drawing a general impression about an individual based on a single characteristic

– Contrast Effects– A person’s evaluation is affected by comparisons with other individuals recently

encountered

– Projection– Attributing one’s own characteristics to other people

– Stereotyping– Judging someone on the basis of your perception of the group to which that person

belongs

Values: Concept

– Values are stable, evaluative beliefs that guide our preferences for outcomes or courses of action in a variety of situations (Agle and Cladwell, 1999).

– They contain a judgemental element in that they carry an individual’s ideas as to what is right, good, or desirable.

– Values have both content and intensity attributes.

– The content attribute says that a mode of conduct or end-state of existence is important.

– The intensity attribute specifies how important it is.

– When we rank an individual’s values in terms of their intensity, we obtain that person’s value system.

TYPES OF VALUES

Allport and associates, in their study of values, identified six types of values as follows:

– Theoretical: Accords high importance on the discovery of truth through a critical and rational approach.

– Economic: Emphasises on the usefulness and practicability.

– Aesthetic: Places the top most importance on form and harmony.

– Social: Accords the highest value to love and affection of mankind.

– Political: Assigns importance to the acquisition of power and influence.

– Religious: Have concern with the unity of experience and understanding of the cosmos as a whole.

Hofstede’s Framework for Assessing CulturesOne of the most widely referenced approaches for analyzing variations among cultures was

done in late 1970s by Geert Hofstede. He found that managers and employees vary on five

value dimensions of national culture. The five value dimensions are:

– Power distance: Power distance is defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a society expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.

– Individualism versus Collectivism: Individualism is the opposite of collectivism. Individualism stands for a society in which the ties between individuals are loose: a person is expected to look after himself or herself and his or her immediate family only. Collectivism stands for a society in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, which continue to protect them throughout their lifetime in exchange for unquestioning loyalty.

– Masculinity versus Femininity: Masculinity is the opposite of femininity. Masculinity stands for a society in which social gender roles are clearly distinct: men are supposed to be assertive, tough, and focused on material success; women are supposed to be more modest, tender, and concerned with the quality of life. Femininity stands for a society in which social gender roles overlap: both men and women are supposed to be modest, tender, and concerned with the quality of life.

– Uncertainty Avoidance: Uncertainty avoidance is defined as the extent to which the members of institutions and organizations within a society feel threatened by uncertain, unknown, ambiguous, or unstructured situations.

– Long-term versus Short-term Orientation: Long term orientation is the opposite of short term orientation. It focuses on the degree of a society’s long-term devotion to traditional values. Long term orientation stands for a society which fosters virtues oriented towards future rewards, in particular adaptation, perseverance and thrift. Short-term orientation stands for a society which fosters virtues related to the past and present, in particular respect for tradition, preservation of “face”, and fulfilling social obligations. (Hofstede et al, 2008)

ATTITUDES: CONCEPT AND DEFINITIONS

– Allport (1954) has defined attitude as “a mental and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is related.”

– According to S.P. Robbins, attitudes are evaluative statements either favourable or unfavourable concerning objects, people or events. They reflect how one feels about something.

– Greenberg & Baron has defined attitudes as relatively stable clusters of feelings, beliefs and behavioural predispositions i.e. intentions towards some object.

– According to Fred Luthans, an attitude can be defined as a persistent tendency to feel and behave in a particular way toward some object. Attitudes can be characterized three ways.

– Attitudes are relatively stable i.e. they tend to persist unless something is done to change it.

– Attitudes can fall anywhere along a continuum from very favourable to very unfavourable.

– Attitudes are directed towards some object about which a person has feelings and beliefs.

COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDES

Source: Organizational Behaviour, Robbins, S.P & Judge, T.A, 12th Edition, 2007, pp.75

FUNCTIONS OF ATTITUDESAttitudes can help predict behaviour. An understanding of attitudes is also important because attitudes

help people adapt to their work environment. Almost all attitude theory adopts the functional approach,

which assumes that attitudes are held because they serve a useful purpose for the holder. Attitudes are

part of an individual’s psychological make-up and develop and change in response to the person’s

current needs (Rosenberg, 1960).

– The Adjustment Function: This helps an individual to adjust to their world and to obtain rewards and avoid punishments from the environment. It is sometimes referred to as the instrumental or utilitarian function and explains why most people have positive attitudes to objects that provide rewards and negative attitudes towards punishing objects.

– The Ego-Defensive Function: Attitudes can also help people to defend their self-images.

– The Value-Expressive Function: Attitudes provide with a basis for expressing their values. This allows an individual to derive satisfaction from expressing attitudes that reflect his central values and concept of self. This goes much deeper than the two previous functions and reflects a need present in most people to express their central values and demonstrate to the world that they are what they believe themselves to be.

– The Knowledge Function: Attitudes help supply standards and frames of reference that allow people to organize and explain the world around them.

TYPES OF ATTITUDES

– Job Satisfaction: Job satisfaction can be defined as a positive feeling about one’s job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics. A person with a high level of job satisfaction holds positive feelings about the job, while a person who is dissatisfied holds negative feelings about the job (Robbins & Judge, 2007, pp.79). In other words, we can say that job satisfaction refers to a collection of feelings that an individual holds toward his or her job.

– Job Involvement: Job involvement measures the degree to which people identify psychologically with their job and consider their perceived performance level important to self-worth. Employees with a high level of job involvement strongly identify with and really care about the kind of work they do (Robbins & Judge, 2007, pp.80).

– Organisational Commitment: Organisational commitment can be defined as a state in which an employee identifies with a particular organisation and its goals and wishes to maintain membership in the organisation (Robbins & Judge, 2007, pp.80). There are three separate dimensions to organisational commitment:

– Continuance Commitment: The strength of a person’s desire to continue working for an organisation because he or she needs to do so and cannot afford to leave.

– Affective Commitment: The strength of a person’s desire to continue work for an organisationbecause he or she agrees with its underlying goals and values.

– Normative Commitment: The strength of a person’s desire to continue working for an organisation because he or she feels obligation from others to remain there.

Attitude Formation

– Direct Experience: Direct experiences of people, objects and events are probably the most easily understood sources of an attitude. These are very real to us, can be easily accessed from memory, and we have much more confidence in them.

– Exposure to objects: Familiarity brings a degree of predictability. We are more positively disposed towards familiar objects or events than towards those which are unfamiliar. This has weaker effect than direct experience.

– Socialization and Social learning: Our basic values are acquired from our family, our peer groups at school and later, at work. In addition, a great deal of what we take to be fact is derived from received wisdom passed on to us in our experience of social development.

– Self-image: This usually has an indirect but powerful influence on our attitudes. At times, to protect our ego, we develop attitude that legitimize our behaviour when it contradicts our values.

– Value-expression: Instead of developing attitudes that shield us from the true nature of our values and beliefs we sometimes need to give open expression to our core values.

(Rollinson, 2005, pp. 132)

JOB SATISFACTIONJob satisfaction can be defined as a positive feeling about one’s job resulting from an evaluation of its

characteristics. A person with a high level of job satisfaction holds positive feelings about the job, while a

person who is dissatisfied holds negative feelings about the job (Robbins & Judge, 2007, pp.79). Locke gives

a comprehensive definition of job satisfaction as involving cognitive, affective and evaluative reactions or

attitudes and states it is a “pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or

job experience.”

Five Dimensions of Job:

– The work itself: The extent to which the job provides the individual with interesting tasks, opportunities for learning, and the chance to accept responsibility.

– Pay: The amount of financial remuneration that is received and the degree to which this is viewed as equitable vis-à-vis that of others in the organisation.

– Promotion opportunities: The chances for advancement in the organisation.

– Supervision: The abilities of the supervisor to provide technical assistance and behavioral support.

– Coworkers: The degree to which fellow workers are technically proficient and socially supportive. (Luthans, 2005, pp. 211-12)

Ways to Enhance Job Satisfaction

– Some of the approaches that may be adopted by the organizations to enhance the job satisfaction level of the employees are:

– Make jobs more fun.

– Have fair pay, benefits, and promotion opportunities

– Match people with jobs that fit their interests and skills.

– Design jobs to make them exciting and satisfying. (Luthans, 2005, pp. 216)

FURTHER READINGS

1. Buchanan & Huczynski: Organizational Behaviour-An Introductory Text, 5th Edition, 2004, Prentice Hall

2. Greenberg & Baron: Behavior in Organizations, 8th Edition, 2005, Pearson

3. Hodgetts, R. M: Organizational Behavior-Theory and Practice, 1991, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York.

4. Luthans: Organizational Behavior, Tenth Edition, 2005, McGraw-Hill

5. Newstrom: Organizational Behavior-Human Behavior at Work, 12th Edition, 2007, Tata McGraw Hill

6. Robbins & Judge: Organizational Behavior, 12th Edition, 2007, PHI

7. Rollinson: Organisational Behaviour and Analysis-An Integrated Approach, 3rd Edition, 2005, Pearson

8. Schermerhorn, Hunt & Osborn: Organizational Behavior, 9th Edition, 2005, Wiley