1.

INTRODUCTION TO ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

IMPORTANCE OF ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

Contents
1.0 Aims and Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Organization behaviour concepts
1.2.1 Organisation
1.2.2 Management
1.3 Key elements of organisational behaviour
1.3.1 People
1.3.2 Structure
1.3.3 Mechanics form of organization
1.3.4 Organic form of organization
1.3.5 Jobs and tasks
1.3.6 Technology
1.3.7 Environment
1.4 Basic approaches to organisational behaviour
1.5 Let us Sum up
1.6 Lesson-end Activities
1.7 References

1.0 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

After studying this lesson, the students are able to :

i) Understand the concepts of organizational behavior and its application in
managing people
ii) Apply the different approaches to organizational behavior and enhance the
human relationships within the organization.
iii) Explore the relationships among the various components of organizational
behavior and their effectiveness.

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Organizations are social systems. If one wishes to work in them or to manage them, it is
necessary to understand how they operate. Organizations combine science and people
technology and humanity. Unless we have qualified people to design and implement,
techniques alone will not produce desirable results. Human behavior in organizations is
rather unpredictable. It is unpredictable because it arises from peoples deep-seated needs
and value systems. However, it can be partially understood in terms of the framework of
behavioral science, management and other disciplines. There is no idealistic solution to
organizational problems. All that can be done is to increase our understanding and skills
so that human relations at work can be enhanced

1.2 ORGNISATION BEHAVIOUR - CONCEPTS

Organizational Behavior is field of study that investigates the impact that individuals,
groups and structure have on behavior within organization. It is the study and application
of knowledge about how people act within organizations. It is a human tool for human
benefit. It applies broadly to the behavior of people in all types of organizations, such as
business, government, schools and services organizations. It covers three determinants of
behavior in organizations: individuals, groups, and structure. OB is an applied field. It
applies the knowledge gained about individuals, and the effect of structure on behavior,
in order to make organizations work more effectively. OB covers the core topics of
motivation, leadership behavior and power, interpersonal communication, group structure
and process, learning, attitude development and perception, change process, conflict, job
design and work stress.
Before studying organizational behavior, it is desirable to know the meanings of
organization and management.

1.2.1 Organization

Organization as a purposeful system with several subsystems where individuals and

activities are organized to achieve certain predetermined goals through division of labor
and coordination of activities. Division of labor refers to how the work is divided among
the employees and coordination refers to how all the various activities performed by the
individuals are integrated or brought together to accomplish the goals of the organization.
The term organizing is used to denote one aspect of the managerial activities when he or
she is preparing and scheduling the different tasks that need to be completed for the job to
be done.

1.2.2 Management

It refers to the functional process of accomplishing the goals of the organization through
the help of others. A manager is an individual who is given the responsibility for
achieving the goals assigned to him or her as part of the overall goals of the organization
and who is expected to get the job done. The terms o f top management, lower
management are frequently used to indicate the hierarchical levels of those who are
engaged in the process of getting the goals of the organization accomplished.

1.3 Key Elements of Organisational Behavior

The key elements in organizational behavior are people, structure, technology and the
external elements in which the organization operates. When people join together in an
organization to accomplish an objective, some kind of infrastructure is required. People
also use technology to help get the job done, so there is an interaction of people, structure
and technology. In addition, these elements are influenced by the external environment,
and they influence it. Each o f the four elements o f organizational behavior will be
considered briefly.

1.3.1 People

People make up the internal social system of the organization. They consist of individuals
and groups, and large groups as well as small ones. People are the living, thinking,
feelings beings who created the organizations. It exists to achieve their objectives.
Organizations exist to serve people. People do not exist to serve organizations. The work
force is one of t he critical resources t hat need to be managed. In managing human
resources, managers have to deal with:
i) Individual employee who are expected to perform the tasks allotted to them
ii) Dyadic relationships such as superior-subordinate interactions
iii) Groups who work as teams and have the responsibility for getting the job
done,
iv) People out side the organization system such as customers and government
officials

1.3.2 Structure

Structure defines the official relationships of people in organizations. Different jobs are
required to accomplish all of an organizations activities. There are managers and
employees, accountants and assemblers. These people have to be related in some
structural way so that their work can be effective. The main structure relates to power and
to duties. For example, one person has authority to make decisions that affect the work of
other people.

Some of the key concepts of organization structure are listed as below:

a) Hierarchy of Authority: This refers to the distribution of authority among
organizational positions and authority grants the position holder certain rights
including right to give direction to others and the right to punish and reward.
b) Division of Labor: This refers to the distribution of responsibilities and the way
in which activities are divided up and assigned to different members of the
organization is considered to be an element of the social structure.
c) Span of Control: This refers to the total number of subordinates over whom a
manager has authority
d) Specialization: This refers to the number of specialities performed within the
organization.
e) Standardization: It refers to the existence of procedures for regularly recurring
events or activities
f) Formalization: This refers to the extent to which rules, procedures, and
communications are written down
g) Centralization: This refers to the concentration of authority to make decision.
 h) Complexity: This refers to both vertical differentiation and horizontal
differentiation. Vertical differentiation: outlines number of hierarchical levels;
horizontal differentiation highlights the number of units within the organization
(e.g departments, divisions)

Organizations can be structured as relatively rigid, formalized systems or as relatively

loose, flexible systems. Thus the structure of the organizations can range on a continuum
of high rigidity to high flexibility. There are two broad categories of organization: i)
Mechanistic form of organization ii) Organic form of Organization

1.3.3 Mechanistic form of Organisation

It is characterized by high levels of complexity, formalization and centralization. A

highly mechanistic system is characterized by centralized decision making at the top, a
rigid hierarchy of authority, well but narrowly defined job responsibilities especially at
lower levels, and extensive rules and regulations which are explicitly make known to
employees through written documents. In mechanistic organization, labor is divided and
subdivided into many highly specialized tasks (high complexity), workers are granted
limited discretion in performing theirs t a sks and rules and procedures are carefully
defined (high formalization); and there is limited participation in decision making which
tends to be conducted at the highest levels of management high centralization.

1.3.4 Organic form of Organisation

A highly organic system is characterized by decentralized decision- making which allows

people directly involved with the job to make their own decisions, very few levels in the
hierarchy with flexible authority and reporting patters, loosely defined job responsibilities
for members, and very few written rules and regulations. It is relatively simple, informal
and decentralized. Compared with mechanistic or ganizations, employees in organic
organizations, such as design firms or research labs, tend to be more generalist in their
orientation.

1.3.5 Jobs and Tasks

Job refers to the sum total of an individuals assignment at the workplace. Tasks refer to
the various activities that need to be performed to get the job done. The nature of tasks,
its executives by various individuals, nature of interdependence and inter-relatedness,
group activities etc have implication for organizational effectiveness. Thus the jobs and
tasks have to be designed and managed properly.

Core Job Characteristics: There are five job characteristics which are central to
providing potential motivation to workers. They are: Skill variety, Task identity, Task
significance, Autonomy, and Feedback from the job itself.
 i) Task Variety: This denotes the extent to which any particularly job utilizes a
range of skills, abilities and talents of the employees. If number of different skills
is used by the employee on the job, the job is going to provide challenge and
growth experience to the workers.

ii) Task Identity: This indicates the extent to which the job involves a whole
and identifiable piece of work. If the job involves the whole components (eg
painting a portrait), then the individual can identify with the ultimate
creation turned out by him and derive pride and satisfaction from having done
a good job.
iii) Task significance: This refers to the meaningfulness or significance of the
impact that a job has on the lives of others both inside and outsider of the
organization. If what one does has an impact on the well being of others, the
job becomes psychologically rewarding to he person who performs it.
iv) Autonomy: This refers to the extent to which the job provides an
employee the freedom, independent and discretion to schedule work and make
decision and formulate the procedures to get the job done without interference
from others. The greater the degree of autonomy, the more the person doing
the job feels in control.
v) Feedback from the Job itself: This indicates the extent to which the
person who is working on the job can assess whether they are doing things
right or wrong even as they are performing the job. That is, the job itself is
stimulating one and enjoyable.

Job Design: Jobs can be designed to range from highly simple to highly complex tasks in
terms of the use of the workers skill. Some of the job design options are as follows:

i) Job Simplification: The jobs are broken down into very small parts as in
the assembly line operations where a fragmented task is repeatedly done
over and over again by the same individual.
ii) Job Rotation: This involves moving employees among different tasks
over a period of time. Management does not have to bother with
combining tasks, but at the same time, the workers do not get bored with
doing one simple task over several years. The employee is periodically
rotated from one job to another within the work setting
iii) Job Enlargement: This involves simply adding more tasks to the job so
that the workers have a variety of simple tasks to perform rather than
doing just one task repetitively. Two or more tasks are combined and the
individual does the combined tasks altogether.
iv) Job Enrichment: This offers a greater challenge to the workers because it
requires the use of variety of skills possessed by them. This involves
building in motivating factors into the job, giving the workers more
responsibility and control over work, and offering learning opportunities
for the individual on the job.
1.3.6 Technology

Organizations have technologies for transforming inputs and outputs. These technologies
consist of physical objects, activities and process, knowledge, all of which are brought to
bear on raw materials labor and capital inputs during a transformation process. The core
technology is that set of productive components most directly associated with the
transformation process, for example, production or assembly line in manufacturing firm.

Technology provides the physical and economic resources with which people work. They
cannot accomplish much with their bare hands, so they build buildings, design machines,
create work processes and assemble resources. The technology that results has a
significant influence on working relationships. An assembly line is not the same as a
research laboratory, and a steel mill does not h ave the same working conditions as a
hospital. The great benefit of technology is that it allows people to do more and better
work, but it also restricts people in various ways. It has costs as well as benefits.

Classification of Technology:
Thomson classified technology into three categories: Long-linked technology, Mediating
Technology and Intensive Technology.

i) Long linked Technology: In this, tasks are broken into a number of

sequential and interdependent steps, where the outputs of one unit become the
input of the next. (eg. Assembly line) this facilitates to have high volume of
output and efficiency. This technology calls for mechanistic structures with
high levels of specialization, standardization and formalization.

ii) Mediating Technology: This links different parties who need to be brought
together in a direct or indirect way (eg. Banks use mediating technology to
lend money to borrowers by taking money from depositors)

iii) Intensive Technology: It is used when a group of specialists are brought

together to solve complex problems using a variety of technologies (eg.
Hospital parties are treated with the help of experts drawn from different
fields of specialization). Coordination of the different activities is achieved in
the system primarily through mutual adjustment among those engaged in
solving the problem in the different units. Organic structures would fit in this
system using intensive technology.

1.3.7 Environment

All organizations operate within an external environment. A single organization does not
exist alone. It is part of a larger system that contains thousand of other elements. All these
mutually influence each other in a complex system that becomes the life style of the
people. Individual organization, such as a factory or school cannot escape from being
influenced by this external environment. It influences the attitudes of people, affects
working conditions, and provides competition for resources and power.

Every organization interacts with other members of its environment. The interactions
allow the organization t o acquire r a w material, hire employees, secure capital, obtain
knowledge, and build, lease or buy facilities and equipment. Since the organization
process a product or service for consumption by the environment, it will also interact
with its customers. Other environmental actions , w ho regulate or over see these
exchanges, interact with the organization as well (distributors, advertising agencies, trade
associations, government of the countries in which business is conducted)

Two Distinct Sets of Environment:

i) Specific Environment: This includes the suppliers, customers, competitors,
governments agencies, employees, unions, political parties etc.

ii) General Environment: It includes the economic, political, cultural,

technological and social factors in which the organization embedded.

Organizations are embedded in an environment within which they operate. Some of the
external factors may be completely beyond the control of the organization to change,
such as the cultural, social or economic, or governmental aspects. However, many of the
other factors such as sizing up the market, being in tune with the technological changes
takes place, being a step ahead of competition, or stocking up and buffering supplies
when certain materials are likely to be in short supply, are all within the control of the
organization. Effectively managing these situations, however, requires constant and close
vigilance, adaptability to changes, and being able to manage problematical situations
through good decisions making. Those organizations which are proactive (that is,
watchful and take action before crisis situations occur) and can manage their external
environment are more effective than those that are reactive (that is, caught off guard and
wake up after facing the crises situation) and are unable to cope effectively.

Fit between Environment and Structure: Firms facing a fast changing or turbulent
external environment were very effective when they had more organic structures which
provided flexibility for quick changes to be make within the internal environment of the
system. Similarly, firms which operated in a relatively stable external environment were
very effective when they had more mechanistic structures. This mechanistic structure
allowed the system to operate in a predictable manner since authority, responsibility,
procedures, and rules were clearly specified.

1.4 Basic Approaches of Organisational Behavior

i) An Interdisciplinary Approach: It is integrating many disciplines. It integrates

social sciences and other disciplines that can contribute to the Organizational
Behavior. It draws from these disciplines any ideas that will improve the
relationships between people and organization. Its interdisciplinary nature is
similar to that of medicine, which applies physical, biological and social science
 into a workable medical practice. Organizations must have people, and people
working toward goals must have organizations, so it is desirable to treat the two
as a working unit.

ii) Scientific Management Approach: The fundamental concern of the scientific

management school was to increase the efficiency of the worker basically through
good job design and appropriate training of the workers. Taylor is the father of the
scientific management movement and he developed many ides to increase
organizational efficiency. Taylor showed that through proper job design, worker
selection, employee training and incentives, productivity can be increased. The
scientific management school advocated that efficiency can be attainted by
finding the right methods to get the job done, through specialization on the job, by
planning and scheduling, by using standard operating mechanisms, establishing
standard times to do the job, by proper selection and training of personnel and
through wage incentives.

iii) A Human Resources (Supportive) Approach: It is developmental approach

concerned with the growth and development of people toward higher levels of
competency creativity and fulfillment, because people are the central resource in
any organizations and any society. It helps people grow in self-control and
responsibility and then it tries to create a climate in which all employees may
contribute to the limits of their improved abilities. It is assumed that expanded
capabilities and opportunities for people will lead directly to improvements in
operating effectiveness. Work satisfaction will be a direct result when employees
make fuller use of their capabilities. Essentially, the human resources approach
means that better people achieve better results.

iv) A Contingency Approach: Traditional management relies on one basic principle

there is one best way of managing things and these things can be applied across
the board in all the instances. The situational effect will be totally ignored in this
traditional management. Situations are much more complex than first perceived
and the different variables may require different behavior which means that
different environments required different behavior for effectiveness. Each
situation much be analyzed carefully to determine the significant variables that
exist in order to establish the kinds of practices that will be more effective.

Contingency theorist argues that the external environment and several aspects of
the internal environment govern the structure of the organization and the process
of management. Effective management will vary in different situations depending
on the individual and groups in the organization, the nature of jobs, technology,
the type of environment facing the organization and its structure. For example, if
the employees are highly matured and willing to take more responsibility, the
managers can follow delegating style and give full freedom to their employees. If
the employees are not so matured and avoid taking any responsibility, the
managers must follow directing style. Depends upon the situation, that is,
 employees level of maturity, managers will adopt different style of leadership to
ensure more successful results.

v) A Systems Approach: This implies that organization consists of many inter

related and inter dependent elements affecting one another in order to achieve the
overall results. Conceptually a system implies that there are a multitude of
variables in organization and that each of them affects all the others in complex
relationships. An event that appears to affect one individual or one department
actually may have significant influences elsewhere in the organization.
Systems theorists describe the organization as open to its external environment,
receiving certain inputs from the environment such as human resources, raw
materials etc, and engaging in various operations to transform those raw materials
into a finished products and finally turning out the outputs in its final form to be
sent to the environment. The organization, since it is open to the environment,
also receives feedback from the environment and takes corrective action as
necessary. This input-transformation process-output model with the feedback
mechanism can be illustrated through a simple example.

1.5 Let Us Sum Up

In this unit, we have briefly discussed about the concepts and key elements of
organizational behaviour. The key elements in organizational behavior are people,
structure, technology and the external elements, in which the organization operators,
various approaches have been developed for managerial analysis. We have also discussed
the five major approaches to organizational behaviour.

1.6 Lesson-End Activities

1. What are the key elements of organization and its dynamics?

2. Describe the two types of environment and its relations with other structural
components.
3. Explain the various types of job design options and its relevance for motivation.
4. Discuss the effect of technology on other key components organization particular, its
structure, people and nature of tasks.
5. What are the basic approaches to study organization behavior?
 2.CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
FOR ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Contents
2.0 Aims and Objectives
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Significant Problems in Management
2.2.1 Improving People Skills
2.2.2 Improving Quality and Productivity
2.2.3 Managing Workforce Diversity
2.2.4 Responding To Globalization
2.2.5 Empowering People
2.2.6 Coping with Temporariness
2.2.7 Stimulating Innovation and Change
2.2.8 Emergence of the E-Organisation
2.2.9 Improving Ethical Behaviour

2.0 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

After studying this lesson on the Challenges and Opportunities for Organizational
Behavior, the students will be able to
i) Realize the importance of upgrading various types of technical and managerial
skills to remain competitive in business environment
ii) Understand the ways in which one can manage workforce diversity and its
importance in globalization
iii) Implement the ways of improving ethical behavior within the organization at
all the levels

2.1 INTRODUCTION

There are many challenges and opportunities for managers to use Organizational
Behavior concepts to enhance the overall effectiveness of individuals, groups and
organization. The following are some of the critical issues confronting managers for
which the knowledge of Organizational Behavior offers worthy solutions based on
behavioral science and other interdisciplinary fields.
2.2 SIGNIFICANT PROBLEMS IN MANAGEMENT

The following are some of the significant problems:

i) Improving People Skills
ii) Improving Quality and Productivity
iii) Managing Workforce Diversity
iv) Responding to Globalization
v) Empowering People
vi) Coping with Temporariness
vii) Stimulating Innovation and Change
viii) Emergence of the e-organization
ix) Improving Ethical Behavior

2.2.1 Improving People Skills:

Technological changes, structural changes, environmental changes are accelerated at a

faster rate in business field. Unless employees and executives are equipped to possess
the required skills to adapt those changes, the achievement of the targeted goals cannot be
achieved in time. There two different categories of skills managerial skills and technical
skills. Some of the managerial skills include listening skills, motivating skills, planning
and organizing skills, leading skills, problem solving skill, decision making skills etc.
These skills can be enhanced by organizing a series of training and development
programmes, career development programmes, induction and socialization etc.

Implications for Managers: Designing an effective performance appraisal system with

built- in training facilities will help upgrade the skills of the employees to cope up the
demands of the external environment. The lower level cadre in management is required to
possess more of technical skills. As they move towards upward direction, their roles will
be remarkably changed and expected to have more of human relations and conceptual
skills.

2.2.2 Improving Quality and Productivity:

Quality is the extent to which the customers or users believe the product or service
surpasses their needs and expectations. For example, a customer who purchases an
automobile has certain expectation, one of which is that the automobile engine will start
when it is turned on. If the engine fails to start, the customers expectations will not have
been met and the customer will perceive the quality of the car as poor. Deming defined
quality as a predictable degree of uniformity and dependability, at low cost and suited to
the market. Juran defined it as fitness for use. The key dimensions of quality as follows:

i) Performance: Primary operating characteristics of a product such as signal

coverage, audio quality, display quality etc.
ii) Features: Secondary characteristics, added features, such as calculators, and
alarm clock features in hand phone
iii) Conformance: Meeting specifications or industry standards, workmanship of the
degree to which a products design or operating characteristics match pre-
established standards
iv) Reliability: The probability of a products failing within t a specified period of
time
v) Durability: It is a measure of products life having both economic and technical
dimension
vi) Services: Resolution of problem and complaints, ease of repair
vii) Response: Human to human interface, such as the courtesy of the dealer
viii) Aesthetics: Sensory characteristics such exterior finish
ix) Reputations: Past performance and other intangibles, such as being ranked first.

More and more managers are confronting to meet the challenges to fulfill the specific
requirements of customers. In order to improve quality and productivity, they are
implementing programs like total quality management and reengineering programs that
require extensive employee involvement.

Total Quality Management (TQM): It is a philosophy of management that is driven by

the constant attainment of customer satisfaction through the continuous improvement of
all organizational process. The component of TQM are (a) intense focus of the customer,
(b) concern for continual improvement (c) improvement in the quality of everything the
organization does (d) accurate measurement and (e) empowerment of employees.

Reengineering: This refers to discrete initiatives that are intended to achieve radically
redesigned and improved work process in a bounded time frame. Business Process
Reengineering employees a structural methodology that reduces work process to their
essential composite activist and provides cost performance matrices to facilitate a
business case for dramatic improvements. Both functional and cross- functional processes
are evaluated through workflow analysis and activity based costing. In many cases, the
application of new technology and industries best practices will enable quantum
improvement in an organizations cost and performance.

Implications for Managers: Todays managers understand that any efforts to improve
quality and productivity must influence their employees. These employees will not only
be a major force in carrying out changes, but increasingly will participate actively in
planning those changes. Managers will put maximum effort in meeting the customers
requirements by involving everyone from all the levels and across all functions. Regular
communications (both formally and informally) with all the staff at all levels is must.
Two way communications at all levels must be promoted. Identifying training needs and
relating them with individual capabilities and requirements is must. Top managements
participation and commitment and a culture of continuous improvement must be
established.
2.2.3 Managing Workforce Diversity:

This refers to employing different categories of employees who are heterogeneous in

terms of gender, race, ethnicity, relation, community, physically disadvantaged,
homosexuals, elderly people etc. The primary reason to employ heterogeneous category
of employees is to tap the talents and potentialities, harnessing the innovativeness,
obtaining synergetic effect among the divorce workforce. In general, employees wanted
to retain their individual and cultural identity, values and life styles even though they are
working in the same organization with common rules and regulations. The major
challenge for organizations is to become more accommodating to diverse groups of
people by addressing their different life styles, family needs and work styles.

Implications for Managers: Managers have to shift their philosophy from treating
everyone alike to recognizing individual differences and responding to those differences
in ways that will ensure employee retention and greater productivity while, at the same
time not discriminating. If work force diversity is managed more effectively, the
management is likely to acquire more benefits such as creativity and innovation as well
as improving decision making skills by providing different perspectives on problems. If
diversity is not managed properly and showed biases to favor only a few categories of
employees, there is potential for higher turnover, more difficulty in communicating and
more interpersonal conflicts.

2.2.4 Responding to Globalization:

Todays business is mostly market driven; wherever the demands exist irrespective of
distance, locations, climatic conditions, the business operations are expanded to gain their
market share and to remain in the top rank etc. Business operations are no longer
restricted to a particular locality or region. Companys products or services are spreading
across the nations using mass communication, internet, faster transportation etc. An
Australian wine producer now sells more wine through the Internet than through outlets
across the country. More than 95% of Nokia hand phones are being sold outside of their
home country Finland. Japanese cars are being sold in different parts of globe. Sri
Lankan tea is exported to many cities across the globe. Executives of Multinational
Corporation are very mobile and move from one subsidiary to another more frequently.

Implications for Managers: Globalization affects a managerial skills in at least two

ways: i) an Expatriate manager have to manage a workforce that is likely to have very
different needs, aspirations and attitudes from the ones that they are used to manage in
their home countries. ii) Understanding the culture of local people and how it has shaped
them and accordingly learn to adapt ones management style to these differences is very
critical for the success of business operations. One of the main personality traits required
for expatriate managers is to have sensitivity to understand the individual differences
among people and exhibit tolerance to it.
2.2.5 Empowering People

The main issue is delegating more power and responsibility to the lower level cadre of
employees and assigning more freedom to make choices about their schedules, operations,
procedures and the method of solving their work-related problems. Encouraging the
employees to participate in work related decision will sizably enhance their commitment
at work. Empowerment is defined as putting employees in charge of what they do by
eliciting some sort of ownership in them. Managers are doing considerably further by
allowing employees full control of their work. An increasing number of organizations are
using self- managed teams, where workers operate largely without boss. Due to the
implementation of empowerment concepts across all the levels, the relationship between
managers and the employees is reshaped. Managers will act as coaches, advisors,
sponsors, facilitators and help their subordinates to do their task with minimal guidance.

Implications for Manager: The executive must learn to delegate their tasks to the
subordinates and make them more responsible in their work. And in so doing, managers
have to learn how to give up control and employees have to learn how to take
responsibility for their work and make appropriate decision. If all the employees are
empowered, it drastically changes the type of leadership styles, power relationships, the
way work is designed and the way organizations are structured.

2.2.6 Coping with Temporariness

In recent times, the Product life cycles are slimming, the methods of operations are
improving, and fashions are changing very fast. In those days, the managers needed to
introduce major change programs once or twice a decade. Today, change is an ongoing
activity for most managers. The concept of continuous improvement implies constant
change. In yester years, there used to be a long period of stability and occasionally
interrupted by short period of change, but at present the change process is an ongoing
activity due to competitiveness in developing new products and services with better
features. Everyone in the organization faces today is one of permanent temporariness.
The actual jobs that workers perform are in a permanent state of flux. So, workers need to
continually update their knowledge and skills to perform new job requirements.

Implications for Manager: Managers and employees must learn to cope with
temporariness. They have to learn to live with flexibility, spontaneity, and
unpredictability. The knowledge of Organizational Behavior will help understand better
the current state of a work world of continual change, the methods of overcoming
resistance to change process, the ways of creating a better organizational culture that
facilitates change process etc.

2.2.7 Stimulating Innovation and Change

Todays successful organizations must foster innovation and be proficient in the art of
change; otherwise they will become candidates for extinction in due course of time and
vanished from their field of business. Victory will go to those organizations that
maintain flexibility, continually improve their quality, and beat the competition to the
market place with a constant stream of innovative products and services. For example,
Compaq succeeded by creating more powerful personal computers for the same or less
money than IBNM or Apple, and by putting their products to market quicker than the
bigger competitors. Amazon.com is putting a lot of independent bookstores out of
business as it proves you can successfully sell books from an Internet website.

Implications for Managers: Some of the basic functions of business are being
displaced due to the advent of a new systems and procedures. For example books are
being sold only through internet. Internet selling an organizations employees can be the
impetus for innovation and change; otherwise they can be a major hindrance. The
challenge for managers is to stimulate employee creativity and tolerance for change.

2.2.8 Emergence of E-Organization

E- Commerce: It refers to the business operations involving electronic mode of

transactions. It encompasses presenting products on websites and filling order. The vast
majority of articles and media attention given to using the Internet in business are
directed at on- line shopping. In this process, the marketing and selling of goods and
services are being carried out over the Internet. In e-commerce, the following activities
are being taken place quite often - the tremendous numbers of people who are shopping
on the Internet, business houses are setting up websites where they can sell goods,
conducting the following transactions such as getting paid and fulfilling orders. It is a
dramatic change in the way a company relates to its customers. At present e-commerce is
exploding. Globally, e-commerce spending was increasing at a tremendous rate from
US$ 111 billion in 1999 to US$ 1.3 trillion by 2003.

E-business: It refers to the full breadth of activities included in a successful Internet-

based enterprise. As such, e-commerce is a subset of e-business. E-business includes
developing strategies for running Internet-based companies, creating integrated supply
chains, collaborating with partners to electronically coordinate design and production,
identifying a different kind of leader to run a virtual business, finding skilled people to
build and operate intranets and websites, and running the back room or the administrative
side. E-business includes the creation of new markets and customers, but its also
concerned with the optimum ways to combine Computers, the Web and Application
Software. A sizable number of multinational corporations are selling goods and services
via the Internet.

Growth rate of e-business: The application of Internet operations are initially covers a
small part of the business. At this point, their e-commerce operations are secondary to
their traditional business. An increasingly popular application of e-business is merely
using the Internet to better manage an ongoing business. Later, there are millions of firms
that are now selling anything over the Internet, but they are using e-business applications
to improve communications with internal and external stakeholders and to better perform
traditional business functions. Some companies are putting maximum effort in improving
its internal efficiency and providing support to its wide-reaching dealer network and to
on- line sellers by crating a shared and integrated network. The companies wanted to
make creasing

E-Organizations: This embraces e-commerce and e-business. State and central

governments, municipal corporations are using the Internet for extending all the public
utility services more efficiently through internet.

Implications for Managers: The employees must acquire skills, knowledge, attitudes in
learning new technology, overcoming any resistance

2.2.9 Improving Ethical behavior:

The complexity in business operations is forcing the workforce to face ethical dilemmas,
where they are required to define right and wrong conduct in order to complete their
assigned activities. For example, Should the employees of chemical company blow the
whistle if they uncover the discharging its untreated effluents into the river are polluting
its water resources? Do managers give an inflated performance evaluation to an employee
they like, knowing that such an evaluation could save that employees job?

The ground rules governing the constituents of good ethical behavior has not been clearly
defined. Differentiating right things from wrong behavior has become more blurred.
Following unethical practices have become a common practice such as successful
executives who use insider information for personal financial gain, employees in
competitor business participating in massive cover-ups of defective products etc.

Implications for Managers: Managers must evolve code of ethics to guide employees
through ethical dilemmas. Organizing seminars, workshops, training programs will help
improve ethical behavior of employees. Retaining consultants, lawyers, voluntary service
organizations to assist the company in dealing with ethical issues will ensure positive
ethical behavior. Managers need to create an ethically healthy climate for his employees
where they can do their work productively and confront a minimal degree of ambiguity
regarding what constitutes right and wrong behavior.

.
 3.FOUNDATIONS OF INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOUR

PERCEPTION: PERSON PERCEPTION.

Contents
3.0 Aims and Objectives
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Perception
3.2.1 Factors influencing Perception
3.2.2 Characteristics of Target
3.2.3 Characteristics of Situation
3.2.4 Perception: Making Judgment about Others
3.3 Let us Sum Up
3.4 Lesson-End Activities
3.5 References

3.0 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The lesson 1 on the person perception deals with perceptual process and the factors
influencing the perceptual process. After going through the content of this lesson, the
students are able to
i) Understand the dynamic of perceptual process
ii) Describe vividly the possible influence of various environmental, personal,
target characteristics on the perceptual process
iii) Understand various causes for a given behavior for making judgment of others
iv) Explain the possible errors in attribution and the methods to overcome such
errors.

3.1 INTRODUCTION

Perception can be defined as a process by which individuals organize and interpret their
sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment. Perception is not just
what one sees with eyes. It is a much more complex process by which an individual
selectively absorbs or assimilates the stimuli in the environment, cognitively organizes
the perceived information in a specific fashion and then interprets the information to
make an assessment about what people select, organize, and interpret or attach meaning
to events happening in the environment. Since perception is subjective process, different
people may perceive the same environment differently based on what particular aspects
of the situation they choose. For example, some employees may perceive the work place
as great if it has favorable working conditions, good pay. Others may perceive it as great
if it has challenging assignments and opportunity to grow. Managers should sharpen their
perceptual skills so that they are as close to perceiving people, events, and objects as they
truly are. When misperception occurs due to perceptual errors and distortion, managers
are bound to make poor or improper decision.

3.2 PERCEPTION

Perception is process through which short-run changes are made in behavior in response
to inputs from work environment. The process itself consists of two major actions i)
attention to incoming stimuli and ii) translation of such stimuli into a message that leads
to a meaningful behavioral response. Perception is form of behavior and, therefore,
influenced by at least the following factors: i) characteristics of the object or source of
incoming stimuli (such as a supervisor issuing work request); ii) the situation or
conditions under which the stimuli occur (such as timing of a message) and iii)
characteristics of the perceiving person. The last category is extremely important in
determining the way incoming stimuli will be interpreted and subsequent response. An
individuals motives, previous learning and personality will influence perception.
Managers must take such consideration into account in predicting the way their actions
and order will be perceived by others.

Five Stages in Perceptual Process:

Stage I: Observation Phase It depicts the environmental stimuli being observed

by the fives senses of the perceived

Stage II: Selection of the Stimuli: This is governed both by factors external to the
perceived, such as the characteristics of the stimulus, and internal to the individual, such
as the personality disposition and motivations of the perceiver.

Stage III: Organizing Stage In this stage, the perceiver is influenced by figure
and ground, grouping, and several perceptual errors such as stereotyping halo effects,
projection and perceptual defense.

Stage IV: Interpretation Stage: This stage is governed by the perceivers

assumptions of people and events and attributions about causes of behavior and feelings.

Stage V: Behavior Response: In this stage the response of the perceiver takes on
both covert and overt characteristics. Covert response will be reflected in the attitudes,
motives, and feelings of the perceiver and overt responses will be reflected in the actions
of the individual.

3.2.1 Factors Influencing Perception:

Several factors influence how we process the perceptual inputs and transform them into
outputs. There are three broad categories: Characteristics of Perceiver, Characteristics of
Target, and Characteristics of Situation.
3.2.1 Characteristics of Perceiver:
A persons needs and motives, self-concept, past experience, emotional state, and
personality aspects strongly influence the perceptual process.

Needs and Motives:

Unsatisfied needs or motives stimulate individuals and may exert a strong influence on
their perception. For examples, two groups of subjects One group who is deprived of
food for about 24 hours and the other group which had food enough were shown the
blurred pictures and asked to explain the contents. The first group perceived the blurred
image as food far more frequently than the other group. People needs and motives thus
play a big part in the perceptual process.

Self Concept:
It refers how a person perceives himself/herself which in turn influence his or her
perception of the world around them. If a person perceives himself as incompetent, then
he perceives the world as threatening. On the other hand, if he feels himself as confident
and capable, he will perceive everything around as friendly.

Attitudes:
The preferences and likingness affects ones perception. A lecturer, who likes bigger class,
feels comfortable in a lecture session which has more than hundred students. Another
lecturer, who likes small class with a lot of questions, may not be so comfortable in such
big classes.

Interests:
Individuals focus of attention is also influenced by the interests of people. A plastic
surgeon will more likely to notice an imperfect nose than a plumber. Because of our
individual interests differ considerably, what one person notices in a situation, can differ
from what other person perceives.

Past experiences:
Individuals past experiences also influence in molding ones perception. For example if
one has had problem responding to examination questions in the past, he or she will tend
to perceive even simple, straightforward examination question as tricky. Likewise, if a
person was betrayed by a couple of friends, he or she would never venture to cultivate
new friendship in future.

Psychological or Emotional State:

If an individual is depressed, he or she is likely to perceive the same situation differently
from the other person who is at the extreme level of excitement or happiness. If a person
has been scared of seeing a snake in the garden, she is likely to perceive a rope under the
bed as a snake. Thus, the emotional and psychological states of an individual also
influence the perceptual process and the different types of interpretation of the situation.
Expectation:
Expectations can also distort the perceptual process. If a person expects police officers to
be more authoritative and dictatorial, he or she may perceive them as if they are rough
and tough regardless of the Police Officers actual traits.

New Experience:
If a person experiences something new, that is more likely to grab attention than the
objects or events that has been experienced before. For example, a person is more likely
to notice the operations along an assembly line if this is first time that person has seen an
assembly line. In 1970s women police officers are highly visible because traditionally
Police Officers positions were predominantly held by males.

Personality Characteristics:
There is a strong relationship between personality factors and perception. For example,
secure people tend to perceive others as warm supportive than those, who are more cold
and indifferent. Similarly, self-accepting persons perceive others as lining and accepting
them. Those who are not self-accepting tend to distrust others. Insecure, thoughtless or
non self-accepting persons are less likely to perceive themselves and those around them
accurately. In all probabilities, they are likely to distort, misinterpret or in other ways
defensively perceive the situation

Characteristics of Target:
The ways things are organized around us are greatly influencing the perceptual process.
Some of the typical characteristics include bright color, noise; novel objects, bigger
unusual size, moving objects, status, appearance, contrast, intensity, repetition etc. catch
people attention. For example, an unusual noise raised by a person, a strong beam of light
suddenly flashed, a very handsome, attractive person among a group of clumsy people, a
red light against the black background, an unusually obese person amidst a group of slim
people etc.

Organization of Target:
People tend to organize the various parts of elements in the environment as a meaningful
whole. Such organizing activity is a cognitive process and those are based on Gestalt
Principles. The following are the four Gestalt Principles Figure and Ground, Proximity,
Similarity, Closure, Continuation.

Figure and Ground:

What a person observes is dependent on how a central figure is being separated from its
background. This implies that the perceived object or person or event stands out distinct
from its background and occupies the cognitive space of the individual. In a dance
programme, the spectators tend to perceive the dance performance against the back
ground music, backdrop setup etc. The perceiver thus tends to organize only the
information which stands out in the environment which seems to be significant to the
individual.
Proximity:
People tend to perceive things, which are nearer to each other, as together as group rather
than separately. If four or five members are standing together, we tend to assume that
they are belonging to same group rather than as separately. As a result of physical
proximity, we often put together objects or events or people as one group even though
they are unrelated. Employees in a particular section are seen as group.

Similarity:
Persons, objects or events that are similar to each other also tend to be grouped together.
This organizing mechanism helps us to deal with information in an efficiently way rather
than getting bogged down and confused with too many details. For examples, if we
happen to see a group of foreign nationals at an International seminar, Indians are
grouped as one group, British as another, Americans as yet another based on the
similarity of nationalities.

Closure:
In many situation, the information what we intend to get may be in bits and pieces and
not fully complete in all respects. However, we tend to fill up the gaps in the missing
parts and making it as meaningful whole. Such mental process of filling up the missing
element is called as closure. For example, while giving promotions to the staff members,
the managers will try to get full information to make an effective decision, in absence of
getting complete information, managers try to make meaningful assumptions and based
on that suitable decision will be made.

Characteristics of the Situation:

The context at which the incident is occurring can influence the perceptual process. The
physical, social, organizational settings, time etc can influence how we interpre t t h e
stimuli. For example, late coming of subordinate at birthday party may be ignored but
treated him as an important guests by the manager, but at same time, the same persons
late coming to an important official meeting will be viewed as seriously and manager
may issue a memo seeking his explanation. Thus, the location of an event, the social
context in which takes place, timing and the roles played by the actors play a significant
part in how we interpret the situation.

3.2.2 Person Perception: Making judgment about others

Attribution Theory:
While observing peoples behavior such as getting an overseas assignment or promotion
to top management position or failed miserably in university examination or fired from
the employer etc, we attempt to determine whether it was internally caused or external
caused. If those factors such as knowledge, skill, effort, talent, hard work, positive
attitude are responsible for the occurrence of behavior, it is labeled as internally caused.
Internally caused behaviors are those that are believed to be under the personal control of
the individual. If those factors such as situational factors such as location advantage, non
availability of material, contacts with influential others, etc are responsible for the
occurrence of behavior, it is labeled as externally caused. Externally caused behavior is
seen as resulting from outside causes; that is, the person is seen as forced into the
behavior by the situation.

If an employee is late for work, one can attribute his late coming due to laziness or lack
of interest in the job of over sleeping. This would be internal interpretation. If an
employee late coming is due to traffic jam or road accident or his wife sickness, then he
is making external attribution.

There are three factors which are used to determine whether the behavior is caused by
internal factors or due to external factors. They are: Distinctiveness, Consensus and
Consistency.

Distinctiveness:
It refers to whether an individual displays different behaviors in different situations. If a
person is coming late not only to office but also to picnic party or to birth day party or to
attending meeting etc. If his late coming behavior is not unique, it will probably be
judged as internal. (Low Distinctiveness) If his late coming behavior is unusual, that is,
only to office work, his late coming behavior is due to external attribution. (High
Distinctiveness)

Consensus:
It refers to whether all the people who are facing with a similar situation respond in the
same way or not. If all the people are responding the same way, then there is high
consensus. If consensus is high, then his late coming behavior is due to external factors.
If only this worker is late and all others are punctual, then there is low consensus. If
consensus is low, then his late coming is due to internal factor

Consistency:
It refers whether a person responds the same all the time, that is, whether his late coming
is common in all the days or once in a blue moon. If his late coming is reported in all the
days, then there is high consistency. If there is high consistency, his late coming behavior
is due to internal factor. If his late coming is reported only one time, then there is low
consistency. If there is low consistency, then his late coming is due to external factors.
The more consistent the behavior, the more the observer is inclined to attribute it to
internal factors.

Errors in Attribution:
While attributing the causes for the behavior of individuals, people tend to commit two
types of errors.

Fundamental Attribution Error:

There is tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the
influence of internal factors when making judgment about the behavior of others
particularly with reference to the victims of accidents or failures. This is called the
fundamental attribution errors. For example, a sales manager is likely to attribute the poor
performance of his sales agents to laziness rather than to the new product line introduced
by the competitor or current recession prevailing in the society etc.

Self-Serving Bias:
There is also a tendency for individuals to attribute their own success to internal factors
such as ability or effort, while putting the blame for failure on external factors such as
luck or fate. This is called the self-serving bias. While assessing the performance of
subordinates, the managers are likely to provide feedback in a distorted manner
depending on whether it is positive or negative.
 4.PERSONALITY
Contents

4.0 Aims and Objectives

4.1 Introductions
4.2 Personality
4.2.1 Personality determinants:
4.2.2 Dimensions of self-concept:
4.2.3 Key personality traits relevant to work
behavior
4.2.4 Personality types (MBTI)
4.0 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

This lesson IV covers the various dimensions of personality and its components. By
learning the concepts and its application of Personality theories, our students are able to:
i) Understand the personality determinants of personality and personality traits
ii) Realize the importance of key personality traits relevant to work behavior
iii) Understand Big Personality traits and MBTI Personality types and its
implications in selection, training, formation of teams etc.

4.1 INTRODUCTION

People tend to have a general notion that personality refers to a personal appearance with
charming smile, or outlook. But psychologists view the concept as dynamic in nature
concerned with growth and development of a persons whole psychological system.

Personality can be defined as the consistent psychological patterns within an individual

that affect the way they interact with others and the situations they encounter.
Personality is defined as relatively stable and enduring characteristics that determine our
thoughts, feelings and behavior. Personality is a complex phenomenon and there are
various perspectives of personality construct. One common and simple definition of
Personality is: It is the consistent psychological patterns within an individual that affect
the way they interact with others and the situations they encounter.
4.2 PERSONALITY

Research studies shows that individuals personality s more or less consistent, lasting,
and can remain substantially constant across all the situations and time. But there are
individual differences, for some people, these straits may be consistent across a number
of situations, that is, they exhibit the same behavior such as shyness or inhibitions in the
entire situation at all the time. But others may vary quite a lot. Changes in personality
occur slowly over an extended period of time. Thus, if managers are able to understand
certain dimensions of personality traits exhibited by individuals, they can predict
confidently to a great extent the daily behavior of employees.

8.2.1 Personality Determinants

There are several factors that determine the formation or shaping of our personality.
Among them the three major factors are: Heredity, Environment and Situation.

i) Heredity

The genetic components inherited from our parents at the time of conception determine
strongly the personality characteristics of an individual. The color, height, physical
statutory, facial attractiveness, gender, temperament, muscle composition, inheritable
diseases etc are considered to be inherited from our parents.

Research studies conducted on identical twins that were reared in different places,
temperament of young children, longitudinal studies on the job satisfaction of employees
over long period of time and across different situation reveal that the heredity plays a
substantial role in determining the behavior of individuals. If all personality
characteristics were completely dictated by heredity, they would be fixed at birth and no
amounts of experience could alter them.

ii) Environment

The culture in which people are brought up in their lives and they type of socialization
process such as familys child rearing practices, socio economic status of the family,
number of children in a family, birth order, education of the parents, friends and peer
group pressures, religious practices, the type of schooling and recreational activities,
pastime behavior etc play a critical role in shaping our personalities.

For example, our parents mould the character of all children, almost from birth by
expressing and expecting their children to conform to their own values through role
modeling and through various reinforcement strategies such as rewards and punishments.
Research studies reveal that the birth order the difference between first born children
and later born children determine certain key personality characteristics, that is, first
born tend to exhibit more ambitious, and hard working, more cooperative, more prone to
guilt and anxiety and less openly aggressive.
Both the heredity and environment are equally important in determining personality
characteristics of an individual. Heredity sets the parameters or outer limits, but a
persons full potential will be determined by how well he or she adjusts to the demands
and requirements of the environment.

iii) Situation

The type of specific situation which a person encounters also equally shapes the type of
personality characteristics. For example, an individuals exposure to a job interview and
the type of experiences encountered during that time will shape certain personality
characteristics. Similarly, going for a picnic with friends and encountering the type of
experiences whether pleasant and unpleasant will shape the personality characteristics of
individuals.

4.2.2 Dimensions of Self-Concept

It is defined as the totality of individuals thoughts and feelings having reference to

himself as an object. The self concept is made up of collection of attitudes, feelings, ideas,
opinions that they have about themselves including their preference towards sports, books,
physical ability, smartness sexuality, job performance etc. In short, the self-concept is
what we think and feel about ourselves. People tend to have both positive and negative
self concept. Those who have very positive self concept tend to have high level of
confidence, achievement, and success in their life.

4.2.3 Key Personality Traits Relevant to Work Behavior

i) Self Esteem:

It refers to the individuals self worthiness and the extent to which they regard themselves
as capable, successful, important and worthwhile. People who feel good about
themselves will always produce good results. Studies of self-esteem show that it is
closely related to mental health. People with low self-esteem are more likely to suffer
depression and greater stress. People with positive self-esteem adjust to life better and
deal every day problems more effectively. Individuals with high self esteem will try to
take up more challenging assignments and be successful, which in turn, enhance their
overall self-concept. People with high self esteem would tend to classify themselves as
highly valuable in the organization.

ii) Locus of Control:

It refers to the extent to which people tend to have control over their own fate and life.
There are two type of locus of control. The Internal Locus of Control refers to those who
believe that they control what happens to them and shape the course of their evens in
their lives, whereas the External Locus of Control believe that what happens to them is
controlled by outside forces such as luck or chance. Internals always believe in putting
more effort and seek more job related information, rely more on their own abilities and
judgment at work, and more actively seek opportunities for advancement.

iii) Self Efficacy:

It refers to the belief that a person has in their own capability to perform a specific task.
People with high self-efficacy will prefer to have moderate level of task difficulty, strong
self confidence and conviction in the chosen tasks and possess high expectation in
completing the assignment across the entire situation. Employees with high self-efficacy
respond to specific negative feedback about their performance with increased motivation
and effort, while those with low self-efficacy are more likely to give up and reduce their
motivation

iv) Self-Monitoring:

It refers to the extent to which a person has the ability to adjust his or her behavior to
external or situational factors. Those with high self- monitoring will be more sensitive and
notice the significant changes occurring in the environment and able to adapt them by
adjusting their behavior. High self- monitors are capable of exhibiting a striking contrast
between their public persona and their private self. Low self- monitors cannot disguise
their behavior and tend to exhibit the same behavior all the time.

v) Emotional Intelligence:

It is also called as EQ which refers to individuals ability to be aware of feelings and

emotions and the extent to which they can manage them more effectively in dealing with
others and challenging events. It consists of five main abilities:

a) Knowing ones emotions: Self-awareness and recognizing ones feelings as it

occurs
b) Managing emotions: Handling feelings and emotions appropriately to the relevant
situations
c) Motivating oneself: Directing the feelings and emotions in such a way to fulfilling
the desired goals
d) Recognizing emotions in others: Empathizing and understanding the feelings and
emotions for others
e) Handling Relationships: Being able to interrelate, communicate and work with
others.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is very closely linked to our self-concept, because it is

strongly related to self awareness.
vi) Big Personality Traits

There are five Big Personality Traits which have a significant impact in individuals life.
They are as follows:

a) Extroversion: Extroverts are sociable, lively, and gregarious and seek outward
interaction. Such individuals are likely to be most successful working in
marketing division, public relations etc. where they can interact face to face with
others. Introverts are quite, reflective, introspective and intellectual people,
preferring to interact with a small intimate circle of friends. Introverts are more
likely to be successful when they can work on highly abstract ideas (accountant,
R&D work etc) in a relatively quite atmosphere.

b) Agreeableness: This refers to the extent to which individuals agreeing and

cooperating with others. Highly agreeable people are cooperative, warm and
trusting. People who score low on agreeableness are cold, disagreeable and
antagonistic. This characteristic is very important and critical in attaining a
successful achievement in their life.

c) Conscientiousness: This refers to the extent to which people are responsible

and dependable in their work and life. A highly conscientiousness person is
responsible, organized, dependable and persistent. They are likely to move
upward direction very quickly and attain remarkable achievement in their life.
Those who score low on this dimension are easily distracted, disorganized and
unreliable.

d) Emotional Stability: This refers to the extent to which people have the ability
to withstand stress. People with positive emotional stability tend to be calm, self-
confident and secure. Those with highly low level of emotional stability tend to be
nervous, anxious, depressed and insecure.

e) Openness to experience: This refers to the extent to which people are more
imaginative, artistic sensitivity and intellectualism. Individuals tend to vary
widely ranging from conservative to creative or artistic. Extremely open people
are creative, and artistically sensitive. Whereas not so open category personnel are
very conservative and find comfort in the familiar or routine activities.

4.2.4 Personality Types (MBTI)

MBTI describes four dimensions of Personality Types:

(a) Extroversion versus Introversion: (The ways in which people relate to the world)
(b) Sensing versus Intuition: (Becoming aware of and perceiving information)
(c) Thinking versus feeling: (Ways of deciding and prefer to make judgments)
(d) Judging and Perception: (The amount of control exercising and organizing people)
a) Extroversion and Introversion:

This deals with whether the focus of attention is directed towards outwardly or inwardly.
Where do you prefer to focus your attention?

Extroversion:

Extroverted attention flows outward to the world of objects and people or external ideas.
They are interacting more with people.

Characteristics associated with people who prefer Extraversion are:

Attuned to external environment
Prefer to communicate by talking
Work out ideas by talking them through
Have broad interests
Sociable and expressive
Readily take initiative in work and relationships

Extroverts are usually active, sociable, like variety and stimulation, and are often good
speakers, sales people or public relations professionals.

Introversion:

Introverted attention focused on the subjective, inner world of thoughts, feelings and
ideas. Introverts like quit reflection, can concentrate on one idea or thought for longer
than an extrovert, and are less active and prone to change.

Characteristics associated with people who prefer Introversion are:

Drawn to their inner world
Prefer to communicate in writing
Work out ideas by reflecting on them
Learn best by reflection, mental practice
Focus in depth on their interest
Private and contained

Research scientists, academicians and librarians are often introverts.

b) Sensing Versus Intuition:

This aspect deals with the ways of collecting information and ideas.
Sensing

A person with a sensing preferences focuses on the specific, practical and tangible. The
sensing person relies more on the physical or material reality of the world of the five
senses: touch, sight, sound, taste or smell. Sensing managers take in information through
their senses and attend to the details of the problem. They like to solve problems in
standard ways. They are patient with routine details and are precise in their work. They
distrust creative inspirations and usually work all the way through to reach conclusions.
They emphasize action, urgency and bottom-line results.

Characteristics associated with people who prefer Sensing:

Oriented to present realities
Factual and concrete, precise and practical
Focus on what is real and actual
Observe and remember specifics
Build carefully and thoroughly toward conclusions
Understand ideas and theories through practical applications
Trust experience

The sensing person is likely to provide a practical solution to problems. They may be
good at repairing machines, sports, building, handicrafts, or keeping the detailed records
of a business.
Sensation Feelers (SF) deal with concrete problems in a methodical way. They have
astute powers of observation regarding the details of how an organization is run. SFs do
not fight the system, but use what is available for problem solving. SFs are non-
judgmental of their co-workers and do not look for underlying motives and meanings in
peoples behavior. If organizations do not have adequate SFs, small problem will go
unattended till they become big.
Possible Shortcomings: SFs may be reluctant to accept new ideas and are impatient with
abstract theories. They react adversely to radical changes. They have difficult honoring
commitments and decision made in the past since they live full in the present moment.

Intuition

This person relies more on their insights and based on that they guess, assume and draw
the inferences. Ideas, associations or creative process often accompany the presence of
intuition. They focus on the relationships and connections between facts. Intuition
manager like solving new problems and are impatient with routine details. They perceive
the problem in its totality and consider several alternatives simultaneously. They are
imaginative and futuristic, enjoying mind testing games..

Characteristics associated with people who prefer Intuition:

Oriented to future possibilities
Imaginative and verbally creative
Focus on the patterns and meanings in data, sees beyond the surface
 Remember specifics when they relate to pattern
Move quickly to conclusions, follow hunches
Want to clarify ideas and theories before putting them into practice
Trust inspiration

The intuitive person is likely to have an affinity for music, literature, the arts, higher
mathematics, and science and abstract theories. People with high level of intuition are
also likely to be creative, adaptable and open to new ideas, and they are often artists,
musicians, strategic players or architects.
Intuitive Thinkers (NT) are the architects of progress and ideas. They are interested in the
principle on which the organization is built and seek answers to he significant events.
They have enormous drive and are creative. If organizations do not have adequate
number of NTs, change will be minimal.
Shortcomings of Intuitive Thinkers: Intuitive Thinkers may not always be aware of the
feelings of others. Unless subordinates are intellectually competent, they may not be
considered valuable. They expect a great of themselves and others and tend to escalate
standards.

c) Thinking versus Feeling:

These deals with the way people make decisions.

Thinking

The person with a preference for thinking tends to be objective, analytical and impersonal
in decision and judgments. Thinking managers are logical and analytical in their problem
solving and search for additional information in a logical manner.

Characteristics associated with people who prefer Thinking:

Solve problem with logic,
Use cause and effect reasoning
Strive for an objective standard of truth
Can be tough-minded
Fair want everyone treated equally

As this person is logical in analysis, he is good at organizing, scheduling, comparing,

analyzing and quantitatively evaluating objections and activities.
Sensation Thinkers (ST) are decisive and excellent at decisions involving precise
interpretations of facts and figures. They are persevering and precise. They want the
organization run on an impersonal basis. They are hard working and super dependable.
Organizations run efficiently because of such managers.
Possible Shortcomings: STs cannot tolerate delays due to complications. In periods of
rapid changes they still cling to rules and procedures which is dysfunctional. When
dealing with others, STs may not accurately perceive the interpersonal process. They
withhold rewards unless full deserved others.
Feeling

People who use feelings to make decision are more likely to be empathetic, loyal, and
appreciative and tactful. Feeling types consider the person and are likely to bend the rules
if the situation warrants. Feeling managers heavily emphasize the human aspects in
dealing with organizational problems and is more process oriented. They enjoy pleasing
people and avoid conflicts.
Intuitive Feelers (NF) have personal charisma and commitments to the people they lead.
They communicate their caring and enthusiasm. They are comfortable in an unstructured,
group-centered management system that lets employees participate in the decision-
making process. If adequate NFs are not available in organization, an organization will
become cold, sterile and dull.
Possible Shortcomings; NFs make decision on the basis of personal likes and dislikes.
They often try to please others all the time.
Characteristics associated with people who prefer Feeling:
Empathetic
Guided by personal values
Assess impacts of decisions on people
Strived for harmony and positive interactions
Compassionate
May appear tenderhearted

They like helping other people and often work as nurses, counselors and artists. They use
past experiences and values and seek harmony when making judgments.

d) Judgment versus Perception

This aspect deals with the amount of control a person has over events and organizing
things.

Judgment

The strong Judgment oriented people tend to live in a planned, decided and orderly way,
wanting to regulate their life and control events. They are given more responsibility and
authority because their operating mode is stable and predictable.

Characteristics associated with people who prefer Judging:

Scheduled
Organize their lives
Systematic
Methodical
Make short and long term plans
Like to have things decided
Try to avoid last-minute stresses
 The person with a strong orientation for judgment will therefore be good at making
decision and planning. They usually make good managers, engineers and lawyers.

Perception

Perceptive people tend to live in a flexible, spontaneous way, wanting to understand life
and adapt to it. They often appear to be more relaxed and less organized than judging
types and are less attracted to schedules and routines.

Characteristics associated with people who prefer Perceiving:

Spontaneous
Flexible
Casual
Open-ended
Adapt, change course
Like things loose and open to change
Feel energized by last minute pressures.

The perceptive type, on the other hand, may wait until all the information and aspects of a
situation are seen before they make a decision. Artists, consultants, musicians and
counselors tend to be perception oriented.
 5.KEY PESONALITY CHARACTERISTICS
RELEVANT TO WORK PLACE.

Contents
5.0 Aims and Objectives
5.1 Introduction
5.2 personality characteristics
5.2.1 Other key personality characteristics relevant to work place

5.0 AIMS AND OBJECTIVEWS

In this lesson V, the various work related personality traits are discussed and its
application in predicting works behavior. Further, Hollands hexagonal personality types
and the required occupational environment are highlighted. After completion of this
lesson, the students are able to:
i) Understand the meanings and its application of various work related
personality traits and the ways in which such concepts can be applied
effectively at work.
ii) Realize the importance of Personality Job fit concepts proposed by Holland
and its application in work life situations.

5.1 INTRODUCTION
Personality should be considered as an individuals unique profile of characteristics
relevant to the manager. Any number of human characteristics has been proposed over
the years as being part of an individuals personality. They included various traits such as
general intelligence, specific task related aptitudes such as spatial skills, arithmetic skills,
and mechanical skills. A variety of other work related personality traits include risk
aversion, locus of control, dogmatism, authoritarianism, values and beliefs etc. The utility
of any measure of personality in applied organizational settings lies in its ability to
predict and explain actual behavior and performance. The personality of employees
should be of concern to mangers only to the extent that it is predictive of performance in
specific job settings.

In sorting through and considering the variety of human characteristics to be considered

as part of personality, the manager should evaluate each proposed personality
characteristics or dimensions in terms of how well it predicts behavior and performance
in specific organizational settings.
5.2 OTHER KEY PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS RELEVANT
TO WORK PLACE:

Some of the important personality factors that determine what kinds of behaviors are
exhibited at work include need patterns, locus of control, introversion and extroversion,
tolerance of ambiguity, self-esteem and self-concept, authoritarianism and dogmatism,
Machiavellianism, Type A or B Personality and work ethic.

5.2.1 Authoritarianism and Dogmatism:

People who are likely to have authoritarian orientation tend to use their power more
aggressively towards their subordinates and create a very defensive climate in the
department, while at the same time they are being very submissive or docile towards their
supervisors. Dogmatism refers to the extent to which people are flexible or rigid in
dealing others. Managers who are exhibiting these traits are likely to be detached from
others and people show much of hatredness in them.

A combination of high authoritarianism and dogmatism is obviously not conducive to

creativity and organizational effectiveness since new ideas that people at lower levels in
the system have will neither be listened to nor implemented. Certain societies tend to
accept authority much better than others, and hence authoritarianism can be traced to
needs of dependency in members in some cultures who feel comfortable when they are
told the ways in which things have to be carried out in their work.

5.2.2 Machiavellianism:

This refers to the extent to which people are manipulative and tactic in achieving ones
own goals. These people strongly believe that ends can justify means. People who are
high Machiavellian tend to be cool, willing to twist and turn facts to influence others and
try to gain control of people, events, and situations by manipulating the system to their
advantage. High Machiavellians may be successful only for a short period but in long run
they tend to be distrusted and disliked by many in the department and finally they may be
ineffective.

High-Machiavellians manipulates more, win more, are persuaded less and have a grater
influence over other people than do low-Machiavellians. Yet these High-Machiavellians
outcomes are moderated by situational factors. It has been found that High-
Machiavellians flourish:
when they interact face-to-face with others rather than indirectly
when the situation has a minimum number of rules and regulations, thus allowing
latitude for improvisation
where emotional involvement with details irrelevant to winning distracts low-
Machiavellianism
 when forming coalitions which they use to their advantage.

The following are the strategies to protect against the manipulative actions of High-
Machiavellians:
i) Expose them to others: Expose the broken promises, manipulative strategies
and lies of high-Machiavellian to others.
ii) Pay attention to what people do, not to what they say: High-Machiavellians
make great promises and are great persuaders, so pay attention to the action
that a person carries out and avoid being swayed by smooth promises
iii) Avoid situations that give high-Machiavellians the edge: Do not make
decisions quickly where emotions are high and a person puts forward a
persuasive argument and pushes for an immediate decision. Try not to face
this person on a one-to-one basis. Invites others to participate in the meeting. :

Risk Taking

This refers to the extent to which people are willing to take chances. This propensity to
assume or to avoid risk has been shown to have an effect on their decision making
capabilities and information gathering process. High risk taking managers made more
rapid decision and used less information in making their choices than did the low risk
taking managers.

The requirement of Risk taking propensity varies from the different types of job demands.
For instance, a high risk taking propensity may lead to more effective performance for a
stockbroker in brokerage firm than an accountant whose job demands more cautious
approach in dealing each and every one of the things. An accountant performing auditing
activities is expected to have low-risk taking propensity as his nature of job demands to
follow a book of rules and regulations.

5.2.3 Type A and Type B Personality:

This refers to the extent to which people tend exhibit certain characteristics. Type A
person feels a chronic sense of time urgency, are highly achievement oriented, exhibit a
competitive drive and are impatient when their work is slowed down for any reason.
Type B persons are easygoing individuals who do not have sense of time urgency, and
who do not experience the competitive drive.

Type A Mangers do operate under moderate to high level of stress. They subject
themselves to more or less continuous time pressure, creating for themselves a life of
deadlines. These characteristics result in some rather specific behavior outcomes. For
example, Type A people are fast workers because they emphasize quantity over quality.
In managerial positions, Type A executives demonstrate their competitiveness by
working long hours and not infrequently making poor decisions because they make them
too quickly. Type As are also rarely creative. Because of their concern with quantity and
speed, they rely on past experiences when faced with problems. They do not allocate the
time that is necessary to develop unique solutions to new problems.
Which category of people Type A or Type B more successful in organization? The
research results reported that great sales people are usually Tape A category. But the
senior executives are likely to be Type B category. The main reason is that Type A
people are usually trade off quality of effort for quantity. Promotions in corporate and
professional organization usually go to those who are wise rather than to those who are
merely hasty, to those who are tactful rather than to those who are hostile, and to those
who are creative rather than to those who are merely agile in competitive strife.

The following are their typical characteristics of Type A and Type B people. Type A
people are likely to more chances to get coronary heart diseases than Type B people.

Type A Personality
Competitive
High Need for Achievement
Aggressive
Works Fast
Impatient
Restless
Extremely Alert
Tense Facial Muscles
Constant Time Pressure

Type B Personality
Able to Take Time to Enjoy Leisure
Not Preoccupied with Achievement
Easy Going Works at Steady Pace
Seldom Impatient
Relaxed
Not Easily Frustrated
Moves Slowly
Seldom Lacks Enough Time

5.2.4 Tolerance for Ambiguity

This dimension refers to the extent to which individuals are threatened by or have
difficulty coping with situations that are ambiguous, where change occurs rapidly or
predictably, where information is inadequate or unclear or where complexity exists. This
personality characteristic indicates the level of uncertainty that people can tolerate with
out experiencing undue stress and can still function effectively. Managers with higher
tolerance of ambiguity scores are more likely to be entrepreneurial in their actions, to
screen out less information in a complex environment, and to choose specialties in their
occupations those possess less-structured tasks. It is also reported that individuals who
are more tolerant of ambiguity have more difficulty focusing on a single important
element of information they are inclined to pay attention to a variety of items and
they may have somewhat less ability to concentrate without being distracted by
interruptions.

There are three dimensions in Tolerance of Ambiguity. They are Novelty, Complexity
and Insolubility.

Tolerance of Ambiguity towards Novelty: This refers to the extent to which you are
tolerant of new, unfamiliar information or situations.

Tolerance of Ambiguity towards Complexity: This refers to the extent to which you
are tolerant of multiple, distinctive or unrelated information.

Tolerance of Ambiguity towards Insolubility: This refers to the extent to which you
are tolerant of problems that are very difficult to solve alternative solutions are not
evident, information is unavailable or the problems compensate seem unrelated to each
other.

In general, the more tolerant people are of novelty, complexity, and insolubility, the more
likely they are to succeed as managers in information-rich, ambiguous environment. They
are less overwhelmed by these ambiguous circumstances.

5.2.5 Work Ethic Orientation:

This refers to the extent to which people are committed to work and involved in their
activities. Extreme work ethic values could lead to traits of workoholism and workaholic
people tend to give predominant interest to work which might lead to premature burnout
and health problems such as hypertension, anxiety etc. Some individuals are highly work-
oriented while others try to do the minimum that is necessary go get by without being
fired on the job. The extremely work ethic oriented person gets greatly involved in the
job and lives up to being described as living, eating and breathing the job. Extreme
work ethic values could lead to traits of workoholism when work becomes to be
considered as the only primary motive for living with very little outside interests.

5.2.6 Matching Personality and Job Types:

This refers to the extent to which people successfully match their personalities with their
jobs. If there is a perfect relationship between the job and personality, the job satisfaction
and production turnover among the employees will be significantly higher. John Holland
present six personality types and proposes that the satisfaction and the propensity to leave
a job depend on the degree to which people successfully match their personalities with a
suitable occupational environment. Hollands typology of personality is given as below:

Vocational Typology Personality Characteristics Congruent Occupations

Realistic Shy, genuine, persistent, Mechanic, drill press operator,
stable, conforming, assembly-line worker, farmer
practical
Investigative Analytical, original, Biologists, economist,
curious, independent mathematician, news reporter
Social Sociable, friendly, Social worker, teacher,
cooperative, understanding, counselor, clinical psychologists
Conventional Conforming, efficient, Accountant, corporate manager,
practical, unimaginative, bank teller, file clerk
inflexible
Enterprising Self-confident, ambitious, Lawyer, real estate agent, public
energetic, domineering relations specialist, small
business manager
Artistic Imaginative, disorderly, Painter, musician, writer,
idealistic, emotional, interior decorator
impractical

Realistic: The type of activities for this category involves physical activities
which require skill, strength and coordination. The suitable personality
characteristics to meet these activities would be shy, genuine, persistent, stable,
conforming, practical etc. The congruent occupations for this category of people
are assembly line worker, farmer, mechanic etc.

Investigative: The type of activities for this category involves thinking,

organizing and understanding. The appropriate characteristics to meet these
activities would be analytical, original, curious, independent etc. The congruent
occupations for this category of people are biologists, economist, mathematician,
news reporter.

Social: The type of activities for this category involves helping and developing
others. The relevant personality characteristics to meet these s activities would be
sociable, friendly, cooperative, understanding. The congruent occupations for this
category of people are social worker, teacher, counselor, clinical psychologists.

Conventional: The type of activities for this category involves rule-regulated,

orderly and unambiguous activities. The appropriate characteristics to these
activities would be conforming, efficient, practical, unimaginative, and inflexible.
The congruent occupations for this category of people are accountant, corporate
manager, and bank teller file clerk.

Enterprising: The type of activist for this category involves verbal activities
specific to influence others and attain power. The suitable personality
characteristics to meet these activities would be self confident, ambitious,
energetic, and domineering. The congruent occupations for this category of
people are lawyer, real estate agent, public relations specialist, small business
manager.
 Artistic: The type of activities for this category involves ambiguous and
unsystematic activities that allow creative expression. The suitable personality
characteristics to meet theses activities would be imaginative, disorderly,
idealistic, emotional, and impractical. The congruent occupations are painter,
musician, writer, interior decorator etc.

Hollands model proposes that a realistic person in a realistic jobs is in a more compatible
situation than is a realistic person in an investigate job. Sociable person should be in
social jobs, conventional people in convention jobs and so forth. Due care must be
exercised to ensure a perfect between personality characteristics and the type of jobs
offered to the candidates during the selection process. The person-organization fit
essentially argues that people leave jobs that are not compatible with their personalities.