1 INTRODUCTION

OB = organizational behaviour

There are 3 main concerns in OB; staff selection, staff development, and staff motivation.

2 Understanding behaviour

Behaviours associated with complex and challenging mental health, dementia or other
neurological conditions include aggression, wandering, agitation. These apparent changes in the
personality of the person with the disease are a major source of distress both to the person who is
presenting the behaviours and to those who experience them – the caregiver, the family members,
and the service providers in all sectors of the health-care system.

People differ from each other in their needs and values. Group effort eases their task of
achieving organizational goals effectively. Human relations can be defined as motivating people in
organizations to work as a team. Although human relationships have existed from quite some time
in the past, the study of human relations has developed only recently. Social sciences like sociology,
psychology, anthropology, economics and political science have contributed to the development of
OB and human relations.

Goal of Human Relations

Create a win-win situation by:

 satisfying employee needs while achieving organizational objectives

 Win-win situation occurs when the organization and the employees get what they want

Four Myths of Human Relations

Myth 1: Technical skills are more important than human relations skills

Myth 2: Human relations is just common sense

Myth 3: Diversity is overemphasized

Myth 4: Leaders are born not made

The Total Person Approach

Realizes that an organization employs the whole person, not just his or her job skills

People play many roles throughout their lives , throughout each day

Organizations view employees as total people. Organizations are trying to give employees a better
quality of work life

Levels of Behavior

Individual behavior – influences group behavior

Group Level Behavior-– consists of the things two or more people do and say as they interact

Organizational Level Behavior

Organization – a group of people working to achieve an objective

Created to produce goods and services for the larger society

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR: A BACKGROUND

OB was studied by Frederick Taylor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

Taylor attempted to analyse the most productive way of doing manual tasks

Taylor had 3 basic objectives:

1. to select the best people for the job

2. to instruct them in the best methods

3. to give incentives in the form of higher wages to the best workers

Taylor’s view emphasize on the financial basis of staff motivation, however, the other issues of
motivation should be encouraged staff not just on such rewards

Theory X and Theory Y by Donald McGregordraws attention to the way that expectations influence
behaviour

Theory X holds that:

 The average human has an innate dislike of work

 There is a need therefore for coercion, direction and control

 People tend to avoid responsibility

Theory Y holds that:

 Work is as natural as rest or play

 External control and coercion are not the only ways of bringing about effort directed
towards and organization’s ends

 Commitment to objectives is a function of the rewards associated with their achievement

 The average human can learn to accept and further seek responsibility

 The capacity to exercise imagination and other creative qualities is widely distributed

One way of judging whether a manager espouses Theory X or Theory Y is to observe how
staff react when the boss is absent:

 If there is no discernible change then this is a Theory Y environment;

 If everyone visibly relaxes, it is a Theory X environment

 Therefore, A “reward” does not have to be a financial reward- it could be something like a
sense of achievement

 Theory X and Theory Y illustrated how the state of mind of workers influenced their
productivity

SELECT HE RIGHT PERSON FOR THE JOB

Taylor stressed “ the need for the right person for the job”.

Examples of question;

 What sort of characteristics should they be looking for?

 Is an experienced programmer better than a new graduate with a first class mathematics
degree?

Recruitment is often an organizational responsibility

There are 2 types of candidates that are distinguished by Meredith Belbin:

1. @eligible candidate

2. @suitable candidate

Eligible candidates have curriculum vitae (CV) which shows, for example, the ‘right’ number if
years in some previous post and the ‘right’ paper qualifications.
Suitable candidates can actually do the job well

A mistake is to select an eligible candidate who is not in fact suitable. Thus, Belbin suggests we
should try to assess actual skills rather than past experience and provide training to make good
minor gaps in expertise . And it also has the general approach for recruitment process

RECRUITRMENT PROCESS
1. Create a job specification
2. Create a job holder profile
3. Obtain applicants
4. Examine CVs
5. Interviews (e.g. aptitude tests, personality tests and the examination of samples of previous
work)
6. Other procedures (e.g. medical examination)

What is the purpose of instruction?

The purpose of instruction is to help people learn. The goal of instructional designers is to make
learning easier, quicker, and more enjoyable. Some people view training as a process of finding out
who the brightest employees are. But performance in a course is not very highly correlated with the
basic ability to be good on the job. We believe that an instructional designer's job is to help
everyone to learn and be successful.

Challenge: How to make good instruction?

The key to improving our instruction is to know what methods of instruction to use when. It's
helpful to think of different methods of instruction as different tools for a carpenter. If you only
have a hammer, then everything looks like a nail to you. And you won't be able to make a very good
piece of furniture. So what we need is a knowledge base about methods of instruction to
supplement the creative, "art" aspect of training. Such a knowledge base would offer optimal
methods for given situations.

But what are the important situations that call for different methods? How can we tell what
methods (tools) to use when?

What are the relevant kinds of learning?

Perhaps the most important aspect of the situation is the kind of learning that is to be facilitated.
Knowing about the kinds of learning helps us to do a better job of teaching them.
The most basic distinction is Benjamin Bloom's three domains:

1. Cognitive learning (thoughts), such as teaching someone to add fractions.

2. Affective learning (feelings, values), such as teaching someone to not want to smoke.

3. Physical or motor learning (actions), such as teaching someone to touch type.

6 MOTIVATION
The Taylorist model:
 Taylor’s viewpoint is reflected in the use of piece-rates in manufacturing industries and sales
bonuses amongst sales forces.
 Piece-rates can cause difficulties if a new system will change work practices.
 If new technology improves productivity, adjusting piece-rates to reflect this will be a
sensitive issue.
 “Piece-rates” are where workers are paid a fixed sum for each item they produce.
 “Day-rates” refer to payment for time worked
 Rewards based on piece-rates need to relate directly to work produced
 So, this model emphasizes on the reward system

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs:

 The motivation of individual varies.
 Money is a strong motivator when you are broke
 However, as the basic need for cash is satisfied, other motivations are likely emerge. In
practice, people are likely to be motivated by different things at different stages of their life .

Herzberg’s two-factor theory:

 Some things about a job can make you dissatisfied.
 If the causes of this dissatisfaction are removed, this does not necessarily make the job more
exciting
 There are two sets of factors about a job:

Hygiene or maintenance factors

 Hygiene or maintenance factors, which can make you dissatisfied if they are not right, for
example the level of pay or the working conditions;
  Motivators, which make you feel that the job is worthwhile, like a sense of achievement or
the challenge of the work itself

A model of motivation developed by Vroom and his colleagues.

It identifies three influences on motivation:

expectancy: the belief that working harder will lead to a better performance

instrumentality: the belief that better performance will be rewarded

perceived value: of the resulting reward

Motivation will be high when all three factors are high

A zero level for any one of the factors can remove motivation

7. The OLDHAM- HACKMAN JOB CHARACTERISTICS MODEL:

Managers should group together the elements of tasks to be carried out so that they form
meaningful and satisfying assignments.

Oldham and Hackman suggest that the satisfaction that a job gives is based on 5 factors

The first three factors make the job ‘meaningful’ to the person who is doing it

These three factors:

skill variety: the number of different skills that the job holder has the opportunity to exercise

task identify: the degree to which your work and its results are identifiable as belonging to you

task significance: the degree to which your job has an influence on others

The other two factors are:

autonomy: the discretion you have about the way that you do the job

feedback: the information you get back about the results of your works

Methods of improving motivation;

Set specific goals: these goals need to be demanding and yet acceptable to staff. Involving staff in
the setting of goals helps to gain acceptance for them.

Provide feedback: Not only do goals have to be set but staff have to have regular feedback about
how they are progressing
Considering job design: Jobs can be altered to make them more interesting and give staff more
feeling of responsibility

Two measures are often used to enhance job design;

job enlargement-> The person doing the job carries out a wider variety of activities. It is opposite
of increasing specialization

job enrichment -> The job holder carries out tasks that are normally done at a managerial or
supervisory level

8. WORKING IN GROUPS:

A problem with major software projects is that they always involve working in groups, and many
people attracted to software development find this difficult.

It is not easy for people from different backgrounds to work together as a team so it is suggested
that teams should go through five basic stages of development.

9 BECOMING A TEAM:

Forming: The members of the group get to know each other and try to set up some ground rules
about behaviour

Storming: Conflicts arise as various members of the group try to exert leadership and the group’s
methods of operation are being established

Norming: Conflicts are largely settled and a feeling of group identity emerges .

Performing: The emphasis is now on the tasks at hand

Adjourning: The group disbands .

Model of Team Development

Belbin suggests that ‘co-ordinator’ and ‘implementer’ are better descriptions than ‘chair’ and ‘team
worker’. A new role is added: the ‘specialist’, the ‘techie’ who likes to acquire knowledge for its
own sake.
A team need a balance of different types of people:

o The chair o The plant

o The monitor evaluator o The shaper

o The team worker

o The resource investigator o The complete-finisher

o The company worker

The chair: not necessarily brilliant leaders but they must be good at running meeting, being calm,
strong but tolerant

The plant: someone who is essentially very good at generating ideas and potential solutions to
problems

The monitor-evaluator: good at evaluating ideas and potential solutions and helping to selecting
the best one

The shaper: rather a worrier, who helps to direct the team’s attention to the important issues

The team worker: skilled at creating a good working environment

The resource investigator: adept at finding resources in terms of both physical resources and
information

The complete-finisher: concerned with completing tasks

The company worker: a good team player who is willing to undertake less attractive tasks if they
are needed for team success

To be a good team member you must be able to: time your interventions,

e.g. not overwhelm the others in the team; be flexible ; be restrained ; keep the common goals of
the teamin mind all the time.
Group performance:

Categories
1. Additive tasks

2. Compensatory tasks

3. Disjunctive tasks

4. Conjunctive tasks

10 DECISION MAKING:

Decision can be categorized as being:

structured: generally relatively simple, routine decisions where rules can be applied in a fairly
straightforward way

Unstructured: more complex and often requiring a degree of creativity

*Another way to categorize decisions is by the amount if risk and uncertainty that is involved*

To make it more efficient and effective -> training members to follow a set procedure

Brainstorming techniques can help groups to create more ideas .

11 LEADERSHIP:

coercive power: the ability to force someone to do something by threatening punishment

connection power: which is based on having access to those who have power

legitimate power: which is based on a person’s title conferring a special status

reward power: where the holder can give rewards to those who carry out tasks to his or her
satisfaction

Personal power;

expert power: which comes from being the person who is able to do a specialized task

information power: where the holder has exclusive access to information

referent power: which is based on the personal attractiveness of the leader

Leadership style:

There are 2 axes: directive vs. permissive and autocratic vs. democratic:

1. directive autocrat: makes decisions alone, close supervision of implementation

2. permissive autocrat: makes decision alone, subordinates have latitude in implementation

3. Directive democrat: makes decisions participatively, close supervision of implementation

4. Permissive democrat: makes decisions participatively, subordinates have latitude in

implementation .

12 Organizational Structures

An organizational structure defines how activities such as task allocation, coordination and
supervision are directed towards the achievement of organizational aims. It can also be considered
as the viewing glass or perspective through which individuals see their organization and its
environment.

Structure gives members clear guidelines for how to proceed. A clearly-established structure
gives the group a means to maintain order and resolve disagreements.

Structure binds members together. It gives meaning and identity to the people who join the
group, as well as to the group itself.

Structure in any organization is inevitable -- an organization, by definition, implies a structure.

Your group is going to have some structure whether it chooses to or not. It might as well be the
structure which best matches up with what kind of organization you have, what kind of people are
in it, and what you see yourself doing.

It is important to deal with structure early in the organization's development. Structural

development can occur in proportion to other work the organization is doing, so that it does not
crowd out that work. And it can occur in parallel with, at the same time as, your organization's
growing accomplishments, so they take place in tandem, side by side. This means that you should
think about structure from the beginning of your organization's life. As your group grows and
changes, so should your thinking on the group's structure.
ELEMENTS OF STRUCTURE

While the need for structure is clear, the best structure for a particular coalition is harder to
determine. The best structure for any organization will depend upon who its members are, what the
setting is, and how far the organization has come in its development.

Regardless of what type of structure your organization decides upon, three elements will always be
there. They are inherent in the very idea of an organizational structure.

They are:

Some kind of governance

Rules by which the organization operates

A distribution of work

14 HEALTH AND SAFETY:

 Responsibility for safety must be clearly defined at all levels. Some points that will need to
be considered include:

 Top management must be committed to the safety policy

 The delegation of responsibilities for safety must be clear.

 Those to whom responsibilities are delegated must understand the responsibilities and agree
to them

 Deployment of a safety officer and the support of experts in particular technical areas

 Consultation on safety

 An adequate budgeting for safety costs