B.B.A. 3rd Sem.

Subject- Organizational Behaviour

SYLLABUS
B.B.A. III SEM

Subject – Organizational Behaviour

UNIT – I OB History and Development; Importance of OB to the field of
management. Basic behavioral Process: Cognitive functions -
intelligence, Creativity, Problem solving, Learning and its process
- implications,
UNIT – II Attitudes and Values, Personality - Concepts, theories, estimation
and applications; Perception - implications, counseling -
importance and relevance.
UNIT – III Motivation - Theories and applications to management,
UNIT – IV Leadership - Role and functions of a leader, Leadership theories
and styles, implications for management, Alternatives to
leadership;
UNIT – V Organizational Development - approaches, intervention
strategies, implementation; Organizational culture - relevance of
culture in the changing scenario, Organizational Politics,
impression management and defensive behavior
UNIT – VI Organizational change : Approaches and resistance to change,
Manager as a change agent; Conflict management, nature,
sources. Current applications and future trends in OB.

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B.B.A. 3rd Sem. Subject- Organizational Behaviour

UNIT – I
Meaning of Organization
Organization may be defined as the group/ collection or a gathering o people for achieving a common
purpose, goal or objective in a proper cohesive and well defined manner.

Meaning of Behavior
It is the way in which one acts or conducts oneself, especially toward others.

Meaning & definition of organizational Behaviour

Organizational behavior is directly concerned with the understanding, prediction and control of human
behavior in organizations. It is an area of study that investigate the impact that individuals, groups and
structure have on behavior within organizations.

“Organizational behavior is a subset of management activities concerned with understanding,

predicting and influencing individual behavior in organizational setting.” –
Challahan, Fleenor and Kudson

“Organizational behavior is the study and application of knowledge about how people act within an
organization. It is a human tool for human benefit. It applies broadly to the behavior of people in all
types of organization.” – Newstrom and Davis

Organizational behavior is a field of study that investigate the impact that inviduals, groups and
structure have on behavior within the organizations for the purpose of applying such knowledge
toward improving an organization’s effectiveness.” – Stephens P. Robbins

Characteristics of OB
1. Science as well as Art – OB is both science and art. It is a systematic body of knowledge about
human behavior so it is considered as science but it is in exact science as human behaviour
cannot be predicted exactly so sometimes it cannot provide answers to specific organizational
problems. As an art the knowledge of OB is applied to improve organizational effectiveness.
2. Human tool – Organizational behaviour is a human tool for human benefit which helps the
manager of certain actions. It also provides the education needed for creative thinking to save
human problems in organizations.
3. Action & goal oriented – OB is a goal directed discipline that studies human behaviour and
explain it in organizational context as well as helps in taking proper action to mould that
individual behaviour towards the goal achievement of organization.
4. Commonality of Interest – OB helps in providing commonality of interest between individual
goals and organizational goals and objectives. It provides super-ordinate goals that unite the
variety of needs that bring people to organizations.
5. Holistic Concepts – OB is a holistic concept which relates people whole group, organization as
a whole system. It gives a broad view of people in organization and studies many factors that
influence their behaviour. It gives a broad view of human related issues & problems.
6. Behavioural Approach to Management – OB is a behavioural approach to management. It is a
part of management related with analyzing behaviour of human beings in group & organization.
It is distinct field of study.
7. Integrating Approach – OB is an integrating approach of human technical and ethical values s
work which draws knowledge from various disciplines such as anthropology, Psychology, Law,
Sociology, Economics, IT Political Science, engineering etc.
8. Cause and Effect Relationship – Human behavior is generally taken in terms of cause and
effect relationship and not in philosophical terms. It helps in predicting the behavior of
individuals. It provides generalizations that managers can use to anticipate the effect of certain
activities on human behavior.

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B.B.A. 3rd Sem. Subject- Organizational Behaviour

9. Organizational Behavior is a Branch of Social Sciences – Organizational behavior is heavily

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

Elements of OB
PEOPLE ORGANIZATIONAL
(Individual & group) STRUCTURE

EXTERNAL TECHNOLOGY
ENVIRONMENT

Individual: The most important element of OB. OB studies the behavioural of individual (or in a group)
and the various factors influencing the behavior and its effects on organization.
Group: Group can be formal, informal, small, large, official, unofficial in nature. Group is dynamic ever
changing in nature.
Organization structure: OB establishes various post & positions for people in organization & thus
creates a professional relationship in between them.
Technology: Use of technology also influences human behavior
External environment:- Organization is a part broader external environment. Environment affects the
organization through technological or scientific developed, social, cultural and Govt. actions.

Areas of Organizational Behaviour–

1. Behaviour of People in organization – OB includes study psychology anthropology and
sociology to gain in sight into Behaviour of individuals in organizational settings. It includes.
 Perception, cognition & learning
 Personality & motivation
 Leadership, Power, Conformity, Communication
 Decision making etc.
2. Organizational Structure – OB studies the organizational structure as to how people are
organized or arranged to achieve organizational goals. It includes –
 Task identification
 Departmentation
 Co-ordination & control mechanism
 Process & Procedures like promoting, hiring, compensation
 Organizational Farm
 Size
 Centralization of decision making
 The relationship among these variables.
3. Behaviour of Organization – OB not only studies the interaction of individuals with organization
with each other but it also study the interaction of organization into its environment i.e.,
organizations behaviour with external actors by following methods –
a. Adoption of new Practices such as –
 down sizing
 Team based structure
 Re-engineering
b. Adoption to changing conditions –

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B.B.A. 3rd Sem. Subject- Organizational Behaviour

 Global competition
 Increasing technological use
 Changing social structure (status if women disabled ethic group)

Importance of OB
1. OB provides a road map to individuals in organization. It helps people to understand their
behavior and its impact while working in organization.
2. OB helps a manger to motivate his subordinates regularly as it helps subordinates regularly as
it helps the manager understand the basis of motivation and what he should do to motivate
others.
3. Understanding of OB is useful to maintain cordial industrial relations.
4. OB helps an individual in maintaining good intrapersonal & interpersonal relations.
5. OB helps in influencing organizational events by understanding the organizational culture &
behavior appropriately and effectively to influence the environment they live in For ex: how to
communicate effectively, managing conflicts, better decision making, more effective team work
and team dynamics.

Disciplines of OB
Organizational behavior is a applied behavioural science which is drawn from no. of behavioural
disciplines like
1. Psychology: Psychology is the study and understanding of human mind and thinking and the
behavioural aspects based on such thinking. Psychology tries to measure, explain at times even
modify the behaviour of human beings & animals. It includes personality, perception, learning,
motivation, attitude etc.
2. Sociology: Sociology addresses the study of group behaviours. It studies the behaviour of the
people in the fellow human beings in a group. It studies how much people are socially active. It
includes group dynamics, communication, leadership conflict management, formal and informal
organizations etc.
3. Anthropology: It is the study of human culture its history and evaluation. It deals both the
development of human values, systems, norms, sentiments etc. It also studies the impact of
organizational culture on the behaviour of employees. It deals with individual culture,
organizational culture.
Besides these three are some other disciplines such as social psychology, law, economics, practical
science, engineering etc.

Foundation/Assumptions of OB

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B.B.A. 3rd Sem. Subject- Organizational Behaviour

1. Individual differences: Each individual differs with each other in different ways like
intelligence, physique, personality, thinking behaviour etc and organization has to follow
different styles to deal with them and to get the work done. OB begins with individual and
studying their distinct behaviour.
2. A Whole Person: OB is based the concept that when a person is appointed only his/her skill is
not hired but their social background, bikes, dislikes, pride etc, are also hired. Managers should
try to develop a work place a home away from none and should focus to provide a better person
in terms of growth and development.
3. Caused Behaviour: OB lays on the concept that behaviour of individuals towards any other
person, thing or a situation is caused due to some reason behind it. Behaviour of the employee
depends on thinking of his/ her towards the situation as right or wrong.
4. Human dignity: This concept is based on ethical philosophy- at treating human beings
differently from other factors of production with complete respect in humanity & dignity not as
the economic tool.
5. Organizations are social systems: OB treats organizations as the social system having both
psychological & social needs & roles like individuals. Two types of social system exist in
organizations formal and informal social system and organization environment is dynamic in
nature with all the parts of system being interdependent & influenced with each other.

Approaches to study OB
1. Human Resources Approach: This approach recognize fact that human resources is the
central and most important resources of any organization and should be developed towards
high competency, creativity so that they can contribute to the success of the organization. This
approach is also called supportive approach.
2. Contingency Approach: This approach assumes that there is no best way available in any
organizational situations and each situation is contingent or influenced by many other
variables. Appropriate managerial action on any situation depends on various elements related
to that situation.
3. Systems Approach: Systems approach views OB as a system of which all its parts or activities
as interrelated.
4. Productivity approach: Productivity is the ratio output input shows the efficiency and
effectiveness of organization. It is expressed in terms of economic inputs and outputs but
human and social inputs and outputs are also important OB decision involve human, social and
economic issues and so productivity is the significant part of literature of OB.
5. Internationalism: Internationalism studies that how people select interpret behaviour in
various situations to determine individuals' behaviour.

Models of OB
1. Autocratic Model- This model is more of authority oriented in approach. It is based on the
phenomenon that person who is in command have the power to demand. Organizations having
autocratic environment have the superiors who feel that employees are lazy & try to avoid work
so they need to be directed, command pushed & persuaded to the work. They feel that
employees should be given orders & should be closely supervised & controlled for their work.
Boss has the power to command & control. Employees in these organizations work under fear,
frustration, harassment, unsecure & performance level is relatively low. They work only in the
fear of losing their job.
2. Custodial Model-This method is reward oriented (Extrinsic or economic reward) focusing on
satisfying the monetary, physiological, security & welfare needs of employees to motivate then
to work efficiently for achieving goals & objectives of organization. This model focus that money
is best way to motivate employed to increase their productivity & to reduce their level of
frustration & insecurity rather than by forcing & ordering them.

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3. Supportive model- This is a leadership oriented model and focus of supportive leadership
style to motivate and improve the performance of employees at work rather than by using
powers or giving monetary rewards. It focuses on providing cordial & supportive organizational
climate & assume that workers are not lazy & work shinkers & if they are (instrinsicly) awarded
i.e. if their psychological needs are satisfied, they can be efficient at their work & workplace.
This model is more successful in other nations in comparison to India.
4. Collegial Model- Collegial means a group of persons having a common purpose. This model is
based on the concept of treating employees as the partners & important members of
organization so that they can relate themselves more dedicatedly towards organizations & can
work with loyalty, dedication, faithfulness & hard work for achieving its goals. This model
focuses on team spirit, brand building & self-discipline. Workers have more job-satisfaction,
job-involvement & degree of fulfillment.

EVOLUTION OF OB – HAWTHRONE STUDIES

Hawthrone studies were conducted during the human relations movement. Elton Mayo who is also
called as the "father of human relations school" conducted this study at western electric Hawthrone
plant (1927-1932) to evaluate the attitudes and psychological reactions of workers in on-the lab
situations. Earlier from 1924 to 1927 national research council along with western electric co.
conducted the study to determine the impact of lighting (illumination) & improvement in the working
conditions on the productivity of workers but they didn't found any consistent relationship and output
tended to increase inspite of variation in illumination or working conditions. So they conducted the
research to find out the real factors other than working conditions which were influencing output.

Stages of Experiment
a. Test Room study/Illumination- This study was done on two group of female workers to
determine effect of changes in working conditions an employee’s efficiency and they found that
despite of deterioration in working conditions there was increase in the output due to
favourable change in workers attitude caused by changes in pattern of supervision, social
conditions of workers and so on. By making they feel important and by providing their
participations workers attitude was changed.
b. Relay Assembly room study- six female employee assembling telephone relay were brought
into test room separate from the plant. That group was very informal & friendly with each
other. The main object was to study the effect of rest & recreation on output on observer was
there to record the observation. They found that rest period, walking houses, incentives
payments and temperature didn't had a very significant co-relation with productivity. It was the
feelings of importance due to participation, tension-free inter relations, informal atmosphere
and group cohesion were the causes of increased productivity and importance of human
relationship in industry was recognized.
c. Bank wiring observation room study- It was conducted between 1931 and 1932. Study was
done on 14 male workers employed in bank wiring room to judge the influence of informal
group on human behaviour as influence of social environment on individual attitudes. A
incentives wage plan was used as the hypothesis that workers would produce more
individuality and help others to take benefit of bonus but it was found that group laid down and
norm of day's work' of producing 6600 unit per person per day and group pressure was applied
to ensure that members of the group did not produce more than group standards.
d. Mass interviewing programme- Under this programme about 20000 interviews were
conducted to find opinions or attitude of employees towards the job, the company working
conditions etc. it was found that experiences, perceptions, interactions and interpersonal
relations were found to be the basic factor responsible for behaviour at work place.

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Contribution of Hawthrone studies

1. Organizational is a social system.
2. Social environment on the job affects the people
3. In formal organization an informal organization also exists and is affected by and affects the
formal organization.
4. A conflict between organizational & individual goals often exist which increases the integration
between two.
5. Man is interdependent and his behaviour can be predicted in terms of social & psychological
factors.
6. Man is diversely motivated and fulfills different types of needs.
7. Man often behaves irrationally.
8. Communication is necessary for the functioning of the organization and the feelings/
Sentiments of people who work in it.
9. Team work is essential factor and sound organization functioning.

Challenges of OB –
1. Managerial
a) Workforce diversity
b) Changing Demographics of workforce
c) Empowering workforce
2. Workplace issues & challenges
a) Employee Privacy
b) Employee rights
c) Unionism
d) Changed employee expectations
3. Organizational challenges
a) Improving quality and productivity
b) Managing technology & innovation
c) Coping with temporariness
d) Ethical behavior & culture
4. Global challenges
a) Changes due to liberalization, privatization & globalization
b) Development of Corporate re-organization

LEARNING
Meaning of learning:
Learning is the process by which individuals acquire knowledge & experience to be applied in future
reaction to situation. Learning refers to this modification of behavior practice, training and experience.

Learning may be defined as a relatively permanent change in behaviour that occurs as a result of Prior
Experience
According to the Dictionary of Psychology – “Learning means the process of acquiring the ability to
respond adequately to a situation which may or may not have been previously encountered, the
factorable modification of response tendencies consequent upon previous experience, particularly the
items in new series of complexity coordinated motor response, the fixation of items in memory. So that
they can be recalled or organized in the process of acquiring insight into a situation.”

Learning has taken place if an individual behaves, reacts, responds as a result of experience in a manner
different from the way he formally Behaved. W. Mchehee

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Nature of Learning
1. Learning invariably involves a change though not necessary improvement in Behaviour. The
learning may be good or bad from an organizations point of view for ex., bad habits, prejudice,
work restrictions may be learned by an individual.
2. Change in behaviour must be relatively permanent temporary changes may be only reflexive
and fail to represent any learning. Changes called by fatigue or temporary adaptations are not
covered in learning.
3. Change in behaviour should occur as a result of Experience, practice or training. The change
may not be evident until a situation arises in which new behaviour can occur.
4. Learning is reflected in Behavior – A change in an individual’s thought process or attitudes
not accompanied by behavior is not learning. Further learning needs to result in behaviour
potentiality and not necessary in the behavior itself. For example, if a person is thinking of using
drugs, but has not actually used them and he finds out that a friend of his has died because of
drugs, he will never get involved with drugs. This experience has changed his behavior
potential.
5. Reinforcement – The practice or experience must be reinforcement in order for learning to
occur. If reinforcement does not accompany the practice or experience the behavior will
eventually disappear.

Theories of Learning
There are four theories which explain how individuals learn new patterns of behaviour

Classical Operant Social Cognitive

Conditioning Conditioning Learning Learning
S R R S

Learning Theories

1. Classical Conditioning
Learning through classical conditioning (C.C) was first studied by Ivan Pavlov, a famous Nobel Price
winning physiologist, at the turns of 20th century. The C.C. theories deals with the association of one
event with another desired event resulting in a desired behaviour of learning
Pavlov conducted an experiment on a dog to study the relation between the dog’s salivation and ringing
of a bell. A simple surgical procedure helped him to measure accurately the amount of salvia secreted
by dog. When Pavlov presented a piece of meat to the dog, he noticed a great deal of salivation. He
termed the food unconditional stimulus (food automatically caused salivation)
And salivation – an unconditioned Response when the dog sew the meat it salivated during the second
stage
Pavlov merely rang a bell (neutral stimulus) the dog did not salivate. Pavlov subsequently introduced
the sound of bell each time the meat was given to dog. Thus meat & ringing of bell were linked together.
The dog eventually leant to salivate in response to ringing bell even when there was no meat.

Classical conditioning presented in figure

A) Before Conditioning
Meat (US) → Salivation (UR)
Bell (Neutral stimulus) → No response
B) During Conditioning
Meat (US) + Bell (CS) → Salivation (UR)
C) After Conditioning

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B.B.A. 3rd Sem. Subject- Organizational Behaviour

Bell (CS) → Salivation (CR)

US = Unconditioned Stimulus
UR = Unconditioned Response
CS = Conditioned Stimulus
CR - Conditioned Response

2. Operant Conditioning (OC)

O.C is defined as “Behaviour that produces effect.” OC is based on work of B.F. Skinner who advocated
that individual’s exhibit responses that are rewarded and will not exhibit response that are either not
rewarded or are punished.
O.C also called instrument conditioning refers to the process that our behaviour produces certain
consequences & how we behave in future will depend on what those consequences. If our action have
pleasant effect then we will be more likely to repeat them in future. If however our actions have
unpleasant effect we are less likely to repeat them in future.
Thus according to this theory, behaviour is the function of its consequences.

Operant Behaviour & their Consequences

Behaviour Consequence

Work is paid
The Talk to others meets more people
Individual Enter Restaurant obtains food
Enter Library find a book

3. Social Learning
Also called observational learning, social learning theory emphasizes the ability of individual to learn
by observing others. The important may include parents, teachers, Peers, Motion Pictures TV artists,
bosses & others.
Social Learning

By Observation By Experiment

Social learning can takes place through:

1. Modeling: People acquire behaviour by directly observing and imitating other. Many pattern of
behaviour are learned by watching the behaviour of model such as parent, teacher, film star etc.
The following process determines the influence:
i. Attentional process: People only learn from a model when they recognized and pay
attention to its critical feature.
ii. Retention process: A model’s influence will depend on how well the individual remember
the model action, when after the model is no longer readily available.
iii. Motor Reproduction Process: After a person has been a new behaviour by observing the
no del the watching must be converted into doing.
iv. Reinforcement /process: Individual will be motivated to exhibit the modeled behaviour if
positive incentives or reward are provided.
2. Symbolism: It refers to learning through social action reaction, symbolization and interaction.
3. Self Control: Learning is self development process; people are introduced in self analysis,
appraisal and improvement.
4. Self Efficiency: It refers to the individual’s perception as he or her ability to perform a specific
task in a particular situation

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B.B.A. 3rd Sem. Subject- Organizational Behaviour

4. Cognitive Learning
Cognitive learning theory establishes the relationship between cognitive environmental cues and
expectations. The cognitive approach emphasizes the positive and free will aspect of human behaviour.
Cognition refers to an individual’s ideas, thoughts, knowledge, interpretations understanding about
himself and his environment. According to this theory learner forms a cognitive structure in memory,
preserves and organics information about the various events that occur in a learning situation. To
prove cognitive approach, Tolman trained a rat to turn right in a T maze in order to obtain food. Then
he started the rat from the opposite part of the maze in order to obtain food. Then he started the rat
from the opposite part of the maze, according to operant conditioning theory the rat should having
turned right because of past conditioning. But the rat instead turned towards where the food had been
placed. This experiment concluded that the rat formed a cognitive map to figure out how to get the food
and reinforcement was not a precondition for learning to take place.

MEANING OF PROBLEM SOLVING

Problem solving is a set of activities designed to analyze a situation systematically and to generate,
implement and evaluate solutions for solving a problem. Problem solving is a mental process and is
part of the larger problem process that includes identification of problems and problem shaping.

NEED FOR PROBLEM SOLVING

When a situation or system needs to move from a given or current state to another desired goal state
problem arises and then a systematic approach of problem solving system arises.

Move Given existing Desired goal state

To
From state

STEPS FOR ANALYTICAL PROBLEM SOLVING

1. IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEM: - The foremost step of problem solving is to understand and to be
clear about the problem arise. One should be very clear regarding the problem and all the detail
information obtained from the problem which will help in providing appropriate solutions. views of
different people on different issued related to problem must be identified.
2. UNDERSTAND INTERESTS: - Interests are the needs that is satisfied by any given solution. Solution
to the problem should be such that can satisfies everyone’s interest.
3. DEVISING A PLAN: - After identifying the nature of problem and interests of related people next
step is to devise a appropriate plan for solving the problem. List of all possible solutions (options)
should be prepared. Lot of brainstorming, creativity and innovation should be adopted to generate
appropriate solutions. Related problems should be examine to determine if some techniques can be
applied use of table, diagram can be used.
4. EVALUATE THE PLAN: - Devised plan should be evaluated before its implementation. all the
options or solutions should be carefully evaluated to ensure that options are suitable for solving
problems. Best options from all the available options should be selected.
5. IMPLEMENTATION OF PLAN: - After properly evaluation plan should be effectively implemented in
the way it is actually designed and decided. All the strategies and necessary actions should be
performed to solve the problem. Each and every step of the plan should be checked and accurate
record of all the activities should be established.
6. MONITORING: - Effective monitoring should be done regarding effectiveness of the solutions in
relation to problem. If there is some alternative method of finding the solutions it should be
determined. Other related or more general problems should be determined for which the techniques
can be followed for solutions.

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B.B.A. 3rd Sem. Subject- Organizational Behaviour

LIMITATIONS OF PROBLEM SOLVING

1. Competition:-Most people working in a group perceive the situation as competitive and this
generates a destructive behaviour and drains the creative energy of the group. Eager to express
their own ideas members try to totally ignore the suggestions of others. People holding powerful
positions try to show, their expertise and supremacy and argue against others suggestion, this
competitive behaviour creates incompatible atmosphere for effective problem solving.
2. Conformity:-Some individuals in a group wants to conform with all the members their solutions
and options to obtain conformity as they like to get respected and valued among others. Members
want to maintain their image of being knowledgeable and junior members want to avoid
inexperienced upstarts so ideas are shared in the groups without exploring all the possibilities.
3. Lack Of Objective Direction:-Many traditional meetings and group directions held to solve
problems are often held ineffectively having lack of objective and directions, ineffective leadership
and undue – pressure on leader or chairman which results in deviation in understanding objective
direction & content of problem which results in ineffective problem solving.
4. Time Constraints: - Time factor also creates barrier in effective problem solving. Group problem
solving is a relatively slow process compared with working alone. Individuals need to gather at an
agreed time and place which cause organizational problems and impatience among participants.
5. Creativity: Creativity is the ability to visualise, forsee, generate and implement new ideas. Creativity
is a function of knowledge, imagination and evaluation.

APPROACHES TO CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING

Creative problem solving is a combination of innovation and creativity that involves different steps that
are as follows:-
1. Evolution:-This the method of incremental or gradual improvement under which new ideas stems
from other ideas and new solutions from previous solutions which are slightly improved over old
ideas. This approach is mainly concerned of thinking new and creative out of old gradually for
making something better or different from original.
2. Synthesis:-Under this approach two or more existing ideas are combined to produce a third
creative & new idea
For ex. (1) People want to go for dinner and then to theatre. These two ideas can be
combined in form of dinner theatre where people can first go to eat and then at same place they
can enjoy movie.
(2) Shopping malls like Big Bazars etc.
3. Revolution: - Revolution means thinking of the best new idea which is completely a different one
marked change from the previous ideas thought.
4. Reapplication:-Reapplication means to apply something old in a new and different way. By
removing our preconceived thoughts, expectations and assumptions individuals concentrate in
discovering how something can be reapplied creatively. One should see beyond previous or stated
applications for some idea, solution or thing and to see what other application is possible.
5. Changing Direction:-Sometimes a creative solution to the problem can be provided by analyzing
the problem from a different angle, when attention is shifted from one angle of a problem to another
it is called creative insight. The goal is to provide a creative solution to problem. There is no specific
path commitment.
6. Brainstorming: - Brainstorming is an activity where by all the individuals are allowed to provide
different solutions to the problem by discussing and thinking over the problem. People are free to
express their views and ideas under brainstorming its main goals are:-
(1) to break is out our habit bound thinking.
(2) To produce a set of ideas from which we can choose.
7. Root-Cause Analysis:-Under root cause analysis all possible causes of the problem are been studied
thoroughly rather that just the one that are obvious. Detail analysis of the problem is done and
possible causes of problems are identified to find the creative solutions. These causes are depicted
through fish bone diagram.

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8. Mind Mapping:-By using mind maps structure of a subject can be quickly identified and
understood. Recording of the facts and information can be done mentally. Mind maps encourage
creative problem solving and they hold information in a format that mind (brain) finds easy to
remember and quick to review.
9. Forming Relationship:-Forming relationship is one of the approach of creative problem solving.
Under this individual form relationship with people from different fields who can help from to excel
best and creative ideas.
10. Learning Form Mistakes:-Another approach to creativity is learning from mistakes and negative
experiences and taking them as a warning signals while thinking creative.

CREATIVITY IS:-
1. An Ability:-Creativity is the ability to imagine or invent something new. Creativity is not the ability
to create out of nothing, but the ability to generate new ideas by combining, changing or reapplying
existing ideas.
2. An Attitude:-Creativity in an attitude to accept change and newness, a willingness to play with ideas
and possibilities a flexibility of outlook etc.
3. A Process:- Creativity is a continuous process. Creative people work hard continually to improve
ideas and solutions by making gradual alternations and refinements to their works.

COMPONENTS OF CREATIVITY
CREATIVITY = KNOWLEDGE + CREATIVE THINKING + MOTIVATION.

1. Knowledge:-All the technical procedural or intellectual expertise and relevant understanding an

individual should have to think creative.
2. Creative Thinking:-Relates with flexibility, imagination skills of the people which depends on how
people approach problems, their personality, thinking and working style.
3. Motivation:-Motivation is a key to creative ideas. Intrinsic passion and interest are the most
important motivators.

STAGES IN CREATIVE PROCESS

These stages are also known as "stages of creative thought"
1. Orientation:-As a first step the problem must be defined and important aspects of problems should
be identified.
2. Preparation:-This Stage involves gathering initial information, saturate information related to
problem thinking. Generating alternatives, carefully, analyzing data relating to problem. All possible
date information is been gathered at this stage.
3. Incubation:-This stage involves an internal and unconscious ordering of gathered informations
personal conflict between what is currently accepted as reality and what may be possible. This stage
allows the mind to search for possible issues or problems and involves exploring unusual innovative
alternatives.
4. Illumination:-At illumination stage a new level of insight is achieved, new imaginative idea flashes
into individual mind at an unexpected time and people always get new thoughts and ideas. Imagine
a cartoon with a bulb flashing on head.

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5. Verification: - This is the final step to test and verify the solution and ideas obtain during
illumination. Logically all the solutions are evaluated to check there feasibility and most feasible idea
is applied as the solution to the problem.

IMPEDIMENTS / OBSTACLES OF CREATIVITY

1. Prejudice:-Prejudice is one on the barriers to creativity. People often have preconceived ideas
about things and these preconceptions often prevent people seeing beyond their thoughts and
inhibit them from accepting change.
2. Stresses: - Stress is the mental factor which creates distraction of mind, drains energy which could
be used in creative thinking.
3. Learned Helplessness:-The feeling of people that they don't have tools, knowledge, materials,
ability to do anything and so they don't try to think anything creative.
4. Routines:-Routines are the set ways of for performing tasks and once they become essential in one’s
life then it becomes difficult to deviate from it and this creates hindrance in development of creative
mind.
5. Beliefs:-People often belief that creativity is a god gift possessed by few people not all some of them
belief that it requires talent and it starts in childhood but all these beliefs are the barriers of
creativity as all the people possess creative mind, natural ability to think something new every time.
6. Fear:-Fear of self-expression and of judgement by others severally limits ones creativity.
7. Negative Thinking:-Negativity in thoughts and self-criticism sometimes creates hindrance in
thinking something new.
8. Conceptual Blocks:-Conceptual blocks are the habit that prevents development of new creative
ideas, thoughts and originality.

Intelligence
Intelligence or Intellectual ability refers to the ability or capacity to understand & process complex
ideas. Intelligence can be defined as "An ability to understand anything in a logical way".

A person needs to have Intelligence ability & capacity in order to succeed on a job. Intelligence is a kind
of a mental process inherits in an individual.

Intelligence is "general mental ability used in complex information processing”.

Aspects of Intelligence
Many researchers & psychologists believe that intelligence has many types and every individual has
strong intelligence are-
1. Numerical Aptitude- The ability to handle mathematics.
2. Verbal Aptitude- The ability to understand written & spoken words.
3. Spatial visualization- The ability to imagine different physical configuration. For ex- Imagine
room with the furniture arranged.
4. Deductive Reasoning- The ability to draw conclusions or make choice on the basis of
assumption & data
5. Inductive Reasoning- The ability to identify after observing specific cases or instances the
outcomes.
6. Memory- The ability to store and recall previous experiences.
7. Experiential- The ability of creative thinking. These aspects of intelligence govern & determine
the performance of the individual.

Kinds of Intelligence
1. Cognitive Intelligence – The ability to understand complex ideas, to adapt effectively to the
environment to learn from experience, to engage in various forms of reasoning and to overcome
abstracts with careful thought. Above mentioned aspects are the parts of cognitive intelligence.

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2. Practical Intelligence – The ability to devise effective ways of solving the practical problems of
everyday life. This intelligence is based on tactic knowledge "Knowledge of how to get things
done.
3. Emotional Intelligence – The ability to understand & regulate own emotion as well as of
others and to behave appropriately in different situations.

Intelligence is an important determinant of workplace performance and career success. People differ in
their intellectual abilities and contributions to this ability are made by our genetic inheritance and by
our environment as we grow.

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UNIT-II
ATTITUDES AND VALUES
Introduction
Attitude are evaluative statements. These are frequently used in describing people, objects and events
and explaining the people’s behavior. These reflect how one feels about something or somebody. When
I say, “I like Ram”. I am expressing my attitude about Ram. Thus, we can say that attitude is a bent of
mind, predisposition of certain actions.

Attitudes constitute an important psychological attribute of individuals which shape their behaviour.
Schermerhorn, et al., have defined attitude as a predisposition “to respond in a positive or negative
way to someone or something in one’s environment”. Attitude can be defined as a persistent
tendency to feel & behave in a particular way towards some object.

Some of the important definitions of attitudes are as follows:

“An attitude is a mental and neutral state of readiness, organised through experience, exerting a
directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situation with which is
it related. G.W. Allport
“An attitude is a tendency or predisposition to evaluate an object or symbol of that object in a certain.
—Katz and Scotland

COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDES
There are three basic components of an attitude and these are described below:
(i) Cognitive or Informational Component. It consists of beliefs and values, idea and other
information a person has about the attitude object. For instance, a person seeking a job may
learn from newspapers and other people that a particular company is a good pay-master.
(ii) Affective or Emotional Component. It involves the person’s feelings of likes and dislikes
towards the attitude object.
(iii) Behaviour Component. The tendency of a person to behave in a particular manner towards an
object is the behavioural component of an attitude.

Features or Characteristics of Attitudes

The important characteristics of attitudes are as follows:
(a) Attitudes affect Behaviour. People have the natural tendency to maintain consistency
between two attitudes or attitude and behaviour. Attitudes can lead to intended behaviour if
there is no external intervention.
(b) Attitudes are Invisible. Attitudes constitute a psychological phenomenon which cannot be
observed directly. However, we may observe an attitude indirectly through observing its
consequences.
(c) Attitudes are Acquired. Attitudes are gradually learnt over a period time. The process of
learning attitudes starts right from childhood and continues throughout the life of a person.

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(d) Attitudes are Pervasive. Attitudes are formed in the process socialization and may relate to
anything in the world. For example, a person may have positive or negative attitude towards
religion, politics, politicians, countries, and so on.
(e) Attitude is effective and behavioural. Attitudes refer to feelings and beliefs of individuals or
group of individuals. The feelings and beliefs are directed towards other people, objects or idea.
(f) Attitude is evaluative. Attitudes are evaluative statements, either favourable or unfavourable.
When a person says he likes or dislikes something somebody, an attitude is being expressed.
(g) Attitude is unconsciously held. An attitude may be unconsciously held. Most of our attitudes
may be about those objects which we are not clearly aware of.

SOURCES OF ATTITUDES
(a) Direct Personal Experience. The quality of a person’s direct experience with the attitude
object determines his attitude toward it. For example, if a worker finds his work repetitive,
inadequately paid, supervisor too tough, and co-workers not so cooperative, he would develop
negative attitude towards his job because the quality of his direct experience with the job is
negative.
(b) Association. A new attitude object may be associated with an old attitude object and the
attitude towards the latter may be transferred towards the former.
(c) Social Learning. Attitudes are also learnt from other as for example, from parents, teachers,
superiors, models etc. An individual learn by having contact with others or even watching
models over the T.V. In fact, social learning makes it possible for a person to develop attitude
towards something even when he has no direct experience the attitude object.
(d) Institutional Factors. Religious institutions, social organisations educational institutions, etc.
also help in shaping the attitudes of people.
(e) Mass Media. Attitudes are generally less stable as compared to values. Advertising message,
for example, attempts to alter the attitude of the people toward a certain product over. Similarly
social messages on TV and in newspapers can have mass appeal among the people.
(f) Economic Status and Occupations. Our economic and occupational positions also contribute
to attitude formation. They determine, in part, our attitudes towards unions and management
and our belief that certain laws are “good” or “bad”.

Formation of Attitudes
The above mentioned sources are the important ways in which attitudes are learnt. But what type of
attitudes will ultimately develop is dependent on the following factors:
(a) Psychological Factors. The psychological make-up of a person is made up of his perceptions,
idea, beliefs, value, information, etc., It has a crucial role in determining a person’s attitudes.
(b) Family Factors. During childhood, a person spends a major part of his time in the family. Thus,
he learns from the family members who provide him with ready-made attitudes on a variety of
issues such as education, work, healthy, religion, politics, economics, etc.
(c) Social Factors. Societies differ in terms of language, culture, normal, value, beliefs, etc., all of
which influence a person attitudes. For example, people in India in general hold different
attitude towards communism than people of China.
(d) Organisational Factors. It should be remembered that a worker spends a major part of his life
in the institution in which he works. Thus, organisational factors such as nature of job, factory
or office layout, fellow workers, quality of supervision, monetary rewards associated with the
job, trade unionism, informal groups, organisation’s policies and practices, play an important
role n shaping the job attitudes of a person.
(e) Economic Factors. A person’s attitude towards a host f issues such as pleasure, work, marriage,
working women, etc., is influenced y economic factors such as his economic status in the
economic conditions.

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(f) Political Factors. Politics plays a crucial role in the administration of a country. Therefore,
political factors such as ideologies of the political stability and the behaviour of he political
leaders greatly influence the attitude of the people.

TYPES OF WORK RELATED ATTITUDES –

1) Job Satisfaction
2) Job Involvement
3) Organizational Commitment

1) Job Satisfaction -
The term job satisfaction refers to the general attitude or feelings of an individual towards his job. A
person who is highly satisfied with his job, will have a positive attitude towards the job. On the other
hand, a person who is dissatisfied with his job, will have a negative attitudes about the job.

2) Job Involvement –
A general definition of job involvement states that job involvement measures the degree to which a
person identifies psychologically with his or her job and considers his or her perceived performance
level important to self worth.

3) Organizational Commitment –
Organizational is a state in which an employee identifies with a particular organization and its goals
and wishes to maintain membership in the organization.

FUNCTIONS OF ATTITUDE
Katz has suggested that attitudes and motives are inter-linked and, depending on an individual’s
motives, attitudes can serve four main functions. These are as under;
i. Knowledge Function: One of the major functions of attitude is to provide a frame of reference
which form the basis for interpretation and classification of new information. Attitudes provide a
knowledge base and framework within which new information can be placed.
ii. Value Expressive Function: Attitudes are means of expression of values. They enable individuals
to indicate to other the value that they hold and thus to express their self-concept and adopt
internalize the value of a group.
iii. Adjustment Function: Attitudes often help people adjust to their work environment. When
employees are well treated they are likely to develop a positive attitude towards the management
and the organization, otherwise they are likely to develop a negative attitude towards management
and the organization. These attitudes help employees adjust to their environment and are a basis
for future behavior.
iv. Ego-Defensive Function: Attitudes may be held in order to protect the ego from an undesirable
truth or reality. People often form and maintain certain attitudes to protect their own self images.
For example, workers may feel threatened by the employment or advancement of minority or
female workers in the organisation.

CONCEPT OF VALUES
Values are stable, long lasting beliefs about what is important to an individual. Values are ever
encompassing concepts. Values are tinged with moral flavour, involving an individual’s judgment of
what is right, good or desirable. They are at the core of personality of an individual and, therefore, are
powerful, though silent, force affecting behaviour. Values are so embedded that they can be inferred
from person’s behaviour and their expressed attitudes.

A value is defined a s a “concept of the desirable, an internalized criterion or standard of evaluation a

person possesses”. Values are defined as global beliefs that guide actions and judgments across a
variety of situations. Values represent basic convictions that a specific mode of conduct (or end-state of

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existence) is personally or socially preferable to an opposite mode of conduct (or end-state of

existence)”.
A value system is viewed as relatively permanent perceptual frame work which influences the nature of
an individual’s behavior.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ATTITUDES AND VALUES

Attitudes Values
1. Attitudes represent predispositions to 1. Values represent judgment of what ought to be.
respond. This judgment is basic to respond in a given way.
2. Attitudes are derived from personal 2. Value is derived from social and cultural morals.
experiences.
3. An attitude represents several beliefs focused 3. A value represents single belief that guides actions
on a specific object or situation. and judgment across objects and situation.

CHARACTERISTICS OF VALUES
i. Value provide standards of morality.
ii. Value are relatively permanent and resistant to change.
iii. Values are most central to the core of a person.
iv. Value have two attributes-content and intensity. The content attribute stresses that a particular
code of conduct is important. The intensity attribute specifies how important that particular
code of conduct is.
v. Value transcend specific objects, situations or persons.
vi. Value are fewer in number than attitudes.

Types of Values
All port and his associates have categorized values into six major types as follows:
1. Theoretical: Interest in the discovery of truth through reasoning and systematic thinking.
2. Economic:. Interest in usefulness and practicality, including the accumulation of wealth.
3. Aesthetic. Interest in beauty, form and artistic harmony.
4. Social: Interest in people and human relationships.
5. Political: Interest in gaining power and influencing other people.
6. Religious: Interest in unity and understanding the cosmos as a whole.
Different people place different importance to the above six value types. In other words, every
individual has a system of value ranking from first to sixth. This is very important from the point of
view of understanding the behavior of people.

Importance of Values –
1) Values lay the foundations for the understanding of attitudes and motivation.
2) Personal value system influences the perception of individuals.
3) Value system influences the manager’s perception of the different situation.
4) Personal value system influences the way in which a manager views the other individuals and
the groups of individuals in the organizations.
5) Value system also influences a manger’s decisions and his solutions to the various problems.

Sources of Values
i. Family factors. A significant factor influencing the process of socialization of an individual role
of the family. The child rearing practices that parents use shape the individual’s personality.
The learning of social behaviour, values and norms come through these practices. For example,
through reward and punishment, parents show love and affection to children, indicating the
typical ways in which a child should behave in difficult conditions.
ii. Social Factors. Of the societal factors, school has a major role to play in the development of
values. Through discipline in school, a child learns desirable behaviour important in the school

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setting. Interactions with teachers, classmates and other staff members in the educational
institutions makes the child inculcate value important to the teaching-learning process.
iii. Personal Factors. Personal attributes such as intelligence, ability, appearance and educational
level of the person determine his development of values. For example, one’s higher level of
intelligence may result in faster understanding of value.
iv. Cultural Factors. Cultural factors include everything that is learned and passed on from
generation to generation. Culture includes certain beliefs and other patterns of behaviour. An
individual is a participant in social culture, group culture and organizational culture. Thus, he is
known as a composite of many cultural elements.
v. Religious Factors. Individuals, generally, receive strength and comfort from their religion.
Religion comprises of a formal values which are passed on from generation to generation.
Advancement in technology has under viewed faith in traditional religious beliefs and values.
vi. Life Experiences. A man learns the most from his own personal life experience. Sometimes
man can learn from the experience of other also.
vii. Role Demands. The role demand refers to the behavior associated with a particular position in
the organization. Thus, the managers will have to quickly learn the value system prevalent in
the organization.

Meaning of Personality
The term ‘Personality’ has been derived from the Latin term per sona which means to ‘speak through’
the Latin term denotes the masks worn by across in ancient Greece and Rome. Common usuage of the
word ‘Personality’ signifies the role which the person (actor) displays to public. Personality is one of
the major psychological factors affecting the human behavior.
Personality refers to the sum total of internal & external traits of the individual which are relatively
stable & which make the individual different from others
The personality refers to the quality of a person in the role played, appearance and behaviour, inner
awareness & force. The personality may vary from situation to situation. It is the interaction between
person & situation.
Personality represents the sum total of several attributes which manifest themselves in an individual to
organise and integrate all the qualities so as to give meaning to life and the uniqueness of the situation
which influences behavior of an individual.

Definition: Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychological
systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environment.
Gordon Allport
Personality means how a person affects others & how he understands & views himself as well as the
pattern of inner & outer measurable traits & the Person situation interaction.
Fred Luthans

Characteristics –
The following elements should form the meaning of personality.
1. Personality has both internal and external elements. The external traits are the observable
behaviours that we notice in an individual. Personality internal states represent the thoughts
values & genetic characteristic that we infer from the observable behaviours.
2. An individual’s personality is relatively stable. If it changes at all, it is only after a very long time
or as the result of dramatic events.
3. An individual’s personality is both inherited as well as shaped by the environment our
personality is partly inherited generically from our parents. However these genetic personality
characteristics one altered somewhat by life experiences.
4. Each individual is unique in Behaviour. There are striking differences among individual.
Thus personality refers to the sum total of internal & external traits of the individual which are
relatively stable & which make the individual different from others.

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Personality factors/ determinants of Personality

1. Biological factors
• Heredity
• Brain
• Physical features
2. Family & social factors
3. Situational factors
• Culture
• Religion
4. Other factors
• Temperament
• Interest
• Character
• Schema
• Motives

1. Biological Factors
a. Heredity :It has a great influence on biological and mental features. It means the transmission of the
qualities from ancestor to descendant through a mechanism lying primarily in the chromosomes of
germ cells. Physical stature facial attractiveness, sex, temperament, muscle composition, reflexes are
inherited from one’s parent.
b. Brain :There is a general feeling that brain plays an important role in development of one’s
personality persons with a broader forehead, big right hemisphere i.e. left handed have a learning
towards truth, welfare beauty, justice, kindness artistic, emotional musician poet etc, similarly persons
having broader left hemisphere i.e. right handed with sharp nose, big ears are logical, analytical, strong
& have criminal
c. Physical features :An individual’s external appearance may have a tremendous effect on his
personality. Some people give relatively higher weightage to the physical features of an individual
while defining his personality. Such factors include height, weight, colour, facial features. Eg: - Good
physical appearance is an asset for the job of a sales person & public relations.

2. Family & Social factors:

The family has considerable influence on personality development, particularly in early stages children
learn from their parents, siblings etc.
• The mother is the first teacher in initiating personality development. Father motivates &
modifies behaviour. Eg:- Mother - dressing, cooking, sense, father - driving
• Family and social factors shape a person’s personality through the process of socialization and
identification. Socialization is a process by which an infant acquires, from the enormously wide
range of behavioral potentialities that are open him at birth, those behaviour patterns that are
customary & acceptable to family & social group.
• The identification process occurs when a person tries to identify himself with some person
whom he feels ideal in family, generally a child in the family tries to behave like his father or
mother.

Eg:- of impact of socio economic factors on personality child nurtured under a warm, loving stimulating
environment are positive & active as compared to children neglected by their parents are.

3. Situational factors:
An individual’s Personality may change in different situations. The demand of different situation may
call for different aspects of one’s personality therefore we should not look at the personality factor in
isolation.

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a. Culture: The accepted norms of social behaviour are referred as cultural. The way in which people
behave with others & the driving force of such functions are considered important components of
culture children brought up in traditional norms, attitudes & values on the other hand. Modern cultural
outlook of family & society has inspired children to become independent, free thinking of self
developing. (ex of joint & nuclear family)
b. Religion: Religion plays a significant sole in shaping one’s personality from those of Muslims &
Christians. The children in Hindu Societies learn from the very childhood learn about the value of
Karma (hard work) and God-feasting attitudes.
The Protestants are taught about work ethics, family system, friendship & cooperation
The Sikh are hard working, dogmatic aggressive.
The Muslims are ready to undertake any job & vocation & acquire personalities.

4. Other factors
a. Temperament: Temperament and other non-intellectual personality traits are distributive
according to normally distribution. Temperament is the degree to which one responds emotionally.
b. Interest: The individual normally has many interests in various areas. The top executives in any
organization do not have interest in common task and people. The organization should provide
opportunities like job rotation & job enrichment & special training programmer to satisfy the Interest
of executives.
c. Character: Character primarily means honesty & integrity. It is resistance to stealing and cheating
others. Character integrity & morals of high standards is a very important requirement for responsible
jobs. It is likely that an individual may not steal under normal circumstances for ex: If the family of an
individual is starving, there is a great probability that one will steal.
d. Schema: It is an individual’s belief, frame of reference, perception and attitude which the individual
possesses towards the management, the job, working conditions pay, fringe benefits, incentive system
etc. The perception of individual depend upon his socio-economic conditions & particular culture he
lives to follow. The Behaviour of an individual depends to a great extent upon his form of reference
which he develops from childhood experience.
e. Motives: Motive is inner drives of individual. They represent goal directed behaviour of individual. A
motive is a cognitive factor which operates in determining one’s behaviour towards a goal.

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THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

i) Psycho Analytic Theory

This theory was developed by Sigmund Freud

This theory is based on unconscious nature of personality, i.e. man is influenced by unseen forces.
Freud saw that personality is composed of three elements:-

1) The ID:- Word ‘ID’ is the Latin word for ‘IT’ and refers to innate component of personality.
The ‘ID’ is the mental agency contains everything inherited and fixed & present in individual which is
raw, animalistic, unorganised, knows no laws, rules and free from all in inhibitors & remains basic to
individual throughout life.
ID helps to rid the personality out of tension through reflex actions & primary process refers to attempt
of an individual to form a mental image of the object that will remove tension.
Ex: - Hungry man experiences partial relief of his hunger by imagining a delicious meal.
In reflex action’s the ID responds automatically to sources of irritation by promptly removing the
tension which irritant elicts.
Ex: - Coughing, Sneezing, Blinking etc.

2) The EGO: - Ego means development of the person out of the ID in order to deal with the real world.
Ex: - Man needs good to satisfy the hunger.

3) The Super EGO: - Super Ego third part of personality represents values and morals of society as
taught to the child by parents and others super Ego judges whether an action is right or wrong
according to the standards of society.
ID seeks pleasure, EGO test reality and super Ego strives for perfection.

ii) Trait Theory

Trait is a relatively enduring cross – situationally consistent personality characteristic that is inferred
from a person’s behavior. It is a predisposition to understand or to respond in an equivalent manner to
various kinds of stimuli.

Personality traits are the reactions, of persons in different situational interaction. Under trait theory
personality of individuals are determined & classified on the basis of certain set of features such as
intelligence, emotional stability, aggressiveness, creativeness or any other dimensions.

Allport classified traits under three categories –

1) Cardinal (Pervasive)
2) Central (unique and limited in number)
3) Secondary (peripheral)

There are two ways of assessing personality traits:-

(1) The person describes himself by answering questions about this attitude, feelings and behaviours.
(Personal Inventory)
(2) Someone else evaluates the person’s traits either from what he knows about the individual or from
direct observation of behaviour. (Rating scale Method)
Under personal inventory a questionnaire is been answered by an individual containing questions
which can be rated to determine single dimension of personality or several personality traits (introvert
& extrovert).

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iii) Rogers Self Theory

If we stop thinking about other people’s behavior, we become conscious of our own person, our
feelings, our attitudes and perhaps of feeling or responsibility of our actions in relation to oneself and
other. This phenomenon has led to “Self Theory”.

The most important contribution in self theory comes from Carl Rogers. He has defined the self or self
concept as an organized, consistent, conceptual gestalt composed of perceptions of ‘I’ or ‘Me’. The
relationship of ‘I’ or ‘Me’ with other and to various aspects of life has been analysed by Rogers. There
are four factors of self concept.
i) Self Image: Self image is the way one sees oneself. Every person has certain beliefs about who
or what he is, taken together, these beliefs are a person’s self image or identity.
ii) Ideal Self. The ideal self denotes the way one would like to be. Thus, self image is the reality
whereas ideal self is the perception. There may be a gap between these two images because self
image indicates the reality of a person as perceived by him and ideal self indicates the ideal
position as perceived by him.
iii) Looking Glass Self. Looking glass self is the perception of other’s perception. It is the way one
thinks people perceive about him and the way people actually see him.
iv) Real Self. The real self is what one really is. The first three aspects of self concept are the
perceptions and they may by same or different as the real self.

Rogers approach to personality is described as phenomenological. Phenomenology is the study of the

individual subjective experience, feeling and his view of the world & self.
According to Rogers behaviour is dependent upon how one perceives the world i.e. on perception &
interpretation of individual. This theory helps in analysing the behaviour and personality of individual
reference to individual himself i.e. self-perception.

Big Five Model of Personality

Personality is composed of external traits & no two individual possess identical characteristics. There
are thousands of words representing personality characteristics which were reduced to five abstract
personality dimensions of personality defined in Big five model which are as follows:
1. Extroversion: Person who score positive on this dimension have a comfort level of relationship &
relatedness with others. They are sociable, talkative, assertive, open to establish new relationship with
and who scores negative on this dimension are introverts and are less sociable, talkative and lack of
establishing good relationship & relatedness with others.
2. Agreeableness: - Agreeableness shows person’s ability to get agreed with others. Person who scores
positive in this dimension are co-operative, trusting and value harmony and agree on thoughts of
others more than on their own saying & thoughts. Person who score low on agreeableness lacks of co-
operation trust & harmony with others & only focus on their needs and thoughts.
3. Conscientiousness: - Conscientiousness refers to number of goals that a person focuses on. A highly
conscientiousness person focuses on relatively few goals at one time. They are more organized,
systematic, careful, thorough, responsible, self-disciplined and achievement oriented. A person scoring
negative on this dimension focus on higher no. of goals are disorganized, less systematic, careless,
irresponsible less thorough & self-disciplined.
4. Emotional Stability:- This dimension focus on individual’s ability to cope with stress. Highly
emotional stability in individual make them calm, enthusiastic & secured. Person with low emotional
stability are nervous, depressed & insecured.
5. Openness to experience:- This dimension shows one’s range of interest. Positively scoring people
are open to new thoughts, ideas, beliefs and are fascinated by novelty, innovation & creativity. They
have positive attitude towards new ideas & information.
On the other hand people with low level of openness are less receptive to new ideas and less willing to
change their minds towards new thoughts, ideas, beliefs & suggestions.

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Myers-Briggs Indicator Model

Myers Briggs type indicator (MBTI) model is mainly used in employee hiring process. The personality
dimensions under this model are:
(1) Extroversion/Introversion: How people focus their attention on others.
(2) Sensitivity/Intuition: Deals in collecting information by people. Sensitive types use an organized
structure to factual and preferably, quantitative details. They are able to synthesizing large volume of
data and can draw quick conclusion.
Intuitive people collect information nonsystematic ally and hat able to draw conclusion on large no. of
data.
(3) Thinking/Feeling: - Thinking type rely on rational, logical & scientific of making decision &
analysing a situation
Feeling types analyze the situation on their personal value rather thinking logically. More emotional
approach towards a situation.
(4) Judging/Perceiving: - Judging types personality enjoys the control of decision making and want to
resolve problems quickly. Perceiving types personality are more flexible and adopt spontaneously
according to situations before giving decisions.

Other Personality Traits

(1) Authoritarianism:- Authoritarian personality individuals has a strong belief on established
mechanism of formal authority, obedience to authority, follow traditional value systems, intellectually
rigid, rigid in their positions, place high moral value on their beliefs, prefer stable & structural work
environment governed by clean rules & regulations. They prefer autocratic & directive leadership.
(2) Locus of Control:- Locus of control refers to belief of individual regarding occurrence of events or
situations either with one’s own control (internal locus of control) or by external forces beyond one’s
control (external locus of control).
Externals are less satisfied with their jobs, have higher absentism rate and are more alienated from
work settings. Internals have more control on their behaviour & are good decision maker.
(3) Machiavellianism:- Machiavellianism is individuals habit to manipulate people. They highly
participate in organizational politics, can handle matters related to negotiation & bargaining effectively.
(4) Achievement Orientation:- It is the trait in individuals to achieve anything in their life.
People with high need to achieve continuous by focus on doing things in better way than others. They
prefer doing something different or moderately difficulty tasks in comparison to others. They like
challenges. They belief that success or failure is the result of their own actions.
(5) Self-Esteem:- Self-Esteem is the feeling of like or dislike of oneself. People with high self -Esteem
belief that they have abilities to do challenging jobs and choose unconventional jobs. They are more
confident on themselves for getting success.
People with low self-esteem are dependent on others for receiving positive evaluations & approval
from others. They follow the beliefs & behaviours of those they respect.
(6) Risk-Taking:- This defines the managers ability to take risk high risk taking managers take rapid
decisions and used less information in making their choice. These people are more suitable in stock
market or trading firm. vice-versa is with the people who are less risk taking.
(7) Self-Monitoring:- It refers to the individual’s ability to adjust their behaviour according to external
factors. It shows the adoptability of the individuals in external situations. These individuals have the
capability of behaving contradictory in their public, personal life.
Low self-monitors face difficulty deviating their behaviour in different situations.

Type A & B Personality

Type A personality are person who are competitive hostile, always prefer doing some work, cannot
cope with leisure, think or do two or more things at one time. They are always in hurry to do things.
Type B personality people are relaxed, easy This people going, feel no need to display or discuss their
achievements until or unless demanded by situation can relax without guilt.

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B.B.A. 3rd Sem. Subject- Organizational Behaviour

MEANING OF PERCEPTION
“Perception is the process through which the information from outside environment is selected,
received, organized and interpreted to make it meaningful to you. This input of meaningful information
results in decisions and actions.”

Perception is the selection and organisation of environmental stimuli to provide meaningful experience
for the perceiver. Perception refers to factors that shape and produce what we actually experience. It
is described as a person’s views of reality and is affected by, among other things, the individual’s values.
For example, if a person is member of a union, he/she may discard most of what management says
about declining sales, decreased profit margin, etc. Most of such talk is regarded by unions as attempts
by management to exploit the workers for its own gain. Perception can be defined as a process by
which individuals organise and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their
environment. Thus, perception refers to giving colour to sensory inputs.

According to Joseph Reitz, “Perception includes all those processes by which an individual receives
information about his environment – seeing, hearing, feelings, tasting and smelling.

PROCESS OF PERCEPTION
Perception is the process through which people select, receive, organise, and interpret information
from their environment. Through perception, people process information, inputs into decisions and
actions. It is a way of forming impressions about yourself, other, people, and daily life experience. It is
also a screen through which information passes before having an affect on people. As shown in below
Fig., perceptual inputs are first received, then processed by the perceiver and the resultant output
becomes the basis of the behaviour.

The perceptual process is a complex process. The four variables of perceptual process are discussed as
under:
(i) Inputs. Perceived inputs are the objects, events people, etc. that are received by the reveiver.
(ii) Process. The received inputs are processed through the selection, organisation and
interpretation.
(iii) Outputs. Through the processing mechanism, the outputs are derived. These outputs may be
feelings, actions, attitudes, etc.
(iv) Behaviour. Behaviour is dependent on the perceived outputs. The perceiver’s behaviour, in
turn, generates responses from the perceived and these response given rise to a new set of
inputs.

STAGES OF PERCEPTION
1. Receiving Stimuli: Through sensory organs.
2. Selection: Individuals generally do not assimilate each and everything they observe, as they
observe so they engage in process of selectivity. Selection is the fundamental step in perceptual

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B.B.A. 3rd Sem. Subject- Organizational Behaviour

process. Individual collects bits and pieces of information, not randomly, but selectivity
depending on the interests, background, experience, attitudes, etc.
Selective perception process involves two psychological principles:
(a) Figure Ground Principle. In the field of perception, certain factors are considered
significant which give a meaning to the person, and certain other which are either
unimportant for a person or cannot be studied are left as insignificant. The meaningful and
significant portion is called the “figure” and the insignificant or meaningless portion is
labeled as the “ground”.
(b) Relevancy. Relevancy is an important criterion for selective perception. People selectively
perceive things that are relevant to their needs wants, and desires.
3. Organisation: The perceived inputs (incoming stimuli) are organised into meaningful pictures
to the perceiver. Organising the information that is incoming into a meaningful whole is called
“organisation”. This process is also labeled as “gestalt process”. Gestalt is a German word
meaning, “to organise”. There are different ways by which people organise the perceived inputs,
object events, e.g., grouping, closure and simplification.
(a) Grouping. Grouping is possible depending on the similarity or proximity. The tendency to
group people or things that appear to be similar n certain ways, but not in all, is a common
mean of organising the perception.
(b) Closure. People when faced with incomplete information have a tendency to fill in the
gaps themselves. When presented with a set of stimuli that are incomplete, people fill in
the missing parts and make it more meaningful. The tendency to organise perceptual
stimuli so that they form a complete message is known as ‘closure’.
(c) Simplification. Whenever people are overloaded with information they try to simplify it to
make more meaningful and understandable. Simplification occurs when the perceive
subtracts less salient information and concentrates on important one.
4. Interpretation. Interpretation is an important mechanism of perception. It is a subjective and
judgmental process and is influenced by many factors such as halo effect, stereotyping,
attribution, impression and inference, projection etc. These may also lead to perceptual
distortion.
(a) Halo effect. It is the process of using a single trait of individual and drawing a general
impression about him. It has an important implication for evaluation employees in an
organisation. These employees with certain features are rated highly on other
characteristics also. But halo effect leads to negative effects also.
The halo effect is more marked:
(i) When the traits to be perceived are unclear in behavioural expressions.
(ii) When the perceived does not frequently use the traits.
(iii) When the traits have moral implications.
For instance, a stunning blonde female candidate for personal secretarial position may be
viewed by a male interviewers as an intelligent and highly skilled in typing. The fact may be that
she is dull and poorly skilled in typing and stenography. What really happened here is that a
single trait i.e., beauty has outclassed other traits and the interviewer generalized the other
traits and perceived her to be beautiful in typing also? Halo effect is also labeled as halo error,
because it causes the full appraisal to be biased one. To take some more examples, the worker
who is always fifteen minutes early is perceived by the boss to be competent, the attentive
student is perceived by the professor to be learning a lot significant.

(b) Stereotyping.: It means judging people on the basis of the characteristics of the group.
According to Lippmann” stereotyping” is not simply the assignment of favourable or
unfavourable traits perception.
The basic advantage of stereotyping is that it helps the perceiver to simplify the complexity
of the perceived world. The trouble with stereotyping is that when we perceive people as

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B.B.A. 3rd Sem. Subject- Organizational Behaviour

members of a particular group or category, we do not recognize them as individual, we do

not see their unique characteristics and problems.
Stereotyping is particularly critical when meeting new people, since we know so little bout
them and we tend to characterize them according to certain categories n the basis of age,
sex, occupation, caste, religion and ethnic background.
(c) Attribution. When people given cause and effect explanation to their behaviour, it is known
as attribution.
(d) Impression. People often form impression of others on the first sight. Even before knowing
any of their personality traits they start having impression and assessing. This sometimes
leads to perceptual distortion. We shall discuss this aspect later in detail.
(e) Inference. There is a general tendency on the part of people of judges other on limited
information. For example, an employee might be sitting at his desk throughout the working
hours without doing anything an employee might be sitting at his desk throughout the
working hours without doing anything but it may be inferred that he is hardworking.
(f) Projection. It is very easy to judge others if we assume that they are similar to us. For
example, if we want freedom, challenge and responsibility in our job, we assume that other
people is want the same. This tendency to attributes one’s on characteristics and attributes
to other people is called as projection. It is to be noted that when manager engage
themselves in projection, they compromise their ability to respond to individual differences.
They tend to see people as more homogenous than they really are.

VARIOUS FACTORS INFLUENCING PERCEPTION

Stimuli play a significant role in the perceptual procession as various factors relating to the perceptual
process have been studies by various experts. The factors influencing perceptions are perceiver
characteristics, objects and situation. However, they can be categorized under specific heads such as
perceive characteristic, internal and external factors, stimuli factors etc.

(A) Internal Factors

The internal factors like needs and desires of individuals, individual personality and experience of
people influence perception.
(a) Needs and desires. Depending on the needs and desires of an individual, the perception varies.
(b) Personality. Individual personality has a profound influence on perceived behaviour as for
example.
1. Secure individuals tend to perceive others as warm, not cold.
2. Individuals do not expose by expressing extreme judgments of others.
3. Persons who accept themselves and have faith in their individuality perceive things
favourably.
4. Self-accepting individuals perceive themselves as liked, wanted and accepted by others.
The age, sex, race, dress. If the perceiver is female and the stimulator is made, the
perceiver gets some influence only if she prefers male. Otherwise, the perception will be
distorted. The ethnic personalities have some influence on perception.
(c) Experience. Experience and knowledge has great influence on perception. Successful
experience enhances and boosts the perceptive ability and lead to accuracy in perception of a
person whereas failure erodes self-confidence. A young employee takes time to understand the
object and situation. Experienced employees generally understand objects quickly and
correctly. But, in contradictory situations, it is difficult to correct aged employees, whereas the
young employees are easily moulded towards achieving the objectives of the organisation.

(B) External Factors.

The external factors, which influence the perception are ; size, intensity, frequency, status, etc.
(a) Size. The bigger the size of the perceived stimulus, the higher is the probability that it is
perceived. Size attracts the attention of an individual. It establishes dominance and

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B.B.A. 3rd Sem. Subject- Organizational Behaviour

enhances perceptual selection. The maintenance staff may pay more attention to a big
machine then to a small one, even though smaller one costs as much and in as important to
be operation. In advertising, full page spread attracts more attention than a few lines in the
classified sections.
(b) Intensity. Researches on human behaviour have revealed that the more intense the stimuli
the higher attention and recognition in the perceptual process. A strong voiced Manager has
more impact on supervisors and employees. It observed that managers use voice
modulation to get attention of employees. Intensity attracts to increase the selective
perception. Advertisers users intensity to gain customer’s attraction. The intensity varies as
per need of the organisation. The same type of intensity may not be useful for all the
situations and objects.
(c) Frequency. Repeated external stimulus is more attention attracting than a single time.
Managers send reminders regularly to reprimand the behaviour of erring employees. As
advertises also repeat the advertisement to bring it to notice of customers.
(d) Status. Perception is also influenced by the status the perceiver. High status people can exert
greater influence on perception of an employee than low status people.
(e) Contrast. Stimuli that contrast with the surrounding environment are more likely to be
attention catching than the stimuli that blend in.

Fig. illustrates the note of perceptual principle. The black circle on the right appears larger than
the one on the left because of the background circles. In fact both black circles are of the same
size. In a similar manner, plant safety sings which have black lettering on a yellow background
or white lettering on a red background are attention drawing. Training managers utilize this
factor in organizing training programmes in places for away from work places to create
contrast atmosphere.

(f) Nature. By nature we mean, whether the object in visual, auditory etc. It is commonly
known that pictures attract attention more readily than words. Further a picture with
human beings attract more attention then a picture of inanimate objects. A rhyming
auditory passage attracts attention more readily than the same passage presented as a
narrative.
(C) Stimulus Factors :
It is important to discuss the various factors associated with stimulus which influence the
perception by individuals and these are discussed below.
(i) Similarity. Other things being equal, similar things tend to be perceived as belonging
together. For instance, all students with long hair and bearded may be perceived as
revolutionaries.

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Principle of Similarity
Everybody perceives two sets of four squares and one set of four circles in mentioned
above Seldom people will say two horizontal lines, each consisting of squares and
circles.

(ii) Proximity: - Other thing being equal, thing near each other tends to be perceived as
belonging together.

Principle of Proximity
The usual perception is three rows of four circles rather than four columns of three
circles in mentioned above

(iii) Continuity. Stimuli that form a complete or symmetrical figure or good form tend to
be grouped as parts of a whole.

Principle of Continuity

The above arrangement of circles is usually perceived a hexagonal object rather than
three rows of two each in mentioned above
(iv) Context. The environment or the setting f an object often determines how a thing will
be perceived. A classic example found in most psychology books is the reversible figure
is a vase or goblet. It the background s seen as white, the figure is two black profiles.
This is also known as Figure Ground Principle. The figure ground principle states that
the relationship of a target to its background influences perception. In other words,
perceived objects stand out as separable from their general background.

ATTRIBUTION THEORY
When people attach cause-and-effect explanation to their behaviour, it is known as attribution. The
more directly the particular action is attributable to the behaviour the more is the intensity of
perceptual judgment by a manger. Attribution is an important factor in perception because it creates a
tendency to visualize identical behaviours differently. For instance, if two employees arrive in the
office one hour late, one explains late due to scooter repair on route, other attributes the hospitalization
of his wife. Manager evaluates these two situations differently and is generally convinced by the case
than the repair of the scooter. Attribution Theory has been proposed to develop explanation of the
ways in which we judge people differently, depending upon on what incoming we attribute to a given
behaviour. According to this theory the judgment depends largely on three factors (i) distinctiveness
(ii) consensus, and (iii) consistency.

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B.B.A. 3rd Sem. Subject- Organizational Behaviour

GLIMPSE OF ATTRIBUTION THEORY

When individuals observe the behavior of others, they attempt to explain this behavior by determining
its cause (s). We can make either internal attribution (personality, skills, motivation) or external
attributions (luck, politics, situational constraints). Attribution Theory explains when we are likely to
make internal versus external attribution. Internal attributions are likely when:
1. The behavior is Distinctiveness, that is, do we observe the same behavioural pattern in a
variety of situations or contexts (e.g., at work, at parties, etc.)?
2. There is Consensus, when the behaviour is different from that of others in the same situation.
3. We observe Consistency in the behavioural pattern across time.
4. We do not see any viable external (situational) causes of the behaviour (Externality).

Attribution Theory also suggests that we tend to make three typical attribution errors. These are:
1. Fundamental Attribution Error- We tend to attribute behaviour to internal rather than
external causes, even when the cause is situational in nature.
2. Actor-Observer Error- We tend to attribute the behaviour of other to internal causes and the
attribute our own behaviour to external causes.
3. Self-serving Error- We tend to take credit for successes (self internal attribution), and blame
failures on others, fate, bad luck, or factors beyond our control (self external attribution).

Some Organisational Implications of Attribution Biases

Biased assessments of others and of ourselves can occur in many ways in organisation situations. A
work group is likely to blame other groups or departments when failure occurs on the job. Here, the
self-serving bias is not very conducive to cooperation between groups to behaviours that try to find the
true cause of failure. Performance appraisal is another situation where attribution biases operate. The
attribution errors can create serious disagreement amongst the various raters about what they perform
well or poorly.

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