HUMAN BEHAVIOR AT WORK

Introduction to OB
Meaning of Organizational Behavior
Importance of OB
Historical Development
Contributing Disciplines
 MEANING OF ORGANIZATIONAL
BEHAVIOUR
• Why do people behave the way they do?
• What causes different people to react differently to
the same situation?
• Why are some organizations more successful than
others, even though they appear to be managed in
the same manner?
• All of these questions –and more- are the substance
of what Organizational Behaviour is all about.
 Definition of OB
• Organizational Behaviour is the systematic study of the
actions and attitudes that people exhibit within
organizations. It is individual behavior and group dynamics
in organizations. Organizational variables that affect human
behavior at work are also relevant to the study of
organizational behavior. These organizational variables
include job content, job design and organizational
structure.

• Another definition by Stephen P. Robins is more elaborate:

“It is a field of study that investigates the impact of
individuals, groups and structures on behaviour within
organizations for the purpose of applying such knowledge
towards improving an organization’s effectiveness.”
Importance (Goals)of OB
 Ancient History
Managers have
Managers have been
been inin existence
existence for
for as
as long
long as
as individuals
individuals have
have put
put others
others in
in
aa position
position subordinate
subordinate to to them
them forfor the
the purpose
purpose of of accomplishing
accomplishing
predetermined goals.
predetermined goals. Much
Much of of the
the success
success ofof the
the Egyptian
Egyptian and
and Roman
Roman
civilizations can
civilizations can be
be credited
credited to to their
their astounding
astounding managerial
managerial accomplishments.
accomplishments.
Earlier, many
Earlier, many ofof the
the large
large organizations
organizations thatthat did
did exist
exist were
were military
military ones
ones in
in
which the
which the authority
authority ofof the
the leader
leader was
was supreme
supreme and and unquestioned.
unquestioned.
Behavioural problems
Behavioural problems werewere relatively
relatively easy
easy to
to handle
handle duedue to
to regimentation
regimentation
-that is
-that is unquestioning
unquestioning obedience.
obedience. OneOne ofof the
the most
most efficient
efficient organizations
organizations in in
the world
the world forfor many
many centuries
centuries isis the
the Roman
Roman Catholic
Catholic Church.
Church. ItIt is
is exceedingly
exceedingly
efficient even
efficient even today.
today.
 Modern History..
As aa result
As result of
of the
the industrial
industrial revolution
revolution of
of the
the nineteenth
nineteenth century
century large
large number
number
of individuals
of individuals were
were required
required to to work
work together
together in in manager-subordinate
manager-subordinate
relationships. Famous
relationships. Famous industrialists
industrialists like
like William
William CC Durant,
Durant, Henry
Henry Ford,
Ford, Andrew
Andrew
Carnegie and
Carnegie and John
John D D Rockefeller
Rockefeller were were primarily
primarily concerned
concerned with
with their
their
companies to
companies to survive
survive and
and prosper.
prosper. The
The scientific
scientific Management
Management movement,
movement,
around the
around the turn
turn ofof the
the 20
20thth century,
century, took
took aa narrower,
narrower, operations
operations perspective.
perspective.
 History of org. behavior(contd.)
• Fredric W Taylor is the recognized father of
scientific management. He undertook his time
and motion study at the Midvale Steel company.
He was concerned with inefficiencies in manual
labour jobs as he saw different workers doing the
same job in different ways. As an industrial
engineer, he set out to find the “one best way” to
perform the job efficiently. His argument proved
correct and in some instances “Taylorism”
resulted in productivity increases of 400 percent.
 History of org. behavior(contd.)
• Many have criticized Taylor’s work for dehumanizing
the work place and treating workers like machines, but
his overall contribution to management was
significant. Taylor was the first to take the theory and
practice of management out of the realm of intuitive
judgment into the realm of scientific enquiry and
reasoning. Taylor’s ideas on time study,
standardization of work practices, goal setting, money
as a motivator, scientific selection of workers and rest
pauses have all proved to be successful techniques of
management even today. Other note worthy
contributors to the idea of scientific management
were the husband and wife team of Frank Gilbreth
and Lillian Moller Gilbreth and Henry L Gantt.
(intuitive= able to understand or know some thing
without conscious reasoning.)
 History of org. behavior(contd.)
 The Human Relations Movement
 The second major step on the way to current organizational behavior
theory was the Human Relations Movement that began in the 1930s and
continued in various forms till the 1950s. The practice of management,
which places heavy emphasis on employee cooperation and morale, might
be classified as human relations. The Human Relations Movement,
popularized by Elton Mayo and his famous Hawthorne studies conducted at
the Hawthorne Plant of the Western Electric Company(Chicago) remained
the foundation of much of our management thinking today. Now the details:
 Illumination experiments- The studies attempted to examine the
relationship between lighThe test group in an early phase showed no
increase or decrease in output in proportion to the increase or decrease in
illumination. The control group with unchanged illumination increased
output by the same amount overall as the test group. Subsequent phases
brought the level of light down to moonlight intensity; The workers could
barely see what they were doing, but productivity increased. The results
were baffling to the researchers. Obviously, some variables in the
experiment were not being held constant or under control. Something
besides the level of illumination was causing the change in productivity. This
something, of course, was the complex human variable.
 t intensity on the shop floor of manual work sites and employee
productivity. A test group and a control group were used.
 History of org. behavior(contd.)
• It is fortunate that the illumination experiments did not end up in
the wastebasket. Those responsible for the Hawthorne studies had
enough foresight and spirit to accept the challenge of looking
beneath the surface of the apparent failure of the experiments. In a
way, the results of the illumination experiments were a
serendipitous discovery. This accidental discovery provided the
impetus for the further study of human behavior at work and it
marked the beginning of the field of organizational behavior.
• Relay room studies: The next study was carried out in the relay
room of the same plant. Here, specific variables such as length of
workday, rest breaks and method of payment were taken up for
investigation. The results were basically the same as those of the
illumination studies. Each test period yielded higher productivity
than the previous one. Even when the women were subjected to
the original conditions of the experiment, productivity increased.
 Contributing Disciplines

• Organizational Behavior is a blended discipline that has

grown out of contributions from numerous earlier
fields of study. The sciences of psychology, sociology,
anthropology, political science, engineering,
management and medicine are the primary fields of
study out of which organizational behavior has grown.
• Organizations are systems of interacting components
which are people, tasks, technology and structure.
These internal components also interact with
components in the organization’s task environment.
 2. PERSONALITY
 What is Personality?
 Determinants of Personality
 Five theories of personality
 Personality characteristics and their influence
on behaviors in organizations
 What is personality?
• There is no unanimous definition coined by psychologists and
social-scientists.
The most meaningful approach would be to include both the
person and the role as Floyd L Ruch has done. He states that:
“The human personality includes:
i. External appearance and behavior or social stimulus value.
ii. Inner awareness of self as a permanent organizing force.
iii. The particular pattern or organization of measurable traits,
both “inner and outer.”
In short, personality is a very diverse and complex psychological
Concept.
 Determinants of Personality
• What determines personality? The question
may be the most difficult. People are
enormously complex. The determinants of
personality can be grouped in five broad
categories
a. Biological:- Consists of four sub factors viz.
i. Heredity
ii. Brain
iii. Biofeedback
iv. Physical features
 Determinants of Personality(contd.)
i)Heredity: Heredity refers to those factors determined at
conception. Physical stature, facial attractiveness, sex,
temperament, muscle composition and reflexes, energy level
and biological rhythms are inherited from one’s parents. The
heredity approach argues that the ultimate explanation of an
individual’s personality is the molecular structure of the
genes, located in the chromosomes.
ii)Brain: The second approach is to concentrate on the role that
the brain plays in personality. Psychologists are unable to
prove empirically the contribution of the human brain in
influencing personality. Electrical Stimulation of the
brain(ESB) and split-brain psychology hold promises of
contribution in the near future.
 Determinants of Personality(contd.)
iii) Biofeedback(BFT): Until recently, physiologists and
psychologists felt that certain biological functions such as
brainwave patterns, gastric and hormonal secretions, and
fluctuations in blood pressure and skin temperature were
beyond conscious control. Now some scientists believe that
these involuntary functions can be consciously controlled
through biofeedback techniques . In BFT, the individual learns
the internal rhythms of the body process through electronic
signals that are fed back from the equipment that is wired to
the body. From this biofeedback, the person can learn to
control the body process in question.
Determinants of Personality(contd.)
iv) Physical features: A vital ingredient of the
personality, an individual’s external appearance,
is biologically determined. The fact that a person
is tall or short, fat or skinny, black or white will
influence the person’s effect on others and this
in turn, will affect the self concept.
 Determinants of Personality(contd.)

b) Cultural Factors:
Among the factors that influence personality
formation is the culture in which we are
raised, early conditioning, norms prevailing
within the family, friends and social groups
and other miscellaneous experiences that
impact us.
c) Family Factors:
The family probably has the most significant
impact on early personality development.
 Determinants of Personality(contd.)
d) Social Factors:
There is increasing recognition given to the role of other
relevant persons, groups and especially organizations, which
generally influence an individual’s personality. This is
commonly called the socialization process. Socialization
involves the process by which a person acquires, from the
enormously wide range of behavioral potentialities that are
open to him or her, those that are synthesized and absorbed.
Socialization starts with the initial contact of the infant with
the mother. After infancy other members of the immediate
family- father, brothers, sisters and close relatives and
friends, then the social group-peers, school friends and
members of the work group-play influential roles.
 Determinants of Personality(contd.)
e) Situational Factors:
Situation exerts an important press on the
individual. The effect of environment is quite
strong. Knowledge, skill and language are
obviously acquired and represent important
modifications in behavior. An individual’s
personality, while generally stable and
consistent, does change in different situations.
It exercises constraints and may provide push.
 Theories of Personality
 Intrapsychic Theory(Psychoanalytic Theory)
 Type Theories
 Trait Theories
 Self-Theory
 Social Learning Theory
Intra psychic Theory/Psycho Analytic
Theory
• Sigmund Freud proposed a new conception of
personality, one that contains three systems- the
id, the ego, and the superego.
• Id: The id is the only part of the personality that
is present at birth. It is inherited, primitive,
inaccessible and completely unconscious. The id
contains the life instincts which are sexual
instincts and the biological urges such as hunger
and thirst and the death instinct, which accounts
for our aggressive and destructive impulses. Yet
the id cannot act on its own; it can only wish,
image, fantasize and demand.
 Intra psychic Theory/Psycho Analytic
Theory(contd.)
• A part -- a very important part -- of the organism
is the nervous system, which has as one of its
characteristics a sensitivity to the organism's
needs. At birth, that nervous system is little more
than that of any other animal, an "it" or id. The
nervous system, as id, translates the organism's
needs into motivational forces called, in German,
Triebe, which has been translated as instincts or
drives. Freud also called them wishes. This
translation from need to wish is called the
primary process.
 Intra psychic Theory/Psycho Analytic
Theory(contd.)
• The id works in keeping with the pleasure principle, which can
be understood as a demand to take care of needs
immediately. Just picture the hungry infant, screaming itself
blue. It doesn't "know" what it wants in any adult sense; it just
knows that it wants it and it wants it now. The infant, in the
Freudian view, is pure, or nearly pure id. And the id is nothing
if not the psychic representative of biology.
• Unfortunately, although a wish for food, such as the image of
a juicy steak, might be enough to satisfy the id, it isn't enough
to satisfy the organism. The need only gets stronger, and the
wishes just keep coming. You may have noticed that, when
you haven't satisfied some need, such as the need for food, it
begins to demand more and more of your attention, until
there comes a point where you can't think of anything else.
This is the wish or drive breaking into consciousness.
 Intra psychic Theory/Psycho Analytic
Theory
• Luckily for the organism, there is that small
portion of the mind we discussed before, the
conscious, that is hooked up to the world
through the senses. Around this little bit of
consciousness, during the first year of a child's
life, some of the "it" becomes "I," some of the id
becomes ego. The ego relates the organism to
reality by means of its consciousness, and it
searches for objects to satisfy the wishes that id
creates to represent the organisms needs. This
problem-solving activity is called the secondary
process.
Intra psychic Theory/Psycho Analytic
Theory
• The ego, unlike the id, functions according to
the reality principle, which says "take care of
a need as soon as an appropriate object is
found." It represents reality and, to a
considerable extent, reason.
Intra psychic Theory/Psycho Analytic
Theory
 However, as the ego struggles to keep the id (and, ultimately,
the organism) happy, it meets with obstacles in the world. It
occasionally meets with objects that actually assist it in
attaining its goals. And it keeps a record of these obstacles
and aides. In particular, it keeps track of the rewards and
punishments meted out by two of the most influential objects
in the world of the child -- mom and dad. This record of things
to avoid and strategies to take becomes the superego. It is
not completed until about seven years of age. In some
people, it never is completed.
 Intra psychic Theory/Psycho Analytic
Theory
• There are two aspects to the superego: One is the
conscience, which is an internalization of punishments and
warnings. The other is called the ego ideal. It derives from
rewards and positive models presented to the child. The
conscience and ego ideal communicate their requirements
to the ego with feelings like pride, shame, and guilt.
• It is as if we acquired, in childhood, a new set of needs and
accompanying wishes, this time of social rather than
biological origins. Unfortunately, these new wishes can
easily conflict with the ones from the id. You see, the
superego represents society, and society often wants
nothing better than to have you never satisfy your needs at
all!
 Intra psychic Theory/Psycho Analytic
Theory
• Life instincts and the death instinct
• Freud saw all human behavior as motivated by the
drives or instincts, which in turn are the neurological
representations of physical needs. At first, he referred
to them as the life instincts. These instincts perpetuate
(a) the life of the individual, by motivating him or her
to seek food and water, and (b) the life of the species,
by motivating him or her to have sex. The motivational
energy of these life instincts, the "oomph" that powers
our psyches, he called libido, from the Latin word for "I
desire."
 Intra psychic Theory/Psycho Analytic
Theory
• Later in his life, Freud began to believe that the
life instincts didn't tell the whole story. Libido is a
lively thing; the pleasure principle keeps us in
perpetual motion. And yet the goal of all this
motion is to be still, to be satisfied, to be at
peace, to have no more needs. The goal of life,
you might say, is death! Freud began to believe
that "under" and "beside" the life instincts there
was a death instinct. He began to believe that
every person has an unconscious wish to die.
 Intra psychic Theory/Psycho Analytic
Theory
• This seems like a strange idea at first, and it was rejected
by many of his students, but I think it has some basis in
experience: Life can be a painful and exhausting process.
There is easily, for the great majority of people in the
world, more pain than pleasure in life -- something we
are extremely reluctant to admit! Death promises
release from the struggle.
• Freud referred to a nirvana principle. Nirvana is a
Buddhist idea, often translated as heaven, but actually
meaning "blowing out," as in the blowing out of a
candle. It refers to non-existence, nothingness, the void,
which is the goal of all life in Buddhist philosophy.
 Intra psychic Theory/Psycho Analytic
Theory
• The day-to-day evidence of the death instinct and
its nirvana principle is in our desire for peace, for
escape from stimulation, our attraction to alcohol
and narcotics, our penchant for escapist activity,
such as losing ourselves in books or movies, our
craving for rest and sleep. Sometimes it presents
itself openly as suicide and suicidal wishes. And,
Freud theorized, sometimes we direct it out away
from ourselves, in the form of aggression,
cruelty, murder, and destructiveness.
 Intra psychic Theory/Psycho Analytic
Theory
• Anxiety
• Freud once said "life is not easy!"
• The ego -- the "I" -- sits at the center of some pretty
powerful forces: reality; society, as represented by the
superego; biology, as represented by the id. When
these make conflicting demands upon the poor ego, it
is understandable if it -- if you -- feel threatened, feel
overwhelmed, feel as if it were about to collapse under
the weight of it all. This feeling is called anxiety, and it
serves as a signal to the ego that its survival, and with
it the survival of the whole organism, is in jeopardy.
 Intra psychic Theory/Psycho Analytic
Theory
• Freud mentions three different kind of anxieties: The
first is realistic anxiety, which you and I would call
fear. Actually Freud did, too, in German. But his
translators thought "fear" too mundane! Nevertheless,
if I throw you into a pit of poisonous snakes, you might
experience realistic anxiety.
• The second is moral anxiety. This is what we feel when
the threat comes not from the outer, physical world,
but from the internalized social world of the superego.
It is, in fact, just another word for feelings like shame
and guilt and the fear of punishment.
 Intra psychic Theory/Psycho Analytic
Theory
• The last is neurotic anxiety. This is the fear of
being overwhelmed by impulses from the id. If
you have ever felt like you were about to "lose
it," lose control, your temper, your rationality,
or even your mind, you have felt neurotic
anxiety. Neurotic is actually the Latin word for
nervous, so this is nervous anxiety. It is this
kind of anxiety that intrigued Freud most, and
we usually just call it anxiety, plain and simple.
 Intra psychic Theory/Psycho
Analytic Theory
• The defense mechanisms
• The ego deals with the demands of reality, the
id, and the superego as best as it can. But when
the anxiety becomes overwhelming, the ego
must defend itself. It does so by unconsciously
blocking the impulses or distorting them into a
more acceptable, less threatening form. The
techniques are called the ego defense
mechanisms, and Freud, his daughter Anna, and
other disciples have discovered quite a few.
 Intra psychic Theory/Psycho
Analytic Theory
• Denial involves blocking external events from
awareness. If some situation is just too much to
handle, the person just refuses to experience it. As
you might imagine, this is a primitive and
dangerous defense -- no one disregards reality and
gets away with it for long! I was once reading while
my five year old daughter was watching a cartoon
(The Smurfs, I think). She was, as was her habit,
quite close to the television, when a commercial
came on
 Intra psychic Theory/Psycho Analytic
Theory
• This was a commercial for a horror movie, complete
with bloody knife, hockey mask, and screams of
terror. Now I wasn't able to save my child from this
horror, so I did what any good psychologist father
would do: I talked about it. I said to her "Boy, that
was a scary commercial, wasn't it?" She said "Huh?" I
said "That commercial...it sure was scary wasn't it?"
She said "What commercial?" I said "The commercial
that was just on, with the blood and the mask and
the screaming...!" She had apparently shut out the
whole thing.
 Intra psychic Theory/Psycho Analytic Theory
• Repression, which Anna Freud also called "motivated
forgetting," is just that: not being able to recall a threatening
situation, person, or event. This, too, is dangerous, and is a
part of most other defenses.
• As an adolescent, I developed a rather strong fear of spiders,
especially long-legged ones. I didn't know where it came from,
but it was starting to get rather embarrassing by the time I
entered college. At college, a counselor helped me to get over
it (with a technique called systematic desensitization), but I
still had no idea where it came from. Years later, I had a
dream, a particularly clear one, that involved getting locked up
by my cousin in a shed behind my grandparents' house when I
was very young. The shed was small, dark, and had a dirt floor
covered with -- you guessed it! -- long-legged spiders.
 Intra psychic Theory/Psycho Analytic Theory

• The Freudian understanding of this phobia is pretty simple: I

repressed a traumatic event -- the shed incident -- but seeing
spiders aroused the anxiety of the event without arousing the
memory.
• Asceticism, or the renunciation of needs, is one most people
haven't heard of, but it has become relevant again today with
the emergence of the disorder called anorexia. Preadolescents,
when they feel threatened by their emerging sexual desires,
may unconsciously try to protect themselves by denying, not
only their sexual desires, but all desires. They get involved in
some kind of ascetic (monk-like) lifestyle wherein they
renounce their interest in what other people enjoy.
 Intra psychic Theory/Psycho
Analytic Theory
• In boys nowadays, there is a great deal of interest in the self-
discipline of the martial arts. Fortunately, the martial arts not
only don't hurt you (much), they may actually help you.
Unfortunately, girls in our society often develop a great deal
of interest in attaining an excessively and artificially thin
standard of beauty. In Freudian theory, their denial of their
need for food is actually a cover for their denial of their sexual
development. Our society conspires with them: After all, what
most societies consider a normal figure for a mature woman
is in ours considered 20 pounds overweight!
 Intra psychic Theory/Psycho
Analytic Theory
• Isolation (sometimes called intellectualization) involves
stripping the emotion from a difficult memory or threatening
impulse. In emergency situations, many people find
themselves completely calm and collected until the
emergency is over, at which point they fall to pieces.
Something tells you that, during the emergency, you can't
afford to fall apart. It is common to find someone totally
immersed in the social obligations surrounding the death of a
loved one.
 Intra psychic Theory/Psycho
Analytic Theory
• Doctors and nurses must learn to separate their natural reactions to
blood, wounds, needles, and scalpels, and treat the patient,
temporarily, as something less than a warm, wonderful human being
with friends and family. Adolescents often go through a stage where
they are obsessed with horror movies, perhaps to come to grips with
their own fears. Nothing demonstrates isolation more clearly than a
theater full of people laughing hysterically while someone is shown
being dismembered.
• Displacement is the redirection of an impulse onto a substitute
target. If the impulse, the desire, is okay with you, but the person you
direct that desire towards is too threatening, you can displace to
someone or something that can serve as a symbolic substitute.
•
 Intra psychic Theory/Psycho Analytic Theory
• Someone who is frustrated by his or her superiors may go
home and kick the dog, beat up a family member.
• Turning against the self is a very special form of
displacement, where the person becomes his own substitute
target. It is normally used in reference to hatred, anger, and
aggression, rather than more positive impulses, and it is the
Freudian explanation for many of our feelings of inferiority,
guilt, and depression. The idea that depression is often the
result of the anger we refuse to acknowledge is accepted by
many people, Freudians and non-Freudians alike.
• Once upon a time, at a time when I was not feeling my best,
my daughter, five years old, spilled an entire glass of
chocolate milk in the living room. I lashed out at her verbally,
telling her she was clumsy and had to learn to be more
careful and how often hadn't I told her and...well, you know.
 Intra psychic Theory/Psycho
Analytic Theory
• She stood there stiffly with a sort of
smoldering look in her eyes, and, of all things,
pounded herself on her own head several
times! Obviously, she would rather have
pounded my head, but, well, you just don't do
that, do you? Needless to say, I've felt guilty
ever since.
Type Theories
• Two categories:
• a)Sheldon’s physiognomy theory
• Represents a link between certain anatomical features and
psychological traits-determining a relationship between
features of the face or body, and personality. Sheldon
identifies three body types:
• i) Endomorph: Bulky and beloved; the person seeks comfort,
loves fine food, eats too much, affectionate and liked by all.
• Ii) Mesomorph: He is basically strong, athletic and tough.
Tends to be highly aggressive, and self-assertive.
• Iii) Ectomorph: These people are thin, long and poorly
developed physically . Though physically weak, he leads the
league in the intelligent department.
 Type Theories(contd.)
b)Carl Jung’s Extrovert-introvert Theory:
i)Extroverts: They are optimistic, outgoing,
gregarious and sociable. Extroverts are basically
objective, reality oriented individuals who are
more doers than thinkers.
ii) Introverts: By contrast, introverts are more
inward-directed people. They are less sociable,
withdrawn and absorbed in inner life. They tend
to be guided by their own ideas and philosophy.
Trait Theories
• A trait is a personal characteristic that is used
to describe and explain personality. It is a list
of relatively stable and consistent
characteristics. Traits are of two types-
Common traits and Individual traits.
• Common traits are those we have or hold in
common with most others in our culture.
• Individual traits are three: Cardinal traits,
Central traits and Secondary traits.
 Trait Theories(contd.)
• i) Cardinal Traits: It is so strong a part of a
person’s personality that he may become
identified with or known for that trait.
• Central traits: are those that we would mention
in writing a careful letter of recommendation.
• Secondary Traits: are less obvious, less consistent
and not as critical in defining our personality.
Examples of secondary traits are food and music
preferences.
 Trait Theories(contd.)
• Raymond Cattell considered personality to be a pattern of
traits providing the key to understanding and predicting a
person’s behavior. He identified two types:
• a) Surface traits- qualities like honest, helpful, kind, generous
etc.
• b)Source traits-Make up the most basic personality structure
and actually cause behavior. For example, intelligence is a
source trait, and every person has a certain amount of it but,
obviously not exactly the same amount or the same kind.
 Social Learning Theory

• Social Learning Theory: The main focus of social learning

approach is on the patterns of behavior the individuals learn
in coping with environment. Some behavior patterns are
learned or acquired through direct experience. Responses can
also be acquired or learned without direct reinforcement.
Individuals can also learn by observing what happens to other
people and just by being told about something, as well as
direct experiences. So, for example, much of what we have
learned comes from watching models- parents, teachers,
peers, bosses, etc. This view- that we can learn through both
observation and direct experience- has been called social
learning theory.
Self-Theory
• Carl Rogers developed his theory of personality through
insights gained from his patients in therapy sessions. Rogers
viewed human nature as basically good. If left to develop
naturally, he thought, people would be happy and
psychologically healthy. According to Rogers, we each live in
our own subjective reality, which he called the
phenomenological field. It is in this personal, subjective field
that we act and think and feel. In other words, the way we see
is the way it is- for us. Gradually, a part of the
phenomenological field becomes differentiated as the self. The
self- concept emerges as a result of experiences involving such
terms as “I” “me” and “myself”. With the emerging self comes
the need for positive regard. We need such things as warmth,
love, acceptance, sympathy and respect from the people who
are significant in our lives. But there are usually strings
attached to positive regard from others.
 3. MOTIVATION
Basic Concepts
Motivation Theories
Problems in Motivation
Motivation
Basic concepts
• What is motivation?
Motivation is how behavior gets started, is energized, is
sustained, is directed, is stopped and what kind of subjective
reaction is present in the organism. Motivation is the
underlying process that initiates, directs and sustains behavior
in order to satisfy physiological and psychological needs. At
any given time, one might explain behavior as a combination
of motives-needs or desires that energize and direct behavior
toward a goal. The study of motivation can be traced back to
the writings of ancient Greek Philosophers. They presented
hedonism as an explanation of human motivation. The
concept of hedonism says that a person seeks out comfort and
pleasure and avoids discomfort and pain. In organizations, the
first to address worker motivation was Fredric Taylor.
 Motivation
• Definition: Motivation is the act of stimulating some one
to take a desired course action- to push the right button to
get a desired reaction. Motivation is a process that starts with
a physiological or psychological deficiency or need that
activates behavior or a drive that is aimed at a goal or
incentive.
• Needs- Needs are created whenever there is a physiological
or psychological imbalance (deprived of food, water or
friends)
• Drives-or motives are set up to alleviate needs( hunger and
thirst drives) and the need for friends becomes a drive for
affiliation
 Motivation
• Incentives- Any thing that will alleviate a need and reduce a
drive. Thus attaining an incentive will restore physiological or
psychological balance and will reduce or cut of the drive.
Eating food, drinking water, and obtaining friends will tend to
restore the balance and reduce the corresponding drives.
• A man’s performance on a specific task is a function of his skill
and motivation.
• Ie. P= f(S, M) where P= Performance, S= Skill, M= Motivation
• Skill alone does not guarantee that the individual will put
forth his best effort. There is another variable viz. motivation
which finally determines the effort which can be expected
from the employee.
 MOTIVATION THEORIES
Early Theories of Motivation:
1) Hierarchy Of Needs theory-Abraham Maslow
2) The Motivation-Hygiene theory-Fredric Herzberg
3) Theory X and Theory y-Douglas McGregor
Contemporary Theories of Motivation.
1. ERG (Existence, Relatedness, Growth) needs theory.
2. Macleland’s theory of needs.
3. Goal setting theory-Edwin A Locke and Gary P Latham
4. Reinforcement theory-B. F. Skinner
5. Equity theory-Adam
6. Expectancy theory-Victor H Vroom
 Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Theory
• Abraham Maslow propounded a theory of
human nature that everyone is motivated to
satisfy a series of instinctual needs. Everyone’s
needs, Maslow believed, were arranged in a
hierarchy.
MASLOW’S NEED HIERARCHY
 Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene
Theory
• Two Factor Theory (also known as Herzberg's
Motivation-Hygiene Theory) was developed
by Frederick Herzberg, a psychologist who
found that job satisfaction and job
dissatisfaction acted independently of each
other. Two Factor Theory states that there are
certain factors in the workplace that cause job
satisfaction, while a separate set of factors
cause dissatisfaction.
 Equity Theory
• Propounded by J. Stacy Adam. This theory is also known as
Inequity Theory or Social Comparison Theory.
• When employees work for an organization, they exchange
their services for pay and other benefits. Four terms are to be
understood:
1.Person: The person for whom an equity or an inequity exists.
2. Comparison other: Any group or individual used by a person
as a reference regarding inputs and outcomes.
3. Inputs: Characteristics which individuals bring with them to
the job- age, sex, social status, organizational position, how
hard the person works, education, skills, experience etc.
These are subjectively perceived by a person as input
variables.
 Equity Theory(contd.)
4.Outcomes: pay, promotions, fringe benefits, status and
intrinsic interest in the job.
The theory proposes that the motivation to act develops after
the person compares his inputs/outcomes with the identical
ratio of the comparison other.
Equity Theory is schematically represented as follows:-
person’s outcomes < Other’s outcomes (negative inequity)
person’s input other’s input
Person’s outcomes >other’s outcomes (positive inequity)
Person’s input other’s input
 Equity Theory(contd.)
Person’s outcomes Other’s outcomes (equity)
Person’s inputs others inputs
• The ratio is based upon the person’s perception of what the
person is giving (inputs) and receiving(outcomes) versus the
ratio of what the relevant other is giving and receiving.
• Inequity comes about when the person feels cheated. People
who feel underpaid(outcome) or overworked(input) in
relation to others in the work place are motivated to restore
equity which may prove dysfunctional from an organizational
stand point.
• Negative inequity: change inputs - person reduces his efforts,
productivity or quality of work.
• Negative inequity: change outcomes-Requesting salary
increase, asking for bigger office
 Problems in Motivation

• There are various shortcomings in the theories

of motivation. We will take up this issue when
we discuss each theory in detail.
 4. GROUP DYNAMICS
 Types of groups
 Group Norms and Cohesiveness
 Group Roles
 Types of Groups
Groups can be either formal or informal.
o Formal Groups
o A formal group is set up by the organization to carry out work
in support of the organization’s goals. e.g. Accounts
Department, an executive committee, and a product
development team. Formal groups may be Command groups
and Task groups.
o Command Group.
Command group consists of a manager and the employees
who report to him or her. It is according to the hierarchy in
the organization chart.
 Types of Groups(contd.)
• Task Group
• A task group is made up of employees who work together to
complete a particular task or project. A task group’s
boundaries are not limited to its immediate hierarchical
superior. It can cross command relationships.
o Informal Groups:
o An organization’s informal groups are groups that evolve to
meet social or affiliation needs. These are neither formally
structured nor organizationally determined. There can be
friendship groups, interest groups, reference groups and
membership groups.
 Group Norms and Cohesiveness(contd.)
• Adjourning: For permanent work groups, performing is
the last stage in their development. However for temporary
groups, there is an adjourning stage. In this stage, the group
prepares for its disbandment.
• Characteristics of Mature Groups: The purpose
and mission may be assigned to a group, or it may emerge
from within the group. Behavioral norms, which evolve
over a period of time, are well-understood standards of
behavior within a group. Group cohesion, It enables a
group to exercise effective control over its members in
relationship to its behavioral norms and standards . Status
Structure, is the set of authority and task relations among
a group’s members.
 Group Norms and Cohesiveness
• Stages of group development.
 Forming: When the group is initially formed, its members
cannot accomplish much until they agree on what their
purpose is, how they will work together and so on.
Storming: The storming stage is one of inter-group
conflict. Members accept the existence of the group, but
resist the constraints the group imposes on individuality
 Norming: In this stage, close relationships develop and the
group demonstrates cohesiveness.
 Performing : The fourth stage is performing. The
structure at this point is fully functional and accepted. Group
energy has moved from getting to know and understand each
other to performing the task at hand.
5. ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
 ELEMENTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
 ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND
PERFORMANCE.
 CHANGING AND STRENTHENING CULTURE.
 ORGANIZATIONAL SOCIALIZATION
 ELEMENTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL
CULTURE
• Definition of Organizational Culture:
Organizational Culture consists of the norms, values
and unwritten rules of conduct of an organization as well as
management styles, priorities, beliefs and interpersonal
behavior that prevail. Together they create a climate that
influences how well people communicate, Plan and make
decisions.
• Basic Elements of Culture: These are-Artifacts,
Espoused Values and Basic Assumptions.
• Artifacts- are the first level of organizational culture. They
include products, services, and even behavior patterns of the
organization. Schein has defined artifacts as things that “one
sees, hears and feels when one encounters a new group with
an unfamiliar culture.”
 ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND
PERFORMANCE.
• Organizational culture is related to Organizational success.
Organizational culture is a framework that guides day- to –
day behavior and decision making for employees and directs
their actions toward completion of organizational goals.
Culture must be aligned with the other parts of organizational
actions, such as planning, organizing, leading, and controlling;
indeed, if culture is not aligned with these tasks, then the
organization is in for difficult times. Culture based on
adaptability, involvement, a clear mission and consistency can
help companies achieve higher sales growth, return on assets,
profits, quality and employee satisfaction.
• How employees learn culture? Culture is transmitted to
employees in a number of ways. The most significant are
stories, rituals, symbols, and language.
 ELEMENTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL
CULTURE(contd.)
• Espoused Values: are the second level of organizational
culture. Values are answers to the “why” questions. For
example, why do you need more money? To fulfill my wife’s
desire to own a farm house. Likewise corporations have
values, such as size, profitability, or making a quality product.
Most organizational cultures can trace their espoused values
back to the founders of the organization.
• Basic Assumptions: The third level of organizational
culture are the beliefs that organization members take for
granted. Culture prescribes “ the right way to do things” at an
organization, often through unspoken assumptions.
 CHANGING AND STRENTHENING CULTURE.

• Corporate cultures are very difficult to change.

Changing organizational culture takes
patience, vigilance, and a focus on changing
the parts of an organizational culture that
managers can control. One way of changing
corporate culture is to use behavioral addition
or behavioral substitution.
• Behavioral addition: Behavioral addition is the
process of having managers and employees
perform new behaviors that are central to and
symbolic of the new organizational culture
that a company wants to create.
 CHANGING AND STRENTHENING
CULTURE(contd.)
• Behavioral substitution: is the process of having managers
and employees performing new behaviors central to the
“new” organizational culture in place of behaviors that used
to be central to the “old” organizational culture. Another
way is to change corporate culture is to change visible
artifacts of their old culture. Visible artifacts are visible signs
of an organization’s culture, such as office design and
layout, company dress codes, and company benefits and
perks like stock options, personal parking spaces, etc. Since
corporate cultures are difficult to change,
there is no guarantee that behavior-substitution, behavioral-
addition or changing visible artifacts will change a
company’s organizational culture. Top management
commitment and support for the new values and beliefs is
critically important to enable employees to change.
 6.ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING
 Define Learning
 Theories of Learning
 Role of Learning in Behavior modification
 Performance Management and Feedback
 DEFINITION OF LEARNING

Learning can be defined as a relatively permanent

change in behavior or potential behavior as a
result of direct or indirect experience. There are
two primary elements in this definition.
 The change must be relatively permanent. This
means that after ‘learning’, our behavior must be
different, either better or worse as compared to
our behavior prior to this learning experience. For
example, you learn to drive a car or learned how
to use a computer.
 DEFINITION OF LEARNING(contd.)
• The change must occur due to some kind of
experience or practice. This learning is not
caused by biological maturation. For example,
a child does learn to walk, it is a natural
biological phenomenon. We do not learn to
eat or drink.
• A short definition by Stephen Robinson:
Learning is any relatively permanent change in
behavior that occurs as a result of experience.
 Theories of Learning
• The purpose of learning theory is to better
explain how learning occurs. How do we
learn? Four theories have been offered to
explain the process by which we acquire
patterns of behavior:
• Classical conditioning theory
• Operant conditioning theory
• Cognitive learning theory and
• Social learning theory.
 Theories of Learning(contd.)
• Classical conditioning theory: It has a powerful effect on our attitudes, likes and
dislikes, and emotional responses. Ivan Pavlov’s research on the conditioned reflexes
in dogs revealed much of what we know about the principles of classical
conditioning. Ivan Pavlov(1849-1936) organized and directed research in physiology
at the institute of Experimental Medicine in St. Petersburg, Russia . He developed
classical conditioning theory based on his experiments to teach a dog to salivate in
response to the ringing of a bell. When Pavlov presented meat(unconditioned
stimulus) to the dog, he noticed a great deal of salivation(conditioned response). But
, when merely bell was rung, no salivation was noticed in the dog. What Pavlov did
next was to link the meat and the ringing of the bell. He did this several times.
Afterwards, he merely rang the bell without presenting the meat. Now the dog
began to salivate as soon as the bell rang. After a while, the dog would salivate
merely at the sound of the bell, even if no meat was presented. In effect, the dog
had learned to respond ie. to salivate at the sound of the bell, since it was
conditioned to link the sound of the bell with the offering of meat.
•
 Theories of Learning(contd.)
• Operant conditioning theory: Operant Conditioning argues that
behavior is a function of its consequences. B.F. Skinner, the Harvard
psychologist is the author of this theory. People learn to behave to
get something they want or avoid something they don’t want. The
relationship is built around two principles:
o The behavior that results in positive rewards tends to be repeated
and behavior with negative consequences tends not to be
repeated.
o Based upon such consequences, the behavior can be predicted and
controlled.
The consequences of behavior are used to influence, or shape
behavior through three strategies; reinforcement, punishment and
extinction. e.g.. Workers would be motivated to work harder and
faster, if they were paid a higher salary. Responses are conditioned
more effectively when reinforcement is immediate.
 Theories of Learning(contd.)
• Cognitive learning theory: Nowadays a growing number of
psychologists stress the role of mental processes. They choose to
broaden the study of learning to include such cognitive processes
as thinking, knowing, problem solving, remembering and forming
mental representations.
• Social learning theory: Albert Bandura contends that many
behaviors or responses are acquired through observational
learning, sometimes called modelling results when we observe the
behaviors of others and note the consequences of that behavior.
Parents, movie stars and sports personalities are often powerful
models. Social learning integrates the cognitive and operant
approaches to learning.
 Role of Learning in Behavior
modification
• Learning is considered vital for understanding human behavior at
work in organizations. Let us now understand how learning helps
managers change human behavior in different organizational
situations:
• Reducing absenteeism through learning-
Learning can help managers evolve programmes to reduce
absenteeism. One such programme may be rewarding employees
for their satisfactory attendance.
 Substituting wellpay for sickpay
 Improving employee discipline- Managers have to deal with
employee’s undesirable behavior such as drinking at the work
place , insubordination, stealing company property, habitual late-
coming etc. Managers usually respond with oral reprimands,
written warnings, and even suspension.
 Developing training programmes- Learning also helps managers
develop effective training programmes.
 Performance Management and
Feedback
• Goal setting is designed to improve work performance, an
important organizational behavior directly related to the
production of goods or the delivery of service . Performance
appraisal is the evaluation of a person’s performance. Accurate
appraisals help supervisors fulfill their dual roles as evaluators and
coaches. The major functions of performance appraisals are:
• To give employees feedback on performance
• To identify the employee’s developmental needs
• To make promotion and reward decisions
• To make demotion and termination decisions and
• To develop information about the organization’s selection and
placement decisions.
 7. EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP AND
AND CAREER DYNAMICS
 Conflict process
 Organizational career
 Power and politics in organization
 Conflict process

• A variety of conflicts occur in organizations. Conflict can be a

very serious problem in any organization. Failure to be
concerned about conflict is very costly, since ignoring it will
almost guarantee that work and interpersonal relations will
deteriorate.
• Definition of conflict: Conflict refers to a disagreement,
opposition, or struggle between two or more individuals or
groups. It results from incompatible influence attempts
between and within individuals, groups or organizations.
• Outcomes of conflict-Not all conflicts are bad. Some types of
conflict encourage new solutions to problems and enhance
the creativity in the organizations. Functional conflicts are
conflicts that support the goals of the group and improve its
performance.
 Conflict process(contd.)

• There are also conflicts that hinder group performance. These

are dysfunctional or destructive forms of conflict. Therefore,
managers should stimulate functional conflict and prevent or
resolve dysfunctional conflict. This is the key to conflict
management. The consequences of conflict can be positive or
negative.
• Positive consequences: Leads to new ideas, stimulates
creativity, motivates change, promotes organizational vitality.
Helps individuals and groups establish identities and serves as
a safety valve to indicate problems.
• Negative consequences: Diverts energy from work, threatens
psychological well-being, wastes resources, creates a negative
climate, breaks down group cohesion, can increase hostility
and aggressive behaviors.
 Conflict process(contd.)
• Sources of conflict:
1) Line and staff competition-The growth of highly
specialized, creative, well-educated staff poses unique
problems for line managers. Faced with the growing
dependence on staff, line managers must adjust to a
reduction in organizational power and prestige. Conflict
in most organizations persists between line and staff.
2) Organization-individual disagreements- The conflict
between the organization and the individual centres
around the individual’s failure to fulfill the organization’s
expectations regarding productivity or compliance with
rules. From another, the conflict is often seen as
resulting from excessive organizational demands.
 Conflict process(contd.)
c) Overlapping responsibilities- Organizations constantly
change in response to personnel turnover, expansion or
contraction, the adoption of new policies, changes in external
environment, and so forth. As a result, it is impossible to establish
job responsibilities once and for all. One person reaches out to
assume more responsibility, another retrenches, and still another
tentatively assumes responsibility for certain functions without
knowing definitely who should be performing them. Thus the
stage is set for conflict.
d) Functional independence: conflicts between an organization’s
functional units, such as accounting and manufacturing is
common place.
 Conflict process(contd.)
e) Personality clashes: Individual differences in such personal
qualities as values, attitudes, abilities and personality traits are
often the cause of conflict.
f) Disagreement over goals: Conflict among managers is
often caused by the fact that there is poor agreement over goals.
Perhaps an even more common source of conflict is the clash of the
personal goals of managers and employees with the goals of the
organization
g)Bottlenecks in the flow of work: Line supervisors in manufacturing
must meet production deadlines, but they are dependent upon
production schedules, warehousing, shipping, and others for
effective performance. Any bottleneck at any point can prevent the
line supervisors from being effective and is quite naturally an
occasion for interpersonal conflict.
 Conflict process(contd.)
• Conflict management strategies: Avoiding,
Accommodating, competing, Compromising
and collaborating.
• Negotiation: Negotiation is the process
through which the parties to a conflict define
what they are willing to give and accept in an
exchange.
•
 Organizational career
• The concept of career: A career is a sequence of positions
held by a person during the course of his lifetime. It comprises a
series of work related activities that provide continuity, order and
meaning to a person’s life. This is an objective view of a person’s
career. There is also a subjective element in the concept of career.
A career consists of the changes in values, attitudes and motivation
that occur as a person grows older. In both the perceptions, the
primary focus is on the individual. A person’s career is shaped by
many complex factors viz. performance, education, experience,
influential parents, caste links and a certain amount of luck.
Successful people identify their career goals, plan and then take
action. For them luck occurs when opportunity meets preparation.
Career planning is not an event or end in itself, but a continuous
process of developing human resources for achieving optimum
results. It must , however, be noted that individual and
organizational careers are not separate and distinct. A person who
is not able to translate his career plan into action within the
organization may probably quit the job, if he has a choice.
Organizations should , therefore, help employees in career planning
so that both can satisfy each other’s needs.
 Power and politics in organization

 Power
 Politics
 Power and politics in organization
• Power- refers to the potential or actual ability to influence
others in a desired direction. As an exchange relationship, power
occurs in transactions between an agent and a target. The agent is
the person using the power, and the target is the recipient of the
attempt to use power. Different individuals and groups within and
outside the organization can exert power. Individual employees,
Including top and middle management, technical analysts and
specialists, support staff, and other non-managerial workers can
influence the actions an organization takes to reach its goals.
Formal groups of employees, such as various departments, work
teams, management councils, task forces, or employee unions, as
well as informal groups can similarly exercise power.
Nonemployees may also try to influence the behavior of an
organization and its members. Owners, suppliers, clients,
competitors, employee unions, the general public and directors of
the organization may exert power that affects the organization.
 Power and politics in organization
• SOURCES OF POWER-
Reward power
Coercive power
Legitimate power
Referent power(charisma or attractiveness)
Expert power
 Power and politics in organization
• Politics- When people get together in groups, power will be
exerted. People want to carve out a niche from which to
exert influence, to earn awards, and to advance their
careers. Power is rightly linked to the concept of politics:
Activities aimed at acquiring power and using it to advance
interests, which may be personal or organizational. Political
behavior in organizations involves those activities that are
not required as part of one’s formal role in the
organization, but the influence, or attempt to influence, the
distribution of advantages and disadvantages within the
organization. Many organizational conditions encourage
political activity: Among them are;
• Unclear goals
• Autocratic decision making
• Ambiguous lines of authority
• Scarce resources and uncertainty.
 COGNITIVE THEORY OF
PERSONALITY
• The cognitive perspective, interestingly, has evolved hand in
hand in the development of computers ever since the mid-
1950's and according to many in psychology has become  the
most significant paradigm in psychology. 
• Essentially, the cognitive perspective of personality is the idea
that people are who they are because of the way they think,
including how information is attended to, perceived,
analyzed, interpreted, encoded and retrieved.  People tend to
have habitual thinking patterns which are characterized as
personality.  Your personality, then, would be your
characteristic cognitive patterns.
 COGNITIVE THEORY OF PERSONALITY(contd.)
• The cognitive perspective is that personality is a person's
mental organization.  In order to cope with all the information
you receive from the world, including sensory information,
you need to cope with, integrate and organize all the
information the world throws at you.  From this point of view,
you are:
• What you THINK
• The way you PROCESS INFORMATION (including attending to,
perceiving, interpreting, encoding and retrieving of
information);
• The way you SELF-REGULATE via cognitive monitoring and
adjusting thoughts and behaviors.  We are HOMEOSTATIC
psychobiological creatures who try to self-regulate in order to
progress towards GOALS.
• HOMEOSTATIC= Maintaining a stable equilibrium.
 COGNITIVE THEORY OF PERSONALITY(contd.)

• The cognitive perspective is also often known as the

information-processing model, with the computer serving as a
convenient metaphor.  Basically, the computer's program is
equivalent to the ways a human processes information.  In
cognitive psychology, these "programs" include methods for
attending, perceiving, representing, encoding, retrieving, and
decision-making and problem-solving.
Psychological development theory
• What is Psychosocial Development?
• Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial
development is one of the best-known theories
of personality in psychology. Much like
Sigmund Freud, Erikson believed that
personality develops in a series of stages.
Unlike Freud’s theory of psychosexual stages,
Erikson’s theory describes the impact of social
experience across the whole lifespan.
 Psychological development theory
One of the main elements of Erikson’s psychosocial stage theory
is the development of ego identity.1 Ego identity is the conscious
sense of self that we develop through social interaction.
According to Erikson, our ego identity is constantly changing due
to new experience and information we acquire in our daily
interactions with others. In addition to ego identity, Erikson also
believed that a sense of competence also motivates behaviors
and actions. Each stage in Erikson’s theory is concerned with
becoming competent in an area of life. If the stage is handled
well, the person will feel a sense of mastery, which he sometimes
referred to as ego strength or ego quality.2 If the stage is
managed poorly, the person will emerge with a sense of
inadequacy
Psychological development theory
• n each stage, Erikson believed people
experience a conflict that serves as a turning
point in development. In Erikson’s view, these
conflicts are centered on either developing a
psychological quality or failing to develop that
quality. During these times, the potential for
personal growth is high, but so is the potential
for failure.
Psychological development theory
• Psychosocial Stage 1 - Trust vs. Mistrust
• The first stage of Erikson’s theory of
psychosocial development occurs between
birth and one year of age and is the most
fundamental stage in life.2
• Because an infant is utterly dependent, the
development of trust is based on the
dependability and quality of the child’s
caregivers.
Psychological development theory
• If a child successfully develops trust, he or she will feel safe and secure in
the world. Caregivers who are inconsistent, emotionally unavailable, or
rejecting contribute to feelings of mistrust in the children they care for.
Failure to develop trust will result in fear and a belief that the world is
inconsistent and unpredictable.
• psychosocial Stage 2 - Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
• The second stage of Erikson's theory of psychosocial development takes
place during early childhood and is focused on children developing a
greater sense of personal control.2
Psychological development theory
• Like Freud, Erikson believed that toilet training was a vital
part of this process. However, Erikson's reasoning was quite
different than that of Freud's. Erikson believed that learning
to control one’s body functions leads to a feeling of control
and a sense of independence.
Other important events include gaining more control over
food choices, toy preferences, and clothing selection.
Children who successfully complete this stage feel secure and
confident, while those who do not are left with a sense of
inadequacy and self-doubt.