ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

INTRODUCTION

All organizations, be the business, educational or government, are social systems.

They are run by people. The functioning of an organization depends upon how people
work or behave in the organization. Human behaviour in organizations is highly
unpredictable. It is unpredictable because it arises from people’s deep-seated needs
and value systems. However, it can be partially understood in terms of the framework
of behavioral science, management and other disciplines. There is no idealistic
solution to organizational problems. All that can be done is to increase our
understanding and skills so that human relations at work can be enhanced.

ORGNISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR – CONCEPTS

Organizational Behavior is concerned with the study of human behaviour at

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

DEFINITION:
According to Callahan, “Organizational behaviour is about of management activities
concerned with understanding, predicting and influencing individual behaviour in
organizational setting.”
According to Raman J. Aldag, “Organizational behaviour i a branch of social science
that eek to build theories that can be applied in predicting, understanding and
controlling behaviour in work organization.
KEY ELEMENTS OF ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR:

There are four key elements in organizational behavior. There are people,
structure, technology and the environment. Each of the four elements of
organizational behavior will be considered briefly.

1. People

People make up the internal social system of the organization. They consist of
individuals and groups, and large groups as well as small ones. People are the living,
thinking, feelings beings who created the organizations. It exists to achieve their
objectives. Organizations exist to serve people. People do not exist to serve
organizations. The work force is one of the critical resources that need to be managed.
In managing human resources.

2. Structure

Structure defines the official relationships of people in organizations.

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

3. Technology

Organizations have technologies for transforming inputs and outputs. These

technologies consist of physical objects, activities and process, knowledge, all of
which are brought to bear on raw materials, labor and capital inputs during a
transformation process. The core technology is that set of productive components
most directly associated with the transformation process.
.
4. Environment

All organizations operate within an external environment. A single

organization does not exist alone. It is part of a larger system that contains thousands
of other elements. All these mutually influence each other in a complex system that
becomes the life style of the people. Individual organization, such as a factory or
school cannot escape from being influenced by this external environment. It
influences the attitudes of people, affects working conditions, and provides
competition for resources and power. Every organization interacts with other
members of its environment. The interactions allow the organization t o acquire raw
material, hire employees, secure capital, obtain knowledge, and build, lease or buy
facilities and equipment. Since the organization process a product or service for
consumption by the environment, it will also interact with its customers.

BASIC APPROACHES OF ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOR

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

principle – there is one best way of managing things and these things can be applied
across the board in all the instances. The situational effect will be totally ignored in
this traditional management. Situations are much more complex than first perceived
and the different variables may require different behavior which means that different
environments required different behavior for effectiveness. Each situation much be
analyzed carefully to determine the significant variables that exist in order to
establish the kinds of practices that will be more effective.
.
v) A Systems Approach: This implies that organization consists of many inter
related and inter dependent elements affecting one another in order to achieve the
overall results. Conceptually a system implies that there are a multitude of variables
in organization and that each of them affects all the others in complex relationships.
An event that appears to affect one individual or one department actually may have
significant influences elsewhere in the organization. Systems theorists describe the
organization as “open to its external environment”, receiving certain inputs from the
environment such as human resources, raw materials etc, and engaging in various
operations to transform those raw materials into a finished products and finally
turning out the “outputs” in its final form to be sent to the environment. The
organization, since it is open to the environment, also receives feedback from the
environment and takes corrective action as necessary.

NEED FOR STUDING ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

• Organizational behaviour provides a sound work environment.

• It helps in creating effective leaders.
• It improves interpersonal relations.
• It maintains cordial industrial relation.
• It improves motivation and communication.
• It helps in creating congenial Organizational climate.

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR ORGANISATIONALBEHAVIOUR

INTRODUCTION

There are many challenges and opportunities for managers to use

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

The following are some of the significant problems:

i) Improving People Skills

ii) Improving Quality and Productivity
iii) Managing Workforce Diversity
iv) Responding to Globalization
v) Empowering People
vi) Coping with Temporariness
vii) Stimulating Innovation and Change
viii) Improving Ethical Behavior

i) Improving People Skills:

Technological changes, structural changes, environmental changes are

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

Implications for Managers:

Designing an effective performance appraisal system with built-in training

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

ii) Improving Quality and Productivity:

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

Today’s managers understand that any efforts to improve quality and

productivity must influence their employees. These employees will not only be a
major force in carrying out changes, but increasingly will participate actively in
planning those changes. Managers will put maximum effort in meeting the
customer’s requirements by involving everyone from all the levels and across all
functions. Regular communications (both formally and informally) with all the staff
at all levels is must. Two way communications at all levels must be promoted.
Identifying training needs and relating them with individual capabilities and
requirements is must. Top management’s participation and commitment and a culture
of continuous improvement must be established.

iii) Managing Workforce Diversity:

This refers to employing different categories of employees who are

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

Implications for Managers:

Managers have to shift their philosophy from treating everyone alike to

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

Today’s business is mostly market driven; wherever the demands exist

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

Implications for Managers:

Globalization affects a managerial skill in at least two ways: i) an Expatriate

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

v) Empowering People:

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

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

vi) Coping with ‘Temporariness:

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

Implications for Manager:

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

vii) Stimulating Innovation and Change:

Today’s successful organizations must foster innovation and be proficient in

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

Implications for Managers:

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

viii) Improving Ethical behavior:

The complexity in business operations is forcing the workforce to face ethical

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

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

Implications for Managers:

Managers must evolve code of ethics to guide employees through ethical

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

INTRODUCTION

If a manager wants to explain and predict human behaviour, he/she needs to

understand how learning occurs or how people learn. So it is very very necessary to
know the nature, process and principles of learning.

According to S.P. Robbins, “learning is any relatively permanent change in

behaviour that occurs as a result of experience.”

LEARNING PROCESS/NATURE

Theories of Learning: Learning is part of every one’s life. In our life, all
complex behavior is learned. Learning is defined as any relatively permanent change
in behavior that occurs as a result of experience. Whenever any change occurs
learning is taken place in the individual. If an individual behaves, reacts, responds as
a result of experience which is different from others, a person has encountered some
new learning experience in his life. This definition consists of the following four key
elements:

i) Change process: Learning involves some change in oneself in terms of

observable actions explicitly shown to others or change in one’s attitude or thought
process occur with oneself implicitly. Change may be good or bad or positive or
negative from an organization point of view. If a person is happened to experience
some negative incidents, that person will hold prejudices or bias or to restrict their
output. On the contrary, if a person is encountering some good incident, that person
is likely to hold positive attitude.

ii) Permanent change: Due to whatever exposure a person encounters, the impact
what it generates may be long lasting and permanent. Hence, the change must be of
relatively permanent. If change occurs due to fatigue or alcohol consumption or
temporary adaptation, it may be vanished once the goal is achieved.

iii) Setting behavioral actions: Explicit changes occurring in behavior is the main
goal of learning process. A change in an individual’s thought process or attitudes
without any changes in any explicit behavior will not be considered as learning
process.

iv) Need for meaningful experiences: Some form of experiences is necessary for
learning. Experience may be acquired directly through observation or practice. If
experience results in a relatively permanent change in behavior, one can confidently
say that learning has taken place. Theories of Learning: There are three types of
learning theories. These theories are classical conditioning, operant conditioning and
social learning.

FACTORS AFFECTING LEARNING

• Motivation of the learner

• Mental set of the learner
• Nature of Learning Material
• Practice
• Environment

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING THEORY

Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov developed classical conditioning theory.

When he was doing a research on the chemical properties of saliva of dog, he noticed
accidentally that the dog started salivating the moment hearing the sound of a door
of cupboard clinging. Based on his observation, he wanted to do some experiment
whether the dog can be conditioned to respond to any neutral stimuli. He used a
simple surgical procedure to operate the salivary glands of a dog to measure
accurately the amount of saliva.

Pavlov’s Experiment: Pavlov conducted his experiment in three stages.

Stage I: When Pavlov presented the dog with a piece of meat, the dog exhibited a
noticeable increase in salivation. The meat is unconditional stimulus and salivation
is unconditional response.

Stage II: In this stage, the dog was not given a peace of meat but only exposed to a
sound of ringing bell; the dog did not salivate to the mere sound of a ringing bell.

Stage III: Pavlov decided to link both the presentation of meat and the ringing of a
bell one after the other with an interval of 5 minutes. After repeatedly hearing the
bell before getting the meat, the dog began to salivate as soon the bell rang. There is
an association or link between meat and ringing a bell. After repeating the association
between meat and ringing a bell, the dog started salivating merely at the sound of the
bell, even if no food was offered. The dog is now conditioned to respond to a sound
of a bell and started salivating. This is called classical conditioning process.
 Thus, classical condition is defined as the formation of S-R link (Stimulus-
Response) or habit between a conditioned stimulus and a conditioned response
through the repeated paring of conditioned stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus.

In this experiment, the meat is unconditioned stimulus, and the expected

response that is, salivating to the meat is called as unconditioned response. The sound
of a bell is a neutral stimulus which does not have any property to elicit salivation, is
called as conditioned stimulus. Although it was originally neutral, if the bell was
paired with meat (unconditioned stimulus) it acquired the same property as meat
eliciting the salivation.

The sound of a bell produced salivation when presented alone. This is called
conditioned response, that is, now the dog is conditioned to respond to the sound of
a bell. Learning conditioned response involves building up an association between a
conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus. When the stimuli, one is natural
and the other one neutral are paired, the neutral one becomes a conditioned stimulus
and hence takes on the properties of the unconditioned stimulus.

APPLICATION OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING PRINCIPLES AT WORK

Whenever President or Vice-President of Corporate Office visits factory site

the employees in the shop floor will more attentive at work and look more prim,
proper and active in their work life. It is quite natural that top management personnel
visit (Unconditioned Stimulus) evoking or eliciting a desired response- being prim
and proper at work from the employees (Unconditioned Response). The routine
cleaning of windows or floor of the administrative office will be neutral stimulus
never evoking any response from the employees. If the visit of the top management
personnel is associated with such cleaning process, eventually the employees would
turn on their best output and look prim and active the moment windows and floor are
being cleaned up. The employees had learned to associate the cleaning of the
windows with a visit from the head office. The cleaning process (conditioned
stimulus) evoked attentive and active work behavior (conditioned response).
Similarly, Christmas Carols songs bring pleasant memories of childhood as these
songs are being associated with the festive Christmas Spirit. Classical conditioning
is passive. It is elicited in response to a specific, identifiable event.

OPERANT CONDITIONING

Operant conditioned principle is proposed by B.F. Skinner, an American

Psychologist. It is a type of conditioning in which desired voluntary behavior leads
to a reward or prevent a punishment. Operant conditioning principle emphasizes
strongly that the behavior of an individual is a function of its consequences. If the
consequences are pleasant, the behavior associated with such consequences will be
repeated again and again. If the consequences are unpleasant, the behavior will be in
extinct. The rationale behind this theory is that people learn to behave in order to get
something they want or to avoid something they don’t want. Operant condition is
learned process. The tendency to repeat such behaviour is influenced by the
reinforcement or lack of reinforcement brought about by the consequences of the
behavior. The proper reinforcement strengthens a behavior and increases the
likelihood that it will be repeated. Skinner’s Experiment: Skinner developed an
apparatus to conduct a series of learning experiment using rats. He named that
apparatus as Skinner’s Box which has certain features such as a lever, bowl, light,
water container etc. A highly deprived rat is placed in the box. Once a rat nudges or
touches or hits the lever attached in the corner of the box, a piece of food pellet is
dropped in the bowl. By trial and error, the rat learns that hitting the lever is followed
by getting a food pellet in the bowl. Skinner coined the term operant response to any
behavioral act such as pressing or hitting or nudging the lever that has some effect
on the environment. Thus in a typical experiment with a skinner box, hitting or
pressing the lever is an operant response, and the increased rate of lever hitting or
pressing that occurs when the response is followed by a pellet of food exemplifies
operant conditioning.

APPLICATION OF OPERANT CONDITIONING IN WORK LIFE

If a sales person who hits the assigned target of sales quota will be reinforced with a
suitable attractive reward, the chances of hitting further sales target in future will be
exemplified. Skinner argued that creating pleasant consequences (giving attractive
rewards) to follow specific forms of behavior (hitting sales target) would increase
the frequency of that behavior. People will most likely engage in desired behaviors
if they are positively reinforced for doing so. Rewards are most effective if they
immediately follow the desired response. In addition, behavior that is not rewarded
is less likely to be repeated. A commissioned sales person wanting to earn a sizeable
income finds that doing so is contingent on generating high sales in his territory.

COGNITIVE LEARNING THEORY

Cognition refers to an individual’s thoughts, knowledge, interpretations,

understandings or views about oneself and his/her environment. Based on it cognitive
theory argues that the person tries to form his/her cognitive structure in memory,
which preserves and organizes all information relating to the events that may occur
in learning situation. Here an experiment was conducted on a monkey by Kohler.
Kohler presented two sticks to a monkey in a cage. Both sticks were too short to
reach a banana lying outside cage. This produced an experience, or say, cognition,
insight monkey. What monkey did without any prior exposure, joined both sticks
together and pulled the banana inside the cage. Clearly learning took place inside the
mind of monkey. Thus, the learning process involved in this case is putting or
organizing bits of information in a new manner perceived inside the mind. This type
of learning is very imp in organizational behaviour for changing attitudes by the
individuals.

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

People learn through both observation and direct experience, which is called
as social learning theory. Individual learn by observing what happens to other people
and just by being told about something, as well as by direct experiences. By
observing people around us, mostly from parents, teachers, peers, films and
television performers, bosses, we learn new behavior pattern.

The following four processes are vital to determine the influence that a model
will have on an individual.

i) Attention Process: People learn from a model only when they recognize and
pay attention to its critical features. People tend to be most influenced by models that
are attractive, repeatedly available similar to us in our estimation.
ii) Retention Process: A model’s influence will depend on how well the
individual remembers the model’s action after the model is no longer readily
available.
iii) Motor Reproduction Process: After a person has seen a new behavior by
observing the model, the watching must be converted to doing. This process then
demonstrates that the individual can perform the modeled activities. iv)
Reinforcement Process: Individual will be motivated to exhibit they modeled
behavior if positive incentives or rewards are provided. Behavior that is positively
reinforced will be given more attention, learned better and performed more often.
 PERSONALITY

INTRODUCTION

People tend to have a general notion that personality refers to a personal

appearance with charming smile, or outlook. But psychologists view the concept as
dynamic in nature concerned with growth and development of a person’s whole
psychological system. Personality can be defined as the consistent psychological
patterns within an individual that affect the way they interact with others and the
situations they encounter. Personality is defined as relatively stable and enduring
characteristics that determine our thoughts, feelings and behavior. Personality is a
complex phenomenon and there are various perspectives of personality construct.
One common and simple definition of Personality is: It is the consistent
psychological patterns within an individual that affect the way they interact with
others and the situations they encounter.

PERSONALITY
The word personality has been derived from the Latin word “personare”. It means
to speak through. It describes the person as a whole. It is the sum total of ways in
which an individual reacts and interacts with others.

In the opinion of Ruch , “personality can be described as how he understands

and views himself, and his pattern of inner and outer measurable traits.”

PERSONALITY DETERMINANTS

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

BIOLOGICAL FACTORS HEREDITARY:

Personality may be hereditary, that is, transmitted from parents to their

children through genetics. Research done on animals has suggested this theory;
however, there is inconclusive proof whether this theory may work with humans. It
is more likely that only human temperament is transmitted through genetics.

BRAIN:

Psychologists find it difficult to empirically relate brain physiology to

personality. However, from the electrical stimulation of the brain, they have realized
that a better understanding of human personality may come from the study of the
brain.
PHYSICAL FEATURES:

Physical characteristics of a person have a tremendous influence on his/her

personality. Physical characteristics may include height, weight, attractiveness, skin
color, gender, etc.

FAMILY & SOCIAL FACTORS:

Social processes such as our interaction with our parents during childhood
may have a great influence on our personalities. When we interacted with our parents,
we picked up their behavior. In fact, there is empirical evidence that the environment
parents create at home shapes their child's personality. For example, a child brought
up in a violent home may grow up to be aggressive. The things that revolve and
evolve around us on a regular basis determine our personality. The society that we
live in, the cultural environment that we face daily, the community we get interacted
to, all are included in this factor. Relationships, co-ordination, cooperation,
interaction, environment in the family, organizations, workplaces, communities,
societies all contribute in way or another as personality determinants.

CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS FACTORS:

The culture in which one lives in, that may involve traditional practices,
norms, customs, procedures, rules and regulations, precedents and values, all are
important determinants of personality.
Moreover, the creed, religion and believes are also very important factors of
personality determinants.
SITUATIONAL FACTOR:

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

i) SELF ESTEEM:

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

ii) LOCUS OF CONTROL:

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

iii) SELF EFFICACY:

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

iv) SELF-MONITORING:

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

v) EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE:

It is also called as EQ which refers to individual’s ability to be aware of

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

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

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

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

it is strongly related to self-awareness.

VI) BIG PERSONALITY TRAITS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PERSONALITY TYPES (MBTI)

MBTI describes four dimensions of Personality Types:

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

a) Extroversion and Introversion:

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

Extroversion:
Extroverted attention flows outward to the world of objects and people or external
ideas.
They are interacting more with people.
Characteristics associated with people who prefer Extraversion are:
Attuned to external environment
Prefer to communicate by talking
 Work out ideas by talking them through
Have broad interests
Sociable and expressive
Readily take initiative in work and relationships

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

Introversion:

Introverted attention focused on the subjective, inner world of thoughts,

feelings and ideas. Introverts like quit reflection, can concentrate on one idea or
thought for longer than an extrovert, and are less active and prone to change.

Characteristics associated with people who prefer Introversion are:

Drawn to their inner world

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

Research scientists, academicians and librarians are often introverts.

b) Sensing Versus Intuition:

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

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

Oriented to present realities

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

The sensing person is likely to provide a practical solution to problems. They

may be good at repairing machines, sports, building, handicrafts, or keeping the
detailed records of a business.

Sensation Feelers (SF) deal with concrete problems in a methodical way. They
have astute powers of observation regarding the details of how an organization is run.
SFs do not fight the system, but use what is available for problem solving. SFs are
nonjudgmental of their coworkers and do not look for underlying motives and
meanings in people’s behavior. If organizations do not have adequate SF’s, small
problem will go unattended till they become big. Possible Shortcomings: SF’s may
be reluctant to accept new ideas and are impatient with abstract theories. They react
adversely to radical changes. They have difficult honoring commitments and
decision made in the past since they live full in the present moment.

Intuition

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

Characteristics associated with people who prefer Intuition:

Oriented to future possibilities

Imaginative and verbally creative
Focus on the patterns and meanings in data, sees beyond the surface
Remember specifics when they relate to pattern
Move quickly to conclusions, follow hunches
Want to clarify ideas and theories before putting them into
practice Trust inspiration
 The intuitive person is likely to have an affinity for music, literature, the arts,
higher mathematics, and science and abstract theories. People with high level of
intuition are also likely to be creative, adaptable and open to new ideas, and they are
often artists, musicians, strategic players or architects. Intuitive Thinkers (NT) are
the architects of progress and ideas. They are interested in the principle on which the
organization is built and seek answers to he significant events. They have enormous
drive and are creative. If organizations do not have adequate number of NT’s, change
will be minimal. Shortcomings of Intuitive Thinkers: Intuitive Thinkers may not
always be aware of the feelings of others. Unless subordinates are intellectually
competent, they may not be considered valuable. They expect a great of themselves
and others and tend to escalate standards.
c) Thinking versus Feeling:

These deals with the way people make decisions.

Thinking

The person with a preference for thinking tends to be objective, analytical

and impersonal in decision and judgments. Thinking managers are logical and
analytical in their problem solving and search for additional information in a logical
manner.

Characteristics associated with people who prefer Thinking:

Solve problem with logic,

Use cause and effect reasoning
Strive for an objective standard of truth
Can be “tough-minded”
Fair – want everyone treated equally

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

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

People who use feelings to make decision are more likely to be empathetic, loyal,
and appreciative and tactful. Feeling types consider the person and are likely to bend
the rules if the situation warrants. Feeling managers heavily emphasize the human
aspects in dealing with organizational problems and is more process oriented. They
enjoy pleasing people and avoid conflicts. Intuitive Feelers (NF) have personal
charisma and commitments to the people they lead. They communicate their caring
and enthusiasm. They are comfortable in an unstructured, group-centered
management system that lets employees participate in the decision making process.
If adequate NF’s are not available in organization, an organization will become cold,
sterile and dull.

Possible Shortcomings: NF’s make decision on the basis of personal likes and
dislikes. They often try to please others all the time.

Characteristics associated with people who prefer Feeling:

Empathetic
Guided by personal values
Assess impacts of decisions on people
Strived for harmony and positive interactions
Compassionate
May appear “tenderhearted”

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

d) Judgment versus Perception

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

Judgment

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

Scheduled
Organize their lives
Systematic
Methodical
Make short and long term
plans Like to have things
decided
Try to avoid last-minute stresses

The person with a strong orientation for judgment will therefore be good at
making decision and planning. They usually make good managers, engineers and
lawyers.

Perception

Perceptive people tend to live in a flexible, spontaneous way, wanting to

understand life and adapt to it. They often appear to be more relaxed and less
organized than judging types and are less attracted to schedules and routines.

Characteristics associated with people who prefer Perceiving:

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

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

Some of the important personality factors that determine what kinds of

behaviors are exhibited at work include need patterns, locus of control, introversion
and extroversion, tolerance of ambiguity, self-esteem and self-concept,
authoritarianism and dogmatism, Machiavellianism, Type A or B Personality and
work ethic.

Authoritarianism and Dogmatism:

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

A combination of high authoritarianism and dogmatism is obviously not

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

Machiavellianism:

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

High-Machiavellians manipulates more, win more, are persuaded less and

have a grater influence over other people than do low-Machiavellians. Yet these
High-Machiavellians outcomes are moderated by situational factors. It has been
found that High- Machiavellians flourish:

when they interact face-to-face with others rather than indirectly when the situation
has a minimum number of rules and regulations, thus allowing latitude for
improvisation where emotional involvement with details irrelevant to winning
distracts low Machiavellianism when forming coalitions which they use to their
advantage.
 The following are the strategies to protect against the manipulative actions of
High- Machiavellians:

i) Expose them to others: Expose the broken promises, manipulative strategies

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

Risk Taking

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

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

Type A and Type B Personality

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

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

Type B Personality

- Able to Take Time to Enjoy Leisure

- Not Preoccupied with Achievement
- Easy Going Works at Steady Pace
- Seldom Impatient
- Relaxed
- Not Easily Frustrated
- Moves Slowly
- Seldom Lacks Enough Time

Narcissism A person high in narcissism has a grandiose sense of self-importance,

requires excessive admiration, has a sense of entitlement, and is arrogant. The term
narcissist comes from the Greek myth of Narcissus, the story of a man so vain and
proud that he fell in love with his own image.

In terms of the workplace, one study found that while narcissists thought they
were better leaders than their colleagues, their supervisors actually rated them as
worse leaders.

Tolerance for Ambiguity

This dimension refers to the extent to which individuals are threatened by or

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

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

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

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

In general, the more tolerant people are of novelty, complexity, and

insolubility, the more likely they are to succeed as managers in information-rich,
ambiguous environment. They are less overwhelmed by these ambiguous
circumstances.

Role of Personality in Organizational Behaviour

Personality plays a key role in organizational behavior because the way that
people think, feel, and behave affects many aspects of the workplace. People's
personalities influence their behavior in groups, their attitudes, and the way they
make decisions. Interpersonal skills hugely affect the way that people act and react
to things during work. In the workplace, personality also affects such things as
motivation, leadership, performance, and conflict. The more that managers
understand how personality in organizational behavior works, the better equipped
they are to be effective and accomplish their goals.

People have many different views of the world that affect their personalities.
When a situation arises, an individual will handle it based upon his or her personal
values, beliefs, and personality traits. These traits are developed throughout a
person's lifetime and cannot be easily changed, so it is more helpful for managers to
attempt to understand this rather than to fight it.

Traits such as openness, emotional stability, and agreeableness all predict that
an individual will have less conflict, work better in teams, and have positive attitudes
about his or her work. People with this type of personality should be placed in
situations where they would be working with or leading others. Those who do not
have these traits will have less motivation and be more negative when they are placed
in these same situations.

Positive interpersonal skills is a personality trait that greatly affects the

workplace. Individuals who exhibit this trait generally enjoy working with other
people, and they have the empathy and sensitivity that enables them to get along well
with others. People with this trait are often placed in roles where they work with
customers, manage employees, or mediate problems.

Decision-making and independence are greatly affected by personality.

Personality traits such as self-efficacy, conscientiousness, and pro-activity contribute
to good decision-making under pressure and independence, while traits such as
neuroticism and not being open do not. Managers can place individuals with these
traits in appropriate positions to do their best work.

Placing individuals with certain characteristics in jobs that best suit them
raises their levels of motivation. It also affects their overall job performance because
they are happier on a daily basis. This affects the overall productivity of the
workplace because more is getting accomplished due to better attitudes and happier
employees.
 PERCEPTION

In simple sense Perception means perceiving i.e. giving meaning to the

environment around us. Perception is the process by which people select, organize
and interpret information to form a meaningful picture of the world.

According to Robbins, “perception as a process by which individuals organize

and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their
environment.”

FACTORS AFFECTING PERCEPTION

There are three factors related to the perception. Those are-factors related the
perceiver, factors relate to the perceived, Factors related to the situation.

FACTORS RELATED THE PERCEIVER

i)projection: The perceiver tries to project his personality attributes in others is

known as projection. For e.g. if the perceiver is a projection, then he treats the
perceived to be a talkative though this may not be true.

ii)Mental makeup: Sometimes the perceiver has preset notion in his mind about
certain objects, events and people. The moment he has to deal or act upon those
events, he already knows how to act or react as he has made his mental set up to deal
with such situations.

iii)Stereotyping: It is a tendency to judge people based on the perception of the group

to which he belongs. We tend to attribute favorable or unfavorable characteristics to
the individual based on upon widely held generalization about the group. For
instance, we perceive that Japanese in general are hardworking, quality conscious
and industrious, and based on that we generalize that all Japanese are like that, but in
reality it may not be so. There are some Japanese who may not possess the above
mentioned characteristics.

iv) Halo Effect: It is tendency to draw a general overall impression about an

individual based on single striking characteristics. For instance, if a person speaks
English fluently, we tend to assume that that person is very knowledgeable,
intelligent, smart, clever etc. hard working, smart etc.

v) First Impression: The perceiver forms an impression about the perceived when
he meets him for the first time. First impression is normally difficult to change, as is
said-First impression is the last impression.
vi) Recency Effect: Recency effect is the effect that the recent event has on the
perceiver. During performance appraisal, the employees are rated on the basis of their
latest performance. The earlier performance is ignored. This is not the satisfactory
method so it leads to error in perceptual error.

FACTORS RELATED TO THE PERCEIEVED

Status of the perceived: Generally status overpowers the actual characteristic. When
perception is made about a person who has high status in terms of position or wealth,
he is generally perceived to be high on ranking than a person with low status.

Closeness with the perceived: If a person is close to another person in relationship,

the perceived will be ranked high because of this relationship even though, in a
particular situation, he may have behaved negatively.

Factors related to the situation:

Situation plays an important role in forming perception about a person. A person
sitting in a five star hotel is perceived differently than a person sitting in a small hotel.

PERCEPTUAL PROCESS:

Stage I: Receiving stimuli : The perception process starts with receiving stimuli. It
depicts the environmental stimuli being received by the fives sense organs.

Stage II: Selection of the Stimuli: In this stage, selection of some stimuli happens for
further processing while the rest are screened out. This is governed by both factors
external to the individual, such as the size, intensity, repetition, contrast and internal
to the individual, such as the self concept, belief, expectation, response disposition
of the perceiver.

Stage III: Organization of stimuli: The selected stimuli is organized in the perceiver’s
mind to give it a meaningful term. The perceiver is influenced by figure and ground
and perceptual grouping .

Figure and Ground:

What a person observes is dependent on how a central figure is being

separated from its background. This implies that the perceived object or person or
event stands out distinct from its background and occupies the cognitive space of the
individual. In a dance program, the spectators tend to perceive the dance performance
against the back ground music, backdrop setup etc. The perceiver thus tends to
organize only the information which stands out in the environment which seems to
be significant to the individual.

Perceptual Grouping: It means grouping stimuli into an organized pattern. It happens

on the basis of proximity, similarity and closure.

Proximity: People tend to perceive things, which are nearer to each other, as together
as group rather than separately. If four or five members are standing together, we
tend to assume that they are belonging to same group rather than as separately. As a
result of physical proximity, we often put together objects or events or people as one
group even though they are unrelated. Employees in a particular section are seen as
group.

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

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

Stage IV: Interpretation: Assigning meaning to data is called interpretation. Once the
inputs are organized in human mind, the perceiver interprets the inputs and draws
conclusion from it. But interpretation is subjective as different people interpret the
same information in different ways.

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

PERCEPTION AND ITS APPLICATION IN ORGANISATIONS

People in organizations are always assessing others. Managers must appraise their
subordinate's performance, evaluate how co-workers are working. When a new
person joins a department he or she is immediately assessed by the other persons.
These have important effect on the organization.
Employment Interview: Interviewers make perceptual judgments that are often
inaccurate. Different interviewers see different things in the same candidate and
arrive at different conclusions about the applicant. Employment interview is an
important input into the hiring decision, and perceptual factors influence who is hired
and vis-à-vis the Quality of an organizations labor force.
Performance Appraisals: An employee's performance appraisal is very much
dependent on the perceptual process. An employee's future is closely tied to his or
her appraisal - promotions, increments and continuation of employment are among
the common outcomes. The performance appraisal represents an assessment of an
employee's work. 32 While this may be objective most jobs are evaluated in
subjective terms. Subjective measures are judgmental. The evaluator forms a general
impression of an employee's work, to the degree that managers use subjective
measures in appraising employee's the evaluator perceives to be `good or bad'
employee characteristics/behaviour will significantly influence the appraisal
outcome.
Assessing Level of Effort: In many organizations, the level of an employee's effort
is given high importance. Assessment of an individual's effort is a subjective
judgment susceptible to perceptual distortions and bias.
Assessing Loyalty: Another important judgment that managers decide about
employees is whether they are loyal to the organization.
Implications of Perception on Performance and Satisfaction
Productivity: What individuals perceive from their work situation will influence their
productivity. More than the situation itself than whether a job is actually interesting
or challenging is not relevant. How a manager successfully plans and organizes the
work of his subordinates and actually helps them in structuring their work is far less
important than how his subordinates perceive his efforts.
Therefore, to be able to influence productivity, it is necessary to assess how workers
perceive their jobs.
Absenteeism and Turnover: Absence and Turnover are some of the reactions to the
individuals perception. Managers must understand how each individual interprets his
job. and where there is a significant difference between what is seen and what exists
and try to eliminate the distortions. Failure to deal with the differences when
individuals perceive the job in negative terms will result in increased absenteeism
and turnover.
Job Satisfaction: Job satisfaction is a highly subjective, and feeling of the benefits
that derive from the job. Clearly his variable is critically linked to perception. If job
satisfaction is to be improved, the worker's perception of the job characteristics,
supervision and the organization as a whole must be positive.
Understanding the process of perception is important because
(1) It is unlikely that any person's definition of reality will be identical to an objective
assessment of reality.
(2) It is unlikely that ' two different persons definition of reality will be exactly the
same.
(3) Individual perceptions directly influences the behaviour exhibited in a given
situation.
 MOTIVATION

INTRODUCTION

Motivation originally comes from the Latin root word ‘movere’ which means
to move. It is derived from the word motive. Motive may be defined as an inner state
of our mind that activates and directs our behaviour. Motivation may be defined as
the process that motivates a person and induces him to continue the course of action
for the achievement of goal. According to Steer & Porter, “Motivation is the force
that energizes behaviour, gives direction to behaviour and underlies the tendency to
persist.”

Nature of Motivation

- Motivation is internal to man.

- A single motive can cause different behaviour.
- Different motives may result in single behaviour.
- Motives come and go.
- Motives interact with the environment.
- Motivation is an ongoing process.
- Motivation is a complicated process.

Importance of Motivation

- To keep employees happy.

- To instill human treatment.
- To increase work efficiency
- To improve communication in between managers and workers
- To combine ability with willingness
- To reduce the rate of labor turnover
- To develop the leadership quality

THEOREIS OF MOTIVATION

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Abraham Maslow formulated one of the most popular theories of human

motivation. Maslow’s theory is based on the following propositions.
The needs are arranged in a hierarchy of importance, ranging from the lowest
need to highest need level, All needs are never fully satisfied Once a need is fairly
well satisfied, it no longer motivates behavior The needs are interdependent and
overlapping .
 Maslow’s theory of motivation explains five levels of needs.

Physiological Needs

The need for sunlight, sex, food, water and others, which are basic to human
survival, are called physiological needs. At work level, this need can be met through
by providing good working conditions, attractive wage or salary, subsidized housing,
free catering etc.

Safety Needs

The safety needs include the need for freedom from threat caused by the
environment, animals and people. It also includes the need for shelter, security and
peace. At work level, this need can be met by providing private health insurance
cover, attractive pension provisions, safe working conditions etc.

Love and Belonging Needs

These needs cover the need of relationships, affection, giving and receiving love and
sense of belonging. The manager can provide the following facilities to take care of
these needs: company sports and social clubs, office parties, barbeques, outings,
permission for informal activities, and encouraging open communication

Esteem Needs

It is also known as ego needs, Esteem needs are of two types-internal esteem factors
which include self-respect, autonomy, achievement etc. and external esteem factors
which include status, recognition, attention etc.

Self-actualization Needs

These are the need for full development of one’s potential. Challenging job
assignments, discretion over work activities, promotion opportunities and
encouraging creativity can fulfill these needs. In terms of motivation, Maslow argued
that each level in the hierarchy must be substantially satisfied before the next level is
activated, and that once a need is fully satisfied, it may not motivate people. The next
level in the hierarchy will be dominant only after the fulfillment satisfaction level.
This theory has a lot of implication for managers. As a manager if you want to
motivate an employee, first try to understand what level that person is on in the
hierarchy and focus on satisfying those needs at or just above the level.
.
Implications of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory

This model helps the managers to understand and deal with issues of employee
motivation at the workplace. This model can be applied to motivate people at all
levels in the organization. Managers who understand the need patterns of their staff
can help the employees to engage in the kinds of work activities and provide the
types of work environment that will satisfy their needs at work. For instance, the
employees love and belonging needs can be fully satisfied by organizing yearly
dinner and dance program, office week end parties, creating recreation clubs or social
clubs etc. Fortunately, the workplace has the potential to offer need gratification for
several different types of needs, and mangers can motivate employees by giving
appropriate organizational support which will gratify individual’s needs. Thus,
despite its drawbacks, Maslow’s theory offers managers a good technique on
understanding the motives or needs of individuals and how to motivate
organizational members.

Herzberg Two-Factor Theory of Motivation

Herzberg’s two-factor theory of motivation suggests that there are two sets of
factors which either led to job satisfaction or dissatisfaction. They are Motivating
factors and Hygiene factors. Herzberg collected data from 200 accountants and
engineers asking a simple question such as “Can you describe, in detail, when you
feel exceptionally good about your job” Similarly, Can you describe, in detail, when
you feel exceptionally bad about your job? Good feelings about the job were reflected
in comments concerning the content and experiences of the job (e.g, doing good work
or a feeling of accomplishment and challenge), bad feelings about the job were
associated with context factors, that is, those surrounding but not direct involving in
the work itself (e.g., salary and working condition) This study revealed two distinct
types of motivational factors: satisfiers and dis-satisfiers.

Herzberg resulted in two specific conclusions:

1. There is a set of extrinsic job conditions that, when not present, result in
dissatisfaction among employees. If these conditions are present, this does not
necessarily motivate employees. These conditions are the dis-satisfiers or hygiene
factors because they are needed to maintain at least a level of no dissatisfaction.

These factors are related to the context of the job and are called dis-satisfiers. These
include:
a. job security
b. salary
c. working condition
d. status
e. company policies
f. supervision
g. Interpersonal supervision
h. Fringe benefits

2. A set of intrinsic job conditions exist that help to build levels of motivation, which
can result in good job performance. If these conditions are not present, they do not
result in dissatisfaction. These set of aspects are related to the content of the job and
are called satisfiers. These include:
a. Achievement
b. Recognition
c. Work itself
d. Responsibility
e. Advancement
f. Personal growth and development

Motivating Factors

The presence of motivating factors always ensures job satisfaction and happiness
among the employees. They are: achievement, recognition, responsibility,
advancement, growth and the work itself. These motivating factors are relating to the
work content factors.

Hygiene Factors
The other set, which leads to dissatisfaction, is the hygiene factors such as salary,
company policy, supervision, status, security and working conditions. These hygiene
factors are relating to the work contextual factors. Herzberg argued that improvement in
the hygiene factors would only minimize dissatisfaction but not increase satisfaction and
motivation.

Implications for Managers:

In order to motivate employees, the managers must ensure to provide the hygiene
factors and then follow the motivating factors. Hertzberg’s motivation-hygiene
theory proposes that intrinsic factors are related to job satisfaction and motivation,
whereas extrinsic factors are associated with job dissatisfaction.

According to Herzberg, the factors that led to job satisfaction were separate
and distinct from those that led to job dissatisfaction. Therefore, manages who sought
to eliminate factors that created job dissatisfaction could bring about workplace
harmony but not necessarily motivation. Because they do not motivate employees,
the extrinsic factors that create job dissatisfaction were called hygiene factors. When
these factors are adequate, people will not be dissatisfied; but at the same time they
may not be fully satisfied. They will be in neutral state. If we want to motivate people
on their jobs, it is suggested to give much importance on those job content factors
such as opportunities for personal growth, recognition, responsibility, and
achievement. These are the characteristics that people find intrinsically rewarding.

Herzberg model sensitizes that merely treating the employees well through
the good company policies is not sufficient to them motivated. Managers should
utilize the skills, abilities, and talents of the people at work through effective job
designing. In other words, the work given to employees should be challenging and
exciting and offer them a sense of achievement, recognition, and growth. Unless
these characteristics are present in the job, employees will not be motivated.

In Herzberg’s framework, these managerial reactions have focused primarily

on the hygiene factors surrounding the job, which has resulted in bringing individual
to the theoretical “zero point” of motivation. The two-factor theory would predict
that improvements in motivation would only appear when managerial action focused
not only the factors surrounding the job but on the inherent in most assembly line
jobs and developing jobs that can provide increased levels of challenge and
opportunities for a sense of achievement, advancement, growth and personal
development.

ERG Theory:

Alderfer proposed a modified version of Maslow’s need hierarchy and labeled as

ERG theory. Alderfer’s ERG refers to three groups of core needs – Existence,
Relatedness and Growth (ERG).

Existence Needs:

These needs are all the various forms of physiological and material desires, such as
hunger, thirst and shelter. In organizational settings, the need for pay, benefits, and
physical working conditions are also included in this category. This category is
comparable to Maslow’s physiological and certain safety needs.

Relatedness Needs:

These needs include all those that involve interpersonal relationships with others in
the workplace. This types of need in individuals depends on the process of sharing
and mutuality of feelings between others to attain satisfaction. This category is
similar to Maslow’s safety, social and certain ego-esteem needs.
Growth Needs:
These needs involve a person’s efforts toward creative or personal growth on the job.
Satisfaction of growth needs results from an individual engaging in tasks that not
only require the person’s full use of his or her capabilities, but also may require the
development of new capabilities. Maslow’s self-actualization and certain of his ego
esteem needs are comparable to those growth needs.

ERG theory is based upon three major propositions:

i) The less each level of need has been satisfied, the more it will be desired (need
satisfaction). For example, the less existence needs (pay) have been satisfied on the
job, the more they will be desired. ii) The more lower level needs have been satisfied,
the greater the desire for higher level needs (i.e., desire strength) For example, the
more existence needs have been satisfied for the individual worker (pay), the greater
the desire for relatedness needs (satisfying interpersonal relationships) iii) The less
the higher level need have been satisfied, the more the lower level needs will be
desired (i.e., need frustration) for example, the less growth needs have been satisfied
(challenging work), the more relatedness needs will be desired (satisfying
interpersonal relationships).

Difference between Alderfer’s ERG and Maslow’s Need Hierarchy:

ERG theory differs from Maslow’s need hierarchy in two aspects.

(a) Alderfer highlighted that once an individual’s higher level need is not fully
satisfied or encounters difficulty in fulfilling these needs resulting in frustrations and
disappointment, the person will exhibit a strong desire to regress to a lower level
needs where he/she finds more comfort and satisfaction.

(b) Alderfer further stated that an individual may have an intention to fulfill more
than one need at the same time. In other words, individuals may be working towards
fulfilling both their relatedness needs and growth needs or their existence and related
needs simultaneously.

Implications of ERG Theory:

Alderfer has proposed two sets of views on individual’s aspirations and fulfillment.
One is satisfaction-progression and other frustration-regression. Satisfaction-
progression is similar to Maslow’s model in which once an individual’s basic needs
are satisfied, he/she will progress to the next level to satisfy the succeeding higher
level to have them satisfied. Alderfer proposed yet another view of individual’s
aspirations and fulfillment.
 If people eventually become frustrated in trying to satisfy their needs at one
level, their next lower level needs will re-emerge and they will regress to the lower
level to satisfy more basic needs. This is called as frustration-regression. For
manages, ERG theory provides a more workable approach to motivation in
organization. Because of the frustration-regression approach component, it provides
the manager with the opportunity of directing employee behavior in a constructive
manner even though higher order needs are temporarily frustrated.

In summary, ERG theory argues that satisfied lower-order needs lead to the
desire to satisfy higher-order needs; but multiple needs can be operating as
motivators at the same time and frustration in attempting to satisfy a higher-level
need can result in regression to a lower level need .
 COMMUNICATION

INTRODUCTION

Communication is an important aspect of human behaviour. Communication

is central to everything that we do. Without communication an organization can’t
function at all. No managers can be successful without communicating effectively.
Communication has been derived from the Latin word “communis” which means
common. Communication stands for sharing of ideas in common.

According to Keith Davis, “communication is a process of information and

understanding from one person to another.”

ELEMENTS OF COMMUNICATION

The process models of communication contain six main elements such as i)

sender, ii) message, iii) receiver, iv) feedback, v) channel, vi) noise or interference.
As communication occurs, sender and receiver interact by encoding/sending and
decoding/receiving messages. Encoding means putting the message into words or
diagram or nonverbal signals so that it can be transmitted. The receiver hears, reads
or looks in order to decode or interpret the message.

Sender:

Communication begins with sender, the individual who reacts to situations

from a unique vantage point, interpreting ideas and filtering experiences through their
own perception. Sender conceives his ides based on the accumulated attitudes,
experiences, skills and cultural conditioning.

Message:

The message is the idea of feeling transmitted from the sender to the receiver
to achieve understanding. It makes a connection between the sender and the receiver
and may be made up of signs, words and movement. The tone of voice, inflection,
the rate of speech, facial expression, touching and body movement may be
misinterpreted by the receiver, or poorly constructed message may lead to
misunderstanding. The message the sender meant to send is not always the message
received.
Receiver:

The receiver decodes or interprets the message to achieve understanding. In

doing this, the receiver also acts as an individual from a unique vantage point,
interpreting the idea according to a particular personal perception of the message.
This perception is also the result of the receiver’s unique background of experiences,
beliefs and concerns. Interpretation of the same message may vary between people.

Feedback:

Feedback is an essential part f successful interpersonal communication. It is

the receiver’s response to the sender’s message, telling the sender how their message
is being received and helping the receiver confirm whether their perception of the
message is correct. It can be intentional or unintentional. Feedback:

- Provides continuity in the communication

- Indicates effective understanding or misunderstanding of the message -
Stimulates further communication and discussion.

Channel:

A communication channel is the means of techniques used to signal or convey

a message – for example, a conversation, letter, telephone call, e-mail or television
program.

Sometimes these channels are internal to the organization; other channels are
outside the organization and are thus external channels. An appropriate channel suits
the communication purpose, the need of the sender, the message and the needs of the
receiver. Different lines or channels of communication are used inside an
organization. Horizontal channels operate between colleagues at the same level
within the organization’s structures, while vertical channels move communication up
and down between different levels in the organization.

Noise:

The message received is not necessarily the same as the message sent.
Something other than the intended message is received because noise or interference
interrupts the intended message. Noise or interference that interrupts the message or
communication flow between sender and receiver can lead to misunderstanding or to
confused or ambiguous communication.
TYPES OF COMMUNICATION:

There are nine patterns of communication:

Downward communication:

It refers to the flow of communication from supervisor to the subordinate. To

improve downward communication, managers can present job instructions clearly to
subordinates, explain why things need to be done in a particular way so that people
who perform the jobs understand better. For example, clear staff regulations, rules,
handbooks, procedures manual etc. are the good examples of downward
communication.

Upward communication:

It refers to the flow is from the subordinate to the superiors. To improve

upward communication, screen upward messages so that the more relevant aspects
of the information are received by top management, provide the climate in which
members can communicate both positive and negative messages, detect biases when
they occur, reduce status difference and wherever possible, require quantified data to
be submitted rather than provide subjective information for decision making. For
example, instituting suggestion scheme, union leader voicing their demands to
management, etc..

Lateral/Horizontal Communication:

It takes place between or among members who are at the same level in the
organization.
For example, two supervisors of the same department or different department are
discussing work matters with each other. To improve lateral communication, it is
desirable to establish openness and trust among members of various department,
develop reward systems that facilitate inter-departmental cooperation, learn that what
the other departments are doing by getting involved in interdepartmental meetings
and, if possible design the organization structure in such a way so that greater
opportunities of interdepartmental contact exist.

Diagonal Communication:

It refers to the flow of messages between persons who are in position at

different levels of the hierarchy and also in different departments. This type of
communication takes place under special circumstances.
Formal Communication:

The channels of communication established formally by the management are

called formal communication. These are used for the transmission of official
messages within or outside organization. However it suffers from delay and also
chances of distortion.

Informal communication:

Communication which takes place on the basis of informal or social relations among
people in an organization is known as informal communication. It is otherwise
known as grapevine communication. The grapevine has three main characteristics.

i) It is not controlled by management.

ii) It is perceived by most employees as being more believable and reliable than
formal communication issued by top management.
iii) It is largely used to serve the self interests of those people within it and it is
one of the quickest means of communication.

Verbal Communication:

When the message is conveyed orally, it is called verbal communication. It is

most economical in terms of time and money.

Written Communication:

Communication that takes place between people in written form is called

written communication. For e.g. memos, reports, bulletins etc.. It is permanent,
tangible and verifiable. But it is time consuming.

Nonverbal/Gestural communication:

Communicating nonverbally with body movements ,with some gestures is known

as nonverbal communication.
The types of nonverbal communication can be classified into seven categories:
i) Body movements or kinesics
ii) Physical characteristics
iii) Touching behavior
iv) Vocal qualities or paralanguage
v) Use of space or proximity
vi) Artifacts
vii) Environment
FUNCTIONS OF COMMUNICATION

There are four major functions of communication. They are: Emotive,

Motivation, Information and Control.

Emotive:

Through communication, employees can express their frustrations and

satisfactions to each other and to management. In addition, communication provides
a mechanism for individuals to compare attitude and resolve ambiguous about their
jobs, their roles and areas of conflict between groups and individuals. If an employee
is dissatisfied with his pay, he will often communicate with others informally, to
determine whether the feelings are justified or not.

Motivation:

A second major function of communication is to motivate, direct, control and

evaluate the performance of organizational members. Leadership is an influence
process by which supervisors attempt to control the behaviour and performance of
subordinates. Communication is the major vehicle of such control available to
leaders. Hence, leadership activities, such as issuing orders, rewarding behavior and
performance, reviewing and evaluating performance, making job and task
assignments, and training and developing subordinates all involve communication.

Information:

Communication serves a vital information function for decision-making. It is

based on technological orientation and facilitates information processing activities
and ways to improve the accuracy with which communication channels carry
information going into individual, group and organizational decisions.

Control:

Organizations are attempting to control the activities of individuals through

the design and use of formal communication channels. Most types of programs or
standard operating procedures have a large communication component to them.
Hence, formal communication channels represent a major structural means of control
within organizations.
BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

Semantic Problems:

The use of inappropriate language, symbols, and words may affect the
understanding capacity of the receiver. The sender must ensure that the proper words
and language are chosen to communicate the intended message so that there is no
room for misinterpretation or confusion as the receiver decodes the message exactly
as it was encoded. Many words commonly used in communication carry quite
different meanings for different people. Two general kinds’ of semantic problems
present barriers to communication.
i) Some words and phrases are so general or abstract that they invite varying
interpretation.
ii) Semantic problem arise when different groups develop their own technical
language.

Status Effects:

Status effect also hinder communication in as much as people occupying

higher positions in the organization have a tendency to tell a lot to the subordinates
but not to listen. When people do not listen, they do not understand each other and
thus effective communication is blocked. Thus, the superior-subordinate status
comes in the way of effective communication taking place.

Physical Distraction:

When people communicate with each other, noise may also enter in the form
of various types of distraction. Distractions may occur because of situational factors
such as constant telephone interruptions, people walking in and out of the room, or
loud noises in the background. Apart from these physical noises, certain peculiar
mannerism of the speaker may also be distracting to the listener and hide effective
listening.

Information Overload:

This refers to too much volume of information which is beyond the level of a
person to comprehend. Communication may be ineffective when too much
information is transmitted at one time or when complex information is presented
within a short time frame. The problem is compounded if the individual also has
limited attention span and poor memory retention. Managers are literally drowned in
communication and unable to attend to them fully. This includes variety of
information received from different mode such as e-mail, memos, official letters,
reports, instructions, circular, telephone, meetings etc. is required to attend.
Time Pressures:

Time is always short, and this fact often leads to distortion in communication.
A major temptation when pressed for time is to short-circuit formal communication
channels. Because of time pressures, many messages are hastily and inadequately
communicated by managers, leaving the listener with much ambiguity and confusion
as to what has been said and what action should be taken. Since managers have to
deal with a large number of people on an ongoing basis within limited periods of
time, giving incomplete information and verbally transmitted short, telegraphic
message seems inevitable.

Cultural Differences:

Words, colors and symbols have different meanings in different cultures and
sometimes even between sub-cultures within a national boundary.

Trust Level:

When there is lack of sufficient trust between the communicating parties,

selective listening takes place, resulting in ineffective communication. Complete
information is seldom exchanged under such circumstances and the withholding of
information by one or both parties will further aggravate the trust issue and
impersonal problems. Evaluating tendencies develop selective listening increases
further and messages get distorted.

Selective Perception:

People have a tendency to listen to only part of a message and “block out”
other information for a variety of reasons. One of the most important of aspect is a
need to avoid or reduce cognitive dissonance. Thus, people have a tendency to ignore
new information that conflicts with or denies already established beliefs, values, and
expectations. Selective perception occurs when the receiver values the context of the
communication including the role, identity, values, mood and motives of the sender
(Perceptual Distortion).

Self-Concept:

An individual’s motives and personality strongly influence the decoding or

symbolic interpretation process. An employee who has a highly felt need for
advancement in an organization and whose personality tend be to quite optimistic
might read a smile and casual comment from a supervisor as an indication that he is
being groomed for promotion. A person with low need for advancement and a
pessimistic disposition may read nothing more than a casual comment unrelated to
anything else into the supervisor’s comment.

Absence of Two-way Communication:

If communication is only one way – from top to bottom or from superior to

subordinate – without any feedback, would hinder communication from taking place
in an effective manner. For instance, the receiver might decode the message in a way
that was not intended. Neither the receiver nor the sender will then realize that the
message was misinterpreted until it becomes too late to rectify the situations. For
example, An examination question is one way communication which could easily get
misinterpreted by some students since attempts by students to seek clarifications in
the examination hall is usually discouraged.

OVERCOMING BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATION

There are number of ways managers can minimize a number of

communication barriers.
In general, communication can be improved in two ways. First, the manger must
sharpen his or her skills in manipulating symbols, that is, process of encoding. This
implies that the sender must take as much care as possible in choosing symbols and
establishing the context within which the message is transmitted. There are number
of techniques that are commonly employed by managers to accomplish these ends.

Active listening:

It implies that the receiver of information engages in the following patterns of

behavior.
a) stop talking since it is impossible to talk and listen at the same time.
b) remove the distracting elements as much as possible
c) patient and lets the other person say whatever needs to be said,
d) appreciate the emotion behind the speaker’s words and is empathic.
e) attentive.
f) creates a positive listening environment
g) uses feedback mechanisms to check understanding
h) withholds judgment h) asks questions
i) reacts to the message and not he person.
Active listening takes a lot of energy and be perfected by conscious and constant
practice.
Follow up and Feedback:

The process of feedback makes communication a two-way process. In face-

to-face situations, the sender should try to become sensitive to facial expressions and
other signs that indicate how the message is being received. It is often important to
solicit questions of clarification from the receiver. When more formal
communication is involved, the writer may specify specific forms and times for
responding to insure feedback.

Parallel Channels and Repetition:

A major principle of communication technology is to provide parallel

channels of communication that reinforce each other. Thus, a verbal request may be
followed up with a memo. In this way, the sender has ensured getting the attention
of the receivers and also ensured that the sender will have a record to refer to in case
lie or she forgets in its order.

Timing:

A manager may ignore a memo or request simply because other problems are
pressing in at the same time. Two kinds of actions can be taken by management to
ensure the accurate reception of communication through timing. i) they may want to
standardize the timing of specific messages, ii) many organizations establish
“retreats” or time away from normal job pressures to transmit material, ideas and
instructions to employees. This action insures the undivided attention of the
receivers.

Be patient and paying adequate attention:

When choosing a style of language, the sender must give a due consideration
to the listener’s intention, and his background. Effective use of language consists of
tailoring one’s message for the context of the receivers in order to maximize overall
between the intended and received messages.

Information Communication and Information Centers:

Running parallel to formal communication channel in an organization is an

informal network commonly called grapevines. They tend to be a universal fact of
life in all organizations. They have been used to serve not only informational
functions but also motivational functions as well. A number of employees needs are
served by the powerful reinforce. Effective communicators often combine formal and
informal (grapevine) channels of communication. Thus a manager may reinforce
information received through formal with an off-the record talk with key
subordinates. In reverse directing, he or she might reinforce and clarify a formal
written with an informal chat session among employees.

Exception principle and need to know:

In order to deal effectively with the information overload problem many

organizations try to establish certain principles for actually limiting the extent of
communications. Many firms implement an “exception principle” in communication
channels. This principle orders that only communications regarding exceptional
derivations, from orders, plans, and policies be communicated upward on a routine
basis. Hence, upper levels of management will receive only that information which
truly demands their attention. A closely related principle involves downward
communication. Here, managers should be selective and transmit information on a
“need to know” basis. In this way, lower level personnel receive only communication
that is immediately critical to carrying out their tasks. The success of these two
principles depends on the type of organization within which jobs are carried out.
They will be most effective in highly structured organizations where tasks are
relatively simple and routine. In less formal organization, in which work is rather
complex and not highly structured, communication needs to be as open and
unrestricted as possible.

Being empathetic in understanding:

Good communicators are able to reduce the chance of communication barrier

and the associated problems by communicating with empathy – a feeling and
awareness of the other person and their point of view. A good communicator is able
to recognize emotions in others and respond appropriately. It is reported that empathy
as the foundation for the quality of a relationship. In a satisfying relations both parties
have empathy for the other person’s point of view and are also willing to provide
appropriate and sufficient feedback to achieve the understanding.

Using feedback mechanisms:

Since feedback involved both receiver and sender, it is important to

understand the conditions under which feedback session will be more effective both
from the sender’s and receiver’s perspective. For feedback to be most effective, the
person giving the feedback must:
a) give specific and not general or vague feedback
b) give feedback immediately or soon after the event has taken place rather than long
after the event has occurred
c) give feedback on aspects that the receiver can rectify rather than on aspects over
which the individual has no control
d) Be descriptive than evaluative
e) Give feedback on a few critical issues where improvement is most urgently
expected rather than on a wide range of problem areas
f) Examine your own motivation in giving the feedback
g) Be sure that the receiver is ready to receive feedback
h) Be non-threatening and disregard you superior status while offering feedback.

Minimize Physical distraction:

Taking due care in minimizing the external noise, interruptions, awkward

mannerism, unusual and unwanted incidences etc facilitate to heighten the attention
levels of the members in attempting to satisfy a higher-level need can result in
regression to a lower-level need.

GROUPS

INTRODUCTION

Groups have been a central part of our everybody lives. At any given time,
we are members in many different groups such as family, student association,
workgroups, different clubs.

A group is a collection of two or more individuals, interacting and

interdependent, who have come together to achieve a particular common objective.

According to D.H.Smith, “A group is the largest set of two or more individuals

who are jointly characterized by a network of relevant communication, a shared sense
of collective identity and one or more shared disposition with associated normative
strength.

The above definition stresses the following points.

- Interaction
 - Size
- Shared goal interest
- Collective Identity

TYPES OF GROUPS

Various methods are used to classify the types of groups that exist in our
organizations. In organizations, the predominant operating groups are the functional
groups, task or project groups and interest groups. In addition, groups are also
classified as formal and informal groups.

Formal groups:

Formal groups are collections of employees who are made to work together
by the organization to get the job done smoothly and efficiently. For example, if five
members are put together in a department to attend to customer complaints they
would be a formal group. The formal groups are those whose primary purpose is
facilitating, through member interactions, the attainment of the goals of the
organization .Task groups, project groups, command groups come under formal
groups.

Task or Project Groups:

When a number of employees are formally brought together for the purpose
of accomplishing a specific task – for a short-term or long term period – such a
collection of individuals is called a task or project group. For example, the plant
manager of a chemical processing plant may be interested in identifying potential
safety problems in the plant. To provide a coordinated effort, the manager creates a
four-person task force consisting of the production superintendent, maintenance
superintendent, director of engineering and the safety engineer. The group members
will deliberate these issues bring out suitable remediable measure for those safety
problems within a deadline period.

If any problems are found, the plant manager may create other task forces to
work toward the elimination of the potential problems. These activities create a
situation that encourages the members of the task force to communicate, interact and
to coordinate activities, if the purpose of the group is to be accomplished.

Informal groups:

Informal groups are groups that emerge or randomly get formed due to the
formal group members’ interaction with each other, and thereby develop common
interest. For example, members who are showing interest in cricket will join together
and share and enjoy taking about the cricket games. Informal groups provide a very
important service by satisfying their members’ social needs. Because of interactions
that result from the close proximity of task interactions, group members play cricket
together, spending their tea breaks together etc. Friends groups, Interest groups come
under informal groups.

Interest and Friendship Groups:

The group members formed relationships based on some common

characteristics such as age, political belief, or interests. Generally, it can be
considered as formal or informal group. Employees who joined together to have their
fringe benefits continued to have its implementation, to support a peer who has been
fired, or to seek more festival holidays etc. they tend to unite together to further their
common interest. Groups often develop because the individual members have one or
more common characteristics. This is called friendship groups. For example,
recreation clubs, social groups etc.

REASONS FOR JOINING GROUPS:

The most popular reasons for joining a group are related to our needs for
security, identity, affiliation, power and engaging in common tasks.

Security:
By joining a group, members can reduce the insecurity of being alone. The membership
will make them feel stronger, gaining resistant to threats, having fewer self-doubts
etc.New employees are particularly vulnerable to a sense of isolation and turn to the group
for guidance and support.

Status:
Inclusion in a group that is viewed as important by others provides recognition and status
for its members. Being a member of Rotary Club, the members feel pride and gain status
and recognition.

Self-Esteem:
Groups can provide people with feelings of self-worth. That is, in addition to conveying
status to those outside the group, membership can also give increased feelings of worth to
the group members themselves. The self-esteem is bolstered when members are accepted
by a highly valued group. Being assigned to a task force whose purpose is to review and
make recommendations for the location of the company’s new corporate headquarters can
fulfill one’s intrinsic needs for competence and growth.
Affiliation:
Groups can fulfill social needs. People enjoy the regular interaction that comes with
group membership. For many people, these on-the-job interactions at work are the primary
source for fulfilling their needs for affiliation.

Power:
For individuals who desire to influence others, groups can offer power without a formal
position of authority in the organization. As a group leader he or she may be able to make
requests of group members and obtain compliance without any of the responsibilities that
traditionally go either formal managerial position.

Goal Achievement:
There are times when it takes more than one person to accomplish a particular task- there is
a need to pool talents, knowledge in order to complete a job. In such instances, management
will rely on the use of a formal group.

STAGES OF GROUP DEVELOPMENT:

i) Forming: At this stage, group members try to comprehend where they stand
in the group and how they are being perceived by others in the group. The members
are very cautious in their interactions with each other and the relationships among
the group members are very superficial. Members’ seldom express their feelings in
the group and the individual members who are trying to understand who they are in
the group have concerns about how they will fit in the group as permanent group
members. This is characterized by much uncertainty about group’s purpose, structure
and leadership. Members are ‘testing the waters’ to determine what types of behavior
are acceptable. This stage is complete when members have begun to think of
themselves as part of a group.

ii) Storming: At this stage, disagreement tends to get expressed among the group
members, and feelings of anxiety and resentment are also expressed. Some power
struggle may ensure at this stage to determine who should assume the informal
leadership role in the group. This storming stage is also known as the sub-grouping
and confrontation. This group is characterized by intragroup conflict. Members
accept the existence of the group, but there is resistance to the control the group
imposes on individuality. There is sometimes conflict over who will control the
group. When this stage is complete, there will be a relatively clear hierarchy of
leadership within the group.
iii) Norming: This stage is characterized by close relationships and cohesiveness.
The group sets norms, tries to attain some degree of cohesiveness, understands the
goals of the group, starts making good decision, expresses feelings openly and makes
attempts to resolve problems and attain group effectiveness. At this stage, members’
roles get defined, and task and maintenance roles are assumed by group members.
Group members’ also begin to express satisfaction and confidence about being
members of the group.

iv) Performing: This stage is characterized by collaboration and integration. The

group members evaluate their performance so that the members develop and grow.
The group relationships and structures are set and accepted. Group energy has moved
from getting to know and understand each other, to performing the task at hand.
Feelings are expressed at this stage without fear, leadership roles shared among the
members, and the group members’ activities are highly co-coordinated. The task and
maintenance roles are played very effectively. The task performance levels are high
and member satisfaction, pride and commitment to the group also high. Both
performance and members’ satisfaction are sustained indefinitely;

v) Adjourning: This stage is characterized by concern with wrapping up activities

rather than task performance. The group prepares for its disbandment. High task
performance is no longer the group’s top priority. Instead, attention is directed
towards finalizing activities. As the group approaches the terminal phase, members
break off their bonds of affection and stop interaction with each other. Responses of
group members vary in this state. Some feel pride in what the group has
accomplished. Others may be negative and critical of the way the organization has
treated the group and others may be sad over the loss of friendship gained during the
life of the work groups. These five stages of group development are only a suggestive
and not prescriptive. Sometimes, groups do not always proceed clearly from one
stage to the next. Sometimes, several stages go on simultaneously as when groups
are storming and performing at the same time. Under some conditions, high levels of
conflict are conducive to high group performance.

GROUP COHESION:

Cohesion refers to the extent of unity in the group and is reflected in the
members’ conformity to the norms of the group, feelings of attraction for each
other, and wanting to be co-members of the group. Attraction, cohesion and
conforming to norms are all intertwined. The more the members feel attracted
to the group, the greater will be the group cohesion. The greater the cohesion,
the greater the influence of group members to persuade one another to
conform to the group norms. The greater the conformity, the greater the
identification of the members with the group, and the greater the group
cohesion. Cohesive groups work together to achieve the group goals. They
can be considered as valuable assets to the organization if the group’s goals
coincide with the organization’s goals.

Factors increasing Cohesiveness:

The following factors can facilitate to increase the cohesiveness of the work group.

i) Agreement on Group Goals: If the group agrees on the purpose and direction
of its activities, this will serve to bind the group together and structure interaction
patterns towards successful goal accomplishment.

ii) Frequency of Interaction: When group member have the opportunity to

interact frequently with each other, the probability for closeness to develop will
increase. Managers can provide opportunities for increased group interaction by
calling frequent formal and informal meetings, providing a common meetings place
or physically designing the facilities so that group members are within sight of one
another.

iii) Personal Attractiveness: Cohesiveness is enhanced when members are

attractive to one another if mutual trust and support already exists. Personal attraction
also helps group members to overcome obstacles to goal accomplishment and
personal growth and development.

iv) Inter-group Competition: Competition with other groups, both written and
external to the organization is a mechanism that acts to bring groups closer together
for attaining a common purpose.

v) Favorable Evaluation: If a group has performed in an outstanding manner,

some recognition for its performance by management serves to elevate the prestige
of the group in the eyes of the group members and other members of the group.
Favorable evaluation helps make group members feel proud about being members of
the group.

vi) Group Size: As the size of the group increases, the frequency of interaction
each member has with other group members decreases, thus decreasing the
probability that cohesiveness will develop. Past studies have shown the groups of
four to six members provide the best opportunity for interaction.

vii) Pleasant experiences with the group: When group members are attracted to
each other or there is a full trust and cooperation, interaction may become a pleasant
experience resulting in high level of cohesiveness in the group.
viii) Lack of Domination: When one or few members dominate the group,
cohesiveness cannot adequately develop. Such behavior can create smaller “cliques”
within the group or identify individual members as isolates or deviates.

ix) Gender of Members: It is reported that women tend to have greater cohesion
than men. A possible reason is that women are more likely to be feeling types than
thinking types.

x) Previous Success: If a group has a history of success, it builds an espirit de

corps that attracts and unites members. Successful organizations find it easier to
attract and hire new employees than unsuccessful ones.

xi) Humor: Humor has been linked to increased cohesion in several studies. It is
reported that the greater the cohesion, the greater the influence of the group over the
behavior of members and subsequently group performance. As groups are composed
of individuals who are attracted to the goals of the group and to each other, one would
expect to find a strong relationship between cohesiveness and group performance.
The major difference between highly cohesive and low cohesive groups would be
how closely members conformed to the group norms. Further, the group performance
would be influenced not only by cohesion, but by the level of group norms.

GROUP DECISION MAKING:

Decisions made by the members of the group in a collective way is known

as group decision making. Groups offer excellent techniques for performing many of
the steps in the decision making process. If the group is composed of individuals with
diverse backgrounds, the alternatives generated should be more extensive and the
analysis will be more critical.

Strengths of Group Decision-making:

The following aspects identified the main advantages that groups offer over
individuals in the making of decisions.

i) More information and knowledge: By aggregating the resources of several

individuals, the group brings more input into the decision process.

ii) Increased diversity of views: Group brings heterogeneity to the decision-

making process and this opens up the opportunity for more approaches and
alternatives to be considered.
iii) Increased acceptance of a solution: The group acceptance facilitates higher
satisfaction among those employees required to implement it.

iv) Increased legitimacy: The group decision making process is consistent with
demographic ideals and therefore may be perceived as being more legitimate than
decisions made by an individual.

Weakness of group decision making:

Some of the main disadvantages are:

i) Time-consuming: It takes time to assemble a group.

ii) Pressures to conform: The desire by group members to be accepted and

considered as an asset to the group can result in squashing any overt disagreement,
thus encouraging conformity among viewpoints.

iii) Domination by the few: Few people will try to dominate the group discussion.
If such people are happened to be mediocre, the group overall effectiveness will
suffer.

iv) Ambiguous responsibility: In group decision, the responsibility of any single

member is reduced.

Teams require individuals with technical expertise, as well as problem-

solving, decision-making and interpersonal skills and high scores on the personality
characteristics of extroversion, agreeableness, conscientious and emotional stability.
Effective teams are neither too large nor too small- typically they range in size from
five to twelve people. They also have adequate resources, effective leadership and a
performance evaluation and reward system that reflect team contribution Effective
teams have members committed to a common purpose, specific team goals, member
who believe in the team’s capabilities and a manageable level of conflict.

TEAMS
Team is a small no. of people with complementary skill who are committed
for common purpose for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.

Types of Teams

There are four common types of teams:

i) Problem-solving Teams:

The primary goals of these teams are improving quality, efficiency and the work
environment. The members share ideas or offer suggestions about how work process
and methods can be improved. Quality circles are one of the problem solving teams
where the work group members meet regularly to discuss and solve problems. The
team members use tools and techniques to examine these problems and to present to
management solutions and the costs and benefits of solving a problem.

ii) Self-managed Teams:

This refers to a team of employees who perform highly related or inter-dependent
jobs and to take on many of the responsibilities of their former supervisors. Typically
this includes planning and scheduling of work, assigning tasks to members, collective
control over the pace of work, making operating decisions and taking action on
problems. Self-managed teams meet their own goals and measure their own
performance once top management sets the overall objectives. Fully self-managed
work teams even select their own members and have the members evaluate each
other’s performance.

iii) Cross-functional Teams:

This refers to a type of teams where employees from about the same hierarchical
level, but from different work areas, who come together to accomplish a task.
Examples of Cross functional include task force to resolve emergency cases,
committee composed of members from across departmental lines etc.

iv) Virtual Teams:

Teams that use computer technology to tie together physically dispersed member in
order to achieve a common goals. They allow people to collaborate on-line using
communication links such as wide area networks, video conferencing or e-mail. The
three primary factors that differentiate virtual teams from face to face teams are: i)
the absence of Para verbal and nonverbal cues, ii) limited social context and iii) the
ability to overcome time and space constraints. In virtual teams the members will
never have an opportunity to have an access of Para language and non-verbal
communication. And also suffer social support and less direct interaction among
members.

Difference between work group and work teams:

Work group: A group that interacts primarily to share information to make decision
to help each group member perform within his or her area of responsibility. Work
groups have no need or opportunity to engage in collective work that requires joint
effort. Work team: A group whose individual effort results in a performance that is
greater than the sum of the individual inputs. A team gets a greater degree of
individual commitment towards the common shared goal. The efforts of the team
members result in more synergy and may achieve a better total performance.

TEAM BUILDING:

It is defined as planned interventions facilitated by a third-party consultant

that developed problem solving procedures and skills, increase role clarity, solve
major problems and improve effectiveness of work groups. Experts have clustered
team-building activities into four general types such as interpersonal process, goal
setting, defining roles and problem solving.

i) Interpersonal Process: The resolution of conflicts between and among the

team members by creating a system of open communication by providing training on
listening skills, negotiation skills etc.
ii) Goal Setting: Focusing on shared understanding of the mission and goals of
the team. During this activity the team members clarify general goals and define
specific tasks and sub goal to be accomplished within a specific time with set
measurement criteria and reporting mechanisms. iii) Defining Roles: The members
must define the roles without any ambiguity and ensure that instructions are very
clear. The responsibilities, norms and expressions and requirements of each role are
clarified.
iv) Problem Solving: The member must identify the problem and must follow
steps such as gathering and analyzing data, finding causes, understanding solutions,
choosing solutions, planning an action and implementing and evaluating the action.
 LEADERSHIP

INTRODUCTION
Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals
to achieve a common goal. Leadership is defined as the process of influencing others
to get the job done more effectively over a sustained period of time. Leaders play a
critical role in influencing the work behavior of others in the system.
According to Pearce & Robinson, “Leadership is the process of influencing others to
work towards the attainment of specific goals.”
Importance of Motivation
• Task support
• Psychological Support
• Development of individuals
• Building the team spirit
• Motivation
• Provides feedback
• Facilitates change
• Maintains discipline

STYLES OF LEADERSHIP

Autocratic leadership, also known as authoritarian leadership, is a leadership style

characterized by individual control over all decisions and little input from group
members. Autocratic leaders typically make choices based on their own ideas and
judgments and rarely accept advice from followers. Autocratic leadership involves
absolute, authoritarian control over a group.
Characteristics of Autocratic Leadership
Some of the primary characteristics of autocratic leadership include:

•Little or no input from group members

•Leaders make the decisions
•Group leaders dictate all the work methods and processes
•Group members are rarely trusted with decisions or important tasks

Benefits of Autocratic Leadership

Autocratic leadership can be beneficial in some instances, such as when decisions
need to be made quickly without consulting with a large group of people. Some
projects require strong leadership in order to get things accomplished quickly and
efficiently.
In situations that are particularly successful, such as during military conflicts, group
members may actually prefer an autocratic style. It allows members of the group to
focus on performing specific tasks without worrying about making complex
decisions..
Downsides of Autocratic Leadership
While autocratic leadership can be beneficial at times, there are also many instances
where this leadership style can be problematic. People who abuse an autocratic
leadership style are often viewed as bossy, controlling, and dictatorial, which can
lead to resentment among group members.
Because autocratic leaders make decisions without consulting the group, people in
the group may dislike that they are unable to contribute ideas.

Democratic leadership, also known as participative leadership, is a type of

leadership style in which members of the group take a more participative role in the
decision-making process. Researchers have found that this learning style is usually
one of the most effective and lead to higher productivity, better contributions from
group members, and increased group morale.

Characteristics of Democratic Leadership

Some of the primary characteristics of democratic leadership include:

•Group members are encouraged to share ideas and opinions, even though the leader
retains the final say over decisions.
•Members of the group feel more engaged in the process.
•Creativity is encouraged and rewarded.
Benefits of Democratic Leadership

Because group members are encouraged to share their thoughts, democratic

leadership can leader to better ideas and more creative solutions to problems. Group
members also feel more involved and committed to projects, making them more
likely to care about the end results. Research on leadership styles has also shown that
democratic leadership leads to higher productivity among group members.

Downsides of Democratic Leadership

While democratic leadership has been described as the most effective leadership
style, it does have some potential downsides. In situations where roles are unclear or
time is of the essence, democratic leadership can lead to communication failures and
uncompleted projects. In some cases, group members may not have the necessary
knowledge or expertise to make quality contributions to the decision-making process.
Democratic leadership works best in situations where group members are skilled and
eager to share their knowledge. It is also important to have plenty of time to allow
people to contribute, develop a plan and then vote on the best course of action.
Laissez-faire leadership, also known as delegative leadership, is a type of leadership
style in which leaders are hands-off and allow group members to make the decisions.
Researchers have found that this is generally the leadership style that leads to the
lowest productivity among group members.

Laissez-faire leadership is characterized by:

•Very little guidance from leaders
•Complete freedom for followers to make decisions
•Leaders provide the tools and resources needed
•Group members are expected to solve problems on their own

Laissez-faire leadership can be effective in situations where group members are

highly skilled, motivated and capable of working on their own. While the
conventional term for this style is 'laissez-faire' and implies a completely hands-off
approach, many leaders still remain open and available to group members for
consultation and feedback.

Downsides of Laissez-Faire Leadership

Laissez-faire leadership is not ideal in situations where group members lack the
knowledge or experience they need to complete tasks and make decisions. Some
people are not good at setting their own deadlines, managing their own projects and
solving problems on their own. In such situations, projects can go off-track and
deadlines can be missed when team mem
THEORIES OF LEADERSHIP

There are three major approaches to leadership:

a) trait theories
b) behavioral theories.
c) situational theories.
Trait theories highlight that there exists a finite set of individual traits or
characteristics that distinguish successful from unsuccessful leaders. Behavioral
theories highlight that the most important aspect of leadership is not the traits of the
leader, but what the leader does in various situations. Successful leaders are
distinguished form unsuccessful leaders by their particular style of leadership.
Situational theories outline that the effectiveness of the leader is not only determined
by his or her style of behavior, but also by the situation surrounding the leadership
environment. Situational factors include the characteristics of the leader and the
subordinates, the nature of the task and the structure of the group.

TRAIT THEORY:

Some of the significant characteristics of leaders are categorized as follows:

- Physical Characteristics – age, appearance, height, weight Social Background –
Education, social status, mobility -Intelligence – Intelligence, ability, judgment,
knowledge, decisiveness, fluency of speech - Personality – Aggressiveness,
alertness, dominance, enthusiasm, extroversion, independence, creativity, personal
integrity, self-confidence Task-related Characteristics – Achievement drive, drive
for responsibility, initiative, persistence, enterprise, task orientation
- Social Characteristics – Administrative ability, attractiveness, cooperativeness,
popularity, prestige, sociability, interpersonal skill, tack and diplomacy

The list of important leadership traits is endless and grows with each passing
year. It has not yet been shown that a finite set of traits can distinguish successful
from unsuccessful leaders. For example, successful research administrators are
usually inquisitive, independent, perspective, and experts within their field.
Successful sales managers are usually high-need achievers, gregarious, enthusiastic
and project a professional stature, What may be important traits for one occupation
may not be important for other roles in the same organization. Uniformity of traits
across all levels is thus questioned. Trait identifies who the leader is, not the
behavioral patterns he or she will exhibit in attempting to influence subordinate
actions.
BEHAVIOURAL THEORY:

The foundation for the style of leadership approach was the belief that
effective leaders utilized a particular style to lead individuals and groups to achieving
certain goals, resulting in high productivity and morale. Unlike trait theories, the
behavioral approach focused on leader effectiveness, not the emergence of an
individual as a leader. There are two prominent styles of leadership such as task
orientation, and employee orientation.

Task orientation is the emphasis the leader place on getting the job done by such
actions as assigning and organizing the work, making decision, and evaluating
performance. Employee orientation is the openness and friendless exhibited by the
leader and his concern for the needs of subordinates. Two major research studies
directed toward investigating the behavioral approach to leaderships is i) Ohio State
University Studies and ii) University of Michigan Studies.

Ohio State Studies: Initiating Structures and Consideration: They identified two
independent leadership dimensions.
- Initiating Structure: This concerned the degree to which the leader organized
and defined the task, assigned the work to be done, established communication
networks and evaluated workgroup performance.
- Consideration, which was defined as behavior that involves trust, mutual
respect, friendship; support and concern for the welfare of the employee.
Consideration refers to an emphasis on an employee orientation leadership style.
Their findings indicated that a mixture of initiatingstructure and consideration leader
behavior, which are achieved the highest effectiveness, depends largely on
situational factors.

Michigan State Studies: Two distinct styles of leadership were developed from their
studies: - Job-centered leaderships style, which focused on the use of close
supervision, legitimate and coercive power, meeting schedules and evaluating work
performance.
- Employee-centered style, which is people oriented and emphasis delegation
of responsibility and a concern for employee welfare, needs, advancement and
personal growth. Their findings reported that employee centered and job centered
styles result in productivity increase. However, job centered behavior created tension
and pressure and resulted in lower satisfaction and increased turnover and
absenteeism. Employee centered style is the best leadership style.
-Leadership’s style is too complex to be viewed as uni-dimensional, but more than
two dimensions may complicate the interpretation of leadership behavior. The
measurement of leadership style for each of the approaches was accomplished
through the use of questionnaire. This method of measurement is both limited and
controversial. Further, in search of the most effective leadership’s style, the research
findings suggested that a universally accepted best style was inappropriate to the
complexities of modern organizations.

Managerial Grid: The five basic approaches to management identified by Black and
Mouton are based on the two dimensions of concern of people and concern for
production that are associated with leaders. A managerial grid is formed based on
these two dimensions which are rated on 9 point scale. If manager is securing the
lowest score on these two dimensions I,I is identified as impoverished style of
managers who are low on both their concern of people and production, 1,9 or country
club style is designated to those managers who are having high concern for people
but low concern for production. The 5, 5 or the middle-of-the road style concerns the
moderate levels of concern for both people and production. The 9,1 or task
management style is one where there is a high concern for production but very little
concern for people and finally, 9,9 or team management style is one where the
manager has high concern for both people and production. According to Black and
Mouton the one best style for all mangers is the 9,9 or team management style.

Likert’s System Four Model: Rensis Likert suggests that managers operate under
four different systems.
System I – Exploitative Authoritative: The manager believes in very authoritarian
manner and actually exploits the subordinates
System II – Benevolent Authoritative: The manager takes a paternalistic approach
while still being autocratic. Behaving as benevolent autocratic, the leader maintains
strict control over the subordinates albeit in a paternalistic manner.
System III – Consultative: The manager consults the subordinates and still maintains
the right to make the final decision.
System IV – Participative Groups: The manager uses a democratic style and makes
decision by consensus and majority vote.

Likert feels that the best way for all organizations to manage employees is to move
towards System IV.

Situational Theory: Situational approaches to leadership take the position that there
is no “one best way to lead in all the situations. Effective leadership style will vary
from situations to situation, depending on several factors such as the personality
predisposition of the leaders, the characteristics of the followers, the nature of task
being done and other situational factors. Tannenbaum and Schmidt reported that the
use of authority by the manager (boss centered leaderships style) or the area of
freedom given to subordinates (subordinate centered leadership) is a function of the
following factors such as i) forces in the manager – value system, confidence in
subordinates, leadership predispositions and feelings of security and insecurity), ii)
forces in the subordinates (their needs for independence or dependence, readiness to
assume responsibility, tolerance for ambiguity, abilities, knowledge and experience
and inclination to participate in decision making) and iii) forces in the situation (type
of organization, group effectiveness, time pressures and the nature of the problem
itself)

Fiedler’s Contingency Model of Leadership: Fiedler developed a model to predict

work group effectiveness by taking into consideration the best fit between the
leadership style and the degree of favorableness of the situation. The following three
factors are considered to check whether the situation will be favorable or
unfavorable. These factors are i) Leader- Member relations, ii) Task structure of the
group, iii) Perceived position power of the manager.

Leadership Style Assessment – Leased Preferred Coworkers Scale: Fiedler

developed a scale to rate the type of relationship a supervisor holds towards the least
preferred coworkers on a twenty-item questionnaire. The supervisor is asked to
describe the person with whom he has worked least well in accomplishing some task.
The model postulates that a low LPC score (unfavorable avoidable evaluation)
indicates the degree to which a leader is ready to reject those with whom he cannot
work. Therefore, the lower the LPC score, the greater the tendency for the leader to
be task oriented. On the other hand, a high LPC (favorable evaluation) indicates a
willingness to perceive even the worst coworker as having some positive attributes.
Therefore, the higher the LPC score, the greatest the tendency for the leader to be
employee oriented.

Favorable Situation: The situation is considered as highly favorable if it possess a

high level of positive interpersonal relations between leaders and members, a well-
defined task structures and a leaders perceive that they are bestowed with strong
perceived positional power. In such type of situation the leader will have a great deal
of control over situations and will simply have to make sure that he gives the
necessary instructions to get the task done. There is no need for him to waste time
talking to each employee in order to be perceived as friendly. A task-oriented style
will be effective in such situation.

Unfavorable Situation: The situation is considered as highly unfavorable if it

possesses a low level of interpersonal relationship between leaders and members, a
poorly defined task and a relatively a weak perceived power. The leader of a task-
force committee which is appointed to solve problems encountered in the work
setting is likely to find him in such a situation. In such type of situation, the leader is
in highly vulnerable situations and there is no other way to enforce a strict discipline
and order to bring the situation in normalcy than following relationship oriented
style.

Moderately Favorable Situation: Here the leader might find herself in a mixed
situation. For instance, a manager might have good relationship with her workers,
but the task structure and position power of the leader may be low. For example, a
bank officer may have a good relationship staff member, but the task structure or the
power to control the staff members (either to reward or punish members) is not strong
enough. In such situations, the manager will be very successful and get the desirable
results if he follows more of relationships oriented style than task oriented task style.
The major findings of fielder are that the task-oriented leaders perform better than
relationship oriented leaders in both extreme situations that are very favorable and
those that are unfavorable. Relationship oriented leaders tend to perform better than
task oriented leaders in situations that are intermediate in favorableness. These
findings suggest that each of the leadership style can be effective in certain situation.
Fiedler also suggests that the organization can change the effectiveness of the group’s
performance by changing the favorableness of the situations or by changing the
leader’s preferred style through education and training.

Fiedler’s contingency model has proven to be major addition to the study of

leadership in organizations for a number of reasons. First, the contingency model was
one of the first approaches to leadership that included situational factors within its
theoretical framework. The model will probably continue to be an important source
of new ideas, propositions and hypotheses about situational leadership. Second, it
provides the subtle but important implication that one should not speak of leadership
as being either good or poor. Rather, a more realistic viewpoint would be that a
manager’s style of leading may be effective in one situation but not in another.
Finally, leadership effectiveness is a function of the leader’s style and the interaction
of situational factors. The organization may improve the effectiveness of a particular
work environment either modifying the situational factors or attempting to change
the manager’s leadership style.

Path-Goal Theory of Leader Effectiveness: A second situational theory of leadership

has been proposed by House and Evan. The principle function of the leader is
facilitating to increase valence perception of their subordinates and clarify and
increase expectancy probabilities of them. This will in turn make them to put greater
amount of effort and derive higher level of satisfaction and performance in their
work. The theory is composed of two basic propositions such as i) role of the leader
and ii) dynamics of the situation. The two main aspects of this model are as follows:

Leadership Role: Leader behavior is acceptable and satisfying to the extent that
subordinates perceive such behavior as a source of satisfaction or instrumental to
future satisfaction. There are four styles of leadership:

- Directive Leadership Behavior: This deals with planning, organizing, controlling

and coordinating of subordinates activities by the leader. It is similar to the
traditional dimension of initiating structure in that the leader’s emphasis is on letting
the subordinates know what is expected of them.
- Supportive Leadership Behavior: This concerns giving support consideration to the
needs of the subordinates, displaying concern for their well-being and welfare and
creating a friendly and pleasant environment.

- Participative Leadership Behavior: This deals with sharing of information and an

emphasis on consultation with subordinates and use of their ideas and suggestions
in reaching group related decision.

- Achievement-Oriented Leadership Behavior: This deals with setting challenging

goals, expecting subordinates to perform at the highest level, continually seeking
improvement in performance. The leader wants good performance, but at the same
time displays confidence in the ability of his subordinates to do a good job.

Dynamics of Situation: The leadership style is determined by the situation in which

the leader functions. Two main factors that influence the situational effectiveness of
the leader’s behavior are: a) the characteristics of the subordinates and b) the
characteristics of his work environment, including task, work group and other
organizational factors. The theory proposes that leader behavior will be perceived as
acceptable to subordinates to the extent that the subordinates see such behavior as
either an immediate source of satisfaction or as needed for future satisfaction.

Characteristics of Subordinates: Subordinates characteristics are seen to partially

determine this perception. The following are the characteristics:

- Ability: This refers to the subordinates perception of his or own ability

- Locus of Control: This deals with the degree to which an employee believes that he
or she has control of what happens to him. People who believe that they controlled
their environment and who believe what happens to them occurs because of their
behavior are called internal. People who believe what happens to them is not under
their control and occurs because of luck or fate are externals.
- Need and Motives: A subordinate’s dominant needs may affect the impact of leader
behavior. For example, individuals with high safety and security needs may accept
an instrumental leader style, but employees with high affiliation and esteem needs
may react more positively to a supportive leader.

Characteristics of Work Environment:

There are three broad aspects work environment such as i) task structures, ii) primary
work group and iii) formal authority system.

Path-Goal theory states that leaders can exercise four different kinds of styles such
as directive leadership, supportive leadership, participative leadership and
achievement oriented leadership. The Path-Goal theory postulates that any of the four
styles can be used effectively by the leader, depending upon situational factors such
as subordinate characteristics (ability internal or external locus of control, needs and
motives), and attributes in the work setting (task characteristics, authority system and
the nature of the primary work groups). If there is a good fit between the leadership
style and the situational factors in the work setting, then subordinates will experience
job satisfaction, accept and value the leader as a dispense or valued rewards and will
engage in motivated behavior because they will know that their effort will lead to
performance and that performance will lead to valued rewards. The rationale behind
the theory is that leader can help the subordinates to achieve their goals by providing
what is missing in the situation. Employees are helped by the leader to see the path
by which their efforts will lead to performance and performance to desired rewards.
The leader can take care of the missing links in the situation and facilitate to fulfill
the needs of the subordinates. This suggests that leaders should involve their
subordinates as much as possible in goal setting. This will enhance a person’s sense
of control over the organization’s goal and have significant benefits in terms of job
satisfaction, self-esteem and self-efficacy as well as productivity improvement for
the organization. Goals need to be difficult enough to be challenging and yet realistic
and achievable. Goal setting needs to be consistent across everyone and over time.

Hersey and Blanchard’s Life Cycle Model of Situation Leadership: Heresy and
Blanchard developed a situational model focusing on the followers characteristics.
Successful leadership is achieved by selecting the right leadership style, which is
contingent on the level of the followers’ developmental level. It is the followers who
accept or reject the leader, so that they are important factors in a leader’s success.
Blanchard defined developmental level as the skill and willingness of people to take
responsibility for directing their own behavior. It consists of two components such
as job maturity (Job competence – skills and abilities) and psychological maturity
(motivation and willingness to take responsibility).

Situational Leadership Styles:

Situational leadership uses the same two leadership dimensions – task and
relationship behavior. However, the situational leadership approach goes a step
further by considering each as either high or low and then combining them into for
specific leadership styles:

Directing, Coaching, Supporting and Delegating.

i) Directing: (high directive – low supportive): The leader defines roles and tells
people what tasks to do and how, when and where to do them. It emphasis directive
behavior. ii) Coaching: (high directive – high supportive): The leader provides both
directive behavior and supportive behavior) iii) Supporting (low directive-high
supportive): The leader and follower share in decision-making, with the main role of
the leader being facilitating and communicating. iv) Delegating: (low directive-low
supportive): The leader provides little direction or support.

Followers Characteristics:

Besides identifying leadership behavior, the Situational Style Leadership model also
identifies follower readiness or developmental level. The follower’s readiness for a
task is shown on a continuum ranging from D1 to D4. Two characteristics are used
to identify the level of readiness to complete the task such as i) ability and ii)
willingness. The situational leadership model finds that different followers have
different combinations of these two characteristics and different levels of
development or readiness and capacity to complete the tasks. There are four
developmental stages of followers.

i) D1: Unwilling, insecure, and with the ability to

perform the task.
ii) D2: Willing, confident, and without the ability to
perform the task.
iii) D3: Unwilling, insecure and with the ability to
perform the task
iv) D4: Willing, confident and with the ability to perform the task.

INSPIRATIONAL APPROACHES TO LEADERSHIP

These contemporary leadership theories view leaders as individuals who inspire
followers through their words, ideas, and behaviors.

A. Charismatic Leadership. Charisma, as defined by Max Weber, is “a certain

quality of an individual personality, by virtue of which he or she is set apart from
ordinary people and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at
least specifically exceptional powers or qualities. These are not assessable to the
ordinary person, but are regarded as of divine origin or as exemplary, and on the
basis of them the individual concerned is treated as a leader.”

B. Transformational Leadership. While transformational leadership does divide

leadership into two categories, these are not opposites but complements.
Transformational leadership builds on top of transactional leadership and
produces levels of follower effort and performance that go beyond what would
occur with a transactional approach alone. But the reverse is not true.

Leadership Types. This theory of leadership divides leaders into two types, based on
their methods and outcomes:
 a. Transactional Leaders: those who guide or motivate their followers in the
direction of establish goals by clarifying role and task requirements. These
leaders were described in the other (non-inspirational) sections of this chapter.
b. Transformational Leaders: those who inspire followers to transcend their own
self-interests for the good of the organization and are capable of having a
profound or extraordinary effect on their followers.

What Makes Leadership Effective:

The following points make the leadership effective.

Mental and physical health
Knowledge and Intelligent
Clear cut and worthy goal
Conviction
Sense of responsibility
Motivation
Initiative and Drive
Besides there are some other factors which make the leadership effective.

CONFLICT
INTRODUCTION
Human beings experience conflict in their everyday life. Hence
organizations are not free of it. Conflict has considerable influence on individual and
organizational performance. Therefore conflict management is very very necessary.
According to Kolb and Bartinek, “conflict can be a disagreement, the presence of
tension, or some other difficulty within or between two or more parties.

TYPES OF CONFLICT

Intrapersonal Conflict: When conflict occurs within an individual, it is called

intrapersonal conflict. It occurs in three ways.

a)Approach-Approach Conflict-Here an individual must choose between two

alternatives which have expected positive outcome.

b)Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict- Here an individual must choose between two

alternatives which have expected negative outcome.

c)Approach-Avoidance Conflict- Here an individual must decide whether to do

something that is expected to have both positive and negative outcome.
Interpersonal Conflict: When conflict occurs in between individual to individual ,it
is called interpersonal conflict.

Intragroup Conflict: When conflict occurs within one group, it is called intragroup
conflict.
Intergroup Conflict: When conflict occurs amongst different groups, it is called
intergroup conflict. It occurs in three ways.

a)Vertical Conflict-It refers to conflicts that occur between individuals at different

levels. Conflict between the superior and subordinate is an example of vertical
conflict.

b) Horizontal Conflict-It refers to tensions between employees or groups at the same

hierarchical level. Horizontal conflict occurs because of interdependence among the
parties concerned in the work situation.

c)Line & Staff Conflict- It refers to the conflicts that arise between those who assist
or act in an advisory capacity (staff) and those who have direct authority to create the
products, process, and services of the organizing (line).

CONFLICT PROCESS
The conflict process can be categorized into five stages. They are as follows:

Stage I: Potential opposition or incompatibility:

This covers the present condition that creates opportunity for conflicts to arise. This
may be one of the conditions responsible for the occurrence of conflict. The major
sources of conflict can be further categorized as communication, structure and
personal variables. Communication: It is reported that word connotations, jargon,
insufficient exchange of information and noise in the communication channel are all
barriers to communication and potential antecedent conditions to conflict.
Stage II: Cognition and personalization:
Perception or sense making plays a major role in the resolving conflict. Conflict may
either be perceived or felt in nature. Perceived conflict is defined as awareness by
one or more parties of the existence of conditions that create opportunities for conflict
to arise. Felt conflict is defined as emotional involvement in a conflict creating
anxiety, tenseness, frustrations or hostility. Negative emotions have been found to
produce over simplification of issues, reductions in trust, and negative interpretations
of the other party’s behavior.
Stage III: Intentions:
Using two dimensions – cooperativeness (the degree to which one party attempts to
satisfy the other party’s concerns) and assertiveness (the degree to which one party
attempts to satisfy his or her own concerns) – five conflict handling intentions can
be identified. There are as follows: i) competing (assertive and uncooperative), ii)
collaborating (assertive and cooperative), iii) avoiding (unassertive and
uncooperative), iv) accommodating (unassertive and cooperative) and v)
compromising (mid-range on both assertiveness and cooperativeness).
Stage IV: Behaviour:
All conflicts manifest in behavior somewhere along with continuum ranging from no
conflict or minor conflict such as minor disagreements or misunderstanding, overt
questioning or challenging of others, to annihilator conflict such as threats and
ultimatum, aggressive physical attacks or overt efforts to destroy the other party.
Stage V: Outcomes:
The outcomes of conflict may be functional or dysfunctional. Conflict is constructive
when it improves the quality of decision, stimulates creativity and innovation,
encourages interest and curiosity among group members, provides the medium
through which problems can be aired and tensions released and fosters an
environment of self-evaluation and change.

CAUSES OF INTER-GROUP CONFLICT:

There are three basic sources of inter-group conflict: i) goal incompatibility, ii)
decision-making requirements and iii) performance expectations.
Interdependence: Conflict potential increases when groups are interdependent. The
different types of Interdependence are as follows:
1. Pooled interdependence—no direct interaction occurs between groups;
interdependence exists because their pooled performance determines organizational
performance
(e.g., the Cadillac, Buick and Chevrolet divisions at General Motors). Creates
relatively low conflict potential.
2. Sequential interdependence—Occurs when one group must complete its task
before another group can complete its task (e.g., two groups on an assembly line).
Makes conflict more likely because output (quality and quantity) of one group
depends on the task input of another.
3. Reciprocal interdependence—the output of each group is the input for other
groups and vice versa (e.g., the anesthesiology, nursing, and surgical teams in an
operating room).
Creates high conflict potential.
All organizations have pooled interdependence; complex organizations have
sequential interdependence; and the more complex organizations have reciprocal
interdependence. The more complex the organization, the greater the conflict
potential.
B. Goals Difference: Groups with different goals have different expectations that
can cause conflict
when the groups interact. Goal differences become more evident when resources are
limited and are
allocated across the groups. Conflict pressures increase when groups think resources
have not been allocated equitably. Different goal can produce different perceptions.
Different time horizons can produce different times perspectives and affect perceived
importance of problems (e.g., a company
president's time perspective of five‐to‐ten years vs. a foreman's perspective of one
month to one year).
C. Perceptual Differences: Status in congruency-one group perceiving itself as
more prestigious than another can provoke intergroup conflict. Inaccurate
perceptions often causes groups to develop stereotypes about other groups, which
can provoke conflict and erode intergroup relations. When conflict is low rational
model describes the organization where goals are consistent across participants,
power and control are centralized, decision process are orderly, logical, rational, rules
and norms are norms of efficiency, information is extensive, systematic and accurate.
When conflict is high political model describes the organization where goals are
inconsistent and pluralistic within the organization, power and control are
decentralized and shifting coalitions and
interest groups, decision process are disorderly and result of bargaining and interplay
among
interests,

Conflict management Techniques:

The various strategies for minimizing and resolving conflicts can be classified into
five categories: i) Avoidance, ii) Accommodating, iii) Compromise, iv) Competition
and v) Collaboration.

Avoidance:
This strategy involves a general disregard for the causes of the conflict and the person
might diplomatically sidestep a conflicting issue, postpone addressing it till later, or
withdraw physically or psychologically from a threatening situation. Avoiding mode
is used when the individual is both unassertive and uncooperative – that is, the person
has a very low concern for his own and his opponent’s needs. The individual follows
the following three methods

i) Non-attention: The manager totally avoids or ignores the dysfunctional situation.

Individuals tend to “look the other way” or disregard hostile action in hopes that the
situation will resolve itself in time ii) Physical separation: It involves moving
conflicting groups physically apart from each other.
The rationale is that if the groups cannot interact, conflict will diminish.
iii) Limited interaction: Groups are allowed to interact only on formal situations.
Accommodation:
Accommodation is a negotiation style where one party is willing to oblige or adapt
to meet the needs of the other party. That party that accommodates loses and the
other party wins. Accommodation is useful for negotiation on minor matters. The
negotiation parties may not look for creative, new solutions. Accommodation might
take the form of selfless generosity, or obeying another’s order rather unwillingly or
giving in to another person’s point of view. In all these cases, the individual neglects
his or her own concern to satisfy the concerns of their other party. There is an element
of self-sacrifice.

Competition:
Competition occurs when one party negotiates to maximize its results at the expense
of the other party’s needs. Competition leads to one party gaining the advantage over
the other. One party wins while the other party loses. Although it is quick and can be
used as counter against another person, this option usually produces a win-lose result.
Competing is a power oriented mode of resolving tensions and one uses whatever
power one has or can muster such skills, knowledge, abilities, rank being well-
connected etc. to win.

Compromising:
Compromise is the settlement of differences through concessions of one or both
parties. In compromising, the party tries to find some expedient, mutually acceptable
solutions with partially satisfies both parties, though neither is fully satisfied. A
compromising stance addresses the issue without avoiding it, but does not explore
the alternative in a way that would be completely satisfying to both parties as in the
case of collaboration. Compromising involves “splitting the difference”, exchanging
concessions and seeking quick middle-ground solutions.

Collaboration:
Collaboration occurs when people cooperate to produce a solution satisfactory to
both. Collaborating involves an attempt to work with the other person to find
solutions that would be satisfying to both parties. Here, the underlying concerns of
both parties are explored in depth, the disagreements examine in detail and
resolutions arrived at by combining the insights of both the parties. A creative
solution usually emerges because of the joint efforts of both the parties who are keen
on both gaining from the situation without hurting the other.
 ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE
INTRODUCTION
Culture deals with past and current assumptions, experiences, values,
attitudes, beliefs, expectations, customs etc. Culture relates to the informal aspects
of organization’s rather than their official elements. They focus on the values, beliefs
and norms of individuals in the organization Culture is manifested by symbols and
rituals rather than through the formal structure of the organization.

The values and behaviour that contribute to the unique social and psychological
environment of an organization is called organizational culture. It refers to the system
of shared meaning held by the members that distinguishes one organization from
other organization. Features of Organisational Culture:
Shared meaning
Values and Norms
Behavioral Consistency
Descriptive
Organisational Philosophy
Clear Guidelines
Sense of Belongingness

Factors determining org. culture

Org. Founder:
Whatever impression founders create about the organization, it continues and
develops for a long period of time.
Corporate success & shared Experiences:
Corporate success for a long period develops a strong culture. If the members share
common experience, it remains in their mind forever.
Innovation & risk taking:
Innovative and risk taking employees develop a strong culture.

Outcome rather than technique: Organizations whose managers focus on outcome

rather than technique, they develop strong culture.

Competitiveness:
Organizations whose employees are competitive are actually stronger than non-
competitive.
Shared interpretation:
Organizations whose members have common perception and thinking about
organizational values, norms, they can develop a strong culture.
Functions of Organisational Culture
• It distinguishes one organization from another organization. That means it
creates brand name for the organization.
• It develops a sense of identity amongst its members.
• It promotes commitment amongst employees to achieve oganisational
goal.
• It develops appropriate standard for employees & holds them together to
achieve those standard.
• It provides a control mechanism for shaping the attitude & behaviour of
employees.
Transmission of organizational Culture/How is culture learnt:

• Stories:
The stories be these true or false, told to the organizational members can have
a profound impact on organizational culture.
• Symbols:
Examples of symbols include the size of offices, the elegance of office
furnishing etc for certain employees. The value of these symbols is that they
communicate important cultural values.
• Language:
organizations use a language in terms of specific slogan, metaphor to convey
special meaning to employees. It symbolizes what the company stands for to
both employees and society.
• Rituals:
Rituals such as annual function, award ceremonies etc reinforce the key
values of the organization, which goal is imp, which people is important. The
annual function organized by the VSSUT is an example of ritual performed
in an educational institution.
 ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE

Change is necessary for survival and growth. Changes are constantly taking
place in our environment. Changes occur outside organization that requires internal
adaptation. The manager has to ensure that individual and groups in organizations,
and structures, process and behaviors of sub-systems must adapt to the changing
external and internal environments. In effect, the manager is a change agent who
facilities changes to occur in the various subsystems of the organization needed.
Any alteration which occurs in the overall work environment of an organization is
called organizational change.

FACTORS AFFECTING CHANGE:

There are both external and internal forces that result in pressure for change,
External Factors:
The external forces that create the need for change come from various sources. Some
of them are as follows:

Competitive Market Force:

Competition is changing. The global economy means that competitors are as likely
to come from across the ocean as from across town. Heightened competition also
means the established organizations need to defend themselves against both
traditional competitors that develop new products and services and small,
entrepreneurial firms with innovative offers. Successful organizations will be the
ones that can change in response to the competitor.

Government laws and regulations:

These are frequent impetus for change. Creation of special economic zones and
foreign direct investment in India sparked off major changes in the IT Industries,
Insurance, and Car manufacturing industries. More foreign automobile industries are
setting up manufacturing plants and generating more employment opportunities in
India.

Technology:
It creates the need for change. For example, technological developments in
sophisticated and extremely expensive diagnostic equipment have created significant
economy of scale for hospitals and medical centers. Assembly-line technology is
undergoing dramatic change as organizations replace human labor with robots. Even
in the greetings card industry, electronic mail and internet have influenced the way
people send greetings.
Labor Markets:
The fluctuation in labor markets forces managers to change. For instance, the demand
for webpage designers and website managers made it necessary for organizations that
need those kinds of employees to change their human resources management
activities to attract and retain skilled employees in the areas of greatest need.

Economic Changes:
Economic changes affect almost all organization. The appreciation of rupee value
against the US dollar affects the export prospects of knitwear products from India to
America as those products cost more to Americans. But even in strong economy,
uncertainties about interest rates, government budgets deficits and current exchange
rates create conditions that may force organizations to change. Internal Factors:
Internal forces can also stimulate the need for change. These internal forces tend to
originate primarily from the internal operations of the organizations or from the
impact of external changes.

Structural factors:
A structural force would be the inability to transmit important information from the
top of the organization to the lower level cadre. Because of numerous layers in the
hierarchy, information moves slowly from one level to the next. This could be viewed
as a process or a behavioral problem involving a failure to communicate effectively.

Strategy:
A redefinition or modification of an organization’s strategy often introduces a host
of change. The strategic move of Reliance Industries in getting into retail business in
urban and rural markets made them to introduce a change in the managerial approach
as well as the human relations approach to gain acceptance from the different cross
section of the customers.

Organizations Workforce:
In recent times, the work force composition is varied and is not very static. Its
composition changes in terms of age, education, sex and so forth. In a stable
organization with a large pool of seasoned executives, there might be a need to
restructure jobs in order to retain younger managers who occupy lower ranks. The
compensation and benefit system might also need to be adapted to reflect the needs
of an older work force.

Technology development:
The introduction of new equipment represents another internal force for change.
Employees may have their jobs redesigned, they need to undergo training on how to
operate the new equipment or they may be required to establish new interactions
patterns with their work group.

Employee Attitudes:
Employee attitudes such as increased job satisfaction may lead to increased
absenteeism, more voluntary resignations, and even labor strikes. Such events will
often lead to changes in management policies and practices.

RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

In planning for change, the team leaders must take into consideration the various
factors on which the members exhibit their resistance to implement the change
process. For example, the company wanted to install a new software program in cash
counter computer terminals to facilitate the fast movement. But some employees may
not respond favorably and display their refusal to cooperate by increasing
absenteeism, sub-standard work, joining of union increased labor turn over etc.
Resistance to change can also be a source of functional conflict. For example,
resistance to a reorganization plan or a change in a product line can stimulate a
healthy debate over the merits of the idea and result in a better decision.

Resistance can be overt, implicit, immediate or deferred. It is the easiest for

management to deal with resistance when it is overt and immediate such as
employees strike, work slowdown etc. The greater challenge is managing resistance
that is implicit or deferred. Such as loss of loyalty to the organization, loss of
motivation to work, increased errors or mistakes increased absenteeism etc. .

Individual Resistance
Individual sources of resistance to change lie in basic human characteristics such as
perceptions, personalities and needs.

Habit: The team members are habituated or conditioned to do their job or activity
in a particular way. When they are asked to do differently, they tend to respond to
resist change. When employees are asked to move to new office building across the
town, they are likely to change their routine habits like waking up ten minutes earlier,
finding new parking place, adjusting to new office layout, developing new lunch time
routine etc.
 Security: The team members with a high need for security are likely to resist
change because it threatens their feelings of safety. When Indian Railway introduced
new online booking for their reservations, employees may have similar fears.

Economic Factors: If the members feel that the new changes result in lower pay,
they may likely to resist change process. Changes in jobs or established work routine
can also arouse economic fears if people are concerned that they won’t be able to
perform the new tasks or routines to their previous standards, especially when the
pay is closely tied to productivity.

Fear of the Unknown: The cashiers or secretaries might fear the new activities
due to lack of knowledge in operating the new software program. They might develop
a negative attitude towards working with new programs or behave dysfunctionally if
required to use them. Employees in organizations hold the same dislike for
uncertainty. For example, if an organization introduced TQM, the production
employees will have to learn statistical process control techniques. Therefore, they
may develop a negative attitude towards TQM or behavior dysfunctionally if
required, to use statistical techniques.

Selective Information Processing: Once the team members shape their world
through their own way, they prefer to do their work based on their perceptions. If the
change process demands to follow the new method, the members tend to resist. So
individuals are guilty of selectively processing information in order to keep their
perception intact. They hear what they want to hear. They ignore information that
challenges the world they have created.

Organizational Resistance

Some organizations prefer to follow their routine and reluctant to venture new
things or follow any new methods of doing. Government agencies want to continue
doing what they have been doing for years, whether the need for their service changes
or remains the same. Six major sources of organizational resistance have been
identified. They are as follows:

Structural Inertia: Organizations have built in mechanisms to produce stability.

For instance, the training and orientation programs reinforce specific role
requirements and skills. Formalization provides job descriptions, rules and
procedures for employees to follow. Once the routine has been established,
organization is very reluctant to adapt to new changes. When an organization is
confronted with the change process, the team members tend to resist.
 Limited Focus of Change: The change process is interlinked. One activity cannot
be changed without affecting the others. If change is introduced in technology
without considering the structural changes, the change in technology is not likely to
be accepted. Organizations are made up of number of interdependent subsystems.

Group Inertia: Some times the group norm or standards could act as a constraint.
For example, the union norms may dictate resistance to change process.

Threat to Expertise: The change process could threaten the expertise of team
members of the groups. Once the members feel that they are forced to learn
something new, they tend to resist. The introduction of decentralized personal
computers, which allow managers to gain access to information directly from a
company’s mainframe, is an example of a change that was strongly resisted by many
information system departments in the 1980s. Because of decentralized end-user
computing was a threat to the specialized skills held by those in the centralized
information system departments.

Threat to Established Power Relationship: The change process can threaten long
established power relationships within the organization. Due to this reason, the
members can resist the change.

Threat to established resource allocation: The group, which enjoys sizable

resources, may not like to accept the change process that facilitates reduction in their
budget.

OVERCOMING RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

John Kotter and Leonard Schlesinger offered six ways of overcoming resistance to
change, which are highly situation dependent. More than one of these techniques
may be used in any given situations.
Education and Communication: If the logic and advantages of the change are
explained early to the team members, resistance can be reduced. This can be achieved
through one-to-one discussions, memos, group presentations, or reports. This tactics
assumes that the source of resistance lies in misinformed or poor communication. If
the team members received the full facts and have their misunderstanding cleared up,
their resistance will subside. Once people have bought into the idea, they will
implement the change. The only problem is that this could be very time consuming
process, if too many people are to be communicated with.
Participation and Involvement: Resistance to change can be reduced or eliminated
by having those involved participate in the decision of the change through meetings
and induction. It is difficult for individuals to resist a change decision in which they
participated. Once people have had an opportunity to contribute ideas and become a
part of the change process, they will be less inclined to see it fail. However, working
in committees or task forces is a time consuming activity, and hence it will take a
longer time to bring about changes.
Facilitation and Support: Easing the change process and providing support for
those caught up in it is another way managers can deal with resistance. Retraining
programs, allowing time off after a difficult period, and offering emotional support
and understanding may help. This emotional support can be given through empathic
listening, offering training and other types of help. Such facilitation and emotional
support help individual to deal more effectively with their adjustment problems. This
process can be time consuming and there is no guarantee that it will always work.
Negotiation and Agreement: It is sometimes necessary for a team leader to
negotiate with potential resistance or exchange something of value for a lessening
the resistance. For instance, if the resistance is from a few powerful individuals in
the team, a specific reward package can be negotiated that will meet their individual
needs. Though in some instances this may be the relatively easy way to gain
acceptance, it is possible that this could be an expensive way of effecting changes as
well. Also, if the use of this strategy becomes public knowledge, others might also
want to try to negotiate before they accept the change.
Manipulation and Co-optation: The team leader seeks to ‘buy off’ the key
members who are resisting by giving them an important role in the change decision.
The team leader’s advice is sought, not to arrive at a better decision but to get their
endorsement. Some of the co-opting tactics include selectively sharing information
and consciously structuring certain types of events that would win support. This can
be a quick and relatively easy and inexpensive strategy to gain support. However, the
purpose will be defeated if people feel they are being manipulated.
Explicit and Implicit Coercion: The team leaders can force the members to go
along with changes by threats involving loss or transfers of jobs, lack of promotion,
etc. Such methods, though not uncommon, i s more difficult to gain support for future
change efforts. This strategy can be particularly resorted to when changes have to be
speedily enforced or when changes are of a temporary nature. Though speedy and
effective in the short run, it may make people angry and resort to all kinds of mean
behaviors in the long run.

LEWIN’S MODEL OF CHANGE/APPROACHES TO MANAGING ORG.

CHANGE/PLANNED CHANGE
Kurt Lewin argued that successful change in organizations should
follow three steps
j) Unfreezing the status quo
iii) Movement to a new state
iii) Refreezing the new change to make it permanent.
Unfreezing:
It is actually the process of preparing the system for change through disconfirmation
of the old practices, attitudes, tendencies, or behaviors. This is the initial phase where
those involved in the change experience a need for something different and a sense
of restlessness with the status quo. In essence, the feeling that the system is hurting
itself badly now and desperately requires a change to survive, is sensed by all.
Initiative for changes efforts are taken to overcome the pressures of both individual
resistance and group conformity.
Movement to a new state:
Changing or moving is the phase where the changes that have been planned are
actually initiated and carried out. Changes could relate to the mission, strategy,
objectives, people, tasks, work roles, technology, structure, corporate culture, or any
other aspects of the organization. Well thought out changes have to be carefully
implemented with participation of the members who will be affected by the change.
Changes incorporated too quickly without adequate preparation will result in
resistance to change.

Refreezing:
It is the last phase of the planned change process. Refreezing ensures that the planned
changes that have been introduced are working satisfactorily, that any modifications,
extra considerations, or support needed for making the changes operational are
attended to, and that there is reasonable guarantee that the changes will indeed fill
the gap and bring the system to the new, desired state of equilibrium. This necessarily
implies that the results are monitored and evaluated, and wherever necessary
corrective measures are taken up to reach the new goal. If the refreezing phase is
neglected or temporarily attended to, the desired results will not ensure and the
change may even be total disaster. Forced Field Analysis:

Kurt Lewin stated that there are two types of forces operating in the change process.
I) Those forces which prepare or make the system ready for changes to occur, are
called as driving forces, ii) Those forces which oppose or operate against changes
taking place in the system, are called as restraining forces. If the two sets of forces
are equal in strength, then the systems is in a state of equilibrium and changes will
not occur. If the driving forces are stronger than the restraining forces, then the
system will be changing to find a new equilibrium as the gap to be filled gets
narrowed down. A more viable option is to reduce existing resistance by dealing with
and minimizing the forces that resist the change. In practice, a combination of both
strategies – reducing the restraining factors and increasing the driving forces often
ensures best results.
INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

INTRODUCTION

International Organizational Behavior uses a global perspective to focus on

business and management interactions among individuals, groups and teams, and
organizations. An international business organization is one which expands its
business activities beyond the national border.

There are similarities and dissimilarities in certain respects between

national and international organizations. As regards dissimilarities, it is mainly
cultural variations across the nations that distinguishes organizational behaviour in
international organization from national organization. Given the varying cultural
background across the nations, human behaviour at work in them is, therefore,
inevitable to vary. The same underlines the need for understanding organizational
behaviour in an international context.

INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOUR IN INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION:

There are a lot of differences in individual behaviour among cultures. Because
organizational culture is different from nation to nation. Following are the important
points by which the differences in individual behaviour among cultures can be
proved.
Individual Differences:
No two persons are alike. Individuals differ from each other owing to their varying
characteristics that ultimately form an individual’s individuality.
Individualism/Collectivism:
Individualism is a state of mind in which a person considers his/her interest first, on
a priority basis. For e.g. US culture, Great Britain, Australia culture. Whereas
collectivism refers to the situation in which group interest comes first. For e.g.
Singapore, Japanese & Indian culture.
Power Distance:
This refers to the situation in which organizational members consider the existence
of different levels of power in operation. High power distance is otherwise known as
autocratic culture where top managers make decision and subordinates follow that
one. For e.g. the culture of Pakistan, Brazil and France. Whereas low power distance
reflects the situation in which employees follow the order only when they consider
it is right. For e.g. US, Australia, Germany’s culture.
Uncertainty Avoidance:
While some individuals ready to accept uncertainty and, in turn, risk to thrive in the
challenging and exciting situations, there are others, who simply avoid uncertainty.
Employees of US and Australia represent the two cases respectively.
Masculinity/Femininity:
Work force structure dominated by either sex has its bearing on employee behaviour
at work. India is an example of highly masculine where as Sweden that of highly
feminine.
Managerial behaviour. The managerial belief vary across culture. For e.g. Japanese
managers believe that very purpose of having an organization structure is to make
every employee know his or her boss is. Whereas Indian managers believe in value
based management.
Motivation:
Variation in motivation across culture also affect employee behaviour at work. In
Japan security need is very important where as Sweden emphasizes more on social
need.

GROUP BEHAVIOUR IN INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION:

There are four key areas in which group behaviour varies. Those are given below.

Group Dynamics:
Group formation based on members belonging to diverse cultural background may
create several situations like stereotyping, communication problem etc. Therefore,
managers need to help the group become cohesive and cooperative in functioning.

Leadership:
Like leadership styles, leadership roles also vary from culture to culture, Leaders in
India, for example, function only within clear confines of their legitimate powers.
Where as in Japan leaders are expected to facilitate group performance than merely
act as supervisory mechanism.

Power and Conflict:

Power and conflict are more pronounced in India and Great Britain. Whereas Japan
promotes more cohesiveness.

Communication:
Communication becomes an imp aspect of interpersonal process which leads to
group behaviour in the organization. variation in language and coordination issues
across culture affect communication in the international organization.