UNIT TWO

INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP BEHAVIOR IN

ORGANIZATION
Unit objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to;

◦ Describe what is meant by individual difference

◦ Explain why it is important to understand
individual differences in managing people
◦ Identify and explain factors that are attributed to
individual differences in organizations
◦ Describe stress and its sources in organizations.
◦ Define and explain workgroups and teams
◦ Explain group characteristics and their effect on
job performance
◦ Identify the means for group effectiveness
2.1. Individual Differences and Work Behavior in organization

When confronted with an identical

situation, different persons do not
necessarily behave the same way.
That is, there are always individual
differences because every person is
unique.
 Discussions

Why unique? Where is the case?

Why we need to understand Individual Differences?
………..

The unique nature of an individual comes from his/her

difference in background, characteristics, and how he/she

perceives the world and other individual.

Therefore, to understand fully an individual’s behavior,

we need to know many things that affect the behavior of

an individual abilities, skills, values, personality.

 …
2.Why we need to understand Individual Difference?

Individual differences have direct effect on behavior of

individuals.
People who perceive things differently behave
differently .
Thus, individual differences shape organizational
behavior and consequently, individual and organizational
success.
 Cases for discussions
Individual differences, for example, helps to explain:

◦ Why some people embrace change and others are fearful of it?
◦ Why some employees will be productive only if they are
closely supervised, while others will be productive only if they
are not?
◦ Why some workers learn new tasks more effectively than
those others?
◦ Why some employees are frustrated by medium
threats/challenges in the work environments, while other do
their tasks in relatively relaxed manner?
Individual behavior is the foundation of organizational
performance.
Understanding individual behavior therefore is crucial for
effective management.
Thus, effective managerial practice requires that individual
behavior differences are recognized.
….
The individual variables influencing work behavior are
heredity and diversity factors.
The result of nature-nurture or the interaction between
heredity and environment.
……..
Diversity factors include, among other, abilities and
skill, personality and perception.
These variables influence key work behaviors such as
employee productivity, creativity and Performance.
 1.Abilities and skills
Abilities and skill play a major role in individual
behavior and performance.
Ability is a person’s talent to perform a mental or
physical task.
Skill is a learned talent that a person has acquired to
perform a task.
The following abilities have been identified as important
factors in helping to differentiate between higher and
lower performing employees.
These include emotional intelligence, and tacit
knowledge.
….

1. 1.Emotional Intelligence:

 Emotional intelligence is the ability to manage oneself and

one’s relationships in mature and constructive way.

 It is the person’s ability to be self-aware of feelings, to manage

emotions, to motivate oneself, to express empathy, and to
handles relationships with others.

 It is said to have four key components which include:

 Self-awareness;
 Self-management;
 Social awareness
 Relationship management
 Discussion points

What does it mean by, self-awareness, self-management, social awareness; and

Relationship management
……
The first two, self-awareness and self-management, constitute
personal competence,
The second two fit into social competence .

 Research findings are increasingly showing that people high in

emotional intelligence are more successful in certain way on the
job.
………
1. 2.Tacit knowledge:
Refers to work-related practical know-how that employees
acquire through observation and direct experience.
 By gaining hands-on their work experience ,successful
employees learn the “ins and out” of their jobs, the norms of their
work teams, and the values of the organizational culture.
….
Implications for managers

 Therefore the presence or absence of various abilities and skills in an

individual has an obvious relationship, to the individuals’ performance.
 Managers must attempt to match a person’s abilities and skills to the job
requirements through conducting job analysis.
Home take assignment(15%)
The individual abilities of an employee play a major role in
his/her behavior and job performance. Explain how Cognitive
ability affect an employee’s behavior and job performance?
 Date Of submission-15/12/2023
 via- email----- [email protected]
2. Personality
The relationship between behavior and personality is perhaps one
of the most complex matters that managers have to understand.
Personality may be defined as:
◦ A relatively enduring individual traits that form a pattern
distinguishing one person from all others .
◦ A relatively stable set of feeling and behaviors that have been
significantly formed by genetic and environmental factors.
….
personality is a product of nature (heredity forces) and
nurture.
Employee behavior cannot be understood without
considering the concepts of personality.
…
The focus on personality as key to understanding organizational
behavior is the “big five” personality dimensions:
 Extroversion,
 Agreeableness,
 Conscientiousness,
 Emotional stability,
 Openness to experience
Discussions
What does it mean of each?
 Extroversion,
 Emotional stability
 Agreeableness,
 Conscientiousness,
 Openness to experience
Personality ….
1.Extroversion

Refers to the tendency to be sociable,

gregarious(expressive), assertive, talkative, and active.

People high in extroversion tend to enjoy talking and

interacting with co-workers, and they gravitate toward
jobs that have good deal of social interaction.

Extroverted people tend to perform well in sales and

managerial jobs, in training programs.
Personality….
The opposite of extroversion is introversion, which
refers to those who are quiet, shy, and cautious.
Introverts do not necessarily lack social skills.
Rather, they are more inclined to direct their interests to
ideas than to social events.
Introverts feel quite comfortable being alone, whereas
extroverts do not.
Personality…
2. Emotional stability
 The experience of positive emotional states, such as feeling
psychologically secure, calm, and relaxed.
On the other hand, anxiety, depression, anger, and
embarrassment are characteristics of a person with low
emotional stability.
Low emotional stability is associated with low levels of
employee motivation.
The low emotional stability individual is more likely to
experience job related stress.
Personality…
3.Agreableness
It is the tendency of a person to be considerate, polite,
forgiving, tolerant, trusting, and soft-hearted.
Individuals low on agreeableness are often described as
rude, cold, unsympathetic,
personality
4.Conscientiousness/carfulness/
 It is the tendency to be dependably organized and
responsible.
 Such individuals tend to preserve, work hard, and enjoy
achieving and accomplishing things.
 People who are low in conscientiousness tend to be
sloppy, inefficient, careless, and even lazy.
personality….

5. Openness to experience

 It reflects the extent to which an individual has broad

interest and is willing to take risks.

Specific traits include curiosity, broad-mindedness,

creativity, imagination and intelligence.

People high in openness to experience tend to thrive in

occupations, where change is continuous and where
innovation is critical.
personality
Several studies have found that those personality
dimensions affect work related behavior and job
performance of employees.
People with high emotional stability tend to work better
than others in high stressor situation.
Those with high agreeableness tend to work in
stakeholder/customer relations and conflict based situation
more effectively.
Conscientiousness employees set higher personal goals for
themselves, are motivated, and have high levels of
organizational citizenship and work better in work places
that give employee more freedom than in traditional
“command and control” work places.
 3. Perception

 Perception is the cognitive process by which an individual selects,

organizes, and give meaning to environmental stimuli.
 Perception of any situation may differ from person to person.
 perception is strongly influenced by past experiences.
 Perception has several effects on the behavior of individual and job
performance in an organization.
3. Individuals and stress
Project work /30%/

Instruction:
 Review literature and research findings on stress, sources of stress and stress
management models and strategies.
 Take your organization/other nearby organization which has its own employees
 Interview with the management about stress and stress management
experience
 Interview some number of employees about stress and their experiences.
 Compile a reserch report on the following issues of stress(10-15 pages)
◦ What is stress?
◦ What are the sources of work stress?
◦ Are all individuals stressed due to the same factors?
◦ How it influence individual behavior and performance?
◦ How work stress can be managed?
Individuals…..

Stress can be described as feeling of tense,

anxious, or worried.
Stress is an emotional/or physical reaction,
biochemical/psychological to environmental
activities and events.
Starting anew job assignment, changing bosses,
making a mistake at work, having performance
evaluation are potential stressors.
Here, it is said “potential” because not all
stressors will always place the same.
Individuals….

 Some people are more prone to stress than others.

 Especially, the susceptible are individuals who display a
cluster of traits referred to as “Type A personality”.
 A person with type A personality exhibits the following
characteristics.
 Chronically struggles to get as many things done as
possible in the shortest time period.
 Aggressive, ambitious, competitive and forceful.
 Speaks explosively, rushes other to finish
 Impatient, hates to wait, and considers waiting is
waste of precious time.
 Always with struggle with people, things, and events.
 Has difficulty of relaxing.
Individuals…
In contrast, a person with “type B” personality” is
mainly free of the characteristics exhibited by type “A”
person and generally feels not pressing conflict with
either time or person.
However, people behavior is complex
Many people are in the middle of the continuum, rather
than clearly at the ends.
 Question for discussion

What is the effect of stress on job performance? Is stress

all about destructive? Discuss with your colleagues.
Stress and Its Effect on performance

The effects of stress are many and varied.

Some effects are positive such as self
motivation and stimulation to satisfy individual
goals and objectives.
Some amount of stress helps to improve
performance by challenging and motivating the
person.
Many people perform best under some pressure.
However, too much stress is often harmful to
the individual and to the organization.
.
Effects..
 People often lose interest and motivation to do their work
because of stress.
 Constant, chronic, and severe stress can lead to burnout over a
period of time.
 Burnout is a psychological process brought about by unrelieved
work stress that results in emotional exhaustion,
depersonalization, and feeling of decreased accomplishment .
effects…
Too much stress effects on personal health, morale, productivity,
organizational efficiency, leads to absenteeism, employee
turnover, etc.
 When stress continues for a period of time, it tends to lead,
headaches and other body tension, the feeling of exhaustion, and
stomach problems.
 Drinking, taking drugs, sleeping more than usual is often taken a
means of escaping stress by a person who are in stress.
 Sources of stress

At individual level the sources of stress include: 1.Role conflict:

occurs when two or more sets of demands are made on an employee.
◦ In essence, an employee is expected to perform contradictory or
conflicting activities.
Source…
2.Role Ambiguity: the absence of clarity regarding how to perform
one’s job.
 Ambiguity or uncertainty may surround knowing what goals to
set and how to best achieve them.
 Initially, nearly all newly hired employees exercise some degree
of role ambiguity.
Sources…
3.Role-overload:It occurs when too many activities are expected
of an employee, given the time available and the ability of the
employee.
4.Personal psychological makeup: A person with personality
type A or personality type B.
source…
At group level the sources of stress include:
1. Participation
 It refers to the extent to which person’s knowledge,
opinions, and ideas are included in the decision making
process.
For some people, participation is an important part of
working in an organization.
Organizations that do not encourage or allow
participation will be a source of frustration to those who
value it.
………..
2 Intra and Inter-group Relationships
 poor relationship within and between groups can be a source of
stress.
 Poor relationship may include low trust, lack of cohesion, low
supportiveness and lack of interest in listening to and dealing
with the problems that confront a group or group member.
…..
3. Organizational politics

High level of political behavior in an organization can be a

source of stress for many employees.
Consistently cited as a primary stressor in organizations.
Political activity, and power struggles can create friction,
heighten dysfunctional competition between individuals and
groups, and increase stress.
Source…
4.Organizational Culture
Like individuals, organizations have distinct personalities.
The personality of an organization is shaped largely by its top
executives.
A tyrannical/dictatorial and autocratic executive team is able to
create culture that is filled with fear.
Source…

5.Lack of performance feedback

 Most people want to know how they are doing and how
management views their work.

 All too often, however, meaningful performance

evaluation information is lacking.

 Or, the information is provided in a highly authoritarian or

critical manner.

 Performance feedback information must be provided with

open two way communication process to reduce stresses.
….

6.Inadequate career development

Opportunities
This can happened if an employee feel
that promotion is inadequate, or is
generally dissatisfied with the match
between his/her carrier aspirations and
current positions.
…..
7.Downsizing
 Downsizing is primarily associated with reduction of human
resource by layoffs, attrition, early retirement.
 In order to reduce cost, organization downsize a number of
employees, causes to stress.
 Discussions

 Have you encountered any stressing condition in your

employee/your self?
 How you managed it? How your manager manage it?
 Stress Management
Stress factors related to organization can be managed by
the organization to protect the employee from severe
stress.

 It could otherwise result in employee turnover,

absenteeism, irritability, sense of loneliness,
dissatisfaction and reduced performance.
….
At organization level, programs may be designed to:
(1) Identify work stressors
(2)Educate employee in modifying and understanding stress and
its impact,
(3)provide employee support to cope with negative impact of
stress.
Group/ Team Behavior in Organizations

 People are social animals; they seek the accompany of others both to satisfy
social need and to pool resources for improved effectiveness.
 Establish groups, which are pervasive part of modern life.
 A group is made by two or more individuals/people who interact with each
other, share certain common beliefs, and view themselves as being a
member of a group.
Types of Groups

1. Formal Groups
 Deliberately created by the organization to carry out its
operations and to achieve its goals.
 It is usually arise from the organizational design that
forms the organizational structure.

 Two types of formal group,

 Command
 Task groups
..
The command group is specified by the organizational chart and
is made up of subordinates who report directly to a given
supervisor.
A command group is the most common permanent formal group.
 It is sometimes referred to as a functional group .
….
A task group is established by the organization to achieve some
particular goal, usually within a given time period.
 Task group do not follow the organization’s normal command
structure.
Hence, task group is simply a group of individuals who are
working together as a unit/ taskforce to complete a project or a
task.
……….
2. Informal groups:
Informal groups are natural groups of people in work
environment in response to their social needs.
In other words, informal groups are not deliberately created, they
evolve naturally and spontaneously through the day-today
interaction of workers.
 Groups Vs Teams

A group is two or more individuals interacting with each other to

accomplish a common goal;
 Teams are mature groups with degree of member
interdependence and motivation to achieve a common goal.
Teams are groups of two or more people who interact and
influence each other are mutually accountable for achieving
common goals associated with organization objectives, and
perceive themselves as social entity within organization.
….
All teams are group because they consist of people with unifying
relationships, but not all groups are team; some groups are just
people assembled together without any necessary
interdependence or organizational focused objective .
3. Stages of Group/Team Development

 There are four stages of development

(1) Forming,
(2) Storming,
(3) Norming,
(4) performing,

 Once organizational group/teams has been created, it must

go through these distinct stages to become fully developed
mature group (team).
….
1.Forming:
 The first stage of group/team development is forming.
 In this stage, members are characterized by uncertainty
and confusion about the purpose, structure and leadership
of the group.
 It is a period of testing and orientation in which members
learn about each other and evaluate the benefits and
costs.
….
2.Storming:
 Inter personal conflict as members become more proactive
and compete for various group roles, assignments, and task
related behaviors.
……..
3.Norming:
 While storming is marked by conflict and confrontation,
norming is characterized by cooperation and collaboration.
It is also the stage where group cohesion begins significant
development.
….
4.Performing
 Performing is the stage where fully functional.
 The group structure is set; the roles of each member are
understood and accepted.
 The group focuses its energies, efforts and commitments on
accomplishing the tasks the tasks it has accepted.
 Group/team Characteristics and performance

The most important group characteristics and performance factors are group
composition.

 Group/team composition related to the extent to which group

members are alike.
 Heterogeneity and homogeneity
 The diverse abilities and experiences of the members of heterogeneous
group offer an advantage for generating innovation solutions.
 Groups comprised of highly similar individuals who had common beliefs
and have much similar abilities are likely to view a task from a single
perspective.
Team Effectiveness

 The effectiveness refers to the extent to which the team achieves its
organizational objectives.
 Researches indicate that the following are highly desirable to team
members to be effective

 Training :Effective team just does not happen.

◦ Depending on the type and purpose of the team, training may be needed
in problem-solving skills, creative thinking, and interpersonal skills.

◦ The following six abilities and skill are highly desirable to team members
to be effective.
….

1.Open-mindedness: .
 Individuals team members who can keep an open
mind will tend be more successful in dealing with
these changes.
2.Emotional Stability:
 The more emotionally stable an individual is, the
faster she/he is expected to adapt to different
situation confronted the team.
3. Problem solving abilities:
 Team members should be able to analyses problem
and develop alternation to these problems.
……

4. Communication skills
 Communication skills facilitate an open exchange of
ideas and creation of better solution to problems.
5. Conflict Resolution skills
 Some disagreement within the group is healthy and
will lead to better overall group performance.
 Too much conflict can lead to break downs in
combination and a decrease in group cohesion.
6.Trust: Perhaps the most important characteristics of
a good team member is trust.
 So trust must be present in order for the group to
function at high level of performance.
…………..

End!