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10488MB 115 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR T P C 3 0 0 3

UNIT I FOCUS AND PURPOSE 5

Definition, need and importance of organizational behaviour – Nature and scope – Frame

work- Organizational behaviour models.

UNIT II INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOUR 12

Personality – types – Factors influencing personality – Theories – Learning – Types of

learners– The learning process – Learning theories – Organizational behaviour modification.

Misbehaviour –Types – Management Intervention. Emotions - Emotional Labour –

Emotional Intelligence – Theories.Attitudes – Characteristics – Components – Formation –

Measurement- Values. Perceptions –Importance – Factors influencing perception –

Interpersonal perception-Impression Management.Motivation – importance – Types – Effects

on work behavior.

UNIT III GROUP BEHAVIOUR 10

Organization structure – Formation – Groups in organizations – Influence – Group dynamics

–Emergence of informal leaders and working norms – Group decision making techniques –

Teambuilding - Interpersonal relations – Communication – Control.

UNIT IV LEADERSHIP AND POWER 8

Meaning – Importance – Leadership styles – Theories – Leaders Vs Managers – Sources of

power – Power centers – Power and Politics.

UNIT V DYNAMICS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR 10

Organizational culture and climate – Factors affecting organizational climate – Importance.

Job satisfaction – Determinants – Measurements – Influence on behavior. Organizational

change – Importance – Stability Vs Change – Proactive Vs Reaction change – the change

process – Resistance to change – Managing change.Stress – Work Stressors – Prevention and

Management of stress – Balancing work and Life.Organizational development –

Characteristics – objectives –. Organizational effectiveness.

TOTAL: 45 PERIODS

TEXT BOOKS

1. Stephen P. Robins, Organisational Behavior, PHI Learning / Pearson Education,11th

edition, 2008.

REFERENCES

1. Fred Luthans, Organisational Behavior, McGraw Hill, 11th Edition, 2001.

2. Schermerhorn, Hunt and Osborn, Organisational behavior, John Wiley, 9th Edition, 2008.

3. Udai Pareek, Understanding Organisational Behaviour, 2nd Edition, Oxford Higher

Education,

2004.

4. Mc Shane & Von Glinov, Organisational Behaviour, 4th Edition, Tata Mc Graw Hill,

2007.

5. Ivancevich, Konopaske & Maheson, Oranisational Behaviour & Management, 7th edition,

Tata McGraw Hill, 2008..

UNIT I FOCUS AND PURPOSE

5

Definition, need and importance of organizational behaviour – Nature and scope –

Frame work- Organizational behaviour models.

Introduction

In order to be effective organizations need to develop their interpersonal or people skills

According to Robbins( 2003), Organizational behavior (OB) is a field of study that

investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within an

organization, then applies that knowledge to make organizations work more effectively.

Specifically, OB focuses on how to improve productivity, reduce absenteeism and

turnover, and increase employee citizenship and job satisfaction. An organization is more

than a formal arrangement of functions, more than an organization chart, more than a

vision statement, more than a set of accounts. An organization consists of people and so it

is also a social system. The field of organizational behavior (OB) draws primarily from

the behavioral science disciplines of psychology, social psychology, and cultural

anthropology. The areas on which OB focuses are individuals who will often be working

within groups, which themselves work within organizations, as well as all the

interrelationships between them. Some of the specific themes embraced by OB are

personality theory, attitudes and values, motivation and learning, interpersonal behavior,

group dynamics, leadership and teamwork, organizational structure and design, decision-

making, power, conflict, and negotiation. Some OB thinkers go further and suggest that

the behavior within the organization has to be viewed partly in the wider context of the

outside world‘s effect on the organization and its human resources, missions, objectives,

and strategies.

Definition:

Organizational behavior (OB) is a field of study that investigates the impact that

individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within an organization, then applies

that knowledge to make organizations work more effectively (Robbins, 2003)

According to Fred Luthans Organizational behavior is directly concerned with the

understanding, Prediction, and control of human behavior in Organizations.

Contributing Disciplines To The OB Field

Organizational behavior is an applied behavioral science that is built upon contributions

from a number of behavioral disciplines. The main areas are psychology, sociology,

social psychology, anthropology, and political science.

Psychology :

Psychology is the science that attempts to measure, explain, and at times change the

behavior of humans and other animals. Early industrial/organizational psychologists were

concerned with problems of fatigue, boredom, and other factors relevant to working

conditions that could disrupt/ impede efficient work performance. More recently, their

contributions have been expanded to include learning, perception, personality, emotions,

training, leadership effectiveness, needs and motivational forces, job satisfaction,

decision making processes, performance appraisals, attitude measurement, employee

selection techniques, work design, and job stress.

Sociology

Sociologists study the social system in which individuals fill their roles; that is, sociology

studies people in relation to their fellow human beings. Their significant contribution to

OB is through their study of group behavior in organizations, particularly formal and

complex organizations.

Social Psychology

Social psychology blends the concepts of psychology and sociology. It focuses on the

influence of people on one another. The major challenge deals with the issue of how to

implement it and how to reduce barriers to its acceptance.

Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of societies to learn about human beings and their activities.

Anthropologists work on cultures and environments; for example, they have aided in

understanding differences in fundamental values, attitudes, and behavior among people in

different countries and within different organizations.

Political Science

Political science studies the behavior of individuals and groups within a political

environment. It focuses on areas, such as, conflict, intra-organizational politics and

power.

Importance Of Organizational Behavior

In any organization one can assume that the main goal of that business is to succeed;

what exactly does being a winning organization mean and what does it take to get there?

In the past companies placed a great amount of emphasis on the numbers and how to

achieve those numbers. The people who actually helped achieve those numbers were

graded on their technical skills, productivity, and budgets. Employees were

moneymaking machines and how they achieved those numbers was not a concern of their

managers as long as the numbers were being met. Organizational behavior studies have

become more important today than in previous years because corporations must learn to

adapt to the rapidly changing business cultures that have stemmed from a competitive

and fast-paced market. Organizational behavior was a topic that was not discussed until

an employee's behavior changed, productivity changed, or sales decreased. In today's

business world, managers are paying more attention to how employees react to situations

rather than if they respond. They are beginning to view organizational behavior as an

intricate piece of training and development of the workforce. Soft skills were never a part

of management training and it was rare that managers were commended for having those

skills. In the business world today, I feel organizational behavior is an essential tool for

managing effective teams. If you can zone in on an employees' personality, creativity,

and adaptability, motivating that employee the way they need to be motivated is never a

gray area and a guaranteed success.

With this knowledge managers can achieve a successful career. Since a manager needs to

get his job done by the others, to have an organizational behavior skills become a

valuable talent.

As the environment of business is always changing, the role of the managers has become

more sensitive. In order to know how to handle a new workforce, and deal with the

complication of the new environment, the supervisors need to develop their information

about attitude and behavior of individuals, and groups in organization. Now we know not

only the hard skills is important for get the job done, soft skills are helps managers to do

their job more effectively and efficiently.

The discipline of organizational behavior is concerned with identifying and managing the

attitudes and actions of individuals and groups, looking particularly at how people can be

motivated to join and remain in the organization, how to get people to practice effective

teamwork, how

people can accomplish their jobs more efficiently, and how employees can be encouraged

to be more flexible and innovative. Attention is brought to these attitudes and actions in

order to help managers identify problems, determine how to correct them, and change

behavior so that individual performance and ultimately organization effectiveness

increase.

As a field of study, organizational behavior is built on a succession of approaches or

ways of thinking about people. Since the early 1900s those who studied behavior in

organizations have attempted to prescribe ways to effectively manage employees in order

to achieve the organization's goals. The early approaches, referred to as the classical

view, promoted increased management coordination of tasks, strict specialization and

standardization of work tasks, a strict chain of command, and centralized decision

making at the manager level. During the 1920s and 1930s the next new school of thought

began to emerge, which was referred to as the human relations movement. By and large

this movement began with the famous Hawthorne studies at the Western Electric plant

that demonstrated how psychological and social processes could affect productivity and

work behavior. This new way of thinking looked at organizational behavior by

advocating a more people-oriented style of management that was more participative and

oriented toward employee needs. Contemporary organizational thought has shifted to a

more integrative systems approach, which includes the consideration of external

influences; the relationship of the organization with managers and employees; and

organizational processes, which are the activities through which work gets accomplished.

In other words, the best solution for the situation depends on many factors. The

organization is depicted as a number of interrelated, interdependent, and interacting

subsystems that are continually changing.

Those who managed by the classical approach emphasized the critical role of control and

coordination in helping organizations to achieve goals. Those who managed by the

human relations approach considered the risks of high levels of control and coordination,

focusing instead on the need for flexibility. So where do today's managers fit in? A

contemporary approach to management recognizes that there is no one best way to

manage; management approaches need to be tailored to fit the situation.

The manager's role is to effectively predict, explain, and manage behavior that occurs in

organizations. Particularly, managers are interested in determining why people are more

or less motivated or satisfied. Managers must have a capacity to observe and understand

the behavior patterns of individuals, groups, and organizations; to predict what responses

will be drawn out by managerial actions; and ultimately to use this understanding and

eventual predictions to effectively manage employees. Behavior can be examined on

three levels—the individual, the group, and the organization as a whole. Managers seek

to learn more about what causes people—individually or collectively—to behave as they

do in organizational settings. What motivates people? What makes some employees

leaders and others not? How do people communicate and make decisions? How do

organizations respond to changes in their external environments?

Although it may be said that the responsibility for studying organizational behavior rests

with researchers, assessing and increasing organizational effectiveness is a primary

responsibility of managers. They need to collect data about the environment in which

people work and describe events, behaviors, and attitudes in order to develop plans for

changing and improving behavior and attitudes. Managers can begin to understand

organizational behavior by accurately describing events, behaviors, and attitudes. How

can this be accomplished?

Data can be gathered by observing situations, surveying and interviewing employees, and

looking at written documents. These methods help to objectively describe events,

behaviors, and attitudes—a first step in determining their causes and then acting on them.

By direct observation, for example, managers can attend meetings and then describe what

is happening, such as who talks most often, what topics are discussed, or how frequently

those attending the meeting ask for the managers' viewpoint on the topic. In addition,

survey questionnaires could be sent to employees; these might provide concrete data

about the situation, proving more useful than relying solely on personal perception of

events. Sending the same questionnaire to employees each year could provide some

insight into changes in behavior and attitude over time. Employees could also be

interviewed in order to examine attitudes in greater depth. Some valuable information

about attitudes and opinions may also be gathered by talking informally with employees.

Finally, data could be gathered from organizational documents, including annual reports,

department evaluations, memoranda, and other nonconfidential personnel files. An

analysis of these documents might provide some insight into the attitudes of employees,

the quality of management, group interactions, or other possible reasons behind the

problems or situation.

Nature of Organizational Behavior:

Different leading authorities in the field of ‗the Organizational Behaviour' have defined

the nature and scope of this subject in different terms. There is no unanimity of opinion in

the matter. However, students of an introductory course in the subject need not be bogged

down by this multiplicity of views. Following discussion is enough to understand the

basic nature and scope of this discipline.

The Organizational Behaviour personified has a nature, just as any human being has a

peculiar nature or the psychological tendency. It is a science, art and philosophy by

nature. So, it follows that the subject of the Organizational Behaviour is a science, art

and philosophy, too.

It is a science because it follows the scientific methods of the observation, the collection

of the data, the hypothesis, the theory and the model building ever open to the scientific

scrutiny in terms of the relationship among variables under the study and the validity of

such a relationship.

It is an art, since it involves quite a subjective approach, too in terms of the skilful

organization of the field studies, the collection of the data and the interpretation of the

results by human beings who generally are more subjective than objective in their

approach.

It's a philosophy, too, in terms of ever trying to philosophize the questions of human

beings and the organization's relationship in the behavioural terms. It tries to frame

postulations as to what, why, how, and where a particular kind of human behaviour takes

place in an organization in a particular corner of the globe or the universe along with the

other relevant aspects like its impact or effects?

Finally, it of course inter alia is interdisciplinary, flexible, dynamic, friendly and far-

reaching, too.

Scope of Organizational Behavior:

The scope, ambit, sphere or area of the subject of the Organizational Behaviour is quite

vast both in the temporal and the spatial terms, besides the applicability. The Universal

Integrated Cubical Temporal - Spatial - Applicability Scope model illustrates it aptly. The

given cube can easily be sliced into 90 pieces (3 Temporal faces x 6 Spatial faces x 5

Applicability faces ). Each slice represents one face each of the Temporal - Spatial -

Applicability Scope. Thus, we may elaborate the scope of the subject in 90 different

ways.

For example, let us cut the slice with 3 following faces: the Future, the Philosophical and

the Asthenospheric. This slice means that the Organizational Behaviour can be studied

from the point of view of the philosophical questions related to the use of the

Asthenospheric resources at any given point of time in the Future.

A complete and detailed exposition of all the above mentioned 90 integrated slices is

beyond the scope of this paper/article. So, we may attempt the following brief description

of the various facets of the scope of this challenging dynamic subject.

Theoretical Frameworks of Organizational Behavior

Initially psychology was developed using the mental thinking expressed by persons

interested in developing the subject of psychology. But John B. Watson differed from

that approach and he pioneered the approach in which visible behavior and visible

environmental stimulus became the subject of study. B.F. Skinner developed this

behavioristic framework further by bringing in the contingent environmental

consequences. Behavior is not the outcome of stimulus alone, but it is an outcome

determined by the stimulus as well as the contingent environmental consequences of a

behavior. This means, there are alternative behaviors for the same stimulus and which

behavior is exhibited by a person depends on expected environmental consequences.

Cognitive perspective on psychology have developed by arguing that human beings are

capable of thinking and concepts related to thinking must be brought into the subject of

psychology whose objective is to explain behavior. Even though, one cannot see or

observe thinking, still developing concepts related to thinking and using the concepts to

explain behavior is required in psychology. Even though one cannot see or observe

gravitation, the concept of gravitation is a useful concept in physics. Similarly, concepts

related to thinking or cognition are to be developed and used in psychology was the

argument of propopents of congitive approach to psychology.

The perspectives in psychology have influenced the development of organizational

behavior.

Cognitive Framework

Cognitive approach emphasizes the positive and freewill aspects of human behavior and

uses concepts such as expectancy, demand, and intention. Cognition can be simply

defined as the act of knowing an item of information. In cognitive framework, cognitions

precede behavior and constitute input into the person‘s thinking, perception, problem

solving, and information processing.

The work of Edward Tolman can be used to represent the cognitive theoretical approach.

According to Tolman, learning consists of the expectancy that a particular event will lead

to a particular consequence. This cognitive concept of expectancy implies that organism

is thinking about, or is conscious or aware of the goal and result of a behavior exhibited

by it. It means that a person desires a goal and also knows the behavior that will lead to

achievement of the goals.

In the subject of organizational behavior, cognitive approach dominates the units of

analysis such as perception, personality and attitudes, motivation, behavioral decision

making and goal setting.

Behavioristic Framework

Pioneer behaviorists Ivan Pavlov and Jon B. Watson stressed the importance of studying

observable behaviors instead of the elusive mind. They advocated that behavior could be

best understood in terms of stimulus and response (S-R). They examined the impact of

stimulus and felt that learning occurred when the S-R connection was made. Modern

behaviorism, that marks its beginning with B.F. Skinner, advocates that behavior in

response to a stimulus is contingent on environmental consequences. Thus, it is

important to note that behaviortistic approach is based on observable behavior and

environmental variables (which are also observable).

Social Cognitive Framework

Social learning theory takes the position that behavior can best be explained in terms of a

continuous reciprocal interaction among cognitive, behavioral, and environmental

determinants. The person and the environmental situation do not function as independent

units but, in conjunction with behavior itself, reciprocally interact to determine behavior.

It means that cognitive variables and environmental variables are relevant, but the

experiences generated by previous behavior also partly determine what a person becomes

and can do, which, in turn, affects subsequently behavior. A persons cognition or

understanding changes according to the experience of consequences of past behavior.

Bandura developed social learning theory into the more comprehensive social cognitive

theory (SCT). Stajkovic and Luthans have translated this SCT into the theoretical

framework for organizational behavior. Social cognitive theory recognizes the

importance of behaviorism‘s contingent environmental consequences, but also includes

cognitive processes of self regulation. The social part acknowledges the social origins of

much of human thought and action (what individual learns from society), whereas the

cognitive portion recognizes the influential contribution of thought processes to human

motivation, attitudes, and action. In social cognitive theoretical framework,

organizational participants are at the same time both products and producers of their

personality, respective environments, and behaviors. The participants as a group of

produce the environment, every individual is a product of the enironment and through his

behavior changes the environment for others as well as for himself, every individual is a

product of his personality, but also influences his personality as consequence of results of

his behavior.

Bandura identified five basic human capabilities as a part of SCT.

1. Symbolizing: People process visual experiences into cognitive models. They help in

future action.

2. Forethought: Employees plan their actions.

3. Observational: Employees learn by observing the performance of the referent group

(peers, supervisors and high performers) and the consequences of their actions.

4. Self-regulatory: Employees self regulate their actions by setting internal standards

(aspired level of performance).

5. Self-reflective: Employees reflect back on their actions (how did I do?) and

perceptually determine how they believe then can successfully accomplish the task in the

future given the context (probability of success between 0 to 100% is estimated)

The systems framework

The systems framework is also fundamental to organizational theory as organizations are

complex dynamic goal-oriented processes. One of the early thinkers in the field was

Alexander Bogdanov, who developed his Tautology, a theory widely considered a

precursor of Bertalanffy's General Systems Theory, aiming to model and design human

organizations. Kurt Lewin was particularly influential in developing the systems

perspective within organizational theory and coined the term "systems of ideology", from

his frustration with behavioral psychologies that became an obstacle to sustainable work

in psychology (see Ash 1992: 198-207). The complexity theory perspective on

organizations is another systems view of organizations.

The systems approach to organizations relies heavily upon achieving negative entropy

through openness and feedback. A systemic view on organizations is Tran disciplinary

and integrative. In other words, it transcends the perspectives of individual disciplines,

integrating them on the basis of a common "code", or more exactly, on the basis of the

formal apparatus provided by systems theory. The systems approach gives primacy to the

interrelationships, not to the elements of the system. It is from these dynamic

interrelationships that new properties of the system emerge. In recent years, systems

thinking has been developed to provide techniques for studying systems in holistic ways

to supplement traditional reductionistic methods. In this more recent tradition, systems

theory in organizational studies is considered by some as a humanistic extension of the

natural sciences.

Organizational behavior models:

Keith davis recognizes four different models of organizational

behaviour . These models show the evolution of the thinking and behaviour on the part of

management.

These models are autocratic, Custodial, Supportive and collegial.

The Autocratic Model

The autocratic model depends on the power.

These who are in command must have the power to demand ‗you do this‘

Employees who do not follow orders will be penalised

Under autocratic conditions the employee‘s orientation is obedience to a boss

It is very useful way to accomplish the work and not a complete failure

It was an acceptable approach to guide managerial behaviours when we have no

well known alternatives

This model focuses better employee satisfaction and security

This model organizations satisfy the security and welfare needs of employees.

This model leads to employee dependence on an organization rather than a boss.

As a result of economic rewards and benefits, employees are happy

A successful custodial approach orientation is towards resources.

The question of motivating, guiding and developing the employees did not arise

The supportive model

This model is based on the assumptions of theory Y

This model depends on leadership instead of power or money

This theory assumes that the employees have the skill and contribute to the

organizational efforts.

This model assumes that the employees will take responsibility to develop a drive

to contribute at improve themselves

Therefore management‘s direction is to ‗support‘ the employee‘s job performance

rather than to support employees benefit payments as in the custodial approach

The Collegial model

This model emphasizes team concept

The manager role is changed from that of a leader to that of a partner

The manager and the employees are the partner to develop teamwork concept and

attain the objectives of the organization. The psychological result of the collegial

approach for the employee is self discipline

We cannot say that particular model is the best model. The selection of model by a

manager is determined by number of factors such as the existing philosophy, vision,

environmental conditions and goals of the organization.

UNIT II INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOUR

Personality – types – Factors influencing personality – Theories – Learning – Types of

learners– The learning process – Learning theories – Organizational behaviour

modification. Misbehaviour –Types – Management Intervention. Emotions - Emotional

Labour – Emotional Intelligence – Theories.Attitudes – Characteristics – Components –

Formation – Measurement- Values. Perceptions –Importance – Factors influencing

perception – Interpersonal perception-Impression Management.Motivation –

importance – Types – Effects on work behavior.

Personality

Introduction

The term ‗personality‘ has been derived from the Latin term ‗persona‘ which means to

‘speak through‘. The Latin word denotes the masks worn by actors in ancient Greece and

Rome. Therefore, a very common meaning of the term personality is the role which the

person (actor) displays in the public domain at large. Personality is a dynamic concept

describing the growth and development of a person‘s whole psychological system-it

looks at some aggregate whole that is greater than the sum of the parts. Allport (1937)

defined personality as ―the dynamic organization within the individual of those

psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environment‖.

Personality Determinants

The factors affecting personality development are illustrated below:

Heredity – The relationship of heredity with personality is a well-accepted fact. Traits

like physique, eye color, hair color, height, temperament, energy level, intelligence,

reflexes, etc. are generally referred to describe the influence of heredity in developing

personality. The heredity approach argues that the ultimate explanation of an individual‘s

personality is the molecular structure of the genes, located in the chromosomes. Robbins

(2003) has argued that the three different streams of research lend some credibility to the

argument that heredity plays an important part in determining an individual‘s personality.

The first looks at the genetic underpinnings of human behavior and temperament among

young children. The second addresses the study of twins who were separated at birth and

the third examines the consistency in job satisfaction over time and across situations.

1. Environment – Environment comprises of culture, family, social and situational

factors. The environmental factors influence personality of an individual since

they provide the basis of certain experiences which determine the individual‘s

view about life, both positive and negative.

2. Culture – Culture establishes norms, attitudes and values that are passed on from

generation to generation and create consistencies over time. Every culture expects

and trains its members to behave in the ways that are acceptable to the group.

People from different cultural groups have different attitudes towards

independence, aggression, competition, cooperation, artistic talent, etc. However,

on the basis of culture, an individual‘s personality cannot be always assessed,

since individuals within the same culture (but from different family and sub-

cultural background) have been seen to differ in their behavior.

3. Family - One of the most important determinants of the personality of a person is

the immediate family. Families influence the behavior of a person especially in

the early stages of life. The nature of such influence will depend upon the socio-

economic level of the family, family size, race, religion, parent‘s educational level

and geographic location.

1. Situation – Situational factors also play a crucial role in determining the

personality of a person. Every individual goes through different type of

experiences and events in his/her life. Some of the events and experiences, which

an individual goes through in his/her life, can serve as important determinants of

his/her personality. A trauma suffered by a person in the childhood can sometime

change the structure of his/her own personality.

Theories of Personality.

Traits are underlying tendencies to behave in a consistent and distinctive style and

they describe the frequency or intensity of a person‘s feelings, thoughts, or

behaviors. Possession of a trait is, therefore, a matter of degree.

Some of the most important research works on personality traits are mentioned

below:

Cattell’s 16 Personality Factor Model

Early research on personality traits resulted in isolating large numbers of traits,

which made it impossible to predict behavior. Cattell‘s (1973) is one of the most

important personality trait theory, where the number of traits have been reduced.

Cattell referred to these 16 factors as primary factors.

Primary Factors and Descriptors in Cattell‘s 16 Personality Factor Model

(Adapted From Conn & Rieke, 1994).

Descriptors of Low Range Primary Factor

Descriptors of High Range

Reserve, impersonal, distant,

cool, reserved, impersonal,

detached, formal, aloof

(Sizothymia)

Warmth

Warm, outgoing, attentive to

others, kindly, easy going,

participating, likes people

(Affectothymia)

Concrete thinking, lower Reasoning Abstract-thinking, more

general mental capacity, less

intelligent, unable to handle

abstract problems (Lower

Scholastic Mental Capacity)

intelligent, bright, higher

general mental capacity, fast

learner (Higher Scholastic

Mental Capacity)

Reactive emotionally,

changeable, affected by

feelings, emotionally less

stable, easily upset (Lower Ego

Strength)

Emotional

Stability

Emotionally stable, adaptive,

mature, faces reality calm

(Higher Ego Strength)

Deferential, cooperative, avoids

conflict, submissive, humble,

obedient, easily led, docile,

accommodating

(Submissiveness)

Dominance

Dominant, forceful, assertive,

aggressive, competitive,

stubborn, bossy (Dominance)

Serious, restrained, prudent,

taciturn, introspective, silent

(Desurgency)

Liveliness

Lively, animated, spontaneous,

enthusiastic, happy go lucky,

cheerful, expressive, impulsive

(Surgency)

Expedient, nonconforming,

disregards rules, self indulgent

(Low Super Ego Strength)

Rule-

Consciousness

Rule-conscious, dutiful,

conscientious, conforming,

moralistic, staid, rule bound

(High Super Ego Strength)

Shy, threat-sensitive, timid,

hesitant, intimidated (Threctia)

Social

Boldness

Socially bold, venturesome,

thick skinned, uninhibited

(Parmia)

Utilitarian, objective,

unsentimental, tough minded,

self-reliant, no-nonsense, rough

(Harria)

Sensitivity

Sensitive, aesthetic,

sentimental, tender minded,

intuitive, refined (Premsia)

Trusting, unsuspecting,

accepting, unconditional, easy

(Alaxia)

Vigilance

Vigilant, suspicious, skeptical,

distrustful, oppositional

(Protension)

Grounded, practical, prosaic,

solution orientated, steady,

conventional (Praxernia)

Abstractedness

Abstract, imaginative, absent

minded, impractical, absorbed

in ideas (Autia)

Forthright, genuine, artless,

open, guileless, naive,

unpretentious, involved

(Artlessness)

Privateness

Private, discreet, nondisclosing,

shrewd, polished, worldly,

astute, diplomatic (Shrewdness)

Self-Assured, unworried,

complacent, secure, free of

guilt, confident, self satisfied

(Untroubled)

Apprehension

Apprehensive, self doubting,

worried, guilt prone, insecure,

worrying, self blaming (Guilt

Proneness)

Traditional, attached to

familiar, conservative,

Openness to

Change

Open to change, experimental,

liberal, analytical, critical, free

respecting traditional ideas

(Conservatism)

thinking, flexibility

(Radicalism)

Group-oriented, affiliative, a

joiner and follower dependent

(Group Adherence)

Self-Reliance

Self-reliant, solitary,

resourceful, individualistic, self

sufficient (Self-Sufficiency)

Tolerated disorder, unexacting,

flexible, undisciplined, lax,

self-conflict, impulsive,

careless of social rues,

uncontrolled (Low Integration)

Perfectionism

Perfectionistic, organized,

compulsive, self-disciplined,

socially precise, exacting will

power, control, self –

sentimental (High Self-Concept

Control)

Relaxed, placid, tranquil,

torpid, patient, composed low

drive (Low Ergic Tension)

Tension

Tense, high energy, impatient,

driven, frustrated, over wrought,

time driven. (High Ergic

Tension)

Type A and Type B personality

Type A personality is a set of characteristics that includes, being impatient, excessively

time-conscious, insecure about one‘s status, highly competitive, hostile and aggressive,

and incapable of relaxation (Friedman & Rosenman 1974). They are always moving,

walking, and eating rapidly, are impatient with the rate at which most events take place,

are doing do two or more things at once and cannot cope with leisure time. They are

obsessed with numbers, measuring their success in terms of how many or how much of

everything they acquire. Type ‗A‘s operate under moderate to high levels of stress. They

expose themselves to continuous time pressure, are fast workers, give preference to

quantity over quality, work long hours, and are also rarely creative.

Type B personality is rarely hurried by the desire to obtain an increasing number of

things or participate in events demanding an ever-decreasing amount of time (Friedman

& Rosenman, 1974). Type Bs never suffer from a sense of time urgency with its

accompanying impatience and feel no need to display or discuss either their achievements

or accomplishments unless otherwise demanded by the situation. They can relax without

guilt.

Type Personality Characteristics

Congruent Occupation

Realistic: Prefers physical

activities that require skill,

Shy, genuine, persistent,

stable,

Mechanic, drill press

operator,

strength, and coordination conforming, practical assembly-line worker,

farmer

Investigative: Prefers

activities

that involve thinking,

organizing, and

understanding

Analytical, original, curious,

independent

Biologist, economist,

mathematician, news

reporter

Social: Prefers activities

that

involve helping and

developing others

Sociable, friendly,

cooperative,

understanding

Social workers, teacher,

counselor, clinical

psychologist

Conventional: Prefers rule-

regulated, orderly, and

unambiguous activities

Conforming, efficient,

practical,

unimaginative, inflexible

Accountant, corporate

manager, bank teller, file

clerk

Enterprising: Prefers

verbal

activities in which there

are

opportunities to influence

others and attain power

Self-confident, ambitious,

energetic, domineering

Lawyer, real estate agent,

public relations specialist,

small

business manager

Artistic: Prefers

ambiguous and

unsystematic activities that

allow creative expression

Imaginative, disorderly,

idealistic,

emotional, impractical

Painter, musician, writer,

interior decorator

Learning

Introduction

Learning refers to a process that enhances the knowledge, skill and attitude (KSA) of

individuals, to increase his/her willingness to adopt those newly acquired KSA and to

implement them at the workplace. Such learning should be sustainable and comparatively

stable for people and for the institutions that serves people. Learning definitely includes

academic studies and occupational training through high school and beyond. But it also

encompasses the physical, cognitive, emotional and social development of children in the

earliest years of their lives.

Learning can be defined as ―any relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a

result of experience‖ (Robbins, 2003).

Following are the characteristics of learning:

First, learning involves change.

Second, the change must be relatively permanent.

Third, learning is concerned with behavior.

Finally, some form of experience is necessary for learning

Theories of Learning

There are three theories of learning namely – classical conditioning, operant

conditioning, and social learning

1. Classical conditioning:

Classical Conditioning is a form of associative learning process proposed by Pavlov

(1927). This process involves presentations of a neutral stimulus along with a stimulus of

some significance. The neutral stimulus does not lead to an overt behavioral response

from the organism. This is called as Conditioned Stimulus (CS). Significant stimulus

evokes an innate, often reflexive, response. This is called Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

and Unconditioned Response (UR), respectively. If the CS and the US are repeatedly

paired, eventually the two stimuli become associated and the organism begins to produce

a behavioral response to it. It is the Conditioned Response (CR).Classical conditioning

was first experimented by Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov, to teach dogs to salivate in

response to the ringing of a bell. During his research on the physiology of digestion in

dogs, Pavlov used a bell before giving food to his dog. Rather than simply salivating in

the presence of meat (a response to food – unconditioned response), after a few

repetitions, the dog started to salivate in response to the bell. Thus, a neutral stimulus

(bell) became a conditioned stimulus (CS) as a result of consistent pairing with the

unconditioned stimulus (US – meat). Pavlov referred to this learned relationship as a

Conditioned Response.

2. Operant Conditioning:

The operant conditioning theory is proposed by B.F. Skinner (1953, 1954). This is based

on the idea that learning is a function of change in overt behavior. Changes in behavior

are the result of an individual‘s response to stimuli. When a particular Stimulus-Response

(S-R) pattern is reinforced (rewarded), the individual is conditioned to respond.

Reinforcement is the key element in Skinner‘s S-R theory. A reinforcer is anything that

strengthens the desired response.

Principles of operant conditioning are as follows:

1. Behavior is learned.

2. Behavior that is positively reinforced will reoccur.

3. Information should be presented in small amounts so that responses can be reinforced

(‖shaping‖)

4. Reinforcements will generalize across similar stimuli (‖stimulus generalization‖)

producing secondary conditioning.

5. Rewards are most effective if they immediately follow the desired response.

For example, if a subordinate is praised by his boss for looking good in a certain attire,

the subordinate is likely to wear that attire and present himself in front of boss, especially

when he needs to please the boss.

3. Social Learning

The social learning theory was proposed by Bandura. It recognizes the importance of

observing and modeling the behaviors, attitudes, and emotional reactions of others.

According to Bandura (1977), most human behavior is learned observationally through

modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed,

and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action. Social learning

theory explains human behavior in terms of continuous reciprocal interaction between

cognitive, behavioral, and environmental influences.

Social learning has four processes:

Attentional processes – People learn from a model only when they recognize and

pay attention to its critical features.

Retention processes – A model‘s influence will depend on how well the

individual remembers the model‘s action after the it is no longer readily available.

Motor reproduction processes – After a person has seen a new behavior by

observing the model, the watching must be converted to doing.

Reinforcement processes- Individuals will be motivated to exhibit the modeled

behavior if positive incentives or rewards are provided.

Principles of social learning are as follows:

1. The highest level of observational learning is achieved by first organizing and

rehearsing the modeled behavior symbolically and then enacting it overtly.

Coding modeled behavior into words, labels or images results in better retention

than simply observing.

2. Individuals are more likely to adopt a modeled behavior, if it results in outcomes

they value.

3. Individuals are more likely to adopt a modeled behavior, if the model is similar to

the observer and has admired status and the behavior has functional value

Shaping behavior

When a systematic attempt is made to change individuals‘ behaviour by directing their

learning in graduated steps, it is called shaping behavior.

There are four methods of Shaping Behavior. They are as follows:

Positive reinforcement – This is the process of getting something pleasant as a

consequence of a desired behavior, to strengthen the same behavior. For example, one get

a commission, if he/she achieves sales target

Negative reinforcement – This is the process of having a reward taken away as a

consequence of a undesired behavior. For example, scholarship is withdrawn from the

student who has not done well on the examination

Punishment is causing an unpleasant condition in an attempt to eliminate an undesirable

behavior. This is the process of getting a punishment as a consequence of a behavior.

Example: having your pay docked for lateness

Extinction—eliminating any reinforcement that is maintaining a behavior. So, if a person

puts in extra effort, but gets no recognition for it, he will stop doing it

Both positive and negative reinforcement result in learning. They strengthen a response

and increase the probability of repetition. Both punishment and extinction weaken

behavior and tend to decrease its subsequent frequency

Schedules of reinforcement

The two major types of reinforcement schedules are: 1) continuous and 2) intermittent.

1. A Continuous reinforcement schedule reinforces the desired behavior each and every

time it is demonstrated. It is the traditional reinforcement schedule and is called a

continuous reinforcement schedule. Each time the correct behavior is performed it gets

reinforced.

2. An Intermittent reinforcement schedule are fixed and variable categories. In an

intermittent schedule, not every instance of the desirable behavior is reinforced, but

reinforcement is given often enough to make the behavior worth repeating. The

intermittent, or varied, form of reinforcement tends to promote more resistance to

extinction than does the continuous form.

Understanding the Behavior modification and its organizational application.

The typical OB Modification program follows a five-step problem-solving model:

Identifying critical behaviors

Developing baseline data

Identifying behavior consequences

Developing and implementing an intervention strategy

Evaluating performance improvement

Critical behaviors make a significant impact on the employee‘s job performance;

Developing baseline data determines the number of times the identified behavior

is occurring under present conditions.

Identifying behavioral consequences tells the manager the antecedent cues that

emit the behavior and the consequences that are currently maintaining it.

Developing and implementing an intervention strategy will entail changing some

elements of the performance-reward linkage-structure, processes, technology,

groups, or the task—with the goal of making high-level performance more

rewarding.

Evaluating performance improvement is important to demonstrate that a change

took place as a result of the intervention strategy.

OB Modification has been used by a number of organizations to improve

employee productivity and to reduce errors, absenteeism, tardiness, accident rates,

and improve friendliness toward customers.

Specific organizational application

Using lotteries to reduce absenteeism

For example, Continental Airlines has created a lottery that rewards its 40,000 employees

for attendance. Twice a year, Continental holds a raffle and gives away eight new sport

utility vehicles. Only employees who have not missed a day of work during the previous

six months are eligible. This lottery system thus, follows a variable-ratio schedule where

management credits the lottery with significantly reducing the company‘s absence rate

(Robbins, 2003).

Well pay vs. sick pay

Organizations with paid sick leave programs experience almost twice the absenteeism of

organizations without such programs. One of the Midwest organizations in USA

implemented a well-pay program. It paid a bonus to employees who had no absence for

any given four-week period and then paid for sick leave only after the first eight hours of

absence. The well-pay program produced increased savings to the organization, reduced

absenteeism, increased productivity, and improved employee satisfaction. Forbes

magazine used the same approach to cut its health care costs. It rewarded employees who

stayed healthy and did not file medical claims by paying them the difference between

$500 and their medical claims, then doubling the amount. By doing this, Forbes cut its

major medical and dental claims by over 30 percent (Robbins, 2003).

Employee discipline

a. Every manager will, at some time, have to deal with problem behaviors in his/her

organization.

b. Managers will respond with disciplinary actions such as oral reprimands, written

warnings, and temporary suspensions. However, the use of discipline carries costs. It may

provide only a short-term solution and result in serious side effects.

c. Disciplining employees for undesirable behaviors gives them a message to what not to

do. However, it does not tell them what alternative behaviors are preferred.

d. Discipline does have a place in organizations.

e. In practice, it tends to be widely used because of its ability to produce fast results in the

short run.

f. Developing training programs

g. Most organizations have some kind of systematic training program.

h. In one recent year, U.S. corporations with 100 or more employees spent in excess of

$58 billion on formal training for 47.3 million workers (Robbins, 2003).

Social-learning theory suggests that training should

a. Offer a model to grab the trainee‘s attention.

b. Provide motivational properties

c. Help the trainee to file away what he or she has learned for later use and provide

opportunities to practice new behaviors.

d. Offer positive rewards for accomplishments.

e. If the training has taken place off the job, allow the trainee some opportunity to transfer

what he/she learned to the job.

. Self-management

1. Organizational applications of learning concepts can also be used to allow

individuals to manage their own behavior.

2. Self-management requires an individual to deliberately manipulate stimuli,

internal processes, and responses to achieve personal behavioral outcomes.

The basic processes involve observing one‘s own behavior, comparing the behavior with

a standard, and rewarding oneself if the behavior meets the standard.

Emotions

Introduction

In general, the term ‗emotion‘ is used to designate ―a state of consciousness having to do

with the arousal of feelings (Webster‘s New World Dictionary).‖ It is ―distinguished

from other mental states, from cognition, volition, and awareness of physical sensation.‖

Feeling refers to ―any of the subjective reactions, pleasant or unpleasant‖ that one may

experience in a situation.

Theories of Emotion:

There are many theories of emotion:

I. James-Lange Theory (1890) [cited in Taylor, 1999]: Subjective emotional responses

are the result of physiological changes within human bodies. The brain perceives an event

and, in turn, sends messages down its neural circuitry to other areas of the brain. This

action ultimately produces motor, autonomic and endocrine responses. These responses

elicit an emotional response, which in turn, is perceived by the brain. Therefore, it is a

cyclical process. This theory argues that physiological behaviors precede the emotion.

II. Cannon-Bard theory (1927) [cited in Taylor, 1999]: Emotion-provoking events

induce the subjective emotional experiences and physiological arousal simultaneously.

Through experiences, individuals begin to acquire certain expectations for every given

situation. These expectations provide a filter and every situation is processed through this

filter. During this process, brain produces the emotion and corresponding physiological

behaviors at the same time.

III. Schachter-Singer theory (1962): Both feedback from peripheral responses and a

cognitive appraisal of what caused those responses produce emotions. How one interprets

the peripheral response will determine the emotion he / she feels. Individuals label the

emotional response depending on what we think is causing the response. For example,

when someone interprets a stimulus as dangerous, it leads to physiological arousal. Then,

this physiological arousal is interpreted to a particular emotion. It can be fear, surprise,

excitement, and astonishment depending on how the arousal is labeled.

IV. Lazarus’ appraisal theory (1980): An individual makes an initial and sometimes

unconscious cognitive appraisal of the situation to decide, if there is a threat; coping

action is taken if necessary; and the individual takes a closer look and identifies the

emotions he or she is feeling.

V. Weiner’s attribution theory (1986, 1992): Certain attributions produce specific

emotions. Once the initial evaluation has been made, the individual looks at what caused

the event. These attributions of causality can modify the emotion felt. It is the interaction

of the perceived internal and external causes, controllability and outcome that will

determine the emotional responses. What are the basic emotions? Ortony and Turner

(1990) collated a wide range of research as to what basic emotions are and the basis of

including them as basic emotions and proposed a comprehensive description of basic

emotions and corresponding reasons for inclusion

Parrot’s classification of emotions

Source: Parrott, W. (2001), Emotions in Social Psychology, Psychology Press,

Philadelphia

Felt vs. Displayed Emotions (Hochschild, 1979, 1983)

Felt emotions are an individual‘s actual emotions. Displayed emotions are those that are

organizationally required and considered appropriate in a given job. They are learned.

Felt and displayed emotions may be different. This is particularly true in organizations,

where role demands and situations often require people to exhibit emotional behaviors

that mask their true feelings.

Culture and emotion

There are two Views of Culture and Emotion:

Universality - Emotions are part of human nature and in all cultures universally the

same set of basic emotions. Based on his cross-cultural research, Ekman (1999) has

found six emotions which are universally recognized and applicable. They are:

Anger

Fear

Sadness

Happiness

Disgust

Surprise.

Cultural specificity – Human beings are like a tabula rasa (clean tablet) on which

society writes its script. In other words, culture and traditions, normative patterns and

value-orientations are responsible for not only our personality development, but also

appropriate social and emotional development. This makes us functional entities in

society. Each culture has a unique set of emotions and emotional responses; the emotions

shown in a particular culture reflects the norms, values, practices, and language of that

culture .

Alexithymia – emotional disorder

Some people have difficulty in expressing their emotions and understanding the emotions

of others. Psychologists call this alexithymia. People who suffer from alexithymia rarely

cry and are often seen by others as bland and cold. Their own feelings make them

uncomfortable, and they are not able to discriminate among their different emotions.

People, suffering from alexithymia, may be effective performers in jobs where little or no

emotional labor. Alexithymic symptoms may be seen in people who experience:

1. Post-traumatic stress disorder

2. Certain brain injuries

3. Eating disorders (i.e., bulimia, anorexia, or binge-eating disorder)

4. Substance use dependence

5. Depression

6. Other mental health conditions

Relationship of gender with emotion

A number of research findings supports the view that women are more emotional than

men (e.g., Broverman, Vogel, Broverman, Clarkson, & Rosenkrantz, 1972; Widiger &

Settle, 1987). Women are assumed to experience more frequent and intense emotions,

whereas men are assumed to be emotionally inexpressive and to have less intense

emotional experiences. However, researchers have argued that the stereotype of men as

unemotional is more accurate for adult targets than for child targets because males learn

to control their emotions as they get older (Fabes and Martin, 1991). Likewise, women

and men may experience happiness in a similar way, but women have been taught that

they can strongly express the emotion of happiness, whereas men have been taught to

control it. The impact of socialization practices accumulate over time, and, thus, these

stereotypes are likely to apply more strongly to adult populations (Geer and Shields,

1996).

Emotional Intelligence

The importance of both emotion and intelligence in making decisions and achieving

success in life was well-accepted in ancient India. A concept of “Sthitha-prajna”

(emotional stability), similar to the concept of emotional intelligence, can be traced in the

second chapter of ‗Srimad Bhagavad-Gita‟ . Bhagavad Gita is a specific conversation

between Lord Krishna and Arjuna (third Pandava prince) in a specific situation of

Kurukshetra battlefield. Pandavas were fighting against the Kauravas, the cousin

brothers to restore their kingdom from Kauravas in Kurukshetra. Before the battle

started, Arjuna, with deep sorrow and pity, found his close relatives, friends and

respected ‗gurus‗ in enemy‘s side. To win the battle he was supposed to kill those

beloved ones. He got confused about his rightful duty. Due to this hriday-durbalata

(heart-non-strength), he refused to join the battle. In this context, Lord Krishna who

played the role as the driver of Arjuna‟s chariot, enlightened him about the eternal truth

of life. According to Lord Krishna, as mentioned in Bhagavad

Gita, Arjuna suffered from indecisiveness resulting from confusion and a false sense of

insecurity. Lord Krishna advised Arjuna to become „Sthitha-prajna‟ (the steady minded

person). He also told that an individual achieved his/her goal only when the mind became

steady, poised and balanced. Evidently, the concept of ―Sthitha-prajna‖ (the steady-

minded person) talked about a unique interdependence between emotion and intelligence

for effective decision-making which was most essential in excelling in every sphere of

life. Gita, as a whole, advises all to balance between intelligence and emotion.

Similar views on the role of emotional intelligence as a learning process for achieving a

balanced personality in different stages of life on an inter-generational basis has been

depicted in the Vedas. In particular, Dr. Radhakrishnan, in his book , ‗The Hindu View of

Life‘ (1927) opined that the attitude of the Vedas is one of trust tempered by criticism.

‗Trust, because, whatever the older generation hold, may be true, and criticism because,

however, plausible the testimonies of the old views may be, it cannot deny the present of

its right to enquire and sift the evidence‘. This view aptly points out the need for

emotional intelligence in everyday life to become more emotionally balanced and

functional individuals in society.

‗Emotional intelligence is an aggregate of individuals‘ cognition of own and others‘

emotions, feeling, interpretation and action as per environmental demand to manipulate

the consequence which in turn result in superior performance and better human

relationship‘ (Bhattacharya, 2003). Emotional intelligence is a measure of the degree to

which a person makes use of his/ her reasoning in the process of emotional responses

(both positive and negative) in a given situation. So having high emotional intelligence

doesn‘t mean that the person never panics or loses his/ her temper. It does mean that he /

she brings own feelings under control and channels them into productive behaviors. The

ability to bring out-of-control emotions back into line results in what earlier generations

called emotional maturity.

The most popular and accepted mixed model of emotional intelligence is the one

proposed by Goleman (1995). He viewed emotional intelligence as a total of personal and

social competences. Personal competence determines how we manage ourselves, whereas

social competence determines how we handle our interpersonal relationships.

Personal competence: It comprises of three dimensions of emotional intelligence, such as,

self-awareness, self-regulation and motivation. Self-awareness is the ability of an

individual to observe him/herself and to recognize ‗a feeling as it happens‘ (Goleman,

1995). The hallmarks of this ability are self-confidence, self- assessment and openness to

positive criticism. Self-regulation is the ability to control emotions and to redirect those

emotions that can have negative impact. Trustworthiness, integrity, tolerance of

ambiguity and attitude to accept change are some characteristics of this ability.

Motivation is the ability to channelize emotion to achieve a goal through self-control and

by moderating impulses as per the requirement of the situation. The people who have this

ability are optimistic and committed towards organizational as well as individual goals.

Social competence: It comprises of two dimensions namely, empathy and social skills.

Empathy is the ability to feel and get concerned for others, take their perspective and to

treat people according to their emotional reactions. People with this ability are experts in

generating and motivating others. Social skills are the ability to build rapport and to

manage relationships with people. People having this skill are very effective in

persuasiveness and team management. ‗Social skill‘ is the culmination of all other

components of emotional intelligence assuming that people can effectively manage social

and work relationships only when they can understand and control their own emotion and

can emphasize with the feelings of others.

Attitudes

Introduction

Attitude is a bent of mind or predisposition to certain actions. It is a process by

which the individual learn as a result of experience to orient themselves towards

objectives and goals. Attitude is a detailed direction of human behaviour.

A person can have thousands of attitudes but organizational behaviour focused

on very limited number of jobs related to attitudes. These include job-satisfaction, job

involvement, and organizational commitment.

A person with a high level of job satisfaction holds positive attitude towards

job, while a person who dissatisfied with his job holds negative attitude towards the job.

Definitions of attitude

― Attitude is a mental and neural state of readiness organized through

experience, extering a dynamic influence upon the individual response to all situations

and objects with which it is related‖ -Allport

― Attitude are evaluative statements either favorable or unfavorable concerning

objects, people or events. They reflect how one feels about something‖- Robbins

Characteristics of attitudes

Attitudes are evaluated statements either favourable or unfavourable concerning

objects , people or events

Attitudes are learned predispositions toward aspects of our environment

Attitudes is a bent of mind or predisposition to certain actions

Attitude is a detailed direction of human behaviour

Attitude are the feeling and believe that largely determine how employees will

perceive their environment.

Attitude is important because it is the mechanism through which most people

express their feelings

Attitude is expression of inner feelings towards an object or subject

Attitudes are generally hidden in the mind and heart of people which may be

expressed or inferred in some situations

Attitudes are acquired through learning over a period of time.

Attitudes are subject to change . a person having a negative attitude toward his

may due in course of time start developing a positive attitude towards its.

All individuals hold attitudes irrespective of their age, gender, social status, etc

Physical environment and culture are responsible for the formation of common

attitudes

Attitude formation:

Attitude are a result of beliefs. If the employees believe that their current job will

provide them with the experience and training necessary to be promoted.

1. Past experience:

People come to believe or not believe things on the basis of what they have

experienced in the past. If everyone who has held job A has been promoted

within six months

2. Generalization

These come from similar events or situation. If no one has hold

closely related job B has ever been promoted, this may lead job A

holders to believe that they will not be promoted either.

3. Association

people are highly influenced by the major groups or associations to which

they belong. Our religion , educational background, race, gender, age and

income class, are strongly influence our attitudes.

4. Family

Family experts influence on the initial core at attitudes held by an

individual. Individuals develop certain attitudes from the family

members, parents, brothers, sisters, etc. some investigation has found

a high degree of relationship between parents and children in

attitudes than they found between children and their peers.

5. Peer groups

As people of adulthood they increasingly rely on their peer groups for

approval attitude. How others judge an individual largely determines his self

image and approval seeking behaviour . we often seek out others who share

attitudes similar to our own or else we change our attitudes to conform the

attitudes of those in the group whose approval is important to us.

6. Society

Social class and religious affiliation also play a vital role in forming attitudes

of an individual. The culture, language and the structure of society, all provides an

individual with the boundaries of his initial attitudes. At the very early age an individual

is taught that certain attitudes are acceptable and certain others are non acceptable in the

society.

Components of attitude:

Affective component

Cognitive component

Intentional component

The affective component of an attitude reflects ‗ feelings and emotions ‗ that an

individual has towards a situation

The cognitive component of an attitude derived from knowledge that an individual has

about a situation.

The intentional component of an attitude reflects how an individual expects to behave

towards or in situation.

Types of attitudes:

Organizational behaviour has been concerned with three attitudes job satisfaction, job

involvement and organizational commitment.

Job satisfaction:

The term job satisfaction refers to an individual‘s general attitude toward his job. When

people speak of employee attitudes more often than not they mean job satisfaction. Infact

the two are frequently used interchangeably.

Job involvement:

It measures the degree to which a person identifies psychologically with his job and

considers his perceived performance level important to his self worth. Employees with a

high level of job involvement strongly identify with and really care about the kind of

work they do on their job. High level of job involvement have been found to be related to

fewer absence and low resignation rates

Organizational commitment:

It is defined as a state in which an employee identifies with a particular organization and

its goals and wishes to maintains membership in the organization. Studies show that as

individuals level of organizational commitment is a better indicator of turnover than for

more frequently used job satisfaction predictor.

Functions of attitudes

Attitudes help people adopt to their work environment. Katz has noted that attitudes

serve four important functions in this process.

The adjustment function:

When employees are well treated by the boss, they are likely to develop a positive

attitude towards supervision and the organization when employees are been berated and

given minimum salary, they are likely to develop a negative attitude towards supervision

and the organization. These attitudes help employees to their environment and are a basis

for future behaviour.

The ego defensive function

Attitudes help to defend their self image. Sometimes an individual may develop

certain attitudes to satisfy his ego . for example, there is feeling among most senior

employees that the new recruits may not work efficiently. The reason for holding such as

attitude is in view it fear that the new recruits are better qualified and have been exposure

to the modern work methods.

The value expressive function:

Attitudes provide people with a basis for expressing their values. For example, a

manager who believes strongly in the work ethic will tend to voice attitude towards

specific individuals or work practices as a means of reflecting this value . Attitude serve

is a basis for expressing one‘s central values.

The knowledge function:

Attitude help supply standards and frames of references that allow people to

organize and explain the world around them. Regardless if how accurate a person‗s view

of reality is attitude towards people events and objects help the individual make sense out

it what is going on.

Measurement of attitude:

For the measurement of attitudes, different types of scales are used.

Thurstone‘s scale

Likert‘s scale

Bogardus‘s social distance scale

Gultman‘s scale

Thurstone‘s scale

It collected a large number of statements relations to the area in which

attitudes were to be measured. The statements may be relating for any objects . for

example religion, education, war, peace, etc.

The statements both favorable and unfavorable are place in to eleven files. I

representing the most favourable one and ‗11‘ representing the unfavourable. The

respondents will be asked to check those statements with which they agreed.

For example, if the average happens to be low, this would indicate high degree

of favourableness in attitudes in the particular area of field and if the average happens to

be high this indicates low degree in favourableness in attitudes in the area.

Likert’s scale

It has five boxes exhibiting from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Under each

statements of attitude the respondent will be given a chanced to check the five boxes and

finally all the ratings will be summed up. This scale is a kind of a summed-rating

measure as several statements are collected in an person‘s attitude towards his job. The

summed rating scale provides a means of measuring the intensity of one‘s attitude toward

a particular object.

Bogardus’s social distance scale

It is the simplest scale developed by bogardus. The scale is composed of a large

number of statements regarding national, or racial or ethinic groups.

Bogardus used a seven point scale from the most favourable acceptance picture.

That acceptance to close kingship by marriage, to termination or exclusion from the

country as the other by extreme end of scale.

Gultman’s scale

It is a cumulative scaling technique to measure the attitudes developed by gultman

in 1750. suppose an individual gets a higher scale than other person on a particular set of

items. We can easily determine his position for every single item.

For example let us consider three items referring to weight that is to be tested.

My weight is more than 45 kgs

My weight is more than 50 kgs

We know that he has already said ‗yes‘ to numbers 2 and 1 also.

Similarly in the case of one‘s attitude towards work an employee might be presented with

six statements displaying successfully higher degree of dissatisfaction. It is assumed that

the employee will reach some point beyond which he can no longer agree. The main

threshold is considered to be the degree of satisfaction.

Values

Introduction

Values represent basic convictions that ―a specific mode of conduct or end-state of

existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct

or end-state of existence‖ (Rokeach, 1973). When the values are ranked in terms of their

intensity, i.e., when the value are prioritized in terms of their intensity, it is called value

system. Types of values include, ethical/moral values, doctrinal/ideological (political,

religious) values, social values, and aesthetic values.

Values have both content and intensity attributes.

The content attribute signifies that a mode of conduct or end-state of existence is

important.

The intensity attribute specifies how important it is.

Ranking an individual‘s values in terms of their intensity equals that person‘s

value system.

Values build the foundation for the understanding of attitudes and motivation of an

individual, since, value has a great impact on perceptions. Values shape relationships,

behaviors, and choices. The more positive our values, more positive are people‘s actions.

A significant portion of the values an individual holds is established in the early years—

from parents, teachers, friends, and others.

Types of Values

Rokeach, in his Value Survey (Rokeach Value Survey- RVS), proposed two sets of

values. They are :Terminal values and Instrumental values. Each set contains 18

individual value items. Terminal values refer to desirable end-states of existence, the

goals that a person would like to achieve during his/her lifetime. Instrumental values refer

to preferable modes of behavior, or means of achieving the terminal values. This survey

proposed that people in the same occupations or categories tend to hold similar values.

The terminal values and instrumental values proposed by RVS are listed below:

Terminal values

1. Equality (brotherhood and equal opportunity for all)

2. A comfortable life (a prosperous life)

3. An Exciting Life (a stimulating, active life)

4. Family Security (taking care of loved ones)

5. Freedom (independence and free choice)

6. Health (physical and mental well-being)

7. Inner Harmony (freedom from inner conflict)

8. Mature Love (sexual and spiritual intimacy)

9. National Security (protection from attack)

10. Pleasure (an enjoyable, leisurely life)

11. Salvation (saved; eternal life)

12. Self-Respect (self-esteem)

13. A Sense of Accomplishment (a lasting contribution)

14. Social Recognition (respect and admiration)

15. True Friendship (close companionship)

16. Wisdom (a mature understanding of life)

17. A World at Peace (a world free of war and conflict)

18. A World of Beauty (beauty of nature and the arts)

Instrumental values

1. Ambitious (hardworking and aspiring)

2. Broad-minded (open-minded)

3. Capable (competent; effective)

4. Clean (neat and tidy)

5. Courageous (standing up for your beliefs)

6. Forgiving (willing to pardon others)

7. Helpful (working for the welfare of others)

8. Honest (sincere and truthful)

9. Imaginative (daring and creative)

10. Independent (self-reliant; self-sufficient)

11. Intellectual (intelligent and reflective)

12. Logical (consistent; rational)

13. Loving (affectionate and tender)

14. Loyal (faithful to friends or the group)

15. Obedient (dutiful; respectful)

16. Polite (courteous and well-mannered)

17. Responsible (dependable and reliable)

18. Self-controlled (restrained; self-disciplined)

Contemporary Work Cohort

Robbins (2003) has proposed Contemporary Work Cohort, in which the unique value of

different cohorts is that the U.S. workforce has been segmented by the era they entered

the workforce. Individuals‘ values differ, but tend to reflect the societal values of the

period in which they grew up. The cohorts and the respective values have been listed

below:

1. Veterans—Workers who entered the workforce from the early 1940s through the

early 1960s. They exhibited the following value orientations:

They were influenced by the Great Depression and World War II

1. Believed in hard work

2. Tended to be loyal to their employer

3. Terminal values: Comfortable life and family security

2. Boomers—Employees who entered the workforce during the 1960s through the mid-

1980s belonged to this category. Their value orientations were:

1. Influenced heavily by John F. Kennedy, the civil rights and feminist movements,

the Beatles, the Vietnam War, and baby-boom competition

2. Distrusted authority, but gave a high emphasis on achievement and material

success

3. Organizations who employed them were vehicles for their careers

4. Terminal values: sense of accomplishment and social recognition

3. Xers—began to enter the workforce from the mid-1980s. They cherished the

following values:

Shaped by globalization, two-career parents, MTV, AIDS, and computers

1. Value flexibility, life options, and achievement of job satisfaction

2. Family and relationships were important and enjoyed team-oriented work

3. Money was important, but would trade off for increased leisure time

4. Less willing to make personal sacrifices for employers than previous generations

Terminal values: true friendship, happiness, and pleasure

4. Nexters—most recent entrants into the workforce.

Grew up in prosperous times, have high expectation, believe in themselves, and

confident in their ability to succeed

1. Never-ending search for ideal job; see nothing wrong with job-hopping

2. Seek financial success

3. Enjoy team work, but are highly self-reliant

4. Terminal values: freedom and comfortable life

National Culture And Values

Following are the most important research with regard to establishing relationship

between national culture and values.

Hofstede’s research

Hofstede (1980,1991), in order to find the common dimensions of culture across the

countries, gathered data from surveys with 116,000 respondents working from IBM from

more than 70 countries around the world. The underlying concept of the four dimensions

is described below (Hofsede 1991):

Power distance: This dimension measures the ‘social equality‘ i.e.; to what

extent a society accepts unequal distribution of power in families, institutions and

organizations. Inequality of power in organizations is generally manifested in

hierarchical superior-subordinate relationships.

Uncertainty avoidance: This is a representation of a society‘s tolerance for

uncertain situations. It measures to what extent a society manages those situations

by providing specific and conventional rules, regulations and norms; by rejecting

aberrant ideas or behavior; by accepting the possibility of absolute truths and the

accomplishments of expertise. Countries, which score high in uncertainty

avoidance, discourage risk-taking behavior and innovation.

Individualism vs. collectivism: Individualism gauges to what extent individuals

in a country consider themselves as distinct entities rather than as members of

cohesive groups. Collectivism, on the other hand, emphasizes on ‘social ties or

bonds‘ between individuals. Individualistic society considers self-interest as more

important than the group goal.

Masculinity vs. femininity: This dimension refers to what extent dominant

values in a society emphasizes masculine social values like a work ethic

expressed in terms of money, achievement and recognition as opposed to

feminine social role which show more concern for people and quality of life.

Hofstede and Bond (1988) have identified a fifth dimension (based on Confucian

dynamism), called‗ long-termorientation‘, which measures employees‘ devotion to the

work ethic and their respect for tradition. It was found that Asian countries like Hong

Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan are extremely strong in work ethic and

commitment to traditional Confucian values.

Hofstede (1991) further proposed that each person carries around several layers of

cultural programming. It starts when a child learns basic values: what is right and wrong,

good and bad, logical and illogical, beautiful and ugly. Culture is about your fundamental

assumptions of what it is to be a person and how you should interact with other persons

in your group and with outsiders. The first level of culture is the deepest, the most

difficult to change and will vary according to the culture in which we grow up. Other

layers of culture are learned or programmed in the course of education, through

professional or craft training and in organization life. Some of the aspects of culture

learned later have to do with conventions and ethics in your profession. These layers are

more of ways of doing things, or practices as opposed to fundamental assumptions about

how things are.

GLOBE research

GLOBE project integrates the above –mentioned cultural attributes and variables with

managerial behavior in organizations. Following are some of the questions asked in this

project to prove that leadership and organizational processes were directly influenced by

cultural variables:

Are leader behaviors, attributes and organizational practices universally accepted

and effective across cultures?

Are they influenced by societal and organizational cultures?

What is the effect of violating cultural norms that are relevant to leadership and

organizational practices?

Can the universal and culture-specific aspects of leadership behaviour and

organizational practice be explained with the help of a theory accounting for

systematic differences across cultures?

From the above, GLOBE project identified nine cultural dimensions (House, Javidan,

Hanges and Dorfman, 2002: 3-10)

Uncertainty- avoidance: GLOBE project defined this dimension as the extent to which

a society or an organization tries to avoid uncertainty by depending heavily on prevalent

norms, rituals and bureaucratic practices.

Power distance: it is the degree to which power is unequally shared in a society

or an organization.

Collectivism-I i.e. societal collectivism: it is the degree to which society and

organization encourages, and recognizes collective performance.

Collectivism-II- In-group collectivism: it is the degree to which individuals take

pride, loyalty and cohesiveness in their organizations and families.

Gender egalitarianism: GLOBE has defined this as an extent to which a society

or an organization minimizes gender differences and discrimination.

Assertiveness: it is the degree to which individuals, both in organizational and

social context are, assertive and confrontational.

Future orientation: it is the degree to which individuals are encouraged in long-

term future – orientated behaviors such as planning, investing, etc.

Performance orientation: this dimension encourages and rewards group

members for performance improvement.

Humane orientation: it is the degree to which organizations or society encourage

or reward for being fair, altruistic, friendly, generous and caring.

Work behavior across cultures

In every culture, there are different sets of attitudes and values which affect behavior.

Similarly, every individual has a set of attitudes and beliefs – filters through which he/she

views management situations within organizational context. Managerial beliefs, attitudes

and values can affect organizations positively or negatively. Managers portray trust and

respect in their employees in different ways in different cultures. This is a function of

their own cultural backgrounds. For example, managers from specific cultures tend to

focus only on the behavior that takes place at work, in contrast to managers from diffused

cultures who focus on wider range of behavior including employees‘ private and

professional lives. Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (1998:86) have conducted a survey

to find out whether the employees believe their companies should provide housing to the

employees. It was found out that most managers from diffused cultures believed that

company should provide such facility (former Yugoslavia 89%, Hungary 83%, China

82%, Russia 78%), whereas less than 20% managers from specific cultures such as UK,

Australia, Denmark, France, etc., agreed on the same.

Laurent (1983: 75-96), as a result of his survey with managers from nine Western

European countries, U.S., three Asian countries found distinctly different patterns for

managers in common work situations.

Task and relationship: in response to the statement which states that the main reason

for a hierarchical structure was to communicate the authority- relationship, most U.S.

managers disagreed whereas, most Asian , Latin American managers strongly agreed. It

was quite evident that U.S managers, having an extremely task- oriented culture, believed

more in flatter organizational structure to become more effective. On the other hand, the

second set of managers were from more relationship- oriented cultures where the concept

of authority is more important. Similarly, in response to the statement which says that in

order to have efficient work relationship it is often necessary to bypass the hierarchical

line, differences were found across cultures. Managers from Sweden (task- oriented

culture) projected least problem with bypassing since getting the job done is more

important than expressing allegiance to their bosses. In contrast, Italian managers,

coming from a relationship-oriented culture, considered bypassing the authority/boss as

an act of in-subordination. The above- mentioned example is inevitably a caution signal

to the universal management approach, irrespective of culture.

Managers as experts or problem-solvers: in the same study, Laurent asked managers

from various cultures whether it was important for them to have at hand, precise answers

to most questions their subordinates might raise about their work. French managers

believed that they should give precise answers to the questions in order to maintain their

credibility and retain the subordinates‘ sense of security. On the contrary, U.S. managers

believed that a managers‘ role should be to act as a mentor who would facilitate the

employees to solve the problem. They also believe that providing direct answers to a

problem actually discourages subordinates‘ initiative and creativity and ultimately

hampers performance.

Perception

Introduction

Individuals behave in a given manner based not on the way their external environment

actually, is but, rather, on what they see or believe it to be. A supervisor may try to help

his subordinates to achieve their target by advising and suggesting solutions. An

employee may believe the supervisor is controlling and interfering. As a result of that, the

employee may continuously try to avoid the boss. The same boss may be perceived as a

‗father figure‘ to another employee for his helping attitude. As a result of that, the

specific employee may acknowledge the supervisor and seeks his guidance. These two

employee‘s perception about the supervisor that becomes the basis for their different

behavior. Perception can be defined as s a process by which individuals organize and

interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment. Since

people‘s behavior is based on their perception of what reality is, not on reality itself.

Individuals differ in their perceptions with regard to people and inanimate objects. An

individual makes inferences about the actions of people not the same way as they do for

inanimate objects. Non-living objects are subject to the laws of nature. People have

beliefs, motives, or intentions. Therefore, an individual‘s perception and judgment of

another person‘s actions are influenced by these assumptions.

Factors Influencing Perception

Three factors shape perception of an individual:

1. Perceiver

2. Target

3. Situation

Perceiver – Refers to the most prevalent personal characteristics affecting perception of

the perceiver, which are attitudes, motives, interests, past experiences, and expectations.

Target -. Characteristics of the target can also affect what is being perceived. This

includes, attractiveness, gregariousness, and an individual‘s tendency to group similar

things together.

Situation – The context in which objects or events are seen by individuals also influence

their attention. This includes time, heat, light, or other situational factors.

Attribution Theory

An important element in perception is attribution process. Attribution theory (Kelley,

1972) suggests that when we observe an individual‘s behavior, we attempt to determine

whether it was internally or externally caused. Internally caused behaviors are those that

are believed to be under the personal control of the individual. Externally caused

behavior is seen as resulting from outside causes; that is, the person is seen as having

been forced into the behavior by the situation.

There are three determining factors in this regard:

Distinctiveness

Consensus

Consistency

Distinctiveness refers to whether an individual displays different behaviors in different

situations. What we attempt to know is whether the observed behavior is unusual. If it is,

the observer is likely to give the behavior an external attribution. If this action is not

unusual, it will probably be judged as internal.

Consensus occurs, if, everyone who is faced with a similar situation responds in the same

way. If consensus is high, one would be expected to give an external attribution to the

employee‘s tardiness, whereas, in case of other employees taking the same route and

making it work on time, the causation for the same will be attributed to internal

causation.

Consistency refers to the pattern that is reflected regularly in a person‘s actions. Does the

person respond the same way over time? The more consistent the behavior, the more the

observer is inclined to attribute it to internal causes.

Fundamental Attribution Error (Ross, 1977)

Research evidence shows that individuals have a tendency to underestimate the influence

of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal or personal factors. There is

also a tendency for individuals to attribute their own successes to internal factors, such as,

ability or effort while putting the blame for failure on external factors, such as, luck. This

is called the ―self-serving bias‖ and suggests that feedback provided to employees will be

distorted by recipients. The question is whether or not these errors or biases that distort

attribution are universal across different cultures? While exact answers may not exist,

there is some preliminary evidence that indicates cultural differences (Robbins, 2003):

Korean managers found that, contrary to the self-serving bias, they tended to

accept responsibility for group failure.

Attribution theory was developed largely based on experiments with Americans

and Western Europeans.

The Korean study suggests caution in making attribution theory predictions in

non-Western societies, especially in countries with strong collectivist traditions.

More studies are required to provide conclusive evidences in this regard.

Shortcuts In Judging Others

Individuals have a tendency to use a number of shortcuts when they judge others. An

understanding of these shortcuts can be helpful toward recognizing when they can result

in significant distortions.

Selective Perception

Any characteristic that makes a person, object, or event stand out will increase the

probability that it will be perceived. It is impossible for an individual to internalize and

assimilate everything that is seen .Only certain stimuli can be taken in selectively.

Selectivity works as a shortcut in judging other people by allowing us to ―speed-read‖

others, but, not without the risk of drawing an inaccurate picture. The tendency to see

what we want to see can make us draw unwarranted conclusions from an ambiguous

situation.

Halo Effect

The halo effect (Murphy & Anhalt, 1992) occurs when we draw a general impression on

the basis of a single characteristic. For example, while appraising the lecturer, students

may give prominence to a single trait, such as, enthusiasm and allow their entire

evaluation to be tainted by how they judge the instructor on that one trait which stood out

prominently in their estimation of that person. Research suggests that it is likely to be

most extreme when the traits to be perceived are ambiguous in behavioral terms, when

the traits have moral overtones, and when the perceiver is judging traits with which he or

she has had limited experience.

Contrast Effects

Individuals do not evaluate a person in isolation. Their reaction to one person is

influenced by other persons they have encountered recently. For example, an interview

situation in which one sees a pool of job applicants can distort perception. Distortions in

any given candidate‘s evaluation can occur as a result of his or her place in the interview

schedule.

Projection

This tendency to attribute one‘s own characteristics to other people—which is called

projection—can distort perceptions made about others. When managers engage in

projection, they compromise their ability to respond to individual differences. They tend

to see people as more homogeneous than they really are.

Stereotyping

Stereotyping—judging someone on the basis of our perception of the group to which he

or she belongs. Generalization is not without advantages (Hilton & Hippel, 1996). It is a

means of simplifying a complex world, and it permits us to maintain consistency. The

problem, of course, is when we inaccurately stereotype. In organizations, we frequently

hear comments that represent stereotypes based on gender, age, race, ethnicity, and even

weight. From a perceptual standpoint, if people expect to see these stereotypes, that is

what they will perceive, whether or not they are accurate.

Motivation

Introduction

Many people incorrectly view motivation as a personal trait—that is, some have it and

others do not. Motivation is the result of the interaction of the individual and the

situation. Motivation is ―the processes that account for an individual‘s intensity,

direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal‖ (Robbins, 2003). Intensity is

concerned with how hard a person tries. This is the element most of us focus on when we

talk about motivation. Direction is the orientation that benefits the organization. And

Persistence is a measure of how long a person can maintain his/her effort. Motivated

individuals stay with a task long enough to achieve their goal.

Early Theories Of Motivation

In the 1950s three specific theories were formulated and are the best known: Hierarchy of

Needs theory, Theories X and Y, and the Two-Factor theory.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory

According to this theory, proposed by Maslow (1943), human beings have wants and

desires which influence their behaviour; only unsatisfied needs can influence behavior,

satisfied needs cannot. The needs are arranged in order of importance, from the basic to

the complex. The person advances to the next level of needs only after the lower level

need is at least minimally satisfied. The further they progress up the hierarchy, the more

individuality, humanness and psychological health a person will show. The five needs

are:

Physiological: Includes hunger, thirst, shelter, sex, and other bodily needs

Safety: Includes security and protection from physical and emotional harm

Social: Includes affection, belongingness, acceptance, and friendship

Esteem: Includes internal esteem factors, such as, self-respect, autonomy, and

achievement; and external esteem factors, such as, status, recognition, and

attention

Self-actualization: The drive to become what one is capable of becoming;

includes growth, achieving one‘s potential, and self-fulfillment.

Maslow separated the five needs into higher and lower orders. Physiological and safety

needs are described as lower-order. Social, esteem, and self-actualization are classified as

higher-order needs. Higher-order needs are satisfied internally, whereas, Lower-order

needs are predominantly satisfied, externally.

Theory X and Theory Y

Douglas McGregor argued that a manager‘s view of the nature of human beings is based

on a certain grouping of assumptions and he or she tends to mould his or her behavior

toward employees according to these assumptions.

Theory X

In this theory management assumes employees are inherently lazy and will avoid work, if

they can. Workers need to be closely supervised and a comprehensive system of controls

and a hierarchical structure is needed to supervise the workers closely. It is also assumed

that workers generally place security above all other factors and will display little

ambition.

Theory Y

In this theory management assumes employees may be ambitious, self-motivated, anxious

to accept greater responsibility, and exercise self-control, self-direction, autonomy and

empowerment. It is believed that employees enjoy their mental and physical work duties.

It is also believed that, if given the chance employees have the desire to be creative and

forward thinking in the workplace. There is a chance for greater productivity by giving

employees the freedom to perform to the best of their abilities without being bogged

down by rules.

From the above, it is clear that Theory X assumes that lower-order needs dominate

individuals. Theory Y assumes that higher-order needs dominate individuals.

Herzberg’s Two Factor theory

Herzberg (1959) constructed a two-dimensional paradigm of factors affecting people‘s

attitudes about work. These two factors are motivators and hygiene factors and this

theory is also called motivation-hygiene theory.

Motivators are intrinsic factors, such as, advancement, recognition, responsibility, and

achievement. Presence of these factors ensure job satisfaction. Extrinsic factors, such as,

company policy, supervision, interpersonal relations, working conditions, and salary are

hygiene factors. The absence of hygiene factors can create job dissatisfaction, but their

presence does not motivate or create satisfaction.

In summary, motivators describe a person‘s relationship with what she or he does, many

related to the tasks being performed. Hygiene factors on the other hand, have to do with a

person‘s relationship to the context or environment in which she or he performs the job.

The satisfiers relate to what a person does while the dissatisfiers relate to the situation in

which the person does what he or she does.

Removing dissatisfying characteristics from a job does not necessarily make the job

satisfying. Job satisfaction factors are separate and distinct from job dissatisfaction

factors. When hygiene factors are adequate, people will not be dissatisfied; neither will

they be satisfied. To motivate people, emphasize factors intrinsically rewarding that are

associated with the work itself or to outcomes directly derived from it.

Contemporary Theories Of Motivation

The following theories are considered contemporary , since they represent the current

state of the art in explaining employee motivation

ERG Theory

Alderfer (1972) classifies needs into three categories into hierarchical order. They are:

The existence category

Provides our basic material existence requirements.

They include Maslow‘s physiological and safety needs.

Relatedness category

The desire we have for maintaining important interpersonal relationships.

1. These social and status desires require interaction with others.

2. They align with Maslow‘s social need and the external component.

Growth category

An intrinsic desire for personal development.

These include the intrinsic component from Maslow‘s esteem category, and the

characteristics included under self-actualization.

This theory is very similar to Maslow‘s theory. Existence need corresponds with

Maslow‘s physiological and safety needs, Relatedness need corresponds with Maslow‘s

social needs and Growth need corresponds with Maslow‘s esteem and self-actualization

needs.

Alderfer‘s ERG theory differs from Maslow‘s in the following arguments:

More than one need may be operative at the same time.

1. If, the gratification of a higher-level need is stifled, the desire to satisfy a lower-

level need increases.

2. ERG theory does not assume that there exists a rigid hierarchy. A person can be

working on growth even though existence or relatedness needs are unsatisfied, or

all three need categories could be operating at the same time.

ERG theory also contains a frustration-regression dimension. Maslow argued that an

individual would stay at a certain need level until that need was satisfied. ERG argues

that multiple needs can be operating as motivators at the same time. ERG theory notes

that when a higher-order need level is frustrated, the individual‘s desire to increase a

lower-level need takes place (Robbins, 2003).

McClelland’s Theory of Needs

McClelland‘s (1961) theory focuses on three needs: achievement, power, and affiliation.

They are defined as follow:

Need for achievement (nAch) – The need to excel and to achieve in relation to a

set of standards, to strive to succeed.

Need for power (nPow): The need to make others behave in a way that they

would not have behaved, otherwise.

Need for affiliation (nAff): The desire for friendly and close interpersonal

relationships.

People with high need for achievement have a compelling drive to succeed. They have a

desire to do something better or more efficiently than it has been done before. This drive

is the achievement need. High achievers differentiate themselves from others by their

desire to do things better. They seek situations in which they can attain personal

responsibility for finding solutions to problems.

Individuals high in need for power enjoy being ―in charge‖ of any situation. They strive

for influence over others and prefer to be placed into competitive and status-oriented

situations. They are also more concerned with prestige and gaining influence over others

than with effective performance.

Individuals with high need for affiliation motive strive for friendship, prefer cooperative

situations rather than competitive ones, and desire relationships that involve a high

degree of mutual understanding.

Based on this theory, the following assumptions can be made (Robbins, 2003):

Individuals with a high need to achieve prefer job situations with personal

responsibility, feedback, and an intermediate degree of risk. When these

characteristics are prevalent, high achievers will be strongly motivated.

A high need to achieve does not necessarily lead to being a good manager,

especially in large organizations. People with a high achievement need are

interested in how well they do personally and not in influencing others to do well.

The needs for affiliation and power tend to be closely related to managerial

success. The best managers are high in their need for power and low in their need

for affiliation.

Cognitive Evaluation Theory

This theory proposes (Deci & Ryan, 1985) that when extrinsic rewards are used by

organizations as payoffs for superior performance, the intrinsic rewards, which are

derived from individuals doing what they like, are reduced. The popular explanation is

that the individual experiences a loss of control over his or her own behavior so that the

previous intrinsic motivation diminishes. Furthermore, the elimination of extrinsic

rewards can produce a shift—from an external to an internal explanation—in an

individual‘s perception of causation of why he or she works on a task (Robbins, 2003).

Therefore, pay or other extrinsic rewards should be made contingent on an individual‘s

performance.

This theory may have limited applicability to work organizations, because most low-

level jobs are not inherently satisfying enough to foster high intrinsic interest, and many

managerial and professional positions offer intrinsic rewards

Goal-Setting Theory

Locke and Latham (1990) proposed that challenging goals produce a higher level of

output than do the generalized goals. More difficult the goal, the higher the level of

performance will be. People will do better when they get feedback on how well they are

progressing toward their goals. A goal serves as a motivator, because, it causes people to

compare their present capacity to perform with that required to succeed at the goal.

There are four contingencies in goal-setting theory:

Goal commitment: Goal-setting theory presupposes that an individual is committed to the

goal.

1. Adequate self-efficacy: Self-efficacy refers to an individual‘s belief that he or she

is capable of performing a task. The higher your self-efficacy, the more

confidence you have in your ability to succeed in a task.

2. Task characteristics: Individual goal setting does not work equally well on all

tasks. Goals seem to have a more substantial effect on performance when tasks

are simple, well-learned, and independent.

3. National culture: Goal-setting theory is culture bound and it is well adapted to

North American cultures.

Reinforcement Theory

Reinforcement theory (Komaki et. al., 1991) argues that reinforcement conditions human

behavior. According to this theory, behavior is a function of its consequences. Behavior

is environmentally caused. It can be modified (reinforced) by providing (controlling)

consequences. Reinforced behavior tends to be repeated.

Equity Theory

According to this theory (Adams, 1965), employees make comparisons of their job inputs

and outcomes relative to those of others.

If, an individual perceives the input-outcome ratio to be equal to that of the relevant

others with whom he/she compares his/herself, a state of equity is said to exist. He/she

perceives the situation as fair. If the ratio appears to be unequal, the individual experience

inequity.

There are four referent comparisons that an employee can use:

Self-inside: An employee‘s experiences in a different position inside his or her current

organization

Self-outside: An employee‘s experiences in a situation or position outside his or

her current organization

Other-inside: Another individual or group of individuals inside the employee‘s

organization

Other-outside: Another individual or group of individuals outside the employee‘s

organization

There are certain issues which are crucial regarding Equity theory. They are as follows:

1. Employees with short tenure in their current organizations tend to have little

information about others.

2. Employees with long tenure rely more heavily on co-workers for comparison.

3. Upper-level employees will make more other-outside comparisons.

When employees perceive an inequity, they can be predicted to make one of six choices:

Change their inputs.

Change their outcomes.

Distort perceptions of self.

Distort perceptions of others.

Choose a different referent.

Leave the field.

Organizational justice

People‘s perceptions of fairness in organizations, consisting of perceptions of how

decisions are made regarding the distribution of outcomes and the perceived fairness of

those outcomes themselves.

1. Distributive Justice: The perceived fairness of the way rewards are distributed

among people.

2. Procedural Justice : Perceptions of the fairness of the procedures used to

determine outcomes.

3. Interactional Justice: The perceived fairness of the interpersonal treatment used to

determine organizational outcomes.

Motivational tips

Certain tips, which may be important in this regard, are as follows:

Avoid underpayment.

4. Avoid overpayment.

5. Give people a voice in decisions affecting them.

6. Explain outcomes thoroughly using a socially sensitive manner.

Expectancy Theory

Expectancy theory is one of the most widely accepted explanations of motivation. Victor

Vroom‘s (1964) expectancy theory has its critics but most of the research is supportive.

Motivation is based on people‘s beliefs, goals and linkage between effort and

performance, performance and reward, and reward and individual goal satisfaction.

Expectancy theory argues that the strength of a tendency to act in a certain way depends

on the strength of an expectation that the act will be followed by a given outcome and on

the attractiveness of that outcome to the individual.

Determinants of motivation according to this theory are as follows:

Expectancy: The belief that one‘s efforts will positively influence one‘s performance.

Instrumentality: An individual‘s beliefs regarding the likelihood of being rewarded in

accord with his or her own level of performance.

Valence: The value a person places on the rewards he or she expects to receive from an

organization.

Other Determinants: Skills and abilities, role perceptions, opportunities to perform, etc.

Three key relationships in Expectancy theory are:

Effort-performance relationship: the probability perceived by the individual that

exerting a given amount of effort will lead to performance

Performance-reward relationship: the degree to which the individual believes that

performing at a particular level will lead to the attainment of a desired outcome

Rewards-personal goals relationship: the degree to which organizational rewards

satisfy an individual‘s personal goals or needs and the attractiveness of those

potential rewards for the individual.

Performance formula

A popular way of thinking about employee performance is as a function of the interaction

of ability and motivation; that is,

Performance = f (Ability x Motivation x Opportunity).

If either of motivation or ability is inadequate, performance will be negatively affected.

Furthermore, when an employee performs, he/she needs opportunity to be allowed to

perform and prove his/her worth.

Motivating Employees In Organizations

A number of motivation theories have been discussed above. Based on these theories, the

following suggestions summarize the essence about motivating employees in

organizations.

Recognize individual differences – Employees have different needs. Therefore,

managers need to understand what is important to each employee. This will allow to

individualize goals, level of involvement, and rewards to align with individual needs.

Use goals and feedback – Employees should have tangible and specific goals. Feedback

should also be provided regularly to inform the employees about their performance in

pursuit of those goals.

Include employees in decision-making – Employees should be included in making

decisions that affect them, for example, choosing their own benefits packages and solving

productivity and quality problems.

Link rewards to performance – Rewards should be contingent on performance and

employees must perceive a clear linkage.

Maintain equity – Rewards should be perceived by employees as equating with the

inputs they bring to the job, i.e; experience, skills, abilities, effort, and other obvious

inputs should explain differences in performance and, hence, pay, job assignments, and

other obvious rewards.

Different motivational tools.

Some of the most important motivational tools have been discussed below.

Management by Objective (MBO)

Management by objectives emphasizes participatively set goals that are tangible,

verifiable, and measurable. Four ingredients common to MBO programs are: goal

specificity, participative decision-making, an explicit time period, and performance

feedback (Robbins, 2003).

Goal specificity:

The objectives in MBO should be concise statements of expected

accomplishments.

Participative decision making:

1. The manager and employee jointly choose the goals and agree on how they will

be measured.

An explicit time period:

Each objective has a specific time period in which it is to be completed.

Performance feedback

Continuous feedback on progress toward goals is provided so that workers can

monitor and correct their own actions.

MBO and Goal-Setting Theory is closely linked. Goal-setting theory proposes that

tangible goals result in a higher level of individual performance than do easy goals.

Feedback on one‘s performance leads to higher performance. MBO also directly

advocates specific goals and feedback, implies that goals must be perceived as feasible

and is most effective when the goals are difficult enough to require stretching.

Employee Recognition Programs

Employee recognition programs consist of personal attention, expressing interest,

approval, and appreciation for a job well done. They can take numerous forms. Employee

Recognition Programs has close link with Reinforcement Theory. Both the concept

advocate that rewarding a behavior with recognition would lead to its repetition.

Recognition can take many forms, such as, personally congratulating an employee,

sending a handwritten note or an e-mail message or declaring the employee as a valuable

contributor to the organizational objective.

Employee Involvement

Employee involvement includes, participative management, workplace democracy,

empowerment, and employee ownership. Employees‘ involvement in the decision

making would positively affect them and by increasing their autonomy and control over

their work lives, employees will become more motivated, more committed to the

organization, more productive, and more satisfied with their jobs.

Some forms of employee involvement have been discussed here: participative

management, representative participation, quality circles, and employee stock ownership

plans.

Participative management:

The logic behind participative management is:

a. Managers often do not know everything their employees do.

b. Better decisions

c. Increased commitment to decisions

d. Intrinsically rewarding employees makes their jobs more interesting and meaningful

The two most common forms of participative management are:

a. Works councils – They are groups of nominated or elected employees who must be

consulted when management makes decisions. .

b. Board representatives – they are employees who sit on a company‘s board of

directors and represent the interests of the firm‘s employees.

Quality circles (QC):

QC consists of a work group of eight to ten employees and supervisors who have a shared

area of responsibility. Key components of QC are (Robbins, 2003):

They meet regularly on company time to discuss their quality problems, investigate

causes of the problems, recommend solutions, and take corrective actions

They take over the responsibility for solving quality problems and they generate and

evaluate their own feedback.

Management typically retains control over the final implementation decision.

A review of the evidence indicates that they are likely to positively affect productivity,

however, they tend to show little or no effect on employee satisfaction.

The failure of many quality circle programs to produce measurable benefits has also led

to a large number of them being discontinued.

Employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs):

In the typical ESOP, an employee stock ownership trust is created. Companies contribute

either stock or cash to buy stock for the trust and allocate the stock to employees.

Employees usually cannot take physical possession of their shares or sell them as long as

they are still employed at the company.

Special Issues In Motivation

Some of the special issues in motivation are discussed below.

Motivating Professionals

The professional employees likely to seek more intrinsic satisfaction from their work than

blue-collar employees. They generally have strong and long-term commitment to their

field of expertise are perhaps more loyal to their profession than to their employer. They

need to regularly update their knowledge, and their commitment to their profession.

Therefore, extrinsic factors such as money and promotions would be low on their priority

list. Rather, job challenge tends to be ranked high. They like to tackle problems and find

solutions.

Managerial Implications:

Provide them with ongoing challenging projects.

Give them autonomy to follow their interests and allow them to structure their

work.

Reward them with educational opportunities.

Also reward them with recognition.

Motivating temporary Workers

Temporary workers may be motivated if:

They are provided with permanent job opportunity

The opportunity for training is provided to them

Motivating Low-Skilled Service Workers

One of the most challenging managerial tasks in to motivate low-skilled workers who are

involved in repetitive physical work, where higher education and skills are not required.

For this category of people, flexible work schedules and higher pay package may be

proved effective motivational factors.

UNIT III GROUP BEHAVIOUR

Organization structure – Formation – Groups in organizations – Influence – Group

dynamics –Emergence of informal leaders and working norms – Group decision

making techniques – Team building - Interpersonal relations – Communication –

Control.

Group Behavior

Introduction

A group may be defined as a collection of two or more people who work with one

another regularly to achieve common goals. In a group, members are mutually dependent

on one another to achieve common goals, and they interact with one another regularly to

pursue those goals. Effective groups help organizations accomplish important tasks. In

particular, they offer the potential for synergy—the creation of a whole that is greater

than the sum of its parts. When synergy occurs, groups accomplish more than the total of

their members‘ individual capabilities.

Classification Of Groups

Groups can be of two types:

Formal

Informal

Formal groups

Formal groups come into existence for serving a specific organizational purpose.

Individuals‘ behaviors in this type of group are aimed at achieving organizational goals.

The organization creates such a group to perform a specific task, which typically involves

the use of resources to create a product such as a report, decision, service, or commodity

(Likert, 1961). Though all members contribute to achieve group goals a leader does exist

in this type of group to oversee and direct group members.

Formal groups may be permanent or temporary in nature. They may be full fledged

departments divisions or specific work teams created for particular projects of fairly long

duration. .

Permanent work groups are officially created to perform a specific function on a regular

basis. They continue to exist until a decision is made to change or reconfigure the

organization for some reason.

Temporary work groups are task groups are specifically created to solve a problem or

perform a defined task. They may be dismantled after the assigned task has been

accomplished. Examples are the temporary committees and task forces that exist in an

organization. Indeed, in today‘s organizations the use of cross-functional teams or task

forces for special problem-solving efforts has goner up significantly.

Informal group

An informal group is neither formally structured nor organizationally determined. Group

of employees snacking together can be an example of such groups. Informal groups may

be sub-categorized as : Command, task, interest, or friendship groups.

1. Command groups are dictated by the formal organization. The organization hierarchy

determines a command group. It comprises of direct reports to a given manager.

2. Task groups—represent those working together to complete a job task. A task

group‘s boundaries are not limited to its immediate hierarchical superior. It can cross

command relationships where the same member may be reporting to two or more

authorities at the same time. All command groups are also task groups, but the reverse

may not be true.

3. An interest group consists of people

who affiliate to attain a specific objective with which each is concerned.

Models Of Group Development

The most important models of group development have been cited below.

a. The Five-Stage Model

1. Forming:

In this stage the members are entering the group. The main concern is to facilitate the

entry of the group members. The individuals entering are concerned with issues such as

what the group can offer them, their needed contribution the similarity in terms of their

personal needs, goals and group goals, the acceptable normative and behavioral standards

expected for group membership and recognition for doing the work as a group member.

2. Storming:

This is a turbulent phase where individuals try to basically form coalitions and cliques to

achieve a desired status within the group. Members also go through the process of

identifying to their expected role requirements in relation to group requirements. In the

process, membership expectations tend to get clarified, and attention shifts toward

hurdles coming in the way of attaining group goals. Individuals begin to understand and

appreciate each other‘s interpersonal styles, and efforts are made to find ways to

accomplish group goals while also satisfying individual needs.

3. Norming:

From the norming stage of group development, the group really begins to come together

as a coordinated unit. At this point, close relationships develop and the group shows

cohesiveness. Group members will strive to maintain positive balance at this stage.

4. Performing:

The group now becomes capable of dealing with complex tasks and handling internal

disagreements in novel ways. The structure is stable, and members are motivated by

group goals and are generally satisfied. The structure is fully functional and accepted at

this stage. Group energy makes a transition from member‘s focus on getting to know and

understand each other to performing. For permanent work groups, performing is the last

stage in their development.

5. Adjourning:

A well-integrated group is able to disband, if required, when its work is accomplished,

though in itself it may be a painful process for group members, emotionally. The

adjourning stage of group development is especially important for the many temporary

groups that are rampant in today‘s workplaces. Members of these groups must be able to

convene quickly, do their jobs on a tight schedule, and then adjourn—often to reconvene

later, whenever required.

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. Groups may

at times regress to earlier stages. Another problem is that it ignores organizational

context. For instance, a study of a cockpit crew in an airliner found that, within ten

minutes, three strangers assigned to fly together for the first time had become a high-

performing group. The rigid organizational context provides the rules, task definitions,

information, and resources required for the group to perform, effectively.

b. Punctuated equilibrium model

Temporary groups with deadlines do not seem to follow the model explained above.

Their pattern is called the punctuated-equilibrium model.

Phase I—The first meeting sets the group‘s direction. This stage is the first inertia phase.

A structure of behavioral patterns and assumptions emerges.

Transition – Then a transition takes place when the group has used up almost half its

allotted time. The group‘s direction becomes fixed and is unlikely to be reexamined

throughout the first half of the group‘s life. The group tends to stand still or become

locked into a fixed course of action. The group is incapable of acting on new insights in

Phase 1. The midpoint seems to set an alarm clock going increasing members‘ awareness

that their time is limited and that they need to move on fast. A transition triggers off

major changes. This ends Phase 1 and is characterized by a concentrated burst of

changes, replacement old patterns, and adoption of new perspectives. The transition sets a

revised direction for Phase 2.

Phase 2 – It is a new equilibrium and is also a period of inertia. In this phase, the group

executes plans created during the transition period. The group‘s last meeting is

characterized by a flurry of activities. The punctuated-equilibrium model characterizes

groups as demonstrating long periods of inertia interspersed with brief and rapid changes

triggered mainly by their members‘ awareness of time and targets .

External Conditions Imposed on the Group

All work groups are part of larger systems and organizations and therefore cannot exist

or work in isolation. It is therefore influenced by mainly external factors which include

organizational strategy, authority structures, rules and regulations, access to resources,

physical work conditions and organizational culture and performance systems and reward

structures. Robbins (2004) outlines the role of these factors as follows:

The strategy will influence the power of various work groups which will

determine the resources that the organization‘s top management is willing to

allocate to it for performing its tasks.

Organizations have authority structures that define who reports to whom, who

makes decisions, and what decisions individuals or groups are empowered to

make.

Organizations create rules, procedures, policies, job descriptions, and other forms

of formal regulations to standardize employee behavior.

The more formal regulations that the organization imposes on all its employees,

the more the behavior of work group members will be consistent and predictable.

The presence or absence of resources such as money, time, raw materials, and

equipment—which are allocated to the group by the organization—have a large

bearing on the group‘s behavior.

The performance evaluation and reward system. Group members‘ behavior will

be influenced by how the organization evaluates performance and what behaviors

are rewarded.

Every organization has an unwritten culture that defines standards of acceptable

and unacceptable behavior for employees. Members of work groups have to

accept the standards implied in the organization‘s dominant culture if they are to

remain in good standing.

The physical work setting creates both barriers and opportunities for work group

interaction.

Group Member Resources

A. Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

The knowledge, skills, and abilities of its individual members plays an important role in

determining the group‘s success and their ability to achieve set targets effectively and in

synergistic manner. A review of the evidence has shown that interpersonal skills play an

important role for high work group performance. They comprise of conflict management

and resolution skills, collaborative problem solving abilities, and effective

communication skills.

B.Personality Characteristics:

A substantial larger body of research evidence is available with regard to the relationship

between personality traits and group attitudes and behavior. The general conclusions are

as follows ( Robbins 2004):

Attributes that have a positive connotation in our culture tend to be positively

related to group productivity, morale, and cohesiveness. These include:

sociability, initiative, openness, and flexibility.

Negatively evaluated characteristics such as authoritarianism, dominance, and

unconventionality tend to be negatively related to the dependent variables.

3. No single personality characteristic is a good predictor of group behavior.

Group Structure

Work groups in order to function as a coordinated unit need to have a proper structure

where there must be certain elements like formal leadership, role clarity among group

members. In the absence of these factors groups not only become conflict ridden , but

also suffer from confusion, and function on a sub optimal level. Each element is

explained briefly below:

1. Formal Leadership

Almost every work group must have a formal leader, which is typically identified by a

title. The leader can play an important part in the group‘s success.

2. Roles

All group members are actors, where each is playing a role. While some of these roles

may be compatible others create conflicts. Different groups impose different role

requirements on individuals.

3. Role perception

For playing one‘s role effectively in a group, one‘s view of how one is supposed to act in

a given situation must be clear leading to clear role perception. By watching and

imitating senior members of a group the new comers learn how to take on their roles

effectively and also learn how to play them well.

4. Role expectations

Tuning oneself and behaving in a socially desirable manner is a part of fulfilling role

expectations in a given situation in the context of achieving group goals and

organizational goals.

1. Role conflict

When a group member is faced with the challenge of playing multiple roles, role

conflict may occur due to inability of the individual to balance all the roles

effectively, thereby reducing role effectiveness, hampering the group and

organizational goal attainment process.

Norms

All groups have norms—‖acceptable standards of behavior that are shared by the

group‘s members.‖ Norms serve as a guideline for members detailing what they

ought and ought not to do under certain circumstances. Though a work group‘s

norms are unique, yet there are still some common classes of norms. They are:

Performance norms which comprise the following (Robbins 2003):

a. Explicit cues on how hard they should work, how to get the job done,

their level of output, appropriate levels of tardiness, etc.

b. These norms are extremely powerful in affecting an individual

employee‘s performance.

Appearance norms include things like appropriate dress, loyalty to the work group

or organization, when to look busy, and when it is acceptable to goof off.

Social arrangement norms come from informal work groups and primarily

regulate social interactions within the group.

Allocation of resources norms can originate in the group or in the organization.

Conformity

Strong research evidence suggests that groups can place strong pressures on

individual members to change their attitudes and behaviors to conform to the

group‘s standard. All groups do not have a equal sway over the members and

those that have more influence are referred to as reference groups.

The reference group is characterized as one where the person is aware of the

others; the person defines himself or herself as a member, or would like to be a

member; and the person feels that the group members are significant to him/her.

Status

1. Status is a socially defined position or rank given to groups or group members by

others. Inequality is the basis for any created social order where some are more powerful,

enjoy greater benefits and also command access to resources differentially. This is also

related to the risk taking ability of certain groups / individuals and by virtue of this

calculated risk taking ability they amass greater wealth and have superior position (status)

in the hierarchy. The same is also true of groups where there is a hierarchy and all

members do not enjoy the same status.

Status and norms:

Research shows the following with regard to relationship between status and

norms(Robbins):

High-status members of groups often are given more freedom to deviate from

norms than other group members.

High-status people also are better able to resist conformity pressures.

The previous findings explain why many star athletes, famous actors, top-

performing salespeople, and outstanding academics seem oblivious to appearance

or social norms.

Status equity:

When inequity is perceived, it creates disequilibrium that results in corrective

behavior.

The trappings of formal positions are also important elements in maintaining

equity. Employees expect what an individual has and receives to be congruent

with his/her status. For example: pay, office space, etc.

Groups generally agree within themselves on status criteria.

Individuals can find themselves in a conflict situation when they move between

groups whose status criteria are different or when they join groups whose

members have heterogeneous backgrounds.

Status and culture:

Cultural differences affect status. For example, the French are highly status

conscious.

Countries differ on the criteria that create status:

-Status for Latin Americans and Asians tends to be derived from family position

and formal roles held in organizations.

-In the United States and Australia, it tends to be bestowed more on

accomplishments.

It is necessary to understand who and what holds status when interacting with

people from a different culture other than our own.

Techniques Of Decision Making In Groups

Schein (1988) observes that groups may make decisions through any of the following six

methods:

Decision in lack of response- In this type of decision making, ideas are forwarded

without any discussion taking place. When the group finally accepts an idea, all others

have been bypassed and discarded by simple lack of response rather than by critical

evaluation.

Decision by authority rule- The leader makes a decision for the group, with or without

discussion.

Decision by minority rule- Two or three people are able to dominate the group into

making a decision to which they agree.

Decision by majority rule - Here, viewpoint of the majority is considered as the group‘s

decision.

Decision by consensus – One alternative is accepted by most members and the other

members agreeing to support it.

Decision by unanimity- All group members agree totally on the course of action to be

taken. This is a ―logically perfect‖ group decision method that is extremely difficult to

attain in actual practice.

Group productivity: the advantages and disadvantages of group decision making

The potential advantages of group decision making include (Maier, 1967):

1. Information—more knowledge and expertise is applied to solve the problem.

2. Alternatives—a greater number of alternatives are examined, avoiding tunnel vision.

3. Understanding and acceptance—the final decision is better understood and accepted

by all group members.

4. Commitment—there is more commitment among all group members to make the final

decision work.

The potential disadvantages of group decision making include:

1 Social pressure to conform—individuals may feel compelled to go along with the

apparent wishes of the group.

2. Minority domination—the group‘s decision may be forced by one individual or a small

coalition.

3. Time demands—with more people involved in the dialogue and discussion, group

decisions usually take longer to make than individual decisions.

Work Teams

A team is a small group of people with complementary skills, who work actively

together to achieve a common purpose for which they hold themselves collectively

accountable (Katzenbach & Smith, 1993). Team building

is a collaborative way to gather and analyze data to improve teamwork (Schermerhorn et

al 2002). Team has following advantages (Robbins, 2003):

Teams typically outperform individuals.

Teams use employee talents better.

Teams are more flexible and responsive to changes in the environment.

Teams facilitate employee involvement.

Teams are an effective way to democratize an organization and increase

motivation.

Types of Teams

The various types of teams have been described below:

Problem solving teams – small groups from same department who meet regularly to

discuss ways of improving quality and efficiency.

Self-managed teams – small groups who take responsibilities of their own targets.

Cross-functional team – Employees from different work areas but from same hierarchical

level, come together to accomplish a task.

Virtual team – team members, who are physically dispersed, use computer technology to

connect with each other,

UNIT IV LEADERSHIP AND POWER

Meaning – Importance – Leadership styles – Theories – Leaders Vs Managers –

Sources of power – Power centers – Power and Politics.

Power and Politics

Introduction

Power is the ability to make things happen in the way an individual wants, either by self or by

the subordinates. The essence of power is control over the behavior of others (French &

Raven, 1962). Managers derive power from both organizational and individual sources.

These sources are called position power and personal power, respectively. Power also

refers to a capacity that A has to influence the behavior of B, so that B acts in accordance

with A‘s wishes. The greater B‘s dependence on A, the greater is A‘s power in the

relationship. Therefore, power is a function of dependency (Robbins, 2003).

Contrasting Leadership and Power

In an organizational context leadership and power are related to each others. Power is

used by leaders as a means to attain group goals. In other words, power is a means of

facilitating their achievement of goals and objectives that they have set for themselves in

view of organizational requirements. What are differences between leadership and

power? The first is in the area of goal compatibility which is as follows:

Power does not require goal compatibility, merely dependence whereas

leadership, requires some congruence between the goals of the leader and the

followers.

The second factor is related to the direction of influence:

Whereas leadership focuses on the downward influence on one‘s followers, power does

not minimize the importance of lateral and upward influence patterns. Evidence of the

same is gained from insights into research on power that has tended to encompass a

broader area and focus on tactics for gaining compliance.

Different Bases of Power

Bases Of Power

Power can be categorized into two types: Formal and informal

A. Formal Power:

It is based on the position of an individual in an organization. Formal power is derived

from either one‘s ability to coerce or reward others or is derived from the formal

authority vested in the individual due to his/ her strategic position in the organizational

hierarchy. For example, a manager may threaten to withhold a pay raise, or to transfer,

demote, or even recommend the firing of a subordinate who does not act as desired. Such

coercive power is the extent to which a manager can deny desired rewards or administer

punishments to control other people. The availability of coercive power also varies across

organizations. The presence of unions and organizational policies on employee treatment

can weaken this power base significantly. Formal power may be categorized into four

types which are as follows:

1. Coercive Power:

The coercive power base is being dependent on fear. It is based on the application, or the

threat of application, of physical sanctions such as the infliction of pain, the generation of

frustration through restriction of movement, or the controlling by force of basic

physiological or safety needs. In an organization one can exercise power over another if

they have the power to dismiss, suspend, demote another assuming that the job is

valuable to the person on whom power is being unleashed.

2. Reward Power:

The opposite of coercive power is reward power. Reward power

is the extent to which a manager can use extrinsic and intrinsic rewards to control other

people. Examples of such rewards include money, promotions, compliments, or enriched

jobs. Although all managers have some access to rewards, success in accessing and

utilizing rewards to achieve influence varies according to the skills of the manager.

3. Legitimate Power:

The third base of ―position‖ power is legitimate power, or formal authority .It stems from

the extent to which a manager can use subordinates‘ internalized values or beliefs that the

―boss‖ has a ―right of command‖ to control their behavior. For example, the boss may

have the formal authority to approve or deny such employee requests as job transfers,

equipment purchases, personal time off, or overtime work. Legitimate power represents a

special kind of power a manager has because subordinates believe it is legitimate for a

person occupying the managerial position to have the right to command. The lack of this

is legitimacy will result in authority not being accepted by subordinates. Thus this type of

power has the following elements:

It represents the power a person receives as a result of his/her position in the

formal hierarchy.

Positions of authority include coercive and reward powers.

Legitimate power, however, is not limited to the power to coerce and reward. It

encompasses the acceptance of the authority of a position by members of an

organization.

4. Information Power:

This type of power is derived from access to and control over information. When people

have needed information, others become dependant on them. (For example, managers

have access to data that subordinates do not have). Normally the higher the level, the

more information would be accessed by managers.

B. Personal Power

Personal power resides in the individual and is independent of that individual‘s position. .

Three bases of personal power are expertise, rational persuasion, and reference.

Expert power is the ability to control another person‘s behavior by virtue of possessing

knowledge, experience, or judgment that the other person lacks, but needs. A subordinate

obeys a supervisor possessing expert power because the boss ordinarily knows more

about what is to be done or how it is to be done than does the subordinate. Expert power

is relative, not absolute. However the table may turn in case the subordinate has superior

knowledge or skills than his/ her boss. In this age of technology driven environments, the

second proposition holds true in many occasions where the boss is dependent heavily on

the juniors for technologically oriented support.

Rational persuasion is the ability to control another‘s behavior, since, through the

individual‘s efforts, the person accepts the desirability of an offered goal and a viable

way of achieving it. Rational persuasion involves both explaining the desirability of

expected outcomes and showing how specific actions will achieve these outcomes.

Referent power is the ability to control another‘s behavior because the person wants to

identify with the power source. In this case, a subordinate obeys the boss because he or

she wants to behave, perceive, or believe as the boss does. This obedience may occur, for

example, because the subordinate likes the boss personally and therefore tries to do things

the way the boss wants them done. In a sense, the subordinate attempts to avoid doing

anything that would interfere with the pleasing boss–subordinate relationship.

Followership is not based on what the subordinate will get for specific actions or specific

levels of performance, but on what the individual represents—a path toward lucrative

future prospects.

Charismatic Power is an extension of referent power stemming from an individual‘s

personality and interpersonal style. Others follow because they can articulate attractive

visions, take personal risks, demonstrate follower sensitivity, etc.

Dependency: The Key to Power

The General Dependency Equation is as follows:

The greater B‘s dependency on A, the greater the power A has over B. When an

individual possess anything that others require but that which alone the individual

controls, he / she can make others dependent and, therefore, gain power over

them.

Dependency, then, is inversely proportional to the alternative sources of supply.

This is one of the reasons why most organizations develop multiple suppliers rather using

just one. It also explains why individuals in general aspire to financial independence.

Three factors are responsible for dependency. They are as follows:

Importance

To create dependency, the thing(s) you control must be perceived as being important.

Organizations actively seek to avoid uncertainty and hence, those individuals or groups

who can absorb an organization‘s uncertainty will be perceived as controlling an

important resource.

Scarcity

A resource needs to be perceived as scarce to create dependency. For example, low-

ranking members in an organization who have important knowledge unavailable to high-

ranking members gain power over the high-ranking members. The scarcity-dependency

relationship is also important in the power of occupational categories. Individuals in

occupations in which the supply of personnel is low relative to demand can negotiate

compensation and benefit packages, which are far more attractive than can those in

occupations where there is an abundance of candidates. Thus scarcity in supply of certain

types of skilled people can give them power to bargain over compensations and other

benefits.

Non-substitutability

The more that a resource has no viable substitutes, the more power that control over that

resource provides.

Power Tactics

Using position and personal power well to achieve the desired influence over other

people is a challenge for most managers. There are many useful ways of exercising

relational influence. The most common strategies involve the following (Kipinis et. Al,

1984):

Reason—Use of facts and data to make a logical or rational presentation of ideas

Friendliness—Use of flattery, creation of goodwill, acting humble, and being

friendly

Coalition—Getting the support of other people in the organization to back up the

request

Bargaining—Use of negotiation through the exchange of benefits or favors

Assertiveness—Use of a direct and forceful approach such as demanding

compliance

Higher authority—Gaining the support of higher levels in the organization to back

up requests

Sanctions—Use of organizationally derived rewards and punishments

Employees rely on the seven tactics variably. Depending on the situational factors,

individuals tend to use the above strategies accordingly to the suitability and the

likelihood of the success to be achieved by employing the same. The manager‘s relative

power impacts the selection of tactics in two ways.

First, managers who control resources that are valued by others, or who are

perceived to be in positions of dominance, use a greater variety of tactics than do

those with less power.

Second, managers with power use assertiveness with greater frequency than do

those with less power.

Resistance leads to managers using more directive strategies.

The manager‘s objectives for wanting to influence causes them to vary their power

tactics. The objectives may be as follows:

When seeking benefits from a superior, they use friendliness.

When they are in need to make superiors accept new ideas, they usually rely on

reason.

Managers use reason to sell ideas to employees and friendliness to obtain favors.

Research evidence also supports the following with regard to use of tactics and the

choice used by managers with regard to power:

The manager‘s expectation of the target person‘s willingness to comply is an important

factor. When past experience indicates a high probability of success, managers use simple

requests to gain compliance. Where success is less predictable, managers are more likely

to use assertiveness and sanctions to achieve their objectives. The organization‘s culture

also plays an important role in deciding the use of power tactics. The organizational

culture in which a manager works, will have a significant bearing on defining which

tactics are considered appropriate. The organization itself will influence which subset of

power tactics is viewed as acceptable for use by managers. People in different countries

tend to prefer different power tactics. For example in US people prefer use of reason in

contrast to China where coalition as a tactic is preferred. Differences are consistent with

values among countries—reason is consistent with American‘s preference for direct

confrontation and coalition is consistent with the Chinese preference for using indirect

approaches.

Empowerment

Empowerment is the process by which managers help others to acquire and use the

power required to make decisions affecting both themselves and their work. Moreover,

today, managers in progressive organizations are expected to be competent at

empowering the people with whom they work. Rather than concentrating power only at

higher levels as found in the traditional ―pyramid‖ of organizations, this concept views

power to be shared by all working in flatter and more collegial structures.

The concept of empowerment is part of the decentralized structures which are found in

today‘s corporations. Corporate staff is being cut back; layers of management are being

eliminated; the number of employees is being reduced as the volume of work increases.

The trend clearly is towards creating leaner and more responsive organizations which are

flexible and capable of taking faster decisions with minimum bottlenecks created out of

power struggles, typical of bureaucratic tall structures. The need clearly is towards having

fewer managers who must share more power as they go about their daily tasks. Hence,

empowerment is a key foundation of the increasingly popular self-managing work teams

and other creative worker involvement groups.

For the empowerment process to set in and become institutionalized, power in the

organization will be changed. The following are important in this context:

Changing Position Power: When an organization attempts to move power down the

hierarchy, it must also alter the existing pattern of position power. Changing this pattern

raises some important issues

Can ―empowered‖ individuals give rewards and sanctions based on task

accomplishment?

Has their new right to act been legitimized with formal authority?

Expanding the Zone of Indifference: When embarking on an empowerment program,

management needs to recognize the current zone of indifference and systematically move

to expand it. All too often, management assumes that its directive for empowerment will

be followed; management may fail to show precisely how empowerment will benefit the

individuals involved, however.

Thus in empowerment the basic issues which should be addressed are:

Training people in lower ranks how to function in the new empowered position. Using or

unleashing power correctly is also an issue and most importantly the authority,

responsibility and the accountability process should be clearly outlined so as not to upset

organizational power equations. Just apportioning power at lower levels without giving

the knowledge of how to use it can actually create havoc in the organizations.

Power In Groups: Coalitions

Individuals who lose power or are out of power seek to increase their power individually.

If they fail to do so, then the alternative is to form a coalition—an informal group bound

together by the active pursuit of a single issue. The natural way to gain influence is to

become a power holder but this may be difficult, risky, costly, or impossible.

In such an event, efforts are directed towards forming a coalition of two or more

―outs‖ who, by coming together, can combine their resources to increase rewards

for themselves. Successful coalitions have been found to contain fluid

membership and are able to form swiftly, achieve their target issue, and quickly

disappear disintegrate.

There are a couple of predictions about coalition formation. They are as follows:

First, coalitions in organizations often seek to maximize their size. Decision-

making in organizations does not end just with selection from among a set of

alternatives, but require to be implemented. The implementation of an

commitment to the decision is as important as the decision. It is essential for

coalitions within organizations to seek a broad constituency and there may be

expansion in coalition to help in consensus building

Another prediction relates to the degree of interdependence within the

organization. More coalitions are likely be created where there is a great deal of

task and resource interdependence. In contrast, there will be less interdependence

among subunits and less coalition formation activity where subunits are largely

self-contained or resources are in plenty.

Finally, coalition formation will be influenced by the actual tasks that workers

perform. In general, the more routine the task of a group, the greater the

likelihood that coalitions will form.

Politics: Power In Action

Politics is defined as those activities that are not required as part of one‘s formal role in

the organization, but that influence, or attempt to influence, the distribution of advantages

and disadvantages within the organization.

Organizational politics is the management of influence to obtain ends not sanctioned by

the organization or to obtain sanctioned ends through non-sanctioned means and the art

of creative compromise among competing interests. The above definition clearly points

out the following:

a. Political behavior fall outside the ambit of one‘s specified job requirements.

b. It includes efforts to influence the goals, criteria, or processes employed for

decision-making.

c. It includes a variety of political behaviors such as, withholding vital information

from decision makers, whistle-blowing, spreading rumors, leaking confidential

information, etc.

In this context, it is necessary to make a distinction between legitimate and illegitimate

power dimensions within organizational contexts.

The ―Legitimate-Illegitimate‖ Dimension may be explained in terms of the following

(Farrell & Peterson, 1988):

Legitimate political behavior refers to normal everyday politics—complaining to

your supervisor, bypassing the chain of command, forming coalitions, etc.

Illegitimate political behaviors that violate the implied rules of the game, such as

sabotage, whistle blowing, and symbolic protests, etc.

The vast majority of all organizational political actions are legitimate. The

extreme illegitimate forms of political behavior pose a very real risk of loss of

organizational membership or extreme sanction.

There are two quite different schools of thought found existing in the analysis of

literature on organizational politics.

The first tradition builds on Machiavelli‘s philosophy and defines politics in terms of

self-interest and the use of non-sanctioned means. In this tradition, organizational politics

may be formally defined as the management of influence to obtain ends not sanctioned by

the organization or to obtain sanctioned ends through non-sanctioned influence means.

Managers are often considered political when they seek their own goals or use means that

are not currently authorized by the organization or that push legal limits. Where there is

uncertainty or ambiguity, it is often extremely difficult to tell whether a manager is being

political in this self-serving sense (Pfeffer, 1981).

The second tradition treats politics as a necessary function resulting from differences in

the self-interests of individuals. Here, organizational politics is viewed as the art of

creative compromise among competing interests. In a heterogeneous society, individuals

will disagree as to whose self-interests are most valuable and whose concerns should,

therefore, be bounded by collective interests. Politics come into play as individuals need

to develop compromises, avoid confrontation, and co-exist together. The same holds true

in organizations, where individuals join, work, and stay together because of their self-

interests being served. It is equally important to remember that the goals of the

organization and the acceptable means are established by organizationally powerful

individuals in negotiation with others. Thus, organizational politics is also the use of

power to develop socially acceptable ends and means that balance individual and

collective interests.

Factors Contributing to Political Behavior

1. Individual factors:

Researchers have identified certain personality traits, needs, and other factors that are

likely to be related to political behavior. They are as follows:

a. Employees who are high self-monitors, possess an internal locus of control, and

have a high need for power are more likely to engage in political behavior.

b. The high self-monitor is more sensitive to social cues and in all probability be more

likely to be skilled in political behavior than the low self-monitor.

c. Individuals with an internal locus of control are more prone to take a proactive

stance and attempt to manipulate situations in their favor.

d. The Machiavellian personality is comfortable using politics as a means to further

his/her self-interest and does not see it as an unethical action..

A person‘s investment in the organization, perceived alternatives, and expectations of

success will influence the tendency to pursue illegitimate means of political action. The

following alternatives are possible in this context:

a. The more that a person has invested and the more a person has to lose, the less

likely he/she is to use illegitimate means.

b. The more alternative job opportunities an individual has, a prominent reputation, or

influential contacts outside the organization, the more likely he/she will risk

illegitimate political actions.

c. A low expectation of success in using illegitimate means reduces the probability of

its use.

Organizational factors:

Political activity has got to do more with the organization‘s characteristics than of

individual difference variables. When an organization‘s resources are declining, and the

existing pattern of resources is changing, as also when there is opportunity for

promotions, politics is more likely to come into play and surface. Certain important

findings in this regard are:

Cultures characterized by low trust, role ambiguity, unclear performance

evaluation systems, zero-sum reward allocation practices, democratic decision-

making, high pressures for performance, and self-serving senior managers will

create fertile grounds for politicking.

When organizations downsize to improve efficiency, people may engage in

political actions to safeguard their existing status-quo.

Promotion decisions have consistently been found to be one of the most political

in organizations.

The less trust there is within the organization, the higher the level of political

behavior and the more likely it will be illegitimate.

Role ambiguity means that the prescribed behaviors of the employee are not clear.

The greater the role ambiguity, the more one may engage in political activity

since there is little chance of it being visible..

Making organizations less autocratic by asking managers to behave more

democratically is not necessarily embraced by all individual managers. Internally

if the managers believe in autocracy they would use the required committees,

conferences, and group meetings in a superficial way as arenas for maneuvering

and manipulating.

Top management may set the climate for politicking by engaging in certain

behaviors, thereby giving a signal to people below in the order that is alright to

engage in such behavior. When employees see top management successfully

engaging in political behavior, a climate is created that supports politicking.

To counter the effects of politicking and protect oneself in organizational contexts,

individuals may use three strategies :

(1) Avoid action and risk taking

(2) Redirect accountability and responsibility

(3) Defend their turf.

Avoidance: Avoidance is quite common in controversial areas where the employee must

risk being wrong or where actions may yield a sanction. The most common reaction is to

―work to the rules.‖ That is, employees are protected when they adhere strictly to all the

rules, policies, and procedures or do not allow deviations or exceptions.

Redirecting Responsibility: Politically sensitive individuals will always protect

themselves from accepting blame for the negative consequences of their actions. Again, a

variety of well-worn techniques may be used for redirecting responsibility. ―Passing the

buck‖ is a common method employees and managers use. The trick here is to define the

task in such a way that it becomes someone else‘s formal responsibility.

Defending Turf : Defending turf is a time-honored tradition in most large organizations.

This results form the coalitional nature of organizations. That is, the organization may be

seen as a collection of competing interests held by various departments and groups. As

each group tries to increase its influence, it starts to encroach on the activities of other

groups.

There are certain other interesting findings regarding people‘s responses to

organizational politics

Research evidence indicates strong points out that perception of organizational politics

are negatively related to job satisfaction. The perception of politics results in anxiety or

stress. And when it gets too much to handle, employees leave the organizations. It may

thus be a de-motivating force and performance may suffer as a result. The effect of

politics is moderated by the knowledge the individual has of the decision making system

and his/her political skills. In this regard the following observations have been made:

High political skills individuals often have improved performance.

Low political skills individuals often respond with defensive behaviors—reactive

and protective behaviors to avoid action, change, or blame.

Reaction to organizational politics is also influenced by culture. In countries that are

more unstable politically, workers will tolerate higher levels of politicking than more

politically stable counties

UNIT V DYNAMICS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR 10

Organizational culture and climate – Factors affecting organizational climate –

Importance. Job satisfaction – Determinants – Measurements – Influence on behavior.

Organizational change – Importance – Stability Vs Change – Proactive Vs Reaction

change – the change process – Resistance to change – Managing change.

Stress – Work Stressors – Prevention and Management of stress – Balancing work and

Life. Organizational development – Characteristics – objectives –. Organizational

effectiveness

Organizational Culture

Organizational Culture

Organizational culture is a set of shared values, the unwritten rules which are often

taken for granted, that guide the employees towards acceptable and rewarding

behavior.

The organizational culture exists at two distinct levels, visible and hidden. The visible

aspect of the organization is reflected in artifacts, symbols and visible behavior of

employees. The hidden aspect is related to underlying values and assumptions that

employees make regarding the acceptable and unacceptable behaviors.

Artifacts: These are visible components of culture, they are easy to formulate,

have some physical shape, yet its perception varies from one individual to

another.

Rituals and ceremonies: New hire trainings, new hire welcome lunches,

annual corporate conferences, awards, offsite meetings and trainings are

few examples of most common rituals and ceremonies.

Symbols & Slogans: These are high level abstraction of the culture; they

effectively summarize organization‘s intrinsic behavior. Symbols are

rituals, awards or incentives that symbolize preferred behavior; ―employee

of the month‖ is one such example of a symbol. Slogans are linguistic

phrases that are intended for the same reason, ―customer first‖ is an

example of corporate slogan.

Stories: These are narratives based on true events, but often exaggerated

as it told from old to new employees. The stories of the organization‘s

founders or other dominant leaders are the most common ones, the

challenges they had faced and how they dealt with those hurdles etc. In

some form, these are stories of the organization‘s heroes, employees relate

the current system due to events that had happened in the past and stories

are the medium that carries the legacies.

Values: These are conscious and affective desires of the organization, the kind of

behavior it wants to promote and reward. Usually every organization sells its

cultural values through some artifacts like written symbols or slogans and

publishes them in various mediums. However, the true values can only be tested

within the organization, through the employees, based on their collective

opinion about the experience of the values.

Ethics: It is the code of moral principals and values that distinguishes the

right behavior from wrong. Ethical values are different from rule of law

which is dictated by the legal system of the country and have to be

followed anyway. However, the laws themselves are based on some moral

principles and thus there is some natural overlap between ethics and the

laws. The geographic location of the organization and the culture of the

place also influence the ethics, this is particularly important for multi-

national organization.

Irrespective how an organization depicts its ethical values, they can be

tested by the two criteria.

Commitment: Whether the organization views its employees as

resources required for business activities or it intends to invest in

long term relationship with its employees; reflects the

organization‘s commitment to its employees. Commitment can be

in various forms, maternity leave, life-work balance, unpaid leaves,

it‘s strategies for downsizing or globalization; are some examples.

Career: The ethical values are also echoed in organization‘s

interest and investment in the career development of its employees.

Whether it values specialization and narrow career paths that runs

the risk of being outdated along with technology or it values broad

skill development and offers training in new technologies at its

own cost.

Empowerment: The social culture and the structure of the organization

influences the underlying values related to the amount of employee

empowerment.

Control/Decision: Management by nature is about control, the

difference is how it enforces it. Well defined guidance, job

description and authority of taking decisions are formal methods of

control, while team or collective decision making is a social or

cultural method of control. The functional or divisional structure

encourages formal control while process or network structures

promote a culture of employee empowerment.

Responsibility: The authority of decision making is closely related

to issue of responsibilities. The culture of responsibility is

measured by observing whether the individuals are expected to

take responsibility of their decisions or there is a collective

responsibility in case of team decisions.

Assumptions: Both the artifacts and the values give rise to assumptions the

employees make about the organization's culture. Finally, it‘s the assumptions

that govern how an employee determines the right behavior and feels about his

job and career, how the culture actually operates within the organizational system.

Failures: The implication of failure is the most influential assumption that

every employee derives from all the artifacts, stories, myths and values.

The fear of failure and how it would be perceived determines the actual

empowerment felt by the employee; the stated values vs. practiced

factuality.

Foundation of the Organizational Culture

Organizations are mini social systems that are less complex than their counterparts at city

or national level. The foundation of the organizational culture is also rooted in three

distinct social entities, anthropology, sociology and psychology.

Anthropological: It uses the physical artifacts like symbols, stories and values to

study the cultural viewpoint of the employees who practice it, and how it adds

meaning to their jobs.

Sociological: It is a study of the different group behaviors in the organization,

their causes and their consequences on its culture. The method of the study

comprises of identifying certain key attributes and then quantifying them using

questionnaires, surveys and interviews.

Psychological: It is study of factors that influence the individual‘s behavior. The

key difference from sociology is that it is behavioral analysis at individual level

rather than application of psychology on a social system. How a person behaves

individually can be quite different from how he behaves in a group. As an

example, humans by nature use statistical knowledge in making decisions,

however they apply it rather poorly. The last positive or negative outcome

influences our decision more than statistical average; such observations can be

used effectively in growing a desired culture.

Factors Influencing Organizational Culture:

The culture is influenced by the other entire contextual dimensions; purpose,

environment, technology & size. Thus it is futile to expect or create a culture that is not

aligned to these factors.. A lot of studies on organizational culture have been wrongly

focused only on analyzing the organization behavior and its contributions to

organization‘s effectiveness. However, the culture is not a separate, self sufficient entity

in itself, but rather one part of a whole.

Types of Organizational Cultures

In case of organizational design, while the contextual dimensions define the structure; the

culture should aim at providing adequate reinforcement to the structure. The

organizational culture can be accessed by evaluating the contextual factors and the

structural dimensions. In some way, one can argue that the study of organization‘s

structural design itself is indicative of type of culture it has, after all the culture is a

consequence of how the organization is controlled and what influences its operations. It

should also be noted that in large organizations, different functional units might have or

require different type of cultures.

There are four most common and identifiable types of organizational cultures:

Entrepreneurial: The organization has purpose of differentiation, it strives for

innovation and competition, it requires research & development and its size is

rather small, its control structure is horizontal. The culture encourages risk taking,

values new ideas, is quick to detect and react to external changes and rewards

ingenuity.

Market: The organization has clear financial & sales goals and is focused on

customer satisfaction. The external environment is not rapidly changing, is stable

but demands efficiency, the control structural can be either horizontal &

hierarchical. The organizational culture is competitive and demanding, success is

measured by market share and penetration.

Clan: It is aimed at efficiency and has internal focus, it encourages employee

participation, and it values and often prides itself by taking exceptional care of its

employees, just like a clan. It values employee empowerment by having a

horizontal structure and creates a strong sense of identity in its employees.The

clan leadership has strong concern for people, they value loyalty and traditions.

Bureaucratic: It operates in a stable environment and has a hierarchal control

structure; the organization has a lot of processes, rules and policies that guide the

day to day operations.The leadership is focused on efficiency, predictability and

low cost.

Need for Organizational Culture

Common Identity: The culture gives a sense of collective identity to all the

employees in the organization, it creates values and beliefs that go beyond the

personal aspirations of the employees.

Guidance: The culture creates good working relationships and promotes ethical

communication between employees. It also helps employees in making decisions

in the situations where there are no formal rules or policies, situations that haven‘t

been experienced yet.

Justification of actions: The culture evolves from prior precedences, when

employee behavior and decisions are guided by the culture, their actions are better

understood by the management.

Changing Organizational Culture

A lot of research has focused on changing the organizational culture, however I feel that

this is rather a misnomer since culture can only be aligned to the structure. The essence

and purpose of culture is to reinforce the structure, thus culture can be modified only

when structure is modified or created, or in some cases does not conform to the structure.

Necessitates for cultural change

There are four common scenarios that would require cultural change, these are briefly

discussed below.

New organization: When a new organization is founded, focus on the culture is

the last thing on the founders priorities, their main challenge is business success

of the venture. The culture evolves naturally, devoid of any conscious effort and

can be linked to the founder‘s leadership. This hindsight can prove to be an

expensive mistake if the organization succeeds or grows. Not always a new

organization implies a new venture, sometimes large corporations are split into

smaller separate business units or corporations and under new leadership or

structure, might desire a different culture.

Re-Organization: An existing organization is restructured due to various factors

like new leadership, new business vision, competitive landscape, growth or

downsizing; such structural changes also demands change in organizational

culture.

Mergers & Acquisitions: Cultural clash is a common phenomenon when two

very different organizations are merged due to business reason. Lot of mergers

fail miserably not because the analytical analysis and it‘s financial benefit was

incorrect, but rather due to incompatible cultures that propel employees to

disassociate themselves with the organization. Hence it is important to assess the

cultures and analyze whether they can be comfortably changed according to the

new organization.

Ineffectiveness : A change is required if the existing culture is ineffective in

meeting the management ‗s proposed values and expected behavior. Lower

productivity, lack of enthusiasm or motivation, nonchalant employees,

overwhelming management control are some indications of the culture‘s

ineptness.

Cultural Assessment

Assessment of the existing culture is the important first step in changing the culture, it

requires a facilitator who understands the concept of culture. The facilitator can be

someone from the organization or an external consultant but certainly cannot be an

influential leader or one of the founding member. An external consultant has the

advantage of providing unbiased opinion on the observations but might lack the

knowledge related to organization‘s technology or operations.

Interviews not questionnaires: Every organization‘s culture is unique, like a

DNA, therefore it‘s not practical to formulate a common set of questions that

could help in assessing the culture. Surveys and questionnaires are effective tools

for measuring the employee satisfaction and overall organization‘s performance.

However, culture is a consequence of a shared belief among a group of employees

and thus individual responses will result in an invalid observation. A group

interviews by a knowledgeable facilitator is the best means to assess and plan a

cultural change.

Summarize the Artifacts: Observe and note the following artifacts in the

organization

Does the organization has any required dress code? What are the

working hours? Does it allow flexible working hours and location? How

is the workplace designed, does it have shared offices, conference rooms

etc?

How much authority does employees have at each level? Is the

organization hierarchical or flat? Are decisions made only by the

superiors? What kind of position does the management take when

decisions prove wrong?

How much of executive decisions and strategies are communicated? How

much of detail is presented and what kind of forum is used? How are

meetings organized and conducted? How effective and open are the

conversations in the meetings?

What kind of language is generally used in day-to-day conversations?

This includes all mediums like presentations, email, verbal

communication, jargons and acronyms. How do employees address each

other in meetings and especially during disagreements?

What kind of stories are told and how they are perceived by the

employees? Stories can be either motivating or demoralizing. What kind

of rewards, employee socialization, rituals and ceremonies are routinely

observed in the organization.

What kind of work & life balance is considered to be acceptable in the

organization? In a cultural context, it is beyond the benefits and policies

that are prescribed by the human resource.

Test the Values: Organizational leaders set the desired values that they expect to

be observed. However the practiced values can be very different than the

advocated ones, such contradictions have an adverse effect on the culture.

Consider a horizontal organization where teamwork and collaboration are the

espoused values, however the organization lacks appropriate performance

management, very soon employees realize that there is little benefit of

collaboration. As another example, innovation is one of the values, but the

employees that fail to deliver are dealt unfavorably.

Probe the Assumptions: During the group interviews and testing the promoted

values, the facilitator must find out the assumptions employees have about the

cultural values. Do they view the artifacts and values as just corporate rituals, i.e

the employees feel detached to them? Do they feel that they are applicable to

perhaps the higher levels? A culture of innovation might be perceived to be

applicable for scientists in the organization, the bottom employees just have to

follow directions. Or perhaps they totally misunderstand the values, e.g

telecommuting is understood as rarely to work from office.

Cultural change strategy

Design new cultural artifacts: The facilitator needs to identify the existing

artifacts that are ineffective and recommend new artifacts including their

appropriate promotion strategy.

Promote cultural values: The values have to move out of written statements into

practical applications in the field, there are two methods of achieving as

described below.

Leaders & Managers need to believe and then champion the cause of

cultural promotion, they must have authority to take necessary decisions

required. This is only possible when the cultural values are in some way

measured and are included as one of the performance goals of the

managers.

Socialization of the employees, new or old alike, well planned social

events help in defining and promoting cultural values. The emphasis here

is on subtly directed socializing; which group or individuals needs to be

introduced to whom, senior vs. junior employees, does the event have

champions who have been given some directions? Usually the

socialization are ineffective due to lack of any objectives, a group of

people are brought in a common site but they end up meeting with their

daily coworkers.

Reinforcement: The purpose of cultural change has to be strengthened within the

organization with various motivational tools, the culture should be treated just like

other management objectives. Employees who take an extra step to observe the

values need to be rewarded, they must be viewed as role models for others to

follow. One the other hand, the employees who do not believe in those values

have to be eliminated from the system to reduce their negative influence.

Challenges in changing cultures

Difficulty of cultural assessment: The main hurdle is that it is not easy to

measure the culture or it‘s effect; often it gets influenced by prejudices and

assessment is more subjective than objective. Culture has its roots in applied

psychology and behavioral science and not in objective and provable methods of

scientific enquiry. Hence it depends upon the ability of the leaders who are

designated to champion the cause.

The founders of an organisation generally tend to have a large impact on establishing the

early culture. The organisation's culture results from the interaction between the

founder(s) biases and assumptions and what the original members of the organisation

learn from their own experiences.

SUSTAINING ORGAIZATIONAL CULTURE:

How is an organisation's culture maintained?

through the process of selecting for employment or promotion those individuals

who are best able to sustain or promote the prevailing culture

through actions of top management that constantly reaffirm and reflect the culture

through the action of the socialisation process that disseminates the culture among

all the members of the organisation

Our textbook covered the 'Manifestations of culture'. Culture is transmitted to employees

in a number of ways; for example, through stories, rituals, material symbols and

language.

The process of developing and sustaining organizational culture is illustrated by the

following figure from Robbins et al (1998).

Figure 7.1

(Adapted from Robbins 1989, page 479).

Culture, then, is learned. It is both a product of action and a conditioning element of

future action, an input and an output. The internal environment consists of the social and

technical systems of the organisation. Thus, in part, culture is the product of these socio-

technical systems. They consist of the decision-making, planning and control procedures

of the organisation, its technology, and the procedures for recruitment, selection and

training; and are influenced by the common beliefs, attitudes and values of the members

of the organisation.

The strategies, structures, procedures and behaviours adopted by management create a

work environment. However, if managers have been members of the organisation for

some time they are themselves a product of the culture.

Consider this

Think about how culture is sustained in your organisation.

As culture is both an input and an output, it is likely to be self-perpetuating and highly

resistant to change. Figure 7.2 demonstrates how culture is both an input and output.

Types of culture

Your textbook outlines the characteristics of entrepreneurial versus administrative

cultures. Robbins et al. (1998) attempted to describe some typical types of cultures:

academy

This is a place for steady climbers to become proficient in their jobs. New entrants are

usually young tertiary qualified people who are carefully trained and steered through their

career in a particular field. BHP is a classic academy so is Coca-Cola.

club

This is a place where 'fitting in', loyalty, commitment and seniority are important.

Managers are trained as generalists, unlike the academy. Government departments and

the military fit into the club culture.

baseball team

This is a place for the entrepreneurially orientated, the risk takers and innovators.

Talented personnel of all ages and experiences are recruited and rewarded based on

productivity. 'Star' performers are offered huge financial incentives and freedom and

there is a considerable amount of 'head hunting' and job-hopping. Consulting firms and

law firms are typically listed under this type of culture.

fortress

This organisation may have once been any of the above but is now fighting for survival.

Almost any large organisation could find itself in this culture. Large retailers, hotel

chains, and oil and natural gas exploration firms are indicative of fortress cultures.

Culture operates on more than one level or an organisation is likely to have a number of

subcultures . There are likely to be several cultures, reflected in different work groups or

departments. Understanding this is extremely important for decision-making, as it may be

necessary to consider different reactions from different work groups or teams.

Robbins et al. (1998) pointed out that most large organisations have a dominant culture

and numerous sets of subcultures. The following subsections on dominant culture,

subculture and core values, refers to the work of Robbins et al. (1998).

Dominant culture

The dominant culture expresses the core values that are shared by a majority of the

organisation's members. This is essentially a macro perspective, which gives an

organisation a distinct personality.

Subculture

Subcultures are mini-cultures within an organisation, typically defined by department

designations and geographical separation. Subcultures develop to reflect opportunities

and problems in particular departments. For example, the personnel or service department

may have a subculture, which is shared by the members of that department. Work groups

also tend to develop their own subcultures. You can probably relate to this quite easily if

you think about it in the context of your organisation.

Assume, for example, that you work for the AYS Stevedoring company. AYS operates

from a number of locations and each of these areas takes on their own unique culture. For

example, in Australia , the subculture would be different between Melbourne and

Brisbane, reflecting the unique environment.

The fact that organisations have more than one culture is not surprising given that there

are likely to be departmental differences in functions and goals. Departmental differences

can result in conflict if the cultures of different departments clash.

Core values

The core values are the primary or dominant values that are accepted throughout the

organisation . The subculture will include the core values and will have additional values

unique to the particular subculture.

Changing culture

If culture is the 'personality' or the 'totality' of the organisation's characteristics, then it

follows that the organisation has a 'cultural value system' that can be manipulated. If

values, beliefs and attitudes are learned, then they can be managed. Therefore, it is

possible that a planned organisational change program can 'spell out' a desirable

organisational culture, or that a culture may be actively maintained.

Some of the confusion over methods of changing culture stems from a failure to define

the concept of culture clearly and a failure to understand how cultures develop.

Certain subcultures may be strongly entrenched and highly resistant to change processes.

Managers need to consider the likely reactions of identifiable subcultures when

undertaking change programs.

Clearly, the concepts of culture and organisational change are closely interrelated.

Newsbreak

Cultural change

Changing an organisation's culture is extremely difficult, but cultures can be changed.

For example, Lee Iacocca came to Chrysler Corp. in 1978, when the organisation

appeared to be only weeks away from bankruptcy. It took him about five years, but he

took Chrysler's conservative, inward-looking and engineering-orientated culture and

changed it into an action-orientated, market response culture.

Evidence suggests that cultural change is most likely to take place when most or all of the

following conditions exist:

a dramatic crisis

turnover in leadership

younger and smaller organisation

weak culture

If conditions support cultural change you should consider the following suggestions:

Top management as role models who set the tone.

Create new stories, symbols and rituals to replace those currently in vogue.

Select, promote and support employees who espouse the new values that are

sought.

Redesign socialisation processes to align with the new values.

Change the reward system to endorse acceptance of a new set of values.

Replace unwritten norms with formal rules and regulations.

Shake up current subcultures with job rotation.

Work to get peer group consensus through use of employee participation and

creation of a climate with a high level of trust.

Cultural change is a lengthy process measured in years rather than months.

Conclusion

The future holds promise for companies that understand and nurture their cultures.

Cultures are not only able to create an environment, but they also adapt to diverse and

changing circumstances. As organisations begin to experience a revolution in structures,

the study of culture and the implications for change will become more important.

Understanding of work group subcultures within an organisation's culture will influence

strategies for changing organisational culture and overcoming resistance to change

programs.

Changing an organisation's culture may be extremely difficult, as the processes that

support a particular organisation or a departmental method of working are both

interrelated and varied. Organisational culture is self-perpetuating and highly resistant to

change. Changes may cause confusion, conflict and resistance.

Managers need to understand the nature and role of culture and how it may be altered.

When the role of culture is more clearly defined, managers can better understand its

importance in managing organisational change and its impact on day-to-day decision-

making.

Strong and week Organisational culture

Man spends major part of his life in the organizations within which he works. When

people join an organisation, they bring with them the unique values and behaviours that

they have been taught. Any organisation with firmly established organisational culture

would be taught the values, beliefs and expected behaviours of that organisation. Just as

society moulds human behaviour, an organisation also moulds human behaviour that is in

tune with the prevalent set of norms and behaviour. In this process, certain basic attitudes

and beliefs about the people and their work situations are slowly but firmly accepted in

the organisation, which becomes its 'Organisational Culture.'

Robbins, S. P., (1998) defined 'a strong culture is one that is internally consistent, is

widely shared, and makes it clear what it expects and how it wishes people to behave.'

Kaufman, (2002) stated that 'a positive organizational culture reinforces the core beliefs

and behaviors that a leader desires while weakening the values and actions the leader

rejects. Peters and Waterman (1982) indicates that 'a negative culture becomes toxic,

poisoning the life of the organization and hindering any future potential for growth.

Obviously, there is an inevitable bridge joining organizational culture and the level of

success it enjoys. Strong culture is said to exist where staff respond to stimulus because

of their alignment to organizational values. Conversely, there is Weak Culture where

there is little alignment with organizational values and control must be exercised through

extensive procedures and bureaucracy.' Kilmann, Saxton, and Serpa, (1986) defined

strong cultures as 'those where organization members place pressure on other members to

adhere to norms.' Byrne, (2002) indicates that 'a strong organizational culture will exert

more influence on employees than a weak one. If the culture is strong and supports high

ethical standards, it should have a very powerful and positive influence on employee

behaviour.'

Although all organizations have cultures, some appear to have stronger, more deeply

rooted cultures than others. Initially, a strong culture was conceptualized as a coherent set

of beliefs, values, assumptions, and practices embraced by most members of the

organization. The emphasis was on (1) the degree of consistency of beliefs, values,

assumptions, and practice across organizational members; and (2) the pervasiveness

(number) of consistent beliefs, values, assumptions, and practices. Many early proponents

of organizational culture tended to assume that a strong, pervasive culture was beneficial

to all organizations because it fostered motivation, commitment, identity, solidarity, and

sameness, which, in turn, facilitated internal integration and coordination. Still others

noted potential dysfunctions of a strong culture, to the point of suggesting that a strong

culture may not always be desirable. For example, a strong culture and the internalized

controls associated with it could result in individuals placing unconstrained demands on

themselves, as well as acting as a barrier to adaptation and change. A strong culture could

also be a means of manipulation and co-optation (Perrow 1979). It could further

contribute to a displacement of goals or sub goal formation, meaning that behavioral

norms and ways of doing things become so important that they begin to overshadow the

original purpose of the organization (Merton 1957; March and Simon 1958).

Culture was initially seen as a means of enhancing internal integration and coordination,

but the open system view of organizations recognized that culture is also important in

mediating adaptation to the environment (see Chapter 3: Overview of the Management

and the Organizational Effectiveness Literatures). The traditional view of a strong culture

could be contrary to the ability of organizations to adapt and change. Seeing culture as

important for facilitating organizational innovation, the acceptance of new ideas and

perspectives, and needed organizational change may require a different, or more nuanced,

view of organizational culture. Schein (1992) notes that, indeed, a strong organizational

culture has generally been viewed as a conservative force. However, in contrast to the

view that a strong organizational culture may be dysfunctional for contemporary business

organizations that need to be change-oriented, he argues that just because a strong

organizational culture is fairly stable does not mean that the organization will be resistant

to change. It is possible for the content of a strong culture to be change-oriented, even if

strong organizational cultures in the past typically were not. He suggests that the culture

of modern organizations should be strong but limited, differentiating fundamental

assumptions that are pivotal (vital to organizational survival and success) from

everything else that is merely relevant (desirable but not mandatory). Today's

organizations, characterized by rapidly changing environments and internal workforce

diversity, need a strong organizational culture but one that is less pervasive in terms of

prescribing particular norms and behavioral patterns than may have existed in the past.

This view was supported by Collins and Porras (1994) in their famous study (Built to

Last) of companies that had strong and lasting performance.

Implications at Individual Level:

The study relate following implications at individual and organisational level, where the

management of the organisation should give prior concern. The implications are detailed

as follows.

Aggressive Behavior of members

A value system promotes integration of expectations of management philosophy,

preferred behavioral patterns, customs and rituals of the organization through compulsion

and coercion hence develops dissatisfaction and stress among members. It is general

human tendency to resist any integration process that go against their will and co-

operation. Members have the very nature to cope up with such value system through

aggressive behavior beyond certain level of suppressive behavior. It may develop into

Burn Out Stress Syndrome (BOSS) in later years. This situation develops far-reaching

consequence at Individual and Organizational level. It leads to individual unrest industrial

unrest and organisational dysfunction.

Irrationality of thoughts

Each employee has the very probability to expose themselves to weak demands set by the

work culture of the organization. The level of satisfaction and stress related to the

environmental exposure depends on how one perceives the new demand and tries to cope

up with it. If the value system and the practices do not support employees to take up the

new challenges, these employees experience anxiety and tension. A decision to take up

challenging situations with tension and anxiety further results in mistakes and errors. In a

power-centered culture, there is more chance for irrational way of coping than rational

one as there is more coercive approach to make the members adjust with the culture. This

often develops more conflicting situations.

Idleness of members

If the work culture is not challenging, innovative and improvement oriented, members

have the very tendency to continue the routine practices as it does not develop any

situation, which is taxing to their skill and abilities. It is general human tendency to sit

idle and enjoy all the benefits and privileges offered by the organization. This coping

behavior is due to their preference towards an idle value system. The idle work culture

does not call for any improvement of the labour force and of the organization. If this way

of preference becomes more rigid in future, it has the very scope to develop into militant

behavior of employees, where the organization cannot introduce any organizational

change for improvement.

Rigidity in behavior

The process of socialization helps members to internalize the norms, values, customs and

practices that are widely preferred by the organization. Its purpose is to avoid occurrence

and reoccurrence of deviations in future. If the value system of the organization is rigid

and highly taxing to members, members have the very tendency to develop

dissatisfaction and stress. It extends greater opportunity among members to justify their

stress and become more rigid in their behavior. Excessive use of coercion and negative

measures will develop more rigidity in their attitude than mould their behavior suitable to

the organization.

Suspicious mentality

The members in the organization are very clear about their expectations towards both

maintenance needs as well as motivational needs. If the value system is unable to rectify

their genuine doubts pertaining to realization of existence, relatedness and growth needs,

members have the very tendency to develop suspicious attitude towards supervisors and

top management. In a coercive – authoritative value system, there is less probability for

transparent way of interaction and inter relationship. Members here have the very

tendency to develop suspicious mentality towards management's decision-makings that

affect their personal goals. The outcome is same, individual-industrial conflict.

Antagonistic attitude

The industrial process is a collective work process where there is equal sharing of

responsibilities. A will of readiness to share the organizational responsibilities come

from a value system, which calls for mutual trust, mutual respect, mutual acceptance and

mutual understanding. In organisation where, the communication between the

management and employees is closed, there is no scope for a cordial and cohesive

environment, distrust, suspicious attitude, rigidity, low level cooperation, lack of

confidence etc. are the byproduct of such situation. Each group has the very tendency to

use their own coping mechanisms like aggression, agitation, strikes, etc. Such militant

attitude will develop more complex situations in the future. It leads to more physical and

psychological hazards to human beings and developmental hazards to organizations.

Emotional immaturity

A value system, which helps members to internalize the norms and behaviors through a

supportive approach, ensures a high level of adjustment within the organization. The

process of socialization expects organization's standard level of approach in the

integration of the expected behavioral pattern. The process of learning will be complete

only when it is able to generate mutual interest and support. The use of coercion and

compulsion in this process is unilateral and will not produce any positive result. Instead

of developing emotional maturity to understand and behave appropriately, socialization

in a power-distance culture makes members to behave more antagonistically and

immaturely. It will affect the maintenance of a harmonious industrial culture.

Low Morale

A work culture which is unable to ensure a cordial and cohesive environment, trust and

belief of the members cannot ensure enthusiasm and willingness of the employees to

work together and pull the group to meet the organizational goals. The high morale is the

by-product of a feeling of satisfaction and better adjustment. The weak culture increases

frustration, antagonism, indiscipline and results in excessive complaints and grievances.

All such situation leads to industrial unrest and sickness.

Disloyal

The management approach and personal philosophy have high influence over the

behavior of the members. The treatment members experience from management

determines their level of job satisfaction and job stress. Loyalty is a state of mind; it is a

composite of feelings, attitude and sentiment that contribute to affiliative behavior of

members in return to the organization's care and support, satisfaction offered and towards

realization of their personal goals. In an organization where the value system supports

excessive control, punitive steps like the management domination, low preference

towards human sentiments and relations, there is no probability for employees'

involvement, commitment and loyalty. Where there is no feeling of loyalty among

members, there is no organizational development at all.

Lack of interest

Several factors affect member's interest to work for the organization. Among which a

value system which promotes team work, innovation, freedom, autonomy, risk taking,

use of creativity, supervisory support, empowerment, informal communication,

opportunity for advancement, objective feedback etc., facilitates employees decision to

work with confidence and interest. The resultant outcome is a weak work cultures is job

stress, organizational conflict, job dissatisfaction, absenteeism and labor turnover. The

success cannot be ensured where an industry is having disloyal labor force and weak

work culture.

Lack of motivation

Motivation is concerned with the needs prioritization of individual employee. If the

organizational value system provides a better opportunity to fulfill member's psycho

social and economic needs, there is increased probability for voluntary co-operation and

contribution. However, the work culture of both sectors has found unable to maintain

even the satisfaction of lower level needs like safety, security and stability of

employment. A culture where, there is no opportunity to realize even the lower level

needs, there members are not eligible even to think about their high level needs. The low

level of motivation thus results in increased job dissatisfaction and job stress. It further

leads to absenteeism, labor turnover, industrial unrest, conflict and disharmony. Without

a motivated labor force, there is less chance for industrial success.

Lack of commitment

Commitment is basically a value-oriented behaviour of individual and group. It is the

attitude and sentiment of member's attaches with the organization to do their best. The

management approach towards the removal of certainty and unambiguity by making

provision for employee's job satisfaction, a supportive climate etc. has high influence on

the attitude and behavior of employees. A coercive, power driven, authoritarian, less

considerative and more task-oriented culture induces only lack of motivation, unrest,

antagonism and a low level of commitment among members. The study indicates a low

level of adjustment of members in both sectors with commitment and its low impact at

organizational level. Non-committed labor forces are the biggest hurdles to

organizational development.

Low level of trust and confidence

Success of an organization depends upon the quality of work, co-operation at all

hierarchical levels and adherence to a constructive/proactive management policy that

translates to a positive value system and strong belief among members. A culture, which

shows labor management conflict, mistrust, suspicion, mutual non-acceptance, rigid rules

and regulations, lack of recognition and opportunity for advancement etc. cannot win

employee's unconditional trust and co-operation. The trust and confidence is the resultant

outcome of the healthy psychological contract that exists between the employees and

organization. Anything that affects this psychological bond can disrupt this contract.

Unrealistic attitude

The very purpose of the induction and training program is to develop a realistic

perception about the norms and policies, expected behavior patterns, do's and don'ts etc.

of the organization. But if the value system of the organization doesn't have anything

good to transfer, it affects the attitude of employees. Socialization agents like trade

union, peer groups, management, etc., influence the behavior of members in the

formation of perception about organizations entrenched value system. If the value system

promotes better work culture, these socializing agents transfer the same image and belief

system to the new -comers. On the contrary, if the organization promotes low work

culture, it will develop an unrealistic attitude and leads to unrealistic value expectations

and demands.

Superior subordinates Rivalry

A work culture that weak at work place may develop severe problems at individual level.

Such a culture promotes dependency to superiors and submissive attitude from their

subordinates that leads to personal rivalry. Since the management can hold member's

timely promotions, incentives and other such benefits, the members are forced to follow

the instructions of superiors. Greater level of dissatisfaction and job stress are major

indicators of superior subordinates rivalry. Here the employee's growth opportunities,

creativity, improvement in the skill and knowledge are totally denied. The personal

conflict can in turn lead to higher-level conflicts and disagreements and can reach up to

high-level organizational conflict as well.

Poor self-concept

Development of better self concept depends upon how far organization extends

opportunity for organizational members to understand their skill, knowledge, potential,

versatility, meaningness attached to organization, their life, realistic perception etc.

Individuals differ in personal characteristics. In addition such differences create

differences in work performance and behavior of individuals at the work place. A

confident, skilled, ambitious member should get opportunity for growth and achievement.

A coercive and power driven weak culture destroys the enthusiastic mindset and

expectations of employees. All this leads to member maladjusted behavior.

Loss of creativity

Creativity means the individual's potential to think and experiment with new insights

ideas and thoughts. Though members are creative, many a times, they do not get enough

opportunity to implement these ideas because of superior's lack of support, non risk-

initiative policy, non- challenging work environment, personal conflicts etc. This

indicates that there is no freedom, support and autonomy to individual members in the

organization. Absence of creative ideas, affect organization's improvement and

advancement plans. It demotivates intelligent employees at work.

Intention to quit

The organizational value system affects employee's attitude and behavior. It leads

members either to continue or quit their jobs. A cordial and cohesive value system, a

supportive culture, satisfaction of existence, relatedness and growth needs etc. influence

the member behavior. A culture in which member's consider that there is no value for his

work, no objective feedback, no cordial-cohesive environment to work with, high

rigidity, increased marginalization, victimization, personal rivalries etc., then they have

the very tendency to quit the organization. This leads to high labour turnover,

absenteeism, low quality and quality of production, less profit etc.

High resistant behavior

An organization's value system, which promotes member's enthusiasm, spirit and interest

to work, has to face only lower level of resistant behavior, from members. While the

culture maintains high task-oriented and less relationship oriented practices through

norms and regulations, and the policies and decisions go against the expectations of

worker, where management have to face high resistant behavior. A mutual suspicious

mentality, non-acceptance of policies, consequent oriented behavior control, work under

tension, anxiety, ambiguity etc. develops high resistance on the member's part. It disrupts

the smooth progress and daily functioning of activities by developing work hurdles. It

leads to industrial tension and unrest.

Insecurity feeling

Major expectations of working class population are the safety, security and stability of

their employment. These are maintenance factors and their absence develops job

dissatisfaction and job stress. A value system, which maintains the uncertainty about

member's existence needs and growth needs, cannot extend work satisfaction and

individual satisfaction. A greater alienation members experience from the role they

perform and work. It develops lack of involvement, lack of commitment towards work,

disloyalty, commitment to union organizations and poor industrial relations.

Low quality of life

The quality of life is the degree to which members of an organization are able to satisfy

their personal needs through their work experience in the organization. The members

have many need and they expect these needs to be fulfilled by their organization, which

includes job security, adequate pay, employment benefits, cordial and cohesive work

environment, openness, collaboration, experimentation, autonomy etc. These factors

have significant effect in moulding the behavior, personality, member's performance and

commitment. These are indications of quality of life of employees in an organization. In

a weak organisational culture since there is poor labor management relationship, low

opportunity for growth, low inter personal relationship and less job security members feel

at work, etc, there is low quality of work life.

Worker's inefficiency

The efficiency of member is directly related to their attitude and commitment to work.

The work culture has a significant role in developing both attitude and interest among

employees to contribute more to the organization. Objective feedback, individual

attention, recognition of outstanding performance, open feed back, transparent

communication, acceptance, affection and achievement from organization, a supportive

leadership, organization's commitment in the improvement of its members etc. have

significant impact on the attitude, feelings and interest of employees to work efficiently.

The maintenance of this strong culture improves organizational growth but fate is

opposite if there is weak culture. It directly affect the organisational efficiency.

Low expectation

Expectancy is the probability that a particular action will lead to a particular outcome.

The strength and motivation of members to involve work and derive pleasure out of it

depends on how the organization meets individual's specific needs and expectations.

These expectations are related to specific needs of the individual's goals. An objective

performance appraisal system based on merit, a better pay, security and safety of

employment, feeling of equality, openness, no favoritism, good working conditions,

cordial interpersonal relationship etc. are employees' expectations from the organization.

How far the work culture meets these expectations has a significant effect on employees'

motivational level. It develops the comfort of life and peace of mind to the members at

work. Some thing which go against the their expectancy leads to low level peace of mind

and comfort of life at work. Low-level expectancy leads to low-level affiliation with

work and more affiliation to rights and privileges.

Low competency

The work culture has high influence on the members' expectation and competency. The

culture of competency lies in merit based performance ratings and value for skill,

qualification, knowledge and effort extend by the members. Any intervention of

organizational factors affects the objectivity of appraisal e.g. superior dependency,

submissiveness, loyalty, and favoritism all affect employee's perception towards the

value system. Moreover, the defective and subjective appraisal will affect the employee's

motivation to work with competency spirit. Higher the levels of favoritism lower the

level of expectancy among members and lower their involvement to work.

Conclusion

The implication part summarizes the far-reaching consequences at the individual level

and organisational level that related to the strong and weak culture of the organisation.

Important implication of the results is the need for management to recognize far-reaching

consequences at the individual level and organisational level. To prevent the far-reaching

negative consequences of weak culture's impact on the human behaviour at work, there

leadership of the organisation should taken care the policy formulation and its

implementation. Weaker the culture organisation have lower the work motivation, work

commitment, work relation, loyalty and work ethics. The management of Weak culture

should take adequate steps thorough change initiatives for organisational development.

Organizational Change

Organizational change may be defined as the adoption of a new idea or a behavior by an

organization (Daft 1995). It is a way of altering an existing organization to increase

organizational effectiveness for achieving its objectives. Successful organizational

change must continually focus on making organizations responsive to major

developments like changing customer preferences, regulatory norms, economic shocks

and technological innovations. Only those organizations that are able to undertake

suitable change programs, can sustain and survive in a changing and demanding

economic order in their bid to remain ahead of others in the race.

Forces Of Changes

Forces for change are of two types:

Internal forces

External forces.

Internal forces

Change in the top management- Change in the top management and consequent change

in the ideas to run the organization also leads to change in the system, structure and

processes.

Change in size of the organization- Change in the organization‘s size leads to change in

the internal structure and complexity of the operations in the organization.

Performance gaps- When a gap between set target and actual results (in terms of market

share, employee productivity and profit) is identified, organizations face the forces to

change and reduce the gap.

Employee needs and values- With changing needs and values of the employees,

organizations change their policies. For example, attractive financial incentives,

challenging assignments, vertical growth opportunities and autonomy at work may be

provided in an organization to attract and retain its effective employees.

External forces

Technology – Technological changes are responsible for changing the nature of the job

performed at all levels in an organization.

Business scenario- Due to rapid changes in the business scenario with increasing

competition and global economy, the needs and demands are also changing among the

customers, suppliers and other stakeholders. Organizations are, therefore, forced to

change their operational methods to meet the demands of the stakeholders.

Environmental factors – Environmental factors such as economic, political and

demographic factors play a vital role in devising organizational policies and strategy. For

example, organizations may have to change their employment policies in accordance with

the government policy, demand of the non-government organizations and changing

economic conditions of a country.

Resistance To Change

Resistance to change may be of two types:

Individual resistance

Organizational resistance.

Individual resistance-

Change leads to insecurity among the employees because of its unknown consequences.

Employees do not know for certain whether the change will bring in better prospects. For

example, because of technological change people may feel threatened due to the fear of

obsolescence of skills, less wages and losing the job. Change sometimes leads to new

dimensions of work relationships. Due to organizational redesign, the employees may

have to work with other set of people than their existing co-workers with whom they

have direct relationship, and it is generally not welcome by most of the employees.

Organizational resistance-

Change may bring some potential threat to the organizational power to some people.

Therefore, people try to resist change. The structural inertia in the bureaucratic

organizations also hinders change. Furthermore, resource constraints play a vital role in

resistance to change.

Responses To Change

The responses to change depend upon the employees‘ perception about the change.

Different individuals differ in their attitudes and hence, the perceptions towards change.

Therefore, one important task of the management of an organization is to understand and

create a positive attitude among employees regarding change.

Reactions to Change

Three major reactions to change are:

Anger- After employees have passed over the shock of the new situation, most people

who view the change as having a negative impact on their personal situation, many times,

they will begin to blame the management or talk ill about management. This agitation

and anger, if not addressed, may lead to some people actually trying to sabotage the

change process by taking stances varying between active non-cooperation and passive

resistance.

Denial- Many people, depending on their basic values and beliefs, move from anger to

acceptance. However, there are a significant number of people who go through a denial

phase. A person going through this phase will make up excuses why he or she should not

be held accountable for anything that goes wrong with the organization as a result of the

change. Such attempts to disassociate from the new situation often cause the person to

alienate oneself from the group.

Acceptance- Once the person has accepted the change as real and that it is going to

happen, he or she begins to rationalize his or her role in the new situation. It is important

to understand that not only can an individual accept the situation and begin to work

towards the new vision, but one can also accept the situation as having a negative impact

and choose to leave the organization. Either way, the individual accepts the fact that the

new environment exists.

Overcoming Resistance to Change

Some approaches can be taken to reduce the resistance to change. Some of them are

listed

below (Schermerhorn, Hunt, and Osborn 2000):

Education and communication -Open communication and proper education help

employees to understand the significance of change and its requirement. For that, proper

initiative should be taken to provide the information regarding the type, timing,

implication, purpose and reason for change.

Employee participation and involvement- People generally get more committed towards

the change, if they are directly involved in the change process. This way, they have the

opportunity to clarify their doubts and understand the perspective and requirement of

change for the organization. The management also gets the chance to identify the

potential problems that may occur in the workplace and the chance to prevent it.

Facilitation and support- Change agent can offer a range of supportive measures to

reduce resistance. Empathetic and considerate listening can reduce employees‘ fear and

anxiety towards change. Counselling sessions to reduce stress, trauma, etc., can be an

effective measure.

Negotiation and agreement- Organizations which have a fair chance to face potential

resistance from the union representatives, can defuse the resistance by involving them

directly in the change process. They should be properly briefed about the need and value

of change. However, this can be a costly proposition when there is more than one

dominant union in the organization, as all the contending parties would fight for power

and recognition.

Characteristics Of Organizational Change

Characteristics:

It is deliberate, systematic and well thought of.

Velocity of change depends on the degree or level of significance.

Status quo is challenged.

Reaction can be both positive and negative.

Focuses on long-term change.

The forces for change:

Organization-environment relationship (merger, strategic alliances, etc.) where

organizations attempt to redefine their relationships with changing social and political

environment.

Organizational life cycle (changes in culture and structure of organization‘s evolution

from birth through growth towards maturity).

Political nature of organization (changes in internal control structures, etc.) to deal with

shifting political current.

Theories of Change

Force field analysis theory

Lewin (1951) proposed a three step sequential model of change process:

Unfreezing

At this stage, the forces, which maintain the status quo in the organizational behavior, are

reduced by refuting the present attitude and behavior to create a perceived need for

something new. It is facilitated by environmental pressure such as increased competition,

declining productivity and performance, felt need to improve the style of work, etc.

Moving/changing

This stage involves a shift in behavior of organizations by modifying system, process,

technology and people. This phase can be explained in terms of compliance,

identification and internalization (Rao and Hari Krishna 2002). Compliance or force

occurs when individuals are forced to change whether by reward or by punishment.

Internalization occurs when individuals are forced to encounter a situation that calls for

new behavior. Identification occurs when individuals recognize one among various

models provided in the environment that is most suitable to their personality.

Refreezing

At this stage, actions are taken to sustain the drive for change and to facilitate the

institutionalization process of the change even in a day-to-day routine of the

organizations. Here, the desired outcomes are positively reinforced and extra support is

provided to overcome the difficulties.

Action research model

Action research model is another model of planned change. According to this model,

planned change is a cyclical process in which initial research about organizations

provides the data to guide the subsequent action to bring the required changes. It

emphasizes on the significance of data collection and diagnosis prior to action planning

and implementation and careful evaluation of the actions. This model describes change in

eight steps:

Problem identification It starts with the identification of one or a combination of

problems in the organization and consequent requirement of bringing change in

organizational practices.

Consultation with the expert It is the phase where the organization consults with the

experts in the same field to generate the ideas for improvement of the situation. At this

stage an open and collaborative atmosphere is intended to be set up.

Data gathering and preliminary diagnosis This stage is usually completed by the expert

often with the organizational members‘ help. The four basic modes of data gathering are

interview, process observation, questionnaires and organizational performance data.

Feedback to key client or group Because action research is a collaborative activity, the

diagnostic data is fed back to the client usually with a group or work team meeting. The

consultant provides the client with all the necessary data.

Joint diagnosis of the problem At this point, the clients and the expert jointly decide

whether they want to work on the identified problems.

Joint action planning The consultant and the client then jointly decide on the further

action. This is the beginning of the movement process (refer to Lewin‘s model). At this

stage, specific actions are taken depending on the culture, technology and the

environment of the organization.

Action This stage involves actual change from one organizational state to another. It may

include new methods and procedures, reorganizing structures and work designs, and new

behaviors.

Data gathering after action Since action research is a cyclical process, data must also be

gathered after the action has taken place.

Dimensions of Planned Change

Though the models of change describe how to implement change, steps of planned

change may be implemented in a variety of ways, depending on the clients‘ needs and

goals, the change agents‘ skills and values, and the organizational context. Planned

change can be contrasted across situations on two key dimensions: the magnitude of

organizational change and the degree to which the client system is organized (Cummings

and Worley 1997).

Magnitude of change

Planned change can range from incremental change, which involves minute alterations in

the operations, to quantum change i.e. fundamental change in organizational operations

including structure, culture, reward system, information processes, etc.

Degree of organization

In highly mechanistic and bureaucratic organizational dimensions, structure, job design,

leadership styles, policies are too rigid and inflexible. In this type of organizations,

communication is suppressed, conflicts are avoided and employees are apathetic. In

contrast, flexible organizations have loose task definition, communication is fragmented

and job responsibilities are ambiguous. In bureaucratic organizations, change through

loosening the control on behaviour is attempted.

Strategies for Change Management

According to Bennis, Benne and Chin (1969), four basic strategies can be adopted to

manage change:

Empirical-Rational

People are rational and will follow their self-interest once a change is revealed to them.

Change is based on the communication of information and the proffering of incentives.

Normative-Re-educative

People are social beings and adhere to cultural norms and values. Change is based on

redefining and reinterpreting existing norms and values, and developing people‘s

commitments to new ones.

Power-Coercive

People are basically compliant and will generally do what they are told or can be made to

do. Change is based on the exercise of authority and the imposition of sanctions.

According to Nicklos (2004), there can be a fourth strategy in adapting to changes, i.e.

environmental-adaptive.

Environmental-Adaptive

People oppose loss and disruption, but they adapt readily to new circumstances. Change

is based on building a new organization and gradually transferring people from the old

one to the new one.

Toolkit for Managing Change

According to Nicklos (2004), some of the factors to select an effective change strategy

and some tips to manage change are described as follows.

Generally, there is no single change strategy. One can adopt a general or what is called a

‗grand strategy‘ but for any given initiative some mix of strategies serves best. Which of

the preceding strategies to use in your mix of strategies is a decision affected by a number

of factors. Some of the more important ones are:

Degree of resistance – Strong resistance argues for a coupling of power-coercive and

environmental-adaptive strategies. Weak resistance or concurrence argues for a

combination of empirical-rational and normative-re-educative strategies.

Target population -Large populations argue for a mix of all four strategies.

The stakes – High stakes also argue for a mix of all four strategies because when the

stakes are high, nothing can be left to chance.

The time frame- Short time frames argue for a power-coercive strategy. Longer time

frames argue for a mix of empirical-rational, normative-re-educative and environmental-

adaptive strategy.

Expertise- Having adequate expertise at making change argues for some mix of the

strategies outlined above. Not having the expertise argues for reliance on the power-

coercive strategy.

Dependency – This is a classic double-edged sword. If the organization is dependent on

its people, management‘s ability to command or demand is limited. Conversely, if people

are dependent upon the organization, their ability to oppose or resist is limited. (Mutual

dependency almost always signals a requirement for some level of negotiation).

Stress Management

Introduction

Stress has been defined as a physical, mental or emotional response to events which

cause mental or bodily tension. In the modern day life stress is a part and parcel of our

lives. At the same time, it should not exceed the capacity of an individual to handle it. If

it exceeds in proportion to a person‘s abilities to cope with it, it would cause mental and

physical imbalance in the person. Therefore, a major challenge for every one today is to

make stress work for you as a productive force rather than as a deterrent which can cause

imbalance in an individual.

While handling a stressful situation, the brain signals the release of stress hormones.

These chemical substances in turn trigger a set of responses that provides the body with

extra energy: blood-sugar levels rise, the heartbeat speeds up and blood pressure

increases. The muscles tense for action. The blood supply is diverted away from the gut

to the extremities to help the body deal with the situation at hand.

Types Of Stress

Stress can manifest itself in a number of ways depending upon the suddenness of an even

to be dealt with and types of stressors to be handled by an individual. It may manifest

itself either physically, emotionally and / mentally, as certain symptoms.

Physical – This happens when the body as a whole suffers due to stressful situation.

There are many symptoms like, headaches, tension in the neck, forehead, and shoulder

muscles. Long periods of stress can cause other serious symptoms like digestive

problems, ulcers, insomnia (sleeplessness), fatigue, high blood pressure, nervousness,

excessive sweating, heart ailments, strokes and hair loss as well.

Emotional – These responses are due to stress affecting the mind and include, anxiety,

anger, depression, irritability, frustration, over-reaction to everyday problems, memory

loss and a lack of concentration for any task.

Anxiety is exhibited as a response to loss, failure, danger or a fear of the unknown. Anger

is a response to frustration or social stress and can become a danger to other individuals,

if not kept in check. Depression is frequently seen as an emotional response to upsetting

situations, such as, the death of a loved one, illness and failure.

Psychological – Long-term stress can cause psychological problems in some individuals.

Symptoms may include social isolation, phobias, compulsive behaviors, eating disorders

and night terrors.

Stress may be classified into two types: positive stress (Eustress) and negative stress

(Distress). Moderate and manageable levels of stress for a reasonable period of time can

be handled by the body through mobilization of resources and is accompanied by positive

emotions, such as, enjoyment, satisfaction, excitement and so on. This beneficial element

in stress has been defined by Selye (1974) as Eustress (EU- meaning – good). However,

an overload of stress resulting from a situation of either over arousal or under arousal for

long periods of time causes the following: first an unpleasant feeling, followed by

physical damage, fatigue and in extreme cases, even death of an individual. This has been

termed by Selye as distress (dys- meaning – bad).

Potential Sources Of Stress

While environmental factors are forces outside the organization, which may act as

potential sources of stress due to uncertainties and threats that they create for any

organization and its members, factors within organization can also act as potential

source of stress. Together or singly they may create a tense and volatile working

environment which can cause stress for organizational members because the inability

of individuals to handle the pressures arising out of these sources.

The following may be seen to be the potential sources of stress:

Environmental factors:

o Environmental uncertainty influences stress levels among employees in an

organization.

o Changes in the business cycle create economic uncertainties.

o Political uncertainties can be stress inducing.

o Technological uncertainty can cause stress because new innovations can

make an employee‘s skills and experience obsolete in a very short period

of time.

Organizational factors:

o Pressures to avoid errors or complete tasks in a limited time period, work

overload, a demanding and insensitive boss, and unpleasant coworkers are

a few examples.

o Task demands are factors related to a person‘s job. They include the

design of the individual‘s job (autonomy, task variety, degree of

automation), working conditions, and the physical work layout.

o Role demands relate to pressures that are a function of the role an

individual plays in an organization.

a. Role conflicts create expectations that may be hard to reconcile or satisfy.

b. Role overload is experienced when the employee is expected to do more than time

permits.

c. Role ambiguity is created when role expectations are not clearly understood.

Interpersonal demands are pressures created by other employees.

Organizational structure defines the level of differentiation in the organization,

the degree of rules and regulations, and where decisions are made. Excessive rules

and lack of participation in decisions might be potential sources of stress.

Organizational leadership represents the managerial style of the organization’s senior executives. CEOs, by virtue of their managerial styles create an organizational culture which reflects tension, fear, and anxiety. They overemphasize tight control, hire and fire policies which keep organizational members on hot seat and create stress among them.

Individual factors:

o These are factors in the employee‘s personal life. Primarily, these factors

are family issues, personal economic problems, and inherent personality

characteristics.

o Broken families, wrecked marriages and other family issues may create

stress at workplace as well.

o Economic problems created by individuals overextending their financial

resources. Spending more than earnings stretches financial positions,

create debt situation leading to stress among individuals.

o A significant individual factor influencing stress is a person‘s basic

dispositional nature. Over-suspicious anger and hostility increases a

person‘s stress and risk for heart disease. These individuals with high level

of mistrust for others also cause stress for themselves.

Stressors are additive–stress builds up.

Individual Differences-

Five individual difference variables moderate the relationship between potential

stressors and experienced stress:

a. Perception

b. Job experience

c. Locus of control

d. Self-efficacy

e. Hostility

a. Perception: Moderates the relationship between a potential stress condition and an

employee‘s reaction to it. Stress potential doesn‘t lie in objective conditions; it lies in an

employee‘s interpretation of those conditions.

b. Job experience: The evidence indicates that experience on the job tends to be

negatively related to work stress.

First is the idea of selective withdrawal. Voluntary turnover is more probable among

people who experience more stress.

Second, people eventually develop coping mechanisms to deal with stress.

Collegial relationships with coworkers or supervisors can buffer the impact of stress.

c. Locus of control: Those with an internal locus of control believe they control their

own destiny. Internals perceive their jobs to be less stressful than do externals.

Internals are likely to believe that they can have a significant effect on the results.

Those with an external locus believe their lives are controlled by outside forces.

Externals are more likely to be passive and feel helpless.

d. Self-efficacy: The confidence in one‘s own abilities appears to decrease stress.

e. Hostility: People who are quick to anger, maintain a persistently hostile outlook, and

project a cynical mistrust of others are more likely to experience stress in situations.

Consequences Of Stress

Stress shows itself in three ways—physiological, psychological, and behavioral

symptoms.

Physiological symptoms:

o Most of the early concern with stress was directed at physiological

symptoms due to the fact that specialists in the health and medical

sciences researched the topic.

o Physiological symptoms have the least direct relevance to students of OB.

Psychological symptoms:

o Job-related stress can cause job-related dissatisfaction.

o Job dissatisfaction is ―the simplest and most obvious psychological effect‖

of stress (Robbins, 2003).

o Multiple and conflicting demands—lack of clarity as to the incumbent‘s

duties, authority, and responsibilities—increase stress and dissatisfaction.

o The less control people have over the pace of their work, the greater the

stress and dissatisfaction.

Behavioral symptoms:

o Behaviorally related stress symptoms include changes in productivity,

absence, and turnover, as well as changes in eating habits, increased

smoking or consumption of alcohol, rapid speech, fidgeting, and sleep

disorders.

Managing Stress

High or low levels of stress sustained over long periods of time, can lead to reduced

employee performance and, thus, require action by management.

Individual approaches:

Effective individual strategies include implementing time management

techniques, increasing physical exercise, relaxation training, and expanding the

social support network.

Practicing time management principles also leaves as an important element in

managing stress, such as:

a. making daily lists of activities to be accomplished.

b. prioritizing activities by importance and urgency.

c. scheduling activities according to the priorities set.

d. knowing your daily cycle and handling the most demanding parts of your job

during the high part of your cycle when you are most alert and productive.

Non-competitive physical exercise has long been recommended as a way to deal

with excessive stress levels.

Individuals can teach themselves to reduce tension through relaxation techniques,

such as, meditation, hypnosis, and biofeedback.

Having friends, family, or work colleagues to talk to provides an outlet for

excessive stress.

Organizational approaches

o Strategies that management might want to consider include:

a. Improved personnel selection and job placement leading to right

person-job-fit thereby reducing chances of non-performance and stress

level.

b. Use of realistic goal setting, redesigning of jobs can help in aligning

the individuals and job effectively and reduce stress.

c. Training in stress management techniques can be helpful.

d. Increased employee involvement improves motivation, morale,

commitment, and leads to better role integration and reduction in stress.

e. Improved organizational communication helps in creating

transparency in organizations and reduces confusion, thereby decreasing

stress level at work.

f. Establishment of corporate wellness programs is an important

component in managing stress among organizational members by

rejuvenating and refreshing them from time to time leading to increased

productivity with renewed energy.

Framework For Stress Management

As there is a positive side to stress and provides, drive, excitement and motivation for

individuals to push themselves to achieve more in their lives in the fulfillment of their set

goals, there is no requirement to eliminate stress form one‘s life. Managing stress should

be given importance rather than elimination. The goal should be to find the optimal level

of stress that can be handled effectively by an individual which will motivate the person

and not overwhelm and distress an individual.

How can one find out what is optimal stress for an individual?

There is no single level of stress that is optimal for all people. We are all motivated or

distressed by different levels of stimulations in a given situation. Age, mental strength,

upbringing and cultural factors can be important elements that my influence our abilities

to handle stress. How much resilience a person can exhibit while handling stressful

situations would vary across individuals as they are likely to differ in their physiological

responses to it. Researches have shown the following regarding our capabilities to handle

stress:

1. The person who enjoys arbitrating disputes and moves from job site to job site

would be stressed in a job which was stable and routine, whereas the person who

thrives under stable conditions would very likely be stressed on a job where duties

were highly varied.

2. Our personal stress requirements and the amount which we can handle before we

succumb to stress changes with age.

3. It has also been found that many illnesses are related to unrelieved stress. If one is

experiencing stress symptoms, one has gone beyond the optimal stress level; then

it is necessary to reduce the stress in the individual‘s life and/or improve the

ability to manage it.

How Can One Manage Stress Better?

Identifying unrelieved stress and being aware of its effect on an individual‘s life is

insufficient for reducing its harmful effects. Just as there are many sources of stress, there

are many possibilities for its management. There are two choices in this regard- either

change the source of stress and / change your reaction to it.

What is the path for doing so?

1. Become aware of the stressors and the emotional and physical reactions.

Notice what causes distress. Ignoring them is not a solution. Listing out all the events

that cause distress is important. What does an individual tell himself/ herself about the

meaning of these events? Determining how the body responds to the stress. Does the

individual become nervous or physically upset? If so, in what specific ways?

2. Recognizing what can be changed.

Is it possible to change the stressors by avoiding or eliminating them completely? Can

their intensity be reduced? Is it possible to shorten an individual‘s exposure to stress? Can

one devote the time and energy necessary to make a change (for example, goal setting,

time management techniques may be used)?

3.Reduce the intensity of the emotional reactions to stress.

The stress reaction is triggered by our perception of danger: physical danger and/or

emotional danger. Are we viewing your stressors in exaggerated terms and/or taking a

difficult situation and making it a disaster? Are we trying to please everyone? Are we

overreacting and viewing things as absolutely critical and urgent? Do we feel you must

always prevail in every situation? Work at adopting more moderate views; try to see the

stress as something you can cope with rather than something that overpowers us is a

solution for reducing stress, internally.

4. Learning to moderate our physical reactions to stress.

Slow, deep breathing will bring your heart rate and respiration back to normal.

Relaxation techniques can reduce muscle tension. Electronic biofeedback can help you

gain voluntary control over such things as muscle tension; heart rate, and blood pressure.

Medications, when needed and prescribed by a doctor can help in moderating the

physical reactions. However, these alone cannot do the job. Learning to moderate these

reactions on our own is a desirable solution in the long run.

5. Build our physical reserves.

Exercising for cardiovascular fitness three to four times a week (moderate, prolonged

rhythmic exercise is best, such as walking, swimming, cycling, or jogging). Eating well-

balanced and nutritious meals are a must. Maintaining the ideal weight is essential.

Avoiding nicotine, excessive caffeine, and other stimulants can be a great help in

reducing stress. Mixing leisure with work and taking breaks from routine work can relax

and reduce stress in a person. Getting adequate sleep is of utmost importance. Being

consistent with the sleep schedule helps in reducing stress to a large extent.

6.Maintaining our emotional reserves.

Developing some mutually supportive friendships and stable relationships help in sharing

bottled-up emotions and reduce stress. Pursuing realistic goals which are meaningful to,

rather than goals others have for set for us which we do not identify with can help in

reducing stress. Expecting some frustrations, failures, and sorrows as apart of life can

make us gear up mentally in handling stressful situations rather than succumb to them.

Organization Development

Introduction

Organization development (OD) is a planned approach to improve employee and

organizational effectiveness by conscious interventions in those processes and structures

that have an immediate bearing on the human aspect of the organization (Ramanarayan,

Rao, and Singh 1998). OD is an organization-wide planned effort, managed from the top,

to increase organizational effectiveness and health through planned interventions in the

organizational processes, using behavioural science knowledge. In the initial phase of the

development of OD, primary focus was on human as well as the process aspect of the

organizations with a view to improve trust, communication, teamwork and interpersonal

relationship (Friedlander and Brown 1974).

Characteristics Of Organization Development

A number of special characteristics together distinguish organizational development from

other approaches to managing and improving organizational function.

Behavioural science base

It is primarily concerned with improving the organization by focusing on aspects that

have a bearing on human and social improvement. Its principles have been drawn largely

from the field of organizational behavior and social sciences.

Normative approach to organizational change

OD is a normative process grounded in value-laden assumption of what constitutes ideal

individual and organizational growth. Development for the OD practitioners means the

movement of individuals and organizations in certain directions consistent with

democratic and humanistic values and ideals such as autonomy, self-actualization, etc.

Deliberate intervention in the organization

OD implies deliberate intervention in the ongoing processes of an organization. While all

the social systems, in the ordinary course of events, tend to grow in predictable patterns,

they may fail to optimize their capabilities due to an inability to recognize their potential

or to anticipate and effectively cope with internal and external crisis. Development

implies planning and action to ensure that growth takes place consistent with values.

Normative deductive strategy

It is based on the assumptions that the social norms are one of the strong reinforcers of

behaviour (Chin and Benne 1976). The culture of the organization is affected by those

norms and hence, to change the existing organizational culture prevalent norms have to

be reduced, modified and replaced by more effective ones. This approach talks about the

change in the organization, which looks forward to a long-term improvement through

internalization of new norms of behavior.

Systems approach to change

Leavitt (1972) has viewed an organization as a social system consisting of different sub-

systems such as task, structure, technology and human resource, interlinked by various

processes. Any change in one part or process has implications for other parts or processes

relevant to the system. OD techniques are used to change or modify the processes to

change the system consequently.

Using action-research model

Action-research model is a ―data based, problem solving model that replicated the steps

involved in the scientific method of inquiry‖ (French and Bell 1991). OD, using this

model, involves a systematic process of diagonising organizational problems through

data collection and analysis, feeding the data back to the organizational client group,

discussing the findings, planning collaborative action and implementing proposed

solutions.

Use of external consultant

Here, the assumption in OD is that the presence of a qualified behavioural scientist as an

external consultant can help the process of OD in the following manner:

The specialized knowledge of that consultant becomes available to the

organization.

The consultant, as a neutral outsider, is likely to face lesser resistance during the

process of change.

He is less likely to have a personal stake in implementation of proposed change.

Process Of Organization Development

A typical OD process can be divided into the following phases:

Problem identification: The first step in OD process involves understanding and

identification of the existing and potential problems in the organization. The awareness of

the problem includes knowledge of the possible organizational problems of growth,

human satisfaction, the usage of human resource and organizational effectiveness.

Data collection: Having understood the exact problem in this phase, the relevant data is

collected through personal interviews, observations and questionnaires.

Diagnosis: OD efforts begin with diagnosis of the current situation. Usually, it is not

limited to a single problem. Rather a number of factors like attitudes, assumptions,

available resources and management practice are taken into account in this phase.

According to Rao and Hari Krishna (2002), four steps in organizational diagnosis can be

identified:

Structural analysis: Determines how the different parts of the organization are

functioning in terms of laid down goals.

Processes analysis: Process implies the manner in which events take place in a sequence.

It refers to the pattern of decision-making, communication, group dynamics and conflict

management patterns within organizations to help in the process of attainment of

organizational goals.

Function analysis: This includes strategic variables, performance variables, results,

achievements and final outcomes.

Domain analysis: Domain refers to the area of the organization for organizational

diagnosis.

Planning and implementation: After diagnosing the problem, the next phase of OD, with

the OD interventions, involves the planning and implementation part of the change

process.

Evaluation and feedback: Any OD activity is incomplete without proper feedback.

Feedback is a process of relaying evaluations to the client group by means of specific

report or interaction.

OD Interventions

OD intervention refers to an activity that is carried on in an organization with the help of

an internal or external OD consultant for achieving a given goal or objective (Prasad

1970). Broadly, OD interventions can be categorized as under:

Human process interventions

Techno-structural interventions

Human resource interventions

Strategic interventions

Human Process Interventions

These interventions are aimed at the social processes occurring within organizations.

Some of the important human process interventions are discussed below.

T-groups

T-groups are designed to provide members with experiential learning about group

dynamics, leadership and interpersonal relationships. The basic T-group training or

sensitivity training is to change the standards, attitudes and behavior of individuals by

using psychological techniques and programs. Sensitivity training involves group

confession where the individual‘s problems become the problems of the group, which in

turn tries to find a solution. After critiquing others and being critiqued, doubt is

introduced into the mind of each individual as to whose standards are really proper. The

objectives of T-group training are:

Increased understanding, insight and self-awareness about one‘s own and others‘

behavior and its impact on self and others.

Better understanding about the group and inter-group processes (facilitating and

inhibiting group function).

Increased diagnostic skills.

Increased ability to transfer learning into action.

Process consultation

It has been defined as a set of activities on the part of the consultant that helped the client

to perceive, understand and act upon the process of events that occur in the client‘s

environment in order to improve the situation as defined by the client (Schein 1987: 11).

It deals primarily with five important group processes:

Communication.

The functional roles of group members.

The ways in which the group solves problems and makes decisions.

The development and growth of group norms.

The use of leadership and authority.

Third party interventions

It focuses on interpersonal or inter-group conflicts. Conflicts can arise from two sources:

Substantive issues like work methods, pay rates and conditions of employment.

Interpersonal issues such as differences in personality, task orientations,

perceptions among group members, completion over scarce resources.

Team building

It is an effective approach to develop and nurture a team culture in an organization, which

helps the group members to enhance their interpersonal and problem-solving skills. It

also helps group members to develop a higher level of motivation to carry out the group

decisions by overcoming specific problems like apathy, general lack of interest among

members, loss of productivity, increasing complaints within the group, confusion about

assignments, low participation in meetings, lack of innovation and initiation, increasing

complaints from those outside the group about the quality, timeliness, effectiveness of

services and products, etc. This intervention can be used for the following types of teams:

Groups reporting to the same supervisor, manager/executive.

Groups involving people with common organizational goals.

Temporary group formed to perform a specific, one-time task.

Groups consisting of people whose work roles are interdependent.

Groups whose members have no formal links in the organization, but whose

collective purpose is to achieve task they can achieve as individuals.

Depending on the types of teams, there are a number of factors that affect the outcome of

a specific team-building activity:

The length of time allocated to the activity.

The team‘s willingness to look at the way in which it operates.

The length of time the team has been working together.

The permanence of the teams.

Techno-structural Interventions

Due to increasing global competition and rapid technological and environmental changes,

the organizations are forced to move away traditional bureaucratic structures (functional,

self contained and matrix structure) to more flexible structures (process-based and

network-based structures). This involves streamlining of workflows through structural

adjustments by breaking down functional barriers. In this context, the techno-structural

interventions help the organizations in structural redesigning aiming at reorganizing

organizational structure, the alternative methods of organizing work activities and

integrating people in a better way.

Human Resource Interventions

These are concerned with methods of managing people in a more effective and efficient

way while ushering in the change process in an organization. These interventions are

traditionally associated with the human resource management function and are

increasingly becoming an integral part of the change management activities, for example,

dealing with setting performance goals for groups and individuals, performance appraisal

and reward management. Activities such as career planning, managing work-force

diversity, managing employee wellness also come under this category.

Strategic Interventions

These interventions focus on organizing the resources of the organization to gain a

competitive edge in the market. These generally adopt the top-down management of

change approach and require a thorough and in-depth environmental scanning and

awareness. The basic philosophy of this approach lies in developing core competencies or

getting access to larger market share and technology, hitherto absent in the organization,

through alliances with other organizations possessing the same. On the other hand,

interventions such as organizational culture change programme and organizational

learning helps organizations to gain the internal capacity to institute their change

management process successfully through continuous awareness, self-renewal and

learning. Thus, the thrust in this process is mainly on identifying the external sources of

change and developing internal capabilities to address them.

Abad Ahmed (1972) has proposed six steps in an OD process:

1. Motivation for change

The motivation for change emerges from pressures, external or internal, felt by the top

management or the new strategic decisions of top management.

2. Data collection, problem identification and diagnosis

Throughout the OD programme, especially at the outset, these activities should be acted

upon through interviews, surveys and meetings. Both, top management, other

organizational members and OD specialist take active part in these activities.

3. Planning strategy for change

At this stage, the diagnosis of problem is transformed into a proper action plan. Specific

goals are set and the specific approaches for attaining these goals are also specified

sequentially.

4. Intervening in the system

It aims to resolve difficulties, remove hurdles and give momentum to increase the

effectiveness of the organization (Dwivedi 2001). Here the OD specialists, and/or the top

management take active part in the process. Some examples of these interventions are:

job enlargement, process consultation and other laboratory methods, which have been

discussed earlier in this chapter.

5. Reinforcement and follow-up

A possibility of regression to the earlier behavioural pattern does exist if adequate care is

not taken to adapt mechanisms for reinforcement and follow-up of the planned change.

Establishing task force, project teams and temporary systems in the organization can be

created to perform the responsibility to implement and monitor the plans defined in the

OD programme.

6. Monitoring and evaluation

A need for careful monitoring to get feedback regarding the effectiveness of the OD

programme is always felt. In this respect, appraisal of the change efforts, comparative

analysis of control groups, pre and post-intervention assessments are some of the

methods to get the feedback in this regard.

Role of OD Consultant

According to Maheswari (1979), the role of an OD consultant is of a guru (teacher) who

needs to possess the knowledge, wisdom and sensitivity vis-à-vis the problems of an

organization. On the basis of his wisdom, he may advise the client (organization) to

implement certain changes. However, it has to be remembered that effective

implementation of the advices are sole responsibility of the client. The consultant intends

to advise the client to take appropriate actions, convinces the client for the required

changes and helps it to modify the mindset. OD consultants, in Indian organizations,

generally face the following difficulties (Dwivedi 2001):

The perception of the entrepreneurs about OD The owners of the organization, in India,

feel threatened that their power would be reduced if the OD interventions are applied, and

it would be difficult to discipline people. They also feel uncomfortable in discussing

about their operational methods with their managers or consultants. Moreover, they

generally do not trust consultants fully.

Role of the OD consultants There is confusion about the role of the OD consultant. It is

commonly believed that the role of the OD consultant is to diagnose all organizational

problems, suggest proper solutions, put these all in a report and leave it to the anagement

to take actions on it.

Job Satisfaction

Measuring Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is the sense of fulfillment and pride felt by people who enjoy their work

and do it well. For an organization, satisfied work force ensures commitment to high

quality performance and increased productivity Job satisfaction helps organizations to

reduce complaints and grievances, absenteeism, turnover, and termination. Job

satisfaction is also linked to a more healthy work force and has been found to be a good

indicator of longevity. And although only little correlation has been found between job

satisfaction and productivity, it has also been found that satisfying or delighting

employees is a prerequisite to satisfying or delighting customers, thus protecting the

―bottom line (Brown, 1996).

Creating Job Satisfaction

Probably the most important point to bear in mind when considering job satisfaction is

that there are many factors that affect job satisfaction and that what makes workers happy

with their jobs varies from one worker to another and from day to day. Organizations

aspiring to create a work environment that enhances job satisfaction need to incorporate

the following:

1. Flexible work arrangements

2. Task variety and significance

3. Job security

4. A supportive work environment

5. Competitive salary

6. Career opportunities

Job enrichment

It is a deliberate upgrading of responsibility, scope, and challenge in the work itself. Job

enrichment usually includes increased responsibility, recognition, and opportunities for

growth, learning, and achievement. Large companies that have used job-enrichment

programs to increase employee motivation and job satisfaction include, AT&T, IBM, and

General Motors (Daft, 1997).

Workers’ role in job satisfaction

A worker should also take some responsibility for his or her job satisfaction. Everett

(1995) proposed the following questions which employees ask themselves in regard to

job satisfaction at the workplace:

1. When have I come closest to expressing my full potential in a work situation?

2. What did it look like?

3. What aspects of the workplace were most supportive?

4. What aspects of the work itself were most satisfying?

5. What did I learn from that experience that could be applied to the present

situation?

The following suggestions can help a worker find personal job satisfaction:

1. Seek opportunities to demonstrate skills and talents.

2. Develop communication skills.

3. Acquire job related skills and try to implement them.

4. Demonstrate creativity and initiative.

5. Improve team building and leadership skill.

6. Learn to de-stress.

The ways of expressing job dissatisfaction

There are a number of ways in which employees can express dissatisfaction (Robbins,

2003). They are:

1. Exit

2. Voice

3. Loyalty

4. Neglect

1. Exit: Behavior directed toward leaving the organization, actions like looking for a

new position as well as resigning.

2. Voice: Actively and constructively attempting to improve conditions, including

suggesting improvements, discussing problems with superiors, and some forms of

union activity.

3. Loyalty: Passively, but optimistically waiting for conditions to improve,

including standing up for the organization in the face of external criticism/ crisis,

and reposing trust in the organization and its management to take the right

decisions and set things in order.

4. Neglect: Passively allowing conditions to worsen, including chronic absenteeism

or lateness, reduced effort, and increased error rate