Organisational Behaviour

Asst. Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

ATTITUDES
MEANING & DEFINATION
Attitude is an internal state of a person that is focused on objects, events, people that can exist in the
persons psychological world. When I say, I like Ram, I am expressing my attitude about Ram. Thus,
we can say that attitude is a bent of mind, Predisposition of certain actions.
According to KATZ & Scotland, Attitude is a tendency or predisposition to evaluate an object or
symbol of that in a certain way.
In simple the term attitude is often used in a generic sense to any reports of what people think or feel or
the ways in which they intend to act.

Meaning: Attitudes are our feelings, thoughts and behavioral tendencies towards a specific
object or situation. Attitude is a predisposition to respond to a certain set of facts. Attitudes are
evaluative statements either favourable or unfavorable, concerning the objects, people or
events. In the language of the layman, we may describe an attitude as the way we feel about
something. This may be a feeling towards college, cricket team, temple, democracy, parents,
things, ideas, politics and so on.
Characterstics of Attitudes
Attitudes can be distinguished in terms of (characterized by) their valence, multiplexity, relation
to needs, and centrality.
1. Valence: It refers to the magnitude or degree of favourableness or unfavourableness
towards the object / event. If a person is relatively indifferent towards an object then
his attitude has low valence. On the contrary, if a person is extremely favourable or
unfavorable towardss an attitude object, then his attitude will have a high valence.
2. Multiplexity: It refers to the number of elements constituting the attitude. For
example, one student may show interest in studies, but another shows interest, in
addition works hard, sincere and serious. Similarly, an employee may feel simply
loyal to an organisation. But another may feel loyal, respectful, fearful and
dependent.
3. Relation to needs: Attitudes can also vary in relation to the needs they serve. For
instance, attitudes of an individual towards the pictures may serve only entertainment
needs. On the other hand, attitudes of an individual towards task may serve strong
needs for security, achievement, recognition and satisfaction.
4. Centrality: It refers to the importance of the attitude object to the individual. The
attitudes which have high centrality for an individual will be less succeptible to
change.

Organisational Behaviour
Asst. Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

Components of an Attitude
The structure of a persons attitude consists of three vital components-affective, cognitive and
over (Fig.9)
Affection
Stimulus

Attitudes

Cognition
Behaviour

1.Affective component: The affective component refers to the emotions and feelings associated
with an attitude object. This component is often expressed as like or dislike, good or bad,
pleasing or displeasing, favourable or unfavourable.
In work organisations, the examples of affective components of a person x attitude towards Y
may be:
X dislikes
Y on personal grounds
X dislikes
Y because he is liked by employer
X dislikes
Y because he makes more money than X
X dislikes
Y because he takes good decisions despite the lack
of experience and training.
2. Cognitive component: Cognitive component represents the beliefs perceptions and
opinions of a person about an attitude object. The beliefs may be based on a variety of learning
experiences, rumours, misunderstandings, or any other information. You may believe that the
manager is intelligent, or stupid, ethical or unethical, good or bad, or autocrat or democrat.
3. Behavioral component: It is also known as overt component component. This component
is concerned with the way one intends to behave a particular attitude object. Both the affective
and cognitive components (feelings and beliefs) influence the way a person intends to behave
towards an attitude object. For instance, if a person has a negative feeling or belief towards an
object, he will be likely to behave negatively towards the object.
Attitudes and Behaviour
The relationship between attitudes and behaviour is highly controversial. On
cognitive theorists believe that changes in attitudes affect the behaviour of individuals. In other words, change in
behaviour calls for a change in attitudes of individuals.
1. First of all, the more specific the measurement of attitude, the more it is to be related to the behaviour.
2. Attitudes are related to behaviour. There is no doubt about it, but they are influenced by situational factors
such as pressures by union, top management etc.
Cognitive Dissonance theory: In the late 1950s Leon Festinger advocated the Cognitive Dissonance theory.
It explains the linkage between attitudes and behaviour of employees.

Organisational Behaviour
Asst. Prof. Abhipsa Mishra
Dissonance refers to a psychological inconsistency among different cognitions associated with internal attitudes
and behaviour. Dissonance means simply inconsistency. Two cognitions are said to be in a dissonant
(inconsistent) relation if one implies the opposite of the other. For instance, the cognition that a person is a
chain smoker is highly inconsistent with cigarette smoking is extremely injurious and cancerous to health.
Festinger argued that any kind of inconsistency is uncomfortable and the individual attempts to reduce
dissonance and hence discomfort. Research also concluded that people, in general, seek to reduce dissonance by
whatever the means. Festinger argued that any form of incompatibility will lead to a state of discomfort in

the minds of people and people will try to attempt to reduce the dissonance and seek a stable state where
there is a minimum level of dissonance. It is very difficult process to avoid dissonance completely. But
one can minimize the occurrences of such dissonance by carefully choosing the choices or changing the
attitudes suitably.
One of the most interesting examples of this cognitive dissonance is as follows:
Mr Ramesh, who has been brought up with high moral values and cultivated to do right things and
uphold strong human values, has joined a pharmaceutical firm as sales representative promoting and
selling drugs meant for expectant mothers. Based on this understanding and knowledge of
pharmaceutical field, he noticed that a particular drug is likely to have more side effects and it is
harmful to the expectant mother. His boss is forcing him to push the product more aggressively among
the doctors and hospitals. Due to this, he is undergoing a high level of cognitive dissonance due to
discrepancy between his attitudes (belief that the drug is harmful to the expectant mother) and behavior
(promoting and selling the drug). What will he do? Clearly, Ramesh is experiencing a high degree of
cognitive dissonance. Because of the importance of the elements in this example, one cannot expect
Ramesh to ignore the inconsistency.
There are several paths that he can follow to deal with her dilemma.
i)
ii)

iii)

He can change his behavior (stop promoting and selling drug) and quit.
ii) He can reduce dissonance by concluding that the dissonance behavior is not so important
after all (I have to make a living, and in my role as a sales representative, I have to promote the
drug and make my organization to maker profit). iii) He can change her attitude (There is
nothing wrong in this drug, and giving rationalization that all drugs have some amount of side
effects). The degree of influence that individuals believe they have over the elements has an
impact on how they will react to the dissonance. If they perceive the dissonance to be
uncontrollable results, they are less likely to be receptive to attitudes change.
Rewards also influence the degree to which individuals are motivated to reduce dissonance.
High dissonance, when accompanied by high rewards, tends to reduce the tension inherent in
the dissonance.

Attitude Formation
The question often arises where do attitudes come from? Attitudes are basically learned. People are not born
with specific attitudes, rather they acquire them through the process of learning. The determinants

FORMATION /SOURCES OF ATTITUDES

Attitude refers to the feelings and beliefs of individuals or groups of individuals. Now the
question is how these feelings and beliefs developed. The answer is attitudes are required, but not
inherited. A person acquires these attitudes from several sources which are discussed below:
1. Direct Personal Experience:-

Organisational Behaviour
Asst. Prof. Abhipsa Mishra
A persons direct experience with the attitude object determines his attitude towards it.
Attitudes based on personal experience are difficult to change. For example, individual taste towards his
negative bent of mind is because supervisors too tough and Co-Workers not Co-operative .This reveals
about direct personal experience.
2.Association:
Some times a new worker remains most of the time with company of a worker, who is in the
good book of the supervisor, and towards whom the supervisor has a positive attitude , the supervisor is
likely to develop a favorable attitude towards the new workers also. Hence the positive attitude towards
the new worker also. Hence the positive attitude for the old worker has been transferred towards the
new worker because of the association between the old & the new worker.
3. Family & peer group:
Attitude like values, are acquired from parents, teachers and peer group members. We observe the
way they do shape our attitudes and behavior to align with theirs.
4. Neighbourhood: The neighborhood in which we live has certain cultural facilities, religious
grouping & ethnic differences.
5. Economic status & Occupations:
Our socio-economic background influences our present and future attitudes.
Occupational position of the individual also affects his attitude formation
TYPES OF ATTITUDE:
A person can have thousands of attitudes, but OB focuses on the three basic work related to attitude.i.e,
1.Job Satisfaction:- This refers to an individuals attitude towards his or her job.A person with high job
satisfaction satisfaction holds positive attitude towards the Job, where a person with low job satisfaction
holds negative attitude towards the job.
2. Job Involvement:- The degree to which a person identifies with his or her job, activiely participates
in it,and considers his or her performance importance to self worth.
3. Organisational Commitment:- Organizational commitment is a state in which an employees
identifies with

a particular organization and its goal and wishes to maintain membership in the

organization.

Types of Attitudes: There are three types of job-related attitudes such as job satisfaction, job
involvement, and organizational commitment.
i)

Job Satisfaction: The term job satisfaction refers to an individuals general attitudes towards
their job. The likingness or dislikingness differ from individual to individual with respect to job
contextual factors or job content factors. Some people give much importance to job contextual

Organisational Behaviour
Asst. Prof. Abhipsa Mishra
factors like salary, security, supervision, supportive colleagues, company This watermark does
not appear in the registered version, working conditions, perquisites, promotions, equitable
rewards etc. Whereas others may show much interest in job content factors such as
advancement, challenging assignments, career progress, appreciation and recognition, work
itself. Research results revealed that the job satisfaction had a tremendous impact on improving
productivity, enhancing quality requirements, reduced absenteeism rate and employee turnover.
The employees expressed their dissatisfaction through so many ways such as leaving the
organization, raising their voice to demand to improve the working conditions, be patient by
passively waiting for the conditions to improve and neglecting everything in work. A person
with a positive attitude is likely to have more job satisfaction, while a person with negative
attitude is likely to have job dissatisfaction towards his or her job. Job satisfaction is one of the
major determinants of an employees organizational citizenship behavior. Satisfied employee
would seem more likely to take positively about the organization, help others and go beyond the
normal expectation in their job. Moreover, satisfied employees normally are more prone to go
beyond the call of duty because they were to reciprocate their positive experiences. The
following are some of the major determinants of job satisfaction mentally challenging work,
equitable rewards, supportive working conditions, supportive fellow employees, personality-job
fit, company policies and programs.
ii)

ii) Job Involvement: This refers to the extent to which a person identifies psychologically with
her or his job. The person feels that the job is more meaningful and it utilizes ones talent and
skills to the fullest extent. There is a perfect harmony between the types of skills a person
possesses and the work content. The individual experiences as if the whole work is being
carried out by him having full control over everything related to the work. Due to this
perception, performance level will be increasing significantly and enhance the overall self
worth. Employees with a high level of job involvement strongly identify with and really care
about the kind of work they do in their job. Job involvement measures the degree to which a
person identifies psychologically with her or his job and considers her or his perceived
performance level important to her or his self-worth. Employees with a high level of job
involvement strongly identify with and really care about the kind of work they do in their job.
There is high level of relationship between job involvement and fewer absences and lower
resignation rates of an individual.
iii) Organizational Commitment: It is refers to the extent to which an employee identifies
with a particular organization and its goals, and wishes to maintain membership in the
organization. The person shows much of association and loyalty to their organization.
Organizational commitment has gained a great deal of interest in recent years because of the

Organisational Behaviour
Asst. Prof. Abhipsa Mishra
changing nature of theworkplace. People, who feel a perfect congruence between his values,
beliefs, attitudes, and the organizational policies, practices, programs and its overall work
culture, are likely to have more commitment than those who have incongruence. In order to
elicit a high level of commitment from the employees, a due care must be taken at every stages
right from the recruitment to retirement. Administering suitable screening tests such as aptitude
tests, personality tests, interests tests etc will help significantly placing a right person to do a
right type of job. With fewer workers, managers want workers who identify with the
organizations purpose and will work hard to achieve its goals. Organizational commitment can
also be enhanced through organizational communication process, team briefing, supportive
leadership etc. A good fit between the personality and the job, an internal locus of control,
positive realistic expectations, opportunities for career advancement etc are the good predictors
of organizational commitment. A well designed formal mentoring program has also been shown
to increase organizational commitment. Promotional opportunity, providing employees with
more information, supervisors support etc are likely to improve organizational commitment.

PERCEPTION

Meaning of Perception
Perception can be defined as a process by which individuals organize and interpret their
sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment. Perception is not just
what one sees with eyes. It is a much more complex process by which an individual
selectively absorbs or assimilates the stimuli in the environment, cognitively organizes
the perceived information in a specific fashion and then interprets the information to
make an assessment about what people select, organize, and interpret or attach meaning
to events happening in the environment. Since perception is subjective process, different
people may perceive the same environment differently based on what particular aspects
of the situation they choose. For example, some employees may perceive the work place
as great if it has favorable working conditions, good pay. Others may perceive it as great
if it has challenging assignments and opportunity to grow
Perception is form of behavior and, therefore,
influenced by at least the following factors: i) characteristics of the object or source of
incoming stimuli (such as a supervisor issuing work request); ii) the situation or
conditions under which the stimuli occur (such as timing of a message) and iii)
characteristics of the perceiving person.

PERCEPTUAL SELECTIVITY

Organisational Behaviour
Asst. Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

External Attention Factors: Various external and internal attention factors affect perceptual
selectivity. The external factors consist of outside environmental influences such as intensity,
size, contrast, repetition, motion and novelty and familiarity.
1. Intensity: The intensity principle of attention states that the more intense the external
stimulus, the more likely it is to be perceived. A loud noise, or bright light will be noticed
more than a soft sound or dim light.
Advertisers use intensity to gain the consumers attention. Examples include bright
packaging and television commercials that are slightly louder than the regular programme.
2. Size: Closely related to intensity is the principle of size. It says that the larger the object,
the more likely it will be perceived. The maintenance engineering staff may pay more
attention to a big machine than to a smaller one, even though the smaller one costs as much
and is as important to the operation. In advertising, a full page spread is more attentiongetting than a few lines in the classified section.
3.Contrast: The contrast principle states that external stimuli which stand out against
background or which are not what people are expecting will receive their attention. The
following figure 11 demonstrates this perceptual principle.

The black circle on the right appears much larger than the one on the left because of the contrast
with the background circles. Both black circles are exactly the same size.

4. Repetition: The repetition principle states that a repeated external stimulus is more
attention-getting than a single one. Thus, a worker will generally hear better when
directions for a dull task are given more than once. Advertisers trying to create a unique
image for a product which is undifferentiated from its competitors such medicine, soap
and deodorant rely heavily on repetitious advertising.
5. Motion: The motion principle says that people will pay more attention to moving objects
in their field of vision than they will to stationary objects. Workers will notice materials
moving by them on a conveyor belt, but they may fail to give proper attention to the
maintenance needs of the stationary machine next to them.

Organisational Behaviour
Asst. Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

6. Novelty and Familiarity: The novelty and familiarity principle states that either a novel
or a familiar external situation can serve as an attention getter. New objects or events in a
familiar setting or familiar objects or events in a new setting will draw the attention of the
perceiver. Job rotation is an example of this principle. Changing workers jobs from time to
time will tend to increase the attention they give to the task.
Internal set factors:
The concept of set is an important cognition in selectivity. It can be thought of as an
internal form of attention-getting and is based largely on the individuals complex
psychological make up. People will select out stimuli or situations from the environment that
appeal to and are compatible with their learning, motivation, and personality. A brief discussion
of these factors will help in the understanding of perception.
1. Learning and Perception: Although inter-related with motivation and personality, learning
may play the single biggest role in developing perceptual set. Read the sentence in the triangle
below. (Fig.12)

TURN OFF THE THE

ENGINE

It may take several seconds to realise there is something wrong. Because of familiarity with the
sentence from prior learning, the person is perceptually set to read Turn off the engine. This
illustration shows that learning affects set by creating an expectancy to perceive in a certain
manner. Such expectancies are a vital element in the cognitive explanations of behaviour.
This view states simply that people see and hear what they expect to see and hear. This can be
further demonstrated by pronouncing the following words very slowly.
M-A-C-T-A-V-I-S-H
M-A-C-D-O-N-A-L-D
M-A-C-B-E-R-T-H
M-A-C-H-I-N-E-R-Y
If the last word was pronounced Mac-Hinery instead of Machinery, the reader was caught
in a verbal response set.
2. Perceptual set in the workplace: Perceptual set has many direct implications for
organizational behaviour. In organizational life, some employees have learned to perceive the
world around them in the same way. For example, the single sentence I cannot recommend this
young man too highly was reproduced and distributed to several managers in the same

Organisational Behaviour
Asst. Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

organization. Although this statement is ambiguous and unclear, without exception all the
managers interpreted this to be a positive recommendation. They had all learned to perceive this
statement the same way positive and favourable.
3. Motivation and Perception: Besides the learned aspects of perceptual set, motivation also
has a vital impact on perceptual selectivity. The primary motives of sex and hunger could be
used to demonstrate the role that motivation plays in perception.
In traditional Amercian culture, the sex drive has been largely suppressed, with the result
being an unfulfilled need for sex. Accordingly, any mention of sex or a visual stimulus dealing with
sex is very attention-getting to the average American.
The secondary motives also play an important role in developing perceptual set. A
person who has a relatively high need for power, affiliation or achievement will be more
attentive to the relevant situational variables.
3. Personality and Perception: Closely related to learning and motivation is the personality of
the perceiving person, which affects what is attended to in the confronting situation. For
example,. Senior-level executives often complain that the new young hot shots have
trouble making the tough personnel decisions concerning terminating or reassigning
people and paying attention to details and paperwork. The young managers, in turn,
complain about the old guard resisting change and using rules and paper works as ends in
themselves. The Senior and Junior-level executives personalities largely explain these
perceptions. There is also a generation gap that may contribute to differing perceptions. An
example can be found in the perceptions of modern movies. Older people tend either to be
disgusted by or to not understand some of the popular movies of recent years. Those in the
35-45 age group tend to perceive these movies as naughty but neat. Young, college-age
people tend to perceive them as Where its at.
PERCEPTUAL PROCESS:

Stage I: Receiving stimuli : The perception process starts with receiving

stimuli. It
depicts the environmental stimuli being received by the fives sense organs.
Stage II: Selection of the Stimuli: In this stage, selection of some stimuli
happens for
further processing while the rest are screened out. This is governed by both
factors
external to the individual, such as the size, intensity, repetition, contrast and
internal
to the individual, such as the self concept, belief, expectation, response
disposition of
the perceiver.
Stage III: Organisation of stimuli : The selected stimuli is organized in the

Organisational Behaviour
Asst. Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

perceivers mind to give it a meaningful term. The perceiver is influenced by

figure and ground and perceptual grouping
Figure and Ground:
What a person observes is dependent on how a central figure is being separated
from its background. This implies that the perceived object or person or event stands
out distinct from its background and occupies the cognitive space of the individual.
In a dance programme, the spectators tend to perceive the dance performance
against the back ground music, backdrop setup etc. The perceiver thus tends to
organize only the information which stands out in the environment which seems to
be significant to the individual.
Perceptual Grouping: It means grouping stimuli into an organized pattern. Ithappens on the
basis of proximity, similarity and closure.
Proximity: People tend to perceive things, which are nearer to each other, as
together as group rather than separately. If four or five members are standing
together, we tend to assume that they are belonging to same group rather than as
separately. As a result of physical proximity, we often put together objects or events
or people as one group even though they are unrelated. Employees in a particular section are seen
as group.

Similarity: Persons, objects or events that are similar to each other also tend to be
grouped together. This organizing mechanism helps us to deal with information in an
efficiently way rather than getting bogged down and confused with too many details.
For examples, if we happen to see a group of foreign nationals at an International
seminar, Indians are grouped as one group, British as another, Americans as yet
another based on the similarity of nationalities.
Closure: In many situation, the information what we intend to get may be in bits and
pieces and not fully complete in all respects. However, we tend to fill up the gaps in
the missing parts and making it as meaningful whole. Such mental process of filling
up the missing element is called as closure. For example, while giving promotions to
the staff members, the managers will try to get full information to make an effective
decision, in absence of getting complete information,
managers try to make meaningful assumptions and based on that suitable decision
will be made.
Stage IV: Interpretation: Assigning meaning to data is called interpretation. Once the
inputs are organized in human mind, the perceiver interpretes the inputs and draws
conclusion from it.But interpretation is subjective as different people interpret the
same information in different ways.
Stage V: Behavior Response or Action: In this stage the response of the perceiver
takes on both covert and overt characteristics. Covert response will be reflected in the
attitudes, motives, and feelings of the perceiver and overt responses will be reflected
in the actions of the individual.

Attribution Theory:
While observing peoples behavior such as getting an overseas assignment or promotion
to top management position or failed miserably in university examination or fired from

Organisational Behaviour
Asst. Prof. Abhipsa Mishra
the employer etc, we attempt to determine whether it was internally caused or external
caused. If those factors such as knowledge, skill, effort, talent, hard work, positive
attitude are responsible for the occurrence of behavior, it is labeled as internally caused.
Internally caused behaviors are those that are believed to be under the personal control of
the individual. If those factors such as situational factors such as location advantage, non availability of
material, contacts with influential others, etc are responsible for the
occurrence of behavior, it is labeled as externally caused. Externally caused behavior is
seen as resulting from outside causes; that is, the person is seen as forced into the
behavior by the situation.
If an employee is late for work, one can attribute his late coming due to laziness or lack
of interest in the job of over sleeping. This would be internal interpretation. If an
employee late coming is due to traffic jam or road accident or his wife sickness, then he
is making external attribution.
There are three factors which are used to determine whether the behavior is caused by
internal factors or due to external factors. They are: Distinctiveness, Consensus and
Consistency.

Distinctiveness:
It refers to whether an individual displays different behaviors in different situations. If a
person is coming late not only to office but also to picnic party or to birth day party or to
attending meeting etc. If his late coming behavior is not unique, it will probably be
judged as internal. (Low Distinctiveness) If his late coming behavior is unusual, that is,
only to office work, his late coming behavior is due to external attribution. (High
Distinctiveness)

Consensus:
It refers to whether all the people who are facing with a similar situation respond in the
same way or not. If all the people are responding the same way, then there is high
consensus. If consensus is high, then his late coming behavior is due to external factors.
If only this worker is late and all others are punctual, then there is low consensus. If
consensus is low, then his late coming is due to internal factor
Consistency:
It refers whether a person responds the same all the time, that is, whether his late coming
is common in all the days or once in a blue moon. If his late coming is reported in all the
days, then there is high consistency. If there is high consistency, his late coming behavior
is due to internal factor. If his late coming is reported only one time, then there is low
consistency. If there is low consistency, then his late coming is due to external factors.
The more consistent the behavior, the more the observer is inclined to attribute it to
internal factors.

Errors in Attribution:
While attributing the causes for the behavior of individuals, people tend to commit two
types of errors.

Fundamental Attribution Error:

There is tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the
influence of internal factors when making judgment about the behavior of others
particularly with reference to the victims of accidents or failures. This is called thefundamental
attribution errors. For example, a sales manager is likely to attribute the poor
performance of his sales agents to laziness rather than to the new product line introduced
by the competitor or current recession prevailing in the society etc.

Self-Serving Bias:
There is also a tendency for individuals to attribute their own success to internal factors
such as ability or effort, while putting the blame for failure on external factors such as

Organisational Behaviour
Asst. Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

luck or fate. This is called the self-serving bias. While assessing the performance of
subordinates, the managers are likely to provide feedback in a distorted manner
depending on whether it is positive or negative.

Frequently used shortcuts in judging others:

While observing others in our day-to-day life, people tend to commit errors due to faulty
perceptual process and make a wrong decision. This has to be avoided. There are five
types of errors or short-cut methods which are frequently used by the individuals. They
are:
i) Selective Perception
ii) Projection
iii) Stereotyping
iv) Halo Effect
v) Contrast Effect

i) Selective Perception
It is a tendency to observe people selectively and accordingly interpret based on their
interest, background, experience and attitudes. For example, a production manager is
always likely to identify the need to strengthen the production system; the marketing
manager will focus only on the marketing research and sales promotions activities. In
general, we tend to notice things which are similar to us. For instance, we are more likely
to notice the type of cars which are similar to ours. The simplest way of avoiding hasty or
wrong decision being made due to selective perception is to seek other peoples
perceptions of reality in the same situation in order to make a better assessment of the
situation.

ii) Projection
It is a tendency to assign ones own personal attributes to others. For instance, a manager
who is corrupt will tend to project that all others are also corrupt like him. Similarly, a
manager who loves challenging work might project that all others like challenging work.
Many times, this is not true, and the manager who tries to enrich all the jobs as
challenging might be leading to wrong motivational technique for other employees.
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.
Thus, managers should guard themselves against perceptual biases through projection.

Stereotyping:
It is a tendency to judge people based on the perception of the group to which he belongs.
We tend to attribute favorable or unfavorable characteristics to the individual based on
upon widely held generalization about the group. For instance, we perceive that Japanese
in general are hard working, quality conscious and industrious, and based on that we
generalize that all Japanese are like that, but in reality it may not be so. There are some
Japanese who may not possess the above mentioned characteristics. Similarly we assume
that women in general are soft, kind, caring, affectionate, considerate, gentle, but there
are some women who may not possess these characteristics.

Halo Effect:
It is tendency to draw a general overall impression about an individual based on single
striking characteristics. For instance, if a person speaks English fluently, we tend to
assume that that person is very knowledgeable, intelligent, smart, clever etc. hard
working, smart etc

Organisational Behaviour
Asst. Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

Contrast Effect:
It is tendency to evaluate a persons characteristics by just comparing with other people
who happened to acquire higher or lower position on the same characteristics. For
instance, while comparing the presentation of students, a good presentation made by one
student just before you will probably make you feel that you wont be as good as you
probably are. This contrast effect can distort our perception

Methods to overcome such biases in perception

The pitfalls listed above can be minimized by enhancing perceptual skills by consciously
putting effort in the following activities:
i) Knowing and perceiving oneself accurately
ii) Being empathic
iii) Having positive attitudes
iv) Enhancing ones self-concept
v) Making a conscious effort to avoid the possible common biases in perception
vi) Open communication
vii) Avoiding Attributions.

Organisational Behaviour
Asst. Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

IMPORTANCE OF PERCEPTION IN OB
People in organisations are always assessing others. Managers must appraise their subordinate's
performance, evaluate how co-workers are working. When a new person joins a department he or
she is immediately assessed by the other persons. These have important effect on the
organisation.
Employment Interview: Employment interview is an important input into the hiring decision,
and perceptual factors influence who is hired and vis--vis the Quality of an organistaions labour
force.
Performance Appraisals: Performance appraisal is dependent on the perceptual process. An
employees future is closely tied to the appraisalpromotion, pay raises, and continuation of
employment are among the most obvious outcomes.
Assessing Level of Effort: In many organisations, the level of an employee's effort is given high
importance. Assessment of an individual's effort is a subjective judgment susceptible to
perceptual distortions and bias
Assessing Loyalty: Another important judgment that managers decide about employees is
whether they are loyal to the organisation
Productivity: What individuals perceive from their work situation will influence
their productivity. More than the situation itself than whether a job is actually
[nteresting or challenging is not relevant. How a manager successfully plans and
organises the work of his subordinates and actually helps them in structuring their
work is far less important than how his subordinates perceive his efforts
Therefore, to be able to influence productivity, it is necessary to assess how workers
perceive their jobs.
Absenteeism and Turnover: Absence and Turnover are some of the reactions to the
individuals perception. Managers must understand how each individual interprets his
job. and where there is a significant difference between what is seen and what exists
and try to eliminate the distortions. Failure to deal with the differences when
individuals perceive the job in negative terms will result in increased absenteeism
and turnover.
Job Satisfaction:
Job satisfaction is a highly subjective, and feeling of the benefits that derive
from the job. Clearly his variable is critically linked to perception. If job satisfaction
is to be improved, the worker's perception of the job characteristics, supervision and
the organisation as a whole must be positive.
Understanding the process of perception is important because (1) It is unlikely that
any person's definition of reality will be identical to an objective assessment of
reality. (2) It is unlikely thattwo different persons definition of reality will be exactly
the same. (3) Individual perceptions directly influences the behaviour exhibited in a
given situation.

Organisational Behaviour
Asst. Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

Factors Influencing Perception: Several factors influence how we process the perceptual
inputs and transform them into outputs. There are three broad categories:
Characteristics of Perceiver,
Characteristics of Target, and
Characteristics of Situation..
1 Characteristics of Perceiver: A persons needs and motives, self-concept, past experience,
emotional state, and personality aspects strongly influence the perceptual process.
Needs and Motives: Unsatisfied needs or motives stimulate individuals and may exert a
strong influence on their perception. For examples, two groups of subjects One group who
is deprived of food for about 24 hours and the other group which had food enough were
shown the blurred pictures and asked to explain the contents. The first group perceived the
blurred image as food far more frequently than the other group. People needs and motives
thus play a big part in the perceptual process.
Self Concept: It refers how a person perceives himself/herself which in turn influence his or
her perception of the world around them. If a person perceives himself as incompetent, then
he perceives the world as threatening. On the other hand, if he feels himself as confident and
capable, he will perceive everything around as friendly.
Attitudes: The preferences and likingness affects ones perception. A lecturer, who likes
bigger class, feels comfortable in a lecture session which has more than hundred students.
Another lecturer, who likes small class with a lot of questions, may not be so comfortable in
such big classes.
Interests: Individuals focus of attention is also influenced by the interests of people. A
plastic surgeon will more likely to notice an imperfect nose than a plumber. Because of our
individual interests differ considerably, what one person notices in a situation, can differ from
what other person perceives.
Past experiences: Individuals past experiences also influence in molding ones perception.
For example if one has had problem responding to examination questions in the past, he or
she will tend to perceive even simple, straightforward examination question as tricky.
Likewise, if a person was betrayed by a couple of friends, he or she would never venture to
cultivate new friendship in future.
Psychological or Emotional State: If an individual is depressed, he or she is likely to
perceive the same situation differently from the other person who is at the extreme level of
excitement or happiness. If a person has been scared of seeing a snake in the garden, she is
likely to perceive a rope under the bed as a snake. Thus, the emotional and psychological
states of an individual also influence the perceptual process and the different types of
interpretation of the situation
Characteristics of Target: The ways things are organized around us are greatly influencing
the perceptual process. Some of the typical characteristics include bright color, noise; novel
objects, bigger unusual size, moving objects, status, appearance, contrast, intensity, repetition
etc. catch people attention. For example, an unusual noise raised by a person, a strong beam

Organisational Behaviour
Asst. Prof. Abhipsa Mishra
of light suddenly flashed, a very handsome, attractive person among a group of clumsy
people, a red light against the black background, an unusually obese person amidst a group of
slim people etc. Organization of Target: People tend to organize the various parts of elements
in the environment as a meaningful whole. Such organizing activity is a cognitive process
and those are based on Gestalt Principles. The following are the four Gestalt Principles
Figure and Ground, Proximity, Similarity, Closure, Continuation
Characteristics of the Situation: The context at which the incident is occurring can
influence the perceptual process. The physical, social, organizational settings, time etc can
influence how we interpret the stimuli. For example, late coming of subordinate at birthday
party may be ignored but treated him as an important guests by the manager, but at same
time, the same persons late coming to an important official meeting will be viewed as
seriously and manager may issue a memo seeking his explanation. Thus, the location of an
event, the social context in which takes place, timing and the roles played by the actors play a
significant part in how we interpret the situation

Organisational Behaviour
Asst. Prof. Abhipsa Mishra
MOTIVATION

Meaning : Motivation is a basic psychological process, Technically, the term

motivation can be tra ced to the Latin word movere, which means to move. This
meaning is evident in the following comprehensive definition: A motive is an inner
state that energizes, activates or moves (hence) motivation and that directs or
channels behaviour towards goals.
Motivation is defined as individuals intention or willingness to put maximum effort in
his/her work to reach organizational goals and enhance ones ability to satisfy some individual
needs

The key to understanding motivation lies in the meaning of, and relationship between,
needs, drives, and goals.
THE BASIC MOTIVATION PROCESS
NEEDS ------------------------ DRIVES -------------------------------- GOALS
(Deprivation)
(Deprivation with
(Reduction of
Direction)
drives)
Needs:
The best one-word definition of a need is deficiency. It refers to some
internal state that makes certain outcomes appear attractive. It is also a state of deficiency
and the organism tries to restore this deficiency to make it as equilibrium. An unsatisfied
need creates tension that stimulates drives within an individual. These drives direct the
individual in different directions or searching in different places to find a particular goal,
If the goal is attained the organism will satisfy the need and reduce the tension.
For example, a need exists when a cell in the body is deprived of food and water.
Drives:
It refers to an individuals intensity in reaching the stated goal. The
intensity varies from individual to individual and also depends upon the extent to which
individual assigns. If these efforts are channeled in proper direction consistent with
organizational goals, the organization will maximize its profit and reach a state of
excellence in their field
Drives or motives are set up to alleviate needs. A drive can simply be defined as a
deficiency with direction. The examples of the needs for food and water are translated
into the hunger and thirst drives, and the need for friends becomes a drive for
affiliation.
Goals:

Human behavior is always goal directed. Once the desired goal is satisfied,
individuals will always restate the goals or look for other goals to get satisfied. Goals will
always be changing from one level to another. In order to motivate an individual,
managers must ensure to set a goal in such a way which stimulates him or her to put more
effort in their work

At the end of the motivation cycle is the goal. A goal in the motivation cycle can
be defined as anything which will alleviate a need and reduce a drive. Food,
Water and Friends are the goals in our examples.

Organisational Behaviour
Asst. Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

TYPES OF MOTIVES
Primary Motives: Hunger, thirst, sleep, avoidance of pain, sex etc, are classified as
primary motives.
General Motives: The motives of competence, curiosity, manipulation
activity, and affection are called general motives.
Secondary Motives:
Power, achievement, affiliation, security and status are
important secondary motives.
THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

I. THE CONTENT THEORIES OF WORK MOTIVATION

The content theories of work motivation attempt to determine what it is that motivates
people at work. They are concerned with the types of incentives or goals that people
strive to attain in order to be satisfied and perform well. Now, let us discuss four
important content theories of motivation in the following section.
1. Maslows Hierarchy of Needs:
Abraham Maslow thought that a persons
motivational needs can be arranged in a hierarchical manner. In essence, he believed
that once a given level of need is satisfied, it no longer serves to motivate. The next
higher level of need has to be activated in order to motivate the individual Maslow
identified five levels in his need hierarchy.
Self - actualization
Esteem Needs
Love Needs
Safety Needs
Physiological Needs

CONTENT THEOREIS OF MOTIVATION

Maslows Hierarchy of Needs : Abraham Maslow formulated one of the most popular
theories of human motivation. Maslows theory is based on the following propositions.
The needs are arranged in a hierarchy of importance, ranging from the lowest need to
highest need level All needs are never fully satisfied Once a need is fairly well satisfied,

Organisational Behaviour
Asst. Prof. Abhipsa Mishra

it no longer motivates behavior The needs are interdependent and overlapping

Maslows theory of motivation explains five levels of needs.
Maslows framework:
It is based on three fundamental assumptions
1. Individuals are goals oriented whose needs can influence their behavior. Only
unsatisfied needs can influence behavior; satisfied needs do not act as motivator
2. A persons needs are arranged in an order of importance, or hierarchy, from the basic
(eg. Food and shelter) the complex (eg. Ego and achievement)
3. The person advances to the next level of the hierarchy, or from basic to complex
needs, only when the lower need is at least minimally satisfied. That is, the individual
worker will first focus on satisfying a need for safe working conditions before motivated
behavior is directed toward satisfying a need for achieving the successful accomplishment
of a task. Maslow classified these five needs into two broad categories as higher order
needs and lower order needs. The basic needs such as physiological needs, safety needs
and love and belonging needs were classified as lower order needs, where as self esteem,
self actualization needs were described as higher order needs
Maslow took a deprivation-gratification approach to need satisfaction. That is, he
contended that an unfulfilled or deprived need would activate a person to engage in
behaviouir that would satisfy or gratify that need. Once one level of need is gratified, the
next level of needs will emerge as the deprived needs seeking to be gratified. Maslows
need theory received wide recognition, particularly among practicing managers but it
lacks empirical support substantially. Managers, who accepted Maslows hierarchy
attempted to change their organizations and management practices so that employees
needs could be satisfied. Maslows theory is built on the framework that unsatisfied needs
serve as factors arouse people to behavior. When a need has been minimally fulfilled, it
then ceases to be a motivator of behavior. For example, as assembly line worker may
have a desire or need to become a supervisor. Through training programs or part-time
studies, this employee can be promoted to a supervisory role in the factory in due course
of time. The need to become a supervisor no longer exists, and therefore, the behavior of
the individual is altered to a new situating. An important point for managers to consider
is that highly deficient needs, or needs that have gone unsatisfied for long period of time,
serve to cause such behavioral responses as frustration, conflict and stress. Individuals
reaction to frustration, conflict and stress differs from individual to individual depending
upon environmental, organizational and personal factors. T

Implications of Maslows Hierarchy of Needs Theory This model helps the managers to
understand and deal with issues of employee motivation at the workplace. This model can be
applied to motivate people at all levels in the organization. Managers who understand the
need patterns of their staff can help the employees to engage in the kinds of work activities
and provide the types of work environment that will satisfy their needs at work. For instance,
the employees love and belonging needs can be fully satisfied by organizing yearly dinner
and dance program, office week end parties, creating recreation clubs or social clubs etc.
Fortunately, the workplace has the potential to offer need gratification for several different

Organisational Behaviour
Asst. Prof. Abhipsa Mishra
types of needs, and mangers can motivate employees by giving appropriate organizational
support which will gratify individuals needs. Thus, despite its drawbacks, Maslows theory
offers managers a good technique on understanding the motives or needs of individuals and
how to motivate organizational members.
Herzberg Two-Factor Theory of Motivation Herzbergs two-factor theory of motivation
suggests that there are two sets of factors which either led to job satisfaction or
dissatisfaction. They are Motivating factors and Hygiene factors.
Herzberg resulted in two specific conclusions:
1. There is a set of extrinsic job conditions that, when not present, result in
dissatisfaction among employees. If these conditions are present, this does not
necessarily motivate employees. These conditions are the dissatisfiers or hygiene
factors because they are needed to maintain at least a level of no dissatisfaction. These
factors are related to the context of the job and are called dissatisfiers.
These include: a. job security b. salary c. working condition d. status e. company
policies f. supervision g. Interpersonal supervision h. Fringe benefits
2. A set of intrinsic job conditions exist that help to build levels of motivation, which
can result in good job performance. If these conditions are not present, they do not
result in dissatisfaction. These set of aspects are related to the content of the job and
are called satisfiers.
These include: a. Achievement b. Recognition c. Work itself d. Responsibility e.
Advancement f. Personal growth and development
Motivating Factors The presence of motivating factors always ensures job satisfaction
and happiness among the employees. They are: achievement, recognition, responsibility,
advancement, growth and the work itself. These motivating factors are relating to the
work content factors.
Hygiene Factors The other set, which leads to dissatisfaction, is the hygiene factors such
as salary, company policy, supervision, status, security and working conditions. These
hygiene factors are relating to the work contextual factors. Herzberg argued that
improvement in the hygiene factors would only minimize dissatisfaction but not increase
satisfaction and motivation.
Implications for Managers: In order to motivate employees, the managers must ensure
to provide the hygiene factors and then follow the motivating factors. Hertzbergs
motivation-hygiene theory proposes that intrinsic factors are related to job satisfaction
and motivation, whereas extrinsic factors are associated with job dissatisfaction.
According to Herzberg, the factors that led to job satisfaction were separate and distinct
from those that led to job dissatisfaction. Therefore, manages who sought to eliminate
factors that created job dissatisfaction could bring about workplace harmony but not
necessarily motivation. Because they do not motivate employees, the extrinsic factors that
create job dissatisfaction were called hygiene factors. When these factors are adequate,
people will not be dissatisfied; but at the same time they may not be fully satisfied. They
will be in neutral state. If we want to motivate people on their jobs, it is suggested to give
much importance on those job content factors such as opportunities for personal growth,
recognition, responsibility, and achievement. These are the characteristics that people find
intrinsically rewarding.
Herzberg model sensitizes that merely treating the employees well through the good
company policies is not sufficient to them motivated. Managers should utilize the skills,

Organisational Behaviour
Asst. Prof. Abhipsa Mishra
abilities, and talents of the people at work through effective job designing. In other words,
the work given to employees should be challenging and exciting and offer them a sense of
achievement, recognition, and growth. Unless these characteristics are present in the job,
employees will not be motivated.
In Herzbergs framework, these managerial reactions have focused primarily on the
hygiene factors surrounding the job, which has resulted in bringing individual to the
theoretical zero point of motivation.
The two-factor theory would predict that improvements in motivation would only appear
when managerial action focused not only the factors surrounding the job but on the
inherent in most assembly line jobs and developing jobs that can provide increased levels
of challenge and opportunities for a sense of achievement, advancement, growth and
personal development.