Chapter – 1

INTRODUCTION TO ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

Introduction:
All organizations, be these business, educational, or government, are social systems. The
people run these. Human behavior is caused and highly unpredictable. Why people behave
as they behave has, therefore, been a subject of much interest and concern since our earlier
years. Therefore understanding human behavior has assumed great significance for the
managers for managing the people effectively. In other words, knowledge about why
people behave as they behave helps managers extract maximum results from people’s
efforts for accomplishing organizational goals in an effective manner.

DEFINITION:

OB is concerned with the study of human behaviour at work. In other words, OB is the study
and application of knowledge about how people as individuals and as groups behave or act
in an organization.

According to Luthans “OB is directly concerned with the understanding, prediction, and
control of human behavior in the organizations”.

Davis and Newstrom have defined OB as “the knowledge and application of how people act
or behave within organization. It is a human tool for human benefit. It applies broadly to the
behavior of people in all types of organizations such as business, government, schools and
service organizations”.

Key Elements:

There are four key elements in an organization which needs to be managed properly. OB.
These are: People, Structure, Technology, Job and the environment.
People:
People run organizations. People constitute individuals and groups. Though people
have much in common, they differ from each other. One can find glaring differences in

1
people’s traits, intelligence, personality etc. It is due to these individual differences the
manager cannot adopt one formula or standard across the board for dealing with the
employees. Instead, a manager has to treat the employees with individual differences
differently. Study of work teams and groups in the organization is also important.

Human behavior is always caused. Behavior is directed towards some goals. There is
always a cause behind every human behavior or act. The manager should know the cause to
solve the problem. People are living, thinking, feeling beings. The manager therefore, needs
to treat them with human dignity, not just like an economic tool.

Structure:

Organizations are social systems. There are two types of social systems that exist
side by side in an organization. One is the formal and the other one is the informal social
system. The formal relationship of people in organizations is called as structure.

Different jobs are directed to accomplish the organizational goals and objectives. All
people performing different jobs at different levels have to be related in some structural
way so that their work can be effectively coordinated.

Technology:

Technology provides the resources with which people work and also affects the
tasks that they perform. The great benefit of technology is that it allows people to do more
and better work. But it also restricts people from doing things in various ways.
Managing technology is an important job of any management. Selection of
technology, procurement, installation, operation and maintenance is important and no
compromise should be made in procuring advanced technology. Based on the technology,
an organization should formulate job structure and resultant procurement of human
resource so that they are complimentary to each other.
Jobs
Job is an assignment given to an individual. Job will have various tasks inbuilt in it.
Manager, therefore have to manage various tasks to accomplish a particular job. This may

2
form a part of managerial functions. Adequate delegation, supervision, application of
various control techniques makes the job simpler for the manager.

Environment:

All organizations operate within a given internal and external environment. In fact
no organizations exist alone. An organization is a part of a larger system that contains other
factors or elements such as government, the family, and other organizations. All of these
mutually influence one another in a complex way. Thus organizations are influenced by
external environment.

NATURE AND SCOPE OF OB

OB HAS EMERGED AS A SEPARATE FIELD OF STUDY. The nature it has acquired is identified
as follows.

1. A separate field of study and not only a discipline.

2. An interdisciplinary approach.
3. An applied science.
4. A Normative science.
5. A Humanistic and optimistic approach.
6. A total system approach.

SCOPE OF OB

1. Individuals; Organizations are the associations of individuals. Individuals differ in

many respects. The study of individuals, therefore, includes aspects such as
personality, perception, attitudes, values, job satisfaction, learning and motivation.
2. Group of individuals; group includes aspects such as group dynamics, group
conflicts, communication, leadership, power and politics and the like.
3. Organization /structure: the study of organization and structure includes aspects
such as formation of organizational structure, culture and change and development.

3
 Personality Group dynamics
Perception Group conflicts
Attitudes Communication
Motivation Leadership
Job Satisfaction Power and politics
Learning
Values Orgl.
Behaviour

Structure
Culture
Change

NEED FOR STUDYING ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

1. Organizational Behavior helps us to understand others and ourselves in a better

way.
2. The knowledge of OB helps the managers to know individual employees better and
motivate employees to work for better results.
3. The most popular reason for studying OB is to learn how to predict human behavior
and then apply in useful way to make the organization more effective.
4. Men run all organizations. It is the man working in the organization makes all the
difference. Then, it implies that effective utilization of people working in the
organization guarantees success of the organization.

4
CONTRIBUTING DISCIPLINES OF OB

1. PSYCHOLOGY: The discipline that has had the greatest influence on the field of OB is
psychology. It is a science that focuses directly on understanding and predicting
individual behavior. It has greatly contributed to intra-personal dynamics of human
behavior. The topics such as personality, perception, attitude, opinion, Learning, and
motivation describe intra personal aspects of OB.
2. SOCIOLOGY: Sociology is the study of people in relation to their fellow human
beings. Whereas psychologists focus on the individuals. sociologists study group of
individuals. The field of sociology has made valuable contribution to our
understanding.
3. Anthropology: Anthropology is the study of societies to learn about human beings
and their activities. Anthropology helps us understand differences in fundamental
values, attitudes, and behavior between people in different regions and
organizations.

Other social sciences: The other disciplines contributing OB are economics, Political
sciences, and history.

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 Chapter – 2

MOTIVATION

‘Motivation’ is derived from the word “motive”. Motivation is an inner state of our mind
that activates and directs our behavior. It makes us to move or act. It is always internal to
us. Motivation is one’s willingness to exert efforts towards the accomplishment of his/her
goal.

Definition:

1. According to Fred Luthans “Motivation is a process that starts with a physiological or

psychological deficiency or need that activated behavior or a drive that is aimed at a
goal or incentives.

2. Stephen Robbins states “Motivation is the willingness to exert high levels of effort
towards organizational goals, conditioned by the effort ability to satisfy some
individual need”.

Nature of Motivation

1. Motivation is internal to man: Motivation cannot be seen because it is internal to

man. It activates the man to move toward goal.
2. A single motive can cause different behavior: a person with a single desire to earn
prestige in the society may move towards to join politics, attain additional
education and training etc.
3. Different motives may result in single behavior: The same or single behavior may
be caused by many motives. If a person buys a car, his buying behavior may be
caused by different motives, such as to look attractive, be respectable, differentiate
the status and so on.
4. Motives come and go: Motives emerged at a point of time may not remain with the
same intensity at the other point of time.

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 5. Motives interact with the environment: The environment in which we are at a
point of time may either trigger or suppress our motives.
Motivation Process

Motives: Almost all-human behavior is motivated. Motive prompt people to action. Motives
provide an activating thrust toward reaching a goal. Example: Need for food and water is
translated into hunger or thirst.

Goals: Motives are directed towards goals. Motives generally create a state of Physiological
or psychological imbalance. Example: One’s personality is deprived of friends and
companions.

Behavior: Behavior is a series of activities to be undertaken. Behavior is directed towards to

achieve a goal.

MOTIVATION PROCESS

NEED FOR MOTIVATION:

1. People run organizations. Motivated employees are more productive and quality
conscious.
2. It enables managers to understand why people behave as they behave.
3. Appreciation of motivation helps the managers how to motivate their employees.
4. Organizations need to have employees with required capability and willingness to
use the advanced complex technology to achieve the organizational goals.
5. It develops employees as future resources.

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I. MASLOW’S NEED HIERARCHY THEORY: It is based on the human needs. He classified all
human needs into a hierarchical manner from the lower to the higher order.

1. Physiological Needs: These needs are basic to human life and hence, include food,
clothing, shelter, air water and other necessities of life. These needs relate to the
survival and maintenance of human life.
2. Safety Needs: After satisfying the physiological needs, the next needs felt are called
safety and security needs. These needs find expression in such desires as economic
security and protection from physical dangers.
3. Social Needs: man is a social being. He is, therefore, interested in social interaction,
companionship, belongingness, etc. it is this socializing and belongingness why
individuals prefer to work in groups and especially older people go to work.
4. Esteem Needs: These needs refer to self-esteem and self-respect. They include such
needs which indicate self-confidence, strength and capability of being useful in the
organization
5. Self-Actualization Needs: This level represents the culmination of all the lower,
intermediate, and higher needs of human beings. In other words, the final step under
the need hierarchy model is the need for self-actualization.

II. HERZBERG’S MOTIVATION-HYGIENE THEORY:

The psychologist Frederick Herzberg extended the work of Maslow and proposed a
new motivation theory popularly known as Herzberg’s Motivation-hygiene (Two-Factor)
Theory.

According to Herzberg “There are two types of needs, independent of each other”.
There is a set of job conditions, which operates primarily to build strong motivation and job
satisfaction. These are called ‘Motivational factors’. They are intrinsic in nature and help
increase one’s output. These factors have positive effect on morale, productivity, and job
satisfaction and overall efficiency of the organization.

Certain other factors do not motivate but they are needed in the organization. These
are called as ‘Hygiene or Maintenance factors’. When these factors are present they do not
8
motivate in a strong way, when absent they dissatisfy, that is why these factors are called
dissatisfiers. These factors are necessary to maintain a reasonable degree of satisfaction of
employees.

Hygiene Factors Motivational factors

Company Policy and administration. Achievement
Technical supervision. Advancement
Interpersonal relationship with superiors. Possibility of Growth
Interpersonal relationship with peers. Recognition.
Interpersonal relationship with Work Itself
subordinates. Responsibility
Salary.
Job security.
Personal Life.
Working condition.
Status.

III. MCCLELLAND’S THEORY OF NEEDS:

This was developed by David McClelland and his associates to help explain
motivation. The theory focuses on three needs: achievement, power, and affiliation. They
are defined as follows:
• Need for achievement. The drive to excel, to achieve in relation to a set of
standards, to strive to succeed.
• Need for power. The need to make others behave in a way that they would not
have behaved otherwise.
• Need for affiliation. The desire for friendly and close interpersonal relationships.
Some people have a compelling drive to succeed. They are striving for personal
achievement rather than the rewards of success. They have a desire to do something better
or more efficiently than it has been done before. This drive is the achievement need (nAch).
The need for power (nPow) is the desire to have impact, to be influential, and to
control others. Individuals high in nPow tend to be more concerned with prestige and
gaining influence over others than with effective performance.
The third need is affiliation (nAff). This need has received the least attention from
researchers. Individuals with a high affiliation motive strive for friendship, prefer

9
cooperative situations rather than competitive ones, and desire relationships that involve a
high degree of mutual understanding.

IV. McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y

Douglas McGregor introduced Theory X and theory Y which are diagonally opposite
to each other. According to McGregor human beings display very high degree of behaviour
relating to achieving self-actualization. There is interaction of variety of need fulfilment
behaviour by an individual in different situations.

Theory X assumptions:

(a) Work is inherently distasteful to most people.

(b) Most people are not ambitious, have little desire for responsibility and prefer to be
directed
(c) Most people have little capacity for creativity in solving organizational problems.
(d) Motivation occurs only at the physiological and security need levels.
(e) Most people must be closely controlled and often coerced to achieve organizational
objectives.

The theory Y assumptions:

(a) Work is as natural as play.
(b) People display extreme degree of self-control, which is necessary for achieving goals.
(c) The capacity of creativity in solving organizational problems is widely distributed in the
population.
(d) Motivation occurs at social, esteem and self-actualization need levels.
(e) People can be self-directed and creative at work.
There would always be a mix of both types of employees. Managers therefore will
have to tailor their motivational application in appropriate manner suiting behavioural
patterns.

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 Chapter – 3

COMMUNICATION

The word communication is derived from the Latin word “Communis’ which means
common. Communication involves imparting the common meaning to the other person.

Definitions:

1. According to Hudson “Communication in its simplest form is conveying of

information from one person to the other”.

2. Stephen P. Robbins views that communication refers to transference and

understanding of meaning.

Nature of and need for communication:

1. Communication involves two parties, one who transmits and one who receives the
message.
2. The two parties must have ability to convey and listen to what the sender has to
communicate.
3. Communication includes sending the message and also receiving the response to the
message.
4. The message may be conveyed verbally in writing, by means of signs, gestures or
symbols.
5. Communication is a continuous process.

The need for communication

1. Communication helps managers discharge their functions.

2. it ensures willing co-operation of others
3. Higher efficiency in job performance
4. Good communication system communicating quality information contributes
positively to the quality of decisions.

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 5. Communication flowing information throughout the organization maintains co-
ordination of activities across department in the organization.
6. It helps to mould the attitudes of the persons. It helps in developing labour-
management relationships.

PROCESS OF COMMUNICATION

The process of communication includes seven elements: 1. Communicator, 2. Encoding, 3.

Message, 4. Medium, 5.Decoding, 6. Receiver, 7.Feedback

Communicator Encoding Message

Receiver Decoding Medium

Feedback

1. Communicator: The communication process begins with the who has an intended
message to communicate. The characteristics of the communicators influence the
communication process.
2. Encoding: It refers to converting a communication message into symbolic form.
Encoding is necessary because information can only be transmitted from
communicator to receiver through symbols and gestures.
3. Message: The message is the actual physical product from the source of encoding.
When we speak, the speech is the message, when we write, writing is the message.
When we gesture, the movements of our arms, the expressions on our face ore the
message.

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 4. Medium: Medium is a channel through which a communication message travels.
Medium is the link that connects the communicator and the receiver. Face-to-Face
verbal communication, use of telephone, use of notice, circulars, statements etc.
5. Decoding: translating the sender message by the receivers is called decoding.
Decoding is the process by which the receiver draws meaning from the symbols
encoded by the communicator or sender
6. Receiver: the person who receives the message is called receiver. The
communication process is incomplete without the existence of the receiver of the
message. Communication to be effective needs to be receiver oriented.
7. Feedback: the actual response of the receiver to the message communicated to him
is known as feedback.

CHANNELS OF COMMUNICATION:
The channel of communication can be divided into three types:

I. Based on relationship: Based on relationship, communication may be of two types:

1. Formal, and 2. Informal
1. Formal Communication: the channels of communication established formally by the
management are called ‘Formal communication” the formal channels of
communication are used for the transmission of official messages within or outside
organization. It derives its support from scalar chain of organization.
2. Informal communication: communication, which takes place on the basis of
informal or social relationships among the people in an organization, is known as
informal communication.

II. Based on direction of flow : Based on direction of flow, channels of communication

are of four types:
1. Horizontal communication: it is also called lateral communication. It takes place
between the peers. It refers to the transmission of information among positions of
the same level. This facilitates co-ordination among the peers or people working on
the same levels.

13
 2. Upward communication: When communication flows from lower level employees
to higher-level employees it is called upward communication. It encourages
employees to participate in the decision making process and submit valuable ideas
and suggestions.
3. Downward communication: It refers to the flow of information from higher level to
the lower level. Such communication may consist of verbal messages, conveying
orders, Policies, Procedures, or written matters conveyed through notices, circulars,
handbooks, etc.
4. Diagonal communication: It refers to flow of messages between persons who are in
positions at different levels of the hierarchy and also in different departments. This
type of communication takes place under special circumstances.

III. Based on Method used:

1. Verbal communication: When the message is conveyed orally, it is called verbal

communication. It produces in communication a personal touch. Verbal
communication is the most economical both in terms of time money.

2. Written communication: Communication that takes place between people in

written form is called written communication. Example: orders, Instructions, reports
etc.

3. Gestural communication; When the message transmitted through some gestures, it

is called gestural communication. Example: Moving hands, and eyes to communicate
their ideas and views.

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 Chapter – 4

LEADERSHIP

What is leadership? - Definitions

According to George K. Terry “Leadership is the activity of influencing people to

strive willingly for group objectives”.

Koontz has defined leadership as “the art or process of influencing people so that
they will strive willingly and enthusiastically towards the achievement of group goals”.

Characteristics of leadership:

1. Leadership is a continuous process of influencing others behavior

2. Leadership is basically a personal quality that enables leader to influence the
subordinate’s behavior at work.
3. The success of the leader depends on the acceptance of his leadership by the
followers.
4. There is a common goal for leader and follower.

Difference between leadership and Management

Leadership Management
• leaders do the right things • Managers do things right
• Leaders challenge the status quo. • Managers accept the status quo.
• Leaders take a long-term view. • Managers take a short-term view.
• Leaders can use his /her informal • Managers hold formal positions and
influence. enjoy formal authority.
• Leaders create a vision and inspire • Managers achieves result by directing
others.

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LEADERSHIP STYLES:

The way the leader influences his/her followers is called “leadership styles”. There are three
basic styles of leadership:

1. Autocratic leadership or Authoritative style

2. Democratic or participative style
3. Laissez-Faire or Free Rein style

1. Autocratic or Authoritative style: In autocratic style, the leader centralizes power and
decision-making in himself/herself. The leader commands complete control over the
subordinates who are compelled to obey the orders. The subordinates have no
opportunity to make suggestions or take part in decision-making function.
2. Democratic or Participative Style: In democratic style of leadership, the leaders take
decision in consultation with the subordinates. In other words, the subordinates
participate in decision-making function. Hence, the style is also known as participative
style.

Several benefits offered by the democratic style of leadership are:

a. It gives opportunity to the subordinates to develop their potential abilities and

assume greater responsibilities.
b. It provides job satisfaction, on the one hand, and improves the morale of
subordinates, on the other.
c. Subordinates’ participation in decisions-making helps make right decision because
‘two heads are better than one’

Limitations: Democratic or Participative Style has the following limitations:

a. Decision-making is a time-consuming process in democratic style.

b. There is possibility that a few dominant subordinates may influence decision
in their favor.
c. The responsibility for implementing decision cannot be fixed on an individual
subordinates but the whole group

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 3. Laissez Faire Style: Laissez faire style is just the opposite of autocratic style. In laissez-
faire style, the manager-leader leaves decision-making to the subordinates. The leader
completely gives up his/her leadership role. The subordinates enjoy full freedom to
decide as and what they like.

Nonetheless, laissez faire style is found suitable in the following situations when:

1. Leader is able to fully delegate the powers of decision-making to his / her

subordinates.
2. Subordinates are also well competent and knowledgeable.
3. Organizational goals and objectives are well communicated to the
employees.
WHAT MAKES LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVE?
1. Mental and Physical Health: A healthy mind rests in a healthy body. A leader
needs to have sound health both mental and physical to be able to bear the pulls
and pressures of his role as leader. He must also possess stamina and balanced
temperament.
2. Knowledge and Intelligence: One most important requirement of a leader is to
have required knowledge of human-behavior, psychology and professional
competence. In order to evince his convincing competency, the leader also must
update himself continuously and keep renewing himself.
3. Clear-cut and Worthy Goals: Actions without clear cut directions lead nowhere.
That is why there is very little achievement in spite of a lot of movement in life.
4. Conviction: Swami Vivekananda said “Great convictions are the mothers of great
deeds” It is always man and women with conviction who influence others.
5. Sense of Responsibility: A leader also must be of sense of responsibility for the
task assigned to him. In other words, a leader must discharge his responsibility
thrusted upon him willingly and cheerfully.
6. Motivation: Effective motivation comes from within not from outside. Strictly
speaking, real motivation cannot be imposed or injected from outsides.

17
7. Initiative and Drive: You know that electric energy locked up in the power house
is of no use unless it is flown through the cables and manifested itself through the
medium of various gadgets so as to be beneficial.

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 Chapter – 5

PERSONALITY

CONCEPT OF PERSONALITY:

There may be so many personalities as many persons. Hence, there is no consensus

what personality is. Personality means different things to different people. To some, it
means one’s charm, Iris and attractiveness, to others it means a unitary mode of response
to life situations.
The English word ‘personality’ has been derived from the Latin word ‘personare’. It
means ‘to peak through’
According to Hilgard et at, “Personality may be understood as the characteristic
patterns of behaviour and modes of thinking that determine a person’s adjustment to the
environment”
In the opinion of Ruch, “Personality can be described as how he understands and
views himself and his pattern of inner and outer measurable traits”

DETERMINANTS OF PERSONALITY: The various determinants of personality are

broadly classified into three groups, namely,

1. Heredity
2. Environment and
3. Situation

1. Heredity: Heredity is transmitted through genes, which determine hormone

balance, which later determine physique and subsequently the personality. Heredity
refers to acquiring from parents certain biological, physical and psychological
features, which are further reflected in physical stature, facial attractiveness, sex,
temperament etc.
These factors have a deciding influence on how a person in an organization
would display his reactions in a particular situation. In good organizations and

19
 particularly in defence services a detailed screening is carried out of the candidates
based on the background of the parents as it relates to physique, psychological
makeup, disability and transferable disease as it has far reaching impact on the
general health of the organization.
1. Environment: Every individual is born and brought up in a particular environment.
Environment leaves an imprint on the personality of an individual. Environment
should be viewed from the point of view of norms, ethics and value that are
observed and the attitude displayed by the social group. These factors actually
formulate the culture of the society from which the organizations draw their human
resource requirements. The cultural background is important to evaluate
personality. It is therefore important to study early conditions under which the
child has been brought up, norms followed in the family and the existence of
cultural value system in the society. All these factors have a marked influence on the
personality of an individual.
3. Situation: Individual has to interact with number of problems in a given situation,
which does not remain constant. Situation changes from time to time. There is a
need to recognise the person-situation interaction. Thus personality is situational,
the uniqueness of each situation and any measure of personality must be examined.

Personality traits:
Personality traits are the characteristics of an individual when exhibited in large
number of situations. More predominant the traits in an individual are, more consistence
the individual is and more frequent occurrences in diverse situations. There are thousands
of traits that have been identified. However 16 personality factors have been identified,
which are called the source, or primary traits. These and their opposites are given below

20
Types of Personality

Type A: People having Type A personality are always moving, walking and eating rapidly.
They feel impatient with the speed the events take place. They always strive to do two or
three thing at any one time and cannot cope with leisure. They are generally obsessed with
work involved with numbers.
Type B: People possessing Type B personality never suffer from sense of urgency and take
thing as it comes coolly. They do not discuss achievement and leave it to the superiors to
identify it. People having B type of personality play for fun and relaxation rather than to
show off. These people have the tendency to relax without guilt.

Introvert Personalities: Introvert is one of the two basic orientations of people have.
Persons with introvert orientation are primarily oriented to the subjective world. Such
people look inward and experience and process their thoughts and ideas within themselves.
They also avoid social contracts and initiating interaction with other group mates,
withdrawn, quiet and enjoy solitude. People with introvert personality are found more
inclined to excel at tasks that require thought and analytical skill.

Extrovert Personalities: Simply speaking, extroverts are just contrary to introverts.

Extroverts are friendly, sociable, lively, gregarious aggressive and expressing their feelings
and ideas openly.

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 Introverts Extroverts
• Like quiet for concentration • Like variety and action.
• Tend to be careful with details, dislike • Tend to work faster, dislike
sweeping statements. complicated procedure.
• Have trouble remembering names • Are often good at greeting people.
and faces. • Often act quickly, sometimes without
• Like to think a lot before they act, thinking.
sometimes without acting. • Like to have people around.
• Work contentedly alone. • Usually communicate freely.
• Have some problems communicating. • Are often impatient with long and
• Tend not to mind working on one slow jobs.
project for a long time
uninterruptedly.

Judging Personalities: People with judging personality types like to follow a plan, make
decisions and need only that what is essential for their work.
Perceptive Personalities: These are the people who adapt well to change, want to know the
entire job and at times may get over committed. After going through the following table
you are able to understand better about the two types of personalities.

Judging Type Perceptive Type

• Work best when they can plan work • Adapt well to changing situations.
and follow the plan. • Do not mind leaving things open for
• Like to get things settled. alterations.
• May decide things too quickly. • May have trouble making decisions.
• Want only essential things needed to • Want to know all about their work.
begin their work. • Tend to be curious and welcome new
• Tend to be satisfied once they reach a information on a thing or a situation
judgment. or a person even at later stages.

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 Chapter – 6

PERCEPTION

We all come across various objects or things in our everyday life. We are also
constantly bombarded with various stimuli. Then, what we do in practice is while we receive
some objects, we expect others. Further, we look at the same things yet perceive it
differently. For example looking at a painting, some may perceive it as beautiful, the others
as ugly.

Stephen P. Robbins defines perception as “a process by which individuals organize

and interpret their sensory impression in order to give meaning to their environment”

PERCEPTION DIFFERES FROM SENSATION:

People usually mean sensation and perception the same. But, there is a clear-cut
distinction between the two. In simple words, sensation may be described as the response
of a physical sensory organ to some stimuli. Our physical senses i.e., vision, hearing, touch,
smell and taste are continuously bombarded by numerous stimuli that are both inside and
outside of our body. Our physical sensory organs often react to these stimuli. The reaction
of our eye to colour, ear to sound, nose to odor, and so on are the examples of our every
day sensations.
Perception is much more than sensation. As noted before, perception depends upon
the sensory raw data, yet it involves a cognitive process that includes filtering, modifying or
even changing these sensation raw data to make sense out of them.

PERCEPTUAL PROCESS

Inputs Throughput Outputs

Stimuli Selection Organization Action

Interpretation

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Factors Affecting Perception:

IMPROVING PERCEPTION:

1. Perceiving oneself Accurately: In order to perceive others accurately, one first needs
to perceive oneself accurately. Therefore, one needs to improve more awareness
about himself/herself.

2. Improving one’s Self-Concept: When people successfully accomplish what they want,
it develops a sense of self-regard and self-esteem. It is called ‘self-concept’. Research
studies suggest that people having self-concept tend to perceive others more
accurately.

3. Being Empathetic: Empathy means to be able to see situation, as other people

perceive it. In a way, it is like putting your feet in another’s shoes. Looking at a
problem from others’ point of view enables the person to perceive the other side of
the problem.

4. Having Positive Attitudes: Positive attitude makes one’s perception positive or more
accurate. Hence, the managers need to try to overcome their personal bias, get rid of
any negative feelings, if any, they have of others. These enhance an individual’s
perceptual skill.
5. Avoiding Perceptual Distortions: As discussed earlier, some factors such as halo effect
stereotyping, attribution, first impression, etc. distort one’s perception about things or
problems.

24
 6. Communicating Openly: Experience suggests that sometimes perception gets
distorted due to communication gap or / and inadequate communication. In such
case, effective communication needs to be developed to ensure that true and right
message reaches at the right place and at the right time.

In short, it can be summed up that perception skills can be enhance/improved by:

• Knowing and perceiving oneself accurately.

• Seeing a situation/problem as it is experienced by others, i.e. empathy.
• Having positive attitude towards the problems and situations we are confronted
with.
• Improving one’s self-esteem or self-concept.
• Avoiding the common biases in perception.
• Making two-way/effective communication to dispel mis-communication or lack of
communication.
• Making a conscious effort to avoid attribution.

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 Chapter – 7

VALUES, ATTITUDES AND JOB SATISFACTION

Value, attitude and behaviour are interlinked with each other. All these factors decide the
personality of an individual. Value shapes our attitude and behaviour. In an organization,
attitude is more important because it affects the job behaviour.

VALUES

Value represents individual’s standards, faith, ideals or even events and activity.
Value is very important constituent of an individual’s life. It is the broad frame of behaviour.
Values are imbibed by an individual based on inheritance and environment. The values are
basic thing that gives us a sense of right and wrong, good and bad. Values are learned.
These change as individuals grow and mature. Values are stable.

Definitions:

Rokeach defined value as “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”.
Value is important in the study of science of human behaviour. Value will dictate
attitude and human behaviour in the organization.
Types of Values
Allport and associates described six types of values. These are discussed briefly as
follows:
(a) Theoretical value: Theoretical value is related to importance and discovery of truth
through rational approach.
(b) Economic value: It emphasises usefulness and practicability of resources, efforts put in
by individuals and the consequent value derived there from.
(c) Aesthetic value: It is form of Harmony. Aesthetic value is displayed by cordial relations
between various levels of organization, effective communication, conflict free atmosphere
and very congenial work environment.

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(d) Social value: Is related to love of people, sense of belonging and an attitude of ‘we’
feeling. Such value is very important in the organization that brings together the employees
which are bound by a sense of participation that leads to high level of motivation and high
productivity.
(e) Political value: It refers to power and influence in the organization. Right people must
be placed at the right positions so that they are able to influence the people.
(f) Religious value: It is related to display of value which would bring unity and
understanding amongst the people in the organization based on common religious
platform.

ATTITUDES:

Attitude can be defined as “individual’s feelings about or inclinations towards other

persons, objects, events or activities.” Attitude encompasses such affective feelings as likes
and dislikes and satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Our needs, past experience, self-concept
and personality shape the beliefs, and opinions we hold towards the perceived world.

Definition
According to G.W. Allport, “Attitude is a mental and neutral state of readiness
organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon individual’s
response to all objects and situations with which it is related.”

Features:

1. Attitudes are related to the feelings and belief of the people.

2. Attitudes respond to persons, objects or events.
3. Attitudes affect behavior either positively or negatively.
4. Attitudes undergo changes.

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Types of attitudes:

Job related attitudes are of three types: Job satisfaction, Job involvement, and
organizational Commitment.

1. Job satisfaction: It is related to general attitude towards the job. A person having a high
level of satisfaction will generally hold a positive attitude while dissatisfied people will
generally display negative attitude towards life. ‘Attitude’, in organization context
generally indicates job satisfaction because they are inter-related in organizational
behaviour.
2. Job involvement: It is the degree to which a person identifies himself (psychologically)
with his job, actively participates and considers his perceived performance level
important to self-worth. High level of involvement indicates that the individual cares for
his job. Higher the job satisfaction, lower will be absenteeism and employee turnover.
3. Organizational commitment: Organizational Commitment is an attitude about
employees’ loyalty to their organization. It is a process through which employees
identify with the organization and want to maintain membership in the organization.

FORMATION OF ATTITUDE:

The Formation of attitudes takes place in two ways.

1. Direct Experience
2. Social Learning

Direct Experience: one’s direct experience with an object or person serves as a powerful
source for his/her attitude formation. In other words, attitudes are formed on the basis of
one’s past experience in concerned object or person.

Social Learning: The process of deriving attitudes from family, peer groups, religious,
organizations a culture is called social learning.

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Learning attitudes from observation involves the following four processes:

1. Attention: Attention must be focused on model

2. Retention: What was observed from the model must be retained
3. Reproduction: Behavior must be practiced again and again
4. Motivation: the learner must be motivated to learn from the model

JOB SATISFACTION

The study of Job satisfaction is one of most important factors in the study of human
behaviour in the organization. Job satisfaction focuses on employee attitude towards his
job. It has three important dimensions:
a) Job satisfaction can be measured by the emotional response to a job situation,
hence it cannot be seen, and it can only be inferred.
b) Job satisfaction is related to what you actually get as reward and what you expect to
get. If the difference between the actual reward and expectation is minimum or
negligible then a person will display a positive attitude and if there is wide difference
between the two, a person will display a negative attitude towards his job and
therefore the satisfaction level will be low.
c) Job satisfaction is related to job dimensions. These can be expressed in terms of job
content, remuneration, attitude of co-workers, and opportunity of growth that job is
able to provide in terms of promotion and last but not the least the expert loyal and
experienced leadership is available in terms of supervision.

Factors determining job Satisfaction

There are number of dimensions which effect job satisfaction. Some of the important
factors that determine job satisfaction of the employees in the organization are as under: -
1. Work Content: Content of the work itself is a major source of satisfaction. The content of
the work should be encouraging and interesting and have variety inbuilt in it so that it is not
boring. It should lend itself opportunities to use employee skills, ability and experience.
Once such job is completed successfully, the workers get a great sense of satisfaction.

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2. Pay and promotion policy: Salary and wages play important part in the study of job
satisfaction. Pay system and promotion policy of the organization must be just,
unambiguous and in line with the prevalent industry norms and employee expectations.
Employee wages and salary must ensure him the social status and should be able to fulfil
the expectations.

3. Supportive working condition: Working conditions have an impact on employees’ job

satisfaction. The working place should be neat and clean with necessary facilities as per the
law. Light, ventilation, cleanliness, enough space for work, immediate availability of
supervision, adequate latest tools etc. will definitely add to job satisfaction. If the work
place were closer to home, it would add to employee retention.

4. Work group: Work group of multi skilled persons with one goal will be able to function
effectively if they are friendly and co-operative. The work group serves as a source of
support, comfort, advice and assistance to individual worker. A good work group makes the
job more enjoyable. The work group support is essential for job satisfaction.

5. Supervision: Qualified supervisors should be available for advice, guidance and problem
solving. Supervisors should be placed close to the place of work and should be available.
Such supervision improves the morale and job satisfaction of employees.

6. Personality job fit: Individuals should be assigned the job that suits their interest. Job-
person fit helps the organization to achieve the objectives. It helps the person to get the job
satisfaction.

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 Chapter – 8

CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

To study the dynamics of organizational behaviour, study of conflict management

deserves attention. Conflict is good for the organization as it produces new ideas, increases
competitive spirit, cohesiveness in the team and instills an atmosphere of brotherhood in
the organization.

Austin and others define conflict as “a disagreement between two or more

individuals or groups, with each individual or group trying to gain acceptance of its views
or objective over others.”

Sources of conflict:

Structural factors Personal factors

• Specification • Skills and abilities
• Interdependence • Personalities
• Common resources • Perceptions
• Goal differences • Values and ethics
• Authority relationships • Communication Barriers
• Status inconsistencies • Cultural differences

CONFLICT MANAGEMENT:

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 1. Avoiding: One or both parties could avoid facing the conflict. This strategy is useful
when issues involved in conflict are of a very minor nature or when more important
issues deserve attention. Avoidance is a poor strategy hence if someone else is able
to handle the situation of conflict more effectively he should be allowed to do so.

2. Accommodating: In accommodating mode a person scarifies his own interest for

satisfy other person’s interest. This mode is usually adopted when other person’s
view is stronger, you want to achieve goodwill and indicate that you are reasonable.

3. Competing: This strategy may be adopted when other strategies of conflict

resolution are not workable. Competing is also useful in emergencies where quick
decisions are required. This strategy is based on win-lose principle of managing
conflicts.

4. Compromising: Compromising is a mode when both parties try to find out mutually
acceptable solution that sacrifices both the parties partially. In compromising, there
is no clear winner or loser. None of the party is fully satisfied.

5. Collaborating: This involves attempt of one party to work with the other party in
cooperative manner and find solutions to the problem for mutual benefits. This
strategy signifies when two sets of solutions are important for both parties to be
compromised. The strategy attempts a win-win situation to reach the goals.

Advantages of functional conflict:

1. Expressed conflict can improve communication that promotes growth.

2. Minimum level of conflict serves as pre-requisite for organizational development.
3. Conflict and its resolution improve relations of group members .This leads to higher
productivity.
4. Minimum level of conflict promotes stimulus for analytical thinking, which may
challenge views, policies and systems prevailing in the organization
5. Conflict can serve as power equalizer between two parties.

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POWER

Power, in the organizational context is derived from the official position held by an
individual in an organization. Leaders use power as a means of attaining group goals. Leader
uses power to ensure compliance of job assigned to them. Power is also used to control
various activities of individuals and groups. When we discuss power, authority is associated
with it. Authority is acquired from the organizational hierarchy.

Bases or sources of power:

1. Reward power: Reward power source derives from the person’s control over
resources. Example: Salary, bonuses, rewards
2. Coercive power: The power to punish or reward the power to threaten and to use
one’s position to force others to take action. Coercive power is based on the ability to
cause unpleasant experience of the people. Example: Threats and Punishment.
3. Legitimate Power: The power which is exercised in accordance with organizational
rules. This power is exercised with the authority of organization.
4. Referent power: This depends on charisma or personal attraction of the individual.
Interpersonal skill and emotional support from others are the sources of power for a
person.
5. Expert power: Power which is derived from knowledge. This power is based on
acknowledgement of others expertise.

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