Organisational Behaviour

ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AND ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE
Written by Late Prof. Anant R. Sapre

M.A. (S.W.) L.L.B.; M.M.S.
(FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY)
Published by
Symbiosis Center for Distance Learning,

Pune.
Symbiosis Center for Distance Learning (SCDL)

No part of this book may be reproduced or copied or transmitted in any form without prior permission of the publishers. April 2004
Published By : Symbiosis Center for Distance Learning Atur Centre, New Management Bldg., 1068, Gokhale Cross Rd., Model Colony, Pune - 411 016.
First Edition : 2002 Revised Edition : 2004 Revised by Prof. Vishwanath Joshi
MPM, DLL & LW Assistant Professor - HRM, PICT School of IT and Management, Pune.
PREFACE
This study material is an anthology - a bunch of flowers - of the thoughts of various thinkers, philosophers and Gurus of Organisational Behaviour. The initial print of the study material was entitled Industrial Psychology and Organisational Behaviour An anthology of thoughts. The present study material, however, concentrates only on Organisational Behaviour. It contains thoughts, material collected from various sources and books. The original work was published around 1994. It needed revision. I am thankful to the management and the Director of SCDL for giving me this opportunity to revise it. I would be ungrateful if I do not give my grateful thanks to my younger son Shri. Neelkanth alias Samir for his active help to me in putting all this material in print with the help of his computer and his computer skills and ever readiness to help me.
Prof. Anant Sapre
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Prof. Anant R. Sapre worked as Principal, Co-Operative Training College at Indore, Nagpur and Gawahati. He retired as Professor and Head of Department from Vaikunth Mehta National Institute of Co-Operative Management, Pune. Prof. Sapre has been teaching this subject to various Management Courses of Pune University since 1978. He has also been visiting faculty at SIBM, SITM and Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies. Mrs. Swati Chaudhari Director - S.C.D.L.
CONTENTS
Chapter No. TITLE Page No.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Introduction to Organizational Behaviour Understanding the Organizational Behaviour Perception Personality and Attitudes Motivation: The whys of Human Behaviour Work Motivation Theories Morale Work and Conditions of Work Conflict Management Group Dynamics Interpersonal Communication Stress Management Leadership Management of Organizational Change Organizational Culture Reference Books
1 15 23 39 73 83 99 105 113 125 137 153 167 185 203 213
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION TO ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
LEARNING OBJECTIVES Understand the importance of human element in the organisation. Understand the importance of the study of the discipline of Organisational Behaviour. Understand how Industrial Psychology, Scientific Management thoughts and Human Relations movement ushered in the discipline of OB. To understand the facets of Hawthorne Experiments and how their implications are useful for the study of OB. Organizations are the grand strategies created to bring order to a concerted effort for the achievement of certain objectives and goals. Since these objectives cannot be achieved by an individual or a small group of individuals, there are in the notion of the organization the concepts of division of labour, hierarchy of authority etc. Since an individual cannot achieve the objectives of an organization, it is necessary that many people be harnessed in the pursuit of an organization. However, in order that their efforts are meaningful they be tied in a meaningful relationship. This is achieved by creating the structure. The people in a structure work with the help of technology. In a typical organization, therefore, there is a constant interaction between people, structure, and technology. In order that this relationship bears fruits, every organization contains a blue print of human behaviour at work. The organizational rules, regulations, and procedures represent this. As it is, human behaviour is complicated enough. Added to it are structure and technology. Together, these three facets make understanding of the human behaviour at work complex. Furthermore, of all the inputs of an organization the people are the most important of all. While there can be a definite ratio of input to output when it comes to other inanimate factors of production, in the case of human beings there cannot be any such fixed ratio. This human element if handled properly by the manager, two plus two can equal five. Or else it can be three. It is therefore necessary for the manager not only to understand human behaviour properly but also to harness that understanding for the good of the organization. It is a fact that no manager can be much more efficient than the sum of the efficiencies of the
Introduction to Organisational Behaviour
people working with him. It, therefore, becomes necessary for him to study human behaviour within the context of an organization, having understood it try to predict the human behaviour and having predicted it try to control it. In the present day India the industrial scene has undergone tremendous change. The Indian Govt., until the last decade of the last century protected the Indian industry from foreign competition. The Government which drove out Coca-Cola in seventies, in 1992 threw open the economy to the multinationals. The multinationals which came on the Indian scene enjoyed superior resources in terms of money, technology as well as market network. With a view to facing the challenges posed by the multinationals a sea change in the attitudes of all those in a particular organization was a must. The responsibility to do this fell squarely on the shoulders of every manager. It called for the knowledge of the human behaviour at work. Also these days the composition of the workforce has undergone tremendous change. The industrial worker of today is more educated than his counterpart some ten or fifteen years before. The mix of the skills has also changed. If a manager desires to be effective he must understand the behavioural angularities of the employees. In a nutshell to be efficient as well to be effective a manager cannot be contented with having the knowledge of his area of work only. Typically the discipline of Organizational Behaviour attempts to accumulate the knowledge about the human behaviour at work on which the manager can draw for understanding, predicting and controlling the human behaviour at work. This is not to say that in the absence of this study of the Organizational Behaviour a manager may be ineffective. However, it does mean that in the absence of the knowledge or the study of OB the dealings of the manager with the employees will be a game of trial and error. In the modern times a manager cannot afford to have trial and error and hit and miss. It is expected of the manager that he hit the bulls eye in the first attempt itself. Therefore every manager, irrespective of his specialty, or the functional area should study the discipline of O.B. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF O.B. The field of O.B. has developed from the studies conducted by behavioural scientists such as industrial psychologists, psychologists and sociologists. The focus of these studies lies in the understanding of the human behaviour in the organisations. The levels at which these studies have been carried out relate to individuals, the small group, the inter-group and the total organization as a socio-economic-technical system. Some studies have also examined the interaction of the organization with its environment. The discipline of OB is based on empirical studies of human behaviour at the work settings. On the other hand human relations is the study of behavioural knowledge in working to develop human motivation towards the attainment of organizational goals. Human relations is action oriented and goal directed approach. According to Keith Davis the difference between the two is that of between a pathologist and the physician. While the pathologist attempts to understand 2
Organisational Behaviour and Organisational Culture
human illness, the physician tends to employ that knowledge to gain results. Thus O.B. and human relations are complimentary to each other. Behavioural scientists are focusing their attention on organizational theory, especially organizational adaptability, the relationship of organization structure to human behaviour and decision making. The study of managerial behaviour includes not only the tasks of getting things done through others but also why and how an individual behaves as he does. The specific questions which form the subject matter of O.B. are related to individual, interpersonal, small group and intergroup behaviour, interaction of formal organization and the informal groups and organization as a system, etc. The predecessors of O.B. are: a) b) c) a) Industrial psychology Scientific management movement Human relations movement. Industrial psychology:
Psychology is the science of human (and also animal) behaviour because it collects facts about behaviour by utilizing methods of science. Industrial psychology is simply the application or extension of psychological facts and principles concerning human beings operating within the context of business and industry. Industrial psychology draws upon the facts, generalizations and principles of psychology. It uses the methods from the parent discipline. Because it applies the techniques of psychology to the industrial scene and the problems confronting it, industrial psychology formulates and modifies procedures to meet the conditions found in the industry rather than in the laboratory. Among the early names is that of Walter Dill Scot who opened up the beginning of industrial psychology in America by showing how psychology could be applied to advertising and selling. Edward K Strong Jr. branched industrial psychology into guidance on vocational interests. Hugo Munsteberg with this his researches into industrial accidents and his book psychology and Industrial Efficiency, published in 1913, put industrial psychology in to the study of the worker. During World War I psychologists were quite active in the war effort, developing group tests for army recruits and aiding in the development of procedures for the selection of officer personnel. In fact, many of the post-war developmental areas of industrial psychology such as group testing, trade testing, rating scales, and the personality inventory had their roots in the activities of psychologists in the World War I efforts.
During the post world war I era industry first began to show an interest in the discipline of industrial psychology. Certain firms such as Proctor & Gamble, the Philadelphia Company and the Hawthorn plant of Western Electric Co. formed their own personnel research programs. In fact, it was at the Hawthorne Western Electric Plant that the famous Hawthorne studies were begun in 1924. These studies provided the foundation and impetus for the expansion of Industrial Psychology beyond the realm of selection, placement and working conditions into the study of motivation and morale and human relations. The depression itself had considerable effect on the development of industrial psychology. While it may have slowed growth in some directions, it nevertheless opened many additional areas for study. After the depression the importance of employee attitudes began to be recognized; consequently much development since that time has been in this area. World War II was also a major factor in the growth of psychology in industry. Although American Association for Applied Psychology was formed in 1937 as the official organization of industrial psychology, it was the huge psychological contribution to the war effort that proved to industry and others alike that applied psychology had important contributions to offer. Alongside also developed were various training programs of specialized types, and job analysis and performance appraisal techniques. b) Scientific management movement:
Frederick W Taylor with his ideas, he called scientific management, created the interest in the worker and the supervisor. It was he who advocated parity of wagesthe internal as well as external parity. It was he who developed various wage payment plans. It was he who insisted on supervisory training in order to make supervisor a strong link between nonmanagement and the management group. F. W. Taylor also recognized the need for giving financial incentives to the workers and therefore developed incentive payments plans too. The changes he brought to the management thought paved the way for later development of O.B. c) Human relations movement:
According to Fred Luthans three events cumulatively ushered in the era of human relations movement. They are a) the great depression b) the Hawthorne experiments and c) rise of trade unionism. The great depression: The economy was operating in the high gear just before the thundering financial crash occurred in 1929. The production and organizational specialists had achieved great results prior to the crash. After the crash the management began to realize that production could no longer be the only major responsibility of management. Marketing, finance and more importantly personnel were also required in order for a business to survive and grow. The depressions aftermath of unemployment, discontent and insecurity brought to the surface the human problems that 4
managers were now forced to recognize and cope with. Personnel departments were either created or given more importance and most managers now began to develop a new awakened view of the human aspects of their jobs. Thus human relations took an added significance, as an indirect, and in some cases direct. The rise of trade unionism: Another important factor contributing to the rise of human relations role of management was the organized labour movement. Although labour unions were in existence in America as early as 1792, it was not until the passage of Wagner Act in 1935 that the organized labour movement made an impact on management. In India, though workers unions existed since the later half of the 19th century, they operated under terrible legal constraints. It was only in 1926 with the passage of Trade Union Act 1926 that the managers began realizing that the trade unions had come to stay in spite of the wishes of the managers or for that matter management. The only go to avoid any probable friction with the trade union was to understand the human relations role of the management. Hawthorne experiments: - From 1924 to 1933: Western Electric Co. conducted at its Hawthorne Works a research program or a series of experiments on the factors in the work situations which affect the morale and productive efficiency of workers. The first of these, the Illumination Experiments, was studied in cooperation with the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences. In the remainder of the studies, the company was aided and guided by the suggestions of Prof. Elton Mayo and his associates from Harvard University. Because of the large part that Harvard played in the project it is often referred to as the Hawthorne-Harvard Experiments or studies. As Blum and Naylor in their treatise Industrial Psychology observed, the Hawthorne studies are of utmost significance as they form an honest and concerted attempt to understand the human factor rarely understood in industry, recognizing the employee attitudes, his social situation on the job and his personal history and background. The Hawthorne studies represent the pioneer attempts to make a systematic and intensive study of the human factor and to demonstrate the utmost complexity in work setting where people interact in small groups under varied organizational conditions. The studies point out that the needs for recognition, security and sense of belonging exert greater impact on workers productivity than the physical working conditions; that the attitudes and effectiveness of workers are determined by the social requirements obtained inside and outside the factory environment. The Hawthorne works of the Western Electric Co., Chicago, manufactured equipment for the Bell Telephone system and employed 30,000 workers at the time of experiments. Although, in all material aspects, this was the most progressive company with pension and sickness
schemes and numerous recreational and other facilities, there had been a great deal of employee discontent and dissatisfaction among its employees. After a failure of investigation conducted by efficiency experts of the company, in 1924, the company asked for the assistance of the National Academy of Sciences, which initiated its experiments with a view to examining the relationship between the workers efficiency and illumination in the workshop. Like any experimental design the researchers manipulated the independent variable (illumination) to observe its effects on the dependent variable (productivity) and attempted to hold other factors under control. The following are the broad segments of the study: Illumination Experiments: 1924 to 1927 To study the effects of changed illuminations on work, two groups of employees were formed. In one group (control group) the illumination remained unchanged throughout the experiments whereas in other group (experimental group) the illumination was enhanced in intensity. As anticipated, the productivity in experimental group showed an improvement. But, strangely enough the output of the control group also went up. The researchers then proceeded to decrease the illumination for the experimental group. The output went up once more. This showed that some factor was operating which increased productivity (dependent variable) regardless of higher or lower intensity of light. Obviously, there was something much more important than wages, hours of work, working conditions, etc. which influenced productivity. Despite their negative results the illumination experiments did not end up in the waste paper basket but provided a momentum to the relay room phase of the studies. Relay Room Experiments: 1927 to 1932. The relay room experiments that were initiated in 1927 represent the actual beginning of the Hawthorne studies conducted by Elton Mayo and his Harvard colleagues. Taking a cue from the preceding illumination experiments the researchers attempted to set up the test room and selected two girls for the experiments. These girls were asked to choose other four girls, thus making a small group of six. The group was employed in assembling telephone relays. Throughout the series of experiments that lasted over a period of five years, an active observer was sitting with the girls in the workshop. He recorded all that went on in the room, kept the girls informed about the experiments, asked for advice and listened to their complaints. The experiment started by introducing numerous changes each of which continued for a test period ranging from four to twelve weeks. Under normal working conditions with a forty-eight hour week and no rest pauses, each girl produced 2400 relays a week. These girls were then placed on piecework basis for eight weeks and productivity increased. Next, two five minutes rest pauses were introduced and afterwards increased to ten minutes; productivity increased sharply. After this six five-minute breaks were introduced, there was a 6
slight fall in the productivity as the girls complained that their work rhythm was broken because of these breaks. Therefore, again two five-minute pauses were introduced. The company provided a hot meal free of charge, the productivity increased. The girls dispersed at four thirty instead of five p.m. and productivity increased. Subsequently, they were allowed to disperse at four p.m. and productivity still remained the same. After that all the amenities were withdrawn and the girls returned to their normal working conditions with a forty eight-week, including Saturdays, no rest breaks, no piecework and no free meals. This remained for a period of twelve weeks and the productivity was the highest ever achieved. These results imply that productivity increased basically because of a change in the girls attitudes towards their work and their work groups. They were made to feel important by soliciting assistance and cooperation. They were no longer cogs in a machine but formed congenial group attempting to assist the company to solve a problem. A feeling of stability and a sense of belonging grew. Therefore, they worked faster and better than before. Medical examination conducted regularly revealed no symptoms of cumulative fatigue. Absenteeism also decreased by eighty percent. It was also observed that girls employed their own techniques of assembling the parts of relays together to avoid monotony. The girls were also given freedom of movement. Under the circumstances the group developed a sense of responsibility and self-discipline. It was concluded that the independent variables i.e. rest etc. were not by themselves causing the variations in the dependent variable i.e. productivity. iii) Second Relay Room and Mica Splitting test room experiments:
These studies were conducted as a follow up measure. The researchers set up the second relay assembly group to assess the effects of wage incentives on productivity. A group of five workers with adequate experience were shifted to similar positions in the regular department, The nature of supervision, general working conditions and the work setting were similar to those of other workers in the regular department. The difference was that the assemblers in the second relay group were engaged on a different, small group piece rate scheme. This arrangement led to a twelve percent rise in productivity of the experimental group. In the Mica Splitting study, although the isolated test room conditions of the original relay study were reproduced, the workers were engaged under their normal individual piece rate plan rather than small group incentive schemes employed with the lay room experimental subjects. The results revealed an average increase of fifteen percent of productivity during a period of fourteen months. The outcome of these two studies was quite vague. As Rothlisberger & Dickson in their concluding remarks observed, there was no evidence to support the hypothesis that the constant rise in the productivity in the relay assembly test room could be attributed to the wage incentives variable alone. It was concluded that the efficacy of a wage incentive scheme was so dependent on other variables as well that it could not be considered as the sole factor to affect the worker.
Mass Interviewing Program: 1928-1930 Another major aspect of the Hawthorne studies consisted of 21,000 interviews carried out during 1928 to 1930. The original objective was to explore information, which could be used to improve supervisory training. Initially, these interviews were conducted by means of direct questioning. However, this method had the disadvantages of either stimulating antagonism or the over simplified yes or no responses, which could not get to the root of the problems. Therefore, the method was changed to non directive interviewing where the interviewer was to listen instead of talk, argue or advice, and take on the role of confidant. On the basis this interviewing program, the following inferences were drawn. 1) Only giving a person an opportunity to talk and air his grievances had a positive impact on his morale. Complaints were no longer necessarily objective statements job facts. Rather, they were frequently symptoms of more deep-rooted disturbances. Workers were governed by the experiences obtained, both inside and outside the company in respect of their demands The worker is satisfied or dissatisfied depending upon how he regarded his social status in the company and what he felt he was entitled to rather than in terms of any objective reference.
2)
3)
4)
Bank wiring room study: Nov 1931 to May 1932 The chief objective was to conduct an observational analysis of the work group. There were fourteen men employed on bank wiring. This was the process where two lose wire ends were soldered. This group of fourteen employees included nine wiremen, three soldermen and two inspectors. The job involved attaching wires to switches for certain parts of telephone equipment. Because of some practical difficulties the study was conducted in a separate test room. However, the study involved no experimental changes once it had started, it was carried out by two persons an observer and an interviewer. The observer sat in the wiring room being friendly but appeared non-committal. Thus, he won the confidence of the group and was accepted as a regular member. The interviewer, however, remained an outsider and his task was to explore as much as possible by interviewing the individual worker about his thought and feeling, his values and attitudes etc. He carried out his work under strict confidence, privately and in a different part of the factory. Although he never entered the wiring room, he kept in constant touch with observer. Besides these arrangements, other conditions were identical with the Bank wiring department itself in-so-far as that even the departments regular supervisors were used the Bank wiring room to maintain order and control. 8
The results of the Bank wiring room which are markedly opposite to those obtained Relay Room, revealed that this small group of workers emerged as a team with informal leaders who had come up spontaneously. The group was indifferent towards the financial incentives of the factory because despite the incentive scheme, the output was neither more nor less than 6000 units although optimum capacity was 7000 units per day. It may be noted that whenever any worker attempted to produce more than this group determined quota, he was soon compelled to return to his original output. To do this, the group invented a game known as binging. The group norms were more important to the group members than any financial incentive. There prevailed an unwritten code of conduct, which determined a fair days work and had influence over the group members. Thus, there existed a highly integrated group in the Bank wiring room, which possessed its own social system contradictory to the objectives of the factory. This implied that it would be irrational to break up these groups. Rather, attempts should be made to see that the interests of the management and workers are identical to such an extent that these informal groups facilitate the achievement of the organisations objectives rather than obstructing them. Implications of the Hawthorne Studies Why were such contradictory results obtained in the Relay room and the Bank wiring room? As pointed out earlier, in the relay room production constantly increased throughout the test periods and relay assemblers were greatly motivated and equipped with positive attitudes whereas, in the Bank wiring room there prevailed a restriction of production among dissatisfied workers who displayed negative attitudes towards the objective of the factory. Why? The answer to this question can be found in the reactions of the girls to the Relay test room. They unanimously showed marked preference for working in the test room rather than in the regular department, because of small group, nature of supervision, earnings, novelty of situation, interest in the experiment and attention received in the test room. It may be noted that the last three reasons are related to the well-known Hawthorn effect. Numerous behavioural scientists tend to overlook the significance of the first three reasons and are of the opinion that the phenomenal increase in the productivity in the relay room can be attributed primarily to this effect. It may be noted that the Relay room and the Bank wiring room studies differed in the supervisory aspects. Although in the Relay room there were no regular supervisors engaged, the girls assigned the second priority to nature of supervision which prompted them to increase production and made them feel happier. They regarded the friendly, attentive and genuinely interested
observer as their supervisor. However, in the Bank wiring room where regular departmental supervisors were directed to maintain order and control, this arrangement caused inhibitions. Even the observer, who acted as the disinterested and detached spectator, was accepted as a member of the group rather than as a a supervisor. Therefore, it could be inferred that the quality of supervision played a vital role in determining productivity along with Hawthorne effect. A specific conclusion drawn from these studies is that in informal groups operating within the work settings exert strong social controls over the work habits and performances of the individual workers. Last but not the least, the studies revealed that supervision has a great impact on the behaviour of the work groups in determining as to whether they will react positively or negatively while working towards the organizational objectives. The discipline of OB came to be recognized as a field of study around 1950, though no exact date can be put. It will be seen that while industrial psychology, scientific management, human relations, have defined their areas of studies and research, the field of OB is still growing. OB studies not only the human behaviour within the parameters of the organization but also the group dynamics. This is because the study of the human behaviour within the organization would be incomplete unless inter-personal relations and intergroup relations are studied. OB also recognizes that the external environment influences the internal organizational environment. The fruits of any organizational effort are dependent upon the external environment. In the external environment are many factors that influence the ultimate outcome of the internal organizational effort. OB, therefore, studies external environment, which influences the human behaviour within an organization. That is how OB takes cognizance of TQM, (Total quality management); TPM (Total productivity management) or for that matter any new concepts originating in the external environment.
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SUMMARY The efficiency of the people a manager is working with puts a ceiling on his effectiveness .If, therefore, he wants to be effective and efficient he must study the discipline of OB. Some of the major contributors to the development of OB are industrial psychology, scientific management movement, and human relations movement. Industrial psychology focused it attention on the development of tests for the recruitment of employees etc. Scientific management movement sought to improve productivity by rationalising the work, by introduction of various wage and incentive plans. Three factors cumulatively contributed to the rise of human relations movement. They are the great depression, rise of trade unionism and Hawthorne experiments. The discipline of OB tries to synchronise internal organisational environment with the external social environment. Therefore OB is still a growing discipline encompassing more and more new concepts emerging in the external social environment.
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Chapter 2
UNDERSTANDING ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
LEARNING OBJECTIVES To see various definitions of OB. To understand various OB concepts. To understand various models. Human behaviour in organization is determined partly by the requirements of the formal organization and partly by the personal systems of the individuals forming the organization. The behaviour that emerges from this interaction defines the field of organizational behaviour. The study of Organization Behaviour has certain basic assumptions. They are: i) ii) iii) iv) an industrial enterprise is an organization of people; these people must be motivated to work effectively; the goals of the employee and the employer may not necessarily coincide; the policies and procedures adopted in an enterprise may influence people in the directions not always foreseen by the policy makers.
According to Keith Davis Organizational Behaviour is the study and application of knowledge about how people act within organizations. It is a human tool for the human benefit. It applies broadly to the behaviour of people in all types of organizations such as business, government, schools, etc. It helps people, structure, technology, and the external environment blend together into an effective operative system. Fred Luthans defines organizational behaviour as understanding, predicting and controlling human behaviour at work. Stephen Robins defines OB as a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behaviour in organisations for the purpose of applying such knowledge towards improving an organisations effectiveness.
Understanding Organisational Behaviour
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FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS OF O.B.: Every discipline of study has certain set of fundamental concepts. These concepts are a priorate. They do not lend themselves to the question why so. They are something, which have to be accepted and not questioned. They are the foundation stones on which the entire edifice of the discipline is developed. In the discipline of Accountancy the fundamental concept is for every debit entry there will be a credit entry. In the natural sciences the fundamental concept is the concept of uniformity of nature. The concept states that if a certain phenomenon takes place under certain situations in Pune it should take place under the same situations anywhere in the world. The discipline of Organizational Behaviour has fundamental concepts revolving round the nature of people and the nature of the organization. The concepts dealing with the nature of individual are four. They are: i) ii) iii) iv) Individual differences; Whole person; Motivation i.e. caused behaviour. Human dignity.
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES: In spite of all the human beings similar every one is different. Every one has a different gift of the nature; different quality of intelligence, different perception and the different ways of behaviour. The concept tells that every person is an entity in him. When it comes to human behaviour there can not be a prescriptive solution. Every individual is to be treated differently even though two persons may have the same behavioural problems. The concept also tells the manager that he had better be aware of his own stereotypes. A stereotype is a tendency to attribute the traits of a group to an individual because he belongs to the said group. The Jew genocide can be attributed to this stereotyping. Unfortunately one is not aware as to how these stereotypes influence his behaviour. This concept, therefore, not only tells that a manager should treat every person as an entity in himself but he should also examine his own stereotypes. WHOLE PERSON: In the olden days employees were referred to as hands, implying that the organization hires only the hands of man. Nothing can be farther from the truth. An organization hires not only the hands of an employee but hires a complete men with all his pluses and minuses. At the same since a person performs many roles at the same time the happenings in one role are bound to affect the behaviour in others roles of the person. The concept tells the manager than 16
when it comes to behavioural problems, he must also take into account the other roles of the person. If the whole person is to be developed then only the benefits will extend beyond the organization to the entire society, in which the employee lives. CAUSED BEHAVIOUR (MOTIVATION): The concept reminds the manager of the law enunciated by Newton that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This means the manager, by his own behaviour, can cause an employee behave in a particular way. If he is respectful to his employees they are bound to be respectful to him not otherwise. HUMAN DIGNITY: This concept is of a different order from the other three because it is more an ethical philosophy than a scientific conclusion. It confirms that people are to be treated differently from other factors of production. Because they are of a higher order, they want to be treated with respect and dignity. When every one, the employee, the manager as the CEO of an organization are engaged in the same pursuit. The pursuit of enabling their organization to achieve the objections for it has come in existence. Thus they are on the equal footing. The concept tells that very person should be respected simply because he happens to be an employee just as the manager is. The NATURE OF ORGANISATIONS: With regard to the nature of organization the key assumptions are that the social systems and that they are formed on the basis of mutual interests of the employees and the management meaning thereby that there is a mutuality of interests. ORGANISATION IS A SOCIAL SYSTEM: All the employees comprising organizations are the members of the society from which they come. Thus the organization becomes a social system, where the value systems customs etc. conform to those of the society at large. Any organization that has inconsistent value system with the external society does not last long. That an organization is a social system also implies that the organizational environment is not static. All parts of the organizational system are interdependent and are subject to influence by other parts of the organization as well the society at large. MUTUALITY OF INTERESTS: Organizations have a human purpose. They are formed and maintained on the basis of some mutuality of interests among the participants. Organizations help people achieve their own personal objectives at the same time people help organizations achieve its objectives. It is a
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symbiotic relation. Everybody must bear in mind that the organizational and employees interests are intertwined in such a way that if the interests of one suffer the interests of the another do suffer. Both the employees and organization can prosper if they help each other to prosper. ORGANISATION MODELS: Keith Davis recognizes four different models of OB These models show the evolution of the thinking and behaviour on the part of management and managers alike. These models also denote the responses of the employees to the various orientations of the managers and the general behavioural climate prevailing in the manager-employee relationship. In terms of the evolution of OB thought these models are autocratic, custodial, supportive and collegial. The autocratic model was very much in existence at the time of industrial revolution and some time after. These are, one may easily notice, the assumptions of the Theory X in their darkest color. With the passage of the time the autocratic model as well as the assumptions of the Theory X have become diluted. Subsequently because of the changes in the thinking of the industrialists and the managers we find the custodial model of O.B. It consisted in giving some sops, concessions or economic privileges to the employees to keep them happy. In due course of time the custodial model got degenerated in what was known as paternalistic attitude. Actually there is no basic behavioural difference between the autocratic and the custodial model. In both these models managers did not bother to create an atmosphere which would be conducive to the development of the employees. The question of motivating, guiding and developing the employees did not arise. The change in managerial orientation can be perceived when we study the supportive model. The supportive model emerged as a sequel to the human relations era. While the managerial behaviour, in the autocratic model is based on the assumptions of theory X; the participative model is based on the assumptions of theory Y. This theory assumes that the employees have the skill and the will to contribute to the organisational efforts. It came to be recognized that a manager is not the boss but a leader of the team of employees entrusted to him. Leader, as such, it was his responsibility to create an environment where the skills and the wills of the employees to contribute to the organizational effort are supported. The fourth model i.e. collegial model has a limited application, in as much as, it is useful when one is dealing with the Scientific and Professional employees. The managers role is changed from that of a leader to that of a partner. The employees and the manager are the partners in the pursuit of the same objectives. Whatever the work, it is to be done as a team where the lines between the manager and the employee are obliterated.
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The table below presents these models along with their various facets. Autocratic Model depends on Managerial orientation Employee orientation Employee psychological result Employee needs met Performance result Power Authority Obedience Dependence on boss Subsistence Minimum Custodial Economic resources Money Security Dependence on organization Maintenance Passive cooperation Supportive Leadership Support Job performance Participation Collegial Partnership Teamwork Responsibility Self-discipline
Higher-order Awakened drives
Self-actualization Moderate enthusiasm
SUMMARY The various definitions of OB attempt to describe the field of OB. OB is mainly concerned with the study of human behaviour at work. OB studies behaviour within the parameters of an organisation. Fundamental concepts, of OB revolve round the nature of the human being and the nature of organisation. These fundamental concepts help the manager understand some basics of human behaviour at work. Fundamental concepts relating to the nature of human being are four. They are individual differences, whole person, caused behaviour i.e. motivation and human dignity. The concept of individual differences tells us that when it comes to understanding and solving the behavioural problems there can not be a standard solution. The concept of whole person tells that the happenings in the life beyond the organisational life affect the work behaviour of an employee. The concept of caused behaviour tells that a manager makes employees behave in a particular way by his own behaviour. A manager should, therefore, be a role model. The concepts relating to the nature of the organisation are two. They are organisation in a social system and mutuality of interests.
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The concept relating to the organisation being a social system tells us that no organisation can have a value system, which is inconsistent with the social values in which it is operating. The concept relating to mutuality of interest tells us that basically the interests of the employees and the organisations are such that if employees interests suffer the organisations interests too suffer and vice-versa. The OB models express the shift in the outlooks of the manager of looking towards their employees and the resultant organisational environment.
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Chapter 3
PERCEPTION
LEARNING OBJECTIVES To understand the importance of perception. To define overall nature of perception. To understand how perception differs from sensation. To understand verious factors influencing perception To understand factors affecting social perception. Significance of perception Perceptual process is of utmost significance in understanding human behaviour. It is a unique interpretation instead of a precise recording of the situation.The individual, while perceiving the world, sees a picture which expresses his own individual view of reality. This picture is quite unique and may largely differ from the reality. The study of divergence, between the perceptual world and the real world, is of great significance for human relations and organizational behaviour. As it is frequently observed, managers assume that subordinates are always keen for promotions even though factually subordinates may really feel psychologically compelled to accept their promotions. The perceptual worlds of the managers and of the subordinates may differ markedly from each other as well as both of them may diverge substantially from reality. To get the desired results from promotion, the management should have the proper assessment of the perceptual world of its subordinates. In an interview for the selection of a candidate, the interviewers judgement about the suitability or otherwise of a candidate depends on candidates behaviour perceived by interviewers. A rejected applicant might feel that he was wronged by the interview though he deserved selection. But the fact is that interviewers generally form an early impression that becomes quickly entrenched. If the inadequacies of the candidate are exposed early, they weigh against him in the final selection.
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Performance appraisal is another area where perception is significant. Assessment of an employees performance depends on the perception of the person who evaluates. While evaluation can be objective as in salesmans job where assessment is quantifiable. Many jobs are evaluated in subjective terms. Subjective measures are easier to implement, they provide managers with greater discretion, and many jobs do not readily lend themselves to objective measures. Subjective measures are, by definition, judgmental. To the extent the evaluator depends on subjective measures for assessing an employees performance, performance of who is a good or bad employee, greatly influences the appraisal outcome. Another important judgment that the managers make about the employee is whether or not he is loyal to the organization. The issue is not whether organizations are right in demanding an employees loyalty is irrelevant here, but the fact is that many employers do, and the assessment of loyalty or commitment is highly personal. What is perceived as loyalty by one decisionmaker may be seen as excessive conformity by another. An employee who questions a top management decision may be seen as disloyal by some, yet caring and concerned by others. When evaluating a person s attitude, as in loyalty assessment, we must recognize that we are again involved with person perception. This necessitates that the management understands the basic perceptual processes involved in organizational settings and recognize its significance. As a great deal of the industrial conflict stem from the divergence between the perceptual world of the parties involved, attempts can be made to minimize the magnitude of such conflicts by properly assessing perceptions of various aspects in the work settings. This implies that a better understanding of the perceptual process should be developed. Direct applications and techniques aimed at the solution of the problem would automatically follow the proper understanding. Perception is much more complex and much broader than sensation. The perceptual process can be defined as a complicated interaction of selection, organization, and interpretation of stimuli. Although perception depends largely upon the senses for raw data, the cognitive process may filter, modify or completely change the data. A simple illustration may be seen by looking at one side of a stationary object, for example, a statue or a tree. By slowly turning the eyes to the other side of the object, the person probably senses that the object is moving. Yet the person perceives the object as stationary. The perceptual process overcomes the sensual process and the person sees the object as stationary. In other words, the perceptual process adds to, and subtracts from, the real sensory world. A few definitions of perception are given below: [1] It is the process of receiving, selecting, organizing, interpreting, checking, and reacting to sensory stimuli or data. I Perception is a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environments.
[2]
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[3]
Perception includes all those processes by which an individual receives information about his environment seeing, hearing, feeling, testing and smelling.
Kolasa defines perception as the selection and organization of material which stems from the outside environment at one time or the other to provide the meaningful entity we experience. There are two basic elements in this definition: (1) (2) Perception is a process of selection or screening which prevents us from processing irrelevant or disruptive information; and There is organization of stimuli implying that the information that is processed has to be ordered and classified in some logical manner which permits us to assign meaning to the stimuli situations. The individual tends to recognize the information, assemble it is as well as compare it with earlier experience. This involves the entire history of events, which have taken place with him over his life span. It is the organization of inputs through a dynamic inner process, which shapes what comes in from the outside environment. Again, what comes in changes what is inside the individual. Thus, unlike the sensation process, which is concerned primarily with basic elementary behaviour largely, determined by physiological operation, perception is a highly complex and comprehensive process. It involves a complicated interaction of selection, organization and interpretation of data.
Despite the fact that it relies upon the senses for obtaining raw data, the process of perception tends to amalgamate, improve and entirely change this data because of its complexity of interaction. It adds as well as deducts from the sensory world. In organizational settings we find numerous examples which help us in understanding perception. An experienced engineer observing a panel of dials in front of him gets more out of this information than does a manager who visits from the head office. Perception involves five sub-processes. They are stimulus, registration, interpretation, feedback and consequence. Perception initiates with the presence of a stimulus situation. In organizational settings the superior forms the stimulus situation for the subordinates perceptual process. Registration involves the physiological mechanism including both sensory and neural. Obviously, an individuals physiological ability to hear and see influence his perception. Interpretation is a highly crucial sub-process. Other psychological processes assist in perceptual interpretation. For instance, in work settings, his motivation, personality and learning process determines an individuals interpretation of a stimulus situation. Feedback is important for interpreting the perceptual event data. In work settings, the psychological feedback that is likely to affect a subordinates perception may be in the form of a variation in the behaviour of superior.
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Perception ends in reaction or response, which may be in the overt or covert form. As a consequence of perception, an individual responds to work demands. These sub-processes indicate the complexity of perception.
EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT Sensual Stimulation Physical Environment Office Research Lab. Climate etc. Socio Cultural Environment Management Styles Values Discrimination etc. FEEDBACK for clarification (e.g. kinesthetic or psychological) INTERPRETATION of the stimulus (e.g. motivation, learning, personality) CONFRONTATION of specific stimulus (e.g. Supervisor or his raised eye brows) REGISTRATION of the stimulus (e.g. sensory and neural mechanisms)
BEHAVIOR BEHAVIOUR e.g. Overt such as rushing off or covert such as attitude
CONSEQUENCE e.g. reinforcement, punishment or some organisational outcome
Obtained from Fred Luthans - Organisational Behaviour, Page - 105
PRINCIPLES OF PERCEPTUAL SELECTION There are many stimuli demanding attention of the individual at the same time and that individual can sense only a limited amount of stimuli at a time. Human beings are characteristically selective. They select from among those physical stimuli, which they can register at a point in time. They close themselves off entirely from some stimuli and tend to open their channels of absorption to others. Thus, they set themselves to respond to a particular stimulus or a group of stimuli. Yet, certain events may characteristically creep into an individuals perceptual life and distract his attention. For instance, the sound of a gun, other things being equal, is more likely to attract attention than the sound of a gas burner. Thus, while dealing with selective phenomenon two terms are involved; attention and set. Attention incorporates all aspects of the selective process whereas set refers to specific factors or processes within the individual himself that has a bearing on what he attends to. Accordingly, while studying the selective process in perception, we study set factors lying within the individual himself, as well as those stimuli which can creep into his experience those which are characteristically attention inviting. Thus some of the factors that attract attention lie in the situations and some are within the individual. The factors that are in the situations are called external attention factors and those factors that are within an individual are called internal set factors.
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EXTERNAL ATTENTION FACTORS The external attention factors are: a) b) c) d) e) f) Intensity Size Contrast Repetition Motion Novelty and familiarity
Intensity The intensity of stimulus implies that the more intense the stimulus audio or visual, the more is the likelihood it will be perceived. A loud noise, strong odour or bright light or bright colours will be more readily perceived than soft sound, weak odour or dim light. It is because of this advantage that advertisers employ intensity to draw the consumers attention. Size As regards the size of the stimulus, any odd size attracts attention. A Great Den dog which is tall attracts the attention. At the same time a pocket dog also attracts attention because of its size. However, generally the larger the object the more likely it will be perceived. The amount of attention enhances with the size of the newspaper advertisement exposed to the individuals, although the increase in attention may not be directly proportional to the increase in size. Contrast The contrast principle states that external stimuli, which stand out against the background or which, are not what the people expect will receive attention. Plant safety signs, which have black lettering on a yellow background or white lettering on a red background, are attentions getting. Any change in the accustomed atmosphere attracts attraction. Thus if one or more of the machines should come suddenly to a halt, the supervisor would immediately notice the difference in noise level. Also a person who has fallen asleep in a bus because of the drone of the engine wakes up immediately the engine stops.
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Repetition The factor of repetition implies that a repeated external stimulus attracts more attention than the one that occurs at one time alone. Perhaps, it is because of this that supervisors tend to repeat directions regarding job instructions several times for even simple tasks to hold the attention of their workers. Advertisers while putting T.V. or radio advertisements repeat the brand name they are advertising. Motion The factor of motion implies that the individual attend to changing objects in their field of vision than to static objects. It is because of this advantage that advertisers involve signs, which include moving objects in their campaigns. At an unconscious level the animals in the jungles make use of this principle. A tiger lying in wait is motionless until his prey is nearer him and then jumps at an appropriate moment. Novelty and familiarity A novel object in the familiar situation or a familiar object in a novel situation tends to attract attention. Thus a white person or a black person in India catches attention faster. Job rotation is an example of this principle. Recent research indicates that job rotation not only increased attention but also employees acquisition of new skills. INTERNAL SET FACTORS The internal set factors are as under: a) b) c) d) Habit Motivation and interest Learning Organizational role and specialization:
Habit A Hindu will bow and do Namaskar when he sees a temple while walking on road, because of his well-established habit. The motor set may cause the likelihood of inappropriate responses. These are several instances in life settings where individuals tend to react with the right response to the wrong signals. Thus a retired solidier may throw himself on the ground when he hears a sudden burst of car tyre.
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Motivation and interest Two examples of motivational factors are hunger and thirst. Motivational factors increase the individuals sensitivity to those stimuli which he considers as relevant to the satisfaction of his needs in view of his past experience with them. A thirsty individual has a perceptual set to seek a water fountain or a hotel to quench his thirst, which increases for him the likelihood of perceiving restaurant signs and decreases the likelihood of visualizing other objects at that moment in time. A worker who has a strong need for affiliation, when walks into the lunchroom, the table where several coworkers are sitting tends to be perceived and the empty table or the table where only one person is sitting will attract no attention. Learning and Perception The process of learning plays a crucial role even in primitive organization. However, it should be recognized that the role of learning is more pronounced in respect of complex forms of perception where the symbolic content creeps into the process. Although interrelated with motivation and personality, learning may play the single biggest role in developing perceptual set. Read the sentence in the triangle below:
TURN OFF THE ENGINE
It may take several seconds to realize 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. There are many other illustrations that are commonly used to demonstrate the impact of learning on the development of perceptual set. How figure of old and beautiful women (picture on the next page) is perceived can be radically influenced by a simple learned experience. When first shown a clear, unambiguous picture of a beautiful young woman and then shown in figure, the person will almost always reports
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seeing the young woman in figure. If the clear picture of the old woman is seen first, the viewer will subsequently report seeing the old woman in figure -
In addition to the young woman-old woman example, there is a wide variety of commonly used illusions that effectively demonstrate the impact of learning on perception. An illusion may be thought of as a form of perception that badly distorts reality. Organizational role or the specialization The modern organizations value specialization. Consequently the specialty of a person that casts him in a particular organizational role predisposes him to select certain stimuli and to disregard others . Thus in a lengthy report a departmental head will first notice the text relating to his department. Perceptual set in Organizational Settings Closely related to learning and motivation is the personality of the perceiving person, which affects what is attended to in the confronting situation. There are numerous examples of perceptual sets in work settings. The individuals may tend to perceive the same stimulus situation in largely different manners. Take the examples of poor production record in a manufacturing company. The works engineer is likely to perceive the solution to the issue in the form of improved machine design whereas the Personnel Manager is likely to perceive the solution in the form of improved personnel policies, training programs and incentive schemes. The workers are likely to perceive it as something thrilling because it may be indicative of poor ability of their supervisor whom they dislike. Irrespective of who is right or wrong, it is obvious that all related individuals tend to perceive the same situation in entirely divergent manners. Another popular example relates to the divergence of perception, which takes place between the union and management groups. It is widely held that perceptual divergence is a major cause if industrial conflicts.
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Perceptual Organisation When we discuss Perceptual Organisation, the question arises as to what the individual does with the sensory data he has received. Obviously, some organizing processes which give. meaning to the incoming event data, appear to take place in the nervous system and are relatively free from the effects of past experience or motivational factors. These processes are called the primitive processes of organisation. The central nervous system does not simply register raw sensory data in a passive form. Rather, it does something to them by creating a definitive Organisation. Illusions, false interpretation or misleading Organisation of sensory events best exemplifies the active role of central nervous system. There are several kinds of primitive. Perceptual Organizations which include grouping, closure, figure-ground effect; and constancy phenomenon. Perceptual grouping The grouping principle of Perceptual Organisation states that there is a tendency to group several stimuli together into a recognizable pattern. The principle is very basic and seems largely inborn. In the visual fields, we find that objects that are similar in appearance tend to be grouped together. Likewise, the individual tends to create a whole even when it is not there. Closure The closure principle of grouping is closely related to the gestalt school of psychology. The principle is that a person will sometimes perceive a whole when one does not exist. The persons perceptual processes will close the gaps that are unfilled from the sensory inputs. Figure-ground The objects are perceived with reference to their background. The figure-ground principle means simply that perceived objects stand out as separable from their general background. When the reader is reading this paragraph, in terms of light-wave stimuli, the reader perceives patches of irregularly shaped blacks and whites. Yet the reader perceives the shapes as letters and figures printed against the white background. In other words the reader perceptually organizes these stimuli into recognizable patterns i.e. the words. Perceptual constancy Constancy is one of the more sophisticated forms of Perceptual Organisation. It gives a person a sense of stability in a changing world. This principle permits the individual to have some constancy in a tremendously variable world. If constancy were not at work, the world would be very chaotic and disorganized for a person. An organizational; example would be that of a worker who must select a piece of material or a tool of the correct size from a wide
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variety of materials and tools at varying distances form a workstation. Without perceptual constancy the shapes, sizes, colours etc. of the objects would keep on changing, making the job almost impossible for the worker. Perceptual Defense Closely related to context is perceptual defense. A person may build a defense (a block or a refusal to recognize) against stimuli or situational events in the context that are person or culturally unacceptable or threatening. Accordingly, perceptual defense may play an influential role in understanding union-management relations. Although there is some conflicting evidence, most studies verify the existence of perceptual defense. Two examples are classic studies that found barriers to perceiving personalitythreatening words and identification of thresholds for critical, emotionally toned words. In another study more directly relevant to organizational behaviour, the researchers describe how people may react with a perceptual defense that is activated in them when they are confronted with a fact that is inconsistent with a preconceived notion. In this study, college students were presented with the word intelligent as a characteristic of a factory worker. This was counter to their perception of factory workers, and they built defenses in the following ways: 1. 2. Denial: A few of the subjects denied the existence of intelligence in factory workers. Modification and distortion: This was one of the most frequent forms of defense. The pattern was to explain away the perceptual conflict by joining intelligence with some other characteristic, for example, He is intelligent, but doesnt possess the initiative to rise above his group. Change in perception: Many of the students changed their perception of the worker because of the intelligence characteristic. The change, however, was usually very subtle; example, He cracks jokes became Hes witty. Recognition: But refusal to change. Very few subjects explicitly recognized the conflict between their perception of the worker and the characteristic of intelligence that was confronting them. For example, one subject stated, the traits seem to be conflicting most factory workers I have about arent too intelligent.
3.
4.
The general conclusion to be drawn from this classic study is that people may learn to avoid perceiving certain conflicting, threatening, or unacceptable aspects of the context. These and other relevant experiments have been summarized into three general explanations of perceptual defense:
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1.
Emotionally disturbing information has a higher threshold for recognition (that is, we do not perceive it readily than neutral or non-disturbing information. This is why a chain of events may be seen differently by those who are not personally involved and by whose who are involved; thus, warning signs of trouble are often not seen by those who will be most affected by the trouble. Disturbing information and stimuli are likely to bring about substitute perceptions, which are distorted to prevent recognition of the disturbing elements. In this way a manager can perceive that workers are happy, when actually they are disgruntled. Then when a grievance committee is formed or a strike takes place, the manager cannot perceive that these happy workers are participating willingly and concludes that it is because they have fallen victim to some agitator and that things in the shop are still basically fine. Emotionally arousing information actually does arouse emotions. Even though the emotion is distorted and directed elsewhere kicking the cat, shouting at the kids, cutting someone off for trying to pass you on the left while driving all offer a sense of relief and are good substitutes for perceiving that people upstairs think you are an idiot.
2.
3.
Such findings as the above help explain why some people, especially supervisors and subordinates in an organisation, have a blind spot. They do not see or they consistently misinterpret certain events or situations. Social Perception Although context and perceptual defense are closely related to social perception, this section gives recognition to social perception per se. The social aspects of perception play an important role in organizational behaviour. Social perception is directly concerned with how one individual perceives other individuals, how we get to know others. Characteristics of Perceiver and Perceived A summary of research findings on some specific characteristics of the perceiver and the perceived reveals a profile of the perceiver as follows: 1. 2. 3. Knowing oneself makes it easier to see others accurately; Ones own characteristics affect the characteristics one is likely to see in others; People who accept themselves are more likely to be able to see favorable aspects of other people; Accuracy in perceiving others is not a single skill.
4.
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These four characteristics greatly influence how a person perceives others in the environmental situation. There are also certain characteristics of the person being perceived which influence social perception. Research has shown that: 1. 2. The status of the person perceived will greatly influence others perception of the person. The person being perceived is usually placed into categories to simplify the viewers perceptual activities. Two common categories are status and role. The visible traits of the person perceived will greatly influence others perception of the person.
3.
These characteristics of the perceiver and the perceived suggest the extreme complexity of social perception. Organizational participants must realize that their perceptions of another person are greatly influenced by their own characteristics and the characteristics of the other person. For example, if a manager has high self-esteem and the other person is physically attractive and pleasant and comes from the home office, then the manager will be likely perceive this other person in a positive favorable manner. On the other hand, if the manager has low self-esteem and the other person is an arrogant, unattractive salesperson, the manager will likely to perceive this other person in a negative, unfavorable manner. Such attributions that people make of others play a vital role in their social perceptions and resulting behaviour. Person Perception Let us examine how the basic and social factors that have been described above are related to our perceptions of people. Each individual interacts with the other individuals and establishes relationships with them. The maintenance of these relationships necessitates knowledge of social behaviour involving constant judgment about the other individuals needs, emotions and thoughts. Research results have shown that there are three kinds of features that affect these perceptions. These are related to the person perceived, the perceiver and the situation. First consider the person perceived. The features of the individual, with whom one tends to interact, exert considerable impact on his evaluation and behaviour in all interpersonal situations. These features are of four varieties including physical, social, historical and personal. The important physical features include gestures, posture, facial expression and color of the skin. The social features that assume significance in perception are the qualities of voice and appearance. An individual with long hair and casual dress is called a hippie involving accordingly judgments about his political, social and moral values. Likewise, historical features such as sex, age, occupation, religion, race, etc. largely influence an individuals evaluations of others. There are also numerous personality features attributed to others that affect an individuals
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evaluation of them. Individuals tend to be attracted to others whom they perceive to be identical to them. This leads us to the perceivers features. There seem to be two kinds of general features about the perceiver, which are crucial in understanding an individuals perception of others: (1) (2) an individuals own social and personality features cause a divergence, and the complexity of an individuals perception of other individuals is also crucial.
Obviously, individuals tend to differ in the manner in which they describe others. Some individuals employ features such as tricky, ruthless, etc. When further complexity is involved, they tend to describe others as friendly, aggressive, honest etc. A still higher level of complexity involves traits such as passive, charming, etc. These later features involve a more complex mode of perceiving than physical features. Research results have shown that the leaders complexity of perceiving his fellow workers is markedly associated with his groups performance, depending upon the situation where they are engaged. The features that are associated with an individuals perceptions of others involve the situation where he finds himself. Individuals tend to make judgments regarding the behaviour of others, as indicators of their personality and these judgements are markedly associated with the suitability of the behaviour to the given situation. Thus, our perception of individuals as well as objects depends upon certain historical, current and situational factors, our past experience, culture and learning exert a wide impact on these judgements as do our current needs and feelings along with the physical and social environmental factors. This understanding of perceptual process provides an insight as to why we behave in the manner we do.
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SUMMARY Perception is an important cognitive process deciding how a person will behave. Through this complex process people interpret world to themselves. Perception is a unique phenomenon, influencing people behave differently. Externally stimuli selectivity is affected by such factors as the intensity, size, movement, repetition etc. Internally perceptual selectivity is influenced by learning, culture, experience, interest, motivation etc. The social context plays an important role in understanding human behaviour in organisations. Of particular importance to social perception is how people cause of anothers or their own behaviour. Two important problems in social perception are halo effect and stereotyping.
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Chapter 4
PERSONALITY AND ATTITUDES
PERSONALITY LEARNING OBJECTIVES Define the meaning of personality. To understand the importance of personality at the work life. To understand various theories about the formation of personality. To understand how the knowledge about differences in personality make up would help a manager better perceive the human behaviour at work. Personality and OB Personality factors are extremely important in organizational settings. Often the wrong kind of personality proves disastrous and causes undesirable tensions and worries in organizations. The costs of such tensions and worries are enormous when we interpret them from the point of view of employee-employer relations, peer relations and superior-subordinate relations. Sometimes, the personality difficulties are the root cause of organizational conflicts and often lead to turnover and job dissatisfaction. A consideration of personality differences of focal persons is important for at least three reasons; Some people arouse hostility and aggression in their associates, while others invoke sympathy and supportive responses because of their personality features. Likewise, some people encourage and others discourage free and open communication in view of their personality traits as perceived by their subordinates and associates; Personality characteristics tend to produce differential emotional reactions to stress. Some people tolerate severely stressful situations, while tensions and anxieties and similar circumstances swamp others. Individual personalities lead to individual differences in styles of coping with stress. When exposed to tension producing situations, some people tend to be problem oriented, others happen to deal with the emotional experience which the stress arouses in them rather than with the determinants of the experience. Still others tend to deal with derivative problems,
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which may be created by their efforts to cope with the stress. They may happen to project hostility on to others and thus make easier guilt-free aggression against them. The dangers inherent in such a hostile counter attack are obvious. Thus, it appears personality character very significantly from the standpoint of human relations and organizational behaviour. Everyday in conversation we hear such statements as he has no personality at all. If we analyze such usages, we discover that the phrase a lot of personality refers to the physical appearance of the individual, especially on initial contact: A poor personality ordinarily indicates that the person has characteristics not approved of generally. The term no personality is saved for the run-of -the-mill individual who is little noticed by others.
The unique ways of responding to day-to-day life situations is at the heart of human behaviour. Accordingly, personality embraces all the unique traits and patterns of adjustment of the individual in his relationship with others and his environment.
History of the Term The word personality has been traced back by etymologists to the Latin word per and sonare. The term per sonare means, to sound through. The word persona derives from these two words and originally meant an actors mask, through which the sound of his voice was projected. Later persona was used, to mean not the mask itself but the false appearance, which the mask created. Still later it came to mean the characters in the play (dramatics personae). It is interesting to note that the word personality by derivation should mean, what an individual only appears to be, not what he really is. This meaning is almost the exact opposite of what the word means in modern psychology. We find that to some extent personality is defined in terms of a specific theoretical frame of reference. However, most psychologists agree generally with Allports definition, in which personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psycho-physical systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environment. About a decade after Allports formulation R. W. Whites simplified it by substituting tendencies for psycho-physical systems. Whites definition states that personality is the organization of an individuals personal pattern of tendencies. PERSONALITY Behavior involves a complex set of interactions of the person and the situation. Events in the surrounding environment (including presence and behaviour of others) strongly influence the way people behave at any particular time; yet people always bring something of their own to the situation. This something, which is unique is what is personality.
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A well-known personality theorist Salvatore Maddi proposed the following definition of personality: Personality is a stable set of characteristics and tendencies that determine those commonalities and differences in the psychological behavior (thoughts, feelings and actions) of people that have continuity in time and that may not be easily understood as the sole result of the social and biological pressures of the moment. This definition contains three important ideas. First, the definition does not limit the influence of personality only to certain behaviors, certain situations or certain people. Rather, personality theory is a general theory of behaviour an attempt to understand or describe all behaviours all the time. Second, the phrase commonalities and differences suggests an important aspect of human beings. In certain respects, every person is like
l l l
All other people Some other people; and No other person
This each employee in an organization is unique and may or may not respond as others do in a particular situation. This complexity makes managing and working with people extremely challenging. Therefore, to understand, predict and control behaviour, it is important to study personality. Finally, Maddis definition refers to personality as being stable and having continuity in time. If your entire personality could change suddenly and dramatically, your family and friends would meet a stranger. Personality development occurs to a certain extent throughout life, but the greatest changes occur in early childhood. Determinants of Personality The major determinants of personality of an individual can be studied under four broad headings a) b) b) d) Biological Cultural Familial Situation.
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BIOLOGICAL FACTORS Biological factors may be studied under three heads a) b) c) The heredity The brain Physical features
Heredity The relative effects of heredity comprise an extremely old argument in personality theory. Certain characteristics, primarily physical in nature, are inherited from ones parents, transmitted by genes in the chromosomes contributed by each parent. Research on animals has showed that physical and psychological characteristics can be transmitted through heredity. But research on human beings is inadequate to support this viewpoint. However, psychologists and geneticists have accepted the fact that heredity plays an important role in ones personality. The importance of heredity varies from one personality trait to another. For instance, heredity is generally more important in determining a persons temperament than values and ideals. Brain Another biological factor that influences personality is the role of the brain of an individual. The psychologists are unable to prove empirically the contribution of human brain in influencing personality. Preliminary results from the electrical stimulation of the brain (ESB) research gives indication that better understanding of human personality and behaviour might come from the study of the brain. Physical features Perhaps the most outstanding factor that contributes to personality is the physical stature of an individual. An individuals external appearance is proved to be having a tremendous effect on his personality. For instance the fact that a person is short or tall, fat or skinny, handsome or ugly, black or whitish will undoubtedly influence the persons effect on others and in turn, will affect the self-concept. A persons physical characteristics may be related to his approach to the social environment, to the expectancies of others, and to their reactions, to him. These in turn may have impacts on personality development. Psychologists contend that the different rates of maturation will also influence an individuals personality.
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CULTURAL FACTORS Culture is traditionally considered as the major determinant of an individuals personality. The culture largely determines what a person is and what a person will learn. The culture within which a person is brought up is very important determinant of behaviour of a person. The personality of an individual, to a marked extent, is determined by the culture in which he is brought up. According to Mussen ...each culture expects, and trains, its members to behave in the ways that are acceptable to the group. In spite of the importance of the culture on personality, researchers are unable to establish correlation between these two concepts of personality and culture. FAMILY AND SOCIAL FACTORS In order to understand the effects of a family on individuals personality, we have to understand the socialisation process and identification process. 1. Socialisation Process
The contribution of family and social group in combination with the culture is known as socialisation. In the words of Mussen socialisation is the process by which an individual infant acquires, from the enormously wide range of behavioural, potentials that are open to him at birth, those behavioural patterns that are customary and acceptable according to the standards of his family and social group. Socialization initially starts with the contact with mother and later on the other members of the family (father, sisters, close-relatives) and the social group play influential role in shaping an individuals personality. 2. Identification process
Identification starts when a person begins to identify himself with some other members of the family. Normally a child tries to emulate certain actions of his parents. Identification process can be examined from three angles: (a) it can be viewed as the similarity of behaviour between child and the model, and (b) it can be looked as the childs motives or desires to be like the model and (c) it can be viewed as the process through which the child actually takes on the attributes of the model. Apart from the socialisation and identification processes, the home environment influences the personality of an individual. There is substantial empirical evidence to indicate that the overall environment at home created by parents is critical to personality development. Researchers have developed a number of personality theories and no theory, at the outset, it must be pointed out, is complete in itself. Personality theories can be grouped under the five heads:
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I. II. III. IV. V.
Intrapsychic theory; Type theories; Trait theories; Social Learning theory; Self-theory.
These theories differ markedly in the constructs they propose as forming the structure of the personality, and also the way they relate these constructs to behaviour. They also differ in the methods they use to assess or measure an individual s personality. Let us examine these theories. Intrapsychic Theory of Sigmund Freud Freud remains the most influential theorist in the areas of personality. According to Freud the human mind is composed of three elements i] the preconscious, ii] the conscious iii] the unconscious. The items in the mind that can be recognized only through Freuds association method are preconscious. The conscious element is concerned with thoughts, feelings, beliefs and desires that we probe during introspection. The final component unconscious is basically concerned with ideas and wishes that cannot be learned through introspection but can be determined by hypnotism, analysis of dreams, and Freudian therapeutic techniques. According to Freud the conscious is guided by a reasoned reality principle and the unconscious is guided by the famous hedonistic principle of pleasure. Freud developed an organisation of personality consisting of three structures within the human mind the id, the ego, and the superego. These parts of the mind are primarily responsible for originating human actions and reactions and modifications. The id It is the original and the most basic system of human personality. At the base of the Freudian theory lies the id that is primitive, instinctual and governed by the principles of greed and pleasure. Id represents a storehouse of all instincts, containing in its dark depths all wishes, and desires that unconsciously direct and determines our behaviour. Id is largely childish, irrational, never satisfied, demanding and destructive of others. But id is the foundation upon which all other parts of personality are erected. Like a newly born baby id has no perception of reality. It is primitive, immoral, insistent and rash. Id is the reservoir of the psychic energy 44
which Freud calls Libido. According to Freud id is totally oriented towards increasing pleasure and avoiding pain, and it strives for immediate satisfaction of desires. One notable characteristic of id is that it cannot tolerate uncomfortable levels of tension within it and seeks to release the tension as soon as it develops. The methods for dealing with tension by id are primary processes and reflex actions. The former attempts to discharge a tension by forming a mental image of desirable means of releasing the tension. But this kind of tension release is temporary and mental, and would not satisfy the real need. For instance, if a person is hungry the id deals with the situation by creating a mental image of desirable and good food that is palatable. The later method (reflex actions) of tension release is reflected in the behaviour of individuals such as blinking of eyes, raising eyebrows, rubbing the cheeks etc. Id, in fact, is capable of resolving the tension in reality. Id basically represents an individuals natural urges and feelings. Ego As an individual learns to separate the unreality from reality in childhood, the ego develops. The ego is reality-oriented part of thinking; it is largely practical and works in an executive capacity. Ego is rational and logical, and in essence, it is the conscious mediator between the realities of world and the ids demands. It constantly works to keep a healthy psychological balance between ids impulsive demands and superegos restrictive guidance. Ego is rational master. The ego is said to be the executive part of the personality because it controls the gateway to action, selects the features of the environment to which it will respond, and decides what instincts will be satisfied. The most important characteristic of ego is that it has the ability to distinguish between mental images and actual sources of tension release, and it responds to the real sources of tension reduction. The ego performs this task by; 1) 2) 3) Observing accurately what exists in the outside world (perceiving) Recording these experiences carefully (remembering) and Modifying the external world in such a way as to satisfy the instinctual wishes (acting).
Superego Superego represents noblest thoughts, ideals, feelings that are acquired by a person from his parents, teachers, friends, religion, organisation and colleagues etc. As a child grows and absorbs parental and cultural attitudes and values, he develops superego. Superego is the moralistic segment of the human personality. The primary concern of superego is to determine whether the action proposed by ego is right or wrong so that the individual acts in accordance with the values and standards of the society. If people violate the prohibitions of superego they may feel guilty.
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The superego acts as a censor on the individual and as a censor a too strong superego is likely to be in constant and pronounced battle with the id. Freud says that the egos role is to mediate between the id and superego. A personality becomes disorderly when either the id or superego becomes dominant. At the same time, it should be noted that when too much energy is consumed by ego in mediating between the id and superego, an individuals personal development will suffer (or adversely affected). The superego, in some respects, is the antithesis of id. Psychologist Duane Schult notes that id is pressing for satisfaction, the ego is trying to delay it and the superego urges morality above all. Freuds human being is therefore described as basically a battlefield.. Psychoanalysis, while acknowledged as having a powerful influence, has been seriously questioned as a scientific theory. This theory is criticised on methodological grounds. Further Freuds theory is criticised because it is largely untestable since his constructs are difficult to define and are ambiguous. TRAIT THEORIES Trait theorists view personality from the standpoint of understanding traits. Among trait theorists are included Allport, Cattell and Sheldon. Allport is of the opinion that each individual possesses a set of traits that are not shared by any other individuals. He emphasizes the uniqueness of personality. Cattell has extensively worked on traits in various work settings employing a number of psychological measures. On the basis of factor analysis he developed factor concepts such as tender-mindedness, somatic anxiety, dominance etc. Sheldon extended physical structuring by asserting that physique consists of three components endomorphs (soft and spherical structure), mesomorphy (tough and muscular body) and ectomorphy (linear and fragile). The relative existence of these three physical elements indicates specific personality patterns. Corresponding to these physical aspects, he assumed three aspects of temperament; viscerotonia (love of comfort and affection), somatotonia (physical adventure and risk taking) and cerebrotonia (restraint and inhibition). Although he assumed a close relationship between respective aspects of structure and personality, there is no evidence to support this view. Evaluation of Trait Theories When compared to type theories, trait theories have some sense. Instead of making unrealistic attempt to place personalities into discrete, discontinuous categories, trait theories give recognition to continuity of personalities. But the trait theories suffer from the following limitations :
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i] ii]
Traits may be too abstract. For example, the scale of measuring anxiety may be abstract. Trait approach focuses on isolated traits without specifying how these traits are organized within the personality. Without knowing which traits are more important and how they are related to other traits of an individual, it is not possible to make adequate description of an individuals personality. Another fundamental problem (or drawback} of trait theories is that they are essentially descriptive rather than analytical.
iii]
Self theory The intrapsychic, physiognomy and trait theories represent the traditional approaches to understanding the complex human personality. Self-theory rejects both psychoanalytic and behaviouristic conception of human nature as too mechanistic portraying people as creatures helplessly tossed about by internal instincts or external stimuli. Carl Rogers and his associates have developed the self-theory that places emphasis on the individual as an initiating, creating, influential determinant of behaviour within the environmental framework. To understand the Rogers theory we have to understand a) the self-concept, b) the organism and c) the development of self. a] Self-Concept
The most important concept in Rogers theory is the self. The self consists of all the perceptions, ideas, values, and characteristics that characterize I or Me. It includes What I am and What I can do. Rogers defines the self-concept as an organized, consistent, conceptual gestalt composed of perceptions of the characteristics of the I or me and the perceptions of the relationships of I or me to these perceptions. Here I refers to the personal self, and me refers to the social self. Personal self-consists of a persons psychological processes such as perception, motivation and attitudes etc. that result in a composed whole. On the other hand the social self is the way an individual appears to others and the manner this person thinks he appears to others. The perceived self influences the persons perception of the world and his behaviour. An individual with a strong, positive self-concept is quite likely to view world quite differently from one whose self-concept is weak. One important thing to remember here is that self-concept does not necessarily mean or reflect reality. The essence of this theory is that individuals normally are active creators and initiators rather than passive reactors to the pressures of the environment.. There is yet another self in Roguerys self-theory. That is the ideal self. It represents the type of person an individual likes to be. This concept is similar to Freud s ego ideal. If the ideal self is closer to the real self, then the individual will be more fulfilled and happy.
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b)
The organism
The organism is essentially the locus of all experience. The totality of experience is the field known to the person himself and is frequently referred to as frame of reference: Behaviour of an individual is largely determined by this field and not by the stimulating conditions of events in the external field or environment. The individual evaluates every experience in relation to his self-concept. The experiences may be symbolized or unsymbolised. When they are symbolized they become part of individuals consciousness. Conversely, when they are unsymbolised they remain outside the confines of the awareness or consciousness of an individual. The important thing here is that distorted symbolization gives rise to inappropriate behaviour. c) The development of Self-Personality
Rogers feels that the fundamental force motivating the human organism is self-actualization i.e. a tendency toward fulfillment, toward the maintenance and enhancement of the organism. The tendency of self-actualization of both the organism and the self is subject to the profound influence of the social environment. In the childhood itself, when the childs behaviour is evaluated continuously by his parents, he will be in a position to discriminate between thoughts and actions that are considered worthy and unworthy. He will be able to exclude the unworthy experiences from his self-concept. Rogrers maintains that the innate tendency toward self-actualization often: runs counter to two needs the need for their regard, and the need for positive reward. It is true that the latter need is universal whereas the former one is the internalization of those actions and values that others approve. The regard may be conditional and unconditional. Ideally, the more completely the individual is given positive regard acceptance that is not conditional to specific behaviours the more congruence there will be between his self-concept and his actual experience, as well as between his self-concept and ideal self. Evaluation of the Self-Theory Self-concept is the result of ones perceptual process. It is a cognitive factor and maintained through thinking-related activities. The self-theory is appreciated on the ground that it is organized around the concept of self. It is the one which says that personality and behaviour are largely determined by the individual whereas, in other theories, the individual is the medium through which behaviour is elicited after having been acted upon by elements over which he has no control. In analyzing organizational behaviour, it would be beneficial for the manager to understand the self-concept because this unique concept influences the way he should apply various reinforcement motivation and leadership techniques in the process of maintaining the required
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amount of output. For instance, monetary rewards for performance, authoritarian leadership style and motivational strategies when applied to an intelligent, independent, confident, worker may be ineffective. These techniques may prove to be effective when are applied to the unintelligent, insecure, indecisive workers. The various psychological processes may be thought of as the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, and personality as the completed puzzle picture. As was recently noted, events in the external environment (including the presence and behaviour of others) strongly influence the way people behave at any particular point in time; yet people always bring something of themselves to the situation. We often refer to this something, which represents the unique qualities of the individual, as personality. Personality and organisation In organizations, the difference in personalities of individuals are aggregated and lost when they are regarded as having somewhat identical patterns of behavioural tendencies. Some people in organizations respond most favorably to rule conscious, conformity demanding, security laden, and most protective principles. In other words there is a passion for bureaucracy for these people. On the extreme side some other people prefer autonomy flexibility in operations and jobs dynamism etc., in the organization. Therefore a good match between individual personality and organization is essential. Unfortunately, mismatches between personality and organizational requirements may also be bound to happen sometimes. For instance, bureaucratization may be associated with the people characterized by greater intellectual flexibility, higher valuation of self, direction, greater openness to new experience and more personally rewarding morale standards etc. Such mismatch between personality and organization structure may lead to confusion and chaos, and loss of interest by the members in the organization, low morale and job satisfaction. How is an individuals personality determined? The sources of personality differences has got to do with two important factors: a. Heredity {NATURE} Deeply ingrained in many peoples notions of personality is a belief in its genetic basis. Expressions such as He is just like his father reflect such beliefs. Historically, the nature-nurture controversy in personality theory was sharp disagreement about the extent to which the genetic factors influence personality. Environment {NURTURE} Many behavioural experts still believe that the environment plays a larger role in shaping personality than do inherited characteristics. Aspects of the environment that influence personality formation include:
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b.
Culture: The term culture refers to the distinctive ways that different human populations or societies organize their lives. Individuals born into a particular culture 49
are exposed to family and societal values and norms of acceptable behaviours. Although culture has an impact on development of employees personality, not all individuals respond to cultural influences equally. Indeed, one of the serious mistakes managers could make is to assume that their subordinates and team members are just like themselves in terms of societal norms, values and personality.
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Family: The primary vehicle for socializing an individual into a particular culture is the persons immediate family. In particular, parents influence the development of their children in three important ways: a. b. c. Through their own behaviors, they present situations that bring out certain behaviours in children They serve as role models with which children often strongly identify. They selectively reward and punish certain behaviours. The familys situation is also an important source of personality differences. Situational influences include the familys size, socio economic levels, race, religion, parents education, and so on. d. Group Membership: The first group to which most individuals belong is their family. People also participate in various groups in their lives. The numerous roles and experiences that people have as members of groups represent another important source of personality differences. Although playmates and school groups early in life may have the strongest influences on personality formation, social and group experiences in the later life continue to influence and shape personality. Life Experiences: Each persons life is also unique in terms of specific events and experiences, which can serve as important determinants of personality. For example, the development of self esteem depends on a series of experiences that include the opportunity to achieve goals and meet expectations, evidence of ability to influence others, and clear sense of being valued by others.
e.
Personality Structure The number of and variety of specific personality traits or dimensions is bewildering. The term personality trait typically refers to the basic components of personality. Trait name simply refer to the terms people use to describe each other. To be useful, these terms need to be organized into small sets of concepts or descriptions. Five main factors summarize the personality structure. These Big Five factors, as they often are referred to, describe individuals adjustment, sociability, conscientiousness, agreeableness and intellectual openness. As shown in the figure below, each factor includes a potentially large number and range of specific traits or dimensions. 50
THE BIG FIVE-PERSONALITY STRUCTURE

Stable, Confident & Effective Adjustment Nervous, self doubting, moody
Gregarious, energetic, self-dramatizing
Sociability Conscientiousness
Shy, unassertive, withdrawn
Planful, neat, dependable
Impulsive, careless, irresponsible
Warm, tactful, considerate
Agreebleness Intellectual Openness
Independent, cold, rude
Imaginative, curious, original
Dull, unimaginative
PERSONALITY AND BEHAVIOUR Personality and behavior of people in the organization are intricately linked. For example, researchers have extensively investigated the relationships between the Big Five personality factors and job performance. Their findings indicate that the employees who are responsible, dependable, persistent and achievement oriented perform better than those who lack these traits. Self-Esteem: It is the result of an individuals continuing evaluation of himself and herself. In other words, people develop, hold and sometimes modify opinions of their own behaviour, abilities, appearance and worth. These general assessments reflect responses to people and situations, successes and failures and the opinion of others. Self-esteem affects behaviour in organizations and other social settings in several important ways. Self-esteem is related to initial vocational choice. For example, individuals with high self-esteem take risks in job selection, are attracted to high status occupations and are more likely to choose unconventional or non-traditional jobs than are individuals with low self-esteem. Self-esteem is also related to numerous social and work behaviours. For example, employees with low self-esteem are more easily influenced by the opinions of others around than are employees with high self-esteem. Employees with low self-esteem set lower goals for themselves and are more susceptible to job adverse job conditions such as stress, conflict, ambiguity, poor supervision, poor working conditions etc. than employees with high self-esteem. In a general sense, self-esteem is positively related to achievement and willingness to expend efforts to accomplish tasks. Clearly, self-esteem is an important individual difference in terms of effective work behaviour.
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Locus of Control (LOC) It refers to the extent to which individuals believe that they can control events affecting them. Individuals who have a high internal LOC (internals) believe that their own behaviour and actions primarily, but not necessarily totally, determine many of the events in their lives. On the other hand, individuals who have a high external LOC (externals) believe that chance, fate or other people primarily determine what happens to them. Many differences between internals and externals are significant in explaining aspects of behaviour in organizations and other social settings. Goal Orientation Another individual difference of importance for behaviour in work settings is goal orientation or the preference for one type of goal versus another. Specifically, two orientations are considered important in terms of understanding some aspects of individual job performances. A learning goal orientation is a predisposition to develop competence by acquiring new skills and mastering new situations. A performance goal orientation is a predisposition to demonstrate and validate competence by seeking favorable judgments from others ( e.g., a supervisor ) and avoiding negative judgments. Table 2.2 contains a questionnaire that you can use to access your own learning and performance goal orientation with regard to your academic studies. The Effects of Locus of Control on Performance CONDITIONS Information Processing The work requires complex information processing and complex learning. The work is quite simple and easy to learn Initiative The work requires initiatives and independent action The work requires Compliance and conformity Motivation The work requires high motivation and provides valued rewards in return for greater efforts; incentive pay for greater productivity 52 PERFORMANCE
Internals perform better
Internals perform no better than externals Internals perform better Externals perform better Internals perform better
The work does not require great effort and contingent rewards are lacking; hourly pay rates determined by collective bargaining
Externals perform at least as well as internals
The implications of these goal orientations for work behaviour are dramatic.
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A performance Goal orientation can lead to a helpless response pattern in behavior. That is, employees with a strong performance goal orientation my avoid challenges at work and perform poorly when they encounter obstacles that are difficult to over come. When faced with failure, such individuals are likely to become unhappy and dissatisfied and seek to withdraw from the situation in which they find themselves. By contrast, individuals with a strong learning goal orientation are more likely to exhibit mastery-oriented responses to work challenges. Employees with a strong learning goal orientation strive to overcome failure and setbacks by increasing their efforts and seeking new solutions to the problem. They treat failure as a form of useful feedback, typically maintain their composure when challenged, and sustain or increase performance even when they face obstacles that are difficult to overcome.
Although an individuals goal orientation can vary somewhat in different situations, there is strong evidence that a significant amount of goal orientation can be considered to be an aspect of individuals personality. A strong learning goal orientation may be summed up by the slogan often placed by coaches on the walls of locker rooms: When the going gets tough, the tough get going. A medical supplies distributor investigated the relationship between goal orientation and job performance in a study of sales people employed. As expected, superior sales performance was associated with a learning goal orientation. The researches concluded that simply wanting to look good (a performance goal orientation) would not allow sales people to succeed. These sales people needed to have the desire to develop the skills needed for success (a learning goal orientation). One recommendation to the organization was to seek evidence of a learning goal orientation when selecting employees for their sales force. Introversion and Extroversion In everyday usage, the words introvert and extrovert describe a persons congeniality: An introvert is shy and retiring, whereas an extrovert is socially gregarious and outgoing. The terms have similar meanings when used to refer to personality dimensions.
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One of the most striking implications of the introversion-extroversion personality dimension involves task performance in different environments.
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Introversion is a tendency to be directed inward and have a greater affinity for abstract ideas and sensitivity to personal feelings. Introverts are quiet, introspective, and emotionally unexpressive. Extroversion is an orientation towards the other people, events and objects. Extroverts are sociable, lively, impulsive, and emotionally expressive. Extroverts are well represented in managerial occupations because the managers role often involves working with others and influencing them to attain organizational goals. The evidence suggests that introverts perform better alone and in a quiet environment, where as extroverts perform better in an environment with greater sensory stimulation, such as a noisy office with many people and a high level of activity.
Although some people exhibit the extremes of introversion and extroversion, most are only moderately introverted or extroverted, or are even relatively balanced between the extremes. Introverts and extroverts, appear in all educational, gender, and occupational groups. Research even suggests that some extroversion or extreme introversion can interfere with an individuals effectiveness in an organization. Recall our discussion of the sources of personality differences among people (nature versus nature). Interestingly, many experts consider introversion and extroversion to be personality dimension with a relatively high genetically determined component. Dogmatism and Authoritarianism Dogmatism refers to the rigidity of a persons beliefs.
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The highly dogmatic individual perceives the world as a threatening place, often regards legitimate authority as absolute, and accepts or rejects other people on the basis of their agreement with accepted authority or doctrine. The high-dogmatic (HD) individual is close-minded, and the low-dogmatic (LD) person is open-minded. As a result, HDs appear to depend more on authority figures in the organization for guidance and direction and are more easily influenced by them.
Some relationship between the degree of dogmatism and group behaviour also seem to exist. For example, HDs typically need more group structure than do LDs to work effectively with others. Hence the performance of HDs assigned to task forces and committees may vary somewhat, depending on how the group goes about its work. A high degree of dogmatism is
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related to a limited search for information in decision-making situations, which sometimes leads to poor managerial performance. Authoritarianism is closely related to dogmatism but is narrower in scope.
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The authoritarian personality describes someone who adheres to conventional values, obeys recognized authorities, exhibits a negative view of society, respects power and toughness, and opposes the expression of personal feelings. In organizations, the authoritarian personality probably is subservient to authority figures and may even prefer superiors who have a highly directive, structured leadership style. Both dogmatism and authoritarianism are related to the intellectual openness factor.
Organizational Implications It should be evident by now that the personality dimensions discussed, and the specific relationship for each, have important implications for organizational behaviour. However, managers and groups should not try to change or otherwise directly control employees personality. Even if such control were possible, it would be highly unethical. Rather, the challenge for managers and employees is to understand the crucial role played by personality in explaining some aspects of human behaviour in the workplace. Knowledge of important individual differences provides managers, employees, and students of organizational behaviour with valuable insights and a framework that they can use to diagnose events and situations. The Person and the Situation Although understanding differences in personality is important, behaviour always involves an interaction of the person and the situation. Some times the demands of the situation may be so overwhelming that individual differences are relatively unimportant. For example, if an office building is burning, every one in it will try to flee. However, the fact that all employees behaved the same way says nothing about the personalities of those individuals. In other cases, individual differences may explain more about behaviour. The relative importance of situational versus dispositional (personal) determinants of behaviour continues to be debated, but considerable evidence exists for roles by both.
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ATTITUDES LEARNING OBJECTIVES To understand the importance and the nature of attitude. To understand the differences between attitude, opinion, value, ideology etc. To understand how attitudes are formed. To understand if attitudes can be changed. If so, how ? To understand work attitudes like Job Satisfaction and Organisational Commitment. Developing climate for teamwork and mutually supporting atmosphere in organization calls for predicting and estimating the individuals responses to certain organizational stimuli. Individuals react to different stimuli on the basis of learned preferences. An individuals behaviour is a function of attitudes. An attitude is a cognitive element; it always remains inside a person. In organizational context, employees have attitudes related to job security or uncertainty, prestige of the department and the work that does etc. The individuals attitudes toward these factors are indicative of his apathy or enthusiasm toward the activities and objectives of the organization. The notable feature of attitude is that it varies in direction (favourable-unfavourable) intensity (how strongly they are held) and the extent of consciousness (awareness of individual concerning his attitude). NATURE OF ATTITUDE An attitude may be defined as a tendency to react positively or negatively in regard to an object. For example, a person who has a positive attitude towards the religion is likely to enjoy going to worship services, believe that the religious institutions fosters morality, and may, therefore, contribute to its financial support. An attitude is always directed toward some object, such as the temple, school etc. The object may be of general social significance, such as labour-management relations, or it may be purely personal, such as a feeling about playing cricket or football. Moreover, the object of an attitude may be as abstract as the philosophy of re-birth or as concrete as a car. An attitude is a tendency to react in a certain way. That is, a person who has an attitude has a readiness or a disposition to react favorably or unfavorably to anyone of a large variety of related situations. Until some situation arouses it, however, the attitude is latent. For example, a man who has a patriotic attitude toward his country is not continuously aroused about it. But his patriotic attitude arouses his country is threatened from an external aggression or if the National Anthem is sung, and so on. Attitudes are for or against things. We tend to have favorable attitudes toward sources of gratification and unfavorable attitudes toward sources of punishment and frustration. It is 56
possible, of course, that our attitudes toward an object may not be uniformly favorable or unfavorable. For example, we may admire and respect American technical accomplishments and yet resent other aspects of its system. AROUSAL OF ATTITUDE What kinds of events are likely to arouse attitudinal reactions? The following principles regarding conditions for attitude arousal. If an event appears to maintain, attain, or foster movement toward what one value, then this event will tend to arouse positive reactions. Accordingly, a person who identifies with the goals of management would react positively to legislation or proposal to restrict unionism. If an event appears to destroy, prevent attainment of, or otherwise endanger what one value, then this event will tend to arouse negative reactions. Accordingly a person who identifies with the goals of labor unions would react negatively to legislation or proposal to restrict trade unionism. The stronger an attitude, less the stimulation which is necessary to arouse it. Let us assume that the following items constitute an ascending scale of stimulation of attitude arousal for a person who has an unfavorable attitude toward labour unions: A. B. C. D. Seeing a group of people in working clothes; Seeing a group of labourers entering a union hall; Seeing a group of labourers picketing in an orderly manner; Seeing a group of labourers milling about, jeering, and overturning a company truck.
For a person who has a weakly unfavorable attitude toward labor unions, perhaps only items D would produce much of an attitudinal reaction. On the other hand, for a person who has an intensely anti-union attitude, item B and even A would be capable of arousing the attitude. The stronger ones attitude, the greater the probability of arousal of the attitude. Or the wider the range of stimulus situations which are capable of arousing it, for example, those who have strong attitudes, either favorable or unfavorable, in regard to untouchability are likely to be aroused by a wider range of situations than are those who have weak attitudes. An aroused attitude consists of three categories of internal (implicit, covert) responses. These consist of affective (emotional), reactions, cognitions (thoughts, perceptual reactions, judgements), and action tendencies. The latter are actually motives for doing particular things. To illustrate, suppose that we consider someones internal reactions to situations involving higher education. He likes (affective reaction) the company of well-educated people, enjoys (affective reaction) spending time in the university library, believes (cognition) that industrial
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society depends upon what universities do, judges (cognition) that college professors are capable people, and wants (action tendency) to contribute to a campaign to raise the university endowment. Thus an aroused attitude can be regarded as having affective, cognitive, and action components. The set of implicit responses that is aroused on a particular occasion depends upon the person and the stimulus situations. Sometimes we have strong emotional reactions to a situation but lack definite beliefs and action tendencies in relation to it. For example, we might deeply resent a foreigners blast against our countrys policies but not have any systematic beliefs about the significance of his actions or any definite action tendencies. In some people affective reactions and beliefs may play a large part in their religious attitudes while their action tendencies are minimal. The greater the degree of arousal of the affective component of an attitude, the greater the strength of reaction to other attitude-related stimuli. If a person is already stirred up about something relevant to an attitude, he will tend to react to some new attitude stimulus more strongly than he would otherwise do. A community that is angry about a communal incident will be likely to be sensitized to new threats to its values. It is not even necessary that the affective arousal be related to an attitudinally relevant stimulus for its effect to occur. ATTITUDES AND VALUES Value is defined as a concept of the desirable, an internalised criterion or standard of evaluation a person possesses. Such concepts and standards are relatively few and determine our guide an individuals evaluations of the many objects encountered in everyday life. Values are tinged with moral flavour, involving an individuals judgment of what is right, good or desirable. Thus values 1) 2) 3) 4) provide standards of competence and morality, are fewer in number than attitudes, transcend specific objects, situations or persons, are relatively permanent and resistant to change, and 5) are most central to the core of a person.
There are differences between values and attitudes. Attitudes essentially represent predisposition to respond. Values focus on the judgment of what ought to be. This judgment can represent the specific manifestation of a determining tendency below the surface of the behaviour. Attitudes represent several beliefs focussed on a specific object or situation. Value, on the other hand, represents a single belief that transcendentally guides actions and judgments across objects 58
and situations. Finally, a value stands in relation to some social or cultural standards or norms while attitudes are mostly personal experiences. There are similarities between values and attitudes. Both are powerful instruments influencing cognitive process and behaviour of people. Both are learned and acquired from the same source experiences with people and objects. Values and attitudes are relatively permanent and resistant to change. Finally, values and attitudes influence each, other and are, more often than not, used interchangeable. ATTITUDE AND OPINIONS An opinion is an expression of an evaluative judgment or point of view regarding a specific topic or subject. An attitude is somewhat generalized (such as liking or not liking a persons supervisor), whereas an opinion typically is an interpretation regarding a specific matter (such as saying that the boss plays favorites in granting promotions). Opinions, however, typically are influenced by the more generalized attitude. The facts or observations within an individual experiences are interpreted in the light of his attitudes. Thus, if an engineer calls the attention of his work group to the fact that some of the safety rules have been violated, one person (who has an unfavorable attitude toward the engineer) might later- express the opinion to one of his colleagues that the engineer is just picking on us. Another person (who has a favorable attitude toward the engineer) might later express the opinion that the engineer is simply trying to keep us from getting our fingers cut off. ATTITUDE, BELIEFS AND IDEOLOGY A belief is a judgment about something. For example, a belief that the world is round is a judgement about its form. Many of our beliefs, of course, are emotionally neutral; others are definitely favorable or unfavorable toward some object. For example, a favorable attitude toward the religion may involve beliefs that the religion helps to curb delinquency, that worshippers are better citizens than are non-devotees, that people who stay away from temples are unhappy and immoral, and so on. When beliefs become organized into systems, they are called ideologies. The capitalist ideology, for example, is a set of beliefs that a free enterprise economy is maximally productive; that competition in the long run brings down prices and raises quality; and that events in the marketplace do and should determine what is produced. Related to this is a disbelief system the set of beliefs, which one rejects. An individual committed to capitalist ideology would disbelieve that industry can be run efficiently without the profit system; that people will work primarily out of a desire to serve others; or that public ownership of all utilities is necessary for the common good.
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There are ideologies pertaining to all the major institutions of society, such as the family, the law, the government, and the economic system. Although these ideologies are difficult to verify, we feel strongly about them and, as long as things go well, have great confidence in them. They give us an interpretation and a justification for our practices. Like religion, they are matters of faith. They give us an interpretation and a justification for our practices. Like religion, they are matters of faith. They give us social definition of reality. It is an interesting thing about human behaviour that some of the beliefs that we hold most tenaciously with the strongest feelings are not readily subject to proof or disproof. ATTITUDE AND PREJUDICE A prejudice is defined as an attitude that is emotionally resistant to being changed. Prejudices are strongly entrenched and vigorously defended, if threatened. They are acquired in the same way as other attitudes. They are supported by differences in relative privileges, fear, and certain personality factors. CHARACTERISTICS OF ATTITUDES : Attitude can be characterized by their a) b) c) d) a) Valence, Multiplexity Relation to needs Centrality. Valence : It refers to the magnitude or degree of favorableness or unfavourableness toward the object/event. While measuring the attitudes we are basically concerned with the valence. If a person is relatively indifferent toward an object then his attitude has low valence. On the other hand, if a person is extremely favorable or unfavorable toward and attitude object, then his attitude will have a high valence. Multiplexity : It refers to the number of elements constituting the attitude. For example, one student may show interest in studies, but another not only shows interest, but also works hard, is sincere, and serious. Similarly an employee may feel simply loyal to an Organisation, but another may feel loyal, respectful, fearful and dependent. Relation to needs : Attitudes vary in relation to needs they serve. For instance, attitudes of an individual toward the pictures may serve only entertainment needs. On the other hand, attitudes of an individual toward task may serve strong needs for security, achievement, recognition, and satisfaction.
b)
c)
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d)
Centrality: One salient characteristic of the attitude refers to the importance of the attitude object to the individual. The centrality indicates the importance of the object. The attitudes that have high centrality for an individual will be less susceptible to change.
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 sources of attitudes are learning. Attitudes reflect a persons previous reinforcement history. The sources of a persons attitude are a mixture of a) b) c) d) e) f) a) Personal experiences Association Family Peer groups and society Models and Institutional factors. Personal Experiences: People form attitudes by coming in direct contact with an attitude object. By the time a person goes for work in a specified Organisation, he holds many attitudes toward the type of the job that is acceptable to him, the expected pay, working conditions and supervision. Through job experiences they develop attitudes about such factors as salary, performance reviews, job design, work group, affiliation and managerial capabilities etc. Previous work experience can account for the individual differences in attitudes such as loyalty, commitments, performance etc. Many mangers in work organisations frequently notice these differences in attitudes. Association: People are highly influenced by the major groups or associations to which they belong. Geographic region, religion, educational background, race, sex, age and income- classall strongly influence attitudes. The nearer the group the stronger is the group influence on the attitudes of the individual. Family: Family is the primary group that an individual belongs to. Family exerts influence on the initial core of attitudes held by an individual. Individuals develop certain attitudes from family membersparents, brothers, sisters etc. The family characteristics influence the individuals early attitude patterns. Researchers have found a high degree of relationship between parents and children in attitudes than they found between children and their peers. They also empirically observed low correlation between attitudes of the children and their teachers.
b)
c)
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d)
Peer Groups: As people approach their adulthood, they increasingly rely on their peer groups for approval /attitude. How others judge an individual largely determine his selfimage and approval-seeking behaviour. Social class and religious affiliation also play vital role in forming attitudes of an individual. The culture, language, and the structure of society, all provide an individual with the boundaries of his initial attitudes. At the very early age an individual is taught that certain attitudes are acceptable and certain others are non- acceptable in the society. What seem to be appropriate in one individuals culture and society may be totally unacceptable in another culture. Models : Some of the attitudes are developed through imitation of models. The process is something like this: In a particular situation, we see how another person behaves. We correctly or incorrectly interpret his behaviour as representing certain attitudes and beliefs. If we identify with him and respect his judgment, we tend to accept his way of perceiving and feeling about the situation. Children are often quite observant about how their parents react to different people and situations. They learn by watching whom their parents respect, which they treat with condescension, whom they regard as friends, and whom they dislike. Such evaluations maybe acquired without the childs directly interacting with such people. Instead of using a simple model, children (and adults) may seek to emulate different characteristics of different people. In this way their values, attitudes, and beliefs may be derived from many other people. Those that are functional for them tend to be retained. Institutional Factors : Many institutional factors function as sources and support of our attitudes and beliefs. For example, consider the description of a certain temple Aarati. When the people come into this temple, they bow down to pray, sit with heads bowed. Their clothes are clean and freshly washed. When the Pujari signals and is with Aarati all start singing Bhajan and clap. The entire process is devoted to ritual. From this we can get an idea as to the general character of the religious attitudes and beliefs. There is implicit attitude of reverence, an orientation toward a deity, a ritualized rather than spontaneous expression of feeling, a sharp differentiation between Pujari and devotees and so on. The different parts of the institution the architecture, furnishings, peoples clothing, and behaviourhave a meaning which fits in with certain beliefs and attitudes. There are many other institutions in our society schools, military organisations, and the like which also function as sources and supports of attitudes and beliefs.
e)
f)
MEASUREMENT OF ATTITUDES Though attitude is a hypothetical construct it is also subject to measurement. The most common and frequently used measures of attitudes are the questionnaires which ask the respondents to evaluate and rate their attitude toward a particular object directly, and to respond favorably or unfavorably about his belief regarding the attitude object. Generally, 62
bipolar scales are used to assess the attitudes of individual employees in an Organisation. Different types of scales are in use with respect to measurement of attitudes viz., Thurstones scale, Likerts scale, Bogarduss social distance scale, Guttmans scale etc. Let us throw a dim light on these scales. Thurstones scale: The statements, both favorable and unfavorable, relating to the area in which attitudes were to be measured are placed into eleven piles; one representing the most favorable one and one representing the unfavorable. Individuals will then be asked to check those statements with which they agreed. The average of the scale values of the items, which they accepted, will give an indication of the placement of a person along the attitude continuum. Likerts scale: Another scale that is relatively easy when compared to the earlier is the one that is developed by Rensis Likert. Likerts scale consists of five boxes ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Under each statement of attitude the respondent will be given a chance to check one of five boxes and finally all the ratings are summed up. The Likerts scale is also known as summedrating measure, because several statements are collected in an attitude area, such as ones attitude about, a job, and the scales are added up or summed to obtain a persons attitude toward his job. The summed-rating scale provides a means of measuring the intensity of ones attitude toward a particular object/event in addition to the direction. Bogarduss social distance scale: Perhaps the simple scale of measuring attitudes is the social distance scale developed by Bogardus in 1925. The scale is composed of a large number of statements regarding national, racial or ethnic groups. Guttmans scale : Guttman in 1950 developed cumulative scaling technique to measure attitudes. In the scale of ones attitude toward work, an employee might be presented with six statements displaying successively higher degrees of dissatisfaction. It is assumed that the employee will reach some point beyond which he can no longer agree. The main threshold is considered to be the degree of satisfaction. Measuring attitudes by means of projective tests : Other methods are, therefore, sometimes required to obtain a truer picture of attitudes. One such method is the projective test, which requires a person to respond to an unstructured stimulus situation. The rationale behind such tests is that, when the stimulus situation is unstructured, mainly his motives, expectations, and other personal factors determine the individuals responses. Projective tests of attitude are particularly valuable in the study of prejudice, since so many of our prejudices operate at an unconscious level or are deliberately disguised to conform to prevailing taboos against the expression of overt prejudice.
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There are good many other scales to measure attitudes. From a practical standpoint, one should either use a standard questionnaire or consult an expert to obtain a valid estimate of attitudes of the employees in an Organisation. Some problems in attitude measurement i) When paper and pencil or interview methods are used to assess attitudes, there are certain matters which require special care. Leading questions, which induce the subject to give a certain answer, should be avoided. For example the question How do you feel about TV shows which feature violence, cheating and immoral conduct? It would be impossible to express agreement with such TV shows. The questions should be understandable to the respondent and should take into account the respondents way of thinking about the matter in question. Open-ended questions, as distinct from structured set of questions, are often used. So that the respondent does not have to choose between fixed alternatives and may respond freely according to how he thinks and feels about the subject. Then, depending on his answers, he is asked further questions which are intended to find out how he feels about specific aspects of the subject. Respondents sometimes consciously or unconsciously distort their answers. Conscious distortion or faking is most likely to occur when a person has some motive to misrepresent his attitude, such as fear of reprisal, embarrassment, or guilt at feeling a certain way or a desire to please or impress the questioner. We may answer attitude questions by giving what we consider to be the socially desirable answer instead of expressing feelings we think others would reject. One must be careful to get a representative sample of whatever group or population to which one wishes to generalise his findings.
ii)
iii)
iv)
CHANGING THE ATTITUDES A whole set of influences, some of which are favorable and others unfavorable to the object usually determine an attitude. In principle, an attitude change is attributable to a change in the relative strength of these influences. When the influences in a given direction become relatively stronger than those in the opposite direction, the attitude will tend to shift. Weakening the opposing forces can also bring about such a shift. Attitude changes may be roughly classified into congruent and incongruent changes. By congruent change we mean a movement in the same direction. To take an example, less serious student may be converted into a more serious student by resorting to attitude change.
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On the other hand, an incongruent attitude change involves a change toward the other end of the continuum. For example, conversion of a dull and non-intelligent student into an interesting and intelligent student constitutes this incongruent attitude change. Similarly turning dislike into like, unfavourable into favourable etc. are examples of incongruent attitude changes. A manager attempting to change an individual employees attitudes should keep in mind that the attitude change depends on following factors: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 1) The characteristics of the communicator The method of communication The characteristics of the person to be influenced Situational factors New Experiences Characteristics of the Communicator: The most important thing in attitude change is the characteristics of communicator. These include the status and prestige of the communicator. Whether, according to the employee the communication is biased or dispassionate etc. One very important variable is status of the manager. The higher the status of the manager, the higher is the probability that he will be able to change the employees attitude. Changing attitude is also a function of the trust in the communicator by the employees. If the employees trust their manager they accept the message and may try to change their attitudes correspondingly. On the other hand, if a manager has insignificant prestige, trust, and is not shown considerable respect by his peers and subordinates, he will be in a difficult position to change the attitudes of his employees. One of the more reliable research findings is that the greater the prestige of the communicator, the more is his ability to change the attitude of employees. 2) The Method of Communication: Another influential factor in attitude change is the way the manager communicates the message to his employees. People, when presented with two-sided views, will be more convinced as they perceive that the argument is not biased. Another method of communication is through fear appeals. By communicating the terrible consequences of the continuance of the present attitudes, a manager can bring change in attitudes. Anti-smoking advertisement, by constantly emphasising the dangerous possibility of cancer attacks, are famous examples of fear appeals. The
65
research results indicate that fear appeals can be effective, especially when the target cannot do something constructive to reduce the fear on the spot. 3) Characteristics of the Target: The single most important factor influencing the attitude change is the degree of commitment of the target (employee) to the initial attitude. Further, attitudes that are publicly expressed are more difficult to change because the person concerned has already shown commitment. And to change the attitude would be to admit the mistake. Research reveals that attitudes represented by public statements are more resistant to change than those stated privately. Also firmly held attitudes to which people are behaviourally or morally committed are difficult to change. Situational Factors: Situational factors are not only extensive but also play a major role in influencing the change in attitudes of people. How one perceives the message is dependent on the situation or the prevailing context. If the employee believes that the group (his colleagues) is more favorable to the manager, then he will have less hesitation in changing his attitudes. Further, when the person feels the group and the group members are important he will have an easy go; in changing his attitudes towards the group. New Experiences: Whether or not new experiences (or information) will change our attitudes depends partly upon the strength of the initial attitudes and beliefs and partly upon how strongly favorable or unfavorable the experiences may be. If we already have strong attitudes, we are likely to resist changing them. Indeed we can be so strongly prejudiced that we interpret what would otherwise be favorable experiences as exceptions. Moreover we may be especially sensitive to any experiences which are unfavorable. Nevertheless a prolonged series of strikingly favorable or unfavorable experiences can effect a change. We are motivated to perceive those situations or aspects of situations, which are congruent with our existing attitudes and belief to reject information to the contrary. A person may resist changing his attitude because of ego involvement. This is because of a need to enhance and defend our self-esteem. When our self-esteem is threatened we are very likely to resist vigorously any attempt to change our attitude. We may reject anothers evaluation simply because agreeing would appear to admit his superiority. Sometimes, however, when the threat is removed, we may consider the situation more objectively.
4)
5)
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ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOUR Work Attitudes The importance of attitude behaviour relationship can best be demonstrated by examining two key work attitudes job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Of interest also are the complex relationships between job satisfaction and job performance. Job Satisfaction In organizational behavior, perhaps the attitude of greatest interest is the general attitude of employees toward work or toward a job, often called job satisfaction. The sources of job satisfaction are of particular interest because they often suggest corrective action that can be taken. SOURCE OF JOB SATISFACTION Job satisfaction is sometimes regarded as a single concept; that is a person satisfied or not satisfied with the job. However, it actually is a collection of specific job attitudes that can be related to various aspects of the job. For example, a popular measure of job satisfaction - the job descriptive index (JDI) -measures satisfaction in terms of five specific aspects of a persons job; pay, promotion, supervision, the work itself, and co-workers. Obviously, an employee may be satisfied with some aspects of the job and, at the same time, be satisfied with others. What Determines Job Satisfaction? Mentally Challenging Work Equitable Rewards Supportive Working Conditions Supportive Colleagues Personality - Job Fit Heredity/Genes Note that:
l l
The sources of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction vary from person to person. Sources important for many employees include the challenge of the job, the degree of interest that the job holds for the person, the extent of required physical activity, the characteristics of working conditions (e.g., temperature, humidity, proximity to others, and so on), the types of rewards available from the organization (e.g. the level of pay), the nature of co-workers, and the like. Table lists work factors that often are related to levels of employees job satisfaction.
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Effects of various work factors on Job Satisfaction WORK FACTORS Work Itself Physical Demands Personal Interest Reward Structure Working Conditions Physical Goal Attainment Self Others in the organization Satisfaction depends on the match between working conditions and physical needs Working conditions that promote goal attainment are satisfying High self esteem is conducive to job satisfaction Individuals will be satisfied with supervisors, coworkers, or subordinates who help them attain rewards. Also, individuals will be more satisfied with colleagues who see things the same way they do. Individuals will be satisfied with organizations that have policies and procedures designed to help them. Individuals will be dissatisfied with conflicting roles and/ or ambiguous roles imposed by the organization. EFFECTS Mentally challenging work that the individual can successfully accomplish is satisfying Tiring work is dissatisfying Personally interesting work is satisfying Rewards that are equitable and that provide accurate feedback for performance are satisfying
Organization and Management
An important implication of the relationship suggested is that job satisfaction perhaps should be considered primarily as an outcome of the individuals work experience. Thus high levels of dissatisfaction might indicate to managers that problems exists, say, with working conditions, the rewards systems, or the employees role in the organization.
Relation To Job Behaviour Job Satisfaction and Employee Performance

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Satisfaction and Productivity Satisfaction and Absenteeism Satisfaction and Turnover
Of special interest to managers and employees are the possible relationships between job satisfaction and various job behaviours and other outcomes in the work place. A commonsense 68
notion is that job satisfaction leads directly to effective task performance. (A happy worker is a good worker). Yet, numerous studies have shown that a simple, direct linkage between job satisfaction and job performance often doesnt exist. The difficulty of relating attitudes to behaviour is pertinent here. Earlier, we noted that general attitude best predict general behaviours and that specific attitudes are related most strongly to specific behaviours. These principles explain, at least in part; why the expected relationships often dont exist. Overall job satisfaction, as a collection of numerous attitudes towards various aspects of the job, represents a general attitude. Performance of a specific task, such as preparing a particular monthly report, cant necessarily be predicted on the basis of a general attitude. Even though tight linkage between satisfaction and specific task performance cannot always be drawn, job satisfaction is often important in terms of organizational effectiveness. For example, studies have shown that levels of job satisfaction in the workforce and organizational performance are linked. That is, organizations with satisfied employees tend to be more effective than organizations with unsatisfied employees. Further, many organizations appreciate the linkage between customer satisfaction and the satisfaction of employees who interact with their customers. Job satisfaction is important for many reasons in addition to these mentioned.
l
Because satisfaction represents an outcome of the work experience, high levels of dissatisfaction helps to identify organizational problems that need attention. In addition, job dissatisfaction is strongly linked to absenteeism, turnover, and physical and mental health problems. For example research clearly shows that highly dissatisfied employees are more likely to be absent from work than are satisfied employees. Further, dissatisfied employees are more likely to leave a job for other employment. High levels of absenteeism and turnover are costly for organizations. Many management experts suggest that the strong relationship between dissatisfaction and absenteeism and turnover is a compelling reason for paying careful attention to employee job satisfaction.
Organizational Commitment Another important work attitude that has a bearing on organizational behaviour is commitment to the organization. Organizational Commitment refers to the strength of an employees involvement in the organization and identification with it. Strong organizational commitment is characterized by:
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A belief in and acceptance of the organizations goals and values A willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the organization; and A desire to remain with the organization 69
Organizational commitment goes beyond loyalty to include active contribution to accomplishing organizational goals. The concept of organizational commitment represents a broader work attitude than job satisfaction because it applies to the entire organization than just a job. Further, it is likely to be more stable than job satisfaction because day-to-day events are not likely to affect it. Sources of Organizational Commitment As with the job satisfaction, sources of organizational commitment may vary from person to person.
l
Employees initial commitment to the organization is determined largely by their individual characteristics (personality, values etc.) and how well their early job experiences match their expectations. Pay, relationships at work place, working conditions, opportunities for advancement etc
Overtime, it becomes stronger because:

l l l
Individuals develop deeper ties with the organization and their co-workers Seniority often brings advantages that tend to develop more positive work attitudes Opportunities in the market may decrease with the increasing age and hence employees may become more attached with the current organization
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SUMMARY Personality is an important cognitively oriented variables in the study of OB. Personality represents the whole person. It includes perception, learning, physique and a lot more of a person. Thinkers have tries to explain various determinants of personality. However, we find that every theory tends to take a specific view of the major determinants of personality. Personality, however, is not a static. It has determinants. It is a psycho, physical, socioenvironmental combination that make personality dynamic. Like personality and perception attitude is an important cognitive input deciding the direction of human behaviour. Attitudes have some basic characteristics in that they persist unless changed in some way; they range along a continuum; and they are directed towards an object about which a person has some feelings. An attitude is an amalgam of personal experience, family, society, peers, models and the institutional factors. Though attitude is a hypothetical construct it is also subject to measurement. Various scales like Thurstones, Likerts, Guttman scales are available. Every manager is intimately concerned with the issue if the attitudes can be changed. If so then how? Change in the attitudes depends on the characteristics of the communicator, the method of communication then characteristics of the person to be influences situational factors etc. Job Satisfaction and Organisational Commitment reflect work attitudes of employees. These have a large bearing on their behaviour and ultimately their performance.
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Chapter 5
MOTIVATION: THE WHYS OF HUMAN BEHAVIOUR
LEARNING OBJECTIVES Understand various concepts, which attempt to explain the causes of human behaviour. Understand the characteristics and the classifications of motives. The concept of motivation occupies a central place in the discipline of Organizational Behaviour. It is a concept, which has received the maximum attention from the academicians and researchers alike. Since a motivated employee is highly productive and highly quality oriented, the managers are also interested the concept of motivation. Motivation is not the only explanation of human behaviour. It interacts and acts in conjunction with mediating processes and environment. Motivation, like perception and learning is a construct of behaviour. It is a process that starts with psychological and or physiological deficiency that activates the behaviour towards goal attainment. Thus motivation represents a relationship between need, drive and goal. Needs are created when there is imbalance-physiological or physiological. Drives are set up to restore balance. Drives ultimately lead to goal accomplishment. Motivation is a psychological process. In a sense motivation means causes of behaviour. The attempt to explain the human behaviour can be traced to the writings of Greek philosophers. They presented hedonism as the explanation of human behaviour. Hedonism means a) b) c) That the human behaviour is rational, That the human behaviour is deliberate, That human consciously tries to avoid pain and discomfort and his behaviour is directed to secure comfort and pleasure.
This concept held sway over the thinking and writings of philosophers for a very long time. Springing from this concept is the concept of economic man. This concept of economic man assumes that the human behaviour is directed to maximize economic gains and minimize economic losses.
Motivation: The Whys of Human Behaviour
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Given this assumption of human behaviour, it is very easy to motivate employees. Whenever a certain behaviour is to be encouraged give rewards; whenever a certain behaviour is to be discouraged give punishment. This is the theory of reward and punishment. Unfortunately this takes a simplistic view of human behaviour. Human is not always motivated either by reward or by punishment or both. Adherence to reward and punishment or carrot and the stick as it is some times called, does not cause continuance of desired and sustained behaviour over a longer time. It was William James, who in the first decade of the last century disputed the basic assumptions of hedonistic concept. He thought that much of the human behaviour is instinctively based. These instincts are unlearned and are innate drives of the human beings. William McDougal, the pioneering social psychologist, further developed the instinctive theory. He defined an instinct as an innate disposition which determines the organism to perceive or to pay attention to any object which causes behaviour. In other words the instincts are the behaviours taught to us by Mother Nature. A partial list of instincts would include, jealousy, love, anxiety, fear, hatred, lust, fear of dark places etc. Implicit in the Instinctual approach to human behaviour is the hint that human behaviour is unconscious behaviour. It was Sigmund Freud, however, who shaped the theory of unconscious behaviour. Freud reasoned that human behaviour is like an iceberg; only a small part of which is visible. However, the part of iceberg, which is not seen, controls the seen part. So is the case of human behaviour. To Freud human is constantly in conflict with the self. The three constructs of human personality are always conflicting. The final outcome, which is the observable behaviour, is the product of this conflict. According to Freud this is the reason why many a times a human can not verbalize his motivations. Modern psychologists are prepared to recognize the existence of unconscious behaviour, but not in the sense implicit to Freud. They believe human behaviour is sparked by a motive. A motive is a felt need. Human behaviour is directed to satisfy these needs or motives. They have five characteristics. They are: a) b) c) d) e) the need having the highest strength dominates the human behaviour; a need once satisfied ceases to influence behaviour; when a need is satisfied, it gives rise to a new need; needs are recurrent in nature; needs are ubiquitous.
Psychologists do not totally agree on how to classify various human motives. However, some psychologists tend to classify motives according as to whether they are unlearned or learned 74
and whether they are psychologically or physiologically based. The following is the classification. Primary motives are the ones that are unlearned and are physiologically based. Defined this way the most commonly recognized primary motives include hunger, thrust, sleep avoidance of pain, sex etc. General Motives are the ones that are unlearned but not physiologically based. Primary needs seek to reduce the tension or stimulation. Although not all the psychologists agree the motives such as curiosity, manipulative activity, and affection etc. fall in this category. Secondary Motives develop as a human society develops economically and becomes more complex. The examples of secondary motives are needs for power, need for affiliation, need for achievement, need for security and need for status etc. At this stage a discussion on power, achievement and affiliation motivation would be in order. THE POWER MOTIVE The leading advocate of this motive was pioneering psychologist Alfred Adler. Power motive essentially is the desire to control others; to direct others behaviour. The power attaches to ones personal competence. In an organization because of his competence a person comes to acquire power. His say influences the decisions of his superiors. In other words he comes to acquire extra constitutional powers. Person who has acquired such power must use it for the good of the organization. It is necessary that he recognizes that the power he has is because of the organization. In other words he be high on social inhibition also. THE ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVE David C. McClelland is most closely associated with the study of achievement motive. Out of his extensive research has emerged a clear profile of characteristics of the high achiever. Achievement motivation can be expressed as a desire to performing in terms of a standard of excellence or to be successful in competitive situations. The specific characteristics of a high achiever are a) moderate risk taking b) need for immediate feed back c) satisfaction with accomplishment and d) preoccupation with the task. AFFILIATION MOTIVE This motive is indicative of the need belong to and be accepted by the others. The consideration of this motive is important in the discussions of group dynamics. The higher the need for affiliation among the members of the group; the higher is the group cohesiveness. In our discussion of the characteristics of motives we had said that motives are ubiquitous. If that is so the questions arises as to how a human satisfies his motive. The concept of coping behaviour says the human changes his behaviour until he gets what he wants. The behaviour continues on the way leading to need satisfaction.
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However, human life is not bed of roses. Many a times situations arise in such a way that human being does not understand as to what he should do; or many times his self image is likely to be criticized by the world; or the need fulfillment gets continually blocked. When this occurs a phenomenon known as intra personal conflict arises. Intra personal conflicts are three. They are a) Role conflict; b) goal conflict and c) frustration. Role conflict arises when a person is performing two different roles having contrary or contradictory expectations at the same time. A worker who is also a worker-director is sandwiched between different expectations. On the one hand he is a worker and on the other he is director in the board of directors. As a director he may have to concur with the decision which may not be, from his point of view, in the interests of workers as such. If he performs his role as a worker he fails in his role as a director. Conversely if he performs his role as a worker he fails in his role as a director. GOAL CONFLICTS: There are three types of goal conflicts. They are: a) b) c) approach approach avoidance avoidance approach avoidance.
Approach Approach conflict arises when there exist two equally positive but mutually exclusive situations. Both are equally attractive but a person can choose only one of them. A person receiving two equally good job offers gets into this kind of conflicts. In life somehow or the other a person makes a choice and settles down with. This kind of conflict is not known to create stress and tensions for a long time. Avoidance Avoidance conflict arises when there exist two equally negative situations one of which has to be accepted. For a prisoner continuing in the jail is negative but at the same time if he jail breaks there is a likelihood of his getting caught and increase in the punishment. He detests both but he has to choose either. This conflict also is not known to create stress for a long time. Somehow or the other a person makes a choice and settles down with it. Approach Avoidance conflict is known to create stress in the mind of a person for a long time. This type of conflict arises when a positive situation is coupled with a negative one, If a person wants positive, he must choose negative too. A person wanting a promotion but not the transfer that comes in its wake faces this kind of conflict. Frustration occurs when need fulfillment is continually blocked or when ones self image is in jeopardy. Defense mechanisms are the behaviours occurring to deal with frustration. Before we go to discuss various defense mechanisms the following points be noted: 76
a)
We are discussing only some of the defense mechanisms we come across commonly at the work life. Defense mechanisms are unconscious behaviours. These behaviours are not deliberate behaviours. They just occur. It is only for the sake of simplicity that they discussed separately. In life there could be a mixture of different defense mechanisms in one behaviour. In life there is no prioritizing when it comes to defense mechanisms for dealing with frustration. These defense mechanisms serve an important function of keeping the human personality integrated.
b)
c)
d)
e)
Defense Mechanisms: 1. Rationalization is giving pseudo justification to explain ones failures. The common examples are sour grapes or a bad workman quarreling with his tools. Regression is sliding back in terms of ones chronological age. Certain patterns of behaviours are learnt during the childhood that are subsequently, in the adult age, replaced by the behaviours acceptable by the society. At an unguarded moment, in the adulthood, in the flush of emotions, however, these childhood behaviours take charge of the personality of the person. A superior getting angry with his subordinate and throwing files at him or a person throwing a pen because of the ink not flowing, are the examples of this defense mechanism. Aggression is also known as emotional transference. This is giving vent to the pent up feelings by an offensive behaviour towards a third object or a person unconnected with the source of frustration. The offensive behaviour is, almost always, against the third object or the person that can not retaliate. A superior scolding his subordinate because of something happening at home is the example of this defense mechanism. Fantasy is building castles in the air with a view to escaping form the problem situation. Fantasy is temporarily removing oneself, mentally, from the problem situation and losing oneself in the imaginary world where things happen at his behest. As long as a person is in his imaginary castle he is happy but some time or the other he has to come down to the mother earth. When he comes out of the imaginary world the problem starts pinching him again. The increased frequency of fantasizing is a signal that one had better seek some help from a psychiatrist.
2.
3.
4.
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5.
Resignation, flight or withdrawal is a complete surrender to the problem situation. This is accepting a situation and ceasing any effort to deal with the problem.
The table on the next page gives behavioural descriptions of various defense mechanisms. Defense mechanism Rationalization Psychological process Illustration
Justifying inconsistent or undesirable behaviour, beliefs etc. by providing acceptable explanation for them. Individual returns to an earlier a less mature level of adjustment in the face of frustration. Re-directing pent-up emotions towards persons or the objects unconnected with the source of frustration. Daydreaming or other forms of imaginative activity provide an escape from the reality and imagined satisfaction.
Padding the expense account because everybody does it.
Regression
A manager shouting at his subordinate.
Aggression i.e. emotional transference
Roughly rejecting a request from a subordinate after receiving a rebuff from the boss.
Fantasy
Employee daydreams of the day in the staff meeting when he corrects the boss and is publicly acknowledged as the real brain of the company. A manager saying that the recommendations of a committee are not implementable because he could not become a member of the committee. A student who could not pass an examination quitting the course.
Negativism
Active or passive resistance operating unconsciously.
Resignation, flight Leaving the field where anxiety or or withdrawal. conflict is experienced.
Adapted from Fred Lutherans Organizational Behaviour VI Edition Page 373.
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SUMMARY For a long time the question about various reasons of human behaviour was pondered over by philosophers. Greeks advocated a thesis that the human behaviour is deliberate and human consciously tries to avoid pain and discomfort. By the beginning of the last century the instinctive behavioural school disputed this thesis. Sigmund Freud gave the explanation of human behaviour in his concept known as unconscious behaviour. However, the modern psychologists believe that the human behaviour is directed to satisfy the motive. A motive is a felt need. One of the most important characteristics of motives is that they are ubiquitous. Many situations create conflict in the mind of an individual. These are called intra-personal conflicts. They are role conflict, goal conflict, and frustration. Role conflict arises as a result of a person performing two contrary or contradictory roles at the same time. Three goal conflicts are approach approach, approach avoidance and avoidance avoidance. When need fulfillment is continually blocked or when the self-image is threatened frustration arises. Defense mechanisms are the ways to deal with frustration.
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Chapter 6
WORK MOTIVATION THEORIES
LEARNING OBJECTIVES Discuss the difference between content and process of work motivation. Discuss major theories of work motivation. Present the contemporary equity and attribution theories of work motivation The previous chapter dealt with the basics of human behaviour. In order to understand the organizational behaviour an understanding of these basics is a must. They serve as a prelude to study the work-motivation approaches. These work motivation approaches can be broadly classified as content and process theories. The content theories are concerned with identifying the needs that people have and how needs are prioritized. They are concerned with types of incentives that drive people to attain need fulfillment. The Maslow hierarchy theory, Fredrick Herzbergs two factor theory and Alderfers ERG needs theory fall in this category. Although such a content approach has logic, is easy to understand, and can be readily translated in practice, the research evidence points outs out limitations. There is very little research support for these models theoretical basis and predictability. The trade off for simplicity sacrifices true understanding of the complexity of work motivation. On the positive side, however, the content models have given emphasis to important content factors that were largely ignored by human relationists. In addition the Alderfer model allows more flexibility and the Herzberg model is useful as an explanation for job satisfaction and as a point of departure for job design. The process theories provide a much sounder theoretical explanation of work motivations. The expectancy model of Vroom and the extensions and the refinements provided by Porter and Lawler help explain the important cognitive variables and how they relate to one another in the process of work motivation. The Porter Lawler model also gives specific attention to the important relationship between performance and satisfaction. A growing research literature is somewhat supportive of these expectancy models, but conceptual and methodological problems remain. Unlike the content models these expectancy models are relatively complex and difficult to
Work Motivation Theories
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translate into actual practice, and, consequently, they have generally failed to meet the goals of prediction and control of organisation behaviour. The process theories are concerned with identifying the variables that go into motivation and more importantly how they are related to one another. Abraham Maslow theory of need hierarchy: It was Abraham Maslow who thought that human needs that spark off an activity can be arranged in a hierarchy of pre-potency and probability of occurrence. Maslow based his theory that a need that is not satisfied dominates the behaviour sparking off an activity for its satisfaction. This need, when satisfied, in its turn activates the higher need. This sequence can be denoted as under. Deprivation Domination Gratification Activation
As a theory of motivation Maslow reasoned that needs can be structured in a hierarchy. Self Actualization i.e. Self Realization needs Self Esteem i.e. Self Worth needs Social i.e. belongingness needs Security needs Physiological needs Physiological Needs : The fulfillment of physiological needs, such as thirst, hunger, sex, sleep, etc. takes precedence over all other needs; nay, on the satisfaction of these needs, is dependent the very survival and continuance of the human race. Unlike other needs, the physiological needs have a tendency of recurrence. An individual may postpone the fulfillment of these needs and/or adapt his need satisfying-behaviour to suit the culture and the situation. Money represents the best means to satisfy physiological needs. Money is valued not for its own sake, but for the sake of what it can buy for us. This is one of the dimensions of money motive. Physiological needs are finite but are recurrent. Safety needs: Once physiological needs are met, safety needs become important. While physiological
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needs have a reference to the present, the safety needs look to the future. The needs for food, clothing, etc. are satisfied today. But what about tomorrow? A man, so long as he is young and working and earning, is able to satisfy the physiological needs as and when they occur. But will he be able to satisfy needs and fend for himself when he gets old? He must have reasonable safety in his old age too. Implicit in the fulfillment of these safety needs is the origin of many labour enactments in India today. The pension plans, the payment of gratuity Act, the provident funds Act etc. and other retiral benefits, go, basically, to ensure security for the man in his old age. Too much security makes a man reckless and careless or lazy disobedient and under-productive. At the same time insecurity also makes a man under-productive. How much enough is enough security is an ever-present dilemma before the management providing security of jobs to their employees. Social and belongingness needs : The needs for social belongingness have their origin in the gregarious nature of the human being. Since man is a social being, he has a need to belong and to be accepted by various groups. When social needs become dominant, a person will strive for meaningful relations with others. People interact simply because they enjoy it. Even such interactions which give no apparent tangible rewards are entered into simply because they reasonably assure one that one is a part of the society and is accepted by the society. We always live in the society and are surrounded by others. We may, therefore, fail to properly visualize the strength of these needs. It would to say that even the hardened criminals dread the punishment of solitary confinement. Solitary confinement is known to rupture the human psyche. The informal groups in an organization are founded in a quest to fulfill the needs for belongingness. One of the many reasons for the informal groups to thrive in an organization could be the employees reaction to the threat posed by boredom, insignificance and insecurity the employees feel. The least the management can do is to recognize the fact that the informal groups can be an asset to them and can be instrumental in furthering the goals of the organization. Management does not create the informal groups and the management cannot destroy them. The fixation for the fulfillment of these need results in, what is known as group think. Esteem i.e. self Worth Needs: It is not only sufficient for a human being to belong. What he craves for and strives towards is that others should recognize his worth. An employee stays in an organization not merely because he gets his salary and other material rewards but he is there because others recognize that he is worthy of the job and other material benefits that he
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gets. This need manifests itself in three forms; (a) the need for status; (b) the need for power and (c) the need for recognition. The scuffle in the organization for achieving the organizational status and the power, which goes with it, is the essence of the esteem needs. Promotion is recognition of ones capability to shoulder higher responsibilities. Self actualization needs: In the words of Maslow, these needs denote what a man can be should be. A self-actualized person has a cause; an ideology to fight for the goal set for himself. He concentrates on the feed back, which is task oriented and is not taken in by the personal criticism or praise. Since such a person has a cause to believe in, many a times he forgoes fulfillment of other needs in pursuance of cause. He is unmindful of the physical surroundings. Archimedes, when he exclaimed Eureka was oblivious of the surroundings. The Great Indian Leader Mahatma Gandhi deprived himself even of the physical necessities when he underwent a fasting penance at Nowkhali at the time of partition of the country. A highly successful scientist may fall in the category of the self-actualized persons. Barring exceptions, this need of self-actualization remains latent in most people. Criticism: Part of the appeal of Maslows theory is that it provides both a theory of human motives by classifying basic human needs in a hierarchy and the theory of human motivation that relates these needs to general behaviour. Maslows major contribution lies in the hierarchical concept. He was the first to recognize that a need once satisfied is a spent force and ceases to be a motivator. Mallows need hierarchy presents a paradox in as much as while the theory is widely accepted, there is a little research evidence available to support the theory. It is said that beyond structuring needs in a certain fashion Mallow does not give concrete guidance to the managers as to how they should motivate their employees. The need hierarchy as postulated by Maslow does not appear in practice. It is likely that over fulfillment of anyone particular need may result in fixation for the need. In that case even when a particular need is satisfied a person may still engage in the fulfillment of the same need. Furthermore, in a normal human being, all the needs are not always satisfied entirely. There remains an unsatisfied corner of every need inspite of which the person seeks fulfillment of the higher need.
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A person may move on to the next need in spite of the lower need being unfulfilled or being partly fulfilled. Maslow in his later work said: 1. Gratification of the self-actualization need causes an increase in its importance rather than a decrease; Long deprivation of a given need, results in fixation for that need; Higher needs may emerge not after gratification, but rather by long deprivation, renunciation or suppression of lower needs. Human behaviour is multi-determined and multi-motivated.
2. 3.
4.
Herzbergs two factor theory of motivation: Herzberg extended work of Maslow and developed a specific content theory of work motivation. In 1950s he conducted a study noting responses of Accountants and Engineers employed by the firms in and around Pittsburgh. In collecting data he used the critical incidental method. In this method, the respondent was asked to narrate one incident from his work life about which he was particularly unhappy and another incident from work-life about which he was particularly happy. On analyzing the data thus collected Herzberg came to conclusion that there are two sets of factors at the work life; one set he called hygiene factors while the other was called the motivators. The following are the hygiene factors and motivators. Hygiene Factors i.e. dissatisfiers 1. Company policies and administration; 2. Technical Supervision; 3. Inter Personal relations with superiors; 4. Inter Personal relations with Peers; 5. Inter Personal relations with Subordinates; 6. Salary 7. Job Security; 8. Personal life; 9. Working Conditions; 10. Status Motivators i.e. satisfies 1. Achievement 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Recognition Advancement; Work itself Possibility of Growth Responsibility
Hygiene factors are those factors that by their absence inhibit performance but any addition in them does not increase efficiency or productivity. These are the job context factors that occur
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at the time of doing the job. Thus they are extrinsic to the job. These factors are also called as dissatisfiers. Motivativators are those factors, which by their absence do not inhibit performance, but any addition in them increases efficiency. These are the job content factors that make the job itself a tool of motivation. These factors are also called as satisfies. By their very nature hygiene factors are necessary for the performance but what is required of the Manager is to provide these factors to the required level and focus his attention to provide more and more on the motivators. Motivators cater to the higher order needs of the human being and, therefore, they are more important. In order to build these factors into the job design a Manager should load the job with motivators. This is the theory of job loading. Job loading can be done either by horizontally loading or by vertically loading the job. The Horizontal job loading is known as job enlargement while vertical job loading is known as job enrichment. Job Enlargement: The following are the principles of job enlargement: 1. 2. 3. 4. Challenging the employees by increasing the amount of production expected of him; Adding other tasks to the job; Removing the more difficult parts of the assignment in order to free the worker; Rotating the assignments.
When talking about the theory of job enlargement in his article one more time, how do you motivate your employee, [Harvard Business Review; Jan-Feb 68] Herzberg talks in arithmetical terms and ultimately comes to conclusion that the theory of job enlargement does not gives dividends not for a long period of time. He, therefore, advocates job enrichment. Job Enrichment Principles of job enrichment according to Herzberg, are as under : Principle 1. Removing some controls while retaining accountability; Increasing Accountability for individuals own work; Motivators involved Responsibility and personal achievement; Responsibility and recognition;
2.
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3.
Giving a person a complete natural unit of work [Module, area etc.]; Granting additional authority to an employee in his activity Making periodic reports directly available to the worker himself Introducing new and more difficult tasks not handled previously; Assigning individuals specific or specialized tasks, enabling them to become experts.
Responsibility and recognition;
4.
Responsibility and recognition;
5.
Internal recognition
6.
Growth and learning
7.
Responsibility, Growth and advancement
Criticism of Herzberg Theory: Even though Herzberg model of job enrichment was employed in some companies, the results were not uniform. One of the main criticisms against the theory is that it is not corroborated by subsequent research. Many critics do not agree to the straightjacketing of certain items in to hygiene factors and motivators. Depending on the environment and perception what a hygiene factor is to one may be a motivator to others. Herzberg implies building challenges and freedom into the jobs. However, what a challenge is to one may be perceived as a threat by some. Moreover all jobs can not be re-designed and enriched. E.g. routine programmed jobs can not be enriched. Inspite of the seemingly legitimate criticism, Herzberg has to be given credit for contributing substantially to the study of work motivation. He extended Maslow concept and made it more applicable to the work motivation. Herzberg added much to the better understanding of the job content factors and employee satisfaction, but fell short of comprehensive theory of work motivation. Alderfers ERG Theory: Alderfer identified 3 groups of core needs; they are Existence (E), Relatedness (R) and Growth (G). The existence needs are concerned with survival. The relatedness needs stress the importance of interpersonal and social relationship.
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The growth needs are concerned with individuals intrinsic desire for personal development. Alderfer is suggesting more of a continuum of needs than hierarchical levels. The following table shows how these groups of needs are related to the Maslow and Herzberg categories. No doubt, they are very close, but the ERG needs do not have strict lines of demarcation. According to ERG theory the persons background or cultural environment may dictate that the relatedness needs will take precedence over unfulfilled existence needs and that the more the growth needs are satisfied, the more they will increase in intensity. Alderfer is suggesting more of a continuum of needs than hierarchical levels or two factors of pre-potency of needs. Unlike Maslow or Herzberg, he does not contend that a lower level need has to be fulfilled before a higher level need becomes motivating or that deprivation is the only to activate the need. There has not been a great deal of research on ERG theory. Although there is some evidence to counter the theorys predictive value, most contemporary analyses of work motivation tend to support Alderfers theory over Maslows and Herzbergs. Overall, the ERG theory seems to take some of the strong points of the earlier content theories but is less restrictive and limiting. The fact remains, however, that the content theories in general lack explanatory power over the complexities of work motivation and, with the possible exception of the implications for job design of Herzbergs work, do not readily translate to the actual practice of human resources management. The process theories of work motivation: The process theories are concerned with the cognitive antecedents that go into motivation and with the way they are related to one another. The theories given by Vroom, Porter and Lawler fall in this category. Vrooms Expectancy Theory of Motivation: Unlike the content theories, which attempt to identify human needs, Vroom considers as to what leads to effort. He gives the following equation M = (V x E) M is motivation which is the sum total of the multiplication of valence and expectancy. V i.e. Valence stands for the preference of an individual for a particular outcome. Thus, when an individual desires a particular outcome the value of V is positive. On the other hand when he does not desire a certain outcome, the value of V is negative. E stands for expectancy. The value of E ranges between zero and one. When a certain event
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will definitely not occur the value of E is zero. On the contrary when the even is bound to occur the value of E is one. The lesson, therefore, for the manager is that he should attach positive rewards to the job and lay down objective criteria to attain the said positive rewards. Although Vroom does not directly contribute to the techniques of motivating people it is of value in understanding organisational behaviour. It clarifies the relation between individual and the organisational goals. The model is designed to help management understand and analyze employee motivation and identify some of the relevant variables. However, the theory falls short of providing specific solutions to the motivational problems. The theory also does not take into account the individual differences based on individual perceptions. Thus the theory indicates only the coneptional determinants of motivation and how they are related. The Porter-Lawler Model Vroom has suggested what leads to effort. The Porter Lawler model however, goes a step ahead and postulates that effort does not necessarily lead to performance and satisfaction. While efforts are determined by the value of reward and the perceived reward probability, performance i.e. accomplishment is influenced by an individuals abilities and role perceptions. In the ultimate analysis an employee derives satisfaction which is an amalgam of effort leading to performance interacting with rewards. The model can be diagrammatically explained as under :
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Equity theory of Work Motivation As a theory of work motivation, credit for equity theory is usually given to J. Stacy Adams. Simply put, the theory argues that a major input into job performance and satisfaction is the degree of equity (or inequity) that people perceive in work situation. Adams depicts a specific process of how this motivation occurs. Inequity occurs when a person perceives that the ratio of his or her outcomes to inputs and the ratio of a relevant others outcomes to inputs are unequal. Schematically this is represented as follows: Equity occurs when Person s outcomes =others outcomes Persons inputs others inputs Both the inputs and the outputs of the person and the other are based upon the person s perceptions, which are affected by age, sex, education social status, organisational position, qualifications, and how hard the person works etc. Outcomes consist primarily of rewards such as pay, status, promotion, and intrinsic interest in the job. In essence the ratio is based upon the persons perception of what the person is giving (inputs) and receiving (outcomes) versus the ratio of what the relevant is giving and receiving. This cognition may or may not be the same as someone elses observation of the ratios or the same as the actual situation. If the persons perceived ratio is not equal to the others, he or she will strive to restore the ratio to equity. This striving to restore equity is used as the explanation of work motivation. The strength of this motivation is in direct proportion to the perceived inequity that exists. Attribution Theory: Attribution theorist Harold Kelley stresses that attribution theory is concerned mainly with the cognitive processes by which an individual interprets behaviour as being caused by certain parts of the relevant environment. The attribution theorist assumes that humans are rational and are motivated to identify and understand the causal structure of their relevant environment. It is this search for attributes that characterizes attribution theory. Heider believed that both internal forces i.e. personal attributes such as ability, effort, and fatigue and external forces i.e. environment attributes such as rules and the weather combine additively to determine behaviour. He stressed that it is the perceived, not the actual determinants that are important to behaviour.
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Theory X and Theory Y : A poweful influence for maturity on organizational behaviour was Douglas McGregors Theory X and Theory Y, first published in 1957 in his book Human side of enterprise. These two theories clearly distinguished traditional autocratic assumptions about the nature of people (Theory X) from more behaviourally based assumptions (Theory Y). The usefulness of the McGregor theories is his convincing arguments that most management actions flow directly from whatever theory of human behaviour managers hold. Philosophy practice. Managements personnel practices decision making, operating practices, and even organisational design flow from assumptions about human behaviour. Theory X The typical person dislikes work and will avoid it if possible. The typical person lacks responsibility, has little ambition, and seeks security above all. Most people must be coerced, controlled, and threatened with punishment to get them to work. Theory Y Work is as natural as play or rest. People are not inherently lazy. They have become that way as a result of experience. People will exercise self-direction and self-control in the service of objectives to which they are committed. People have potential. Under proper conditions they learn to accept and seek responsibility. They have imagination, ingenuity, and creativity that can be applied to work.
With these assumptions the managerial role is to coerce and control employees.
With these assumptions the managerial role is to potential in employees and help them release that potential toward common objective.
Theory X implies an autocratic approach to managing. Theory Y implies a humanistic and supportive approach to managing people. The table below gives the assumptions of both these theories. Pygmalion in Management: Pygmalion is a Greek mythological figure. A story has it that he was a sculptor par-excellence, One of his statues breathed life. When this concept is transplanted to the organisational life it
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would mean that a manager should be so skillful that he should be able to develop and motivate even an inefficient employee. As a matter of fact the ability to develop and motivate depends on a managers personal job skills and abilities. These are determined by his abilities to place demands on the employees. What is important is the managers ability to place demand and create work performance expectations. An employee castigated for lower performance will always give lower performance unless some positive feed back is given him. Low expectations lead to low performance. In order to save his self-image from criticism an employee acts in a manner that further lowers his performance. Thus, the managerial prophecy about an employee being inefficient comes true. Low expectations lead to low performance; and low performance leads to low expectations. This vicious circle has a downward spiraling effect. Every manager must understand that the efforts and therefore, the performance will be the lowest when the demand placed are very easily achievable or extremely difficult to achieve. The efforts and therefore, the efficiency will be the maximum when the targets set are perceived to be achievable with reasonable efforts.
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SUMMARY The work motivation theories can be broadly catagorised in two classes. They are content theories and process theories. The content theories are concerned with identifying the needs that people have and how needs are prioritized. They are concerned with types of incentives that drive people to attain need fulfillment. The Maslow hierarchy theory, Fredrick Herzbergs two factor theory and Alderfers ERG needs theory fall in this category. The process theories are concerned with the cognitive antecedents that go into motivation and with the way they are related to one another. The theories given by Vroom, Porter and Lawler, equity theory and attribution theory fall in this category.
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Chapter 7
MORALE
LEARNING OBJECTIVES To define morale. To understand the relationship between morale and productivity. To understand some of the morale indicators. There does not seem to be congruence of the opinions of the OB thinkers about the meanings of these two terms. Many thinkers use these words synonymously. Even Keith Davis in his earlier editions of the book Human Behaviour At Work in earlier editions uses the word Morale which in the subsequent editions is changed to job satisfaction. But we can say that while job satisfaction is an individual phenomenon; morale indicates a group phenomenon. According to Keith Davis Morale means the attitude of employees and group towards their work environment and toward voluntary cooperation to the full extent of their ability in the best interests of the organisation. According to Morris Viteles Morale refers to the condition of a group where there are clear and fixed group goals that are felt to be important and integrated with individual goals: where there is confidence in the attainment of these goals and the confidence in the means of attainment in the leader, associates and finally in oneself. Morale indicates the happiness of the employees with the organisational environment. It also refers to the preparedness of the groups of the employees to subordinate the individual and the group goals to the goals of the organisation. Morale essentially is akin to job satisfaction. It represents the integration of an individual with the team and the organisation itself. Generally it can be said that morale has a positive
Morale
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relationship with productivity .The higher the morale the higher is the productivity. However, this need not always be so, as can be seen from the following graph: High Line A Line B
Line A - High Job Satisfaction only Line B - High Job Satisfaction Productivity Line C - High Productivity only
Line C
Low Low In the above graph Curve-A represents high morale; Low productivity; Curve-B represents high morale and high productivity; but low morale. And Curve-C represents high productivity. High productivity involves a combination of ability, training, work habits, performance goals etc. Curve A above where morale is high but productivity is low indicates the managements failure in the proper discharge of management functions: - chiefly the planning function. Productivity can be high in spite of morale being low because of the rigid systems and controls imposed by the management. The situations where productivity is higher in spite of morale being low or productivity being lower in spite of morale being high do not last long. In the first situation productivity is high because of the strict management controls and close supervision. It also happens in an atmosphere where the people are treated as machines. In this situation the management is apparently creating discontent in the organisation which may blow up in its face. When this happens the productivity also dips. In the second situation when morale is high but productivity is low, slowly people distance themselves from the Organisation because of the disillusionment about the management abilities. In this situation after sometime the morale comes down. Thus in both these situations ultimately morale as well as productivity are at their nadir. 100
Productivity
High
Every manager is always interested in curve B indicating high morale as well as productivity. But morale is not a static phenomenon. Today the morale high but something may go wrong and the morale might start coming down. In words a manager must have his fingers on the morale in the Organisation. No doubt a manager can know the level of morale in his organisation by morale surveys. These morale surveys involve drafting of questionnaires, interview people, tabulate and analyse the data. This may be time-taking process. Instead he may pay due attention to some of the morale indicators that give an idea about the status of morale at a particular time. Indicators of morale: A manager should always be interested in knowing the level of morale in his organisation/ section. Morale can not be quantified. However, it can be talked of in comparative terms. Though it is always possible or advisable that a manager conducts morale surveys which can help a manager to know the status of morale the following are the morale indicators which give an idea to the manager about the status of morale. 1. The rate of rejections of finished products by Quality Assurance Dept. The higher the rate of rejections, the lesser is the morale. The rate of wastage of raw material. The higher the wastage, the lower is the morale. Petty grievances. The higher the number of the petty grievance the lower is the morale. Absenteeism In the Indian situation absenteeism is dependent upon seasons such as sowing etc. and the festivals. High absenteeism during these periods need not indicate low morale. Resignations of skilled personel - In the Indian situation there being large unemployment, an unskilled or a semi-skilled person, even if unhappy with the job cannot leave the job. On the contrary however, a person having higher levels of skills can leave the job in case he is unhappy with the job. In the Indian situation, therefore, exodus of skilled personnel is a morale indicator. Exit Interviews Since an employee who is leaving the organisation is not inhibited by the organisational constraints, he can afford to give his feelings with regard to many practices in the organisation. The exit interviews do constitute a good source of information for the management to set right many non-productive or the pernicious practices or procedures in the organisation.
2. 3. 4.
5.
6.
Morale
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SUMMARY Morale indicates the happiness of the employees with the organisational environment. It also refers to the preparedness of the groups of the employees to subordinate the individual and the group goals to the goals of the organisation. Relationship between morale and productivity need not always be direct. Sometimes even when the morale is high there can be low productivity and vice-versa, A manager is interested in high morale in the organisation. Therefore he must know the level of morale in the organisation. Morale can be measured by morale surveys which might take some time. Therefore, a manager has to understand some of the morale indicators in the organisation. An attention to these indicators may enable him to take some corrective action on time.
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Chapter 8
WORK AND CONDITIONS OF WORK
LEARNING OBJECTIVES Understand the relationship of productivity to the time spent at work. Find the ways to avoid decrement in the work curve. To understand how various factors in the physical surround affect the productivity. Work, in essence, is the use of persons physiological and mental processes in attainment of some goal. The goal may be a managerial decision, the sale of an insurance policy, the erection of a stone wall or the production of steel ingot. This definition of work is broad and it is sometime criticized because of its generality. For example may we not define play in the same way? Does not the tennis player use his physiological and mental processes in the attempt to attain the goal of winning the game? Indeed he does. But the point to remember is that even though work and play may seem to be extremes of a continuum. The distinction rests primarily upon motivation rather than on any fundamental differences between performance determinant. What is play to some people may be work to others. The basic principles describing and explaining both work and play are the same. Common Characteristics of work: As a basis for discussion it will be helpful to examine work performance pictorially in terms of its basic concepts. By obtaining measures of production and plotting them against time, we come up with a work curves which looks something like the hypothetical work curve shown in figure below. B C
8.1
Work and Conditions of Work
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(Hypothetical work curve showing common characteristics. Source: R. Von Haller Gilmer Industrial Psychology McGraw Hill Book Co.)
The work curve shows that before peak productivity is reached there is an initial warming-up period (Point A-B). Point B to C the productivity levels off. Eventually there is a decrement or falling off in productivity (Point C-D). Often, may be, in anticipation of the end of the workday, there is a spurt (Point D onwards). A word of caution about work curves is in order. There are variations in the curves from day to day for the same worker and also variations among workers. Also the different kinds of work heavy muscular work, light task, or work of a clerical nature do not yield identical curves. It is for these reasons that we will talk of a representative work. Avoiding Decrement in Work-Curve: The work curve shows that initially from the beginning of the shift the people start warming up and consequently there is a continuous rise in the output. After some time the curve levels off. Approximately one and a half-hour to two hours from the start of the shift the decrement sets in. Every manager is interested in avoiding this decrement in the output. There are two main reasons for this decrement to occur. They are fatigue, boredom. Fatigue: Fatigue can be defined as the tiredness of the body as a result of continuous physical activity. Fatigue can be avoided by introduction of authorized rest pauses. In India we find that around one and a half-hour or two hours after the shift starts the canteen boys come to sell snacks and tea to the workers. A worker is provided a stool to sit on and the worker takes a rest pause. Work supervisors sometimes argue that most employees take unauthorised rests when there are no regularly scheduled rest periods. Are there any advantages of authorised rest periods over periods of unauthorised rest? How can we account for the beneficial effects of rest pause on production? Rest provides the opportunity to recover from fatigue. The physiologist has demonstrated that work causes an accumulation of waste products within the organism that reduces work capacity. Rest provides a period during which the waste products are dissipated and bodily capacity restored. In heavy muscular work, physiological fatigue is unquestionably a major factor contributing to work decrement. When work does not involve the expenditure of a great deal of physical energy, the beneficial effect of rest periods may be due to relief from a task that engenders in the worker feelings of
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boredom. The worker is not physically tired. He is irritated, lacks interest, and is fed up with his job. He wants a change, a break from what seems to be interminable activity. Rest pauses provide an opportunity to talk and think about non-job activities. When the worker returns to his job, he is psychologically and physiologically refreshed, and this is reflected in the increased output. The effectiveness of introducing rest pauses may be due to still another factor as a change in attitude toward the company, including, of course, the work supervisor. A worker with a favourable attitude toward his supervisor is much less likely to slacken pace on the job than the worker who dislikes his boss. The introduction of rest periods may be tangible evidence that management has an interest in the welfare of the worker, and he may respond with more efficient output. On the other hand, the worker may feel differently if the tea break, for example, is gained through union negotiations. One reason for the advantage of authorised over unauthorised rest periods is probably placement of the rest interval during the work period. The best way to determine how rest periods should be scheduled is to plot production throughout the work period and note drop in production. The pause may be introduced at point C in the diagram referred in 8.1. This is the point from where the decrement sets in. Elimination of Boredom: The introduction of rest periods is not the only way to alter the shape of the work curve in the direction of increase output. The nature of the job itself has a lot to do with how long a person can maintain a high rate of production. Repetitive jobs appear to be least interesting. We reflect this lack of interest when we say that the job is boring. Actually the job itself is not boring. While fatigue is the reaction of the body to the continuous work boredom is the reaction of the mind to having to do the same work continuously More specifically, boredom arises from a conflict between the necessity for doing a dull job and wanting to turn to more interesting activities. Attention requirements have much to do with the degree of boredom engendered by repetitive tasks. A highly repetitive job to which the worker becomes habituated elicits relatively little boredom in some workers if they do not have to pay close attention to what they are doing. If the worker can do the job without thinking, he is free to talk to his fellow workers about yesterdays cricket match or next months vacation Or, if conversation is impossible, he may daydream. Boredom will be pronounced on a repetitive job like an assembly-line operation where the continuous workflow and the task requirements occur over and over again but permit few lapses or shifts in attention. Boredom is not a problem in a complex and varied task that, because of its intrinsic nature tends to hold attention. A promising lead on how to reduce boredom comes from the finding that repetitive tasks do not give rise to the same degree of boredom in all persons. For example, in an investigation of
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women sewing machine operators, those reporting the strongest feeling of boredom disliked routine activity, more often preferred active leisure activities and indicated lack of satisfaction and their home and personal life. Operators who were least susceptible to boredom were placid and generally contented with the existing state of affairs. Another study of women performing repetitive work in a chemical factory showed that those experiencing boredom the most tended to the more extroverted than introverted, desired opportunities to use their own ideas and attached great importance to promotions. There is also evidence that person of lower than normal intelligence is less bored by repetitive work than person of higher intelligence. Additional study of the personality characteristics associated with feelings of boredom are necessary, but the available evidence indicate that production decrement resulting from boredom can be reduced by selecting people who will not be bored with the jobs to which they are assigned. Job rotation is not a general cure all for boredom. The effectiveness of the practice depends at least in part on the amount of similarity between the jobs and the frequency with which the rotations are made. If two jobs are perceived as highly similar, changing from one to the other will do little good to alleviate boredom. On the other hand, if they are highly dissimilar a great versatility in skills is required. Boredom may be reduced but at a great loss in efficiency. Where there is a moderate degree of similarity that allows the use of the same skills but the experience of doing something different, the beneficial effects of job rotation will be maximised. Even in the situation condition in operations can ensure if the jobs are alternated too often. Creating a favourable work environment: There is no doubt that people generally prefer pleasant surroundings to unpleasant ones and that when attention is paid to creating a favourable working environment as well as to actual job performance methods, overall pleasantness prevails. However, one must be somewhat cautious in accepting all the claims made as to the result of creating favourable work environment. Much of the work that has been done in this field suffers from errors in experimental methodology. With this in mind we may discuss some changes in environmental factors that may be useful to make surroundings more acceptable. Noise: Noise is usually regarded as a distracter and therefore as interfering with work efficiency. Actually, clear-cut evidence that noise reduces work output is very scant. We do know, of course, that many people find different kinds of auditory stimulation irritating. Thus high tones and very low tones are judged almost universally to be more annoying and irritating than tones in the middle ranges. Unexpected noises, intermittent noises and reverberating noises are 108
also irritating to most people. Such knowledge as this has made it possible to sound-treat work areas in order to reduce the irritating effects of noise. In view of the universal dislike of noise it seems probable that deleterious effects of noise exist, but much additional research must be conducted before definite conclusions can be drawn regarding the effects of noise on work output in different jobs. Music: Music is alleged to have salutary effects on attitudes, to improve morale, and to increase production. Some of these claims have been subjected to experimental inquiry. It is now clear that music does not have a direct effect on productivity. It increases productivity only indirectly through improvement in the morale and the attitudes of the employees. Moreover, in respect of the job requiring close attention requiring application of mind, music is a total waste. Despite these findings the workers seem to be favourably disposed toward music and perhaps more significantly, they believed that it increased their actual production. Illumination: It is unnecessary to say that the light should be adequate; not too bright or not too dim. The research tells that intermittent bright flashes of light tire the eyes fast and hence affect productivity. Colour: The colour dynamics of the workplaces is often claimed to be an important determinant of work efficiency, but supporting evidence is conspicuously nonexistent. It can, therefore be safely said that colour scheme affects productivity only indirectly through soothing the eyes. Atmospheric Effects: A determination of temperature effects on work efficiency would seemingly be an easy matter. The problem actually is complicated because almost always when atmospheric temperature varies, other conditions such as humidity do not remain constant. There are a few studies that enable us to pinpoint temperature effects on productivity. It is felt that ideal temperatures for sedentary work in winter are from 68 to 73 F and for the same kind of work in summer, 75 to 80 F; for moderately hard work in all seasons, the desirable temperature is 65 F and for strenuous work 60 F. The role of humidity has been demonstrated in a number of studies, so that there is a factual basis for the common expression that it is not the heat, but the humidity which causes discomfort. Besides temperature and humidity, air circulation is another atmospheric condition that is critical in a good working environment.
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SUMMARY Work curve is the representation of the productivity against time spent at work. Since the work curve differs from individual to individual; and for the same individual from time to time we studied the representative work curve. Because of fatigue, boredom and monotony the productivity declines after some time. Fatigue can be avoided by introducing rest pause. Intelligence has a positive direct corelationship to boredom. An intelligent person is susceptible to boredom. Boredom can be avoided by employing people who are slightly less in intelligence than the average intelligence. There are certain factors in the physical surround like noise, colour scheme, temperature, humidity, dust and fumes, music etc. which need be paid proper attention to avoid the fall in the productivity.
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Chapter 9
CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
LEARNING OBJECTIVES 1. 2. 3. 4. Understand what are conflicts and how do they occur. Understand varieties and levels of Conflicts in an organization. Understand the positive and negative impact of conflict. Understand various styles of managing a conflict.
Introduction to the concept of conflict It is very difficult to imagine a conflict free world and therefore, a conflict free organization. In the previous chapters, we have seen the myriad aspects on which each individual is unique. Personalities are varied, the way we look at the world, our perceptions are different, our attitudes vary and what motivates us is different. This uniqueness is a major reason of the conflicts that we encounter in our personal as well as professional life. Conflict is a natural disagreement arising between two or more people. It exists when they have incompatible goals and one or more believe that the behaviour of the other prevents them from their own goal achievement. It is a process in which one party (person or group) perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by the other party. Reasons for conflict 1. 2. 3. Each one is a unique personality. Incompatible needs: Resources are limited but we need them at the same time and in maximum quantity. Perceptions: We look at the same picture but with our own eyes.
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4. 5. 6. 7.
Values: We value different things. Beliefs are varied. Cultural differences. Job Design.
And the list goes on However, what come out of the conflict depends on what we do with it and how we handle it. Are conflicts always bad? is an interesting question to answer, especially in an organizational context. LEVELS OF CONFLICT IN ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR Four primary levels of conflicts might be present in the organization: a. Intrapersonal This occurs with an individual and usually involves some form of goal, cognitive or affective conflict. It will involve making decisions, facing dilemmas etc. This also an impact on other levels of conflicts. APPROACH APPROACH AVOIDANCE AVOIDANCE APPROACH - AVOIDANCE Please refer discussion on the above on pg 76. b. Interpersonal This occurs when two or more individuals perceive that their attitudes, behaviors or preferred goals are in opposition. There are various styles by which individuals manage this type of conflict. These styles are discussed in the next section. Intragroup This refers to disputes among some or all of groups members, which often affect the groups dynamics and effectiveness. Intergroup This refers to opposition, disagreements and disputes between groups and teams. Under high levels of competition and conflict, the parties develop attitudes towards each other that are characterized by distrust, rigidity, a focus only on self interests failure to listen etc.
c. d.
VARIETIES OF CONFLICT There are basically four varieties of Conflicts. The common aspect of all these is Incompatibility. a. Goal Conflict It stems from incompatible preferred or expected outcomes. It also includes inconsistencies between the individuals or groups values and norms and the demands and goals assigned by higher level managers in the organization.
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It also happens when our goals and our capacity to achieve them are at odds. b. Cognitive Conflict This happens when ideas and thoughts within an individual or between individuals are incompatible. Affective Conflict It occurs when feelings and emotions within individuals or between individuals are incompatible. Procedural Conflict It occurs when individuals differ in their process to achieve an objective. They might have different ways of doing the same things. Union Management negotiations often involve procedural conflicts before negotiations actually begin.
c.
d.
Now that we understand Conflicts are a part of our organizational life, it is important to understand how do they affect people behaviour and what can be done to ensure that Conflicts have a positive effect on the organization. Towards this, let us understand how individuals manage their conflicts. INTERPERSONAL CONFLICT HANDLING STYLES Individuals manage their conflicts depending on how they perceive it. What they do in a conflict situation is a function of various aspects: Personality of the individuals; Passive, Aggressive or Assertive Situation Favourable or Unfavourable The strength of the other party Stakes involved Concern for Self interests or Interests of others Attitude Positive or Negative
Although an individual may have a natural tendency towards one or two styles, he may use all of them as the above factors change. There are five basic styles of managing conflicts used by the individuals. I. Competing Style It refers to assertive and uncooperative behaviours and represents a WIN-LOSE approach to interpersonal conflict. Those who use this style try to achieve their own goals without concern for others. It includes coercion and dominance. These individuals assume that conflict resolution means one person wins and the other person loses. This style by manager may lead to demotivation of subordinates. Thrusting decisions will also mean lower commitment by others in its execution. However, sometimes Competing Style becomes necessary. Some of such situations may include:
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a. b.
When emergencies require quick action. Unpopular courses of action must be taken for long term organizational effectiveness {like dismissal of employee for non-performance, introducing cost cutting measures etc}. When the professional stakes are very high and you cannot get a group to agree on one thing.
c.
II.
Accommodating Style It refers to cooperative and unassertive behaviours. It is a LOSE-WIN approach. Accommodation may represent an unselfish act, a long-term strategy to encourage cooperation by others, or a submission to the wishes of others. Others typically evaluate individuals with this style favourably, but they may also be perceived as weak and submissive. They may be taken for granted and lose their credibility in the long run. This style may be effective in the short run when: a. b. c. The individual is in a potentially explosive conflict situation and smoothing is used to defuse it. Relationships are crucial. Maintaining harmony and avoiding disruption is important in the situation.
III.
Collaborating Style- It refers to strong cooperative and assertive behaviours. It is the WIN -WIN approach to interpersonal conflict handling. The person using this style desires to maximize joint results. With this style, conflict is recognized openly and evaluated by all the concerned parties. Sharing, examining and assessing the reasons for conflict should lead to development of alternatives that effectively resolve it and is fully acceptable to everyone involved. An individual using this approach will tend to: a. b. c. See conflict as natural, helpful and positive. Exhibit trust in and candor with others. Recognize that this approach will lead to maximum commitment to the solution jointly evolved.
Collaboration is most practical when there is: a. b. c. Plenty of time to establish relationship and explore the interdependence. Sufficient parity in power among individuals so that they feel free to interact candidly, regardless of their formal superior-subordinate status. Sufficient organizational support for investing the necessary time and energy in resolving disputes in this manner.
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The norms, rewards and punishments and the culture in the organization provide the framework for encouraging or discouraging collaboration. IV. Compromising Style It refers to behaviours at an intermediate level of cooperation and assertiveness. It is a WIN SOME-LOSE SOME. The individual using this style engages in give and take and use a series of concessions. It is a middle ground to resolve conflicts. Compromise achieves moderate, but only partial satisfaction for each party. This style is likely to be appropriate when: a. b. c. Something gained is better than nothing at all. Achieving a total win-win is simply impossible. Conflicting goals or opposing interests block agreement on one persons proposal.
It is essentially win some-lose some approach and might work in short run only. What we will compromise on and what we will not is another question to be answered. Repeated compromises might blind us to the merits of an issue and also lose sight of the larger picture. For example, employees might look at compromise as an easy way out and not look at the larger interests of the organization. V. Avoiding - It refers to unassertive and uncooperative behaviours. It is a LOSE-LOSE approach. A person uses this style to stay away from conflict, ignore disagreements or remain neutral. The avoidance approach reflects an aversion to tension and frustration and may involve a decision to let a conflict work itself out. When unresolved conflicts affect goal achievement, the avoiding style will lead to negative results for the organization. This style may be desirable under some situations: a. b. c. d. e. The issue is minor or only of passing importance and hence does not deserve the individuals time and effort. The individual needs time to deal with the conflict. The individual needs more preparation. The other party is too strong. Others can deal with it more effectively.
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Interpersonal Conflict Management Styles Conflict Management Styles

Assertive
Competing
Collaborating
Uncooperative
Compromising
Cooperative
Avoiding
Unassertive
Accommodating
ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE CONFLICTS Positive Attitude Conflicts in organizations can be a positive force. The creation and / or resolution of conflict may lead to constructive problem solving. The need to resolve conflict can lead people to search for ways of changing how they do things, perceive the world around, understand and maintain relationships. The conflict resolution process can stimulate innovation and positive change, as well as make change more acceptable. The benefits of this attitude towards conflict may be on three fronts Beneficial effects on productivity, Relationship outcomes and Constructive organizational change. Negative Attitude Conflicts may also have serious negative effects, diverting effects from the goals of the organization and draining the organizational resources, especially time and energy. Conflicts also have an adverse impact on the psyche of the employees, lead to stress and strain the interpersonal relationships at the workplace. This affects performance. Deep and lasting conflicts that are not addressed may even trigger violence among employees or between employees and others. Balanced Attitude This attitude is that conflict may sometimes be desirable and at other times destructive. Although some conflicts can be avoided and reduced, others have to be resolved and properly managed. The balanced attitude is sensitive to the consequences of conflict, ranging from negative outcomes to positive ones. It recognizes that conflict occurs in organizations whenever interests collide. Sometimes, employees will think differently, want to behave differently, and seek to pursue different goals. When these differences divide the interdependent individuals, they must be managed constructively.
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NEGOTIATIONS IN CONFLICT MANAGEMENT Negotiation is a process in which two or more individuals or groups, having both common and conflicting goals, state and discuss proposals for a specific terms of a possible agreement. Negotiation includes a combination of compromise, collaboration and possibly some forcing on vital issues. A negotiation situation is one in which: a. b. c. Two or more individuals must make a decision about their interdependent goals and objectives. The individuals are committed to peaceful means of resolving their dispute There is no clear or established method for making decisions
Types of Negotiations I. Distributive Negotiations: Traditional win-lose, fixed amount situations, wherein one partys gain is other partys loss is called Distributive Negotiations. They often occur over economic issues, and interaction patterns may include guarded communication, limited expression of trust, use of threats and distorted statements, and demands. In short, the parties are engaged in tense, emotion-laden conflict. The forcing and compromise handling styles are dominant in distributive negotiations. Integrative Negotiations: Joint problem solving to achieve results benefiting both parties is called integrative negotiations. The parties identify mutual problems, identify and assess alternatives, openly express preferences, and jointly reach a mutually acceptable solution. Rarely perceived as equally acceptable, the solution is simply advantageous to both sides. Those involved are strongly motivated to solve problems, exhibit flexibility and trust, and explore new ideas. The collaborative and compromise handling styles are dominant in integrative negotiations. In the best seller Getting to Yes Fisher and Ury outline four key principles for integrative (win-win) negotiations. They called this Negotiations on Merits. a. b. c. d. III. Separate the people from the problems. Focus on interests and not positions Invent options for mutual gains Insist on using objective criteria
II.
Attitudinal Structuring: It is a process by which the parties seek to establish desired attitudes and relationships. Throughout any negotiation, the parties reveal certain attitudes (E.g. hostility, friendliness, competitiveness, cooperation etc.) that influence their interactions. 119
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Intra-organizational Negotiations: Groups often negotiate through representatives. However, these representatives first may have to obtain the agreement of their respective groups before they can agree with each other. In intra-organizational negotiations, each set of negotiators tries to build consensus for agreement and resolve inter group conflict before dealing with other groups representatives.
Mediation Mediation is a process by which a third party helps two or more other parties resolve one or more conflicts. Most of the actual negotiations occur directly between the involved individuals. But, when the parties appear likely to become locked in win-lose conflict, a mediator, acting as a neutral party, may be able to help them resolve their differences. Competencies and Tasks of a Mediator Mediators need special competencies. They must: a. b. c. d. Be able to diagnose the conflict Be skilled at breaking deadlocks and facilitating discussions at the right time Show mutual acceptance Have the ability to provide emotional support and reassurance
In brief, an effective mediator is able to instill confidence and acceptance amongst the conflicting parties. Key tasks in mediators role include: a. b. Ensure mutual motivation. Each party should have incentives to resolve the conflict. Achieve a balance in situational power. If the situational power of individuals is not equal, establishing trust and open lines of communication will be difficult. Promote openness in dialogue. Maintain an optimum level of tension. If the threat and tension are too low, the incentive for change or finding a solution is minimal. If they are too high, the individuals involved may not be able to process information, and envision creative alternatives. They may begin to polarize and take rigid positions.
c. d.
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Questions 1. 2. What is Negotiation? Describe different types of Negotiations. What is Mediation? Define the role of a mediator.
Short Notes: a. b. Integrative negotiation. Concept of Negotiation on Merits.
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Chapter 10
GROUP DYNAMICS
LEARNING OBJECTIONS 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. To understand the nature and types of groups. To understand the concept of teams and types of teams. To appreciate the stages of team formation. To understand factors affecting group dynamics and effectiveness. To understand the impact of Group Think and Group Maturity on Group Dynamics.
Organizations are defined as group of people, who come together, to achieve some common objectives. They work in a structured fashion and utilize resources to reach predetermined goals and targets. Therefore, groups are an integral part of any organization. They influence individuals and therefore, have an impact on organization behaviour. This section focuses on: A group is any number of people who share goals, often communicate with one another over a period of time, and are few enough so that each individual may communicate with all the others, person - to - person. Two or more people interacting to achieve a common objective is also called a group. CLASSIFICATION / TYPES OF GROUPS Most individuals belong to various types of groups, which can be classified in many ways. Classification according to evaluation of primary goals: (1) Friendship group: It evolves informally to meet its members personal security, esteem and belonging needs.
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(2)
Task group: It is created by the management to accomplish certain organisational goals.
Groups can further be classified as under: (1) Formal groups: They are established by an organisation to facilitate the achievement of the organizational goals. Informal groups: It is one that develops out of the day - to - day activities, interactions, and sentiments of the members for the purpose of meeting their social needs. Effective group: An effective group is one which has the following characteristics:
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(2)
(3)
Its members know why the group exists; they have shared goals. Its members support agreed upon guidelines or procedures for making decisions. Its members communicate freely among themselves. Its members have learned to receive help from one another and to give help to one another. Its members have learned to deal with conflict within the group. Its members have learned to diagnose individual and group processes and improve their own and the groups functioning.
l l
TEAMS A team is a small number of employees with complementary competencies (abilities, skills and knowledge) who are committed to common performance goals and working relationships for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.
Two or more people who are interdependent, who share responsibility for outcomes, who see themselves as (and who are seen by others as) an intact social entity in a larger social system are also called as Teams.
When teams are formed, its members must have (or quickly develop) the right mix of complementary competencies to achieve the teams goals. Also its members need to be able to influence how they will work together to accomplish those goals. TEAM EMPOWERMENT: The term team empowerment refers to the degree to which its members perceive the group as (1) Capable of being effective (potency).
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(2) (3) (4)
Performing important and valuable tasks (meaningfulness). Having independence and discretion (autonomy) in performing the work, and Experiencing a sense of importance and significance (impact) in the work performed and goals achieved.
TYPES OF TEAMS (1) Functional teams: They usually represent individuals who work together daily on a cluster of ongoing and independent tasks. Functional teams often exist within functional departments marketing, production, finance, auditing, human resources and the like. (2) Problem solving teams: They focus on specific issues in their areas of responsibility, develop potential solutions, and often are empowered to take actions within defined limits. Such teams frequently address quality or cost problems. (3) Cross-functional teams: They bring together the knowledge and skills of people from various work areas to identify and solve mutual problems. They draw members from several specialities or functions and deal with problems that cut across departmental and functional lines to achieve their goals. They are often more effective in situations that require adaptability, speed and a focus on responding to customer needs. (4) Self-managed teams: They normally consist of employees who must work together effectively daily to manufacture an entire product (or major identifiable component) or service. These teams perform a variety of managerial tasks, such as, (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) Scheduling work and vacations by members, Rotating tasks and assignments among members, Ordering materials, Deciding on team leadership, Setting key team goals, Budgeting 127
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Hiring replacements for departing team members, and Evaluating one anothers performance.
Functional, Problem solving, Cross-functional and Self-managed teams are increasingly able to operate as virtual teams.
A virtual team is a group of individuals who collaborate through various information technologies on one or more projects while being at two or more locations. Their team members may be from one or multiple organizations.
DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES OF TEAMS The formation of effective teams is not automatic. Various conditions for failure or progress occur throughout a teams development. To provide a sense of these conditions, we present a basic five stages developmental sequence that teams may go through: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Adjourning. These can be explained as under: (a) Forming stage: Under this, team members often focus on defining or understanding goals and developing procedures for performing their tasks. Team development at this stage involves, getting acquainted and understanding leadership and other member roles. (b) Storming stage: During this stage conflicts emerge over work behaviours, relative priorities of goals, which is to be responsible for what, and the task related guidance and direction of the leader. Some members may withdraw or try to isolate themselves from the emotional tensions generated. The key is to manage the conflicts and not to suppress or withdraw from it. This process involves the development of decision making, interpersonal and technical competencies when they are lacking. (c) Norming stage: Work behaviours at this stage evolve into a sharing of information, acceptance of different options and positive attempts to make decisions that may require compromise. During this stage, team members set the rules by which the team will operate. Cooperation and a sense of shared responsibility develop among team members. (d) Performing stage: In this, team members show how effectively and efficiently they can achieve results together, that the roles of individual members are accepted and understood. The members have learned when they should work independently and when they should help each other. Some teams learn to develop from their experiences and others may perform only at a level that is needed for their survival. 128
(e)
Adjourning stage: The termination of work behaviours and disengagement from social behaviours occur during this stage. Some teams such as problem solving or a cross-functional team created to investigate and report on a specific issue within 6 months, have well-defined points of adjournment.
Stages of Group Development Stage Forming Storming Norming Performing Adjourning Interpersonal Characteristics Individuals become familiar with each other Tension between group members and leader Harmony develops, norms are established Relationships are stabilized and performance Contact decreases, emotional dependency reduced Task Characteristics What the task is and how to do it Resistance arises to task and method Task co-operation prevelant Orientation : product Task is complete roles are completed
INFLUENCES ON TEAM EFFECTIVENESS The influences on team and group effectiveness are interrelated. Some of the factors that are necessary to gain an understanding of both team dynamics and effectiveness are as under:
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Context: The context (external environment) can directly affect each of the six other factors because it comprises the conditions that affect a team. The teams context might include technology, value orientation of members, physical-working conditions, management practices, formal organization rules, strategies developed by higher management and organizational rewards and punishments. Goals: They can be either team goals or super ordinate goals wherein team goals are the outcomes desired for the team as a whole, not just the individual goals of the individual members. Super ordinate goals are those where two or more individuals, teams or groups might pursue but cant be achieved without their interaction and cooperation. Team size: The effective size of a team can range from 2 members to a normal upper limit of 16 members. Twelve members probably is the largest size that allows each member to interact easily with each other member face to face.
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Team member roles and Diversity: Similarities and differences among members and their roles influence team behavior, dynamics and outcomes. Attempts to influence behavioural roles in a team and group are more useful which are further classified as under:
(A) Task Oriented Roles : 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Initiating: Proposing tasks or goals; defining a group problem; suggesting ways to solve a problem. Seeking information or opinions: Requesting facts; asking for expressions of feeling; requesting a statement or estimate; seeking suggestions and ideas. Giving information or opinion: Offering facts; providing relevant information; stating an opinion; giving suggestions and ideas. Clarifying and elaborating: Interpreting ideas or suggestions; clearing up confusion; defining terms; indicating alternatives and issues before the group. Summarizing: Pulling together related ideas, restating suggestions after the group has discussed them, offering a decision or conclusion for the group to accept or reject. Consensus testing: Asking if the group is nearing a decision; taking a straw vote.
6.
(B) Relationship Oriented Roles : 1. Harmonizing: Attempting to reconcile disagreements; reducing tension; getting people to explore differences. Gate keeping: Helping to keep communication channels open; facilitating the participation of others; suggesting procedures that permit sharing remarks. Encouraging: Being friendly, warm, and responsive to others; indicating by facial expression or remarks the acceptance of others contributions. Compromising: When ones own idea or status is involved in a conflict, offering a compromise which yields status; admitting error; modifying ones position in the interest of group cohesion or growth.
2.
3.
4.
(C) Self-Oriented Roles : 1. Dominator: Interrupts others; launches on long monologues; is over-positive and over-dogmatic; tries to lead group and assert authority; is generally autocratic. Negativist: Rejects ideas suggested by others; takes a negative attitude on issues; argues frequently and unnecessarily; is pessimistic, refuses to cooperate; pouts.
2.
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3.
Aggressor: It tries to achieve importance in group; boasts; criticizes or blames others; tries to get attention; shows anger or irritation against group or individuals; deflates importance or position of others in group. Playboy: Is not interested in the group except as it can help him or her to have a good time. Storyteller: Likes to tell long fishing stories which are not relevant to the group; gets off on long tangents. Interrupter: Talks over others; engages in side conversations; whispers to neighbour. Poor me: Tries to get the groups attention to deal with own personal concerns, discomfort, bad luck, etc.
4.
5.
6. 7.
Team Diversity The composition of workforce is undergoing continued change in terms of age, gender, race, cultural values, physical well-being, life style preferences, ethnicity, educational background, religion preference, occupational background and the like. The goal of achieving diversity creates unique challenges in making it work for rather than against the long-term interests of individuals, teams and organizations. The attitude expressed about diversity is called positive multiculturalism. This condition allows an individual to acquire new competencies, perspectives and attitudes that improve the persons ability to relate effectively to others within the same or other teams regardless of their backgrounds and characteristics. Positive multiculturalism is additive; that is, individuals can maintain their self-defining attributes while adding competencies and positive attitudes to help them, form and maintain sound working relationships with others.
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Norms: They are the rules of pattern and behaviour that are accepted and expected by members of the team. They help define the behaviours that members believe to be necessary to help them reach their goals. Overtime, every team establishes norms and enforces them on its members. Norms are often more rigidly defined and enforced in informal groups by peer pressures than in formal organized teams. Such norms may further inhibit achievement of organizational goals. Cohesiveness: It is the strength of the members desire to remain in a team and their commitment to it. It is influenced by the degree of compatibility between team goals and individual members goals. Members who have a strong desire to remain in the team and personally except its goals form a highly cohesive team.
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GROUPTHINK Groupthink is an agreement at any cost mentality that results in ineffective team decision-making and poor decisions. When decision-making teams are both conforming and cohesive, a phenomenon called groupthink can emerge. The characteristics of groupthink includes the following: Illusion of invulnerability Collective rationalization Unquestioned belief Stereotypical views Direct pressure Self censorship and Shared illusion of unanimity.
GROUPTHINK PROCESS
Initial Conditions q High cohesiveness q Insulation of the team from outsiders q Lack of methodical procedures for search & appraisal q Directive leadership q High stress with a low degree of hope for finding a better solution than the other favoured by the leader or other influential person q Complex or changing environment
Conformity seeking tendency of the group
Characteristics of group thinking q Illusion of invulnerability q Collective rationalization q Believe in inherent mortality of the team q Stereotypes of other groups q Direct pressure on dissenters q Self censorship q Illusion of unanimity q Self appointed mind guards
Group-think leads to Defective Decisionmaking q Incomplete survey of alternatives q Incomplete survey of goals q Failure of examining risk of favoured choice q Poor information search q Selecting bias in searching information at hand q Failure to reappraise alternatives q Failure to work out contingency plans
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Groupthink isnt inevitable and several steps can be taken to avoid it. People holding diverse views can be encouraged to present them. REMEDIES TO OVERCOME GROUPTHINK ORGANIZATIONAL REMEDIES
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Multiple groups examine same issue. Teach managers methods they can use to recognize and overcome symptoms.
LEADER-ORIENTED REMEDIES
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Encourage all members to evaluate ideas critically. Bring in outsiders to evaluate ideas critically. Pick a member to play devils advocate. Remain objective.
MEMBER-ORIENTED REMEDIES
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Make no decisions until all ideas have been evaluated. Go outside the group for opinions and share them afterwards.
PROCESS-ORIENTED REMEDIES
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Use subgroups to develop alternatives and compare solutions. Compare to other organizations solutions. Prior to implementation, hold second chance meetings.
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GROUP MATURITY Group maturity is defined as the ability and willingness of group members to set goals and work toward their accomplishment. Characteristics of a Mature Group: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. An increasing ability to be self-directed (not dependent on the leader). An increased tolerance in accepting that progress takes time. An increasing sensitivity to their own feelings and those of others. Improvement in the ability to withstand tension, frustration and disagreement. A perception of the common denominators, which bind the group as well as areas of individual difference. A better ability to anticipate realistic results of behaviour and to channel emotions into more socially acceptable ways of expressing these emotions. An increased ability to change plans and methods as new situations develop. A decrease in time needed to recover from threatening group situations. Peaks and valleys of emotional group crises become less personal. Increased efficiency in locating problems, engaging in problem solving and providing help to individuals as needed.
6.
7. 8.
9.
10. A willingness to face ones own responsibilities and to assist others when help is needed. 11. An acceptance of the right of the other person to be different.
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Chapter 11
INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION
LEARNING OBJECTIVES 1. State the essentials of Interpersonal Communication process and functions of communication in organization Define informal communication networks called grapevine Describe how non verbal communication supports dialogue Describe the potential problems in cross cultural communication Understand significant ways of improving communication in an organization
2. 3. 4. 5.
INTRODUCTION Organizations are socio-technical systems. Each of these factors technical and social acts and interacts to make the organizational functional. This interaction is the basis on which the input gets processed into the output of the organization. If this is true, then communication is the life-blood of the organization. The more effective it is, the more successful the organization would be. Managers have traditionally spent the majority of their time communicating in one form or another (meetings, face-to-face discussions, memos, letters, e-mails, reports, etc.). Today, however, more and more employees find that an important part of their work is communication, especially now that service workers outnumber production workers and research as well as production processes emphasize greater collaboration and teamwork among workers in different functional groups. Moreover, a sea change in communication technologies has contributed to the transformation of both work and organizational structure. For these reasons, communication practices and technologies have become more important in all organizations, but they are perhaps most important in knowledge-intensive organizations and sectors.
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Research indicates that poor communication is the most frequently cited source of interpersonal conflict. Because Individuals spend most of the time communicating in some form or the other writing, reading, speaking, listening, non-verbally it is reasonable to conclude that one of the most inhibiting forces to successful group performance is lack of effective communication. No group can exist without communication: the transference of meaning amongst its members. It is only through transmitting meaning. An idea, no matter how great, is useless until it is transmitted and understood by others. It must include both the transference and the understanding of meaning. There are four major functions of communication: Significance of Organizational Communication As organizations increased in size, formal top-down communication became the main concern of organizational managers. Organizational communication in todays organizations has not only become far more complex and varied but more important to overall organizational functioning and success. While research used to focus on understanding how organizational communication varied by organizational type and structure, the emphasis has increasingly turned to understanding how new communication technologies and capabilities can help bring about new and more effective organizational forms and processes (Tucker et al. 1996; Desanctis and Fulk 1999). Also, the forms of communication, miscommunication, no communication, communication within and outside work teams etc. all affect the behaviour of people in the organization. Changes confronting organizations and the associated changes in organizational forms have made organizational communication increasingly important to overall organizational functioning. For example: l l l l l l Work is more complex and requires greater coordination and interaction among workers The pace of work is faster Workers are more distributed Simultaneous, distributed work processes are more common Knowledge and innovation are more critical to an organizations competitive advantage Communication technologies and networks are increasingly essential to an organizations structure and strategy.
Communication is not only an essential aspect of these recent organizational changes, but effective communication can be seen as the foundation of modern organizations.
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Functions of Communication 1.
Control :
l Communication acts to control member behaviour in several ways: a. Organizations have authority hierarchies and formal guidelines that employee is required to follow. Informal communication also controls behaviour. When work groups tease or harass a member who produces too much, they are informally communicating with, and controlling, the members behaviour.
b.
2.
Motivation:
l l Communication fosters motivation by clarifying to employees what is to be done, how well they are doing, and what can be done to improve performance. The formation of specific goals, feedback on progress toward the goals, and reinforcement of desired behaviour all stimulate motivation and require communication.
3.
Emotional Expression:
l Communication provides a release for the emotional expression of feelings and for fulfillment of social needs. For many employees, their work group is a primary source for social interaction.
4.
Information:
l Communication facilitates decision-making. It provides information by transmitting the data to identify and evaluate alternative choices.
No one of these four functions is more important than the others. You can assume that almost every communication interaction that takes place in a group or organization performs one or more of these four functions. The Process of Communication
Message Message
Source
Encoding
Channel
Message
Feedback
Message
Receiver
Decoding
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Before communication can take place, a purpose, expressed as a message to be conveyed, is needed. l l It passes between a source (the sender) and a receiver. The message is encoded (converted to symbolic form) and is passed by way of some medium (channel) to the receiver, who retranslates (decodes) the message initiated by the sender. The result is transference of meaning from one person to another.
The communication model is made up of seven parts: the source, encoding, the message, the channel, decoding, the receiver and feedback: a. b. c. d. e. The source initiates a message by encoding a thought. The message is the actual physical product from the source. The channel is the medium through which the message travels. The receiver is the object to whom the message is directed. Decodingthe symbols in the message must be translated into a form that can be understood by the receiver. His/her skills, attitudes, knowledge, and social-cultural system limit the receiver. Feedback is the check on how successful we have been in transferring our messages as originally intended.
f. g.
Media Richness and its impact on Communication Several types of communication media are available for transmitting and receiving messages. Why do people choose one media over the other for communication for instance, a phone call over a face to face meeting? Is there any general insight we might be able to provide regarding choice of communication channel? A mode of media richness, which is the medias capacity to carry multiple cues and provide rapid feedback, has been developed. Research has found that channels differ in their capacity to convey information. Some are rich in that they have the ability to: a. b. c. Handle multiple cues simultaneously Facilitate rapid feedback Be very personal
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Others are lean in that they score low on these three factors. As the following figure describes: l Face to face conversation scores highest on the media richness because of obvious advantages of multiple forms it accommodates gestures, words, postures, intonations etc., provides for immediate feedback verbal and non verbal and adds the personal touch in the process of communication. Impersonal written media such as formal reports and bulletins rate lowest in richness.
The choice of one channel over another depends on many factors. Routine or non-routine nature of message. The managers can use low rich channels to communicate routine matters and rich channels for communicating non-routine or personalized messages.
Directions of Communication in Organization Organizational Communication is of different types and forms. They are formal/informal, vertical/ horizontal/diagonal, and internally versus externally directed. Formal versus Informal Communication In the past, the concern of managers of large bureaucratic organizations and, consequently the major focus of the organizational communication literature, was formal, top-down communication. Informal communication, generally associated with interpersonal, horizontal communication, was primarily seen as a potential hindrance to effective organizational performance. This is no longer the case. On-going, dynamic, and non-formal, if not informal, communication has become more important to ensuring the effective conduct of work in modern organizations.
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Communication can also be characterized as vertical, horizontal, or diagonal. Initially greater emphasis was directed at vertical organizational communication as compared to lateral communication but that is no longer the case. Diagonal communication is an even more recent emphasis in the organizational communication literature. Vertical Communication: Vertical communication occurs between hierarchically positioned persons and can involve both downward and upward communication flows. Downward communication is more prevalent than upward communication. Larkin and Larkin (1994) suggest that downward communication is most effective if top managers communicate directly with immediate supervisors and immediate supervisors communicate with their staff. A wealth of evidence shows that increasing the power of immediate supervisors increases both satisfaction and performance among employees. This was first discovered by Donald Pelz (1952) and is commonly referred to as the Pelz effect. Pelz was attempting to find out what types of leadership styles led to employee satisfaction (informal/formal, autocratic/ participative, management- oriented/frontline-oriented). He found that what matters most is not the supervisors leadership styles but whether the supervisor has power. One way to give supervisors power is to communicate directly with them and to have them provide input to decisions. Ensuring that supervisors are informed about organizational issues/changes before staff in general, and then allowing them to communicate these issues/changes to their staff, helps reinforce their position of power. When the supervisor is perceived as having power, employees have greater trust in the supervisor, greater desire for communication with the supervisor, and are more likely to believe that the information coming from the supervisor is accurate (Roberts and OReilly 1974). Jablin (1980), after reviewing almost 30 years of research, pronounced the Pelz effect to be one of the most widely accepted propositions about organizational communication. Although the content priorities of downward communication have not been definitively demonstrated, there is some level of certainty with respect to the best approach to downward communication (Jablin 1980), i.e., l l l Top managers should communicate directly with immediate supervisors; Immediate supervisors should communicate with their direct reports; and On issues of importance, top managers should then follow-up by communicating with employees directly.
Perhaps, the most tried and true rule of effective downward communication is to: Communicate orally, then follow up in writing. 142
Upward Communication One consistent finding is that employee satisfaction with upward communication tends to be lower than their satisfaction with downward communication (Gibson 1985; Gibson and Hodgetts 1991:221-22). Larkin and Larkin (1994) found low levels of satisfaction with all the strategies commonly used to enhance upward communication, including employee surveys, suggestion programs, employee grievance programs, and employee participation programs such as quality circles and team meetings. Gibson and Hodgetts (1991:268-69) note several managementbased reasons for this lack of satisfaction, particularly that these strategies often do not involve two-way communication, are not packaged well, are poorly timed, and are apt to trigger defensiveness on the part of managers. In addition, McCelland (1988) found a number of employee-based reasons why upward communication tends to be poor, including: l l l Fear of reprisal people are afraid to speak their minds Filters employees feel their ideas/concerns are modified as they get transmitted upward Time managers give the impression that they dont have the time to listen to employees
Lateral Communication Lateral communication involves communication among persons who do not stand in hierarchical relation to one another. While recent trends to flatten organizations have enhanced the importance of lateral communications, studies on lateral communication still lag behind those on vertical communication. One fairly limited study found rather high levels of satisfaction (85 percent) with lateral communication among human resource managers (Frank 1984), but lateral communication across managers of dissimilar functional divisions, while often cited as a major source of organization dysfunction, has not been subject to such empirical research. It has been assumed that lateral communication at the worker level is less problematic, at least within a functional area. However, with the greater importance of teams, more attention is now being directed at communication between team members. Lateral communications between workers in different functional areas is also becoming a bigger concern as greater attention is being directed at increasing the speed of production through simultaneous, as opposed to sequential, work processes. And there is greater emphasis on communication across distributed workers and geographically separated work groups doing similar kinds of work in an attempt to promote learning and the sharing of expertise, best practices, and lessons learned. Diagonal Communication Diagonal communication refers to communication between managers and workers located in different functional divisions.
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Although both vertical and horizontal communication continues to be important, these terms no longer adequately capture communication needs and flows in most modern organizations. The concept of diagonal communication was introduced to capture the new communication challenges associated with new organizational forms, such as matrix and project-based organizations. Also, with the rise of the network organization (both internally and externally oriented networks), communication flows can no longer be restricted to vertical, horizontal, and diagonal. A. Downward Communication: 1. Communication that flows from one level of a group organization to a lower level is a downward communication. This is typically what we think of when managers communicate with workers. Its purpose is to assign goals, provide instructions, communicate policies and procedures, provide feedback, etc. It does not have to be face to face or an oral communication.
2.
3. B.
Upward Communication: 1. 2. Upward communication flows to a higher level in the group or organization. It is used to provide feedback to higher-ups, inform them of progress, and relay current problems. Examples of upward communication are: performance reports prepared by lower management for review by middle and top management, suggestion boxes, employee attitude surveys, etc.
3.
C.
Lateral 1. When communication takes place among members of the same work group, among members of work groups at the same level, among managers at the same level, or among any horizontally equivalent personnel. Horizontal communications are often necessary to save time and facilitate coordination. In some cases, these lateral relationships are formally sanctioned. Often, they are informally created to short-circuit the vertical hierarchy and expedite action. They can create dysfunctional conflicts when the formal vertical channels are breached, when members go above or around their superiors to get things done, or when bosses find out that actions have been taken or decisions made without their knowledge.
2.
3.
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Case in Point Whatd He Say? Larry Kinder, the global chief information officer of Cendant, remembers well the confusion he caused when he addressed some of Cendants 25 business unit leaders recently to talk about capital expenditures for technology. I mentioned that we would be opening up Cendants technical architecture to wireless platforms, says Kinder. The room fell silent. Architecture? Wireless platforms? Instead of asking questions to gain clarity, the business leaders incorrectly interpreted architecture to mean infrastructure, something completely different in technology vernacular. They thought I was talking about something expensive, says Kinder. However, Kinder was using the word architecture to refer to developing an overall strategy and design that did not involve big expenditures on new servers and software. His plan was to actually lower the cost of running the companys network. Misunderstandings such as this are one reason why 30 percent of technology projects begun by companies in the U.S. are cancelled before completion, at a cost to the American economy of more than $75 billion a year. While jargon has always been a problem in organizations, the rise of computer and network-related technology has unleashed a tidal wave of techno babble that often confuses those who do not live and breathe the terminology. What, for instance, do the following terms mean: asymmetric digital subscriber line, dark fiber, dynamic host configuration protocol, enterprise information portal, ERP, M-commerce, replatforming systems, simple object access protocol, or zettabyte? Most chief information officers and technology executives understand these terms, but for others, it can be overwhelming. How, for instance, can a chief executive decide whether to invest in a routing switch platform that has an MPLS enabled ATM core switch if he or she does not understand those terms?
Source: N. Hutheesing, Its All Geek to Me, Forbes, September 10, 2001, p. 24.
Interpersonal Challenges in Communication Numerous interpersonal communication hurdles exist. l Individual personality traits that serve as hurdles include low adjustment (nervous, selfdoubting, moody), low sociability (shy, unassertive, withdrawn), low conscientiousness (impulsive, careless, irresponsible), low agreeableness (independent, cold, rude), and low intellectual openness (dull, imaginative, literal minded). Introverts are likely to be quiet and emotionally unexpressive.
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Dogmatic individuals are rigid, closed-minded, and accept or reject other people on the basis of their agreement or disagreement with accepted authority or their own beliefs. Individual perceptions also affect the communication process. Perceptions about culture also play a major role in the process of communication and understanding.
Apart from these interpersonal communication hurdles, there are also some direct hurdles. l l l Noise: Any interference with the intended message in the channel represents noise. A radio playing loud music, disturbance in the telephone line, etc. represent noise. Semantics and Language: The special meaning assigned to words is called semantics. However, the same word may mean different things to different people. Information overload: Individuals have certain capacity to process the data they receive. When the information we have to work with exceeds our capacity to process it, the result is information overload. As a result, the individuals select out, ignore, pass over or forget information. Or they may put of further processing until the load gets reduced. Nevertheless, the result is lost information and ineffective communication. Emotions: How the receiver feels at the time of receipt of the communication will influence how he or she will interpret it. The same goes with the sender of the message. The same message received when you are angry or depressed if often interpreted differently when you are happy. In such emotional state, we are most prone to disregard our rational and objective thinking processes and substitute with emotional judgements.
The Grapevine The formal system is not the only communication network in a group or organization. There is also an informal one, which is called the grapevine. Inspite of being an informal one, it is considered important in an organizations context. The important characteristics of grapevine are as follows: a. It is not under the control of the management. There are no formal definitions and processes for grapevine to work in the organization. It takes its own form based on the likes and preferences of the members in the network. It grows out of social interactions amongst people and is not bound by any hierarchy. The perception of the members is that it more reliable and genuine than a formal communication, which could be biased and driven by management to satisfy their own agendas. It is largely formed and driven by self-interest of the members in the group.
b.
c.
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The grapevine is an important part of any group or organizations communication network and well worth understanding. It identifies for managers those confusing issues that employees consider important and anxiety provoking. It acts as both a filter and a feedback mechanism, picking up the issues that employees consider relevant. By assessing which liaison individuals will consider a given piece of information to be relevant, we can improve our ability to explain and predict the pattern of the grapevine. Management cannot eliminate rumors but they can minimize the negative consequences. Communication in a Cultural Context Culture refers to the distinctive ways that different population, societies or organizations organize their lives or activities. Intercultural communication occurs whenever a member of one culture sends a message and is received and understood by a member of another culture. The effects of cultural differences on hurdles to interpersonal communication can be wide ranging. In a multi-cultural organization, this becomes very critical aspect of group working and behaviour. They depend on degree of difference (or similarity) between people in terms of language, religious beliefs, economic beliefs, social values, use of non-verbal cues etc. Differences in cultural contexts may pose a hurdle to interpersonal communication in organizations. Cultural Barriers : First, there are barriers caused by semantics. Words mean different things to different people. This is particularly true for people with different national cultures. There are barriers caused by word connotations. Words imply different things in different languages. Negotiations between Americans and Japanese executives, for instance, are made more difficult because the Japanese word hai translates as yes, but its connotation may be yes, I am listening rather than yes, I agree Third, there are barriers caused by tone differences. Fourth, there are barriers caused by the perception. Improving Communication effectiveness across cultures A Guide When communicating with people across cultures, there are certain things the organizational members can keep in mind to reduce misconceptions, misinterpretations, and misevaluation. a. Assume differences until similarity is proven. Most of us assume that others are more similar to us that they really are. But people from, say different countries, are often very different from us. So, you are far less likely to make an error if you assume this in all interactions. 147
b.
Emphasize description rather than interpretation or evaluation. Interpreting or evaluating what someone has done or said, in contrast to description, is based more on observers culture and background than on the observed situation. As a result, delay judgement until you have had sufficient time to observe or interpret the situation. Practice empathy. Before sending a message, put yourself in the recipients shoes. What are his or her values, experiences and frames of reference? What do you know about his or her education, upbringing or background that can give you additional insights into the person? Try to see other person as he or she really is. Treat your interpretations as working hypothesis. Once you have developed an explanation for a new situation, treat it as a hypothesis that needs further testing, rather than take it as certainty. Carefully assess the feedback from the recipients to see if it confirms your hypothesis. For important decisions or communiqus, you can check with other foreign and home country colleagues to make sure your interpretation is correct in all sense.
c.
d.
Improving communication in organizations A. Individual-level communication 1. Sending a. b. c. Simplify message, if possible (KISS principle Keep it short and simple)) Encode in language, gestures appropriate for receiver (e.g., avoid jargon) Assess receivers understanding, state of mind i. ii. iii. d. 2. practice empathy with receiver encourage questions, feedback watch for signs of information overload
Repeat messages for better understanding
Choosing channels a. Use channels the receiver monitors. It is important to match the channel that the receiver is able to understand. Use multiple channels for ensuring that if one fails, the other succeeds. Choose channels that dont have as much noise, distortion
b. c.
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3.
Receiving a. Listen to underlying meaning. Very often the stated and implied message needs to be understood for effective response. Ask questions to clarify. This helps in our own understanding and thereby, in providing a complete and correct response. Avoid interrupting. Respond after sender is finished. Postponing the judgement aids in effective listening. Thus, it contributes to effective communication.
b.
c.
B.
Inter-group communication 1. 2. Make reward systems that foster trust, openness between groups Schedule interdepartmental meetings for continuous give and take of feedback
C.
Superior/subordinate communicationAs a supervisor, 1. 2. 3. 4. Reduce status barriers (e.g., through nonverbal cues) Structure messages so information doesnt get left out (e.g., forms) Screen information, and prioritize; delegate routine matters Be accepting of negative information. Show openness in genuine ways.
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Exercise 1. What is Organizational Communication? How does it impact successful functioning of the organization? How does culture affect effective communication in an organization? What are some of the ways to minimize the impact of cultural barriers to promote effective communication? Write short notes on: a. b. 4. Process of communication Grapevine
2.
3.
What are the different directions in which communication flows in an organization? What is the significance of these directions of communication?
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NOTES
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Chapter 12
STRESS MANAGEMENT
The existence and importance of stress in industry was first recognised in America in 1956. A machine operator named James Carter cracked up while working on the General Motors production line in Detroit. Mr. Carter had what is now commonly known as a nervous breakdown and he sued General Motors, claiming that the stresses of his job had contributed to his condition. It was an important lawsuit. Carter won and from that day onwards most executives and all lawyers and the physicians in America took the relationship between stress and industry very seriously indeed. However, executives around the rest of the world have been slow to recognise the importance of stress in Industry. Indeed, in some ways it is difficult to blame company executives for failing to understand the importance of stress as a trivial problem and laugh at any suggestion that there could be a link between problems in the mind and problems affecting the body. In the last few years evidence has accumulated from around the world to show that the most common cause of destructive ill health is stress at work. Researchers have not only built up evidence showing links between industrial stresses in general and ill health but have even accumulated evidence showing that it is possible to link specific occupations with specific types of stress induced disease. No one is immune. The man or women on the shop floor is just as vulnerable as the man or women on the board of directors. In India, the statistics show, the rate of people suffering from the heart-related problems has gone up nine times within the last four decades. Although there is absolutely no doubt that stress is killing many people, disabling many more and costing industry crores of rupees every year, there is one important question that has to be asked. Why are we so susceptible to stress these days? The answer to this apparently unanswerable paradox is quite simple. Our bodies were designed a long, long time ago. We were not designed for the sort of world in which we live today. We were designed for a world in which fighting and or running were useful practical solutions to everyday problems. We were designed to cope with physical conformations with sharp-toothed tigers.
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The problem is that our environment has changed far more rapidly than we have evolved. We have changed our world far faster than our bodies have been able to adapt. At no other time in the history of the world has there been such a constant progression of ideas and technology. Fashions, themes and attitudes have never changed as rapidly as they have in the last hundred years or so. Never before have expectations and pressures been so great. Revolutionary changes in agriculture, navigation, medicine, military tactics, design, transport, communications and industrial methods have all transformed our world. But our bodies are still the same as they were tens of thousands of years ago. It takes millennia for the human body to adapt. We have moved far too quickly to be good for our bodies. It is these environmental changes that have made stress more pronounced. These days stress is ubiquitous. None can escape stress. As a matter of fact stress has its origin in the body chemistry which has remained unchanged since the man came on the earth. Let us take example of the cave man. For him to survive was either a fight or a flight. Whenever there was any life threatening event any action off light or fight, pituitary would give appropriate signals for secreting adrenaline in the blood stream. This resulted in creation of additional energy for the body either to fight or fly. This is known as fight or flight mechanism. Following are some of the changes that occur in the body to protect itself from the danger within a few microseconds. These responses of the body to a situation are known as fight or flight mechanism with, interalia, the following bodily responses: Release of Adrenaline and conversion of glycogen into glucose; Raised Pulse; Raised Blood Pressure; Rapid Breathing; Dilated Pupils; Digestion slowed because of diversion of blood supply from stomach to the extremities of the body; Over million of years the lifestyle has changed; however, the body chemistry has not changed. With the change in the lifestyle, stressors have multiplied and diversified in different forms. However, the body chemistry response has remained the same. The theory of General Adaptation Syndrome states that when an organism is confronted with a threat, the general physiological response occurs in three stages viz. alarm reaction, resistance reaction and state of exhaustion.
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Alarm Reaction The first stage includes an initial shock phase in which resistance is lowered, and a countershock phase in which defensive mechanism become active. Alarm Reaction is characterised by autonomous excitability; and adrenaline discharge; increased heart rate; muscle tone, and blood content; and gastro-intestinal ulceration. Depending on the nature and intensity of threat and the conditions of the organism the severity of the symptoms may differ from a mild invigoration to disease of adaptation. Stage of Resistance Maximum adaptation occurs during this stage. The bodily signs characteristic of the alarm reaction disappear. Resistance increases to levels above normal. If the stress persists, or the defensive reaction proves ineffective, the organism deteriorates to the next stage. iii) State of Exhaustion: Adaptation energy is exhausted, signs of alarm reaction reappear, and resistance level begins to decline irreversibly the organism collapses. A diagrammatic view of these stages is shown in the figure below.
One of the major shortcomings of this theory is that the related research was carried out on animals where the stressors are usually physical or environmentaland this is not always the case in relation to human organisms. The concept of General Adaptation Syndrome is, therefore, not given weightage in the present days. Present day human is being compressed by stresses from various sources such as his own psychological and physical make up; the familial demands, the social demands, the demands of the job etc. etc. Whenever a superior scolds a subordinate, the latters body chemistry acts in the same way it did in the cave man when he was threatened by a tiger. Even all his body functions race up
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to meet the emergency. However, physical emergency there is none. This additional burst of energy is not only useless for him but is harmful. He can neither fight physically with the superior nor leave the place of work. The adrenaline is metabolised. These metabolic changes act on various balancing and self-correcting mechanisms of the body. The result is the psychosomatic diseases. STRESS DEFINITIONS Different definitions of stress occur. Dr. Seyles, an expert in stress management, gives the best definition in stress management. According to him stress is a non-specific response of the body to situation. It is important to remember that the body chemistry does not distinguish between the anxiety causing, pleasant or unpleasant situations. In any of these situations, the body response is the same, resulting in fight or fly mechanism. The other definitions of stress are : Stress is a physiological abnormality at the structural or bio-chemical level caused by overloading experiences. Stress is an adaptive response to an external situation that results in physical, psychological and or behavioural deviations. According to Dr. Pestonji of I.I.M. Ahmedabad, the stress can be categorised as under: Eustress This stress is because of the sudden overjoy. Fortunately this type of stress is not longlasting. Furthermore it is a state of happiness. Eustress, therefore, is not harmful, being occasional and fleeting. Distress This is anti-thesis of eustress. Distress is caused whenever a person is suddenly very sad or angry. Distress is caused because of the demands of the modern life and anxiety to cope with them. This results in feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, nervousness, loss etc. This type of stress is harmful. It is this stress that has caused more havoc in the executive life. It is this stress that justifies the saying Ulcer is the surest sight of executive success. Since it is distress that takes a heavy toll of executive efficiency, the organisations should try to alleviate it. An atmosphere of objectivity and mutual trust would go a long way in reducing distress.
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Hyper Work Stress This type of stress is caused because of the hyper activity and travails of life to meet deadlines etc. Target mindedness and the eleventh hour rush or continuous overwork cause hyper stress. The key therefore, to deal with hyper stress lies in good planning. Hypo Stress This type of stress is the opposite of the hyper stress. This stress is caused by less than optimum activity. The effects of hypo stress are slower than other types but are more penetrating and longer lasting. There are examples when the Organisation have deliberately created hypo stress by denying legitimate work to their employees. Such situations, beyond creating stress, deprive a person of the fulfillment of self-esteem needs. More often the retired persons experience this stress. For them it is a transition from hyper to hypo stress. This underlines the necessity of planning the post-retirement period, doing proper time management by planning activities so that an individual remains optimally busy. The above discussion shows that whatever an individual does or does not so, there is always some sort and some amount of stress on him. This is why stress is known as non-specific response of the body to the situation. There are three broad categories of stressors. They are : a) b) c) Organizational stressors; Life stressors; and Personal stressors.
Organisational stressors Organisational membership is a dominant source of stress. The concept of organisational stress was first evolved in the classic work of Kahn et al. They were the earliest to draw attention to organisational stress in general and role stress in particular. Some of the organisational stressors are intrinsic to the job. They are boredom, time pressures and deadliness, exorbitant work demands and technical problems. Some organisational stressors relate to the role in the Organisation. They are role ambiguity, role conflict, role overload etc. Some organisational stressors relate to the organizational structure and the climate. They are lack of participation in the decision-making, lack of responsiveness and appreciation, pressers towards conformity etc.
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Life stressors Life stressors can be catagorised in three classes. They are : a) b) c) Life changes, Daily stressors Life trauma
Life change Human has tendency to maintain equilibrium. Any change occurring in the life is a reason to get stressed. The research shows that even the minor or the trivial occurrences in the life create stress. Various life changes are attached weightages that are shown below. Death of Spouse Divorce Jail Term Death of a close family member Major personal injury or illness Marriage Fired from work Retirement Business Re-adjustment Change in responsibilities at work Trouble with boss Vacation Festivals Minor violations of law Personal stressors Personal stressors relate to the personal health and the familial life of an individual. They are like menopause or male menopause, commuting problems, reduced self-confidence as a result of aging etc. 100 73 63 63 53 50 47 45 39 29 23 13 12 11
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While the Western world has started thinking about the stress only lately, the Indians have thought about stress centuries before. According to Yoga ignorance, ego i.e. attachment to self, temptations, envy or hate, or jealousy and a state of helplessness are the main personal stressors. If one applies ones mind to the reasons one will find that it is impossible to be away from the stress. The individual consequences of stress result in an individual finding it difficult to adjust with others. In extreme cases it results in divorce too. Stress at the individual level also results in medical problems. Most of all it affects an individuals decision making capacity. At the organisational level the stress of the employees may have negative effect on the job satisfaction, morale, motivation to perform at high levels. Eventhough stress has multifarious deleterious effects on individual and the Organisation, stress cannot be done away with. Every success has its roots in stress. Stress propels a man to do something that ultimately results in success. Stress is like the voltage on an electric bulb. High voltage fuses the bulb; at the same time less voltage dims the bulb. Stress is necessary evil. But it has bad effects. Therefore the only thing a man can do is to keep the stress from harming him. One must manage stress. Management of Stress Since the stress affects an individual in his body and mind, it is that individual who is to do something about his stress. The diagram below gives the strategies that can be adopted by an individual to cope with stress. Stress: Personal coping strategies Know your personality type Recognition is half the solution.
LOVE THYSELF
1. 2. 3. 4.
BODY Have regular medical exam. Exercise regularly. Dont touch tobacco. Do mind what you --: Drink Eat
SOUL MIND 1. Meditate regularly. 2. Learn to relax. 3. Develop some hobby.
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Know your personality type Stress can affect different people in different ways. The most fully developed individual relating specifically to stress is the distinction between type A and type B personality profiles. Type A people are the people who create unnecessary stress for themselves. On the contrary type B people are the ones who are mild mannered and take the life as it comes. Type B persons are not stress prone individuals. However people are not purely type A or type B; instead people tend toward one or the other type. Also the relationship between personality and health problems (such as heart disease) is unclear. Recognition is half the solution One must remember an important facet of stress. Most of the time a person does not understand that he is under stress. How do you recognise that you are under stress? Self report measure provide clear indication that people who know us closely and observe us frequently can say with certain degree of accuracy, whether we are under stress or not. To the question Did anyone tell you that you are under stress? Most of the executives reported that it is their wives who told them that they are under stress. A relatively less number said it was their friends and collagues who could correctly detect that they are under stress. Correct detection is possible by these people because of some specific symptoms when stress still operates at behavioural and psychosomatic level. Awareness of these symptoms will help us to recognise when we are under stress. Some Behavioural Symptoms of Stress are: Low productivity, decreased work performance; Tendency to remain absent from work; Much of interpersonal conflict; Tendency to remain isolated; Sudden change in habit (clothing, eating, drinking); Talking around a subject; Poor eye contact while talking; Making others look ridiculous; Brooding; feeling worthless; Frequent references to death, suicide etc.
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Some Psychosomatic Symptoms of Stress are: Sleep disturbance; High blood pressure; Stress diabetes; Bowel irritation; Back ache; High blood pressure; Sexual dysfunction. Love your body Our body is the vehicle that enables to perceive, understand the world. It is because of our body that we are known in this world. It is through our body that we experience the world. It is only when we love our body that we will take proper care of it. Loving is not pampering. The following are some tips to deal with stress by making our body strong. Have a regular medical checkup Unfortunately we Indians are not health conscious. A regular medical check is a preventive measure, especially when one is beyond forties. It is advisable that if a person is below 40 he must have a medical checkup at least once a year. Beyond 45th year of age the health checkup should be at least twice a year. Do exercise regularly To effectively cope with stress a healthy body is a must. One can raise defenses against stress by regular exercises. One may take any type of exercise. The exercise of walking is the best for all the ages. Walking as an exercise should be minimally five to six kilometres at a stretch at the speed not less than one and a half kilometres per minute. For a person beyond thirty-five strenuous exercise is contra indicated. Dont touch tobacco The medical research has amply demonstrated that tobacco is carcinogenic substance. The research also tells that passive smoking is more harmful than active smoking.
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Do mind what you a) Eat : One must be careful about what one eats. What we are largely depends on what we eat. As far as possible oily and pungent food be avoided. This has tendency to cause more secretion of digestive acids, which erode the mucus membrane of the stomach. This results in ulceration. It is also better if one avoids eating non-vegetarian food which is rich in calories and cholesterol and lack fiber. Drink : Drink minimally three to four litres of water daily. Avoid alcoholic beverages. Alcohol contains calories but has no food value. Especially the use of tobacco with alcohol is injurious to health.
b)
Love your mind We have already said that the happy as well as unhappy situations cause secretion of adrenaline. The remedy is to keep the mind tranquil. It is realised that keeping the mind tranquil is easily said than done. The Indian tradition has always been stressing importance of meditation. The idea is that in meditation a person takes away his mind for some time from the usual surroundings, which serves as a respite. In the modern times many new therapies of meditation have come. Transcendental Meditation, Sidha Samadhi Yog, Sahaj Marg etc. to name a few. Are all intended to initiate a person into the art of meditation which results in a peaceful and strong mind. The Western countries are so-much convinced of the utility of meditation as a way of keeping the mind tranquil that some firms have reserved separate rooms for meditation for their executives. In India the organisations are slow to catch up with this. None-the-less it can be practised at the individual levels. Organisational Strategies for managing employee stress Create supportive organisational climate; Convince employees that their contributions are significant; Rotate employees out of potentially stressful positions and do not allow them to overwork; Organise training programs to help employees cope with stress provide employee counselling.
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Remember one who dares stress conquers it: D Diet A Activity R Relaxation E Empathy S- Spirituality.
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SUMMARY Stress takes a heavy toll of the persons health and his capacity to adjust with others. The modern life is full of stressors. The job life contains many stressors. Some of the stressors are intrinsic to the job life; some relate to the structure of the job and so on. There are stressors I the personal and the social life of an individual. In a nut shell stress is ubiquitous these days. Stress has become chronic. As a result an individual faces many psychological as well as psychosomatic disorders. One can cope with the stress by regular exercise, not using tobacco, taking the right kind of food and calories; regular medical examination, and meditation.
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Chapter 13
LEADERSHIP
LEARNING OBJECTIVES Understand the importance of leadership Define leadership Present the background and classic studies of leadership Discuss various leadership styles and their implications to the followers as well as to the organisation. Discuss various theories of leadership, including trait, contingency, managerial grid, contingency theory and life cycle theory. Examine the relationship that activities have with successful and effective leaders. The successful organisations have one major common attribute that sets them apart from unsuccessful Organisation: dynamic and effective leadership. Peter F. Drucker points out that managers (Business leaders) are the basic and scarcest resource of any business enterprise. Most of the organisational failures can be attributed to ineffective leadership. On all sides there is a continual search for persons who have the necessary abilities to enable them to lead effectively. The shortage of effective leadership is not confined to business but is evident in the lack of able administrators in government, education, foundations, and every other form of organisation. Thus, when we decry the brain drain from India, we are not talking about the drain of people who could have filled administrative bodies. What we are agonizing over is a drain of brains willing to assume significant leadership roles in our society and can get the job done effectively. The significance of leadership arises from the openness of the Organisation as a system and from the fact that it operates in a changing environment. There are numerous instances in the history of organizations showing collapse of enterprises that failed to react suitably to the environmental requirements for change. The effective changeover requires effective leadership
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because there exists no builtin stabilizing devices of Organisation for coping with such altered requirements. The significance of leadership also stems from the nature of human membership in organisational settings. People who form an organisation are members of several institution in the sociological sense at the same time. Numerous extraneous activities and affiliations take up the bulk of an individuals time and satiate his needs. These extra-organisational activities influence human behaviour at work. Moreover, the environment in which an organisation operates is full of change agents. In the modern time no organisation can afford to be static. It has to change with the environment. Actually, an organisation that refuses to change dies in the long run. Management of change has become challenge before every organisation these days. This challenge can be met only with effective leadership. DEFINITIONS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF LEADERSHIP Katz and Kahn have observed: In the descriptions of organizations, no word is more often used than leadership, and perhaps no word is used with such varied meanings. The word leadership is sometimes used to indicate that it is an attribute of personality; sometimes it is used as if it was a characteristic of certain positions, and sometimes as an attribute of behaviour. Leadership is defined as the relationship in which one person, influences others to work together willingly on related tasks to attain that which the leader desires. Keith Davis defines leadership as the ability to persuade others to seek defined objectives enthusiastically. It is the human factor that binds people together and motivates them towards goals. Leadership is that outstanding aspect of management which manifests ability, creativeness, initiative and inventiveness, and which gains confidence, co-operation and willing of the people to work by building employee morale. It is the process by which an executive or a manager imaginatively directs, guides and influences the work of others in choosing and attaining specified goals by mediating between the individual and the Organisation in such a manner that both will obtain the maximum satisfaction. It is an inter-personal influence, exercised in situations and directed, through the communication process, towards the attainment of a specified goal or goals. Leadership is the process of influencing the activities of an individual or a group towards the achievement of a goal in a given situation. The leadership process is a function of the leader, the follower and other situational variables. 168
Leadership is organizationally useful behaviour by one member of an Organisation family toward another member or members of that same organizational family. Leadership is one form of dominance, in which the followers more or less willingly accept direction and control by another person. Leadership is an influence process; the dynamics of which are a function of the personal characteristics of the leader and followers, and of the nature of the specific situations. The importance of leadership being what it is, researchers were interested in knowing what makes a leader and that too what makes a good leader. The phrenological, graphological and demographic studies suffered from the lack of scientific rigor and cannot be given any credence. They are, at best, guesses. The academic community in various universities got interested in the studies of leadership in late 1930s. CLASSIC STUDIES ON LEADERSHIP Unlike many other topics in the field of organisational behaviour, there are a number of studies and a considerable body of knowledge on leadership. A review of the better-known classic studies can help set the stage for the established and emerging theories of leadership. a) The Lowa Leadership Studies: The series of pioneering leadership studies conducted in the late 1930s by Ronald Lippitt and Ralph K. White under the general direction of Kurt Lewin at the university of Lowa have had a lasting impact: Lewin is recognised as the father of group dynamics and as an important cognitive theorist. In the initial studies, hobby clubs for ten-year-old boys were formed. Each club was submitted to three different styles of leadership authoritarian, democratic, and laissez faire. The authoritarian leader was very directive and allowed no participation. This leader tended to give individual attention when praising and criticizing but tried to be friendly or impersonal rather than openly hostile. The democratic leader encouraged group discussion and decision-making. He tried to be objective in his praise or criticism and to be one of the group spirit. The laissez faire leader gave complete freedom to the group; he essentially provided no leadership. Under experimental conditions, the three leadership styles were manipulated to show their effects on variables such as satisfaction and frustration/ aggression. Some of the results were clear-cut and others were not. One definite finding was the boys overwhelming preference for the democratic leader.
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The experiments were designed primarily to examine pattern of aggressive behaviour. The researchers found that the boys subjected to the autocratic leaders reacted in one of the two ways; either aggressively or apathetically. Both the aggressive and apathetic behaviours were deemed to be reactions to the frustration caused by the autocratic leader. The researchers also pointed out that the apathetic groups exhibited outbursts of aggression when the autocratic leader left the room or when a transition was made to a freer leadership atmosphere. The laissez faire leadership climate actually produced the greatest number of aggressive acts from the group. The democratically led group fell between the one extremely aggressive group and the four apathetic groups under the autocratic leaders. Sweeping generalizations on the basis of the Lippitt and White studies are dangerous. Nevertheless, these leadership studies have extremely important historical significance. Like the Hawthorne studies, the Lowa studies are too often discounted or at least de-emphasized because they were experimentally crude. The values of the studies were that they were the first to analyze leadership from the standpoint of scientific methodology, and, more important, they showed that different styles of leadership could produce different, complex reactions from the same or similar groups. b) The Ohio State Leadership Studies : In 1945, the Bureau of Business Research at Ohio State University initiated a series of studies on leadership. An interdisciplinary team of researchers from psychology, sociology, and economics developed and used the Leader Behaviour Description Questionnaire (LBDQ) to analyze leadership in numerous types of groups and situations. Studies were made of Air Force commanders and members of bomber crews, officers, noncommissioned personnel, and civilian administrators in the Navy Department, manufacturing supervisors, executives of regional cooperatives, college administrators, teachers, principals, and school superintendents, and leaders of various student and civilian groups. In the first step, the LBDQ was administered in a wide variety of situations. In order to examine how the leader was described, the answers to the questionnaire were then subjected to factor analysis. The outcome was amazingly consistent. The same two dimensions of leadership continually emerged from the questionnaire data. They were consideration and initiating structure. These two factors were found in a wide variety of studies encompassing many kinds of leadership positions and contexts. Initiating structure and consideration are very similar to the time honoured military commanders functions of mission and concern with the welfare of the troops. In simple terms, the Ohio State factors are task or goal orientation (initiating structure) and recognition of individual needs and relationships (consideration). The Ohio State studies were the first to point out and emphasis the importance of both task and human dimensions in assessing leadership. This two-dimensional approach lessened the
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gap between the strict task orientation of the scientific management movement and the human relations emphasis. c) The Early Michigan Leadership Studies : At about the same time that the Ohio State studies were being conducted, a group of researchers from the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan USA began their studies of leadership. Twelve high-low productivity pairs were selected for examination. Each pair represented a high-producing section and a low-producing section, with other variables, such as type of work, conditions, and methods, being the same in each pair. Non-directive interviews were conducted with the 24 section supervisors and 419 clerical workers. Results showed that supervisors of high producing sections were significantly more likely to be general rather than close in their supervisory styles and the employee centered (have a genuine concern for their people). The low producing section supervisors had essentially opposite characteristics and techniques. They were found to be close, production-centered supervisors. THE LEADERSHIP SKILLS Leaders use three different types of skills technical, human and conceptual. Although these skills are interrelated in practice, they can be considered separately.
Technical skills relate to persons knowledge and ability in any organizational functional area. Examples are the skills learned by accountants, typists. This skill is the distinguishing feature of job performance at the operating level.
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Human skill is the ability to work effectively with people and to build teamwork. No leader at any organisational level escapes the requirement for effective human skill. It is a major part of leadership behaviour. Conceptual skill is the ability to think in terms of models, frameworks, and broad relationships, such as long range plans. Conceptual skills deal with ideas while human skill concerns people and technical skill is with things. It will be seen from the above diagram that the mix of these three skills changes as one rises in the organisational hierarchy. At the supervisory level the requirement of technical skills is the highest. But as the person moves up the hierarchy to the top management, it is conceptual skills that are more in demands rather than technical skills. However, the requirement of human skills at all the hierarchical levels continues to be the same. Leadership Styles Leadership is practiced by leadership style, which is the total pattern of leaders actions in relation to followers. It represents their philosophy, skills, and attitudes. The styles that are discussed hereunder are used in combination, not separately; but they are discussed separately to clarify differences among them. Negative leadership gets acceptable performance in many situations, but it has high human costs. Negative leaders act domineering and superior with people. To get work done, they hold over their personnel such penalties as loss of job, reprimand in the presence of others, etc. They display authority in the false belief that it frightens everyone into productivity. They are bosses more than leaders. Even the most competent leaders will at times have to fall back upon negative leadership. Perfection can never be achieved, but the historical trend is that managers need more and more positive leadership skills in order to be rated satisfactory. Better employee education, greater independence, and other factors have made satisfactory employee motivation more dependent on positive leadership. Autocratic, participative, and free rein leadership styles The way a leader uses power establishes the type of style. Each style has its benefits and limitations. Leader behaviour is the mixture of all three styles over a period of time, but one style tends to be the dominant one. Autocratic leadership style Autocratic leaders centralize power and decision making in them. They structure the complete work situation for their employees, who are supposed to do what they are told. The leaders take full authority and assume full responsibility. Leadership behaviour typically, is negative, 172
based on threats and punishment; but it can be positive, because an autocratic leader can choose to give rewards to employees, in which the style becomes benevolent-autocratic. Some employees have expectations of autocratic leadership. The result is that they feel a certain amount of security and satisfaction with this type of leader. Some advantages of autocratic leadership style are that it provides strong motivation and reward for the leader. It permits quick decisions, because only one person decides for the entire group. It is the best style in emergencies. Furthermore this style gives good results when one is dealing with unskilled employees doing repetitive tasks. The main disadvantage of autocratic leadership style is that most people dislike it. Frustration, dissatisfaction, fear, and conflict develop easily in autocratic situations. Employees do not involve their self in the organisational activities because their drives and creativity are suppressed. Participative leadership style Participative leadership style is expression of leaders trust in the abilities of his subordinates. The leader believes that his people are as desirous of contributing to the organisational efforts as well as they have requisite capacities. Participative leaders decentralize authority. Participative decisions are not unilateral, as with the autocrat, because they arise from consultation with followers and participation by them. The leader and group are acting as one unit. Employees are informed about conditions requiring decisions, which encourages them to express their ideas and suggestions. Whereas autocratic leaders control through the authority they possess, participative leaders exercise control mostly by using forces within the group. Participative style is supposed to be a better style of managing people. However, it is not without its own drawbacks. This style is useless when the leader is dealing with an emergency. Furthrmore, the basic assumption of this style that the people have the skill and will to help organisational effort may not be correct. Free rein leadership style On the continuum of leadership style free rein style is the extreme. Free rein leaders avoid power and responsibility. They depend largely upon the group to establish its own goals and work out its own problems. A free rein leader is the one who abdicates all his decision making responsibilities and prerogative in favour of his follower. The leader plays only a minor role. In an organisational setting such a leader happens to be a bystander, he happens to be there because of his organizational appointment. He fails to guide, motivate and develop his subordinates.
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This style tends to permit different units of an Organisation to proceed at cross-purposes, and it can degenerate into chaos. For these reasons normally it is not used as a dominant style but is useful in those situations where a leader can leave a choice entirely to the group. This style is also good when one is dealing with scientific and professional employees, who require more job-freedom. Managerial Grid Styles: One very popular approach to identifying leadership styles of practicing managers is Blake and Moutons managerial grid. The following figure shows that the two dimensions of the grid are concern for people along the vertical axis and concern for production along the horizontal axis.
1.9 Management Thoughtful attention to needs of people satisfying relationships leads to a comfortable, friendly 5.5 Management Adequate orgn. performance is possible through balancing the 1.1 Management Exertion of minimum efforts to get minimum work to sustain
9.9 Management Work accomplishment is from the committed people: interdependence through a common stake
9.1 Management Efficiency in operations results from arranging conditions of work in such a way that human
The Managerial Grid (Source: Robert R Blake & Jane S Mouton, Managerial Facades Advanced Managerial Journal, July 1966, Pg. 31)
The five basic styles identified in the grid represent varying combinations of concern for people and production. The 1,1 manager has minimum concern for people and production; this style is sometimes called impoverished style. The opposite is the 9,9 manager. This individual has maximum concern for both people and production. The implication is that the 9,9 is the best style of leadership, and Blake and Mouton have stated so in no uncertain terms: 174
The 5,5 manager is the middle-of-the-roader, and the other two styles represent the extreme concerns of people (1,9, country club manager) and production (9,1, task manager). A managers position on the grid can be determined by a questionnaire developed by Blake and Mouton and can play an important role in Organisation Development (OD). Rensis Likerts Four Systems Management Rensis Likert, the one-time director of the Institute for Social Research of the University of Michigan, presented the results of the years of similar research in his books and became best known for his System 4 leadership styles. Three types of variables characterize it: i. Casual variables are the leadership styles of management in formal organisation. They include those variables that are under the control of management, e.g. organisation structure and managements policies, and decisions and their leadership styles, skills and behaviour. Intervening variables, which reflect the internal climate of the organisation, such as loyalty and motivation, attitudes, perceptions, performance goals etc. End-result variables, which reflect the objectives of an Organisation and are the joint product of the casual variables and the intervening variables, such as productivity, service costs, quality and earnings.
ii.
iii.
Likerts styles of leadership are classified into four distinct types: System 1: Exploitative, Authoritative The leader has no trust or confidence in his subordinates. Communication is entirely formal. Coercion and occasional reward accomplish motivation. The leader is mostly production oriented, and has virtually no concern for his followers except as an instrument of production. The leader under System 1 has a strong Theory X philosophy and is highly committed to initiating structure as a means of exercising influence. Power and position authority is the basis of this type of leadership. System 2: Benevolent-Authoritative: The leader has confidence and trust in his subordinates. Communication is mostly formal. Reward and some coercion accomplish motivation. The leader has a limited concern for his subordinates, but is still heavily oriented towards production, System 2 is philosophically committed to Theory X, but occasionally shows consideration within the initiating structure. Power and positional authority are the primary means of enforcing compliance, although personal
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authority may be used to supplement legitimacy, reward and coercion. There is some delegation of authority, but control still resides in the top management. System 3: Consultative The leader has a lot of confidence in his subordinates, but still wishes to retain control of his decision making power. Communication is less formal. Motivation is by reward and coercion, with some involvement in decision making on the part of subordinates. The leader in system 3 is less committed to Theory X and will, as the situation demands, move towards Theory Y. Both positional authority and personal authority are used to gain the acceptance of the subordinates and to enforce their compliance. System 4: Democratic The leader has complete trust and confidence in his subordinates. Communication is both formal and informal, and is open in all direction. Motivation is accomplished by a system of rewards developed with the participation of leader and followers. The leader has a balanced concern for both people and production, and relies primarily on teamwork to progress in both directions. System 4 Has a strong commitment to Theory Y. The position of power is de-emphasized, and personal authority is predominant. Recourse to positional authority is infrequent. The responsibility for result still lies with the management; but there is minimal emphasis on control. Participation is used to obtain results. On the basis of the responses received from the managers, Likert found that quite consistently, the high producing units fall under system 3 and 4, and the low-producing units fall under system 1 and 2. Leadership Behaviour Continuum The originators of this theory are Tannenbaum and Schmidt. They postulate that managers often have difficulty in deciding what type of action is most appropriate for handling a situation/ particular problem. They are not sure whether to make the decision or to delegate the decisionmaking authority to subordinates. To provide insight into the meaning of leadership behaviour with regard to decision-making these authors suggest a continuum. Leadership actions are related to the degree of authority used by managers and to the amount of freedom available to the subordinates in reaching decisions. The managerial actions depicted on the left of the continuum characterize managers who maintain a high degree of control, while these on the right designate managers who delegate decision-making authority.
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It will be observed that at the one extreme end, the manager makes decision, tells his subordinates, and expects them to carry out that decision. At the other extreme, the manager fully shares his decision-making power with his subordinates, allowing each member of the group to carry an equal voice one man, one vote. Between these two extremes fall a number of leadership style. The selection of a particular style is dependent upon forces in the manager himself, his operating group, and the situation. There is a relationship between the degree of authority used and the amount of freedom available to subordinates in reaching decision. This continuum is seen as a zero-sum game; as one gains, the other loses, and vice versa.
The authors of the theory imply that leaders should not choose a strict autocratic or democratic style, but should be flexible enough to cope with different situations. Those leaders would be most effective who are adaptable and who can delegate authority effectively because they consider their capabilities, subordinates, and goals be accomplished. Theories of Leadership Since leadership makes difference between success and failure, for a long time, thinkers were trying to see if leadership success could be predicted. They were also trying to find out as to what makes a leader. Graphalogical, Phrenological and Demographic, studies were made in
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these directions. However, these studies had to be discarded because of many flaws. At best they were guesses. Trait Theories of Leadership The scientific analysis of leadership started off by concentrating on leaders themselves. The vital question that this theoretical approach attempted to answer was what characteristic or traits make a person a leader? The earliest trait theories, which can be traced back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, concluded that leaders are born, not made. The great man theory of leadership said that a person is born either with or without the necessary traits for leadership. Famous figures in history for example, Napoleon were said to have had the natural leadership abilities to rise out of any situation and become great leaders. Eventually, the great man theory gave way to a more realistic trait approach to leadership. Under the influence of the behaviourist school of psychological thought, researchers accepted the fact that leadership traits can be acquired through learning and experience. Attention was turned on the search for universal traits possessed by leaders. The research efforts were generally very disappointing. Only intelligence seemed to hold up with any degree of consistency. In general, research findings do not agree on which traits are generally found in leaders or even on which ones are more important than others. The numbers of traits required of a successful leader are many. Not only this, depending on the situation the leader has to bring in various shades of the same trait. Trait theories also suffer from the problem of semantics. Similar to the trait theories of personality, the trait approach to leadership has provided some descriptive insight but has little analytical or predictive value. The trait approach is still alive, but now the emphasis has shifted away from personality traits toward job related skill. Fred Fiedlers Contingency Theory of Leadership After the trait approach was proved to fall short of being an adequate overall theory of leadership, attention turned to the situational aspects of leadership. Fred Fiedler proposed a situationbased or contingency theory for leadership effectiveness. Fiedler developed what he called a contingency model of leadership effectiveness. This model contained the relationship between leadership style and the favorableness of the situation. Fiedler described situational favourableness in terms of three empirically derived dimensions: 1. The leader member relationship, which is the most critical variable in determining the situations favourableness. The degree of task structure, which is the second most important input into the favourableness of the situation.
2.
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3.
The leaders position power obtained through formal authority, which is the third most critical dimension of the situation.
Situations are favourable to the leader if all three of the above dimensions are high. In other words, if the leader is generally accepted by followers; if the task is very structured and everything is spelled out and if a great deal of authority and power is formally attributed to the leaders position (high third dimension). If the opposite exists the situation will be very unfavourable for the leader. Fiedler was convinced that the favourableness of the situation in combination with the leadership style determines effectiveness. Through the analysis of research findings, Fiedler was able to discover that under very favourable and very unfavourable situations, the task-directed, autocratic type of leader was most effective. However, when the situation was only moderately favourable or unfavourable (the intermediate range of favourableness), the human relations, or lenient, type of leader was most effective. Life Cycle Theory It has been assumed that followers are the most crucial factor in any leadership event and that they are important not only because individually they accept or reject the leader but because as a group they actually determine whatever personal power he may possess. Theory asserts that as the level of maturity of followers increases, the leader requires not only less and less structure (task) while increasing consideration but should eventually decrease socio-emotional support (relationship). Attempts have been made to define maturity by achievement motivation, the willingness and ability to accept responsibility and task related education and experience. As an individual matures over time he moves from a passive state to a state of increasing activity, from dependency on others to relative independence, etc. While age may be a component, it is not directly related to maturity. The leader behaviour should move through: high task low relationship behaviour, to high taskhigh relationships, and high relationships-low task behaviour, to low task-low relationships behaviour, if followers progress from immaturity to maturity. The life cycle theory provides appropriate leadership styles according to maturity of ones followers. This cycle is also distinguishable in various organisations in the interaction between superiors and subordinates. In working with highly trained and emotionally mature personnel, an effective leader behaviour relates to low task-low relationships. Usually, in a basically crises-oriented organisation such as military or the police, the most suitable style is the high task-low relationships. However, within the military itself, this style is
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frequently ineffective in working with research and development personnel who want limited amount of both structure and emotional support. Even in this group, some deviation from this style is needed. Overall, Life Cycle Theory asserts that with people of below average maturity, a high task style promises best probability of success while dealing with people of average maturity, the styles of high task and high relationships and high relationships and low task appear to be most suitable. The low task and low relationship style provides the highest probability of success with people of above average maturity. Path-Goal Leadership Theory Robert House of the University of Toronto initially developed this theory, and House and Mitchell later refined it. It is called path-goal approach because its primary concern is the leaders influence on his followers perception of their work goals, personal goals and paths to achievement of these goals. It is based on the notion that a leader behaviour motivates and satisfies his followers to such an extent that it promotes the attainment of the followers goals and clears the path to attainment of these goals. It uses expectancy framework from motivation theory of Vroom. Leadership, according to this path-goal theory is closely related to motivation, on the one hand, and the power, on the other. In essence, the theory attempts to explain the impact that leader behaviour has on followers motivation, satisfaction and performance. According to the authors of the theory there are four basic or major styles of leadership behaviour. They are: 1. Directive Leadership: Here the subordinates know exactly what is expected of them and the leader gives specific directions. There is no participation by the subordinates. When the demands of task on hand are ambiguous or when organisational procedures, rules and policies are not clear, a directive leader may complement the task by providing the necessary guidance and psychological structure for his followers. When the demands of the task are clear to the followers, high level of directive leadership may impede effective performance. Supportive Leadership: The leader is friendly and approachable and shows a genuine interest for subordinates. This style of leadership has its most positive effect on the satisfaction of followers who perform tasks that are full of stress, and are frustrating and unsatisfactory or unsatisfying. Participative Leadership: The leader asks for and uses suggestions from subordinates but takes the decision by himself.
2.
3.
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4.
Achievement-oriented Leadership: The leader sets challenging goals for subordinates and shows confidence in them to attain these goals and perform well. For followers performing ambiguous, non-repetitive tasks the higher the achievement orientation of the leader the more confident they would be that their efforts would pay-off in effective performance. Contrary would be the case, when followers perform unambiguous and repetitive tasks.
The path goal theory suggests that these various styles can be and actually are used by the same leader depending on the characteristics of the subordinates and the environmental pressures. House has concluded that a high degree of direction in autonomous or ambiguous situations increases satisfaction by clarifying the path to Goal achievement. In contrast, strongly defined tasks are performed best with greater employee satisfaction when the leader demonstrates high consideration. The autonomous jobs are most intrinsically satisfying than structured activities are. As a result, leader behaviour will be less relevant to the needs or performance of subordinates than when the path is more difficult to negotiate.
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SUMMARY This chapter discusses various aspects of leadership. The research studies such as Lowa leadership studies, Ohio leadership studies and early Michigan studies set the stage for the theoretical development of leadership. A leader requires technical, human, and conceptual skills. As one goes up the orgnisational hierarchy one requires less and less of the technical skill; but more and more of conceptual skills. However the degree of human skills remains the same, at whatever hierarchy level one is a leader deals with his followers on the basis of leadership styles. Broadly there are three leadership styles. The autocratic, participative and free rein. All these styles have positives as well as negatives. Eventhough the autoractic style repels the people, it is very much useful when one is dealing with emergency. This style is also good when one is dealing with a large number of unskilled people doing the same work over and over again. Participative style, no doubt, is god style. It is a great motivator because it assumes that followers have the skill and will contribute to the organisational effort. This assumption sometime, may not be correct. When this happens, participative style does not yield fruits. The free rein style many times invokes hostility among the followers. However when dealing with the employees doing creative work, or scientific and professional employees, this is the best style of leadership. The continuum of leadership behaviour theory gives the various shade of leader behaviour. The contingency theory says that effectiveness of a particular style of leadership depends on leader-member relations, the task structure and the leader position power. When all these are very unfavourable or very favorable to the leader autocratic style of leadership is a good style. When the situation is mildly favourable or mildly favourable to the leader there is always give and take. Examples of well known approaches to leadership styles include Blake and Moutons managerial grid; Hersey and Blanchards situational i.e. life cycle model and Likerts four systems of management. Each of these approaches to style has been around for a long time but still has implications for the practice of leadership. The grid is valuable mainly because it allows managers to describe their styles. Hwersey and Blanchards approach shows how well managers can match the appropriate style with the maturity level of the group being led, and Likerts work has implications for organisational effectiveness. Path-goal leadership theory developed by Robert House considers the effort performance linkages and performance goals satisfaction linkages. However, path-goal theory is a relatively new and warrants further research to test its applicability. 182
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Chapter 14
MANAGEMENT OF ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE
LEARNING OBJECTIVES To understand the importance of organisational change. To understand the reasons why employees as well as the organisation resist change. To understand the steps in introducing the change in the organisation. We live in an age of transition. One of the few things of real permanence in our world is change. It has become an inescapable fact of life; a fundamental aspect of historical evolution. The amount of technical information available doubles every ten years. Change is inevitable in a progressive culture. Change, in fact, is accelerating in our present day society. Revolutions are taking place in political, scientific, technological and institutional areas. Sophisticated communication capabilities have increased. Telemarketing, robotics taking over some jobs currently performed by employees are some examples that bear testimony of the fast paced, rapidly changing organisation. Pressures for change are created both outside and inside the organisation. In fact an organisation that refuses to adapt and adopt change can not live longer. Organizations are, of course, learning to cope with the devastating rate of internal and external changes with the help of some fundamental changes in management philosophy and organizational technology. Characteristics of organisational change: i) ii) Change basically results from stimuli from both outside and inside the enterprise; Change takes place in all organizations but at varying rates of speed and degrees of significance; Change takes place in all parts of Organisation but at varying rates of speed and degrees of significance; Finally, the enterprise changes in several ways. Its technology may change; its structure, people, procedures and other elements may change. 185
iii)
iv)
Management of Organisational Change
Any alteration that occurs in the overall work environment is called change. Change requires new adjustments and new equilibrium. The nature of work change is so complicated that the management should gain acceptance for the change, and restore the group equilibrium and personal adjustment that change upsets. FORCES FOR CHANGE: a) Internal Forces :
There are some internal forces that cause change in the organisations. They relate to change in machinery, equipment, methods and procedures, work standards, changes in the structure, changes in authority status, and responsibility etc. The other forces may be like: i) ii) iii) iv) Employees desire to share in decision-making; Employees demands for effective organisational mechanism; Higher employee expectation for satisfying jobs and work environment; Change in the mission or the objectives. This may be occasioned as a result of mergers or amalgamations etc.; Retirements, transfers or promotions; Changes in the location of the organisation; Changes in the work force culture, educational level etc.;
v) vi) vii)
viii) Change in the top management personnel; ix) Certain Deficiencies in the Existing System.
Another associated internal pressure that is instrumental to organisational change is the existence of certain loopholes in the system itself. They may be like unmanageable spans of control, lack of coordination between the departments, obstacles in communication, multiplicity of meaningless committees, lack of uniformity in the policies, non-cooperation between line and staff etc. But normally the need for change in such areas goes unrecognised until some major catastrophe occurs. A rational Organisation thinks in terms of change long before it turns into changed event. b) External forces:
Outside the Organisation, environmental conditions are becoming less and less stable day by
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day. They are even becoming turbulent. These pressures necessitate the Organisation to change and adapt to meet the new demands and requirements. Organisation cannot afford to be rigid and inflexible in the wake of environmental pressures They must be dynamic and viable, so that they survive. Organizations are forced most frequently to introduce changes in response to environmental pressures. Modern manager should be change conscious and operating in the constantly changing environment. Many external changes bombard the modern Organisation and make change inevitable. Some of these common forces are the rapidly changing technology, the economic shocks, changing market situations, social and political changes, changing Govt. policies, changes in labour and taxation laws etc. to name a few. Technology: Technology is the major external pressure of change. It is perhaps the greatest factor that organisation reckons with. The rate of technological changes is so fast that we have to run to be where we are. Technological changes are creeping in our private lives too. They are also responsible for changing the nature of jobs performed at all levels in the organizations. Knowledge explosion, more particularly the computer technology and automation have made a remarkable impact on the functioning of organisation in the recent times. Technology change has always been equated with the progress in society. Todays technology has outstripped the imaginations of the science fiction writers of a generation ago. Each technological alternative results in setting into motion a chain of changes. The technology necessitates an organisation to change its process of manufacturing, make structural changes, make line and staff adjustments etc. Organisations of the day must equip themselves to absorb rapid extensive change in the technology and the need to deal with the great ambiguity and uncertainty. Economic Shocks: Increase in the purchasing power of the people. This increases the demand for luxury goods. The consumer also become quality conscious. a) b) c) d) Export/import policy of the Government. Changes in the interest rates. The status of the economy. The status of money market.
Market Situation: Changing market situations is a seemingly ubiquitous phenomenon. The market changes include rapidly changing testes of consumers, needs and desires of consumers, suppliers,
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etc. Competition for new products, designs, changes in quality are growing at a terrific pace. In a nutshell the entire complexion of the market is changing. Modern organisations are functioning in a highly competitive terrain. If they are to survive they must adapt themselves to the change and adopt the change. Social and Political Change: Such environmental pressures as social and political change, as well as the relations between government and business also influence results of organisational efforts. Many new legal provisions get introduced every time that affects the organizations. Organisational units literally have no control over these forces but in order to survive they must adapt to changes. Governmental policies requiring taxation, national economy, foreign relations etc. are also the factors forcing necessity to change on the organisations. Not only this but the world politics also affects the organisation. Resistance to Change: Many of times the change is resisted by employees, even if the change is for benefit of employees and the organisation. Resistance to change is perhaps one of the baffling problems a manager encounters because it can assume many forms. The effects of resistance may be overt or implicit, may be subtle and cumulative. Implicit resistance may be manifested in tardiness, loss of motivation to work, increased absenteeism and the requests for transfer etc. Overt resistance, on the other hand, assumes the form of wildcat strikes, shoddy work, reduction in productivity etc. Resistance to change may, further, be individual or organisational. Individual resistance may be due to some personal, economic or social reasons. Organisational resistance on the other hand, generally centers round the structure, organisational constraints, threats to power and influence and finally, and sunk costs. Individual Resistance : One aspect of mankind that has remained more or less constant is his innate resistance to change. By its very nature change is against the tendency towards homeostasis. Unfortunately, many a time managers change efforts in an organisatjon run in employee resistance to change. It is because almost all people who are affected by change, experience some sort of emotional turmoil. Further, individual attaches great preference to maintain status quo. Additionally, positive threats from habit or custom, fear of unknown, the security and attractiveness of familiar, displacement of skills because of the technological advancement are all the conditions favouring the status quo. In fact, there may be near-infinite reasons why people resist change in organisation. According to Keith Davis, however, the following are the main reasons for resistance to change.
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i)
Economic Reasons: Keith Davis, remarks people fear technological unemployment, reduced work hours, demotion, reduced wages and reduced incentives and resist change. One major reason why some people resist organisational change is that they perceive they will lose something of value as a result. The greater the expected loss the greater the resistance. People resist change that opens the possibility of lowering their income directly or indirectly. That is to say whenever the employee perceives the inexorable consequences of change in terms of unfavorable pay, he has the tendency to resist it. Of course, change resulting in a reduction of pay is a rare phenomenon. Many workers are justifiably afraid of being phased out of their jobs by automation. They resist change, and their resistance to change can be quite effective. Obsolescence of Skills : Sometimes, however, introduction of new technology throws people away from doing important jobs (or demanding works) to less important or deadend ones, where less or no skills are required to exhibit. More realistically, when people perceive psychological degradation of the job they are performing they resist such a change. The rate at which the knowledge is exploding is incredible. As a result, knowledge in any particular field quickly becomes obsolete. Whenever people sense that new machinery (change) poses a threat of replacing or degrading them they simply resist such a change. A twenty years experienced accountant is quite likely to resist the introduction of a computer for preparing the wage bill because he feels that might affect his position and pay. The introduction of new methods also throw a need for retraining which an individual hates. This kind of phenomenon is commonly found in those managers who possess no real marketable skills and whose knowledge is obsolete and out-dated. These people strongly resist change and try their best to maintain status quo.
ii)
iii)
Preference for Status Quo: Perhaps the biggest and the most sound reason for the resistance to change is the preference for status-quo. People have vested interest in the status quo. Change may pose disturbance to the existing comforts of status quo. Venturing the change may involve uncertainty and risk, may be at the cost of the convenience and happiness of the employees. Most of the people are comfortable with status quo and strongly resist change. It is because people typically develop patterns for coping with or managing the current structure and situation. Fear of unknown: Change presents unknown, which causes anxiety. Whenever people do not know exactly what is likely to happen they are likely to resist it. The unknown poses a constant threat. People change and its consequences. Uncertainty in the situation arises not from the change itself, but from the consequences surrounding change. To avoid making decision and fear of unknown, people may refuse promotion entailing transfer. Further any gap in the information renders the mind of the employee wandering over uncertainty about the future and he thinks the better way would be to oppose change. 189
iv)
v)
Social Reasons: Economic and personal reasons for the resistance apart, some social reasons may also be accountable for the possible resistance to change. Social displacements and peer pressure are among those social reasons that are very important for the manager to consider when dealing with resistance to change. Social Displacements: Introduction of change often results in breaking up of work groups. People in the working environment develop informal relationships. When the friendship with fellow-members is interrupted then there is a possibility for the employees to experience psychological let down. When the social relationships develop, as normally is the case, people try to maintain them and fight social displacement by resisting change.
vi)
vii) Peer Pressure: Situations are not rare where individuals are prepared to accept change at their individual level, but refuse to accept it for the sake of the group. Organisational Resistance to Change: The resistance to change from the organisation comes because of the a) b) c) d) Structure of the organisation, Resource constraints, Sunk costs, and General apathy.
The structural resistance: Some organisational structures have inbuilt mechanism for resistance to change. For instance, consider a typically bureaucratic structure where jobs are narrowly defined, lines of authority are clearly spelled out, the flow of information is stressed from top to bottom. In such organisations the channels of communication make the new idea difficult to travel and eventually it increases the probability that the new ideal/innovation will be screened out because it is not suitable for the structure of the Organisation. Some organisations are so designed that they resist innovations. For example, those that perform narrowly prescribed assortment of functions oppose change. They also sometimes create strong defense against changes. Resources constraints: Organisations, many a times, operate under some resource constraints. If the resources with which to operate are available in abundance there will be no problem of introducing change.
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But the necessary financial, material and human resources may not be available to the Organisation to make the needed changes. Sunk costs: The plight of some companies is such that the heavy capital is blocked in the fixed or permanent assets. Even though the management in such organisations is convinced of the necessity of change, they may face resouce constraints because of the money already sunk in the purchase of block capital assets. Sunk costs are not restricted to physical things alone. They can be expressed in terms of people also overcoming resistance to change. The employees resistance to change can be overcome by Force field analysis Communication Proper management style.
Force field analysis : For every change there are certain forces in favour of the change; there are certain forces against the change. A manager should analyse the strength of each of these and reduce the strength of the restraining forces and increase the strength of driving forces. This he can do by proper communication and convincing the people of the necessity of change. Communication: It is always desirable that the manager takes people, especially those who are likely to be affected by the change in confidence before the change is set up. A communication intended to overcome the resistance should have the following characteristics; That it should be at an appropriate time; that it should be addressed to those who are likely to be affected by the change. If, however, for any reason it is not possible to communicate to all at the people who have influence over the employees should be communicated. That the communication should be honest. It should, state a) b) c) d) what change? why change? how change? how the change will benefit the organisation?
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e) f) g) h)
how the change will benefit the employees? how the change will affect an employees? what organisation proposes to do to reduce the rigors of change on employees? an appeal to all employees to co-operate in setting up the change deciding what management style to use.
The following management styles are available to the manager for overcoming the resistance to change. Negotiations: convincing the employees about the necessity of change. At this stage some give-and-take may be required. Participation of the employees in setting up the change. If these fail, forcing the employees to accept the change. Introducing Change: Management of organisational change is complex phenomenon involving formidable exercises on the part of management. Before a particular change is shaped and implemented effectively in an organisation certain minimum number of steps need be followed viz. i] ii] iii] iv] v] vi] Recognise the forces demanding change; Recognise the need for the change; Diagnose the problem; Plan the change; Implement the change Follow-up or feedback.
Forces Demanding Change: Whenever a manager intends introducing change he should proceed in a logical sequential order. Manager should, first of all, identify the forces demanding change. Change is the reaction to the pressures created both within and outside the organisation. These forces thus, may be internal or external. Depending upon the nature of the change agent, as well as the strength of the forces would depend the managerial strategy to introduce the change. Recognise of the Need for Change : All forces certainly do not demand change but some do require careful attention on the part of the management. Manager should identify the discrepancy between what is and what should 192
be. He must analyse the forces that contribute to this gap through evaluation or performance reports. Management then must try to separate unnecessary forces and keep a close eye on next step in the process known as diagnosis. Diagnose the Problem : Next observable phase in management of change is a thorough and careful diagnosis of the problem. This involves the identification of the root cause. It is advisable that the work of diagnosing the problem be entrusted to an outside consultant. Generally the services of an outsider are useful at this stage because he is not restrained by the internal inhibitions. He can afford to call a spade. Various diagnostic techniques such as interviews, questionnaires, observation and secondary data/unobtrusive measure, etc., are used in this stage. The manager or change agent depending on the nature of the problem and capabilities of the enterprise employs these diagnostic techniques. The following table gives a birds eye view of the major advantages and the problems associated with these techniques. After collection and analysis of the data an insider manager be associated with the outsider consultant. The consultant, being an outsider, is unaware of the organisation culture, climate, traditions etc. This being so the recommendations he gives may not be implementable. The following table provides a birds eye view of the various techniques that are used in the diagnosis, their potential benefits and disadvantages. Method Interviews Major advantages Adaptive - allows data collection on a range of possible subjects. Source of rich data Emphatic Builds rapport Questionnaires Responses can be qualified and easily summarised; easy to use with big samples relatively in expensive can obtain large volume of data Potential problem Expensive
Interviewer can be biased (for example, he can bias the responses). Coding/Interpretation problems Self-report basis Non-emphatic, Pre-determined questions may miss some issues Response-bias may be there
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Observations
Collects data on behaviour rather than reports of the behaviour real-time, not retrospective, adaptive Non-reactive Non-response bias High face validity Easy for qualification
Interpretation problem Sampling problems Observer bias costly exercise Access/retrieval possibility problems. Potential validity problems Interpretation problems.
Secondary data unobstrusive measures
Source : David Nadler. Feedback and Organisation Development Using Data-based methods. Reading, Addison-Wesley.
The breadth of diagnosis depends on the seriousness of the problem. Sometimes a problem involves only one department or group or individual and hence diagnosis primarily focuses on the particular area. Some other times, if the problem is deep-seated, then organisational analysis may be called for. Organisation analysis includes exhaustive study of organisational goals, principles, practices and performance at macro level. The major decision in this phase is whether the stimulus for change should be responded to: Three questions are asked in order to determine this, viz. What is the problem as distinct from its symptoms? What should be changed to resolve the problem? What outcomes are expected and how will these outcomes be measured? By answering these questions organisation becomes aware of the problems that suggest the inadequacy of the preset state. Diagnosis also enables the managers to perceive the gap between desired and actual performance and take necessary course of action. Without an accurate-diagnosis, a manager can easily get bogged down during the change process with very costly problems. Having done the diagnosis, a change agent, or a manager proceeds to the next phase called Planning the change. Plan the Change : The diagnosis would tell the manager if the change has to be adopted; it might also give him a cue as to the manner and the phases in which it is to be introduced. According to Harold Leavitt all organisational changes can be classified as change in structure, task, technology or people. Changing structure involves reorganization of the departments, respecification of span of control, decentralization etc. Changing task includes job enrichment, job specification and specialisation and job redefinition or any other changes concerned with
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the task of employees. Changing technology involves introduction of new lines of production, installing new control system, instituting new selection and recruitment etc. And finally, changing people comprises of training, meeting, development activities etc. Steps in planning change: Planning is perhaps the most crucial phase in the management of change. It involves answering three vital problems what, how and when to change. Change agent must consider the following steps before he plans the change. He should: 1. Make clear the need for change or provide a climate in which group members feel free to identify such needs; Permit and encourage relevant group participation in clarifying the needed changes; State the objectives to be achieved by proposed changes; Establish the broad guidelines for achieving the objectives; Leave the details for implementing the proposed changes to the group in the organisation or to the personnel who will be affected by change; Indicate the benefits or rewards to the individuals or groups that are expected to accrue from the change; Keep the promises made to those who made the change.
2. 3. 4. 5.
6.
7.
Selection of appropriate strategy is an essential part of planning. In solving organizational change problem; a manager pursues different strategies differently to solve a wide variety of problems. Implementing the Change: Having identified the focal points of concentration, the managers immediate job is to implement change. Here he confronts a biggest challenge through resistance by the employees. Nadler and Tushman assert that any change encounters three problems in implementation. They are resistance, power and control. These problems, their implications and the various action steps are presented in the table below.
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Problem Resistance
Implication Need to motivate
Action steps Participation in change. Change reward for behaviour in participation in change. Rewards for behaviour in support of change Use multiple and consistent leverage points. Develop organisational arrangements for transition. Build-in feedback mechanisms. Assure the support of key power groups. Use leader behaviour to generate energy in support of change. Use symbols and language. Build-in stability.
Control
Need to manage the transition
Power
Need to shape the political dynamism
Having taken in account the problems at this stage of implementation of change the manager can think of implementing change by Changing the structure and or by Changing the technology and or by Changing people. Implement the change by changing structure: The changing technology and especially computer has profound influence on the organisation structure and its employees. It results in more mechanistic organisation structure. Since departments tend to be consolidated, work span gets reduced; functional departmentation replaces divisions, resulting in a centralized control. At the other rungs it results in more routine jobs as well as more automated jobs in which workers interaction is less and infrequent. Structure-focused change efforts changes primarily include: i. ii. iii. iv. Changing the number of organisational levels. Altering the span of management. Changing from one base of departmentation to another base. Altering the line and staff, and functional authority relationships.
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Implement the change by Changing Technology: Automation is the thing in todays organisations. Also the automation may relate not only to the manufacturing processes but it would also affect the technology relating to decision making process and other internal processes, practices, procedures etc. Technology focused changes comprise: i) ii) iii) iv) Changing problem solving and decision-making procedures; Introduction of computer to facilitate managerial planning and control; Converting from unit production to mass production technology. Implement the change by changing people.
A change in the organisation requires a corresponding change in the individuals personality. Changing personality is a challenging task because the basic personality factors are usually formed and developed in the early childhood of the employee. A commonly accepted model for bringing about change in people was suggested by Kurt Lewin in terms of three-phase process unfreezing moving i.e. changing refreezing. Lewin s model provides a useful vehicle for understanding change process in the organisation. Unfreezing: It refers to making individual aware that the present behaviour is inappropriate, irrelevant, inadequate and hence unsuitable to the changing demands of the present situation. Unfreezing is the breaking down of the existing mores, old taboos and traditions, the habitual ways of doing things, so that the people are ready to accept new alternatives. It involves, discarding the orthodox and conventional methods and introducing a new dynamic behaviour that is most appropriate to the situation. Moving i.e. changing: It is the phase where new learning occurs. When the individuals are convinced that their behaviour is inappropriate they come forward to accept the change. In order to change, it is not enough to sense that the current behaviour is inadequate. The necessary condition is that various alternatives of behaviour must also be made available in order to fill the vacuum created by unfreezing phase. During this phase of changing, individuals learn to behave in new ways; the individuals are provided with alternatives out of which to choose the best one.
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Kelman elaborately explains this moving phase in terms of compliance, identification and internalization. (a) Compliance occurs when individuals are forced to change wither by rewards or by punishment; Internalization occurs when individuals are forced to encounter a situation that calls for new behaviour; Identification occurs when individuals recognise one among various models provided in the environment that is most suitable to their personality.
(b)
(c)
Refreezing: Refreezing refers to the stage where the change becomes an integral part of the system. It also refers to discarding the throwing away the old practices, procedures, technology etc. During this phase individuals internalize the new beliefs, feelings and behaviour learned in the changing phase. That is to say a person accepts the new behaviour as a permanent part of his behaviour. He has to practice and experiment with the new methods of behaviour and see that the behaviour effectively blends with his other behavioural attitudes. It is very important for the manager concerned with introducing change to visualize that the new behaviour is not extinguished soon. People focused changes can also be made through the following techniques: Sensitivity training; Transactional analysis; Assertiveness training; Team building workshops; Job training programs; Leadership and supervisory training.
Follow-up on the Change : Management of change is incomplete without proper follow-up. Organisation must evaluate the effects of change. Objectives must be present and be compared with the performance to see the degree of success in change. End results should be operationally defined and measurements must be done both before and after the implementation of change. This enables the manager or change agent, to monitor and evaluate the performance after the introduction of change with the one prior to it. The manager must make sure that the change is implemented in such a fashion as to maximize the benefits to the organisation.
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SUMMARY In todays fast pace of life the only factor that is permanent is the change itself. An organisations ability to manage change decides whether the organisation will prosper or perish. A change is any deviation from the set rules, policies, practices and procedures. There are forces that make an organisation to accept, adopt and to adapt to the change. Some of these forces are internal as well as some are external. The internal forces for change include change in the mission of an organisation which might be occasioned by mergers, amalgamations, or take-overs. The change in the location , change in the work force, their aspirations, their education levels etc. also force an organization change. Of the external forces for change technology occupies a place of prominence. Technology has entered in all phases of life. At the organisational level technology may change various processes. Technological changes, in the initial phase, creates unemployment for a short period. This throws the necessity of down sizing. In the Indian situation, because of the labor laws, it is very difficult to down size. It means the organisation will have to go in for restructuring. Restructuring, in its turn, may necessitate other changes in the line and staff relationship, transfers etc. Thus technological changes may set a set of chain of change. Another external force necessitating change is the market situation. By market situation is meant the size of the market, organisations share of the market, change in the tastes and fashions of the market etc. Also there are other factors in the external environment, which make an organisation change. In a nut shell they are the economic shocks, the changes in the Governmental policies etc. Not only this but also the relations of the mother country with the other countries and world politics make an organisation change. Eventhough the change is in the interests of the organisation and the organisation, many a times the change is resisted by the employees as well as by the organisation. Employees resist change because of the economic reasons or personal and social reasons. Most importantly, many a times, a change throws up the necessity retraining. Generally people do not like to be retrained. Because, they take a pride in their existing skills, People also feel that retraining means that their skills are obsolete. An organisation resists change because of the structural inertia, resource constraints, sunk costs or the general apathy.
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An organisation can overcome the resistance to change by force field analysis, communication, or by negotiations, involving employees in the process of setting up the change. In the last resort if the management is convinced of the genuiness and the necessity of change, the management may force the employees accept change. A manager must be very cautious in introducing the change. A change should be introduced only when the manager is convinced of the need to change and the necessity to change. Change should never be introduced in a jerky manner. It should be slowly and in a phased manner. Before introducing the change a manager must: Recognize the forces demanding change; Recognise the need for change; Diagnose the problem; Plan the change. It is only after these considerations the manager should implement the change by changing structure, changing people and by changing technology. After the change is introduced there must be a follow up of the change.
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Chapter 15
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
LEARNING OBJECTIVES 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Understand and recognize how organizational cultures are developed, maintained and changed. Describe types of organizational cultures. Identify potential relationships between organizational culture and performance. Understand the importance of effectively managing cultural diversity. Describe the process of organizational, socialization and its relationship to organizational culture.
Organizational Culture is still a relatively new, controversial and little understood management concept. However, a lot of research in the area proves an impeccable relationship that exists between Organizational Culture and people behavior in the organization. To understand this relationship and then link it back to the purpose of OB understand, predict and control behavior is the purpose of this chapter. Concept of Organizational Culture Organizational Culture is a pattern of beliefs and expectations shared by the members of the organization. These beliefs and expectations produce norms that powerfully shape the behavior of individuals and groups in the organizations. Schwartz & Davis Organizational Culture represents a complex pattern of beliefs, expectations, ideas, values, attitudes and behaviors shared by the members of the organizations. More specifically, organizational culture includes: a. b. Routine behaviors when people interact, such as organizational rituals and ceremonies and the language commonly used. The norms that are shared by the teams throughout the organization, such as all meetings shall be attended on time. 203
Organizational Culture
c. d. e. f.
The dominant values held by the organization, such as product quality or price leadership. The philosophy that guides an organizations policies towards its employees and customers. The rules of the game for getting along in the organization or the ropes that a new comer must learn in order to become an accepted member; and The feeling or climate conveyed in an organization by the physical layout and the way in which managers and employees interact with customers and others outside.
None of these components individually represent the culture of the organization. They need to be looked at and experienced in combination with one another to give meaning to the concept of organizational culture. LEVELS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE Organizational culture exists on different levels, which differ in terms of visibility and resistance to change. The least visible or deepest level is that of basic shared assumptions, which represent beliefs about the organization needs to be run. The next level of culture is that of cultural values, which represent collective beliefs, assumptions and feelings about what things are good, normal, rational, valuable and so on. These values tend to persist over time even when organizational membership changes. The next level is that of shared behaviors, including norms, which are more visible and somewhat easier to change than values. The most superficial level of organizational culture consists of symbols. Cultural Symbols are words (jargon or slang), gestures and pictures or other physical objects that carry a particular meaning with the culture. Developing Organizational Culture An organizational culture forms in response to two major challenges that confront every organization: 1) External adaptation and survival It has to do with how the organization will find a niche in and cope with its constantly changing external environment. It involves addressing the following issues: Mission and Strategy: Identifying the primary purpose of the organization; selecting strategies to pursue this mission.
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Goals: Setting specific targets to achieve. Means: Determining how to pursue goals, including selecting an organizational structure and reward systems. Measurement: Establishing criteria to determine how well individuals and teams are accomplishing their goals.
2)
Internal integration It has to do with the establishment and maintenance of effective working relationships among the members of the organization. Internal integration involves addressing the following issues: Language and concepts: Identifying methods of communication and developing a shared meaning for important concepts. Group and Team boundaries: Establishing criteria for membership in groups and teams. Power and Status: Determining rules for acquiring, maintaining and losing power and status. Rewards and punishments: Developing systems for encouraging desirable behaviors and discouraging undesirable ones.
An organizational culture emerges when members share knowledge and assumptions as they discover or develop ways of coping with issues of external adaptation and internal integration. The national culture, customs and societal norms of the country also shape the culture of the organizations operating in it. According to David Drennan, the twelve key casual factors, which shape a companys culture, are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Influence of a dominant leader Company history and tradition Technology, products and services The industry and its competition Customers Company expectation Information and control systems Legislation and company environment Procedures and policies
10. Reward systems and measurements 11. Organization and resources 12. Goals, values and beliefs
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Maintaining Organizational Culture The ways in which an organization functions and is managed may have both intended and unintended consequences for maintaining and changing organizational culture. Methods of maintaining organizational culture a. What managers and teams pay attention to One of the most powerful methods of maintaining organizational culture involves processes and behaviors that managers, individual employees and teams pay attention to; that is the events that get noticed and commented on. The ways of dealing with these events send strong messages to the employees on expected behaviors and important approaches. Reactions to incidents and crises When an organization faces crises, the handling of those crises by managers and employees reveals a great deal about its culture. The manner in which the crises are dealt with can either reinforce the existing culture or bring out new values and norms that change the culture in some way. Role Modeling, Teaching and Coaching Aspects of organizational culture are communicated to employees by the way managers fulfill their roles. In addition, managers and teams may specifically incorporate important cultural messages into training programs and day-to-day coaching on the job. Allocation of Rewards and Status Employees also learn about the organizational culture through its reward systems. What is rewarded and what is punished convey to employees the priorities and values of both individual managers and the organization. Recruitment, Selection, Promotion and Removal One of the fundamental ways in which the organization maintains its culture is through Recruitment. In addition, the criteria used to determine who is assigned to specific jobs or positions, who gets raises and promotions and why, who is removed from the organization by firing or early retirement and so on, reinforce and demonstrate aspects of organizational culture. Rites, Ceremonies and Stories Rites and ceremonies are planned activities or rituals that have important cultural meaning. Many of the underlying beliefs and values of an organizations culture are expressed as stories that become a part of its folklore. These stories transmit the existing culture from old to new employees and emphasize important aspects of that culture.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
Changing Organizational Culture The same basic methods used to maintain an organizations culture can be used to modify it. Changing organizational culture is difficult primarily because assessing accurately the existing culture is itself a tough proposition. Most large complex organizations actually have more 206
than one culture. GE for example, has distinctly different cultures in different parts of its multi divisional, world wide operations. These multiple cultures are called sub cultures. Every organization will have at least three cultures an operating culture (line employees), an engineering culture (technical and professional people), and an executive culture (top management) stemming from the very different views and perceptions held by these groups of people. Successfully changing organizational culture requires:
l
Understanding the old culture first because a new culture cant be developed unless managers and employees understand where they are starting. Set realistic goals that impact the bottom line. Providing support for employees and teams who have ideas for a better culture and are willing to act on those ideas. Finding the most effective sub culture in the organization and using it as an example from which employees can learn. Make changes from the top down, so that a consistent message is delivered from all management team members. Include employees in the process People support what they help create. Remove all trappings that remind employees of the old culture. Not attacking culture head on but finding ways to help employees and teams do their job more effectively. Treating the vision of a new culture as a guiding principle for change, not as a miracle cure. Recognize that significant changes take time and Living the new culture because actions speak louder than words.
l l
l l l
l l
Indeed, any comprehensive change program in an organization, in some sense, is an attempt to change the organizational culture. Resistance to Cultural Change = Magnitude of change X Strength of the prevailing culture. Therefore, cultural change involves tremendous amount of efforts and time and also need skillful people to manage this change successfully.
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Types of Corporate Cultures Cultural elements and their relationships create a pattern that is distinct to an organization. However, organizational cultures have some common characteristics. Of the many frameworks, one of the most useful ones is presented here. The vertical axis reflects the relative control orientation, ranging from stable to flexible, of an organization. The horizontal axis reflects the relative focus of the attention, ranging from internal functioning to external functioning, of an organization. The extreme corners of the four quadrants represent four pure types of organizational cultures: bureaucratic, clan, entrepreneurial and market. In a culturally homogenous organization like South West Airlines, one of the cultures will be predominant. At Pepsi Co and other fragmented organizations, multiple cultures are likely not only to coexist but also to compete for superiority. As is true of organization designs, different organizational cultures may be appropriate at different times and situations, with no one type of culture being ideal for every situation. However, some employees prefer one culture to the other. Employees who work in organizations with culture that fits their own view of an ideal culture tend to be committed to the organization and optimistic about its future. Bureaucratic Culture An organization that values formality, rules, standard operating procedures and hierarchical coordination has a bureaucratic culture. Long-term concerns of bureaucracy are predictability, efficiency and stability. Behavioral norms support formality over informality. Managers view their role as good coordinators, organizers and enforcers of written rules and standards. Tasks, responsibilities and authority for employees are clearly defined. The organizations many rules and processes are spelled out in manuals and employees believe their duty is to follow them. Clan Culture Tradition, loyalty, personal commitment, extensive socialization, teamwork, self-management and social influence are attributes of a clan culture. Its members recognize an obligation beyond the simple exchange of labor for a salary. They understand that contributions to the organization exceed beyond the contractual agreements. Loyalty is rewarded by security. Because the individuals believe that organization will treat them fairly in all respects and aspects, they hold themselves accountable to the organization for their actions. Longtime clan members serve as mentors and role models for the newer members. These relationships perpetuate organizations norms and values over successive generations of employees. In
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this type of a culture, members share a sense of pride in membership. They have a strong sense of identification and recognize the interdependence. Depending on the types of norms, the culture may or may not generate risk taking behaviors or innovation. Entrepreneurial Culture High levels of risk taking, dynamism and creativity characterize an entrepreneurial culture. There is a commitment to experimentation, innovation and being on the leading edge. This culture doesnt just quickly react to change in the environment it creates change. Effectiveness means providing new and unique products and rapid growth. Individual initiative, flexibility and freedom foster growth and are encouraged and well rewarded. Market Culture The achievement of measurable and demanding goals, especially those which are financial and market based (eg., sales growth, profitability and market share) characterize a market culture. Hard-driving competitiveness and profit orientation prevail throughout the organization. In a market culture, the relationship between an individual and the organization is contractual. There is a clear agreement on what one can expect from the other and the formal control orientation is quite stable. The individual is responsible for some level of performance and the organization promises a specified level of rewards. However, the organization does not promise (or imply) security and the individual does not promise (or imply) loyalty. In this culture, superiors interaction with subordinates largely consist of negotiating performance reward agreements and/or evaluating requests for resource allocation. The absence of a long-term commitment of both the parties result in a weak socialization process. Social relations among coworkers arent officially emphasized, and few economic incentives are tied to directly cooperating with peers. The pure official relationships shared by the members with each other may not result in personal network. The market culture is often tied to monthly, quarterly and annual performance goals based on profits. Performance and Organizational Culture Organizational Culture has the potential to enhance organizational effectiveness, individual satisfaction, the sense of certainty about how problems need to be handled and so on. However, if the culture gets out of step with the changing expectations of the internal and external stakeholders, the organizations effectiveness can be hindered. An underlying assumption is that an organizations culture and its performance is directly related. Thus the rationale for attempting to change the culture is to create a more effective organization.
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It is observed and also experienced that strong and well-developed cultures is an important characteristic of organizations that have outstanding performance records. The term strong culture implies that most managers and employees share a set of consistent values and methods of doing business and conducting themselves. a. A strong organizational culture facilitates goal alignment. The idea is that because all employees share the same basic assumptions, they can agree not just on what goals to pursue but also on the means by which they should be achieved. As a result, employee initiative, energy and enthusiasm is all channeled in the same direction. In these organizations, there are few problems of coordination and control, communication is quick and effective and resources are not wasted in internal conflicts. All this means organizational performance is likely to be healthy. A strong culture leads to high levels of employee motivation. There are two main arguments here. First, it has been suggested that there is something intrinsically appealing about the strong cultures that encourage people to identify with them. Second, it is sometimes thought that strong culture organizations incorporate practices which make working for them rewarding. These practices tend to include employee participation in decisionmaking and various recognition schemes. A strong culture is better able to learn from its past. The idea is that strong cultures characteristically possess agreed norms of behavior, integrative rituals and ceremonies and well-known stories. These reinforce consensus on the interpretation of issues and events based on the past experience, provide precedents from the organizations history, which help decide how to meet new challenges, and promote self-understanding and social cohesion.
b.
c.
Managing Cultural Diversity Organizations are becoming increasingly diverse in terms of gender, race, ethnicity and nationality. This growing diversity can bring substantial benefits, such as more successful strategies, improved decision making and greater creativity and innovation. However, along with the benefits, cultural diversity also brings with it costs and concerns. These include communication difficulties, intra organizational conflicts and turnover. There are no easy answers to managing a culturally diverse workforce. However, research has revealed some common characteristics of employee values, managerial philosophy and organizational culture that are present in organizations having effective diversity management programs. Here are some guidelines for managing the cultural diversity successfully: a. Managers and employes must understand that a diverse workforce will embody different perspectives and approaches to work and must truly value variety of opinion and insight.
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b.
The leadership of the organization must recognize both the learning opportunities and challenges that this diversity present to the organization. The organizational culture must create an expectation of high performance from everyone. The organizational culture must stimulate personal development. The organizational culture must encourage openness. The organizational culture must make its members feel valued. The organization must have a well articulated and widely understood mission. The organization must have a relatively non-bureaucratic structure.
c. d. e. f. g. h.
Organizational Socialization Concept The general meaning of socialization is the process by which an older members of the society transmit to younger members the social skills and knowledge needed to function effectively in that society. Similarly, Organizational Socialization is the systematic process by which an organization brings a new employee into its culture. In other words, it involves the transmission of organizational culture from senior to new employees, providing the social skills and knowledge needed to perform the organizational roles and tasks successfully. It is the process by which the new employee learns the ropes. It includes learning workgroup, departmental and organizational values, rules and procedures, and norms; developing social and working relationships; and developing the competencies needed to perform a job.
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REFERENCE BOOKS FOR FURTHER READING

l l l
Organisational Behaviour by Stephen Robbins Organisational Behaviour by Fred Luthans Organisational Behaviour by Anjali Ghanekar
Reference Books
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Organisational Behaviour

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ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AND ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

Written by Late Prof. Anant R. Sapre

(FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY)

Symbiosis Center for Distance Learning,

Symbiosis Center for Distance Learning (SCDL)

Prof. Anant Sapre

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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Introduction to Organisational Behaviour

Introduction to Organisational Behaviour

Introduction to Organisational Behaviour

Organisational Behaviour and Organisational Culture

Introduction to Organisational Behaviour

Organisational Behaviour and Organisational Culture

Introduction to Organisational Behaviour

Organisational Behaviour and Organisational Culture

Understanding Organisational Behaviour

Organisational Behaviour and Organisational Culture

Higher-order Awakened drives

Self-actualization Moderate enthusiasm

Understanding Organisational Behaviour

Organisational Behaviour and Organisational Culture

Understanding Organisational Behaviour

Organisational Behaviour and Organisational Culture

CONSEQUENCE e.g. reinforcement, punishment or some organisational outcome

Obtained from Fred Luthans - Organisational Behaviour, Page - 105

Organisational Behaviour and Organisational Culture

Organisational Behaviour and Organisational Culture

TURN OFF THE ENGINE

Organisational Behaviour and Organisational Culture

Organisational Behaviour and Organisational Culture

Organisational Behaviour and Organisational Culture

Organisational Behaviour and Organisational Culture

Organisational Behaviour and Organisational Culture

Organisational Behaviour and Organisational Culture

All other people Some other people; and No other person

Personality and Attitudes

Organisational Behaviour and Organisational Culture

Personality and Attitudes

I. II. III. IV. V.

Organisational Behaviour and Organisational Culture

Personality and Attitudes

Organisational Behaviour and Organisational Culture

Personality and Attitudes

THE BIG FIVE-PERSONALITY STRUCTURE

Gregarious, energetic, self-dramatizing

Shy, unassertive, withdrawn

Planful, neat, dependable

Impulsive, careless, irresponsible

Warm, tactful, considerate

Agreebleness Intellectual Openness

Independent, cold, rude

Imaginative, curious, original

Personality and Attitudes

Internals perform better

Organisational Behaviour and Organisational Culture

Externals perform at least as well as internals

Personality and Attitudes

Organisational Behaviour and Organisational Culture

Personality and Attitudes

Personality and Attitudes

Organisational Behaviour and Organisational Culture

Personality and Attitudes