Ready Notes before the Mid-Term

6-march-2006

Organizational Behavior

Organizational Behavior is the study of people behavior in a formal setup, the organization itself, and the interface between infividuals and the organization

Individual Behavior

Organization Interface between organization and individuals

Features of an organization

More than one person
Common goal (profit, development, etc)
Definite structure

Classical view of organization:

An organization is the structure of the relationships, power, objectives, roles, activities, communications, and other factors that exist when persons work together.

Modern view of organization

Organization is a structure and process in which individuals interact for objectives

Another definition of organization

Organization is a social unit deliberately constructed and reconstructed to seek specific goals.

Steps are:

Set up a structure
Collect human and non-human resources

Four kinds of behavior in an organization:

Behavior due to formal activities and formal setup
Informal behavior pattern eg during tea break
Fuldill individual needs
Combination of 1, 2, 3 above.

9-march-2006

Behavior

Observable response to stimuli in a given situation or environment according to McGraw Hill encyclopia of Science. Basic unit of behavior is activity

Stimuli: inspirations, eg techer, power supply, computer, fellow students, lecture. Personal motivation is different.

Organizational Behavior: Behavior in an organization so managers can understand, manage, predict, and control.

OB is the study and application of knowledge about human behavior in an organization in relation to the sturcture, interface, and

All organizations are influenced by external factors and hence behavior.

Behavioral patterns change accordingly with external and internal environments.

OB will mainly deal with/ Focus of OB:

People are the main focus of this study
These people are working in an organizational environment rather than unorganized social environments.
The key activity of this study is creating an environment where these people will be motivated
The direction of that motivation is towards teamwork which requires both coordination fo the work an d cooperation of the persons involved.
Organizational behavior seeks to fulfill both employee needs and organizational main objectives
All this fulfilling of needs from both sides is done effectively and efficiently

History of OB

Study of OB as a formal subject has only been a few decades. Late 1950s or early 1960s.

Two approaches of OB for Management

è Scientific Management approach by Frederick Taylor who said more you pay, more will be produced, eg the piece rate system

è Classical organization theory developed by Henry Feyol and Max Waver(the father of bearucracy , is a German) : If you standardize the production process than people will be more productive. Criticism: Civil service people don’t work.

Breakthrough for OB study

Hawthorne Study by Elton Mayo and his associates in 1924 and 1932, they worked with assembly line women workers. There was a control group and an experimental group. They increased the intensity of light. This was the fist time workers were given some attention by management. Only then researchers knew that not machine, not money or standarization, but other human factors are working.

OB is not an exact science because the variables cannot be measured or predicted. Descriptive science or management science. It is an interdisciplinary field and has taken idea from psychology, sociology, anthropology, plotical science, economics, engineering, medicine.

16-march-2006

Diversified Workforce

As a manager you have to understand unique patterns of need of individuals

Cafeteria approach: Benefits package

Melting Pot Assumption

Workplace is like a melting-pot; People from diversified backgrounds will come and amalgamate. But now managers have to cater to individual needs. Cafeteria approach has been introduced because of diversity and globalization.

20-march-2006

Individual Attributes:

Demographic: age, gender, ethnic group
Competency: ability or aptitute
Personality

Performance = Individual Attribute X Work Effort X Organizational Support

Sterotyping

Because of demographic differences managers are suffering from stereotyping. Stereotyping is categorizing or generalizing certain groups based on preconceived notions. Affects the managerial process and recruitment process.

Summary: Demographic differences if carefully addressed can be useful in the selection process. Managers should also know that stereotyping affects performance.

Competency Abilities

Is the broad concept relating to aptitudes and abilities of people. Aptitude is the capability to learn something. Ability is the capacity to perform various tasks which also involve knowledge and skills you already possess.

è Aptitude: potential skills

è Ability: knowledge and skills you already have.

Competency is also important in selection process just as demography

Personality: It is the overall profile or combination of traits that characterize the unique nature of a person as that person reacts and interacts with others. So it is a set of mental and physical characteristics athat reflect how a person looks, thinks, acts, and feels. There is a predictabl einterplay between individual personality and his or her behavior pattern. The way you behave is determined by your personality

Determinants of Personality

è Nature(heredity) : sets the boundary/parameters; has very little contribution

è Nurture:

Social: society impose certain rules under which you have to behave

Cultural:

Early Conditioning:

è Situational:

Developmental Approach towards personality: Chris Argyris(1957) Developed the maturity/immaturity continuum

Bahavior

Immaturity----------------------------à Maturity

Passive--------------------------------à Active

Dependant ---------------------------à Independent

Limited -------------------------------à Diverse

Shallow Interest ---------------------à Deep Interest

Short Time perspective ------- ------à Long term perspective

Subordinate ------------------- ------à Super ordinate position

Little self-awareness ----------- -----à Much self-awareness

If adult personality sometimes becomes inconsistent with work demand, people become demotivated.

Daniel Levinson in (1978) says that there are four developmental stages in your personality

Applies to managerial people

Age 30

Age 40

Age 50

Adult Life

Summary: Personalities develop in a predictable way. As you mature, your needs change, so managers can expect that your personality will also change with that.

23-march-2006

Social Traits: Surfact level trait which shows how you interact with other people in different situation

1. Problem solving type: How a person goes about gethering information and evaluated it to solve a problem

Information Gathering:

§ Sensation Type:

i. Prefer routine and order

ii. Emphasize well defined details and collect it in a very orderly way

iii. Like routine work

iv. Higher job satisfaction than intuitives

v. Example Accountant

§ Intuitive Type:

i. Prefer the big picture

ii. Like solving new problems

iii. Like non-routine work

iv. They take decisions based on intuitions

v. Example:

Evalution:

§ Thinking

i. Use reason and Intellect

ii. Higher motivation than feelers

iii. Example: Advertising person

iv.

§ Feeling

i. Oriented towards conformation

ii. Try to accommodate themselves with other people

iii. Adjust and conform with rules and regulations

iv. Example:

Styles of Four types on managers

1. Sensation Thinkers (ST) : They prefer analytical strategies that emphasize detail and method

2. Intuitive Feelers (IF) : They prefer intuitive strategies that emphasize overall pattern and

3. Sensation Feelers:

4. Intuitive Thinkers:

3.Employee Reliability Scale (ERS):

High ERS:

1. Positive attitude towards work and team work

2. Punctual

3. Productivity will be high

4. Adaptibility will be high

Low ERS:

1. Feeling of detachment from others

2. They will be thrill seeking and impulsive

3. They will have lack of social sensitivity

4. High absenteeism

Personality Conception Traits

Locus of Control: One type of instrument to measure personal conception about himself or herself . Rotter

è Internalizers:

i. Feel they can control their fate, situation

ii. More introvert

iii. Oriented towards inner feelings and ideas

iv. Make more attempts to acquire more information and ussually less

satisfied with the amount of information

v. Good at visualizing information

vi. Less alienated

vii. Less rootless

viii. High job satisfaction

ix. They perform better at learning and problem solving when performance

has good reward

x. Greater self-control

xi. More cautious

xii. Usually don’t take risks

xiii. Less anxious

xiv. Greater motivation and feel they have greater control over time

xv. More independent and reliant on their own judgement

xvi. Less susceptible to influence of others

xvii. More likely to accept information on basis of merits rather than face

value

è Externalizers

i. Blame the consequences that happen due to their behavior on surrounding environment and situation

ii. More extrovert in nature

iii. They have many friends they can put the blame on

iv. Every other thing opposite to internalizers

30-march-2006

Personality Conception Traits (cont.)

Dogmatism: Person who are high in dogmatism are highly threatened by the world, they see the world as a threatening place. They regard legitimate authority as absolute and they accept or reject other people based on their acceptance of authority. If they accept your authority, you are inside their world

Machiavillenism: Itallian Philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli, author of “The Prince”. Concept from his book has been taken up by management. A manager who maniputes others for his or her own personal gain. A means of getting and controlling other people in organization. Psychologists have also developed a series of scales to measure machiavellenism know as mach scale. A high mach person has a personality which is consistent with machiavillenism basic principle, that it is far better to be feared than loved, if they cant get both. High mach people have tendency to approach situation logically ang thoughtfully. They have the capability of lying to achieve personal goal and they are reluctant to be swayed by friendship, loyalty, commitment or opinion of others, false promises, and they are very skilled in influencing others. But this scale has been developed so managers can predict how high mach people will behave.
High Mach:

1. Take control of situation and try to manipulate loosely structured environment, where job description is ambiguous

2. Remain detached to their surrounding environment

3. Don’t show any interest in their jobs

4. They only care about having control of other people and gain from situation

Low Mach

1. Tend to take direction/orders imposed by other

2. Work hard to do well

3. Tend to do well in highly structured situation

4. Self- Monitoring: Reflects a person’s ability to adjust his or her behavior to the

external, situational or environmental factors.

è High self monitors:

i. Sensitive to external cues

ii. Can adjust very easily to different,dynamic situations

iii. Change themselves very easily

iv. Tend to behave differently in different situaitions

v. They can pretend

vi. Assertive people

vii. High mach and high self monitoring are two different types but they

can appear same

viii. They can adjust their own needs and demand with their subordinates

or jobs with high or low structure; thus they are more desirable

è Low self monitors:

i. Can be read

ii.

Emotional Adjustment Traits

This trait reflects how much an individual experiences emotional distress or display unacceptable behavior and this often affects a person’s health. If you are always distressed ultimately your health will suffer

Type A:

Characterized by impatience and high desire for achievement. They want to be perfect. They talk very fast, eat quickly, move around quickly. Also very aggressive. Uncomfortable in new situation. Any work they do, they do in extreme point. Not result oriented. Process oriented. Don’t care for outcome. Resistant to change. Zealously control their subordinates, and they even threat with physical violence.

Type B:

Easy going, less competitive in their daily work. Have much patience, slow-worker, and not aggressive

Personality Dynamics

1. Self Concept: Concepts indivuals have about themselves as social, physical, spiritual and moral beings. It is a way of recognising oneself as a distinct human being. Idea about yourself makes you different from other people. Own moral view and is influenced by culture

a. Self esteem: Belief of one’s own worth, self-evaluation, and what your are worth in society. It is one’s belief about ones own worth. They are capable and tend to have few doubts about themselves.

b. Self efficacy: Task specific. It is individual’s belief about the likelihood of successful completion of a specific task.

6-Apr-2006

Ind Attributes: Demography, Competency, Personality + Values, Attitutes, Perception

Values:

Global beliefs of an individual that guide his actions and judgements across a variety of situations. It reflects a person’s sense of right or wrong. It is guided by society norms and cultures.

Sources and types of values:

1. Primary source is your family or who has taken care of you when you were young. Extended family

2. School teachers

3. Friends, role models

4. Colleagues

5. Media

Alford Cordon(1930) and his associated identified six types of value systems:

1. Theoritical value system: Interested in the discovery of truth through reasoning and systamatic thinking

2. Economic: Interested in usefulness and practicality including the accumulation of wealth; materialistic value system

3. Aesthetic: Interested in beauty form and artistic harmony

4. Social: Intrested in people and love as a human relationship

5. Political: Intrested in gaining power and influencing other people (machiavellinism)

6. Religious: Interested in unityand understanidng of universe as a whole (philosophical)

This research was for general people. But there s another research done by another psychologist: Meglino and his associates in 1990 and they said that there are 4 types of value system in organizational setup:

1. Achievement: Getting things done and working hard to accomplish difficult things in life. A person who can accomplish easy thing is not an achiever

2. Helping and concern for others:

3. Honesty: Telling the truth and doing what a person feels is right

4. Fairness: Being impartial and dong what is fair for all concerned (unbiased towards employees, which is almost impossible)

Value systems influence Behavior and hence Productivity

Value congruence: Occurs when individual express positive feeling after encountering others who exhibit similar value systems. Congruence between managers and subordinates will lead to high productivity

Value incongruence: There will be tension, productivity will be low, and organization will suffer. Tension, stress, physical illness will result. So it should not occur in organization.

Research done by Daniel Yankelovich (in 1980 and 1990): He found that among the young workers employed in jobs, matching their value systems and that of their supervisors lead to higher productivity.

Attitues: It is a predosposition which influence or reflects your behavior pattern.Like values it cannot be felt or observed, it can only be inferred.

Three components of attitudes:

1. Cognitive/Antecedent: It is belief/opinion/knowledge, information

“My boss should be fair“

2. Effective : Feelings, Emotions. Consists the actual attitude.

“ I don’t like my boss because he is not fair”

3. Behavior: Intended, actual behavior

“I will quit my job because my boss is not fair”. Effective and behavior will have stronger ties when you have options.

Festinger (1957)

Cognitive Congruence:

Cognitive Dissonance: When person’s attitudes and behavior do not match.

How to eliminate cognitive dissonance:

1. Change your attitude

2. change your behavior

3. Rationalize your behavior with actuality

13-apr-2006

Perception:

Is the process though which people receive, organize and interpret information form the environment. Perception is a mental process. You cant see it or touch it, you can only infer it.

S -> R -> O -à I -à R/B

Perception

Why is perception so important?

17-apr-2006

Factors influencing the perception process

1. The perceiver: Their needs, values, motives, experience, attitudes and personality influence the perceiver’s perceptual process

2. The settings: The setting of the environment in which your are perceiving, social, physical and organizational.

3. The perceived: Contrast, intensity, size, motion, repetition, and novelty are the charecteristics influencing the perception proces

Distortions of Perception

1. Stereotyping

2. Halo Effect

3. Selective Perception

4. Projection

5. Expectancy: Pygmalian effect in My fair Lady. When you try to change somebody into your own imagination

How to Create a positive self-fulfilling prophecy

1. Create a warmer environment

2. Give more performance feedback

3. Spend more time

4. Helping subordinated learn job skills

5. Give subordinates more opportunites to ask questions

How we organize by Levine and Shefner in 1986

There are four schemas as to how we organize:

1. Self:

2. Person schema

3. Script Schema

4. Person-in-situational schema

Attribution Theory

It is the study of how people attempt to understand the causes of a certain event, asses the personal quality of people involved. The assesment of the situation and personal quality of people involved.

Attribution of Causes:

a) Internal:

b) External:

1. Distinctiveness

2. Consensus

3. Consistency

IN this way if we apply attribution theory in understanding other, two errors may occur:

1. Fundamental Attribution Error:

2. Self-serving Bias:

LOOK AT THE COPY HERE

How to influence perception

è Must have a high level of self-awareness to perceive others accurately

è Before making decision they must collect information to confirm or disconfirm their beliefs.

è They must be empathetic.

è Avoid perceptual distortion and be aware of various type of schemas and possible impacts.

è Be aware of attribution theory and its errors

27-apr-2006

Motivation

Willingness to perform. A set of forces that cause individuals to behave n certain ways. A person is called motivated/not based on what his his first priority.

3 distinct components:

Direction
Intensity
Persistence

Even when these 3 are in right proportion, managers will create the right organizational support, poortunit so that people will be automatically motivated to the goal.Managers cannot touch, see, feel motivation. They can observe/understand it. Managers can control, manipulate situation for motivating others.

Motivational Process:

Motivation Under 2 categories of theories:

Content Theories: Essence of this theory is that you should try to focus/identify what are the factors within an individual that energize directs,

4-May-2006

Content Theories (cont.)

2. Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory

Job context(extrinsic) Factors:

1. Salary

2. Job security

3. Working condition

4. Status

5. Quality of Technical Supervision

6. Quality of Interpersonal relationship with coworkers (superiors, subordinates, peer)

Job content(intrinsic) factor:

1. Achievement

2. Recognition

3. Responsibility

4. Advancement

5. The work Itself

6. The possibility of both

3. McClleland Learned Need: Motivation arise out of three needs;

è Achievement: They will set challenging goals, work hard to attain those goals, use the skills or bilities needed to achieve the goald. In addition those person will volunteer if there is crisis.

They will set achievable goals, Not so high a goal that they cannot achieve

è Affiliation: They have a need to interact socially with people. Society butterfly. They are more concerned about the quality of interpersonal relationship with people. For them social relationship takes precedence over task achievement. They will forego their career achievement to maintain personal relationship with other, eg women.

è Power: This people work at obtaining power and authority. They are concerned with influencing other people and winning arguments. Power has two dimensions: positive when you use it to achieve organizational goals. Negative when you use it for your own personal goal.

Security and physiological needs may be within you, but these 3 are .When a need is strong, its effect is to motivate you. All three needs are with you but the strongest will motivate you.

Criticism: You cannot fit this theory for low income groups.

Process Theories: are mostly concerned with how a person will be motivated and why they will be motivated.

The process theories are:

1. Expectancy Theory by Victor Vroom(j160): Motivation is a voluntary act according to him. Most behaviors are voluntary choice of a person. He came to the conclusion that motivation is a process governing choices between alternate forms of voluntary activity. He described the theory in four important terms

a. First and Second level Outcomes: Second-level outcomes are those events(rewards or punishment) that the first-level outcomes (productivity, abseteeism) are likely to produce

b. Instrumentality: Is the perception by an individual that 1^st level outcomes will lead to second level outcomes. May or may not be true.

c. Valence: It refers to the preferences for outcomes by the individual. Like hard work will lead to promotion, but also to longer working hours.

d. Accordingly, valence could be positive, negative, or zero. Some people are indifferent to long working hours.

e. Expectancy (probability): Probability and belief of happenning that effort will lead to performance and performance to particular outcome. Every individual is different, and opportunity and capability are differenct so probability will also be different for everybody.

2. Equity Theory Developed by: Essence of equity theory is that we as human beings always tend to compare. We identify and compare input, rewards, punishment. We have a referent person or referent group and compare input output ratio. When we find comparison is in equilibrium, we are happy, satisfied and motivated. It may not be true, it is a perception.

O_p / I_p = O_rp / I_rp

You become complacent when you get more for less input.

Factors:

è Person: peak in the equation

è Comparison Other

è Inputs: individual characteristics brought to the workplace. There are two inputs we bring to the workplace, ascribed and achieved.

è Outcomes: Reward given by the job Strategies

è Changing input level of person

è Change the output

è Change the attitude

Criticism: Very narrowly focused theory. It can only be used when using piece-rate. Good for workers.

3. Exchange Theory: It is the give and take relationship between organization and worker. True for both parties. It is dependant on two conditions

è Employee expectation of what the organization will give them and what they owe the organization in return. Organization expectation must match with individual expectation. Oe = Ie

è Employees assume that there is an agreement on what will be exchanged. This is know as the psychological contract. Two types are:

i. Explicit

ii. Implicit

Adult equity theory is one kind of exchange theory, so is expectancy theory

8-May-2006

Self-awareness: How much you know about yourself. For this you have to ask yourself three things:

è How assertive am I?

è What does it mean to be passive, manipulative, aggressive and assertive?

è Why am I as I am?

How assertive am I: Having positive ideas about oneself and also about others. Unless we are self-confident, we cannot perceive others. Unless you respect yourself, you cannot respect others. So being assertive means having a) Self-respect b) self-confidence c)positive attitude towards oneself and others.

Passive, Manipulative, Aggressive and Assertive: Aggressive managers use force. Passive managers are those who agree to everything and they have no self-confidence. Symbiolic is helping each other.

According to Transactional Analysis Theory (TA theory):

è I am OK, You are Ok (Assertive)

è I am not OK, You are Ok (Passive)

è I am not OK, You are not OK (Manipulative)

è I am OK, You are not Ok (Aggressive)

Assertive theory is based on 14 individual rights

1. I have the right to express my thoughts and opinions even though they may be different from those of others

2. I have the right to express my feelings, and take responsibility for those

3. I have the right to say yes

4. I have the right to change my mind without making excuses

5. I have the right to make mistakes and to be responsible for them

6. I have the right to say I don’t know

7. I have the right to say I don’t understand

8. I have th eright to say what I want

9. I have the right to say no without feeling guilty

10. I have the right to be respected by others and to respect them

11. I have the right to be listened to and taken seriously

12. I have the right to be independent

13. I have the right to be successful

14. I have the right to chose not to be assertive

10-may-2006

Learning, Reinforcement and Self-management

Learning is a relatively parmanent change in behavior. But there is no end to this change.

Performance = f( Capability X Willingness to perform X Opportunity to perform)

Learning

Learning is the process of acquiring capacity to perform through attaining requisite skills and competencies and performance implies that in addition to acquiring competencies a person must also be motivated and enviroment must also be supportive.

Four approaches to Learning

1. Classical Conditioning: Ivan Pavlov

Artificial introduction of stimulus and dog was conditioned to response

Criticism: For managers, applying classical conditioning for learning is very difficult. Another criticism is that, if a person has not eaten for a long time, he cannot eat because he has been conditioned to not eating

2. Operant Conditioning: It is a learning that is achieved when the consequences of a behavior lead to probability of it occurrences. It has been developed by B.F. Skinner in 1969. According to him

R ----à S (response to stimuli is coming from consequences)

Behavior that is positively reinforced will be repeated.Learning takes place through

reinforcement

3. Cognitive Learning:This learning is achieved by thinking through, thinking about the perceived relationship between the behavior and the consequences. Cognitive learning actually explains the process theory of motivation. Cognitive learning also explain why peoplw learn and how they learn. So people learn by examining the different alternatives and then they decide which one will fulfill his demand, satisfaction that adds to his knowledge and matching his demand with one of the alternatives.

4. Social Learning: Learn from our environment and it is a reciprocal learning. Also known as vicarious learning or indirect learning. The learning that comes from indirect experience.

Reinforcement

Plays a vital role in learning process. Negative reinforcement will not be repeated and this relationship of reinforcement with behavior is know as the law of effect. Don’t blame but assert it when necessary.

Two types of rewards:

è Intrinsic: which you get directly. There is a sense of fulfillment and achievement coming from within

è Extrinsic: Given by somebody else, like salary, grade, etc. Praise from manager

Any reward must be positively values by the individual and the concept of reward has been explained by OB mod Thery:

Organizational behavior modification. The essence is it talks about systematic approach to giving reward or giving punishment and this theory also adopts 4 basic reinforcement strategies:

è Positive reinforcement: given to increase the frequency of a given behavior. Not the same as reward. For some reward may not work as a positive reinforcement for some people. Therefore it must follow two laws:

§ Law of contingence: If only it bring positive reinforcement, reward is given

§ Law of immediate reinforcement: give immediate reward

It also has a schedule

è Continuous

è Fixed interval: eg salary

è Fixed ratio: eg sales bonus

è Variable interval: promotion

è Variable ratio: no of behavior is not fixed. Eg. quality inspector

è Negative reinforcement or Avoidance: Reinforcement is given to increase the frequency of desirable behavior in similar setting. The behavior which is desired by the manager will be repeated. There are two concepts:

§ Negative consequence

§ Withdrawal of negative consequence

è Punishment: This is given to reduce the frequency of undesirable behavior. But it is an extreme form of reinforcement. Better to avoid it. Inverted U-shaped relationship

Problems of giving punishment:

è It may lead to sabotage and resentment and employees will hate managers

è Behavior may be suppressed for the time being, but not eliminated. He who administers the punishment will be viewed negatively. Frequent punishment cannot be given like negative reinforcement. Punishment will not be effective if it is offset by positive reinforcement

Guideline for giving punishment:

è First communicate what are the undesirable and desirable behavior

è Punish in private

è Punish in according to laws of contingent and immediate. If you don’t react to a negative behavior immediately, that is positive reinforcement

è Punishment must match the behavior

è Punishment should be combined with positive reinforcement to have any effect on behavior pattern

è Extinction: Is the withdrawal of the positive reinforcement for the behavior which has been positively reinforced earlier. It is given to reduce the frequency of undesirable behavior. Eg. Flexihour, which was earlier acceptable has now become undesirable. Like punishment, extinction and positive reinforcement make a good combination, eg, if flexihour is removed, give office transportation

Criticisms of Reinforcement:

i. No scientific research design because reinforcement may or may not work because

of other environmental factors

ii. Managers might use reinforcement to manipulate employees behavior for their own personal gain. But people who believe in reinforcement say that if management is getting work done by

Managing pay as an Extrinsic Reward

Money is a motivator. According to Maslow to satisfy your lower order need money is a motivator, but high order need such as esteem is

3 needs by McClelland

i. High salary for outstanding performance will satisfy your need for achievement

ii. High need for affiliation, you will have more friends if you have more money

iii. You will be more powerful if you have more money

According to Herzberg, money became a motivating factor when reward is based on performance

According to Equity theory, money becomes one of the basis for social comparison. Negative equity becomes a demotivator

According to Expectancy, money becomes a motivator if it is involved in outcome and if instrumentality, valence and expectancy is in then money is a motivator

Reinforcement Theory: earlier we discussed money is an extrinsic factor. So pay is always a positive reinforcement if it follows the rules of contingent and immediate.

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