Module Title: Personal and Professional DevelopmentUnit #: 13

Unit code: T/601/0943Course: HND Level 5 (QCF)

Lesson 4Tutor:

Raja KhanTopic:

Understanding Individual Behavior

1

Agenda• Identify the focus and goals of individual behavior

within organizations• Explain the role that attitudes play in job performance• Describe different personality traits & theories• Describe perception and factors that influence it• Discuss learning theories and their relevance in shaping

behavior• Discuss contemporary issues in organizational behavior

2

Introduction to Individual Behaviour

• Have you ever wondered why the people around you are behaving the way they are?

• People differ in their behaviors, and even the same person can behave one way one day and a completely different way another day.

• Managers need to understand individual behavior.

3

Focus of Organizational Behavior

• Behavior: The actions of people.• Organizational Behavior (OB): The study of the

actions of people at work. • OB focuses on (1) Individual behavior, & (2) Group

behavior.• The visible organization can be described as the tip

of an iceberg. Many of the important issues involved in understanding OB are not easily observed (next slide).

4

Organization as Iceberg

5

Goals of Organizational Behavior

• The goals of OB are to explain, predict, and influence behavior. Some important behaviors are:

• Employee productivity: A performance measure of both efficiency and effectiveness.

• Absenteeism: The failure to show up for work.• Turnover: The voluntary and involuntary permanent

withdrawal from an organization.• Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB): Optional

behavior that is not part of an employee’s formal job requirements, but which promotes the effective functioning of the organization.

6

Key Employee Engagement Factors

7

Attitudes and Job Performance

• Attitudes are defined as evaluative statements, favorable or unfavorable, concerning objects, people, or events. How an individual feels about something?

• Attitudes have three components:1. Cognitive2. Affective3. Behavioral

8

Examples of the three Components of Attitude

1. Cognitive: An attitude that is made up of the beliefs, opinions, knowledge, or information held by a person. “Example: Discrimination is wrong.”

2. Affective: Part of an attitude that is the emotional or feeling. “Example: I don’t like Jon because he discriminates.”

3. Behavioral: An attitude that refers to an intention to behave in a certain way. “Example: I might choose to avoid Jon because of my feelings about him.”

9

Job Related Attitudes

• Managers are particularly interested in the job-related attitudes of employees.

• Job-related attitudes include following four:1. Job Satisfaction: An employee’s general attitude

toward his or her job.2. Job Involvement: The degree to which an employee

identifies with his or her job, actively participates in it, and considers his or her job performance to be important to self-worth.

10Contd.

Job Related Attitudes

3. Organizational Commitment: The degree to which an employee identifies with a particular organization and its goals and wishes to maintain membership in that organization.

4. Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) is the discretionary behavior that is not part of an employee’s formal job requirements, but promotes the effective functioning of the organization.

11

Workplace Misbehavior & Organizational Commitment

1. Workplace Misbehavior: Any intentional employee behavior that is potentially damaging to the organization or to individuals within the organization.

2. Perceived Organizational Support: Employees’ general belief that their organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being.

• An organization’s continuous support can minimize workplace misbehavior.

12

Personality

• Personality is the unique combination of emotional, thought, and behavioral patterns that affect how a person reacts to situations and interacts with others.

• Personality development is the concept that personality is affected by various sources.

• Personality type refers to patterns of relatively enduring characteristics of behavior that occur with sufficient frequency.

13

The Big Five Model of Personality• Personality trait model that includes five traits, on the

bases of the degree to someone’s:1. Extraversion: Sociable, talkative, confident & assertive. 2. Agreeableness: Good-natured, cooperative & trusting. 3. Conscientiousness: Responsible, caring, dependable,

persistent and achievement oriented.4. Emotional stability: Calm, enthusiastic & secure (+tive);

tense, depressed & insecure (-tive).5. Openness to experience: Imaginative, artistically sensitive

and intellectual.

14

Group Task

• Using the Big Five Model of Personality, which personality traits you think are essential for the following individuals:

1. Sales Executive2. Police Officer3. Teacher4. Doctor5. CEO6. Customer Service Advisor

15Duration: 10 Minutes

Holland’s Personality-Job Fit

16

Other Personality Traits

• Machiavellianism: A measure of the degree to which people are practical & believe that ends justify means.

• Self-esteem: An individual’s degree of like or dislike for him/herself.

• Self-monitoring: A personality trait that measures the ability to adjust behavior to external situational factors.

• Proactive personality: A trait belonging to people who identify opportunities, show initiative, take action and persevere until meaningful change occurs.

• Resilience: An individual’s ability to overcome challenges and turn them into opportunities.

17

Emotions and Emotional Intelligence • Emotions: Intense feelings that are directed at someone or

something.• Emotional Intelligence (EI): The ability to notice and to

manage emotional cues and information. EI is composed of five dimensions:1. Self-awareness2. Self-management3. Self-motivation4. Empathy5. Social skills

18

Implications of Emotional Intelligence for Managers

• Research has shown that emotional intelligence (EI) is positively related to job performance at all organizational levels.

• The benefit of a manager’s understanding personality differences is clearly seen in the area of employee selection.

• Just as individual personalities differ, so too do jobs.• Efforts have been made to match the proper

personalities with the proper jobs.

19

Perception

• Perception is the process by which we give meaning to our environment by organizing and interpreting sensory impressions.

• Simply, the way we see the world around us.• Research shows that individuals may look at the

same thing yet perceive it differently.• None of us sees the reality; we interpret what we see

and call it reality. This becomes our perception and we follow our perception.

20

Factors Influencing Perception

1. The perceiver: An individual’s personal features will heavily influence the perception. These features include attitude, personality, motives and interests.

2. The target: The features of the target being observed can also affect the perception, e.g. loud people are more likely to be noticed in a crowd.

3. The situation: The context in which we see objects or events is also important. The time at which an object is seen can affect perception, as well as location, light, heat, color.

21

Perception Exercise

22

• If your eyes follow the movement of the rotating pink dot, the dots will remain only one color, pink.

• However if you stare at the black '+' in the center, the moving dot turns to green.

• Now, concentrate on the black '+' in the center of the picture. After a short period, all the pink dots will slowly disappear, and you will only see only a single green dot rotating.

What Do You See?

23

What Do You See?

24

How We Perceive People? (Attribution Theory)

• Attribution Theory: How the actions of individuals are perceived by others depends on what meaning we attribute to a given behavior.

• Basically, while observing an individual’s behavior, we attempt to determine whether it was internally or externally caused.

– Internally caused behavior: Under the individual’s control

– Externally caused behavior: Due to outside factors

25Contd.

How We Perceive People?(Attribution Theory)

• The determination of the cause of the behavior depends on three factors:

1. Distinctiveness refers to whether an individual displays different behavior in different situations.

2. Consensus refers to whether an individual who is faced with a similar situation responds in the same way with the same behavior.

3. Consistency refers to the congruency in a person’s actions, that is, whether the person engages in the behaviors regularly and consistently.

26Contd.

How We Perceive People?(Attribution Theory)

27Contd.

How We Perceive People?(Attribution Theory)

• As per Attribution Theory, there are errors or biases that distort attribution.

• Fundamental attribution error: The tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and to overestimate the influence of internal or personal factors.

• Self-serving bias: The tendency of individuals to attribute their successes to internal factors while blaming personal failures on external factors.

28

Shortcuts Used in Judging Others(can lead to error or bias)

• Selectivity: The process by which people assimilate certain bits and pieces of what they observe, depending upon their interests, background and attitudes.

• Assumed similarity: The assumption that others are like oneself.

• Stereotyping: Judging a person on the basis of one’s perception of a group to which he or she belongs.

• Halo effect: A general impression of an individual based on a single characteristic.

29

Perception: The Implication For Managers

• Managers need to recognize that their employees react to perceptions, not reality.

• Management is also not immune to biases and can negatively impact employees’ perception of fairness with inaccurate appraisals or setting discriminatory wage levels.

• Any such negative decision will affect on an individual’s motivation and performance.

30

Learning

• Any relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of experience.

• Almost all complex behavior is learned. Learning is a continuous, life-long process.

• The principles of learning can be used to shape behavior.

• How do people learn? Two Theories of learning:1. Operant conditioning2. Social learning

31

Theories of Learning1 Operant conditioning: A theory of learning that says

behavior is a function of its consequences. A type of learning in which desired voluntary behavior leads to a reward or prevents a punishment.

• Behaviors are learned by making rewards contingent to behaviors.

• Behavior that is rewarded (positively reinforced) is likely to be repeated.

• Behavior that is punished or ignored is less likely to be repeated.

32

Theories of Learning2 Social learning theory: A theory of learning that says people

can learn through observation and direct experience. For example, much of what we have learned comes from watching others (models), i.e parents, teachers, peers, TV, celebrities & managers.

• Four processes determine the amount of influence that these models will have on an individual:

i. Attentional processes,ii. Retention processes,iii. Motor reproduction processes, and iv. Reinforcement processes. (explained on next slide)

33Contd.

Social Learning Theory - Processes1. Attentional processes: People learn from a model only

when they pay attention to its critical features.2. Retention processes: A model’s influence depends

upon how well an individual remembers the model’s action.

3. Motor reproduction processes: After a person has observed a new behavior by watching a model, he/she must demonstrate an ability to do the modeled activities.

4. Reinforcement processes: Individuals will be motivated to exhibit modeled behavior if positive rewards are provided. 34

Shaping Behavior: A Managerial Tool• Because learning takes place on the job & prior to it,

managers are concerned with how they can teach employees to behave in ways that benefit the firm.

• As a result, managers often attempt to mold employees by guiding their learning in graduated steps. In shaping, a manager systematically reinforces each successive step that moves an individual closer to a desired response.

• Shaping behavior is the process of guiding learning in successive steps using support or lack of support.

35

Shaping Behavior: A Managerial Tool• Behavior can be shaped in four ways:

i. Positive reinforcement: Rewarding desired behaviors

ii. Negative reinforcement: Removing an unpleasant consequence once the desired behavior is exhibited.

iii. Punishment: Penalizing an undesired behavior.iv. Extinction: Eliminating a reinforcement for an

undesired behavior (e.g. by ignoring these employees).

36

Group Activity - Discussion

• Is shaping behaviour a form of manipulative control?• For example, animal trainers use rewards to get dogs

and dolphins to perform extraordinary stunts; behavioural scientists put rats through thousands of experiments by controlling their food supply. Such learning techniques may be appropriate for animals performing in circus, zoos or laboratories but:

• Are these techniques appropriate for managing the behaviour of people at work? Why or why not?

• Consider the ethical considerations as well.

37Duration: 10 Minutes

Learning: Implications for Managers

• From learning theory, managers should recognize that employees will learn while doing a job.

• A key question: Will managers manage employees’ learning through the rewards the managers allocate and the examples they set, or will managers allow learning to occur haphazardly?

38

Contemporary Issues in OB

• Managing Generational Differences: Generations are defined by the attitudes & goals that distinguish them from those born in other times. For managers, adapting to a new generation of employees can be a challenge.

• For example, Generation Y: Individuals born after 1978– Bring new attitudes to the workplace that reflect wide

arrays of experiences and opportunities– Want to work, but do not want work to be their life– Challenge the status quo, and– Have grown up with technology

39

Generation Y Workers

40

Contemporary Issues in OB

• Managing Negative Behavior in the Workplace: • Managers need to recognize that negative behaviors

exist and ignoring such misbehavior will only confuse employees.

• In dealing with negative behaviors, managers need to practice preventive and responsive actions.

41

Session Recap

• Identify the focus and goals of individual behavior within organizations

• Explain the role that attitudes play in job performance• Describe different personality traits & theories• Describe perception and factors that influence it• Discuss learning theories and their relevance in shaping

behavior• Discuss contemporary issues in organizational behavior

42