Symbi OB Book 1

ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

AND

ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

Written byLate 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

First Edition : 2002

Revised Edition : 2004

Revised byProf. Vishwanath JoshiMPM, DLL & LWAssistant Professor - HRM, PICT School of IT and Management, Pune.

Published By :Symbiosis Center for Distance LearningAtur Centre, New Management Bldg.,1068, Gokhale Cross Rd., Model Colony,Pune - 411 016.

PREFACE

This study material is an anthology - a bunch of flowers - of the thoughts ofvarious thinkers, philosophers and Gurus of Organisational Behaviour.

The initial print of the study material was entitled “Industrial Psychology andOrganisational Behaviour – An anthology of thoughts”. The present studymaterial, however, concentrates only on Organisational Behaviour. It containsthoughts, material collected from various sources and books.

The original work was published around 1994. It needed revision. I am thankfulto the management and the Director of SCDL for giving me this opportunity torevise it.

I would be ungrateful if I do not give my grateful thanks to my younger sonShri. Neelkanth alias Samir for his active help to me in putting all this materialin print with the help of his computer and his computer skills and ever readinessto help me.

Prof. Anant Sapre

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Prof. Anant R. Sapre worked as Principal, Co-Operative Training College atIndore, Nagpur and Gawahati. He retired as Professor and Head of Departmentfrom Vaikunth Mehta National Institute of Co-Operative Management, Pune.

Prof. Sapre has been teaching this subject to various Management Courses ofPune University since 1978. He has also been visiting faculty at SIBM, SITMand Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies.

Mrs. Swati Chaudhari

Director - S.C.D.L.

CONTENTS

ChapterTITLE

PageNo. No.

1 Introduction to Organizational Behaviour 1

2 Understanding the Organizational Behaviour 15

3 Perception 23

4 Personality and Attitudes 39

5 Motivation: The whys of Human Behaviour 73

6 Work Motivation Theories 83

7 Morale 99

8 Work and Conditions of Work 105

9 Conflict Management 113

10 Group Dynamics 125

11 Interpersonal Communication 137

12 Stress Management 153

13 Leadership 167

14 Management of Organizational Change 185

15 Organizational Culture 203

Reference Books 213

Introduction to Organisational Behaviour 1

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION TOORGANISATIONAL 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 Relationsmovement ushered in the discipline of OB.

To understand the facets of Hawthorne Experiments and how their implications are useful forthe study of OB.

Organizations are the grand strategies created to bring order to a concerted effort for theachievement of certain objectives and goals. Since these objectives cannot be achieved by anindividual or a small group of individuals, there are in the notion of the organization the conceptsof division of labour, hierarchy of authority etc. Since an individual cannot achieve the objectivesof an organization, it is necessary that many people be harnessed in the pursuit of anorganization. However, in order that their efforts are meaningful they be tied in a meaningfulrelationship. This is achieved by creating the structure. The people in a structure work with thehelp of technology. In a typical organization, therefore, there is a constant interaction betweenpeople, structure, and technology. In order that this relationship bears fruits, every organizationcontains a blue print of human behaviour at work. The organizational rules, regulations, andprocedures represent this. As it is, human behaviour is complicated enough. Added to it arestructure and technology. Together, these three facets make understanding of the humanbehaviour at work complex. Furthermore, of all the inputs of an organization the people are themost important of all. While there can be a definite ratio of input to output when it comes toother inanimate factors of production, in the case of human beings there cannot be any suchfixed ratio. This human element if handled properly by the manager, two plus two can equalfive. Or else it can be three. It is therefore necessary for the manager not only to understandhuman 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

2 Organisational Behaviour and Organisational Culture

people working with him. It, therefore, becomes necessary for him to study human behaviourwithin the context of an organization, having understood it try to predict the human behaviourand having predicted it try to control it.

In the present day India the industrial scene has undergone tremendous change. The IndianGovt., until the last decade of the last century protected the Indian industry from foreigncompetition. The Government which drove out Coca-Cola in seventies, in 1992 threw open theeconomy to the multinationals. The multinationals which came on the Indian scene enjoyedsuperior resources in terms of money, technology as well as market network. With a view tofacing the challenges posed by the multinationals a sea change in the attitudes of all those ina particular organization was a must. The responsibility to do this fell squarely on the shouldersof 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. Theindustrial worker of today is more educated than his counterpart some ten or fifteen yearsbefore. The mix of the skills has also changed. If a manager desires to be effective he mustunderstand the behavioural angularities of the employees. In a nutshell to be efficient as wellto be effective a manager cannot be contented with having the knowledge of his area of workonly. Typically the discipline of Organizational Behaviour attempts to accumulate the knowledgeabout the human behaviour at work on which the manager can draw for understanding, predictingand controlling the human behaviour at work. This is not to say that in the absence of thisstudy of the Organizational Behaviour a manager may be ineffective. However, it does meanthat in the absence of the knowledge or the study of OB the dealings of the manager with theemployees will be a game of trial and error. In the modern times a manager cannot afford tohave trial and error and hit and miss. It is expected of the manager that he hit the bull’s eye inthe first attempt itself. Therefore every manager, irrespective of his specialty, or the functionalarea 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 asindustrial psychologists, psychologists and sociologists. The focus of these studies lies inthe understanding of the human behaviour in the organisations. The levels at which thesestudies have been carried out relate to individuals, the small group, the inter-group and thetotal organization as a socio-economic-technical system. Some studies have also examinedthe 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 develophuman motivation towards the attainment of organizational goals. Human relations is actionoriented and goal directed approach. According to Keith Davis the difference between the twois that of between a pathologist and the physician. While the pathologist attempts to understand


human illness, the physician tends to employ that knowledge to gain results. Thus O.B. andhuman relations are complimentary to each other.

Behavioural scientists are focusing their attention on organizational theory, especiallyorganizational adaptability, the relationship of organization structure to human behaviour anddecision making. The study of managerial behaviour includes not only the tasks of gettingthings done through others but also why and how an individual behaves as he does. Thespecific 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 groupsand organization as a system, etc.

The predecessors of O.B. are:

a) Industrial psychology

b) Scientific management movement

c) Human relations movement.

a) Industrial psychology:

Psychology is the “science of human (and also animal) behaviour because it collects factsabout behaviour by utilizing methods of science”. Industrial psychology is simply the applicationor extension of psychological facts and principles concerning human beings operating withinthe context of business and industry. Industrial psychology draws upon the facts, generalizationsand principles of psychology. It uses the methods from the parent discipline. Because itapplies 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 theindustry rather than in the laboratory.

Among the early names is that of Walter Dill Scot who opened up the beginning of industrialpsychology 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 “ psychologyand Industrial Efficiency”, published in 1913, put industrial psychology in to the study of theworker.

During World War I psychologists were quite active in the war effort, developing group tests forarmy 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 grouptesting, trade testing, rating scales, and the personality inventory had their roots in the activitiesof psychologists in the World War I efforts.


During the post world war I era industry first began to show an interest in the discipline ofindustrial psychology. Certain firms such as Proctor & Gamble, the Philadelphia Companyand 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 studieswere begun in 1924. These studies provided the foundation and impetus for the expansion ofIndustrial Psychology beyond the realm of selection, placement and working conditions intothe 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 additionalareas for study. After the depression the importance of employee attitudes began to berecognized; consequently much development since that time has been in this area. WorldWar II was also a major factor in the growth of psychology in industry. Although AmericanAssociation for Applied Psychology was formed in 1937 as the official organization of industrialpsychology, it was the huge psychological contribution to the war effort that proved to industryand others alike that applied psychology had important contributions to offer. Alongside alsodeveloped were various training programs of specialized types, and job analysis and performanceappraisal techniques.

b) Scientific management movement:

Frederick W Taylor with his ideas, he called “scientific management”, created the interest inthe worker and the supervisor. It was he who advocated parity of wages—the internal as wellas external parity. It was he who developed various wage payment plans. It was he whoinsisted on supervisory training in order to make supervisor a strong link between non-management and the management group. F. W. Taylor also recognized the need for givingfinancial incentives to the workers and therefore developed incentive payments plans too. Thechanges 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 relationsmovement. They are a) the great depression b) the Hawthorne experiments and c) rise of tradeunionism.

The great depression:

The economy was operating in the high gear just before the thundering financial crash occurredin 1929. The production and organizational specialists had achieved great results prior to thecrash. After the crash the management began to realize that production could no longer bethe only major responsibility of management. Marketing, finance and more importantly personnelwere also required in order for a business to survive and grow. The depression’s aftermath ofunemployment, discontent and insecurity brought to the surface the human problems that


managers were now forced to recognize and cope with. Personnel departments were eithercreated or given more importance and most managers now began to develop a new awakenedview of the human aspects of their jobs. Thus human relations took an added significance, asan indirect, and in some cases direct.

The rise of trade unionism:

Another important factor contributing to the rise of human relation’s role of management wasthe organized labour movement. Although labour unions were in existence in America as earlyas 1792, it was not until the passage of Wagner Act in 1935 that the organized labour movementmade an impact on management.

In India, though workers’ unions existed since the later half of the 19th century, they operatedunder terrible legal constraints. It was only in 1926 with the passage of Trade Union Act 1926that the managers began realizing that the trade unions had come to stay in spite of thewishes of the managers or for that matter management. The only go to avoid any probablefriction 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 ofexperiments on the factors in the work situations which affect the morale and productiveefficiency of workers. The first of these, the “Illumination Experiments”, was studied incooperation with the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences. In theremainder of the studies, the company was aided and guided by the suggestions ofProf. Elton Mayo and his associates from Harvard University. Because of the large part thatHarvard played in the project it is often referred to as the Hawthorne-Harvard Experiments orstudies.

As Blum and Naylor in their treatise “Industrial Psychology” observed, “the Hawthorne studiesare of utmost significance as they form an honest and concerted attempt to understand thehuman factor rarely understood in industry, recognizing the employee attitudes, his socialsituation on the job and his personal history and background”. The Hawthorne studies representthe pioneer attempts to make a systematic and intensive study of the human factor and todemonstrate the utmost complexity in work setting where people interact in small groupsunder 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 physicalworking conditions; that the attitudes and effectiveness of workers are determined by thesocial requirements obtained inside and outside the factory environment.

The Hawthorne works of the Western Electric Co., Chicago, manufactured equipment for theBell Telephone system and employed 30,000 workers at the time of experiments. Although, inall 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 employeediscontent and dissatisfaction among its employees. After a failure of investigation conductedby efficiency experts of the company, in 1924, the company asked for the assistance of theNational Academy of Sciences, which initiated its experiments with a view to examining therelationship 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 otherfactors 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 experimentswhereas in other group (experimental group) the illumination was enhanced in intensity. Asanticipated, the productivity in experimental group showed an improvement. But, strangelyenough the output of the control group also went up. The researchers then proceeded todecrease the illumination for the experimental group. The output went up once more. Thisshowed that some factor was operating which increased productivity (dependent variable)regardless of higher or lower intensity of light. Obviously, there was something much moreimportant 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 paperbasket 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 theHawthorne studies conducted by Elton Mayo and his Harvard colleagues. Taking a cue fromthe preceding illumination experiments the researchers attempted to set up the test room andselected two girls for the experiments. These girls were asked to choose other four girls, thusmaking 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 observerwas sitting with the girls in the workshop. He recorded all that went on in the room, kept thegirls 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 testperiod ranging from four to twelve weeks. Under normal working conditions with a forty-eighthour week and no rest pauses, each girl produced 2400 relays a week. These girls were thenplaced 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


slight fall in the productivity as the girls complained that their work rhythm was broken becauseof these breaks. Therefore, again two five-minute pauses were introduced. The company provideda 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 thatall the amenities were withdrawn and the girls returned to their normal working conditions witha forty eight-week, including Saturdays, no rest breaks, no piecework and no free meals. Thisremained 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 bysoliciting assistance and cooperation. They were no longer cogs in a machine but formedcongenial group attempting to assist the company to solve a problem. A feeling of stabilityand a sense of belonging grew. Therefore, they worked faster and better than before. Medicalexamination conducted regularly revealed no symptoms of cumulative fatigue. Absenteeismalso decreased by eighty percent. It was also observed that girls employed their own techniquesof assembling the parts of relays together to avoid monotony. The girls were also given freedomof movement. Under the circumstances the group developed a sense of responsibility andself-discipline. It was concluded that the independent variables i.e. rest etc. were not bythemselves 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 secondrelay assembly group to assess the effects of wage incentives on productivity. A group of fiveworkers 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 tothose of other workers in the regular department. The difference was that the assemblers inthe second relay group were engaged on a different, small group piece rate scheme. Thisarrangement 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 relaystudy were reproduced, the workers were engaged under their normal individual piece rateplan rather than small group incentive schemes employed with the lay room experimentalsubjects. The results revealed an average increase of fifteen percent of productivity during aperiod 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 thehypothesis that the constant rise in the productivity in the relay assembly test room could beattributed to the wage incentives variable alone.” It was concluded that the efficacy of a wageincentive scheme was so dependent on other variables as well that it could not be consideredas 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 outduring 1928 to 1930. The original objective was to explore information, which could be used toimprove supervisory training. Initially, these interviews were conducted by means of directquestioning. However, this method had the disadvantages of either stimulating antagonism orthe 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 wasto listen instead of talk, argue or advice, and take on the role of confidant. On the basis thisinterviewing program, the following inferences were drawn.

1) Only giving a person an opportunity to talk and air his grievances had a positive impacton his morale.

2) Complaints were no longer necessarily objective statements job facts. Rather, they werefrequently symptoms of more deep-rooted disturbances.

3) Workers were governed by the experiences obtained, both inside and outside the companyin respect of their demands

4) The worker is satisfied or dissatisfied depending upon how he regarded his social statusin the company and what he felt he was entitled to rather than in terms of any objectivereference.

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 losewire ends were soldered. This group of fourteen employees included nine wiremen, threesoldermen and two inspectors. The job involved attaching wires to switches for certain parts oftelephone equipment. Because of some practical difficulties the study was conducted in aseparate 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 thewiring room being friendly but appeared non-committal. Thus, he won the confidence of thegroup and was accepted as a regular member.

The interviewer, however, remained an outsider and his task was to explore as much aspossible by interviewing the individual worker about his thought and feeling, his values andattitudes etc. He carried out his work under strict confidence, privately and in a different part ofthe 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 departmentitself in-so-far as that even the department’s regular supervisors were used the Bank wiringroom to maintain order and control.


The results of the Bank wiring room which are markedly opposite to those obtained RelayRoom, revealed that this small group of workers emerged as a team with informal leaders whohad come up spontaneously.

The group was indifferent towards the financial incentives of the factory because despite theincentive scheme, the output was neither more nor less than 6000 units although optimumcapacity was 7000 units per day. It may be noted that whenever any worker attempted toproduce more than this group determined quota, he was soon compelled to return to hisoriginal 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 day’s work and hadinfluence over the group members. Thus, there existed a highly integrated group in the Bankwiring room, which possessed its own social system contradictory to the objectives of thefactory.

This implied that it would be irrational to break up these groups. Rather, attempts should bemade to see that the interests of the management and workers are identical to such an extentthat these informal groups facilitate the achievement of the organisation’s objectives ratherthan 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 testperiods and relay assemblers were greatly motivated and equipped with positive attitudeswhereas, in the Bank wiring room there prevailed a restriction of production among dissatisfiedworkers who displayed negative attitudes towards the objective of the factory. Why? Theanswer to this question can be found in the reactions of the girls to the Relay test room. Theyunanimously showed marked preference for working in the test room rather than in the regulardepartment, 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 reasonsand are of the opinion that the phenomenal increase in the productivity in the relay room canbe attributed primarily to this effect.

It may be noted that the Relay room and the Bank wiring room studies differed in the supervisoryaspects. Although in the Relay room there were no regular supervisors engaged, the girlsassigned the second priority to nature of supervision which prompted them to increase productionand made them feel happier. They regarded the friendly, attentive and genuinely interested


observer as their supervisor. However, in the Bank wiring room where regular departmentalsupervisors were directed to maintain order and control, this arrangement caused inhibitions.Even the observer, who acted as the disinterested and detached spectator, was accepted asa member of the group rather than as a ‘a supervisor’. Therefore, it could be inferred that thequality of supervision played a vital role in determining productivity along with “Hawthorneeffect”.

A specific conclusion drawn from these studies is that in informal groups operating within thework settings exert strong social controls over the work habits and performances of the individualworkers. Last but not the least, the studies revealed that supervision has a great impact onthe behaviour of the work groups in determining as to whether they will react positively ornegatively while working towards the organizational objectives.

The discipline of OB came to be recognized as a field of study around 1950, though no exactdate 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 stillgrowing. OB studies not only the human behaviour within the parameters of the organizationbut also the group dynamics. This is because the study of the human behaviour within theorganization would be incomplete unless inter-personal relations and intergroup relations arestudied. OB also recognizes that the external environment influences the internal organizationalenvironment. 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 internalorganizational effort.

OB, therefore, studies external environment, which influences the human behaviourwithin an organization. That is how OB takes cognizance of TQM, (Total qualitymanagement); TPM (Total productivity management) or for that matter any newconcepts originating in the external environment.


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 ofthe major contributors to the development of OB are industrial psychology, scientificmanagement movement, and human relations movement.

Industrial psychology focused it attention on the development of tests for the recruitment ofemployees etc.

Scientific management movement sought to improve productivity by rationalising the work, byintroduction of various wage and incentive plans.

Three factors cumulatively contributed to the rise of human relations movement. They are thegreat depression, rise of trade unionism and Hawthorne experiments.

The discipline of OB tries to synchronise internal organisational environment with the externalsocial environment. Therefore OB is still a growing discipline encompassing more and morenew concepts emerging in the external social environment.


NOTES

Understanding Organisational Behaviour 15

Chapter 2

UNDERSTANDINGORGANISATIONAL 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 formalorganization 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) an industrial enterprise is an organization of people;

ii) these people must be motivated to work effectively;

iii) the goals of the employee and the employer may not necessarily coincide;

iv) the policies and procedures adopted in an enterprise may influence people in the directionsnot always foreseen by the policy makers.

According to Keith Davis “Organizational Behaviour is the study and application of knowledgeabout how people act within organizations. It is a human tool for the human benefit. It appliesbroadly 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 togetherinto an effective operative system”.

Fred Luthans defines organizational behaviour as “understanding, predicting and controllinghuman 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 suchknowledge towards improving an organisation’s effectiveness”.

Organisational Behaviour and Organisational Culture16

FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS OF O.B.:

Every discipline of study has certain set of fundamental concepts. These concepts are apriorate. They do not lend themselves to the question ‘why so’. They are something, whichhave to be accepted and not questioned. They are the foundation stones on which the entireedifice of the discipline is developed. In the discipline of Accountancy the fundamental conceptis “for every debit entry there will be a credit entry”. In the natural sciences the fundamentalconcept is the concept of uniformity of nature. The concept states that if a certain phenomenontakes place under certain situations in Pune it should take place under the same situationsanywhere in the world.

The discipline of Organizational Behaviour has fundamental concepts revolving round the natureof people and the nature of the organization.

The concepts dealing with the nature of individual are four. They are:

i) Individual differences;

ii) Whole person;

iii) Motivation i.e. caused behaviour.

iv) Human dignity.

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES:

In spite of all the human beings similar every one is different. Every one has a different gift ofthe 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 behaviourthere can not be a prescriptive solution. Every individual is to be treated differently even thoughtwo persons may have the same behavioural problems. The concept also tells the managerthat he had better be aware of his own stereotypes. A stereotype is a tendency to attribute thetraits of a group to an individual because he belongs to the said group. The Jew genocide canbe attributed to this stereotyping. Unfortunately one is not aware as to how these stereotypesinfluence his behaviour. This concept, therefore, not only tells that a manager should treatevery 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 hiresonly the hands of man. Nothing can be farther from the truth. An organization hires not onlythe hands of an employee but hires a complete men with all his pluses and minuses. At thesame since a person performs many roles at the same time the happenings in one role arebound to affect the behaviour in others roles of the person. The concept tells the manager than


when it comes to behavioural problems, he must also take into account the other roles of theperson. If the whole person is to be developed then only the benefits will extend beyond theorganization 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 anequal and opposite reaction. This means the manager, by his own behaviour, can cause anemployee behave in a particular way. If he is respectful to his employees they are bound to berespectful to him not otherwise.

HUMAN DIGNITY:

This concept is of a different order from the other three because it is more an ethical philosophythan a scientific conclusion. It confirms that people are to be treated differently from otherfactors of production. Because they are of a higher order, they want to be treated with respectand dignity. When every one, the employee, the manager as the CEO of an organization areengaged in the same pursuit. The pursuit of enabling their organization to achieve the objectionsfor it has come in existence. Thus they are on the equal footing. The concept tells that veryperson should be respected simply because he happens to be an employee just as themanager is.

The NATURE OF ORGANISATIONS:

With regard to the nature of organization the key assumptions are that the social systemsand that they are formed on the basis of mutual interests of the employees and the managementmeaning 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 theycome. Thus the organization becomes a social system, where the value systems customsetc. conform to those of the society at large. Any organization that has inconsistent valuesystem with the external society does not last long. That an organization is a social systemalso implies that the organizational environment is not static. All parts of the organizationalsystem are interdependent and are subject to influence by other parts of the organization aswell the society at large.

MUTUALITY OF INTERESTS:

Organizations have a human purpose. They are formed and maintained on the basis of somemutuality of interests among the participants. Organizations help people achieve their ownpersonal objectives at the same time people help organizations achieve its objectives. It is a


symbiotic relation. Everybody must bear in mind that the organizational and employees interestsare intertwined in such a way that if the interests of one suffer the interests of the another dosuffer. 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 thethinking and behaviour on the part of management and managers alike. These models alsodenote the responses of the employees to the various orientations of the managers and thegeneral behavioural climate prevailing in the manager-employee relationship.

In terms of the evolution of OB thought these models are autocratic, custodial, supportive andcollegial.

The autocratic model was very much in existence at the time of industrial revolution and sometime after. These are, one may easily notice, the assumptions of the Theory X in their darkestcolor. With the passage of the time the autocratic model as well as the assumptions of theTheory X have become diluted.

Subsequently because of the changes in the thinking of the industrialists and the managerswe find the custodial model of O.B. It consisted in giving some sops, concessions or economicprivileges to the employees to keep them happy. In due course of time the custodial model gotdegenerated in what was known as paternalistic attitude. Actually there is no basic behaviouraldifference between the autocratic and the custodial model. In both these models managersdid not bother to create an atmosphere which would be conducive to the development of theemployees. 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 managerialbehaviour, in the autocratic model is based on the assumptions of theory X; the participativemodel is based on the assumptions of theory Y. This theory assumes that the employeeshave the skill and the will to contribute to the organisational efforts. It came to be recognizedthat 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 thewills of the employees to contribute to the organizational effort are supported. The fourthmodel i.e. collegial model has a limited application, in as much as, it is useful when one isdealing with the “Scientific and Professional’’ employees. The manager’s role is changed fromthat of a leader to that of a partner. The employees and the manager are the partners in thepursuit of the same objectives. Whatever the work, it is to be done as a team where the linesbetween the manager and the employee are obliterated.


The table below presents these models along with their various facets.

Autocratic Custodial Supportive Collegial

Model Power Economic Leadership Partnershipdepends on resourcesManagerial Authority Money Support TeamworkorientationEmployee Obedience Security Job Responsibilityorientation performanceEmployee Dependence Dependence Participation Self-disciplinepsychological on boss on organizationresultEmployee Subsistence Maintenance Higher-order Self-actualizationneeds metPerformance Minimum Passive Awakened Moderateresult cooperation drives enthusiasm

SUMMARY

The various definitions of OB attempt to describe the field of OB. OB is mainly concerned withthe study of human behaviour at work. OB studies behaviour within the parameters of anorganisation.

Fundamental concepts, of OB revolve round the nature of the human being and the nature oforganisation. These fundamental concepts help the manager understand some basics ofhuman behaviour at work.

Fundamental concepts relating to the nature of human being are four. They are individualdifferences, whole person, caused behaviour i.e. motivation and human dignity.

The concept of individual differences tells us that when it comes to understanding and solvingthe behavioural problems there can not be a standard solution.

The concept of whole person tells that the happenings in the life beyond the organisational lifeaffect the work behaviour of an employee.

The concept of caused behaviour tells that a manager makes employees behave in a particularway 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 asocial system and mutuality of interests.


The concept relating to the organisation being a social system tells us that no organisationcan 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 employeesand the organisations are such that if employees interests suffer the organisation’s intereststoo suffer and vice-versa.

The OB models express the shift in the outlooks of the manager of looking towards theiremployees and the resultant organisational environment.


NOTES

Perception 23

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 uniqueinterpretation instead of a precise recording of the situation.The individual, while perceiving theworld, sees a picture which expresses his own individual view of reality. This picture is quiteunique and may largely differ from the reality.

The study of divergence, between the perceptual world and the real world, is of great significancefor human relations and organizational behaviour. As it is frequently observed, managers assumethat subordinates are always keen for promotions even though factually subordinates mayreally feel psychologically compelled to accept their promotions. The perceptual worlds of themanagers and of the subordinates may differ markedly from each other as well as both ofthem may diverge substantially from reality. To get the desired results from promotion, themanagement 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 suitabilityor otherwise of a candidate depends on candidate’s behaviour perceived by interviewers. Arejected 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 quicklyentrenched. If the inadequacies of the candidate are exposed early, they weigh against him inthe final selection.


Performance appraisal is another area where perception is significant. Assessment of anemployee’s performance depends on the perception of the person who evaluates. Whileevaluation can be objective as in salesman’s job where assessment is quantifiable. Many jobsare evaluated in subjective terms. Subjective measures are easier to implement, they providemanagers with greater discretion, and many jobs do not readily lend themselves to objectivemeasures. Subjective measures are, by definition, judgmental. To the extent the evaluatordepends on subjective measures for assessing an employee’s performance, performance ofwho 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 heis loyal to the organization. The issue is not whether organizations are right in demanding anemployees loyalty is irrelevant here, but the fact is that many employers do, and the assessmentof loyalty or commitment is highly personal. What is perceived as loyalty by one decision-maker may be seen as excessive conformity by another. An employee who questions a topmanagement 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 weare again involved with person perception.

This necessitates that the management understands the basic perceptual processes involvedin organizational settings and recognize its significance. As a great deal of the industrialconflict stem from the divergence between the perceptual world of the parties involved, attemptscan be made to minimize the magnitude of such conflicts by properly assessing perceptionsof various aspects in the work settings. This implies that a better understanding of the perceptualprocess should be developed. Direct applications and techniques aimed at the solution of theproblem would automatically follow the proper understanding.

Perception is much more complex and much broader than sensation. The perceptual processcan be defined as “a complicated interaction of selection, organization, and interpretation ofstimuli.” Although perception depends largely upon the senses for raw data, the cognitiveprocess may filter, modify or completely change the data. A simple illustration may be seenby looking at one side of a stationary object, for example, a statue or a tree. By slowly turningthe 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 thesensual process and the person “sees” the object as stationary. In other words, the perceptualprocess 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 reactingto sensory stimuli or data”.

[2] “I Perception is a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensoryimpressions in order to give meaning to their environments”.

Perception 25

[3] “Perception includes all those processes by which an individual receives informationabout his environment – seeing, hearing, feeling, testing and smelling”.

Kolasa defines perception as the “selection and organization of material which stems from theoutside environment at one time or the other to provide the meaningful entity we experience.”

There are two basic elements in this definition:

(1) Perception is a process of selection or screening which prevents us from processingirrelevant or disruptive information; and

(2) There is organization of stimuli implying that the information that is processed has to beordered and classified in some logical manner which permits us to assign meaning tothe stimuli situations. The individual tends to recognize the information, assemble it isas 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 througha 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 sensationprocess, which is concerned primarily with basic elementary behaviour largely, determinedby 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 perceptiontends to amalgamate, improve and entirely change this data because of its complexity ofinteraction. It adds as well as deducts from the sensory world. In organizational settings wefind numerous examples which help us in understanding perception. An experienced engineerobserving a panel of dials in front of him gets more out of this information than does a managerwho visits from the head office.

Perception involves five sub-processes. They are stimulus, registration, interpretation, feedbackand consequence.

Perception initiates with the presence of a stimulus situation. In organizational settings thesuperior forms the stimulus situation for the subordinate’s perceptual process.

Registration involves the physiological mechanism including both sensory and neural. Obviously,an individual’s physiological ability to hear and see influence his perception.

Interpretation is a highly crucial sub-process. Other psychological processes assist inperceptual interpretation. For instance, in work settings, his motivation, personality and learningprocess determines an individual’s interpretation of a stimulus situation.

Feedback is important for interpreting the perceptual event data. In work settings, thepsychological feedback that is likely to affect a subordinate’s perception may be in the form ofa variation in the behaviour of superior.


Perception ends in reaction or response, which may be in the overt or covert form. As aconsequence of perception, an individual responds to work demands. These sub-processesindicate the complexity of perception.

PRINCIPLES OF PERCEPTUAL SELECTION

There are many stimuli demanding attention of the individual at the same time and that individualcan sense only a limited amount of stimuli at a time. Human beings are characteristicallyselective. They select from among those physical stimuli, which they can register at a point intime. They close themselves off entirely from some stimuli and tend to open their channels ofabsorption to others. Thus, they set themselves to respond to a particular stimulus or a groupof stimuli. Yet, certain events may characteristically creep into an individual’s perceptual lifeand distract his attention. For instance, the sound of a gun, other things being equal, is morelikely to attract attention than the sound of a gas burner. Thus, while dealing with selectivephenomenon two terms are involved; attention and set. ‘Attention’ incorporates all aspects ofthe selective process whereas ‘set’ refers to specific factors or processes within the individualhimself that has a bearing on what he attends to.

Accordingly, while studying the selective process in perception, we study set factors lyingwithin 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 theindividual. The factors that are in the situations are called ‘external attention factors ‘ andthose factors that are within an individual are called ‘internal set factors’.

CONFRONTATIONof specific stimulus (e.g.Supervisor or his raisedeye brows)

EXTERNALENVIRONMENT

Sensual Stimulation

Physical Environment

OfficeResearch Lab.Climate etc.

Socio Cultural Environment

Management StylesValuesDiscrimination etc.

REGISTRATIONof the stimulus (e.g.sensory and neuralmechanisms)

INTERPRETATIONof the stimulus (e.g.motivation,learning, personality)

FEEDBACKfor clarification (e.g.kinesthetic orpsychological)

BEHAVIORe.g. Overt such asrushing off or covertsuch as attitude

CONSEQUENCEe.g. reinforcement,punishment or someorganisationaloutcome

BEHAVIOUR

Obtained from Fred Luthans - Organisational Behaviour, Page - 105

Perception 27

EXTERNAL ATTENTION FACTORS

The external attention factors are:

a) Intensity

b) Size

c) Contrast

d) Repetition

e) Motion

f) Novelty and familiarity

Intensity

The intensity of stimulus implies that the more intense the stimulus audio or visual, the moreis the likelihood it will be perceived. A loud noise, strong odour or bright light or bright colourswill be more readily perceived than soft sound, weak odour or dim light. It is because of thisadvantage 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 istall attracts the attention. At the same time a pocket dog also attracts attention because of itssize. However, generally the larger the object the more likely it will be perceived. The amountof 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 orwhich, are not what the people expect will receive attention. Plant safety signs, which haveblack lettering on a yellow background or white lettering on a red background, are attentionsgetting.

Any change in the accustomed atmosphere attracts attraction. Thus if one or more of themachines should come suddenly to a halt, the supervisor would immediately notice the differencein noise level. Also a person who has fallen asleep in a bus because of the drone of the enginewakes up immediately the engine stops.


Repetition

The factor of repetition implies that a repeated external stimulus attracts more attention thanthe one that occurs at one time alone. Perhaps, it is because of this that supervisors tend torepeat directions regarding job instructions several times for even simple tasks to hold theattention of their workers. Advertisers while putting T.V. or radio advertisements repeat thebrand name they are advertising.

Motion

The factor of motion implies that the individual attend to changing objects in their field of visionthan to static objects. It is because of this advantage that advertisers involve signs, whichinclude moving objects in their campaigns. At an unconscious level the animals in the junglesmake use of this principle. A tiger lying in wait is motionless until his prey is nearer him andthen 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 attractattention. 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 notonly increased attention but also employees’ acquisition of new skills.

INTERNAL SET FACTORS

The internal set factors are as under:

a) Habit

b) Motivation and interest

c) Learning

d) Organizational role and specialization:

Habit

A Hindu will bow and do Namaskar when he sees a temple while walking on road, because ofhis 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 rightresponse to the wrong signals. Thus a retired solidier may throw himself on the ground whenhe hears a sudden burst of car tyre.

Perception 29

Motivation and interest

Two examples of motivational factors are hunger and thirst. Motivational factors increase theindividual’s sensitivity to those stimuli which he considers as relevant to the satisfaction of hisneeds 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 likelihoodof visualizing other objects at that moment in time.

A worker who has a strong need for affiliation, when walks into the lunchroom, the table whereseveral coworkers are sitting tends to be perceived and the empty table or the table whereonly 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 shouldbe recognized that the role of learning is more pronounced in respect of complex forms ofperception where the symbolic content creeps into the process. Although interrelated withmotivation and personality, learning may play the single biggest role in developing perceptualset. Read the sentence in the triangle below:

It may take several seconds to realize there is something wrong. Because of familiarity withthe 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 acertain manner.

There are many other illustrations that are commonly used to demonstrate the impact oflearning on the development of perceptual set.

How figure of old and beautiful women –(picture on the next page) is perceived can be radicallyinfluenced by a simple learned experience. When first shown a clear, unambiguous picture ofa beautiful young woman and then shown in figure, the person will almost always reports

TURN

OFF

THE ENGINE


seeing the young woman in figure. If the clear picture of the old woman is seen first, the viewerwill subsequently report seeing the old woman in figure -

In addition to the young woman-old woman example, there is a wide variety of commonly usedillusions that effectively demonstrate the impact of learning on perception. An illusion may bethought 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 thatcasts him in a particular organizational role predisposes him to select certain stimuli and todisregard others . Thus in a lengthy report a departmental head will first notice the text relatingto his department.

Perceptual set in Organizational Settings

Closely related to learning and motivation is the personality of the perceiving person, whichaffects what is attended to in the confronting situation. There are numerous examples ofperceptual sets in work settings. The individuals may tend to perceive the same stimulussituation in largely different manners. Take the examples of poor production record in amanufacturing company. The works engineer is likely to perceive the solution to the issue inthe form of improved machine design whereas the Personnel Manager is likely to perceive thesolution 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 poorability of their supervisor whom they dislike. Irrespective of who is right or wrong, it is obviousthat 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 betweenthe union and management groups. It is widely held that perceptual divergence is a majorcause if industrial conflicts.

Perception 31

Perceptual Organisation

When we discuss Perceptual Organisation, the question arises as to what the individual doeswith 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 arerelatively free from the effects of past experience or motivational factors. These processes arecalled the primitive processes of organisation. The central nervous system does not simplyregister raw sensory data in a passive form. Rather, it does something to them by creating adefinitive Organisation. Illusions, false interpretation or misleading Organisation of sensoryevents best exemplifies the active role of central nervous system. There are several kinds ofprimitive. Perceptual Organizations which include grouping, closure, figure-ground effect; andconstancy phenomenon.

Perceptual grouping

The grouping principle of Perceptual Organisation states that there is a tendency to groupseveral stimuli together into a recognizable pattern. The principle is very basic and seemslargely inborn. In the visual fields, we find that objects that are similar in appearance tend to begrouped 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. Theprinciple is that a person will sometimes perceive a whole when one does not exist. Theperson’s 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 meanssimply that perceived objects stand out as separable from their general background. Whenthe reader is reading this paragraph, in terms of light-wave stimuli, the reader perceives patchesof irregularly shaped blacks and whites. Yet the reader perceives the shapes as letters andfigures printed against the white background. In other words the reader perceptually organizesthese stimuli into recognizable patterns i.e. the words.

Perceptual constancy

Constancy is one of the more sophisticated forms of Perceptual Organisation. It gives aperson a sense of stability in a changing world. This principle permits the individual to havesome constancy in a tremendously variable world. If constancy were not at work, the worldwould be very chaotic and disorganized for a person. An organizational; example would bethat of a worker who must select a piece of material or a tool of the correct size from a wide


variety of materials and tools at varying distances form a workstation. Without perceptualconstancy the shapes, sizes, colours etc. of the objects would keep on changing, making thejob almost impossible for the worker.

Perceptual Defense

Closely related to context is perceptual defense. A person may build a defense (a block or arefusal to recognize) against stimuli or situational events in the context that are person orculturally unacceptable or threatening. Accordingly, perceptual defense may play an influentialrole in understanding union-management relations.

Although there is some conflicting evidence, most studies verify the existence of perceptualdefense. Two examples are classic studies that found barriers to perceiving personality-threatening words and identification of thresholds for critical, emotionally toned words. Inanother study more directly relevant to organizational behaviour, the researchers describehow people may react with a perceptual defense that is activated in them when they areconfronted with a fact that is inconsistent with a preconceived notion. In this study, collegestudents were presented with the word “intelligent” as a characteristic of a factory worker. Thiswas counter to their perception of factory workers, and they built defenses in the followingways:

1. Denial: A few of the subjects denied the existence of intelligence in factory workers.

2. Modification and distortion: This was one of the most frequent forms of defense. Thepattern was to explain away the perceptual conflict by joining intelligence with someother characteristic, for example, “He is intelligent, but doesn’t possess the initiative torise above his group.”

3. Change in perception: Many of the students changed their perception of the workerbecause of the intelligence characteristic. The change, however, was usually very subtle;example, “He cracks jokes” became “He’s witty.”

4. Recognition: But refusal to change. Very few subjects explicitly recognized the conflictbetween their perception of the worker and the characteristic of intelligence that wasconfronting them. For example, one subject stated, “the traits seem to be conflictingmost factory workers I have about aren’t too intelligent.

The general conclusion to be drawn from this classic study is that people may learn to avoidperceiving certain conflicting, threatening, or unacceptable aspects of the context.

These and other relevant experiments have been summarized into three general explanationsof perceptual defense:

Perception 33

1. Emotionally disturbing information has a higher threshold for recognition (that is, we donot perceive it readily than neutral or non-disturbing information. This is why a chain ofevents may be seen differently by those who are not personally involved and by whosewho are involved; thus, warning signs of trouble are often not seen by those who will bemost affected by the trouble.

2. Disturbing information and stimuli are likely to bring about substitute perceptions, whichare distorted to prevent recognition of the disturbing elements. In this way a managercan perceive that workers are happy, when actually they are disgruntled. Then when agrievance committee is formed or a strike takes place, the manager cannot perceive thatthese “happy” workers are participating willingly and concludes that it is because theyhave fallen victim to some agitator and that things in the shop are still basically fine.

3. Emotionally arousing information actually does arouse emotions. Even though the emotionis distorted and directed elsewhere kicking the cat, shouting at the kids, cutting someoneoff for trying to pass you on the left while driving all offer a sense of relief and are goodsubstitutes for perceiving that people “upstairs” think you are an idiot.

Such findings as the above help explain why some people, especially supervisors andsubordinates in an organisation, have a “blind spot.” They do not “see” or they consistentlymisinterpret certain events or situations.

Social Perception

Although context and perceptual defense are closely related to social perception, this sectiongives recognition to social perception per se. The social aspects of perception play an importantrole in organizational behaviour. Social perception is directly concerned with how one individualperceives 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 theperceived reveals a profile of the perceiver as follows:

1. Knowing oneself makes it easier to see others accurately;

2. One’s own characteristics affect the characteristics one is likely to see in others;

3. People who accept themselves are more likely to be able to see favorable aspects ofother people;

4. Accuracy in perceiving others is not a single skill.


These four characteristics greatly influence how a person perceives others in the environmentalsituation.

There are also certain characteristics of the person being perceived which influence socialperception. Research has shown that:

1. The status of the person perceived will greatly influence others’ perception of the person.

2. The person being perceived is usually placed into categories to simplify the viewer’sperceptual activities. Two common categories are status and role.

3. The visible traits of the person perceived will greatly influence others’ perception of theperson.

These characteristics of the perceiver and the perceived suggest the extreme complexity ofsocial perception. Organizational participants must realize that their perceptions of anotherperson are greatly influenced by their own characteristics and the characteristics of the otherperson. For example, if a manager has high self-esteem and the other person is physicallyattractive and pleasant and comes from the home office, then the manager will be likelyperceive this other person in a positive favorable manner. On the other hand, if the managerhas low self-esteem and the other person is an arrogant, unattractive salesperson, the managerwill likely to perceive this other person in a negative, unfavorable manner. Such attributionsthat 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 relatedto our perceptions of people. Each individual interacts with the other individuals and establishesrelationships with them. The maintenance of these relationships necessitates knowledge ofsocial behaviour involving constant judgment about the other individual’s needs, emotions andthoughts. Research results have shown that there are three kinds of features that affect theseperceptions. 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 tointeract, 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 theskin. The social features that assume significance in perception are the qualities of voice andappearance. An individual with long hair and casual dress is called a ‘hippie’ involving accordinglyjudgments about his political, social and moral values. Likewise, historical features such assex, age, occupation, religion, race, etc. largely influence an individual’s evaluations of others.There are also numerous personality features attributed to others that affect an individual’s

Perception 35

evaluation of them. Individuals tend to be attracted to others whom they perceive to be identicalto them.

This leads us to the perceiver’s features. There seem to be two kinds of general features aboutthe perceiver, which are crucial in understanding an individual‘s perception of others:

(1) an individual’s own social and personality features cause a divergence, and

(2) the complexity of an individual’s perception of other individuals is also crucial.

Obviously, individuals tend to differ in the manner in which they describe others. Someindividuals 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 complexityinvolves traits such as passive, charming, etc. These later features involve a more complexmode of perceiving than physical features. Research results have shown that the leader’scomplexity of perceiving his fellow workers is markedly associated with his group’s performance,depending upon the situation where they are engaged.

The features that are associated with an individual’s perceptions of others involve the situationwhere 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 thesuitability of the behaviour to the given situation. Thus, our perception of individuals as well asobjects 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 andfeelings along with the physical and social environmental factors. This understanding ofperceptual process provides an insight as to why we behave in the manner we do.


SUMMARY

Perception is an important cognitive process deciding how a person will behave. Through thiscomplex process people interpret world to themselves. Perception is a unique phenomenon,influencing people behave differently. Externally stimuli selectivity is affected by such factorsas the intensity, size, movement, repetition etc. Internally perceptual selectivity is influencedby 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 another’s or their ownbehaviour. Two important problems in social perception are halo effect and stereotyping.

Perception 37

NOTES


NOTES

Personality and Attitudes 39

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 amanager better perceive the human behaviour at work.

Personality and OB

Personality factors are extremely important in organizational settings. Often the ‘wrong’ kindof 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 pointof view of employee-employer relations, peer relations and superior-subordinate relations.Sometimes, the personality difficulties are the root cause of organizational conflicts and oftenlead to turnover and job dissatisfaction. A consideration of personality differences of focalpersons is important for at least three reasons;

Some people arouse hostility and aggression in their associates, while others invoke sympathyand supportive responses because of their personality features. Likewise, some peopleencourage and others discourage free and open communication in view of their personalitytraits as perceived by their subordinates and associates;

Personality characteristics tend to produce differential emotional reactions to stress. Somepeople tolerate severely stressful situations, while tensions and anxieties and similarcircumstances swamp others.

Individual personalities lead to individual differences in styles of coping with stress. Whenexposed to tension producing situations, some people tend to be problem oriented, othershappen to deal with the emotional experience which the stress arouses in them rather thanwith the determinants of the experience. Still others tend to deal with derivative problems,


which may be created by their efforts to cope with the stress. They may happen to projecthostility on to others and thus make easier guilt-free aggression against them. The dangersinherent in such a hostile counter attack are obvious. Thus, it appears personality charactervery 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 weanalyze such usages, we discover that the phrase a lot of personality refers to the physicalappearance of the individual, especially on initial contact: “A poor personality” ordinarily indicatesthat the person has characteristics not approved of generally. The term “no personality” issaved 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 theindividual 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 fromthese two words and originally meant an actor’s mask, through which the sound of his voicewas 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 (dramaticspersonae).

It is interesting to note that the word “personality” by derivation should mean, “what an individualonly appears to be, not what he really is.” This meaning is almost the exact opposite of whatthe word means in modern psychology.

We find that to some extent personality is defined in terms of a specific theoretical frame ofreference. However, most psychologists agree generally with Allport’s definition, in whichpersonality is “the dynamic organization within the individual of those psycho-physical systemsthat determine his unique adjustments to his environment”.

About a decade after Allport’s formulation R. W. White’s simplified it by substituting “tendencies”for “psycho-physical systems.” White’s definition states that “personality is the organizationof an individual’s “personal pattern of tendencies.”

PERSONALITY

Behavior involves a complex set of interactions of the person and the situation. Events in thesurrounding environment (including presence and behaviour of others) strongly influence theway people behave at any particular time; yet people always bring something of their own tothe situation. This ‘something’, which is unique is what is personality.


A well-known personality theorist Salvatore Maddi proposed the following definitionof personality:

“ Personality is a stable set of characteristics and tendencies that determine those commonalitiesand differences in the psychological behavior (thoughts, feelings and actions) of people thathave continuity in time and that may not be easily understood as the sole result of the socialand 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, certainsituations or certain people. Rather, personality theory is a general theory of behaviour – anattempt to understand or describe all behaviours all the time.

Second, the phrase “commonalities and differences” suggests an important aspect of humanbeings. In certain respects, every person is like

� 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 ina particular situation. This complexity makes managing and working with people extremelychallenging. Therefore, to understand, predict and control behaviour, it is important to studypersonality.

Finally, Maddi’s definition refers to personality as being ‘stable’ and having continuity in time.If your entire personality could change suddenly and dramatically, your family and friendswould meet a stranger. Personality development occurs to a certain extent throughout life, butthe 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) Biological

b) Cultural

b) Familial

d) Situation.


BIOLOGICAL FACTORS

Biological factors may be studied under three heads –

a) The heredity

b) The brain

c) 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 one’s parents, transmittedby genes in the chromosomes contributed by each parent.

Research on animals has showed that physical and psychological characteristics can betransmitted through heredity. But research on human beings is inadequate to support thisviewpoint. However, psychologists and geneticists have accepted the fact that heredity playsan important role in one’s personality. The importance of heredity varies from one personalitytrait to another. For instance, heredity is generally more important in determining a person’stemperament than values and ideals.

Brain

Another biological factor that influences personality is the role of the brain of an individual. Thepsychologists are unable to prove empirically the contribution of human brain in influencingpersonality. Preliminary results from the electrical stimulation of the brain (ESB) researchgives indication that better understanding of human personality and behaviour might comefrom the study of the brain.

Physical features

Perhaps the most outstanding factor that contributes to personality is the physical stature ofan individual. An individual’s external appearance is proved to be having a tremendous effecton his personality. For instance the fact that a person is short or tall, fat or skinny, handsomeor ugly, black or whitish will undoubtedly influence the person’s effect on others and in turn,will affect the self-concept. A person’s physical characteristics may be related to his approachto the social environment, to the expectancies of others, and to their reactions, to him. Thesein turn may have impacts on personality development.

Psychologists contend that the different rates of maturation will also influence an individual’spersonality.


CULTURAL FACTORS

Culture is traditionally considered as the major determinant of an individual’s personality. Theculture largely determines what a person is and what a person will learn. The culture withinwhich 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 heis brought up. According to Mussen “...each culture expects, and trains, its members tobehave in the ways that are acceptable to the group.” In spite of the importance of the cultureon personality, researchers are unable to establish correlation between these two concepts ofpersonality and culture.

FAMILY AND SOCIAL FACTORS

In order to understand the effects of a family on individual’s personality, we have to understandthe socialisation process and identification process.

1. Socialisation Process

The contribution of family and social group in combination with the culture is known associalisation. In the words of Mussen “socialisation is the process by which an individualinfant acquires, from the enormously wide range of behavioural, potentials that are open to himat birth, those behavioural patterns that are customary and acceptable according to thestandards of his family and social group.” Socialization initially starts with the contact withmother and later on the other members of the family (father, sisters, close-relatives) and thesocial group play influential role in shaping an individual’s personality.

2. Identification process

Identification starts when a person begins to identify himself with some other members of thefamily. Normally a child tries to emulate certain actions of his parents. Identification processcan be examined from three angles: (a) it can be viewed as the similarity of behaviour betweenchild and the model, and (b) it can be looked as the child’s motives or desires to be like themodel and (c) it can be viewed as the process through which the child actually takes on theattributes of the model.

Apart from the socialisation and identification processes, the home environment influencesthe personality of an individual. There is substantial empirical evidence to indicate that theoverall 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, itmust be pointed out, is complete in itself. Personality theories can be grouped under the fiveheads:


I. Intrapsychic theory;

II. Type theories;

III. Trait theories;

IV. Social Learning theory;

V. Self-theory.

These theories differ markedly in the constructs they propose as forming the structure of thepersonality, and also the way they relate these constructs to behaviour. They also differ in themethods they use to assess or measure an individual’ s personality. Let us examine thesetheories.

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] theconscious iii] the unconscious.

The items in the mind that can be recognized only through Freud’s association method are“preconscious”. The “conscious” element is concerned with thoughts, feelings, beliefs anddesires that we probe during introspection.

The final component “unconscious” is basically concerned with ideas and wishes that cannotbe 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 anorganisation of personality consisting of three structures within the human mind the id, theego, and the superego. These parts of the mind are primarily responsible for originating humanactions and reactions and modifications.

The id

It is the original and the most basic system of human personality. At the base of the Freudiantheory lies the id that is primitive, instinctual and governed by the principles of greed andpleasure. 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 uponwhich all other parts of personality are erected. Like a newly born baby id has no perception ofreality. It is primitive, immoral, insistent and rash. Id is the reservoir of the “psychic energy”


which Freud calls “Libido”. According to Freud id is totally oriented towards increasing pleasureand avoiding pain, and it strives for immediate satisfaction of desires.

One notable characteristic of id is that it cannot tolerate uncomfortable levels of tension withinit and seeks to release the tension as soon as it develops. The methods for dealing withtension by id are primary processes and reflex actions. The former attempts to discharge atension by forming a mental image of desirable means of releasing the tension. But this kindof 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 andgood food that is palatable. The later method (reflex actions) of tension release is reflected inthe behaviour of individuals such as blinking of eyes, raising eyebrows, rubbing the cheeksetc. Id, in fact, is capable of resolving the tension in reality. Id basically represents an individual’snatural 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 executivecapacity. Ego is rational and logical, and in essence, it is the conscious mediator between therealities of world and the id’s demands. It constantly works to keep a healthy psychologicalbalance between id’s impulsive demands and superego’s restrictive guidance. Ego is rationalmaster. The ego is said to be the executive part of the personality because it controls thegateway to action, selects the features of the environment to which it will respond, and decideswhat instincts will be satisfied.

The most important characteristic of ego is that it has the ability to distinguish betweenmental images and actual sources of tension release, and it responds to the real sources oftension reduction. The ego performs this task by;

1) Observing accurately what exists in the outside world (perceiving)

2) Recording these experiences carefully (remembering) and

3) 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 hisparents, teachers, friends, religion, organisation and colleagues etc. As a child grows andabsorbs parental and cultural attitudes and values, he develops superego. Superego is themoralistic segment of the human personality. The primary concern of superego is to determinewhether the action proposed by “ego” is right or wrong so that the individual acts in accordancewith the values and standards of the society. If people violate the prohibitions of superego theymay feel guilty.


The superego acts as a censor on the individual and as a censor a too strong superego islikely to be in constant and pronounced battle with the id. Freud says that the ego’s role is tomediate between the id and superego. A personality becomes disorderly when either the id orsuperego becomes dominant. At the same time, it should be noted that when too muchenergy is consumed by ego in mediating between the id and superego, an individual’s personaldevelopment will suffer (or adversely affected).

The superego, in some respects, is the antithesis of id. Psychologist Duane Schult notes thatid is pressing for satisfaction, the ego is trying to delay it and the superego urges moralityabove all. Freud’s human being is therefore described as “basically a battlefield.”.

Psychoanalysis, while acknowledged as having a powerful influence, has been seriouslyquestioned as a scientific theory. This theory is criticised on methodological grounds. FurtherFreud’s theory is criticised because it is largely untestable since his constructs are difficult todefine and are ambiguous.

TRAIT THEORIES

Trait theorists view personality from the standpoint of understanding traits. Among trait theoristsare included Allport, Cattell and Sheldon.

Allport is of the opinion that each individual possesses a set of traits that are not shared byany other individuals. He emphasizes the uniqueness of personality.

Cattell has extensively worked on traits in various work settings employing a number ofpsychological measures. On the basis of factor analysis he developed factor concepts suchas tender-mindedness, somatic anxiety, dominance etc.

Sheldon extended physical structuring by asserting that physique consists of three componentsendomorphs (soft and spherical structure), mesomorphy (tough and muscular body) andectomorphy (linear and fragile). The relative existence of these three physical elements indicatesspecific personality patterns. Corresponding to these physical aspects, he assumed threeaspects of temperament; viscerotonia (love of comfort and affection), somatotonia (physicaladventure and risk taking) and cerebrotonia (restraint and inhibition). Although he assumed aclose relationship between respective aspects of structure and personality, there is no evidenceto support this view.

Evaluation of Trait Theories

When compared to type theories, trait theories have some sense. Instead of making unrealisticattempt to place personalities into discrete, discontinuous categories, trait theories giverecognition to continuity of personalities. But the trait theories suffer from the followinglimitations :


i] Traits may be too abstract. For example, the scale of ‘measuring’ ‘anxiety’ may beabstract.

ii] Trait approach focuses on isolated traits without specifying how these traits are organizedwithin the personality. Without knowing which traits are more important and how theyare related to other traits of an individual, it is not possible to make adequate descriptionof an individual’s personality.

iii] Another fundamental problem (or drawback} of trait theories is that they are essentiallydescriptive rather than analytical.

Self theory

The intrapsychic, physiognomy and trait theories represent the traditional approaches tounderstanding the complex human personality. Self-theory rejects both psychoanalytic andbehaviouristic conception of human nature as too mechanistic portraying people as creatureshelplessly tossed about by internal instincts or external stimuli. Carl Rogers and his associateshave 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 Roger’s theory we have to understand a) the self-concept, b) the organismand c) the development of self.

a] Self-Concept

The most important concept in Roger’s 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, conceptualgestalt composed of perceptions of the characteristics of the I or me and the perceptions ofthe 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 person’s psychological processes such as perception, motivationand attitudes etc. that result in a composed whole. On the other hand the social self is theway an individual appears to others and the manner this person thinks he appears to others.The perceived self influences the person’s perception of the world and his behaviour. An individualwith a strong, positive self-concept is quite likely to view world quite differently from one whoseself-concept is weak. One important thing to remember here is that self-concept does notnecessarily mean or reflect reality. The essence of this theory is that individuals normally areactive creators and initiators rather than passive reactors to the pressures of the environment..

There is yet another self in Roguery’s self-theory. That is the ideal self. It represents the typeof person an individual likes to be. This concept is similar to Freud’ s ego ideal. If the ideal selfis closer to the real self, then the individual will be more fulfilled and happy.


b) The organism

The organism is essentially the locus of all experience. The totality of experience is the fieldknown to the person himself and is frequently referred to as frame of reference: Behaviour of anindividual is largely determined by this field and not by the stimulating conditions of events inthe external field or environment.

The individual evaluates every experience in relation to his self-concept. The experiences maybe symbolized or unsymbolised. When they are symbolized they become part of individual’sconsciousness. Conversely, when they are unsymbolised they remain outside the confines ofthe awareness or consciousness of an individual. The important thing here is that distortedsymbolization gives rise to inappropriate behaviour.

c) The development of Self-Personality

Rogers feels that the fundamental force motivating the human organism is self-actualizationi.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 profoundinfluence of the social environment. In the childhood itself, when the child’s behaviour is evaluatedcontinuously by his parents, he will be in a position to discriminate between thoughts andactions that are considered ‘worthy’ and ‘unworthy’. He will be able to exclude the unworthyexperiences from his self-concept.

Rogrers maintains that the innate tendency toward self-actualization often: runs counter totwo needs — the need for their regard, and — the need for positive reward. It is true that thelatter need is universal whereas the former one is the internalization of those actions andvalues that others approve. The regard may be conditional and unconditional. Ideally, the morecompletely the individual is given positive regard acceptance that is not conditional to specificbehaviours – the more congruence there will be between his self-concept and his actualexperience, as well as between his self-concept and ideal self.

Evaluation of the Self-Theory

Self-concept is the result of one’s perceptual process. It is a cognitive factor and maintainedthrough thinking-related activities. The self-theory is appreciated on the ground that it isorganized around the concept of self. It is the one which says that personality and behaviourare largely determined by the individual whereas, in other theories, the individual is the mediumthrough which behaviour is elicited after having been acted upon by elements over which hehas no control.

In analyzing organizational behaviour, it would be beneficial for the manager to understand theself-concept because this unique concept influences the way he should apply variousreinforcement motivation and leadership techniques in the process of maintaining the required


amount of output. For instance, monetary rewards for performance, authoritarian leadershipstyle and motivational strategies when applied to an intelligent, independent, confident, workermay be ineffective. These techniques may prove to be effective when are applied to theunintelligent, insecure, indecisive workers.

The various psychological processes may be thought of as the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, andpersonality as the completed puzzle picture. As was recently noted, “events in the externalenvironment (including the presence and behaviour of others) strongly influence the way peoplebehave at any particular point in time; yet people always bring something of themselves to thesituation. We often refer to this ‘something’, which represents the unique qualities of theindividual, as personality.

Personality and organisation

In organizations, the difference in personalities of individuals are aggregated and lost whenthey are regarded as having somewhat identical ‘patterns of behavioural tendencies. Somepeople in organizations respond most favorably to rule conscious, conformity demanding,security laden, and most protective principles. In other words there is a passion for bureaucracyfor these people. On the extreme side some other people prefer autonomy flexibility in operationsand jobs dynamism etc., in the organization. Therefore a good match between individualpersonality and organization is essential. Unfortunately, mismatches between personalityand organizational requirements may also be bound to happen sometimes. For instance,bureaucratization may be associated with the people characterized by greater intellectualflexibility, higher valuation of self, direction, greater openness to new experience and morepersonally rewarding morale standards etc. Such mismatch between personality andorganization structure may lead to confusion and chaos, and loss of interest by the membersin the organization, low morale and job satisfaction.

How is an individual’s personality determined?

The sources of personality differences has got to do with two important factors:

a. Heredity {NATURE} – Deeply ingrained in many people’s notions of personality is a beliefin it’s genetic basis. Expressions such as “He is just like his father” reflect such beliefs.Historically, the nature-nurture controversy in personality theory was sharp disagreementabout the extent to which the genetic factors influence personality.

b. Environment {NURTURE} – Many behavioural experts still believe that the environmentplays a larger role in shaping personality than do inherited characteristics. Aspects ofthe environment that influence personality formation include:

� Culture: The term culture refers to the distinctive ways that different humanpopulations or societies organize their lives. Individuals born into a particular culture


are exposed to family and societal values and norms of acceptable behaviours.Although culture has an impact on development of employee’s personality, not allindividuals respond to cultural influences equally. Indeed, one of the serious mistakesmanagers could make is to assume that their subordinates and team members arejust like themselves in terms of societal norms, values and personality.

� Family: The primary vehicle for socializing an individual into a particular culture isthe person’s immediate family. In particular, parents influence the development oftheir children in three important ways:

a. Through their own behaviors, they present situations that bring out certainbehaviours in children

b. They serve as role models with which children often strongly identify.

c. They selectively reward and punish certain behaviours.

The family’s situation is also an important source of personality differences.Situational influences include the family’s size, socio economic levels, race,religion, parent’s education, and so on.

d. Group Membership: The first group to which most individuals belong is theirfamily. People also participate in various groups in their lives. The numerousroles and experiences that people have as members of groups represent anotherimportant source of personality differences. Although playmates and schoolgroups early in life may have the strongest influences on personality formation,social and group experiences in the later life continue to influence and shapepersonality.

e. Life Experiences: Each person’s life is also unique in terms of specific eventsand experiences, which can serve as important determinants of personality.For example, the development of self esteem depends on a series of experiencesthat include the opportunity to achieve goals and meet expectations, evidenceof ability to influence others, and clear sense of being valued by others.

Personality Structure

The number of and variety of specific personality traits or dimensions is bewildering. The termpersonality trait typically refers to the basic components of personality. Trait name simplyrefer to the terms people use to describe each other. To be useful, these terms need to beorganized into small sets of concepts or descriptions.

Five main factors summarize the personality structure. These Big Five factors, as they oftenare referred to, describe individual’s adjustment, sociability, conscientiousness, agreeablenessand intellectual openness. As shown in the figure below, each factor includes a potentiallylarge number and range of specific traits or dimensions.


THE BIG FIVE-PERSONALITY STRUCTURE

Stable, Confident & Effective Nervous, self doubting, moody

Gregarious, energetic, self-dramatizing Shy, unassertive, withdrawn

Planful, neat, dependable Impulsive, careless, irresponsible

Warm, tactful, considerate 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 personalityfactors and job performance. Their findings indicate that the employees who are responsible,dependable, persistent and achievement oriented perform better than those who lack thesetraits.

Self-Esteem: It is the result of an individual’s continuing evaluation of himself and herself. Inother words, people develop, hold and sometimes modify opinions of their own behaviour,abilities, appearance and worth. These general assessments reflect responses to people andsituations, successes and failures and the opinion of others.

Self-esteem affects behaviour in organizations and other social settings in several importantways. Self-esteem is related to initial vocational choice. For example, individuals with highself-esteem take risks in job selection, are attracted to high status occupations and are morelikely 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, employeeswith low self-esteem are more easily influenced by the opinions of others around than areemployees with high self-esteem. Employees with low self-esteem set lower goals forthemselves 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 expendefforts to accomplish tasks. Clearly, self-esteem is an important individual difference in termsof effective work behaviour.

Adjustment

Sociability

Conscientiousness

Agreebleness

Intellectual Openness


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 actionsprimarily, but not necessarily totally, determine many of the events in their lives. On the otherhand, individuals who have a high external LOC (externals) believe that chance, fate or otherpeople primarily determine what happens to them.

Many differences between internals and externals are significant in explaining aspects ofbehaviour in organizations and other social settings.

Goal Orientation

Another individual difference of importance for behaviour in work settings is goal orientation orthe preference for one type of goal versus another. Specifically, two orientations are consideredimportant in terms of understanding some aspects of individual job performances. A learninggoal orientation is a predisposition to develop competence by acquiring new skills and masteringnew situations.

A performance goal orientation is a predisposition to demonstrate and validate competenceby seeking favorable judgments from others ( e.g., a supervisor ) and avoiding negativejudgments. Table 2.2 contains a questionnaire that you can use to access your own learningand performance goal orientation with regard to your academic studies.

The Effects of Locus of Control on Performance

CONDITIONS PERFORMANCE

Information ProcessingThe work requires complex Internals perform betterinformation processing andcomplex learning.

The work is quite simple and easy to learn Internals perform no better thanexternals

InitiativeThe work requires initiatives and independent action Internals perform better

The work requires Compliance and conformity Externals perform better

MotivationThe work requires high motivation and provides Internals perform bettervalued rewards in return for greater efforts; incentivepay for greater productivity


The work does not requiregreat effort and contingent rewards are lacking; Externals perform at least as well ashourly pay rates determined by collective bargaining internals

The implications of these goal orientations for work behaviour are dramatic.

� 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 atwork 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 dissatisfiedand 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 setbacksby increasing their efforts and seeking new solutions to the problem.

� They treat failure as a form of useful feedback, typically maintain their composure whenchallenged, and sustain or increase performance even when they face obstacles that aredifficult to overcome.

Although an individual’s goal orientation can vary somewhat in different situations, there isstrong evidence that a significant amount of goal orientation can be considered to be anaspect of individual’s personality. A strong learning goal orientation may be summed up bythe 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 jobperformance in a study of sales people employed. As expected, superior sales performancewas associated with a learning goal orientation. The researches concluded that simply “wantingto 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 (alearning goal orientation). One recommendation to the organization was to seek evidence of alearning goal orientation when selecting employees for their sales force.

Introversion and Extroversion

In everyday usage, the words introvert and extrovert describe a person’s congeniality: Anintrovert is shy and retiring, whereas an extrovert is socially gregarious and outgoing. Theterms have similar meanings when used to refer to personality dimensions.


One of the most striking implications of the introversion-extroversion personality dimensioninvolves task performance in different environments.

� Introversion is a tendency to be directed inward and have a greater affinity for abstractideas and sensitivity to personal feelings. Introverts are quiet, introspective, and emotionallyunexpressive.

� Extroversion is an orientation towards the other people, events and objects. Extrovertsare sociable, lively, impulsive, and emotionally expressive.

� Extroverts are well represented in managerial occupations because the manager’s roleoften 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 onlymoderately introverted or extroverted, or are even relatively balanced between the extremes.Introverts and extroverts, appear in all educational, gender, and occupational groups. Researcheven suggests that some extroversion or extreme introversion can interfere with an individual’seffectiveness in an organization.

Recall our discussion of the sources of personality differences among people (nature versusnature). Interestingly, many experts consider introversion and extroversion to be personalitydimension with a relatively high genetically determined component.

Dogmatism and Authoritarianism

Dogmatism refers to the rigidity of a person’s beliefs.

� The highly dogmatic individual perceives the world as a threatening place, often regardslegitimate authority as absolute, and accepts or rejects other people on the basis of theiragreement with accepted authority or doctrine.

� The high-dogmatic (HD) individual is close-minded, and the low-dogmatic (LD) person isopen-minded.

� As a result, HDs appear to depend more on authority figures in the organization forguidance 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 withothers. Hence the performance of HDs assigned to task forces and committees may varysomewhat, depending on how the group goes about its work. A high degree of dogmatism is


related to a limited search for information in decision-making situations, which sometimesleads to poor managerial performance.

Authoritarianism is closely related to dogmatism but is narrower in scope.

� The authoritarian personality describes someone who adheres to conventional values,obeys recognized authorities, exhibits a negative view of society, respects power andtoughness, and opposes the expression of personal feelings.

� In organizations, the authoritarian personality probably is subservient to authority figuresand 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 specificrelationship 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 challengefor managers and employees is to understand the crucial role played by personality in explainingsome aspects of human behaviour in the workplace. Knowledge of important individualdifferences provides managers, employees, and students of organizational behaviour withvaluable 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 aninteraction of the person and the situation. Some times the demands of the situation may beso overwhelming that individual differences are relatively unimportant. For example, if an officebuilding is burning, every one in it will try to flee. However, the fact that all employees behavedthe same way says nothing about the personalities of those individuals. In other cases, individualdifferences may explain more about behaviour.

The relative importance of situational versus dispositional (personal) determinants of behaviourcontinues to be debated, but considerable evidence exists for roles by both.


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 forpredicting and estimating the individual’s responses to certain organizational stimuli. Individualsreact to different stimuli on the basis of learned preferences. An individual’s behaviour is afunction of attitudes. An attitude is a cognitive element; it always remains inside a person. Inorganizational context, employees have attitudes related to job security or uncertainty, prestigeof the department and the work that does etc. The individual’s attitudes toward these factorsare 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 concerninghis attitude).

NATURE OF ATTITUDE

An attitude may be defined as a tendency to react positively or negatively in regard to anobject. For example, a person who has a positive attitude towards the religion is likely toenjoy going to worship services, believe that the religious institutions fosters morality, andmay, therefore, contribute to its financial support.

An attitude is always directed toward some object, such as the temple, school etc. Theobject may be of general social significance, such as labour-management relations, or it maybe purely personal, such as a feeling about playing cricket or football. Moreover, the object ofan 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 hasa readiness or a disposition to react favorably or unfavorably to anyone of a large variety ofrelated 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 ifthe National Anthem is sung, and so on.

Attitudes are for or against things. We tend to have favorable attitudes toward sources ofgratification and unfavorable attitudes toward sources of punishment and frustration. It is


possible, of course, that our attitudes toward an object may not be uniformly favorable orunfavorable. For example, we may admire and respect American technical accomplishmentsand yet resent other aspects of its system.

AROUSAL OF ATTITUDE

What kinds of events are likely to arouse attitudinal reactions? The following principles regardingconditions for attitude arousal.

If an event appears to maintain, attain, or foster movement toward what one value, then thisevent will tend to arouse positive reactions. Accordingly, a person who identifies with thegoals 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 withthe goals of labor unions would react negatively to legislation or proposal to restrict tradeunionism.

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 attitudearousal for a person who has an unfavorable attitude toward labour unions:

A. Seeing a group of people in working clothes;

B. Seeing a group of labourers entering a union hall;

C. Seeing a group of labourers picketing in an orderly manner;

D. 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 anintensely anti-union attitude, item B and even A would be capable of arousing the attitude.

The stronger one’s attitude, the greater the probability of arousal of the attitude. Or the widerthe range of stimulus situations which are capable of arousing it, for example, those who havestrong attitudes, either favorable or unfavorable, in regard to untouchability are likely to bearoused 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. Theseconsist of affective (emotional), reactions, cognition’s (thoughts, perceptual reactions,judgements), and action tendencies. The latter are actually motives for doing particular things.

To illustrate, suppose that we consider someone’s internal reactions to situations involvinghigher education. He likes (affective reaction) the company of well-educated people, enjoys(affective reaction) spending time in the university library, believes (cognition) that industrial


society depends upon what universities do, judges (cognition) that college professors arecapable people, and wants (action tendency) to contribute to a campaign to raise the universityendowment. Thus an aroused attitude can be regarded as having affective, cognitive, andaction components.

The set of implicit responses that is aroused on a particular occasion depends upon theperson and the stimulus situations. Sometimes we have strong emotional reactions to asituation but lack definite beliefs and action tendencies in relation to it. For example, we mightdeeply resent a foreigner’s blast against our country’s policies but not have any systematicbeliefs about the significance of his actions or any definite action tendencies. In some peopleaffective reactions and beliefs may play a large part in their religious attitudes while theiraction tendencies are minimal.

The greater the degree of arousal of the affective component of an attitude, the greater thestrength of reaction to other attitude-related stimuli. If a person is already stirred up aboutsomething relevant to an attitude, he will tend to react to some new attitude stimulus morestrongly 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 theaffective 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 evaluationa person possesses.” Such concepts and standards are relatively few and determine ourguide an individual’s evaluations of the many objects encountered in everyday life.

Values are tinged with moral flavour, involving an individual’s judgment of what is right, good ordesirable. Thus values –

1) provide standards of competence and morality,

2) are fewer in number than attitudes,

3) transcend specific objects, situations or persons,

4) 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 predispositionto respond. Values focus on the judgment of what ought to be. This judgment can representthe specific manifestation of a determining tendency below the surface of the behaviour. Attitudesrepresent 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


and situations. Finally, a value stands in relation to some social or cultural standards ornorms while attitudes are mostly personal experiences.

There are similarities between values and attitudes. Both are powerful instruments influencingcognitive process and behaviour of people. Both are learned and acquired from the samesource – experiences with people and objects. Values and attitudes are relatively permanentand resistant to change. Finally, values and attitudes influence each, other and are, moreoften than not, used interchangeable.

ATTITUDE AND OPINIONS

An opinion is an expression of an evaluative judgment or point of view regarding a specifictopic or subject. An attitude is somewhat generalized (such as liking or not liking a person‘ssupervisor), 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 orobservations 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 ruleshave been violated, one person (who has an “unfavorable” attitude toward the engineer) mightlater- 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 theopinion 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 ajudgement about its form. Many of our beliefs, of course, are emotionally neutral; others aredefinitely favorable or unfavorable toward some object. For example, a favorable attitude towardthe religion may involve beliefs that the religion helps to curb delinquency, that worshippersare better citizens than are non-devotees, that people who stay away from temples are unhappyand immoral, and so on.

When beliefs become organized into systems, they are called ideologies. The capitalistideology, 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 themarketplace do and should determine what is produced.

Related to this is a disbelief system – the set of beliefs, which one rejects. An individualcommitted to capitalist ideology would disbelieve that industry can be run efficiently withoutthe profit system; that people will work primarily out of a desire to serve others; or that publicownership of all utilities is necessary for the common good.


There are ideologies pertaining to all the major institutions of society, such as the family, thelaw, the government, and the economic system. Although these ideologies are difficult toverify, we feel strongly about them and, as long as things go well, have great confidence inthem. They give us an interpretation and a justification for our practices. Like religion, they arematters 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 abouthuman behaviour that some of the beliefs that we hold most tenaciously with the strongestfeelings 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. Prejudicesare strongly entrenched and vigorously defended, if threatened. They are acquired in the sameway as other attitudes. They are supported by differences in relative privileges, fear, andcertain personality factors.

CHARACTERISTICS OF ATTITUDES :

Attitude can be characterized by their –

a) Valence,

b) Multiplexity

c) Relation to needs

d) Centrality.

a) Valence : It refers to the magnitude or degree of favorableness or unfavourablenesstoward the object/event. While measuring the attitudes we are basically concerned withthe valence. If a person is relatively indifferent toward an object then his attitude has lowvalence. On the other hand, if a person is extremely favorable or unfavorable toward andattitude object, then his attitude will have a high valence.

b) 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 alsoworks hard, is sincere, and serious. Similarly an employee may feel simply loyal to anOrganisation, but another may feel loyal, respectful, fearful and dependent.

c) Relation to needs : Attitudes vary in relation to needs they serve. For instance, attitudesof an individual toward the pictures may serve only entertainment needs. On the otherhand, attitudes of an individual toward task may serve strong needs for security,achievement, recognition, and satisfaction.


d) Centrality: One salient characteristic of the attitude refers to the importance of theattitude 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 ofsources of attitudes are learning”. Attitudes reflect a person’s previous reinforcement history.

The sources of a person’s attitude are a mixture of –

a) Personal experiences

b) Association

c) Family

d) Peer groups and society

e) Models and

f) Institutional factors.

a) Personal Experiences: People form attitudes by coming in direct contact with an attitudeobject. By the time a person goes for work in a specified Organisation, he holds manyattitudes toward the type of the job that is acceptable to him, the expected pay, workingconditions and supervision. Through job experiences they develop attitudes about suchfactors as salary, performance reviews, job design, work group, affiliation and managerialcapabilities etc. Previous work experience can account for the individual differences inattitudes such as loyalty, commitments, performance etc. Many mangers in workorganisations frequently notice these differences in attitudes.

b) Association: People are highly influenced by the major groups or associations to whichthey belong. Geographic region, religion, educational background, race, sex, age andincome- class–all strongly influence attitudes. The nearer the group the stronger is thegroup influence on the attitudes of the individual.

c) Family: Family is the primary group that an individual belongs to. Family exerts influenceon the initial core of attitudes held by an individual. Individuals develop certain attitudesfrom family members–parents, brothers, sisters etc. The family characteristics influencethe individual’s early attitude patterns. Researchers have found a high degree of relationshipbetween parents and children in attitudes than they found between children and theirpeers. They also empirically observed low correlation between attitudes of the childrenand their teachers.


d) Peer Groups: As people approach their adulthood, they increasingly rely on their peergroups for approval /attitude. How others judge an individual largely determine his self-image and approval-seeking behaviour. Social class and religious affiliation also playvital role in forming attitudes of an individual. The culture, language, and the structure ofsociety, all provide an individual with the boundaries of his initial attitudes. At the veryearly age an individual is taught that certain attitudes are acceptable and certain othersare non- acceptable in the society. What seem to be appropriate in one individual’sculture and society may be totally unacceptable in another culture.

e) Models : Some of the attitudes are developed through imitation of models. The processis something like this: In a particular situation, we see how another person behaves. Wecorrectly 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 perceivingand feeling about the situation. Children are often quite observant about how their parentsreact to different people and situations. They learn by watching whom their parent’srespect, which they treat with condescension, whom they regard as friends, and whomthey dislike. Such evaluations maybe acquired without the child’s directly interactingwith such people. Instead of using a simple model, children (and adults) may seek toemulate 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 themtend to be retained.

f) Institutional Factors : Many institutional factors function as sources and support of ourattitudes 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 Aaratiall start singing Bhajan and clap. The entire process is devoted to ritual. From this wecan get an idea as to the general character of the religious attitudes and beliefs. There isimplicit attitude of reverence, an orientation toward a deity, a ritualized rather thanspontaneous expression of feeling, a sharp differentiation between Pujari and devoteesand so on. The different parts of the institution – the architecture, furnishings, people’sclothing, and behaviour–have a meaning which fits in with certain beliefs and attitudes.There are many other institutions in our society – schools, military organisations, andthe like – which also function as sources and supports of attitudes and beliefs.

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 whichask the respondents to evaluate and rate their attitude toward a particular object directly, andto respond favorably or unfavorably about his belief regarding the attitude object. Generally,


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., Thurstone’sscale, Likert’s scale, Bogardus’s social distance scale, Guttman’s scale etc. Let us throw adim light on these scales.

Thurstone’s scale: The statements, both favorable and unfavorable, relating to the area inwhich attitudes were to be measured are placed into eleven piles; one representing the mostfavorable one and one representing the unfavorable. Individuals will then be asked to checkthose statements with which they agreed. The average of the scale values of the items, whichthey accepted, will give an indication of the placement of a person along the attitude continuum.

Likert’s scale: Another scale that is relatively easy when compared to the earlier is the onethat is developed by Rensis Likert.

Likert’s 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 fiveboxes and finally all the ratings are summed up. The Likert’s scale is also known as summed-rating measure, because several statements are collected in an attitude area, such as one’sattitude about, a job, and the scales are added up or summed to obtain a person’s attitudetoward his job. The summed-rating scale provides a means of measuring the intensity of one’sattitude toward a particular object/event in addition to the direction.

Bogardus’s social distance scale: Perhaps the simple scale of measuring attitudes is thesocial distance scale developed by Bogardus in 1925. The scale is composed of a largenumber of statements regarding national, racial or ethnic groups.

Guttman’s scale : Guttman in 1950 developed cumulative scaling technique to measureattitudes. In the scale of one’s attitude toward work, an employee might be presented with sixstatements displaying successively higher degrees of dissatisfaction. It is assumed that theemployee will reach some point beyond which he can no longer agree. The main threshold isconsidered to be the degree of satisfaction.

Measuring attitudes by means of projective tests : Other methods are, therefore, sometimesrequired to obtain a truer picture of attitudes. One such method is the projective test, whichrequires a person to respond to an unstructured stimulus situation. The rationale behind suchtests is that, when the stimulus situation is unstructured, mainly his motives, expectations,and other personal factors determine the individual’s responses. Projective tests of attitudeare particularly valuable in the study of prejudice, since so many of our prejudices operate atan unconscious level or are deliberately disguised to conform to prevailing taboos – againstthe expression of overt prejudice.


There are good many other scales to measure attitudes. From a practical standpoint, oneshould either use a standard questionnaire or consult an expert to obtain a valid estimate ofattitudes 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 arecertain matters which require special care. Leading questions, which induce the subjectto give a certain answer, should be avoided. For example the question “How do you feelabout TV shows which feature violence, cheating and immoral conduct”? It would beimpossible to express agreement with such TV shows.

ii) The questions should be understandable to the respondent and should take into accountthe respondent’s 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 doesnot have to choose between fixed alternatives and may respond freely according to howhe thinks and feels about the subject. Then, depending on his answers, he is askedfurther questions which are intended to find out how he feels about specific aspects ofthe subject.

iii) Respondents sometimes consciously or unconsciously distort their answers. Consciousdistortion or faking is most likely to occur when a person has some motive to misrepresenthis attitude, such as fear of reprisal, embarrassment, or guilt at feeling a certain way ora desire to please or impress the questioner. We may answer attitude questions bygiving what we consider to be the socially desirable answer instead of expressing feelingswe think others would reject.

iv) One must be careful to get a representative sample of whatever group or population towhich one wishes to generalise his findings.

CHANGING THE ATTITUDES

A whole set of influences, some of which are favorable and others unfavorable to the objectusually determine an attitude.

In principle, an attitude change is attributable to a change in the relative strength of theseinfluences. When the influences in a given direction become relatively stronger than those inthe opposite direction, the attitude will tend to shift. Weakening the opposing forces can alsobring about such a shift.

Attitude changes may be roughly classified into congruent and incongruent changes. Bycongruent change we mean a movement in the same direction. To take an example, lessserious student may be converted into a more serious student by resorting to attitude change.


On the other hand, an incongruent attitude change involves a change toward the other end ofthe continuum. For example, conversion of a dull and non-intelligent student into an interestingand intelligent student constitutes this incongruent attitude change. Similarly turning dislikeinto like, unfavourable into favourable etc. are examples of incongruent attitude changes.

A manager attempting to change an individual employee’s attitudes should keep in mind thatthe attitude change depends on following factors:

1) The characteristics of the communicator

2) The method of communication

3) The characteristics of the person to be influenced

4) Situational factors

5) New Experiences

1) Characteristics of the Communicator: The most important thing in attitude change isthe characteristics of communicator.

These include the status and prestige of the communicator. Whether, according to theemployee 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 employee’s 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 changetheir 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 ina difficult position to change the attitudes of his employees. One of the more reliableresearch findings is that the greater the prestige of the communicator, the more is hisability to change the attitude of employees.

2) The Method of Communication: Another influential factor in attitude change is theway the manager communicates the message to his employees. People, when presentedwith two-sided views, will be more convinced as they perceive that the argument is notbiased.

Another method of communication is through “fear appeals”. By communicating theterrible consequences of the continuance of the present attitudes, a manager can bringchange in attitudes. Anti-smoking advertisement, by constantly emphasising thedangerous possibility of cancer attacks, are famous examples of “fear appeals”. The


research results indicate that fear appeals can be effective, especially when the targetcannot do something constructive to reduce the fear on the spot.

3) Characteristics of the Target: The single most important factor influencing the attitudechange 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 theperson concerned has already shown commitment. And to change the attitude would beto admit the mistake. Research reveals that attitudes represented by public statementsare more resistant to change than those stated privately. Also firmly held attitudes towhich people are behaviourally or morally committed are difficult to change.

4) Situational Factors: Situational factors are not only extensive but also play a majorrole in influencing the change in attitudes of people. How one perceives the message isdependent on the situation or the prevailing context. If the employee believes that thegroup (his colleagues) is more favorable to the manager, then he will have less hesitationin changing his attitudes. Further, when the person feels the group and the group membersare important he will have an “easy go”; in changing his attitudes towards the group.

5) New Experiences: Whether or not new experiences (or information) will change ourattitudes depends partly upon the strength of the initial attitudes and beliefs and partlyupon how strongly favorable or unfavorable the experiences may be.

If we already have strong attitudes, we are likely to resist changing them. Indeed we canbe so strongly prejudiced that we interpret what would otherwise be favorable experiencesas exceptions. Moreover we may be especially sensitive to any experiences which areunfavorable. Nevertheless a prolonged series of strikingly favorable or unfavorableexperiences can effect a change.

We are motivated to perceive those situations or aspects of situations, which are congruentwith 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 aneed to enhance and defend our self-esteem.

When our self-esteem is threatened we are very likely to resist vigorously any attempt tochange our attitude. We may reject another’s evaluation simply because agreeing wouldappear to admit his superiority. Sometimes, however, when the threat is removed, we mayconsider the situation more objectively.


ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOUR

Work Attitudes

The importance of attitude — behaviour relationship can best be demonstrated by examiningtwo key work attitudes —job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Of interest also arethe complex relationships between job satisfaction and job performance.

Job Satisfaction

In organizational behavior, perhaps the attitude of greatest interest is the general attitude ofemployees toward work or toward a job, often called job satisfaction. The sources of jobsatisfaction are of particular interest because they often suggest corrective action that can betaken.

SOURCE OF JOB SATISFACTION

Job satisfaction is sometimes regarded as a single concept; that is a person satisfied or notsatisfied with the job. However, it actually is a collection of specific job attitudes that can berelated to various aspects of the job. For example, a popular measure of job satisfaction - thejob descriptive index (JDI) -measures satisfaction in terms of five specific aspects of a person’sjob; pay, promotion, supervision, the work itself, and co-workers. Obviously, an employeemay 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:

� 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 ofinterest that the job holds for the person, the extent of required physical activity, thecharacteristics 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.


� An important implication of the relationship suggested is that job satisfaction perhapsshould 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

� Satisfaction and Productivity

� Satisfaction and Absenteeism

� Satisfaction and Turnover

Of special interest to managers and employees are the possible relationships between jobsatisfaction and various job behaviours and other outcomes in the work place. A commonsense

Effects of various work factors on Job Satisfaction

WORK FACTORS EFFECTS

Work Itself Mentally challenging work that the individual cansuccessfully accomplish is satisfying

Physical Demands Tiring work is dissatisfying

Personal Interest Personally interesting work is satisfying

Reward Structure Rewards that are equitable and that provide accuratefeedback for performance are satisfying

Working Conditions

Physical Satisfaction depends on the match between workingconditions and physical needs

Goal Attainment Working conditions that promote goal attainment aresatisfying

Self High self esteem is conducive to job satisfaction

Others in the organization Individuals will be satisfied with supervisors, co-workers, or subordinates who help them attain rewards.Also, individuals will be more satisfied with colleagueswho see things the same way they do.

Organization and Management Individuals will be satisfied with organizations that havepolicies and procedures designed to help them.Individuals will be dissatisfied with conflicting roles and/or ambiguous roles imposed by the organization.


notion is that job satisfaction leads directly to effective task performance. (A happy worker isa good worker). Yet, numerous studies have shown that a simple, direct linkage between jobsatisfaction and job performance often doesn’t exist. The difficulty of relating attitudes tobehaviour is pertinent here. Earlier, we noted that general attitude best predict general behavioursand that specific attitudes are related most strongly to specific behaviours. These principlesexplain, at least in part; why the expected relationships often don’t exist.

Overall job satisfaction, as a collection of numerous attitudes towards various aspects of thejob, represents a general attitude.

Performance of a specific task, such as preparing a particular monthly report, can’t necessarilybe predicted on the basis of a general attitude. Even though tight linkage between satisfactionand specific task performance cannot always be drawn, job satisfaction is often important interms of organizational effectiveness. For example, studies have shown that levels of jobsatisfaction in the workforce and organizational performance are linked. That is, organizationswith satisfied employees tend to be more effective than organizations with unsatisfiedemployees. Further, many organizations appreciate the linkage between customer satisfactionand the satisfaction of employees who interact with their customers.

Job satisfaction is important for many reasons in addition to these mentioned.

� Because satisfaction represents an outcome of the work experience, high levels ofdissatisfaction helps to identify organizational problems that need attention.

� In addition, job dissatisfaction is strongly linked to absenteeism, turnover, and physicaland mental health problems. For example research clearly shows that highly dissatisfiedemployees 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. Highlevels of absenteeism and turnover are costly for organizations. Many management expertssuggest that the strong relationship between dissatisfaction and absenteeism and turnoveris 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 commitmentto the organization.

Organizational Commitment refers to the strength of an employees’ involvement in theorganization and identification with it. Strong organizational commitment is characterized by:

� A belief in and acceptance of the organization’s goals and values

� A willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the organization; and

� A desire to remain with the organization


Organizational commitment goes beyond loyalty to include active contribution to accomplishingorganizational goals. The concept of organizational commitment represents a broader workattitude 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 notlikely to affect it.

Sources of Organizational Commitment

As with the job satisfaction, sources of organizational commitment may vary from person toperson.

� Employees’ initial commitment to the organization is determined largely by their individualcharacteristics (personality, values etc.) and how well their early job experiences matchtheir expectations.

� Pay, relationships at work place, working conditions, opportunities for advancement etc

Overtime, it becomes stronger because:

� 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 employeesmay become more attached with the current organization


SUMMARY

Personality is an important cognitively oriented variables in the study of OB. Personalityrepresents the whole person. It includes perception, learning, physique and a lot more of aperson. Thinkers have tries to explain various determinants of personality. However, we findthat 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,– socio-environmental combination that make personality dynamic.

Like personality and perception attitude is an important cognitive input deciding the directionof human behaviour. Attitudes have some basic characteristics in that they persist unlesschanged in some way; they range along a continuum; and they are directed towards an objectabout which a person has some feelings.

An attitude is an amalgam of personal experience, family, society, peers, models and theinstitutional factors.

Though attitude is a hypothetical construct it is also subject to measurement. Various scaleslike Thurstone’s, Likert’s, Guttman scales are available.

Every manager is intimately concerned with the issue if the attitudes can be changed. If sothen how? Change in the attitudes depends on the characteristics of the communicator, themethod of communication then characteristics of the person to be influences situational factorsetc.

Job Satisfaction and Organisational Commitment reflect work attitudes of employees. Thesehave a large bearing on their behaviour and ultimately their performance.


NOTES

Motivation: The Whys of Human Behaviour 73

Chapter 5

MOTIVATION: THE WHYS OFHUMAN 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 andresearchers 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 conjunctionwith mediating processes and environment. Motivation, like perception and learning is a constructof behaviour. It is a process that starts with psychological and or physiological deficiency thatactivates the behaviour towards goal attainment. Thus motivation represents a relationshipbetween need, drive and goal. Needs are created when there is imbalance-physiological orphysiological. Drives are set up to restore balance. Drives ultimately lead to goalaccomplishment. Motivation is a psychological process. In a sense motivation means causesof 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) That the human behaviour is rational,

b) That the human behaviour is deliberate,

c) That human consciously tries to avoid pain and discomfort and his behaviour is directedto 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 manassumes that the human behaviour is directed to maximize economic gains and minimizeeconomic losses.


Given this assumption of human behaviour, it is very easy to motivate employees. Whenevera certain behaviour is to be encouraged give rewards; whenever a certain behaviour is to bediscouraged give punishment. This is the theory of “reward and punishment”. Unfortunatelythis takes a simplistic view of human behaviour. Human is not always motivated either byreward or by punishment or both. Adherence to ‘reward and punishment’ or ‘carrot and thestick’ as it is some times called, does not cause continuance of desired and sustainedbehaviour over a longer time.

It was William James, who in the first decade of the last century disputed the basic assumptionsof 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 orto pay attention to any object” which causes behaviour. In other words the instincts are thebehaviours 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 isunconscious behaviour. It was Sigmund Freud, however, who shaped the theory of ‘unconsciousbehaviour.

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 ofhuman behaviour. To Freud human is constantly in conflict with the self. The three constructsof 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 ahuman can not verbalize his motivations.

Modern psychologists are prepared to recognize the existence of unconscious behaviour, butnot in the sense implicit to Freud. They believe human behaviour is sparked by a motive. Amotive is a felt need. Human behaviour is directed to satisfy these needs or motives. Theyhave five characteristics. They are:

a) the need having the highest strength dominates the human behaviour;

b) a need once satisfied ceases to influence behaviour;

c) when a need is satisfied, it gives rise to a new need;

d) needs are recurrent in nature;

e) needs are ubiquitous.

Psychologists do not totally agree on how to classify various human motives. However, somepsychologists tend to classify motives according as to whether they are unlearned or learned


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 thisway the most commonly recognized primary motives include hunger, thrust, sleep avoidanceof pain, sex etc.

General Motives are the ones that are unlearned but not physiologically based. Primary needsseek to reduce the tension or stimulation. Although not all the psychologists agree the motivessuch as curiosity, manipulative activity, and affection etc. fall in this category.

Secondary Motives develop as a human society develops economically and becomes morecomplex. The examples of secondary motives are needs for power, need for affiliation, need forachievement, 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 motiveessentially is the desire to control others; to direct others’ behaviour. The power attaches toone’s personal competence. In an organization because of his competence a person comesto acquire power. His say influences the decisions of his superiors. In other words he comesto acquire extra constitutional powers. Person who has acquired such power must use it forthe good of the organization. It is necessary that he recognizes that the power he has isbecause 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 ofhis 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 ofexcellence or to be successful in competitive situations. The specific characteristics of a highachiever are a) moderate risk taking b) need for immediate feed back c) satisfaction withaccomplishment and d) preoccupation with the task.

AFFILIATION MOTIVE

This motive is indicative of the need belong to and be accepted by the others. The considerationof this motive is important in the discussions of group dynamics. The higher the need foraffiliation 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. Ifthat is so the questions arises as to how a human satisfies his motive. The concept of copingbehaviour says the human changes his behaviour until he gets what he wants. The behaviourcontinues on the way leading to need satisfaction.


However, human life is not bed of roses. Many a times situations arise in such a way thathuman being does not understand as to what he should do; or many times his self image islikely to be criticized by the world; or the need fulfillment gets continually blocked. When thisoccurs a phenomenon known as intra personal conflict arises. Intra personal conflicts arethree. They are a) Role conflict; b) goal conflict and c) frustration.

Role conflict arises when a person is performing two different roles having contrary orcontradictory expectations at the same time. A worker who is also a worker-director issandwiched between different expectations. On the one hand he is a worker and on the otherhe is director in the board of directors. As a director he may have to concur with the decisionwhich may not be, from his point of view, in the interests of workers as such. If he performs hisrole as a worker he fails in his role as a director. Conversely if he performs his role as a workerhe fails in his role as a director.

GOAL CONFLICTS:

There are three types of goal conflicts. They are:

a) approach – approach

b) avoidance – avoidance

c) approach — avoidance.

Approach — Approach conflict arises when there exist two equally positive but mutuallyexclusive situations. Both are equally attractive but a person can choose only one of them. Aperson receiving two equally good job offers gets into this kind of conflicts. In life somehow orthe other a person makes a choice and settles down with. This kind of conflict is not known tocreate stress and tensions for a long time.

Avoidance — Avoidance conflict arises when there exist two equally negative situations oneof which has to be accepted. For a prisoner continuing in the jail is negative but at the sametime 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 stressfor 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 longtime. This type of conflict arises when a positive situation is coupled with a negative one, If aperson wants positive, he must choose negative too. A person wanting a promotion but notthe transfer that comes in its wake faces this kind of conflict.

Frustration occurs when need fulfillment is continually blocked or when one’s self image is injeopardy. Defense mechanisms are the behaviours occurring to deal with frustration. Beforewe go to discuss various defense mechanisms the following points be noted:


a) We are discussing only some of the defense mechanisms we come across commonlyat the work life.

b) Defense mechanisms are unconscious behaviours. These behaviours are not deliberatebehaviours. They just occur.

c) It is only for the sake of simplicity that they discussed separately. In life there could bea mixture of different defense mechanisms in one behaviour.

d) In life there is no prioritizing when it comes to defense mechanisms for dealing withfrustration.

e) These defense mechanisms serve an important function of keeping the human personalityintegrated.

Defense Mechanisms:

1. Rationalization is giving pseudo justification to explain one’s failures. The commonexamples are sour grapes or a bad workman quarreling with his tools.

2. Regression is sliding back in terms of one’s chronological age. Certain patterns ofbehaviours are learnt during the childhood that are subsequently, in the adult age, replacedby 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 personalityof the person. A superior getting angry with his subordinate and throwing files at him ora person throwing a pen because of the ink not flowing, are the examples of this defensemechanism.

3. Aggression is also known as emotional transference. This is giving vent to the pent upfeelings by an offensive behaviour towards a third object or a person unconnected withthe source of frustration. The offensive behaviour is, almost always, against the thirdobject or the person that can not retaliate. A superior scolding his subordinate becauseof something happening at home is the example of this defense mechanism.

4. 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 losingoneself in the imaginary world where things happen at his behest. As long as a person isin his imaginary castle he is happy but some time or the other he has to come down tothe mother earth. When he comes out of the imaginary world the problem starts pinchinghim again. The increased frequency of fantasizing is a signal that one had better seeksome help from a psychiatrist.


5. Resignation, flight or withdrawal is a complete surrender to the problem situation. This isaccepting 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 Psychological process Illustrationmechanism

Rationalization Justifying inconsistent or Padding the expense accountundesirable behaviour, beliefs etc. “because everybody does it.”by providing acceptableexplanation for them.

Regression Individual returns to an earlier a A manager shouting at hisless mature level of adjustment subordinate.in the face of frustration.

Aggression Re-directing pent-up emotions Roughly rejecting a request fromi.e. emotional towards persons or the objects a subordinate after receiving atransference unconnected with the source rebuff from the boss.

of frustration.

Fantasy Daydreaming or other forms of Employee daydreams of the dayimaginative activity provide an in the staff meeting when heescape from the reality and corrects the boss and is publiclyimagined satisfaction. acknowledged as the real brain

of the company.

Negativism Active or passive resistance A manager saying that theoperating unconsciously. recommendations of a

committee are notimplementable because hecould not become a member ofthe committee.

Resignation, flight Leaving the field where anxiety or A student who could not passor withdrawal. conflict is experienced. an examination quitting the

course.

Adapted from Fred Lutherans Organizational Behaviour – VI Edition Page 373.


SUMMARY

For a long time the question about various reasons of human behaviour was pondered over byphilosophers. Greeks advocated a thesis that the human behaviour is deliberate and humanconsciously tries to avoid pain and discomfort. By the beginning of the last century the instinctivebehavioural school disputed this thesis.

Sigmund Freud gave the explanation of human behaviour in his concept known as unconsciousbehaviour.

However, the modern psychologists believe that the human behaviour is directed to satisfy themotive. A motive is a felt need. One of the most important characteristics of motives is thatthey are ubiquitous.

Many situations create conflict in the mind of an individual. These are called intra-personalconflicts. They are role conflict, goal conflict, and frustration.

Role conflict arises as a result of a person performing two contrary or contradictory roles atthe 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 frustrationarises. Defense mechanisms are the ways to deal with frustration.


NOTES

Work Motivation Theories 83

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 theorganizational behaviour an understanding of these basics is a must. They serve as a preludeto study the work-motivation approaches. These work motivation approaches can be broadlyclassified as content and process theories.

The content theories are concerned with identifying the needs that people have and howneeds are prioritized. They are concerned with types of incentives that drive people to attainneed fulfillment. The Maslow hierarchy theory, Fredrick Herzberg’s two factor theory andAlderfer’s ERG needs theory fall in this category. Although such a content approach haslogic, is easy to understand, and can be readily translated in practice, the research evidencepoints outs out limitations. There is very little research support for these models’ theoreticalbasis and predictability. The trade off for simplicity sacrifices true understanding of the complexityof work motivation. On the positive side, however, the content models have given emphasis toimportant content factors that were largely ignored by human relationists. In addition theAlderfer model allows more flexibility and the Herzberg model is useful as an explanation forjob satisfaction and as a point of departure for job design.

The process theories provide a much sounder theoretical explanation of work motivations. Theexpectancy model of Vroom and the extensions and the refinements provided by Porter andLawler help explain the important cognitive variables and how they relate to one another in theprocess of work motivation. The Porter Lawler model also gives specific attention to the importantrelationship between performance and satisfaction. A growing research literature is somewhatsupportive of these expectancy models, but conceptual and methodological problems remain.Unlike the content models these expectancy models are relatively complex and difficult to


translate into actual practice, and, consequently, they have generally failed to meet the goalsof prediction and control of organisation behaviour.

The process theories are concerned with identifying the variables that go into motivation andmore 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 bearranged in a hierarchy of pre-potency and probability of occurrence. Maslow based his theorythat 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 denotedas 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. belongingnessneeds

Security needs

Physiological needs

Physiological Needs :

The fulfillment of physiological needs, such as thirst, hunger, sex, sleep, etc. takes precedenceover all other needs; nay, on the satisfaction of these needs, is dependent the very survival andcontinuance of the human race. Unlike other needs, the physiological needs have a tendencyof recurrence. An individual may postpone the fulfillment of these needs and/or adapt his needsatisfying-behaviour to suit the culture and the situation. Money represents the best means tosatisfy physiological needs. Money is valued not for its own sake, but for the sake of what itcan buy for us. This is one of the dimensions of money motive. Physiological needs are finitebut are recurrent.

Safety needs:

Once physiological needs are met, ‘safety’ needs become important. While physiological


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 youngand 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 havereasonable ‘safety’ in his old age too. Implicit in the fulfillment of these safety needs is theorigin of many labour enactments in India today. The pension plans, the payment of gratuityAct, the provident funds Act etc. and other retiral benefits, go, basically, to ensure security forthe 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 enoughsecurity is an ever-present dilemma before the management providing security of jobs to theiremployees.

Social and belongingness needs :

The needs for social belongingness have their origin in the gregarious nature of the humanbeing. Since man is a social being, he has a need to belong and to be accepted by variousgroups. When social needs become dominant, a person will strive for meaningful relationswith others. People interact simply because they enjoy it. Even such interactions which giveno apparent tangible rewards are entered into simply because they reasonably assure onethat 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 properlyvisualize the strength of these needs. It would to say that even the hardened criminals dreadthe punishment of solitary confinement. Solitary confinement is known to rupture the humanpsyche.

The informal groups in an organization are founded in a quest to fulfill the needs forbelongingness. One of the many reasons for the informal groups to thrive in an organizationcould be the employees’ reaction to the threat posed by boredom, insignificance and insecuritythe employees feel.

The least the management can do is to recognize the fact that the informal groups can be anasset to them and can be instrumental in furthering the goals of the organization. Managementdoes 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 hecraves for and strives towards is that others should recognize his worth. An employee stays inan organization not merely because he gets his salary and other material rewards but he isthere because others recognize that he is worthy of the job and other material benefits that he


gets. This need manifests itself in three forms; (a) the need for status; (b) the need for powerand (c) the need for recognition.

The scuffle in the organization for achieving the organizational status and the power, whichgoes with it, is the essence of the esteem needs. Promotion is recognition of one’s capabilityto shoulder higher responsibilities.

Self actualization needs:

In the words of Maslow, these needs denote “ what a man can be should be”. A self-actualizedperson has a cause; an ideology to fight for the goal set for himself. He concentrates on thefeed 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 otherneeds in pursuance of cause. He is unmindful of the physical surroundings.

Archimedes, when he exclaimed “Eureka” was oblivious of the surroundings. The Great IndianLeader Mahatma Gandhi deprived himself even of the physical necessities when he underwenta fasting penance at Nowkhali at the time of partition of the country. A highly successfulscientist 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 Maslow’s theory is that it provides both a theory of human motives byclassifying basic human needs in a hierarchy and the theory of human motivation that relatesthese needs to general behaviour. Maslow’s 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 amotivator.

Mallow’s 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 concreteguidance 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 overfulfillment of anyone particular need may result in fixation for the need. In that case even whena 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. Thereremains an unsatisfied corner of every need inspite of which the person seeks fulfillment of thehigher need.


A person may move on to the next need in spite of the lower need being unfulfilled or beingpartly fulfilled.

Maslow in his later work said:

1. Gratification of the self-actualization need causes an increase in its importance ratherthan a decrease;

2. Long deprivation of a given need, results in fixation for that need;

3. Higher needs may emerge not after gratification, but rather by long deprivation, renunciationor suppression of lower needs.

4. Human behaviour is multi-determined and multi-motivated.

Herzberg’s two factor theory of motivation:

Herzberg extended work of Maslow and developed a specific content theory of work motivation.In 1950’s he conducted a study noting responses of Accountants and Engineers employed bythe firms in and around Pittsburgh. In collecting data he used the critical incidental method. Inthis method, the respondent was asked to narrate one incident from his work life about whichhe was particularly unhappy and another incident from work-life about which he was particularlyhappy.

On analyzing the data thus collected Herzberg came to conclusion that there are two sets offactors 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 Motivatorsi.e. dissatisfiers i.e. satisfies1. Company policies and 1. Achievement

administration;2. Technical Supervision; 2. Recognition3. Inter Personal relations with superiors; 3. Advancement;4. Inter Personal relations with Peers; 4. Work itself5. Inter Personal relations with Subordinates; 5. Possibility of Growth6. Salary 6. Responsibility7. Job Security;8. Personal life;9. Working Conditions;10. Status

Hygiene factors are those factors that by their absence inhibit performance but any addition inthem does not increase efficiency or productivity. These are the job context factors that occur


at the time of doing the job. Thus they are extrinsic to the job. These factors are also called asdissatisfiers.

Motivativators are those factors, which by their absence do not inhibit performance, but anyaddition in them increases efficiency. These are the job content factors that make the job itselfa 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 ofthe Manager is to provide these factors to the required level and focus his attention to providemore and more on the motivators. Motivators cater to the higher order needs of the humanbeing and, therefore, they are more important. In order to build these factors into the jobdesign a Manager should load the job with motivators. This is the theory of job loading. Jobloading 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. Challenging the employees by increasing the amount of production expected of him;

2. Adding other tasks to the job;

3. Removing the more difficult parts of the assignment in order to free the worker;

4. Rotating the assignments.

When talking about the theory of job enlargement in his article “one more time, how do youmotivate your employee”, [Harvard Business Review; Jan-Feb ’68] Herzberg talks in arithmeticalterms and ultimately comes to conclusion that the theory of “job enlargement” does not givesdividends 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 Motivators involved

1. Removing some controls while Responsibility and personalretaining accountability; achievement;

2. Increasing Accountability for Responsibility and recognition;individual’s own work;


3. Giving a person a complete natural Responsibility and recognition;unit of work [Module, area etc.];

4. Granting additional authority to Responsibility and recognition;an employee in his activity

5. Making periodic reports directly Internal recognitionavailable to the worker himself

6. Introducing new and more difficult Growth and learningtasks not handled previously;

7. Assigning individuals specific or Responsibility, Growth andspecialized tasks, enabling them to advancementbecome experts.

Criticism of Herzberg Theory:

Even though Herzberg model of job enrichment was employed in some companies, the resultswere not uniform. One of the main criticisms against the theory is that it is not corroborated bysubsequent research. Many critics do not agree to the straightjacketing of certain items in tohygiene factors and motivators. Depending on the environment and perception what a hygienefactor is to one may be a motivator to others.

Herzberg implies building challenges and freedom into the jobs. However, what a challenge isto 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 notbe enriched.

Inspite of the seemingly legitimate criticism, Herzberg has to be given credit for contributingsubstantially to the study of work motivation. He extended Maslow concept and made it moreapplicable to the work motivation. Herzberg added much to the better understanding of the jobcontent factors and employee satisfaction, but fell short of comprehensive theory of workmotivation.

Alderfer’s ERG Theory:

Alderfer identified 3 groups of core needs; they are – Existence (E), – Relatedness (R) andGrowth (G).

The existence needs are concerned with survival.

The relatedness needs stress the importance of interpersonal and social relationship.


The growth needs are concerned with individual’s intrinsic desire for personal development.

Alderfer is suggesting more of a continuum of needs than hierarchical levels. The followingtable 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 person’s background or cultural environment may dictate thatthe relatedness needs will take precedence over unfulfilled existence needs and that the morethe 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 ofpre-potency of needs. Unlike Maslow or Herzberg, he does not contend that a lower level needhas to be fulfilled before a higher level need becomes motivating or that deprivation is the onlyto activate the need.

There has not been a great deal of research on ERG theory. Although there is some evidenceto counter the theory’s predictive value, most contemporary analyses of work motivation tendto support Alderfer’s theory over Maslow’s and Herzberg’s.

Overall, the ERG theory seems to take some of the strong points of the earlier content theoriesbut is less restrictive and limiting. The fact remains, however, that the content theories ingeneral lack explanatory power over the complexities of work motivation and, with the possibleexception of the implications for job design of Herzberg’s work, do not readily translate to theactual practice of human resources management.

The process theories of work motivation:

The process theories are concerned with the cognitive antecedents that go into motivation andwith the way they are related to one another. The theories given by Vroom, Porter and Lawlerfall in this category.

Vroom’s Expectancy Theory of Motivation:

Unlike the content theories, which attempt to identify human needs, Vroom considers as towhat 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 anindividual desires a particular outcome the value of V is positive. On the other hand when hedoes 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


will definitely not occur the value of E is zero. On the contrary when the even is bound to occurthe value of E is one.

The lesson, therefore, for the manager is that he should attach positive rewards to the job andlay down objective criteria to attain the said positive rewards.

Although Vroom does not directly contribute to the techniques of motivating people it is ofvalue in understanding organisational behaviour. It clarifies the relation between individual andthe organisational goals. The model is designed to help management understand and analyzeemployee motivation and identify some of the relevant variables. However, the theory fallsshort of providing specific solutions to the motivational problems.

The theory also does not take into account the individual differences based on individualperceptions. Thus the theory indicates only the coneptional determinants of motivation andhow they are related.

The Porter-Lawler Model

Vroom has suggested what leads to effort. The Porter Lawler model however, goes a stepahead 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 individual’s abilities and role perceptions.In the ultimate analysis an employee derives satisfaction which is an amalgam of effort leadingto performance interacting with rewards.

The model can be diagrammatically explained as under :


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 thedegree of equity (or inequity) that people perceive in work situation. Adams depicts a specificprocess of how this motivation occurs.

Inequity occurs when a person perceives that the ratio of his or her outcomes to inputs and theratio of a relevant other’s outcomes to inputs are unequal. Schematically this is representedas follows:

Equity occurs when

Person’ s outcomes =other’s outcomes

Person’s inputs other’s inputs

Both the inputs and the outputs of the person and the other are based upon the person’ sperceptions, which are affected by age, sex, education social status, organisational position,qualifications, and how hard the person works etc. Outcomes consist primarily of rewardssuch as pay, status, promotion, and intrinsic interest in the job. In essence the ratio is basedupon the person’s 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 bethe same as someone else’s observation of the ratios or the same as the actual situation.

If the person’s perceived ratio is not equal to the other’s, he or she will strive to restore the ratioto equity. This “striving” to restore equity is used as the explanation of work motivation. Thestrength 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 thecognitive processes by which an individual interprets behaviour as being caused by certainparts of the relevant environment. The attribution theorist assumes that humans are rationaland 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, andfatigue and external forces i.e. environment attributes such as rules and the weather combineadditively to determine behaviour. He stressed that it is the perceived, not the actualdeterminants that are important to behaviour.


Theory X and Theory Y :

A poweful influence for maturity on organizational behaviour was Douglas McGregor’s TheoryX and Theory Y, first published in 1957 in his book “Human side of enterprise”. These twotheories clearly distinguished traditional autocratic assumptions about the nature of people(Theory X) from more behaviourally based assumptions (Theory Y). The usefulness of theMcGregor theories is his convincing arguments that most management actions flow directlyfrom whatever theory of human behaviour managers hold. Philosophy practice. Management’spersonnel practices decision making, operating practices, and even organisational designflow from assumptions about human behaviour.

Theory X Theory Y

• The typical person dislikes work • Work is as natural as play orand will avoid it if possible. rest.

• The typical person lacks responsibility, • People are not inherently lazy.has little ambition, and seeks security They have become that way as aabove all. result of experience.

• Most people must be coerced, controlled, • People will exercise self-directionand threatened with punishment to and self-control in the service ofget them to work. objectives to which they are

committed.

• People have potential. Under properconditions they learn to accept andseek responsibility. They haveimagination, ingenuity, and creativitythat can be applied to work.

With these assumptions the managerial role is With these assumptions the managerialto coerce and control employees. role is to potential in employees and

help them release that potential towardcommon objective.

Theory X implies an autocratic approach to managing. Theory Y implies a humanistic andsupportive 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


would mean that a manager should be so skillful that he should be able to develop andmotivate even an inefficient employee. As a matter of fact the ability to develop and motivatedepends on a manager’s personal job skills and abilities. These are determined by his abilitiesto place demands on the employees. What is important is the manager’s ability to placedemand and create work performance expectations. An employee castigated for lowerperformance 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 anemployee acts in a manner that further lowers his performance. Thus, the managerial prophecyabout 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 spiralingeffect. Every manager must understand that the efforts and therefore, the performance will bethe 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 perceivedto be achievable with reasonable efforts.


SUMMARY

The work motivation theories can be broadly catagorised in two classes. They are contenttheories and process theories.

The content theories are concerned with identifying the needs that people have and howneeds are prioritized. They are concerned with types of incentives that drive people to attainneed fulfillment. The Maslow hierarchy theory, Fredrick Herzberg’s two factor theory andAlderfer’s ERG needs theory fall in this category.

The process theories are concerned with the cognitive antecedents that go into motivationand with the way they are related to one another. The theories given by Vroom, Porter andLawler, equity theory and attribution theory fall in this category.


NOTES

Morale 99

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 meaningsof these two terms. Many thinkers use these words synonymously. Even Keith Davis in hisearlier editions of the book Human Behaviour At Work in earlier editions uses the word Moralewhich 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 theirwork environment and toward voluntary cooperation to the full extent of their ability in the bestinterests of the organisation.”

According to Morris Viteles “Morale refers to the condition of a group where there are clear andfixed group goals that are felt to be important and integrated with individual goals: where thereis confidence in the attainment of these goals and the confidence in the means of attainmentin the leader, associates and finally in oneself.”

Morale indicates the happiness of the employees with the organisational environment. It alsorefers to the preparedness of the groups of the employees to subordinate the individual andthe group goals to the goals of the organisation.

Morale essentially is akin to job satisfaction. It represents the integration of an individual withthe team and the organisation itself. Generally it can be said that morale has a positive


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:

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 goalsetc. Curve’ A’ above where morale is high but productivity is low indicates the management’sfailure 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 controlsimposed by the management.

The situations where productivity is higher in spite of morale being low or productivity beinglower in spite of morale being high do not last long. In the first situation productivity is highbecause of the strict management controls and close supervision. It also happens in anatmosphere where the people are treated as machines. In this situation the management isapparently creating discontent in the organisation which may blow up in its face. When thishappens the productivity also dips.

In the second situation when morale is high but productivity is low, slowly people distancethemselves from the Organisation because of the disillusionment about the managementabilities. In this situation after sometime the morale comes down. Thus in both these situationsultimately morale as well as productivity are at their nadir.

High

HighLow

Low

Line A Line B

Line C

Productivity

Line A - High Job Satisfaction onlyLine B - High Job Satisfaction ProductivityLine C - High Productivity only

Morale 101

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 wrongand the morale might start coming down. In words a manager must have his fingers on themorale in the Organisation. No doubt a manager can know the level of morale in his organisationby 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 dueattention to some of the morale indicators that give an idea about the status of morale at aparticular 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 canhelp a manager to know the status of morale the following are the morale indicators which givean idea to the manager about the status of morale.

1. The rate of rejections of finished products by Quality Assurance Dept. The higher therate of rejections, the lesser is the morale.

2. The rate of wastage of raw material. The higher the wastage, the lower is the morale.

3. Petty grievances. The higher the number of the petty grievance the lower is the morale.

4. Absenteeism – In the Indian situation absenteeism is dependent upon seasons such assowing etc. and the festivals. High absenteeism during these periods need not indicatelow morale.

5. 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 casehe is unhappy with the job. In the Indian situation, therefore, exodus of skilled personnelis a morale indicator.

6. Exit Interviews – Since an employee who is leaving the organisation is not inhibited bythe organisational constraints, he can afford to give his feelings with regard to manypractices in the organisation. The exit interviews do constitute a good source of informationfor the management to set right many non-productive or the pernicious practices orprocedures in the organisation.


SUMMARY

Morale indicates the happiness of the employees with the organisational environment. It alsorefers to the preparedness of the groups of the employees to subordinate the individual andthe group goals to the goals of the organisation.

Relationship between morale and productivity need not always be direct. Sometimes evenwhen the morale is high there can be low productivity and vice-versa, A manager is interestedin 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 managerhas to understand some of the morale indicators in the organisation. An attention to theseindicators may enable him to take some corrective action on time.

Morale 103

NOTES


NOTES

Work and Conditions of Work 105

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 person’s physiological and mental processes in attainment ofsome goal. The goal may be a managerial decision, the sale of an insurance policy, theerection of a stone wall or the production of steel ingot. This definition of work is broad and itis sometime criticized because of its generality. For example may we not define play in thesame way? Does not the tennis player use his physiological and mental processes in theattempt to attain the goal of winning the game? Indeed he does. But the point to remember isthat even though work and play may seem to be extremes of a continuum. The distinctionrests primarily upon motivation rather than on any fundamental differences between performancedeterminant. What is play to some people may be work to others. The basic principles describingand 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 ofits basic concepts. By obtaining measures of production and plotting them against time, wecome up with a work curves which looks something like the hypothetical work curve shown infigure below.

A

B C

D

8.1


(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-upperiod (Point A-B). Point B to C the productivity levels off. Eventually there is a decrement orfalling 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 today for the same worker and also variations among workers. Also the different kinds of workheavy muscular work, light task, or work of a clerical nature – do not yield identical curves. Itis 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 upand 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 setsin. 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 canteenboys come to sell snacks and tea to the workers. A worker is provided a stool to sit on and theworker takes a rest pause.

Work supervisors sometimes argue that most employees take unauthorised rests when thereare no regularly scheduled rest periods. Are there any advantages of authorised rest periodsover periods of unauthorised rest?

How can we account for the beneficial effects of rest pause on production? Rest provides theopportunity to recover from fatigue. The physiologist has demonstrated that work causes anaccumulation of waste products within the organism that reduces work capacity. Rest providesa period during which the waste products are dissipated and bodily capacity restored. Inheavy muscular work, physiological fatigue is unquestionably a major factor contributing towork decrement.

When work does not involve the expenditure of a great deal of physical energy, the beneficialeffect of rest periods may be due to relief from a task that engenders in the worker feelings of


boredom. The worker is not physically tired. He is irritated, lacks interest, and is fed up withhis job. He wants a change, a break from what seems to be interminable activity. Rest pausesprovide an opportunity to talk and think about non-job activities. When the worker returns tohis job, he is psychologically and physiologically refreshed, and this is reflected in the increasedoutput.

The effectiveness of introducing rest pauses may be due to still another factor as a change inattitude toward the company, including, of course, the work supervisor. A worker with a favourableattitude toward his supervisor is much less likely to slacken pace on the job than the workerwho dislikes his boss. The introduction of rest periods may be tangible evidence thatmanagement has an interest in the welfare of the worker, and he may respond with moreefficient 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 placementof the rest interval during the work period.

The best way to determine how rest periods should be scheduled is to plot production throughoutthe work period and note drop in production. The pause may be introduced at point “C” in thediagram 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 thedirection of increase output. The nature of the job itself has a lot to do with how long a personcan maintain a high rate of production. Repetitive jobs appear to be least interesting. Wereflect this lack of interest when we say that the job is boring. Actually the job itself is notboring. While fatigue is the reaction of the body to the continuous work boredom is the reactionof the mind to having to do the same work continuously More specifically, boredom arisesfrom a conflict between the necessity for doing a dull job and wanting to turn to more interestingactivities. Attention requirements have much to do with the degree of boredom engendered byrepetitive tasks. A highly repetitive job to which the worker becomes habituated elicits relativelylittle boredom in some workers if they do not have to pay close attention to what they aredoing. If the worker can do the job “without thinking”, he is free to talk to his fellow workersabout “ ”yesterday’s cricket match or next month’s vacation” Or, if conversation is impossible,he may daydream. Boredom will be pronounced on a repetitive job like an assembly-lineoperation where the continuous workflow and the task requirements occur over and over againbut permit few lapses or shifts in attention. Boredom is not a problem in a complex and variedtask 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 donot give rise to the same degree of boredom in all persons. For example, in an investigation of


women sewing machine operators, those reporting the strongest feeling of boredom dislikedroutine activity, more often preferred active leisure activities and indicated lack of satisfactionand their home and personal life. Operators who were least susceptible to boredom wereplacid and generally contented with the existing state of affairs.

Another study of women performing repetitive work in a chemical factory showed that thoseexperiencing boredom the most tended to the more extroverted than introverted, desiredopportunities 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 repetitivework than person of higher intelligence.

Additional study of the personality characteristics associated with feelings of boredom arenecessary, but the available evidence indicate that production decrement resulting from boredomcan be reduced by selecting people who will not be bored with the jobs to which they areassigned.

Job rotation is not a general cure – all for boredom. The effectiveness of the practice dependsat least in part on the amount of similarity between the jobs and the frequency with which therotations are made. If two jobs are perceived as highly similar, changing from one to the otherwill do little good to alleviate boredom. On the other hand, if they are highly dissimilar a greatversatility 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 theexperience 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 andthat when attention is paid to creating a favourable working environment as well as to actualjob performance methods, overall pleasantness prevails. However, one must be somewhatcautious 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 usefulto 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, ofcourse, that many people find different kinds of auditory stimulation irritating. Thus high tonesand very low tones are judged almost universally to be more annoying and irritating than tonesin the middle ranges. Unexpected noises, intermittent noises and reverberating noises are


also irritating to most people. Such knowledge as this has made it possible to sound-treatwork 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 noiseexist, but much additional research must be conducted before definite conclusions can bedrawn 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 increaseproduction. Some of these claims have been subjected to experimental inquiry. It is now clearthat music does not have a direct effect on productivity. It increases productivity only indirectlythrough improvement in the morale and the attitudes of the employees. Moreover, in respect ofthe 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 perhapsmore 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. Theresearch tells that intermittent bright flashes of light tire the eyes fast and hence affectproductivity.

Colour:

The colour dynamics of the workplaces is often claimed to be an important determinant ofwork efficiency, but supporting evidence is conspicuously nonexistent. It can, therefore besafely 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 temperaturevaries, 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 feltthat ideal temperatures for sedentary work in winter are from 68 to 73 F and for the same kindof work in summer, 75 to 80 F; for moderately hard work in all seasons, the desirable temperatureis 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 factualbasis for the common expression that “it is not the heat, but the humidity” which causesdiscomfort. Besides temperature and humidity, air circulation is another atmospheric conditionthat is critical in a good working environment.


SUMMARY

Work curve is the representation of the productivity against time spent at work. Since the workcurve differs from individual to individual; and for the same individual from time to time westudied 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 susceptibleto boredom. Boredom can be avoided by employing people who are slightly less in intelligencethan 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 inthe productivity.


NOTES

Conflict Management 113

Chapter 9CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Understand what are conflicts and how do they occur.

2. Understand varieties and levels of Conflicts in an organization.

3. Understand the positive and negative impact of conflict.

4. 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. Inthe 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, ourattitudes vary and what motivates us is different. This uniqueness is a major reason of theconflicts 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 theyhave incompatible goals and one or more believe that the behaviour of the other prevents themfrom their own goal achievement.

It is a process in which one party (person or group) perceives that it’s interests are beingopposed or negatively affected by the other party.

Reasons for conflict

1. Each one is a unique personality.

2. Incompatible needs: Resources are limited but we need them at the same time and inmaximum quantity.

3. Perceptions: We look at the same picture but with our own eyes.


4. Values: We value different things.

5. Beliefs are varied.

6. Cultural differences.

7. 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 organizationalcontext.

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. Thisalso 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 individualsmanage this type of conflict. These styles are discussed in the next section.

c. Intragroup – This refers to disputes among some or all of group’s members, which oftenaffect the group’s dynamics and effectiveness.

d. Intergroup – This refers to opposition, disagreements and disputes between groups andteams. Under high levels of competition and conflict, the parties develop attitudes towardseach other that are characterized by distrust, rigidity, a focus only on self interestsfailure to listen etc.

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 includesinconsistencies between the individual’s or group’s values and norms and the demandsand goals assigned by higher level managers in the organization.


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 betweenindividuals are incompatible.

c. Affective Conflict – It occurs when feelings and emotions within individuals or betweenindividuals are incompatible.

d. Procedural Conflict – It occurs when individuals differ in their process to achieve anobjective. They might have different ways of doing the same things. Union – Managementnegotiations often involve procedural conflicts before negotiations actually begin.

Now that we understand Conflicts are a part of our organizational life, it is important to understandhow do they affect people behaviour and what can be done to ensure that Conflicts have apositive 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 aconflict 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 allof 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 aWIN-LOSE approach to interpersonal conflict. Those who use this style try to achievetheir own goals without concern for others. It includes coercion and dominance. Theseindividuals assume that conflict resolution means one person wins and the other personloses. This style by manager may lead to demotivation of subordinates. Thrustingdecisions will also mean lower commitment by others in it’s execution.

However, sometimes Competing Style becomes necessary. Some of such situationsmay include:


a. When emergencies require quick action.

b. Unpopular courses of action must be taken for long term organizational effectiveness{like dismissal of employee for non-performance, introducing cost cutting measuresetc}.

c. When the professional stakes are very high and you cannot get a group to agree onone thing.

II. Accommodating Style – It refers to cooperative and unassertive behaviours. It is aLOSE-WIN approach. Accommodation may represent an unselfish act, a long-termstrategy 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 beperceived as weak and submissive. They may be taken for granted and lose their credibilityin the long run. This style may be effective in the short run when:

a. The individual is in a potentially explosive conflict situation and smoothing is usedto defuse it.

b. Relationships are crucial.

c. Maintaining harmony and avoiding disruption is important in the situation.

III. Collaborating Style- It refers to strong cooperative and assertive behaviours. It is theWIN -WIN approach to interpersonal conflict handling. The person using this style desiresto maximize joint results. With this style, conflict is recognized openly and evaluated byall the concerned parties. Sharing, examining and assessing the reasons for conflictshould lead to development of alternatives that effectively resolve it and is fully acceptableto everyone involved. An individual using this approach will tend to:

a. See conflict as natural, helpful and positive.

b. Exhibit trust in and candor with others.

c. Recognize that this approach will lead to maximum commitment to the solutionjointly evolved.

Collaboration is most practical when there is:

a. Plenty of time to establish relationship and explore the interdependence.

b. Sufficient parity in power among individuals so that they feel free to interact candidly,regardless of their formal superior-subordinate status.

c. Sufficient organizational support for investing the necessary time and energy inresolving disputes in this manner.


The norms, rewards and punishments and the culture in the organization providethe framework for encouraging or discouraging collaboration.

IV. Compromising Style – It refers to behaviours at an intermediate level of cooperationand assertiveness. It is a WIN SOME-LOSE SOME. The individual using this styleengages in give and take and use a series of concessions. It is a middle ground toresolve conflicts. Compromise achieves moderate, but only partial satisfaction for eachparty. This style is likely to be appropriate when:

a. Something gained is better than nothing at all.

b. Achieving a total win-win is simply impossible.

c. Conflicting goals or opposing interests block agreement on one person’s proposal.

It is essentially win some-lose some approach and might work in short run only. Whatwe will compromise on and what we will not is another question to be answered. Repeatedcompromises might blind us to the merits of an issue and also lose sight of the largerpicture. For example, employees might look at compromise as an easy way out and notlook at the larger interests of the organization.

V. Avoiding - It refers to unassertive and uncooperative behaviours. It is a LOSE-LOSEapproach. A person uses this style to stay away from conflict, ignore disagreements orremain neutral. The avoidance approach reflects an aversion to tension and frustrationand may involve a decision to let a conflict work itself out. When unresolved conflictsaffect goal achievement, the avoiding style will lead to negative results for the organization.This style may be desirable under some situations:

a. The issue is minor or only of passing importance and hence does not deserve theindividual’s time and effort.

b. The individual needs time to deal with the conflict.

c. The individual needs more preparation.

d. The other party is too strong.

e. Others can deal with it more effectively.


Interpersonal Conflict Management Styles

ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE CONFLICTS

Positive Attitude – Conflicts in organizations can be a positive force. The creation and / orresolution of conflict may lead to constructive problem solving. The need to resolve conflictcan 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 innovationand positive change, as well as make change more acceptable. The benefits of this attitudetowards conflict may be on three fronts – Beneficial effects on productivity, Relationshipoutcomes and Constructive organizational change.

Negative Attitude – Conflicts may also have serious negative effects, diverting effects fromthe goals of the organization and draining the organizational resources, especially time andenergy. Conflicts also have an adverse impact on the psyche of the employees, lead to stressand strain the interpersonal relationships at the workplace. This affects performance. Deepand lasting conflicts that are not addressed may even trigger violence among employees orbetween employees and others.

Balanced Attitude – This attitude is that conflict may sometimes be desirable and at othertimes destructive. Although some conflicts can be avoided and reduced, others have to beresolved and properly managed. The balanced attitude is sensitive to the consequences ofconflict, ranging from negative outcomes to positive ones. It recognizes that conflict occurs inorganizations whenever interests collide. Sometimes, employees will think differently, want tobehave differently, and seek to pursue different goals. When these differences divide theinterdependent individuals, they must be managed constructively.

Conflict Management Styles

Competing Collaborating

Avoiding Accommodating

CompromisingUncooperative Cooperative

Unassertive

Assertive


NEGOTIATIONS IN CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

Negotiation is a process in which two or more individuals or groups, having both commonand conflicting goals, state and discuss proposals for a specific terms of a possible agreement.

Negotiation includes a combination of compromise, collaboration and possibly some forcingon vital issues. A negotiation situation is one in which:

a. Two or more individuals must make a decision about their interdependent goals andobjectives.

b. The individuals are committed to peaceful means of resolving their dispute

c. There is no clear or established method for making decisions

Types of Negotiations

I. Distributive Negotiations: Traditional win-lose, fixed amount situations, wherein one party’sgain is other party’s loss is called Distributive Negotiations. They often occur over economicissues, and interaction patterns may include guarded communication, limited expressionof trust, use of threats and distorted statements, and demands. In short, the parties areengaged in tense, emotion-laden conflict. The forcing and compromise handling stylesare dominant in distributive negotiations.

II. Integrative Negotiations: Joint problem solving to achieve results benefiting both partiesis called integrative negotiations. The parties identify mutual problems, identify and assessalternatives, openly express preferences, and jointly reach a mutually acceptable solution.Rarely perceived as equally acceptable, the solution is simply advantageous to bothsides. Those involved are strongly motivated to solve problems, exhibit flexibility andtrust, and explore new ideas. The collaborative and compromise handling styles aredominant 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. Separate the people from the problems.

b. Focus on interests and not positions

c. Invent options for mutual gains

d. Insist on using objective criteria

III. Attitudinal Structuring: It is a process by which the parties seek to establish desiredattitudes and relationships. Throughout any negotiation, the parties reveal certain attitudes(E.g. hostility, friendliness, competitiveness, cooperation etc.) that influence theirinteractions.


IV. Intra-organizational Negotiations: Groups often negotiate through representatives.However, these representatives first may have to obtain the agreement of their respectivegroups before they can agree with each other. In intra-organizational negotiations, eachset of negotiators tries to build consensus for agreement and resolve inter group conflictbefore dealing with other group’s representatives.

Mediation

Mediation is a process by which a third party helps two or more other parties resolve one ormore 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, actingas 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. Be able to diagnose the conflict

b. Be skilled at breaking deadlocks and facilitating discussions at the right time

c. Show mutual acceptance

d. Have the ability to provide emotional support and reassurance

In brief, an effective mediator is able to instill confidence and acceptance amongst the conflictingparties.

Key tasks in mediator’s role include:

a. Ensure mutual motivation. Each party should have incentives to resolve the conflict.

b. 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.

c. Promote openness in dialogue.

d. Maintain an optimum level of tension. If the threat and tension are too low, the incentivefor change or finding a solution is minimal. If they are too high, the individuals involvedmay not be able to process information, and envision creative alternatives. They maybegin to polarize and take rigid positions.


Questions

1. What is Negotiation? Describe different types of Negotiations.

2. What is Mediation? Define the role of a mediator.

Short Notes:

a. Integrative negotiation.

b. Concept of “Negotiation on Merits”.


NOTES

Group Dynamics 125

Chapter 10GROUP DYNAMICS

LEARNING OBJECTIONS

1. To understand the nature and types of groups.

2. To understand the concept of teams and types of teams.

3. To appreciate the stages of team formation.

4. To understand factors affecting group dynamics and effectiveness.

5. 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 commonobjectives. They work in a structured fashion and utilize resources to reach predeterminedgoals and targets.

Therefore, groups are an integral part of any organization. They influence individuals andtherefore, 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 overa period of time, and are few enough so that each individual may communicate with all theothers, 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, esteemand belonging needs.


(2) Task group: It is created by the management to accomplish certain organisationalgoals.

Groups can further be classified as under:

(1) Formal groups: They are established by an organisation to facilitate the achievement ofthe organizational goals.

(2) 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.

(3) Effective group: An effective group is one which has the following characteristics:

� 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 oneanother.

� Its members have learned to deal with conflict within the group.

� Its members have learned to diagnose individual and group processes and improvetheir own and the group’s functioning.

TEAMS

A team ‘is a small number of employees with complementary competencies (abilities, skillsand knowledge) who are committed to common performance goals and working relationshipsfor 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 largersocial system are also called as “Teams”.

When teams are formed, its members must have (or quickly develop) the right mix ofcomplementary competencies to achieve the team’s goals. Also its members need to be ableto 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 groupas –

(1) Capable of being effective (potency).

Group Dynamics 127

(2) Performing important and valuable tasks (meaningfulness).

(3) Having independence and discretion (autonomy) in performing the work, and

(4) Experiencing a sense of importance and significance (impact) in the work performedand goals achieved.

TYPES OF TEAMS

(1) Functional teams:

They usually represent individuals who work together daily on a cluster of ongoing andindependent 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 frequentlyaddress quality or cost problems.

(3) Cross-functional teams:

They bring together the knowledge and skills of people from various work areas to identifyand solve mutual problems. They draw members from several specialities or functionsand deal with problems that cut across departmental and functional lines to achieve theirgoals.

They are often more effective in situations that require adaptability, speed and a focus onresponding to customer needs.

(4) Self-managed teams:

They normally consist of employees who must work together effectively daily to manufacturean entire product (or major identifiable component) or service. These teams perform avariety of managerial tasks, such as,

(a) Scheduling work and vacations by members,

(b) Rotating tasks and assignments among members,

(c) Ordering materials,

(d) Deciding on team leadership,

(e) Setting key team goals,

(f) Budgeting


(g) Hiring replacements for departing team members, and

(h) Evaluating one another’s performance.

Functional, Problem solving, Cross-functional and Self-managed teams are increasingly ableto operate as “virtual teams”.

A “virtual team” is a group of individuals who collaborate through various informationtechnologies on one or more projects while being at two or more locations. Their team membersmay be from one or multiple organizations.

DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES OF TEAMS

The formation of effective teams is not automatic. Various conditions for failure or progressoccur throughout a team’s development. To provide a sense of these conditions, we present abasic 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 developingprocedures for performing their tasks. Team development at this stage involves, gettingacquainted and understanding leadership and other member roles.

(b) Storming stage:

During this stage conflicts emerge over work behaviours, relative priorities of goals, whichis 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 tensionsgenerated. 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 technicalcompetencies when they are lacking.

(c) Norming stage:

Work behaviours at this stage evolve into a sharing of information, acceptance of differentoptions and positive attempts to make decisions that may require compromise. Duringthis stage, team members set the rules by which the team will operate. Cooperation anda sense of shared responsibility develop among team members.

(d) Performing stage:

In this, team members show how effectively and efficiently they can achieve resultstogether, that the roles of individual members are accepted and understood. The membershave learned when they should work independently and when they should help eachother. Some teams learn to develop from their experiences and others may perform onlyat a level that is needed for their survival.

Group Dynamics 129

INFLUENCES ON TEAM EFFECTIVENESS

The influences on team and group effectiveness are interrelated. Some of the factors that arenecessary to gain an understanding of both team dynamics and effectiveness are as under:

� Context: The context (external environment) can directly affect each of the six otherfactors because it comprises the conditions that affect a team. The teams’ contextmight include technology, value orientation of members, physical-working conditions,management practices, formal organization rules, strategies developed by highermanagement and organizational rewards and punishments.

� Goals: They can be either team goals or super ordinate goals wherein team goals arethe outcomes desired for the team as a whole, not just the individual goals of the individualmembers. Super ordinate goals are those where two or more individuals, teams or groupsmight pursue but can’t be achieved without their interaction and cooperation.

� Team size: The effective size of a team can range from 2 members to a normal upperlimit of 16 members. Twelve members probably is the largest size that allows eachmember to interact easily with each other member face to face.

Stages of Group Development

Stage Interpersonal Characteristics Task Characteristics

Forming Individuals become familiar with What the task is and how to do iteach other

Storming Tension between group members Resistance arises to task andand leader method

Norming Harmony develops, norms are Task co-operation prevelantestablished

Performing Relationships are stabilized Orientation : productand performance

Adjourning Contact decreases, emotional Task is complete roles aredependency reduced completed

(e) Adjourning stage:

The termination of work behaviours and disengagement from social behaviours occurduring this stage. Some teams such as problem solving or a cross-functional teamcreated to investigate and report on a specific issue within 6 months, have well-definedpoints of adjournment.


� Team member roles and Diversity: Similarities and differences among members andtheir roles influence team behavior, dynamics and outcomes. Attempts to influencebehavioural roles in a team and group are more useful which are further classified asunder:

(A) Task Oriented Roles :

1. Initiating: Proposing tasks or goals; defining a group problem; suggesting ways tosolve a problem.

2. Seeking information or opinions: Requesting facts; asking for expressions offeeling; requesting a statement or estimate; seeking suggestions and ideas.

3. Giving information or opinion: Offering facts; providing relevant information; statingan opinion; giving suggestions and ideas.

4. Clarifying and elaborating: Interpreting ideas or suggestions; clearing upconfusion; defining terms; indicating alternatives and issues before the group.

5. Summarizing: Pulling together related ideas, restating suggestions after the grouphas discussed them, offering a decision or conclusion for the group to accept orreject.

6. Consensus testing: Asking if the group is nearing a decision; taking a “straw vote.”

(B) Relationship Oriented Roles :

1. Harmonizing: Attempting to reconcile disagreements; reducing tension; gettingpeople to explore differences.

2. Gate keeping: Helping to keep communication channels open; facilitating theparticipation of others; suggesting procedures that permit sharing remarks.

3. Encouraging: Being friendly, warm, and responsive to others; indicating by facialexpression or remarks the acceptance of others’ contributions.

4. Compromising: When one’s own idea or status is involved in a conflict, offering acompromise which yields status; admitting error; modifying one’s position in theinterest of group cohesion or growth.

(C) Self-Oriented Roles :

1. Dominator: Interrupts others; launches on long monologues; is over-positive andover-dogmatic; tries to lead group and assert authority; is generally autocratic.

2. Negativist: Rejects ideas suggested by others; takes a negative attitude on issues;argues frequently and unnecessarily; is pessimistic, refuses to cooperate; pouts.

Group Dynamics 131

3. Aggressor: It tries to achieve importance in group; boasts; criticizes or blamesothers; tries to get attention; shows anger or irritation against group or individuals;deflates importance or position of others in group.

4. Playboy: Is not interested in the group except as it can help him or her to have agood time.

5. Storyteller: Likes to tell long “fishing stories” which are not relevant to the group;gets off on long tangents.

6. Interrupter: Talks over others; engages in side conversations; whispers to neighbour.

7. Poor me: Tries to get the group’s attention to deal with own personal concerns,discomfort, bad luck, etc.

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 diversitycreates unique challenges in making it work for rather than against the long-term interests ofindividuals, teams and organizations.

The attitude expressed about diversity is called positive multiculturalism. This conditionallows an individual to acquire new competencies, perspectives and attitudes that improve thepersons ability to relate effectively to others within the same or other teams regardless of theirbackgrounds and characteristics.

Positive multiculturalism is additive; that is, individuals can maintain their self-defining attributeswhile adding competencies and positive attitudes to help them, form and maintain soundworking relationships with others.

� Norms: They are the rules of pattern and behaviour that are accepted and expected bymembers of the team. They help define the behaviours that members believe to benecessary to help them reach their goals. Overtime, every team establishes norms andenforces them on its members. Norms are often more rigidly defined and enforced ininformal groups – by peer pressures – than in formal organized teams. Such norms mayfurther inhibit achievement of organizational goals.

� Cohesiveness: It is the strength of the member’s desire to remain in a team and theircommitment to it. It is influenced by the degree of compatibility between team goals andindividual member’s goals. Members who have a strong desire to remain in the team andpersonally except its goals form a highly cohesive team.


GROUPTHINK

“Groupthink” is an agreement – at – any – cost mentality that results in ineffective teamdecision-making and poor decisions. When decision-making teams are both conforming andcohesive, 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� High cohesiveness� Insulation of the team

from outsiders� Lack of methodical

procedures for search& appraisal

� Directive leadership� High stress with a low

degree of hope forfinding a bettersolution than theother favoured by theleader or otherinfluential person

� Complex or changingenvironment

Characteristics ofgroup thinking� Illusion of

invulnerability� Collective

rationalization� Believe in

inherent mortalityof the team

� Stereotypes ofother groups

� Direct pressureon dissenters

� Self censorship� Illusion of

unanimity� Self appointed

mind guards

Group-think leads toDefective Decision-making� Incomplete survey of

alternatives� Incomplete survey of

goals� Failure of examining

risk of favouredchoice

� Poor informationsearch

� Selecting bias insearchinginformation at hand

� Failure to reappraisealternatives

� Failure to work outcontingency plans

Conformityseekingtendency ofthe group

Group Dynamics 133

Groupthink isn’t inevitable and several steps can be taken to avoid it. People holding diverseviews can be encouraged to present them.

REMEDIES TO OVERCOME GROUPTHINK

ORGANIZATIONAL REMEDIES

� Multiple groups examine same issue.

� Teach managers methods they can use to recognize and overcome symptoms.

LEADER-ORIENTED REMEDIES

� Encourage all members to evaluate ideas critically.

� Bring in outsiders to evaluate ideas critically.

� Pick a member to play devil’s advocate.

� Remain objective.

MEMBER-ORIENTED REMEDIES

� Make no decisions until all ideas have been evaluated.

� Go outside the group for opinions and share them afterwards.

PROCESS-ORIENTED REMEDIES

� Use subgroups to develop alternatives and compare solutions.

� Compare to other organizations’ solutions.

� Prior to implementation, hold “second chance” meetings.


GROUP MATURITY

Group maturity is defined as “the ability and willingness of group members to setgoals and work toward their accomplishment”.

Characteristics of a Mature Group:

1. An increasing ability to be self-directed (not dependent on the leader).

2. An increased tolerance in accepting that progress takes time.

3. An increasing sensitivity to their own feelings and those of others.

4. Improvement in the ability to withstand tension, frustration and disagreement.

5. A perception of the common denominators, which bind the group as well as areas ofindividual difference.

6. A better ability to anticipate realistic results of behaviour and to channel emotions intomore socially acceptable ways of expressing these emotions.

7. An increased ability to change plans and methods as new situations develop.

8. A decrease in time needed to recover from threatening group situations. Peaks andvalleys of emotional group crises become less personal.

9. Increased efficiency in locating problems, engaging in problem solving and providing helpto individuals as needed.

10. A willingness to face one’s own responsibilities and to assist others when help is needed.

11. An acceptance of the right of the other person to be different.

Group Dynamics 135

NOTES


NOTES

Interpersonal Communication 137

Chapter 11INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. State the essentials of Interpersonal Communication process and functions ofcommunication in organization

2. Define informal communication networks called “grapevine”

3. Describe how non verbal communication supports dialogue

4. Describe the potential problems in cross cultural communication

5. Understand significant ways of improving communication in an organization

INTRODUCTION

Organizations are socio-technical systems. Each of these factors – technical and social actsand interacts to make the organizational functional. This interaction is the basis on which theinput gets processed into the output of the organization. If this is true, then communication isthe life-blood of the organization. The more effective it is, the more successful the organizationwould be.

Managers have traditionally spent the majority of their time communicating in one form oranother (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 asproduction processes emphasize greater collaboration and teamwork among workers in differentfunctional groups.

Moreover, a sea change in communication technologies has contributed to the transformationof both work and organizational structure. For these reasons, communication practices andtechnologies have become more important in all organizations, but they are perhaps mostimportant in knowledge-intensive organizations and sectors.


Research indicates that poor communication is the most frequently cited source of interpersonalconflict. 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 ofthe 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 istransmitted and understood by others. It must include both the transference and theunderstanding 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 concernof organizational managers. Organizational communication in today’s organizations has notonly become far more complex and varied but more important to overall organizational functioningand success.

While research used to focus on understanding how organizational communication varied byorganizational type and structure, the emphasis has increasingly turned to understandinghow new communication technologies and capabilities can help bring about new and moreeffective organizational forms and processes (Tucker et al. 1996; Desanctis and Fulk 1999).Also, the forms of communication, miscommunication, ‘no’ communication, communicationwithin and outside work teams etc. all affect the behaviour of people in the organization.

Changes confronting organizations and the associated changes in organizational forms havemade organizational communication increasingly important to overall organizational functioning.For example:

� 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 organization’s competitive advantage

� Communication technologies and networks are increasingly essential to an organization’sstructure and strategy.

Communication is not only an essential aspect of these recent organizational changes, buteffective communication can be seen as the foundation of modern organizations.


Functions of Communication

1. Control :

� Communication acts to control member behaviour in several ways:

a. Organizations have authority hierarchies and formal guidelines that employeeis required to follow.

b. Informal communication also controls behaviour. When work groups tease orharass a member who produces too much, they are informally communicatingwith, and controlling, the member’s behaviour.

2. Motivation:

� 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, andreinforcement of desired behaviour all stimulate motivation and require communication.

3. Emotional Expression:

� Communication provides a release for the emotional expression of feelings and forfulfillment of social needs. For many employees, their work group is a primarysource for social interaction.

4. Information:

� Communication facilitates decision-making. It provides information by transmittingthe data to identify and evaluate alternative choices.

No one of these four functions is more important than the others. You can assume that almostevery communication interaction that takes place in a group or organization performs one ormore of these four functions.

The Process of Communication

Source Encoding Channel

DecodingReceiver

Message

Feedback

Message

Message

Message


Before communication can take place, a purpose, expressed as a message to be conveyed,is needed.

� It passes between a source (the sender) and a receiver.

� The message is encoded (converted to symbolic form) and is passed by way of somemedium (channel) to the receiver, who retranslates (decodes) the message initiated bythe 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. The source initiates a message by encoding a thought.

b. The message is the actual physical product from the source.

c. The channel is the medium through which the message travels.

d. The receiver is the object to whom the message is directed.

e. Decoding—the symbols in the message must be translated into a form that can beunderstood by the receiver.

f. His/her skills, attitudes, knowledge, and social-cultural system limit the receiver.

g. Feedback is the check on how successful we have been in transferring our messages asoriginally intended.

Media Richness and it’s 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 phonecall over a face to face meeting? Is there any general insight we might be able to provideregarding choice of communication channel?

A mode of media richness, which is the media’s capacity to carry multiple cues and providerapid feedback, has been developed. Research has found that channels differ in their capacityto convey information. Some are rich in that they have the ability to:

a. Handle multiple cues simultaneously

b. Facilitate rapid feedback

c. Be very personal


Others are lean in that they score low on these three factors. As the following figure describes:

� Face to face conversation scores highest on the media richness because of obviousadvantages of multiple forms it accommodates – gestures, words, postures, intonationsetc., provides for immediate feedback – verbal and non verbal and adds the personaltouch 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-routinenature of message. The managers can use low rich channels to communicate routine mattersand 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, consequentlythe major focus of the organizational communication literature, was formal, top-downcommunication. Informal communication, generally associated with interpersonal, horizontalcommunication, was primarily seen as a potential hindrance to effective organizationalperformance. 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 modernorganizations.


Communication can also be characterized as vertical, horizontal, or diagonal. Initially greateremphasis was directed at vertical organizational communication as compared to lateralcommunication but that is no longer the case. Diagonal communication is an even morerecent emphasis in the organizational communication literature.

Vertical Communication: Vertical communication occurs between hierarchically positionedpersons and can involve both downward and upward communication flows. Downwardcommunication is more prevalent than upward communication. Larkin and Larkin (1994) suggestthat downward communication is most effective if top managers communicate directly withimmediate supervisors and immediate supervisors communicate with their staff.

A wealth of evidence shows that increasing the power of immediate supervisors increasesboth satisfaction and performance among employees. This was first discovered by DonaldPelz (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 supervisor’s leadership styles but whether thesupervisor has power. One way to give supervisors power is to communicate directly withthem and to have them provide input to decisions.

Ensuring that supervisors are informed about organizational issues/changes before staff ingeneral, and then allowing them to communicate these issues/changes to their staff, helpsreinforce their position of power. When the supervisor is perceived as having power, employeeshave greater trust in the supervisor, greater desire for communication with the supervisor, andare more likely to believe that the information coming from the supervisor is accurate (Robertsand O’Reilly 1974). Jablin (1980), after reviewing almost 30 years of research, pronounced thePelz effect to be “one of the most widely accepted propositions about organizationalcommunication.”

Although the content priorities of downward communication have not been definitivelydemonstrated, there is some level of certainty with respect to the best approach to downwardcommunication (Jablin 1980), i.e.,

� 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 withemployees directly.

Perhaps, the most tried and true rule of effective downward communication is to: Communicateorally, then follow up in writing.


Upward Communication

One consistent finding is that employee satisfaction with upward communication tends to belower than their satisfaction with downward communication (Gibson 1985; Gibson and Hodgetts1991:221-22). Larkin and Larkin (1994) found low levels of satisfaction with all the strategiescommonly used to enhance upward communication, including employee surveys, suggestionprograms, employee grievance programs, and employee participation programs such as qualitycircles and team meetings. Gibson and Hodgetts (1991:268-69) note several management-based reasons for this lack of satisfaction, particularly that these strategies often do notinvolve two-way communication, are not packaged well, are poorly timed, and are apt totrigger defensiveness on the part of managers. In addition, McCelland (1988) found a numberof employee-based reasons why upward communication tends to be poor, including:

� 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 don’t have the time to listen to employees

Lateral Communication

Lateral communication involves communication among persons who do not stand in hierarchicalrelation to one another. While recent trends to flatten organizations have enhanced theimportance of lateral communications, studies on lateral communication still lag behind thoseon vertical communication. One fairly limited study found rather high levels of satisfaction (85percent) with lateral communication among human resource managers (Frank 1984), butlateral communication across managers of dissimilar functional divisions, while often cited asa 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, atleast within a functional area. However, with the greater importance of teams, more attentionis now being directed at communication between team members. Lateral communicationsbetween workers in different functional areas is also becoming a bigger concern as greaterattention is being directed at increasing the speed of production through simultaneous, asopposed to sequential, work processes. And there is greater emphasis on communicationacross distributed workers and geographically separated work groups doing similar kinds ofwork in an attempt to promote learning and the sharing of expertise, best practices, andlessons learned.

Diagonal Communication

Diagonal communication refers to communication between managers and workers located indifferent functional divisions.


Although both vertical and horizontal communication continues to be important, these termsno longer adequately capture communication needs and flows in most modern organizations.The concept of diagonal communication was introduced to capture the new communicationchallenges associated with new organizational forms, such as matrix and project-basedorganizations. Also, with the rise of the network organization (both internally and externallyoriented 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 isa downward communication. This is typically what we think of when managerscommunicate with workers.

2. Its purpose is to assign goals, provide instructions, communicate policies andprocedures, provide feedback, etc.

3. It does not have to be face to face or an oral communication.

B. Upward Communication:

1. Upward communication flows to a higher level in the group or organization.

2. It is used to provide feedback to higher-ups, inform them of progress, and relaycurrent problems.

3. Examples of upward communication are: performance reports prepared by lowermanagement for review by middle and top management, suggestion boxes, employeeattitude surveys, etc.

C. Lateral

1. When communication takes place among members of the same work group, amongmembers of work groups at the same level, among managers at the same level, oramong any horizontally equivalent personnel.

2. Horizontal communications are often necessary to save time and facilitatecoordination. In some cases, these lateral relationships are formally sanctioned.Often, they are informally created to short-circuit the vertical hierarchy and expediteaction.

3. They can create dysfunctional conflicts when the formal vertical channels arebreached, when members go above or around their superiors to get things done, orwhen bosses find out that actions have been taken or decisions made without theirknowledge.


Case in Point

What’d He Say?

Larry Kinder, the global chief information officer of Cendant, remembers well the confusionhe caused when he addressed some of Cendant’s 25 business unit leaders recently totalk about capital expenditures for technology.

“I mentioned that we would be opening up Cendant’s technical architecture to wirelessplatforms,” says Kinder. The room fell silent. Architecture? Wireless platforms? Insteadof asking questions to gain clarity, the business leaders incorrectly interpreted“architecture” to mean “infrastructure,” something completely different in technologyvernacular. “They thought I was talking about something expensive,” says Kinder. However,Kinder was using the word “architecture” to refer to developing an overall strategy anddesign that did not involve big expenditures on new servers and software. His plan was toactually lower the cost of running the company’s network.

Misunderstandings such as this are one reason why 30 percent of technology projectsbegun by companies in the U.S. are cancelled before completion, at a cost to the Americaneconomy of more than $75 billion a year.

While jargon has always been a problem in organizations, the rise of computer andnetwork-related technology has unleashed a tidal wave of techno babble that often confusesthose who do not live and breathe the terminology. What, for instance, do the followingterms mean: asymmetric digital subscriber line, dark fiber, dynamic host configurationprotocol, enterprise information portal, ERP, M-commerce, replatforming systems, simpleobject access protocol, or zettabyte? Most chief information officers and technologyexecutives understand these terms, but for others, it can be overwhelming. How, forinstance, can a chief executive decide whether to invest in a “routing switch platform thathas an MPLS enabled ATM core switch” if he or she does not understand those terms?

Source: N. Hutheesing, “It’s All Geek to Me,” Forbes, September 10, 2001, p. 24.

Interpersonal Challenges in Communication

Numerous interpersonal communication hurdles exist.

� Individual personality traits that serve as hurdles include low adjustment (nervous, self-doubting, moody), low sociability (shy, unassertive, withdrawn), low conscientiousness(impulsive, careless, irresponsible), low agreeableness (independent, cold, rude), andlow intellectual openness (dull, imaginative, literal minded).

� Introverts are likely to be quiet and emotionally unexpressive.


¨ Dogmatic individuals are rigid, closed-minded, and accept or reject other people on thebasis of their agreement or disagreement with accepted authority or their own beliefs.

� Individual perceptions also affect the communication process. Perceptions about culturealso play a major role in the process of communication and understanding.

Apart from these interpersonal communication hurdles, there are also some direct hurdles.

� Noise: Any interference with the intended message in the channel represents noise. Aradio 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 resultis information overload. As a result, the individuals select out, ignore, pass over or forgetinformation. 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 influencehow he or she will interpret it. The same goes with the sender of the message. The samemessage received when you are angry or depressed if often interpreted differently whenyou are happy. In such emotional state, we are most prone to disregard our rational andobjective thinking processes and substitute with emotional judgements.

The Grapevine

The formal system is not the only communication network in a group or organization. There isalso an informal one, which is called the grapevine. Inspite of being an informal one, it isconsidered important in an organization’s context.

The important characteristics of grapevine are as follows:

a. It is not under the control of the management. There are no formal definitions andprocesses for grapevine to work in the organization. It takes it’s own form based on thelikes and preferences of the members in the network. It grows out of social interactionsamongst people and is not bound by any hierarchy.

b. The perception of the members is that it more reliable and genuine than a formalcommunication, which could be biased and driven by management to satisfy their ownagendas.

c. It is largely formed and driven by self-interest of the members in the group.


The grapevine is an important part of any group or organization’s communication network andwell worth understanding. It identifies for managers those confusing issues that employeesconsider 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 individualswill consider a given piece of information to be relevant, we can improve our ability to explainand predict the pattern of the grapevine. Management cannot eliminate rumors but they canminimize the negative consequences.

Communication in a Cultural Context

Culture refers to the distinctive ways that different population, societies or organizations organizetheir lives or activities. Intercultural communication occurs whenever a member of one culturesends a message and is received and understood by a member of another culture. The effectsof cultural differences on hurdles to interpersonal communication can be wide ranging. In amulti-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 inorganizations.

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 differentlanguages. Negotiations between Americans and Japanese executives, for instance, are mademore difficult because the Japanese word “hai” translates as “yes”, but it’s connotation maybe “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 organizationalmembers can keep in mind to reduce misconceptions, misinterpretations, and misevaluation.

a. Assume differences until similarity is proven. Most of us assume that others are moresimilar to us that they really are. But people from, say different countries, are often verydifferent from us. So, you are far less likely to make an error if you assume this in allinteractions.


b. Emphasize description rather than interpretation or evaluation. Interpreting or evaluatingwhat someone has done or said, in contrast to description, is based more on observer’sculture and background than on the observed situation. As a result, delay judgementuntil you have had sufficient time to observe or interpret the situation.

c. Practice empathy. Before sending a message, put yourself in the recipient’s shoes.What are his or her values, experiences and frames of reference? What do you knowabout his or her education, upbringing or background that can give you additional insightsinto the person? Try to see other person as he or she really is.

d. Treat your interpretations as working hypothesis. Once you have developed an explanationfor a new situation, treat it as a hypothesis that needs further testing, rather than take itas certainty. Carefully assess the feedback from the recipients to see if it confirms yourhypothesis. For important decisions or communiqués, you can check with other foreignand home country colleagues to make sure your interpretation is correct in all sense.

Improving communication in organizations

A. Individual-level communication

1. Sending

a. Simplify message, if possible (KISS principle – Keep it short and simple))

b. Encode in language, gestures appropriate for receiver (e.g., avoid jargon)

c. Assess receiver’s understanding, state of mind

i. practice empathy with receiver

ii. encourage questions, feedback

iii. watch for signs of information overload

d. Repeat messages for better understanding

2. Choosing channels

a. Use channels the receiver monitors. It is important to match the channel thatthe receiver is able to understand.

b. Use multiple channels for ensuring that if one fails, the other succeeds.

c. Choose channels that don’t have as much noise, distortion


3. Receiving

a. Listen to underlying meaning. Very often the stated and implied messageneeds to be understood for effective response.

b. Ask questions to clarify. This helps in our own understanding and thereby, inproviding a complete and correct response.

c. Avoid interrupting. Respond after sender is finished. Postponing the judgementaids in effective listening. Thus, it contributes to effective communication.

B. Inter-group communication

1. Make reward systems that foster trust, openness between groups

2. Schedule interdepartmental meetings for continuous give and take of feedback

C. Superior/subordinate communication—As a supervisor,

1. Reduce status barriers (e.g., through nonverbal cues)

2. Structure messages so information doesn’t get left out (e.g., forms)

3. Screen information, and prioritize; delegate routine matters

4. Be accepting of negative information. Show openness in genuine ways.


Exercise

1. What is Organizational Communication? How does it impact successful functioning ofthe organization?

2. How does culture affect effective communication in an organization? What are some ofthe ways to minimize the impact of cultural barriers to promote effective communication?

3. Write short notes on:

a. Process of communication

b. Grapevine

4. What are the different directions in which communication flows in an organization? Whatis the significance of these directions of communication?


NOTES

Stress Management 153

Chapter 12

STRESS MANAGEMENT

The existence and importance of stress in industry was first recognised in America in 1956. Amachine operator named James Carter cracked up while working on the General Motorsproduction line in Detroit. Mr. Carter had what is now commonly known as a nervous breakdownand he sued General Motors, claiming that the stresses of his job had contributed to hiscondition. It was an important lawsuit. Carter won and from that day onwards most executivesand all lawyers and the physicians in America took the relationship between stress andindustry very seriously indeed. However, executives around the rest of the world have beenslow to recognise the importance of stress in Industry.

Indeed, in some ways it is difficult to blame company executives for failing to understand theimportance of ‘stress’ as a trivial problem and laugh at any suggestion that there could be alink 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 mostcommon cause of destructive ill health is stress at work. Researchers have not only built upevidence showing links between industrial stresses in general and ill health but have evenaccumulated evidence showing that it is possible to link specific occupations with specifictypes of stress induced disease. No one is immune. The man or women on the shop floor isjust 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 hasgone up nine times within the last four decades.

Although there is absolutely no doubt that stress is killing many people, disabling many moreand costing industry crores of rupees every year, there is one important question that has tobe asked. Why are we so susceptible to stress these days?

The answer to this apparently unanswerable paradox is quite simple. Our bodies were designeda long, long time ago. We were not designed for the sort of world in which we live today. Wewere designed for a world in which fighting and or running were useful practical solutions toeveryday problems. We were designed to cope with physical conformations with sharp-toothedtigers.


The problem is that our environment has changed far more rapidly than we have evolved. Wehave changed our world far faster than our bodies have been able to adapt. At no other time inthe 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 hundredyears or so. Never before have expectations and pressures been so great. Revolutionarychanges in agriculture, navigation, medicine, military tactics, design, transport, communicationsand industrial methods have all transformed our world. But our bodies are still the same asthey were tens of thousands of years ago. It takes millennia for the human body to adapt. Wehave moved far too quickly to be good for our bodies.

It is these environmental changes that have made stress more pronounced. These daysstress is ubiquitous. None can escape stress. As a matter of fact stress has its origin in thebody 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. Wheneverthere was any life threatening event any action off light or fight, pituitary would give appropriatesignals for secreting adrenaline in the blood stream. This resulted in creation of additionalenergy 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 dangerwithin a few microseconds. These responses of the body to a situation are known as fight orflight 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 thebody;

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 witha threat, the general physiological response occurs in three stages viz. alarm reaction, resistancereaction and state of exhaustion.


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 ischaracterised by autonomous excitability; and adrenaline discharge; increased heart rate;muscle tone, and blood content; and gastro-intestinal ulceration. Depending on the natureand intensity of threat and the conditions of the organism the severity of the symptoms maydiffer from a mild invigoration to disease of adaptation.

Stage of Resistance

Maximum adaptation occurs during this stage. The bodily signs characteristic of the alarmreaction disappear. Resistance increases to levels above normal. If the stress persists, or thedefensive 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 onanimals where the stressors are usually physical or environmental–and this is not always thecase 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 ownpsychological and physical make up; the familial demands, the social demands, the demandsof the job etc. etc.

Whenever a superior scolds a subordinate, the latter’s body chemistry acts in the same wayit did in the cave man when he was threatened by a tiger. Even all his body functions race up


to meet the emergency. However, physical emergency there is none. This additional burst ofenergy is not only useless for him but is harmful. He can neither fight physically with thesuperior nor leave the place of work. The adrenaline is metabolised. These metabolic changesact on various balancing and self-correcting mechanisms of the body. The result is thepsychosomatic diseases.

STRESS DEFINITIONS

Different definitions of stress occur. Dr. Seyles, an expert in stress management, gives thebest definition in stress management. According to him “stress is a non-specific response ofthe body to situation”.

It is important to remember that the body chemistry does not distinguish between the anxietycausing, pleasant or unpleasant situations. In any of these situations, the body response isthe 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 byoverloading experiences.”

“Stress is an adaptive response to an external situation that results in physical, psychologicaland 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 long-lasting. Furthermore it is a state of happiness. Eustress, therefore, is not harmful, beingoccasional and fleeting.

Distress

This is anti-thesis of eustress. Distress is caused whenever a person is suddenly very sad orangry. Distress is caused because of the demands of the modern life and anxiety to cope withthem. This results in feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, nervousness, loss etc. This type ofstress is harmful. It is this stress that has caused more havoc in the executive life. It is thisstress 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 tryto alleviate it. An atmosphere of objectivity and mutual trust would go a long way in reducingdistress.


Hyper Work Stress

This type of stress is caused because of the hyper activity and travails of life to meet dead-lines etc. Target mindedness and the eleventh hour rush or continuous overwork cause hyperstress. 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 thanoptimum activity. The effects of hypo stress are slower than other types but are more penetratingand longer lasting. There are examples when the Organisation have deliberately created hypostress 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 experiencethis stress. For them it is a transition from hyper to hypo stress. This underlines the necessityof planning the post-retirement period, doing proper time management by planning activitiesso that an individual remains optimally busy.

The above discussion shows that whatever an individual does or does not so, there is alwayssome sort and some amount of stress on him. This is why stress is known as “non-specificresponse of the body to the situation.

There are three broad categories of stressors. They are :

a) Organizational stressors;

b) Life stressors; and

c) Personal stressors.

Organisational stressors

Organisational membership is a dominant source of stress. The concept of organisationalstress was first evolved in the classic work of Kahn et al. They were the earliest to drawattention to organisational stress in general and role stress in particular.

Some of the organisational stressors are intrinsic to the job. They are boredom, time pressuresand 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 arelack of participation in the decision-making, lack of responsiveness and appreciation, presserstowards conformity etc.


Life stressors

Life stressors can be catagorised in three classes. They are :

a) Life changes,

b) Daily stressors

c) Life trauma

Life change

Human has tendency to maintain equilibrium. Any change occurring in the life is a reason toget stressed. The research shows that even the minor or the trivial occurrences in the lifecreate stress. Various life changes are attached weightages that are shown below.

Death of Spouse – 100

Divorce – 73

Jail Term – 63

Death of a close family member – 63

Major personal injury or illness – 53

Marriage – 50

Fired from work – 47

Retirement – 45

Business Re-adjustment – 39

Change in responsibilities at work – 29

Trouble with boss – 23

Vacation – 13

Festivals – 12

Minor violations of law – 11

Personal stressors

Personal stressors relate to the personal health and the familial life of an individual. They arelike menopause or male menopause, commuting problems, reduced self-confidence as aresult of aging etc.


While the Western world has started thinking about the stress only lately, the Indians havethought about stress centuries before. According to Yoga ignorance, ego i.e. attachment toself, temptations, envy or hate, or jealousy and a state of helplessness are the main personalstressors. If one applies one’s mind to the reasons one will find that it is impossible to beaway from the stress.

The individual consequences of stress result in an individual finding it difficult to adjust withothers. In extreme cases it results in divorce too. Stress at the individual level also results inmedical problems. Most of all it affects an individual’s decision making capacity.

At the organisational level the stress of the employees may have negative effect on the jobsatisfaction, 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 aman to do something that ultimately results in success. Stress is like the voltage on anelectric bulb. High voltage fuses the bulb; at the same time less voltage dims the bulb. Stressis necessary evil. But it has bad effects. Therefore the only thing a man can do is to keep thestress 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 dosomething about his stress. The diagram below gives the strategies that can be adopted byan individual to cope with stress.

Stress: Personal coping strategies

Know your personality type

Recognition is half the solution.

LOVE THYSELF

BODY 1. Have regular medical exam. 2. Exercise regularly. 3. Don’t touch tobacco. 4. Do mind what you --:

Drink Eat

SOUL – MIND 1. Meditate regularly. 2. Learn to relax. 3. Develop some hobby.

Eat


Know your personality type

Stress can affect different people in different ways. The most fully developed individual relatingspecifically 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 contrarytype B people are the ones who are mild mannered and take the life as it comes. Type Bpersons 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 personalityand 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 understandthat he is under stress. How do you recognise that you are under stress? Self report measureprovide clear indication that people who know us closely and observe us frequently can saywith certain degree of accuracy, whether we are under stress or not. To the question “Didanyone tell you that you are under stress?” Most of the executives reported that it is theirwives who told them that they are under stress. A relatively less number said it was theirfriends and collagues who could correctly detect that they are under stress. Correct detectionis possible by these people because of some specific symptoms when stress still operates atbehavioural and psychosomatic level. Awareness of these symptoms will help us to recognisewhen 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.


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 ourbody that we are known in this world. It is through our body that we experience the world. It isonly when we love our body that we will take proper care of it. Loving is not pampering. Thefollowing 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 preventivemeasure, especially when one is beyond forties. It is advisable that if a person is below 40 hemust have a medical checkup at least once a year. Beyond 45th year of age the healthcheckup 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 againststress by regular exercises. One may take any type of exercise. The exercise of walking isthe best for all the ages. Walking as an exercise should be minimally five to six kilometres ata stretch at the speed not less than one and a half kilometres per minute. For a personbeyond thirty-five strenuous exercise is contra indicated.

Don’t touch tobacco

The medical research has amply demonstrated that tobacco is carcinogenic substance. Theresearch also tells that passive smoking is more harmful than active smoking.


Do mind what you

a) Eat : One must be careful about what one eats. What we are largely depends on whatwe eat. As far as possible oily and pungent food be avoided. This has tendency to causemore 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 whichis rich in calories and cholesterol and lack fiber.

b) 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 withalcohol is injurious to health.

Love your mind

We have already said that the happy as well as unhappy situations cause secretion ofadrenaline. The remedy is to keep the mind tranquil. It is realised that keeping the mindtranquil is easily said than done. The Indian tradition has always been stressing importance ofmeditation. The idea is that in meditation a person takes away his mind for some time fromthe 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 intothe 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 keepingthe mind tranquil that some firms have reserved separate rooms for meditation for theirexecutives. In India the organisations are slow to catch up with this. None-the-less it can bepractised 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.


Remember one who ‘dares’ stress conquers it:

D –Diet

A –Activity

R –Relaxation

E –Empathy

S- Spirituality.


SUMMARY

Stress takes a heavy toll of the person’s health and his capacity to adjust with others. Themodern life is full of stressors. The job life contains many stressors. Some of the stressors areintrinsic to the job life; some relate to the structure of the job and so on. There are stressorsI 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 aspsychosomatic disorders.

One can cope with the stress by regular exercise, not using tobacco, taking the right kind offood and calories; regular medical examination, and meditation.


NOTES

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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 theorganisation.

Discuss various theories of leadership, including trait, contingency, managerial grid, contingencytheory 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 fromunsuccessful Organisation: dynamic and effective leadership. Peter F. Drucker points out thatmanagers (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 enablethem to lead effectively. The shortage of effective leadership is not confined to business but isevident in the lack of able administrators in government, education, foundations, and everyother form of organisation. Thus, when we decry the brain drain from India, we are not talkingabout the drain of people who could have filled administrative “bodies”. What we are agonizingover is a drain of brains willing to assume significant leadership roles in our society and canget the job done effectively.

The significance of leadership arises from the openness of the Organisation as a system andfrom the fact that it operates in a changing environment. There are numerous instances in thehistory of organizations showing collapse of enterprises that failed to react suitably to theenvironmental requirements for change. The effective changeover requires effective leadership


because there exists no builtin stabilizing devices of Organisation for coping with such alteredrequirements.

The significance of leadership also stems from the nature of human membership in organisationalsettings. People who form an organisation are members of several institution — in the sociologicalsense— at the same time. Numerous extraneous activities and affiliations take up the bulk ofan individual’s time and satiate his needs. These extra-organisational activities influence humanbehaviour at work.

Moreover, the environment in which an organisation operates is full of change agents. In themodern 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 changehas become challenge before every organisation these days. This challenge can be met onlywith effective leadership.

DEFINITIONS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF LEADERSHIP

Katz and Kahn have observed: “In the descriptions of organizations, no word is more oftenused than leadership, and perhaps no word is used with such varied meanings. The wordleadership is sometimes used to indicate that it is an attribute of personality; sometimes it isused as if it was a characteristic of certain positions, and sometimes as an attribute ofbehaviour.”

Leadership is defined as “the relationship in which one person, influences others to worktogether willingly on related tasks to attain that which the leader desires.”

Keith Davis defines leadership as “the ability to persuade others to seek defined objectivesenthusiastically. It is the human factor that binds people together and motivates them towardsgoals.”

“Leadership is that outstanding aspect of management which manifests ability, creativeness,initiative and inventiveness, and which gains confidence, co-operation and willing of the peopleto work by building employee morale.”

“It is the process by which an executive or a manager imaginatively directs, guides andinfluences the work of others in choosing and attaining specified goals by mediating betweenthe individual and the Organisation in such a manner that both will obtain the maximumsatisfaction.”

“It is an inter-personal influence, exercised in situations and directed, through the communicationprocess, towards the attainment of a specified goal or goals.”

“Leadership is the process of influencing the activities of an individual or a group towards theachievement of a goal in a given situation. The leadership process is a function of the leader,the follower and other situational variables.”

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“Leadership is organizationally useful behaviour by one member of an Organisation familytoward another member or members of that same organizational family.”

“Leadership is one form of dominance, in which the followers more or less willingly acceptdirection and control by another person.”

Leadership is an influence process; the dynamics of which are a function of the personalcharacteristics 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 whatmakes a leader and that too what makes a good leader.

The phrenological, graphological and demographic studies suffered from the lack of scientificrigor and cannot be given any credence. They are, at best, guesses. The academic communityin 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 studiesand a considerable body of knowledge on leadership. A review of the better-known classicstudies can help set the stage for the established and emerging theories of leadership.

a) The Lowa Leadership Studies: The series of pioneering leadership studies conductedin the late 1930s by Ronald Lippitt and Ralph K. White under the general direction of KurtLewin at the university of Lowa have had a lasting impact: Lewin is recognised as the father ofgroup dynamics and as an important cognitive theorist.

In the initial studies, hobby clubs for ten-year-old boys were formed. Each club was submittedto three different styles of leadership – authoritarian, democratic, and laissez faire.

The authoritarian leader was very directive and allowed no participation. This leader tended togive individual attention when praising and criticizing but tried to be friendly or impersonalrather 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 noleadership.

Under experimental conditions, the three leadership styles were manipulated to show theireffects on variables such as satisfaction and frustration/ aggression. Some of the results wereclear-cut and others were not. One definite finding was the boys’ overwhelming preference forthe democratic leader.


The experiments were designed primarily to examine pattern of aggressive behaviour. Theresearchers found that the boys subjected to the autocratic leaders reacted in one of the twoways; either aggressively or apathetically. Both the aggressive and apathetic behaviours weredeemed to be reactions to the frustration caused by the autocratic leader. The researchersalso pointed out that the apathetic groups exhibited outbursts of aggression when the autocraticleader 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 actsfrom the group.

The democratically led group fell between the one extremely aggressive group and the fourapathetic 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. Likethe Hawthorne studies, the Lowa studies are too often discounted or at least de-emphasizedbecause they were experimentally crude. The values of the studies were that they were thefirst to analyze leadership from the standpoint of scientific methodology, and, more important,they showed that different styles of leadership could produce different, complex reactions fromthe same or similar groups.

b) The Ohio State Leadership Studies : In 1945, the Bureau of Business Research atOhio State University initiated a series of studies on leadership. An interdisciplinary team ofresearchers from psychology, sociology, and economics developed and used the LeaderBehaviour Description Questionnaire (LBDQ) to analyze leadership in numerous types of groupsand 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 examinehow the leader was described, the answers to the questionnaire were then subjected to factoranalysis. The outcome was amazingly consistent. The same two dimensions of leadershipcontinually emerged from the questionnaire data. They were “consideration” and “initiatingstructure.” These two factors were found in a wide variety of studies encompassing manykinds of leadership positions and contexts. Initiating structure and consideration are verysimilar to the time honoured military commander’s functions of mission and concern with thewelfare 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 taskand 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 humanrelations emphasis.

c) The Early Michigan Leadership Studies : At about the same time that the Ohio Statestudies were being conducted, a group of researchers from the Survey Research Center at theUniversity of Michigan USA began their studies of leadership.

Twelve high-low productivity pairs were selected for examination. Each pair represented ahigh-producing section and a low-producing section, with other variables, such as type ofwork, conditions, and methods, being the same in each pair. Non-directive interviews wereconducted with the 24 section supervisors and 419 clerical workers. Results showed thatsupervisors of high producing sections were significantly more likely to be general rather thanclose in their supervisory styles and the employee centered (have a genuine concern for theirpeople).

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 theseskills are interrelated in practice, they can be considered separately.

Technical skills relate to person’s knowledge and ability in any organizational functional area.Examples are the skills learned by accountants, typists. This skill is the distinguishing feature ofjob performance at the operating level.


Human skill is the ability to work effectively with people and to build teamwork. No leader atany organisational level escapes the requirement for effective human skill. It is a major part ofleadership 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 concernspeople and technical skill is with things.

It will be seen from the above diagram that the mix of these three skills changes as one risesin the organisational hierarchy. At the supervisory level the requirement of technical skills isthe highest. But as the person moves up the hierarchy to the top management, it is conceptualskills that are more in demands rather than technical skills. However, the requirement ofhuman 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 inrelation to followers. It represents their philosophy, skills, and attitudes. The styles that arediscussed hereunder are used in combination, not separately; but they are discussed separatelyto clarify differences among them.

Negative leadership gets acceptable performance in many situations, but it has high humancosts. Negative leaders act domineering and superior with people. To get work done, they holdover 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 arebosses 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 andmore positive leadership skills in order to be rated “satisfactory”. Better employee education,greater independence, and other factors have made satisfactory employee motivation moredependent 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 andlimitations. Leader behaviour is the mixture of all three styles over a period of time, but onestyle tends to be the dominant one.

Autocratic leadership style

Autocratic leaders centralize power and decision making in them. They structure the completework situation for their employees, who are supposed to do what they are told. The leaderstake full authority and assume full responsibility. Leadership behaviour typically, is negative,

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based on threats and punishment; but it can be positive, because an autocratic leader canchoose 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 acertain amount of security and satisfaction with this type of leader.

Some advantages of autocratic leadership style are that it provides strong motivation andreward for the leader. It permits quick decisions, because only one person decides for theentire group. It is the best style in emergencies. Furthermore this style gives good resultswhen 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 notinvolve their “self” in the organisational activities because their drives and creativity aresuppressed.

Participative leadership style

Participative leadership style is expression of leader’s trust in the abilities of his subordinates.The leader believes that his people are as desirous of contributing to the organisational effortsas well as they have requisite capacities. Participative leaders decentralize authority.Participative decisions are not unilateral, as with the autocrat, because they arise fromconsultation with followers and participation by them. The leader and group are acting as oneunit. Employees are informed about conditions requiring decisions, which encourages themto express their ideas and suggestions. Whereas autocratic leaders control through theauthority they possess, participative leaders exercise control mostly by using forces withinthe group.

Participative style is supposed to be a better style of managing people. However, it is notwithout 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 helporganisational effort may not be correct.

Free rein leadership style

On the continuum of leadership style free rein style is the extreme. Free rein leaders avoidpower and responsibility. They depend largely upon the group to establish its own goals andwork out its own problems. A free rein leader is the one who abdicates all his decision makingresponsibilities and prerogative in favour of his follower. The leader plays only a minor role. Inan organisational setting such a leader happens to be a bystander, he happens to be therebecause of his organizational appointment. He fails to guide, motivate and develop hissubordinates.


This style tends to permit different units of an Organisation to proceed at cross-purposes, andit can degenerate into chaos. For these reasons normally it is not used as a dominant stylebut is useful in those situations where a leader can leave a choice entirely to the group. Thisstyle is also good when one is dealing with scientific and professional employees, who requiremore job-freedom.

Managerial Grid Styles:

One very popular approach to identifying leadership styles of practicing managers is Blakeand Mouton’s managerial grid. The following figure shows that the two dimensions of the gridare concern for people along the vertical axis and concern for production along the horizontalaxis.

The five basic styles identified in the grid represent varying combinations of concern for peopleand production.

The 1,1 manager has minimum concern for people and production; this style is sometimescalled “impoverished” style.

The opposite is the 9,9 manager. This individual has maximum concern for both people andproduction. The implication is that the 9,9 is the best style of leadership, and Blake andMouton have stated so in no uncertain terms:

1.9 Management Thoughtful attention to needs of people satisfying relationships leads to a comfortable, friendly

9.1 Management Efficiency in operations results from arranging conditions of work in such a way that human

5.5 Management Adequate orgn. performance is possible through balancing the

9.9 Management Work accomplishment is from the committed people: interdependence through a common stake

1.1 Management Exertion of minimum efforts to get minimum work to sustain

The Managerial Grid (Source: Robert R Blake & Jane S Mouton, “Managerial Facades” Advanced Managerial Journal, July 1966, Pg. 31)

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The 5,5 manager is the “middle-of-the-roader,” and the other two styles represent the extremeconcerns of people (1,9, country club manager) and production (9,1, “task” manager).

A manager’s position on the grid can be determined by a questionnaire developed by Blakeand Mouton and can play an important role in Organisation Development (OD).

Rensis Likert’s Four Systems Management

Rensis Likert, the one-time director of the Institute for Social Research of the University ofMichigan, presented the results of the years of similar research in his books and became bestknown for his “System 4” leadership styles.

Three types of variables characterize it:

i. Casual variables are the leadership styles of management in formal organisation. Theyinclude those variables that are under the control of management, e.g. organisationstructure and management’s policies, and decisions and their leadership styles, skillsand behaviour.

ii. Intervening variables, which reflect the internal climate of the organisation, such as loyaltyand motivation, attitudes, perceptions, performance goals etc.

iii. End-result variables, which reflect the objectives of an Organisation and are the jointproduct of the casual variables and the intervening variables, such as productivity, servicecosts, quality and earnings.

Likert’s 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 productionoriented, 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 toinitiating structure as a means of exercising influence. Power and position authority is thebasis 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 hissubordinates, but is still heavily oriented towards production, System 2 is philosophicallycommitted to Theory X, but occasionally shows consideration within the initiating structure.Power and positional authority are the primary means of enforcing compliance, although personal


authority may be used to supplement legitimacy, reward and coercion. There is some delegationof 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 hisdecision 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 3is 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 thesubordinates and to enforce their compliance.

System 4: Democratic

The leader has complete trust and confidence in his subordinates. Communication is bothformal and informal, and is open in all direction. Motivation is accomplished by a system ofrewards developed with the participation of leader and followers. The leader has a balancedconcern for both people and production, and relies primarily on teamwork to progress in bothdirections.

System 4

Has a strong commitment to Theory Y. The position of power is de-emphasized, and personalauthority is predominant. Recourse to positional authority is infrequent. The responsibility forresult still lies with the management; but there is minimal emphasis on control. Participationis 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 undersystem 1 and 2”.

Leadership Behaviour Continuum

The originators of this theory are Tannenbaum and Schmidt. They postulate that managersoften 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 decision-making authority to subordinates. To provide insight into the meaning of leadership behaviourwith regard to decision-making these authors suggest a continuum.

Leadership actions are related to the degree of authority used by managers and to the amountof freedom available to the subordinates in reaching decisions. The managerial actions depictedon 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.

Leadership 177

It will be observed that at the one extreme end, the manager makes decision, tells hissubordinates, and expects them to carry out that decision. At the other extreme, the managerfully shares his decision-making power with his subordinates, allowing each member of thegroup to carry an equal voice – one man, one vote. Between these two extremes fall a numberof leadership style. The selection of a particular style is dependent upon forces in the managerhimself, his operating group, and the situation.

There is a relationship between the degree of authority used and the amount of freedomavailable 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. Thoseleaders would be most effective who are adaptable and who can delegate authority effectivelybecause 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 weretrying to see if leadership success could be predicted. They were also trying to find out as towhat makes a leader. Graphalogical, Phrenological and Demographic, studies were made in


these directions. However, these studies had to be discarded because of many flaws. At bestthey were guesses.

Trait Theories of Leadership

The scientific analysis of leadership started off by concentrating on leaders themselves. Thevital question that this theoretical approach attempted to answer was what characteristic ortraits make a person a leader? The earliest trait theories, which can be traced back to theancient 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 forleadership. 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 acceptedthe fact that leadership traits can be acquired through learning and experience. Attention wasturned on the search for universal traits possessed by leaders. The research efforts weregenerally very disappointing. Only intelligence seemed to hold up with any degree ofconsistency.

In general, research findings do not agree on which traits are generally found in leaders or evenon which ones are more important than others. The numbers of traits required of a successfulleader are many. Not only this, depending on the situation the leader has to bring in variousshades 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 somedescriptive 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 Fiedler’s 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 situation-based or contingency theory for leadership effectiveness.

Fiedler developed what he called a contingency model of leadership effectiveness. This modelcontained 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 thesituation’s favourableness.

2. The degree of task structure, which is the second most important input into thefavourableness of the situation.

Leadership 179

3. The leader’s position power obtained through formal authority, which is the third mostcritical dimension of the situation.

Situations are favourable to the leader if all three of the above dimensions are high. In otherwords, if the leader is generally accepted by followers; if the task is very structured andeverything is “spelled out” and if a great deal of authority and power is formally attributed to theleader’s position (high third dimension). If the opposite exists the situation will be very unfavourablefor the leader.

Fiedler was convinced that the favourableness of the situation in combination with the leadershipstyle determines effectiveness. Through the analysis of research findings, Fiedler was able todiscover that under very favourable and very unfavourable situations, the task-directed, autocratictype of leader was most effective. However, when the situation was only moderately favourableor 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 thatthey are important not only because individually they accept or reject the leader but becauseas a group they actually determine whatever personal power he may possess. Theory assertsthat as the level of maturity of followers increases, the leader requires not only less and lessstructure (task) while increasing consideration but should eventually decrease socio-emotionalsupport (relationship).

Attempts have been made to define maturity by achievement motivation, the willingness andability to accept responsibility and task related education and experience. As an individualmatures over time he moves from a passive state to a state of increasing activity, fromdependency on others to relative independence, etc. While age may be a component, it is notdirectly related to maturity.

The leader behaviour should move through: high task low relationship behaviour, to high task-high relationships, and high relationships-low task behaviour, to low task-low relationshipsbehaviour, if followers progress from immaturity to maturity.

The life cycle theory provides appropriate leadership styles according to maturity of one’sfollowers. This cycle is also distinguishable in various organisations in the interaction betweensuperiors 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 mostsuitable style is the high task-low relationships. However, within the military itself, this style is


frequently ineffective in working with research and development personnel who want limitedamount of both structure and emotional support. Even in this group, some deviation from thisstyle is needed.

Overall, Life Cycle Theory asserts that with people of below average maturity, a high task stylepromises best probability of success while dealing with people of average maturity, the stylesof high task and high relationships and high relationships and low task appear to be mostsuitable. The low task and low relationship style provides the highest probability of successwith people of above average maturity.

Path-Goal Leadership Theory

Robert House of the University of Toronto initially developed this theory, and House and Mitchelllater 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 toachievement of these goals. It is based on the notion that a leader behaviour motivates andsatisfies his followers to such an extent that it promotes the attainment of the followers’ goalsand clears the path to attainment of these goals. It uses expectancy framework from motivationtheory 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 theimpact 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 leadershipbehaviour.

They are:

1. Directive Leadership: Here the subordinates know exactly what is expected of themand 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 providingthe necessary guidance and psychological structure for his followers. When the demandsof the task are clear to the followers, high level of directive leadership may impedeeffective performance.

2. Supportive Leadership: The leader is friendly and approachable and shows a genuineinterest for subordinates. This style of leadership has its most positive effect on thesatisfaction of followers who perform tasks that are full of stress, and are frustrating andunsatisfactory or unsatisfying.

3. Participative Leadership: The leader asks for and uses suggestions from subordinatesbut takes the decision by himself.

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4. Achievement-oriented Leadership: The leader sets challenging goals for subordinatesand shows confidence in them to attain these goals and perform well. For followersperforming ambiguous, non-repetitive tasks the higher the achievement orientation of theleader the more confident they would be that their efforts would pay-off in effectiveperformance. Contrary would be the case, when followers perform unambiguous andrepetitive tasks.

The path goal theory suggests that these various styles can be and actually are used by thesame leader depending on the characteristics of the subordinates and the environmentalpressures.

House has concluded that a high degree of direction in autonomous or ambiguous situationsincreases satisfaction by clarifying the path to Goal achievement. In contrast, strongly definedtasks are performed best with greater employee satisfaction when the leader demonstrateshigh consideration. The autonomous jobs are most intrinsically satisfying than structuredactivities are. As a result, leader behaviour will be less relevant to the needs or performance ofsubordinates than when the path is more difficult to negotiate.


SUMMARY

This chapter discusses various aspects of leadership. The research studies such as Lowaleadership studies, Ohio leadership studies and early Michigan studies set the stage for thetheoretical development of leadership.

A leader requires technical, human, and conceptual skills. As one goes up the orgnisationalhierarchy one requires less and less of the technical skill; but more and more of conceptualskills. However the degree of human skills remains the same, at whatever hierarchy level oneis a leader deals with his followers on the basis of leadership styles. Broadly there are threeleadership styles. The autocratic, participative and free rein. All these styles have positives aswell as negatives.

Eventhough the autoractic style repels the people, it is very much useful when one is dealingwith emergency. This style is also good when one is dealing with a large number of unskilledpeople doing the same work over and over again.

Participative style, no doubt, is god style. It is a great motivator because it assumes thatfollowers 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 dealingwith the employees doing creative work, or scientific and professional employees, this is thebest 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 onleader-member relations, the task structure and the leader position power. When all these arevery 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 giveand take.

Examples of well known approaches to leadership styles include Blake and Mouton’smanagerial grid; Hersey and Blanchard’s situational i.e. life cycle model and Likert’s foursystems of management. Each of these approaches to style has been around for a long timebut still has implications for the practice of leadership.

The grid is valuable mainly because it allows managers to describe their styles.

Hwersey and Blanchard’s approach shows how well managers can match the appropriatestyle with the maturity level of the group being led, and Likert’s work has implications fororganisational effectiveness.

Path-goal leadership theory developed by Robert House considers the effort performancelinkages and performance goals satisfaction linkages. However, path-goal theory is a relativelynew and warrants further research to test its applicability.

Leadership 183

NOTES


NOTES

Management of Organisational Change 185

Chapter 14MANAGEMENT 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 ischange. 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 ina progressive culture. Change, in fact, is accelerating in our present day society. Revolutionsare taking place in political, scientific, technological and institutional areas. Sophisticatedcommunication capabilities have increased. Telemarketing, ‘robotics’ taking over some jobscurrently 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 theorganisation. In fact an organisation that refuses to adapt and adopt change can not livelonger.

Organizations are, of course, learning to cope with the devastating rate of internal and externalchanges with the help of some fundamental changes in management philosophy andorganizational technology.

Characteristics of organisational change:

i) Change basically results from stimuli from both outside and inside the enterprise;

ii) Change takes place in all organizations but at varying rates of speed and degrees ofsignificance;

iii) Change takes place in all parts of Organisation but at varying rates of speed and degreesof significance;

iv) Finally, the enterprise changes in several ways. Its technology may change; its structure,people, procedures and other elements may change.


Any alteration that occurs in the overall work environment is called change. Change requiresnew adjustments and new equilibrium. The nature of work change is so complicated that themanagement should gain acceptance for the change, and restore the group equilibrium andpersonal adjustment that change upsets.

FORCES FOR CHANGE:

a) Internal Forces :

There are some internal forces that cause change in the organisations. They relate to changein 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) Employees’ desire to share in decision-making;

ii) Employees’ demands for effective organisational mechanism;

iii) Higher employee expectation for satisfying jobs and work environment;

iv) Change in the mission or the objectives. This may be occasioned as a result of mergersor amalgamations etc.;

v) Retirements, transfers or promotions;

vi) Changes in the location of the organisation;

vii) Changes in the work force culture, educational level etc.;

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 theexistence of certain loopholes in the system itself. They may be like unmanageable spans ofcontrol, lack of coordination between the departments, obstacles in communication, multiplicityof meaningless committees, lack of uniformity in the policies, non-cooperation between lineand staff etc. But normally the need for change in such areas goes unrecognised until somemajor catastrophe occurs. A rational Organisation thinks in terms of change long before itturns into changed event.

b) External forces:

Outside the Organisation, environmental conditions are becoming less and less stable day by


day. They are even becoming turbulent. These pressures necessitate the Organisation tochange and adapt to meet the new demands and requirements. Organisation cannot afford tobe rigid and inflexible in the wake of environmental pressures They must be dynamic andviable, so that they survive.

Organizations are forced most frequently to introduce changes in response to environmentalpressures. Modern manager should be change conscious and operating in the constantlychanging environment. Many external changes bombard the modern Organisation and makechange inevitable. Some of these common forces are the rapidly changing technology, theeconomic 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 thatorganisation reckons with. The rate of technological changes is so fast that we have to run tobe where we are. Technological changes are creeping in our private lives too. They are alsoresponsible for changing the nature of jobs performed at all levels in the organizations. Knowledgeexplosion, more particularly the computer technology and automation have made a remarkableimpact on the functioning of organisation in the recent times. Technology change has alwaysbeen equated with the progress in society. Today’s technology has outstripped the imaginationsof the science fiction writers of a generation ago. Each technological alternative results insetting into motion a chain of changes. The technology necessitates an organisation to changeits 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 thetechnology 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) Export/import policy of the Government.

b) Changes in the interest rates.

c) The status of the economy.

d) The status of money market.

Market Situation:

Changing market situations is a seemingly ubiquitous phenomenon. The market changesinclude rapidly changing testes of consumers, needs and desires of consumers, suppliers,


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 arefunctioning in a highly competitive terrain. If they are to survive they must adapt themselves tothe change and adopt the change.

Social and Political Change:

Such environmental pressures as social and political change, as well as the relations betweengovernment and business also influence results of organisational efforts. Many new legalprovisions get introduced every time that affects the organizations. Organisational units literallyhave 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 thefactors forcing necessity to change on the organisations. Not only this but the world politicsalso affects the organisation.

Resistance to Change:

Many of times the change is resisted by employees, even if the change is for benefit ofemployees and the organisation. Resistance to change is perhaps one of the baffling problemsa manager encounters because it can assume many forms. The effects of resistance may beovert or implicit, may be subtle and cumulative. Implicit resistance may be manifested intardiness, 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, reductionin productivity etc.

Resistance to change may, further, be individual or organisational. Individual resistance maybe due to some personal, economic or social reasons. Organisational resistance on the otherhand, generally centers round the structure, organisational constraints, threats to power andinfluence and finally, and sunk costs.

Individual Resistance :

One aspect of mankind that has remained more or less constant is his innate resistance tochange. 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 emotionalturmoil. Further, individual attaches great preference to maintain status quo. Additionally, positivethreats 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 favouringthe status quo. In fact, there may be near-infinite reasons why people resist change inorganisation. According to Keith Davis, however, the following are the main reasons for resistanceto change.


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 perceivethey will lose something of value as a result. The greater the expected loss the greaterthe resistance. People resist change that opens the possibility of lowering their incomedirectly or indirectly. That is to say whenever the employee perceives the inexorableconsequences of change in terms of unfavorable pay, he has the tendency to resist it. Ofcourse, change resulting in a reduction of pay is a rare phenomenon. Many workers arejustifiably afraid of being phased out of their jobs by automation. They resist change, andtheir resistance to change can be quite effective.

ii) Obsolescence of Skills : Sometimes, however, introduction of new technology throwspeople away from doing important jobs (or demanding works) to less important or dead-end ones, where less or no skills are required to exhibit. More realistically, when peopleperceive psychological degradation of the job they are performing they resist such achange.

The rate at which the knowledge is exploding is incredible. As a result, knowledge in anyparticular 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 acomputer for preparing the wage bill because he feels that might affect his position andpay. The introduction of new methods also throw a need for retraining which an individualhates. This kind of phenomenon is commonly found in those managers who possess noreal marketable skills and whose knowledge is obsolete and out-dated. These peoplestrongly resist change and try their best to maintain status quo.

iii) Preference for Status Quo: Perhaps the biggest and the most sound reason for theresistance to change is the preference for status-quo. People have vested interest in thestatus quo. Change may pose disturbance to the existing comforts of status quo. Venturingthe change may involve uncertainty and risk, may be at the cost of the convenience andhappiness of the employees. Most of the people are comfortable with status quo andstrongly resist change. It is because people typically develop patterns for coping with ormanaging the current structure and situation.

iv) Fear of unknown: Change presents unknown, which causes anxiety. Whenever peopledo not know exactly what is likely to happen they are likely to resist it. The unknownposes a constant threat. People change and its consequences. Uncertainty in the situationarises not from the change itself, but from the consequences surrounding change. Toavoid 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 overuncertainty about the future and he thinks the better way would be to oppose change.


v) Social Reasons: Economic and personal reasons for the resistance apart, some socialreasons may also be accountable for the possible resistance to change. Socialdisplacements and peer pressure are among those social reasons that are very importantfor the manager to consider when dealing with resistance to change.

vi) Social Displacements: Introduction of change often results in breaking up of workgroups. People in the working environment develop informal relationships. When thefriendship with fellow-members is interrupted then there is a possibility for the employeesto experience psychological let down. When the social relationships develop, as normallyis the case, people try to maintain them and fight social displacement by resistingchange.

vii) Peer Pressure: Situations are not rare where individuals are prepared to accept changeat 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) Structure of the organisation,

b) Resource constraints,

c) Sunk costs,

and

d) 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 authorityare clearly spelled out, the flow of information is stressed from top to bottom. In such organisationsthe channels of communication make the new idea difficult to travel and eventually it increasesthe probability that the new ideal/innovation will be screened out because it is not suitable forthe structure of the Organisation.

Some organisations are so designed that they resist innovations. For example, those thatperform narrowly prescribed assortment of functions oppose change. They also sometimescreate strong defense against changes.

Resources constraints:

Organisations, many a times, operate under some resource constraints. If the resources withwhich to operate are available in abundance there will be no problem of introducing change.


But the necessary financial, material and human resources may not be available to theOrganisation to make the needed changes.

Sunk costs:

The plight of some companies is such that the heavy capital is blocked in the fixed or permanentassets. Even though the management in such organisations is convinced of the necessity ofchange, they may face resouce constraints because of the money already sunk in the purchaseof block capital assets.

Sunk costs are not restricted to physical things alone. They can be expressed in terms ofpeople 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 forcesagainst the change. A manager should analyse the strength of each of these and reduce thestrength of the restraining forces and increase the strength of driving forces. This he can do byproper 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 beaffected by the change in confidence before the change is set up. A communication intendedto 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 tobe affected by the change. If, however, for any reason it is not possible to communicate to allat the people who have influence over the employees should be communicated.

That the communication should be honest. It should, state –

a) what change?

b) why change?

c) how change?

d) how the change will benefit the organisation?


e) how the change will benefit the employees?

f) how the change will affect an employees?

g) what organisation proposes to do to reduce the rigors of change on employees?

h) an appeal to all employees to co-operate in setting up the change deciding whatmanagement style to use.

The following management styles are available to the manager for overcoming the resistanceto change.

Negotiations: convincing the employees about the necessity of change. At this stage somegive-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 exerciseson the part of management. Before a particular change is shaped and implemented effectivelyin an organisation certain minimum number of steps need be followed viz.

i] Recognise the forces demanding change;

ii] Recognise the need for the change;

iii] Diagnose the problem;

iv] Plan the change;

v] Implement the change

vi] Follow-up or feedback.

Forces Demanding Change:

Whenever a manager intends introducing change he should proceed in a logical sequentialorder. Manager should, first of all, identify the forces demanding change. Change is the reactionto the pressures created both within and outside the organisation. These forces thus, may beinternal or external. Depending upon the nature of the change agent, as well as the strength ofthe 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 ofthe management. Manager should identify the discrepancy between what is and what should


be. He must analyse the forces that contribute to this gap through evaluation or performancereports. Management then must try to separate unnecessary forces and keep a close eye onnext step in the process known as diagnosis.

Diagnose the Problem :

Next observable phase in management of change is a thorough and careful diagnosis of theproblem. 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 bythe internal inhibitions. He can afford to call a spade. Various diagnostic techniques such asinterviews, questionnaires, observation and secondary data/unobtrusive measure, etc., areused in this stage. The manager or change agent depending on the nature of the problem andcapabilities of the enterprise employs these diagnostic techniques.

The following table gives a bird’s eye view of the major advantages and the problems associatedwith these techniques.

After collection and analysis of the data an insider manager be associated with the outsiderconsultant. 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 bird’s eye view of the various techniques that are used in thediagnosis, their potential benefits and disadvantages.

Method Major advantages Potential problem

Interviews Adaptive - allows data Expensivecollection on a range ofpossible subjects.Source of rich data Interviewer can be biased (for

example, he can bias the responses).Emphatic Coding/Interpretation problemsBuilds rapport Self-report basis

Questionnaires Responses can be Non-emphatic, Pre-determinedqualified and easily questions may miss some issuessummarised; easy to use Response-bias may be therewith big samplesrelatively in expensive canobtain large volume of data


Observations Collects data on behaviour Interpretation problemrather than reports of thebehaviour real-time, Sampling problemsnot retrospective, adaptive Observer bias costly exercise

Secondary data Non-reactive Access/retrievalunobstrusive Non-response bias possibility problems.measures High face validity Potential validity problems

Easy for qualification Interpretation problems.

Source : David Nadler. “Feedback and Organisation Development Using Data-basedmethods”. Reading, Addison-Wesley.

The breadth of diagnosis depends on the seriousness of the problem. Sometimes a probleminvolves only one department or group or individual and hence diagnosis primarily focuses onthe particular area. Some other times, if the problem is deep-seated, then organisationalanalysis may be called for. Organisation analysis includes exhaustive study of organisationalgoals, 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 theinadequacy of the preset state. Diagnosis also enables the managers to perceive the gapbetween desired and actual performance and take necessary course of action. Without anaccurate-diagnosis, a manager can easily get bogged down during the change process withvery costly problems. Having done ‘the diagnosis, a change agent, or a manager proceeds tothe 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 hima 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, re-specification of span of control, decentralization etc. Changing task includes job enrichment,job specification and specialisation and job redefinition or any other changes concerned with


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 answeringthree vital problems what, how and when to change. Change agent must consider the followingsteps before he plans the change.

He should:

1. Make clear the need for change or provide a climate in which group members feel free toidentify such needs;

2. Permit and encourage relevant group participation in clarifying the needed changes;

3. State the objectives to be achieved by proposed changes;

4. Establish the broad guidelines for achieving the objectives;

5. Leave the details for implementing the proposed changes to the group in the organisationor to the personnel who will be affected by change;

6. Indicate the benefits or rewards to the individuals or groups that are expected to accruefrom the change;

7. Keep the promises made to those who made the change.

Selection of appropriate strategy is an essential part of planning. In solving organizationalchange problem; a manager pursues different strategies differently to solve a wide variety ofproblems.

Implementing the Change:

Having identified the focal points of concentration, the manager’s immediate job is to implementchange. Here he confronts a biggest challenge through resistance by the employees. Nadlerand Tushman assert that any change encounters three problems in implementation. They areresistance, power and control. These problems, their implications and the various actionsteps are presented in the table below.


Problem Implication Action steps

Resistance Need to motivate Participation in change. Changereward for behaviour in participation inchange. Rewards for behaviour insupport of change

Control Need to manage Use multiple and consistentthe transition leverage points.

Develop organisational arrangementsfor transition.Build-in feedback mechanisms.

Power Need to shape the Assure the support of key powerpolitical dynamism groups. Use leader behaviour to

generate energy in support of change.Use symbols and language. Build-instability.

Having taken in account the problems at this stage of implementation of change the managercan 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 organisationstructure and its employees. It results in more mechanistic organisation structure. Sincedepartments tend to be consolidated, work span gets reduced; functional departmentationreplaces divisions, resulting in a centralized control. At the other rungs it results in moreroutine jobs as well as more automated jobs in which workers’ interaction is less and infrequent.

Structure-focused change efforts changes primarily include:

i. Changing the number of organisational levels.

ii. Altering the span of management.

iii. Changing from one base of departmentation to another base.

iv. Altering the line and staff, and functional authority relationships.


Implement the change by Changing Technology:

Automation is the thing in today’s organisations. Also the automation may relate not only tothe manufacturing processes but it would also affect the technology relating to decision makingprocess and other internal processes, practices, procedures etc.

Technology focused changes comprise:

i) Changing problem solving and decision-making procedures;

ii) Introduction of computer to facilitate managerial planning and control;

iii) Converting from unit production to mass production technology.

iv) Implement the change by changing people.

A change in the organisation requires a corresponding change in the individual’s personality.Changing personality is a challenging task because the basic personality factors are usuallyformed and developed in the early childhood of the employee. A commonly accepted modelfor bringing about change in people was suggested by Kurt Lewin in terms of three-phaseprocess — 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 habitualways 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 behaviourthat is most appropriate to the situation.

Moving i.e. changing:

It is the phase where new learning occurs. When the individuals are convinced that theirbehaviour 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. Thenecessary condition is that various alternatives of behaviour must also be made available inorder to fill the vacuum created by unfreezing phase. During this phase of ‘changing’, individualslearn to behave in new ways; the individuals are provided with alternatives out of which tochoose the best one.


Kelman elaborately explains this ‘moving’ phase in terms of compliance, identification andinternalization.

(a) Compliance occurs when individuals are forced to change wither by rewards or bypunishment;

(b) Internalization occurs when individuals are forced to encounter a situation that calls fornew behaviour;

(c) Identification occurs when individuals recognise one among various models provided inthe environment that is most suitable to their personality.

Refreezing:

Refreezing refers to the stage where the change becomes an integral part of the system. Italso 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 ofhis behaviour. He has to practice and experiment with the new methods of behaviour and seethat the behaviour effectively blends with his other behavioural attitudes. It is very important forthe manager concerned with introducing change to visualize that the new behaviour is notextinguished 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 evaluatethe effects of change. Objectives must be present and be compared with the performance tosee the degree of success in change. End results should be operationally defined andmeasurements must be done both before and after the implementation of change. This enablesthe manager or change agent, to monitor and evaluate the performance after the introductionof change with the one prior to it. The manager must make sure that the change is implementedin such a fashion as to maximize the benefits to the organisation.


SUMMARY

In today’s fast pace of life the only factor that is permanent is the change itself. An organisation’sability 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 beoccasioned by mergers, amalgamations, or take-overs. The change in the location , change inthe 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 hasentered 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 ofdown 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, maynecessitate other changes in the line and staff relationship, transfers etc. Thus technologicalchanges may set a set of chain of change.

Another external force necessitating change is the market situation. By market situation ismeant the size of the market, organisation’s share of the market, change in the tastes andfashions 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 worldpolitics make an organisation change.

Eventhough the change is in the interests of the organisation and the organisation, many atimes 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. Generallypeople do not like to be retrained. Because, they take a pride in their existing skills, Peoplealso feel that retraining means that their skills are obsolete.

An organisation resists change because of the structural inertia, resource constraints, sunkcosts or the general apathy.


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 lastresort if the management is convinced of the genuiness and the necessity of change, themanagement may force the employees accept change.

A manager must be very cautious in introducing the change. A change should be introducedonly 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 phasedmanner. 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 changingstructure, changing people and by changing technology.

After the change is introduced there must be a follow up of the change.


NOTES

Organizational Culture 203

Chapter 15ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Understand and recognize how organizational cultures are developed, maintained andchanged.

2. Describe types of organizational cultures.

3. Identify potential relationships between organizational culture and performance.

4. Understand the importance of effectively managing cultural diversity.

5. Describe the process of organizational, socialization and it’s relationship to organizationalculture.

Organizational Culture is still a relatively new, controversial and little understood managementconcept. However, a lot of research in the area proves an impeccable relationship that existsbetween Organizational Culture and people behavior in the organization. To understand thisrelationship and then link it back to the purpose of OB – understand, predict and controlbehavior – is the purpose of this chapter.

Concept of Organizational Culture

Organizational Culture is a pattern of beliefs and expectations shared by the members of theorganization. These beliefs and expectations produce norms that powerfully shape the behaviorof 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. Routine behaviors when people interact, such as organizational rituals and ceremoniesand the language commonly used.

b. The norms that are shared by the teams throughout the organization, such as “all meetingsshall be attended on time”.


c. The dominant values held by the organization, such as “product quality” or “priceleadership”.

d. The philosophy that guides an organization’s policies towards its employees andcustomers.

e. The rules of the game for getting along in the organization or the “ropes” that a newcomer must learn in order to become an accepted member; and

f. The feeling or climate conveyed in an organization by the physical layout and the way inwhich managers and employees interact with customers and others outside.

None of these components individually represent the culture of the organization. They need tobe looked at and experienced in combination with one another to give meaning to the conceptof organizational culture.

LEVELS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

Organizational culture exists on different levels, which differ in terms of visibility and resistanceto change.

The least visible or deepest level is that of basic shared assumptions, which representbeliefs 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 andsomewhat easier to change than values.

The most superficial level of organizational culture consists of symbols. Cultural Symbols arewords (jargon or slang), gestures and pictures or other physical objects that carry a particularmeaning with the culture.

Developing Organizational Culture

An organizational culture forms in response to two major challenges that confront everyorganization:

1) External adaptation and survival – It has to do with how the organization will find a nichein and cope with its constantly changing external environment. It involves addressing thefollowing issues:

- Mission and Strategy: Identifying the primary purpose of the organization; selectingstrategies to pursue this mission.


- Goals: Setting specific targets to achieve.

- Means: Determining how to pursue goals, including selecting an organizationalstructure and reward systems.

- Measurement: Establishing criteria to determine how well individuals and teamsare accomplishing their goals.

2) Internal integration – It has to do with the establishment and maintenance of effectiveworking relationships among the members of the organization. Internal integration involvesaddressing the following issues:

- Language and concepts: Identifying methods of communication and developing ashared meaning for important concepts.

- Group and Team boundaries: Establishing criteria for membership in groups andteams.

- Power and Status: Determining rules for acquiring, maintaining and losing powerand status.

- Rewards and punishments: Developing systems for encouraging desirable behaviorsand discouraging undesirable ones.

An organizational culture emerges when members share knowledge and assumptions asthey discover or develop ways of coping with issues of external adaptation and internalintegration.

The national culture, customs and societal norms of the country also shape the culture of theorganizations operating in it.

According to David Drennan, the twelve key casual factors, which shape a company’s culture,are:

1. Influence of a dominant leader

2. Company history and tradition

3. Technology, products and services

4. The industry and its competition

5. Customers

6. Company expectation

7. Information and control systems

8. Legislation and company environment

9. Procedures and policies

10. Reward systems and measurements

11. Organization and resources

12. Goals, values and beliefs


Maintaining Organizational Culture

The ways in which an organization functions and is managed may have both intended andunintended 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 ofmaintaining organizational culture involves processes and behaviors that managers,individual employees and teams pay attention to; that is the events that get noticed andcommented on. The ways of dealing with these events send strong messages to theemployees on expected behaviors and important approaches.

b. Reactions to incidents and crises – When an organization faces crises, the handlingof those crises by managers and employees reveals a great deal about its culture. Themanner in which the crises are dealt with can either reinforce the existing culture or bringout new values and norms that change the culture in some way.

c. Role Modeling, Teaching and Coaching – Aspects of organizational culture arecommunicated to employees by the way managers fulfill their roles. In addition, managersand teams may specifically incorporate important cultural messages into training programsand day-to-day coaching on the job.

d. Allocation of Rewards and Status – Employees also learn about the organizationalculture through its reward systems. What is rewarded and what is punished convey toemployees the priorities and values of both individual managers and the organization.

e. Recruitment, Selection, Promotion and Removal – One of the fundamental ways inwhich the organization maintains its culture is through Recruitment. In addition, thecriteria used to determine who is assigned to specific jobs or positions, who gets raisesand promotions and why, who is removed from the organization by firing or early retirementand so on, reinforce and demonstrate aspects of organizational culture.

f. Rites, Ceremonies and Stories – Rites and ceremonies are planned activities or ritualsthat have important cultural meaning. Many of the underlying beliefs and values of anorganization’s culture are expressed as stories that become a part of its folklore. Thesestories transmit the existing culture from old to new employees and emphasize importantaspects of that culture.

Changing Organizational Culture

The same basic methods used to maintain an organization’s culture can be used to modify it.Changing organizational culture is difficult primarily because assessing accurately the existingculture is itself a tough proposition. Most large complex organizations actually have more


than one culture. GE for example, has distinctly different cultures in different parts of its multidivisional, world wide operations. These multiple cultures are called sub cultures. Everyorganization will have at least three cultures – an operating culture (line employees), anengineering culture (technical and professional people), and an executive culture (topmanagement) stemming from the very different views and perceptions held by these groups ofpeople.

Successfully changing organizational culture requires:

� Understanding the old culture first because a new culture can’t be developed unlessmanagers 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 arewilling to act on those ideas.

� Finding the most effective sub culture in the organization and using it as an examplefrom which employees can learn.

� Make changes from the top down, so that a consistent message is delivered from allmanagement 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 jobmore effectively.

� Treating the vision of a new culture as a guiding principle for change, not as a miraclecure.

� Recognize that significant changes take time and

� Living the new culture because actions speak louder than words.

Indeed, any comprehensive change program in an organization, in some sense, is an attemptto change the organizational culture.

Resistance to Cultural Change = Magnitude of change X Strength of the prevailingculture.

Therefore, cultural change involves tremendous amount of efforts and time and also needskillful people to manage this change successfully.


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 anorganization. The horizontal axis reflects the relative focus of the attention, ranging from internalfunctioning to external functioning, of an organization. The extreme corners of the four quadrantsrepresent four pure types of organizational cultures: bureaucratic, clan, entrepreneurial andmarket.

In a culturally homogenous organization like South West Airlines, one of the cultures will bepredominant. At Pepsi Co and other fragmented organizations, multiple cultures are likely notonly to coexist but also to compete for superiority.

As is true of organization designs, different organizational cultures may be appropriate atdifferent 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 organizationswith culture that fits their own view of an ideal culture tend to be committed to the organizationand optimistic about its future.

Bureaucratic Culture

An organization that values formality, rules, standard operating procedures and hierarchicalcoordination has a bureaucratic culture. Long-term concerns of bureaucracy are predictability,efficiency and stability. Behavioral norms support formality over informality. Managers viewtheir role as good coordinators, organizers and enforcers of written rules and standards. Tasks,responsibilities and authority for employees are clearly defined. The organization’s manyrules and processes are spelled out in manuals and employees believe their duty is to followthem.

Clan Culture

Tradition, loyalty, personal commitment, extensive socialization, teamwork, self-managementand social influence are attributes of a clan culture. Its members recognize an obligationbeyond the simple exchange of labor for a salary. They understand that contributions to theorganization exceed beyond the contractual agreements. Loyalty is rewarded by security.Because the individuals believe that organization will treat them fairly in all respects andaspects, they hold themselves accountable to the organization for their actions. Longtimeclan members serve as mentors and role models for the newer members. These relationshipsperpetuate organization’s norms and values over successive generations of employees. In


this type of a culture, members share a sense of pride in membership. They have a strongsense of identification and recognize the interdependence.

Depending on the types of norms, the culture may or may not generate risk taking behaviorsor 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. Thisculture doesn’t just quickly react to change in the environment – it creates change. Effectivenessmeans providing new and unique products and rapid growth. Individual initiative, flexibility andfreedom foster growth and are encouraged and well rewarded.

Market Culture

The achievement of measurable and demanding goals, especially those which are financialand market based (eg., sales growth, profitability and market share) characterize a marketculture. 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 controlorientation is quite stable. The individual is responsible for some level of performance and theorganization 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,superior’s interaction with subordinates largely consist of negotiating performance – rewardagreements and/or evaluating requests for resource allocation. The absence of a long-termcommitment of both the parties result in a weak socialization process. Social relations amongcoworkers aren’t officially emphasized, and few economic incentives are tied to directlycooperating with peers. The pure official relationships shared by the members with each othermay not result in personal network. The market culture is often tied to monthly, quarterly andannual performance goals based on profits.

Performance and Organizational Culture

Organizational Culture has the potential to enhance organizational effectiveness, individualsatisfaction, 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 externalstakeholders, the organization’s effectiveness can be hindered.

An underlying assumption is that an organization’s culture and it’s performance is directlyrelated. Thus the rationale for attempting to change the culture is to create a more effectiveorganization.


It is observed and also experienced that strong and well-developed cultures is an importantcharacteristic of organizations that have outstanding performance records. The term strongculture implies that most managers and employees share a set of consistent values andmethods of doing business and conducting themselves.

a. A strong organizational culture facilitates goal alignment. The idea is that because allemployees share the same basic assumptions, they can agree not just on what goals topursue but also on the means by which they should be achieved. As a result, employeeinitiative, energy and enthusiasm is all channeled in the same direction. In theseorganizations, there are few problems of coordination and control, communication isquick and effective and resources are not wasted in internal conflicts. All this meansorganizational performance is likely to be healthy.

b. A strong culture leads to high levels of employee motivation. There are two main argumentshere. First, it has been suggested that there is something intrinsically appealing aboutthe strong cultures that encourage people to identify with them. Second, it is sometimesthought that strong culture organizations incorporate practices which make working forthem rewarding. These practices tend to include employee participation in decision-making and various recognition schemes.

c. A strong culture is better able to learn from it’s past. The idea is that strong culturescharacteristically possess agreed norms of behavior, integrative rituals and ceremoniesand well-known stories. These reinforce consensus on the interpretation of issues andevents based on the past experience, provide precedents from the organization’s history,which help decide how to meet new challenges, and promote self-understanding andsocial cohesion.

Managing Cultural Diversity

Organizations are becoming increasingly diverse in terms of gender, race, ethnicity andnationality. This growing diversity can bring substantial benefits, such as more successfulstrategies, 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 areno easy answers to managing a culturally diverse workforce. However, research has revealedsome common characteristics of employee values, managerial philosophy and organizationalculture 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 differentperspectives and approaches to work and must truly value variety of opinion and insight.


b. The leadership of the organization must recognize both the learning opportunities andchallenges that this diversity present to the organization.

c. The organizational culture must create an expectation of high performance from everyone.

d. The organizational culture must stimulate personal development.

e. The organizational culture must encourage openness.

f. The organizational culture must make its members feel valued.

g. The organization must have a well articulated and widely understood mission.

h. The organization must have a relatively non-bureaucratic structure.

Organizational Socialization

Concept

The general meaning of socialization is the process by which an older members of the societytransmit to younger members the social skills and knowledge needed to function effectively inthat society.

Similarly, Organizational Socialization is the systematic process by which an organizationbrings a new employee into its culture. In other words, it involves the transmission oforganizational culture from senior to new employees, providing the social skills and knowledgeneeded 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 socialand working relationships; and developing the competencies needed to perform a job.


NOTES

REFERENCE BOOKS FOR FURTHER READING

� Organisational Behaviour by Stephen Robbins

� Organisational Behaviour by Fred Luthans

� Organisational Behaviour by Anjali Ghanekar

Reference Books 213


NOTES

Organisational Behaviour and Organisational Culture 215

NOTES


NOTES

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