LESSON-1

UNDERSTANDING ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

OBJECTIVES

To understand the meaning arid importance of organizational behaviour

To explain the historical development of organizational behaviour

To examine organisation as a social system and

To analyse the environmental and other factors influencing organizational behaviour

PREAMBLE
Organizational behaviour is a study of individuals, and it is a study of groups. It studies the aspects of
motivation, leader behaviour, power, interpersonal relations and communication, group structure
and problems, learning, attitudes, perception, change process, conflict, job design and work stress etc.
The history of organizational behaviour dates back from 1920s with "Hawthorne studies" of Elton
Mayo and R.J. Roethlisberger. Later McGregor threw light on understanding behaviour to motivate
people through his work known as "Theory X and Theory Y." The study of organizational behaviour is
an interdisciplinary approach consisting of Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Economics and
Political Science. The study involves interaction among the formal structure, the tasks to be
undertaken, the technology employed and the method of carrying out work, the behaviour of people,
the process of management and the external environment in which an organisation is functioning.

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UNDERSTANDING ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

Organizations are social systems and they play a major and continuing role in our lives. We live in an
organizational world. Organizations of one form or another are a necessary part of our society and
they serve many important needs. Because from birth to death and from dawn to dusk, we live, work,
grow, and are educated in and by organizations. We influence organizations and are also being
influenced by them. Besides the decisions and actions of management in organizations have an
increasing impact on individuals, other organizations and the community. It is important, therefore,
if one wishes to work in them or to manage them, to understand how organizations are formed, they
operate and how pervasive are influences which they exercise on the behaviour of people.
Performance of an organisation is the result of the interaction of physical, financial and human
resources. The first two are inanimate, and become productive only when the human element is
introduced. But human behaviour in organizations is complex and therefore very difficult to
understand, predict and control. However, a systematic study and application of human knowledge
would help in its understanding and, that is the essence of the study of organizational behaviour.
DEFINITION AND MEANING OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Organizational behaviour is the study of the behaviour of people within an organizational setting. It
involves the understanding, prediction and control of human behaviour and the factors which
influence the performance of people as members of an organisation. The study of it is to utilize it as a
tool for human benefit it can broadly be applied to the behaviour of people in all types of
organizations, such as those of business, government, and service organizations.
DEFINITIONS
According to Keith Davis, organizational behaviour is the study and application of knowledge about
how people act within organizations. It relates to other system elements such as structure, technology
and the external social environment.
In the words of Stephen P. Robbins, organizational behaviour is the study of the impact that
individuals, groups, and structure have on behaviour, within organizations, for the purpose of
applying such knowledge toward improving the effectiveness of an organization.
Organizational behaviour is a field of study. This means that it is a distinct area of expertise with a
common body of knowledge. What does it study? It studies three determinants of behaviour in
organizations: individuals, groups, and structure. Organizational behaviour is an applied study. It
applies the knowledge gained about individuals, groups, and the effect of structure on their behaviour
in order to make organizations work more effectively.
In brief, organizational behaviour is concerned with the study of what people do in an organisation
and how that behaviour affects the performance of the organisation. And because organizational
behaviour is specifically concerned with employment related environments, one should not be
surprised to find that it emphasizes behaviour as related to jobs, work, absenteeism, labour turnover,
productivity, human performance, and management.
The term 'organizational behaviour' is a convenient form of shorthand to refer to the multiplicity of
interrelated influences on the behaviour of people and patterns of it within formal organizations.
Hence, there is an increasing agreement as to the components or topics that comprise the subject
matter of the study of organizational behaviour. Though there continues to be a considerable debate
as to the relative importance of each component, there appears to be general agreement that a study
of organizational behaviour must reckon with motivation, leader behaviour and power, interpersonal
communication, group structure and procedure, learning, attitude, development and perception,
change process, conflict, job design and work stress as well.
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NATURE AND SCOPE OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

Behaviour is acting in a particular way. Human behaviour is caused, motivated and goal-directed
when a human being is working in an organization. Organizational behaviour is a study of the
behaviour of people at work, which may be reflected through their attitudes and approaches. It
broadly applies to the interaction of people in organizations. Behaviour can be goal-oriented i.e. it
may be motivated by a desire to attain certain goals. This may be the reason why psychologists hold
the view that behaviour has a cause-effect relationship. The purpose of studying organizational
behaviour usually is to improve relations of people with structure, technology, and the external social
system for better human result. Organizational behaviour seeks to help people and organizations
relate each other more effectively. That is the reason why it can be said that the study of
organizational behaviour is the human tool meant for human benefit.
To understand why one should study organizational behaviour, it is essential to probe deep into the
organizational relationship, patterns of behaviour etc. It is necessary to study organizational factors
influencing workers; it is necessary to understand the nature of this 'soft' discipline, its strengths, its
weaknesses, etc.
Organizational behaviour is rational thinking, not an emotional attitude to people. The major goals of
organizational behaviour are to explain and predict human behaviour in organizations. It is action-
oriented and goal-directed. Organizational behaviour seeks to balance human and technical values at
work; it seeks to achieve productivity by building and maintaining an employee's dignity, growth and
satisfaction, rather than seeking it at the expense of these values. Organizational behaviour is not a
discipline in the usual sense of the term but rather an eclectic field of study that integrates
behavioural sciences (psychology, sociology, anthropology, social psychology etc.) It is a part of the
social sciences.
The study of organizational behaviour is both a science and an art. The knowledge of human
behaviour in organizations tends toward the science end of the Continuum; the skill in applying that
knowledge clearly leans toward being an art, recognising that individual differences in managerial
style can vary considerably. Organizational behaviour is an inexact science. This is perhaps due to the
fact that it is a young field of enquiry (in terms of the use of scientific techniques); comparatively little
progress has been made in providing specific answers to specific organizational problems; as such
very little can be prescribed and it is very difficult to consistently predict the behaviour of people in
organizations. It is possible to predict relationships between variables on a broad scale but difficult to
apply predictive models on an individual basis.
Organizational behaviour exists at multiple levels. Behaviour, occurs at the level of the individual,
group, and the organizational system. Behaviour that is attributable to each of these levels can be
both identified and isolated. But at the same time these three levels interact with each other for
organizational behaviour is affected by the behaviour of individuals, group behaviour is affected by
that of the organization and so on. Organizations do not exist in a vacuum. Organizations are made-
up of social and technical components and therefore characterised as socio-technical systems. The
operational implication of this is that any approach to looking at behaviour must also take into
account the technical component of organisation-especially such issues as the nature of the work and
the technology. Organizations at the same time, must take into account the constraints of the working
environment - for example, the extent to which the market is changing, the extent to which the
product is changing etc.
BASIC APPROACHES OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
The study of organizational behaviour mainly tries to integrate four basic elements viz. people,
structure, technology, and the environment. Therefore, it rests on an interdisciplinary foundation of
fundamental concepts about the nature of people and organizations. Thus the basic approaches and
dimensions in which the subject can be understood are as follows:
1. Interdisciplinary Approach: The study of organizational behaviour cannot be undertaken in
terms of a single discipline alone. It is necessary that the approach is interdisciplinary, and through
behavioural sciences. It brings together social sciences and other disciplines that contribute to its
study. It appropriates from these disciplines ideas that will improve the relations between people and
organizations. The interest of various social sciences in people is sometimes expressed by the general
term "behavioural science" which represents the systematized body of knowledge pertaining to why
and how people behave as they do.
2. Human Resources Approach: The human resources approach is developmental. It is
concerned with the growth and development of people toward higher levels of competency, creativity
and fulfillment, because people are the central resource in any organisation and in any society. This
approach can be very easily understood by comparing it with the traditional management .approach
where the manager decides to do something and then gets it done through people according to his
directives and under his strict control and supervision without taking his workers into confidence just
to satisfy his whims. The human resources approach, on the other hand, is developmental and
facilitative. It helps people grow and their developing self-control responsibilities and other in them
so as to create a climate where all can contribute to the organisation to the limits of their improved
abilities. It will get work-satisfaction by making fuller use of their capabilities. It is similar to
McGregor's theory.
This approach is also known as the supportive approach because in this approach manager s role
changes. He does not control the employees to get the work done, he rather supports them to grow
according to their-abilities. Supportive managers provide a good organizational climate in which
people can grow and be productive.
3. Contingency Approach: Traditional management relied on principles to provide a "one best-
way" of managing. There was a correct way to organise, to delegate, and divide work regardless of the
type of organisation or situation involved. Management principles were considered universal. As the
field of study of organizational behaviour developed the concept of universality gained support.
Behavioural ideas, it was thought, can apply to any type of situation; for example an employee-
oriented leadership should consistently be better than a task oriented leadership, whatever the
circumstances
The, widely accepted view now is that there are only a few across the board - concepts that apply to all
situations, it has been found are much more complex than first perceived, and different variables
require different behavioural approaches. The result is the contingency approach to organizational
behaviour, which holds that different situations require different behavioural practices for
effectiveness.
It is presumed that there is no one best way. Each situation must be analysed carefully to determine
the significant variables that exist in order to establish the kinds of practices that will be more
effective. The strength of the contingency approach is that it encourages analysis of each situation
prior to action, while discouraging habitual practices based on universal assumptions about people in
organizations.
4. Productivity Approach: Most organizations now-a-days try to be productive, so it is
productivity that governs organizational behaviour. Productivity is a ratio that compares units of
output with units of input. If more can be produced from the same amount of input, productivity is
improved or alternately if lesser input can produce the same output, productivity has increased. The
idea of productivity does not imply that one should produce more; rather, it is a measure of how
efficiently one produces whatever output is desired. Consequently, better productivity is a valuable
measure of how well resources are used by the society. It means that as a lesser quantity is consumed
to produce each unit of output, there is minimum waste and better management of resources.
Productivity is often measured in terms of economic input and output, but human and social input
and output also are important. For example, if better organizational behaviour can improve job
satisfaction a humanoutput or benefit occurs. In the same manner, when employee development
programmes lead to by-products viz better citizens in a community, a valuable social output results.
Organizational decisions typically involve human, social and/or economic issues, and productivity is
usually a significant part of these decisions.
5. System Approach: While classical theorists paid too much attention to the structure of
organisation, the human resources people paid attention solely to the feelings and attitudes of the
workers. What was missing in understanding management was the simultaneous examination of the
structural as well as the human aspects of the organisation. The system theory people argue that an
organisation is a purposeful system with several sub-systems which are closely interconnected. Any
action that is taken to solve the problems of one sub-system will have its repercussions on other sub-
systems as well, since all the parts of the organisation are closely interconnected.
The supporters of this approach identified five sub systems:
(1) the production sub-system which attends to all the production tasks of the organisation
(2) the maintenance sub-system which offers stability and predictability via the proper selection of
employees, the inspection of incoming raw materials.
(3) the boundary sub-system where interactions with the external environment are carried out to
monitor the changes that take place in the economic, social, technological, market, and other
significant environments facing the organisation.
(4) the adaptive sub-system which deals with the concerns of long-range planning and innovations;
and
(5) the managerial sub-system which cuts across all of the functions mentioned above.
Thus the systems approach envisions the organisation as a purposeful system with its five sub-
systems which should operate in unison because of their interconnection in achieving the goals of the
organisation. The systems theorists, primary among them, Katz and Kahn (1966), describe
organisation as "open to its external environment" receiving certain "inputs" from the environment
such as human resources, raw materials and other necessary ingredients to run the organisation,
engaging in operations that transform the inputs into the final product; the process known as
"throughputs", and finally turning out the "outputs" in its final form to be sent back to the
environment. The organisation, since it is open to the environment, also receives "feedback" from the
environment and takes corrective action as necessary and it can be applied especially to the social
system of the organisation.

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LESSON - 2
IMPORTANCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

The job of a modern manager is to get things done by coordinating the activities of others, so as to
maximise the result. Coordinating the various individuals with different interests, temperaments, and
traits necessitates the manager to analyse and evaluate the aspects of behaviour of each individual.
The tastes, strengths and weaknesses of each individual are bound to influence the effectiveness of
both subordinates and superiors. It is here that behavioural science enters the picture. The nature of
the relationship between people and the organisation is the most important determinant of the
managerial effectiveness, Keith Davis has observed, "Organizational behaviour seeks to improve the
people-organisation relationship in such a way that people are motivated to develop team-work that
effectively fulfill their needs and achieves organizational behaviour".
An organization is a social system in which many people with various backgrounds and behavioural
patterns work. Unless it is an integrated and coordinated team, it will be difficult to effectively achieve
corporate objectives. Developing an environment conducive to effective coordination is therefore, the
basic job of any manager. Moreover, the behaviour of both superiors and subordinates has to be
integrated through motivation and goal direction to fit in with the environmental framework of the
organisation. As behaviour has a cause-effect relationship, organizational behaviour is responsible for
developing conducive business environment.
Decision-making is the basic job of any manager; it involves collection of data regarding problems
and the analysis of them for drawing the right conclusions. As an organisation is a group of people
working for the sake of people, any decision in the organisation is bound to affect people and
naturally a resultant behaviour can be expected of them. The effect of such organizational decisions
may also depend on the attitude of the people towards the organizer and the decision-maker on the
other. Measurement of attitude becomes a part of decision making as it is necessarily a study of
behaviour.
Planning, organizing, motivating coordinating and controlling are managerial functions of managers,
and they would be effective only when the manager has the necessary skills to perform these
functions. Dealing with people necessitates evaluation of behaviour and it is there that a knowledge of
organizational behaviour influences managerial effectiveness.
An organisation is a sub-system of the social system in which it exists. Hence the manager, who
operates within the framework of the organisation has to take care of the whole social system itself.
Even as an organisation is a sub-system of the social system, it also consists of various sub-systems
that are interrelated and interactive. The manager of an organisation has a structural existence; the
framework of the structure establishes the interrelationships between individuals with divergent
qualities, approaches, attitudes and achievement motivation. As Dr. Michael observes environment
imposes several constraints on the enterprise and has considerable impact and influence on the scope
and direction of its activities. To be precise, social behaviour exerts its influence on organizational
behaviour and vice-versa.
Organizational behaviour can reveal various motivational patterns like affiliation motivation,
achievement motivation, competence motivation, status motivation, safety motivation and autonomy
motivation and these determine organizational behaviour to a great extent. The basic task of a
modem manager includes his skill to motivate his people to produce better results, the manner of
motivating each individual depending on the motivational pattern of each individual or each segment
of individuals. And motivational pattern can be determined basically with the help of the analysis of
the organizational behaviour, or individual behaviour. Motivation, as a matter of fact, is an essential
responsibility on the part of the manager, which is more related to organizational behaviour.

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Thus, in an age of modern organizational world, organizational behaviour has a realistic role to play
which will facilitate to develop the potential skills of individuals and effective utilisation of resources,
of an organisation.
The key elements in organizational behaviour are people, structure, technology, and the environment
in which the organisation emerges and operates. When people join together in an organisation to
accomplish to help get the job done, there is an interaction of people, structure and technology as
shown in figure. In addition, these elements are influenced by the external environment, and they
influence it. Each of the four elements of organizational behaviour will be detailed as under.
People:
The success and failure of an organisation mainly depends upon the type of people with which it is
working. People make up the internal social system of the organisation. They consist of individual
employees who are expected to perform the tasks allotted to them, the groups (may be small or large)
who work as teams and have the responsibility for getting the job done. Groups are dynamic. They
form, change, and disband. The human organisation today is not the same as it was yesterday, or the
day before. People are the living, thinking, feeling beings who work in the organisation to achieve
their objectives. Organizations exist to serve people, rather than people existing to serve
organizations.
Structure:
Structure refers to the formal or official relationships of people in the organisation. Different jobs are
required to accomplish all of organisation activities. There are managers and employees, accountants
and assemblers. These people have to be related income structural way so that their work can
effectively be co-ordinated. These relationships create complex problems of co-operation, negotiation,
and decision-making. The structure of the organisation has to fit with several other factors such as the
technology, size and the environment facing the organisation in order for the system to be effective.
Hence, managers have to deal with and manage the structural aspects of the organisation as well.
Technology:
Technology is the mechanism by which the end product or service of the organisation is produced. It
provides the resources with which people work and affects the tasks that they perform. People cannot
perform or accomplish much with their bare hands, so they build buildings, design machines, create
work, procedures and assemble resources. The technology used has a significant influence on working
relationships. An assembly line is not the same as a research laboratory; and a steel mill does not have
the same working conditions as a hospital. The great advantage of technology is that it allows people
to do more and better work, but it also restricts people in various ways. It has costs as well as benefits.
Thus, managing technology is an important component of effective and efficient performance.
Environment:
No single organization exists alone and isolated. Rather all organizations operate within an external
environment. It is part of a larger system that contains many other elements such as government, the
family, and other organizations. All of these mutually influence each other in a complex system that
creates a context for a group of people. Individual organizations, such as a factory or a school, cannot
escape being influenced by this external environment. It influences the attitudes of people, affects
working conditions, and provides competition for resources and power. It must be considered in the
study human behaviour in organizations and more particularly in the work context.
FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
In order to understand the subject of organizational behaviour comprehensively, it is needed to
thoroughly study the fundamental concepts revolving around the nature of people and organisation.
A summary of these ideas follows in the following paragraphs.
THE NATURE OF PEOPLE
With regard to people, there are four basic concepts: individual differences, a whole person concept,
motivated behaviour and the value of the person. Keith Davis analyses the assumptions about the
nature of people as under:
a) Individual Differences:
All individuals in the universe are different from each other. This is a fact even supported by science.
The idea of individual differences comes basically from psychology. Individual differences mean that
management can get the greatest motivation among employees by treating them differently. If it were
not for individual differences, some standard across-the-board way of dealing with employees could
be adopted, and minimum judgment would be required thereafter. Individual differences require that
a manager's approach to employee should be individual, not statistical. This belief that each person is
different from all others is typically called the law of individual differences.
b) Whole Person Concept:
Although some organisations may wish they could employ only a person's skill or brain, they actually
employ a whole person, rather than certain characteristics. Different human traits may be separately
studied, but in the final analysis they are part of one system making up a whole person. Skill does not
exist apart from background or knowledge. Home life is not totally separable from work life, and
emotional conditions are separate from physical conditions. People function as a total human being.
If the management practices organizational behavior of various techniques, It implies that it is trying
to develop a better employee, but also it wants to develop a better person in terms of growth and
fulfillment. Jobs in organizations shape people somewhat as people perform them, so management
needs be concerned about its effect on the whole person. Employees belong to many organizations
other than their employee, and they play many roles inside and outside the firm. If the whole person
can be improved, then benefits will extend beyond the firm into the larger society in which each
employee lives.
c) Motivated Behaviour:
An important determinant of individual behaviour and performance in an organisation is motivation.
From psychology it can be learned that normal behaviour of individuals has certain causes. These
causes may relate to a person's yields and /or the consequences that result from acts. In the case of
needs, people are-motivated not by what we think they ought to have but by what they themselves
want. To an outside observer a person's needs may be unrealistic, but they are still controlling. This
fact leaves management with two basic ways to motivate people. It can show them how certain actions
will increase their need fulfillment, or it can threaten decreased need fulfillment if they follow an
undesirable course of action. Clearly a path toward increased need fulfillment is the better approach.
Motivation is an essential stimulant through which the operations of an organisation can be
accomplished. No matter how much modern technology and equipment an organisation has, these
things cannot be put to use until they are released and guided by people who have been effectively
motivated towards the expected ends.
d) Value of the person:
This concept is of a different order from the other three because it is more an ethical philosophy than
a scientific conclusion. If mainly asserts that people are to be treated differently from others factors of
production because they are of a higher order in the universe. It recognises that because people are of
a higher order, they want to be treated with respect and dignity. Every job, irrespective of its nature
entitles the people who do it to proper respect and recognition of their unique aspirations and
abilities. The concept of human dignity rejects the old idea of treating, employees simply as economic
tools. Since organizational behaviour always involves people, ethical philosophy is involved in one
way or another in each action. Human decisions cannot be made apart from values.
THE NATURE OF ORGANIZATIONS
Organizations are the outcome of interactions among people. So with regard to organizations, the two
key concepts are that they are social entities and that they are formed on the basis of give and take
principle. The nature of organisation embodies two basic assumptions as quoted by Davis, relating to
1. Social systems:
It can be learned from sociology that organizations are the social systems in which individuals and
groups fill their roles, and perform the activities therein. These roles and activities are governed by
social laws as well as psychological laws. Just as people have psychological needs they also have the
social roles and status. Their behaviour is influenced by their group as well as their individual drives
and motives. In fact, two types of social systems exist side by side in organizations. One is the formal
social system and the other is the informal social system.
The existence of a social system implies that the organizational environment is one of dynamic
change, rather than a static set of relations. All parts of the system are interrelated, interdependent
and subject to influence by any other. The idea of a social system provides a framework or analysing
organizational behaviour. It helps make organisational behaviour problems understandable and
manageable and finally to achieve the organizational goals effectively.

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2. Mutual benefit:
Mutual benefit is represented by the statement organizations need people, and people also need
organizations. Any organisation irrespective of its nature and type has human purpose. They are
formed and maintained on the basis of some mutuality of interest among their participants. People
see organizations as a means to help them reach their goals, while organizations need people to help
reach organizational objectives. If give and take between organisation and employees working therein
is lacking, it makes no sense to try to assemble a group and develop co-operation. It also provides a
super ordinate goal that integrates the efforts of individuals and groups. The result is that they are
encouraged to attack organizational problems rather than each other. Indeed, this mutuality of
interests provides a super ordinate goal and forms a basis for mutual cooperation.
The same can be seen in the following figure.
Mutual interest provides a super-ordinate goal for employees and the organisation.
HOLISTIC ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
When the six fundamental concepts of organizational behaviour are considered together, they provide
a holistic concept of the subject. Holistic organizational behaviour interprets people-organisation
relationships in terms of the whole person, whole group, whole organisation, and whole social system.
It takes an across-the-board view of people in organizations in an effect to understand as many as
possible of the factors that influence their behaviour. Issues are analysed in terms of the total
situation affecting them rather than in terms of an isolated event of problem.
HISTORICAL ORIGINS
As quoted by Keith Davis in his book "Human Behaviour at work" that although human relations
have existed since the beginning of time, the art and science of trying to deal with them in complex
organisations is a relatively recent origin. In the early days people worked hard alone or in such small
groups that their work relationships were easily understood and handled. It has been popular to
assume that under these conditions people worked in a Utopia of happiness and fulfillment, but this
assumption is largely a nostalgic reinterpretation of history. Actual conditions were brutal and back
breaking. People worked from morning till evening under intolerable conditions of disease, filth,
danger, and scarcity of resources. They had to work this way to survive, and very little effort was
devoted to their job satisfaction.
Then came the industrial revolution. In the beginning, the conditions of people did not improve, but
at least the seed was planted for potential improvement. Industry expanded the supply of goods and
knowledge that eventually gave workers increased wages, shorter hours, and more work satisfaction.
In this new industrial environment, Robert Owen, a young Welsh factory owner, about the year 1800,
was one of the first to emphasize human needs of employees. He refused to employ young children.
He brought his workers cleanliness and temperance and improved their working conditions. This
could hardly be called modern organizational behaviour, but it was a beginning. He was called "the
real father" of personnel administration by an early writer.
Andrew Ure incorporated human factor into his philosophy of manufactures in 1835. He recognised
the mechanical and commercial parts of manufacturing but he also added a third factor, which was
the human factor. He provided workers with hot tea, medical treatment, "a fan apparatus" for
ventilation, and sickness payments. The ideas of Owen and Ure were accepted slowly or not at all, and
they often, deteriorated into a paternalistic do-good approach rather than a genuine recognition of
the importance of people at work.
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT MOVEMENT
It was in the latter part of the nineteenth century when the human element in organizations attracted
marked attention. It was awakened by Frederick. W. Taylor in the United States. He is often called
"the father of scientific management", and the changes he brought to management paved the way for
later development of organizational behaviour. Prior to this workers were considered as slaves to be
purchased and sold in the market and very little attention was paid to them as human beings. Taylor's
main concern was with the efficiency of both workers and management. He believed that his methods
of scientific management would lead to improved management-labour relations, and contribute to
improved industrial efficiency and prosperity.
Taylor adopted an instrumental, view of human behaviour together with the application of standard
procedures of work. Workers were regarded as rational, economic beings motivated directly by
monetary incentives linked to the level of work output. Workers were viewed as isolated individuals
and more as units of production to be handled almost in the same way as machines. Hence, scientific
management is often referred to as a machine theory model. This movement overlooked the
significance of interpersonal behaviour in work settings.
The contributions made by Taylor continue to evoke much criticism and comment by many
management experts. As M. Rose argues Taylor's diagnosis of the industrial situation was based on
the single theme inefficiency. Among his criticisms are that Taylor selected the best workers for his
experiments and assumed that workers who were not good at one particular task would be best at
some other task. There is, however, not certainty of this practice. Taylor regarded workers from an
engineering view point and as machines, but one best way of performing a task is not always the best
method for every worker. Rose also argues that the concept of a fair day's pay for a fair day's work is
not purely a technical matter. It is also a notion of social equity and not in keeping with a scientific
approach.
THE HAWTHORNE STUDIES
It was in the 1920s and 1930s that stand out as a landmark in the history of human behaviour at work
when the 'Hawthorne studies' were conducted at Western Electric company in America by Elton
Mayo and R. J. Roethlisberger at Harvard University. They gave an academic stature to the study of
human behaviour at work. The result of these studies was the concept that an organisation is a social
system and the worker is indeed the most important element in it. Their experiments showed that the
worker is not a simple tool but a complex personality interacting in a group situation that often is
difficult to understand.
There were four main phases to the Hawthorne experiments.
a) The Illumination Experiments: The original investigation was conducted on the lines of the
classical approach and was concerned, in typical scientific management style, with effect of the
intensity of lighting upon the workers' productivity. The workers were divided into two groups, one is
an experimental group and the other a control group. The net results of these tests were inclusive as
production in experimental group varied with no apparent relationship to the level of lighting, but
actually increased when conditions were made much worse. Production also increased in the control
group although the lighting remained unchanged. The level of production was influenced, clearly by
factors other than changes in physical conditions of work. This prompted a series of other
experiments investigating factors of worker productivity.
b) The Relay Assembly Test Room: In the relay assembly test room the work was boring and
repetitive. It involved assembling telephone relays by putting together a number of small parts. A
control room was setup for the purpose, in which measurement could be taken of humidity,
illumination and other physical factors. Six women workers were transferred from their normal
departments to a separate area. This group of six was segregated from others and also insulated from
the traditional practices of management. The experiment was divided into 13 periods during which
the workers were subjected to a series of planned and controlled changes to their conditions of work,
such as reducing of work, rest pauses and provision of refreshments. The general environmental
conditions of the test room were similar to those of the normal assembly line. During the experiment
the observe adopted a friendly manner, consulting with the workers, listening to their complaints and
keeping them informed of the experiment, following all but one of the changes there was a continuous
increase in the level of production. The researchers formed the conclusion that (1) better and more
sympathetic supervision, (2) Closer and more informed interpersonal relation among the group (3)
greater autonomy of the group as well as its members, and (4) a sense of belonging promoted in them.
c) Mass Interviewing Programme: Another significant phase of the experiments was the
interviewing programme. The test room studies showed that the type of supervision influenced
morale. So the problem was how to improve supervision? Why not get the frank opinions of the
workers themselves on this issue?
Accordingly, the programme was taken up of interviewing them. It had two phases. In the first phase
from September 1928 to the middle of 1929 it was the direct type interview i.e. they were asked a few
specific questions, to which the answers were supposed to reveal their attitudes. It was found in
course of these interviews that the workers wanted to speak about many other things than those
embodied in the pre-determined questionnaires. So the second phase of the interview programme
was launched in the later part of 1929. It was the depth or non-directive interview, in which the
interviewer, instead of asking the worker set questions, encouraged him to talk freely on topics of his
own choice. The average length of the depth interview was one and a half hours, compared to only 30
minutes in the earlier straight interview. By 1931 over 20,000 employees were interviewed separately
many of them twice, informally and in confidence, with the onset of the Depression, however, this
programme was suspended.
The main conclusions arrived at the experiments were that the supervisors should be trained in such
a way that they do not behave with the workers as their bosses. Instead they should be kind and
sympathetic to them. They should be trained more to listen to talk, to be more result oriented, more
concerned with the workers and more skilled in handling social personal situations.
d) Bank Wiring Group Observation: The earlier investigations had revealed that informal
groups among workers could influence to a great extent the behaviour of their individual members.
An important trend in such behaviour was restriction of output. So the experimenters wanted to
ascertain how a group could put pressure on an individual member for lowering production in a high-
incentive system. Accordingly, the Bank wiring Group was set up and its behaviour was studied for
seven months from November 1931 to May 1932.
The group chosen for study comprised 14 men operators who assembled switches for central office
switchboard equipment. It was noted that the men formed their own informal organisation with sub-
groups or cliques, and with natural leaders emerging with the consent of the members. The group
developed its own pattern of informal social relations and 'norms' of what constituted 'proper'
behaviour. Despite a financial incentive scheme where the workers could receive more money for
more produce, the group decided on a level of output well below the level they were capable of
producing. Group pressures on individual workers were stronger than financial incentives offered by
management. The group believed that if they increased their output management would raise the
standard level of rates.
Research Studies: In the 1940s and 1950s major research projects developed in a number of
organizations, including the Research Centre for Group Dynamics. University of Michigan (especially
leadership and motivation); personnel Research Board, Ohio State University (leadership and
motivation) Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in London, and the National Training
Laboratories in Behel, Maine (group dynamics). As the results of this research began to filter into the
business and academic communities it stimulated new interest in the behaviour of people at work, as
age of 'human relations' had begun.
The new emphasis on people at work was a result of trends that had been developing over a long
period of time. It helped bring human values into balance with other values at work. But
unfortunately, the term 'human relations' gradually lost favour, although it continues to be used
especially at the operating level because of its appropriateness. Art example is the statement. The
supervisor is effective with human relations. As the field became more mature and research-based,
the new term that arose to describe it was "Organizational behaviour".

- End of Chapter
LESSON - 3
DISCIPLINES CONTRIBUTING TO ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

Organizational behaviour is an applied behavioural science and as a result, is built upon contributions
from a number of behavioural disciplines: the predominant areas of psychology, sociology, social
psychology, anthropology and fringe disciplines including political science and economics. As we
shall learn, contributions of the psychologists have been mainly at the individual or micro level of
analysis, while the latter disciplines have contributed to our understanding of macro concepts - group
processes and organisation.
Psychology:
As a science of behaviour, psychology seeks to measure, explain and change behaviour of humans and
animals. Psychologists are, broadly speaking, concerned with studying and attempting to understand
individual behaviour. Those who have contributed to the knowledge of organizational behaviour are
learning theorists, personality theorists, counselling psychologists, and most important, industrial
and organizational psychologists.
Early industrial psychologists were concerned with the problems of fatigue, boredom, and any other
factor relevant to working conditions that could impede efficient work performance. However, more
recently, their contributions and knowledge have been expanded to include learning, perception,
personality, leadership effectiveness, needs and motivational forces, decision-making processes,
performance appraisals, attitude measurement, employee selection techniques, job design and work
stress. Thus, the main focus of attention is on the individual as a whole person or what can be termed
the 'personality system'.
Sociology:
Whereas psychologists focus their attention on the individual, as a science of society the sociologists
relate sociology to the social system in which individuals fill their roles and to their fellow human
beings. More specially, sociologists have made their greatest contribution to organizational behaviour
through their study of group behaviour in organizations, particularly formal organizations. Some of
the areas within organizational behaviour that received valuable input from sociologists include
group dynamics, formal organisation theory and structure, organizational culture and technology,
bureaucracy communications, power, conflict, intergroup behaviour and effects of industrialisation
on the social behaviour.
Social Psychology:
Social psychology is a discipline within psychology, but blends concepts from both psychology and
sociology. It focuses on the influence of people on one another. One of the main thrust areas receiving
considerable investigation from social psychologists has been 'change', how to implement it and how
to reduce barriers to its acceptance. Additionally, we find social psychologists making significant
contributions in measuring, understanding and changing attitudes, communication patterns, the
ways in which group activities can satisfy individual needs, group decision-making processes, and
leadership.
Anthropology:
As a science of man it facilitates group and organisation levels of analysis. Specifically,
anthropologists study societies to learn about human beings and their activities. It touches the
fundamental values, attitudes, socialisation process and behaviour between people in different
countries and within different organizational cultures and environment. In the current literature,
understanding organizational culture, organizational environments, and differences between national
cultures are the results of the work of anthropologists or those using their methodologies.
Political Science:
As a study of individual and group behaviour in relationship to a political environment, political
science provides an understanding of organizations including structuring of conflict, allocation of
power, and how people manipulate power for individual self-interest. Nowadays, it has become
relevant to know that organizations are political entities; if we are to be able to accurately explain and
predict the behaviour of people in organizations, we need to bring a political perspective to analysis
and understand them.
Economics:
Economics deals with distribution and consumption of goods and services. It aids in the
understanding of the phenomena of decision and choice, effect of economic policies on the economic
growth of a firm, allocation of scarce resources of the firm to different competing alternatives
etc. Therefore, in understanding organizational behaviour, one should see and understand it in an
inter-disciplinary outlook. Then only a comprehensive and explicit understanding, predicting and
controlling behaviour of the individuals can be possible at the work context.
ROLE OF BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE
The behavioural science offers several ideas to management as to how human factor should be
properly emphasised to achieve organizational objectives. Human factor is not merely an instrument
in the organisation but the very core of organizational existence. An organisation is a conscious
interaction of two or more persons. This suggests that since organisation is the interaction of persons,
they should be given adequate importance in managing the organisation. This becomes more
important especially because of the changing dimensions of human behaviour, changing from money-
motivated behaviour to multi-motivated behaviour. The changing behavioural pattern suggests that
organizational structure and process should be based on human characteristics. From this point
of view, managers must understand the behavioural pattern of the people. Behavioural science
provides this opportunity by analysing human behaviour for understanding and prescribing means
for shaping human behaviour to a particular direction.
Understanding Human Behaviour
Behavioural science provides a way for understanding human behaviour in the organisation. For
shaping human behaviour in a definite direction for achieving certain predetermined objectives,
managers must know how the people in the organisation behave. Behavioural science provides for
understanding human behaviour in all the directions in which human beings interact. Thus human
behaviour can be understood at the individual level, interpersonal level, group level and intergroup
level.

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1. Individual Level: The behaviour of human beings as 'social' is the first issue in behavioural
science. It provides for analysing why and how an individual behaves in a particular way. As will be
seen later, human behaviour is a complex phenomenon and is affected by a large number of factors -
psychological, social, and cultural, and others. Behavioural science integrates these factors to provide
simplicity in understanding human behaviour.
2. Interpersonal Level: Human behaviour can be understood at the level of interpersonal
interaction. Such interpersonal interaction is normally in paired relationship which represents man's
most natural attempt at socialisation. When one focuses on the influence of one's peer and its effect in
working relationship, or examines the superior-subordinate relationship, it is obvious that the two-
person relationship is inevitable in the organisation. Behavioural science provides means for
understanding these interpersonal relationships in the organisation. Analysis of reciprocal
relationship, role analysis, and transactional analysis are some of the common methods which
provide such understanding.
3. Group Level: Though people interpret anything at their individual level, they are often modified
by group pressures which thus become a force in shaping human behaviour. Thus individuals should
be studied in group also. Research in group dynamics has contributed vitally to the behavioural
science and shows how a group behaves in its norms, cohesion, goals, procedures, communication
pattern, leadership, and membership. These research results are furthering managerial knowledge of
understanding group behaviour which is very important for organizational morale and productivity.
4. Intergroup Level: The organisation is made up of many groups that develop a complex of
relationship to build its processes and substance. Understanding the effect of group relationships is
important for managers in today's organisation. Intergroup relationship may be in the form of co-
operation or competition. The co-operative relationships help the organisation in achieving its
objectives. Behavioural science provides means to understand and achieve co-operative group
relationships through interaction, rotation of members among groups, avoidance of win-lose
situations, and focus on total group objectives.
Controlling and Directing Behaviour
After understanding the mechanism of human behaviour, managers are required to control and direct
the behaviour so that it conforms to standards required for achieving organizational objectives. Thus
managers are required to control and direct the behaviour at all levels of individual interaction. For
this purpose, behavioural science helps managers in many areas: use of power and sanction,
leadership, communication, and building organisation climate conducive for better interaction.
1. Use of Power and Sanction: Organizational behaviour can be controlled and directed by the
use of power and sanction which are formally prescribed by the organisation. Power is referred to as
capacity of an individual to take certain action and may be utilised in many ways. The use of power is
related with sanction in the organisation. However, more use of power and sanction in the
organisation is not enough for directing human behaviour. Moreover, these can be used in several
ways and not all ways are equally effective. Behavioural science explains how various means of power
and sanction can be utilised so that both organizational and individual objectives are achieved
simultaneously.
2. Leadership: Another method of bringing human behaviour in tune with organizational
requirement is leadership. Today, the difference between a successful and failing organisation lies in
the quality of leadership of its managerial personnel. Behavioural science brings new insights and
understanding to the practice and theory of leadership. It identifies various leadership styles available
to a manager and analyses which style is more appropriate in a given situation. Thus managers can
adopt styles keeping in view the various dimensions of organizations, individuals, and situations.
3. Communication: Communication is the building blocks of an organisation. It is communication
through which people come in contact with others. People in the organisation, particularly, at higher
level spend considerable time in communication. To achieve organizational effectiveness, the
communication must be effective. The communication process and how it works in interpersonal
dynamics has been evaluated by behavioural science. The factors that affect communication have
been analysed so as to make it more effective.
4. Organizational Climate: Organizational climate refers to the total organizational situations
affecting human behaviour. Organizational climate takes a systems perspective and affects human
behaviour. Behavioural science suggests the approach to create organizational climate in totality
rather than merely improving the physiological conditions on increasing employee satisfaction by
changing isolate work process. Satisfactory working conditions, adequate compensation, and the
necessary equipment for the job are viewed as only small part of the requirements for sound
motivational climate. Of greater importance are the creation of an atmosphere of effective
supervision, the opportunity for the realisation of personal goals, congenial relations with others at
the work place, and a sense of accomplishment. Thus behavioural science has discovered a new
approach of managing people in the organisation.
5. Organizational Adaptation: Organizations as dynamic entities are characterised by pervasive
change. In this age of environmental variability, the real job of a manager is to provide continuity in
organizations because the organizations have to adapt themselves to the environmental changes by
making suitable internal arrangements. However, such organizational arrangements are mostly
resisted by the internal people. Thus managers have to face dual problems, identifying need for
change and then implementing the changes without adversely affecting the need satisfaction of
organizational people. Behavioural science has the ongoing process as its goal. It is also the essence of
managing change. Management of change is seen as a self-perpetrating ever evolving phenomenon.
ORGANISATION AS A SOCIAL SYSTEM
Recent organisation theorists have sought to treat organisation as a "social system". Important among
them are Etzioni (1964), Thompson (1967), Katz and Khan (1966) and Berrien (1968). Berrien has
defined a system as "a set of components surrounded by a boundary which accepts inputs from some
other systems and discharges outputs into another system". Similarly Katz and Khan observe that
the "system theory is basically concerned with problems of relationships, of structure and of
interdependence rather than the constant attribute of objects. In other words, system theory as the
unitary whole comprises interdependent components, or sub-systems with an in-built connecting
system. Human body is a system having sub-systems like circulatory system, digestive system etc.
Each of these sub-systems has interdependence; anything wrong with a particular sub-system is
reflected in system whole.
Some of the organisation theorists believe that organisation is an "open" system implying that it is
subject to external environmental influence which represents sit national uncertainty.
There are two major aspects of an open system approach to organisation -
(1) There are different characteristics or attributes of the organisation having mutual
interdependence which cannot be regarded as completely independent features, and
(2) the organizations are continuously interacting on reciprocal basis with the external environments
which are uncertain and unpredictable.
It means that the organisation takes inputs from the environment and produces outputs for
the environment. In this case both are equally affected in the input/output process.
Each organisation has the following five characteristics -
(1) Social composition in terms of types of individuals,
(2) Goal orientation,
(3) Differentiated functions,
(4) Intended rational coordination, and
(5) Continuity through time.
The composition of organisation depends on the types of individuals it has within its fold. Their
ability, needs and interests will provide the needed input to the organisation for designing its goals
and strategies. In the light of the social composition, the components of the co-ordination process and
the viability attributes of the organisation will be determined. In other words, goal orientation is
related to social composition of the organisation. What types of people are required and what is the
social background? - all these factors will exercise an indelible impact not only on goal orientation but
also on differentiated functions, rational coordination, and continuity, i.e. survival of organisation in
uncertain environments and situations.
Intended rational coordination depends on the nature of tasks which have been designed and the
nature of people having requests ability and commitment to purpose; unless the organisation is fully
equipped with people of ability, commitment to organization's purpose and the required initiative and
enterprise, it will not be able to co-ordinate diverse functions of individuals and groups to achieve the
organization goal.
The survival of the organisation is not only dependent on the harmony existing in the social
composition and individual/groups and the organizations goals but also its ability to adapt itself to
the changing outside environments. The environments manifest the composite influence of political,
social, technological and economic forces which have a direct bearing on every organisation. Since the
social milieu cast in the mould of such environment is changing, the organisation, to ensure its
continuity, shall have to acquire the capacity to change and adapt itself to fit in the social systems. Its
ability to change and adapt depends on the people who form the organisation. Hence, organisation
may rightly be called a social system.
THE ORGANISATION AS AN OPEN SYSTEM
It can be said and seen that organizations differ in many important respects. But they also share some
common features. Organizations can be viewed as open system which take inputs from the
environment and through a series of activities transform or convert these inputs into outputs to
achieve some objective. This can be seen in the following figure.
In terms of this open systems model the business organisation, for example, takes in resources such
as people, finance, raw materials and information from its environment, transforms or converts
these, and returns them to the environment in various forms of outputs such as goods produced,
services provided, completed processes or procedures in order to achieve certain goals such as profit,
market sharing, level of sales or consumer satisfaction.
There are, of course, differences in the activities and methods of operation of the various forms of
business organizations. There will also be differences between business organizations of the same
type, for example, in relation to thin size and scale of activities. However, adopting the systems view
of organizations, we can identify principles and prescriptions of organisation and management that
apply to business organizations in general. Differences in the application and operation of these
principles and prescriptions as between one business organisation and another are largely a matter
only of degree and emphasis.
Using this systems model the same form of analysis can be applied to all types of organizations.
Viewing organizations as systems provides a common point of reference and enables us to take a
general approach to the study of organizations to analyse them and to derive general principles and
prescriptions.
ORGANISATION AS A SOCIO TECHNICAL SYSTEM
The socio-technical system is mainly concerned with the transformation or conversion process itself,
and the relationships between technical efficiency, and social considerations and the effect on people.
It was observed that new methods of work and changes in technology disrupted the social groupings
of the miners, and brought about undesirable changes to the psychological and sociological properties
of the old method of working. As a result, the new method of work was less efficient than it would
have been despite the introduction of new technology.
E.L. Trist and his associates of Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, in their study of changing
technology in the British coal mines, gave rise to the idea of treating an organisation as a socio-
technical system. The researchers saw the need for a socio-technical approach in which an
appropriate social system could be developed in keeping with the new technical system. They
suggested that there are three sub-systems common to any organisation:
a) The technical system
b) The sub-system of informal role structure
c) The sub-system of individual members' feelings or sentiments.
This form of analysis is taken a stage further by Kast and Rosenzweig who saw the organisation as
an open, socio-technical system with five major sub-systems:
a) Goals and Values - The accomplishment of certain goals determined by the broader system and
conformity with social requirements.
b) Technical - The knowledge required for the performance of tasks, and the techniques and
technology involved.
c) Psychological - The interactions of individuals and groups, and behaviour of people in
organizations.
d) Structure - The division and coordination of tasks, and formal relationships between the technical
and psychological sub-system.
e) Managerial - Covering the whole of organisation and its relationship to the environment, setting
goals, planning, structure and control.
While describing the organizational functioning Katz and Khan have also identified five sub-
systems:
a) Production or technical - concerned throughout with the work that gets done and the main
productive process.
b) Supportive - environmental transactions relating to input procurement or output disposal, or
transactions supportive of the productive process.
c) Maintenance - the equipment for getting the work done. Much of this 'equipment' relates to
performance of people and to recruitment, socialisation and rewarding employees.
d) Adaptive - concerned with sensing external changes and their effects on the organisation and its
survival, for example, research and development.
e) Managerial - organized activities for the direction, control, and coordination of sub-systems and
adjustment of the total system to its environment.
However, once these sub-systems are identified, it is the task of management to coordinate the sub-
systems, and to ensure that the activities of the organisation as a whole are directed towards the
accomplishment of its goals and objectives. It can suggest, therefore, five main interrelated sub
systems as a basis for the analysis of work organizations:
a) Task - the goals and objectives of the organisation, the nature of inputs and outputs, and the work
to be carried out in the transformation or conversion process.
b) Technology - the manner in which the tasks of the organisation are carried out and the nature of
work performance; the materials, systems and procedures, and equipment used in the transformation
or conversion process.
c) Structure - patterns of organisation, and formal relationships and channels of communication
among members; the division of work and coordination of tasks by which the series of activities are
carried out.
d) People - the nature of the members undertaking the series of activities such as their attitudes,
skills and attributes, needs and expectations, interpersonal relations and patterns of behaviour;
Group functioning and behaviour, informal organisation and styles of leadership.
e) Management - coordination of task technology, structure and people and policies and procedures
for the execution of work; Corporate strategy, direction of the activities of the organisation as a whole
and its interactions with the external environment.
Therefore, a manager must realise that in order to improve organizational effectiveness attention
should be focused on the total work organisation and on the interrelationships among the range of
variables which affect organizational performance. The organisation is best viewed as an open system
and studied in terms of the interactions between technical and social considerations and
environmental influences. Changes in part of the system will affect other parts and thus the whole
organisation. The open systems approach provides a perspective in which to view different types of
organizations and their methods of operation.

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- End of Chapter -
LESSON-4
FACTORS INFLUENCING ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

The formal organisation is a dynamic and constantly changing network of interrelated activities and
the behaviour of people cannot be studied in isolation. It is necessary to understand the
interrelationships between human behaviour and other variables which together comprise the total
organisation. Therefore, the study of organizational behaviour involves consideration of interaction
among the formal structure, the tasks to be undertaken, the technology employed and methods of
carrying out work, the behaviour of people the process of management and the external environment
in which organisation is working.
These contextual variables provide parameters within which can be identified a number of
interrelated and interdependent dimensions - the individual, the group, the organisation, and the
environment. These variables collectively influence behaviour in work organizations and ultimately
determine the successful working of the total organisation itself.
The Individual: Organizations are made up of their individual members. The individual is a central
feature of organizational behaviour and a necessary part of any behavioural situation, whether acting
in isolation or as part of a group, in response to expectations of the organisation, or as a result of
influences of the external environment. When and where the needs of the individual and the demands
of the organisation are incompatible, it can result in frustration and conflict. It is the primary task of
the management to provide a working environment which permits the satisfaction of individual needs
as well as the attainment of organizational goals.
The Group: An organised activity cannot be done by single individual; rather it must be shared
among a group of individuals as to facilitate effective accomplishment of the desired goal. So groups
exist in all organizations and are essential to their working and performance. Therefore, an
organisation is comprised of group of people and almost everyone will be a member of one or more
groups in it. Even within formal organizations, informal groups arise from the social needs of people.
People in groups influence each other in many ways, and groups may develop their own hierarchies
and leaders.
In many ways group pressures can have a major impact and influence over the behaviour and
performance of individual members. An understanding of group structure and behaviour
complements knowledge of individual behaviour and adds a further dimension to organizational
behaviour.
The Organisation: Individuals and organisation interact within the structure of the formal
organisation. Structure is an official relationship created by management to establish interpersonal
relationships between individuals and groups. This is needed so as to provide order and systems and
to direct the efforts of the organisation into goal seeking activities. It is through the formal structure
that people carry out their organizational activities in order to achieve aims and objectives.
It can be understood that behaviour is affected by patterns of organisation structure, technology,
styles of leadership and systems of management through which organizational processes are planned,
directed and controlled. The focus of attention, therefore, is the impacts of organisation structure and
design, and patterns of management, on the behaviour of people within the organisation.
The Environment: Organizations are embedded in an environment within which they operate.
They function as a part of the total environment. The environment affects the organisation through
technological and scientific development, economic activity, social and cultural influences and
governmental aspects as well.
The effects of the operation of the organisation within its environments are reflected in terms of the
management of opportunities and risks and the successful achievement of its aims and objectives.
The increasing rate of change in environmental factors has highlighted the need to study the total
organisation and the processes by which the organisation attempts to adapt to the external demands
placed upon it.
In a sense, effectively managing these variables requires constant and close vigilance, adaptability to
changes, and being able to manage problematic situations through good decision - making at the
work situations in the organizations.
CONSTRAINTS OR LIMITATIONS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AND
MANAGERIAL PERFORMANCE
In the words of Keith Davis, organizational behaviour primarily emphasizes only on the human side
of organizations and the kinds of benefits that it can bring. Further he says organizational behaviour
will not absolutely abolish conflict and frustration among the employees in the organisation but it can
only reduce them. It is a way to improve, not an absolute answer to problems. Furthermore, it is part
of the whole cloth of an organisation. We can discuss organizational behaviour as a separate subject,
but to apply it we must tie it back to whole of reality. Improved organizational behaviour will not
solve unemployment. It will not make up for our own deficiencies. It cannot substitute for poor
planning, input organisms, or inadequate controls. It is only one of many factors operating within a
larger social system.
The major constraints of organizational behaviour can be discussed as under:

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a. Behavioural bias:
People who lack system understanding may develop a behavioural bias, which gives them a narrow
viewpoint that emphasizes satisfying employee experiences while overlooking the broader system of
the organisation in relation to all its public. This condition is often called as 'tunnel vision' because
viewpoints are narrow, as if people were working through a tunnel. They see only the view at the
other end of the tunnel while missing the broader landscape.
It should be evident that concern for employees can be so greatly overdone that the original purpose
of joining people together - productive organizational outputs for society is lost. Sound organizational
behaviour should help achieve organizational purposes, not replace them. The person who ignores the
needs of people as consumers of organizational outputs while championing employees' needs is
misapplying the ideas of organizational behaviour. It is also true that the person who pushes
production outputs without regard for employee needs is misapplying organisational behaviour.
Sound organizational behaviour recognises a social system in which many types of human needs are
served in many ways.
Behavioural bias can be so misapplied that it harms employees as well as the organisation. Some
people, in spite of their good intentions, so overwhelm others with care that they are reduced to
dependent and unproductive indignity. They become content, not fulfilled. They find excuses for
failure, rather than taking responsibility for progress. As happened with scientific management years
ago, concern for people can be misapplied by over eager partisans until it becomes harmful.
Thus, employees as well as managers can handicap a fellow employee through unrestricted concern
and care.
b. The law of diminishing returns:
Over emphasis on organizational behaviour practice may produce negative results as indicated by the
law of diminishing returns. It is a limiting factor in organizational behaviour the same way that it is in
economics. In economics the law of diminishing returns refers to a declining amount of extra output
when more of a desirable input is added to an economic situation. After a certain point, the output
from each unit of added input tends to become smaller. The added output eventually may reach zero
and even decline when more units of input are added.
The law of diminishing returns in organizational behaviour works in a similar way. It states that at
some point increases of a desirable practice produce declining returns, eventually zero returns, and
then negative returns as more increases are added. The concept implies that for any situation there is
an optimum amount of a desirable practice such as participation. When that point is exceeded, there
is a decline in returns. In other words, the fact that a practice is desirable does not mean that more of
it is more desirable. More of a good thing is not necessarily good.
Diminishing returns may not apply to every human situation, but the idea applies so widely that it is
of general use. Furthermore, the exact point at which an application becomes excessive will vary with
the circumstances but an excess can be reached with nearly any practice.
Generally one question may be raised saying that why does the law of diminishing returns exist?
Essentially, it is a system concept. It applies because of the complex system relationships of many
variables in a situation. The facts state that when an excess of one variable develops, although that
variable is desirable, it tends to restrict the operating benefit of other variables so substantially that
net effectiveness declines. For example too much security may lead to less employee initiative and
growth. This relationship shows that organizational effectiveness is achieved not by maximizing one
human variable but by working all system variables together in a balanced way.

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c. Employee autonomy as an example:

Employee autonomy is a higher order need that is frequently emphasized. Some observers speak of
autonomy as an ideal, implying that if employees could have complete autonomy, then the ideal state
would be achieved. But this kind of reasoning ignores the law of diminishing returns. As shown in
figures effectiveness tends to decline when too much autonomy occurs. One reason probably is that
excess autonomy prevents coordination toward central goals. Different units of the organisation
cannot work together, so the labour of employees is wasted.
At the end of the continuum, the lack of autonomy also is ineffective. When autonomy declines below
an appropriate level, the organisation fails to develop and use the talents of employees. The result is
that effectiveness declines with both excessive use and miserly use of autonomy. Most success is
gained in the broad middle ground of use. This relationship produces a humpback curve for
autonomy when it is charted with effectiveness.
The law of diminishing returns serves as a warning that although increases in desirable practices can
be beneficial, an excess of any of them will be counterproductive. Moderation is required. People
observed with building only autonomy or creating maximum employee security will not be
contributing to organizational success. There can be too much of a good thing just as there can be too
little of it.
d. Other problems:
One problem that has plagued organizational behaviour has been the tending for business firms to
pave short time horizons for the expected pay off from behavioural programmes. This search for a
'quick fix' sometimes leads managers to embrace the newest fad to address the symptoms while
neglecting underlying problems or to fragment their efforts within the firm. The emergence of
organizational development programmers that focus on system wide change and the creation of long-
term strategic plans for the management of human resources have helped bring about more idealistic
expectations concerning employees as a productive asset.
Another challenge that confronts organizational behaviour is to see whether the ideas that have been
developed and tested during periods of organizational growth and economic plenty will endure with
equal success under new conditions. Specifically, the environment in the future may be marked by
some shrinking demand, scare resources, and more intense competition. When organizations
stagnate, decline, or have their survival threatened, there is evidence that stress and conflict increase,
will the same motivational models be useful in these situations? Are different leadership styles called
for? Will the trend toward participative processes be reversed? Since no easy answers to these and
many other questions exist, it is clear that there is still tremendous room for further development of
organizational behaviour.
e. Manipulation of people:
A significant concern about organizational behaviour is that its knowledge and techniques can be
used to manipulate people as well as to help them develop their potential. People who lack respect for
the basic dignity of human being could learn organizational behaviour ideas and use them for selfish
ends. They could use what they know about motivation or communication to manipulate people
without regard for human welfare. People who lack ethical values could use people in unethical ways.
The philosophy of organizational behaviour is supportive and oriented toward human resources. It
seeks to improve the human environment and help people to grow forward their human potential.
However, the knowledge and technique of this subject may be used for negative as well as positive
consequences. Nevertheless, we must be cautious that what is known about people is not used to
manipulate them. The possibility of manipulation means that people in power in organizations need
to be people of high ethical and moral integrity who will not misuse their power. Without ethical
leadership, the new knowledge that is learned about people becomes a dangerous instrument for
possible misuse. Ethical leadership will recognise such guides as the following as quoted by Wayne F.
Cascio.
a) Social responsibility: Responsibility to others arises whenever people have power in an
organisation.
b) Open communication: The organisation shall operate as a two-way open system with open receipt
of inputs from people and open disclosure of its operations to them.
c) Cost-benefit analysis. In addition to economic costs and benefits, human and social costs and
benefits of an activity shall be considered in determining whether to proceed with it.
What is the difference between genuine motivation and manipulation of people? Basically the
conditions of use need to be examined. If people understand what is happening and have substantial
freedom to make their own choices, they are not being manipulated. But if they are being covertly
directed and/or have lack free choices, they are being manipulated. This is true whether the
manipulator is a social scientist, another employee, or a manager.
As the general population learns more about organizational behaviour, it will be more difficult to
manipulate them, but the possibility is always there. That is why society needs ethical leaders. But
ethical leader cannot succeed unless there also are ethical followers.
MODEL QUESTIONS
1. Review the fundamental concepts that form the basis of organizational behaviour. Which concepts
do you think are more important than the others? Explain.
2. "Organizational behaviour is selfish and manipulative, because it serves only the interests of
management's comment.
3. Define organizational behaviour. Explain different key elements in understanding organizational
behaviour.
4. In what areas has psychology contributed to Organizational Behaviour? Sociology? Social
Psychology? Anthropology? Political Science? What other academic discipline may have contributed
to organizational behaviour?
5. How is an organisation is a social system? Explain in detail.
6. Give some examples of problems a manager might face for which knowledge of organizational
behaviour might prove beneficial for finding solutions.
CASE STUDY 1: Keeping Things the Same
Metropolitan Hospital was built two years ago and currently has a workforce of 235 people. The
hospital is small, but because it is new, it is extremely efficient. The Board has voted to increase its
capacity from 60 beds to 190 beds. By this time next year the hospital will be over three times as large
as it is now in terms of both beds and personnel.
The administrator, Clara Hawkins, feels that the major problem with this proposed increase is that
the hospital will lose its efficiency. "I want to hire people who are just like our current team of
personnel - hard working, dedicated, talented, and able to interact well with patients. If we triple the
number of employees, I don't see how it will be possible to maintain our quality patient care. We are
going to lose our family atmosphere. We will be inundated with mediocrity and we'll end up being like
every other institution in the local area - large and uncaring".
The Chairman of the Board is also concerned about the effect on hiring such a large number of
employees. However, he believes that Clara is over reacting. "It can't be that hard to find people who
are like our current staff. There must be a lot of people out there who are just as good. What you need
to do is develop a plan of action that will allow you to carefully screen those who will fit into your
current organizational culture and those who will not. It's not going to be as difficult as you believe.
Trust me. Everything will work out just fine".
As a result of the Chairman's comments, Clara has decided that the most effective way of dealing with
the situation is to develop a plan of action. She intends to meet with her administrative group and
determine the best way of screening incoming candidates and then helping those who are hired to
become socialised in terms of the hospital's culture. Clara has called a meeting for the day after
tomorrow. At that time she intends to discuss her ideas, get suggestions from her people, and then
formulate a plan of action. "We've come too far to lose it all now", she told her administrative staff
assistant. "If we keep our wits about us, i think we can continue to keep Metropolitan as the showcase
hospital in this region".
1. What can Clara and her staff do to select the type of entry-level candidates they want? Explain.
2. How can Clara ensure that those who are hired come to accept the core cultural values of the
hospital? What steps would you recommend?
3. Could Clara use this same approach if another 200 people were hired a few years from now?
Source: Fred Luthans, Organizational Behaviour. McGraw-Hill

CASE STUDY 2: The New Plant Manager

Today Butterfield worked his way upward in the Montclair Company until he became Assistant Plant
Manager in the Illinois plant. Finally his opportunity for a promotion came. The Houston plant was
having difficultymeeting its budget and production quotas, so he was promoted to plant manager, and
transferred to the Houston plant with instructions to "straighten it out". Butterfield was ambitious
and somewhat power-oriented. He believed that the best way to solve problems was to take control,
make decisions, and use his authority to carry out his decisions. After preliminary study, he issued
orders for each department to cut its budget by 5 percent. A week later he instructed all departments
to increase production by 10 percent from the following month. He required several new reports and
kept a close watch on operations. At the end of the second month he dismissed three supervisors who
had failed to meet their production quotas. Five other supervisors resigned. Butterfield insisted that
all rules and budgets should be followed and he allowed no exceptions.
 Butterfield's effort produced remarkable results. Productivity quickly exceeded standard by 7 percent,
and within five months the plant was within budget. His record was so outstanding that he was
promoted to the New York home office near the end of his second year. Within a month after he left,
productivity in the Houston plant collapsed to 15 percent below standard, and the budget again was in
trouble.
1. Discuss the model of organizational behaviour Butterfield used and the kind of organizational
climate he created.
2. Discuss why productivity dropped when Butterfield left the Houston plant.
3. If you were Butterfield's New York manager, what would you tell him about his approach? How
might he respond?
Source: Keith Davis, Human Behaviour at Work McGraw - Hill International edition.

- End of Chapter -

LESSON-5
UNDERSTANDING INDIVIDUAL

Objective
After studying the unit, you should be able to

Analyse 'individual behaviour and nature of man'

define personality, learning and perception

explain factors influencing perception - perceptual distortion

identify values - attitudes and attitude formation

PREAMBLE
The unit deals with understanding individual behaviour in an organization. It explains the nature of
human being as an individual, as an employee in the organization. The human beings may have
several similarities as well as differences among them. These similarities and differences will have
impact on the behaviour of employees in the organization. The personality of employees and the
determinants of personality which will have an impact on an individual behaviour are also dealt with
in this unit. Learning is a process where environment plays a major role. People act as they perceive.
Different people perceive things differently. Values play an important role in the study of
organizational behaviour as they lay the foundation to understand perception, attitudes, and
personality.
In any human activity, nothing of any consequence happens until an individual wants to act. The
success or failure of any organization depends not only on the organizational functions - production,
finance, marketing, etc, but also on the quality of human character. What individual can accomplish
depends to a great extent on how much and why one wants to act. The individual's will to work is
different from his capacity to work. Management can buy employee's time, his physical efforts but not
his enthusiasm, initiative or loyalty. One of the serious problems in organizations is to get maximum
efforts and contribution of individuals.
THE INDIVIDUAL
The individual is a person with distinct character and personality traits or behavioural patterns. Every
person has his own individuality, which means that the individuals who form the groups have
individual differences. Obviously, any group is characterized by individual differences. An individual
moves from childhood, through adolescence, to adulthood; and accordingly his personality attains the
necessary change and maturity. The more the maturity, the more the adjustability.
The individual starts his development from the very moment of birth. The biological factors,
sociological factors, historical factors, genetic factors, cultural and environmental factors, as well as
heredity, substantially influence the developmental processes of perception, learning and motivation.
It ultimately develops a personality of his own, i.e. any individual has a personality of his own.
The individual develops into adolescence through infancy and childhood. Freud pointed to the
possibility of identifying the basis for adult personality patterns in the problems of early childhood.
Many other thinkers have also provided identical view of the behaviour of individual in the early
norms of test performance at each age in developing mental ability. Regarding individual
development Kolasa's remark seems to be relevant: "Up to age two, the child is immersed in problems
of his sensorimotor operations. Preconceptual thought, where concrete things are recognised as
standing for real ones, develops before age four, though classification of these concepts takes place up
until age seven. Even at this age, however, the child is tied to concrete states (though in greater
number) and not until approximately age 11 is there a move to abstract thought and use of logic and
hypotheses". While the stages may be too rigidly defined, Piaget's research does show the changing
nature of the individual and his ability to proceed in the world. Thus, the individual in the process of
change to reach his real self as a social animal has to attain a long line of transition. Again dogmatic
positions may be faced by the individual at certain ages during the period of maturity.
The basic input for human behaviour is sensation of information. Hence, development of individual
necessitates development of sensational ability also. Cognitive process is another critical function in
individual behaviour for which the variables like perception, learning, abilities (especially), concept
formation, problem solving, language, etc. are important. Any individual has to develop these
qualities in him for an effective cognitive process to take place in him. These qualities, in some
magnitude, are prevalent in every individual. The greater the development of them, the greater would
be the cognitive process.
MANAGEMENT AND HUMAN FACTOR
The functions of management are planning, organizing, motivating, and controlling. These functions
that comprise the management process - a step-by-step way of doing something - are relevant
regardless of the type of organization or level of management with which one is concerned. Harold
Koontz and Cyril O'Donnell have said: "Acting in their managerial capacity, presidents, department
heads, foremen, supervisors, college deans, bishops, and heads of governmental agencies all do the
same thing. As managers they are all engaged in part in getting things done with and through people.
As a manager, each must, at one time or another, carry out all the duties characteristic of managers".
Planning involves setting goals and objectives for the organization and developing "work maps"
showing how these goals and objectives are to be accomplished.
Once plans have been made, organizing becomes meaningful. This involves bringing together
resources - people capital and equipment - in the most effective way to accomplish the goals.
Organizing, therefore, involves an integration of resources".
Motivating plays a large part in determining the level of performance of employees, which, in turn,
influences how effectively the organizational goals will be met. Motivating is sometimes included as
part of directing, along with communicating and leading.
William James of Harvard in this study found that hourly employees could maintain their jobs (that
is, not be fired) by working at approximately 20 to 30 per cent of their ability. His study also showed
that employees work at close to 80 to 90 percent of their ability if highly motivated. This shows us
that if motivation is low, employees' performance will suffer as much as if ability were low. For this
reason, motivating is an extremely important function of management.
Another function of management is controlling. This involves feedback of results and followup to
compare accomplishments with plans and to make appropriate adjustments where outcomes have
deviated from expectations.
Even though these management functions are stated separately, and as presented seem to have a
specific sequence, one must remember that they are interrelated. While these functions are
interrelated at any one time one or more may be of primary importance.
SKILLS OF A MANAGER
The three areas of skill necessary for carrying out the process of management as specified by Paul
Hersey and Kenneth H. Blanchard are Technical skill, Human skill and Conceptual skill.
Technical skill - the ability to use knowledge, methods, techniques, and equipment necessary for
the performance of specific tasks acquired from experience, education, and training.
Human skill - the ability and judgment in working with and through people, including an
understanding of motivation and an application of effective leadership.
Conceptual skill - the ability to understand the complexities of the overall organization and where
one's own operation fits into the organization. This knowledge permits one to act according to the
objectives of the total organization rather than only on the basis of the goals and needs of one's own
immediate group.
The appropriate mix of these skills varies as an individual advances in management from supervisory
to top-management positions. To be effective, less technical skill tends to be needed as one advances
from lower to higher levels in the organization, but more conceptual skill is necessary. Supervisors at
lower levels need considerable technical skill because they are often required to train and develop
technicians and other employees in their sections. At the other extreme, executives in a business
organization do not need to know how to perform all the specific tasks at the operational level.
However, they should be able to see how all these functions are interrelated in accomplishing the
goals of the total organization.
While the amount of technical and conceptual skills needed at these different levels of management
varies, the common denominator that appears to be crucial at all levels is human skill.
IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN SKILLS
The human skills were considered unimportant in the past, but they are of primary importance today.
For example, one of the great entrepreneurs John D. Rockefeller, stated: "I will pay more for the
ability to deal with people than any other ability under the sun". These words of Rockefeller are often
echoed. According to a report by the American Management Association, an overwhelming majority
of the two hundred managers who participated in a survey agreed that the most important single skill
of an executive is the ability to get along with people. In this survey, management rated this ability
more vital than intelligence, decisiveness, knowledge or job skills, management skills necessary at
various levels of an organization.
NATURE OF MAN
Human Nature
The term "human nature" refers to the characteristics of mankind which generally enable us to
distinguish humans from animals, from inanimate objects, and from social abstractions such as
society or organization.
The descriptions of human nature, however, vary enormously. Human nature can be the set of
motives, mental and emotional capacities, and psychic mechanisms common to human being. More
broadly speaking, it is a set of human needs, drives, predispositions, tendencies, propensities, and
actual behaviours. Human nature can be conceptualized in a negative way in the absence of
socialization. This sociological and psychological perspective treats human nature as a source of
systematic variance in behaviour. Man's nature can be described in terms of: Levels, Dialectic,
Norms, Innateness, and Learning.
(i) Levels: Here mankind is assumed to have a biological nature, a social nature, and a creative
nature (Murphy, 1958).
(ii) Dialectic: Man is seen as having more separate natures, which behave as a result of their
dialectical interaction.
(iii) Norms: With a metaphysical philosophy one can make lists of behaviours required of humans if
they are to give evidence of being human.
(iv) Learning: A less restrictive approach to that of the socio biologists allows pan-human learned
behaviour to be called part of human nature. Thus a learned behaviour is a characteristic of human
nature. Human nature is a measure of central tendency among humans not necessarily observable in
a given human being.
(v) Innateness: In this socio-biological approach almost every individual has a set of genetically
determined characteristics which do not differentiate that individual from others.
Definition
The Greek philosophers described human nature as a rational principle governing humans in an
almost law-like manner. Man is driven to be rational because the universe is rational. This law-
boundedness characteristic of human nature carried over into the medieval view although the content
of the law changed, mankind was driven not to be rational but to seek out perfect good.
Humans were viewed as purposeful creatures, who use reasons to carry out the dictates of their will. A
focus on the passions and emotions emerged, which led to two opposing views. Mantaigne
characterized "human as inconsistent, irresolute, and untamable". These thinkers could not envisage
any kind of malleability in human nature which would make humans manageable or teachable in any
complex way. A second view however, stressed the plasticity of man's nature, and believed that
essentially, man's nature could be moulded.
Adoption and selection theories of organizations are based on assumptions that humans are
controlled by their environments, while strategic choice theories focus on the role of voluntarism.
If human nature is the result of, or caused by, or emerging from something external to humankind,
then it can be called law bound. This means that human characteristic can be explained, predicted,
accounted for, and controlled by reference to metaphysical, biological, historical, cultural, social, or
environmental forces. Alternatively, if human nature is the result of something internal to humankind
then it can be called self bound. In this view human nature emerges out of human purposiveness or
sense making rather than in response to external law.
SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES AMONG INDIVIDUALS
Individuals differ in personal characteristics and these differences create difference in work
performance and behaviour of individuals at work place. Individuals differ in physical build up,
appearance, intelligence, attitudes, personality, interests, motives, skills, training, education, job
knowledge and skills. Such differences have their important impact in industry as they affect the job
behaviour of the people. The behaviour of any individual responds to any particular situation
depending upon what he brings into the situation, in terms of abilities, education, skills, trainings,
desires, interests habits and understanding. Psychology assists studying the difference of one
individual with another. People differentiate their physical characteristics, intelligence, intellectual
attitude, intent, temperament and in character. Human nature is greatly influenced by the
environment, acquired habits, traits and characteristics. The management can change the behavior of
persons by changing the work environment and by educating and by training them. Certainly there
are differences between individuals. Placed in similar situations all people do not act alike. However,
there are certain fundamental similarities underlying the behaviour of all individuals that can be
identified and then modified to reflect to individual differences.
Individual differences can be assessed in terms of differences in various individual characteristics.
Most prominent among them can be (1) Physical characteristics, (2) Personality traits, (3) Perception,
(4) Attitudes, (5) Emotions, and (6) Memory. The other characteristics are (7) Interests, (8)
Motivation, (9) Behaviour, and (10) Approaches especially frustration, (11) Role behaviour, (12) The
overall personality, and so on. The prominent ones are described here:
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1. Physical Characteristics are weight, arm span, vital capacity, strength of the grip, visual acuity,
auditory acuity, fatigability, appearance and countenance, facial expressions and gestures, etc.
Evaluation of such differences in the physical characteristics is important because the individual
performance generally depends on characteristics.
2. Personality Traits are also known as temperamental or emotional qualities of a person. These
can be the essential characteristics of the behavioural pattern of the individual. These traits are:
dominant, cheerful, cowardly, honest, timid, dishonest, moody, etc. Many such personality traits or
characteristics are found in great magnitude in some persons: especially characteristics like
aggressiveness, persistence, sociability, dominance, helpfulness, orderliness etc. are very dominant in
certain individuals; some psychologists are of the opinion that personality traits are different from
emotional traits, character traits, or personal traits. Characteristics like spirituality, honesty,
truthfulness, integrity, etc. are character traits; while emotional maturity, cheerfulness,
aggressiveness, neuroticism, pessimism, etc. are emotional or temperamental traits. Personal traits
are the specific and typical ways of an individual's behaviour such as co-operative attitude,
submissiveness, humbleness, meekness, dominance, optimism, etc. Though these traits can be
inborn, they can be achieved through experiences and learning, too.
3. Perception: Differences in perception also substantially differentiate individuals. There are no
two opinions that people differ in their perception ability. What we see is based on the way the brain
organizes the nervous impulses which come from the eye. The difference in perception is
characterized by differences in what we see, hear and understand, which is brought about by now the
figures are framed in the process of seeing, hearing and understanding. In this context, it can be
observed that, what we perceive depends not only on our power of seeing or hearing but also the
frame of reference in which it is seen or heard. If a person is exposed to different situations or if
different people are exposed to one situation, their perception is bound to differ. It shows that the
perception ability differs from person to person and from situation to situation. At the same time the
manager's performance efficiency depends on his perception ability. The greater the perception
ability the greater would be the managerial efficiency.
4. Attitude: Attitude is another very important concept in individual differences on the one hand
and, in psychology and organizational behaviour on the other. It is very often used as an important
variable to determine individual differences.

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5. Emotions: Individual differences can be judged in terms of emotional differences also. Emotion
is a complex state involving conscious feeling, physiological changes, and an evaluation of a given
situation as having significance of some kind for the individual. Many emotions are accompanied by
action tendencies toward approach or withdrawal. For example, if somebody, who is closely
associated with us, behaves in an unexpected and opposite direction from what we desired of him,
then we would be provoked to have a strong feeling of anger, which is our emotion. In fact, every
individual has certain 'wired in' resources for emotional behaviour that tend to develop in a pattern of
emotional development which, as a matter of fact, can be universal. However, learning influences the
emotional pattern considerably, which cannot be ignored.
6. Memory: Memory is the ability to retain and recall what is conceived. It is the faculty for keeping
things in one's mind. Memory therefore, is an essential faculty of individuals, which is closely
associated with perception and learning. Though it can be an inborn quality, considerable amount of
memory power can be achieved through recollection also. Individuals differ in their memory power,
which is the ability to remember things after some interval. Though it is an essential faculty, under
certain circumstances ability to forget is also a blessing.
Interests, behaviours and approaches, motivation, and such other factors also differ considerably
from individual to individual. Accordingly, individual behaviour may also differ.
MODEL OF HUMAN BEING
The self, or human nature, interacts with world through "connectedness". This is the continuity
between internal psychostructure and external objects. To understand the behaviour of people, which
is a very complex thing, there is need to examine the structural integrative and field properties of a
human system. Let us make an attempt to broaden our perspective of man's nature by analysing and
understanding the major models of a human being.
A. Psychoanalytic Model of a Man:
It is based on the pioneer work of Sigmund Freud. The underlying principle of this model is based on
the clinical analysis. This model is complied, and outlines three sets of concepts and their interaction.
The behaviour is the result of interaction of three key sub-systems within the personality - id, ego and
superego. The 'id' contains the innate drive of man such as hunger, thirst and aggression. These
innate drives are constructive, primitive and sexual in nature which provides the basic energy of life.
The 'id' operates as pleasure seeking principle and is concerned with immediate pleasure. It is
completely selfish and unconcerned with reality or moral considerations. The second sub-system the
'ego' develops to mediate between the demands of the 'id' and the realities of life. The initial concept
of 'ego' was that its there to meet the 'id' demands. But ego in fact is the central control of personality
and operates in terms of reality. The third key system is the 'superego' which contemplates moral
values of society. It is the conscience which is concerned with good and bad, right and wrong.
Superego is the additional inner control coming into central operation to cope with the uninhibited
desire of the 'id'.
Anxiety is both a painful experience and a warning of impending danger, and hence forces the
individuals to do something to adjust with the situation. Ego can cope with anxiety by rational
measures. Freud distinguished three types of anxiety (a) Reality anxiety (b) Neurotic anxiety and (c)
Moral anxiety. The reality anxiety stems from threats in external environment. The neurotic
anxiety arises when 'id' is threatened to break through 'ego' control and the resulting behaviour will
lead to punishment. The moral anxiety happens when individual contemplates doing something.
The other point of importance in psychoanalytic model of man is the psychosexual development.
Freud said psychosexual development as a succession of stages characterized to achieve libidinal
pleasure. Following are the stages of psychoanalytic formulation:
(i) Oral stage: This occurs during the first year of life when libidinal pleasure is achieved primarily
through stimulation of the lips and mouth sucking.
(ii) Anal Stage: It involves the second and third year of life in which the libidinal pleasure is
associated with defecation.
(iii) Phallic Stage: The phallic stage occurs between 3-5 years when the child seeks pleasure
through self manipulation of the genitals.
(iv) Latency Stage: The stage of latency is between 6 and 12 years age when sexual pleasure recedes
in importance and the child is busy in developing various skills.
(v) Genital Stage: The final stage is the genital stage in which real feeling of pleasure comes from
heterosexual relations.
Thus psychoanalytic man is dominated by instinctual biological drives and unconscious motives.
B. Behaviouristic Model of Man:
The concept of behaviour stems from the early work of John Watson. He emphasized that through the
objective observation of behaviour and stimulus conditions, the psychologists learn to predict and
control man's behaviour. The behaviourists make a distinction between respondent and apparent
behaviours. The respondent responses include simple reflexes and emotional responses which are
elicited by appropriate stimuli even prior to learning. The term 'apparent' is brought in because in
such responses the individual operates upon or modifies the environment. Crucial to both respondent
and apparent condition is 'reinforcement' which refers to the strengthening of the new responses by
presentation of suitable stimulus.
Reinforcement may be negative as well as positive. Reinforcement is effective because it reduces
the level of tension created by biological drives like hunger and other physiological needs (primary
drive) and psychological needs like social drives, self-esteem, social approval (secondary needs) etc.,
learned conditioning. Similarly generalisation is the tendency for a response developed by a
conditioned stimulus to become associated with other stimulus. Similarly discrimination occurs
when the individual learns to distinguish between similar stimuli and responds to one and not to
another. According to this model, complex process such as perceiving, forming concepts, solving
problems, taking decisions etc. are based on the core idea of discrimination operation.
C. Humanistic Model of Man:
Humanistic model attributes great importance to human learning but emphasizes reflection,
reasoning and creative imagination rather than conditioning. Much of human behaviour is influenced
by past experience. The human being is self aware, evaluative, future oriented and capable of resisting
environmental influences. The idea of self is somewhat synonymous with the psychoanalytic concept
of ego. The humanistic model emphasizes the positive concept of self, concept of uniqueness of
individuals, recognition of human values and self-actualisation.

- End of Chapter -
LESSON - 6
PERSONALITY

Why are some people quiet and passive, while others are loud and aggressive? Are certain personality
types better adapted to certain job types? What do we know from theories of personality that can be
help us to explain and predict the behaviour of individuals in organizations? This section, attempts to
answer such questions.
WHAT IS PERSONALITY
When we talk of personality, we do not mean that a person has charm, a positive attitude toward life.
When psychologist talk of personality, they mean a dynamic concept describing the growth and
development of a person's whole psychological system rather than looking at part of the person,
personality looks at some aggregate whole that is greater than the sum of the parts. A human
personality is determined by four very closely interconnected aspects:
(1) Moral qualities which are the social aspect of the personality.
(2) Temperament which is the biological basis of the personality.
(3) Individual characteristics of the psychic process: sensations, perceptions, attention, thinking,
memory, emotion, etc...
(4) Schooling - the persons knowledge and skills.
The term 'personality' is derived from the Latin word 'per sonnare', which means "to speak through".
The Latin term was used to denote the masks the actors used to wear in ancient Rome and Greece.
Personality thus traditionally referred to how people influence others through their external
appearances (actions). But for an academician personality includes (i) external appearance and
behaviour, (ii) the inner awareness of self as a permanent organizing force and (iii) the particular
organization of measurable traits, both inner and outer. Thus, a thoroughly complete definition of
personality becomes a jigsaw puzzle because human being operates as a whole, not as a series of
distinct parts. Though psychologist and social scientists unanimously agree to the importance of
personality, they are unable to come out with an unanimous definition. Personality has been defined
by many people in different ways as found below.
Personality is a broad, amorphous designation relating to fundamental approaches of persons to
others and themselves. To most psychologists and students of behaviour, this term refers to the study
of the characteristic traits of the individual, relationships between these traits, and the way in which a
person adjusts to other people and situations.
Personality is a pattern of stable states and characteristics of a person that influence his or her
behaviour towards goal achievement. Each person has unique ways of projecting these states.
Personality is a very diverse and complex psychological concept. The word 'personality' may mean
something like outstanding, invigorating interpersonal abilities.
We must also recognize and explain the fact that development results in man by acquiring a
distinctiveness or uniqueness which gives him identity and enables him and us to recognize him as
apart from others. These distinguishing characteristics are summarized by the term personality.
The most frequently used definition of personality was by Gordon Allport more than fifty years ago.
He said personality is "the dynamic organisation within the individual of the psycho physical system
that determines his unique adjustments to his environments". Hence personality is the sum total of
ways in which an individual reacts and interacts with others. A person's moral qualities are the most
important traits of personality that dominates over all its other traits and determines his behaviour.
These qualities largely depend on the persons outlook, his views and conceptions of the surrounding
world and natural and social phenomena. So personality is a combination of body and mind.
Personality is neither exclusively mental nor exclusively physical but it is a function of the mind and
body in unity. It is an universal phenomena found in individual
KEY PERSONALITY ATTRIBUTES
For personality attributes have been identified that appear to have more direct relevance for
explaining and predicting behaviour in organizations. These are:
1. Locus of Control
Some people believe that they are masters of their own fate. Other people see themselves as pawns of
fate, believing that what happens to them in their lives is due to luck or chance. Locus of control is
internal; these people believe they control their destiny. Those who see their life controlled by
outsiders are externals. The employees who rate high in externality are less satisfied with their jobs.
The more alienated ones from the work setting and less involved in their jobs are internals. A
manager might also expect of find that externals blame a poor performance evaluation on their boss's
prejudice, their co-workers or other events outside their control. Internals would probably explain the
same evaluation in terms of their own actions.

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2. Authoritarianism
It is the belief that there should be status and power differences among people in organizations. The
extremely high authoritarian personalities are intellectually rigid in judging of others. They prove to
be differential to those above and exploitative of those below, distrustful, and resistant to change.
Possessing a high authoritarian personality would be relative negative to performance where the job
demands sensitivity to the feelings of others, tact and the ability to adapt to complex and changing
situations. On the other hand, where jobs are highly structured and success depends on close
conformity to rules and regulations, the high authoritarian employee should perform quite well.
3. Machiavellianism
It is named after Niccolo Machivelli who wrote in the 16th century on how to gain and manipulate
power. An individual executing strong machiavellian tendencies is pragmatic, maintains distance and
believes that ends can justify means. Do high machs make good employees? That answer depends on
the type of job and whether you consider ethical implications in evaluating performance. In jobs that
require bargaining skills (such as labour negotiations) or where there are substantial rewards for
winning (like commission sales), high machs may be productive. The ends cannot justify the means or
there are no absolute standards of performance, our ability to predict a high machs performance will
severally be reduced.
4. Risk Propensity
People differ in their willingness to take chances. Individuals with high risk propensities make more
rapid decisions and use less information in making their choice than low risk propensity individuals.
Managers might use this information to align employee risk taking propensity with specific job
demands.

Please use headphones

STAGES OF PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

Personality development as said by Floyd L. Ruch is concerned with "the process by which the child
gradually acquires patterns of overt behavior, thinking, problem-solving and, above all, the motives,
emotions, conflicts and the ways of coping up with conflicts that will go to make up his adult
personality". The development approach, though a form of personality theory, is different from
personality theories which will be discussed separately.
Personality in modern times is consisting of both elements physiological, which interact to result in
desirable action by an individual. Hence, it is needless to argue heredity versus environment, or
motivation versus learning. In fact, all these variables - heredity, environment, motivation and
learning - contribute to the development of human personality. A personality variable usually
processes three characteristics: (i) stability over time, (ii) generality across situation and (iii) inter-
variability in either frequency of occurrence or intensity.
The stages of personality development may be identified as follows:
1. Psycho-analytical or Freudian Stage
Psychoanalytical theory propounded by Sigmund Freud in 1932 concentrates largely on four
identifiable stages of psycho-sexual development through which a child passes. These stages are (i)
Oral, (ii) Anal, (iii) Phallic or Oedipus, (iv) Latency and (v) Genital. These stages were explained
earlier.
Though these stages did lead to the acquisition of particular motives such as sexuality, hostility
dependency, etc. they have not been accepted by modern psychologists on two grounds - improper
use of terminology and stretching the stages to the degree of illogical ends. Regarding choice of
words Mischel makes the following observations:
"Without having at hand a suitable set of learning concepts and terms for personality development,
Freud relied on his own preference for a 'body language', he preferred to say 'oral' rather than
'dependent', 'anal' rather than 'compulsive', and 'genital' rather than 'mature'.
The other shortcoming in his philosophy was his over-emphasis on sex which overshadowed the
underlying concepts which he intended to project.
2. Neo-Freudian Stage
Julian Rotter in 1954 and Albert Bandura in 1962 laid greater emphasis on social learning theory
to acquire motive, values, expectancies and behaviours through social reward and punishment.
Erik Erikson in 1962, also highlighted the need for social rather than sexual adaptation of an
individual. He has identified eight psycho-social stages of development. The first four stages - (i)
Mouth and senses (ii) Eliminative organs and musculature, (iii) Locomotion and genitals, and (iv)
Latency - develop during birth to sixth year of age. The remaining four stages - (v) Puberty and
adolescence (vi) Early adulthood (vii) Young and middle adulthood and (viii) Mature adulthood -
develop later.
Erikson thought it strongly that psycho-social crisis occurs within each of the above stages; to have a
normal fulfilling personality, it is necessary that each crisis should be resolved optimally. Most
vulnerable crisis is associated with the stage of adolescence which provides a point of criticality to re-
integrate the past with future goals. However, from organizational behaviour point of view, it is the
young and middle adult stage which is most important. Most organizational participants are found in
this stage which is seen struggling between "generativity" and "stagnation". Young and middle-aged
adults may overcome their crisis by being productive to organization which will ultimately result in
the development of their healthiest personalities. It enjoins on the organizations to take benefit of this
productivity drive implemented by the adults.
3. Cognitive Stage
The cognitive stage of personality development breaks further apart from the Freud's psycho-
analytical theory. The most representative work on cognitive theory is of Swiss psychologist Jean
Piaget. Unlike Freud, Piaget was convinced that it was conscious and not the instinctive unconscious
that was the most important variable in development of individual's personality. He is also accredited
as the forerunner in the development of child psychology. Earlier psychologists did not consider child
as their subject of research. He felt that learning consists of an important accompaniment of
development which cannot crystallize unless the child has the necessary cognitive structure to
assimilate new information. This was a new challenge to the behaviourists. He identified four major
stages of cognitive (intellectual) development: (i) Sensori-motor (0-2 years), (ii) Pre-operational (2-7
years), (iii) Concrete operational (7-11), and (iv) Formal operational (11 and above years).
In the earliest stage, "Children acquire knowledge or cognition about their surroundings through
simple,sensori-motor manipulations". During this stage when the child is of few months, he
repeats acts which bring him reward or some interesting outcome. After reaching the age of about two
years, he starts solving simple problems. He also realises that there are objects in the world separate
from themselves which they can affect or control to get the desired results. It is the stage when shift
takes place from the sensorimotor to conceptual or operational level.
During the pre-operational stage, children begin to use symbols and language in their thought
process so as to develop a class or category.
He enters the concrete stage of cognitive development. It is at this stage that he understands
concepts such as conservation which may best be explained by the following example given by Fred
Luthans:
"Water is first poured into two identical containers. Children in either pre-operational stage will
readily acknowledge that the two containers contain equal amount of water. Then the water in one of
the flat containers is poured into a tall container in front of the child. When asked which container
has more water, children in the pre-operational stage will generally say the tall container, but children
who are in the concrete stage will say that there is the same amount of water in both the flat and tall
containers".
The above example shows that only on reaching the concrete stage of development the children may
understand concepts such as conservation.
Piaget's empirical researches have revealed that certain social and political attitudes depend on the
stage of cognitive development. These results are of immense relevance to the study of organizational
behaviour.
The formal operational stage is reached by the mature and intelligent adults who function in an
organization. At this stage, there is no need for the manipulation of objects. They have the needed
capacity and skills to analyse, reason, imagine and evaluate events.
It may, however, be stated that the four stages of cognitive development cannot be equated with the
personality stages in the same manner as Freud's psycho-sexual stages. Both theories contribute
partially to understanding human personality.
Chris Argyris Continuum from Immaturity to Maturity
Chris Argyris feels that the personality instead of passing through precise stages develops along a
continuum "from immaturity as an infant to maturity as an adult".
He has identified seven characteristics in the immaturity-maturity continuum in the following table.

Immaturity-Maturity Continuum
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Immaturity Characteristics Maturity Characteristics
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Passivity Activity
Dependence Independence
Few ways of behaving Diverse behaviour
Shallow interests Deep interests
Short-time perspective Long-term perspective
Subordinate position Superordinate position
Lack of self-awareness Self-awareness and control

He explains further the scope and the conditions under which his concept operates:
1. The seven dimensions represent only one aspect of the total personality. Much also depends upon
individual's perception, self-concept and adaptation and adjustment.
2. The seven dimensions continually change in degree from the infant to the adult end of the
continuum.
3. The model, being only a construct, cannot predict specific behaviour. However, it does provide a
method of describing and measuring the growth of any individual in the culture.
4. The seven dimensions are based upon latent characteristics of the personality which may be quite
different from the observable behaviour.
He has made an assumption that the personality of a man in organization is towards the mature end
of the continuum. This will warrant a formal organization to ensure activity for passivity,
independence fordependence, long for short perspective, superordinate to subordinate position and
self- awareness and control, to lack of awareness and perhaps external control.
Argyris feels that generally reverse happens with the result that the "mature organizational
participant" becomes frustrated which results in conflict with the organisation. In the light of this fact
he rightly visualizes incongruity between the mature man and the organization.
Probably Argyris has wrongly made a supposition that all organizational men are mature. There are
many persons even in private or governmental organizations who, in spite of all aberrations in their
personality, continue to function in the organization. Their age and years of service have not
bestowed any maturity and commitment on them. This concept will go topsy-turvy if the basic
assumption proves wrong in the light of living examples in public and private enterprises in India and
elsewhere.
PERSONALITY DETERMINANTS
There has been an argument in personality research that whether an individual's personality is the
result of heredity or environment. Is the personality predetermined at birth or is it the result of
individual's interaction with his/her environment? However, personality appears to be a result of
both influences. An adult's personality is generally considered to be made up of both hereditary and
environmental factors moderated by situational condition.
People are enormously complex; their abilities and interests and attitudes are diverse. The drama of
life unfolds in fantastically broad intricate patterns from nursing infant to the lonely, senile adult;
from the rebellious teens to the stable fifties; from the idealistic to realistic; from tragedy to comedy;
from birth to death. The journey of an individual through life can take infinite number of paths. But
the question arises "what are the determinants of individual personality?" We often notice personality
characteristics such as extroversion, assertiveness and warmth etc. greatly contribute to success of an
individual in his jobs. Most failures on job, however, are not a attributable to a person's amount of
intelligence alone but also to certain personality characteristics. We frequently hear such comments
as, "He is very intelligent but lazy", "He is mediocre but hard-working" etc. The most pertinent and
relevant question then is how personality originates and develops? The major determinants of
personality of an individual can be studied under three broad factors - biological, environmental and
situational.
I. Biological Factors
Biological factors may be studied under three heads - the heredity, the brain, and the physical stature.
1. 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,
transmitted by genes in the chromosomes contributed by each parent. Research on animals
has showed that both physical and psychological characteristics can be transmitted through
heredity. But research on human beings is inadequate to support this viewpoint. However,
psychologists and geneticists have accepted the fact that heredity plays an important role in
one's personality. The importance of heredity varies from one personality trait to another. For
instance, heredity is generally more important in determining a person's temperament than
values and ideals.
2. Brain: Another biological factor that determines personality is the role of brain of an
individual. Though some promising inroads are made by researchers, the psychologists are
unable to prove empirically the contribution of human brain in influencing personality.
Preliminary results from the electrical stimulation of the brain (ESB) research gives indication
that better understanding of human personality and behaviour might come from the study of
the brain.
3. Physical Features: Perhaps the most outstanding factor that contributes to personality i.e.
the physical stature of an individual. An individual's external appearance is proved to be having
a tremendous effect on his personality. For instance, the fact that a person is short or tall, fat or
 skinny, handsome or ugly, black or fair will undoubtedly influence the person's effect on others
and in turn, will affect the self-concept. According toPaul H. Mussen, a child's physical
characteristics may be related to his approach to the social environment, to the expectancies of
others, and to their reactions to him. These in turn may have impacts on personality
development. Similarly, a rapidly maturing girl or boy will be exposed to different physical and
social situations and activities than will a slowly maturing boy or girl. Psychologists contend
that the different rates of maturation will also influence the individual's personality.
II. Environmental Factors
Among the factors that exert pressures on our personality formation is the culture in which we are
raised, our early conditioning, the norms among our family, friends and social groups, and other
influences that we experience. The environment that we are exposed to plays a critical role in shaping
our personality. Culture established the norms, attitudes and values that are passed along from one
generation to the next and create consistencies over time. Heredity sets the parameters of outer
limits, but an individual's full potential will be determined by how well she adjust to the demands and
requirements of environment.
III. Situational Factors
The situation influences the effects of heredity and environment on personality. An individual's
personality changes in different situations. The different demands of different situations call for
different aspects of one's personality. Thus situation will influence an individual personality.
PERSONALITY TRAITS
These are enduring characteristics that describe an individual's behaviour. Some examples of
personality characteristics are shy, aggressive, submissive, lazy, ambitions, loyal and timid.

16 Primary traits
1. Reserved or Outgoing
2. Less intelligent or More intelligent
3. Affected by feelings or Emotionally stable
4. Submissive or Dominant
5. Serious or Happy go lucky
6. Expedient or Conscientious
7. Timid or Venturesome
8. Tough-minded or Sensitive
9. Trusting or Suspicious
10. Practical or Imaginative
11. Forthright or Shrewd
12. Self-assured or Apprehensive
13. Conservative or Experimenting
14. Group dependent or Self-sufficient
15. Uncontrolled or Controlled
16. Relaxed or Tense
Matching Personalities and Jobs:
Matching the job requirement with personality characteristic has recently increased attention. It is
best articulated in John Holland's personality-job fit theory. The theory is based on the notion of
fitness between the personality characteristics and his occupational environment. Holland presents 6
personality types and proposes that the satisfaction and propensity to leave a job depend on the
degree at which individuals successfully match their personalities to a congruent occupational
environment. The following table describes the six types and their personality characteristics &
examples of congruent occupations.
Table Holland's Typology of Personality and Congruent Occupations
Type Personality Characters Congruent Occupations
Realistic: Prefers physical Shy, genuine, persistent, Mechanic, drill/press
activities that require skill, stable, conforming, operator, assembly line
strength, and co-ordination practical worker, farmer
Investigative: Prefers
Biologist, economist,
activities that involve Analytical, original,
mathematician, news
thinking, organizing, and curious, independent
reporter
understanding.
Social: Prefers activities Social worker, teacher,
Sociable, friendly, co-
that involve helping and counselor, clinical
operative, understanding
developing others. psychologist
Conventional: Prefers rule- Accountant, corporate
Conforming, efficient,
regulated, orderly and manager, bank teller, file
unimaginative, inflexible
unambiguous activities clerk
Enterprising: Prefers
verbal activities where Lawyer, real estate agent,
Self-confident, ambitious,
there are opportunities to public relations specialist,
energetic, domineering
influence others and attain small business manager.
power.
Artistic: Prefers ambiguous
Imaginative, disorderly,
and unsystematic activities Painter, musician, writer,
idealistic, emotional,
that allow creative interior decorator
impractical.
expression.
Source: Stephen P. Robbins "Organizational Behaviour"

Stages in Personality Development

The various stages of personality from birth to maturity can be divided into 10 stages. Every
individual passes through these stages. These are:
(i) Stage of Dependence: Every individual starts his life completely dependent on others. A few
individuals never wean out from this independence and always lean on parents or friends or on
someone else.
(ii) Stage of Comfort and Eating: In this stage the chief interest is the physical comfort and food.
A few grow-up with a feeling that comfort is the most important thing in life.
(iii) Stage of Impulsiveness: The parents praise the child when he takes his first step, in the
process of learning walking by himself. But when he tries to walk by himself on the street, his parents
scold him. The child is unable to make out the difference between the two activities and is in a stage of
impulsiveness. He is not able to understand the change from praise to punishment for walking. The
child acts first and thinks next. Many adults who have outgrown childhood still possess the
impulsiveness.
(iv) Show-off Stage: Show-off stage is normal in childhood. But some adults too, maintain this
stage and feel proud in showing-off.
(v) Stage of Low Boiling Point: Some do not like being interrupted and go through life with low
boiling point, losing temper on trifle incidents.
(vi) Stage of Stubbornness: Every child is too small and weak to win by his own strength, but he
could be stubborn and thus corner his parents. If his parents handle him wrongly during this stage, it
may become a permanent habit and he goes through the life with this habit.
(vii) Stage of Inferiority and Gullibility: Some never grow out of their early school stage of
feeling inferior and being gullible. They lack confidence in themselves and consult fortune tellers or
allow superstitions to make their decisions.
(viii) Gang Stage: There are certain group of individuals who form a gang. They want to be the chief
while others remain aloof. Some like to continue still in the childhood gang stage.

- End of Chapter -
LESSON - 7
LEARNING

Learning may be defined as the sum total of behavioral changes resulting from experience at training.
Learning is said to have occurred if there is a change in an individual's behavior. The entire process of
learning is based on understanding and remembering. A more correct definition of learning is any
relatively permanent change in behaviour that occurs as a result of experience.
Principles of Learning
The learning principles which should be taken into account in designing a training programme can be
summarized like this:
(1) The learner should be motivated to learn.
(2) The responses should be meaningfully related to each other and to the motives of the learner in
the situation.
(3) The new responses should be reinforced by some reward or feedback that the response has been
made correctly.
(4) The new responses to be learnt should not be in conflict with old responses. If they do, the
training should provide an opportunity for the old responses to be unlearnt before the new ones are
learnt.
(5) The learner should be an active participant in the learning process.
(6) The learner should be provide opportunities to practice the new responses and allowed some time
to show little improvements, which often precedes marked improvements.
(7) The new responses to be learnt should be broken into learnable units and presented in
appropriate sequence.
(8) Coaching should be available to help the learner to develop the new responses more.
(9) The learning situation should allow for individual differences in the speed of learning, the depth
of learning and should be designed as per individual requirement.
Whole versus Part Learning:
This refers to the amount of the learning content that is presented to the learner. Whether whole
learning or part learning is preferable depends upon the particular situation. Thus, in the
development of learning programmes one should not blindly follow the practice of part or whole
learning but rather that practice should be followed which seems appropriate to a specific situation.
The following factors are important in one or more situations of whole versus part learning:
(1) For the more intelligent subject the whole method of learning should be used.
(2) The advantages of whole learning method increases with practice.
(3) The meaningful material favours the whole method.
(4) Part method of learning requires connecting the separately learnt parts.
(5) Very short and very long durations call for the whole method of learning while in between favours
part learning.
The Learning Process

How do we learn? The above diagram summarizes the learning process. First, learning helps us to
adapt to, and master, our environment. By changing our behaviour to accommodate changing
conditions, we become responsible citizens and productive employees. But learning is built upon
the law of effect, which says that "behaviour is a function of its consequences". Behaviour that is
followed by a favourable consequence tends to be repeated; behaviour followed by an unfavorable
consequence tends not to be repeated. Consequence, in this terminology, refers to "anything a
person considers rewarding (i.e., money, praise, promotions, a smile)". If your boss compliments you
on your sales approach you are likely to repeat that behaviour. Conversely, if you're reprimanded for
your sales approach, you're less likely to repeat it. But the keys to the learning process are the two
theories, or explanations, of how we learn. One is shaping and the other ismodeling.
Shaping: When learning takes place in graduated steps, it gets shaped. Managers shape employees'
behaviours by systematically reinforcing the behaviours through rewards, each successive step that
moves the employee closer to the desired behaviour. Much of our learning has been done by shaping.
When we speak of "learning by mistakes", we are referring to shaping. We try, we fail, and we try
again. Through such series of trial and error, most of us have mastered such skills as riding a bicycle,
performing basic mathematical computations, taking classroom notes, and answering multiple-choice
tests.
Modeling: In addition to shaping, much of what we have learned is the result of observing others and
modeling our behaviour after them. While trial and error is usually a slow learning process, modeling
can produce complex behavioural changes quite rapidly. For instance, most of us, at one time or
another, when having trouble in school or in a particular class, looks around to find someone who
seems to have the system set. Then we observe the person to see what he or she is doing that is
different from our approach. If we find some difference, we then incorporate them into our behaviour
repertoire. If our performance improves (a favourable consequence), we're likely to make a
permanent change in our behaviour to reflect what we've seen work for others. The process is the
same at work as it is in school.
PERCEPTION
Perception can be defined as process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory
impressions (like what they see, hear, feel etc.) to give meaning to environment. However, what they
perceive can be substantially different from objective reality. Perception is important in the study of
organizational behaviour as people's behaviour is based on their perception of what reality is, not on
reality itself. Everyone wears his own 'coloured glasses'. One does not always see what he wants to see
people act as they perceive. Different people perceive things differently. People's perception is
determined by their needs. An individual's perception is more influenced by his social environment
than by his physical environment. He perceives a situation or thinks according to his frame of
reference and attitude, which develops from the socio-economic and cultural factors he has been
exposed to.
Perception is an active process by means of which we select, organise, and assign meaning to the
information we receive from external and internal sources. It is the phase of operations that takes
place after information receiving; basically it refers to the manner in which a person perceives, deeply
understands or intuitively recognizes the universe or environment. Psychologically speaking, it is a
major cognitive input and explanation of behaviour. In fact, behaviour can be an output of one's
perception. Behaviour is not only influenced by perception but also by the environment, psychological
processes like learning and motivation, and personality. However, perception is the basic input for
the behavioural output in an organisation.
The Nature of Perception
It is a primary psychological process along with learning and motivation. Fred Luthans has
presented an organizational behaviour model viz. S O B C, which attempts to synthesis the
cognitive and behaviouristic explanations of human behaviour. According to him, perception is a
cognitive process which involves the organizational participants selecting, organizing and
interpreting the formal organisation. The key for understanding perception is to recognise that it is a
unique interpretation of the situation, not an exact recording of the situation. Thus, perception
provides a very cognitive picture of the world, which can sometimes be different from reality.
Perception is not sensation; it is much more complex. Luthans' observation is relevant in this context.
The perceptual process involves complicated interaction of selection, organization, and
interpretation. Although perception largely depends upon the sense for raw data, the cognitive
process may filter, modify, or completely change this raw data. In fact, the perceptual process
overcomes the sensual process.
Perception and attention may be influenced in several ways by the motive states which predominate
at the respective moments. Information related to our needs and wishes usually influence our
perception. A worker who fearfully expects a suspension order due to his misbehavior to a coworker
may always look at every memo that comes to his section with suspicion. Even if a promotion order
comes he would first take it for suspension order.
A communication that makes us uncomfortable would be subjected to detailed screening. We tend to
see only the aspects of a situation which are consistent with our expectations, assumptions, and
wishes. The jealous mother-in-law may selectively perceive the undesirable traits of her daughter-in-
law while tending not to recognize even the most desirable ones. Her perception is seriously subjected
to her bias. There are perceptual defenses on the part of the mother-in-law.
Similarly, we make perceptual error in the direction of what we want or need to be true. If we need to
see our leader as noble and kind, we resist evidence that he is unkind and cruel. If we mistrust a
person, whatever he does looks suspicious. Our reason and perception are easily subverted to a
justification of what we want to do or believe.
Perceptual Process
Perception is a process consisting of several sub-processes. We can take an input-throughput-output
approach to understand the dynamics of the perceptual process. This approach emphasises that input
is processed and gives output. The stimuli in the environment - subjects, events, or people - can be
considered as the perceptual inputs. The actual transformation of these inputs through the perceptual
mechanisms of selection, organisation, and interpretation can be treated as the throughputs, and the
resultant opinions, feelings, attitudes, etc., which ultimately influence our behaviour, can be viewed
as the perceptual outputs. The whole perceptual process can be presented as follows:

1. Stimuli - The first step in the process of perception is the presence of stimuli or situations which
confront humans. These may be in the form of people, objects, events, information, conversation, etc.
Thus, everything in the setting where events occur or which contribute to the occurrence of events can
be termed as perceptual inputs. Strictly speaking, just the presence of stimulus does not nake it a part
of the perception process. However, the perception process cannot start in the absence of stimuli.
2. Receiving Stimuli- The actual perception process starts with receiving the stimuli or data from
various sources. Most data is received through the sense organs. One sees things, hears them, smells,
tastes, or touches them and learns other aspects of the things. Thus, reception of stimuli is a
physiological aspect of the perception process.
3. Selection of Stimuli - After receiving the stimulus or data, some of it is selected for further
processing while the rest is screened out, because it is not possible for a person to select all stimuli for
processing, which he receives from the environment. Two types of factors affect the selection of
stimuli for processing:external factors or factors related to the stimulus, and internal factors related
to the perceiver. Importantexternal factors are intensity of the stimulus, its size, contrast,
movement, repetition, familiarity, strange characteristics, etc. Such features of the stimulus attract
the attention of the perceiver more than the other stimuli would do. Internal factors are important
for selection of stimuli. There are many internal factors, like the perceiver's self acceptance,
perceiver's own biases etc. Such factors of the perceiver influence his interest or indifference in the
objects being received for perception. Normally, he will select the objects which interest him and will
avoid those which he is indifferent towards.
4. Organisation of Stimuli - After the data has been selected, it is organized in some form, in
order to make sense out of it. Such organization of stimuli may take the forms like - figure-
ground, grouping, simplification, and closure.
People tend to organize information on what is known as the figure-ground principle. This
involves that in perceiving stimuli or phenomena, the tendency is to keep certain phenomena in focus
(called 'figure') and other phenomena in the background. More attention is paid to the phenomena
kept as figure, and less attention to phenomena kept in the background. For example, while reading a
book, the letters printed are treated as 'figure' while the page on which the letters have been printed
as taken as 'ground'. The perception may change if certain stimuli are changed from figure to ground.
For example, in certain organizations, good performance (a 'figure' for promotion in normal case)
may be taken as 'background' and maintaining good relations with boss for promotion may become
the 'ground'.
In grouping, the perceiver groups various stimuli on the basis of their similarity or proximity. Thus,
all stimuli grouped together are likely to be perceived as having same or similar characteristics. For
example, all the workers may be perceived to have same opinions about the management because of
grouping on the basis of similarity, or all the persons coming from the same place may be perceived
as having same characteristics because of grouping on the basis of proximity.
Whenever people are overloaded with information, they try to simplify it to make it more meaningful
and understandable. In the process of simplification, the perceiver subtracts is salient information
and concentrates on important one. Simplification makes things more understandable because the
perceiver has been able to reduce the complexity by eliminating some of the things lesser important.
When faced with incomplete information people fill up the gaps themselves to make the information
meaningful. Such closure or filling-up of gaps in information may be done on the basis of past
experience, past data, or hunches. For example, in many advertisements, alphabets are written by
putting electric bulbs indicating the shape of the concerned alphabets but as broken lines. In such
cases, the readers tend to fill up the gap in between the bulbs and are able to make meaning out of the
arrangement.
5. Interpretation - The perceptual inputs that have been organized will have to be interpreted by
the perceiver so that he can sense and extract some meaning from what is going on in the situation.
People interpret the meaning of what they have selectively perceived and organized as per their own
assumptions of people, things, and situations. They also become judgmental and tend to interpret the
things as good/bad, beautiful/ugly, and so on, which are quite relative terms. In such a process, there
are changes of misinterpretation. Interpretation of stimuli is affected by characteristics of stimuli,
situations under which perception takes place, and characteristics of the perceiver. These factors also
affect the total perception process. For example, as discussed earlier, the characteristics of stimuli
affect their selection for perception. At the same time, characteristics of the stimuli may affect the
interpretation also. Similarly, the physical, social and organizational setting in which an object is
perceived also affect the interpretation.
6. Action - The last phase of the perceptual process is that of acting in relation to what has been
perceived. This is the output aspect of the perceptual process. The action may be covert of
overt. Covert action may be in the form of change in attitudes, opinions, feelings, values, and
impression formation resulting from the perceptual inputs and throughputs. The overt action may
be in the form of behaviour easily visible.
Factors influencing perception
A number of factors operate to shape and sometimes distort perception. These factors can reside in
the perceiver, in the object or target being perceived, or in context of the situation in which the
perception is being made.
- The Perceiver:
A person tries to interpret what he or she sees, and that interpretation is heavily influenced
by personal characteristics of the individual perceiver. Among the more relevant personal
characteristics effecting the individual's perception are his attitudes, motives, interests, past
experience, and expectations. For example, a boss who is insecure perceives a subordinate's efforts to
do an outstanding job as a threat to his own position. This personal insecurity of the boss can transfer
to a perception that others are "out to get my job", regardless of the intention of the subordinate.
Likewise, people who are devious are prone to see others as also devious. Expectations can distort
one's perceptions in that one would see what one expects to see.
- The Target:
Characteristics of the object or target that is being observed can effect what is perceived. Loved people
are more likely to be noticed than are frightful ones. Same is the case with extremely attractive or
unattractive individuals. Because targets are not looked at in isolation, the relationship of a target to
its background influences perceptions, as does one's tendency to group close things and similar things
together.
- Needs and Desires:
The needs and motives of people play a vital role in perception. Perception of a frustrated individual
would be entirely different from that of a happy person. Some researchers, like Atkinson, have
further pointed out that when pictures of individuals in social settings are shown to them, they
perceive them in different ways. People at different levels of needs and desires perceive the same
thing differently. There is a strong likelihood of perceiving job-threatening comments if you are
already feeling insecure about your job. Power seekers are more likely to notice power related stimuli.
Socially oriented individuals pay attention to interpersonal stimuli. Hence, expectancy, motives, and
interests also affect people's perceptions. People are likely to notice stimuli relevant to their current
active motives and compatible with major personality characteristics.
- Personality:
Individual personality is another internal factor that has a profound influence on perceived behavior.
It is a trait saying that optimistic people perceive things in favourable ways, pessimistic beings in
negative ways. Mass contends that between these two extremes there exists a category that can see
things more accurately and objectively. Individuals who have perceptive abilities can function
effectively without being defensive about their limitations of personality.
- Mental Set:
Mental set is the tendency one has to react in a certain way to a given situation. This has been said
byMassie and Douglas. Suppose you are a contestant in a race and are positioning yourself in your
starting blocks as you hear the preparatory commands 'Get ready, Get set'. When you hear the
command, 'Go', you take off at once, since you are already set and mentally ready for this command.
It is a very simple example of mental set. In organizational setting, people have a tendency to perceive
others on the basis of their mental set which may cause incorrect perceptions.
- Attribution:
Attribution refers to how a person tries to understand the behaviour or events by interpreting them as
caused by certain factors. Individuals perceive the information around them and learn to behave
accordingly, and think of theirs and others' behaviours as caused by environmental factors. It has
been observed that different persons have different views about why they behave in particular ways.
This may affect the resultant decisions. For example, if the failure of subordinate is perceived to be
caused by external factors on which the subordinate has no control, the manager may continue to
treat that subordinate as capable. But in case the manager perceives that failure of the subordinate
was because of his own lack of effort or ability, he may treat the subordinate as ineffective and
irresponsible. Persons may attribute their failures to external factors and defend their ego. For
example, if a person has been by-passed for promotion, he may attribute the reason of him being by-
passed to the promoted person's closeness with high-ups.
- First Impression:
It is very common that people evaluate others on the basis of first impression. The evaluation based
on first impression may be correct if it is based on adequate and significant evidence. However, first
impression evaluation is usually not based on adequate information, hence not a true reflection of the
person being perceived. Continuing to evaluate people on the basis of their first impressions alone is
incorrect. Perceptions formed by first impression can be corrected by more frequent interactions with
that person, and observation over longer time.
- Halo Effect:
The term halo effect was first used in 1920 to describe a process in which a favorable or
unfavourablegeneral impression was used by judges to evaluate several specific traits of the accused.
The 'halo' in such a case serves as a screen, keeping the perceiver away from actually seeing the trait
he is judging. The halo error is very similar to 'stereotyping' (which is explain next) except that in
stereotyping the person is perceived according to a single category he belongs to, whereas under the
halo effect the person is perceived on the basis of one trait or event. In organizations, halo effect is
more reflected in performance appraisals, where the distortion exists because it is rather influenced
by the employee's one or two outstandingly good (or bad) events, and the supervisor evaluates the
entire performance influenced by only those few events. Bruner and Tagiuri note three conditions
where the halo effect is more marked: (1) when the traits to be perceived are unclear in behavioural
expression; (2) when the traits are not frequently used by the perceiver; and (3) when the traits have
moral implications.

Please use headphones

- Stereotype:
The word stereotype was first used by Walter Lipmann in 1922 to describe 'bias' in perceiving
others. This means that the perceiver sees the other person on the basis of a single type or class or
group or category he/she belongs to. Besides this categorization, a stereotype also implies general
agreement on the attributed traits and the existence of a discrepancy between attributed traits and
actual traits. Thus stereotype may attribute favourable or unfavourable traits to the
type/group/category of the person being perceived. There are certain stereotyped groups, such as,
managers, supervisors, workers, union leaders, etc. In fact, Bruner and Perlmutter have indicated
that there is an international stereotyping for businessmen and teachers; there is consensus about the
traits that the members of these categories (businessmen and teachers) possess. Thus a person
belonging to these groups may be perceived having those traits, though actually he may not have
those traits.
- Size:
The bigger the size of the perceived stimulus, the higher is the probability that it is perceived. Size of
stimulus establishes dominance and overrides other things, thereby enhancing the perceptual
selection. For example, the maintenance engineer may pay more attention to a big machine than to a
smaller one, even though the small machine costs the same as the big machine. To take another
example, in advertising, a full-page spread is more attention-arresting than a few lines in some corner
of the newspaper.
- Intensity:
Intensity accentuates and functions to increase the chances of perceptual selection. For instance, if
the messages are bright and loud then they attract people; underlining a sentence calls for a more
attention to it and people generally pay more attention to italics also. The greater the intensity of a
stimulus, the more likely it will be noticed. An intense stimulus has more power to push itself through
our selection filters than does a weaker stimulus. For example, a shout is more attention-getting than
a normal speaking voice. The essence of intensity principle is that, a loud noise, strong odour, or
bright light will be noticed more than a soft sound, weak odour, or dim light. But one question arises:
if intensity is so important, why does a student's whisper in classroom get attention by a teacher. The
answer lies in the fact that a whisper often contrasts with the rest of the noisy environment. The
principle that "the higher the intensity of external stimulus, the greater will it be perceived" is
sometimes invalid. For example, by speaking loudly, the supervisor may be actually turning the
subordinate off instead of gaining his attention. The intensity factor has to be considered in the light
of the situation i.e. frame of reference. Intensity can be referred to as the "contrast" from the
background (say, visual, auditory).
- Frequency:
The frequency principle states that a repeated external stimulus is more attention-gaining than a
single one. A stimulus that is repeated has a better chance of passing through our perceptual filter.
Repetition increases our sensitivity or alertness to the stimulus. Thus the greater the frequency with
which a sensory stimulus is presented, the greater the chances we select it for attention. Repetition is
one of the most frequently used techniques in advertising and is the most common way of getting our
attention. Repetition aids in increasing the awareness that the stimulus exists in the crowded
background. But it has certain limitations too. Repeating confusing information would increase the
confusion. Secondly, if stimulus is presented an excessive number of times you may get irritated and
choose to filter it out completely. And finally, thoughfrequency of stimulus increases the probability
of selection of stimulus by the receivers, but it does not increase the accuracy of how the information
is being interpreted. Frequency simply results in making people aware of the stimulus.
- Status:
Perception is also influenced by the status of the person being perceived. For example, when we are
introduced to the divisional manager and foreman, we are likely to remember the name of the
divisional manager than the name of the foreman. We are more likely to register what the person with
higher status says than what the person with lesser social status speaks.
Perceptual Distortion
It is important to consider what distorts or twists our perception and judgment of a thing or person or
event. Following are some of the distorting factors:
(1) An individual may be influenced by other factors, when the factor he is looking for cannot be
identified. For example, when a person has no way to know the quality of a product, his perception
about the quality may be influenced by the colour or packaging of the product.
(2) When the person is finding it difficult to make a perceptual judgment, he/she may respond to
irrelevant factors to arrive at the judgment. For example, while interviewing a candidate, the
interviewer may choose to get biased by the physical traits (height, complexion etc.) of the candidate.
(3) For making an abstract or intellectual judgment, one may be influenced by the emotional factors,
that is, things that seem favourable or emotionally pleasing may be perceived as correct.
(4) The person may not be able to identify all the factors on which his judgment is based, and may
conclude just on the basis of few.
Perception Selection
All of us differ in terms of our needs, motives, interests, and desires. We tend to perceive what is in
accordance with our needs, motives, and interests. Sometimes, we distort things so that they fit in
with what we want. If a man feels very threatened or insecure, everything around him will appear to
be a potential source of danger. People are more likely to pay attention to those aspects of their
environment which they anticipate or expect, rather than those they do not anticipate or expect. And
people tend to expect or anticipate what they are familiar with.
Take for example, a doctor, a mechanic, and a policeman when are automobile accident happens in
front of them. Because of their individual fields of experience, each one would notice different things
about the accident - things that will stand out for each. The doctor will check the condition of the
people involved in the accident, whether they need medical help and ambulance. The mechanic will
notice the condition of the car, how much and what type of damage has occurred. The policeman
might try to see who violated the traffic laws and who was responsible for the accident. Each would
select from the total event those aspects which he thinks are significant. Our similarity with
something helps us perceive it more readily than other things. We recognize things by what
experiences we have had with them and we take a lifetime of past learning to any perception.
Projection Mechanism
Projection technique is a defensive mechanism available to a person, in which he relieves his feelings
of failure by projecting blame onto someone or something else. Projection mechanism also influences
the perceptual process. The emotional state of the perceiver is influenced to a great extent by the
perception of others.
Fears, in the study of projection, concluded that people high in traits like obstinacy and disorder,
tended to rate others much higher on these traits, than those who are low on these undesirable
characteristics. The tendency to project was particularly more among subjects who had lesser insight
into their own personalities. The perceptual defenses offer an excellent work and when the perceiver
is confronted with inconsistent facts, he is able to distort that data in such a way as to eliminate the
inconsistency.
Characteristics of Perceiver
A thought that seems to tie together many current findings is the tendency to see oneself as the
'normal person' when one perceives others.
Knowing oneself makes it easier to perceive others accurately. It has been seen that if one is aware of
his personal characteristics and shortcomings, he makes fewer errors in perceiving others.
One's own characteristics affect the characteristics one is likely to see in others. The extent of one's
own sociability influences to a great extent the importance one gives to the sociability of other people.
The person with an authoritarian tendency is more likely to view others in terms of powers and is less
sensitive to the personality characteristics of other people.
If the perceiver accepts himself, this widens his range of vision in seeing others. He can look at them
and is less likely to be negative or critical. One's ability to perceive others accurately depends on how
sensitive one is to the difference among people and also to the norms for judging them.
The characteristics of persons being perceived also bring some problems in perception; it is possible
to demonstrate that the status of the person perceived is a variable influencing judgment about his
behaviour.
In an administrative situation, 'status' is one aspect and the 'role' provides another. For example, the
remarks of Mr. A in sales department are perceived differently from those of Mr. B in purchasing
department, though both of them may be saying the same thing.
Another factor influencing perception is the 'visibility'. We are more accurate in judging people who
like us than people who dislike us. Various forms of individual expressions such as talking,
composing, and singing are characterised differently with different individuals. There is not much of
co-operation between the style, traits and other aspects of personality.
VALUES
Values represent basic convictions that "a specific mode of context or end-state of existence is
personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state existence".
Values contain a judgment element in that they carry an individual idea as to what is right, good, or
desirable. Values have both content and intensity attributes. The content attribute says that a mode of
conduct or end state of existence is important. The intensity attribute specifies how important it is. A
ranking of individual values according to their relative importance is called a value system. All of us
have a hierarchy of values that forms our value system. This system is identified by the relative
importance we assign to such values as freedom, pleasure, self-respect, honesty, obedience, equality,
and so on.
Importance of Values
Values are important to the study of organizational behaviour because they lay the foundation to the
understanding of the attitudes and motivation of people, and because they influence our perception.
Individuals become part of an organization with preconceived notions of what "ought to be" and what
"ought not to be". Values generally influence attitudes and behaviour.
Sources of our Value Systems
The values we hold are essentially established in our early years of life from parents, teachers, friends
and others around us. One's early ideas of what is right and wrong are probably formulated from the
views expressed by one's parents. Think about your early views on such topics as education, sex, and
politics. For the most part, they were the same as those expressed by your parents. As you grew up,
and were exposed to other value systems, you may have altered a number of your values. For
example, in high school, if you desired to be a member of a social club whose values included the
conviction that "every person should carry a knife," there is a good probability that you changed your
'value system' to align with members of the club, even if it meant rejecting your parents value that
"only hoodlums carry knives, and hoodlums are bad".
Interestingly, values are relatively stable and enduring. This has been explained as a result of the way
in which they are originally learned. As children, we are told that a certain behaviour or outcome is
always desirable or always undesirable. There are no grey areas. We were probably told, for example,
that we should be honest and responsible. We were not taught to be just a little bit honest or a little
bit responsible. It is the absolute of "black-or-white" learning of values that more or less assure their
stability and endurance.
The process of questioning our values, of course, may result in a change. We may decide that these
underlying convictions are not acceptable to us anymore. More often, our questioning merely acts to
reinforce the values we hold.
Values versus Attitudes
Attitudes represent our beliefs about a specific object or situation, while values involve a single
conviction which guides our actions and judgments across specific objects and situations extending
beyond immediate goals to more ultimate states of existence. Unlike attitudes, values are imperative
to action, and do not merely form a belief about the preferable but also a preference for the
preferable. Values stand in relation to some social or cultural standards or norms, while attitudes are
largely personal experiences. Thus, as defined above, values relate to standards or yardsticks to guide
actions, attitudes, evaluations and justifications of self and others.
Values and Motivation
Values can determine motivation in at least two ways. First, they exert impact on the general
activities which an individual may find appealing. Second, they also exert impact on individual's
motivation to accomplish specific outcomes such as money, promotion and prestige.
The values which individuals assign to varied organizational outcomes may strongly influence their
motivation. Thus, the individuals who assign a high value to outcomes like monetary rewards and
promotion opportunities, are likely to be highly motivated in situations where they believe that such
outcomes are determined by effective performance. On the other hand, if they assign a high value to
opportunities, friendship, and pleasant working conditions, they are not likely to be so much
motivated by monetary rewards and promotional opportunities. This implies that managers must
take into account individual differences in values while attempting to motivate their employees.
Types of Values
There are six types of values as identified by Allport, Vernon and Lindsey. These are:
(1) Theoretical (discovery of truth through a critical and rational approach);
(2) Economic (useful and practical);
(3) Aesthetic (form and harmony);
(4) Social (love of people);
(5) Political (acquisition of power and influence); and
(6) Religious (unity of experience and understanding of the cosmos as a whole).
It has been found that individuals engaged different occupations, assign divergent importance to
these six values.
Levels of Values
Graves marks seven levels of values ranging from the lowest (reactive) to the highest (existential).
These values include the following:
1. Reactive: Unaware of oneself and others as human beings; react to basic physiological needs.
2. Tribalistic: High degree of dependence; strongly influenced by tradition and the power exercised
by authority figures; wants strong directive leadership.
3. Egocentrism: Belief in rugged individualism; aggressive and selfish; responds primarily to
power; desires individual responsibilities; wants to work as a loner in an entrepreneurial style.
4. Conformity: Low tolerance for ambiguity; difficulty in accepting people with divergent values;
desires that others accept his values.
5. Manipulative: Strives to accomplish goals by manipulating things and people; materialistic;
seeks status and recognition actively.
6. Socio-centric: Desires to be liked and get along with others than getting ahead; dislikes
materialism, manipulation and conformity; seeks primarily the social relationships which a job
provides.
7. Existential: High tolerance for ambiguity and people with divergent values; outspoken on
inflexible systems, restrictive policies, status symbols and arbitrary use of authority; seeks full
expression of growth and self-fulfillment needs through work.
Reactive values are rarely obtained in work organizations and merely relate to newborn babies.
Traditionally, managers were marked by conformity and manipulative values. At present, they are
moving towards socio-centric and existential values. They are giving increasing stress on
improvement of quality of life rather than material quantity of life, and on shared decision-making by
all participants in the organization rather than its concentration in managerial positions.
The above classification of values also facilitates an understanding as to why people have divergent
attitudes and reveal differing patterns of behaviours. While people with tribalistic values are most
likely to accept authority, those equipped with existential values are least likely to do so. Likewise,
individuals possessing conformity values may focus on achievement, whereas those having socio-
centric values may consider it undesirable. Thus, as values influence behaviours, an understanding of
people's value types may help in explaining and predicting their behaviours. This knowledge can also
help in improving the value-job fit with a view to enhancing employee performance and satisfaction.
Some organizations have started matching values and work environments. For example, Texas
Instruments has evolved a programme to diagnose value types and match them adequately with
proper work environments. It is believed that the variety of work which needs to be performed in the
organisation is wide enough to accommodate divergent types of work personalities in such a way that
the individual and organizational goals are fused. However, such efforts are rare in industry.
Rokeach Value Survey
Milton Rokeach created Rokeach Value Survey (RVS), which consists of two sets of values, with each
set containing 18 individual value items. One set called terminal values, relate to desirable end-states
of existences. These are the goals that a person would like to achieve during his life-time. The other
set calledinstrumental values refers to preferable modes of behaviour, or means of achieving the
terminal values. Following table gives common examples for each of the sets:
Terminal and Instrumental Values in Rokeach Value Survey
Terminal Values Instrumental Values

A comfortable life (a prosperous life) Ambitions (hard-working, aspiring)

An exciting life (a stimulating, active life) Broadminded (open-minded)

A sense of accomplishment (lasting

Capable (competent, effective)
contribution)

A world at peace (free of war and conflict) Cheerful (lighthearted, joyful)

A world of beauty (beauty of nature and the Equality (brotherhood, equal opportunity for
arts) all)

Family security (taking care of loved ones) Forgiving (willing to pardon others)

Freedom (independence, free choice) Helpful (working for the welfare of others)

Happiness (Contentedness) Honest (sincere, truthful)

Inner harmony (freedom from inner conflict) Imaginative (daring creative)

Mature love (sexual and spiritual intimacy) Independent (self-reliant, self-sufficient)

National security (protection from attack) Intellectual (intelligent, reflective)

Pleasure (an enjoyable, leisurely life) Logical (consistent, rational)

Salvation (saved, eternal life) Loving (affectionate, tender)

Self-respect (self-esteem) Obedient (dutiful, respectful)

Social recognition (respect, admiration) Polite (courteous, well-mannered)

True friendship (close companionship) Responsible (dependable, reliable)

Wisdom (a mature understanding of life) Self-controlled (restrained, self-disciplined)

Source: M. Rokeach, the Nature of Human Values (New York: The Free Press, 1973)

- End of Chapter -

LESSON - 8
ATTITUDES

Attitude is a bent of mind or predisposition to certain actions. It is a process by which the individuals
learn as a result of experience to orient themselves towards objectives and goals. Attitude is a detailed
direction of human behaviour. It is a state of sensitiveness and proneness to act.
Allport defines attitude as a "mental and neural state to readiness organised through experience,
exerting a dynamic influence upon the individual's response to all situations and objects with which it
is related".
According to Bernard, "Social attitudes are individual attitudes directed towards social objects and
individual attitudes strongly inter-conditioned by collective or group contacts".
Allport defines common attitudes as "those attitudes which are uniform owing to the operation of
similar environment and cultural conditions upon similarly constituted beings". Physical
environment and culture are responsible for the formation of common attitudes.
A person can have thousands of attitudes, but organizational behaviour focuses on very limited
number of job-related attitudes. These include job-satisfaction, job-involvement, and organizational
commitment. Job satisfaction refers to an individual's general attitude toward his or her job. A
person with a high level of job satisfaction holds positive attitudes toward the job, while a person who
is dissatisfied with his or her job holds negative attitudes towards the job. When people speak
of employee attitudes, more often they mean job satisfaction. In fact, the two terms are frequently
used inter changeably.
Thus, attitudes are evaluated statements - either favourable or unfavourable - concerning objects,
people or events. They reflect how one feels about something. Attitudes are the feelings and beliefs
that largely determine how employees will perceive their environment. As managers of organizational
behaviour, we are vitally interested in the nature of the attitudes of our employees towards their
work, the organisation and their careers. Negative employee attitudes are a likely cause of
deteriorating conditions in an organisation. When attitudes decline, they may result in wildcat
strikes, work slowdowns, absenteeism, and employee turnover. They may also be a part of grievances,
low performance, poor product quality, employee theft and disciplinary problems.
Attitude, Opinion and Belief
There are certain other terms, such as opinion and belief, which are used quite closely with attitudes.
However, there is a basic difference in these terms. An opinion is generally the expression of one's
judgment of a particular set of facts, an evaluation of the circumstances presented to
him. Thurston defines opinions as "expressions of attitudes". However Rotasa observes that an
opinion is a response to a specifically limited stimulus, but the response is certainly influenced by the
predisposition with which the individual is operating, that is, the attitude structure. Undoubtedly,
attitudes are basic to opinions, as well as to many other aspects of behaviour. Although attitudes tend
to be generalised predispositions to react in some way towards objects or concepts, opinions tend to
be focused on more specific aspects of the object or the concept.
McCormick and Tiffin observe that the measurement of attitudes is generally based on the
expressions of opinions. But, we should distinguish between attitude scale, which, like a thermometer
or barometer, reflects the generalized level of individual's attitudes towards some object or concept,
and opinion surveys, which typically are used to elicit the opinions of people toward specific aspects
of, for example, their work situation.
A difference can also be made between attitude and belief. A belief is an enduring organisation of
perceptions and cognitions about some aspects of individual's world. Thus, belief is a hypothesis
concerning the nature of objects, more particularly concerning one's judgment of the probability
regarding their nature. In this sense, belief is the cognitive component of attitude which reflects the
manner in which an object is perceived. Kolasa observes that beliefs are stronger than opinions; we
hold them more firmly than we do the more changeable evaluations of minor or transitory events
represented by opinions. Beliefs are less affected by the pro or con positions fundamental in attitudes
than are opinions, but all three aspects may influence the others.
The difference between attitudes, opinions, and beliefs exist on conceptual basis. Most researchers
believe that these three terms are so closely tied that it is difficult to separate them except on a limited
conceptual basis. In the literature, often, there is considerable amount of overlapping in these three
terms. Most psychologists, however, believe that attitudes are more fundamental to human behaviour
than are the related aspects - opinions and beliefs. For this reason, more attempts have been made to
analyse attitudes as compared to the other two.
Attitudes and Behaviour
As discussed earlier, individual's behaviour is not a simple and direct stimulus-response relationship.
Rather, it is affected by the individual concerned, as is explained by the S-O-B model. The work
situation is interpreted by the individual, and attitudes play an important part in the way the situation
is interpreted. Only after individual's interpretation and comparison does the response occur. This
means that response expected of a purely objective and rational consideration of the work situation
and its characteristics may not be the actual response of the individual. His response depends
completely on how he interprets the situation and on his own personal attitudes towards the
situation. Obviously attitudes are an important consideration because of their central position in the
process transforming work requirements into effort.
Attitudes have been thought as serving four functions, thereby affecting the behaviour:
1) Utilitarian or Instrumental: Attitudes serve as a means to reach a desired goal or to avoid an
undesired one. Instrumental attitudes are aroused by the activation of a need or cues that are
associated with the attitude object, and arouse favourable or unfavourable feelings.
2) Ego-defensive: The ego-defensive function of attitudes acknowledges the importance of
psychological thought. Attitudes may be required and maintained to protect the person from facing
threats in the external world or from becoming aware of his own unacceptable impulses. Ego-
defensive attitudes may be aroused by internal or external threat, frustrating events, appeals, or to
built-up or repressed impulses, and suggestions by authoritarian sources. The attitudes influence
behaviour by affecting perception of the situation accordingly.
3) Value Orientation: The value-orientation function takes into account attitudes that are held
because they express a person's values or enhance his self-identity. These attitudes arise by
conditions that threaten the self-concept, appeals to reassert the person's self-image, or by cues that
engage the person's values and make them unique to him.
4) Knowledge: The knowledge function of attitudes is based on a person's need to maintain a
stable, organised and meaningful structure of the world. Attitudes that provide a standard against
which a person evaluates aspects of his world, serve the knowledge function too.
These functions of attitudes affect the individual's way of interpreting the information coming to him.
Since attitudes intervene between work requirements and work responses, information about how
people feel about their jobs can be quite useful in prediction about work response. Thus these types of
attitudes can portray areas of investigation for making the individual and the organisation more
compatible.
Attitude Formation
Attitudes are a result of beliefs. If the employees believe that their current job will provide them with
the experience and training necessary to be promoted, the resulting job attitude may be positive, and
as a result, the employee will want to stay with the organisation and be as productive as possible. The
determinants of a person's attitudes are part experience, available information, generalistion,
association, family, peer group, and society. Most of the attitudes are formed by the mixture of these
determinants.
1. Past Experience: People come to believe, or not believe, things on the basis of what they have
experienced in the past. If everyone who has held job 'A' has been promoted within six months,
current job 'A' holders are likely to believe that they also will be promoted within six months.
2. Available Information: If employees hear from the person's department that job 'A' holders are
going to be promoted rapidly, this will influence what they believe.
3. Generalization: These come from similar events or situations. If no one who has held closely
related job B has ever been promoted, it may lead job 'A' holders to believe that they will not be
promoted either.
4. Association: People are highly influenced by the major groups of associations to which they
belong. Our geographic region, religion, educational background, race, sex, age, and income-class, all
strongly influence our attitudes. The influence of groups on the attitudes of an individual is inversely
proportional to the distance of the group from the individual.
5. Family: Family exerts influence on the initial core of attitudes held by an individual. Individuals
develop certain attitudes from their family members - parents, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts etc. The
family characteristics influence the individual's early attitude patterns and controls to which he is
initially exposed. Family is primary to the group to which an individual belongs. According
to Newcomb and Svehlathere have been found high correlation between parents and children
with respect to attitudes in many specific areas. This investigation has found a high degree of
relationship between parents and children in attitudes than they found between children and their
peers. They also empirically observed low correlation between attitudes of the children and their
teachers.
6. Peer Groups: As people of adulthood, they increasingly rely on their peer groups for approval
attitude. How others judge an individual largely determines his self-image and approval seeking
behaviour. "We often seek out others who share attitudes similar to our own, or else we change our
attitudes to conform to the attitudes of those in the group (fraternity, dorm, club, class) whose
approval is important to us".
7. Society: Social class and religious affiliation also play a vital role in forming attitudes of an
individual. The culture, language and the structure of society, all provide an individual with the
boundaries of his initial attitudes. At the very early age an individual is taught that certain attitudes
are acceptable and certain others are not acceptable in the society. For instance, the attitudes of
Russians toward Communism are radically different from those held by an average American. That is
to say, what seem to be appropriate in one individual's culture and society may be totally
unacceptable to another culture.
Sources of Attitudes
Attitudes, like values, are acquired from parents, teachers, and peer group members. In our early
years, we begin modeling those we admire, respect, or maybe even fear. We observe the way family
and friends behave and shape our attitudes and behavior to align with theirs. People imitate the
attitudes of popular individuals or those they admire and respect. In organizations, attitudes are
important because they affect job behaviour. If workers believe, for example, that supervisors,
auditors, bosses, and time-and-motion engineers are all in conspiracy to make employees work
harder for the same or less money, then it makes sense to try to understand how these attitudes were
formed, their relationship to actual job behaviour, and how they can be made more favourable.
STATUS
Keith Davis said, "Status is the social rank of a person in a group". It is a mark of the amount of
recognition, honour, and acceptance given to a person. Within groups, differences in status
apparently have been recognised ever since civilization began. Wherever people gather into groups,
status distinctions are likely to arise, because they enable people to affirm the different characteristics
and abilities of group members.
Individuals are bound together in status systems or status hierarchies, which define their rank
relative to others in the group. If they become seriously upset over their status, they are said to
feel status anxiety.
Loss of status, sometimes called "losing face", is a serious event for a typical person. People, therefore,
become quite responsible in order to protect and develop their status. One of management
pioneers, Chester Barnard stated, "The desire for improvement of status and especially the desire
to protect status appears to be the basis of a sense of general responsibility".
Since status is important to people, they will work hard to earn it. If it can be tied to actions that
further the company's goals, then employees are strongly motivated to support their company.
Case: A laundry manager formerly gave negative attention and reprimanded the workers whom he
found idle, even when they had finished their work and were waiting for more from another worker.
He wanted them to help other workers, but he found that his approach simply caused them to work
more slowly. Upon re-examining his approach, he decided to try to build the status of his "idle"
employees who finished their work ahead of others. He visited them in a friendly way as he walked
through his shop. He permitted them to go to any other work station to talk and make visits or to get
soft drinks for themselves or others. The slow workers began to work faster to achieve this status, and
the fast workers improved in order to preserve their relative position. As the fast workers visited other
work stations, they developed friendships and did much informal training and helping of the slow
workers. The manager later commented, "I am amazed by the changed attitudes of the workers and
their increased productivity".
Significance of Status
Status has importance in organizational settings. There are six factors indicating the significance of
status in industry:
(1) As in society, industry has a normative structure which forms the mudsill of a status structure;
(2) Industry has a highly functionally differentiated structure which strengthens status distinctions;
(3) Positions having complex functions and greater authority are assigned higher prestige or status;
(4) Status distinctions legitimise and validate a social order, providing it justification;
(5) Status distinctions facilitate organizational effectiveness and communication; and
(6) Status structure integrate organizations into the broader society.
The significance of status indicates that people work more effectively if higher status individuals
originate action of lower status ones. It shows that if lower status personnel initiate action for higher
status ones, there arises a conflict between formal and informal status systems. In an study, in a
restaurant, conflict arose because the low status servers were initiating action for high status chefs
(i.e. waitresses were passing customers' orders on to countermen). By introducing an aluminum
spindle to which the orders could be hooked, a buffer was created between the waitresses and the
chefs. This arrangement provided opportunity to the counterman for initiating action on orders.
Likewise, in the kitchen, the chefs (high status) provided food supplies to supply men (low status).
This represented an example of low-skilled people initiating action upon the high-skilled. It was
noted that the conflict was reduced when the supply men were called out by the chefs when the order
was ready to be served. This procedure reversed the initiating process. Similar to the above, several
procedural changes consistent with the accepted status hierarchy were introduced in the social
structure of the restaurant which markedly improved worker relations and effectiveness.
It is important for group members to perceive that the status hierarchy is equitable. Perception of
inequity among members gives rise to disequilibrium. If people visualize that there exists an inequity
between perceived ranking of an individual and the status symbols, they experience status
incongruence. For example, if a supervisor earns less than his or her subordinates or if lower-
ranking persons are provided more desirable office location, it gives rise to status incongruence
among the higher-status individuals.
Status Organization
As the status system in organization setting is largely based on technical specialization, continuous
changes in specializations cause continuous changes (readjustments) in the status system. In other
words, it means that the requisites of status situations are continuously changing. There is adequate
evidence that technological and organizational changes have marked impact on the status structure.
For example, changes in the technology of cloth making changed the entire status structure of a
factory.
Moreover, the organizational and technological changes promote increased vertical occupational
mobility and thus, enhanced status mobility. The changes in occupational and status mobility are
more the function of the stage of technological growth than that of the social class people. In fact, the
white-collar workers have more opportunity for mobility than the manual workers.
There is multiplicity of status structures. The employees have as many status systems as they have
areas of participation (i.e., the formal job structure, the labour union etc.) At a typical plant level,
there exist four types of social participation: the isolation pattern, the local pattern,
cosmopolitan and marginal.
The isolated pattern views the entire status situation as unimportant and sometimes even immoral,
and the localities tend to preserve the particularistic status system; the cosmopolites are frequently
upwardly mobile; the unsuccessful marginal people are unable to reconcile conflicting status
demands of different groups, while the successful marginal people are able to perceive the status
problems of different groups.
The congruence and dissonance of status structures are important here. A plant marked by
widespread destructive conflicts lacks convergence in status structures. In a situation of status
dissonance, an employee cannot seek recognition from both the union and the management. If he
selects one route, it qualifies him for status in one area and disqualifies him for status in the other.
The problems ofstatus dissonance and status anxiety arise in less defined (ambiguous)
situations. For example, during an organizing campaign and allied situations, many employees have
status anxiety because they cannot reconcile demands streaming from conflicting status groups. In
general, status anxiety stems from structural inconsistencies among the different systems in which
employees participate, their expectations and mobility experiences.
Status Organization Determinants
The assignment of status to individuals or to groups in organizations is determined by normative
patterns of a society and follows a predictable pattern. The evaluation of function performed is the
most significant factor that determines status organisation. Moreover, factors which determine status
in the community or wider society (that is, age and sex) also operate in organizations. Finally, a status
organisation is also a function of performance. Thus, individuals or groups approximating ideal
interpersonal or occupational role performance are assigned highest status.
Social class is a general index of social status indicating in a crude way the rank of an individual in
varied contexts. There is high correlation between social class level and occupation which shows
significance of occupation for general ranking in industrial society. The earning power and life style of
occupation determine general social status in the broader community. Different occupations
themselves have a varied prestige hierarchy of their own in a society. Perhaps, different groups
provide different rankings to jobs. Thus, government officials, professionals, entrepreneurs,
managers, skilled workers, and laborers may have varied ranks in different groups.
There exists a sexual division of labor with status distinction in society. With few exceptions, in a
traditional society, occupations held by women had a lower status. Women have gradually penetrated
the occupational structure at different prestige levels in special occupations including teaching,
nursing and social work. There is occurring sex break down for major occupational groups in
industrially advanced countries. Women are being employed as welfare officers, librarians, and office
machine operators. Notwithstanding the women's movement, legal compulsion and changing values,
there is very little evidence that sexual segregation of work has broken down to any marked extent.
The age and seniority form basic factors underlying status hierarchy; old workers have been given
more prestige because of skills acquired by them. Age and length of service are also given recognition
formally. Thus, older people are given watches, awards and testimonials as appreciation tokens.
However, the prestige is being undermined because of automation. In certain societies, ethnicity has
been a determinant of status in industry. However, there is a breakdown of ethnic and racial job
statuses in recent times.
Problems of Status
There is no denying in the fact that status system performs some useful functions for the
organizations. But at the same time it has its own limitations also. The problems of status can be
discussed under the following heads.
1. Social Distance: One important negative feature of status is the social distance that is
emphasized by the status system of the organization. Sometimes status distinctions may be great or
be overemphasized to the point that active cooperation is reduced. Overemphasis on status
distinctions may also hamper authoritative communication among organizational members. If the
organizational status is overemphasized and relatively few strata exist, impediments to
communication are likely to develop. The high offices will become insulated from other lower
counterparts. Social distance will become greater because of status system. The top authority might
come to live lonely in isolation. Many of the present day organizations face this problem of social
distance that arises on account of status system.
2. Excessive Status Symbols: Symbols of status are very important but if status is permitted to
become an end goal in itself, it can become pathological aberration too. Some members give excessive
weightage to these symbols paying little regard to the intrinsic need for these symbolic tramping.
Excessive preoccupation with status symbols may be expensive for the organization as a whole, for
instance, the rental expenditure for electronic computers or the wages for unneeded staff assistants of
particular executives on department. Further, quite frequently, executives waste their time and effort
in struggling to obtain and maintained status symbols. The individual who is status bound spends his
energies attempting to achieve esteem by surrounding himself with all the visible signs to
demonstrate that he really has status when, in fact, he may have very insignificant status. It should,
however, be noted that if the symbols are important, any irregularities in the maintenance and
arrangement of symbols or modifications in them may produce dissatisfaction and unhappiness on
the part of members who are affected adversely.
3. Friction in Work Relationships: Status system creates values to all positions and any change
in the values upsets the status quo. The working relationships and arrangement may be affected by
status consideration in an organization. For instance, in the transfer of personnel, individuals react
on the basis of consideration of status. A shop worker may be happy to accept a position in office
because he can lay aside his uniform (worn clothes) and can don a prestigious white suit and a tie,
and hence regard change as acceptable (promotion). Conversely, attempts to transfer an office clerk
to shop area may lead to resentment and objection, and hence create friction in work assignments.
4. Individual Competence vs. Positions: Status distinctions may not always correspond
adequately to the competence of the individuals who are involved. For example, an engineer may be
only a poor mechanic and a doctor may be a quack, the Vice President may be the Chairman's son-in-
law, but lack administrative skills and knowledge to lead the company etc. Therefore, situations are
not rare where incompetent individuals may have sufficient power, authority, as well as status. The
status accorded to the position may tend to obscure the incompetency or weakness of the employee.
Management, therefore, must assume the responsibility in keeping high-status positions filled with
people of commensurate abilities and skills. Only careful selection and alert management can
minimize the glaring inconsistencies between status and abilities of the employees.
5. Status Anxiety and Inconsistency: Status system in an organization creates some sort of
anxiety in the minds of aspirant members. One's status position may appear to be undesirable and the
individual may feel powerless to change it. He may feel, at the same time, that he is entitled to
something more than he is getting. It may be true that he perceives his capacity incorrectly or the
organizational system is so biased that it does not realise and acknowledge the person's competence
and skill. Whatever be the reason, the inability to improve one's status produces a sense of frustration
within an individual. On the other hand, status inconsistency may also result in anxiety. By
inconsistency we mean the various status symbols are not in harmony. That is to say, some of the
symbols may be present indicating a position of importance, but some other symbols may be missing.
For instance, the title of the position may be right, but the incumbent may lack a private office that is
appropriate for the particular level. Status inconsistency leads to unhappiness because the individual
is aware of the inconsistencies and deficiencies.
Sources of Status
There are various sources through which the status can be acquired. They may be ascribed, achieved,
scalar, functional, positional or personal. Let us briefly dwell on these sources.
1) Ascribed Status: Most frequently we hear such statements as, "President has become one of the
Directors of the company", and "our new Marketing Manager is the brother of Vice President" and so
on. Status, thus, can be acquired through the other person's position in the organisation, hence
'ascribed' or granted.
2) Achieved Status: Self-made man is the classic example of this kind of status. Status is mostly
achieved by virtue of skills, education, intelligence, and competence of an individual. Of all sources of
status, achieved status is highly respectable indeed.
3) Scalar Status: In the formal organisation, status is related to the position of an individual in the
hierarchy. It is also known as formal status. The higher the position, the higher the status, and vice
versa. For instance, the top of the company is populated with very important people, while the bottom
echelons contain the lesser important people. That is to say, if an incumbent occupies a higher
position in the organizational pyramid, he is considered to be an executive with higher status.
4) Functional Status: It is based on the type of work or activity performed in the organisation. A
white-collar worker is viewed as superior over a blue-collar worker, unless there are marked
differences in incomes. Sometimes, the task the individual performs plays a vital role in determining
status. Two individuals may be having the same salary, same experience, same rank, but status may
be different. For instance, the one in the Finance and Accounting department may have relatively
more status than the one in the Purchasing department. This kind of source is called functional status
because the status is attached to the functions performed by individuals. Normally, in organizations
the professional members enjoy a greater prestige over the non-professional members. For example,
an accountant is a notch above a mechanic; a craftsman enjoys a higher status than the unskilled
employee. Functional status is, thus, a relative concept.
5) Positional Status: Regardless of who occupies the position, status is attached to the particular
position. For example, irrespective of the person holding the 'President's Chair'. he or she will have
the same status by virtue of the 'chair'. If the president is changed, then the new president will have
the same status as the old president.
6) Personal Status: Status sometimes can be acquired through personality. People who are kind
and good irrespective of their positions in the organization command respect in the society. This is
also called "informal status". Generally good deeds bring them personal status.
The functional or scalar status may be augmented or reduced by the individual's personal
characteristics. For instance, when a brilliant or distinguished individual replaces lackluster
incumbent, the replacement enjoys a higher status even though the position remains unchanged.
Especially in business organizations, this would be true, whether the position is that of an executive,
supervisor, craftsman, scientist or engineer.

Please use headphones

MODEL QUESTIONS
1. "The type of job an employee does moderates the relationship between personality and job
productivity". Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Discuss.
2. How does selectivity effect perception. Give an example of how selectivity can create perceptual
distortion?
3. What is the relationship between job satisfaction and productivity?
4. Explain the concept of values in the study of organizational behaviour.
CASE STUDY: Barry Niland
Barry Niland, supervisor of a small sales department, noticed that one of his industrial sales
representatives, Henry Hunter, had a problem. Among other things, Hunter's sales had declined in
the last six months although most other sales representatives regularly were exceeding their quotas.
Niland decided to try to boost this sale representative's performance by reminding him of the many
opportunities for satisfaction in a sales Job.
Niland explained his actions as follows:
"I pointed out that in his customer's eyes he alone is the company. He has the opportunity to help his
customer. He has the opportunity to show his ability and knowledge to many types of people. He has
the opportunity through his own efforts to help many types of people. He has the opportunity to
support the people who make our products, to reward the stockholders, and to control his financial
return through his own knowhow. He has the opportunity of testing his creative ideas, with
immediate feedback about their value. He has the opportunity to meet constantly changing
conditions, so there is no boredom in his job. There is no quicker way to achieve personal satisfaction
than sales work."
1. Comment on Niland's approach in dealing with his sales representative.
2. Suggest approaches for increasing Hunter's:
a) Job satisfaction
b) Job performance
c) Job involvement
d) Organizational commitment
Source: Keith Davis, et al., "Human Behaviour at Work", McGraw Hill International Edition.
CASE STUDY: Doing His Share
When Ralph Morgan joined the Beacher Corporation, he started out as an assembler on the line.
Ralph remained in this position for five years. During this time there were two major strikes. The first
lasted five weeks, and the second went on for eighteen weeks. As a member of the Union, Ralph was
out of work during both of these periods, and in each case the strike fund ran out of money before a
labour agreement was reached.
Last year Ralph was asked if he would like to apply for a supervisor's job. The position paid $2500
more than he was making, and the chance for promotion up the line made it an attractive offer. Ralph
accepted.
During the orientation period, Ralph found himself getting angry at the management representative.
This guy seemed to believe that the union was too powerful and management personnel had to hold
the line against any further loss of authority. Ralph did not say anything, but he felt the speaker was
very ill-informed and biased. Two developments have occurred over the last six months, however,
that have led Ralph to change his attitude toward union - management relations at the company.
One was a run-in he had with a shop steward who accused Ralph of deliberately harassing one of the
workers. Ralph could not believe his ears. "Harassing a worker? Get serious. All I did was tell him to
get back to work", he explained to the steward. Nevertheless, a grievance was filed and withdrawn
only after Ralph apologized to the individual whom he supposedly harassed. The other incident was a
result of disciplinary action. One of the workers in his unit came late for the third day in a row and, as
required by the labour contract, Ralph sent him home without pay. The union protested, claiming
that the worker had really been late only twice. When Ralph went to the personnel office to get the
worker's clock-in sheets, the one for the first day of tardiness members, claimed that they did not
know where it was.
In both of these cases, Ralph felt the union went out of its way to embarrass him. Earlier this week the
manager from the orientation session called Ralph, "I've been thinking about bringing line
supervisors into the orientation meeting to discuss the union's attitude toward management. Having
been on the other side, would you be interested in giving them your opinion of what they should be
 prepared for and how they should respond?" Ralph said he would be delighted. "I think it's important
to get these guys ready to take on the union and I'd to do my share", he explained.
1. What was Ralph's attitude toward the union when he first became a supervisor? What barriers were
there that initially prevented him from changing his attitude regarding the union?
2. Why did Ralph's attitude change? What factors accounted for this?
3. Are workers who are recruited for supervisory positions likely to go through the same attitude
changes as Ralph?

Source: Fred Luthans, "Organizational Behaviour", McGraw-Hill International Edition.

- End of Chapter -
LESSON - 9
GROUPS AND GROUP DYNAMICS

OBJECTIVES

To identify meaning and types of groups

To understand the implications of group dynamics on human behaviour at work

To analyze the theories of group dynamics and group cohesiveness

To explain group decision making process.

PREAMBLE
The study of group behaviour is very important in organisational behaviour. Because managing
groups in organisations is more difficult than managing individuals. This is due to the fact that the
groups exhibit patterns of behaviour that are different from the behaviours of members in their
individual capacity. By understanding groups and the dynamics of group behaviour, the manager will
be able to utilize groups to the mutual advantage of the group members and the organisations.
Understanding group cohesiveness, the factors influencing group cohesiveness and also the process of
group decision making are very much essential for the manager in managing human behaviour at
work.
When individuals are in groups, they act differently than they do when alone. The present unit
defines groups, reviews various reasons for group formation, group dynamics, group cohesiveness
and types of groups in organisations.
DEFINITION OF GROUP
Stephen R. Robbins defined group as two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent,
who have come together to achieve particular objectives. Groups can be either formal or informal.
By formal groups, we mean those defined by the organisation's structure, with designated work
assignments establishing tasks. In formal groups, the behaviours that one should engage in are
stipulated by and directed toward organisational goals. The three members making up an airline
flight crew are an example of a formal group. In contrast, informal groups are alliances that are
neither formally structured nor organisationally determined. These groups are natural formations in
the work environment that appear in response to the need for social contact.
Group in general is a social phenomenon in which two or more or persons decide to
(i) interact with one another,
(ii) share common ideology, and
(iii) perceive themselves as a group
The fields of anthropology, psychology and sociology have contributed to the development of the
concept of a group. Man being fond of company, has the natural urge to interact with his fellow
brethren, seek company with them and to identify himself as the member of a group. This
phenomenon gets reinforced by lasting face-to-face relationships.
CHARACTERISTICS OF GROUPS
Basing on the meaning of groups, certain general characteristics can be deduced. People spend most
of the time in group activities, and very seldom they would be alone and in solitude. Most of the
people, in fact, cluster into relatively smaller groups, with the members residing together in the same
dwellings, working together in small organisations, departments and associations, and satisfying their
basic needs within the group, depending on the same source for economic support, and mutually
caring for one another. Education, socialization, etc. are also done in groups, and human existence on
earth itself is possible in close interdependence within relatively enduring associations. As a matter of
fact, in order to understand about what is happening in human inhabitation on earth, one has to
examine carefully the ways in which groups form, function, and dissolve. Then the characteristics of
human activities can be traced in association with the characteristics of groups in which he performs
his activities. The important characteristics of groups are:
(1) Strong desire for association
(2) Development of leadership
(3) Awareness among members
(4) Properties of individual
(5) Cohesiveness
(6) Perceive themselves as a group.
1. Strong Desire of Association: Human beings have strong desires to associate themselves with
certain groups for the feelings of prestige and social distinction, i.e., in a way it is for ego satisfaction.
Thus, the groups influence the thoughts and actions of the individuals, while the individuals achieve
the sense of prestige and privilege through their formal and informal association with the groups.
Hence, group solidarity becomes important in the human existence, and the individuals will do all
within their power and access to protect it. Not only for status do the individuals become members of
a group, but also for protecting and maintaining various other aspects like traditions, customs,
togetherness, rights, responsibilities, technical expertise, faith, etc. By all means formal groups,
informal groups, and cliques are common in any Indian organisation.
2. Development of Leadership: Development of leadership is another important characteristic of
groups. There is probability for every member to develop leadership qualities by virtue of his
association with group. However, when the leader is a self-centered despot, or when the leader lacks
self-confidence, he would discourage others to develop leadership qualities. In such situations sooner
or later there is possibility for split of the group and birth of other identical groups.
Group may consist of two or more members, but it should not be unwieldy. When the number of
members becomes very large, the group's characteristics disappear and it would turn to be a crowd.
Generally speaking, a group means a small group. There may exist interpersonal relations too in the
group, and thereby some sort of behavioural control and dependency will prevail in any group. There
may also exist different status positions of members like nucleus, small group or inner group, fringe
status, out shell, and the group leader, according to Luthans. They perceive themselves as a group.
3. Awareness among Members: As the group is small, the members are psychologically aware of
one another. Strengths, weaknesses, capacities, abilities, accomplishments, talents and needs of each
member are known to others in the group. This enables the group to make use of each member
according to his abilities, and to rise to the occasion to fulfill the aspirations of its members. Every
member who works in a factory environment may naturally look for companionship, sympathy,
appreciation, and affection in his work life, which would enable him to get rid of monotony, boredom
and fatigue considerably. He gains warmth, recognition, self-respect, and confidence from the group.
4. Properties of Individual: The groups are alive like individual. They are born, they grow, they
function, they deteriorate, and even die. The group has an attitude, approach and behaviour to other
groups, individuals and to the organisation at large. Thus, groups maintain the properties of
individual human beings who are its members.
5. Cohesiveness: Groups mobilize powerful forces which produce effects and impacts. This is
mainly because of the cohesive nature of its members. Members of high cohesive groups exhibit less
anxiety than members of low cohesive groups, measures of anxiety being (a) feeling jumpy or
nervous, (b) feeling under pressure to achieve higher productivity, and (c) feeling a lack of support
from the company. As groups mobilize power, events occurring in a group may have repercussions on
its members, even though they are not directly involved in these events.
To sum up, the characteristics of groups include, say: the groups exist, they are inevitable and
ubiquitous, they mobilize powerful forces having profound effects on individuals, and through group
dynamics there is possibility for maximizing good values. As already observe, groups are
characterized by common norms and values and headed by group leaders. Wherever there are
leaders, there are followers. Group members interact and communicate between each other, and they
are psychologically aware of one another. Cohesiveness is, therefore, inherent in groups. It can,
however, be remarked that the characteristics of any group largely depend on the objectives for which
the group was formed or the way in which the group is developed.
FUNCTIONS OF GROUP
Organisational life is replete with horror stories of how groups operate as 'demolition squads' cutting
down organisational work to meaningless levels. In an effort to cut down such militant groups to size,
managers arrogantly try to impede group relationships by making frequent transfers, by assigning
 people who are known to be incompatible to the same work group, or by erecting physical barriers
between departments considered to be vulnerable 'spots' for group pressures. Such efforts, though
justifiable in extreme situations, backfire, because, as we have seen, employees have a strong need for
affiliation. Lack of social interaction is likely to lead to greater turnover, absenteeism, accidents, lower
quality of work etc. Managers must understand that groups are an inevitable and useful feature of
organisational life. Their essential job will be to manage organisational groups in such a way as to
make them more productive and satisfying to their members. Groups perform
three key functions that are important to an enterprises success.
1. Socialization of new employees: The work group teaches the new employees the work norms,
that is, how to behave at work. It orients and educates the new employees into the enterprise's work
rules and norms, and keeps him under control.
2. Getting the job done: The work group teaches the employee how to cope with the job. Truly
speaking, it is the organisation that provides the necessary training for employees to do the job, but in
practice it is the work groups within the organisation, which help the employees to learn how to
interact with the rest of the organisation and how to get the job done.
3. Decision making: Well established groups that are operating effectively can contribute to
organisational members by turning out better decisions. Two heads are better than one.
The other functions of groups are:

1. The group is the context in which an individual fulfills various needs arising from his social
nature and his psychological make-up.

2. The group helps the individual to acquire a favourable self-image.

3. Various satisfactions such as social status, prestige, and the approval of others are obtained by
the individual in group settings only.

4. The individual derives satisfaction arising out of his belongingness to a group that has set or
seeks to set high performance standards for itself, and in which not only he respects his peers but they
also in turn respect him.

5. Within the group occur such important processes as learning and the formation of beliefs,
attitudes, and behaviour patterns.

6. Association of the individual with different kinds of groups enables him to accomplish certain
personal goals that may not be possible in any other way.

7. Group provided structures through which organisational processes operate to achieve various
objectives.

8. Groups provide a means for communication and mechanisms for the performance of necessary
activities of a complex nature.
 Please use headphones

GROUP DYNAMICS
The word "dynamics" has been derived from the Greek word meaning "force". Hence, group dynamics
refers to "the study of forces operating within a group". In other words, "The social process by which
people interact face-to-face in small groups is called group dynamics".
Group dynamics in organisational behaviour is primarily concerned with the interactions of forces
between group members in a social situation. Kurt Lewin is known as the founder of group
dynamics movement. His findings are based on the experiments he conducted on small groups in
1930s. The other experiments having status of historical landmarks were those which were conducted
by Elton Mayo and his associates in 1920s and 1930s.
In short, group dynamics may be stated as the behaviour of individuals as members of a group in an
organisational setting. Apart from Hawthorne experiments, the other notable studies in this regard
were:

The Lippitt and White leadership studies;

The Coach and French studies relating to mechanics to overcome resistance to change and

Trist and Bamforth's study of two groups of carpenters and bricklayers, and William H.
Whyte's work on restaurant industry.

Importance of Group Dynamics

The importance of group dynamics to a manager lies in the fact that many people tend to act
differently as individuals than as members of a group. So the manager must study both individual as
well as the group as interrelated elements of a motivational situation. To quote Likert, "An
organisation will function best when its personnel function not as individuals but as members of
highly effective work groups with high performance goals".
Thus, instead of looking at an organisation structure in the normal individually-oriented pyramid
manner, a manager should look in it a series of interlocking groups with himself as the linking point
between two or more such groups. A manager is simultaneously the leader of his own group and a
participating member of the group.
Group dynamics may be defined as the social process by which people interact face-to-face in small
groups. Thus, it is concerned with the dynamic interaction of individuals in a face-to-face
relationship. The task goals of the group, originating from the basic organisation objectives, provide
for their continued interaction. Group dynamics focuses at team work, wherein the small member
 groups are constantly in touch with each other and effectively contribute their ideas to accomplish a
task; every member participates in discussion; the group develops its goals clearly; the group has
resources to accomplish its goals; the group furnishes very useful suggestions in goal's achievement;
the group has a common objective; the group creates group leader who can effectively coordinate the
group's efforts toward the achievement of their objectives; and lastly, it changes the formal role of
participants. For instance if a skilled workman is a member of the works committee and sits in a
committee with his own supervisor as another member, his role as committee member will be quite
different from his role as a subordinate.

Groups serve purposes not only for themselves but for the organisation as well:

They provide norms or guidelines for behaviour and thus teach new employees how to behave.

Work often requires cooperation of more than one person to achieve its ends; and groups
facilitate this cooperation.

Groups provide personal relationships in the workplace such as someone talks to another
about job or personal problems. They provide understandings, companionships, supportive relations
and friendships. Everyone needs a company of people at work to go to lunch and on tea breaks to
share experiences with.

Groups also provide and identity for the person at workplace to achieve a feeling of belongings,
from which he can derive esteem, recognition and status.

Work groups also provide security for the individual members from pressure of other groups,
union, or departments.

GROUP FORMATION AND REASONS

There is no single reason why individuals form groups. Since a man does not live in isolation, he joins
one group or the other. Most people belong to a number of groups because different groups provide
different benefits to their members. At home, he is the member of the family; at workplace he is the
member of labor union or other formal or informal groups. This fact raises a question why people join
a group. Some of the important reasons for forming a group are security, affiliation, status, esteem,
power, rewards, and goal achievement.
1. Security : "Unity is strength". By joining a group, we can reduce the insecurity of "standing
alone", we feel stronger, have fewer self-doubts, and are more resistant to threats. New employees are
particularly vulnerable to a sense of isolation, and turn to the group for guidance and support.
However, whether we are talking about new employees or those with years on the job, we can state
that few individuals like to stand alone. We get reassurance from interacting with others and being
part of a group. This often explains the appeal of unions - if management creates an environment in
which employees feel insecure, they are likely to turn to unionization to reduce their feelings of
insecurity.
2. Affiliation : People join groups because it provides them an opportunity to have regular company
with those with whom they share something in common. They have come to this conclusion on the
basis of their past experience. They rightly believe that their affiliation is likely to obtain for them
friendship, friendly interaction and acceptance by others if they are members of a group. It is just
possible that the nature of work is such that they have little opportunity for social interaction off the
job. Accordingly, their instinct of affiliation is satisfied by such interaction on the job itself.
3. Status : By joining the group a person gets identity within the group. He claims that he is a
member of a particular group that has some identity in the organisation or in the society. The status
associated with the group can also be claimed by the members of the group. For example, members of
the Lions Club.
4. Esteem : Feeling high of one-self is called self-esteem. The esteem of a individual increases by his
association with a group of high status. The individual automatically gets the needed recognition from
outsiders. Then, the group provides safety, encouragement, and self-expression. The individual as a
member of a group feels free, he may complain about the work, his boss, his pay, his working
conditions etc. As the group carries esteem, as a member, he is sure to have favourable response from
authorities because his feelings fall in line with the feelings of other members in the group.
5. Power : One of the appealing aspects of groups is that they represent power. What an individual
cannot achieve alone, a group can achieve easily. By joining the group, an individual gets the group
power. This is in line with the popular saying "united we stand, divided we fall". In other words,
collectively members enjoy greater power that individually. Informal groups additionally provide
opportunities for individuals to exercise power over others. For individuals who desire to influence
others, groups can offer power without a formal position or authority in the organisation. As a group
leader, you may be able to make requests of group members and obtain compliance without any of
the responsibilities that traditionally go with formal managerial positions. So, for people with a high
power need, groups can be a vehicle for fulfillment.
6. Rewards : When a group carries power and status, it may get several rewards which may
sometimes include financial rewards. As a member of the group, he may also enjoy all the benefits
and rewards of the group.
7. Goal achievement : A person as an individual cannot achieve certain goals. There is a need to
pool talents, knowledge, and power to accomplish a goal. Hence, people join groups to achieve such
goals.

- End of Chapter -
LESSON - 10
THEORIES OF GROUP FORMATION

Theories of group formation may be divided under the following heads:

1. Homo's theory: A comprehensive theory of group is theory based on activities, interactions, and
sentiments. These three elements are directly related to one another. The more activities persons
share, the more numerous will be their interactions and the stronger will be their sentiments (how
much the other persons are liked to disliked); the more interactions among persons, the more will be
their shared activities and sentiments; and the more sentiments persons have for one another, the
more will be their shared activities and interactions. This theory lends a great deal to the
understanding of group formation and process. The major element is 'interaction'. Persons in a group
interact with one another, not in just the physical propinquity sense, but also to accomplish many
group goals such as cooperation and problem solving.
2. Theory of propinquity: It means individual's affiliation with one another because of spatial on
geographical proximity. For instance, students sitting with one another are likely to form the group
more that the students sitting opposite or at a distance.
3. Balance theory: The balance theory states that persons are attracted to one another on the basis
of similar attitudes. The figure below depicts the balance theory. Individual X will interact and form a
relationship/group with individual Y because of common attitudes and values (Z). Once this
relationship is formed, the participants strive to maintain a symmetrical balance between the
attraction and the common attitudes. If an imbalance occurs, an attempt is made to restore the
balance. If the balance cannot be restored, the relationship dissolves. Both propinquity and
interaction play a role in balance theory.

Common Attitudes and Values

Religion
Politics
Life styles
Marriage
Work
Authority
4. Exchange theory: The exchange theory is based on reward-cost outcomes of interactions. People
will get attracted towards one another for the formation of group, when they feel that the reward is
greater than the cost. Rewards seek to satisfy the needs of the members while costs involved anxiety,
frustration and fatigue.
TYPES OF GROUPS
There are various types of groups which may be formed with different goals. Hence, groups can be
classified in various ways on the basis of goals, duration, extent of structuring, legal organisation, etc.
The important types of groups are:
1. Primary and secondary groups: Primary groups consist of people in a close and face-to-face
relationship over a period of time. It is considered as intimate group. Intimate interactions take place
in a family, neighborhood, or work group. When the inter-relationships are remote and general, such
groups can be called secondary groups according to Cooley, a sociologist.
Often the terms 'small group' and 'primary group' and used interchangeably. Technically, there is a
difference. A small group has to meet only the criterion of small size. Usually, no attempt is made to
assign precise numbers, but the accepted criterion is that the group must have a feeling of
comradeship, loyalty, and a common sense of values among its members. Thus, all primary groups
are small groups, but not all small groups are primary groups.
Two examples of a primary group are the family and the peer group. Initially, the primary group was
limited to a socializing group, but then a broader conception was given impetus by the results of the
Hawthorne studies. Work groups definitely have primary group qualities. Research findings point out
the tremendous impact that the primary group has on individual behaviour, regardless of context or
environmental conditions.
Primary group is the crux of social relations, while group is also needed for maintaining the social
system to work. "The closeness and warm emotional contact of small group interaction emphasises
some of the sources of strong social influence for most people". Intense industrialisation and
urbanisation led to social disorganisation resulting in the birth of more informal and secondary
groups, and considerable disorganisation of primary groups. Durkheim's 'anomie' has highlighted
the possibility for the development of a feeling of rootlessness or loneliness in such societies. In a
strife-torn industrial society, primary group can provide activation of interpersonal relationships.
Industrial enterprises can make use of primary group formation methods to maintain cohesiveness in
their organisations.
2. Coalitions: In addition to primary and secondary groups, coalitions are very relevant to
organisations. The concept of a coalition has been used in organisational analysis through the years.
Although the concept is used in different ways by different theorists, a recent comprehensive review
of the coalition literature suggests that the following characteristics of a coalition be included:
i. Interacting group of individuals
ii. Deliberately constructed by the members for a specific purpose
iii. Independent of the formal organisation's structure
iv. Lacking a formal internal structure
v. Mutual perception of membership
vi. Issue-oriented to advance the purpose of the members
vii. External forms
viii. Concerted member action, act as a group
3. Formal and informal groups: Formal groups are the ones which are formally designed and
organised, which have formal organisation and formally set goals and objectives. Groups which are
established under legal and formal authority to achieve a specific end result or to undertake delegated
tasks can be called formal groups. A clear deliberation of duties and relationships among the various
members or office-bearers is evident in formal groups. Board of Management, works committee set
up according to the Industrial Disputes (Central) Rules 1957, etc. are formal groups. There can be
temporary and permanent formal groups.
Informal Groups are a common feature of work life. There are many needs and desires of individuals,
which cannot be satisfied without their affiliation and association with the respective groups. In fact,
informal groups are part and parcel of human life and endeavour. They may come into existence as a
result of more subtle factors such as fulfillment of specific needs of a set of individuals. Physical
proximity facilitates interaction among the individuals, who come closer to make groups informally.
People who work in the same section on the same shift may have greater possibility to join together.
Similarly, principles, values, interests or attitudes held in common, or similarity in perceptions and
approaches can facilitate formation of informal groups.

The difference between formal and informal groups

Characteristics Formal group Informal group

It is deliberate and
Origin It is voluntary and spontaneous
planned

It serves as means
Purpose It provides social satisfaction
to formal ends

It is given
Authority It is given by the people
by theinstitution

It is given to the position It is given to a person

It is acquired through
It has to be earned from the members of the group
delegation from above

It comes from superiors to

It is derived from peers; it flows horizontally or at
subordinates; it flows
times, even upwards
downwards.

It is determined by
It depends on feelings and sentiments of the
Status position or responsibilities
members
of a job

It is developed according
Structure There is no design
to technical requirements

Communication All messages pass through

All messages pass through informal channels
system a chain of command

Behaviour of It is regulated by rules and It is regulated by norms, values, and beliefs of the
members regulations intended to group
 attain rationality and
efficiency.

Rewards and punishment

Sanction of Rewards and punishments are mainly non-financial
is financial as well as non-
members in terms of feelings, status, and prestige.
financial

Size Quite large Tend to smaller to be manageable

It is stable and continues

Nature of group It is unstable
for a longer period

Any attempt to destroy a particular informal group

Can be abolished as they
Whether abolition
are subject to
possible
management control
may lead to formation of several other groups. These
are a result of the natural human desire to interact,
over which management has no control.
Management cannot fire them, as it does not hire
them.

4. Membership Groups and Reference Groups: Membership group is one to which the
individual actually belongs. Reference group, on the other hand, is the one which the individual
identifies with for reference purposes. He may like to belong to the reference group also. While the
individuals are already members of certain groups, the attractiveness of the reference group makes
the norms of that group more attractive to the individual who aspires to joint it. Norms of such
groups would seem to be more attractive, and as such, reference group norms can influence the
behaviour. However, Kolasa is of the opinion that a discrepancy in norms and values between the
two groups can be a source of conflict for the individual and for those with whom he interacts. A
worker, who is a member of the work group in a factory, can possibly be attracted to a reference group
like a militant trade union.
5. In-groups and Out-groups: In-group represents a clustering of individuals holding prevelant
values in a society. It can be a majority group or it may represent the power structure "with its
patterns of behaviour considered desirable". The out-groups are the conglomerates looked upon as
subordinate or marginal in the culture; they are usually referred to as the minority groups even
though they may, in certain instances, represent numerical majority.
6. T-Groups: As a part of organisation development, we have to examine the sensitivity training and
T-group formation. On the basis of the sensitivity training, various 'training groups' are formed.
Members of T-groups reveal considerable amount of cohesiveness among them. Training groups have
regards and respect for their trainers, whom they consider group leaders. Two training methods are
recently introduced by the Institute for Applied Behavioural Sciences - marathon group, which may
meet for an entire weekend without breaking for sleep; and a combination of spaced and massed
approaches, in which the initial session may begin with a live-in weekend, continue with weekly
meetings, and then conclude with a final live-in weekend. These training methods facilitate to create
better awareness, better sensitivity cohesiveness, better identification skill, increased competence,
mutual influence and coordination, etc.
7. Peer-Group: In the work life, peer-group is another effective form group making, which cannot
be ignored in the context of a discussion of organisational behaviour. It is a sense of belonging among
the worker toward one another, irrespective of their attitudes toward their superior, or the basis of
their membership in a particular work group. High peer-group loyalty is not necessarily associated
with high productivity. Mayo'sWestern electric study has certainly revealed may relevant aspects of
peer-group. Many work groups with high peer-group loyalty and common goals appear to be effective
in achieving the group goals. Similarly, high peer-group loyalty would reveal more favourable
attitudes and approaches on one hand, and less anxiety on matters related to job on the other. High
peer-group loyalty results in mutual cooperation and help, resulting in greater solidarity and
achievement. It fosters a desire in the individuals for togetherness, and hence low absenteeism,
strong commitment, favourable attitudes, etc. are generally observed. Coach and Frenchstudies
(1948) have also revealed very interesting observations in this direction. High degree of cohesion is
usually found in groups with high peer-group loyalty.
8. Command group and Task group: A command group is determined by the organisation chart.
It is composed of the subordinates who report directly to a given manager. An elementary school
principal and her twelve teachers form a command group, as do the director of postal audits and his
five inspectors.
Task groups, also organizationally determined, represent those working together to complete a job
task. However, task group boundaries are not limited to its immediate hierarchical superior. It can
cross command relationships. For instance, if a college student is accused of a campus crime, it may
require communication and coordination amongst the Dean of Academic Affairs, the Dean of
Students, and the Registrar etc. These would constitute a task group. It should be noted that all
command groups are also task groups, but because task groups can cut across the organization, the
reverse need not be true.
GROUP COHESIVENESS
Cohesiveness is the degree to which group members are attracted to each other and are motivated to
stay in the group. Groups in which individuals generally agree and cooperate would we relatively
more effective at completing their tasks than the groups in which there is a lot of internal
disagreement and a lack of cooperative spirit. The following factors determine the group
cohesiveness.
i) Status of the group: People, generally, are loyal towards a high status group than towards a low
status group. A high status group receives greater loyalty from its members, which in turn makes the
group even stronger and more likely to gain increased status.
ii) Size of the group: An effective group is relatively small. Small group are more closely-knit than
large ones. When the group is small its members have constant face-to-face contacts. So, it is easier to
have closer relationships with all the members of a small group than with all the members of a large
one.
iii) Time spent together: If you rarely get an opportunity to see or interact with other people,
you're unlikely to be attracted to them. The amount of time that people spend together, therefore,
influences cohesiveness. As people spend more time together, they become friendlier. They naturally
begin to talk, respond, gesture, and engage in other interactions. These Interactions typically lead to
the discovery of common interests and increased attraction. The opportunity for group members to
spend time together is dependent on their physical proximity. We would expect closer relationships
among members who are located close to one another rather than far apart. People, who live on the
same block, ride in the same car pool, or share a common office, are more likely to become a cohesive
group because the physical distance between them is minimal. For instance, among clerical workers
in one organisation it was found that the distance between their desks was the single most important
determinant of the rate of interaction between any two of the clerks.
iv) External threats: Most of the research supports the proposition that a group's cohesiveness will
increase if the group comes under attack from external sources. Management threats frequently bring
together an otherwise disarrayed union. Efforts by management to redesign unilaterally even one or
two jobs or to discipline one or two employees occasionally, grab local headlines because the entire
workforce walks out in support of the affected few. These examples illustrate the kind of cooperative
phenomenon that can develop within a group, when it I attacked from outside.
While a group generally moves toward greater cohesiveness when threatened by external agents, this
does not occur under all conditions. Group members perceive that their group may not meet an attack
well, then the group becomes less important as a source of security, and cohesiveness will not
necessarily increase. Additionally, if members believe the attack is directed at the group merely
because of its existence and that it will cease if the group is abandoned or broken up, there is likely to
be a decrease in cohesiveness.
v) Previous successes: If a group has a history of successes, it builds an esprit de corps that
attracts and unites members. Successful firms find it easier to attract and hire new employees than
unsuccessful ones.
vi) Nature of the group: Heterogeneous groups (whose members have different interests and
backgrounds) are often less effective in promoting their own interests than groups whose members
are more homogeneous. Homogeneous groups whose members are alike on such factors as age,
education, status, experience, background, etc. are better when the task or goal requires mutual
cooperation and conflict free behaviour.
vii) Communication: Groups, whose members are located close together and can interact
frequently and easily, are likely to be more cohesive and effective than those at a greater distance.
Such groups tend to develop their own language and symbols and codes to communicate with group
members. Even scattered groups, like maintenance crews, may become tightly knitted, if the
technology of work requires or permits them to interact frequently with one another. In fact one of
the determinants of group cohesion is the speed with which messages can be transmitted through the
group.
viii) Location of the group: Location of the group plays an important role to enhance
cohesiveness. Particularly, isolation from other groups tends to build high cohesiveness. Where there
is no dividing line between one group and another, cohesion is more difficult to achieve, because a
chain of interactions develops but little group solidarity. Where members of a group are located close
together and are in isolation from other groups, they will develop greater cohesiveness because of
constant face-to-face interaction.
ix) Autonomy: Like the individual, the group of individuals may have dependent or independent
functions to other groups and thus will have different structure. When each individual of a group has
independent and different activities, then the cohesiveness among members of the group will be less
as compared to the group whose members are doing the operations that are dependent upon each
other.
x) Leadership style: Different styles of leadership influence the group cohesiveness differently. An
effective leader keeps the members of the group close-by, helping them satisfy their social needs.
xii) Management behaviour: The behaviour of a manager influences the degree of cohesion that
exists within the group. The competition among employees and constant comparison between one
employee and another, the manager may make close relations difficult. Managers can also build
solidarity by rewarding cooperative behaviour. He can utilize the group cohesiveness for achieving the
goals of the enterprise, if he can provide them good leadership.

Please use headphones

EFFECTS OF COHESIVENESS ON GROUP PRODUCTIVITY

Research has generally shown that highly cohesive groups are more effective than those with less
cohesiveness, but the relationship is complex than merely allowing us to say that high cohesiveness is
good. First, high cohesiveness is both a cause and an outcome of high productivity. Second, the
relationship is moderated by performance-related norms.
Cohesiveness influences productivity, and productivity influences cohesiveness. Camaraderie reduces
tension and provides a support environment for the successful attainment of group goals. But as
already noted, the successful attainment of group goals, and the members feeling a part of a
successful unit, can serve to enhance the commitment of members. Basketball coaches, for example,
are famous for taking their devotion to teamwork. They believe that if the team has to win, its
members have to learn to play together. Popular coaching phrases include ''There are no individuals
on this team" and "We win together, or we lose together". The other side of this view is that winning
reinforces camaraderie and leads to increased cohesiveness, that is, successful performance leads to
increased inter member attractiveness and sharing.
IMPLICATIONS OF COHESIVENESS ON PERFORMANCE AND SATISFACTION
- Performance
Any predictions about a group's performance must begin by recognising that work groups are part of
a larger organisation and that factors such as the organisation's strategy, authority structure,
selection procedures, and reward system can proved a favourable or unfavourable climate for the
group to operate within. For example, if an organisation is characterised by distrust between
management and workers, it is more likely that work groups in that organisation will develop norms
to restrict effort and output than will work groups in an organisation where trust is high. So let us not
look at any group in isolation, rather, begin by assessing the degree of support external conditions
provide the group. It is obviously a lot easier for any work group to be productive when the overall
organisation of which it is a part is growing and it has both top management's support and abundant
resources. Similarly, a group is more likely to be productive when its members have the requisite
skills to do group's tasks and the personality characteristics that facilitate working well together.
A number of structural factors show a relationship to performance. Among the more prominent are
role perception, norms, status inequities, size of the group, its demographic make-up, the group's task
and cohesiveness.
There is a positive relationship between role perception and an employee's performance
evaluation. The degree of congruence that exists between an employee and his boss in terms of role
perception, influences the degree to which that employee will be judged as an effective performer by
the boss. To the extent that the employee's role perception fulfills the boss's role expectations, the
employee will receive a higher performance evaluation.
Norms control group member behaviour by establishing standards of right and wrong. If we know
the norms of a given group, it can help us to explain the behaviours of its members. Where norms
support high output, we can expect individual performance to be markedly higher than where group
norms aim to restrict output. Similarly, acceptable standards of absenteeism will be dictating by the
group norms.
Status inequities create frustration and can adversely influence productivity and willingness to
remain with an organisation. Among those individuals who are equity sensitive, incongruence is likely
to lead to reduced motivation and an increased search for ways to bring a fairness (i.e., taking another
job).
The impact of group size on the group's performance depends upon the type of task in which the
group is engaged. Larger groups are more effective at fact finding activities. Smaller groups are more
effective at action-taking tasks than the larger ones. Our knowledge of social loafing suggests that if
management uses larger groups, efforts should be made to provide measures of individual
performance within the group.
We found the group's demographic composition to be a key determinant of individual turnover.
Specifically, the evidence indicates that group members who share a common age or date of entry into
the group are less prone to resign.
The primary contingency variable moderating the relationship between groups processes and
performance is the group's task. The more complex and interdependent the tasks, the more likely
that inefficient processes will lead to reduced group performance.
Finally, we found that cohesiveness can play an important function in influencing a group's level of
productivity, whether or not it depends on the group's performance-related norms.
- Satisfaction
As with the role perception-performance relationship, high congruence between a boss and employee,
as to the perception of the employee's job, shows a significant association with high employee
satisfaction.
Most people prefer to communicate with others at their own status level or a higher one, rather than
with those below them. As a result, we should expect satisfaction to be greater among employees
whose job minimizes interaction with individuals who are lower in status than theirs.
The group size-to-satisfaction relationship is what one would intuitively expect: Larger groups are
associated with lower satisfaction. As size increases, opportunities for participation and social
interactions decrease, as does the ability of members to identify with the group's accomplishments. At
the same time, having more imbibers also prompts dissent, conflict, and formation of subgroups,
which all act to make the group a less pleasant entity satisfaction. Similarly, role conflict is associated
with job-induced tension and job dissatisfaction.

- End of Chapter -
LESSON- 11
GROUP DECISION MAKING

In organisations groups of executives and employees decide on most of the things from whether to
introduce a new product to how assembly line should be run. Initially, this group decision process
was used only by the company's top executives for developing manufacturing strategies and other
critical issues. But as it proved itself, it was quickly pushed all the way down to the shop floor. Shop
floor workers now have a meeting every day to talk about their problems, and every participant
contributes to finding the solutions to those problems.
Today, many decisions in organisations are made by groups or committees. There are permanent
executive committees that meet on a regular basis, special task forces created to analyze unique
problems, temporary project teams used to develop new products, and "quality circles" made up of
representatives from management and labour who meet to identify and solve production problems, to
name a few of the more obvious examples.
GROUP Vs INDIVIDUAL DECISION MAKING
Group Decision-making may be widely used in organisations, but does that imply those groups
decisions are preferable to those made by are individual alone? The answer to this question depends
on a number of factors. Let's begin by looking at the advantages and disadvantages that group
decision offers.
ADVANTAGES OF GROUP DECISION MAKING:
Individual and group decisions each have their own set of strengths. Neither is ideal for all situations.
The following identifies the major advantages that groups offer over individuals in the making of
decisions.
1. Complete information and knowledge: By aggregating the resources of several individuals,
we bring more information into the discussion. The knowledge all members will contribute to the
decision making.
2. Diversity of views: In addition to more information and knowledge groups can bring
heterogeneity to the decision process. This opens up (lie opportunity for more approaches and
alternatives to be considered.
3. Group acceptance of a solution: Many decisions fail after the final choice has been made
because people do not accept the solution, if low ever, if people, who will be affected by a decision and
who will be instrumental in implementing it are able to participate in the decision itself, they will be
more likely to accept it and encourage others to accept it. This translates into more support for the
decision and higher satisfaction among those required to implement it.
4. Legitimacy: The people in our country value democratic methods. The group decision-making
process is consistent with democratic ideals and, therefore, may be perceived as being more
legitimate than decisions made by a single person. When an individual decision maker fails to consult
with others before making a decision, the decision maker's complete power can create the perception
that the decision was made autocratically and arbitrarily.
DISADVANTAGES OP GROUP DECISION MAKING
Group decisions are not without drawbacks. Their major disadvantages include:
1. Time-consuming: It takes time to assemble a group. The interaction that takes place once the
group is in place is frequently inefficient. The result is that groups take more time to reach a solution
than would be the case if an individual were making the decision. This can limit management's ability
to act quickly and decisively when necessary.
2. Pressures to conform: There are social pressures in groups. The desire by group members to be
accepted and considered as an asset to the group can result in squashing any overt disagreement, thus
encouraging conformity some viewpoints.
3. Domination by the few: Group discussion can be dominated by one or a few members. If this
dominant coalition is composed of low and medium ability members, the group's overall effectiveness
will suffer.
4. Ambiguous responsibility: Group members share responsibility, but who is actually
accountable for the final outcome? In an individual decision, it is clear who is responsible. In a group
decision, the responsibility of any single member is watered down.
 Please use headphones

EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY OF GROUP DECISION MAKING:

Whether groups are more effective than individuals depends on the criteria you use for defining
effectiveness. In terms of accuracy, group decisions will tend to be more accurate. The evidence
indicates that, on the average, groups make better-quality decisions than individuals. This doesn't
mean, of course, that all groups will outperform every individual. Rather, group decisions have been
found to be better than those would be reached by the average individual in the group. However, they
are seldom better than the performance of the best individual.
If decision effectiveness is defined in terms of speed, individuals are superior. If creativity is
important, groups tend to be more effective than individuate. And if effectiveness means of the degree
of acceptance the final solution achieves, the nod again goes to the group. But effectiveness cannot be
considered without also assessing efficiency. In terms of efficiency, groups almost always stack up as
a poor second to the individual decision maker. With few exceptions, group decision making
consumes more work hours than if an individual were to tackle the same problem alone. The
exceptions tend to be those instances where, to achieve comparable quantities of diverse input, the
single decision maker must spend a great deal of time reviewing flies and talking to people. Because
groups can include members from diverse areas, the time spent searching for information can be
reduced. However, as we noted, these advantages in efficiency tend to be the exception. Groups are
generally less efficient than individuals. In deciding whether to use groups, then, consideration
should be given to assessing whether increases in effectiveness are more than enough to offset the
losses in efficiency.
Basing on the above in can be concluded that groups offer an excellent means for performing many of
the steps in the decision- making process. They are a source of input for information gathering. If the
group is composed of individuals with diverse background, the alternatives generated should be more
extensive and the analysis more critical. When the final solution is agreed upon, there are more
people in a group decision to support and implement it. These pluses, however, can be more than
offset by the time consumed by group decisions, the internal conflicts they create, and the pressures
they generate toward conformity. It allows you to evaluate the net advantage or disadvantage that
would accrue in a given situation when you have to choose between an individual and a group
decision.
GROUP-THINK AND GROUP-SHIFT
There are two important aspects of group decision making have received a considerable amount of
attention by researchers in organizational behaviour. These two aspects have the potential to affect
the group's ability to appraise alternatives objectively and arrive at quality decision solutions.
The first aspect called group think, is related to norms. It describes situations in which group
pressures for conformity deter the group from critically appraising unusual, minority, or unpopular
views. Groupthink is a disease that attacks many groups and can dramatically hinder their
performance. The second aspect is called groupshift. It indicates that in discussing a given set of
alternatives and arriving at a solution, group members tend to exaggerate the initial positions that
they hold. It some situations, caution dominate, and there is a conservative shift. More often,
however, the evidence indicates that groups tend toward a risk shift. The details of these two are as
follows.
GROUP THINKING
Generally speaking, people joint group because they except, it to satisfy their needs. Cohesion
develops if these hopes are realised, one unfortunate tendency in respect of cohesive group is to
disallow critical thinking on the part of members and forcing them toward complete unanimity.
'Group thinking' is an extreme form of consensus in which the group thinks as a unit rather than as
collected on of individuals. Member inhibit a tremendous desire for unanimity, Seeking consensus
becomes a end in itself. Free exchange of ideas is inhibited. In order to promoted consensus,
members adopt low-risk, conservative, mediocre decisions. They try to avoid being too harsh in their
judgements of one another ideas. As a result of little or no real criticism, the illusion of unanimity I
created. This proves leads to watered down decisions.
Have you ever felt like speaking up in a meeting, classroom, o informal group, but decided against it?
One reason may have been shyness. On the other hand the aspect that occurs when group member
become so enamored of seeking concurrence that the norm for consensus overrides the realistic
appraisal of alternative courses of action and the full expression of deviant, minority, or unpopular
views. It describes deterioration in an individual's mental efficiency, reality testing, and more
judgement as a result of group pressures.
THE SYMPTOMS OF THE GROUP THINK
1. Group members rationalise any resistance to the assumptions they have made. No matter how
strongly the evidence may contradict their basic assumptions members behave so as to reinforce
those assumptions continually.
2. Members apply direct pressure on those who momentarily express doubts about any of the
group's shared views or who question the validity of arguments supporting the alternative favour by
the majority.
3. Those members who have doubts or hold differing points of view seek to avoid deviating from
what appears to be group consensus by keeping silent about misgivings and even minimizing to
themselves the importance of their doubts.
4. There appears to be an illusion of unanimity. If someone does not speak, it is assumed that he or
she is in full accord. In other words, abstention becomes viewed as an accepted.
Individuals who hotel a position that is different from that of the dominant majority are under
pressure to suppress, withhold, or modify their true feelings and beliefs. As members of a group, we
find it more pleasant to be in agreement - to be a positive part of the group - than to be a disruptive
force, even if disruption is necessary to improve the effectiveness of the group's decisions.
There is a doubt whether all groups are equally vulnerable to group thinking. Basing on several
research evidence we may say it is not so. Researchers have focused in on three moderating variables-
the group's cohesiveness, its leader's behavior, and its insulation from outsiders - but the findings
have not been consistent. At this point, the most valid conclusions we can make are:
(1) highly cohesive groups have more discussion and bring out more information but it's unclear
whether such groups discourage dissent;
(2) groups with impartial leaders who encourage member input generate and discuss more
alternative solutions
(3) leaders should avoid expressing a preferred solution early in the discussion because this tends to
limit critical analysis and significant increase the likelihood that the group will adopt this solution as
the final choice; and
(4) insulation of the group leads to fewer alternatives being generated and evaluated,
Group-shift:
When group decisions are compared with individual decisions of members within the group, evidence
suggests that there are differences. In some cases, the group decisions are more conservative than he
individual decisions. More often, the shift is toward greater risk.
The group shift can be viewed as actually a special case of groupthink the decision of the group
reflects the dominant decision-making norm that develops during the group's discussion. Whether
the shift in the group's decision is toward greater caution or more risk depends on the dominant are
discussion norm.
The greater occurrence of the shift toward risk has generated several explanations for the
phenomenon. It's been argued, for instance, that the discussion creates familiarization among the
members. As they become more comfortable with each other, they also become more bold and daring
another argument is that our society values risk, that we admin individuals who are willing to take
risks, and that group discussion motivates members to show that they are at least as willing as their
peen to take risks. The most plausible explanation of the shift toward risk never, seems to be that the
group diffuses responsibility. Group decisions free any single member from accountability for the
group's final choice. Greater risk can be taken because even if the decision fails, no on member can be
held wholly responsible.
So how should you use the findings on group shift? You should recognize that group decisions
exaggerate the initial position of the individual members, that the shift has been shown more often to
be towards greater risk, and that whether a group will shift toward greater risk or caution is a function
of the member' pre-discussion inclinations.
CONFORMITY
The forces that promote conformity within the group are the attitudes beliefs, emotions which most of
the members of the group have in common as members interact daily, these beliefs would come into
play; for exempt they may exchange views regarding individual freedom and dignity regarding the
union- management relations, regarding the importance of cooperation among them etc. These
feelings and beliefs, over a period of time, get strengthened slowly and make way for group norms.
Norms are the ideas about how group members are supposed to behave in and outside of the group.
They are the standards of performance of invidious employees if conducted and legislated by the
group in course of time Norms not only specify appropriate behavior but also indicate the 'limit of
behavior'. Each member of the group, in course of time comes to know that norms of the group which
not only specify appropriate behavior but also indicate the limits of behaviour. Thereafter, any
violation or disregard of the group norms will be punished; observance and conformity will b
rewarded. To avoid unpleasant consequences, such as ostracism, physical violence, members
generally tend to conform. Thus, group members (as decision makers) are under pressure to conform
to group's standards o conduct and quite often this may force them to soft-pedal the
decision-making activity., where the problem may not be thoroughly examined, many of the
alternatives may not be developed and more often than not members may agree on the first
alternative suggested by an influential member.
SUPERIORITY
The use of groups allows a variety of inputs from those who possess different skills. Members, drawn
from different disciplines, can bring a greater amount of information and expertise to bear on a
problem to enervate more creative alternative solutions and make it more likely that solution would
be understood, accepted and implemented.

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LESSON - 12
GROUP DECISION MAKING TECHNIQUES

If there is only one alternative, the only choice is whether to accept or reject it. In reality, managers
typically have several options. They must search for a number of viable options before setting on one.
In order to develop alternatives managers may employ some techniques: The following are group
decision making techniques.
(i) Brainstorming
(ii) Synectics
(iii) Nominal Groups and
(iv) The Delphi Decision Making
(v) Electronic meetings
i) Brainstorming:
It is a technique designed to stimulate people to develop alternatives during the planning and
decision- making process. Brainstorming encourages the sharing of ideas in a setting, free of the
interruptions and risks of immediate evaluation and discussion. A set of basic ground rules governs a
brainstorming session: on one may evaluate or criticize the ideas of others, and people are
encouraged to be freewheeling in creating ideas. The more ideas produced, the better, and people are
encouraged to "take off* on others' ideas ("hitchhiking").
To conduct a brainstorming session, the group is informed about the problem and asked to generate
as many solutions as possible within a specified period of time. Participants are encouraged to suggest
whatever comes to mind. It is emphasized that all ideas generated belong to the group, not to
individuals. Criticism is forbidden.
All ideas from a brainstorming session are recorded for later evaluation either by the group or the
manager (depending on which planning and decision-making strategy is being followed). Because the
purpose of the technique is to generate many creative ideas, it is expected that many of the ideas
eventually will prove to be of little use. The hope is that, among the many ideas offered, one or more
will prove useful.
Some of the claimed advantages of the brainstorming technique include:
1. It reduces dependence on a single authority figure.
2. It entourages, the open sharing of ideas.
3. It stimulates participation among group members.
4. It provides individual safety in a competitive group.
5. It maximizes output for a short period of time.
6. It ensure anon evaluative climate.
7. It tends to be enjoyable and stimulating.
ii) Synectics:
The Greek word synectic means "the joining together c different and apparently irrelevant elements".
The synectic technique, designed to develop creative ideas, attempts to integrate 'diverse individuals
into a problem-stating, problem-solving group". The technique gets people to focus on developing a
single insightful solution and includes developing, evaluation, and critiquing ideas. Synectic is based
on the assumption that a person is divided into two parts. The first part is concerned about safety and
is analytical, suspicious, logical, and cautious-and, thus, inhibits experimentation and creativity. The
second part of a person, thought, strives toward learning and is impulsive and sensation-seeking and
likes to have fun. Because the self-censoring first part inhibits the creativity of the second part, the
synectic approach is structured to encourage the impulsive, creative aspects of the individual to
override his or her self-censoring tendencies.
The synectic technique includes the following steps:
1. Problem statement and background information stage: The group leader describes a
general area of discussion but avoids identifying the specific problem. Creative thinking on the
problem is encouraged. The leader presents background information on the problem and the goals
associated with an ideal solution.
2. Good-wishing stage: Group members are encouraged to wish for anything that comes to mind
that could address the problem. As in brainstorming, in this "freewheeling stage" people are
encouraged to generate wild ideas and to hitchhike. Exploring ideas and not evaluating them are of
utmost importance at this stage.
3. Excursion stage: Participants are asked to forget about the specific problem. They are asked to
generate ideas about a somewhat unrelated are that eventually might be related to the problem at
hand.
4. Forced-fit stage: Participants take ideas from the excursion stage and force them to fit the initial
problem. Although this often appears quite unusual and obtuse, it is intended to encourage creativity.
In fact, evidence suggests that many great thinkers develop ideas from such experimental thinking.
5. Intemized response stage: The group picks one of the ideas generated during the forced-fit
stage and pursues it further. The idea is dissected on only its positive aspects are identified. After all
the positive aspects have been explored, the idea's limitations are addressed. This focus on the
positive is intended to encourage productivity and creativity.
The outcome of the synectic process is a single unique plan or derision that has undergone
considerable evaluation. The process tends to produce innovative ideas.
Although the synectic approach can be quite useful for creative planning and decision making, its cost
is high. Furthermore, it produces only one potential solution to a problem. If that solution turns out
to be unusable, the problem remains, and the process has failed.
iii) The Nominal Group:
The nominal group consists of people knowledgeable on the issue to be decided who are in the same
physical location and who are aware of each other but who do not directly interact while they are
working together. The specific techniques for using the nominal group in decision- making vary with
the situation, but usually the following steps are involved:
1. The manager brings the group together and outlines the problem.
2. Each member of the group generates a number of ideas in writing.
3. Each member then presents a single idea at a time to the entire group.
4. The ideas are written on a blackboard or on large pieces of paper, and discussion of them is
limited to clarification.
5. The round robin continues, with members adding to others ideas.
When no further ideas emerge, or when the manager feels the process has gone far enough, each
member votes on the ideas, again in writing.
6. The final decision is the summed outcome of the individual votes, but they manage is free to
accept or reject it.
Although the research is not clear-cut, there is evidence that nominal groups are superior to
interacting groups in fact- finding, idea-generating, avoidance of dominance, reduction of conformity,
and prioritizing of objectives.
4) The Delphi Technique:
The Delphi technique, named after the Oracle at Delphi in ancient Greece, involves using the creative
ideas of a group of people knowledgeable about the issue at hand who work anonymously to solve the
problems presented. The general process follows:
1. A panel of people who are knowledgeable about a particular problem is selected. The members of
the group never actually meet. The panel can have members both inside and outside the organisation,
and the individual members may or may not know who the other members are.
2. A questionnaire about the problem to be solved is sent to each members of the panel. Each person
is asked to make anonymous suggestions. These suggestions are cooler arid a feedback report is
developed.
3. The feedback report and a more advanced, strong questionnaire are sent back to the panel
members
4. Each panel member independently evaluates the feedback report, votes on the priority of the ideas
contained in it, and generates new ideas based on it.
5. The process is repeated until a consensus is reached or until the manager feels that sufficient
information has been received to make a decision.
6. A final summary feedback report is developed and set back to the group members.
A major advantages of the Delphi approach is its anonymity. In groups that interact face-to-face, one
person may dominate, or everyone may watch the manager for clues to what is wanted. Further is
interacting groups an individual may take a stand and not want to back down for fear of losing face.
Frequently experts are more concerned with defending their position than with reaching a good
decision.
v) Electronic meetings:
The most recent approach to group decision making blends the nominal group technique with
sophisticated computer technology. It's called the electronic meeting.
Once the technology is in place, the concept is simple. Up to fifty people sit around a horseshoe-
shaped table, empty except for a series of computer terminals. Issues are presented to participants
and they type their responses onto their computer screen. Individual comments, as well as aggregate
votes, are displayed on a projection screen in the room.
The major advantages of electronic meetings are anonymity, honesty, and speed. Participants can
anonymously type any message they want and it flashes on the screen for all to see at the push of a
participant's board key. It also allows people to be brutally honest without penalty. And it's fast
because chitchat is eliminated, discussions don't digress and many participants can "talk" at once
without stepping on one another's toes.
Experts claim that electronic meetings are as much as fifty-five percent faster than traditional face to
face meetings. Phelps Dodge Mining, for instance, used the approach to cut its annual planning
meeting from several days down to twelve hours. Yet there are drawbacks to this technique. Those
who can type fast can outshine those who are verbally eloquent but lousy typists; those with the best
ideas don't get credit for them; and the process lacks the information richness of face-to-face oral
communication. But although this technology is currently in its infancy, the future of group decision
making is very likely to include extensive use of electronic meetings.
 Please use headphones

SMALL GROUP BEHAVIOUR

What is a small group? has been the subject of debate with the result that many definitions are
available in the literature. "The common Clements of these definitions suggest that the small group is
composed of a restricted number of people, usually fewer than ten who enjoy personal interaction
over a long span of time". There is a common goal by mutualagreement. For achieving the goal,
different functions and roles have to be performed by the members of the small group. Further, the
group has the capacity to adapt itself to the changing environments.
The characteristics of a small group may be stated as follows:
1. The size of the group is limited to about ten members t facilitate greater interpersonal relation.
2. It has a common mutually agreed goal.
3. The binding is the commonality on the basis of history, common workplace or common socio-
culture background.
4. There is frequent face-to-face interaction among members c the group.
5. Each member is supposed to perform a well-defined task and to common play some recognized
role in the group.
6. One of the members may be the leader who may coordinate the work in the group.
Function of small group
Small groups can help us in Innumerable ways. Basically they serve two kinds of functions in
organisations: Task and Maintenance.
Functional Activities of the Group
Task functions Group-maintenance Functions
(Held the group accomplish its task) (Held build group feelings and attitudes)

1. Initiating: Suggesting a new way of Harmonizing: compromising: reconciling

looking at a problem, or a new activity disagreements, getting others to explore
2. Seeking useful information or opinions; difference.
requesting facts; asking about feelings; Gate keeping: Inviting others to talk
asking for ideas or values. suggesting time limits or other procedures to
3. Giving useful information or opinions: permit wide participation keeping talk
offering facts, stating a belief; making following.
suggestions. Encouraging: being friendly, warm,
4. Clarifying: providing for meaning; responsively through words or facial
defining terms; restating, enlarging, or expression; agreeing with others.
stating Following: Going along with the group; being
5. summarizing: Reviewing; bringing related a good listener; showing that words are
ideas together; restating suggestions of heard.
others, Standard setting: Testing the groups
6. Consensus testing: Checking to see if the attitudes, towards its procedure; suggesting
group is ready to decide; sending up a trial procedures stating values or ethics;
balloon. supporting standards.

MODEL QUESTIONS
1. What kinds of groups often get formed in organisational? Give reasons for their formation
2. What are the factors that contribute to group cohesiveness?
3. Discuss the nature of group dynamics and theories of group formation.
4. Explain the group decision making techniques.
5. What are the benefits that an individual member gains from group membership? What costs are
simoultaneously incurred?
6. Are groups better than individuals in solving organisation problems? Explain.
REFERENCE BOOKS
1. Stephen R. Robbins, "Organisational Behaviour", Prentice Hal of India, New Delhi 6th Edition.
2. Keith Davis, "Human Behaviour at work", McGraw Hill International Edition.
3. Stephen P. Robbins, "Essential of Organisational Behaviour", Prentice Hall of India, New Delhi.
4. Fred Luthans, "Organisational Behaviour", McGraw Hill International Editions (Fifth
Edition).
5. Uma Sekaran, "Organisational Behaviour Text and cases. Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. Ltd.,
reprint 1994.
Case study 5
The School Boy Rookie
Kent Sikes is a junior at State University. He has taken a summer job is the biggest factory in his
hometown. He was told to report to the warehouse supervisor the first day at work. The supervisor
assigned him of a small group of men who were responsible for loading and unloading him boxcars
that supplied the materials and carried away the finished goods of the factory.
After two weeks on the job, Kent was amazed at how little work the men in his crew accomplished. It
seemed that they were forever standing around and talking or, in some cases, even going off to hide
when there was work to be done. Kent often found himself alone unloading a boxcar while the other
members of the crew were off messing around someplace else. When Kent complained to his
coworkers, they made it very plain that if he did not like it, he could quit but if he complained to the
supervisor, he would be sorry. Although Kent has been deliberately excluded from any of the crew's
activities such as taking breaks together or having a Friday afternoon beer after work at the tavern
across the street, yesterday he went up to one of the older members of the crew and said. "What gives
with you guys, anyway? 1 am just trying to do my job. The money is good and I just don't give a hang
about this place. I will be leaving to go back to school in a. few weeks, and I wish I could have gotten
to know you all better, but frankly I am sure glad I'm not like you guys". The older worker replied,
"Son, if you'd been here as long as I have, you would be just like us".
1. using some of the theories, explain the possible reasons for the group formation of this work crew.
What types of groups exist in this case?
2. Place this work group in the Schachter study. What role does the supervisor play in the
performance of this group?
3. What are the major informal roles of the crew member and Kent? What status position dios Kent
have with the group' Why?
4. Why hasn't Kent been accepted by the group? Do you agree with the older worker's last statement
in the case? Why o why not?
Source: Fred Luthans, Organisational Behaviour, McGraw-Hi International Edition.
CASE STUDY 6
The Blue-ribbon Committee
Mayor Sam Small is nearing completion of his first term in office. He feels his record has been pretty
good, except for the controversial issue of housing. He has been able to avoid doing anything about
housing so far and feels very strongly that this issue must not come to a head before this next election.
The voters are too evenly divided on the issue, and he would lose a substantial number of votes no
matter what stand he took. Yet with pressure increasing from both sides, he had to do something.
After much distress and vacillation he has finally come upon what he thinks is an ideal solution to his
dilemma. He has appointed a committee to study the problem and make some recommendations. To
make sure that the committee's work will not be completed before the election comes up, it was
important to pick the right people. Specifically, Sam has selected his "blue-ribbon" committee from a
wide cross section of the community so that it is in Sam's words, "all concerned parties will be
represented". He has made the committee very large and the members range from Ph.ds in urban
planning to real estate agents to local ward committee persons to priority group leaders. He has taken
particular care in selecting people who have widely divergent, outspoken, public views on the housing
issue.
1. Do you think Sam's strategy of using this committee to delay taking a stand on the housing issue
until after the election will work? Why or why not?
2. What are some of the important dynamics of this committee? Do you think the committee will
arrive at a good solution to the housing problems facing this city?
3. Do you think this committee will suffer from group think?
4. What types of informal roles is Sam exhibiting? Do you think he is an effective manager? Do you
think he is an effective politician? Is there a difference?
Source: Fred Luthans, 'Organisational Behaviour' McGraw-Hill International

- End Of Chapter -
LESSON- 13
LEADERSHIP

INTRODUCTION
According to George R Terry, "Leadership is the activity of influencing people to strive willingly for
group activities". Robert Tannen baum, Irwing R Weshler and Fred Massarik defined leadership as
Interpersonal influence exercised in a situation and directed through the communication process
towards the attainment of a specified goal or goals. According to Harold Koontz, Cyril O Donnel,
"Leadership is influencing people to follow in the achievement of a common goal."
Leadership is a word that conveys different meanings to different people. Despite of attention and
importance given to it leadership still remains an unexplained concept. To some, it means charisma;
to others it means power, Leadership can be defined as the process of influencing others to
accomplish certain predetermined goals.
One of the important tasks of a manager is to manage human resources. Effective management of
human resources requires understanding the capabilities of subordinates, assigning those
appropriate tasks, helping them to acquire new capabilities, maintaining their motivational level, and
constantly providing situations in which the staff enjoys doing the tasks assigned to them.
LEADERSHIP - INFLUENCING PROCESS
The source of influencing subordinates may come from the possession of a position in the
organisation. An individual may assume a leadership role as a result of, the position he or she holds in
the organisation. Not all leaders are managers, at the same time all managers are not leaders. Studies
indicate that as one goes up the managerial hierarchy, managers are required to spend an increasing
amount of their time interacting with people - this interaction may be at the shop floor level, meetings
or informal gatherings. Leaders play a critical role in influencing the work behaviour of others in the
system. The effectiveness of a manager depends upon the content as well as the style of his
interactions. A capable manager is able to influence his subordinates by providing them technical
guidance and clear directions when needed. However if the manager is not sensitive to the emotional
needs of subordinates and does not use the appropriate styles of leadership, there is a great danger of
his crippling the growth of his subordinates. Thus leadership is a process 'of influence which
transforms the potential behaviours of people within the system.

Please use headphones

A leader can influence the people either by compliance, identification and internalization (KELMAN,
1958). Compliance means when people are coerced to do something against their will. People may
obey because of Fear of punishment. Most authoritarian superiors influence subordinates through
the process of coercion which often elicits reluctant and half-hearted compliance. Identification
means people do work because they like their superior which may be because they like the qualities of
the leader like, values, charisma, concern for the subordinates etc. Internalization occurs when
followers are convinced that acting in a particular way as directed by the leader is in their own best
interests. The employees do whatever needs to be done. When the people believe that their leader is
trust worthy, they become self-motivated and the desired behaviour are also sustained over time
because the employees have internalized the values.
A review of the above discussion reveals that "Leadership is the process of influencing the activities of
one individual or a group in efforts toward goal achievement in a given situation." When we talk of
leader and follower, we would not be thinking only about hierarchical relationship such as
superior/subordinate. An individual who influences the behaviour of the people is a potential leader.
It is immaterial whether he is superior or subordinate.
AUTHORITY - POWER - INFLUENCE
Authority - Power and Influence are being treated as synonymous. Managers can understand their
leadership patterns by understanding the different meanings of these concepts.
Authority: It is the degree to which the job provides substantial freedom and discretion to the
individual in scheduling the work and in determining the procedures to be used in carrying it out.
Authority is bestowed by the organisation on certain individuals because of the position they hold and
responsibilities they are entrusted within the system.
Power: Power is a capacity that a leader has to influence the behaviour of the follower. Otherwise the
follower would not do these things. Power is the ability to influence people to make desired things
happen. Power is often perceived as inducing in manipulation to hurt others or further one's own
interests. Influence is the process of affecting potential behaviour. The power can be defined as the
potential for influence. Thus power is resource which may or may not be used. The use of power
results in a change in the personality that a person or a group will adopt.
TYPES OF POWER
French and Raven (1959) categorised the basis of power in terms of the leaders' relationship with
others. They are reward power, coercive power, legitimate power, referring power and expert power.
REWARD POWER: Reward power is the ability to reward others in the organisation, if the leader
is perceived as having the greater reward the greater will be his ability to influence others. Reward
could be both extrinsic and intrinsic which include, money, status, advancement, recognition, paying
compliments, job enrichment etc.
COERCIVE POWER: Coercive power is exercised to manipulate the behaviour of people in the
organisation by threatening to punish or withhold the rewards if the people fall to comply with the
wills of the leader. The trade unions weaken this power base,
LEGITIMATE POWER: Legitimate power is the authority bestowed on the individuals by their
position in the organisation. The hierarchy in the organisation internalized the form that superior can
command and subordinates should obey.
The basis of Reward power, Coercive power and legitimate power originates from the position in the
organisation. The Referent power and Expert power originate from the personal power.
REFERENT POWER: Referent power is that the follower identifies with his leader. Referent power
refers to one's ability to control emotions, behaviour because the latter wants to identify himself with
the leader or the power source.
EXPERT POWER: Expert power is the possession of knowledge, experience, and judgement that
the subordinates lack. The leaders able to direct the follower behaviour because of possession of
special knowledge and expertise.
Power is necessary to make things happen in the organisation. When the manager has little
knowledge and expertise, the subordinates tend to disregard the manager.
Organisational effectiveness, as well as leader effectiveness, is a function of both performance
(output) and satisfaction. Various studies tried to investigate the relation between the effectiveness of
the work group and the degree to which they are satisfied. K.R. Student (1968) related the number of
measures of performance to the foreman's power. It is found that the legitimate power, which is most
important for the compliance, was not related to the performance of the work groups. Reward and
Coercive power were positively related to some performance of the work groups. Expert and Referent
power were significantly and positively related to measures of performance, It Is further contented
that subordinates are more responsive to and satisfied with a leader whose influence attempts are not
based entirely on position based power. However the results of the research did not clearly point out
specific relation between supervisory power and performance. Expert and Legitimate power bases
appear to be most important reason for compliance and expert and referent power bases tend to be
often strongly and consistently related to subordinate performance and satisfaction measures. It is
observed that appropriate power base is largely affected by without variables. The leader may need
various power bases depending on the situation.

- End Of Chapter -
LESSON - 14
THEORIES OF LEADERSHIP
The literature on leadership is voluminous. The questions that are asked quite frequently are what
make a good leader Can leadership kills be learnt. There are four approaches to explain effective
leadership, the first tries to explain the universal personality traits to be possessed by leader. The
second tries to explain leadership in terms of behaviours. Contingency models, the third one explains
the deficiencies in the earlier leadership theories. Currently researchers are now attempting to
identify the set of traits to be possessed by one to be characterised as a leader.
FRAIT THEORIES
The most commonly used approach to the study of leadership concentrated on leadership traits.
Trait theories of leadership try to differentiate leader from non-leaders on the basis of traits. A leader
was described on the basis of qualities such as intelligence, charisma, decisiveness, enthusiasm,
strength, integrity, sell- confidence and so on (STODGILL, 1974). There were certain characteristics
such as physical energy or friendliness that were essential for effective leadership. These personal
qualities like intelligence were felt to be transferable from one situation to another. Since all
individuals did not have these qualities, only those who had those qualities can be considered as
leaders. It is, however, intended to identify traits that are consistently associated with leadership. For
example, intelligence, dominance, self-confidence, high energy level and task-relevant knowledge arc
five traits that show positive correlation with leadership.
BEHAVIOURAL THEORIES
The deficiency in the trait theory to explain the leadership prompted the researchers to look into the
behaviours that specific leaders exhibited The Ohio State Group and the University of Michigan
Group is the two popular studies which developed the leadership styles. Ohio Stab studies have
identified two types of leadership behaviour described by the subordinates.
Initiating structure:
The leader is characterized as holding the highest position with initiating structure and he assigns
group members particular tasks. Lie expects workers to maintain definite standards of performance
and emphasizes the meeting of deadlines.
CONSIDERATION
The leader with consideration shows concern for his or her follower comfort, well-being, status, and
satisfaction. Such leaders help subordinates with personal problems and treat all subordinates as
equals.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN STUDIES
The Michigan research labelled two dimensions of leadership behaviours; employee oriented and
production oriented. The leader who is employee oriented took a personal interest in the needs of his
subordinates. The concern of production oriented leader was in accomplishing the group tasks. The
Michigan researchers concluded that employee oriented leaders were associate with higher group
productivity and higher job satisfaction. Production oriented leaders tended to associate with low
group productivity and lower work satisfaction.
The Iowa Leadership Studies
Ronald Lippit and Ralph K White under the guidance of Kurt Lewin conducted a research on the
impact of three types of leadership on the ten year old boys of a hobby club. Kurt Lewin is the father
of the group dynamics. The boys are subjected to Authoritarian, Democratic and Laissez faire leaders.
The authoritarian leader was directive and allowed no participation. The democratic leader
encouraged group discussion and participation. The Laissez Faire leader gave complete freedom to
the people. The three leadership styles were-manipulated to find out their impact on satisfaction. The
boys liked the democrat leader followed by Laissez faire over the authoritarian leader. The IOWA
studies have shown that different styles of leadership styles can produce different complex reactions
from the same or similar groups.
The IOWA, Ohio State and Michigan studies are three of the historically most important leadership
studies for the study of organizational behaviour. Earlier the leaders were felt to be born. The 'Great
Man' theory of leadership implied that some individuals are born with some traits that allow them to
encourage for many situations.
The emphasis is being switched from the individual leader to the group being led. In group how much
the leader behaviour affects the group and is affected by the group followers. Finally in addition to the
leader and the group, the situation began to receive increased attention in leadership theory. The
leader is viewed as a product of the times and the situation. The person with particular qualities or
traits that a situation requires will emerge as the leader.
CONTINGENCY THEORIES OF LEADERSHIP
Tannen Baum and Schmidt's Leadership Pattern:
Contingency theory advocates that there is no "one best way" to lead n all situations. Effective
leadership style varies from situation to situation. Leadership style depends upon various factors like
traits of the leader, the characteristics of the followers, the nature of the task being long and other
situational factors. It was felt that the concern for task tends to be represented by autocratic leader
behaviour, while concern for relationship is represented by democratic leader behaviour. This
was popular because it was generally agreed that leaders influence their willowers by either ways:
(1) They can tell their followers what to do and how too do it or
(2) They can share their leadership responsibilities with their Followers by involving them in the
planning and execution of the task.
The former is the traditional authoritarian style, which emphasizes ask concerns. The latter is more
non directive democratic style which tresses the concern for human relationship. The authoritarian
leader is ten based on the assumption that the power of leaders is derived for his position they occupy
and rest are inherently lazy (Theory X). The democratic style approves that the power of the leaders is
granted by the group they are to lead (Theory Y). In authoritarian style all policies are determined by
the leader. In democratic style, policies are open for group discussion and decision.
Robert Tannen Baum and Warren H Schmidt depicted a broad range of styles between these two
extremes on broad range of styles as continuum moving from authoritarian or boss centered leader
behaviorism it one end to democratic or subordinate centered leader behaviors at the other end.
 Fig. 1 Tannenbaum and Schmidt Contingency Model
Tannenbaum and Schmidt suggested that the boss centered leadership or subordinate centered
leadership is influenced by the manager, the subordinate and the situation. The leadership depends
upon lie managers' value system, confidence in subordinates, and feeling of security insecurity. It
depends upon subordinates' need for dependence and independence, readiness to assume
responsibility, abilities, knowledge and experience and inclination to participate in decision making.
The leadership pattern also depends upon the type of the organisation, group] effectiveness and time
pressure. Tannen Baum and Schmidt suggested that the leader should assess the forces that
determine what behaviour would be appropriate in any given situation and should be able to adopt
the suitable leadership style (Fig 1).
FIEDLERS CONTINGENCY THEORY
The point of concern is not the best style of leadership but of the most effective type of leadership
style for a particular situation. The effective or ineffective leadership style depends upon the
important elements of the situation.
Fielder (1967) developed a contingency model of leadership effectiveness. The model is based on the
relationship between leadership style and the favourableness of the situation.
The favourableness of situation depends upon the following:

1. The leader member relationships: The personal relations with the members of the group
is a critical variable in determining the favourableness and unfavourableness of a situation.

2. The degree of task structure: The degree of structure in the task that their group has been
assigned to perform.
3. The leaders position power. The power and authority that their position provides which is
the third most critical dimension of the situation. Situations are favourable to the leader if all the
three of the above dimension are high i.e., if the leader is well accepted by followers (First dimension
traits). If the task is very structured and everything is spelled out (Second dimension High) and if a
great deal of authority) is formally attributed to the leaders position (High-Third dimension), the
situation is highly favorable. If the three dimensions are low, the situation is highly unfavourble. It
was discovered that under very favourable and very unfavourable situations the task oriented leaders
was the most effective.

Fig 2 a Fiedlers Leadership styles for various group situations

When the situation is moderately favourable or unfavourable the relationship oriented or considerate
type of leadership is the best one. Task oriented leaders tend to perform better in group situations
that are either very favourable or very unfavourable to the leader.
According to Fielder, it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible for a leader to change his or her
leadership style and hence he advocates that the leader find situations which would match the
individual style rather than to try to change the style to fit the situation. Fielders leadership
effectiveness training programmes are geared to teach the trainees how to diagnose situations and
change them to optimize the leadership style.
There are controversies about Fielders theory. The instructions developed by Fielder to measure
leadership style called the Least Preferred Co-Worker (LPC), instrument is considered by many as
not measuring actual leader behaviour but merely the persons feelings about the co-worker he or she
prefers least to work with.
LIKERTS SYSTEM 4 MANAGEMENT
Rensis Likert (1967) suggests that managers operate under four systems. In system 1 the manager
operates in very authoritarian manner and exploits the subordinates. In system -2 the manager is a
benevolent autocrat, behaves in a paternalistic manner and still tries to be autocratic. In system 3,
the manager adopts a consultative approach. He consults subordinates but takes the final decision. In
system 4 the manager uses a democratic style. Manager presents the problem and makes the
decision by consent. The typical characteristics of the four systems is indicated in the Fig 3
In summary, system 1 is a task oriented, highly structured authoritarian management style. System 4
is a relationship oriented management style based on team work, mutual trust and confidence.
System 2 and 3 are intermediate stages between two extremes, which approximate closely theory X
and theory Y assumptions. Organisations are only beginning to realize that their most important
assets are human resources and that the Managing of these resources is one of their most crucial
tasks.
MANAGERIAL GRID
Robert R Blake and Janes Moutons (1969) managerial grid is one of the very popular approaches to
identify the leadership styles of practising managers. Concern for people and Concern for
production are the two dimensions of the grid. Concern for people is on the vertical axis and
concern for production is on horizontal axis. These two dimensions are similar to the consideration
and initiating structure functions identified by the Ohio State studies and the employee-centered and
production centered styles used in the Michigan studies.
In the managerial grid, five different types of leadership based on concern for production (task) and
concern for people (relationship) are located in four quadrants. A 9 by 9 grid is generated on the basis
of these two dimensions. (Fig 4). Blake and Mouton identified 1,1 or improvised style of managers
who are now on both their concern for people and production, the 1.9 to country club style managers
have high concern for people but low concern for production, the 5.5. or the middle of the road
style of managers who have moderate levels of concern for both people and production. The 9.1 or the
 manager style, manager has high concern for production but very little concern for people and finally,
the 9.9 or team management style, manager has high concern for both people and production i.e., the
leader with a rating of nine on the horizontal axis has a maximum concern for production. People
become more important for the leader as his ratings progress up the vertical axis. A leader with a
rating of nine on the vertical axis has maximum concern for people.

Fig 4. Managerial Grid (Blade & Mouton)

A managers position on the grid can be determined by a questionnaire developed by Blake and
Mouton and can play an important role in organisation development. According to Blake and
Mouton, the one best style for all managers in all organisations and under all situations is 9.9 or team
management style.
FLEDDINS THREE DIMENSIONAL MANAGERIAL GRID
Blake and Mouton do not relate the style of a manager to effectiveness. William J.Reddins (1970) has
added a third dimension to the 2 dimensional managerial grid.
The four basic leadership styles represented in the central grid are same as those identified in Ohio
State studies and 2 dimensional managerial grid. Reddin said that the four styles on upper right are
effective and the four styles on the lower left are ineffective. The upper right of the four styles achieve
the output requirements and goals of the job.
EFFECTIVE STYLES
1. Executive :- This style gives great concern for both tasks and relationships. A manager using
this style is seen as satisfying the group for setting goals and organising work.
2. Developer: - This style gives maximum concern for people and minimum concern for task. A
manager using this style is seen as having implict trust in people and as being primarily concerned
with their goal accomplishment.
1 Benevolent Autocrat: This style gives maximum concern to task and minimum concern to people.
The manager is seen as having well defined methods for accomplishing goals that are helpful to
managers.
1 Bureaucrat: - This style gives minimum concern for task and people. The manager using this style
is seen as appropriately delegating to subordinates decisions about how the work should be done.
INEFFECTIVE STYLES
1. Compromises: - It is high task and high relationship behaviour. The Manager with this style
is seen as initiating more structure that is needed by the group. He appears to be not genuine in inter-
personal relationships.
2. Missionary: - This style gives maximum concern for people and minimum concern to tasks.
A missionary manager is seen as unwilling to accomplish a task it risks disrupting on relationship or
losing a good person image.
3. Autocrat: - This style is high concern for task and minimum concern for people. An autocrat
manager is seen as imposing methods on others an interested in short run outputs.
4. Deserter; - This style is minimum concern for people and task. Deserter is seen as providing
little support when needed by the members of the group.
A model such as Tri-dimensional leader effectiveness model is distinctive because it does not depict a
single deal leader behaviour style that is being suggested for all situations.

Please use headphones

HERSEY AND BLANCHARDS LIFE CYCLE OR SITUATIONAL APPROACH

Having discussed different theories of leadership, the need for a situational model in the leadership
has been recognised in the literature. Hersey and Blanchards life-cycle or situational approach to
leadership is another popular approach to management training and development. It is based on the
managerial grid and Reddins three D Taking the lead from Fiedlers work on situational variables,
Hersey and Blanchard incorporated the majority of the followers into their model. The level of
majority is defined by the following criteria:
1. Degree of achievement motivation.
2. Willingness to take on responsibility.
3. Amount of education and / or experience.
Situational leadership is based on an interrelationship among:
(1) the amount of guidance and direction the leader gives (task style)
(2) the amount of socio-emotional support a leader provides (relationship style) and
(3) the readiness level that followers exhibit in performing a task (maturity).
It provides leaders with some understanding of the relationship between an effective style of
leadership and the level of maturity of their followers.
According to situational leadership, there is no one best way to influence people. Which leadership
style a person should use with individuals or groups depends on the maturity level of the people the
leader is attempting to influence as illustrated in the Figure 6. The figure portrays the relationship
between task, relationship and maturity of the followers. It also shows the appropriate leadership
style to be used as followers move from immaturity to maturity. This bell-shaped curve is called
prescriptive curve because it shows the appropriate leadership style directing above the work
spreading level of maturity.
Telling StylE: This style involves high task behaviour and low relationship behaviour. In this
situation followers are unwilling to take responsibility they have to be directed with clear and specific
direction about their roles. They have to be told about what, how, when and where to do various tasks
because of the followers low level maturity. Telling style is for low maturity people.
Selling Style: This style involves high task behaviour and high relationship behaviour. In this
situation people are unable but willing to take responsibility. They are confident but lack of skills at
this time. The leader tries to get the followers psychologically to buy into desired behaviour through
two way communication and explanation. Selling style is for low to moderate maturity.
Participating Style: This style involves high relationship behaviour and low task behaviour. People
at the maturity level are able but unwilling to do, what the leader wants. They are unwilling due to
lack of confidence or insecurity. The leader has to actively listen to people and support their efforts.
Thus a supportive, non-directive, participating style has the highest probability of being effective with
individuals at this maturity level. Participating is for moderate to high maturity.
Delegating Style: This style involves low relationship behaviour and low task behaviour. People at
this maturity level are both able and unwilling to take responsibility. The responsibility for carrying
out the plans is given to these mature followers. They are permitted to run the show. Delegating is for
high maturity people.
APPLICATION OF SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Situational leadership helps to assess the maturity level of the lowers. The leader in situational
leadership style should help followers to grow in maturity as they are able and willing to go. The
development of the followers should be done by adjusting leadership behaviour through the four
styles as shown in the Figure 6. Situational leadership contends that strong direction (task behaviour)
with immature followers is appropriate if they are to become productive. It suggests further that the
leader should provide positive reinforcement and socio-emotional support to the people who are
graduating from immaturity to maturity. The leader should decrease the control over their activities
but also continue to decrease relationship behaviour as the followers reach high levels of maturity. If
the followers are very mature, the leader has to leave them on their own. Then there is more trust
friendship between the leader and the followers. However, the leader has to watch the performance of
the followers. If there is a drop in the performance level, the leader should provide appropriate socio-
emotional support and direction.
Appropriate Style
To determine the leadership style to be used with person, leader has to do the following things. The
leader has to identify what aspect of the job of the follower is to be influenced. Secondly the ability or
motivational level of the individual or the group is to be determined. The third and final step is
deciding which of the four leadership styles would be appropriate with this individual in each of these
areas. If it is found that the followers' maturity level is low and is unwilling to take responsibility, the
leader should use a directive telling style. Low relationship behaviour does not mean that the leader
is unfriendly with his followers. The leader may increase his relationship behaviour as the follower
begins to demonstrate the ability to hand necessary job. Under such situation the leader will be
moving from telling style to selling style.
Components of Maturity
The key aspect of the effective leadership style is to identify the maturity level of the followers, who
are to be influenced. David C. McClellands research suggests that achievement motivated people have
the capacity to set high but attainable goals. The high achievers are given with the maturity related to
the task with a capacity to set attainable high goals. People gain task-related maturity through
education and experience. It is also argued that the education and experience affect ability and
achievement motivation affects willingness. It is suggested that the concept of maturity consists of
two components, Job maturity (ability) and Psychological maturity (willingness). Job maturity is
ability to do the job with knowledge and skill. The followers with high job maturity have the
knowledge, ability and experience to perform the setting tasks without direction from them.
Psychological maturity is related to the commitment. Followers with such commitment do not need
extensive encouragement to get them to do things in that area.
According to Chris Argyris, people move on a continuum from immaturity to maturity. The people
mature over time moving from positive state to active state, from dependency on others to relative
independence. It should be remembered that although maturity is useful, the leader style and the
nature of the work can be equal or of greater importance in situational leadership style. The job
maturity can be measured on an immaturity natural scale and the variables are past job experience,
job knowledge and understanding of job requirements. Similarly the psychological maturity can be
measured on a scale with the variables like willingness to take responsibility, achievement motivation
and commitment.
COMPONENTS OF LEADERSHIP STYLE
The two critical elements of the effective leadership are to identify the appropriate leadership style to
influence the followers or the group. Hersey, Blanchard and Hambleton have developed two different
leadership scales. Both leadership instruments measure task and relationship behaviour on five
behavioural dimensions.
The five task behaviour dimensions and five relationship behaviour dimension are listed as follows:
_______________________________________________________________
Task Behaviour Behavioural Indicator
Dimensions The extent to which a leader
_____________________________________________________________________
Goal Setting Specifies the goals people are to accomplish
Organisation Organises the work situation for the people
Setting timelines Sets timelines for people
Directing Provides specific directions
Controlling Specifies and requires regular reporting on problems
___________________________________________________________________
Relationship Behaviour Behavioural Indicator
Dimensions The extent to which a leader
_______________________________________________________________
__
Communications Involves people in Give and Take discussions
Facilitation interaction Facilitates peoples interactions with others
Active listening Seeks out and listens to peoples opinions and concerns
Providing feedback Provides feedback on peoples accomplishments

The four basic leadership styles are described with reference to the match with the maturity of the
followers. The four leadership styles are telling style, selling style, participating style and delegating
style. The telling style of leader provides specific instructions and closely purposive performance.
Selling style leader explains decisions and provides opportunity for clarification. The leader with
participating style sh ares ideas and facilitates in making decisions. The delegating style of leadership
turns over responsibility for decisions and implementation to the subordinates. Situational
leadership has wide application in every kind of organisation
Whether it is business and industry, education, government, military or even family. These concepts
apply in any situation in which people are trying to influence the behaviour of other people. The
situational leadership is widely accepted and the managers agree that it gives them some helpful
handles to determine what they should do in what situation. One of the indicators that the managers
can use in determining when and to what degree they should shift their style is performance or
results. If the group's performance is increasing it would be appropriate for managers to shift their
style to participating and delegating style of leadership. This indicates the groups take relevant
maturity is increasing. If the results of the group performance assess the decline, it gives the
managers a clue that they may need to shift their leader behavior to telling and selling styles.
EFFECTIVENESS
The effectiveness of any leadership lies in the kind of climate that is created in the organisation
through the use of appropriate styles. Managers may keep in mind the following for creating a proper
motivational climate.
(1) Create a climate of interdependence or independence rather than dependency. Self-dispensing
leader can do this by providing freedom of work, encouraging initiative, supporting experimentation
and team work.
(2) Create a climate of competition through recognition of work. Followers look forward to be
rewarded for good and innovative work. Rewards may not always be in financial terms. Even a word
of appreciation has great motivating value, although appreciating indiscriminately makes value less.
 (3) create a climate of approach and problem solving rather than avoidance. A manager who cannot
take responsibility by himself cannot inspire his subordinates to take responsibility. Unfortunately,
no work gets done unless people feel responsible and make the responsibility to do it.
(4) Create ideal climate through personal example. Managers themselves need to be motivated and
hardworking. Followers always look at their boss for guidance and examples.
(5) Motivate people through guidance and conversation. A good manager needs to be a counsellor of
followers. He has to interact with different workers who have different need patterns. He has to be
sensitive to these individual differences.
QUESTIONS
1. What are the different sources of power for a leader? Which of these influence most? Explain.
2. Briefly explain the differences between the group theories and trait theories.
3. Explain Tannenbaums contingency theory of leadership.
4. Illustrate Fiedlers contingency model.
5. Briefly identify the major styles from Blake & Moutons grid.
6. Bring out the differences between the managerial grid and Reddins 3 'D' model.
7. Explain Hersey and Blanchards situational model of leadership.
8. What is Likerts system 4 management? Illustrate it briefly.

- End Of Chapter -
LESSON 15
MOTIVATION

INTRODUCTION
Motivaton is the most important concept in understanding the behaviour of the individual. Every
organisation has people with outstanding abilities who perform better than the others. Why do some
people perform well while others do not? We try to answer the questions by understanding the
meaning of the motivation.
People in the organisation have dignity, self-respect, values, sentiments and aspirations apart from
the economic status. Because of these the efficiency of the enterprise is related not only to the
efficiency of the sophisticated machines installed but also importantly upon the satisfaction and
desire of people to put their mind and heart into the work.
MEANING
Motivation encompasses numerous complex aspects of human behaviour to which contribution has
been made by Sociologists, Social Anthropologists, Psychologists and the business executives.
Motivation essentially refers to an individual. An individual has either high or low motivation, or has
one or another kind of motivation. It also refers to such basic questions. Why does Raghu socialise
more than Ramu. The answer to the first question is partly contained in the second question. Raghu
does not work as hard as Ramu perhaps because he has a higher psychological need (Motivation) for
socialization. If the job can provide the opportunity to Raghu to satisfy his need for socialization may
be he would work harder. Ramu may work hard because he has the high need for competition and
challenge. However, in the final analysis of employees behaviour, the questions raised is, why do
some people have higher motivation for work than others?
The term motivation was generated from the Latin word movere. which means to move. People who
are motivated exert greater efforts to perform than those who are not motivated. However, this
definition is relative. Berelson and Steiner (1964) defined A motive is an inner statement energies,
activities or moves, and that directs or channels behaviour towards goals. Sanford and Wrightsman
(1970) described that a motive is a rest-less-ness. A lakh, a yen, a force, once in the group of motive,
the organism does something. It most generally does something to reduce restlessness, to remedy the
lakh, to alleviate the yen, to mitigate the force. A more descriptive and less substantive definition
would say that motivation is the willingness to do. Willingness to do is conditioned by the need for
satisfaction. Motivation refers to the way in which urges, drives, desires, aspirations, strivings or
needs, direct, control or explain the behaviour of human beings (DALTON).
The definition of motivation includes the following:
the urges, drives, desires, aspirations , strivings or needs of a human being influence human
behaviour.
the factors to influence human behaviour are Psychological, sociological, economic or
managerial.
the efficiency of such behaviour this may be tested by the resultant action. Whether this
behaviour has directed ,controlled or implemented the desired action.
If the individual feels motivated, his behaviour will result in the performance of desired
action. Volumes have been written on human motivation, the two outstanding works of Abraham
Maslow and Frederick Herzberg may be considered. To be the pillar posts on this subject Professor
A.H.Maslow wrote motivation and personality and Professor Frederick Herzberg, Bermard Mausener
and Barbara Block Synderman wrote books on motivation to work. The word motive has been
interpreted with many words like desires, counts wishes, aims, goals, needs drives and
incentives.
MOTIVATION PROCESS
The motivation process is depicted in the following figures:
Figure I
Unsatisfied Tension Drives Search Behavior Satisfaction Reduction
of Need

Figure II
Hunger Need for - Search for Preparation Eat food Satisfaction Need Satisfied
Food Food of Food of Hunger

Motivation of people depends on their motives. Motives are defined more often as needs, wants,
drives or impulses within the individual. Motives are generally directed towards goals. These goals
may be conscious or sub-conscious.
An unsatisfied need creates tension which stimulates drives within the individual. The drives generate
a search behaviour to find a particular goal that, if attained, will satisfy need and lead to reduction of
tension. Motivated employees are in a state of tension. In order to relieve this tension, they engage in
activity. The greater the tension, the more activity will be needed to bring about relief. When
individuals work hard at some activity, we can conclude than they are driven by a desire to achieve
some goals that they perceive as having value to them.
It is, however, underivable that motives are directed to the attainment of goal which in turn
determine the behaviour of the human beings. This behavior ultimately leads to goal directed
activity such as preparing food and goal activity such as eating food (Hersey & Kenneth). The
Motivated process is built on the foundation of unsatisfied need. Although needs are infrequently
viewed as self-serving desires, human beings behave in a way that they perceive to be best in their
self-interest. Every individual consciously or unconsciously asks, himself, What s in it for me?
before engaging in any form of behaviour. The principle that individuals are motivated by their self-
interest underlines almost every economic theory and is contained, explicitly or implicitly in all
theories of motivation. Whether it is called self serving behaviour, need satisfaction or whatever, the
underlying concept is the same; individuals act so as to maximise their own self-interest. Thus self
interest is the ultimate motivating process.
In systems sense motivation consists of three interacting and independent elements, motives,
behaviour and goals.
BEHAVIOUR
All behaviour is a series of activities. Behaviour is generally motivated by a desire to achieve a goal. At
any movement individuals may indulge in multifarious activities like working, talking, eating and the
like. They switch over from one activity to another activity quickly. In order to predict and control the
behaviour managers must understand the motives of people.
MOTIVES (NEEDS)
The terms motives, needs and drives are used interchangeably. Motives are action-oriented and
provide thrust towards goals accomplishment. Needs are created whenever there is a physiological or
psychological imbalance. For example, the needs for food and water are translated into the hunger
and thirst drives, and the need for friends becomes a drive for affiliation.
GOALS
Motives are directed towards goals. Motives generally create a state of disequilibrium, physiological
or psychological imbalance within the individual. Attaining a goal will tend to restore physiological or
psychological balance. Goals are the ends which provide satisfaction of human wants.
TYPES OF NEEDS PRIMARY NEEDS (MOTIVES)
Psychologists classified needs into different categories. A simple classification is primary needs and
secondary needs. The primary needs include Physiological needs. Physiological needs are food,
shelter, clothing, water, air etc. These needs arise from the basic physiology of life and are important
to survival and preservation. Therefore, these needs are universal in people but the intensity of these
needs may vary from person to person. These physiological needs are conditioned by social practices
and are physiologically based. The primary motives include hunger, thirst sleep and material concern.
GENERAL MOTIVES
General Motives are those which lie between the primary and secondary motives. The motives of
competence, curiosity, manipulation, activity and affection can be included in this category. An
understanding of these motives is important to the study of human behaviour. They are more relevant
to organizational behaviour than the primary motives.
THE COMPETENCE MOTIVE
Robert White (1959) built his theory of motivation around competence. He believes that people strive
to have control over their competence. This motive is mostly exhibited at the age of nine by venturing
out into the world on their own by crossing the road by themselves, ride a bicycle, play basket ball etc.
These needs are manifested by the drive for competence, or mastery over the environment.
This motive has interesting implications for job design in an organization. People may be motivated
by the challenging job of trying to master the job or to become competent in the job.
THE CURIOSITY, MANIPULATION AND ACTIVITY MOTIVES
Although these drives often get the small child into trouble, curiosity, manipulation and activity, if
carried forward to adulthood can be very beneficial to the organisation. If the employees are stifled
from expressing curiosity, manipulation and activity motives the organisation will eventually suffer.
THE AFFECTION MOTIVE
Affection Motive is associated with both primary and secondary motives. Affection motive is
associated with love and affiliation. Affection deserves special attention because of its growing
importance to the world where we suffer from interpersonal, inter-individual and national conflict
where quality of life and human rights are becoming increasingly important to modern society.
SECONDARY MOTIVES
The Secondary drives are undoubtedly critical to the study of the human behaviour. As a human
society develops economically and becomes more complex, the primary drives and to a lesser degree
the general drives give way to the learned secondary drives in motivating behaviour. Secondary needs
very among people much more than primary needs. This exists even as opposites in two different
persons. One person has a need for self-assertion and is aggressive with people. A second person on
the other hand may be submissive and to yield to others aggressions. Needs also change according to
the situation. Secondary needs produce a variety of motives in each person. For example, the
behaviour- absenteeism can result from lack of interest in the job, conflict with a co-worker or for a
variety of other reasons.
CHARACTERISTICS OF SECONDARY NEEDS:
Secondary needs are often hidden, so that a person cannot recognize them. This fact alone makes
motivation difficult. Since secondary needs are so vague, dissatisfied workers often say their
dissatisfaction is caused by something easier to identify, such as low wages. Many so called wage
disputes do not really concern wages, hence meeting the wage request does not remove the basic
dissatisfaction that existed. In summary, secondary needs are strongly conditioned by experience.
They vary in type and intensity among people. They are subject to change within an individual work
in groups rather than alone. They are often hidden from conscious recognition. They are vague
feelings instead of specific physical needs and influence behaviour.
Although human needs have been classified as Primary and Secondary needs, in an individual person,
they are inseparable. The State of the physical body affects the mind and the state of mind can affect
the physical body. Everyone must be treated as a whole person.
Need for power, need for achievement and need for affiliation are some of the important secondary
motives. They are commonly referred to as now, much and AFS.
THE POWER MOTIVE
McClelland has also done research on Power. His latest work discusses the two faces of power.
McClelland (1976) differentiates between personal power and institutional or social power.
McClelland describes the institutional power manager exercises power in the interests and the
welfare of the organisation. Institutional power managers are said to be very effective since they are
willing to somewhat sacrifice their own interests for the organizations overall well being.
Alfred Adler (1911) explained the power need as the need to manipulate others or the drive for
superiority over others. Any one in a responsible position in business, government, unions, education
or the military may exhibit a considerable need for power. Power motive has significant implications
for organizational leadership and for the informal, political aspects of organization. Power has
emerged as the one of the most important dynamics in the study of organizational behaviour.
THE ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVE
David C McClelland (1961) used the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) which proved to be very
effective tool in researching achievement. One picture in the TAT shows a young man ploughing a
field, the sun is about to sink in the west. The person supposed to take the test is supposed to tell a
story about what he or she sees in the picture. The story will project a persons major motives. For
example, the test taken may say that the man in the picture is sorry the sun is going down because he
still has more laid to plough and he wants to get the crops planted before it rains. Such response
indicates high achievement. A low achiever might say that the man in happy the sun is finally going
down so that he can go to the house relax and have a cool drink.
Individuals high in N. Ach exhibit certain characteristics and can easily be spotted in organization.
High A. ACH individuals like to work on jobs which are fairly challenging. Too little challenge will
bore them, since there is no opportunity to satisfy their urge to achieve. High N. Ach individuals will
not try to work on jobs that are so challenging that successful task accomplishment becomes doubtful.
High N. Ach individuals hence seek jobs that are moderately challenging. The achievement motive
can be expressed as a desire to perform interims of a standard of excellence or to be successful in
competitive situations. The specific characteristics of a high achiever can be summarised as follows:
THE AFFILIATION MOTIVE
Affiliation plays a very complex but vital role in human behaviour. Individuals high in N. Affiliation
(N.Aff) like to interact with colleagues in the organisation. They have a strong desire for approval and
reassurance from others and they are willing to conform to the norms of groups to which they belong.
In effect, they have needs to develop affinity and warm relationships with people in the work system.
They usually like to work with others in a friendly atmosphere.
Sometimes affiliation is equated with social motives and or group dynamics. When we go back to the
Hawthorne studies conducted many years ago, the importance of affiliation motive in the behaviour
of organizational participants is very clear. Employees have a very intense need to belong to and be
accepted by the group. This affiliation motive is an important part of the group dynamics. People high
in N. Affiliations are said to perform better in their jobs when they are given supportive feedback. Co-
operative work norms where pressure for increased output comes from friends also increase outputs.
Thus friendly managers and supervisors can influence individuals high in N. Affiliation and motivate
them to work harder.
THE SECURITY MOTIVE
Security is a very intense motive. Security motive appears to be very much simpler. Humans have
learned security motive to protect themselves from the contingencies of life and actively try to avoid
situations which would prevent them from satisfying their primary, general and secondary motives.
The simple conscious security motive is typically taken care of by insurance policies, personal savings
plan, and other fringe benefits at the place of employment. On the other hand the more complex,
unconscious security motive is not so easily fulfilled but may have a greater and more intensive
impact on human behaviour.

THE STATUS MOTIVE

Status or prestige is more relevant along with security in todays dynamic society. The modern
affluent person is often painted as a status seeker and is accused of being concerned with material
symbols of status like the right clothes, the right car, or the latest personal computer than the more
basic, human oriented values in life. Status can be simply defined as the relative ranking that a person
holds in a group, organization or society. Everyone has status but it may be high or low depending on
how the relative positions are ranked, Sociologist Talcott Parson, identified the membership in
family, personal qualities, achievements ad authority and power possession are the sources of status.

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THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
Theories of motivation can be categorized broadly under content or need theories, cognitive or
process theories. Maslow, Alderfer, Murray, McClelland are some of the people who have made
significant contribution to the content theories which basically look at the motives or needs in
individuals that influence behaviour. Adams, Vroom and Porter and Lawler made significant
contributions to the cognitive theories which look into the dynamic process of how people assess work
situations and would engage in work behaviour.

The figure shows four major lines of the theoretical development of motivation.
The figure shows that the Pioneering Scientific managers like F.W. Taylor suggested wage incentive
models to motivate workers. Next came the human relations movement. Maslow, Herzberg and
Alderfer followed. The models suggested by Vroom and Porter and Lawler are cognitively based.
At present, however, a group of content models and process models can be identified, but an overall
theory of work motivation does not exist.
At present, however, a group of content models and process models can be identified, but an overall
theory of work motivation does not exist.
THE CONTENT THEORIES OF WORK MOTIVATION
The content theories of motivation which are basically concerned with the need patterns of the
individuals are given below.
The content theory of work motivation attempt to determine what that is motivates people at work.
The contents theorists are concerned with identifying the needs/drives that people have and how
these needs / drives priorities. At first, money was felt to be the only incentive (scientific
management) and then a little later it was felt that incentives include working conditions, security
and perhaps a democratic style of supervision (human relations).
Recently the content of motivation has been deemed to be the so called higher-level needs or
motives, such as esteem and self-actualization (Maslow), responsibility, recognition achievement and
advancement (Herzberg) and growth and personal development (Alderfer) a thorough understanding
of work motivation leads to specific application techniques.
MASLOWS HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
Abraham Maslow (1954, 1968) need hierarchy theory is probably the most widely known theory of
individual needs and motivation. Abraham Maslow recognizes that needs have a certain priority. As
the more basic needs are satisfied, a person seeks to fulfill the higher-level needs. If ones basic needs
are not met, they claim priority, and efforts to satisfy the higher-level needs must be postponed. A
need hierarchy of five level of AH Maslow has gained wide attention. The five levels include:
1. Physiological needs
2. Safety and Security Needs
3. Belonging and Social Needs
4. Esteem and Status Needs
5. Self-actualization and fulfillment needs
The important point about need levels is that they usually have a definite sequence of domination.
Second level needs do not dominate until first-level needs are reasonably satisfied. Third level needs
do not dominate until first and second level needs have been reasonably achieved and so on as
illustrated in the Figure 2.
 Fig 2: MASLOWS HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
LOWER ORDER NEEDS
People must labour to satisfy their physiological needs. These needs comprise food, clothing, shelter,
sex etc. When these are satisfied to some degree, it becomes their wish to satisfy other needs.
The need that next tends to dominate is for safety and security. Having satisfied their basic,
physiological needs today, people want son assurance that these needs will be met tomorrow and
thereafter. Because of individual differences, people need different amount of security. These needs
are also called as economic needs.
HIGHER ORDER NEEDS
Third level needs are belonging and social involvement. Some people say that needs are met mostly
off the job. However, one third to one-half of an employees working hours are spent at work. People
work in a social environment, and some of their social needs must be met there as well as away from
work.
Emotional needs for affection, love, warmth and friendship are satisfied by being in the company of
friends, relatives, or other groups such as work groups, play groups and voluntary groups.
The needs at the fourth level include those for esteem and status. We need to feel made ourselves that
we are worthy, to feel also those others think are worthy, (status) and to believe that they likewise are
worthy. The sense of self-worth and ego can be satisfied with respect, recognition, esteem,
appreciation and applause from others. The fifth level need is that for self-actualization which means
becoming all one is capable ofbecoming. This need is less apparent than others because many people
in the developing countries are busy with first, second level needs and the people in the developed
nations are busy with third and fourth level needs. Though self-actualization dominates few people, it
influences nearly all people. They choose occupations that they like and they get certain satisfaction
from accomplishing their tasks.
HIERARCHY OF NEEDS AN INTERPRETATION
Maslow suggested that there are five levels of needs arranged in hierarchial fashion; Maslow further
suggested that all satisfied need is not a motivator. He contended that an unsatisfied need motivates a
person.
Lower needs are primarily satisfied through economic rewards. People earn money as a medium of
exchange to purchase satisfaction for physiological and security needs. Their higher order needs are
primarily satisfied through psychological and social rewards. These higher needs require different
ways of thinking about people. Managers have felt sometime that wages i.e., money solves everything.
The five-way classification of needs is somewhat artificial, because individual different cause many
expectations to it. In a real situation all needs are interacting together within a whole person. They try
to over lap and combine. However, the five way classification does give managers useful insights into
which needs are likely to dominate a person in a specific situation.
The concept of hierarchical needs ma y be helpful to the management to design a motivational model
which includes the level of priorities attached by the worker for the fulfillment of his needs.
Individuals will certainly like to fulfill the first category needs before switching to the second category
needs. Every individual would like to fulfill the needs falling in the first two categories. The remaining
needs, highly situational, are influenced by the society, culture and individuals own characteristics.
What the need hierarchy model essentially says is that gratified needs are not as strongly motivating
as unmet needs. That is employees are more enthusiastically motivated by what they are seeking then
by what they already have. In other terms, people work for food alone when they have no food i.e.,
satisfied need is not a motivator or an unsatisfied need is a motivator. Managers who understand the
need pattern of their people can provide the types of work environment that will satisfy their needs at
work. Managers can motivate employees by giving appropriate organizational support which will
gratify individuals needs. Maslows theory helps managers in understanding the needs of individuals
and motivate them.
SUMMARY
Motivation is basically a psychological process. Motivation is a cycle of need behavior goal
sequence. The basic motivation process is that unsatisfied need motivates people to accomplish goals.
The drives or motives may be classified into primary, general and secondary categories.
The primary needs are food, shelter, clothing, sex etc. which are physiological in nature.
General motives are competence, curiosity, manipulation activity and affection. Secondary motives
are psychological in nature and more relevant to understanding the behaviour of the individual. The
need for power, achievement, affiliation, security and stat us are major motivating forces in the
behaviour of people in the organization.
There are several theories of Motivation which focus on the work motivation. Theories of motivation
are basically divided into content (need theories and process cognition theories) Maslow has
developed a hierarchy of needs as follows: physiological, security social esteem, and self-actualization
needs. This theory states that an unsatisfied need is not a motivator. In the process of work
motivation, the individuals need assumes a great deal of importance. In fact, the terms motivation
and need are interchangeable. It can be said that a person has high power motivation or that he has a
high need of power. All people have physiological and various psychological needs. Some of these
 needs are more relevant to work and some are less. Thus Maslows model has implications for
understanding and managing motivation.
QUESTIONS
1. How does understanding the differences among the concepts of motives, motivation and
motivating really help managers?
2. Explain the classifications of motives with examples
3. A satisfied need is not a motivators Discuss
4. Describe the three needs isolated by McCelllan. How are they related to individual behaviour
and motivation?

- End Of Chapter -
LESSON 16
THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

INTRODUCTION
We have studies in the last unit Abraham Maslows need theory. Maslow identified a five-step
hierarchy of needs. They are physiological need safety and security needs, belongingness, esteem
needs and self actualisation needs. The fact is that when lower order needs are satisfied it is difficult
to predict with any precision which need will become more important. Maslows need model made a
significant contribution to the management in understanding and awareness of the diverse needs
human being at work. Human beings in the work place are given with diverse motives. The exact
nature of esteem and self actualisation needs and their relatedness to motivation are not clear. In
order to overcome some of the problems of the Maslows need hierarchy. Alderfer has proposed the
ERG model which contains three groups of needs. This model will be discussed after the discussion
of Herzbergs two factor theory.
HERZBERGS TWO FACTORS THEORY OF MOTIVATION
Herzberg developed a specific content theory of the work motivation which is an extension of
Maslows need theory. Herzbergs research concluded that job satisfies are related to job content and
that job dissatisfies are related to job context. Herzberg titled satisfiers as motivators, and the
dissatisfiers as factors. Hence, it is known as the Herzbergs two factor theory of motivations.
HYGIENE FACTORS
Company policies and administration, supervision, working conditions, inter personal relations,
money, stat us and security may be thought of as maintenance factors. These are not an intrinsic part
of the job, but they are related to the condition under which a job is performed. Herzberg found that
Hygiene factors produced no growth in worker output capacity.
MOTIVATORS
Satisfying factors that involve feelings of achievement, professional growth and recognition that one
can experience in a job of less challenge and scope are referred to as motivators. Herzberg used this
term because these factors seem capable of having a positive effect on job satisfaction.
 Herzbergs (1966) theory is closely related to the Maslows need hierarchy. The hygiene factors are
similar to the Maslows lower order needs (see Fig. 1). The hygiene factors are preventive and
environmental in nature. These hygiene factors prevent dissatisfaction, but they do not lead to
satisfaction.

________________________________________________________
HYGIENE FACTORS MOTIVATIORS
________________________________________________________
Company policy and Administration Achievement
Supervision Recognition
Interpersonal relations Responsibility
Money, Status, Security Work itself
_________________________________________________________
Fig.1: HERZBERGS TWO FACTOR THEORY

The hygiene factors do not motivate but they prevent the development of dissatisfaction. Motivators
will motivate on the job. Maslows higher order needs and motivators are approximately the same.
According to Herzberg an individual may be motivated with challenging job content. Herzbergs two
factor theory has thrown light on the content of work motivation. Management are often perplexed
because they are paying high wages and salaries, giving excellent fringe benefit package and provide
best working conditions, but their employees are not still motivated. Most of the management
concentrates on hygiene factors. Whenever they face the problem of morale, they are higher pay,
more fringe benefits and better working conditions. Herzbergs theory offers an explanation by
stating that management are concentrating on hygiene factors rather than on motivators. Herzberg
identified certain characteristics with job satisfaction and others to job dissatisfaction. Intrinsic
factors such as achievement, recognition and the work itself, responsibility and advancement seem to
be related to job dissatisfaction. On the other hand when they were dissatisfied, they cite extrinsic
motivators, such as company policy and administration, supervision, inter personal relations, and
working conditions.
According to Herzberg, the factors leading to job satisfaction are separate and distinct from those that
lead to job dissatisfaction. Therefore, managers who seek to eliminate these factors that can create job
dissatisfaction can remove dissatisfaction but no necessary motivation. When the Hygiene factors are
adequate, people will not be dissatisfied. If we want to motivate people, Herzberg suggests using
achievement recognition, the work itself, responsibility and growth. These are the characteristics that
people find intrinsically rewarding. Herzberg was the first to say that the hygiene factors are
absolutely necessary to maintain the human resources of an organisation. According to Herzbergs
theory only a challenging job which has the opportunities for achievement, recognition,
responsibility, advancement and growth will motivate personnel. The theory has been criticized for
the following weaknesses.
1. Herzbergs theory over simplified the work motivation.
2. The reliability of the methodology is questioned.
1 A person may dislike part of his or her job, yet still think the job is acceptable.
1 The motivation hygiene theory ignores situational variable.
1 Herzberg assumes that there is a relationship between satisfaction and productivity. But the research
methodology he used looked only at satisfaction but not productivity.
In-spite of the limitations Herzberg contributed substantially to the study of work on motivation.
Herzberg also drew attention to the importance of job content in work motivation which has been
neglected or totally overlooked. The job design technique of job enrichment is also one of Herzbergs
contributions. Overall, Herzberg also failed to give comprehensive theory of work motivation. It also
partially describes the complex nature of motivational process of people in the organisation.
ALDERFERS ERG THEORY
The extension of the Herzberg and Maslows content theory of work motivation comes from the work
of Clayton Alderfer (1972). Alderfer identified three groups of core needs existence, relatedness, and
growth (hence ERG theory). The existence needs are concerned with survival (physiological well
being). The relatedness needs stress the importance of interpersonal, social relationships. The growth
needs are related to the Maslow and Herzberg categories. (Figure 30) Obviously, they are very close
but the ERG needs do not have strict lines of demarcation.
Alderers ERG theory is a less restrictive model of motivation process. It simplified the Maslows need
priority theory not only by reducing the number of need categories but by removing the restriction
about the activation of needs in any hierarchial order. Alderefer suggests that more than one need
may be operative at the same point of time.

The relationship between Alderfers ERG Needs. Maslows five level hierarchy and Herzbergs two
factor theory
Alderer has dealt with the overlapping problem that occurred in Maslows need hierarchy by
separating the survival, social and personal growth needs. Alderfer has avoided the assumption that a
certain group of needs of example, the existence needs must be substantially satisfied before
another set can emerge. Variables such as education, family back grounded and cultural environment
can alter the importance that a group of needs holds for a particular individual. It avoided the
assumption that all individuals proceed through a specific sequential need hierarchy. However,
movement from one category to another cannot be predicted. Thus Alderfer has suggested a
continuum of needs than hierarchical or two factors of needs.

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THE PROCESS THEORIES OF WORK MOTIVATION

The content models of Abraham Maslows need hierarchy. Herzbergs two factors model and
Alderfers ERG theory made an attempt to identify the needs that motivates people at work. They
tried to correlate motivated behavior with self actualisation, responsibility and growth. The process
theories, on the other hand are more concerned with the cognitive process that go into motivation.
Expectancy models made the most significant contribution to understand the complex processes
involved in work motivation. Equity and reinforcement theories will also be presented and discussed
as major process models of work motivation.
VROOMS EXPECTANCY MODEL
Victur Vroom (1964) presented the Expectancy Theory (1964) as an alternative to content theories. It
provides a comprehensive and useful approach to understanding motivation. The model has been
expanded and refined by Porter and Lawler (1968). Vroom proposed his expectancy model as an
alternative to the content models. The contents model causes inadequate to complex process of work
motivation. Vrooms model is built around concepts of Valence and Expectancy and is commonly
called the VIE theory. Vroom explains motivation force is a product of valence and expectancy.
MOTIVATION FORCE VALENCE EXPECTANCY
(Strength of drive = (Strength of x (Probability of
towards action) ones desire getting it with a certain
of something) action)

Valence refers to the strength of a persons preference for one outcome in relation to others. For
example if an employee strongly wants a promotion, it is said that the promotion has high valence for
the employee. The valence arises out of each employees internal self as conditioned by experience, so
it will vary substantially from person to person.
 Fig 4 VROOMS MOTIVATIONAL MODE

Another major input into the valence is the instrumentality of the first level outcome, in obtaining a
desired second level outcome. For example if a person is motivated towards superior performance is
the first level outcome (figure 4) and is seen as being instrumental in obtaining promotion (second
level outcome)
Instrumentality: It refers to the relationship between performance and reward. Instrumentality
refers to the degree to which a first level outcome will lead to a desired second level outcome. It
provides answers to such questions will I be promoted, if I perform the job well. In this example
instrumentality refers to the persons perception of the relationship between high performance (first
level outcome) and promotion (second level outcome).
Expectancy: People have expectancies about the likelihood that an action or effort on their part will
lead to intended performance. Expectancy refers to the perceived relationship between the given level
of effort and a give level of performance. Since expectancy is an action outcome association.
Continuing with earlier examples if an employee sees no probability of being promoted even after
superior performance, then his expectancy is zero, i.e. action outcome relationship indicates
uncertainty, then expectancy has a value of one. Normally employee expecting is somewhere between
these two extremes.
IMPLICATION FOR ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Vrooms theory has depicted the cognitive variables that reflect individual differences. Everyone has a
unique combination of valence, instrumentalities and expectations. Thus the Vrooms theory
indicates only the conceptual determinants of motivation and how they are related. It does not
provide specific suggestions on what motivates organisational members, as Maslow, Herzberg, and
Alderfer models do. In the organisations workers are given certain standard of production. By
meaning the workers output, the management can determine how important are their personal goals.
Here the organisational goal, productivity is the first level outcome and personal goals like
money, security , and recognition are second level outcomes. If the output is below the standard it
may be because the workers do not place a high value on second level outcome or they may not
believe that first level outcome is instrumental in the second level outcome. The perception of first
level outcome and the second level outcome varies from individual to individual. The model is
designed to help management to understand and analyse workers and identify some of the relevant
variables. It does not provide specific solution to motivational problems
PORTER-LAWLER MODEL
The controversy over the relationship between satisfaction and performance has been in existence
since the human relations movement. The content theories implicitly assume that satisfaction leads to
improved performance. Although Vrooms valence and outcomes have performance implication, it
was Porter and Lawler who refined and extended Vrooms model. Porter and Lawler promoted the
thesis that performance causes satisfaction. They tried to explore the complex relationship between
motivation, satisfaction and performance and point out that effort does not directly lead to
performance. Porter and Lawler start with the premise that motivation does not equal satisfaction
and performance. It directly does not lead to motivation. It is mediated by abilities, traits and role
perceptions. The rewards that follow and how these are perceived will determine satisfaction.
Although the Porter and Lawler model is more application oriented than the Vroom model, it is quite
complex and has proved to be a difficult way to bridge the gap to actual management practice.
EQUITY THEORY
Adams (1965) equity theory proposes that a major input into job performance and satisfaction is the
degree of equity for inequity that people perceive in their work situation. Equity plays an important
role in motivation. Employees make comparisons of their job inputs and outcomes relative to those of
others. People perceive what they get from a job situation (outcomes) in relation to what they put into
it(inputs), and then compare their input outcome rates with the input outcome ratio of others.
If the ratio is unequal, inequity exists, that is, they tend to view themselves as under-rewarded or over
rewarded. If the persons perceived ratio is not equal to the others he or she will strive to restore the
ratio of equity. This striving to restore equity is used as the explanation of work motivation. The
strength of this motivation is in direct proportion to the perceived inequity. To restore equity, the
person may alter the inputs or outcomes, leave the field, act on the other, or change the others.
Inequity occurs when
PERSONS OUTCOMES < OTHERS OUTCOMES
------------------------------ ------------------------------
PERSON INPUTS OTHERS INPUTS
PERSONS OUTCOMES > OTHERS OUTCOME
------------------------------- ----------------------------
PERSON INPUTS OTHERS INPUTS
Equity occurs when
PERSONS OUTCOMES < OTHERS OUTCOMES
------------------------------ ------------------------------
PERSON INPUTS OTHERS INPUTS
Equity theory recognizes that individuals are concerned not only with the absolute amount they
receive for their efforts, but also with the relationship of this amount to what others receive. They
make judgments as to the relationship between their inputs and outcomes and the inputs and
outcomes of others. Based on ones inputs, such as effort, experience education and competence one
compares outcomes such as salary levels, perks, recognition and other factors. When people perceive
an imbalance in their input-outcome ratio relative to others, tension is created. This tension provides
basis for motivation, as people strive for what they perceive as equity and fairness. Equity theory has
also some problems. For example, how do people select others to compare? How do they define
inputs and outcomes? How do they combine their inputs and outputs to arrive at totals? However,
despite these problems, equity theory offers some important insights into employee motivation.
Equity theory sensitises managers to the fact that individuals often make equity comparisons, and
that sometimes the rewards given by managers may have consequences which might be reflected in
subordinates behaviours. This is especially true when visible rewards such as promotions, pay
increases, and bonuses are given to employees. Inequities are common in all organizations and hence
it is important for managers to manage intelligently and carefully.
REINFORCEMENT THEORY
Behavior modification is achieved through the type of reinforcement i.e. operant conditioning. The
law of effect from learning theory explains the idea of operant conditioning. The law states that a
person tends to repeat behaviour that is accompanied by favourable consequences (reinforcement).
Behaviour is primarily encouraged through positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement
encourages repetition of a behaviour. For example, when high-equity work is done, the employee likes
recognition, behaviour is reinforced. The reinforcement is always contingent on the employees
correct behaviour.
Negative reinforcement occurs when behaviour is accompanied by removal of an unfavourable
consequence. It is not the same as punishment. Punishment occurs when an unfavourable
consequence accompanies and discourages a certain behaviour. Although punishment may
be necessary to discourage an unusually desirable behaviour punishment is not a
satisfactory practice. Punishment may discourage undesirable behaviour but it does not
encourage desirable behaviour.
Reinforcement may be either continuous or partial. Continuous reinforcement occurs when a
reinforcement accompanies each correct behaviour by an employee. Partial reinforcement occurs
when only part of the correct behaviours are reinforced. There are four types of reinforcement
schedules.
Fixed interval schedule provides reinforcement after a certain time. The most typical example is the
pay check after thirty days.
Variable interval schedules give reinforcement after a variety of time periods. An example is the
companys policy of inspecting all the departments once is six months.
Variable ratio schedule is a reinforcement after a variable number of correct responses.
Fixed ratio schedule occurs when there is reinforcement after a certain number of correct responses.
An example is payment of sales bonus after a certain number of successive calls.
SUMMARY
 Herzbergs model of motivation is influenced by maintenance and motivational factors. Important
motivational factors are the work itself, achievement, growth and responsibility. These are primary
intrinsic motivators rather than extrinsic ones. Maslow and Alderfer attempted to identify specific
content factors in the individual and Herzberg in the job environment. The process theories provided
a much sounder theoretical explanation of work motivation. The expectancy model of Vroom and
Porter and Lawler explained the complex process of work motivation. Porter and Lawler explained
the complex process of work motivation. Porter and Lawler proposed that performance leads to
satisfaction. Adams equity theory, which is based upon perceived input, output ratio provide
increased understanding to the complex cognitive process of work motivation.
Cognitive models dominate the timing about motivation, but behaviour modification is finding
increasing use it is not merely enough to attract employees to an organisation, but it is also important
that managers motivate their employees to perform well and keep them interested in remaining in the
organisation. That is managers must create conditions at the work place that will enable the workers
to sustain their interest in the organisation and motivate them to contribute beyond their routine
performance.

QUESTIONS
1. Briefly explain Alderfers ERG model and relate it to Maslows need hierarchy
2. What is the major criticism of Herzbergs two factor theory of motivation? Do you think that it
has made a contribution to the better understanding of motivation in the work place? Defend your
answer.
3. In Vrooms model, what are valence, expectancy, and force? How do these variables relate to
one another and to work situation? Give realistic examples.
4. Briefly explain the Porter Lawler model of motivation. How do performance and satisfaction
relate to each other?
5. What is equity theory?

- End Of Chapter -
LESSON 17
ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE

Change is the part of life. All growth related activities are essentially to be preceded by a change
process. In a human being there can be two types of change sources. As he grows up he acquires the
capabilities for doing certain things with maturation. Secondly, when he voluntarily or incidentally
exposes himself to certain training having situation which may result in the change of behaviour .
Changes are constantly taking place in our environment. For instance the computer age is
transforming the manner in which work is being done in organisations all over the world. It is not
merely the technological environment that is changing but economic, political, market, social, legal
and labour market environments are also changing. New ideas, beliefs and changes are what keep the
business and inductory adapting to the environmental change and keep these forging ahead.
Change is to be initiated at various levels within the organisational system. Manage has to ensure that
the individuals and groups in organisations and structures processes and behaviour of sub-systems
adopt to the changing external and internal environment. A manager can bring in the needed change
in many ways. The individual can be made ready to accept the change by offering special training
required to handle the new assignment. Groups can be helped through team building efforts to
operate interactively in a smooth and harmonious fashion, so as to increase their effectiveness.
Technological changes can be introduced with the change in the structures and the job can be
redesigned or new policies initiated which serves the need of both employees and organisation. The
changes at attitudinal, perceptional and behavioural level can be brought by changing the
organisational climate.
More and more organisation today face a dynamic and changing environment. The nature of work
force is influencing the organisations. The work values expressed by different generations are
different. Changes in the technology change the nature of work. Individuals doing narrow specialised
and routine jobs are being replaced by work teams whose members can performs multiple tasks and
actively participate the team decisions. Economic shocks also dictate changes. Oil price increase,
stock market crash are some of the latest economic shocks. The change in the social trends and world
politics also necessitates change in the organisation. Successful organisations will be the ones that can
change in response to the competition.
In the dynamic society surrounding todays organisations the question of whether change will occur is
no longer relevant. Instead the issue is how do managers and leaders cope with the inevitable barrage
of changes that confront them daily in attempting to keep their organisations viable and current. If
the managers are to be effective, they can no longer be content to set change occur as it will, they
must be able to develop strategies to plan direct and control change.
NEED FOR CHANGE
When the developed goals and the end results are not achieved and when there is incompatability
between the performance and expectations, there is a need for a change. There may be a gap between
the desired level of productivity and actuals. Morale of the employees in the organisation may be low,
the incidence of increasing inter and intra departmental conflicts frequent communication gaps may
be impairing the effectiveness of the systems. The gap between the desired and actual outcomes may
be because of the changes in the economic conclusions, government policy, supply and demand for
capital, labour, raw materials, management knowhow, technological development, consumer tastes
and preferences, the composition of unions which could or did obstruct organisational goods and the
government's policy towards business and industry. All these factors point towards the necessary
change in the environment of the organisation which may reduce the gap between the desired and
actual and stages.
 Please use headphones

MANAGING A PLANNED CHANGE

After having ascertained the need for a change it is for the management to work out the details of
when and how the planned changes will be carried out. The managers who are responsible for the
introduction of change should be sensitive to the changes taking place in the external and internal
environments of the organisations. The manager has to be aware of the impact of a change in one sub
system or the other sub systems, otherwise, other problems might be created accidentally else- where
in the organisation.
INTRODUCING A CHANGE
The change is encountered with resistance. The organisation environment should be conducive for
the introduction of change. The change agent should identify the areas of possible conflict and the
resistance can be decreased by counselling, listening to the fears, improving communication process.
Kurt Lewin (1951) developed a useful technique the Force Field analysis. This analysis helps the
change agent to know whether the system is ready for change or not, Lewins theory proposes that
there will be various forces at work, some of which accepts the change and some others resist the
change. i.e. there are certain forces which oppose the change. The forces which are for the change are
driving forces (or facilitating forces) and the forces which are against the change are restraining
forces (or inhibiting forces). If these two sets of forces are equal in strength then there will be a
equilibrium and change cannot be introduced. However, if the driving forces are stronger than the
restraining, forces, then the system will be changing to find a new equilibrium. If the retraining
forces are stronger than the driving forces, the change agent should reduce the resistance to change
by dealing with and minimizing the forces that resist change. In other words the driving forces are
those that push the existing situation towards the goal that is decreased. These forces facilitate the
movement towards achieving the goals, the retraining forces are those which hinder the movements
towards the goal or act against it. In practice a combination of both strategies reducing the restraining
forces and increasing the driving forces often gives the best results.
The following steps are to be followed in applying the forces field analysis.
1. Defined the ultimate objective.
2. List the various items that are resisting the movement towards the goal. Identify those that are
acting against the movement. Generate as many restraining forces as possible by Housing brain-
storming in group setting.
3. Make an exhaustive list of driving forces as above using brain storming technique. Some of the
driving forces may be just opposite of restraining forces.
4. Quantify the strength of each force (both restraining and driving forces) on a 5 point scale
where 5 indicates that the force is very strong and one indicates a weak force.
5. Remove the forces one by one through discussion about which the problem solving goals have
no control or can do nothing about it.
6. Select the weak driving forces and try to strengthen these through discussion.
7. Weaken the strong restraining forces through discussion.
8. Workout an action plan to introduce change.
The use of force field analysis in groups has been found to be an effective way of bringing about
change. There have been several experiments conducted in the past which indicate that through a
systematic analysis of this kind, change can be brought in easily. Managers and administrators when
forced with the problems or when targets they desired, it is useful to have a group meeting of their
staff of team members and do force field analaysis for the situation.
Managers who are interested in implementing change, should be goal oriented. To understand
change the organisation should have people with skill, knowledge and training to understand the
change. The two important stages process are diagnosis and implementation. The organisation
requires the change agents who are the persons who act as catalysis and assume the responsibility for
managing change activities. The change agents should be able to diagnose. The skills of diagnosis
involves the techniques for asking the right questions in the diagnosis for computarisation of the
routine transactions of our banking industry in the last three decades starting from 1950s is a case in
point. For management computer will be used for routing, and repetitive work to reduce the
monotonous labour and clerical errors. But for the employees computer means loss of jobs and
limited opportunities for growth and advancement in the organisation. This results in picketing and
strikes. A change which touches the emotional fears force will be resisted with greater resistance. The
resistance to change may be because of economic, social security, fear of losing authority and status
etc. The change agent has to understand the consequences of change. The resistance to change may
be because of one factor or a combination of all the factors.
ECONOMIC THREAT
The change may be perceived as a threat to the economic welfare of the people. New technology may
be perceived as a threat to the job and the economic security for the people. In a country like ours
where there is a greater proportion of unemployment the fear of losing the job will be very real in the
minds of the people, who tend to resist the change.
SOCIAL CONCERNS
The change may disturb the social relationships among the members of the organisation. People are
very much accustomed to the established methods which provide for the informal and social relations
with their colleagues. Hence a change in the lay out or new technology would definitely disturb their
social relationship and informal interactions. Such changes are generally disliked by the employees.
SECURITY
People have to learn new methods of doing things. They are not sure whether t they would become
adapt in the new method ever after training. This fear of retaining the effectiveness with new methods
creates a sense of insecurity in the mind of people. This is apart from the economical job security.
UNDERMINING OF STATUS AND AUTHORITY
The newer technologies and methods may do away with part of the status and authority that is vested
with a position earlier. For example, if the work methods are completely automated the supervisor
feels that his authority and status are undermined. The supervisor may feel that he will have no
control over the subordinates and they will not respect of obey him.
RETRAINING
 Change may require the employees to go for retraining to update their skill to work with the newer
machines. But some may be scared to interact with the new machines and methods. People prefer the
status quo. Most of the people are comfortable with the existing set up. This may also add to the
resistance to change.
NON-INVOLVEMENT IN THE DECISION MAKING
People may resist change if they are not consulted before the introduction of change. Whenever
changes are introduced without the participation of those who are concerned with the change they
will definitely resist the change. On the other hand if the contemplated changes are the result of the
participation of all those who are going to be affected. It will make them to take personal interest to
see that the change works.
FEAR OF UNKNOWN
Insecurity is created by the ambiguity related to change. Change often upsets established patterns of
behaviour and people are not able to give up habits easily. Change substitutes for the ambiguity and
uncertainty for the unknown.
SELECTIVE INFORMATION PROCESSING
The individuals keep their perceptions intact and they ignore the information that challenges the
world. The individuals are guilty of selectively processing information to keep their perceptions
intact.

- End Of Chapter -
LESSON - 18
ORGANISATIONAL RESISTANCE

Organisations actively resist change because they are conservative. Organisations continue to do
what they have been doing for years. This is valid mostly in the case of service organisations.
STRUCTURAL DISEQUILIBRIUM
1. Change itself produces disequilibrium. The people who are hired and trained to behave in a
way and play certain roles may be required to have different roles to play with the change.
2. Change in the sub system may not be accepted by the other sub systems.
3. Change threatens the expertise of the existing people. Change may necessitate a new set of
skills and expertise.
4. Change also threatens the existing power relations. It is often looked at as a threat to the power
of supervisors and middle managers.
5. Change is also looked at as a threat to the established resources allocation. Change may
necessitate reduction in the budget or a cut in their staff size.
6. An individual may be ready to accept the change but if the trade union resists, the individual
has to follow group norms.
7. Resistance may be expected if the change is made o n personal grounds rather than impress
and requirements.
8. Resistance may be expected if the change ignores the already established institutions in the
group. The customary way of doing things and international patterns need to be given proper place of
importance.
In addition to the above the older employees are more likely to resist change than younger employees.
It may not be because of rigidity or inflexibility of the old age. It may be because they have spent most
of their lifes time in learning and doing the existing things in a far superior way. It is difficult for
them to change from tried and tested ways of doing things. People with low tolerance, low tendency to
take risk may also resist t he change. Ones personality disposition also comes in the way of accepting
a change. A combination of factors discussed so far, operate in any given situation for most
individuals, which make the implementation of change a more difficult one.
CONSEQUENCES
If the change agents are unable to manage the change, the organisation has to pay a price for it. If a
change is introduced without the acceptance of the people, they may exhibit both overt and convert
behaviour . The overt behaviour may be in the form of strike. For instance privatisation of banks and
insurance companies has witnessed a calendar of strikes by the unions of these two organisations.
Employees need not be always overt in their behaviour. They may shutdown the work place, withdraw
psychologically from the job and the quality of performance. Resistance to change may also be
reflected in turnover, absenteeism and tardiness.
DEALING WITH RESISTANCE TO CHANGE
Resistance has a protective function for the individual. All behaviours which oppose change are not
necessarily resistance. Some opposition to change may be perfectly logical and supported with
reasons.
Chin and Benne (1976) suggested three strategies to introduce change. They are empirical rational,
normative re-educative and power-coercive.
EMPIRICAL-NATIONAL STRATEGY
The change agent should explain the benefit of change to the employees with logical and empirical
evidence. It is believed that the human beings are realistic and rational in their approach. If the
employee and that the change will not only protect the current interests but also further their
interests they can be guided to accept the change. The change agent should not create any
misunderstanding about the change.
NORMATIVE AND RE-EDUCATIVE STRATEGY
Changes do not take place because they are rational and make sense at cognitive level but the changes
are also accepted because of their personal values and belief system of the people. Change agent
should plan the change participatively and collaboratively. People internalize the need for change,
since they worked together in developing and implementing them.
POWER COERCIVE STRATEGIES
Change agents may operate with an assumption that people with less power may accept the change
which is introduced by those with more power. This strategy may utilize the authority, rewards and
punishments to introduce change. However, in the strategy people may accept change with great
reluctance. They psychologically do not accept the change. In such situations the change will be a
temporary phenomenon.
Kotter and Schlesinger (1979) identified six general approaches to handling resistance. They are
described below:
EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION
Resistance can be reduced through communication with employees to help them see the logic of a
change. Resistance can be expected if the nature of the change is not made clear to the individual who
is going to be affected by the change, if the people received the full facts and get the misunderstanding
cleared up. This can be done through listening, group presentation etc. Different people see different
meaning in a proposed change. People may distort the information if they see discomfort and threats
in their past work situation.
PARTICIPATION
The involvement of the individuals who resist changes in the decision making process. It becomes
difficult from them to resist for having participated in decision making. This may result in poor
solution and time consumption.
FACILITATION AND SUPPORT
The change agents can offer counselling new skills training when the employee fear and anxiety are
high. This would help in reducing the resistance to change. It is expensive and results are uncertain.
NEGOTIATION
Potential resistance to change can be dealt through negotiation. A specific reward package may be
negotiated, that will meet their individual needs. If the resistance is centered in a few potential
individuals, there is a possibility of being black mailed by others.
MANIPULATION AND CO-OPERATION
Manipulation is distortion of facts and withholding the desirable information to accept the change.
Co-operation, on the other hand as a form of both manipulation and participation. It seeks to buy off
the leader of a resistance group by giving them a key role in the change decision of the individuals are
aware, the change agents credibility may drop to zero.
COERCION
Application of threats or force upon the resistance. Other examples of threats include, threats of
transfer, loss of promotion etc. The advantages and disadvantages of manipulation of co-operation
are valid coercion also.
OTHER STRATEGIES FOR INTRODUCTION CHANGE
Gray and Strace (1984) explain that in addition to communication the advantages of proposed
changes, several other methods can be adopted to make changes less traumatic for employees. For
example when changes are made frequently and when changes are managed well, people get more
used to change and fear gets successively reduced with each change. Introducing multiple changes is
also good since the incremental resistance to several changes is only slightly greater than adjusting to
a single change. Also when multiple changes are introduced, the potential benefits from several
different changes are greater than the potential negative efforts spread across them. A third way is to
introduce the change of working through the informal leaders of the groups. Since informal leaders
have a lot of power in the group, by co-operating then in the change process, changes can be
introduced with least resistance from employees. If in an organisation wide change is planned , the
best place to start the process is where the resistance is the least and there is a more ready acceptance
of the change.
STEPS INVOLVED IN INTRODUCING A PLANNED CHANGE
(CHANGE MODELS)
Kurt Lewin, The father of change process identified three steps in implementing t he planned change.
Unfreezing
Unfreezing is process of preparing for the change. This could be done with discontinuation of old
practices, attitudes, tendencies or behaviour. The society, parent s, educators, students and the job
market want to change the education system as it is producing educated illiterates. The need for
change was recognised and derived by the members of the society. The system was unfrozen from it s
self satisfaction that everything was fine with the secondary education system. Un-freezing is the
return of status quo which was the considered to be an equilibrium state.
Management could use positive incentives to encourage employees to accept the change.
Management might also consider unfreezing acceptance of the status by removing restraining forces.
Employees could be counselled individually. The counsellor could assure the employees that there
was nothing to fear and demonstrate, through tangible evidence. If the resistance is extremely high,
management may have to resort to both reducing the resistance and increasing the attractiveness of
alternatives of the unfreezing is to be successful.
Moving
Moving is the phase where the changes that have been planned are actually initiated and carried out.
Changes may be related to strategy, objectives, policies, people work roles, technology structure,
cooperate culture, quality of work life or any other aspect in the organisations. Change is to be
implemented carefully with the participation of all the concerned members of the organisation.
Change incorporated too quickly without adequate preparation will result in resistance to change.
Refreezing
Refreezing is the last phase of the planned change process. If the change is to be successful, new
situation needs to be refrozen so that it can be sustained over time. It is to be ensured that the
planned change has been introduced working satisfactory, that an y modification or support needed
to make the change operational. If t he refreezing phase is neglected, the employees will attempt to
revert to previous equilibrium stage. Sometimes the change may be a tot al disaster if improperly
attended to. The objective of refreezing them is to stabilize the non duration by balancing the driving
and restraining forces.

Please use headphones

Larry Grieners Model

This model demonstrates the change introduction in certain sequential stages. The Top management
stimulates the change process.

Source: Larry.E.Greiner.Patterns of Organizational Change in Dalton, Lawrence &

Grainer (ed) Organizational change and Development.
Home Wood III, Richard D, Irwin, 1970.
LEWITTS MODEL
Lewitts model focuses on the interactive nature of the various subsystems, i.e task, structure people
and technology. Change in one subsystem automatically affects the other subsystems. Organisational
development should also focus on the consequential effects of change in one system on the other
subsystems. The change may be related to the tasks, or interpersonal training or a technological
change or a structural modification.

Source : Harold J. Levitt

New Perspectives in Organizational Research, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1964
ACTION RESEARCH
Action research consists of five steps: Diagnosis, analysis, feed back action and evaluation.
DIAGNOSIS
The change agent, an outside consultant gathers information about problems, concerns, through
questioning , interviews, reviews , records and listens to the employees.
ANALYSIS
The change agent categories this information into primary concerns, problem areas and possible
actions.
FEEDBACK
It includes the active involvement of people who are being affected by the change. Their feelings are
to be taken consideration for bringing about any change if needed.
ACTION AND EVALUATION
The change agent and the employees carry out specifications to solve the identified problems. The
effectiveness of the action plan is evaluated and if necessary modification may be carried out. The
action research has two advantages. It is problem focussed and has a favourable solution. Action
research involves people heavily in the process, resistance to change is reduced.
DEALING WITH RESISTANCE
One needs to know how the proposed changes are likely to be perceived by those who will face the
consequences of the change. To reduce the resistance to change in large organisations the following
model was suggested by TV Rao, Udaiparrek and Pestomjee (1981).
STEP ONE
Select a group which can experience change for which the change will have a benefician consequence,
identify a small core group and after negotiations and consultations, expose it to the desired change.
STEP TWO
The rest of the group members should have an opportunity to observe the core group to operate for a
reasonable length of time.
STEP THREE
Some members may be recruited as volunteers who are willing to join the core group. In this manner
the size of the core group will increase and ultimately the core group will be operating under the
changed system.
THE SKILLS OF A CHANGE AGENT
The NTL institute applied behavioural sciences, USA has suggested the various skills to be possessed
by a change agent. The skills can be broadly divided into cognitive skills, action skills and
communication skills. A Change agent is required to possess the divergent skills and divergent roles
one has to play.
COGNITIVE SKILLS
The change agent should be able to understand and analyse his own motivation in perceiving a need
for change and the desire to bring about a change. He may be able to formulate his own strategic role
in the light of the context and abilities. The change agent should be able to conceptualise the
following:
The change agent should be able to identify the units that are going to be affected with the change.
The change agent should be able to visualize how the impending change is inter related with other
possible changes.
He should clear define the objectives of the change. He must be able to anticipate the possible
resistance to change. He must be able to anticipate the possible resistance to change and the means
to overcome them.
He must ascertain the degree of possible participation of the people to the intended change.
The change agent in addition to the conceptualisation must be able to assess and evaluate the client
groups nature, expectations and internal dynamics. The change agent should be able to identify the
appropriate surveys, rating scales to identify the problem. The evaluation should be done objectively
without any prejudice for the likes and dislikes of the change agent.
ACTION SKILLS
The change agent should play the roles of a consultant, counsellor, facilitators, trainer etc. The change
agent should possess the skills to help the clients to know their attitudes, expectations and
motivations. Any change should be in consonance with the clients value systems and expectations,
otherwise resistance will develop to change efforts. The change agent should facilitate to raise the
aspiration of the clients. The aspirations should be realistic and the change effort moved to reinforce
the increased aspirations. He should develop an awareness of the change and enlist the active
participation in the change. He should encourage them to use a step wise plan and also have patience
in is execution. As a consultant the change agent should provide a step-wise plan, use appropriate
techniques to implement the change and evaluate at each end the progress made and to find out what
is achieved and what is to be achieved etc.
COMMUNICATION SKILLS
The change agent, as a communicator is concerned with the spread of change information. The
change agent should be able to communicate effectively by enlisting the clients support for the
intended change. He should develop a communication plan, obtain feed back and determine the
effectiveness from time to time.
FOCUS FOR CHANGE IN FUTURE
In the light of the liberalisation of the Indian economy Indian Industry has to concentrate more on
organisation innovation and empowerment of people. These two specific issues are gaining much
attention in the dynamic world of global competitions. The innovative organisation is more adaptive
and likely to survive. Similarly an organisation which tries to become more efficient by reducing the
costs, improve employee motivation and productivity.
INNOVATION
Change refers to making things different innovation is a new idea applied to initiate a product,
process or service. All innovations involve change. However, all changes need not be innovative. We
frequently talk about product ideas and innovations. Innovations may be related to the technology,
process, training and turn arounds also. Structure variables have been the most important source of
innovation. Firstly organic structures are adaptable and amenable for changes related to innovation.
Long term tenure also provide the scope for innovation. Lastly innovation can be mentioned where
there are resources. The organisation should have capability to absorb losses if t he innovation fails.
The communication between different subsystems will be very high in the innovative organisations.
Innovative organisations encourage success and failure. They learn from the failures. People come out
with new ideas. Innovative organisations encourage their people to go for training and development
to enable them to keep themselves aware of the new developments. Organisation helps the members
to develop their personality characteristics like self confidence, persistence, energy and risk taking. In
the developed economics the organisation encourage people t o come out with new ideas.
Organisation provides the necessary environment and makes the resource available to them. The
organisation encourages its employees to take risks and rewards both failure and success equally.
EMPOWERMENT
K.W.Thomas and B.A.Vethouse (1990), defined empowerment as A process that increases employees
intrinsic task motivation. The management has to do positive things to encourage impact,
competence, meaningfulness and choice. An employee doing things in an improved way is to be
perceived by the organisation as an impact on other people. People should be encouraged to do the
task competently and skillfully. The organisation should view the task performed by the people as
meaningful and they should be allowed to choose the task activities, independently. The organisation
can empower the employees through delegation, participation in decision making, self management,
job enrichment, intrinsic feed back and less formalities. Organisational culture has to be compatible
with the empowerment philosophy. Thus innovations and empowerment provide for smoother
implementation of change.
CONCLUSION
Change has to be managed, a common encountered by managers in implementing planned change is
resistance by the employees. By understanding the sources from which the resistance springs
 managers will have a better handle on how to deal with resistance to change. Successful changes
reduce future fear of changes in organisation systems.
QUESTIONS
1. What is change? What are the responsibilities of managers as change agents?
2. Why do people resist change? What strategies do you recommend for the reduction of
resistance?
3. Discuss in detail, with illustrations a change process model that will be applied by the manager
in introducing the change.
4. How many changes in the make up of an Organisations work force require implementation of
organisational change programme?

- End Of Chapter -
LESSSON - 19
ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Introduction
Organizational development refers to systematic planned change. Organizational development may
be defined as a collection of techniques that attempts to effect systematic planned change.
Organizations are not static systems but keep on developing, based on the needs of the system and
the opportunities that exist in the environment. Organizational development refers to all on going
developmental efforts which are oriented towards making the organization and its members effective.
Organizational development is used to include all the techniques or interventions for changes in
structures and systems to counselling efforts with groups and individuals, in response to changes in
the external environment. The term organization development, or simply OD, is used to represent an
applied macro level approach to planned change and development of complex organizations. The
modern approach to the management of change and the development of human resources is called
OD. Warren G Bennis (1969) suggests that OD is a response to change, a complex educational
strategy to change the beliefs, attitudes, values and structures of organizations so that it can better
adopt to new technologies, market and challenges, and the dizzying rate of change itself.
IMPORTANT ISSUES IN OD
1. The OD effort should start at the top level of the management and should reach the lower
levels through the organization structure.
2. The change agents helps the organization to help itself so that the organization develops the
ability to identify the problem, solve the problem and implement the selected plan.
3. The needed change depends upon the nature and type of the problem within the organization.
Identifying and defining the problem as accurately as possible is a must as it determines the rest of
the activity. This helps to use the right intervention techniques.
4. The focus of the change may be either at individual level or at group level or at organizational
level. The type and nature of intervention to be used varies from individual level to the organizational.
5. Now many of the changes are socialistic rather than individualistic. Appropriate intervention
techniques are to be employed.
6. Evaluating the effectiveness of OD programme is equally important as diagnosing the problem
and using the appropriate OD intervention technique.
PROCESS OF OD
1. Planned changed: The planned change separates the OD efforts from other kinds of more
hazard changes that frequently occur in modern organizations.
2. Comprehensive change - OD efforts generally involve a total system. The entire organization
or unit within the organization is of unit analysis.
3. Emphasis upon work groups OD efforts though aimed at organizational changes are oriented
towards groups.
4. Long range The process of change takes months or in some cases, years.
5. Participation of a change agent OD experts suggest need for an outside third party Change
agent
6. Emphasis upon intervention and action research The OD approach emphasizes an active
participation in the ongoing activities. Action research helps to attack problems.
OD AND VALUES
OD contributes to the human values and organizational growth. OD emphasises strongly on
collaboration. The change agent should have the following values:
1. Respect for people People should be treated with dignity and respect. People are
considered to be responsible.
2. Trust and support:- The change agent should trust the people. People should be provided
with authentic information. An open and supportive climate is to be provided. These factors make the
organization healthy and effective.
3. Power equalization- Effective organization emphasises on colleagual approach rather than
superior subordinate approach.
4. Confrontation- Problems should be openly confronted. They should not be concealed.
5. Participation All the people who are going to be affected by change are to be involved in
the decisions of change. They will be more committed in implementing the decision.

Please use headphones

SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT
An organization is a system consisting of four interacting subsystems i.e. structure technology, people
and task. Structure refers to the hierarchy and relationships in the organization. Task refers to the set
of activities to be performed. Technology relates to the level of sophistication determining the
 workflow and performance of jobs in an organization. Organization as a system can be changed and
developed to achieve its goals in the best possible way. The goals are generally survival, stability,
profitability, growth and service to society. The goals may differ from one organization to another
depending upon the stage of development of theorganization. The organization has to be sensitive to
the internal and external environment. An organization can achieve its goals if it is able to respond to
the changes in the internal and external environment. The changes in the social political, economic
and cultural factors, the threat of competition from similar organizations, rapid growth of technology,
are all embedded in the external environment. Internal environment which includes the structure,
technology, needs and expectations of its people are to be considered by the organization.
There are two schools of thought:
1. Programme Procedure school
2. System Process school.
The programme procedure school deals with the organizations policies related to recruitment,
selection, training, compensation, career development, welfare, benefits etc., which are mainly
concerned with the personnel development. Currently this is treated as human resource development
function. This is only a part of the organizational development. The system process school considers
both the internal and external environment. This is group oriented, holistic approach to the
organizational development. The system process school considers both the internal and external
environment. This is group oriented, holistic approach to the organizational development.
Organization is an open and interdisciplinary system. The system process school concentrates on the
organization as a whole, treating it as system, consisting of different subsystem, social subsystem,
structural subsystem) demarcated by its boundaries from the environmental suprasystem.
Definition Koontz et al (1980) defined OD as a systematic and planned approach to improve the
effectiveness of the enterprise. It helps to solve problems that affect the organization adversely. The
prime objective of OD is to create an environment of openness, trust, mutual confidence and
collaboration among people of the organization to interact more effectively in the pursuit of
organizational goals.
CHARACTERISTICS OF OD
The origin of OD lies in the famous Hawthorne experiments conducted by Elton Mayo and
Roethilisberger at the Western Electric Company. This experiment highlighted the informal work
groups, employees attitudes, group norms and values and participation in decision making. All these
are guiding concepts for any OD technique. The OD effort should view the organization as integrated
system, consisting of different subsystems. Any change in one subsystem tends to affect the other
subsystems. Unless the change is absorbed by the whole system, collaboration, synergism and
efficiency cannot be achieved.
Organization structure
Task accomplishment
Work climate (interpersonal and intergroup relations work values)
Methods of decision making and problem solving technology
 The existing organization structure i.e., the hierarchy, formal relationships, span of control, line and
staff demarcation, decentralization and functions performed by each individual are to be analysed
before planning a change. The perceptions of the role incumbents are to be taken into consideration.
The employees may be involved in identifying the problems faced by the existing structure. The
employees participation would yield better results.
Another approach to OD is at the job level. Job aspects such as authority, responsibility, role
ambiguity etc., are to be considered for change accommodating the attitudes, expectations of the
people who are going to play the new roles. Job attitudes and job satisfaction influences the
performance. Job may be redesigned in such a way that provides for more opportunities for satisfying
the ego needs. Job enlargement and job enrichment are the job design methods.
The work climate of openness, trust and collaboration has a positive influence on the interpersonal
relations. Suspicion and distrust result in low performance. The climate should be encouraging and
supportive to enable the members to be creative. Effective communication also influences the work
climate. The OD efforts are directed to identify the gaps in the formal communication and improve
the communication process. Decision making is basic to the management process. Decision making is
another important area of OD interventions. Decisions are broadly divided into strategic,
operational and administrative decisions. Operational and administrative decisions are routine and
programmed. Otherwise, some of the operational and administrative decision are unprogrammed
and adhoc. Strategic decisions are critical and have an influence on the overall organization. While
making the strategic decisions, the changes internal and external environment is to be taken into
consideration. The decision making process should involve all the concerned people. This would help
in reaching an acceptable solution.
A systematic procedure has to be followed to employ the methodologies to bring out a change. The
change has to be introduced at the relative subsystem level. OD intervention varies from subsystem to
subsystem. If the change is people oriented, training and education methodology which includes
lectures, experimental exercises, simulations T group training etc. can be used. The method of
confrontation can also be used to bring the people together to discuss the problem and to
understanding of each others position. OD intervention like job design parameters such as job
enrichment, job enlargement, job rotation can be used.
If the change is at the structural level OD interventions like data feedback, problem solving, and
decision making, process consultation may be carried out by a change agent. The success of an OD
intervention depends upon the acceptance of it and willingness to implement or maintain the change.
Organizational change is not an one shot affair but it is a complicated and lengthy process. The OD
efforts are influenced by the size of the organization, constraints and facilities within the
organization, organizational climate, attitudes and feelings of the employees and their commitment to
change.
ADVANTAGES OF OD
1. OD improves the organizational effectiveness. To be more specific OD increases productivity,
boosts morale through improved utilisation of human resources.
2. OD provides better management from top to bottom.
3. OD improves commitment and involvement from the members of the organization in making
the organization successful.
4. OD improves coordination and team work among the members of the group and among the
groups.
5. OD helps to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the organization.
6. OD improves communication, problem solving and conflict resolution skills.
7. OD efforts to develop a work environment that encourages creativity and openness.
8. OD provides opportunities for personal growth and development.
9. OD reduces the negative attitude of the people towards the organization.
10. OD makes the organization competitive and to know by adapting itself continuously to the
changing environment.
11. OD keeps the organization healthy and attracts good people.

- End Of Chapter -
LESSON - 20
QUALITY OF LIFE AND QUALITY OF WORKING LIFE

The concept of quality of life is gaining increasing attention by organizations. Quality of life
encompasses the sum total of healthy experiences that individuals experience in the various facets of
their life. A big component of the quality of life is the quality of life experienced by organization
members at the work place. The quality of working life is particularly important and worthy of
investigation since individuals do not compartmentalise their lives but carry over their satisfaction or
dissatisfaction experienced in the family. The key objective of the "OD" is to improve the quality of
working life. The commonly measured indices of the QWL of employees is the extent of their job
involvement at work, their sense of competence and job satisfaction, the supervision, coworkers pay
promotional opportunities etc. OD efforts are intended to enhance the QWL, not only from the
employees point of view, but also from the organizational and social perspective.
OD INTERVENTIONS
OD can be defined as a "set of structured activities in which target groups or individuals engage with a
task or a sequence of tasks where the task goals are related directly or indirectly to organizational
improvement".
The OD intervention has three different characteristics, OD intervention firstly focuses on the
organizational activity, secondly OD would generally focus on work group as the unit of analysis and
lastly the OD would view the change normally as an on going process.
CLARIFICATION
The OD interventions to be chosen would be based on the target focus and strategy. Before choosing
an OD intervention an analysis is to be made to what segment of the organization is going to be
effected with the change. The focus of the OD intervention i.e. whether the focus is on task or
behaviour has to be analysed. Finally, the strategy to implement the planned changed has to be
worked out.
The type of OD intervention varies with the targets. i.e., individuals group and organization as a
whole. The organization segmentation starting from the individual to large groups helps in choosing
the OD intervention. For example a stranger t-group focus on individual behaviour and family t-
group, focuses on organizational group. For example role perception starts with individual and moves
on to groups for role negotiation.
Change also aims at different aspects of organizational functioning. Each organization has a mission,
which is translated into objectives, tasks and structures. Organization is a system that co-ordinates
and controls the activities of their members. However, there will be a gap between the organizational
requirements and individual needs. OD interventions like management by objectives (MBO) focus on
organizational objectives. The job redesign focuses on structure. Appraisal feedback focuses on
system and t-group focuses on the team building processes. OD is an ongoing process spread over
time.
Now it is strategy to be designed to bring the change. Traditional strategy can be through the rewards
and punishments. This may be power coercive strategy. People willingly accept change when they
realise that the change is in their own interest. If the people not only agree to change but also seek
change actively it is called the empirical rational strategy. This strategy aims at the attitudes and
values of human beings. This strategy . The third strategy aims at the attitudes and values of human
beings. This strategy is called the normative re-educative strategy which helps in improving problem
solving capabilities of the system and fosters the growth of the individuals who make the system. OD
programme may use a combination of interventions using different strategies.
OD efforts are useful whenever problems and tensions exist or arise. Change can not be made without
considering the human side of the enterprise. OD interventions can be at the:
(1) individual or interpersons level i.e. personnel counseling and career planning
(2) dyadic level solving problems in interpersonal communication and in superior subordinate
relationship
(3) group level helping people to get along with each other and clarifying perceived in congruencies
in goals and
(4) at the family level helping couples to get adjusted to transfers and reallocations. Some of the
people oriented 'OD' interventions are sensitivity training, transactional analysis, process
consultation, and third party peacemaking, team building individual counseling, role clarification and
different kinds of workshops.
Job evaluation, job redesigning are some of the job related interventions. An OD strategy used to
assess and enhance the effectiveness of the organization is what is known as organizational mirroring.
The managerial group and Rikerts system techniques are also other strategies to increase the
organizational effectiveness.
STRUCTURAL INTERVENTIONS
Structural reorganization is becoming necessary to make the organizations competitive.
Organizations are becoming more flat, more decentralized and more organic. Flat organization
structure reduces the level by widening the span of control. It reduces the administrative cost. Fewer
levels improve the communication. Wider span of control makes the manager to decentralise his
subordinates. Decentralised decision making irregular OD intervention. The centralisation gives
lower level employees greater control over their work. Pushing down the authority helps people to
take the decisions at the situations. OD intends to make the organizations more organic. The
organization has to be less bureaucratic to make them to respond quickly to the changes in the
environment. Employees should actively participate in the reorganization process.
REWARD SYSTEMS
OD change agents favour a significant portion of an employees compensation might be calculated on
the productivity of his or her work. The year-end bonuses are prepared on the overall profitability of
the company.
TASK TECHNOLOGY INTERVENTIONS
Job redesign- Job redesign interventions include job rotation, enlargement, enrichment and
autonomous work teams. Job redesign is similar to structural reorganization except that the
structural reorganization focuses at organizational level and job redesign focuses at job level.
Sociotechnical systems- Work design must jointly optimise both the social and technological
demands in the job. The technology deals with the tools, techniques, procedures, skills and knowledge
used by employees to do their jobs. The social system comprises the people who work in their
organization and their interrelationships. The change agents sociotechnical system as a guide to
redesign the job.
PEOPLE FOCUSSED INTERENTIONS
The OD interventions are directed at changing the attitudes and behaviour of the people in
organization. The change in attitudes can be achieved through communication, decision making and
problem solving.
SENSITIVITY TRAINING
"T" group or sensitivity training evolved from the group dynamics concept of Kurt Lewin. It is called
by a variety of names like, T groups sensitivity training, laboratory training, encounter groups.
Senstivity training is widely used by psychotherapists, counsellors, educators, social workers
organizational trainers and consultants. This training is a method of changing behaviour through
unstructured group interaction. Sensitivity training is designed as a stranger's lab or a cousin, family
lab. In stranger lab the participants are from different organizations and they do not know each other.
In the cousin lab, the participants are from the same organization but not from the same division. In
the family lab they are from the same division. Cousin and family labs are frequently used for "OD".
The sequence of events in a sensitivity lab may be as the following. Members are brought together in
free and open environment in which participants discuss themselves loosely directed by a behavioural
scientist. The group is process oriented i.e., the individuals learn through observing and participating
rather than being told. The participants learn about their personal styles, how they communicate and
how they are perceived by others. Different individuals react differently to the T group or sensitivity
training season. People, who are more open to feedback, learn more about themselves and acquire
increased self-awareness. T group sessions would help aggressive individuals to become friendly, shy
persons to be more assertive. T group effects more realistic self-perception, greater group
cohesiveness, and a reduction in dysfunctional interpersonal conflicts. This helps the individual to
identify himself with the organization. Different individuals react differently to the T group session.
People who are more open to feed back, learn more about themselves. They become more attentive to
the feeling of others. T group sessions have helped aggressive individuals to become friendly, timid
persons to become more assertive. The successful T group can effect more realistic self-perceptions,
greater group cohesiveness and a reduction in dysfunctional interpersonal conflicts. It will ideally
result in a better integration between the individual and the organization.
THE SURVEY FEEDBACK
The survey feedback (French and Bell, 1978) is a good diagnostic tool. The findings of the survey
feedback can be used for several types of interventions. Attitude surveys and data feedback are
basically used for the survey feedback. Whenever the organization contemplates introducing a
change, it is necessary to do an attitudinal survey of individuals and groups at all levels in the
organization. These survey provide a useful data for future trends. A questionnaire is usually
completed by all members in organizations or unit. Organization members may be asked to suggest
questions or may be interviewed to determine what issues are relevant. The questionnaire typically
asks members for their perceptions and attitudes on a broad range of topics - such as decision making
practices, communication effectiveness. Co-ordination between the units, and satisfaction with t he
organisation, job, peers and their immediate supervisor.
The data from this questionnaire is tabulated with data pertaining to an individual and to the entire
organisation, and distributed to employees. This data then becomes the spring board for identifying
problems and clarifying issues that may be creating difficulties for people. The objective of the survey
feedback is to encourage discussion and that discussions focus on issues and ideas and not on
attacking individuals. Group discussion in the survey feedback approach should result in members
identifying possible implications of the questionnaire findings. It is to be ascertained that whether the
survey feedback has improved the listening of people, generation of new ideas, improvement in job
assignments.
It is found that survey feedback meetings can lead to attitudinal changes by participants satisfaction.
Positive attitudes toward work and ones supervisor and involvement in organizations. The survey
feedback approach changes attitudes, long term changes in behaviour have not resulted from mere
group discussion of the results. However, it cannot be said that survey feedback alone leads to
changes in individual behaviour.
PROCESS CONSULTATION
The organizations seldom operate effectively. Managers often feel that their unit's performance can be
improved but they are unable to identify what can be improved and how it can be improved. If the
process is getting things done is understood, it leads to organizational effectiveness. If proper
attention is not paid to process, it results in more problems. Structural and the procedural aspects are
important to organizations to run smoothly. The process consultation is done by an outside
consultant to assist the client to deal with problems like work-flow, informal relationships and formal
communication channels. Process consultation is similar to sensitivity training. Both the
interventions deal with the interpersonal problems which in turn improve the organizational
effectiveness. Organizational system specifies the channels of communication, which helps the people
to know whether they can communicate only through hierarchy or horizontally or both. A manager
has to pay attention to the process by which the communication takes place. The manager has to
understand whether people understand each other and are friendly with each other.
Process consultation requires a combination of skills in establishing helping relationships, knowing
what kinds of processes to look for in organizations, and intervening in a way to improve
organizational process. In the process are consultation, consultant works with the managers,
individuals and groups in the system to develop their process skills - that is diagnose, understand
and resolve process related problems. This involves sensitizing the individuals involved about issues
such as how people get along with each other, how conflicts are resolved are resolved, styles of
interaction among departments and so on. The members of the organization are made aware of
organization are made aware of organizational processes that enhance and obstruct their
effectiveness. They also learn how to bring about necessary changes so that the organization becomes
a more effective system.
The process consultant need not be expert in solving the problems. The consultant should be
diagnose and help in developing a relationship.
TEAM BUILDING
In an organization people are required to work together to achieve the goals, OD has focussed
considerably on team building. Team building can be applied within groups, or at the intergroup level
where activities are interdependent. Teambuilding is applicable to the case of interdependence. The
objective of the team building is to improve the co-ordination among the team members which will
result in increasing the groups performance. The team building helps in goal setting and development
of interpersonal relations among team members. It helps to clarify each member's role and
responsibilities, and team process analysis. Team building helps to increase the interaction among
members of the group which increases trust and openness.
Organizational members have to define the goals and identify the properties of the group. Different
perceptions of the groups purpose may be surfaced and group members can evaluate their
performance. This would help them to identify the potential problem areas. This would help the
group members to exchange their views which may initially take place in smaller group followed up
by sharing of their finding with the total group.
Team building also helps in clarifying each members role in the group. Each role can be identified
and clarified. Previous ambiguities can be brought to the furnace. It may help the individuals to
understand their job thoroughly and specific tasks to be carried out to increase the groups
effectiveness. This would lead to the effectiveness of the group. Team building is effective in
increasing the member involvement and participation in group activities and in improving the
effectiveness of the meetings.
THIRD PARTY PEACE MAKING
Third party peace making is the process of resolving a conflict by a third party. Walton (1969)
suggests that the third party should arrange for the face to face contacts between the conflicting
parties and make them realise that the conflict among them is improving the effectiveness of both.
The consultant should be able to use the right kind of intervention to surface the issues involved in
the conflict. The consultant has to choose a right place, proper environment, and appropriate agenda
for a meeting. The consultant may help the conflicting parties to own the solutions to the problems.
The consultant should help to restructure the perceptions and facilitate the understanding between
the parties involved.
INTER GROUP DEVELOPMENT
The dysfunctional conflict that exists in every organisation is the concern of OD. The efforts of change
are directed towards this to reduce the conflict. Intergroup development may help to change the
attitudes, stereotypes and perceptions that exist between groups. Stereotypes about others create a
negative impact on the coordination among the group members, problem solving is the popular
method used to improve the intergroup relations. Each group meets separately to develop the list of
the alternatives generated by them. Then the groups share their ideas discuss the similarities and
differences and they finally identify the causes for the disparities. The causes of disparities thus
identified may be because of the conflicting goals, misunderstanding and distorted perceptive
because of stereotypes. The identification of the causes of the differences would help the groups to
develop solutions that will improve relations between the groups.

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OB MODIFICATION
OB Modification is the recent addition to the 'OD' interventions. According to BF Skinner, operant
conditioning that people learn to behave so that get something they want or avoid something they do
not want. Behaviour is assumed to be learned. Skinner advocated creating pleasing consequences to
follow specific forms of behaviour. People will behave positively can be shaped by reinforcing
systematically each step that moves the individual close to the desired responses. The essence of the
OB Modification is that the desired behavior can be shaped or changed by using the change agents
that can manipulate environmental contingencies. The productive behaviours of the people at every
level of organization, are to be positively reinforced. This would result in goal congruent behaviours of
the total organization.
TRANSACTION ANALYSIS
Transaction analysis is another 'OD' technique. Transaction analysis is both an approach for defining
and for analyzing communications interaction between people and theory of personality. Managers or
trainers or consultants, who are in influencing roles will be able to develop others, and help them to
become self-sufficient and capable of solving problems. Transaction analysis is one of the important
tools to understand the personality style of the individual. TA holds that an individuals personality is
made up ot three ago states the parent, the child and the adult. These labels have nothing to do with
the age.
The parent ego state performs functions, regulatory behaviour through prescriptions, and sanctions,
and nurturing through providing support. It is an ego state of authority and superiority. A person
acting in his or her parent state is usually dominant, scolding and otherwise authoritative.
The Adult: The adult ego state performs the function of collection of information, and the
processing of such information like a computer. The adult state is rational and objective. It deals with
reality and objectively gathers information. It is not prejudiced by the valves of the parent or the
natural urges of the child.
The child: The child ego state is concerned with several functions like creativity, curiosity and fun,
and with manipulation, rebellion and sulking. The child contains all the impulses that are natural to
an infant. Acting in this state, one can be obedient or manipulative, charming at one moment and
repulsive the next. Whereas the parent acts as he or she was taught, the child is emotional and acts
according to how he or she feels at the moment.
The parent and child ego states feel and react separately while only the adult state thinks or processes
transactional data logically before acting. In most situations, the ideal interaction is an adult
stimulus, followed by an adult purpose. The parallel transaction i.e parent parent, adult-adult and
child child can go on smoothly. Parallel transaction leave communication channels open for further
exploration of the relationship. The communication is short circuited whenever a cross transaction
occurs. Transactional analysis is a personal method for analyzing and understanding behaviour.
TA is a useful technique for understanding how people communicate with each other and helps us to
identify ways of maximising adult-adult transactions in organizations. TA also helps to quickly
identify and untangle crossed transactions. An understanding of the ulterior transactions that occur
in organization, can be minimised by overriding authentic encounters. Transaction analysis training
is to make people understand:
(1) their own ego states
(2) their mode of communicating with others and
(3) the effectiveness of complimentary transactions.
Transaction analysis training is particularly useful in improving dyadic relationships between the
superior and subordinate. Transaction analysis may help understand others better and assist them in
altering their responses so as to produce more effective results.
ORGANIZATIONAL MIRRORING
 Organization's effectiveness can be assessed and improved by obtaining feedback from several other
groups like employees, customers, suppliers, government agencies. The process of getting feedback
for improvement is organizational mirroring. Key persons from the various relevant organization are
being invited to participate to mirror. The people who are attending the meeting are being
interviewed by a consultant before the meetings. This would help to assess the magnitude of the
problematic issues and facilitate the problem solving process. The total group which meets thereafter
identifies the critical issues and recommends needed changes. Organizational mirroring as an
intervention technique helps the organization to improve its relations with external groups.
GRID TRAINING
Grid training is based on the managerial grid approach to leadership discussed in the earlier chapter.
The goal of the grid training is 9.9 position on Blake and Mouton's leadership grid which indicates
maximum concern both for production and people. Sensitivity training is a tool for OD whereas grid
training offers a complete plan for OD. The six phases of grid training are as follows:
1. Laboratory Seminar Training : Participants are introduced to the overall concepts of
materials used in the grid training. Grid training is structured and concentrates more on leadership
styles than on development of self.
1 Team Development: In the second phase members are brought together to explain to them how
they are going to attain 9.9 positions in the grid. Things learned in the orientation stage are applied to
the organizational situation.
1 Inter Group Development: The first two phases are aimed at managerial development.
Intergroup development focuses on group to group organization development. Conflicts between
groups can be identified and analysed.
1 Organizational Goal Setting: The participants contributed to and agree upon the important goals
for the organization as done in the management by objectives. This stage ensures the participant's
committee and self-control.
1 Goal Attainment : Participants attempt to accomplish the goals which they set in the earlier
phase. The participants get together and discuss the major issues.
1 Stabilization: In the final phase, support is ensured for the changes identified earlier. Further the
programme is evaluated. The grid training may take three to five years to implement. The grid
training through its various phases helps the managers sharpen their skills and leadership abilities,
and groups improve their intra and inter team interactions.
CONCLUSION
Today's organizations are faced with the tremendous forces for change. The change can be managed
systematically through the process of the organizational development. The OD interventions used are
sensitivity training, grid training, survey feedback, process consultation, third party peace-making,
team building, transaction anaysis and organizational mirroring. OD has fairly good chance in solving
some of the challenges facing today's organizations.
QUESTIONS
1. What are the major characteristics of organization development? Explain them briefly.
2. Briefly describe sensitivity training, grid training and survey feedback. Explain the advantages
and disadvantages.
3. Discuss using examples, the following intervention strategies.
a. Third party peace making
b. Team building
c. Action research
4. Describe briefly the transaction analysis.

- End Of Chapter
LESSON - 21
ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

Organizations can be characterized as friendly, aggressive, innovative or conservative like the

individuals in the organization. Attitudes and behaviour of people can be predicted with the use of the
traits. It is found that there is a system's variable in organization. It is difficult to define it precisely.
Organization culture prescribes norms and procedures for the employees actions towards clients,
competitors, superiors, subordinates and peers. The organizations become stable and consistent
because of organizational culture. Organizational culture gives employees a clear understanding of
the way things are done in the organization. A strong organization culture shapes the attitudes and
behaviour of its people. Every organization has a philosophy to speak about. Every employee should
know the company's basic operating principles. Every organization has levels, departments, authority
relationships etc. The attitudes and behaviours of people in one organization will vary remarkably
from the attitudes and behaviours of the people in other organization. It is realised that culture plays
an important role in the lives of the organizational members. Organizations become institutionalised,
if that exists beyond the life of the individual/member. Organization acquires immortality if its
original goals are no longer relevant and it does not go out of business. Institutionalization produces
appropriate and meaningful behaviour. Organization culture will enhance one's ability to explain and
predict the behaviour of people at work.
Definition: "Organizational culture refers to a system of shares meaning held by members that
distinguishes the organization from organization." (E.H. Schein 1935)
Organization culture is a common perception held by the organization members. Organization culture
helps the member to have a shared understanding of the organization. It explains how things are
done and the way the members are supposed to behave. The ten characteristics (GG Gordon and W M
Cummins 1979) listed below explain the organization culture.
1. Individual initiative: It is the degree of responsibility, freedom and independence given to
the individuals.
2. Risk tolerance: The degree to which employees are encouraged to be aggressive, innovative
and risk taking.
3. Direction: The degree to which the organization creates clear objectives and performance
expectation.
4. Integration: The degree to which units within the organization are encouraged to operate in
a co-ordinated manner.
1 Management support: The degree to which managers provide clear communication, assistance
and support to their subordinates.
1 Control: The number of rules and regulations and the amount of direct supervision that is used to
oversee and control employee behaviour.
1 Identity: The degree to which members identify with the organization as a whole rather than with
their particular work group field of professional experience.
1 Reward system: The degree to which reward attractions (that is salary increases, promotions) are
based on employee performance criteria in contrast to seniority, favourability and so on.
1 Conflict tolerance: The degree to which employees are encouraged to air conflicts and criticisms
openly.
1 Communication patterns: The degree to which organizational communication is restricted to the
formal hierarchy of authority.
These ten characteristics help is the members to have an understanding of organization.
Organizational culture is concerned with how the employees perceive the ten characteristics.
Organizational culture is a descriptive term. Organizational culture is to be differentiated with job
satisfaction. Job satisfaction tries to measure effective responses to the work environment. It is
concerned about organizational expectations, reward practices, methods of handling conflict etc. The
term job satisfaction and organization culture have common characteristics, organization culture is
descriptive, while job satisfaction is evaluative. Organizational members have a common perception
about the organizational culture.
The individuals at different levels in organization will be describing the organization's culture in
similar terms. However, the organizational culture differs from organization to organization.
Dominant Culture
Majority of the organizational members share the core values. This kind of sharing of the core values
is dominant culture. The dominant culture gives the macro view of the organization's culture. The
different departments in large organizations may have sub cultures which reflect the common
problems, situations or experiences of that department. Sub cultures include the core values of the
dominant cultures along with the values unique to the members of the specific department. The
reality is that many organizations also have cultures that can influence the behaviour of the members.
The organization culture can be strong or weak. If the core values of the organization are being
accepted and followed with commitment by members of the organization, the culture is strong. A
strong culture influences the behaviour of the people because of highagreement among members
about the organization culture. A strong culture builds cohesiveness, loyalty and organizational
commitment. Formalization sets rules and regulations which in turn help to have the predictability,
orderliness and consistency in the behaviour of the people. Strong culture achieves this even without
the rules and regulations. If the organization culture is strong, the management needs be less
concerned with developing formal rules and regulations to guide employee behaviour.
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND ORGANIZATION CLIMATE:
Sound organizational climate is important for the achievement of goals. Organizational climate is
normally associated with job performance and job satisfaction and morale of the employees.
Organizations climate provides for understanding organizations characteristics such as stability,
creativity, innovation, communication, and effectiveness etc. Organizational climate is the summary
perception which people have about an organization. Organization like finger prints and snowflakes,
are always unique. Each has its own traditions, methods of action and culture. Lawrence R Jones and
Allan P Jones (1974) have tried to identify the factors influencing climate and they grouped these
factors under five heads. They are:
(1) Organizational context
(2) Organizational structure
(3) Process
(4) Physical Environment
(5) System values and norms
Management Philosophy is one of the factors that influence the climate. If the organization is wedded
to such a policy then it effectively utilizes its resources. The climate is said to be highly favourable
when there is a congruence between the philosophy of the organization and the goals of the
individual.
Organization culture is another variable that affects climate. Formal relationships, the hierarchy, the
communication flow affect the climate. Highly decentralised climate results in sound climate.
Decentralization will promote participative decision making and commitment. Communication,
decision making, motivation and leadership are some of the very important processes through which
the management carries out its objectives. In all these processes, the relationship between the
superior and subordinate's is visible. A leader has to be aware of the possible influence of the
interventions to be used for a given situation. Otherwise it would strain the relations between the
people in the organization.
Physical environment also affects the organizational climate. Location of the organization, will affect
the organizational conflict. An employee's place of job should be clean, quiet and safe. Noise and
illumination also affect the organizational climate. Every organization has formal value system where
certain kinds of behaviours are rewarded and encouraged. The values and norms will be influencing
the organizational climate. Formal and informal groups are very powerful in exerting influence on
climate. People like the organization climate that treats employees with respect and understanding
than one with very cold and impersonal climate.
A climate can be measured with the help of a questionnaire. The employees are required to respond to
the five point questionnaire. The questions may be related to the decision making, organization
philosophy, flexibility, supportive etc. Based on the findings of the survey the organizational climate
has to be changed. Significant changes in the climate can be carried out at the group level. The
changes in the climate are to be gradual and take some time.
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FUNCTIONS OF CULTURE
The first function of the culture is that it differentiates one organization from another. Secondly it
conveys a sense of identity for the members of the organization. Thirdly, culture facilitates to place
the organizational interest over the self interest. Fourthly, it enhances the stability of the social
system. Finally culture guides and shapes the attitude of the people. Culture enhances the
organizational commitment and the employee's positive behaviour. Organizational culture increases
the organizational effectiveness. However, the organization culture should also change with the
organization which is dynamic in nature.
CULTURE- KEEPING ALIVE:
An organization's current customs, traditions and general way of doing things are largely due to what
it has done before and the degree of success it has had with those endeavours. This leads to the
ultimate source of culture.
SELECTION
The objective of selection is to identify and select individuals with knowledge, skill and competence to
perform the jobs successfully. Candidates thus selected if perceive a conflict between their values and
those of the organization must be selected out. Otherwise, they might undermine the core values.
Candidates learn about the organization at the point of entry level. Applicants are interviewed in
depth for such qualities as their ability to "turn out high volumes of excellent work", 'identify and
understand problems' and 'reach thoroughly' substantiated and 'well reasoned conclusions that lead
to actions'. Applicants are carefully chosen for the ability to fit into the company's learn-work
orientedculture.
TOP MANAGEMENT
The actions of the top management also have a major impact of on the organization's culture. Top
management establishes the norms and procedures. If depends upon the philosophy of the top
management towards the authority and freedom to be given to their subordinates. Top management
has to establish the norms of a dress and what actions will pay off, pray raises, promotions and other
rewards and the like of the top management prefers an entrepreneurial environment, which
facilitate in normal, innovative bold and risk taking culture. Otherwise the top management institutes
bureaucratic controls may make the organization formal, with lots of politics, and battles and of
watchdog managers. The organization culture increases the company's competitiveness, delegating
decision making downward, and boosting the quality of products and services. The top management
has to convey the company's values and rewards quality, innovative efficiency and staying on the top
of the competition.
SOCIALIZATION
The socialization is the process that adopts employees to the organization culture. The new employees
are to be fully indoctrinated in the organization culture. The new employees are to be made aware of
the organizational culture, observes they are likely to disturb the customs and beliefs of the
organization in practice. The organization has to help the people to adapt themselves to the new
culture. The adoption process is called socialization. New employees in an organization have to go
through one year training programme that tests their intelligence, and endurance, and that requires
team work as an essential factor for survival. The socialization takes place at the time of entry into the
organization. Organization will be socializing every employee throughout his or her entire career in
the organization. This helps further to sustain the organization culture.
Socialization can be conceptualized as a process made up of three stages (D C Feldman 1981)
The three stages are pre-arrival, encounter and metamorphosis.
PREARRIVAL STAGE
Each individual enters the organization with a set of values, attitudes and expectations. For example,
if the job requires particular professional knowledge, the new members will have to undergo special
training. The recruitment selection process includes the presentation about the organization to the
prospective employees. This kind of pre-placement presentation to the employees will help them to
have an understanding of the organization culture. One major purpose of the pre-placement
presentation is to socialise the prospective employees to the attitudes and behaviours that the
organization wants. Thus the pre-arrival stage is period of learning in the socialization process that
occurs before a new employee joins the organization.
ENCOUNTER
This stage commences after the individuals entry into the organization. The individual joins the
organization with a set of expectations about his / her job, co-workers , boss and the organizations in
general. In reality if the expectations are fulfilled, it will reaffirm the perceptions held earlier. If the
expectation and the reality differ, the employee must undergo socialization that would help him to
change to perception. Otherwise, the individual may get disillusioned with job and resign. Proper
selection should reduce the incompatibility between the expectation and reality.
METAMORPHOSIS STAGE
The new employee adjusts to his or her work group's values and norms. This process of adjusting
oneself is the metamorphosis. Socialization process is complete when the individual finds himself
comfortable with the job and the organization. The new member has internalised the norms of the
organization and the work group. The individual feels that he has been accepted by the boss and co-
workers. The individual understands the rules, norms, procedure etc. This enhances the individual's
self confidence to complete the job. Successful metamorphosis should have positive impact on the
individual's productivity and commitment to the organization and reduce the tendency to leave the
organization. The organization culture is derived from the founder's philosophy. Organization
philosophy strongly influences the recruitment and selection process. The process of socialization
depends upon the top management attitude towards meeting the individual's values with those of in
the organization. Thus socialization process establishes and sustains the organizations' culture.
SOURCES OF CULTURE
Culture is transmitted to employees in a number of forms like, stories, rituals, material symbols and
language.
The stories typically contain a narration of events about the organization founders, rule breaking, rags
to richness successes, reduction in the work force, reallocation of employees, reaction to past
mistakes etc.
A security supervisor has to ensure the people entering organization with a proper identity card. Even
if the chairman of the company walks without identity cards has to be stopped although the security
supervisor knows that he or she is the chairman. If the chairman obeys to get his identity card, this
incident gives a clear message that no matter who you are you obey the rules. Such stories speak
about the organization culture.
RITUALS
Rituals are repetitive sequences of activities that express and reinforce the key values of the
organization. If an organization organises annual award meeting, sales persons are rewarded for their
achieving the targets. Individuals who perform well are rewarded. Such annual reward meetings
convey to the people of the organization that achieving the targets and performing better through
hard work is important. Such annual rituals help to learn the organization culture.
MATERIAL SYMBOLS
Organizations provide sports facilities for the employee enjoyment. Organization may arrange for the
informal gatherings of all the employees. This conveys the value of openness and equality. The
organization may provide a car, a bungalow, a holiday in a foreign country, perks and dress etc. This
conveys to the employees the importance of people in the organization.
LANGUAGE
Many organizations use language as a way to identify members of a culture or subculture. The
members accept and preserve the culture by learning the language. Libraries are a rich source of
terminology. Organizations develop unique terms to describe equipment, offices, key personnel,
suppliers, customers, or products that relate to business. New employees may find it difficult in the
beginning. However, after sometime this term becomes a part of the language. This language unites
members of a given culture.
CONCLUSION
The objective factors like individual initiative, risk tolerance, direction, integration, management
support, control, identity, reward system, conflict tolerance and communication patterns are being
perceived as the organizational culture. The perception of the organization favourably and
unfavourably affects the employee performance and satisfaction. The impact of culture on the
performance and satisfaction is strong in case of strong cultures. There is strong relationship between
the culture and satisfaction. The satisfaction will be highest if there is a congruence between the
individual goals and culture. Job satisfaction often varies with employee's perception of the
organizations culture.
Performance will be higher when the culture suits technology. If the culture is informal, creative and
supports risk taking and conflict. The performance will be higher if the technology is changing, if the
organizations are more formally structured, risk aversive, dominates conflict, and are more prone to
 task oriented leadership. When once a new employee is being socialized into an organization, he
starts learning the rules and norms of the organization. An employee's performance depends to a
considerable degree on knowing what he should do and what he should not do. Socialization helps to
understand the proper way of doing the job. The performance appraisal of an employee depends upon
how well he fits with the organization, his ability to get along with people and demonstrate right
attitude. Proper socialization is a significant factor in influencing the job performance.
QUESTIONS
1. What is organization Culture? Explain the different forms of organization culture.
2. Explain the functions of organization culture. How is an organization culture maintained?
3. What benefits can socialization provide for the organization and for the new employees?
4. Describe how employees learn organizational culture.

- End Of Chapter -
LESSON - 22
ORGANISATIONAL CLIMATE AND MORALE

Individuals in organization are faced with several questions as he or she perceives the setting in which
one is working. What is the optimal environment for the individual, conflicts between individuals and
organization are inevitable. People with a strong need to be independent find that most organizations
do not provide them with a suitable organizational climate. Even the rewards from the organization
may induce conflict within the individual if he feels that someone else got more than he did. There is
no simple relationship between job satisfaction and job performance. To lesson conflict, the
organization must provide the person with a climate in which one can unfold and develop. Individual
personalities and job requirements interact to produce a climate that can be significant to both the
individual and the organization .
Climate can be defined as "Those characteristics that distinguish the organization from other
organizations, that influence the behaviour of people in the organization and are relatively enduring
overtime". "Organizational climate" is situationally determined process, where the climate variables
are causative factors for performance and attitudes. The "Psychological Climate" is the individual
perception of a situation. The psychological climate includes five aspects.
1. Psychological climate is basically perceptual.
2. Psychological climate is based upon interaction between situational and individual
characteristics.
3. There is an intervening psychological process in an organization model, where the point of
intervention is between the situation and the individual.
4. Psychological climate is not completely a situational specific construct.
5. Psychological climate represents a set of higher order abstractions which reflect
interrelationships among more specific perceptions of the work environment.
THEORIES OF ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE
The first theory is Multiple measurement organizational attribute approach, which defines climate as
a set of characteristics that describe an organization and that:
(1) distinguish the organization from other organization
(2) are relatively enduring overtime and
(3) influence the behaviour of the people in the organization.
The second theory is "Perpetual measurement organizational attributes approach, which sees a
climate as a set of attributes specific to a particular organization climate, which takes the form of a set
of attributes to expectancies. For the individual member within organization climate takes the form of
a set attributes and expectancies behaviour related to independence, responsibility rule orientation
and opportunities for individual initiative."
The third theory is "perceptual measurement" individual attribute approach, which sees the
concept of climate as personalistic, as being an individual perception.
THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE CLIMATE
All organizations are changing, and they are changing fast. Change is happening in government and
religious organizations, educational and industrial organizations, and even on the farm, the person
who likes to participate in decision making may be more comfortable in a democratic climate that in
an autocratic one. On the other hand, the person who tends to be lazy may be better off in an
aggressive and competitive climate that forces him or her to work than in a laissez fair climate. An
individual's personality is evaluated in a general way by observing his or her normal ways of adjusting
to the situation. For example, a committee meeting may reveal the personalities of the persons that
compose it. One individual is aggressive and wants to run things. Another straddles every issues
cautiously, not committing himself or herself until the knowledge of what others have to say. Based
on this we give tables to personality traits. Such as dominance, compliance, sensitiveness, prejudice,
indifference and so on.
VARIETIES OF ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATES
CONFLICT BETWEEN LINE AND STAFF
In a large organization, the one climate common to many old line companies is created by conflict
between staff and line managers. It has been assumed that efficiency will result from having staff
experts advise busy administrators, but experience has shown there are real problems here on the
peoples nature. The assumptions that staff specialists would be reasonably content to function
without a measure of formal authority over production and that their suggestions for improvement of
processes, their development of new products and their techniques for control over production would
be welcomed by line officers. In practice, staff line cooperation varies a great deal and serves as an
important dimension of the organizational climate. Often there is much conflict between industrial
staff and line organizations. This is particularly true where there are age, education, and social
difference between the two groups. There are some climates more favourable to staff-line cooperation
with the growth of highly technical kinds of production industries as electronics, technical
instruments, space programmes new organic structures have evolved. Some of these organizations
begin with staff specialists who later become line officers.
UNIVERSITY CLIMATE
The formulas around which organizations develop generally lead to some uniformity of organization
structure in terms of operating procedures, reports and records, task-performance rules and plans
and planning rules. Colleagues and universities have climates, as most students, alumni and
professors know, and climates of the many of these institutions have changed. The self-image of the
university itself is changing and is now being studies on a wide scale. Individual research in larger
institutions is giving way to programmes of research, and the aggressive academician moved to run
the show. Students are aware that the size of the class helps to determine the amount of interaction,
so does the personality of the teacher. Whereas one instructor encourages discussion, another,
equally competent having the same size class, may prefer to teach by lecture method with little or no
questioning involved. One class may be more formal than other. The personality make up the class
helps to set the climate.
College climates are very real and vary with a wide variety of student and faculty inputs. They can
even be measured with such scales as scholarship, awareness of community problems, propriety and
practicality. Other dimensions involved include intellectual orientation of students and faculty,
grades, self-expression, artistic orientation, friendliness, social orientation, conformity, age and
tradition. The student who takes a close look at the psychological or organizational climate of his or
her particular institution can learn about some of the things to look from the job. Many people, most
of us infact, experience feelings of uncertainty upon going into a new environment.
EXECUTIVE CLIMATE
Managerial climate pervades the entire organization. It is however a more specialised term than
organizational climate. Executive climate involves how executives work and how they feel. The
executives perceived that their work climate has at least five dimensions. First, there is a direction
and guidance dimension resorted to top management, planning, competence, consistency, clarity and
concern for subordinates. Secondly there is a professional atmosphere dimension of developing one's
capabilities and ethics. Thirdly relates to quality of the superiors. Fourth, concern is with quality of
the work group. The fifth dimension refers to top management demands such as stress put on sales
and profits, to the autonomy they give subordinate managers.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS
Rensis Likert has identified six organizational characteristics that affect the organizational climate.
They are leadership styles, motivational patterns, communication channels, decision making process,
the goals and control process.
SIZE, SHAPE AND CONTROL
The chief merit of a large organization be it an industrial, governmental or research bureaucracy is its
technical efficiency, with premium on precision, speed and control. As the business grows, the old
face to face are no longer adequate, new and different things are required. Such things as the kinds of
skill and the location of pools skills within the organizations, the decentralization of authority and the
developments of new kinds of communication network may change radically as the company grows.
The size may lead to the belief that the organization is strong and powerful just because it is being
whereas the smaller organizations are flexible in adopting to changed conditions.
Psychologically, the size of the organization may be one of the factors affecting the organizational
climate. The individual is treated impersonally in the larger organizations. However, size alone
cannot determine the job satisfaction.
LEADERSHIP PATTERNS
Psychologists have concluded that there is no simple relationship between morale and productivity.
High job satisfaction does not necessarily mean high productivity. It depends upon other variables
like incentives, supervision, and hierarchy. status, personal need achievement, occupational levels
and a host of others in the organization as one bureaucratic one. At the other extreme, it may be vary
group centered and democratic. In between are found authority centered or autocratic patterns of
leadership and individual centered patterns.
COMMUNICATION
If the department head is asked, what is the problem in the plant quite often he gets the reply
"Communication". Communication, other than most of the formal kinds, flows along friendship
channels, when trust exists, content is more freely communicated and more accurately perceived by
the perceiver. Often the free flow of ideas and information is restricted by the feeling that one may not
receive credit for the contribution or by fear that his idea will be stolen. There are some barriers to
good communications where several people are involved. There is the status barrier as between
superior and subordinate, and at times there is even interpersonal hostility. And some people allow
organization rules to become barriers to really effective communication.
DECISION MAKING PROCEDURES
Centralization of decision making power is likely to affect the organizational conflict. Psychologists
have been interested in problems about the interpersonal quality of a decision and its degree of
acceptance. The decision making process influences the problem solving, authoritarianism of
supervisors, heads of organizations control, decision rules, individual adjustment patterns.
EFFECTS OF CLIMATE
People react to climates and climatic changes, organizations sometimes change because individuals
change. A modification of the climate also offers one good way to observe the effects climate has on
the people in organization. The psychological climates of organizations change sometimes for good
and sometimes for bad. Conflict between individuals and organizations is inevitable. People with
strong needs to be independent find that most organizations do not provide a proper setting. Two
kinds of influence of climate on individuals may be distinguished. First there is a direct influence that
affects all or almost all members of the company or some sub-unit. The second kind of effect is
termed interactive influence, which exists when a climate has a certain effect on the behaviour of
some people, a different effect on others, and possibly no effect at all on others. Some behaviours
never occur because the stimuli that would elicit them are never presented. Organizations themselves
place constraints on people through rules and regulations, routine, practical traits. It is not
uncommon for the ambitious person to find himself in a climate that puts restraints upon freedom,
narrowing his alternatives of action.
Organizational goals, the personal goals of leaders, and the goals of members of the organization
some times are in conflict. This perception to a large extent is governed by personality factors and
how they are related to satisfaction of one's needs, and by the things that motivate us both from
within and from without. The importance of motivating and supervising people is paramount in
understanding organization climate.
ELEMENTS OF A FAVOURABLE CLIMATE
Climate can range along a continuous line from favourable to neutral to unfavourble. Both employers
and employees want a more favourable climate because of its benefits, such as better performance
and satisfaction. Typical elements that create favourable climate and quality of leadership, amount of
trust, communication upward and downward, feeling of useful work, responsibility, fair rewards,
opportunity, reasonable controls, structure and bureaucracy, employee involvement and
participation. Employees feel that the climate is favourable when they are doing something useful
that provides a sense of personal worth. They frequently want a challenging work that is intrinsically
satisfying. Employees want to be listened to and treated as if they have value as individuals. They
want to feel that the organization really cares about their needs and problems.
The researchers, Litwin and Stringer and Likert developed instruments typically measure number of
elements (like, leadership processes, motivational forces, communications, decision making, goal
settings, control Likert, Structure, responsibility, reward risk warmth, support standards, conflict
Litwin and Stringer) of climate. Firms that measure their climate often charge it on climate profile
charts. The charges become a basis for discussing and analyzing a firm's climate so that plans for
improving it may be developed.
Climate is a system concept that reflects the entire life style of an organization. When that lifestyle can
be improved, measurable gains in performance are likely to occur.
MORALE
Morale is perhaps, the most frequently used term in organizational literature. Yet it remains one of
the more evasive, controversial topics that lacks universally acceptable definition. Some researchers
make distinction between job satisfaction and morale. While other do not make this distinction. Some
researchers take job satisfaction and morale as individual phenomenon. Morale is an important factor
for organizational success as it reflects the attitudes, and sentiments and individual or group has
towards the organizational objectives. These feelings and sentiments largely affect the productivity
and satisfaction of individuals. People with high morale are enthusiastic in their work environment.
Morale is linked to the job satisfaction. A person with a high morale has confidence in himself and in
the people with whom he works. The concepts of job satisfaction and motivation both pertain to the
individual and morale to the group. McForland (1969) observes that morale is basically a group
phenomenon. It is a concept that describes the level of favourable or unfavourable attitudes of the
employees collectively to all aspects of their work, the job, the company, their task, working
conditions, fellow workers, superiors and so on. Morale is different from team work. High morale is
sound behavioural climate in the organization. Low morale results in inefficiency. Morale describes a
state of complex attitudes and feelings about work situations whereas motivation deals with the
propensity of particular behaviour team.
MORALE AND PRODUCTIVITY
It is believed that morale and productivity go hand in hand. Higher the morale, higher the
productivity and vice-versa. However, this may not be true in all cases. Generally there may be some
positive relation between morale and productivity but they are not absolutely related. Morale affects
the attitudes of employees. There are a number of variables between employees attitudes and
productivity. Keith Davis discounted that there is not always positive correlation between
productivity and morale.
An attitude in the individual tends to interpret, understand or define a situation or relationship with
others. Attitudes are the individuals likes or dislikes directed towards persons, things or situations or
combinations of all these. A more applicable statement about high morale is that it indicates a
predisposition to be more productive if leadership is effective along with proper production facilities,
and individual's ability. The productivity is

Fig.1 Satisfaction Productivity Mode l

a function of organizational factors, individual factors, morale and attitudes. Morale and attitudes are
affected by the satisfaction with the organizational factors and individual factors. Thus productivity is
a function of several variables. Morale may be one of the factors. The successful managers recognise
identification of the individual goals with the organization goals so that people work with high morale
to give high productivity.
 Please use headphones

FACTORS INFLUENCING MORALE

The morale of the people in the organizations is affected by the external and internal factors of the
organization. The external factors are the personality of the individuals, family background and
relations with the social groups and friends. Every employee's perception, attitudes and motivation
are affected by these factors which is turn affect morale. The internal or organizational factors that
influence morale are organizational goals, organizational structure, nature of work, working
conditions, management philosophers, compensation, and groups. If the people feel that the goals are
compatible with the individuals goals, they develop a positive attitude towards the job and the
organisation. Structure is another factors that influences morale. In a sound structure, where the
lines of authority are clearly specified and responsibility is precisely defined and where the
communication is clear, the morale tends to be high. If the decision making is decentralised, it
enables the people to participate in decision making and boosts the morale. If the people are asked to
do the routine and repetitive tasks, they may feel dissatisfied with the job and may result in low
morale. The task should provide for challenge and innovation. The management philosophy is a style
of the leader, democratic or autocratic style of leader affects the morale of the subordinates.
Participative style may enhance the morale and autocratic style may have a negative impact on the
morale. The working conditions like, clean, safe, comfortable and pleasant involvement boost the
morale. Congenial and friendly environment helps to increase the productivity and morale.
Promotions and Compensation:
Policy of the organization also influences the morale of the people. Incompatible promotion policy
and inadequate compensation leads to low morale and low productivity. The organization has to be
fair in its promotion and compensation policies. Top Management should realize the importance of
work groups in maintaining high morale in individual employees and as such should not promote
conflicts between group goals and organizational goals.
MEASUREMENT OF MORALE
Morale can be measured by assessing attitudes and job satisfaction. There are several techniques to
measure employee, attitudes, inference, prediction from behavioural data, interviews and
questionnaires and scales. Interviews have been frequently used to measure attitudes. Questionnaires
and scales have been used either in combination with interviews or independently to get increased
reliability and objectivity.
There are three basic methods for selecting and scaling items to be incorporated in a scale:
(1) The Thurston method of equal appearing intervals
(2) Likert method of summarized ratings and
(3) Guttmam method of scale analysis.
The Likert method is much simpler and more suitable for practical purposes. In this method each
statement in a series is usually followed by five step scale. "Strongly agree", "Agree", "Undecided",
"Disagree" and "Strongly disagree", statements which have the most discriminating power are
selected on the basis of "Scale value difference analysis". Based on these methods several techniques
have been devised to measure employee attitude and morale. Huk and Kolstad have developed a five
point scale, morale questionnaire to measure job attitudes. The scale provides the employee with a set
of adjectives as possible descriptions of five dimensions of the job including work, condition, pay,
promotion, supervision and coworker. The scale provides a satisfaction score for five job areas as well
as on overall score. This knowledge helps the organization in using the techniques as a diagnostic tool
to ascertain with what areas people are more or less satisfied. Porter and Lawier developed technique
to measure job attitudes. Each job aspect may consist of two or more questions. The employee is
asked to indicate the degree to which he thinks a certain job feature is present in his existing position
and how much he would like to be there. Projective techniques including incomplete sentences, story
completion etc. have been used to assess morale. However these techniques are very difficult to score
and less reliable.
INDIAN STUDIES ON ATTITUDES AND JOB SATISFACTION
Employee attitudes have been studies by several researchers and attempts have been made to study
not only attitudes towards specific factors existing in organizational setting but also factors affecting
those attitudes as well as the impact of employees attitudes on performance. One of the studies
conducted by Anand and Bajaj conducted morale surveys in two large engineering organizations. The
data was collected from questionnaire and interviews. They explored in respect of variables including
the company's image, job content and job satisfaction, bases for promotion, motivation for work,
salary and other benefits, superior subordinate relationships, and participation, consultation and
delegation. The participants in both the companies, irrespective of technology and products they
handled, claimed to have a relatively high degree of job satisfaction. In one company, the majority of
respondents felt involved in their work. In one company, the majority of respondents felt involved in
their work. As far as the bases for promotion were concerned, managerial favouritism, outstanding
job performance, ability to handle more responsibility and being in the right place and the right time,
appeared in that order among employees in both organizations. There was a trend to rate the outside
salaries favourably. Although the respondents rated as favourable their relationship with their
superiors and subordinates, the subordinates did not feel the same. Most of the participants
expressed that a periodic discussion with the immediate superiors helped them to a more effective
job.
Based on the studies conducted by various researchers, it is found that level of a morale differed from
organization to organization. It appeared to be usually low among workers and moderately high
among clerical and supervisory personnel. But many more investigations are enquired before the
picture is clear regarding the impacts of causative factors and the nature of their relationship to
different aspects of human behaviour.
INDICES OF LOW MORALE
Employee unrest absenteeism and tardiness, employee turnover, grievances, need for discipline and
fatigue and monotony are major indicators of low morale.
EMPLOYEE
Unrest may appear in different forms and influence both the individual and the group. The employee
may become restless and he may be late to work, absent, or change the job. Thus such employee
creates a disciplinary problem. Some times employee may make it into a formal grievance and may
result in collective behaviour. This may leads to strikes work stoppages go slows and related group
actions. A great deal of unrest results from the employee feeling of inadequacy and insecurity. If the
employees think that the management ignores their feelings and does not consider them as human
beings capable of thinking and feeling, it will result in such unrest that may lead to undesirable habits
such as drinking and gambling.
ABSENTEESIM AND TARDINESS
Absentees and late comers pose problems to production schedules. Especially where line and group
production methods are involved. The rate of absenteeism varies with age, length of service and sex.
The absenteeism rate is higher for women than for men. Married women are more absent than
unmarried ones. Mostly absenteeism is caused by the non occupational illness. Sometimes
absenteeism is also caused by the occupational health hazards. Absenteeism among manufacturing
employees is greater than the absenteeism among employees in administration. Job satisfaction is
negatively related to absenteeism among the blue collar and white collar workers.
EMPLOYEE TURNOVER
Employee with unrest, dissatisfaction and low morale may quite the organization. However, turnover
need not be because of dissatisfaction illness death, lay off and retirement also cause turnover. The
turnover may be voluntarily or involuntarily. Voluntary separatism may result because of employees
economic, personal or social reasons. Involuntary separation is caused by discharge, lay off etc.
Voluntary separation may be because of job satisfaction, marriage, placement with some other
organizations, poor health and voluntary retirement. Involuntary separations may be caused by
incompetence, violation of rules, dishonesty, insubordination, habitual absenteeism, death,
permanent disability. The turnover rates can be calculated by dividing the amount of turnover items
of each kind of the total number of employees. Then multiply the result by 100. Cost of workers
turnover is enormous, such as cost of recruitment, induction, training, loss in production time. Most
leave the organization for occupational reasons and women desert the organisation for personal
reasons. The occupation reasons may be poor working conditions, workload, job opportunities,
supervision, fellow workers, personnel policies, job insecurity, grievances etc.
GRIEVANCES
Grievance may cause severe unrest. Grievances may be real or imaginary. Grievance may lower the
morale. Demand for wage increase, complaints about bonus, complaints against foreman that he is
displaying favouratism, objections regarding loss of seniority and promotion, complaints against
quality of food served for lunch, inadequate transport, mechanical facilities, unhygienic working
conditions are some of the typical grievances. Workers disregarding plant safety rules, frequent late
coming, absenteeism, misrepresentation of management in attitude toward employees and
irresponsible charges by the union leaders in their speeches, handbills are some of the typical
management grievances. Grievances are to be carefully analysed to understand the hidden
implications and difficulties. A careful analysis may provide information which can be a significant
source of inference regarding the level of morale prevailing among the workers.
NEED FOR DISCIPLINE
Discipline should be self-imposed and help workers to help themselves. Social control is self imposed
and it promotes the individual and group interests. If the discipline is imposed, it is an indication of
poor morale. It is to be recognized t hat the management cannot discipline the workers according to
its whims and fancies. Employees should be made to understand the rationality of rules and
regulations and understand their objectives. The discipline may be related to attendance, punctuality,
smoking, and safety rules. The disciplinary action may be of co-reaction, oral reprimand, written
reprimand, fines, transfer to a less attractive job and discharge. Discharge is the most severe form of
discipline.
FATIGUE AND MONOTONY
Routine and repetitiveness of the job without any change for longer periods causes monotony and
fatigue. Fatigue is the "reduction in ability to do work". Fatigue may be physical and mental also.
Length of work period, speed of work and the extent of physical work may cause fatigue. Fatigue and
monotony can be reduced by enrichment and enlargement of the job.
MORALE IMPROVEMENT
There are number of measures which can be used to control these problems. Organizations constantly
strive to build the morale. Management can build high group morale with measures such as
participation in decision making, profit sharing, human relation techniques etc. Participation in
decision making is not only a pleasant experience for employees and groups in organization it also
promotes the feeling of belonging and of being "important person". Employees feel that they are
integral part of the organization. Participating in decision making helps to reduce the unrest, controls
absenteeism, reduces employee turnover.
The participation in decision making helps to settle the grievances promptly. Discipline can be
maintained by providing well defined working rules. As far as possible these rules should be evolved
with the help and collaboration of employee representatives. Workers have their own ways for relief
from fatigue and monotony including informal responses, daydreaming, singing etc. Morale can be
improved by effective profit sharing schemes. In addition to the economic aspects, profit sharing is
friendly move by the management by enabling the employees to participate in profit sharing. The
objectives of profit sharing may be numerous. Increased output and efficiency, prevention of
industrial conflict, development of cooperation, increased economic security for the workers. These
are objectives that help to boost the morale. Profit sharing boosts the ego and thus the morale in turn.
Human reactions approach is believed to be highly effective improving employee morale and
motivation through an improved three way communication and through employee participation in
decision making process. There is an urgent need to recognise an employee as total personality rather
than economic factor. Attempts should be made to recognise the individual needs such as, self
respect, ego, communication, understanding, recognition etc. The goals of the organisation and that
of the individual can be identified by allowing the worker's participation in decision making.
Morale can be improved by several other measures such as employee's contest to improve morale,
special recognition and award to long service employees, providing coffee during the rest pauses,
more informal get together may enhance the morale. There is no limit for the devices, but the
organization has to continuously measure the effectiveness of these measures and make the necessary
changes whenever necessary.
QUESTIONS
1.What do you mean by "Organisational Climate"? Also explain the factors affecting climate of work in
an organization?
2. Explain how to change climate whenever necessary.
3. What is morale? Explain the importance of morale in boosting the productivity.
4. Analyse the factors affecting morale of employees.
5. Suggest the measures to build up morale.

- End Of Chapter -
LESSON-23
CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

Conflict is a part of life. People are being subjected to conflict both inside and outside the
organization. Conflicts arise due to limitation of resources, competition and deficiency in various
goals, attitudes expectations etc. Whatever may be the cause, if conflicts are not managed well, they
may adversely affect the mental health of the managers and also the health of the organization.
Conflict may be defined as a situation in which there is a breakdown in decision making owing to
irrational and incompatible stand taken by one or all related to decision making. Thus conflict leads
to disruption and incompatibility in the behavior of the people is the function of opposite views held
by the parties in dispute. The conflict becomes worse when the people stick to irrational stand.
Managing conflict does not mean merely containing them. Conflict management involves anticipation
of conflicts, devising means by which distructional conflicts can be avoided and when the conflicts do
occur overcoming them without creating problems for people and the organization. The important
step to conflict management is the understanding of the nature and dynamics involved in the
conflict. Some of the forms of conflict s are:
(1) Intrapersonal
(2) Interpersonal
(3) Intergroup and
(4) Intragroup.
INTRAPERSONAL CONFLICT
Pole conflict: As members interact the group develops a structured social system upon which
persons take on specified roles in which behavioural expectations are attached. The actual job a
person is working at or the position that person has been assigned within organization tells everyone
about the role he or she is expected to fill. The role expectation represents how a person who fills the
role category is supposed to act. The role behavior refers to how a specific person in a role category
actually behaves. Some individuals fit into the roles and others do not. A person may occupy number
of positions simultaneously. The manager may be the supervisor of section A, the close friend of the
manager of Section B. As a manager he has obligation to the company to achieve maximum
effectiveness, his friend expects him to be friendly, his subordinate expects his support. The role is
normatively controlled, shaping the behavior in the direction of shared values he is enforced by the
behavior of other people.
Conflict arises within an individual wherever his drives and in motives or he is confronted roles and
goals and unable to take decisions. Conflict in individual is caused when a person confronts
competing and conflicting expectations when group members do not hold expectations in common
or behave contrary in expectations, interaction may become difficult and impossible. For example,
when a subordinate approaches a manager with a difficult work problem, the employee expects that
the manager will take the problem seriously and offer advice for a solution. If contrary to expectation
the manager treats the matter with levity and makes some pseudo humorous suggestions for
solutions, the subordinate will not know whether to laugh or maintain seriousness (conflicting
tendencies). If the roles are clearly defined and expectancies are clearly stated they may help for
smoother transaction.
Some positions come with ready made conflict or competition within the same role. The senior
professor in the university or the senior administrator of many organizations finds increasing
demands on his time as he is put on more committees asked to take over the supervision of a new
section elected an officer of another professional society and so on. Soon the twenty four hour day
and the seven day week are far too short to meet all role expectations. Some of these expectancies will
have to be sacrificed Persons in managerial roles have this type of built in conflict. Often the working
woman finds herself trying to fulfill both the traditional role of wife and mother while developing her
career or profession within the organization.
The extent to which a person experiences a conflict depends upon the person himself, his involvement
with the issue, his ability to tolerate ambiguity and the nature of the goal etc. For example, need and
valor conflicts are likely to be experienced more intensely than conflict of choice between two
interests. Organization can do nothing much to help managers to manage their personal conflicts.
This is because such conflicts are personal matters. When faced with internal conflicts it is useful to
talk it over to some close friend or a person in whom the individual can confide. Such talking over is
likely to release tension and may help the individual to clearly understand the nature of the conflict
he is experiencing. Prolonged conflicts within the individual may create tensions and affect mental
and physical health.
Within every individual there are usually:
(1) a number of competing needs and roles
(2) a variety of different ways that drives and roles can be expressed
(3) many types of barriers which can occur between the drive and of the goal and
(4) both positive and negative aspects attached to desired goals.
GOAL CONFLICT
When an individual is unable to take decision about the goal to be achieved whether due to the
positive and negative features existing in the goals or the existence of two or more competing goals.
Three types of conflict have been identified.
Approach Approach Conflict
Where the individual approaches two or more positive but equally exclusive goals, he cannot make
choice which one is better of the two. For instance, a person has two equally attractive jobs, it is a
difficult task to make a choice by the person. The problem could be solved with the help of Leon
Festinger's well known theory of cognitive 'dissonance'. Dissonance means psychological discomfort
or conflict. The individual may reduce the dissonance by cognition of a job which is decided better
than the other. The theory states that the person experiencing dissonance will be highly motivated to
reduce or eliminate it and will actively avoid situations and information which is likely to increase it.
Approach Avoidance Conflict
This type of conflict is more relevant to the organizational behavior. It is a situation in which a single
goal has both the positive as well as negative characteristics. Organizational goal may give rise to a
great deal of conflict within a person. For example managers engaged in long range planning typically
are very confident of a goal they have developed for future. Yet as the time approaches to commit
resources and implement the plan, the negative consequences seem to appear much greater than they
did in developing stage. In such situations approach equals avoidance. This results in internal conflict
and stress which may cause indecisions ulcers or even neurosis. Such conflicts are very common
among the decision makers.
Avoidance Avoidance Conflict
It is a situation in which the individual is motivated to avoid two or more independent goals having
negative elements. It is much like the approach but approach with a difference. Ordinarily if both the
goals area negative, it is comparatively easier to resolve conflict by avoiding both of them. In certain
situation, the goal having comparatively fewer negative elements may be retained and other
abandoned.
All the three types of goal conflicts might benefit the organization. Management should attempt to
resolve goal conflicts. In particular, a major management effort should be devoted to build
compatibility, not conflict between personal and organizational goals.
 INTERPERSONAL CONFLICT
Conflict between two members of the same group or of the same organization is common inspite of
good management efforts to reduce it. If ignored and left to themselves, the two can develop
destructive attitudes. Clearly it is the responsibility of an effective manager not to let this state of
affairs develop. This kind of conflicts are characterised by people not liking one another or not
agreeing with one another, expression of hostility towards one another exaggerating the weaknesses
of one another and entering criticism people not wanting to work together etc. Thus conflict can
result which two or more persons interact with one another. The following are some of the sources of
interpersonal conflict.

1. The tendency on the part of most people to compete with others in their work environment
and establish superiority over them.

2. People with differing styles needs and values having to work together.

3. Fixed goals

4. Exploitary tendencies on the part of some people and

5. Positional or status differences.

Competitive environment can be a significant source of interpersonal conflict. A competitive

environment emerges in an organization where competence is rewarded and people who are able to
show results area given more attention. Two popular ways in analyze this interpersonal conflict are
through transactional analysis and Javari window. Eric Berne is usually credited with having started
Transactional Analysis (TA) with his bestselling book. Garnes Prophic Play and Thomas Haroi's
book "I'm ok you are ok" further popularized TA.
TA uses three ego states which are regally equivalent to the Freudians of id (child) ego (adult) and
super ego (parent).
CHILD(C) EGO STATE
This is the state in which a person acts like an impulsive child. The child state may be characterised
either be being submissive or conforming. The child state is characterised by immature behavior.
ADULT(A) EGO STATE
In this state person acts like a mature adult. In this state people attack problems in a rational manner
by gathering information, analyzing it, generating alternatives and making a logical choice. Adult
state people do not act with impulse. Adult state acts fairly and objectively.
PARENT(P) EGO STATE
In this state people act like dominating parents. This state establishes rules and standards for others.
People exhibit all the three ego states but one may dominate the other ttwo. Adult state is superior to
the other.
P P P P P P
A A A A A A
 C C C C C C
Fig: Complimentary Transaction.
A person can send a prescriptive and admonishing message from parent ego state or an information
message from adult ego state or a feeling message from the child ego state. Any of these messages
may be sent to and received by one of the three ego states of the other person. If the response is by the
same ego state, it is called a complementary or parallel transaction. Such transactions are very
satisfying. The response however may not originate from the ego state which has received the
message. Then it is a crossed transaction. The adult to adult complementary transactions are
probably most effective for organizational interpersonal relations. Communication and
understanding can also occur in the parent child complementary transaction. Crossed transactions
are the source of much interpersonal conflict in an organization. The result can be hurt feelings and
frustration on the part of the people involved and possible dysfunctional consequences for the
organization. The most complex are the ulterior transactions. These are very damaging to the
interpersonal relations. In this transaction, individual may say one thing but mean quite another.
JOHARI WINDOW
The organization is composed of individuals and groups operating at different levels. The conflict
arises between individual and individual. This has been described as "Johari Window" by Joseph Luft
and Harry lingham. The Johari window has the following four cells.
I know I Dont know
OPEN HIDDEN
You know
SELF SELF
BLIND UNDISCOVERED
You dont know
SELF SELF
The interaction among individuals depends to a large extent on the four cells. Under the open self the
person knows about himself and others. In this state the individual knows about the reaction of the
other while dealing with him. He is clear bout himself also. Hence the problems of unacceptability
and incompatibility can be avoided.
Hidden self is a situation in which the person knows about himself but does not know about the
other. The other has kept his feelings, attitudes and reactions hidden with the result that the potential
of interpersonal conflict increases.
Blind self is a situation in which the person knows about the other but does not know about himself.
Consequently the person may inadvertently by his acts and expression of views cause irritation to the
other which may ultimately led to interpersonal conflict.
Undiscovered self is a highly vulnerable situation in which the person neither knows about himself
nor about the others. Hence the chances of the interpersonal conflict.
The Johari window only points out possible interpersonal styles. It helps to analyze possible
interpersonal conflict situations. One way of decreasing the hidden self and increasing the open self is
through the processes of self disclosure. People may reduce the conflict by becoming more trustful of
others and disclosing information about themselves. Blind self can be decreased and open self can be
increased if the feedback is used.
 The conflict can be decreased by following the guidelines.

1. Be descriptive rather than judgmental

2. Be specific rather than judgmental

3. Deal with things that can be changed

4. Give feedback when it is desired

5. Consider the motives for receiving and giving feedback

6. Give feedback at the time behavior takes place

7. Give feedback when the accuracy can be checked with others.

RESOLUTION OF INTERPERSONAL CONFLICT

There are three other basic strategies that individuals can use in interpersonal conflict situations.
(Filley, Hones and Kerri, 1976). For that matter those could also be used in inter group and
organizational conflict resolution. These strategies are

1. Lose-lose

2. Win-lose

3. Win-win

Lose-lose is that approach in which both parties lose one of the common forms of strategy in the
compromise decision in which both parties have their stand and relent to a commonly acceptable
formula. The next situation may be that one party may be paid off to leave his stand. The other
approach may be the use of an outsider, the arbitrator to settle the dispute between the parties.
Finally they may resolve the conflict within prescribed rules and procedures in which both may be
required to lose.
Lose-lose approach is situation to "I'm not ok, you are not ok" life situation analysis. In this life
position, the person has respect neither for himself nor for others. It seems meaningless to the person
to do anything worthwhile. Lose-lose strategy is based on the promise that some sort of compromise
could be struck in which both leave stands taken by them so that one is not the victory and the other
vanquished.
Win-lose strategy creates a highly competitive type of situation. In this situation both parties try to
marshal all forces to register a wing against his opponent. In the race rationally is sidetracked and
emotions dominate. Emotions are so surcharged that the parties to the conflict may go to any extent
to secure victory over the opponent. Sometimes the victory may give psychological satisfaction but
nothing else. The person might have achieved sometimes at a tremendous loss of energy and
 resources. In the final analysis, the victor may have lost marathon compared in what he has actually
achieved.
Win-lose strategy is more prevalent in superior subordinate relationship, line and staff conflict and
union management relations. This strategy has both functional and dysfunctional consequences. The
functional consequence is that it will perpetuate the forces of cohesiveness and spirit de corps among
individuals and groups. The dysfunctional consequences will be deep seated and permanent. The
loser will become bitter and vindictive and he will normally continue to nourish enmity. He will strike
whenever he finds time. Consequently this strategy is not very appropriate. This is like "I am ok you're
not ok" life style. This reflected in an attitude of superiority.
Win-win strategy which is like "I am ok and you are ok". It is based on rationality of thinking and
maturity in behavior on the part of the conflicting parties. It may take the functional aspect of win-
lose strategy. In this strategy the needs of both the parties are met and both feel satisfied. The authors
of this strategy rightly conclude that Win-win decision strategies are associated with better
judgements, favourable organization experience and more favourable bargains.
Win-win strategy may be stated as the ideal which should be strived by management in interpersonal
conflict.

Please use headphones

INTERGROUP CONFLICT OR ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICT

It must be remembered that intra-individual, interpersonal and intergroup conflict are all inherent in
organizational conflict. The conflict is inevitable. It would be confronting to believe that people are
entirely rational and good but it would not be true. Although power struggles within management are
an important source of organizational conflict. They are only one of many. Prominent among other
sources of conflict are the following.

1. Line and staff competition: The growth of highly specialized creative well educated staff
poses unique problems for line managers. Faced with a growing dependence upon staff, line
managers must adjust to a reduction in organizational power and prestige. Conflict in most
organizations persists between line and staff because it is virtually impossible to define precisely the
responsibility and authority relationship between the two.

2. Functional interdependence: Conflicts between an organization's functional units such as

sales accounting and manufacturing are common place. The sale department is at odds with
manufacturing because quality is too low or prices too high to meet the competition. Accounting is
viewed as exercising excessive control over budgets and the sales department is perceived as "culprit
because of its fee spending" Although departments are separated on the basis of function, they can
 never function as completely autonomous units. They must somehow resist the constant urge to view
the organization in terms of their narrow self interests.

1 Labour management polarization: This is one of the most common sources of organizational
conflict.

1 Organization individual disagreements: The conflict between the individual and organization
centers around the individuals failure to fulfill the organizations expectations regarding productivity
or compliance with the rules. The conflict is also often seen as resulting from excessive organizational
demands.

1 Disagreement over goals: Conflict among managers is often caused by the fact that there is poor
agreement over goals. One manager makes decisions as if the organizations primary goals area
immediate profits. While another acts as if long term growth were more important. A common
source of conflict if the clash of personal goals of managers and employees with the goals of the
organization,

1 Over lapping or ambiguous personalities: Organizations constantly change in response to

personnel turnover, expansion or contraction, the adoption of new policies, changes in external
environment and so forth. As a result it is impossible to establish job responsibilities one and for all.

1 Bottlenecks in the flow of work: Line supervisors in manufacturing must meet producing
deadlines, but they are dependent upon production schedules, ware housing and others for effective
performance. A bottleneck at any point can prevent the line super visors from both being
effective and is quite naturally an occasion for interpersonal conflict.

1 Personality dashes: Individual differences in such personal qualities as values, attitudes, abilities
and personally traits are often the cause of personality conflict. Two managers may learn to despise
each other thoroughly for reasons totally unrelated to their work, but their performance on the job
may suffer because of it.

CAUSES OF CONFLICT
Now, let us discuss the causes of conflict within an organization in an integrated manner. These
causes may be broadly divided into the following heads.
Interdependence among Departments and Groups
Interdependence is genesis of the modern systems approach. It causes conflict among departments
and groups. Mutual interdependence causes conflict when resources are limited within an
organization. It is not possible to evolve a fool proof method of distributing equally the limited
resources of the organization in the form of money. Personnel and equipment among different
departments of organization. Hence conflict will automatically arise till the resource position
improves.
 The other source of conflict is the interdependence in the timings of the activities. Most of the times
the performance of one department depends upon the completion of the task by another department.
If one fails to complete it will affect other's work. Assembling of two wheeler can be done in 20
minutes provided the parts are received in time from all the departments. Otherwise conflict arises
between the assembly and other departments.
The roof cause of conflict is interdependence. Greater the specialization, greater the conflict within
the organization.
Difference in Goals
Difference in goals among different sub units or departments may cause conflict. Such differences
may be because of the following.

1. Competition for limit resources

2. Reward systems

3. Perceptive differences in individual goals and organizational goals.

The organizations are always given with limited resources with more demand for high wages. The
people demand for more and organizations are not in a position to meet the demands it causes
conflict. Reward system may also generate conflict. Too many departments will be competing to
reward. For instance, production department may be given with incentive which may be resented by
other departments. Incompatibility between the individual and organizational goals may also create
conflict. People have differing individual goals. The difference spreads to the departmental or group
goals.
Inter-group conflict also arises when operational goals of the organization are not objectively and
clearly laid down. If the organization fixes its goal as efficiency in production, it would be vague and
subjective. The operating people may interpret that the emphasis is on quality than on quantity.
Hence they can afford to neglect the element of quantity for quality. Such conflicts could be avoided if
the operating goal be fixed more subjectively and clearly to minimise the chances of conflict.
PERCEPTUAL DIFFERENCES
Perception is a psychological element of human personality, which depends on the information and
communication system on one hand, and the personality developement of the people as the other.
People and groups have different perception about certain events and activities in the organization.
For example the forecasted demand for a product given by the marketing department may not be in
line with the information received by the production department from the management consultant.
The forecasts received from these two sources create conflict with the production department. This
difference in perception is due to the information received from different channels of communication.
SARANS CONFLICT MODEL
Conflict is an inevitable phenomenon in the organization. Conflict is a function of three variables.

1. Dependence
2. Differentiation

3. Unacceptability

This can be expressed in the form of a mathematical equation.

Y = f *(x1.x2x3)
Y = Conflict dependable variable
1
X = Dependence
X2 = Differentiation
X3 = Unacceptability
It is presumed that changes in Y is equal to the absolute change in three variable x 1, x2, x3.
The model is based on the following analysis.

1. The organization is composed of individuals and groups operating at different levels.

2. Normal conflict exists at individual group and organization levels. The normal conflict though
inevitable is the product of internal factors obtaining around the individual, the group and the
organization.

THE ROLE OF CONFLICT

The approach to the organizational conflict was very simple and optimistic. The organizational
conflict was based on the following assumptions. Chris Argyris thesis says that there is basic
incongruence between the needs and characteristics of adult, mature employees and the requirements
of the modern formal organizations. The behavioural approach has reexamined the concept and
advocated the following assumptions:

1. Conflict is inevitable

2. Conflict is determined by the structure

3. Conflict is integral to the nature of change

4. A nominal level of conflict is optimal.

On the basis of these assumptions the management of organizational conflict has taken several
approaches.
MANAGING THE ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICTS
Conflict cannot be managed simply. There are three main strategies known for dealing with conflict.
They are avoidance, diffusion and confrontation.
AVOIDANCE
This is not facing conflict. People may use several mechanisms to avoid conflict. There are several
methods used to avoid the conflict. One way of avoiding the conflict is ignoring the situation causing
conflict. Another way is to run away from the situation. This may be either physically or mentally. The
 third method is to accept all the demands of the parties. Avoidance strategies do not help the people
in leadership position. Leaders who avoid conflicts are seen as incompetent and lack courage.
Subordinates may create more and more conflicting situation to weaken the leader. However, issue
once avoided may surface again. When the emotions are high, the conflict can be ignored. The issue
can be slowly taken up when the people involved in are in more congenial and harmonious mood.
This strategy reduces the self confidence of the people involved in resolving the conflict.
DIFFUSION
The decision may be delayed until the tempers cool down. Diffusion may involve the focus on
unnecessary issues to avoid the critical problem for sometime. This leaves the future uncertain and
cause dissatisfaction to the people.
CONFRONTATION
Confrontation is facing conflict. Confrontation may involve negotiation and using authority.
Authority may be used to sort out the conflict. This may satisfy one party and dissatisfy the other.
Negotiation is another mechanism of confrontation. Mechanism of collaboration can be used to
resolve the conflict.
QUESTIONS

1. Define conflict. What are the different types of conflicts? What are the sources of conflict?

2. What is individual conflict? Explain the nature of conflict. How do you resolve the conflict?

3. Briefly explain the role conflict.

4. What is 'TA' analysis? Explain it briefly.

5. Briefly summarise the 'Four' self in Johari Window. What implication does each have for
interpersonal conflict?

6. Explain the behavior of groups in conflict. What are the four strategies that can be used to
manage intergroup conflict effectively?

- End Of Chapter -
LESSON - 24
ORGANISATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS

Organizational behavior helps the manager to effectively handle individuals, groups and
organizational resources. The knowledge of behavior helps to achieve the goals of the organization. It
further enhances the quality of life for employees who are facilitated to reach their full potential.
Organizational Effectiveness (OE) is a term that is more comprehensive than is reflected by more
good performance and productivity of members. OE reflects how effectively the organization can
 discharge its obligations with request to all its constituencies including employees, shareholders,
customers, suppliers, government agencies and the general public. The grow development
motivation, morale and satisfaction of the employees in the system combine with the good image
projection of the organization to the society. Thus, OE is reflected in how well the organization is
equipped to:
(1) handle its survival function through successful coping and
(2) its growth in future creative adaptation strategies.
However, it is quite difficult to define organizational effectiveness precisely. John P. Compbell (1977)
in his article titled "on the nature of organizational effectiveness" has listed thirty items to be used as
criteria to measure the organizational effectiveness. They are

1. Overall effectiveness

2. Productivity

3. Efficiency

4. Profit

5. Quality

6. Accidents

7. Growth

8. Absenteeism

9. Turnover

10. Job satisfaction

11. Motivation

12. Morale

13. Control

14. Conflict/Cohesion

15. Flexibility/adaptation

16. Planning and goal selling

17. Goal consensus

18. Internalisation of organizational goals.

19. Role and norm

20. Managerial interpersonal congruence skills

21. Managerial task skills

22. Information management and communication

23. Readiness

1 Utilisation of environment

1 Evaluation by external agents

1 Stability entities

1 Value of human beings

1 Participation and shared resources influence

1 Training and development

1 Achievement emphasis.

This list may be further extended or formed depending upon the nature of the organizations. All these
criteria may be not be relevant for all the organizations. Effectiveness or ineffectiveness can be judged
based on the nature and organizational setting.
David J.Lawless (1979) pointed that an organization may be considered as effective which succeeds in
achieving the desired objectives with efficiency in a given environment setting. This can be analysed
as following elements.

Every organization is concerned with achieving its objectives short term and long term both
these objective are interdependent.

Efficiency is concerned with eliminating all types of wastages in man, material, machines,
methods and money. Hence efficiency is unattainable unless a proper semblance between means
(process) and ends (outcomes) is established within the organization.

Chris Argyds thinks that an organization increases its effectiveness as it obtains

(a) increasing outputs with constant or decreasing inputs or
(b) constant outputs with decreasing inputs and
(c) is able to accomplish this in such a way that it can continue to do so.
He further clarifies that effectiveness is related to:
(i) achieving its objectives
(ii) maintaining itself internally and
(iii) adapting to its external environments.
The development of OE concept todate can not be stated as pragmatic because each one of these
models developed so far is lacking on one count or the other.
AN INPUT-OUTPUT APPROACH TO OE:
If OE is considered as an output for the organization, then the quality of the output depends upon the
quality of inputs into the system. The transformation process should be effective along with the
quality of input in order to have a qualitative output.
INPUTS
The inputs constitute human resources, several types of raw materials, financial resources, the
structure of facilities within which the operations take place, utilities, operations of the organization.
Of all the inputs, the management of human resources is extremely challenging as against the
processing of raw materials or the utilization of machine capacity. Recruiting right kind of personnel
is the critical area for OE. This is because the job incumbent brings to the work seeking not only the
qualification but a lot of other dimensions including predispositions, values and expectations attitude
and behaviours which can be easily or correctly assessed during the employment interviews. Thus
understanding managing human resources is the important element in the inputs.
TRANSFORMATION PROCESS
Transformation process takes place at all levels of the organization. Top management has to offer the
vision and sense of direction to the organization by formulating the mission and the broad goals,
strategies and objectives for the organization. The mission statement demonstrates overall business
or service the organization is in, thus defining its purpose or rationale for the existence. The goals are
the broad results to be achieved. Strategies are the means to achieve the goals. Objectives offer the
foundation on which planning takes place. The foundation of OE is laid by the top management. If the
mission is incorrectly started or the goals, strategies or objectives are wrongly formulated, the
organization will not be effective.
In the second layer management level, the managers convert the mission, goals, strategies and
objectives laid down by the top management into policies and action plans. Short term and long term
goals and plans are developed and an organization structure is created through division of labour and
coordination of activities are provided effectively to provide energy.
At the middle management level, the short range and middle range goals and plans are acted upon
detailed short term and medium range plans. At this level the managers practice the art and science
of management through planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling. An understanding
of the group behaviours, motivation and reinforcement, job design, leadership, communication and
conflict management are particularly valuable at this level.
At the lower level of the management, the plans are converted into results. At this level the knowledge
of theories and concepts mentioned above can be effectively used to get the job done through
subordinates. Organizational politicking may be resorted to by machiavellian managers. Technical
and administrative skills are absolutely necessary at this level. The supervisors at this level should be
able to lead and motivate the workers and achieve the organizational results. At the worker level
technical expertise is the most important necessary skill for effective transformation to take place.
When workers understand their need patterns have good communication and interpersonal
interaction skills and are knowledgeable about the power pockets in the system they can raise the
quantity of their work level by achieving what they desire.
A common activity that pervades all levels in organizations and contributes to organizational
effectiveness is controlling results. The terms to correct the negative deviations from the planned
activities. The control process comprises three steps measuring actual performance comparing with
the standards set and taking action to correct deviations either by raising output or if necessary
revising the standards that might have been set unrealistically. Designing appropriate control system
is important for organizational effectiveness. The control system should satisfy the following criteria
(1) Accuracy the control system should provide accurate information that helps managers to take
corrective action
(2) Timeliness it should be able to detect deviations in time for corrective action to be taken
(3) Economy it should not be so expensive that the cost of the control mechanism overweighs tits
benefits and
(4) Flexibility it should be adaptable enough to take up newly occurring opportunities dues to
changes in the external environment of the organization.
In essence the transformation process encompasses
(1) appreciating judgement and sensing from relatively few overt signals from the environment
(2) constant adapting and copying
(3) organizing the units to make routine and narrative decisions under perceived conditions of
certainty as well as uncertainty
(4) utilizing the scarce and valued resources acquired from the environment as inputs through an
appropriate choice of technology, structure and process and
(5) delicately balancing and juggling the resources with an eye to attaining both the short term and
long term goals and objectives of the organization.
OUTPUTS
The tangle outputs relate to such financial aspects as sales, assets and profits. While these are
necessary for the survival of the organization there are several other factors that are essential for
health, survival and growth of the organization. These are reflected in such intangible aspects as
employee satisfaction, developmental growth, customer satisfaction, goodwill and image building and
good relations with the government and society.
OE comprises both survivor and growth dimensions of the organization, OE is reflected in both the
tangible and intangible dimension like financial stability and goodwill of the organization. A dynamic
equilibrium has to be achieved between these two sets so that the organizations survive and grow.
As stated the concept of OE has eluded a precise definition and measurement. There are two sets of
thought for defining the OE. Sekaran and Snodgrass (1988) have advocated that OE should be
defined in terms of what is valued by the member at macro level. Profits and expansion of market
shares, return on investment, sales turnover, growth rate measures of effectiveness are secondary in
 these cultures, compared to the quality of life measures of OE. Thus the goals set by the organization
and OE measurement will be a function of the macro creatural values prevail in society. This each
culture will assess the effectiveness of organization differently, attaching different weights to the
financial and quality of life criteria of success.
FACTORS AFFECTING THE ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS
The most important aspect of the personal effectiveness and individual teachers or managers and its
relationship to an entire organization. Here we are concerned with the effectiveness of the
organizational unit over a period of time. Rensis Likert identifies three variables causal, intervening
and end result.
CASUSAL VARIABLES
Causal variables are those factors that influence the course of developments within an organization
and its results or accomplishments. These independent variables can be altered by the management
and its organization. They are not beyond the control of the organization like general business
conditions, leadership strategies, skills and behaviour, management's decisions and the policies and
structure of the organization are examples of causal variables.
OUTPUT OR END RESULT VARIABLES
Leadership strategies, skills and behavior and other causal variable affect the human resources and
are intervening variables in According to Likert, intervening variables represent current conditions of
the internal state of the organization. They are reflected in the commitment to objectives, motivation
and morale of members and their skills in leadership, communications, conflict resolution, decision
making and problem solving. According to Likert, intervening variables represent current conditions
of the internal state of the organization. They are reflected in the commitment to objectives,
motivation and morale of members and their skills in leadership, communications, conflict
resolution, decision making and problem solving.
OUTPUT OR END RESULT VARIABLES
Output or end result variables are the dependent variables that reflect the achievements of the
organization. In evaluating effectiveness, perhaps more than 90 percent of managers in organizations
look for at measures of output alone. Based on all this an attempt has been made by N.S.Gupta (1988)
to identify the parameters which may be helpful in understanding the concept of effectiveness.

1. General characteristics of effectiveness

2. Environmental setting

3. Achievement of short term and long term goals

4. Efficiency attainable within the organization.

GENERALISED CHARACTERISTICS
The following are the generalised characteristics of the organization.

1. Adaptiveness
2. Conformity

3. Institutionalisation

4. Commitment of morale

1 Productivity

1 Stability

Organizational effectiveness is the function of Organizational Development (OD) and organizational

change. Changes are taking place in our environment. Changes need to be initiated at various levels
within the organizational system by being able to scan the internal and external environments of the
organization and deciphering how changes in these environments are likely to widen the gap between
the desired and actual state of affairs (performance, productivity, customer satisfaction, employee
satisfaction and the like. An organization has to adjust itself to the changing environment. Otherwise
the organization has to exit from the society. The survival and growth of the organization depends
upon its adaptability.
Conformity implies the absence of incongruence between individual goals and organization goals. The
philosophy of the organization is reflected in its principles of equality, participation management
promotion policy, reward system etc. Any sort of incongruence in the goals leads to conflict. Rensis
has referred it as a sense of identity. In short it implies that the role demand of the organization is in
conformity with the role perception of the individual.
Price refers to institutionalization as a process of general acceptability of the programmes and policies
pursued by the organization. It gets support from the employees, trade unions, proprietors,
government and even the community. When organizations programmes and policies are accepted by
members, they become institutionalised.
Commitment and morale may go simultaneously. Morale is a state of mind, which motivates an
employee to put his mind and heart into work. Every morale is proceeded by motivation. Morale is
thus measured in terms of productivity and job satisfaction. Morale can also be measured in terms of
attitude and perception of the employees rather than financial and nonfinancial incentives provided
by the organization. However, the financial and nonfinancial motives affect the morale of the
employees.
Productivity is related to volume of production, behavior of cost, mechanics of production, human
behavior at work and such other factors. Productivity is usually expressed in terms of ratios, ought to
be in conformity with objects and commitments of the organization.
Stabilizing the unfreezing stage proceeds the refreezing stage. It is at this stage there is harmony
among individuals, groups and organization, attainment of desired rate of productivity and ostensibly
there are no disgracing forces which are punctuating the pace of growth and development. It is this
stage which needs refreezing by the organization.
ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING
 Organization i.e. society, government, employees, customers, technology etc. For example the
organization should have an indepth knowledge of the government monetary, fiscal and other
policies, the market forces, the position of factor supply, the international economy etc. have an
important and immediate effect on the efficiency of the organization. The organizations which are not
fully conversant with the economics, environment may not be able to survive in the real sense of the
terms. Technology is the king pin of a modern organization. An organization should have upto date
knowledge about the changing technology and its impact on its organization. It should be able to
adopt these new technologies if they are useful. Further such decision depends upon the government
policy, employees views, attitude of trade unions, competitions position, benefits.
Social and political environment also affects the organization to a greater extent. The role of social
forces in the form of labour unions and other social and political organizations affect the organization
some times even the governments policy comes in the way of structuring the wage and bonus policy
and even recruitment policy of the organization. Organizations have to prepare a motivational plan in
which workers individually and in group develop a sense of commitment of putting their mind and
heart into work. It may restructure the leadership role and style which may be helpful in establishing
harmony among workers and between organizations.
ACHIEVEMENT OF GOALS
Goal achievement is an objective index of the effectiveness of an organization. The organization ought
to achieve both the short term and long term goals. The short term goals are the integral part of the
long term goals. The efficiency of short term goals is reflected in long term goals.
EFFICIENCY
Efficiency implies elimination of wastages is in important variable of organizational effectiveness. It
depends upon proper management of men, materials, machines, methods and money. Management
of men requires proper selection, development, compensation, direction apart from structural design.
Leadership also role of both direction and motivation.
COMPONENTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS
The following factors influence effectiveness

1. Personal effectiveness

2. Managerial effectiveness

3. Organizational characteristics

4. Environmental characteristics

5. Employee characteristics

6. Managerial policies and practices.

Personal effectiveness and managerial effectiveness are the integrate part of the organizational
effectiveness.
PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS
Personal effectiveness is better self awareness. Understanding oneself alone does not make a person
effective. One single model of self awareness is the Johari Window (see lesson on conflict) personal
effectiveness must be viewed across three dimensions, openness, perceptiveness and communication.
All these three are significant dimensions in interpersonal relationships. The extent to which one
shares ideas, feelings experiences, impressions, perceptions and various personal data with others.
openness is an important quality and contributes a great deal to a persons effectiveness. Openness
can be effective, if the person sees that sharing what he wants to share in appropriate. Inappropriate
sharing does not contribute to effective openness. The ability to pick up verbal and nonverbal eyes
from others indicates perceptiveness. Perceptiveness and openness reinforce each other and if used
effectively are likely to increase personal effectiveness.
MANAGERIAL EFFECTIVEENESS
Likert found that employee centered supervisor who use general supervision tend to have higher
productivity than job centered supervisors who uses close supervision. When people respond in the
high expectations of their managers with high performance it can be called effective style.
Concentration on output variables, as a means of evaluating effectiveness tends to lead to short run
task managers may be in a better position to initiate change in a situation that has been spreading
downward. Managers have to break the ineffective cycle. It is especially difficult for managers to have
high expectations about people who have shown no indication that they deserve to be trusted. The
role managers play in developing the maturity level of their people is extremely important. Too often
managers do not take responsibility for the performance of their people, especially if they are not
doing well. Managers are responsible for making their people "winners".
ORGANIZATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS
Organization structure influences organizational effectiveness. It is generally observed that structure
in terms of functional specialization, size, centralization of decision making and even formalization is
likely to affect productivity and efficiency. Decentralization of decision making, participation in
management, leadership, motivation are likely to generate the feeling of job satisfaction which in turn
increases productivity and efficiency. Similarly technology and organization structure are
interrelated. The capital intensive technology requires a different nature and type of organization
structure. Change in technology requires change in new set of authority relationships, span of control
communication patterns etc. If the organizations do not change with the changes in technology, they
may become ineffective.
ENVIRONMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS
The organization has to be responsive to the changes in the environment. The effectiveness of
environmental characteristics depends on three critical factors.
(1) the accuracy with which the environmental factors are forecast
(2) pragmatism enshrined in organization system. The external environment concentrates largely on
market, legal and technological medium which has a direct bearing as factor supply and distribution
of goods. The internal environment is deeply influenced by psycho sociological factors which
determine personal responses to organizations expectations. The effectiveness of organization will
depend on adequate and appropriate response from the personnel in the enterprise to programmers
and policies undertaken by the organization.
EMPLOYEE CHARACTERISTICS
People are the important constituent of the organization. Employees are required to identify
themselves with the organization. They should behave that achievement of al goals fulfils the
achievement of individual goals. Goals create conflict. Effort should be made to fore an integration
between the individual and organizational goals. If the organization without compromising with its
fundamental programmes and policies could readjust to accommodate legitimate aspirations of
employees, it would do to achieve effectiveness. Employees and organization should be prepared to
adopt a flexible attitude in the larger interest of the organization and society.
MANAGERIAL POLICIES AND PROGRAMMES
Managerial policies and practices are also related to effectiveness of organization. Among these
policies and practices mention may be made of
(1) strategic goal setting
(2) resources acquisition and utilization
(3) performance environment
(4) leadership and decision making and
(5) organizations adaptation innovation.
Goal setting is rather more difficult than goal achievement. The organization should take into
consideration the feelings and capabilities of the employees into consideration. While setting the
goals the organization has to consider that the availability of human and material resources is
available to achieve the goal so designed. Goals restructured and redesigned should carry employee's
support.
The efficiency of the organization is related to how the resources are acquired and utilized. The
management should estimate correctly the resources required. Every subsystem of the organization
has to estimate the resources optimally and use them judiciously. The needs of various subsystems in
the organization are to be integrated to carry out the plan of activity. A coordinated policy of resource
utilization among different departments will require designing and implementing policy guidelines
for different departments to get the resources, chase them with other departments and utilize them
properly to achieve the desired objective specifically laid for the organization. The criteria of
effectiveness revolves round the acceptance of work and resource norms by the employees working in
different departments of the organization.
Work environment contributes efficiently to organisation's success. It is for the management to
design such a work environment in which the people can put their mind and health into the work.
The work environment depends upon the recruitment and selection, training and development,
performance appraisal and reward systems. Improved interpersonal relations help the people in the
organisation to increase the organisational effectiveness. The management has therefore to ensure a
communication without any distortion, blocks, omissions or overloading to make it effective which in
turn will guarantee success to an organisation.
Leadership and decision making are two sides of the same coin. A leader without decision making
ability and influencing skills is a liability to the organization. A successful leader in an effective
organization is one whose decisions are directed towards achieving organizations objects and
accepted and implemented by the employees in the organization.
Effectiveness is a continuous process in an organization. Effectiveness is brought about by the
manager in the context of ever changing organization goals by restructuring available resources,
altering technologies, modifying climate and developing goal oriented strategy of performance by
objectives. Contingency has been the genesis of effectiveness. Change whether in goal or technology
or resources composition or employee behavior was needed because contingency arises due to
environmental factors.
APPROACHES TO ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS
The organizational effectiveness may be discussed under following:
The Goal Attainment Approach
Organizational effectiveness is viewed in terms of the accomplishment of goals. The organization has
to set the short term goals and long term goals. The short term goals should be in congruence with the
long term goals. However, some times it may become difficult to arrive at the congruence between the
long term and short term goals. Some times the consensus on goals may not be possible because of
the diverse interests. In such situation goals are but in such ambiguous and vogue terms that
different people interpret in different ways. The goals or the ends vary for different set of people. The
set of goals for share holders, creditors, customers and employees will not be one and the same.
Shareholders are concerned with the rate of return, creditors are concerned with the liability,
customers are concerned with the quality and employees are concerned with the monetary incentives.
Every organization must have its ultimate goals which are
(1) identified and well understood
(2) easily manageable
(3) agreed to by consensus and
(4) where progress is measurable.
The System Approach
A system approach manifests and organization in its totality comprising different interdepartmental
subsystem delineated by its boundaries from the environmental suprasystem . The goal attainment
approach concentrates on ends and the systems approach on means. This system approach emerged
as a reaction to goal attainment approach conforming itself to input their acquisition and processing
system approach has been viewed from three angles. In the first case it is treated as a ratio of output
to inputs, transformation to inputs, transportation of outputs and ratio of change in input to change
in output. Michigan state university study relied on key outputs such as business, volume,
productivity, market penetration etc. Jackson Martindel viewed OE, as management audit. Systems
approach though takes into account the organization and environmental relationship, it is not
concerned with a number of other activities which have a direct bearing on organization effectiveness.
The behaviour is a function of the people, environment, technology and structure. Organizational
behavior is a process of matching the individuals personalities and their predisposition to nature of
 the jobs they perform in the organization structures. The more managers synthesize the various
concepts and theories with acute sensibility to the particular forces that operate in the situation they
find themselves in the better they will be at managing the process and structural aspects of
organizational behavior to achieve organizational effectiveness.

Please use headphones

QUESTIONS

1. What does organizational effectiveness mean? How do you assess the organizational
effectiveness?

2. Explain how the differences in the organizational levels make a difference in the
transformation process

3. What are the factors that affect organizational effectiveness? Briefly explain them.

4. Illustrate the basic components of organizational effectiveness.

5. Bring out the relevance of the goal attainment approach and systems approach to
organizational effectiveness.

CASE STUDY
Raman aged 19, is the sales manager of Kar Mobiles Pvt. ltd. He is much worried about his inability to
increase the sales as his competitors were doing. He knows from experience of other Maruti dealers
that the problems have nothing to do with the product. He knows very well that the problem did not
exist either with the area of service, advertising or the public image of the company.
Raman's sales force consisted of eight members. His top salesman Ramanarayan earned usually high
commission, which is almost twice that of the lowest paid salesman. Ramanarayan is interest in
becoming a sales manager. Nithin another salesman, who has substantial income from inherited
property is also interested in becoming the sales manager rather than earning high commission.
Sales staff earned relatively high commission when compared to commissions paid by their
competitors. The company has fixed the commission structure when automobile sales were relatively
low. Even after considerable increase in sales the Kar Mobiles sales commission remained the same.
The owner believed that this was an important factor in building a high quality and stable sales force.
Members of the sales staff except Ramanarayan were interviewed concerning their preference for a
sales manager. All of them except Nithin expressed a vague disapproval of Ramanarayan for that
position but none of them gave a concrete reason for that or seriously recommended someone else.
 However, Nithin strongly criticized Ramanarayan and felt that he does not have the competence to
become a sales manager.
Raman observed that the sales people did not compete with each other for the sales prospects and
failed to take the leads from Ramanarayan's performance. It was obvious that such a practice would
produce sales. The problem in Raman's opinion is purely a matter of motivation.
QUESTIONS

1. Analyse the possible motives of Raman, Ramanarayan and Nithin

2. Suggest the possible ways that could increase the overall motivation of the sales staff. Discuss
the possibilities of the negative effects if any

3. Explain how Raman should consider the attitudes of other sales people toward Ramanarayans
possible promotion in future.

CASE STUDY
Suvega Manufacturing Company was established in 1970. It was a family owned company. The
company was engaged in the manufacture of automobile spares. The company was managed
conservatively and paternalistically. The company has no union. The employees were the members of
the outside unions. The company adapted to changes very slowly. But it remained a profitable
company with reduced margins. The management is worked about the thinning of the companys
bottom lines.
In 1980 the company sent of its first time supervisors to a human relations training program. The
management was not happy with the liberal ideas with which they were imparted within the training.
As a result the management has discontinued the practice of sending its supervisor for training. Since
then the inhouse-training for the supervisors was conducted. In 1990, the labour problems and the
increasing conflict between the foreman and personnel department has left the company with
reduced sales volume and decreased profit margin. As a result of this the company has enrolled 15 of
its supervisors for 5 day human relations management development programme. The company has
made policy to send two supervisors for each program. The company wants to avoid too many
supervisory staff away from the company at once which affect the productivity.
Rane, a young college graduate joined the company two years back. He returned from the seminar
excited about what he learned. He was impressed with the delegation of decision making process to
the lowest levels to give employees an opportunity to assume responsibility and establishing channels
of open communication with employees. Rane discussed some of his ideas with his superior. His
superior was pleased to learn that he had profited from the seminar and encouraged him to go ahead
with his plans.
When Rane returned to work, he discovered that numerous problems were waiting for him to be dealt
with. Several employees wanted to take to him about various matters. Rane felt that unless he makes
necessary changes he has learnt it may become impossible for him to deal with the problems. He has
 to spend the whole of the week with talking to people. He determined to begin with the new approach
next week.
QUESTIONS

1. What is the probability that the training program will change behavior?

2. What organizational factors defer the change in this situation?

3. What 'OD' interventions would you recommend in this situation? Why?

KEY CONCEPTS
Ability An individuals capacity to perform the different tasks in a job
Achievement The urge to achieve the things in a better way. Affiliation need. The desir
need friendship and good interpersonal relationship with others
Extrinsic rewards Rewards received from the external environment of the job
Needs that are satisfied internally the need for love-esteem and
Higher order actualization. Hierarchy of need theory. Abraham Mafive needs they
needs physiological, safety, social esteem and self actualization. The next need i
higher order becomes dominant as the lower order needs are satisfied.
The pleasure of feeling one receives from the content of the job. Lower o
Intrinsic rewards
needs. Needs that are satisfied externally. Physiological needs, safety needs.
McClellands Need for power, need for affiliation and need for achievement are the
theory of needs important needs that help to understand motivation.
The willingness to put high levels of effort toward achievement of organizat
Motivation
goals.
n.Ach. Continuously striving to do things better.
Need It is an internal state that makes certain outcomes attractive.
Desire to make others behave in a way that they would not otherwise
Power need
behaved in.
Two factor theory Herzbegs two factors are hygiene factors and motivating factors.
Employees in an organization compare their job inputs and outputs with
Equity theory of others in the same organization and with those in the other organization
they act accordingly to reduce inequalities
The author of the ERG theory is Alderfer. Alderfer identified three grou
ERG theory
core needs. They are existence, relations and growth.
Expectancy The tendency to act in certain way depends on the strength of an expectati
theory an outcome that wi l be attractive to the individual
Goal setting
The theory states that specific and challenging goals lead to higher performa
theory
Hygiene factors These factors such as salary, incentives, supervision, administration, comp
 promotion policy are adequate to prevent the development of dissatisfactio
these factors are inadequate, individuals develop dissatisfaction
Motivation- Intrinsic factors are related to job satisfaction. Extrinsic factors are assoc
Hygiene theory with dissatisfaction
Reinforcement
Behaviour is a function of its consequences
theory
Self Actualization It is the urge to become what one is capable of becoming
Self efficacy The individuals confidence that he or she is capable of performing a task

It is the status and power difference among people in the organizations

Authoritarianism
It is power vested with the position which gives substantial freedom
Autonomy discretion to person I the position in scheduling the work and proced
of his job
Charismatic Followers adore leaders when they observed certain attributes
leadership abilities in them
Coercive power Power based on fear of punishment
A leader who makes decision with the active participation of his follo
Democratic leader
in the process of decision making
Employee oriented
A leader who relies more on interpersonal relations
leader
Expert power Power based on expertise, skill and knowledge
Fiedler contingency The leaders style of interesting with the subordinate depends upon
model situation that gives control and influence to the subordinates
Leader member
The degree of confidence and trust enjoyed by a leader from his follow
relations
Leader participation It provides set of rules that provides the form and amount of particip
model decision making in different situations
The ability to influence the followers towards the achievement
Leadership
common goal
Managerial grid A nine by nine matrix outlining eighty one different styles of leadership
Position power Influence derived from ones position in the organization structure
Power A capacity that leader has to influence the followers
Situational leadership A contingency theory that focuses on followers maturity
theory
Trail theories of Trail theory separates leaders from non leaders on the basis of phy
leadership social or intellectual trails
Leader who guides or motivates his followers to achieve the desired g
Transactional leader
by providing direction and guidance
 It is change model, which is based on systematic collection of data
determining the type of change to be implemented
Action research
An idea generation process that specialize encourages all alternatives with
Brain storming
going into the criticism of those alternatives
Change Making the things differ
Who assume the responsibility for managing the change activities
Change agents
consultants
It is an artificial environment, the researcher investigates the impact o
Laboratory variable under controlled conditions. It may lead to the conclusion that
experiment change in the dependent variable is due to the change imposed on
dependent variable
Planned change Change activities that are systematic international and goal oriented
Unfreezing Stabilizing a change intervention by balancing driving and restraining forces
Refreezing Change effects to overcome both the individual resistance and group conform
Restraining
Forces that resist change
Force
It is the degree to which the members of the group are attracted to the gr
Cohensiveness
and are motivated to stay in the group
It is the process of getting information about the effectiveness of an individu
Feed back
performance of the work activities required by a job
Goal setting
It states that the specific and challenging goods lead to higher performance
theory

Initiating It is a process in which leader defines and structures his roll and of
structure subordinates to achieve the goals
Job design The process of completing the tasks to form the jobs

Job enlargement The vertical expansion of the jobs

Job involvement The extent to which a worker identifies himself with the job
Job rotation The process of shifting a worker periodically from one job to the other
A process where managers encourage the desirable performance behavio
OB MOD
and discharge the undesirable behaviours by using an intervention strategy
Organization It is a process of using a collection of planned change interventions
development improve the organizational effectiveness and quality of work life
Quality of life It is a culture that emphasizes on the relationship and concern for others
The process of using questionnaire to identify the discrepancies in
Survey feed back
perceptions of members and rectifying them
Team building It is a process of increasing the trust and openness among group memb
 through high interaction
Culture Culture prescribes norms and procedures
It is a system of shared meaning held by members that distinguishes o
Organization
organization from other organizations. It gives employees a cl
culture
understanding of how things are done in an organization
Dominant culture Consists of core values
Organizational
It is normally associated with job performance, job satisfaction and morale
climate

Socialization It is the process that adopts employees to the organization culture

Prearrival stage Individuals entry into the organization
Encounter stage This stage commences after the entry of the individual into the organizatio
Metamorphosis Adjusting ones self to his work groups values and norms
Rituals Rituals are repetitive sequences of activities
Language It is the language of organization used to identify the culture
Organizational
It is a situationally determined process
climate
Line people Line people are responsible for operation
Staff people provide expert advice to line people. Climate is a systems con
Staff people
that reflects the entire life style of the organization
It describes the favourable and unfavourable attitudes of the emplo
Morale
collectively to all aspects of their job
Job satisfaction It is the individuals attitude towards the job
Employee unrest The restlessness and dissatisfaction of the employees with the job
Absenteeism Staying away from the job without formal sanction
Turnover The number of employees leaving the organization
Fatigue and
It is caused by the routine and repetitiveness of the job without any change
monotony
It is a situation in which there is break down in decision making owin
Conflict irrational and incompatible stand taken by one or all related in deci
making

Arises within an individual wherever his drives and motives

Role conflict
blocked and he is unable to take decisions
Goal conflict Arises when there is incompatibility between the goals
Interpersonal conflict Conflict between two members of the group
Approach approach It is a situation in which a single goal has both positive as we
conflict negative characteristics
Avoidanceavoidance It is a situation in which the individual is motivated to avoid tw
conflict more independent goals
Child ego state This is a state in which a person acts like an impulsive child
Adult ego state A person acts like a mature adult
Parent ego state People act like dominating parent
Avoidance Not facing conflict
Diffusion The decision is delayed
Confrontation It is facing conflict
Achieving the desired objectives with efficiency in a given environm
Effectiveness
setting
Efficiency The ratio of effective output to the input required to achieve it

It is better self awareness

Personal effectiveness
It is a process where the evaluation rates performance factors o
Graphic rating scale
incremental scale
It is a dissatisfaction expressed passively waiting for the condition
Loyalty
improve
Permanent withdrawal from the organization either voluntarily o
Turnover
voluntarily.

- End Of Chapter -