Module 2.

INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR

2.1 Satisfying Human Needs

Types of Needs:

There are various ways to classify needs. A simple one is (1) basic
physical needs, called primary needs, and (2) social and psychological needs,
called secondary needs. The physical needs include food, water, sex, sleep,
air, and a reasonably comfortable temperature. These needs arise from the
basic requirements of life and are important for survival of the human race.
They are, therefore, virtually universal among people, but they vary in
intensify from one person to another. For example, a child needs much more
sleep than an older person.

Needs also are conditioned by social practice. If it is customarily to eat

three meals a day, then a person tends to become hungry for three, even
though two might be adequate. If a coffee hour is introduced in the morning,
then that becomes a habit of appetite satisfaction as well as a social need.

Secondary needs are more vague because they represent needs of the
mind and spirit rather than of the physical body. Many of these needs are
developed as one matures. Examples are rivalry, self-esteem, sense of duty,
self-assertion, giving belonging, and receiving affection. The secondary
needs are the one that complicate the motivational efforts of managers.
Nearly any action that management takes will affect secondary needs;
therefore, management planning should consider the effect of any proposed
action on the secondary needs of employees.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs:

Lower-order needs. First level needs involve basic survival, and include
physiological needs for food, air, water, and sleep. The next level
that tends to dominate is bodily

2.2 Learning and reinforcing

Learning – is the relatively permanent change in behavior occurring as a

result of experience. Ironically, we can say that changes in behavior
indicate that learning has taken place and that learning is a change
in behavior.

• from psychologist “it’s what we did when we went to school”

Describe the concept of learning and discuss the ways it is applied in the field
of organizational behavior?
Components of Learning:

a. Involves change - This may be good or bad from an organizational

point of view. People can learn unfavorable behaviors - to hold
prejudices or to restrict their output, for example - as well as
favorable behavior behaviors.

b. The change relatively permanent - Temporary changes may be only

reflexive and fail to represent any learning. Therefore, this
requirement rules out behavioral changes caused by fatigue or
temporary adaptation.
c. Concerned with behavior - Learning takes place where there is a
change in actions. A change in individual’s thought processes or
attitudes, if accompanied by no change in behavior, would not be
learning.

d. Some form of experience is necessary - This may be acquired

directly through observation or practice. Or it may result from
indirect experiences, such as that acquired through reading. The
crucial test still remains> Does this experience result in an
relatively permanent change in behavior? If the answer is “Yes” we
can say that learning has taken place.

Theories of Learning:

1. Classical conditioning – is a simple form of learning in which a

conditioned response is linked or connected with an unconditioned
stimulus.

Unconditioned stimulus - is one that unconditionally, naturally, and

automatically triggers a response.

For example, when you smell one of your favorite foods, you may
immediately feel very hungry. In this example, the smell of the food
is the unconditioned stimulus.

But this form of learning is obviously simplistic and not directly

relevant to motivation, Learning theorists soon recognize that
although classical conditioning offered some interesting insights into
the learning process, it was inadequate as an explanation of human
learning. For one thing, classical conditioning relies on simple
cause-and-effect relationship between one stimulus and one
response; it cannot deal with the more complex forms of learned
behavior that typify human beings. For another, classical
conditioning ignores the concept of choice; it assumes the behavior
is reflexive, or involuntary. Therefore, this perspective cannot
explain situations in which people consciously and rationally choose
once course of action form among many. Because of these
shortcomings of classical conditioning, theorists eventually move on
 to other approaches that seemed more useful in explaining the
processes associated with complex learning.

e.g.2

Teacher Students
Before Instruct the class to keep Will keep quiet
conditioning quiet Will not keep
Hit the blackboard 3x by his quiet
hand
During Hit the blackboard 3x and Will keep quiet
conditioning instruction the class to keep
quiet
After Hit the blackboard 3x Will keep quiet
conditioning

2. Operant conditioning (also called reinforcement theory) - A type of

conditioning in which desired voluntary behavior leads to a reward
or prevents a punishment.

It states that individual’s behavior is a function of its consequences.

It is based on “law of effect”, i.e, individual’s behavior with positive
consequences tends to be repeated, but individual’s behavior with
negative consequences tends not to be repeated.

People learn to behave to get something they want or avoid

something they don’t want. Operant behavior means voluntary or
learned behavior in contrast to reflexive or unlearned behavior. The
tendency to repeat such behavior is influenced as a result of the
reinforcement or lack of reinforcement brought about by the
consequences of the behavior. Reinforcement therefore,
strengthened a behavior increases the likelihood that it will be
repeated.

3. Social learning - people can learn through observation and direct

experience.

Shaping: A Managerial Tool

Because learning takes place on the job as well s prior to it, managers
will be concerned with how they can teach employees to behave in ways that
most benefit he organization. When we attempt to mold individuals by guiding
their learning in graduated steps we are shaping behavior.

Consider the situation in which an employee’s behavior is significantly

different from that sought by management. If management only reinforced the
individual when he or she showed desirable responses, there might be very
little reinforcement taking place. In such a case, shaping officers a logical
approach toward achieving the desired behavior.
 We shape behavior by systematically reinforcing each successive step
that moves the individual closer to the desired response. If an employee who
has been chronically a half-hour late for work comes in only twenty minutes
late, we can reinforce this improvement. Reinforcement would increase as
responses more closely approximate the desired behavior.

Types of Reinforcement/Methods of Shaping Behavior:

1. Positive reinforcement – is a reward or other desirable consequence that

follows behavior.
-When a response is followed with something pleasant.
e.g. The boss praises an employee for a job well done

2. Negative (avoidance) reinforcement - When a response is followed by the

termination or withdrawal of something unpleasant (not good).

e.g.1. Suppose that a boss habitually criticizes employees who dress

casually. To avoid criticism, an employee may routinely dress to suit the
supervisor’s taste. The employee is thus motivated to engage in desirable
behavior (at least from the supervisor’s viewpoint) to avoid an unpleasant, or
aversive, consequence.

e.g2. If your college instructor asks a question and you don’t know the
answer, looking through your lecture notes is likely to preclude your being
called on. This is a negative reinforcement because you have learned that
looking busily through your notes terminates being called on by the instructor.

3. Punishment – decrease the frequency of undesirable behavior.

-is causing an unpleasant condition in an attempt to eliminate an
undesirable behavior.

e.g1. Verbal or written reprimands, pay cuts, loss of privileges, layoffs

and termination. Eg. 2, An employee who receives a two-day suspension from
work, without pay for showing up drunk is an example of punishment.

4. Extinction - Eliminating any reinforcement that is maintaining a behavior

-The action of causing a behavior to end.

When the behavior is not reinforced, it tends to gradually be

extinguished. College instructors who wish to discourage students from
asking questions in class can eliminate this behavior in their students by
ignoring those who raise their hands to ask questions. Hand-raising will
become extinct when it is invariably met with an absence of reinforcement.

It decreases the frequency of behavior, especially behavior that was

previously rewarded. If rewards are withdrawn for behaviors that were
previously reinforced, the behaviors were probably become less frequent and
eventually die out.
Extinction is similar to punishment in that its purpose is to reduce unwanted
behavior. The process of extinction begins when a valued behavioral
consequence is withheld in order to decrease the probability that a learned
behavior will continue. Over time, this is likely to result in the ceasing of that
behavior. Extinction may alternately serve to reduce a wanted behavior, such
as when a positive reinforcer is no longer offered when a desirable behavior
occurs.

For example, if an employee is continually praised for the promptness in

which he completes his work for several months, but receives no praise in
subsequent months for such behavior, his desirable behaviors may diminish.
Thus, to avoid unwanted extinction, managers may have to continue to offer
positive behavioral consequences.

Basic Schedules of Reinforcement:

Schedules of reinforcement – indicate when or how often managers should

reinforce certain behaviors.

1. Continuous reinforcement – Behavior is reinforced every time it occurs.

e.g. 1 Every time your child crayons on the wall, you say "oh, how
pretty".
The idea behind continuous reinforcement is that there is always a
payoff directly after the behavior. Your child, if praised for crayoning the
wall, will do it again.

e.g. 2
Every time you eat ice cream, it tastes delicious. You get an immediate
reward. Yummy. You are likely to eat ice cream again. Behaviors are
reinforced when they are rewarded.

2. Fixed-interval reinforcement – Behavior is reinforced according so to

some predetermined, constant schedule based on time.

The Friday-afternoon paycheck is a good example of a fixed-interval

reinforcement. Unfortunately, in many situations the fixed internal
schedule does not necessarily maintain high performance levels. If
employees know the boss will drop by to check on them every day at 1
pm, they be motivated to work hard at that time, hoping to gain praise
and recognition or to avoid the boss’ wrath. At other times of the day,
the employees probably will not work as hard because they have
learned that reinforcement is unlikely except during the daily visit.

3. Variable-interval reinforcement – Behavior is reinforced after periods of

time, but the time span varies from one time to the next.
 Suppose that instead of coming by at exactly 1 pm every day, the boss
visits at a different time each day: 9:30 am on Monday, 2 pm on
Tuesday, 11 am on Wednesday, and so on. The following week, the
times change, Because the employee do not know exactly when to
expect the boss, they may be motivated to work hard for a longer
period – until her visit. Afterward, though, they may drop back to lower
levels because the have learned that she will not be back until the next
day.

4. Fixed-ratio reinforcement – Behavior is reinforced according to the

number of behaviors exhibited, with the number of behaviors needed to
gain reinforcement held constant.

Assume for instance, that a work group enters its cumulative

performance totals into the firm’s computer network every hour. The
manager of the group used the network to monitor its activities. He
might practice of dropping by to praise the group every time it reaches
a performance level of 500 units. Thus, if the group does this three
times on Monday, he stops by each time; if it reaches the mark only
once on Tuesday, he stops by only once. The fixed-ratio schedule can
be fairly effective in maintaining desirable behavior. Employees may
acquire a sense of what it takes to be reinforced and may be motivated
to maintain their performance.

Fixed-Ratio Schedule - A fixed-ratio schedule of reinforcement means

that reinforcement should be delivered after a constant or “fixed”
number of correct responses. For example, a fixed ratio schedule of 2
means reinforcement is delivered after every 2 correct responses.
E.g.2 in the classroom, an example would be a student is rewarded for
every five books they read.
Moreover, reinforcement is delivered after a specified number of
correct responses. For example, when a learner raises his hand in
class, the teacher calls on him every third time he raises his hand.

5. Variable-ratio reinforcement – Behavior is reinforced according to the

number of behaviors exhibited, but the number of behaviors needed to
gain reinforcement varies from one time to the next.

E.g1. Door to door salesmen. It is uncertain how many houses they will
have to visit to make a sale, but the more houses they try, the more
likely that they will succeed.

E.g2. Slot machine in a casino, in which a different and unknown

number of desired behaviors (i.e., feeding a quarter into the machine)
is required before the reward (i.e., a jackpot) is realized. E.g.3 Bonuses
or special awards that are applied after varying numbers of desired
behaviors occur.
 An employee performing under a variable-ratio schedule is motivated
to work hard because each successful behavior increases the
probability that the next one will result in reinforcement. With this
schedule, the exact number of behaviors needed to obtain
reinforcement is not crucial; what is important is that the intervals
between reinforcement not to be so long the worker gets discouraged
and stops trying.

Schedules of Reinforcement

2 Major types of reinforcement schedules:

1. Continuous schedule – A desired behavior is reinforced each and every

time it is demonstrated. Or it reinforces the desired behavior each and every
time it is demonstrated. For example, in the case of someone who has
historically had trouble being at work on time, every time he is not tardy his
manager might compliment him on his desirable behavior.

2. Intermittent schedule – Not every instance of the desirable behavior is

reinforced, but reinforcement is given often enough to make the behavior
worth repeating.

2.3 Understanding the perceptual process

Perceptual Process

Perception – is the set of processes by which an individual becomes aware of

and interprets information about the environment. It involves the process by
which individuals select, organize, and interpret sensory stimuli, such as from
seeing, hearing, and touching, into meaningful information about their
surroundings.

Why perception important in the study of organizational behavior?

Because people’s behavior is based on their perception of what reality

is, not reality itself. The world as it perceived is the world that is behaviorally
important.

How do we explain that individuals may look at the same thing, yet
perceive it differently? A number of factors operate to shape and sometimes
distort perception. These factors can reside in the perceiver, in the object
target being perceived, or in the context of the situation in which the
perception is made.
Perceptual Process:

How we sense our envi. Functions of Perceptual Process

Results of Perceptual
process

Seeing Thoughts
Hearing Ideas
Smelling Selection Options
Organization
Tasting Interpretation Actions
Touching Behavior

Factors influencing perceptions:

1. Stereotyping

When you form a fixed idea or image of a group of people, then you
assume that everyone in the group will behave or be the same (while
you may only meet only one person or a few people from the group).

Stereotypes – are generalization about a person or a group of persons

based on certain characteristics or traits.

E.g. accountants are compulsive (obsessive) and precise and one

dimensional; Engineers are cold and calculating; Doctors are
determined and patience.

Various categories exist upon which a stereotype might be based,

including race, age, sex, ethnic, background, social class, occupation,
and so on. People select characteristics to identify groups of people
and attribute those characteristics to each person in the group. For
example, accountants are often stereotyped as compulsive, precise,
and one-dimensional; while engineers may be perceived as cold and
calculating. Stereotyping limits our ability to perceive other people
accurately and can prevent us from finding out how a person is unique
and different from a group.

2. Selective perception – is the process of screening out information that

we are uncomfortable with or that contradicts our beliefs.

Our current needs and past experiences partly determine what we

attend to and what we perceive. It is also true that more ambiguous
the situation, the more we rely on our internal cues. It has a major
impact on the communication and decision processes. We hear what
we want to hear and screen out other information.
 E.g. The manager has a very positive attitude about the worker and
thinks he is a top performer. One day the manager notices that the
worker seems so be goofing out (evade responsibility/killing the time).
Selective perception may cause the manager to quickly forget what he
observed. Similarly, suppose a manager has formed a very negative
image of a particular worker. She thinks this worker is a poor performer
who never does a good job. When she happens to observe an
example of high performance from the worker, she may quickly forget
it. In one sense, selective perception is beneficial because it allows us
to disregard minor bits of information.

3. Halo effect – This refers to the process whereby one’s impression

(either favorable or unfavorable) of a person in one area tends to
influence judgment about that person in other areas.

E.g. When release the Ipod, some people think that the sales of mac
notebook would also increase as customers who had a great
experience with the Ipod would buy mac notebook because it is made
by apple company.

When we consider a person good (or bad) in one category, we are

likely to make a similar evaluation in other categories.

Since the halo effect theorizes that people are quick to judge others
based on first impressions, it’s helpful to slow down your thought
process.

4. Set expectations – These expectations are derived from our

experience and therefore each individual’s set expectations about a
situation or a person may be different.

Another tendency to bias perceptions can result from our expectations

about a person or situation. These perceptions are not universally
held, as in the case with stereotyping. Expectations can distort our
perceptions in that we see what we expect to see. If we expect old
people to be forgetful, young people to be unambitious, or top
executives to be ruthless, we may perceive them this way regardless of
their actual traits or behavior.

5. Emotional state – Most of us have at one time or another said, “Don’t

approach the boss yet, he’s in a bad mood today.” Our emotional
state, whether positive or negative, can impact our view of what is
happening around us.

6. Projections – The tendency to attribute one’s own characteristics and

feelings to other. In some cases, projection is an efficient and sensible
practice. After all, people with similar backgrounds and interests often
 do think and feel similarly. A familiarity among people can result in
effective communications around those specific subjects.

Understanding the Motivation Process

@Define the concept of motivation and describe how it is relevant to the field
of OB?

The Motivation Process:

An unsatisfied need creates tension that stimulates drives within the

individual. These drives generate a search behavior to find particular goals
that, if attained, will satisfy the need and lead to the reduction of tension.

Unsatisfied need Tension Drives Search behavior satisfied

need reduction of tension

So we can say that motivated employees are in a state of tension. To

relieve this tension, they exert effort. The greater the tension, the higher the
effort level. If this effort successfully leads to the satisfaction of the need,
tension is reduced. But since we are interested in work behavior, this tension-
reduction effort must also be directed toward organizational goals. Therefore,
inherent in our definition of motivation is the requirement that the individual’s
need are compatible and consistent with the organization’s gals. Where this
does not occur, we can have individuals exerting high levels of effort hat
actually run counter to the interests of the organization. This, incidentally, is
not usual. For example, some employees regularly spend a lot of time talking
with friends at work in order to satisfy their social needs. There is a high level
of effort, only it’s being productively directed.

@What do you believe to be the major motivating factors for you?

1. The need for security

2. The avoidance of boredom
3. To insure their control over a job.
As a man is promoted to a high mgt. Position he does have greater
authority and responsibility for the work to be done.
4. The provision of opportunities for managers to prepare themselves for
greater responsibilities.
-training, conferences, foreign assignment, education

Motivation - is the willingness to exert high levels of effort toward

organizational goals, conditioned by the efforts ability to satisfy some
individual need.
1. Define motivation. Describe the motivation process?

An unsatisfied need creates tension that stimulates drives within the

individual. These drives generate a search behavior to find particular goals
that, if attained, will satisfy the need and lead to the reduction of tension.

So we can say that motivated employees are in a state of tension. To

relieve this tension, they exert effort. The greater the tension, the higher the
effort level. If this effort successfully leads to the satisfaction of the need,
tension is reduced. But since we are interested in work behavior, this tension-
reduction effort must also the directed toward organizational goals.
Therefore, inherent in our definition of motivation is the requirement that the
individual’s needs are compatible and consistent with the organization’s
goals. Where this does not occur, we can have individuals exerting high
levels of effort that actually run counter to the interested of the organization.
This incidentally, is not so unusual. For example, some employees regularly
spend a lot of time telling with fiends at work in order to satisfy their social
needs. ?there is a high level of effort, only it’s being unproductively directed.

2. What are the implications of Theories X and Y to motivation practices?

The reasons are: they represent a foundation from which contemporary

theories have grown, and at practicing managers regularly use these theories
and their terminology in explaining employee motivation.

1. What do you believe to be the major motivating factors?

a. The need for security

b. The avoidance of boredom
c. To insure their control over a Job. (Control)
d. Advancement (training, conferences, foreign assignment and
education)
e. Recognition