M.B.A.

PAPER 1.: ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

SYLLABUS
UNIT 1
Introduction to Organisational Behaviour – Meaning – Elements – Need –
Approaches – Models – Global scenario.
UNIT 2
Individual Behaviour – Personality – Learning – Attitudes – Perception –
Motivation – Ability – Their relevance to organisational behaviour.
UNIT 3
Group Behaviour – Group dynamics – Group norms – Group cohesiveness – Their
relevance to organisational behaviour.
UNIT 4
Leadership – Styles – Qualities – Organisational communication – Meaning,
importance, process, barriers – Methods to reduce barriers – Principles of effective
communication.
UNIT 5
Stress – Meaning – Types – Sources – Consequences – Management of stress.
UNIT 6
Power and Politics – Definition – Types of powers – Sources – Characteristics –
Effective use of power.
UNIT 7
Organisational Dynamics – Organisational Design – Organisational effectiveness
– Meaning, approaches – Organisational Culture – Meaning, significance –
Organisational Climate – Implications on organisational behaviour.
UNIT 8
Organisational Change – Meaning – Nature – Causes of change – Resistance to
change – Management of change – Organisational Development – Meaning – OD
Interventions.

REFERENCES BOOKS:
1. Fred Luthans, Organisational Behaviours, McGraw Hill Book Co., 1995.
2. Stephen P. Robbins, Organisational Behaviour, Prentice Hall, 1997.
3. Keith Davis, Human Behaviour at Work, McGraw Hill Book Co., 1991.
4. Gregory Moorehead and R.S. Griffin, Organisational Behaviour - Managing People
and Organisations, Jaico, 1994.
5. Judith R. Gordon, A Diagnostic Approach to Organisational Behaviour, Allyn &
Bacon, 1993.

Course Material prepared by -

Dr. S. SUDALAIMUTHU
Professor of Corporate Secretaryship
Alagappa University
 ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
MODEL QUESTION PAPER
Time: 3 Hours Max. Marks: 100

SECTION - A (5 x 8 = 40)
Answer any Five questions
All questions carry equal marks
1. What do you understand by organisational behaviour? Bring out its nature and
importance.
2. Discuss the personality attributes in organisation.
3. What is the organisational design? What are its forms?
4. What is group cohesiveness? What are its determinants?
5. What are the forms of organisational communications?
6. What are the sources of power?
7. What are the causes of stress?
8. What is organisational culture? How it affects the behaviour of the people?

SECTION - B (4 x 15 = 60)
Answer any Four questions
Question No.15 is compulsory.
9. Compare the Maslow’s Theory with ERG Theory of Motivation.
10. What are the barriers to effective communication? How to overcome those barriers?
11. What are the techniques of managing political behaviour?
12. State the consequences of stress and method of managing the stress.
13. Suggest strategies to resolve inter-group conflicts.
14. Why do people resist change? As a manager how would you overcome such
resistance?
15. Case Study:
Raman is the Sales Manager of a reputed Corporation. He has 25 employees in his
Department, and all are paid commission for their sales in their territories. For the past
three years, the market for the company’s goods has been steadily growing and the
majority of Raman’s staff have met this growth with increased sales. However, one
employee in particular, Krishnan has not kept up with the pace.
Krishnan has been with this Corporation for over 20 years and is now 56 years old.
Krishnan is a friendly man and is well liked by his peers and those to whom he sells the
company’s products on a regular basis. The company has always considered Krishnan
dependable and loyal. Through the years Krishnan has been counted as an asset to the
company, but at the age of 56 he has gone into a state of semi-retirement. Krishnan’s
sales have not increased as the others have and he does not have the determination to
acquire a significant increase in sales.
Raman wishes to change this situation. He wants to motivate Krishnan into
increasing his sales to match that of his younger peers. To accomplish this Krishnan
must begin to do more than but in his time, but Raman is not sure how to go about trying
to motivate him. Unlike the majority of the new employees Krishnan is an old man, who
within a few years will reach the age of retirement.
If you are Raman what would you do?
Questions :
1. Would you threaten to fire him?
2. Does your solution involve the feeling of others in your staff?
3. Would you increase his commission?
4. Would you increase the retirement benefits for Krishnan rather than offer him the
increased commission rate?
5. Would you offer him more status in the way of a new title or a new company car or
pace his table in a better position in the office?
6. Is there some way in terms of appraisal and rewards with what you can motivate
Krishnan?


REFERENCES
1. Nirmal Singh, “Organisational Behaviour: Concepts, Theory and Practices”.
2. Gordon Judith R, “A Diagnostic Approach to Organizational Behaviour”.
3. Keith Davis, “Human Behaviour at Work”.
4. Barney/Griffin, “The Management of Organisations”.
5. Van Fleet, “Behaviour in Organisations”.
6. Hugh J. Arnold, Daniel C. Fledman, “Organisational Behaviour”.
7. Stephen P. Robins, “Organisational Behaviour”.
8. Chandan, S.Jit, “Organisational Behaviour”.
9. Prasad L M, “Organisational Behaviour”.
10. Gangadhar Rao, VSP Rao, P.S. Narayana, “Organisational Behaviour”.

  
LESSON – 1 - INTRODUCTION TO ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Learning Objectives
After reading this lesson, you should be able to understand:
• The major environmental challenges and the paradigm shift facing today’s
management
• Organisational behaviour perspective for management
• Historical background for modern organisational behaviour
• Modern approach to organisational behaviour
The knowledge and information explosion, global competition, total quality and
diversity are some of the harsh reality facing managers today. There are many solutions
being offered to deal with these complex challenges. Yet the simple but most profound
solution may be found in the words of Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart and richest
person in the world. Sam was once asked what was the answer to successful
organisations and management. Sam quickly replied, “People are the key”.
The term paradigm comes from the Greek paradigma, which translates as “model,
pattern or example”. First introduced over thirty years ago by the Philosophy and science
historian Thomas Khun, the term “paradigm” is now used to mean a broad model, a
framework, a way of thinking, or a scheme for understanding reality. The impact of
internationalisation, information technology, total quality and diversity mentioned earlier
has led to a paradigm shift. In otherwords, for today’s and tomorrow’s organisations and
management, there are new rules with different boundaries requiring new and different
behaviour inside the boundaries for organisations and management to be successful.
Commonly called the “paradigm effect”, a situation arises in which those in the existing
paradigm may not even see the changes that are occurring, let alone reason and draw
logical inferences and perceptions about the changes. This effect helps explain why there
is considerable resistance to change and why it is very difficult to move from the old
organisation and management paradigm to the new.
New Paradigm
The organisational behaviour has the goal to help managers make the transition to
the new paradigm. Some of the new paradigm characteristics include coverage of
second-generation information technology, total quality management (including
empowerment, reengineering and bench-marking), and learning organisation and
description of and suggestions for managing diversity. The new paradigm sets the stage
for the study, understanding, and application of the time-tested micro-variables, dynamics
and macro-variables. One must know why management needs a new perspective to help
meet the environmental challenges and the shift to a new paradigm.
A New Perspective for Management
Management is generally considered to have three major dimensions – technical,
conceptual and human. The technical dimension consists of the manager’s expertise in
functional areas. They know the requirements of the jobs and have the functional know-
how to get the job done. But most practicing managers ignored the conceptual and
human dimensions of their jobs.
Most managers think that their employees are basically lazy, and are interested
only in money, and that if you could make them happy, they would be productive. When
such assumptions were accepted, the human problems facing management were relatively
easy to solve.
But human behaviour at work is much more complicated and diverse. The new
perspective assumes that employees are extremely complex and that there is a need for
theoretical understanding backed by empirical research before applications can be made
for managing people effectively.
Modern Approach to Organisational Behaviour
The modern approach to organisational behaviour is the search for the truth of
why people behave the way they do and it is a delicate and complex process. If one aims
to manage organisations, it is necessary to understand how they operate. Organisations
combine science and people. While science and technology is predictable, the human
behaviour in organisations is rather unpredictable. This is because it arises from people’s
deep-seated needs and value systems.
Historical Background for Modern Organisational Behaviour
Scientific Management Approach:
Scientific management approach was developed by F.W. Taylor at the beginning
of 20th century. This theory advocated use of certain steps in scientifically studying each
element of a job, selecting and training the best workers for the job, making sure that the
workers follow prescribed method of doing the job. It provided a scientific rationale for
job specialisation and mass production. His assumption was that employees are
motivated largely by money. To increase output, Taylor advised managers to pay
monetary incentives to efficient workers. Yet, his theory was criticised by employers and
workers. Workers objected to the pressure to work ever harder and faster. Critics
worried that the methods took the humanity out of labour, reducing workers to machines
responding to management incentives. Now the Taylor’s view is considered inadequate
and narrow.
Bureaucratic Approach:
While scientific management was focusing on the interaction between worker and
task, other researchers began to studying how to structure organisations more effectively.
Instead of trying to make each worker more efficient, classical organisation theory sought
the most effective overall organisational structure for workers and managers.
 The theory’s most prominent advocate, Max Weber, proposed a ‘bureaucratic
form’ of structure which he thought would work for all organisations. Weber’s ideal
bureaucracy was logical, rational and efficient. He made the naive assumption that one
structure would work best for all organisations.
Henry Ford, Henry Fayol and Frederick W. Taylor, the early management
pioneers, recognised the behavioural side of management. However, they did not
emphasise the human dimensions. Although there were varied and complex reasons for
the emergence of the importance of the behavioural approach to management, it is
generally recognised that the Hawthrone studies mark the historical roots for the field of
organisational behaviour.
Hawthorne Studies
Even as Taylor and Weber brought attention with their rational, logical approaches
to more efficient productivity, their views were criticised on the ground that both
approaches ignored worker’s humanity.
The real beginning of applied research in the area of organisational behaviour
started with Hawthorne Experiments. The findings of these studies were given a new
name ‘human relations’. In 1924, a group of Professors such as Elton Mayo began an
enquiry into the human aspects of work and working conditions at the Hawthorne plant of
Western Electric Company, Chicago.
The studies brought out a number of findings relevant to understanding human
behaviour at work which are as follows:
The human element in the work place was considerably more important. The
workers are influenced by social factors and the behaviour of the individual worker is
determined by the group.
Hawthorne studies have been criticised for their research methods and conclusions
drawn. But their effect on the emerging field of organisational behaviour was dramatic.
They helped usher in a more human centered approach to work.

Approaches to Organisational Behaviour

There are mainly four approaches to organisational behaviour. They are:
• A human resources approach
• A contingency approach
• A productivity approach
• A systems approach
Human Resources Approach:
The human resources approach is concerned with the growth and development of
people towards higher levels of competency, creativity and fulfillment, because people
are the central resource in any organisation. This approach helps employees become
better, more responsible and then it tries to create a climate in which they may contribute
to the limits of their improved abilities. This approach is also known as ‘supportive
approach’ because the manager’s primary role changes from control of employees to
active support of their growth and performance.
A Contingency Approach:
A contingency approach to organisational behaviour implies that different
situations require different behavioural practices for effectiveness instead of the
traditional approach to one best way for all situations. Each situation must be analyzed
carefully to determine the significant variables that exist in order to establish the kinds of
practices that will be more effective. The strength of this approach is that it encourages
analysis of each situation prior to action. Thus it helps to use in the most appropriate
manner all the current knowledge about people in organisation.
Productivity Approach:
Productivity is a ratio that compares units of output with units of input. It is often
measured in terms of economic inputs and outputs. If more outputs can be produced
from the same amount of inputs, productivity is improved. But besides economic inputs
and outputs, human and social inputs and outputs also are important.
Systems Approach:
A system is an interrelated part that interact with one another and functions as a
whole. Within the organisation ‘people’ employ ‘technology’ in performing the ‘taks’
that they are responsible for, while the ‘structure’ of the organisation serves as a basis for
co-ordinating all their different activities. The system view emphasizes the
interdependence of each of these elements within the organisation, if the organisation as a
whole is to function effectively. The other key aspect of the systems view of
organisations is its emphasis on the interaction between the organisation and its broader
environment which consists of social, economic, cultural and political within which they
operate.
Organisations are dependent upon their environment in two main ways: First, the
organisation requires ‘inputs’ from the environment in the form of raw material, people,
money, ideas and so on. The organisation itself can be thought of as performing certain
‘transformation processes; on its inputs in order to create outputs in the form of products
or services. Secondly, the organisation depends on environment i.e., public to accept its
output i.e., products/services.
The systems view of organisation, thus emphasizes the key interdependencies that
organisations must manage. Within themselves the organisations must trade off the
interdependencies among people, tasks, technology and structure in order to perform their
transformation processes effectively and efficiently. Organisations must also recognise
their interdependence with the broader environments within which they exist.
Contemporary Organisational Behaviour
A Separate Field of Study:
Organisational behaviour can be treated as a distinct field of study. It has yet to
become a science. Now efforts are being taken to synthesize principles, concepts and
processes in this field of study.
Interdisciplinary Approach:
Organisational behaviour is basically an interdisciplinary approach.
Organisational behaviour draws heavily from other disciplines like psychology, sociology
and anthropology. Besides, it also takes relevant things from economics, political
science, law and history. Organisational behaviour integrates the relevant contents of
these disciplines to make them applicable for organisational analysis. For example, it
addresses issues such as the following which may be relevant to the case:
 What facilitates accurate perception and attribution?
 What influences individual, group and organisational learning and the
development of individual attitudes toward work?
 How do individual differences in personality, personal development, and
career development affect individual’s behaviours and attitudes?
 What motivates people to work, and how does the organisation’s reward
system influence worker behaviour and attitudes?
 How do managers build effective teams?
 What contributes to effective decision-making?
 What constitutes effective communication?
 What characterises effective communication?
 How can power be secured and used productively?
 What factors contribute to effective negotiations?
 How can conflict (between groups or between a manager and subordinates) be
resolved or managed?
 How can jobs and organizations be effectively designed?
 How can managers help workers deal effectively with change?
An Applied Science:
The basic objective of organisational behaviour is to make application of various
researches to solve the organisational problems, particularly related to human behaviour
aspect.
Normative and Value Centred:
 Organisational Behaviour is normative science. A normative science prescribes
how the various findings of researches can be applied to get organisational results which
are acceptable to the society. Thus, what is acceptable by the society or individuals
engaged in an organisation is a matter of values of the society and people concerned.
Humanistic and Optimistic:
Organisational behaviour focuses the attention on people from humanistic point of
view. It is based on the belief that needs and motivation of people are of high concern.
Further, there is optimism about the innate potential of man to be independent, creative,
predictive and capable of contributing positively to the objectives of the organisation.
Oriented towards Organisational Objectives:
Organisational behaviour is oriented towards organisation objectives. In fact,
organisational behaviour tries to integrate both individual and organisational objectives
so that both are achieved simultaneously.
A Total System Approach:
The individual’s behaviour can be analysed keeping in view his psychological
frame-work, interpersonal-orientation, group influence and social and cultural factors.
Thus, individual’s nature is quite complex and organisational behaviour by applying
systems approach tries to find solution of this complexity.

Review Questions:
1. Discuss the major environmental challenges and the paradigm shift facing
management today.
2. Discuss the historical background for the modern organisational behaviour.
3. What is the modern approach to organisational behaviour?
  
 LESSON – 2
FOUNDATION OF ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Learning Objectives
After reading this lesson, you should be able to:
• Define and explain the meaning of organisational behaviour
• Understand the nature and importance of organisational behaviour
• Relate the organisational behaviour to manager’s job
Definition of Management
Management is commonly defined as “getting work done through other people”.
This simple definition explains the significance of the role of the people. The work will
not be done unless “people” want to do this work and if the work is not done then there
will be no organisation. Hence, it is the understanding that the cooperation of the
organisational workers which is crucial to the success or failure of the organisation.
Definition of Organisation
“Organisations”, according to Gary Johns, “are social inventions for
accomplishing goals through group efforts”. This definition covers wide variety of
groups such as businesses, schools, hospitals, fraternal groups, religious bodies,
government agencies and the like. There are three significant aspects in the above
definition which require further analysis. These are:
(i) Social Inventions: The word “social” as a derivative of society, basically
means gathering of people. It is the people that primarily make up
organisations.
(ii) Accomplishing Goals: All organisations have reasons for their existence.
These reasons are the goals towards which all organisational efforts are
directed. While the primary goal of any commercial organisation is to make
money for its owners, this goal is inter-related with many other goals.
Accordingly, any organisational goal must integrate in itself the personal goals
of all individuals associated with the organisation.
(iii) Group Effort: People, both as members of the society at large and as a part of
an organisation interact with each other and are inter-dependent. Individuals in
themselves have physical and intellectual limitations and these limitations can
only be overcome by group efforts.

Meaning and Definition of Organisational Behaviour

Organisational behaviour is concerned with people’s thoughts, feelings, emotions,
and actions in a work setting. Understanding an individual behaviour is in itself a
challenge, but understanding group behaviour in an organisational environment is a
monumental managerial task.
As Nadler and Thushman put it:
“Understanding one individual’s behaviour is challenging in and of itself;
understanding a group that is made up of different individuals and comprehending
the many relationships among those individuals is even more complex. Ultimately,
the organisation’s work gets done through people, individually or collectively, on
their own or in collaboration with technology. Therefore, the management of
organisational behaviour is central to the management task – a task that involves
the capacity to “understand” the behaviour patterns of individuals, groups and
organisations, to “predict” what behavioural responses will be elicited by various
managerial actions and finally to use this understanding and these predictions to
achieve “control”.

Organisational behaviour can then defined as:

“the study of human behaviour in organisational settings, the interface between
human behaviour and the organisational context, and the organisation itself.”
The above definition has three facets – the individual behaviour, the organisation
and the interface between the two. Each individual brings to an organisation a unique set
of beliefs, values, attitudes and other personal characteristics and these characteristics of
all individuals must interact with each other in order to create an organisational setting.
The organisational behaviour is specifically concerned with work-related behaviour
which takes place in organisations.
In addition to understanding the on-going behavioural processes involved in their
own jobs, managers must understand the basic human element of their work.
Organisational behaviour offers three major ways of understanding this context; people
as organisations, people as resources and people as people.
Above all, organisations are people; and without people there would be no
organisations. Thus, if managers are to understand the organisations in which they work,
they must first understand the people who make up the organisations.
As resources, people are one of an organisation’s most valuable assets. People
create the organisation, guide and direct its course, and vitalise and revitalise it. People
make its decisions, solve its problems, and answer its questions. As managers
increasingly recognise the value of potential contributions by their employees, it will
become more and more important for managers and employees to grasp the complexities
of organisational behaviour.
Finally, there is people as people – an argument derived from the simple notion of
humanistic management. People spend a large part of their lives in organisational
settings, mostly as employees. They have a right to expect something in return beyond
wages and benefits. They have right to expect satisfaction and to learn new skills. An
understanding of organisational behaviour can help the manager better appreciate this
variety of individual needs and expectations.
Organisational behaviour is concerned with the characteristics and behaviours of
employees in isolation; the characteristics and processes that are part of the organisation
itself; and the characteristics and behaviours directly resulting from people with their
individual needs and motivations working within the structure of the organisation. One
cannot understand an individual’s behaviour completely without learning something
about that individual’s organisation. Similarly, he cannot understand how the
organisation operates without studying the people who make it up. Thus, the
organisation influences and is influenced by individuals.

Elements of Organisational Behaviour

The key elements in the organisational behaviour are people, structure, technology
and the environment in which the organisation operates.
People:
People make up the internal and social system of the organisation. They consists
of individuals and groups. The groups may be big or small; formal or informal; official
or unofficial. Groups are dynamic. They work in the organisation to achieve their
objectives.
Structure:
Structure defines the formal relationships of the people in organisations. Different
people in the organisation are performing different type of jobs and they need to be
related in some structural way so that their work can be effectively co-ordinated.
Technology:
Technology such as machines and work processes provide the resources with
which people work and affects the tasks that they perform. The technology used has a
significant influence on working relationships. It allows people to do more and better
work but it also restricts people in various ways.
Environment:
All organisations operate within an external environment. It is part of a larger
system that contains many other elements such as government, the family and other
organisations. All of these mutually influence each other in a complex system that
creates a context for a group of people.

Nature of Organisational Behaviour

Each individual brings to an organisation a unique set of personal characteristics,
experiences from other organisation, and the environment surrounding the organisation
and they also posses a personal background. In considering the people who work in
organisations, organisational behaviour must look at the unique perspective that each
individual brings to the work setting.
But individuals do not work in isolation. They come in contact with other
individuals and the organisation in a variety of ways. Points of contact include managers,
co-workers, the formal policies and procedures of the organisation, and various changes
implemented by the organisation. Over time, the individual, too, changes; as a function
of both the personal experiences and the organisation. The organisation is also affected
by the presence, and eventual absence of the individual. Clearly, the study of
organisational behaviour must consider the ways in which the individual and the
organisation interact.
An organisation, characteristically, exists before a particular person joins it and
continues to exist after he leaves it. Thus, the organisation itself represents a crucial third
perspective from which to view organisational behaviour.

Need for Studying Organisational Behaviour

The rules of work are different from the rules of play. The uniqueness of rules and
the environment of organisations forces managers to study organisational behaviour to
learn about normal and abnormal ranges of behaviour.
More specifically, organisational behaviour serves three purposes:
 What causes behaviour?
 Why particular antecedents cause behaviour?
 Which antecedents of behaviour can be controlled directly and which are
beyond control?
A more specific and formal course in organisational behaviour helps an individual
to develop a more refined, workable set of assumptions more directly relevant to his work
interactions. Organisational behaviour helps in predicting human behaviour in the
organisational setting by drawing a clear distinction between individual behaviour and
group behaviour.
Organisational behaviour does not provide solution to all complex and
multifarious behaviour puzzles of organisations. It is only the intelligent judgement of
the manager in dealing with a specific issue can try to solve problem. Organisational
behaviour only assists in making judgements that derived from tenable assumptions,
judgement that takes into account the important variables underlying the situation;
judgement that assigns due recognition to the complexity of individual or group
behaviour; judgement that explicity takes into account the managers own goals, motives,
hang-ups, blind spots and frailties.
Importance of Organisational Behaviour
Organisational behaviour offers several ideas to management as to how human
factor should be properly emphasised to achieve organisational objectives. Barnard has
observed that 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. Organisational behaviour provides
opportunity to management to analyse human behaviour and prescribe means for shaping
human behaviour to a particular direction.
Understanding Human Behaviour:
Organisational behaviour provides for understanding human behaviour in all the
directions in which human beings interact. Thus organisational behaviour can be
understood at the individual level, interpersonal level, group level and inter-group level.
Organisational behaviour helps analyse ‘why’ and ‘how’ an individual behaves in
a particular way. Human behaviour is a complex phenomenon and is affected by large
number of factors - psychological, social, cultural and others. Organisational behaviour
integrates these factors to provide simplicity in understanding human behaviour.
Interpersonal Level:
Human behaviour can be understood at the level of interpersonal interaction.
When one focuses on the influence of one’s peer and its effect in working relationship is
inevitable in the organisation. Organisation behaviour provides means for understanding
these interpersonal relationships in the organisation. Analysis of reciprocal relationships,
role analysis and transactional analysis are some of the common methods which provide
such understanding.
Group Level:
Though people interpret anything at their individual level, they are often modified
by group pressures which, thus, becomes a force in shaping human behaviour. Thus
individuals should be studied in group also. Research in group dynamics has contributed
vitally to organisational behaviour and shows how a group behaves in its norms,
cohesion, goals, procedures, communication pattern and leadership. These research
results are furthering managerial knowledge of understanding group behaviour which is
very important for organisational morale and productivity.
Intergroup Level:
The organisation is made up of many groups that develop a complex of
relationships to build its process and substance. Understanding the effect of group
relationships is important for managers in to-day’s organisation. Inter-group relationship
may be in the form of co-operation or competition.
The co-operative relationships help the organisation in achieving its objectives.
Organisational behaviour provides means to understand and achieve co-operative group
relationships through interaction, rotation of members among groups, avoidance of win-
lose situation 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
organisational objectives. Thus, managers are required to control and direct the
behaviour at all levels of individual interaction. For this purpose, organisational
behaviour helps managers in different areas such as use of power and sanction,
leadership, communication and building organisation climate conducive for better
interaction.
Use of Power and Sanction:
The behaviours can be controlled and directed by the use of power and sanction
which are formally defined 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. Organisational behaviour explains how various
means of power and sanction can be utilised so that both organisational and individual
objectives are achieved simultaneously.
Leadership:
Organisational behaviour 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 organisations, individuals and
situations.
Communication:
Communication help people to come in contact with others. To achieve
organisational effectiveness, the communication must be effective. The communication
process and it works in inter-personal dynamics has been evaluated by organisational
behaviour.

Organisational Climate:
Organisational climate refers to the total organisational situations affecting human
behaviour. Organisational climate takes a system perspective that affect human
behaviour. Besides improving the satisfactory working conditions, adequate
compensation, organisational climate includes creation of an atmosphere of effective
supervision, the opportunity for the realization of personal goals, congenial relations with
others at the work place and a sense of accomplishment.
Organisational Adaptation:
Organisations as dynamic entities are characterized by pervasive changes.
Organisations have to adapt themselves to the environment changes by making suitable
internal arrangements by convincing employees who normally have the tendency of
resisting any change.

Levels of Analysis
Organisational behaviour can be viewed from different perspectives or levels of
analysis. At one level, the organisation can be viewed as consisting of individuals
working on tasks in the pursuit of the organisation’s goals. A second level of analysis
focuses upon the interaction among organisation members as they work in teams, groups
and departments. Finally, organisational behaviour can be analysed from the perspective
of the organisation as a whole.
At the Individual Level:
Organisational behaviour can be studied in the perspective of individual member
of the organisation. This approach to organisational behaviour, draws heavily on
discipline of psychology, explains why individuals behave and react as they do to
different organisational policies, practices and procedures. Within this perspective,
psychologically based theories of learning, motivation, satisfaction, leadership and so on
are brought to bear upon the behaviour and performance of individual organisation
members. Factors such as attitudes, beliefs, perceptions and personalities are taken into
account and their impact upon individuals’ behaviour and performance on the job is
studied.
At the Group Level:
People rarely work independently in organisations, they have to necessarily work
co-ordinatively to meet the organisational goals. This frequently results in people
working together in teams, committees, groups and the like. How do people work
together in groups? What factors determine whether group will be cohesive and
productive? What types of tasks could be assigned to groups? These are some of the
questions that can be asked about the effective functioning of groups in organisations.
An important component of organisational behaviour involves the application of
knowledge and theories from social psychology to the study of groups in organisations.
At the Organisational Level:
Some organisational behaviour researchers take the organisation as a whole as
their object of study. This macro perspective on organisational behaviour draws heavily
on theories and concepts from the discipline of ‘sociology’. Researchers seek to
understand the implications of the relationship between the organisation and its
environment for the effectiveness of the organisation. Emphasis is placed upon
understanding how organisational structure and design influence the effectiveness of
organisation. Other factors such as the technology employed by the organisation, the size
of the organisation and the organisation’s age are also examined and their implications
for effective organisational functioning are explored.
These different perspectives on the study of organisational behaviour are not in
conflict with one another. Instead they are complementary. A full and complete
understanding of the nature of organisations and the determinants of their effectiveness
requires a blending together of knowledge derived from each perspective.

Fundamental Concepts of Organisational Behaviour

Organisational behaviour starts with the following six fundamental concepts
revolving around the nature of people and organisations:
The nature of people:
 Individual differences
 A whole person
 Motivated behaviour
 Value of the person
The nature of organisation:
 Social system
 Mutual interest
Result :
 Holistic organisational behaviour
Individual Differences:
Individuals are different in their physical and mental traits. They are different not
only in the physical appearance such as sex, age, height, weight, complexion and so on
but also different in their psychological traits such as intelligence, attitude, motivation,
perception, etc. This belief that each person is different from all others is typically called
the ‘Law of Individual Differences’. Individual differences mean that the management
has to treat them different to get best out of them.
A Whole Person:
Though the organisation may feel that they are employing only the individual’s
skill or intelligence, in fact, they employ ‘whole person’. This means that individual does
not have skill and intelligence only, he has personal life, needs and desires. In
otherwords, his personal life cannot be separated from his work life, since people
function as total human beings.
When management practices organisational behaviour, it is not only trying to
develop a better employee but also it wants to develop a ‘better person’ in terms of all
round growth and development. The benefit will extend beyond the firm into the larger
society in which each employee lives.
Motivated Behaviour:
It is the urge of the individual to satisfy a particular need, in fact, motivates him to
do an act. The motivation could be positive or negative.
Motivation is essential to the functioning of organisations. The organisation can
show to its employees how certain actions will increase their need fulfillment.
Value of the Person:
It is more an ethical philosophy. It stresses that people are to be treated with
respect and dignity. Every job, however simple, entitles the people who do it to proper
respect and recognition of their unique aspirations and abilities. Since organisational
behaviour involves people, ethical philosophy is involved in one way or another in each
action.
Holistic Organisational Behaviour:
When the above six concepts of organisational behaviour are considered together,
they provide a holistic concept of the subject. Holistic organisational behaviour
interprets people-organisation relationships in terms of the whole person, whole group,
whole organisation and whole social system.
Review Questions:
1. What do you understand by organisational behaviour? What are its elements?
2. What are the fundamental concepts of organisational behaviour?
3. Bring out the importance of studying organisational behaviour.

  
LESSON - 3
MODELS OF ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Learning Objectives
After reading this lesson, you should be able to understand:
• The different models of organisational behaviour
• Its importance to managers
• The future of organisational behaviour

The organisations have undergone tremendous changes now. Although employers

in early days had no systematic program for managing their employees, their simple rules
still exerted a powerful influence on the organisation. Increasing number of
organisations today are experimenting with exciting new ways to attract and motivate
their employees.

An Organisational Behaviour System

Organisations achieve their goals by creating, communicating and operating an
organisational behaviour system as shown below:

Management’s
Philosophy  Values  Vision  Goals

Formal organisation Organisational Social

Culture Environment
Informal organisation

Leadership  Communication  Group dynamics

Quality of Work Life

Motivation

Outcomes:
 Performance
 Individual Satisfaction
 Personal growth and development

The major elements of a good organisational behaviour system are given in the
above chart. These systems exist in every organisation, but sometimes in varying forms.
They have a greater chance of being successful, though, if they have been consciously,
created regularly examined and updated to meet new and emerging conditions. The
primary advantage of organisational behaviour system is to identify the major human and
organisational variables that affect the results they are trying to achieve. For some of
these variables, managers can only be aware of them and acknowledge their impact, for
others, they can exert some control over them. The end results are typically measured in
various forms of performance (quantity and quality of products and services; level of
customer service), as well as in human outcomes, such as employee satisfaction or
personal growth and development.

Elements of the System

The system’s base rests in the fundamental beliefs and intentions of those who join
together to create it(such as owners) and of the managers who currently administer it.
The philosophy (model) of organisational behaviour held by management consists of an
integrated set of assumptions and beliefs about the way things are, the purpose for these
activities, and the way they should be. These philosophies are sometimes explicit, and
occasionally implicit, in the minds of managers.
 Organisations differ in the quality of organisational behaviour that they develop.
These differences are substantially caused by different models of organisational
behaviour that dominate management’s thought in each organisation. The model that a
manager holds usually begins with certain assumptions about people and leads to certain
interpretations of events.
The following four models of organisational behaviour are discussed here:
1) Autocratic model
2) Custodial model
3) Supportive model; and
4) Collegial model

Autocratic Model:
In the autocratic model, the manager must have the power to command the
workers to do a specific job. Management believes that it knows what is best and the
employee’s obligation is to follow/obey orders. The psychological result for employees
is dependence on their boss. It does get results, but usually only moderate results. Its
main weakness is its high human cost.
Custodial Model:
This model focuses better employee satisfaction and security. The organisations
satisfy the security and welfare needs of employees. Hence it is known as custodian
model. This model leads to employee dependence on the organisation rather than the
boss. As a result of economic rewards and benefits, employees are happy and contented
but they are not strongly motivated.
Supportive Model:
The supportive model depends on ‘leadership’ instead of power or money.
Through leadership, management provides a climate to help employees grow and
accomplish in the interests of the organisation. This model assumes that employees will
take responsibility, develop a drive to contribute and improve themselves if management
will give them a chance. Management orientation, therefore is, to ‘support’ the
employee’s job performance rather than simply supporting employee benefit payments as
in the custodial approach. Since management supports employees in their work, the
psychological result is a feeling of participation and task involvement in the organisation.
Collegial Model:
The term ‘collegial’ relates to a body of persons having a common purpose. It is a
team concept. Management is the coach that builds a better team. The management is
seen as joint contributor rather than as boss. The employee response to this situation is
responsibility. The psychological result of the collegial approach for the employee is
‘self-discipline’. In this kind of environment employees normally feel some degree of
fulfillment, worthwhile contribution and self-actualisation. This self-actualisation will
lead to moderate enthusiasm in performance.
Four Models of Organisational Behaviour

Autocratic Custodial Supportive Collegial

Basis of Power Economic Leadership Partnership

Model resources

Managerial- Authority Money Support Teamwork

orientation

Employee- Obedience Security and Job Responsible

orientation benefits performance behaviour

Employee Dependence Dependence Participation Self-discipline

psychological on boss on
result organisation

Employee Subsistence Security Status and Self-

needs met recognition actualisation

Performance Minimum Passive Awakened Moderate

result cooperation drives enthusiasm

It is wrong to assume that one particular model is the best model because what is
best is contingent on what is known about human behaviour in a particular environment.
The primary challenge for management is to identify the model it is actually using and
then assess its current effectiveness.
The selection of model by a manager is determined by a number of factors. The
prevailing philosophy, vision and goals of manager affect their organisational behaviour
model. In addition, environmental conditions help determine which model will be most
effective. The current turbulent conditions in some industries, for example, may drive
firms toward the more collegial models, since rapid decision-making and flexibility are
needed. This suggests that one’s model should not be static and changing, but adapted
across time.

Importance of Organisational Behaviour to Managers

Managers perform a four major functions such as planning, organising, directing
and controlling. In addition to these functions there are ten managerial roles which can
be defined as organised sets of behaviours identified with the position. These roles are
developed by Henry Mintzberg in 1960s after a careful study of executives at work. All
these roles, in one form or another deal with people and their behaviour. These ten
managerial roles are divided into three categories. The first category of “interpersonal
roles” arises directly from the manager’s position and the formal authority bestowed upon
him. The second category of “informational role” is played as a direct result of the
interpersonal roles and these two categories give rise to the third category of “decisional
roles”.
Formal Positional Authority

Interpersonal Roles
Figurehead
Leadership
Liasion

Informational Roles
Monitor
Disseminator
Spokesperson

Decisional Roles
Entrepreneur
Problem-Solver
Resource Allocator
Negotiator

These roles, in the context of organisational behaviour, are explained in detail

Interpersonal Roles
In every organisation managers spend a considerable amount of time in interacting
with other people both within their own organisations as well as outside. These people
include peers, subordinates, superiors, suppliers, customers, government officials,
community leaders and so on. All these interactions require an understanding of
interpersonal behaviour. Studies show that interacting with people takes up nearly 80%
of a manager’s time. These interactions involve the following three major interpersonal
roles:
Figurehead Role :
Managers act as symbolic figureheads performing social or legal obligations.
These duties include greeting visitors, signing legal documents, taking important
customers to lunch, attending a subordinate’s wedding or speaking at functions in schools
and churches. All these, primarily, are duties of a ceremonial nature but are important to
the smooth functioning of the organisation.
Leadership Role :
The influence of the manager is most clearly seen in this role as a leader of the
unit or organisation. Since he is responsible for the activities of his subordinates, he must
lead and coordinate their activities in meeting task-related goals and he must motivate
them to perform better. He must be an exemplary leader so that his subordinates follow
his directions and guidelines with respect and dedication.
Liaison Role :
The managers must maintain a network of outside contacts. In addition to their
constant contact with their own subordinates, peers and superiors in order to assess the
external environment of competition, social changes or changes in governmental rules
and regulations. In this role, the managers build up their own external information
system. This can be achieved by attending meetings and professional conferences, by
personal phone calls, trade journals and informal personal contacts within outside
agencies.

Information Roles
A manager, by virtue of his interpersonal contacts, emerges as a source of
information about a variety of issues concerning the organisation. In this capacity of
information processing, a manager executes the following three roles.
Monitor Role :
The managers are constantly monitoring and scanning their environment both
internal and external, collecting and studying information regarding their organisation
and the outside environment affecting their organisation. This can be done by reading
reports and periodicals, by interrogating their liaison contacts and through gossip, hearsay
and speculation.
Information Disseminator Role :
The managers must transmit the information regarding changes in policies or other
matters to their subordinates, their peers and to other members of the organisation. This
can be done through memos, phone calls, individual meetings or group meetings.
Spokesman Role :
A manager has to be a spokesman for his unit and represent his unit in either
sending relevant information to people outside his unit or making some demands on
behalf of his unit.
Decision Roles
A manager must make decisions and solve organisational problems on the basis of
the environmental information received. In that respect, a manager plays four important
roles.
Entrepreneur Role :
Managers as entrepreneurs are constantly involved in improving their units and
facing the dynamic technological challenges. They are constantly on the lookout for new
ideas for or in product improvement or product addition. They initiate feasibility studies,
arrange for capital for new products if necessary and ask for suggestions from the
employees for ways to improve the organisation. This can be achieved through
suggestion boxes, holding strategy meetings with project managers and R&D personnel.
Conflict Handling Role :
The managers are constantly involved as arbitrators in solving differences among
the subordinates of the employee’s conflicts with the management. Mangers must
anticipate such problems and take preventive action if possible or take corrective action,
once the problems have arisen. These problems may involve labour disputes, customer
complaints, employee grievances, machine breakdowns, cash flow shortages and
interpersonal conflicts.
Resource Allocator :
The managers or resource allocator establish priorities among various projects or
programs and make budgetary allocations to different activities of the organisation based
upon these priorities.
Negotiator Role :
The managers in their negotiator role represent their units or organisations in
negotiating deals and agreements within and outside of the organisation. They negotiate
contracts with the unions. Sales managers may negotiate prices with prime customers.
Purchasing managers may negotiate prices with vendors.
All these ten roles are important in a manager’s job and are interrelated, even
though some roles may be more influential than others depending upon the managerial
position. For example, sales managers may give more importance to interpersonal roles,
while the production managers give more importance to decisional roles.
Limitations of Organisational Behaviour
Organisational behaviour will not abolish conflict and frustration; it can only reduce
them. It is a way to improve, not an absolute answer to problems.
It is only one of many systems operating within a larger social system.
People who lack system understanding may develop a ‘behavioural basis’, which
gives them a narrow view point i.e. a tunnel vision that emphasises satisfying
employee experiences while overlooking the broader system of the organisation in
relation to all its publics.
The law of diminishing returns operates in the case of organisational behaviour also.
It states that at some point increase of a desirable practice produce declining returns
and sometimes negative returns. The concept implies that for any situation there is an
optimum amount of a desirable practice. When that point is exceeded, there is a
decline in returns. For example, too much security may lead to less employee
initiative and growth. This relationship shows that organisational effectiveness is
achieved not by maximising one human variable but by working all system variables
together in a balanced way.
A significant concern about organisational behaviour is that its knowledge and
techniques could be used to manipulate people without regard for human welfare.
People who lack ethical values could use people in unethical ways.

Future of Organisational Behaviour

The growing interest in organisational behaviour stems from both a philosophical
desire by many people to create more humanistic work places and a practical need to
design more productive work environments. As a result of these forces, organisational
behaviour is now part in the curriculum of almost all courses including engineering and
medical.
The field of organisational behaviour has grown in depth and breadth. The keys to
its past and future success revolve around the related processes of theory development,
research and managerial practice.
Although organisational behaviour has certain limitations, it has a tremendous
potential to contribute to the advancement of civilisation. It has provided and will
provide much improvement in the human environment. By building a better climate for
people, organisational behaviour will release their creative potential to help solve major
social problems. In this way organisational behaviour may contribute to social
improvements. Improved organisational behaviour is not easy to apply. But the
opportunities are there. It should produce a higher quality of life in which there is
improved harmony within each person, among people and among the organisations of
future.
Review Questions :
1.Discuss the different models of organisational behaviour.
2.Explain the importance of organisational behaviour to managers.
3.What are the limitations of organisational behaviour?

  
LESSON - 4
GLOBAL SCENARIO OF ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Learning Objectives
After reading this lesson, you should be able to understand:
• The global scenario of organisational behaviour
• The barriers to cultural adaptation and measures to overcome those barriers
Due to globalisation of economy, many organisations now operate in more than
one country and these multi-national operations add new dimensions to organisational
behaviour. It is a step into different social, political and economic environments.
Communication and control naturally becomes difficult. The socio, political and
economic differences among countries influence international organisational behaviour.

Social Conditions
In many countries due to poorly developed resources, there is shortage of
managerial personnel, scientists and technicians. Hence needed skills must be
temporarily imported from other countries, and training programmes need to be
developed to prepare local workers. The training multiplier effect is in action, by which
the skilled people develop others and these trained local become the nucleus for
developing still more people.
Another significant social condition in many countries is that the local culture is
not familiar with advanced technology. A few countries are agriculture dominated and a
few other manufacturing industry dominated. Naturally, the nature of their culture and
work life will be different.

Political Conditions
Political conditions that have a significant effect on organisational behaviour
include instability of the Government, nationalistic drives and subordination of
employers and labour to an authoritarian State. When the Government is unstable,
organisations become cautious about further investments. This organisational instability
leaves workers insecure and causes them to be passive and low in initiative.
Inspite of instability, a nationalistic drive is strong for locals to run their country
and their organisations by themselves without interference by foreign nationals.
In some nations, organised labour is mostly an arm of the authoritarian State and
in some other nations, labour is somewhat independent. In some nations, State tends to
be involved in collective bargaining and other practices affecting workers. In some
nations, for example, employee lay-offs are restricted by law and in some other countries
workers’ participation in management is permitted.
Economic Conditions
The most significant economic conditions in less developed nations are low per
capita income and rapid inflation. Inflation makes the economic life of workers insecure
when compared to developed countries.
The different socio-economic and political conditions prevailing in countries
influence the introduction of advanced technology and sophisticated organisational
systems. A developed country can easily adopt advanced technology whereas a less
developed cannot do it. These limiting conditions cannot be changed rapidly because
they are too well established and woven into the whole social fabric of a nation.

Managing an International Workforce

Whenever an organisation expands its operations to other countries, it tends to
become multicultural and will then face the challenge of blending various cultures
together. The managerial personnel entering another nation need to adjust their
leadership styles, communication patterns and other practices to fit their host country.
Their role is to provide a fusion of cultures in which employees from both countries
adjust to the new situation of seeking greater productivity for the benefit of both the
organisation and the people of the country in which it operates.

Barriers to Cultural Adaptation

♦ One category of managers and other employees who come into a host country tend to
exhibit a variety of behaviours and somewhat see situation around them from their
own perspective. They may fail to recognise key differences between their own and
other cultures. These people are called ‘parochial’.
♦ Another category called ‘individualistic’ who place greatest emphasis on their
personal needs and welfare. They are more concerned about themselves than others
in host country.
♦ Another potential barrier to easy adaptation to another culture occurs when people are
predisposed to believe that their homeland conditions are the best. This
predisposition is known as the self-reference criterion or ‘ethnocentrism’. This
feeling interferes with understanding human behaviour in other cultures and obtaining
productivity from local employees.

Cultural Distance
To decide the amount of adaptation that may be required when personnel moves to
another country, it is helpful to understand the cultural distance between the two
countries, Cultural distance is the amount of distance between any two social systems.
Whatever the amount of cultural distance, it does affect the responses of all persons to
business. The manager’s jobs require employees to be adaptable enough to integrate the
interests of the two or more cultures involved.
Cultural Shock
When employees enter another nation they tend to suffer cultural shock, which is
the insecurity and disorientation caused by encountering a different culture. They may
not know how to act, may fear losing face and self-confidence or may become
emotionally upset. Cultural shock is virtually universal. Some of the more frequent
reasons for cultural shock are as follows:

 Different management philosophies

 New language
 Alternative food, dress, availability of goods
 Attitude towards work and productivity
 Separation from family, friends and colleagues
 Unique currency system
Many expatriates report difficulty in adjusting to different human resource
management philosophies, the language, the different currency and work attitudes in
another culture.

Overcoming Barriers to Cultural Adaptation

Careful selection of employees for assignments to other countries who can
withstand/adjust cultural shocks is important.
Pre-departure training in geography, customs, culture and political environment in
which the employee will be living will help for cultural adaptation.
Incentives and guarantees for better position will motivate employees for cultural
adaptation in the new country.
Employees who return to their home country after working in another nation for
sometime tend to suffer cultural shock in their own homeland. After adjusting to the
culture of another nation and enjoying its uniqueness, it is difficult for expatriates to
readjust to the surroundings of their home country. Hence organisations need
repatriation policies and programmes to help returning employees obtain suitable
assignments and adjust to the ‘new’ environments.

Cultural Contingencies
Productive business practices from one country cannot be transferred directly to
another country. This reflects the idea of cultural contingency - that the most productive
practices for a particular nation will depend heavily on its culture, the social system,
economic development and employee’s values in host country. Hence the expatriate
managers must learn to operate effectively in a new environment with certain amount of
flexibility. Labour policy, personnel practices and production methods need to be
adapted to a different labour force. Organisation structures and communication patterns
need to be suitable for local operations.

Management’s Integrating Role

Once managers are on location in a host country, their attention needs to be
directed toward integrating the technological approaches with the local cultures involved.
Motivating and Leading Local Employees:
Same motivational tools may not suit the employees of all the nations. Hence
appropriate motivational techniques need to be evolved depending on the requirement of
employees of that particular nation.
Similarly, communication problems may also arise between the expatriate
manager and the employees of host country. Hence, managers need to make adjustments
in their communication suited to local cultures. If local culture is ignored, the resulting
imbalance in the social system interferes with the productivity.
Eventually, a cadre of employees with cross-cultural adaptability can be developed
in organisations with large international operations. These employees are ‘transcultural’
employees because they operate effectively in several cultures. They are low in
ethnocentrism and adapt readily to different cultures without major cultural shock. They
usually can communicate fluently with more than one language.

Transcultural employees are especially needed in large, multinational firms that

operate in a variety of national culture. For a firm to be truly multi-national in character,
it should have ownership, operations, markets and managers truly diversified. Its leaders
look to the world as an economic and social unit; but they recognise each local culture,
respect its integrity, acknowledge its benefits and use its differences effectively in their
organisation.

Review Questions
1. Explain the global scenario of organisational behaviour.
2. What are the barriers to cultural adaptation? Suggest measures to overcome those
barriers.

  
LESSON - 5
FOUNDATION OF INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOUR
Learning Objectives
After reading this lesson, you should be able to:
• Understand the nature of individual differences in organisations.
• Identify the individual factors affecting organisational behaviour.

Foundations of Individual Behaviour

Human behaviour, a complex phenomenon as it is, is most difficult to define in
absolute terms. It is primarily a combination of responses to external and internal stimuli.
These responses would reflect psychological structure of the person and may be a result
of combination of biological and psychological processes, interprets them, responds to
them in an appropriate manner and learns from the result of these responses.
Psychologist Kurt Levin has conducted considerable research into the human
behaviour and its causes. He believes that people are influenced by a number of
diversified factors, both genetic and environmental, and the influence of these factors
determines the pattern of behaviour.
Whenever people buy something, for example, a car, both the buyer and the seller
sign a contract that specifies the terms of the sales agreement. Similarly, most people,
when they begin a working relationship with an organisation formulate a psychological
contract with their employer. A psychological contract is the overall set of expectations
that an individual holds with respect to his/her contributions to the organisation and the
organisation’s response to those contributions. A psychological contract is not written
down like a legal contract.
The individual makes a variety of contributions to the organisation - effort, skills,
ability, time, loyalty and so forth. These contributions presumably satisfy various needs
and requirements of the organisation. In return for contributions, the organisation
provides inducements such as pay, promotion, job security, etc. to the individual. Just as
the contributions available from the individual must satisfy the organisation’s needs, the
inducements must serve the individual’s needs.
If both the individual and the organisation consider the psychological contract fair
and equitable, they will be satisfied with the relationship and will likely to continue it. If
either party perceives an imbalance or inequity in the contract, it may initiate a change.
A major challenge faced by an organisation, thus, is to manage psychological contracts.
One specific aspect of managing psychological contracts is managing the person-
job fit. The ‘person-job fit’ is the extent to which the contributions made by the
individual match the inducements offered by the organisation. In theory, each employee
has a specific set of needs to fulfill and a set of job related behaviours and abilities to
contribute. If the organisation can take complete advantage of those behaviours and
abilities and exactly fulfill the employee’s needs, it will have achieved a perfect person-
job fit. Of course, such a precise level of person-job fit is seldom achieved due to various
reasons such as imperfect selection procedures, differences in individual skills, constant
change in the needs and requirements of people and organisation, etc. Thus, the
behaviour of individuals in organisation is the primary concern of management and it is
essential that managers have an understanding of the factors influencing the behaviour of
the individuals they manage. The following figure identifies five sets of factors that have
an impact upon individual behaviour in organisation.

Job Standards of
Motivation
Requirements Performance

Ability
Individual Individual Individual
Perception Behaviour Performance Effectiveness

Organisational
Personality
Behaviour and
Resources

The Nature of Individual Differences

Individual differences are personal attributes that vary from one person to another.
Individual differences may be physical and psychological.

Physical Differences Psychological Differences

• Height • Personality
• Weight • Attitudes
• Body shape • Perception
• Appearance • Motivation
• Complexion • Learning
 Whenever an organisation attempts to assess for individual differences among its
employees, it must consider the situation in which behaviour occurs. Individuals who are
satisfied in one context may prove to be dissatisfied in another context. Assessing both
individual differences and contributions in relation to inducements and contexts, then, is a
major challenge for organisations as they attempt to establish effective psychological
contracts with their employees and achieve optimal fits between people and jobs.
Individual differences make the manager’s job endlessly, challenging. In fact,
according to recent research, “variability among workers is substantial at all levels but
increases dramatically with job complexity. Due to these reasons, growing work force
diversity compels managers to view individual differences in a fresh way. Leaders now
talk frequently about “valuing differences” and learning to “manage diversity”. So rather
than limiting diversity, as in the past, today’s managers need to better understand and
accommodate employee diversity and individual differences.
Important Dimensions of Individual Differences
• Self-concept
• Personality dimensions
• Abilities, and
• Personal values and ethics
Self-Concept
Everyone knows, self is the core of one’s conscious existence. Awareness of self
is referred to as one’s self-concept. Sociologists Viktor Gecas defines self-concept as
“the concept the individual has of himself as a physical, social and spiritual or moral
being”. In other words, every individual recognises himself as a distinct individual. A
self-concept would be impossible without the capacity to think. This brings us to the role
of cognitions. Cognitions represent “any knowledge, opinion, or belief about the
environment about oneself, or about one’s behaviour”. Among many different types of
cognitions, those involving anticipation, planning, goal-setting, evaluating and setting
personal standards are particularly relevant to organisational behaviour.
Self-Esteem :
Self-esteem is a belief about one’s own worth based on an overall self-evaluation.
Those with low self-esteem tend to view themselves in negative terms. They do not feel
good about themselves, tend to have trouble in dealing effectively with others, and are
hampered by self-doubts. High self-esteem individuals, in contrast, see themselves as
worthwhile, capable and acceptable. Although high self-esteem is generally considered a
good thing because it is associated with better performance and greater satisfaction,
recent research uncovered a flaw among those with high self-esteem. Specifically, high
self-esteem subjects tended to become egotistical and boastful when faced with pressure
situations. Hence moderate self-esteem is desirable.
Managers can build employee self-esteem in four ways:
 1) Be supportive by showing concern for personal problems, interests, status and
contribution.
2) Offer work involving variety, autonomy and challenges that suit the
individual’s values, skills and abilities.
3) Strive for management-employee cohesiveness and build trust.
4) Have faith in each employee’s self-management ability, reward successes.
Self-Efficacy :
Self-Efficacy is a person’s belief about his or her chances of successfully
accomplishing a specific task. According to one organisational behaviour writer, “self-
efficacy arises from the gradual acquisition of complex, cognitive, social, linguistic,
and/or physical skills through experience”.
There is strong linkage between high self-efficacy expectations and success in
widely varied physical and mental tasks, anxiety reduction, addiction control, pain
tolerance and illness recovery. Oppositely, those with low self-efficacy expectations tend
to have low success rates.
Self-Efficacy Implications for Managers
Managers need to nurture self-efficacy, both in themselves and in others. Self-
efficacy requires constructive action in each of the following managerial areas:
 To design recruitment selection procedure.
 To design interview questions to probe applicant’s general self-efficacy for
determining orientation and training needs.
 For designing job.
 For systematic self-management training.
 For goal-setting and quality improvement.
 To evolve suitable leadership.
 To design suitable rewards.

Personality Dimensions
The big five personality dimensions are – extroversion, agreeableness,
conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness to experience. Ideally, these
personality dimensions that correlate positively and strongly with job performance would
be helpful in the selection, training and appraisal of employees. The individuals who
exhibit traits associated with a strong sense of purpose, obligation and persistence
generally perform better than those who do not.
Physical and Intellectual Qualities
 Physical differences among individuals are the most visible of all differences.
They are also relatively easy to assess. Intellectual differences are somewhat more
difficult to discern, but they too can be assessed by fairly objective means. The abilities,
skills and competencies of employees are both physical and intellectual qualities.

Ability
Abilities refer to an individual’s skill and to perform effectively in one or more
areas of activity, such as physical, mental or interpersonal work. Individuals with
numerical ability for example, can be trained to apply their ability in the field of
engineering, accounting and computer science. Abilities develop from an individual’s
natural aptitudes and subsequent learning opportunities. Aptitudes are relatively
enduring capacities for performing some activity effectively. Learning opportunities
translate aptitudes into abilities through practice and experience and formal training.
Organisations have to ensure that people possess the necessary abilities to engage in the
behaviours required for effective performance. This can be accomplished either by
careful selection of people or by a combination of selection and training.
Skills are generally thought of as being more task-specific capabilities than
abilities. For example, an individual with numerical ability who goes to school to learn
accounting develops a numerical skill ‘specific to that field’. Thus when a particular
ability is applied to a specialised area (for example Accounting), it becomes a skill.
Competencies are skills associated with specialisation. Competencies are skills
that have been refined by practice and experience and that enable the individual to
specialise in some field. For example, an accountant with numerical ability and
accounting skill takes a position in the Taxation Department and as time passes, he
develops more competency as a tax expert.
Physical abilities such as strength, flexibility, endurance and stamina can be
developed with exercise and training. Mental abilities such as reasoning, memory
visualisation and comprehension and inter-personal abilities can also be developed
through practice and education. Even in the absence of such formal programmes, many
individuals manage their own careers in such a way as to continually upgrade their
abilities, skills and competencies in order to remain valuable to their organisations.

Personal Values and Ethics

According to Milton Rokeach, a value is “an enduring belief that a specific mode
of conduct or end-stated of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or
converse mode of conduct are end-state of existence”.
Ethics involves the study of moral issues and choices. It is concerned with right
versus wrong and good versus bad. Relative to the workplace, the terms business ethics
and management ethics are often heard.
Moral Principles for Managers:
  Judge actions by their consequences; achieve the greatest good for the greatest
number of people.
 Basic human rights should be respected.
 Rules and rewards should be administered impartially, fairly and equitably.
Improving Organisation’s Ethical Climate:
Managers are potent role models whose habits and actual behaviour send clear
signals about the importance of ethical conduct. Ethical behaviour is a top to bottom
proposition.
Screen potential employees by checking references, credentials, and other
information for ascertaining their ethical behaviour.

Review Question :
1. Briefly state the factors that have an impact upon the individual behaviour in the
organisation.

  
 LESSON – 6

PERSONALITY
Learning Objectives
After reading this lesson, you should be able to understand:
• Perceptual clarity about personality.
• Main determinants of personality.
• Nature and dimensions of personality.
• Personality attributes that are relevant to organisational behaviour.

Personality is a complex, multi-dimensional construct and there is no simple

definition of what personality is. Maddi defines personality as:
“a stable set of characteristics and tendencies that determine those communalities
and differences in the psychological behaviour and that may not be easily
understood as the sole result of the social and biological pressures of the moment”.
The above definition indicates that people have some traits in common with other
and they are also different from others in certain other respects. This is the reason that
managers cannot assume that they can use the same kinds of rewards or motivation
techniques to influence every individual’s behaviour. Maddi’s definition does not imply
that people do not ever change. It simply indicates that individuals do not change
drastically overnight and their thoughts, feelings, values and actions remain relatively
stable over time. Changes in personality that take place in individuals occur slowly over
an extended period of time. Thus, by understanding certain dimensions of personality,
managers can, to a great extent, predict the daily behaviours of employees.
Some personality theorists emphasise the need to recognise the person-situation
interaction, that is, the social learning aspects of personality. Such a social learning
interpretation may be the most comprehensive and meaningful to the overall study of
organisational behaviour. In this context personality will mean how people affect others
and how they understand and view themselves, as well as their pattern of inner and outer
measurable traits, and the person-situation interaction. How people affect others depends
primarily upon their external appearance (height, weight, facial features, colour and other
physical aspects) and traits.
Of more importance to organisational behaviour are the personality traits. In
particular, five personality traits have recently emerged from research as being especially
related to job performance. Characteristics of these traits can be summarised as follows:
1. Extraversion: Sociable, talkative and assertive.
 2. Agreeableness: Good-natured, cooperative and trusting.
3. Conscientiousness: Responsible, dependable, persistent and achievement-
oriented.
4. Emotional Stability: Viewed from a negative standpoint – tense, insecure and
nervous.
5. Openness to Experience: Imaginative, artistically sensitive and intellectual.
The identification of the above “big five” traits that relate to performance indicates
the important role that personality plays in organisational behaviour. Besides physical
appearance and personality traits, the aspects of personality dealing with the self-concept
(both self-esteem and self-efficacy) and the person-situation interaction also play
important roles.

Personality Formation
The personality formation of an individual starts at birth and continues throughout.
Three major types of factors play important roles in personality formation. They are
determinants, stages and traits.
Determinants: The most widely studied determinants of personality are
biological, social and cultural. Hereditary characteristics (eg body shape and height) and
the social context (family and friends) and cultural context (religion and values) in which
people grow up interact to shape personality. As people grow into adulthood, their
personalities become very clearly defined and generally stable.
Stages and Traits: Sigmund Freud saw human personality development as
progressing through four stages: dependent, compulsive, oedipal and mature. The
concept of stages of growth provides a valuable perspective from which to view
organisational behaviour. Experienced managers become aware of the stages that their
employees often go through and they learn how to deal with these stages to promote
maximum growth for the individual and for the organisation.
Trait approaches to personality formation are also based on psychology.
According to some trait theories, all people share common traits, like social, political,
religious and aesthetic preferences but each individual’s disposition differentiates that
person from all others.

Personality Factors in Organisations

Some of the important personality factors that determine what kind of behaviours
are exhibited at work include the following :
1) Need Pattern
 2) Locus of Control
3) Introversion and Extroversion
4) Tolerance for Ambiguity
5) Self-esteem and Self-concept
6) Authoritarianism and Dogmatism
7) Risk Propensity
8) Machiavellianism
9) Types A and B Personalities
10) Work-Ethic Orientation

1. Need Pattern :
Steers and Braunstein (1976) developed a scale for the four personality needs that
manisfest themselves in the work setting. They are: the needs for achievement,
affiliation, autonomy and dominance. Those who are high in achievement engage
themselves proactively in work behaviours in order to feel proud about their
achievements and successes; those high in need for affiliation like to work cooperatively
with others; those high in need for autonomy function best when not closely supervised;
and those high in their need for dominance are very effective while operating in
environments where they can actively enforce their legitimate authority.
2. Locus of Control :
Locus of control is the degree to which an individual believes that his/her
behaviour has direct impact on the consequences of that behaviour. Some people, for
example, believe that if they work hard they are certain to succeed. They strongly
believe that each individual is in control of his/her life. They are said to have an internal
locus of control. By contrast, some people think that what happens to them is a result of
fate, chance, luck or the behaviour of other people, rather than lack of skills or poor
performance. Because these individuals think that forces beyond their control dictate
what happens to them, they are said to have an external locus of control.
As a personality attribute, locus of control has clear implications for organisations.
For example, individuals with an internal locus of control may have a relatively strong
desire to participate in the management of their organisations and have a freedom in how
do their jobs. Thus, they may prefer a decentralised organisation where right of decision-
making is given to them and a leader who provides them freedom and autonomy. They
may like a reward system that recognises individual performance and contributions.
People with an external locus of control, on the other hand, are likely to prefer a
more centralised organisation where they need not take any decisions. They may
gravitate to structured jobs where standard procedures are defined for them. They may
prefer a leader who makes most of the decisions and may prefer a reward system that
considers mainly seniority rather than merit.
3. Introversion and Extroversion :
Introversion is the tendency in individuals which directs them to turn inward and
experience and process feelings, thoughts and ideas within themselves. Extroversion, on
the other hand, refers to the tendency in individuals to turn outward of themselves
searching for external stimuli with which they can interact. While there is some element
of introversion as well as extroversion in all of us, people tend to be dominant as either
extroverts or introverts. Extroverts are sociable, lively, gregarious and seek outward
stimuli or external interactions. Such individuals are likely to be most successful
working in the sales department, publicity office, personal relations unit, and so on,
where they can interact face to face with others. Introverts, on the other hand, are quiet,
reflective, introspective, and intellectual people, preferring to interact with a small
intimate circle of friends. Introverts are more likely to be successful when they can work
on highly abstract ideas (such as R&D work), in a relatively quiet atmosphere. Since
managers have to constantly interact with individuals both within and outside the
organisation and influence people to achieve the organisation’s goals, it is believed that
extroverts are likely to be more successful as managers.
4. Tolerance for Ambiguity :
This personality characteristic indicates the level of uncertainty that people can
tolerate without experiencing undue stress and can still function effectively. Managers
have to work well under conditions of extreme uncertainty and insufficient information,
especially when things are rapidly changing in the organisation’s external environment.
Managers who have a high tolerance for ambiguity can cope well under these conditions.
Managers, who have a low tolerance for ambiguity may be effective in structured work
settings but find it almost impossible to operate effectively when things are rapidly
changing and much information about the future turn of events is not available. Thus,
tolerance for ambiguity is a personality dimension necessary for managerial success.
5. Self-Esteem and Self-Concept :
Self-esteem denotes the extent to which individuals consistently regard themselves
as capable, successful, important and worthy individuals. Self-esteem is an important
personality factor that determines how managers perceive themselves and their role in the
organisation. Self-esteem is important to self-concept, i.e. the way individuals define
themselves as to who they are and derive their sense of identity. High self-esteem
provides a high sense of self-concept; high self-concept, in turn, reinforces high self-
esteem. Thus, the two are mutually reinforcing. Individuals high in self-esteem will try
to take on more challenging assignments and be successful, thus enhancing their self-
concept; i.e. they would tend to define themselves as highly valuable and valued
individuals in the organisational system. The higher the self-concept and self-esteem, the
greater will be their contributions to the goals of the organisation, especially when the
system rewards them for their contributions.
6. Authoritarianism and Dogmatism :
Authoritarianism is the extent to which an individual believes that power and
status differences are appropriate within hierarchical social systems like organisations.
For example, an employee who is highly authoritarian may unquestioningly accept
directives or orders from his superior with more authority. A person who is not highly
authoritarian may agree to carry out appropriate and reasonable directives from his boss
but is also likely to raise questions, express disagreement and even refuse to carry out
requests if they are for some reason objectionable.
Dogmatism is the rigidity of a person’s beliefs and his/her openness to other view
points. The popular terms ‘close-minded’ and ‘open-minded’ describe people who are
more and less dogmatic in their beliefs. For example, a manager may be unwilling to
listen to a new idea for doing something more efficiently. He is said to be a person with
close-minded or highly dogmatic. A manager in the same circumstances who is very
receptive to hearing about and trying out new ideas might be seen as more open-minded
or less dogmatic. Dogmatism can be either beneficial or detrimental to organisations, but
given the degree of change in the nature of organisations and their environments,
individuals who are not dogmatic are most likely to be useful and productive
organisational members.
7. Risk Propensity:
Risk-propensity is the degree to which an individual is willing to take chances and
make risky decisions. A manager with a high risk propensity might be expected to
experiment with new ideas and to lead the organisation in new directions. In contrast, a
manager with low risk propensity might lead to a stagnant and overly conservative
organisation.
8. Machiavellianism :
Machiavellianism is manipulation or influencing of other people as a primary way
of achieving one’s goal. An individual tends to be machiavellian, if he tends to be cool,
logical in assessing the system around them, willing to twist and turn facts to influence
others, and try to gain control of people, events and situations by manipulating the system
to his advantage.
9. Types A and B Personalities :
Type A persons feel a chronic sense of time urgency, are highly achievement-
oriented, exhibit a competitive drive, and are impatient when their work is slowed down
for any reason. Type B persons are easy-going individuals who do not sense the time
urgency, and who do not experience the competitive drive. Type A individuals are
significantly more prone to heart attacks than Type B individuals. While Type A persons
help the organisation to move ahead in a relatively short period of time they may also
suffer health problems which might be detrimental to both themselves and the
organisation in the long-run.
10. Work-Ethic Orientation :
Some individuals are highly work-oriented while others try to do the minimum
that is necessary to get by without being fired on-the-job. The extremely work ethic
oriented person gets greatly involved in the job. Extreme work ethic values could lead to
traits of “workohlism” when work becomes to be considered as the only primary motive
for living with very little outside interests. For the workoholic, turning to work can
sometimes become a viable alternative to facing non-work-related problems. Though a
high level of work ethic orientation of members is good for the organisation to achieve its
goals, too much “workoholism” which might lead to premature burnout and health
problems is dysfunctional for both organisation and the workoholic members.
The above ten different personality predispositions are important for individual,
managerial and organisational effectiveness.

Desired Personality Characteristics for Effective Managers

Obviously, there are some personality predispositions which are conducive to
managerial effectiveness and to the success of managers. Apart from possessing the
necessary skills and abilities, managers need to develop a high tolerance for ambiguity.
Since many factors in any given complex situation are unknown, especially when there
are many changes taking place in the internal and/or the external environment of the
organisation, managers need to be able to handle situations as they come, without
experiencing undue stress. Thus, a high tolerance for ambiguity is a desired managerial
trait. Managers with a good mix of achievement, affiliation and power needs will be
successful in most situations since they will have the drive to achieve the goals and the
interpersonal orientation to get the job done through others. In sales and other people-
oriented roles, extrovert managers will fit better in their jobs, and managers with internal
locus of control will be better performers. Managers with good work ethic values,
compared to those who do not have them, will get more involved in their jobs and make
things happen, and are likely to be more successful in their jobs. Managers with Type A
personalities may suit very well for some jobs which have inbuilt performance pressures
and deadlines, but they need to know how to relax through exercises and self-monitor
their stress levels.
Personality is a relatively stable factor, but our predispositions can be changed
through conscious choice. For instance, our tolerance for ambiguity and ability to handle
stress can be considerably enhanced; the attributions we make for success – internal
versus external locus of control can be changed; our latent needs activated; and our skills
in decision-making increased through training programmes and by deliberately making
the changes necessary for being successful in our jobs. Recognising the essential
ingredients for managerial success is the first step towards making the changes.
The Self-Concept: Self-Esteem and Self-Efficacy
People’s attempts to understand themselves are called the self-concept in
personality theory. The self is a unique product of many interacting parts and may be
thought of as the personality viewed from within. This self is particularly relevant to the
concepts of self-esteem and self-efficacy in the field of organisational behaviour.
People’s self-esteem has to do with their self-perceived competence and self-
image. There is considerable research on the role that self-esteem may play in
organisational behaviour and its outcomes. Most recent studies indicate that self-esteem
plays at least an important moderating role in areas such as emotional and behavioural
responses and stress of organisational members. As was recently noted, “both research
and everyday experience confirm that employees with high self-esteem feel unique,
competent, secure, empowered and connected to the people around them”.
Self-efficacy is concerned with self-perceptions of how well a person can cope
with situations as they arise. Those with high self-efficacy feel capable and confident of
performing well in a situation. Only recently given attention in the field of organisational
behaviour, self-efficacy is conceptually close to self-esteem. Miner points out the
differences by noting that self-esteem tends to be a generalised trait (it will be present in
any situation), while self-efficacy tends to be situation specific. Self-efficacy has been
shown to have an empirical relationship with organisational performance and other
dynamics of organisational behaviour.
In summary, personality is a very diverse and complex cognitive process. It
incorporates almost everything. As defined above, personality is the whole person and is
concerned with external appearance and traits, self and situational interactions. Probably
the best statement on personality was made many years ago by Kluckhohn and Murray,
who said that, to some extent, a person’s personality is like all other people’s, like some
other people’s, and like no other people’s.

Review Questions:
1. Define personality. What are its major elements?
2. How does personality relate to organisational behaviour?

  
 LESSON- 7
LEARNING AND BEHAVIOUR MODIFICATION
Learning Objectives
After reading this lesson, you should be able to understand:
• Learning as a factor affecting human behaviour
• Implications of behaviour modification
• Reinforcement for inducing positive behaviour

Learning is another important psychological process determining human

behaviour. Learning can be defined as “relatively permanent change in behaviour that
occurs as a result of experience or reinforced practice”. There are four important points
in the definition of learning:
1) Learning involves a change in behaviour, though this change is not necessarily
an improvement over previous behaviour. Learning generally has the
connotation of improved behaviour, but bad habits, prejudices, stereotypes,
and work restrictions are also learned.
2) The behavioural change must be relatively permanent. Any temporary change
in behaviour is not a part of learning.
3) The behavioural change must be based on some form of practice or
experience.
4) The practice or experience must be reinforced in order for learning to occur.

Components of Learning Process

The components of learning process are: drive, cue stimuli, response,
reinforcement and retention.
1. Drive
Learning frequently occurs in the presence of drive – any strong stimulus that
impels action. Drives are basically of two types – primary or physiological drives and
secondary or psychological drives. These two categories of drives often interact.
Individuals operate under many drives at the same time. To predict behaviour, it is
necessary to establish which drives are stimulating the most.
2. Cue Stimuli
Cue stimuli are any objects existing in the environment as perceived by the
individual. The idea is to discover the conditions under which stimulus will increase the
probability of eliciting a specific response. There may be two types of stimuli so far as
their results in terms of response are concerned: generalisation and discrimination.
 Generalisation occurs when a response is elicited by a similar but new stimulus.
If two stimuli are exactly alike, they will have the same probability of evoking a specified
response. The principle of generalisation has important implications for human learning.
Because of generalisation, a person does not have to completely relearn each of the new
tasks. It allows the members to adapt to overall changing conditions and specific new
assignments. The individual can borrow from past learning experiences to adjust more
smoothly to new learning situations.
Discrimination is a process whereby an orgaisation learns to emit a response to a
stimulus but avoids making the same response to a similar but somewhat different
stimulus. Discrimination has wide applications in organisational behaviour. For
example, a supervisor can discriminate between two equally high producing workers, one
with low quality and other with high quality.
3. Responses
The stimulus results in responses. Responses may be in the physical form or may
be in terms of attitudes, familiarity, perception or other complex phenomena. In the
above example, the supervisor discriminates between the worker producing low quality
products and the worker producing high quality products, and positively responds only to
the quality conscious worker.
4. Reinforcement
Reinforcement is a fundamental condition of learning. Without reinforcement, no
measurable modification of behaviour takes place. Reinforcement may be defined as
environmental events affects the probability of occurrence of responses with which they
are associated.
5. Retention
The stability of learned behaviour over time is defined as retention and the
converse is forgetting. Some of the learning is retained over a period of time; while other
may be forgotten.
Learning Theories
Classical Conditioning
The work of the famous Russian Physiologist Ivan Pavlov demonstrated the
classical conditioning process. When Pavlov presented a piece of meat to the dog in the
experiment, Pavlov noticed a great deal of salivation. He termed the food an
unconditioned stimulus and the salivation an unconditioned response. When the dog saw
the meat, it salivated. On the other hand, when Pavlov merely rang a bell, the dog did not
salivate. Pavlov subsequently introduced the sound of a bell each time the meat was
given to the dog. The dog eventually learned to salivate in response to the ringing of the
bell even when there was no meat. Pavlov had conditioned the dog to respond to a
learned stimulus. Thorndike called this the “law of exercise” which states that behaviour
can be learned by repetitive association between a stimulus and a response.
 Classical conditioning has a limited value in the study of organisational behaviour.
As pointed out by Skinner, classical conditioning represents an insignificant part of total
human learning. Classical conditional is passive. Something happens and we react in a
specific or particular fashion. It is elicited in response to a specific, identifiable event and
as such it explains simple and reflexive behaviours. But behaviour of people in
organisations is emitted rather than elicited, and it is voluntary rather than reflexive. The
learning of these complex behaviours can be explained or better understood by looking at
operant conditioning.
Operant Conditioning
Operant is defined as behaviour that produces effects. Operant conditioning,
basically a product of Skinnerian psychology, suggests that individuals emit responses
that are either not rewarded or are punished. Operant conditioning is voluntary behaviour
and it is determined, maintained and controlled by its consequences.
Operant conditioning is a powerful tool for managing people in organisations.
Most behaviours in organisations are learned, controlled and altered by the consequences;
i.e. operant behaviours. Management can use the operant conditioning process
successfully to control and influence the behaviour of employees by manipulating its
reward system. Reinforcement is anything that both increases the strength of response
and tends to induce repetitions of the behaviour. Four types of reinforcement strategies
can be employed by managers to influence the behaviour of the employees, viz., positive
reinforcement, negative reinforcement, extinction and punishment.
1. Positive Reinforcement:
Positive reinforcement strengthens and increases behaviour by the presentation of
a desirable consequence (reward). In other words, a positive reinforcer is a reward that
follows behaviour and is capable of increasing the frequency of that behaviour. There are
two types of positive reinforces: primary and secondary. Primary reinforcers such as
food, water and sex are of biological importance and have effects which are independent
of past experiences. For instance, a primary reinforcer like food satisfies hunger need and
reinforced food-producing behaviour. Secondary reinforcers like job advancement,
recognition, praise and esteem result from previous association with a primary reinforcer.
Primary reinforcers must be learned. In order to apply reinforcement procedures
successfully, management must select reinforcers that are sufficiently powerful and
durable.

2. Negative Reinforcement:
The threat of punishment is known as negative reinforcement. Negative
reinforcers also serve to strengthen desired behaviour responses leading to their removal
or termination.
3. Extinction:
 Extinction is an effective method of controlling undesirable behaviour. It refers to
non-reinforcement. It is based on the principle that if a response is not reinforced, it will
eventually disappear. Extinction is a behavioural strategy that does not promote desirable
behaviours but can reduce undesirable behaviours.
4. Punishment:
Punishment is a control device employed in organisations to discourage and
reduce annoying behaviours of employees.
Observational Learning
Observational learning results in as a result of watching the behaviour of another
person and appraising the consequences of that behaviour. It does not require an overt
response. When Mr. X observes that Y is rewarded for superior performance, X learns
the positive relationship between performance and rewards without actually obtaining the
reward himself. Observational learning plays a crucial role in altering behaviours in
organisations.
Cognitive Learning
Here the primary emphasis is on knowing how events and objects are related to
each other. Most of the learning that takes place in the class room is cognitive learning.
Cognitive learning is important because it increases the change that the learner will do the
right thing first time, without going through a lengthy operant conditioning process.
Learning Theory and Organisation Behaviour
The relevance of the learning theories for explaining and predicting of
organisational behaviour is marginal. This does not mean that learning theories are
totally irrelevant. Learning concepts provide a basis for changing behaviours that are
unacceptable and maintaining those that are acceptable. When individuals engage in
various types of dysfunctional behaviour (late for work, disobeying orders, poor
performance), the manager will attempt to educate more functional behaviours.
Learning theory can also provide certain guidelines for conditioning organisational
behaviour. Managers know that individuals capable of turning out superior performance
must be given more reinforces than those with average or low performance. Managers
can successfully use the operant conditioning process to control and influence the
behaviour of employees by manipulating its reward system.

Review Questions:
1. What is learning? What are the components of learning process?
2. Examine the application learning theories to organisational behaviour.

  
 LESSON - 8

ATTITUDES AND PERCEPTION

Learning Objectives
After reading this lesson, you should be able to understand:
• Conceptual clarity about attitudes in organisation.
• Method of formation of attitudes.
• Individual attitudes in organisations and indicate how they affect behaviour.
• Conceptual clarity about perception and perceptual process.
• Perception attribution in organisations.

Simply explained, an “attitude” is an individual’s point of view or an individual’s

way of looking at something, or to be more explicit, an “attitude”, may be explained, as
the mental state of an individual, which prepares him to react or make him behave in a
particular pre-determined way.
An attitude is defined as, “a learned pre-disposition to respond in a consistently
favourable or unfavourable manner with respect to a given object”.
Attitudes are complexes of beliefs and feelings that people have about specific
ideas, situations or other people. Attitudes are important because they are the mechanism
through which most people express their feelings.

Components of Attitude
Attitudes have three components namely affective component, cognitive
component and intentional component.

Affective Component
How we feel
toward the Situation?

Cognitive Intentional
Component why we Component how we
feel that way? intend to behave
toward the situation
The affective component of an attitude reflects ‘feelings and emotions’ that an individual
has toward a situation. The cognitive component of an attitude is derived from
‘knowledge’ that an individual has about a situation. Finally, the intentional component
of an attitude reflects how an individual ‘expects to behave’ toward or in the situation.
For example, attitude towards a firm which supply the products irregularly as well as
inferior could be described as follows:
“I don’t like that company” - Affective component.
“They are the worst supply firm I have ever dealt with” - Cognitive component.
“I will never do business with them again” - Intentional component.
People try to maintain consistency among the three components of their attitudes.
However, circumstances sometimes arise that lead to conflicts. The conflict that
individuals may experience among their own attitudes is called ‘cognitive dissonance’.

Attitude Formation and Change

Individual attitudes form over time as a result of repeated personal experiences
with ideas, situations or people. Attitudes that are situationally specific and learned is
one very important way to understand individual behaviour in organisations.
An attitude may change as a result of new information. A manager may have a
negative attitude about a new employee because of his lack of job-related experience.
After working with the new person the manager may come to realise that he is actually
very talented and subsequently may develop a more positive attitude toward him.

Work-Related Attitudes
People in an organisation form attitudes about many things - about their salary,
promotion possibilities, superior, fringe benefits, food in the canteen, uniform, etc.
Especially some important attitudes are job satisfaction or dissatisfaction, organisational
commitment and job involvement.

Job Satisfaction :
Job satisfaction is an attitude that reflects the extent to which an individual is
gratified by or fulfilled in his or her work. Extensive research conducted on job
satisfaction has indicated that personal factors such as an individual’s needs and
aspirations determine this attitude, along with group and organisational factors such as
relationships with co-workers and supervisors and working conditions, work policies and
compensation.
A satisfied employee also tends to be absent less often, to make positive
contributions, and to stay with the organisation. In contrast, a dissatisfied employee may
be absent more often, may experience stress that disrupts co-workers, and may be
continually looking for another job.
Organisational factors that influence employee satisfaction include pay,
promotion, policies and procedures of the organisations and working conditions. Group
factors involving relationship with co-workers and supervisors also influence job
satisfaction. Similarly, satisfaction depends on individual factors like individual’s needs
and aspirations. If employees are satisfied with their job, it may lead to low employee
turnover and less absenteeism and vice-versa.

Organisational Commitment and Involvement :

Two other important work-related attitudes are organisational commitment and
involvement. Organisational commitment is the individual’s feeling of identification
with and attachment to an organisation. Involvement refers to a person’s willingness to
be a team member and work beyond the usual standards of the job. An employee with
little involvement is motivated by extrinsic motivational factor and an employee with
strong involvement is motivated by intrinsic motivational factors.
A number of factors lead to commitment and involvement. Both may increase
with an employee’s age and years with the organisation, sense of job security and
participation in decision-making. If the organisation treats its employees fairly and
provides reasonable rewards and job security, employees are more likely to be satisfied
and committed. Involving employees in decision-making can also help to increase
commitments. In particular, designing jobs which are interesting and stimulating can
enhance job involvement.
Attitude: Its Importance in Organisational Behaviour
Attitudes of both workers and management react to each other and determine
mutual relationships.
Attitudes, that is, understanding or learning why employees feel and act the way,
they do, helps supervisors in winning cooperation from them, so very essential for the
efficient working of an organisation.
From a personal perspective, attitudes provide knowledge-base – or prepare our
mental state, for our interaction with others, and with world around us, which directly
affects organisational behaviour, and in turn organisational working.

Perception
Perception is an important mediating cognitive process. Through this complex
process, persons make interpretations of the stimulus or situation they are faced with.
Both selectivity and organisation go into perceptual interpretations. Externally,
selectivity is affected by intensity, size, contrast, repetition, motion and novelty and
familiarity. Internally, perceptual selectivity is influenced by the individual’s motivation,
learning and personality. After the stimulus situation is filtered by the selective process,
the incoming information is organised into a meaningful whole.
Individual differences and uniqueness are largely the result of the cognitive
processes. Although there are a number of cognitive processes, it is generally recognised
that the perceptual process is a very important one that takes place between the situation
and the behaviour and is most relevant to the study of organisational behaviour. For
example, the observation that a department head and a subordinate may react quite
differently to the same top management directive can be better understood and explained
by the perceptual process.
In the process of perception, people receive many different kinds of information
through all five senses, assimilate them and then interpret them. Different people used to
perceive the same information differently.
Perception plays a key role in determining individual behaviour in organisations.
Organisations send messages in variety of forms to their members regarding what they
are expected to do and not to do. In spite of organisations sending clear messages, those
messages are subject to distortion in the process of being perceived by organisation
members. Hence managers need to have a general understanding of basic perceptual
process.
Basic Perceptual Process :
Perception is influenced by characteristics of the object being perceived and of the
person and by situational processes.
• Characteristics of the object include contrast, intensity, movement, repetition
and novelty.
• Characteristics of the person include attitudes, self-concept and personality.
The details of a particular situation affect the way a person perceives an object; the
same person may perceive the same object very differently in different situations. The
processes through which a person’s perceptions are altered by the situation include
selection, organisation, attribution, stereotyping, the halo effect and projection. Among
these, selective perception and stereotyping are particularly relevant to organisations.
Selective Perception:
Selective perception is the process of screening out information that we are
uncomfortable with or that contradicts our beliefs. For example, a manager has a very
positive attitude about a particular worker and one day he notices that the worker seems
to be goofing off. Selective perception may make the manager to quickly disregard what
he observed. Suppose another manager has formed a very negative attitude about a
particular worker and when he happens to observe a high performance from the worker,
he too disregard it.
 In one sense, selective perception is beneficial because it allows us to disregard
minor bits of information. If selective perception causes managers to ignore important
information, it can become quite detrimental.
Stereotyping:
Stereotyping is the process of categorising or labeling people on the basis of a
single attribute. Perceptions based on stereotypes about people’s sex exist more or less in
most work places. Typically, these perceptions lead to the belief that an individual’s sex
determines which tasks he or she will be able to perform. For example, if a women
sitting behind the table in the office is, very often, perceived as a clerk and not an
executive but would make the opposite assumption about a man. Stereotyping consists of
three steps: identifying categories of people (like women, politician), associating certain
characteristics with those categories (like passivity, dishonesty) and then assuming that
any one who fits a certain category must have those characteristics. For example, if
dishonesty is associated with politicians, we are likely to assume that the next politician
we meet is also dishonest.
Perception and Attribution
Perception is also closely linked with another process called attribution.
Attribution is a mechanism through which we observe behaviour and then attribute
causes to it. According to attribution theory, once we observe behaviour we evaluate it in
terms of its consensus, consistency and distinctiveness. Consensus is the extent to which
other people in the same situation behave in the same way. Consistency is the degree to
which the same person behaves in the same way at different times. Distinctiveness is the
extent to which the same person behaves in the same way in other situations. The forces
within the person (internal) or outside the person (external) led to the behaviour.
For instance, if you observe that an employee is much more motivated than the
people around her (low consensus), is consistently motivated (high consistency), and
seems to work hard no matter what the task (low distinctiveness) you might conclude that
internal factors are causing the behaviour. Another example, is that suppose a manager
observes that an employee is late for a meeting, the manager might realise that this
employee is the only one who is late (low consensus), recall that he is often late for other
meetings (high consistency), and subsequently recall that the same employee is
sometimes late for work (low distinctiveness). This pattern of attributions might cause
the manager to decide that the individual’s behaviour is something that should be
changed. At this point, the manager might meet with the subordinate to establish some
punitive consequences for future tardiness.

Impression Management
Whereas social perception is concerned with how one individual perceives other
individuals, impression management is the process by which people attempt to manage or
control the perceptions others form of them. There is often a tendency for people to try to
present themselves in such a way as to impress others in a socially desirable way. Thus,
impression management has considerable implications for areas such as the validity of
performance appraisals and a pragmatic, political tool for one to climb the ladder of
success in organisations.
The Process of Impression Management
As with other cognitive processes, impression management has many possible
conceptual dimensions and has been researched in relation to aggression, attitude change,
attributions and social facilitation, among other things. Most recently, however, two
separate components of impression management have been identified – impression
motivation and impression construction. Especially in an employment situation,
subordinates may be motivated to control how their boss perceives them. The degree of
this motivation to impression-manage will depend on such factors as the relevance the
impressions have to the individual’s goals, the value of these goals, and the discrepancy
between the image one would like others to hold and the image one believes others
already hold.
Impression construction, the other major process, is concerned with the specific
type of impression people want to make and how they go about doing it. Although some
theorists limit the type of impression only to personal characteristics, others include such
other things as attitudes, physical status, interests, or values. Using this broader
approach, five factors have been identified as being especially relevant to the kinds of
impressions people try to construct: the self-concept, desired and undesired identity
images, role constraints, target’s values and current social image. Although there is
considerable research on how these five factors influence the type of impression that
people try to make, there is still little known of how they select the way to manage
others’ perceptions of them.
Employee Impression Management Strategies
There are two basic strategies of impression management that employees can use.
If employees are trying to minimise responsibility for some negative event or to stay out
of trouble, they may employ a demotion-preventative strategy. On the other hand, if they
are seeking to maximise responsibility for a positive outcome or to look better than they
really are, then they can use a promotion-enhancing strategy.
The demotion-preventative strategy is characterised by the following:
Employees’ attempts to excuse or justify their actions.
Employee may apologise to the boss for some negative event.
Employees may secretly tell their boss that they fought for the right thing, but
were overruled. Employees using this approach try to disassociate themselves
from the group and from the problem.
The promotion enhancing strategies involves the following:
 Employees feel that they have not been given credit for a positive outcome.
  Employees point out that they really did more, but received only lesser credit.
 Employees identify either personal or organisational obstacles they had to
overcome to accomplish an outcome and deserve a higher credit.
 Employees make sure to be seen with the right people at the right times.
Coping with Individual Differences
Individual differences and people’s perception of them affect every aspect of
behaviour in organisations. Managers must never underestimate the differences between
individuals. Successful manager constantly monitor their own assumptions, perceptions
and attributions, trying to treat each individual as the unique person he or she is.

Review Questions :
1. What are the three parts of an attitude according to the structural view? Explain their
relevance to organisational behaviour.
2. Discuss the importance of perception to organisational behaviour.
  
 LESSON - 9
MOTIVATION AND BEHAVIOUR
Learning Objectives
After reading this lesson, you should be able to understand:
• The meaning, nature and importance of motivation
• The important need theories of motivation
• The expectancy theory of motivation
• The ways of enhancing employee motivation

The word motivation is derived from the word ‘motive’ which is defined as an
active form of a desire, craving or need which must be satisfied. Motivation is the key to
organisational effectiveness. The manager in general has to get the work done through
others. These ‘others’ are human assets or resources. They are to be motivated to work
to attain the organisational objectives.

Definition
Motivation is defined as, “the set of forces that cause people to choose certain
behaviours from among the many alternatives open to them”.
“Motivation is the desire within an individual that stimulates him or her to action”
– George R. Terry.
“The complex of forces starting and keeping a person at work in an organisation”
– Robert Dubin.
Viteles defines motivation as, “an unsatisfied need which creates a state of tension
or disequilibrium, causing the individual to move in a goal directed pattern towards
restoring a state of equilibrium, by satisfying the need”.
“Motivation refers to the degree of readiness of an organism to pursue some
designated goals and implies the determination of the nature and locus of force inducing
degree of readiness” – Encyclopaedia of Management.
On the basis of above definitions, the following observations can be made
regarding motivation:
 Motivation is an inner psychological force which activates and compels the
person to behave in a particular manner.
 Motivation process is influenced by personality traits learning abilities,
perception and competence of an individual.
 Highly motivated employee works more efficiently and his level of production
tends to be higher than others.
  Motivation originates from the needs and wants of an individual. It is a tension
of lacking something in his mind which forces him to work more efficiently.
 Motivation is also a process of stimulating and channelising an energy of an
individual for achieving set goals.
 Motivation also plays a crucial role in determining the level of performance.
Highly motivated employee will get higher satisfaction which may lead higher
efficiency.
 Motivating force and its degree, may differ from individual to individual
depending on his personality, needs, competence and other factors.
 The process of motivation helps the manager in analysing and understanding
human behaviour and finding out that how an individual can be inspired to
produce desirable working behaviour.
 Motivation may be positive as well as negative. Positive motivation includes
incentives, rewards and other benefits while negative motivation implies some
punishment, fear, use of force etc.
 The process of motivation contributes to and boosts up the morale of the
employees. And high degree of motivation may lead to high morale.

Characteristic Features of Motivation

Motivation is a internal feeling and forces a person to action.
Motivation is a continuous activity.
It varies from person to person and from time to time.
It may be positive or negative.

Importance of Motivation
Motivation is an important part of managing process. A team of highly qualified
and motivated employees is necessary for achieving objectives of an organisation. It is
only through motivation process, they contribute maximum for accomplishing objectives.
Highly motivated employees make optimum use of available resources for achieving
objectives.
Motivation is directly related to the level of efficiency.
Highly motivated employees make full use of their energy and other abilities to raise
the existing level of efficiency.
Highly motivated employees would make goal-directed efforts. They are more
committed and cooperative for achieving organisational objectives.
 Highly motivated employees are more loyal and sincere, and wants to remain with the
organisation for longer period of time. These factors help reduce absenteeism and
labour turnover.
Motivation is considered as a backbone of good industrial relations.
Effectively motivated employees get more job satisfaction and carry high morale.
Motivation also helps in improving the image of the organisation.

The motivation framework is a good starting point for understanding how people
choose certain behaviours.
The motivation process begins with needs that individuals identify for themselves.
For example, a worker feels that he is underpaid. This deficiency becomes a need that
the worker seeks to satisfy, perhaps, by asking for a raise, by working harder to earn a
raise or by seeking a new job. Once he chooses to pursue one or more of these options
and then enacts them (working harder while simultaneously looking for a job, for
example), he evaluates his success. If his hard work resulted in a pay rise, he probably
feels satisfied and will continue to work hard.
But if no raise has been provided he is likely to try another option. Since people
have many different needs, the satisfaction of one need or set of needs is likely to give
rise to the identification of other needs. Thus, the cycle of motivation is being constantly
repeated.
Understanding human motivation is crucial for managing people. Many people
have done extensive research to find out what make people work and how to motivate
them. This include managers, social scientists, behaviourists and psychologists. A
number of theories have been developed, even though there is no university accepted
motivation theory. Understanding these theories assist managers to get a better insight
into the human behaviour.

Need-Based Theories to Motivation

Need-based theories try to answer the question, “what factor(s) motivate people to
choose certain behaviours?” Some of the widely known need-based theories are
discussed below:
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:
Maslow Abraham proposed his theory in 1940s. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
assumes that people are motivated to satisfy five levels of needs: physiological, security,
belongingness, esteem and self-actualisation needs.

Self
Actualisation
Needs

Esteem Needs

Social Needs

Safety Needs

Physiological Needs

According to Maslow’s hierarchy physiological needs for food, sex, water and air
which represent basic issues of survival. In organisational settings, most physiological
needs are satisfied by adequate wages and by the work environment itself, which
provides employees with rest rooms, adequate lighting, comfortable temperatures and
ventilation.
Next are security or safety needs - the requirements for a secure physical and
emotional environment. Examples include the desire for adequate housing and clothing,
the need to be free from worry about money and job security, and the desire for safe
working conditions. Security needs are satisfied for people in the work place by job
continuity, a grievance redressal system and an adequate insurance and retirement benefit
package.
Belonging needs are related to the social aspect of human life. They include the
need for love and affection and the need to be accepted by one’s peers. For most people
these needs are satisfied by a combination of family and community relationships outside
of work and friendships on the job. Managers can help ensure the satisfaction of these
important needs by allowing social interaction and by making employees feel like part of
a team or work group.
Esteem needs actually comprise of two different sets of needs: the need for a
positive self-image and self-respect and the need for recognition and respect from others.
Organisations can help address esteem needs by providing a variety of extrinsic symbols
of accomplishment such as job titles, spacious offices and similar rewards as appropriate.
At a more intrinsic level, organisations can also help satisfy esteem needs by providing
employees with challenging job assignments that carry with them a sense of
accomplishment.
At the top of the hierarchy are what Maslow calls the self-actualisation needs.
These involve realising one’s potential for continued growth and individual development.
Because they are highly individualised and personal, self-actualisation needs are perhaps
the most difficult for managers to address. In fact, it can be argued that individuals must
meet these needs entirely by themselves. Organisations, can help, however, by creating a
climate wherein self-actualisation is possible. For instance, an organisation can promote
the fulfillment of these needs by providing employees with a chance to participate in
making decisions about their work and with the opportunity to learn new things about
their jobs and the organisation. The process of contributing to actual organisational
performance (through decision-making) and learning more about the organisation are
likely to help people experience the personal growth and development associated with
self-actualising.
Maslow suggests that the five levels of needs are arranged in order of importance,
starting at the bottom of the hierarchy (refer figure). An individual is motivated first and
foremost to satisfy physiological needs. As long as these needs remain unsatisfied, the
individual is motivated to fulfill only them. When those needs are satisfied, the
individual is motivated and he ‘moves up’ the hierarchy and becomes concerned with
security needs. This ‘moving up’ process continues until the individual reaches the self-
actualisation level.
Maslow’s concept of the need hierarchy has a certain intuitive logic and has been
accepted by many managers. But research has revealed several short-comings of the
theory. For example, some research has found that five levels of needs are not always
present and that the order of the levels is not always the same as postulated by Maslow.
Moreover, it is difficult for organisations to use the need hierarchy to enhance employee
motivation.
ERG Theory of Motivation:
Clayton Alderfer has proposed an alternative hierarchy of needs called the ERG
Theory of Motivation. The letters E, R and G stand for Existence, Relatedness and
Growth.

Satisfaction/ Growth Needs

Progression

Relatedness Needs

Existence Needs Frustration/

Regression
 EGR theory, as figure shows, combines the need hierarchy developed by Maslow
into three levels. Existence needs correspond to the physiological and security needs of
Maslow’s, Relatedness needs to Maslow’s belongingness and esteem needs and Growth
needs to Maslow’s both self-esteem and self-actualisation needs.
Although ERG Theory assumes that motivated behaviour follows a hierarchy in
somewhat the same fashion as suggested by Maslow, there are two important differences.
First, ERG theory suggests that more than one kind of need might motivate a person at
the same time. For example, it allows for the possibility that people can be motivated by
a desire for money (existence), friendship (relatedness), and the opportunity to learn new
skills (growth) all at the same time.
Second ERG theory has an element of frustration - regression which is missing
from Maslow’s need hierarchy. Maslow maintained that one need must be satisfied
before an individual can progress to needs at a higher level, for example, from security
needs to belongingness. This is termed as satisfaction - progression process. Although
the ERG theory includes this same process, it also suggests that if needs remain
unsatisfied at some higher level, the individual will become frustrated, regress to a lower
level, and begin to pursue those low level needs again. For example, a worker previously
motivated by money (existence needs) is awarded a pay rise to satisfy those needs. Then
he attempts to establish more friendship to satisfy relatedness needs. If for some reason
the employee finds that it is impossible to become better friends with others in the work
place, he may eventually become frustrated and regress to being motivated to earn even
more money. This is termed as ‘frustration-regression’ process.
There are two key insights to be gleaned from the need hierarchy view. The first
is that some needs may be more important than others. The second is that people may
change their behaviour after any particular set of needs has been satisfied.
The Dual-Structure Approach to Motivation:
Another popular need-based approach to motivation is the dual-structure approach
developed by Frederick Herzberg. This is also known as Two-factor Theory. Herzberg
developed this approach after interviewing 200 accountants and engineers in Pittsburg.
He asked them to recall occasions when they had been dissatisfied and less motivated.
He found that entirely different sets of factors were associated with satisfaction and with
dissatisfaction. For instance, an individual who identified ‘low pay’ as causing
dissatisfaction did not necessarily mention ‘high pay’ as a cause of satisfaction. Instead,
different kinds of factors, such as recognition or accomplishment, were cited as causing
satisfaction.
This finding suggests that satisfaction and dissatisfaction are at opposite ends of a
single continuum. Employees would therefore be satisfied, dissatisfied or somewhere in
between. Herzberg argued that attitudes and motivation consists of a dual structure. One
structure involves a set of factors that result in feelings ranging from satisfaction to no
satisfaction. The other structure involves a set of factors that result in feelings ranging
from dissatisfaction to no satisfaction.
Herzberg identified two sets of factors as causing either satisfaction or
dissatisfaction. The factors influencing satisfaction are called motivation factors which
are related specifically to the job itself and the factors causing dissatisfaction are called
hygiene factors which are related to the work environment in which the job is
performed.
Hygiene or Maintenance Factors :
• Company policies
• Technical supervision
• Interpersonal relations with supervisor
• Interpersonal relations with peers
• Interpersonal relations with subordinates
• Salary
• Job security
• Personal life
• Work conditions
• Status
Motivators :
 Achievement
 Recognition
 Advancement
 The work itself
 The possibility of personal growth
 Responsibility
Based on these findings, Herzberg recommended that managers seeking to
motivate employees should first make sure that hygiene factors are taken care of and that
employees are not dissatisfied with pay, security and working conditions etc. Once a
manager has eliminated employee dissatisfaction, Herzberg recommends focusing on a
different set of factors to increase motivation, by improving opportunities for
advancement, recognition, advancement and growth. Specifically, he recommends job
enrichment as a means of enhancing the availability of motivation factors.
Although widely accepted by managers, Herzberg’s dual structure approach is not
without it critics. Other Researchers who measured satisfaction and dissatisfaction
differently reached very different conclusions. They have also criticised Herzberg’s
theory for failing to define the relationship between satisfaction and motivation and for
failing to pay enough attention to differences between individuals. Hence, at present
Herzberg’s theory is not held in high esteem by researchers in the field of motivation.
The theory, however, has had a major impact on managers and has played a key role in
increasing their awareness of motivation and its importance in the work place.

Theories “X” and “Y” of Motivation

Douglas McGregor observed two diametrically opposing view points of managers
about their employees, one is negative called “Theory of X” and another positive called
“Theory of Y”.
Theory of X
Following are the assumptions of managers who believe in the “Theory of X” in
regard to their employees.
♦ Employees dislike work; if possible avoid the same.
♦ Employees must be coerced, controlled or threatened to do the work.
♦ Employees avoid responsibilities and seek formal direction.
♦ Most employees consider security of job, most important of all other factors in
the job and have very little ambition.
Theory of Y
Following are the assumptions of managers who believe in the “Theory of Y” in
regard to their employees.
 Employees love work as play or rest.
 Employees are self-directed and self-controlled and committed to the
organisational objectives.
 Employees accept and seek responsibilities.
 Innovative spirit is not confined to managers alone, some employees also
possess it.
Theories X and Y : Their Applicability
In its applicability theory ‘X’, places exclusive reliance upon external control of
human behaviour, while theory ‘Y’, in its applicability relies heavily on self-control and
self-direction. Theory ‘X’ points to the traditional approach of management.
Strictly speaking, this theory of behaviour is characteristic of organisations that lay
down hard and rigid standards of work behaviour – like, breaking down jobs into
specialised elements, establishing norms of production, designing equipment is such a
way, so as to ensure that the worker’s pace of work should be more or less controlled,
and have also stringent rules and regulations, that are sometimes very vigorously
enforced.
 Theory ‘Y’ secures the commitment of employees to organisational objectives.
This motivational theory places emphasis on satisfaction of employees. In its
applicability, the use of authority, as an instrument of command and control is minimal.
Employees exercise self-direction and self-control.
The concepts of ‘Job Enlargement’, ‘Participation’ and ‘Management by
Objectives’ are quite consistent with theory ‘Y’.
McGregor advocates the applicability of motivational theory ‘Y’, instead of theory
‘X’. It needs to be well understood that once theory ‘X’ brought in application in the
organisational working, it is a difficult task to shift to the applicability of theory ‘Y’, all
of a sudden, by the management. However, with systematic, judicious and slow steps,
shifting in the practical applicability of theory ‘X’ to theory ‘Y’ usually can be
successfully achieved.

Mc-Clelland’s Need Theory of Motivation

David C. McClelland and his associate Atkinson have contributed to the
understanding of motivation by identifying three types of basic motivating needs. These
needs have been classified as:
1. Need for Power
2. Need for Affiliation, and
3. Need for Achievement.
Need for Power :
The need for power might be defined as the desire to be influential in a group and
to control one’s environment. Research suggests that people with a strong need for
power are likely to be superior performers and occupy supervisory positions. Such type
of individuals generally look for positions of leadership, they act effectively, are
outspoken, have a stubborn character, and exert authority.
Need for Affiliation :
The need for affiliation is a desire for human companionship and acceptance.
Those with a high need for affiliation often behave the way they think other people want
them to, in an effort to try to friendship. They prefer a job that entails a good deal of
social interaction and offers opportunities to make friends. The following are the
characteristics:
• Desire to like and be liked.
• Enjoy company and friendship.
• Prefer cooperative situation.
• Excels group task.
• Star attraction in gathering.
 • Leadership qualities.
This need is closely associated to “social-type” of personality who are sociable,
friendly, cooperative and understanding. Persons with high motivation for power and for
affiliation have better chances of becoming good managers.
Need for Achievement :
People with a high need for achievement, always feel ambitious to be successful;
ever prepared to face challenging situations; set arduous goals for themselves; they are
prone to take calculated risks; have a high sense of their personal responsibility in getting
jobs done, how far, and to what extent, they have progressed, they would always like to
know; they feel inclined to put in longer hours of work; failures never dishearten them;
and they are always ready to put in their best efforts for excellent performance.

Process-Based Theories to Motivation

The field of organisational behaviour has generally moved a way from the needs
theories of motivation. Needs theories are content-oriented - that they explain what
causes lead to motivated behaviours. They do not explain why or how motivated
behaviour occurs. These questions pertain to behaviours or actions, goals and feelings of
satisfaction - concepts that are addressed by various process-based theories to
motivation.
Process-based theories to motivation are concerned with how motivation occurs.
Process based approaches focus on why people choose to enact certain behavioural
options to fulfil their needs and how they evaluate their satisfaction after they have
attained these goals. Two of the most useful process-based approaches to motivation are
expectancy theory and equity theory.

Expectancy Theory of Motivation

Basically, Vroom’s expectancy theory views motivation as a process governing
choices. The expectancy theory tries to explain how and why people choose a particular
behaviour over an alternative. The theory suggests that motivation depends on two
things: how much an individual desires a particular goal and how likely he thinks he can
get it. For instance, you are looking for a job, and you see an advertisement for a position
of Marketing Executive with a starting salary of Rs.3 lakhs per year. Eventhough you
might want the job, you probably do not apply because you realise that you have little
chance of getting it. The next advertisement you see is for Field Supervisor for a salary
of Rs.1 lakh per year. Eventhough you realise that you could probably get the job, you
do not apply because you do not want it. Then you see an advertisement for a
Management Trainee in a big company with a starting salary of Rs.2 lakhs per year. You
apply for this job because you want it and because you think you have a reasonable
chance of getting it.
The formal framework of expectancy theory was developed by Victor Vroom.
Expectancy theory rests on four assumptions:
 ♦ The theory assumes that behaviour is determined by a combination of forces in the
individual and in the environment.
♦ It assumes that people make decisions about their own behaviour in organisations.
♦ It assumes that different people have different types of needs, desires and goals.
♦ It assumes that people make choices from among alternative plans of behaviour
based on their perceptions of the extent to which a given behaviour will lead to
desired outcomes.

Expectancy Model of Motivation

Individual Outcome with

Ability P Valence
E
Motivation Effort R Outcome with
F Valence
O
Environmental R Outcome with
Factors M Valence
A
N Outcome with
C Valence
Effort for Performance E Performance to outcome
Expectancy Expectancy

The above model suggests that motivation leads to efforts and that effort, when
combined with individual ability and environmental factors, result in performance.
Performance, in turn, leads to various outcomes - each of which has an associated value
called its ‘valence’. According to this model, individuals develop some sense of these
expectations before they exhibit motivated or non-motivated behaviour.
Effort-to-Performance Expectancy:
The effort-to-performance expectancy is an individual’s perception of the
probability that effort will result in high performance. When the individual believes that
effort will lead directly to high performance, expectancy is quite strong (close to 1.00).
For instance, if you feel sure that studying hard for an examination (effort) will result in
your scoring high marks (performance), then your effort-to-performance expectancy is
high, close to 1.0. When the individual believes that effort and performance are
unrelated, the effort-to-performance expectancy is very weak (close to 0.0). Usually we
are not sure about our expectations, so they fall somewhere between 0.0 and 1.0 with a
moderate expectancy.
Performance-to-Outcome Expectancy:
The performance-to-outcome expectancy is an individual’s perception of the
probability that performance will result in a specific outcome. For example, an
individual who believes that high performance will lead to a pay raise has a high
performance-to-outcome expectancy (approaching 1.00). An individual who believes
that high performance may possibly lead to a pay raise has a moderate expectancy
(between 1.00 and 0). And an individual who believes that performance has no
relationship to rewards has a low performance-to-outcome expectancy (close to 0).
Outcomes and Valences:
Expectancy theory recognises that an individual may experience a variety of
outcomes (consequences of behaviour) in an organisational setting. A high performer,
for example, may get big pay raises, fast promotions, and praise from the boss. But she
may also be subject to a lot of stress and incur resentment from co-workers. Each of
these outcomes has an associated value or valence - an index of how much an individual
desires a particular outcome. If the individual wants the outcome, its valence is positive.
If the individual does not want the outcome, its valence is negative. If the individual is
indifferent to the outcome, its valence is zero. It is this part of expectancy theory that
goes beyond the need-based approaches to motivation.
For motivated behaviour to occur on the part of any one individual, then, three
conditions must be met. First, the effort-to-performance expectancy must be greater than
zero. Second, the performance-to-outcome expectancy must also be greater than zero.
Third, the sum of the valences for all relevant outcomes must be greater than zero.
Expectancy theory maintains that when all of these conditions are met, the individual is
motivated to expand effort.
The expectancy theory does have several important practical implications which
managers should consider. They can –

determine what outcomes employees prefer

define, communicate and clarify the level of performance that is desired
establish attainable performance goals
link desired outcomes to performance goal achievement
Expectancy Theory: Its Practical Applicability
If a manager wishes to motivate his employees for increased and better
performance, he will have to make sure first, that the reward system is highly supportive
to hard work or high quality. The manager will particularly see that the particular
system, as applicable in their case, is communicated to them, so that they gain confidence
that their energised efforts will be rewarded.
Another important point which should not be ignored by the manger is, that
rewards must correspond to the varying preferences of the individual employees.
In conclusion, no doubt ‘expectancy’ theory has gained much popularity with
theorists, but much more work still needs to be put in, before it can be accepted for use as
an effective instrument of explanation of ‘motivation’ with all its implications.

The Porter-Lawler Extension

An interesting extension to expectancy theory has been proposed by Porter and
Lawler. The human relationists assumed employee satisfaction causes good performance
but research has not supported such relationship. Porter and Lawler suggest that there
may indeed be a relationship between satisfaction and performance but that it goes in the
opposite direction, that superior performance can lead to satisfaction.
Porter-Lawler Model
First, the individual’s initial effort is influenced by his/her perception of the value
of the reward and the likelihood that the effort will yield the reward. The probability that
increased effort will lead to improved performance is affected by the individual’s traits,
abilities and perception of his or her role in the organisation. The model also
distinguishes between intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Finally, the Porter-Lawler model
borrows from equity theory the idea that the employee’s satisfaction depends on the
perceived equity of the rewards relative to the effort expended and the level of
performance attained.
Implications for Managers
Expectancy theory can be useful for organisations attempting to improve the
motivation of their employees. Nadler and Lawler suggest a series of steps in applying
the basic ideas of the theory.
1. Managers should determine the primary outcomes that each employee is likely to
want.
2. They should decide what kinds and levels of performance are needed to meet
organisational goals.
3. They should make sure that the desired levels of performance are attainable.
4. They should ensure that desired outcomes and desired performance are linked.
5. They should also analyse the complete work situation for conflicting expectancies.
6. They should make sure that the rewards are large enough.
7. They should make sure that the overall system is equitable for everyone.
 The expectancy theory has also its limitations. It is quite difficult to apply. To
apply this theory in the work place, for example, it would be necessary to identify all the
potential outcomes for each employee, to determine all relevant expectancies, and then to
balance everything somehow to maximise employee motivation. Expectancy theory also
assumes that people are rational - that they will systematically consider all of the
potential outcomes and their associated expectancies before selecting a particular
behaviour. But few people actually make decisions in such a precise, rational manner.

Equity Theory
The equity theory of motivation was developed by J. Stacy Adams. The equity
theory argues that motivations arise out of simple desire to be treated fairly. Equity can
be defined as an individual’s belief that he or she is being treated fairly relative to the
treatment of others.
A person’s perception of equity develops through a four-step process shown
below:

Comparison Feelings of
Evaluation Evaluation
of self with equity or
of Self of Others
others inequity
First the individual evaluates the way he/she is treated by the organisation. The
next step is for the individual to choose a co-worker who seems to be in a roughly similar
situation and to observe how the organisation treats that comparison-other. In the crucial
step of equity theory the individual ‘compares’ the two treatments and winds up with a
sense of equity, if the two treatments seem similar, or of inequity, if the treatments seem
different.
Adam suggests that employees make these comparisons by focusing on
input/outcome ratios. An employee’s contributions or input, to the organisation include
time, education, effort, experience and loyalty. Outcomes are what the individual
receives from the organisation, like pay, recognition and social relationships. The theory
suggests that people view their outcomes and inputs as ratio and then compare their ratio
to the ratio of someone else. This other ‘person’ may be someone in the work group.
The comparison may result in three types of attitudes: the individual may feel equitably
rewarded, under-rewarded or over-rewarded. The individual will experience a feeling of
equity when the two ratios are equal.
If the individual has the feeling of equity he shall maintain the status quo. If he
has a feeling of inequity, he is likely to change the input.
The single most important idea for managers to remember about equity theory is
that if rewards are to motivate employees, they must be perceived as being equitable and
fair. But managers must remember that different employees have different senses of
what constitutes a reward and this may result in problems. Hence, the best way to avoid
such problems is for the company to make all employees aware of the basis for rewards.
Reinforcement Based Approaches to Motivation
A final approach to the motivation process focuses on why some behaviours are
maintained overtime and why other behaviours change. Reinforcement-based approaches
explain the role of those rewards as they cause behaviour to change or remain the same
overtime. Specifically, reinforcement theory is based on the fairly simple assumption
that behaviours that results in rewarding consequences is likely to be repeated, whereas
behaviour that results in punishing consequences is less likely to be repeated. There are
similarities between expectancy theory and reinforcement theory, in that both consider
the processes by which an individual chooses behaviours in a particular situation.
However, the expectancy theory focuses more on behaviour choices and the latter is more
concerned with the consequences of those choices.
Reinforcement Contingencies
Reinforcement contingencies are the possible outcomes that an individual may
experience as a result of his or her behaviours. The four types of reinforcement
contingencies that can affect individuals in an organisational setting are positive
reinforcement, avoidance, punishment and extinction.
Positive Reinforcement, a method of strengthening behaviour, is a reward or a
positive outcome after a desired behaviour is performed. When a manager observes an
employee doing an especially good job and offers praise, the praise serves to positively
reinforce the behaviour or good work. Other positive reinforces include pay, promotions
and awards.
The other reinforcement contingency that can strengthen desired behaviour is
avoidance. This occurs when the individual chooses a certain behaviour in order to
avoid unpleasant consequences. For instance, an employee may come to work on time to
avoid reprimand.
Punishment is used by some managers to weaker undesired behaviours. The
logic is that the unpleasant consequence will reduce the undesirable behaviour again, for
example, punishing with fine for coming late.
Extinction can also be used to weaken behaviour, especially that has previously
been rewarded. When an employee tells a vulgar joke and boss laughs, the laughter
reinforces the behaviour and the employee may continue to tell similar jokes. By simply
ignoring this behaviour and not reinforcing it, the boss can cause the behaviour to subside
and eventually become ‘extinct’.
Positive reinforcement and punishment are the most common reinforcement
contingencies practiced by organisations. Most managers prefer to use positive
reinforcement and punishment to be used judiciously. Avoidance and extinction are
generally used only in specialised circumstances.
New Approaches to Motivation in Organisation
New approaches are emerging to supplement the established models and theories
of motivation. Two of the most promising are Goal-Setting Theory and the Japanese
Approach.
Goal-Setting Theory
This approach to motivation has been pioneered in the USA by Edwin Locke and
his associates in 1960s and refined in 1980s. Goal-setting theory suggests that managers
and sub-ordinates should set goals for the individual on a regular basis (as suggested by
MBO). These goals should be moderately difficult and very specific and of a type that
the employee will accept and make a commitment to accomplishing. Rewards should be
tied directly to accomplished goals. When involved in goal-settings, employees see how
their effort will lead to performance, rewards and personal satisfaction.
Salient features of this theory are the following:
Specific goal fixes the needs of resources and efforts
It increases performance
Difficult goals result higher performance than easy job
Better feedback of results leads to better performances than lack of feedback.
Participation of employees in goal has mixed result.
Participation of setting goal, however, increases acceptance of goal and
involvements.
Goal setting theory has defined two factors which influences the performance.
These are given below:
 Goal commitment, and
 Self efficiency.
The mere act of goal-setting does not ensure higher levels of motivation among
employees. In fact, there appear to be three important criteria that goals must meet if
they are to influence the behaviour of organisation members. They are goal specificity,
goal difficulty and goal acceptance.
Goal Specificity
Goals must be stated in specific terms if they are to motivate effective
performance. Goals must be set in terms of measurable criteria of work performance i.e.
number of units produced, new sales etc. and must specify a time period within which the
goal is to be attained. It also gives a sense of personal satisfaction and accomplishment
to workers if he is able to meet the specific goal.
Goal Difficulty/Challenge
 There exists a relationship between goal difficulty and work motivation. The
more difficult and challenging the goal, the higher the level of motivation and
performance. But it is essential that goals be set at levels that are realistic to a person.
Goals that are very difficult to achieve, lose their capacity to motivate, since it is beyond
the capacity of the individual.
Goal Acceptance
In order to influence motivation and performance, a goal must be internalised by
the individual. In other words, the person has to feel some personal ownership of the
goal and must have commitment to achieve it.
Goal Setting in Practice
The most obvious implication of goal-setting theory is that managers should be
helping sub-ordinates to set goals that are specific and reasonably difficult and that sub-
ordinates accept and internalise as their own. Besides this, there are a number of issues
that arise in implementing goal-setting in practice.
1. Though specificity of goal is essential and measurability is desirable, it should not
affect in identifying meaningful and valid objective measures of goal attainment.
2. The manager can stimulate goal acceptance in atleast three ways:
 By involving sub-ordinates in goal-setting process.
 By demonstrative a supportive attitude and approach toward his/her sub-
ordinates.
 By trying various rewards to the achievement of goals.
Management by Objectives (MBO) is a managerial technique for improving
motivation and performance using goal-setting principles.

Cognitive Evaluation Theory

A researcher Charms in 1960, has reported that extrinsic motivation like pay or
rewards for a job which has an intrinsic-motivation content prior to such rewards, tend to
decrease overall level of motivation. This proposal is called “Cognitive Evaluation
Theory” which has supported by a large number of research studies conducted
subsequently.

Japanese Approach to Motivation

The Japanese approach to motivation has gained increasing popularity around the
world during the past few years. This approach is not really a theory or model but instead
a philosophy of management. The basic tenet of the Japanese approach is that managers
and workers should work together as partners. Since both of them see themselves as one
group, all members are committed and motivated to work in the best interests of the
organisation. No one is called an employee; instead everyone is a team member, team
leader or coach and everyone owns ‘share’ of the company. Like goal-setting theory, the
Japanese approach is likely to become more common in businesses throughout the world.

Integration of Motivation Theories

More number of theories complicate our understanding. Some of these theories
are compatible and some are not. The real challenge facing researcher is to integrate all
or atleast some of these together so that their inter and intra-relationships are established.
This will also improve the understanding of motivation. Certain attempts are made in
USA and elsewhere. However, it has not standardised or obtained wide approval or
acceptance.

Enhancing Motivation in Organisations

Managers trying to enhance the motivation of their employees can, of course, draw
on any of the theories described above. They may in practice adopt specific interventions
derived from one or more theories or they may influence motivation through the
organisation’s reward system. The organisation can enhance motivation in following
ways:
 Humanise the work environment: Respect the need to treat each employee as
an individual.
 Publicise both short and long-term company goals: Encourage personal and
departmental goal setting.
 Promote from within: It’s great for morale and simplifies hiring procedures.
 Use incentive programs: If you’are creative enough, you won’t have to rely on
expensive financial bonuses.
 Establish appropriate deadlines: Every porject should have a deadline.
 Be liberal with praise: It’s almost impossible to overpraise and easy to
underpraise.
 Be consistent in your own work and in your relations with others.
 Show a personal interest in the people who work for you: Relations are always
smoother between people who know each other on a personal basis than
between people who merely want something from each other.
 Admit mistakes: People will respect you for it and will be less likely to hide
their own mistakes.
 Don’t whitewash unpleasant assignments: Prepare subordinates for them well
in advance and offer what support you can.
Managerial Approaches for Improving Motivation
A number of approaches can help managers motivate workers to perform more
effectively. Two approaches, however, have been especially effective: linking pay to job
performance and quality of work-life programs.
The following steps promote intrinsic motivation:
 Workers Participation in Management (WPM)
 Management by Objectives (MBO)
 Organisation Behaviour Modification
 Job-Redesign
 Alternative Work Schedules.
Pay and Job Performance
Pay often can be used to motivate employee performance. But a pay plan also
must:
♦ Create the belief that good performance leads to high levels of pay;
♦ Minimise the negative consequences of good performance; and
♦ Created conditions in which rewards other than pay are seen to be related to
good performance.
Quality of Work Life Programs
Quality of Work Life (QWL) is defined as an attempt through a formal program to
integrate employee needs and well-being with the intention of improved productivity,
greater worker involvement and higher levels of job satisfaction.
Programs for QWL improvements range from those requiring minor changes in
the organisation to those requiring extensive modifications in structure, personnel and the
utilisation of resources. Three types of QWL programs are quality circles and the use of
alternative work schedules.
Quality Circles:
Quality circles are small groups of workers who meet regularly with their
supervisor as the circle leader to solve work-related problems. QCs give the employee
opportunity for involvement, social-need satisfaction, participation in work improvement,
challenge and opportunity for growth. They are, in essence, vehicles for providing
employees with opportunities to satisfy lower and upper-level needs as stated by Maslow,
through the motivators described in Herzberg’s theory.
Alternative Work Schedule :
Organisations also frequently use the modified work-week as a way to increase
employee motivation. A modified work-week can be any work schedule that does not
conform to a traditional 8 hours a day or 5 days a week format. The modified work-week
helps individuals satisfy higher-level needs by providing more personal control over
one’s work schedule. It also provides an opportunity to fulfill several needs
simultaneously.
Job-Redesign :
Job-Redesign or changing the nature of people’s job is also being used more as a
motivational technique. The idea here is that mangers can use any of the alternatives –
job rotation, job enlargement, job enrichment as part of motivational programme.
Expectancy theory helps explain the role of work design in motivation.

Review Questions:
1. Define motivation. Bring out its importance.
2. Compare and contrast Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and ERG theory of motivation.
3. Explain the Vroom’s Expectancy theory of motivation.
4. As a manager, how would you enhance employee motivation?

  
 LESSON – 10
JOB SATISFACTION
Learning Objectives
After reading this lesson, you should be able to understand:
• The concept of job satisfaction
• The factors relating to job satisfaction
• The method of increasing job satisfaction

The term ‘job satisfaction’ refers to an employee’s general attitude toward his/her
job. Locke defines job satisfaction as a “pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting
from the appraisal of one’s job experiences”. For our purposes job satisfaction will be
defined as the amount of overall positive affect (or feelings) that individuals have toward
their jobs.
Job satisfaction is the result of various attitudes the employee holds towards his
job, towards related factors and towards life in general.
The importance of job satisfaction is that if the people are satisfied with their
work, then there is an improvement in both the quality and quantity of production. If
they are not satisfied, then both the quantity and quality of his output will be low, there
will be high absenteeism and turnover and increased unionism.
Caldur and Schurr (1981) suggested that in the field of job satisfaction there are
three different approaches. The first approach is that work attitudes such as job
satisfaction are dispositional in nature i.e. that they are stable positive or negative
disposition learned through experience. The second approach is the ‘social information
processing model’ which suggests that job satisfaction and other work place attitudes are
developed or constructed out of experiences and information provided by others at work
place. The third approach is the ‘information processing model’ which is based on the
accumulation of cognitive information about the work place and ones job. In a sense, this
is the most obvious approach - it argues that a person’s job satisfaction is influenced
directly by the characteristics of their job.

Factors Relating to Job Satisfaction

Some of the most important factors relating to job satisfaction are briefly stated
below:
1. Personal Factors:
These factors include the individual employee’s personality, age, sex, educational
level, intelligence etc.
 Most of the evidence on the relation between age and satisfaction seems to
indicate that there is generally a positive relationship between the two variables upto the
preretirement years and then there is a sharp decrease in satisfaction.
There is no clear research evidence between educational level and job satisfaction.
As regards the relationship between the intelligence level and job satisfaction, it usually
depends upon the level and range of intelligence and the challenge of the job. There is as
yet no consistent evidence as to whether women are more satisfied with their jobs than
men.
2. Job Factors:
These factors include the type of work to be performed, skill required for work
performance, occupational status involved in the job etc.
The type of work is very important as a number of research studies have shown
that varied work generally brings about more satisfaction than routine work. Where skill
exists to a considerable degree it tends to become the main source of satisfaction to the
employee. As regards the relation of occupational status to job satisfaction, research
evidences indicate that employees are relatively more dissatisfied in those jobs which
have less social status or prestige.
3. Organisational Factors:
These factors include security, wages and salaries, fringe benefits, opportunities
for advancement, working conditions etc. Social and economic security to employees
increases job satisfaction, the wages and salaries and fringe benefits are definitely the
main factors that affect job satisfaction of employees. As regards the relation of
opportunity for advancement to job satisfaction, it has been found that this factor is most
important to skilled personnel and least important to unskilled. Desirable working
conditions are also important to job satisfaction. Besides, an effective downward flow of
communications in an organisation is also important to job satisfaction as employees are
keen to know more about the company - its plans, policies etc.
Basically, job satisfaction is determined by the discrepancy between what
individuals expect to get out of their jobs and what the job actually offers. A person will
be satisfied if there is no discrepancy between desired and actual conditions. If there is
discrepancy he will be dissatisfied.

Importance of Job Satisfaction

Obviously, job satisfaction significantly contributes to employee productivity and
morale. An organisation can be substantially benefited if it develops general attitudes of
its employees that can effectively contribute to job satisfaction. If employees are
satisfied employees turnover, and absenteeism will be less and productivity will be more.
Further, satisfaction of individual expectations results in group integration and
cohesiveness.
Measuring Job Satisfaction
There have been many measures of job satisfaction in the work place from the Job
Description index to Job Satisfaction Scales to the more recent job satisfaction scale of
the Occupational Stress Indicator (OSI). They all tend to involve scales which explore
pay, work activities, working conditions, career prospects, relationship with superiors and
relationship with colleagues. An example of a measure of job satisfaction from the OSI,
which contain all of the elements that usually make up a job satisfaction measure is given
in the Table.

TABLE
An example of a measure of job satisfaction from the OSI
——————————————————————————————
How You Feel About Your Job

Very much satisfaction 6

Much satisfaction 5
Some satisfaction 4
Some dissatisfaction 3
Much dissatisfaction 2
Very much dissatisfaction 1

1.Communication and the way information 6 5 4 3 2 1

flows around your organization

2. The relationships you have with other 6 5 4 3 2 1

people at work

3. The feeling you have about the way 6 5 4 3 2 1

you and your efforts are valued

4. The actual job itself 6 5 4 3 2 1

5. The degree to which you feel 6 5 4 3 2 1

“motivated” by your job

6. Current career opportunities 6 5 4 3 2 1

7. The level of job security in your 6 5 4 3 2 1

present job
 8. The extent to which you may identify 6 5 4 3 2 1
with the public image or goals of
your organization

9. The style of supervision that your 6 5 4 3 2 1

superiors use

10. The way changes and innovations are 6 5 4 3 2 1

implemented

11. The kind of work or tasks that you 6 5 4 3 2 1

are required to perform

12. The degree to which you feel that you 6 5 4 3 2 1

can personally develop or grow in
your job

13. The way in which conflicts are 6 5 4 3 2 1

resolved in your company

14. The scope your job provides to help 6 5 4 3 2 1

you achieve your aspirations and
ambitions

15. The amount of participation which you 6 5 4 3 2 1

are given in important decision making

16. The degree to which your job taps the 6 5 4 3 2 1

range of skills which you feel you
possess

17. The amount of flexibility and freedom 6 5 4 3 2 1

you feel you have in your job

18. The psychological “feel” or climate 6 5 4 3 2 1

that dominates your organization

19. Your level of salary relative to 6 5 4 3 2 1

your experience

20. The design or shape of your 6 5 4 3 2 1

organization’s structure
21. The amount of work you are given to 6 5 4 3 2 1
do whether too much or too little

22. The degree to which you feel 6 5 4 3 2 1

extended in your job

——————————————————————————————
Source: Cooper et-al (1987)

Measures to Increase Job Satisfaction

Although, management cannot change the personal factors in job satisfaction, it
should appreciate the role of such factors and must take care to place the employees
where the personal factors of the individual will help him in achieving job satisfaction.
Similarly, management can use the factors inherent in the job to plan and
administer jobs more advantageously for its personnel. For example, the policy of job
rotation, job enrichment, and job enlargement may help increase job satisfaction.
Management should also take necessary steps to raise the occupational status of the
workers.
The management should carefully develop appropriate policies and practices for
promotions and transfers, working conditions, wages, grievance handling, fringe benefits,
satisfactory hours of work and adequate rest pausing. Management should also able to
recognize and appreciate the good work done by the employees and give respect for their
creative suggestion. Proper delegation of authority, freedom to do work will also help
increase job satisfaction. Above all, while keeping in view the factors related to job
satisfaction, the management must recognize the importance of the stability of employee
attitudes that may lead to high morale and production.
It is evident from the above description that there are many factors that influence
job satisfaction and the managements must be able to work out a broad strategies that
may help increase job satisfaction and must also able to identify the specific factors that
causes the individual differences and must evolve appropriate strategies that could raise
the job satisfaction of those particular segment.

Review Questions:
1. What do you understand by job satisfaction? What are the factors that influence job
satisfaction?
2. Bring out the importance of job satisfaction. What are the measures to improve job
satisfaction among employees?
  
 LESSON - 11
GROUP DYNAMICS
Learning Objectives
After reading this lesson, you should be able to:
• Define the term group and describe types of groups
• Understand group formation and development
• Discuss group norms, group cohesiveness

Individuals form groups. They live in groups. They move in groups. They work
in groups. Groups are important. They influence work and work behaviour. They
cannot be ignored. They exert significant influence on the organisation. They are
inseparable from organisation. They are useful for the organisation. They form
foundation of human resources.
The study of group behaviour is important. Individual and group behaviour differs
from each other. Group behaviour affects productivity. The importance of group
behaviour has been realised from time to time. Elton Mayo and his associates way back
in1920 conducted the famous Hawthorne experiments and came to know that the group
behaviour have major impact on productivity.
Human behaviour comprise individuals and individuals move in groups. Every
manager must possess the knowledge of group behaviour along with individual
behaviour. He must understand group psychology. He should understand individual
behaviour in the context of group behaviour. Individual behaviour is influenced by the
group behaviour. Individual'’ work, job satisfaction and effective performance is
influenced by the group in which he moves.

Definition of a Group
A group is a two or more people who perceive themselves to be a group and who
interact regularly to accomplish a common purpose or goal. Marvin Shaw defined group,
‘as two or more persons who are interacting with one another in such a manner that each
person influences and is influenced by each other person’. The crucial parts of this
definition are the concepts of ‘interaction’ and ‘influence’, which also limit the size of the
group. When a group gets too large, it is difficult for members to interact sufficiently.
Groups are important to managers because groups or work teams are the primary
tools managers use to co-ordinate individual behaviour in order to reach the
organisation’s goals. Groups can make a manager’s job easier because instead of
explaining a task to many different individuals and trying to co-ordinate the individual’s
work, the manager can give a group a task and allow the group to co-ordinate member’s
efforts. However, a group will function effectively only if the interactions between its
members are productive. Therefore, managers must often pay attention not just to the
needs of individuals but to the dynamics among individuals in the group as well.

Reasons for Group

Following are the few reasons why group is essential:
(i) Management of modern organisations are making concerted efforts to
introduce industrial democracy at workplace. They are using task force,
project teams, work committees where workers get due representation. They
participate very often in decision-making. This takes place in groups.
(ii) The tasks in modern industries are becoming more complex, tedious and
monotonous. To change these conditions and make the environment at
workplace more lively, work committees and wok groups and teams are
formed to monitor the work and change.
(iii) To make participative management more effective
(iv) Groups of all kinds and types are used by inviting their cooperation in all
matters related to production as well as with human relations to make the
organisation effective.
(v) There are several works which an individual cannot perform. To complete
such tasks, group efforts are required for its completion. Example: building a
ship, making of a movie, construction of a fly-over, a complex etc. All these
require coordinated and unified efforts of many individuals, i.e. groups.
(vi) A group can make better judgement as compared to an individual.
(vii) While accomplishing tasks, group can use creative instinct and innovative
ideas than a single individual.
(viii) When group is working, all the benefits of division of labour will accrue.
(ix) Individuals in a group communicate with each other and discuss work
performance and suggestions to make it better and excellent.
(x) Group efforts substantially affect individual, his attitude and behaviour.
(xi) Group has the ability to satisfy the needs of its members.

Types of Groups
In general, there are three types of groups in organisations: Functional groups, task
groups and informal groups.
Functional or Formal Groups:
 A functional group is a group created by the organisation to accomplish a different
organisational purposes. According to A.L. Stencombe, “a formal group is said to be any
social arrangement in which the activities of some persons are planned by others to
achieve a common purpose”. These groups are permanent. They are bound by
hierarchical authority in the organisation. They have to follow rules, regulations and
policy of the organisation. These groups are required by the system. Formal
organisational groups include departments such as the personnel department, the
advertising department, the quality control department and the public relations
department.
Task Group:
A task group is a group created by the organisation to accomplish a relatively
narrow range of purposes within a specified time. These groups usually temporary and
lasts until it develops a solution to a problem or completes its task. Adhoc committees,
task forces and work teams are all task groups. The organisation specifies group
membership and assigns a relatively narrow set of goals such as developing a new
product, evaluating a proposed grievance procedure, etc.
Informal Groups:
Informal groups are created by their members for purposes that may or may not be
relevant to the organisation’s goals. Informal groups tend to form when people are drawn
together by friendship, by mutual interests or both. These groups are spontaneous and
emotional. Keith Davis has defined informal group as, “the network of persons and
social relations which is not established or required for formal organisation”. These are
the groups formed by the employees themselves at the workplace while working together.
The organisation does not take any active interest in their formation.
Informal groups are very effective and powerful. Informal groups can be
important both as an informal communication network - part of the grapevine - to the
organisations, and a powerful force that organisations cannot ignore them. Some
managers view them harmful and disruptive to the interest of the organisation. They
suspect their integrity and consider as a virtual threat. Some managers seek their help in
getting the task completed quickly. They do not consider them as threat. The strength of
these informal groups can be utilised for accomplishment of organisational objectives.

Informal groups are of following types:

1. Interest Group: A group of employees coming together for attaining a common
purpose. Employees coming together for payment of bonus, increase in salary,
medical benefit and other facilities are the examples of interest groups. The people
with common interest come together.
2. Membership Group: A group of persons belonging to the same profession knowing
each other, e.g. teachers of the same faculty in the University.
3. Friendship Group: A group outside the plant or office, having similar views, tastes,
opinions, belonging to same age group. They form clubs and associations based on
the friendship.
4. Reference Group: It is a primary group where people shape their ideas, beliefs,
values etc. They want support from the group.

Group Formation and Development

Groups can form when people with similar goals and motives come together.
Groups are not static. Members join and leave, the relationships among them evolve and
their tasks change. Hence, understanding how groups form and develop is important for
managers.
Organisational Motives to Join Groups:
Organisations create functional and task groups, because the use of such groups
allows the organisation to structure and group organisational activities logically and
efficiently. People join functional groups simply by virtue of joining organisations.
People in existing functional groups volunteer or are asked to serve on adhoc committees,
task forces and teams.
Personal Motives to Join Groups:
People also choose to join informal or interest groups, often for subtle reasons. Since
joining these groups is voluntary, various personal motives affect membership. Some of
these are shown in the following figure:

Inter-personal
attraction

Interest in Group Support for

group activities Information group goals

Need for Instrumental

affiliation benefits
Interpersonal Attraction:
One reason people come together to form informal or interest group is that they
are attracted to each other. The factors that contribute to interpersonal attraction are sex,
similar attitudes, personality or economic standing. The physical proximity of group
members may also be an important factor.
Interest in Group Activities:
 Individuals may also be motivated to join an informal or interest group because
the activities of the group appeal to them. Playing tennis, discussing current events or
contemporary literature - all these are group activities that people enjoy.
Support for Group Goals:
The goals of a group may also motivate people to join. For example, a club which
is dedicated to environmental conservation may motivate people to join. Individuals join
groups, such as these in order to donate their time and money to advance goals they
believe in and to meet other people with similar values.

Need for Affiliation:

Another reason for people to join groups is to satisfy their need for affiliation.
Retired/old age people often join groups to enjoy the companionship of people in similar
situation.
Instrumental Benefits:
Group membership is sometimes seen as instrumental in providing other benefits
to an individual. For instance, a manager might join a Rotary/ Lions Club because he
feels that being a member of this club will lead to important and useful business contacts.

Stages of Development
In the case of new group, members are unfamiliar with one another’s personalities
and intentions and are tentative in their interactions. For developing into a matured
phase, the new group must pass through certain stages of development, which are
depicted in the following figure.
 Mutual Acceptance
• Making acquintances
• Sharing information
• Discussing subjects
• Testing each other
• Being defensive
Slow evolution to
next stage
Communication and Decision Making
• Expressing attitudes
• Establishing norms
• Establishing goals
• Openly discussing tasks

Burst of activity to
next stage
Motivation and Productivity
• Cooperating
• Working actively on tasks
• Being creative
Slow evolution and
next stage

Control and Organisation

• Working independantly
• Assigning tasks based on ability
• Being flexible

The first stage of group development is called Mutual Acceptance. During this
stage, the members of the group get acquainted with one another and begin to test which
inter-personal behaviours are acceptable and which are unacceptable to the other
members of the group. If all the members know each other, the group may move to next
stage.
The second stage of group development is ‘Communication and Decision-
making’. During this stage, group members share their opinions and formulate the
group’s goals. Through communication and decision-making, the structure becomes
clear and the group moves to the third stage.
 The third stage is Motivation and Productivity which is characterised by a shared
acceptance among members of what the group is trying to do. Each person begins to
recognise and accept his role and to accept and to understand the roles to others.
Members also become more comfortable with each other and develop a sense of group
identity and unity.
The fourth stage is ‘Control and Organisation’, in which the members enact the
roles they have accepted and direct their group efforts toward goal attainment.
In reality, this developmental sequence varies from group to group. For example,
time, personal characteristics of group members and frequency of interaction, can all
affect how the group matures.

Characteristics of Mature Groups

As groups pass through the stages of development to maturity, they begin to
exhibit four characteristics: a role structure, behavioural norms, cohesiveness and
informal leadership.
Role Structures:
A role is the part that a person plays in a group to reach its goals. Some people are
leaders, some focus on the group’s task, some interact with other groups and so on. Role
structure is the set of defined roles and interrelationships among those roles that the group
members define and accept. Each of them belong to many groups, classes, families and
social organisations.
The breakdown in role development result in role ambiguity, role conflict and role
overload. Managers have to take steps to avoid role ambiguity, role conflict and role
overload.
Group Norms:
Norms refer to group behaviour standard, beliefs, attitudes, traditions, expectations
shared by group members. According to Michael Argyle, “Group norms are rules or
guidelines of accepted behaviour which are established by a group and used to monitor
the behaviour of its members”. Group norms are framed to achieve objectives of the
group. Group norms can be social, ethical in nature. Group norms are the informal rules
of behaviour that provide some order to group activities. Norms define boundaries
between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. They make the members to identify
themselves with the group. Norms play a significant role in disciplining the members of
a group, so that they work regularly and properly. This reduces absenteeism and
employee turnover. The members of the group are expected to stick up to norms strictly.
This will make the group more cohesive.

Types of Group Norms

Groups typically develop two types of norms: behaviour norms and performance
norms. Behaviour norms are rules that standardise how people act at work on a day-to-
day basis. Performance norms are rules that standardise employee output and number of
hours worked. Examples for some of the behavioural norms are, ‘do not come to
committee meetings unless you have read the reports to be discussed; greet every
customer with a smile etc. These norms tend to reflect motivation, commitment to the
organisation and high performance.
Reasons for Strong Enforcement of Norms
Groups don’t have the time or energy to regulate each and every action of group
members. Only those behaviours that are viewed as most important by group members
will be brought under control.
Groups, like individuals, try to operate in such a way that they maximise their
chances of task success and minimise their chances of task failure. Groups want to
facilitate their performance and overcome barriers to reach their goals. Moreover, groups
want to increase morale and prevent any embarrassment or interpersonal discomfort to
their members. Norms that will help groups meet these twin aims of performing
successfully and keeping morale high are likely to be strongly enforced.
Conditions where group norms will be strongly enforced are given below:
• Norms are likely to be strongly enforced if they facilitate group success or
ensure group survival;
• if they simplify or predictable, what behaviour is expected of from group
members;
• if they reinforce specific members role within a group; and
• if they help the group avoid embrassing inter-personal problems.
Uniqueness of Group Norms:
The norms of one group cannot be easily generalised to another group. Some
differences are primarily due to the composition of the groups. However, even very
similar work groups may develop different norms. The members of one group may be
friendly with their supervisor whereas those of another group may remain aloof.
Norm Variation:
Because norms prescribe different roles for different group members, norms may
dictate role structures. For instance, the senior member of a group may be expected to
perform a trivial tasks. At the other end, certain individuals, especially informal leaders
may be allowed to violate norms with impunity.
Norm Conformity:
Norms have the power to force a certain degree of conformity - accepting and
adhering to the behaviours defined by those norms - among group members.
Several factors contribute to norm conformity. Because of the personalities of key
members, some groups may simply exert more pressure for conformity than others. The
history of the group and its members also plays a part in conformity. For example, if the
group has always been successful by following certain behaviours, new group members
may be pressured to adopt those behaviours. If the group was not successful in the past, a
new group member may have greater freedom to exhibit other behaviours.
As individuals begin to recognise the norms of a group they have just joined, they
may respond in one of the several ways. They may simply accept the norms and
subsequently obey them. An alternative is to obey the ‘spirit’ of the norm while still
asserting individuality.
In some cases individuals may choose to ignore a norm. In such cases, the group
may try to bring back the deviant individual in line or exclude that individual from all its
activities. If the norm is especially powerful with emotional overtones, the group may
even resort to physical coercion.

Group Cohesiveness
Rensis Likert has defined cohesiveness as, “the attractiveness of the members to
the group or resistance of the members to leaving it”. It refers to the attachment of
members with the group. According to K. Aswathappa, “cohesiveness is understood as
the extent of liking each member has towards others and how far everyone wants to
remain as the member of the group”. Attractiveness is the key to cohesiveness.
Cohesiveness is the extent to which group members are loyal and committed to the group
and to each other. In a highly cohesive group, the members work well together, support
and trust one another and are generally effective at achieving their chosen goal.
A group that lacks cohesiveness will not be very much coordinated. Its members
will not support one another and they may face difficulty in reaching their goals.
Managers should develop an understanding of the factors that increase and reduce
group cohesiveness and accordingly manipulate the factors which could help achieve
group cohesiveness.
Advantages of Group Cohesiveness
1. The members of cohesive groups have high morale.
2. They don’t have conflicting views, hence decrease in conflicts among the group
members at the workplace or elsewhere.
3. People of cohesive groups have no anxiety at the workplace.
4. Members of cohesive groups are regular at their work.
5. Cohesiveness increases productivity.
6. Organisations gain from the members of cohesive group because they communicate
better, they share ideologies and respect opinions of fellow employees.
The following factors can increase group cohesiveness:
 • Competitiveness with other groups
• Inter-personal attraction
• Favourable evaluation from outsiders
• Agreement on goals
• Frequent interaction
The following factors decrease cohesiveness:
• Large group size
• Disagreement on goals
• Competitiveness within group
• Domination by one or more members
• Unpleasant experiences
Group cohesiveness create an environment of cooperation resulting into benefits to
the organisation in the form of increased productivity, low employee turnover,
absenteeism etc.

Review Questions:
1. Define group. What are the different types of group?
2. What are group norms? Why group norms are needed?
3. What is group cohesiveness? How to increase group cohesiveness?

  
 LESSON - 12
GROUP CONFLICT
Learning Objectives
After reading this lesson, you should be able to understand:
• Conceptual clarity about nature and levels of conflicts
• Sources and effects of conflicts
• Managing conflicts

Conflict arises from disagreements over the goals to attain or the methods used to
accomplish these goals. An organisation is an interlocking network of groups,
departments, sections or work teams. In organisations everywhere, conflict among
different interests is inevitable, and sometimes the amount of conflict is substantial. One
survey reported that mangers spend an estimated 20 percent of their time dealing with
conflict. The success of the organisation as a whole depends upon the harmonial relations
among all independent groups, even though some inter-group conflict in organisations is
inevitable. Managers may be either direct participants or mediators trying to resolve
conflict between two or more of their employees. In either case, knowledge and
understanding of conflict and the methods of resolving it are important.
Inter-group conflicts generally do not emerge out of irrationality, instead they
result from the ways in which organisations co-ordinate the work of different groups and
distribute rewards among those groups.

Levels of Conflict
1. Intrapersonal Conflict: Conflict can occur within an employee, between individuals
or groups, and across organisations due to competing roles taken.
2. Interpersonal Conflict: Interpersonal conflicts are a serious problem to many people
because they deeply affect a person’s emotions. There is a need to protect one’s self-
image and self-esteem from damage by others.
3. Intergroup Conflict: Intergroup Conflict occurs between different departments. The
conflict occurs when one party perceives that another party has frustrated, or is about
to frustrate, the accomplishment of a goal. Conflict is not limited to interacting
groups; it also occurs within groups, between individuals and between organisations.
One way to view conflict is to consider it as a sequence of episodes. The sequence
is as follows:
♦ Latent Conflict: This is the time when the conditions for conflict exist: two
groups competing for scarce resources, for example.
 ♦ Perceived Conflict: This is the time when group members realise that there is
conflict between groups.
♦ Felt Conflict: This occurs when members involved feel tense or anxious.
♦ Manifest Conflict: This exists when behaviours clearly demonstrate that one
group is attempting to frustrate another group.
♦ Conflict Aftermath: This is the situation after the conflict is minimised or
eliminated.
Since conflict can progress to the manifest stage, it can have dysfunctional
consequences for organisations and individuals. Conflict can arouse emotions and
anxiety, lower satisfaction and decrease performance. Managers much solve the conflict
and get groups once again working cooperatively toward the accomplishment of
organisational and individual goals. If the groups are working on interdependent tasks,
coordination of the groups and the effectiveness with which they work together are
crucial managerial issues. The relationships among groups can become so antagonistic
and disruptive and the entire flow of production is slowed or even stopped.
Reasons for Conflict
There are many reasons for conflict among groups. Some of the more important
ones relate to limited resources, communication problems, differences in interests and
goals, different perceptions and attitudes, and lack of clarity about responsibilities.
Communication Problems
Groups often become very involved with their own areas of responsibility. They
tend to develop their own unique vocabulary. Paying attention to an area of
responsibility is a worthy endeavour, but it can result in communication problems. The
receiver of information should be considered when a group communicates an idea, a
proposal, or a decision. Misinformed receivers often become irritated and then hostile.
Incompatible Goals
Inter-group conflict arises because of goal incompatibility, that is, goal attainment
by one group may prevent or reduce the level of goal attainment by one or more other
groups. Quite often this is due to horizontal differentiation and task specialisation. The
conflict between production and marketing departments, line and staff departments, union
and management are few examples of inter-group conflicts arise because of
incompatibility of goals.
Task Interdependence
Task interdependence means the amount of reliance a work group has to put on
other organisational units to complete its projects. In simple words, it refers to the
dependence of one group on another for resources or information. It can be said in
general that as interdependence increases, the potential for conflict increases.
 J. Thompson has identified three types of interdependence among groups: pooled,
sequential and reciprocal.
Pooled interdependence occurs when departments have little interaction with each
other but are affected by each others actions. For example, a branch in Delhi does not
need to interact with a branch in Chennai. The only linkage between the two is that they
share financial resources from a common pool and the success of each branch contributes
to the success of the organisation.
In sequential task interdependence, the product (output) of one group becomes the
raw material (input) of another group. In such situations where one unit is unable to
commence its work until the other unit completes its job, the potential for conflict is
greater. Life and staff groups often have conflicts resulting from sequential task
interdependence.
In reciprocal interdependence, both the groups depending upon each other. The
relationship between production department and quality department is the best example
for reciprocal interdependence. Similarly between production and marketing
departments, production department provides the goods to the marketing department to
sell; and the orders and estimates provided by the sales force help determine the volume
to be produced by the production department. Inter-group conflict arises from reciprocal
task interdependence over difference in performance expectations. Each group is
dissatisfied with the quality or quantity of work received from the other group.
Task Ambiguity
Inter-group conflict is also likely to arise when it is not clear which group is
responsible for certain activities. This lack of clarity over job responsibilities is called
task ambiguity, and it frequently leads to hostility between work units.
A good example of task ambiguity leading to inter-group conflict occurs in the
recruitment of new employees - whether it is the personnel department or the specific
functional departments such as marketing or finance, and who is the final authority to
make and execute selection decisions. Task ambiguity often arises when the organisation
is growing quickly or the organisation’s environment is changing rapidly.
Resource Sharing
The relations between two groups can be affected by the degree to which the two
groups draw from a common pool of resources and the degree to which this common
pool of resources is adequate to meet the demands of both the groups. Thus, conflict of
this nature arises because of the difference between aggregate demand and available
resources. Each party to the conflict competes each other, getting a larger share. The
conflict between management and the labour union is the best example. Such conflicts
take place in the quantum of wages, amenities, working conditions and other related
matters.
Difference in Work Orientation:
The ways in which employees go about their work and deal with others vary
widely across functional areas of an organisation. First, functional groups differ in their
time perspectives. For example, R&D scientists have much longer-range goals than
manufacturing groups. Manufacturing is evaluated on how quickly it can turn out high-
quality products while R&D scientists can only be evaluated after a long period of
product development and testing. Second, the goals of different functional groups vary
greatly. The goals of a manufacturing unit are more specific and clear-cut than the goals
of an R&D unit. Third, the inter-personal orientations of people in different
departments also vary.
The greater the differences in goal, time and inter-personal orientation between
two work units, the more likely it is that conflict will arise between the groups when they
have to co-ordinate their work efforts. These differences in work-orientation lead groups
to be frustrated with and to misinterpret, the behaviour of other groups.
Conflicting Reward Systems
Sometimes the ways in which reward systems in organisations are designed create
a situation in which one group can only accomplish its goal at the expense of other
groups. For example, staff departments may be rewarded for cutting costs and personnel
while line departments are rewarded for increasing the amount of products sold or
services provided. To increase the amount of products sold, the line group may have to
depend even more heavily on staff groups such as advertising. However the staff groups
are being rewarded for cutting costs and personnel and providing the types of services
asked for by line groups can prevent them from meeting their own goals. Conflicting
reward systems inevitably result in poor inter-group relations.

Different Perceptions and Attitudes

The attitudes, values and perceptions of members of various group towards each
other can be a cause and a consequence of the nature of their relationship. If the group
relations begin with the attitudes of distrust, competitiveness, secrecy and closed
communications, there is a possibility of various factors of group relationship being
emphasised in a negative way, consequently leading to conflicts.
These causes of conflict are among the more common ones that need to be
managed. The management of inter-group conflict involves determining strategies to
minimise such causes.

Dynamics of Inter-Group Conflict

Changes within Each Group:
When there is inter-group conflict in an organisation, systematic changes occur in
the perceptions, attitudes and behaviours of the participants. They are outlined below:
 1. In the face of an external threat, the group demands more loyalty from individual
members.
2. There is additional pressure for the group to perform at its best.
3. When intergroup conflict is present, it is especially important for a group to able to
respond quickly and in a unified manner to the activities of other groups.
4. The organisation and structure of the work group become more rigid. Co-
ordination of activities is increased, additional rules and procedures are outlined
and enforced and specific responsibilities are allocated to different group members.
5. In the face of an external threat, past differences and difficulties between group
members are forgotten and group cohesiveness increases.

Changes in Relation Between Groups:

The nature of the relationships between groups also changes markedly during inter-
group conflicts. The changes that occur are:
1. There are distortions of perception both about one’s own group and about the other
group.
2. Interaction and communication between groups decrease.

3. There is a shift from a problem-solving orientation toward other group to a win-

lose orientation.
4. There is increased hostility toward the rival group.
Union - Management relationships during contract negotiations illustrate some of
the above dynamics. At these times, it becomes difficult for each side to see anything
positive about the other side; each party emphasizes the good it is doing for its side and
under values the interests of the other side.
Strategies Groups Use to Gain Power
There are several strategies groups can use to gain power in an inter-group conflict
situation. Some of these strategies allow co-operation and sharing between groups; other
strategies are more competitive and increase the power of one group at the expense of
others.
Contracting:
Contracting refers to the negotiation of a quid-pro quo (this for that) agreement
between two groups. Each group makes some concessions to the other so that there can
be some predictability and stability in their relationships. For example, contracting
occurs between labour and management at the time of collective bargaining.
Co-opting:
Co-optation occurs when a group gives some of its leadership positions to
members of other groups or includes them in its policy-making committees. For
example, representatives from financial institutions are included in the Board of Directors
of a Company to blunt any criticism from them.
Forming Coalitions:
In forming a coalition, two or more groups co-operate or combine their resources
in order to increase their power over groups not in their coalition. It is an interesting mix
of co-operating and competition; member groups co-operate with each other in order to
compete more effectively with non-members.
Influencing Decision Criteria:
Groups can exert power to evolve rational criteria that are selected as the basis for
resource distribution.
Controlling Information:
Gaining access to sensitive information and then limiting other group’s access to it
increases the power of the information-rich group vis-a-vis other subunits.
Pressure Tactics:
Pressure tactics to force others to give in represent the most competitive or hostile
strategy a group can use to gain power. For instance, a union might threaten a strike to
give pressure to management; similarly might make non-negotiable, final offers to the
union.
Management reaction to disruptive intergroup conflict can take many different
forms. But management usually will first try to minimise the conflict indirectly, and if
this fails, become directly involved.

Managing Intergroup Conflict Indirectly

Initially, managers often avoid direct approaches to solving conflict among
groups. Unfortunately, avoidance does not always minimise the problem. Matters get
worse because nothing is being done, and the groups become more antagonistic and
hostile.
Another indirect strategy is to encourage the groups to meet and discuss their
differences and to work out a solution without management involvement. This strategy
can take the form of bargaining, persuasion, or working on a problem together.
Bargaining involves having the groups agree about what each will get and give to
the other. For example, one group may agree to give another group quick turn around
time on the repairs of needed equipment if the second group agrees to bring complaints
about the quality of repairs to it before going to management. Bargaining between two
groups is successful if both groups are better off after an agreement has been reached.
 Persuasion involves having the groups find areas of common interest. The groups
attempt to find points of agreement and to show how these are important to each of the
groups in attaining organisational goals. Persuasion is possible if clashes between group
leaders do not exist.
A problem can be an obstacle to a goal. For groups to minimise their conflicts
through problem-solving, they must agree at least generally on the goal. If there is
agreement, then the groups can propose alternative solutions that satisfy all parties
involved.

Managing Inter-Group Conflict Directly

Ignoring the Conflict:
Ignoring the conflict is characterised by the absence of behaviour; the executive
avoids dealing with the dysfunctional aspects of the conflict. The executive simply
refuse to listen to attacks of one group on the other. Quiet often, executives who utilise
this strategy disregard the causes of the conflict and as a result, the conflict situation
frequently continues or gets worse over time.
In some circumstances, this strategy is a reasonable way of dealing with problems.
One such circumstance occurs when the conflict issue is trivial.
Domination by the Management:
To improve inter-group relations, greater integration or collaboration among
groups must occur. Various strategies can be used effectively to increase integration.
Management can use domination to minimise conflict by exercising its authority and
requiring that a problem be solved by a specific date.
Removing the Key Figures in the Conflict:
Another direct approach is to remove the key figures in the conflict. If a conflict
arises because of personality differences between two individuals, removing them is a
possible solution. This approach has three problems. First, the key figures who are to be
removed may be leaders of the groups and removing them could lead to greater conflict.
Second, it is difficult to pinpoint accurately whether the individuals in conflict are at odds
because they represent their groups. Third, removal may create martyrs.
Problem Solving:
Management also can establish a task force with representatives from groups in
conflict to work on problems. The task force will develop ideas and procedures for
improving group interaction to be presented to their groups.
Appealing to Super-ordinate Goals:
 A final direct strategy to minimise conflict is to find superordinate goals. These
are goals desired by two or more groups that can only be accomplished through the
cooperation of the groups. When conflicting groups have to cooperate to accomplish a
goal, conflict can be minimised. For example, a company-wide profit-sharing plan may
encourage groups to work together. If company profits are distributed among employees
at the end of the year, conflict among groups can reduce the amount of profit that each
employee receives. Thus, the superordinate goal, generating profit, may take precedence
over group conflict.
The following are the cardinal principles for managers to manage the conflict in
organisations more effectively:
1. The assignment and co-ordination of work activities among groups should be clarified
so that daily frictions over minor issues can be avoided.
2. Managers should monitor reward systems to eliminate any win-lose conflicts they
might be inducing inadvertently among groups.
3. The use of co-operative strategies among groups in organisations often leads to more
positive results than does the use of competitive strategies.
4. The use of avoidance and defusion as conflict resolution strategies is generally
ineffective because neither strategy addresses the key sources of the conflict.
5. Managers can establish rules and standard procedures to regulate conflict in more
constructive ways.
6. When high-quality decisions and solutions are needed, top managers should sustain
constructive confrontation between the groups.

Review Questions:
1. What is meant by the term “inter-group conflict”?
2. What are the sources of inter-group conflict?
3. Explain any four types of inter-group conflict resolution strategies.
  
 LESSON - 13
ORGANISATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS
Learning Objectives
After reading this lesson, you should be able to understand:
• The meaning, importance of communication
• Communication process
• Types organisational communication
• The barriers and method of overcoming barriers to effective communication

Communication is one of the most frequently discussed dynamics in the entire

field of organisational behaviour. In practice, effective communication is a basic
prerequisite for the attainment of organisational goals. Therefore, communication is
considered to be the most important and most effective ingredient of the management
process. Interpersonal communication is fundamental to all managerial activities. All
other management functions involve communication in some form of directions and
feedback. Thus effective management is a function of effective communication.

Definition of Communication
In modern society the term communication is frequently and freely used by
everyone, including members of the general public, organisational behaviour scholars,
and management practitioners.
Communication is the process of transmitting information from one person to
another. Broadly, it means who says what, to whom, through which channel and with
what effect. It is a way of reacting others with ideas, facts, thoughts, feelings and values.
Communications experts emphasises the behavioural implications of communication by
pointing out that “the only means by which one person can influence another is by the
behaviours he performs – that is, the communicative exchanges between people provide
the sole method by which influence or effects can be achieved”. In other words, the
behaviours that occur in an organisation are vital to the communication process. This
personal and behavioural exchange view of communication takes may forms.
The continuum in the following figure can be used to identify the major categories
of communication that are especially relevant to the study of organisational behaviour.
 The Continuum of Communication in Organisational Behaviour

Communication Interpersonal Non-verbal

Technology Communication Communication

Objectives of Communication
Management depends upon communication to achieve organisational objectives.
Since managers work with and through other people, all their acts, policies, rules, orders
and procedures must pass through some kind of communication channel. Also there must
be channel of communication for feedback. Accordingly, some of the purposes of
communication are:
 To discourage the spread of misinformation, ambiguity and rumors which can
cause conflict and tension.
 To foster any attitude which is necessary for motivation, cooperation and job
satisfaction.
 To develop information and understanding among all workers and this is
necessary for group effort.
 To prepare workers for a change in methods of environment by giving them
necessary information in advance.
 To encourage subordinates to supply ideas and suggestions for improving upon
the product or work environment and taking these suggestions seriously.
 To improve labour-management relations by keeping the communications
channels open and accessible.
 To encourage social relations among workers by encouraging inter-
communication. This would satisfy the basic human need for a sense of
belonging and friendship.

Importance of Communication
Inter-personal roles require managers to interact with supervisors, sub-ordinates,
peers and others outside the organisation. Thus, for co-ordinated action, communication
is necessary. Communication transforms a group of unrelated individuals into a team that
knows what its goals are and how it will try to reach them.
Communication allows people to co-ordinate by providing them with a way to
share information. The first type of information that needs to be shared is what the goals
of the organisations are. People need to know where they are heading and why. They
also need directions for their specific tasks.
Communication is especially important for the task of decision-making.
Decision-makers must share their views on what the problem is and what the alternatives
are. Once a decision has been made, communication is necessary to implement the
decision and to evaluate its results.
Changes in market or in customer preferences can lead to uncertainity about
whether a product or a marketing strategy needs to be updated or overhauled. The
uncertainity resulted from a lack of information, can be reduced by communicating that
information. Market researchers, for example, can communicate with other groups about
changes in market place. The greater the uncertainity about a task, the more important
the communication of information becomes.
Communication also allows people to express their emotions. Communication of
feelings can be very important to employee morale and productivity. Employees who
feel that they cannot vent their anger or express their joy on the job may feel frustrated
and repressed.
On any given day, a manager may communicate for all the purposes described
above. Communication goes up, down and across the levels of the organisation’s
hierarchy.

Communication Process
The following figure presents a general way to view the communication process -
as a loop between the source and the receiver. In the simplest kind of communication,
both the sender and the receiver perform the encoding and decoding functions
automatically.
Sending

Encoding Transmission
Decoding
(through channels)

Source/ Noise
Sender Receiver

Decoding Transmission Encoding

 Feedback

Source/Sender:
The communication cycle begins when one person (called the sender) wants to
transmit meaning - a fact, idea, opinion or other information - to someone else. A
manager, for instance, might call the research department to send the latest information
on a particular market.
Encoding:
The second step is to encode the message into a form appropriate to the situation.
The encoding might take the form of words, facial expressions, gestures, and physical
actions and symbols like numbers, pictures, graphs etc. Indeed, most communication
involves a combination of these. The encoding process is influenced by the content of
the message, the familiarity of the sender and receiver and other situational factors.
Transmission:
After the message has been encoded, it is transmitted through the appropriate
channel or medium. Common channels or media in organisations include face-to-face
communication (using the media of sound waves, light etc.), letters, reports etc. (The
channel by which an encoded message is being transmitted to you at this moment is the
printed page).
Decoding:
The person to whom the message is sent (the receiver) interprets the meaning of
the message through the process of decoding. This process may be simple and automatic,
but it can also be quite complex. Even when you are just reading a letter, you may need
to use all your knowledge of the language, your experience with the letter-writer and so
on. If the intended message and the received message differ a great deal, communication
has broken down (communication gap) and misunderstanding is likely to follow.
Receiver:
The receiver can be an individual, a group, or an individual acting on behalf of a
group. The sender has generally little control over how the receiver will deal with the
message. The receiver may ignore it, decide not to try to decode or understand it or
respond immediately. The communication cycle continues when the receiver responds
by the same steps back to the original sender, which is called ‘feedback’.
Noise:
In the communication process, noise takes on a meaning slightly different from its
usual one. Noise refers to any type of disturbance that reduces the clearness of the
message being transmitted. Thus, it might be something that keeps the receiver from
paying close attention such as someone coughing. Other people talking closely, a car
driving by etc. It can be a disruption such as disturbance in a telephone line, weak signal
due to bad weather etc. It can also be internal to the receiver such as tiredness or hunger
or minor ailments which may affect the message.

Methods of Communication
There are mainly three primary methods of communicating in organisations, i.e.
written, oral, and non-verbal. Often the methods are combined. Considerations that
affect the choice of method include the audience (whether it is physically present), the
nature of the message (its urgency or secrecy), and the cost of transmission. The figure
given below shows various forms each method can take.

Methods of Communication in Organisations

Written
Letters
Memos Oral
Reports
Manuals Informal Conversations
Forms Task-related exchanges
Group Discussions
Formal Speeches
Non-Verbal
Human Elements:
Facial expressions
Body language
Environmental Elements:
Office design
Building architecture

Typically organisations produce a great deal of written communication of many

kinds. A letter is a formal means of communicating with an individual, generally
someone outside the organisation. Probably the most common form of written
communication in organisations is the office memorandum, or memo. Memos usually
are addressed to a person or group inside the organisation. They tend to deal with a
single topic and are more impersonal, but less formal than letters. Other common forms
of written communication include reports, manuals and forms. Reports generally
summarise the progress or results of a project and often provide information to be used in
decision-making. Manuals have various functions in organisations. Instruction manuals
tell employees how to operate machines; policy and procedures manuals inform them of
organisational rules; operations manual describe how to perform tasks ad respond to
work-related problems. Forms are standardised documents on which to report
information. As such, they represent attempts to make communication more efficient
and information more accessible. A performance appraisal form is an example.

Oral Communication
Oral communication, also known as face-to-face communication is the most
prevalent form of organisational communication. It may be in the form of direct talk and
conversation between the speakers and listeners when they are physically present at one
place or through telephone or intercom system conversation. Where one-way
communication is required, then oral communication may include public address system.
Informal rumour mill or grapevine are also popular form of oral communication. It is
most effective for leaders to address the followers via public address system or audio-
visual media. Oral communication is particularly powerful because the receiver not only
hears the content of the message, but also observes the physical gestures associated with
it as well as changes in tone, pitch, speed and volume of the spoken word. The human
voice can impart the message much more forcefully and effectively than the written
words and is an effective way of changing attitudes, beliefs and feelings, since faith, trust
and sincerity can be much better judged in a face-to-face conversation rather than in
written words.
Advantages
Some of the advantages of oral communication are:

It is direct, simple, time saving and least expensive form of communication.

It allows for feedback and spontaneous thinking, so that if the receiver is
unsure of the message, rapid feedback allows for early detection by the sender
so that corrections can be immediately made, if necessary.

Because the message is conveyed instantaneously, it helps in avoiding delays;
red tape and other formalities.

It conveys a personal warmth and friendliness and it develops a sense of
belonging because of these personalised contacts.
Disadvantages
 There is no formal record of communication so that any misunderstood
message cannot be referred back to what was actually said.
 If the verbal message is passed on long the hierarchical chain of command,
then some distortions can occur during the process. The more people the
message must pass through, the greater the potential distortion.
 Lengthy and distant communication cannot be effectively conveyed verbally.
 The receiver may receive the message in his own perception and thus
misunderstand the intent of the message.
 Spontaneous responses may not be carefully thought about.
 The spirit of authority cannot be transmitted effectively in verbal transactions.
 More or less or a different meaning might be conveyed by manner of speaking,
tone of voice and facial expressions.

Written Communication
A written communication is put in writing and is generally in the form of
instructions, letters, memos, formal reports, rules and regulations, policy manuals,
information bulletins and so on. These areas have to be covered in writing for efficient
functioning of the organisation. It is most effective when it is required to communicate
information that requires action in the future and also in situations where communication
is that of general informational nature. It also ensures that every one has the same
information.
Advantages

It serves as evidence of events and proceedings.

It provides a permanency of record for future references. The message can be
stored for an indefinite period of time.

It reduces the likelihood of misunderstanding and misinterpretation. The
written communications are more likely to be well considered, logical and
clear. And the message can be checked for accuracy before it is transmitted.

It can save time when many persons must be contacted at the same time.

It is more reliable for transmitting lengthy statistical data.

It appears formal and authoritative for action.
Disadvantages
 It can be very time-consuming, specially for lengthy reports.
  There is no immediate feedback opportunity to be sure that the receiver has
understood the message.
 Confidential written material may leak out before time, causing disruption in
its effectiveness.
 It leads to excessive formality in personal relations.

Non-verbal Communication
Some of the meaningful communication is conveyed through non-verbal ways.
Even some of the verbal messages are strengthened or diluted by non-verbal expressions.
These non-verbal expressions include facial expressions and physical movement. In
addition, some of the environmental elements such as building and office space can
convey a message about the authority of the person. According to Tipkins and McCarter,
facial expressions can be categorised as:
• Interest-excitement
• Enjoyment-joy
• Surprise-startle
• Distress-anguish
• Fear-terror
• Shame-humiliation
• Contempt-disgust; and
• Anger-rage
Physical movements or body language is known as “kinesics”. A handshake is
probably the most common form of body language and tells a lot about a person’s
disposition. Other examples of body language are tilting of head, folding of arms or
sitting position in a chair.
Our facial expressions can show anger, frustration, arrogance, shyness, fear and
other characteristics that can never be adequately communicated through written word or
through oral communication itself. Some of the other body language symptoms are
shrugging our shoulders for indifference, wink an eye for mischief or intimacy, tap our
fingers on the table for impatience and we slap our forehead for forgetfulness. As far as
environmental elements are concerned, a large office with plush carpeting and expensive
furniture conveys a message of status, power and prestige such as that of a chief
operating officer. On the other hand, a small metal desk on a corner communicates the
status of a low ranking officer in the organisational setting. Accordingly non-verbal
actions have considerable impact on the quality of communication.
Communication Networks:
A communication network is the pattern of information exchange used by the
members of a group.
 When the members of a group communicate mostly with the group leader, a wheel
network develops. When the members of a group are on different levels of the
organisation’s hierarchy, a chain network is likely. Members of a task-force or
committee often develop a circle network of communication with each person
communicating directly to the other members of the task-force. Informal groups that lack
a formal leader often form an all-channel network - that everyone communicates with
everyone else.
Figure: Communication Networks

Subordinate Senior
Manager

Subordinate Manager Subordinate

Manager

Subordinate
Assistant
Manager
WHEEL

Management
Trainee
CHAIN
CIRCLE

Task Force Task Force

Member Member

Task Force Task Force

Member Member
ALL-CHANNEL

Informal Group Informal Group

Member Member

Informal Group Informal Group

Member Member
 The density of the communication refers to the total quantity of communication
among members. The distance between members describes how far a message must
travel to reach the receiver. The ease with which members can communicate with others
is measured by members’ relative freedom to use different paths to communicate.
Members’ commitment to the group’s work is defined by the centrality of the position of
the members. All these provide insight into possible communication problems. For
instance, a group with high density and distance can expect a lot of noise distortion in its
communication, as messages travel a long distance to their receivers.
The following factors influence the formation of communication patterns within small
groups:
1) Type of Task: If the task of the group is simple - a chain or wheel network will
probably arise. For hard tasks, all channel network will arise.
2) The Environment: The environment including the group’s seating arrangement
and meeting place also affects communication patterns. For instance, if members
always sit around a table, then circle network will arise.
3) Group Performance Factors: The group performance factors like group’s size,
composition, norms and cohesiveness also affect the formation of communication
networks. For instance, it is much easier to have an all-channel network in a
group of eight than in a group of eighty.
Managers must make use of all these characteristics and tendencies to help groups
communicate and work most efficiently. A manager who sees that a wheel network is
forming around an experienced, trusted employee may not interfere with the process. If
an assertive but irresponsible employee becomes the hub of such a wheel, the manager
may need to take action. If the manager relies on a group to help make decisions, the
manager may encourage silent group members to speak in order to get the desired
decisions.

Forms of Organisational Communication

Although interpersonal and group forms of communication pertains even at the
broadest organisational levels, they do not sufficiently describe the paths of all messages
transmitted in organisations. Individuals can send and receive messages across whole
organisational levels and departments by means of vertical communication or the
informal communication network. Non-verbal communication is also important and can
be a part of interpersonal, group and organisational communication.
Vertical Communication:
 Vertical communication is communication that flows both up and down the
organisational hierarchy. This communication typically takes place between managers
and their superiors and sub-ordinates.
Upward Communication:
Upward Communication consists of messages moving up the hierarchy from sub-
ordinates to superiors. The content of upward communication usually includes requests,
suggestions or complaints and information the sub-ordinate thinks is of importance to the
superior.
Downward Communication:
Downward Communication consists of messages moving down the hierarchy from
superiors to sub-ordinates. The content of downward communication often includes
directives, assignments, performance feedback and information that the superior thinks is
of value to the sub-ordinate.
Transactional Communication:
Wenburg and Wilmont suggest that instead of communication being “upward” or
“downward” which is inter-communication, it should be “transactional” communication
which is mutual and reciprocal because, “all persons are engaged in sending
(encoding)and receiving (decoding) messages simultaneously. Each person is constantly
sharing in the encoding and decoding process and each person is affecting the other”. In
the transactional process, the communication is not simply the flow of information, but it
develops a personal linkage between the superior and the subordinate.
Informal Communication
Another term for informal communication network is the grapevine. Informal
networks are found in all organisations. It is in the form of gossip in which a person
spreads a message to as many others as possible who may either keep the information to
themselves or pass it on to others. The content of gossip is likely to be personal
information or the information about the organisation itself.
Managers should have some control over the informal network. For example, the
grapevine in an organisation may be carrying harmful information, false information or
politically motivated information. When these kinds of rumours are being spread,
managers may need to intervene. They can hold open meetings and objectively discuss
the issues that are being informally discussed already. They may also issue a clearly
worded memo or report stating the facts and thereby help minimise the damage that the
informal network can do.
Managers can also obtain valuable information from the grapevine and use it for
decision-making.
Other Forms of Communication
One that has become especially popular of late is rather colloquially labelled
“management by wandering around”. The basic idea is that some managers keep in
touch with what’s going on by wandering around and talking with people - sub-ordinates,
customers, dealers and any one else involved with the company in any way. This will
give managers new ideas and a better feel for the entire company.

Barriers to Communication
The communication must be interpreted and understoodinthe same manner as it
was meant to be sent by the sender, otherwise it will not achieve the desired result and a
communication break-down will occur. There are certain external road blocks to
effective communication. In addition, there are personal factors which affect
communication.
Some of the organisational barriers and some of the interpersonal barriers to
effective communication are discussed below:

Noise Barriers
Noise is any external factor which interferes with the effectiveness of
communication. The term is derived from noise or static effects in telephone
conversation or radio wave transmission. It may cause interference in the process of
communication by distraction or by blocking a part of the message or by diluting the
strength of the communication. Some of the sources contributing towards noise factor
are:
(1) Poor Timing
A message sent on poor timing acts as a barrier. For instance, a last minute
communication with a deadline may put too much pressure on the receiver and may result
in resentment. A message must be sent at an appropriate time to avoid these problems.
Hence the manager must know when to communicate.

(2) Inappropriate Channel :

Poor choice of channel of communication can also be contributory to the
misunderstanding of the message. The manager must decide whether the communication
would be most effective if it is in writing or by a telephone call or a face-to-face
conversation or a combination of these modes.
(3) Improper or Inadequate Information :
The information must be meaningful to the employee. It must be precise and to
the point. Too little or too much information endangers effective communication.
Ambiguity in use of words will lead to different interpretations.
(4) Physical Distractions :
Any physical distractions such as telephone interruptions or walk-in visitors can
interfere with the effective face-to-face communication process.
(5) Organisational Structure :
Communication may be blocked, chaotic or distorted if the channels are not clear
or if there are bottlenecks or deadends. Hence the organisation structure should be such
that the chain of command and channels of communication are clearly established and the
responsibility and authority are clearly assigned and are traceable.
(6) Information Overhead :
Overload occurs when individuals receive more information than they are capable
of processing. The result could be confusion or some important information may be laid
aside for the purpose of convenience.
(7) Network Breakdown :
Network breakdown may be intentional or due to information overload and time
pressures under which a communication has to be acted upon. Some factors contributing
to such disruptions are:
 Important negative information may be withheld by the managers.
 The secretary may forget to forward a memo.
 There may be professional jealousy resulting in closed channels.

Interpersonal Barriers
There are many interpersonal barriers that disrupt the effectiveness of the
communication process and generally involve such characteristics of either the sender or
the receiver that cause communication problems. Some of these are:
(1) Filtering :
Filtering refers to intentionally withholding or deliberate manipulation of
information by the sender, either because the sender believes that the receiver does not
need all the information or that the receiver is better off not knowing all aspects of a
given situation. It could also be that the receiver is simply told what he wants to hear.
(2) Semantic Barriers :
These barriers occur due to differences in individual interpretations of words and
symbols. The words and paragraphs must be interpreted with the same meaning as was
intended. The choice of a wrong word or a comma at a wrong place in a sentence can
sometimes alter the meaning of the intended message. For example, a night club
advertisement sign, “clean and decent dancing every night except Sunday”, could lead to
two interpretations. First, that there is no dancing on Sundays and second, that there is
dancing on Sundays, but it not clean and decent.
(3) Perception :
Perception relates to the process through which we receive and interpret
information from our environment and create a meaningful word out of it. Different
people may perceive the same situation differently. Hearing what we want to hear and
ignoring information that conflicts with what we know can totally distort the intent or the
content of the message. Some of the perceptual situations that may distort a manager’s
assessment of people resulting in reduced effectiveness of the communication are:
 A manager may perceive people to belong to one category or another as
stereotypes, rather than unique and distinct individuals. For example, he may
perceive women to be less efficient managers.
 A manager may make total assessment of a person based on a single trait. A
pleasant smile may make a positive first impression.
 A manager may assume that his subordinate’s perception about things and
situations are similar to his own.
This perception limits the manager’s ability to effectively respond to and deal with
individual differences and differing views of work situations.
(4) Cultural Barriers :
The cultural differences can adversely affect the communication effectiveness,
specially for multi-national companies and enterprises.
(5) Sender Credibility :
When the sender of the communication has high credibility in the eyes of the
receiver, the message is taken much more seriously and accepted at face value. If the
receiver has confidence, trust and respect for the sender, then the decoding and the
interpretations of the message will lead to a meaning of sender. Conversely, if the sender
is not trusted, then the receiver will scrutinise the message heavily and deliberately look
for hidden meanings or tricks and may end up distorting the entire message. Similarly, if
the source is believed to be an expert in a particular field then the listener may pay close
attention to the message, and believe it specially if the message is related to the field of
expertise.
(6) Emotions :
The interpretation of a communication also depends upon the state of the receiver
at the time when message is received. The same message received when the receiver is
angry, frustrated or depressed may be interpreted differently than when he is happy.
Extreme emotions are most likely to hinder effective communication because rational
judgements are replaced by emotional judgements.
(7) Multi-meaning Words :
Many words in English language have different meanings when used in different
situations. Accordingly, a manager must not assume that a particular word means the
same thing to all people who use it. Hence, the managers must make sure that they use
the word in the same manner as the receiver is expected to understand it, otherwise it will
create a barrier to proper understanding of the message.
(8) Feedback Barriers :
The final source of communication barrier is the feedback or lack of it. Feedback
is the only way to ascertain as to how the message was interpreted.

Overcoming Communication Barriers

It is very important for the management to recognise and overcome barriers to
effective communication for operational optimisation and this would involve diagnosing
and analysing situations, designing proper messages, selecting appropriate channels for
communicating these messages, assisting receivers of messages in correct decoding and
interpretation and providing an efficient and effective feedback system. Some of the
steps that can be taken in this respect are as follows:
1. Feedback: Feedback helps to reduce misunderstandings. The information is
transferred more accurately when the receiver is given the opportunity to ask for
clarifications and answer to any questions about the message. Two-way
communication, even though more time-consuming, avoids distrust and leads to trust
and openness which builds a healthy relationship contributing to communication
effectiveness.
2. Improve Listening Skills: Good listening habits lead to better understanding and
good relationships with each other. Some guidelines for effective listening are:
• Listening requires full attention to the speaker. Do not let your mind wander
or be preoccupied with something else, otherwise you would not be able to
grasp the meaning of the message in its entirety.
• The language used, tone of the voice and emotions should receive proper
attention. Listen for feelings in the message content and respond positively to
these feelings.
• Ask questions to clarify any points that you do not understand clearly and
reflect back to the speaker your understanding of what has been said.
• Make sure that there are no outside interruptions and interference during the
course of conversation.
• Do not prejudice or value the importance of the message due to your previous
dealings and experiences with the sender or your perceptions about him,
positive or negative.
• Don’t jump to conclusions before the message is over and is clearly
understood.
 • Summarise and restate the message after it is over to make sure about the
content and the intent of the message.
3. Develop Writing Skills: Clearly written messages can help avoid semantic and
perception barriers. A well written communication eliminates the possibility of
misunderstanding and misinterpretation. When writing message it is necessary to be
precise thus making the meaning as clear as possible so that it accomplishes the
desired purpose. Some helpful hints in written communication are suggested by
Robert Degise as follows:
 Keep words simple: This will reduce your thoughts to essentials and the
message will be easier to understand by the receiver. The message will be lost
if the words are complex and do not lend to a clear single meaning.
 Do not be bogged down by rules of composition. While the rules of grammar
and composition must be respected, they should not take priority over the
ultimate purpose of the communication.
 Write concisely: Use a few words as possible. Do not be brief at the cost of
completeness, but express your thoughts, opinions and ideas in the fewest
number of words possible.
 In specific: Vagueness destroys accuracy which leads to misunderstanding of
the meaning or intent of the message. Accordingly, be specific and to the
point.
4. Avoid Credibility Gaps: Communication is a continuing process and the goal of the
communication is complete understanding of the message as well as the creation of
trust among all members of the organisation. Accordingly, the management must be
sincere and should earn the trust of the subordinates. Management should not only be
sensitive to the needs and feelings of workers but also its promises should be
supported by actions. According to studies conducted by J. Luft, openness and an
atmosphere of trust builds healthy relationship and closes credibility gaps, thus
contributing to communication effectiveness.

Guidelines for Effective Communication

These guidelines are designed to help management improve their skills in
communicating so as not only avoid any barriers to effective communication, but also to
strengthen the basis for optimum results which depend upon the clear understanding of
the desired communication.
1. The Ideas and Messages should be Clear, Brief and Precise
The ideas to be communicated must be well planned and clearly identified. This
will eliminate ambiguity so that the message will not be subject to more than one
interpretation. The message must be clear, precise and to the point and free from
distortions and noise. It should also be clear, precise and to the point and free from
distortions and noise. It should also be brief so that it is just necessary and sufficient and
should avoid loose ends or meaningless and unnecessary words.
2. Sense of Timing
The message should not only be timely so that the decisions and actions can be
taken in tie and when necessary, but also the timing of the message and the
environmental setting in which the message is delivered and received is equally
important.
3. Integrity
The communication must pass through the proper channels to reach the intended
receiver. The communication flow and its spread must avoid bypassing levels or people.
When these concerned levels are omitted or bypassed, it creates bickering, distrust,
confusion and conflict. Accordingly, the established channels must be used as required.
4. Consult with others who are involved in Planning the Communication
If people have participated in the planning process, they would be highly
motivated to give active support to such communication and would carry it through. The
people who are concerned must know exactly what they need and when they need the
communication.
5. Consider the Receiver’s Interest
Take the receivers interests into account, then the receiver will be more responsive
to the communication. The management must clarify any part of the communication that
may be necessary and must encourage comments, questions, and feedback. The
management must always be helpful in carrying out the intended message of the
communication.
6. Mode of Delivery
While delivering the communication, avoid negative statements like, “I am not
sure it will work”, but be confident and definitive. The success of the communication
also depends upon the tone of the voice if the communication is verbal, expressions and
emotions exhibited, attentiveness to the receiver and so on. The written communication
should be polite and unambiguous.

7. Use proper Follow-up

All communications need a follow-up to ensure that these were properly
understood and carried out. The response and feedback to the communication should
determine whether the action to the communication has been prompt, appropriate and
accurate.
8. Communication should be Comprehensive
 Communication should be complete so as not only to meet the demands of today
but, should also be based on future needs of the organisation as well as individuals.
Recently, the nature of managerial and organisational communication has changed
dramatically, mainly because of break through the electronic technology and advent of
computers. Now cellular phones, E-Mail and Internet have made the communication
quick and convenient. It is now even possible for managers from different cities to
‘meet’ by teleconferencing method without leaving their offices. At the sametime,
psychologists are beginning to discover some problems associates with these new
advances in communication.

Review Questions
1. Define communication and bring out the importance of organisational
communications.
2. What are the steps in communication process?
3. What are the different types of communication?
4. Identify the barriers to effective communication and discuss how they can be
overcome?

  
 LESSON - 14
LEADERSHIP IN ORGANISATIONS
Learning Objectives
After reading this lesson, you should be able to understand:
• The meaning and importance of leadership
• The various styles and theories of leadership
• The importance of leadership in work organisations

Leadership provides direction, guidance, restores confidence and makes the way
easy for achieving the objectives. In business and industrial organisation managers play
the role of leader and acquire leadership of subordinates, their efforts towards the
achievement of organisational goals. Leadership is an integral part of management and
plays a vital role in managerial operations. Leader activates the people. He makes them
work. Leadership influences behaviour of the people. Leadership has the ability to
attract others and cause them to follow. It is a role individual plays in a group at a given
time. Leadership acquires dominance and the followers accept his directives and control.
Leadership provides direction and vision for future.

Definition
Leadership may be defined as the art of influencing and inspiring subordinates to
perform their duties willingly, competently and enthusiastically for achievement of
groups objectives.
Wendell French has defined leadership as, “the process of influencing the
behaviour of others in the direction of a goal or set of goals or, more broadly, toward a
vision of the future”.
According to Keith Davis, “Leadership is the process of encouraging and helping
others to work enthusiastically towards objectives”.
Koontz and O’Donnell defined leadership as, “influence, the art or process of
influencing people so that they will strive willingly towards the achievement of group
goals”.
Peter Drucker defined leadership as, “the lifting of man’s visions to higher sights,
the raising of man’s performance to higher standard, the building of man’s personality
beyond its normal limitations”.
According to Grey and Starke, “Leadership is both a process and a property. As a
process, it is use of non-coercive influence to shape the goals of a group or organisation,
to motivate behaviour toward the achievement of those goals and to help define group or
organisation culture. As a property, leadership is the set of characteristics attributed to
those who are perceived to be leaders”. Thus, leaders are people who are able to
influence the behaviour of others without having to rely on threats or other forms of
force. Importantly, leaders are people whom others accept as leaders.
Thus the essence of leadership are:
1. Leadership is the process of influencing behaviour of others.
2. Leadership uses non-coercive method to direct and coordinate the activities of
the members.
3. Leadership directs the people to attain some goal.
4. Leadership occupies a role for a given time and for a group.
5. A leader possesses qualities to influence others.
6. Leadership gives people a vision for future.
7. It is a group activity. Leader influences his followers and followers also
exercise influence over his leader. Leadership interacts.
8. Leadership is meant for a given situation.
9. Leadership is continuous process of influencing behaviour. It instills
dynamism in the group.
10. It is a psychological process and multi-dimensional in character.

Importance of Leadership
An effective leadership must perform the following functions:
A leader should act as a friend, philosopher and guide to the people whom he is
leading.
He must have the capacity to recognise their potentialities and transform them
into realities.
A leader should win the confidence of his people.
He must be able to unite the people as a team and build up team spirit.
He maintains discipline among his group and develops a sense of
responsibility.
He must build up a high morale among his people.
He should motivate his people to achieve goals.
He should try to raise high moral and ethical standards among his people.
He should act as a link between the work groups and the forces outside the
organisation.
Differences between Leadership and Management
Leading and managing go together but some differences exist between the two.
The following are the difference between the two:
1. Management takes rational decisions, while leadership takes decision on
moods and expectations of the followers. Leadership has an emotional appeal,
while management acts on rationality.
2. Management establishes relationship through legitimate authority, while
leadership establishes relationship through power.
3. Managers have formal authority, but leaders have no such authority.
4. All leaders are not managers and all managers are not leaders.
5. Management is a process of planning, organising, directing and controlling the
activities of others to attain organisational objectives. Leadership on the other
hand, is a process of influencing the behaviour of the people to attain their
shared goals.
A successful manager must possess both the managerial and leadership qualities.

Styles of Leadership
The following are the main leadership styles:
1. Autocratic or Authoritarian Style :
Under this style of leadership there is complete centralisation of authority in the
leader, i.e. authority is centered in the leader himself. He has all the powers to make
decisions. He uses coercive measures. He adopts negative method of motivation. He
wants immediate obedience of his orders and instructions. Any breach on the part of
subordinates invites punishment. There is no participation from the subordinates in
decision-making. Leader thinks that he is the only competent person. He gets tasks
completed on time.
Edwin B. Flippo has divided autocratic style of leadership into following three
sub-heads:
(a) Hard Boiled or Strict Autocrat: This type of leader uses negative influence and
expects that his orders should be obeyed by the employees immediately. Non-
compliance of his orders invites punishment. He makes all decisions and does not
reveal anything to anyone. He is quite rigid on performance.
(b) Benevolent Autocrat: Benevolent Autocrat leader uses positive influences and
develops effective human relations. He is known as paternalistic leader. He showers
praise on his employees if they followed his orders and invites them to get the
solutions of the problems from him. He assumes the status of a parent. He feels
happy in controlling all the actions of his subordinates. He takes all the decisions and
does not want any interference from anyone.
(c) Manipulate Autocrat: This leader is manipulative by nature and creates a feeling in
the minds of his subordinates and workers that they are participating in decision-
making process. But he only makes all decisions by himself. Non-compliance of his
orders invites punishment.
2. Democratic or Participative Style
Democratic or Participative style of leadership is also known as group centered or
consultative leadership. Under this style leaders consult the group and solicit their
opinion and participation from the following in decision-making process. Leaders under
this style encourage discussion by the group members on the problem under
consideration and arrive at a decision by consensus. Two-way communication channel is
used. Participation or involvement in decision-making process is rewarded. Under this
style positive motivation techniques are used. Exchange of ideas among subordinates
and with the leader is given encouragement. Human values get their due recognition.
Leaders give more freedom to their subordinates.
Under this style subordinates feel that their opinions are honoured and they are
given importance. It develops a sense of confidence among subordinates and they derive
job satisfaction. It improves quality of decision as it is taken after due consideration to
valued opinions of the talented subordinates.
The demerits of this style of leadership is that it takes more time to arrive at a
decision. Leader has to waste lot of time in pursuing subordinates. If employees refuse
to work as a team with other members of the group renders the style of leadership
ineffective.
3. Laissez-faire or Free Rein Style
There is virtual absence of direct leadership under this style of leadership. It is,
therefore, known as “no leadership at all”. There is complete delegation of authority to
subordinates so that they can make decisions by themselves. Absence of leadership may
have positive and sometimes negative effects. Free rein leadership may be effective if
members of the group are highly committed. The negative aspect creates blemishes on
the leader himself because of his incompetency in leading his people. It casts aspersions
on the leader. Members feel insecure and develop frustration for lack of specific
decision-making authority.
4. Bureaucratic Style
This style of leadership centres round the rules. The behaviour of leader is
determined by rules, regulations and procedure under his leadership. These rules and
regulations are followed by the leader and the subordinates both. No one can escape.
Hence, the management and administration has become a routine matter. This is
apathetic to the employees because they know that they cannot do anything in this regard.
It is the rules that determine their minimum performance.
5. Manipulative Style
 This leader style manipulates the employees to attain his objectives. Manipulative
leader is quite selfish and exploits the aspirations of the employees for his gains. He
knows very well the needs and desires of the employees but he does very little to fulfil
them. He views these needs and desires as a tool to fulfil his aims. He had to face the
resentment of the employees at times.
6. Paternalistic Style
The paternalistic style of leadership believes in the concept that the happy
employees work better and harder and maintains that the fatherly attitude is the right one
for better relationship between the manager and the employees. All are working together
like a family.
7. Expert Leadership Style
The expert leadership style emerged as a result of complex structure of modern
organisations. The leadership is based on the ability, knowledge and competence of the
leader. He handles the situation skillfully with his talent. The employees feel relieved as
they are working under a person who is expert and can handle the situation ably without
any problem.
In modern organisations not one kind and type of people are employed but a
human resources with different varieties of skill, knowledge and competences are
acquired. They differ in quality, determination and their attitude towards the
organisation. They exhibit different behaviours as they differ in attitude and outlook
also. The leader must understand their behaviour and accordingly can make use of the
various styles of leadership. The manager should assess the situation and adopt that style
of leadership which suits the most at that time. He should remember that leadership is
situational. If situation changes, the style of leadership should also change. The
successful manager leader is one who assess the situation, studies the psychology of the
subordinates and adopts the most useful style of leadership to lead the people at work to
accomplish the organisational goals.

Theories of Leadership
A number of theories and approaches to study leadership have been developed.
There are broadly three theories of leadership.
1. Trait Theory
2. Behaviour Theory
3. Contingency Theory
1. Trait Theory
This approach to studying leadership attempted to analyse the personal,
psychological and physical traits of strong leaders. The underlying assumption was that
some basic trait or set of traits differentiates leaders from non-leaders. For example, the
leadership traits might include intelligence, assertiveness, above-average height, self-
confidence, initiative and understanding of interpersonal human relations. The existence
of these traits became a measure of leadership. It holds that possession of these traits
permits certain individuals to gain possession of leadership. Since all individuals do not
have these qualities, only those who have them would be considered potential leaders.
Some of the weakness of this theory are:
all the traits are not identical with regard to essential characteristics of a leader;
some traits can be acquired by training and may not be inherited;
it does not identify the traits that are most important and that are least important in
identifying a successful leader;
it fails to explain the many leadership failures in spite of the required traits;
it has been found that many traits exhibited by leaders are also found among
followers without explaining as to why followers could not become leaders;
it is difficult to define traits in absolute terms.
Thus, the trait theory has been criticised for lack of conclusiveness, predictability
and over simplification.
2. Behaviour Theory
The behavioural theory assumed that effective leaders behaved differently from
ineffective leaders. It also attempted to identify the consistent patterns of behaviour of
good leaders.
The Michigan Studies:
Researchers at the University of Michigan, led by Rensis Likert, began studying
leadership in the late 1940s. Based on extensive interviews with both managers and sub-
ordinates, the Michigan studies identified two forms of leader behaviour. The first was
called job-centered leader behaviour which focuses on performance and efficient
completion of the task. A job-centered leader is likely to interact with group members
only to explain task procedures and oversee their work. The second behaviour was
identified as employee centered leader behaviour which focuses on high performance
standards which are accomplished by developing a cohesive work group and ensuring
that employees are satisfied with their jobs. Thus, the leader’s primary concern is the
welfare of the sub-ordinates. The Michagan researchers thought a leader could exhibit
one kind of behaviour, but not both. The two styles of leadership were presumed to lie at
opposite ends of a single continuum.
The Ohio State Studies:
At about the same time, a group of researchers at Ohio State also began studying
leadership. The Ohio State leadership studies also identified two major kinds of
leadership behaviours or styles: initiating-structure behaviour and consideration
behaviour.
In initiating-structure behaviour, the leader clearly defines the leader-subordinate
role so that everyone knows what is expected; the leader also establishes formal lines of
communication and determines how tasks will be performed.
In consideration-behaviour, the leader shows concern for sub-ordinates feeling’s
and ideas and attempts to establish a warm, friendly and supportive climate. Two-way
communication, trust and respect characterise relationship between considerate leaders
and their sub-ordinates.
The most obvious difference between Michigan and Ohio State studies is that the
Ohio State researchers did not position their two forms of leader behaviour at opposite
ends of a single continuum. Rather, they assumed the behaviours to be independent
variables which means that a leader could exhibit varying degrees of initiating structure
and consideration at the same time i.e. a particular leader could have higher ratings on
both measures, low ratings on both or high ratings on one and low on the other.
The Ohio State researchers found that a particular leader’s behaviour stayed fairly
consistent overtime, so long as the situation remained relatively constant. But the
researchers could not come up with a single best combination of initiating-structure and
consideration behaviour suitable to all the situations. At first the researchers believed
that leaders high in both types of behaviours would be most effective. However, their
studies at International Harvester found that leaders rated highly on initiating-structure
behaviour tended to have productive but dissatisfied sub-ordinates whereas leaders rated
highly on consideration had lower-performing sub-ordinates who showed some signs of
higher satisfaction.
Although most experts now agree that no single set of traits or behaviours appears
to be common to all good leaders, the universal approaches to leadership can help
managers examine their own leadership characteristics and match them against the traits
most commonly identified with good leaders. In order to understand the full complexity
of leadership, we have to turn to contingency approaches.
3. Contingency Theory
The main assumption of all contingency approaches is that appropriate leader
behaviour varies from one situation to another. The goal of a contingency theory is to
identify key situational factors and to specify how they interact to determine appropriate
leader behaviour.
The three most important and most widely accepted contingency theories of
leadership are
• the LPC Model;
• the Path-Goal Model; and
 • the Vroom-Yetton-Jago Model
The LPC Model
Fred Fielder’s Least Preferred Co-worker (LPC) Model of leadership was the first
contingency theory of leadership. Fielder identified two styles of leadership: task-
oriented and relationship-oriented. Fielder believes that a leader’s tendency to be task-
oriented or relationship oriented is basically constant. In otherwords, a leader is
presented to be task-oriented or relationship-oriented all of the time.
Fielder used the Least Preferred Co-worker (LPC) scale to measure leader style.
A manager or leader is asked to describe characteristics of the type of person with whom
he or she is able to work least well - the LPC - by marking a set of sixteen scales
anchored at each end by a positive or negative adjective. For example, three of the scales
Fielder uses in the LPC are:
Helpful - - - - - - - - - - Frustrating
87654321
Tense - - - - - - - - - - Relaxed
12345678
Boring - - - - - - - - - - Interesting
12345678

The manager’s LPC score is then calculated by adding up the numbers below the
line checked on each scale. A high total score is assumed to reflect a relationship
orientation and a low score a task orientation on the part of the leader. The LPC measure
is controversial because researchers disagree about its validity. Some of them question
what LPC measure reflects - whether the score is an index of behaviour, personality or
some other unknown factor.
As already noted, the underlying assumption of contingency model of leadership is
that appropriate leader behaviour varies from one situation to another. According to
Fielder, the contingency factor is the favourableness of the situation from the leader’s
point of view. This factor is determined by leader-member relations, task-structure and
position power.
Leader-member relations refers to the nature of relationship between the leader
and his work group. If the leader and the group enjoy mutual trust, respect and
confidence and they like one another, relations are assumed to be good. If there is little
trust, respect or confidence and if they do not like one another, relations are assumed to
be bad. Good relations are assumed to be favourable and bad relations unfavourable.
Task-structure is the degree to which the group’s task is well defined. When the
task is routine, easily understood and unambiguous and when the group has standard
procedures and precedents to rely on, structure is assumed to be high. When the task is
non-routine, ambiguous, complex, with no standard procedures and precedents, structure
is assumed to be low. High structure is more favourable for the leader and low structure
is more unfavourable. If the task structure is low, the leader will have to play a major
role in guiding and directing the group’s activities. If the task structure is high, the leader
will not have to get so involved.
Position power is the power vested in the leader’s position. If the leader has the
power to assign work, administer rewards and punishment, and recommend employees
for promotion or demotion, position power is assumed to be strong. If the leader does not
have required powers, the position power is weak. From the leader’s point of view,
strong position power is favourable and weak position power is unfavourable.
Fielder and his associates conducted numerous studies linking the favourableness
of various situations to leader style and group effectiveness.
When the situation includes good relations, high structure and strong power,
Fielder has found that a task-oriented leader is most effective. However, when relations
are good but task structure is low and position-power is weak, a relationship-oriented
leader is predicted to be most effective.
A final point about LPC theory is that, Fielder argues that a leader’s style, as
measured by the LPC is essentially inflexible and cannot be changed i.e. a leader cannot
change his behaviour to fit a particular situation. When a leader’s style and the situation
do not match, Fielder argues, the situation should be changed to fit the leader’s style.
Fielder’s contingency theory has been criticised on the ground that LPC measure
lacks validity and that the assumption about the inflexibility of the leader behaviour are
unrealistic.

The Path-Goal Model

The path-goal model of leadership was associated with Martin Evans and Robert
House. Path-goal theory asserts that a leader can motivate sub-ordinates by influencing
their expectancies. Leaders can motivate sub-ordinates by making clear what they have
to do (the path) to get the rewards they desire (the goal). The path-goal model assumes
that leaders can change their style or behaviour to meet the demands of a particular
situation. This model identifies four kinds of leader behaviour - directive, supportive,
participative and achievement oriented. According to this model managers can adjust
their behaviour to include any four kinds of leadership behaviour mentioned above. For
instance, when encountering new group of sub-ordinates/ project, the manager may be
‘directive’ in giving guidance and instructions to sub-ordinates. Next he may adopt
‘supportive’ behaviour to foster group cohesiveness, to look after their needs and
ensuring that they get the rewards and benefits. As the group becomes more familiar
with the task and as new problems are encountered, the leader may exhibit ‘participative’
behaviour by which he can participate with employees in making decisions, and take their
suggestions etc. Finally, the leader may use ‘achievement-oriented’ behaviour to
encourage continued high performance of sub-ordinates.
Environmental characteristics are factors outside the sub-ordinate’s control, which
include task structure, the primary work group and the formal authority system. For
instance, when structure is high, directive leadership is less effective than when structure
is low. Sub-ordinates do not usually need their boss to continually tell them how to do an
extremely routine job. According to the path-goal theory, these environmental factors
can create uncertainity for employees. A leader who helps employees reduce such
uncertainity can motivate them.

Path-Goal Model of Leadership

Sub-ordinates Personal
Characteristics

 Perceived ability
 Locus of control

Leader Behaviour
 Directive Sub-ordinates
 Supportive Motivation to
 Participative perform
 Achievement
oriented

Environmental
Characteristics

 Task structure
 Authority system
 Work group

Ofcourse, leaders do not always have control over environmental factors, but the
theory asserts that leaders can use the control they have to adjust the environment to
motivate sub-ordinates.
The Vroom-Yetton-Jago Model (VYJ Model)
The Vroom-Yetton-Jago model was first proposed by Vroom and Yetton in 1973
and was revised by Vroom and Jago in 1988. This model has a much narrower focus
than the path-goal model and it attempts only to help a leader determine the extent to
which employees should participate in the decision-making process.
The VYJ model argues that decision-effectiveness is best gauged by the quality of
decision and by employee acceptance of that decision. Decision quality is the objective
effect of the decision on performance. Decision acceptance is the extent to which
employees accept and are committed to decisions. To maximise decision effectiveness,
the VYJ model suggests that managers adopt one of five decision-making styles. The
appropriate style, in turn, depends on the situation. As summarised in the following
table, there are two autocratic styles (AI and AII), two consultative styles (CI and CII)
and one group style (GII).
Decision-Making Styles in the VYJ Model

Decision Style Description

AI Manager makes the decision alone.

A II Manager asks for information from subordinates but makes the

decision alone. Sub-ordinates may or may not be informed
about what the situation is.

CI Manager shares the situation with individual sub-ordinates and

asks for information and evaluation. Subordinates do not meet
as a group and the manager alone makes the decision.

C II Manager and subordinates meet as a group to discuss the

situation but the manager makes the decision.

C III Manager and subordinates meet as a group to discuss the

situation and the group makes the decision.

A = Autocratic; C = Consultative; G = Group

The situation is defined by a series of questions about the characteristics or

attributes of the problem under consideration. To address the questions, the manager
uses one of the four decision-trees. Two of the trees for use when the problem affects the
entire group (For example, a decision about new office facilities for the entire group) and
the other two are appropriate when the decision affects a single individual (for example, a
new office for that individual).
 Moreover, one of each is to be used when the decision has to be made quickly
(because of some urgency in the situation) and the others are to be used when the
decision can be made more slowly and the manager wants to use the opportunity to
develop sub-ordinates decision-making abilities.
The VYJ model was criticized because of its complexity. Computer software has
been developed to aid managers in defining the situation, answering the questions about
the problem attributes and developing a strategy for decision-making participation.
Although the VYJ model is too new to have been thoroughly tested, evidence so far
indicates that this model can help managers choose the most effective way to involve
sub-ordinates in decision-making.
Other Contingency Approaches
In addition to these three major theories, other contingency models developed in
recent years are vertical-dyad linkage model and the life cycle model.
Vertical Dyad Linkage Model:
This model stresses the fact that leaders actually have different kinds of working
relationship with different subordinates. Each manager-subordinate relationship
represents one vertical dyad. The Vertical Dyad Linkage model suggests that leaders
establish special working relationships with a handful of sub-ordinates based on some
combination of respect, trust and liking. These people constitute the ‘in-group’. Other
subordinates remain in the ‘out-group’, who receive less of manager’s time and attention.
Those in the ‘in-group’ receive more the manager’s time and attention and also tend to be
better performers. Research shows that people in the ‘in-group’ tend to be more
productive and more satisfied with their work than ‘out-group’ members. It is not yet
certain, however, whether in-group status leads employees to be happier and work harder
or whether managers simply choose confident and industrious people for the in-group.
Life Cycle Model:
The life cycle model suggests that appropriate leader behaviour depends on the
maturity of the followers. In this context, maturity includes motivation, competence and
experience. The model suggests that as followers become more mature, the leader needs
to move gradually from high to low task orientation. Simultaneously, the leader’s
employee-oriented behaviour should start low, increase at a moderate rate and then
decline again.
Many managers are familiar with the life cycle theory because it is both simple
and logical. However, it has received little scientific support from researchers.

Emerging Perspectives on Leadership in Organisations

The new perspectives that have attracted attention are the concept of substitutes
for leadership and transformational leadership.
Substitutes for Leadership:
The existing leadership theories and models try to specify what kind of leader
behaviour is appropriate for different situations. They do not account for situations in
which leadership is not needed. The substitute concepts identify situations in which
characteristics of the sub-ordinate, the task and the organisation neutralise or replace
leader behaviours. For example, when a patient is delivered to hospital emergency room,
nurses, doctors and attendants all go into action instantly without waiting directive or
supportive leader behaviour from the leader of the emergency ward.
Several characteristics of the sub-ordinate may serve to neutralise leader
behaviour. For example, employees with much ability and experience may not need to be
told what to do. Similarly, a strong need for independence by the sub-ordinate may
render leader behaviour ineffective. A strong adherence to professional norms may also
neutralise leader behaviour.
Characteristics of the task that may substitute for leadership include routineness,
the availability of feedback and intrinsic satisfaction. When the job is routine and simple,
for example, the subordinate may not need direction. When the task is challenging and
otherwise intrinsically satisfying, the subordinate may not need or want support.
Organisational characteristics that may substitute for leadership include
formalisation, group cohesion, inflexibility and a rigid reward structure. When policies
and practices are formal and rigid, for example, leadership may not be needed.
Transformational Leadership
Another new concept of leadership goes by a number of labels - charismatic
leadership, inspirational leadership, symbolic leadership and transformational leadership.
This is a leadership that transmits a sense of mission, stimulates learning experiences and
inspires new ways of thinking.
Charisma is a form of interpersonal attraction. Charismatic people attract
followers and supporters naturally and this type of leader has great power over his/her
followers. Charismatic leaders tend to be self-confident, sure of their beliefs and ideals
and eager to influence others. The followers of a charismatic leader identify with the
leader’s beliefs, accept, trust and obey the leader without question and become
emotionally involved in contributing to the success of the group’s goals.

Leadership Skills
There is now recognition in both leadership theory and practice of the importance
of skills, how leaders behave and perform effectively. Although there are many skills,
such as cultural flexibility, communication, HRD, creativity, and self-management of
learning, the more research-based skills identified by Whetten and Cameron seem most
valuable. Their personal skills model, involving developing self-awareness, managing
stress, and solving problems creatively, and the interpersonal skills model, involving
communicating supportively, gaining power and influence, motivating others, and
managing conflict, are especially comprehensive and useful. Finally, the ore widely
recognised organisational behaviour techniques such as, training, job design and
behavioural management can also be effectively used by leaders.

Review Questions:
1. Explain trait theory of leadership.
2. Discuss Path-Goal model of leadership.
3. Do you think that you are flexible and able to change your style depending on the
situation?
4. What is transformational leadership?
5. State the skills required for an effective leader.

  
 LESSON - 15
STRESS MANAGEMENT
Learning objectives:
After reading this lesson you should understand:
• Meaning of stress
• Sources of stress
• Consequences of stress
• Methods of managing stress
The nature of the job stress has been studied by scholars in a wide range of
academic disciplines. Physicians, psychiatrists, and researchers in management have all
studied its causes and its symptoms, and have defined the term in a variety of different
ways. For our purposes, stress is defined as “the reactions of individuals to new or
threatening factors in their work environments”.
Stress can be either positive or negative. Some new work situations can bring us
positive challenges and excitement, while others are very threatening and anxiety-
arousing. For example, the depression in the economy can create negative stress for sales
personnel, because they will be much more anxious about making sales commissions and
sales quotas. On the other hand, promotions to new jobs present employees with positive
stress. While employees may feel anxious about their new work assignments, they also
anticipate them eagerly and look forward to the additional challenges, rewards, and
excitement. In these cases, the new and uncertain job situations create positive stress
(also called eustress).
For every individual there is a optimum level of stress under which he or she will
perform to full capacity. If the stress experienced is below this optimum level, then the
individual gets bored, the motivational level to work reaches a low point, and apathy sets
in. If one operates in a very low stress environment and constantly experiences boredom,
the person is likely to psychologically or physically withdraw from work. Psychological
withdrawal will result in careless mistakes being frequently made, forgetting to do things,
and thinking of things other than work during work hours. Physical withdrawal will
manifest itself in increased rates of tardiness and absenteeism which may ultimately lead
to turnover. Though the optimum stress level is different for different individuals, each
individual can sense and determine how much stress is functional for him or her to
operate in a productive manner.
Research indicates that those who seem to effectively handle a high level of stress
possess one or more of the personality predispositions of high tolerance of ambiguity,
internal locus of control and self-esteem. A high tolerance for ambiguity allows
individuals to experience very little anguish while operating under conditions of
insufficient information or in an uncertain environment. People with an internal locus of
control also handle stress well since they feel they are in control of the situation, rather
than feeling controlled by the situation they are in. This makes it possible for them to
manage their environmental stress without experiencing its noxious effects. Those with
high self-esteem also handle stress with ease since a high self-concept and confidence in
their abilities allow them to develop positive attitudes towards the management of stress
and enables them to deal with stressful situations with calmness and clear thinking. The
more successfully one handles a stressful situation without panicking or getting
overwhelmed by it, the more confidently will the individual face further stressful
situations. Thus, it is possible to raise one’s capacity to handle stress with successive
situations.
Sources of Stress
Stress is a reality of our everyday life. There are both eustresses and distresses that
come from our work and non-work lives. As pointed out by Near, Rice, and Hunt (1980)
and Sekaran (1986), among others, the work and non-work domains of one’s life are
closely intertwined. The stresses and strains experienced in one domain are carried over
to the other. Thus, if one experienced much distress at work, that stress will be carried
over to the home, which will heighten the sense of awareness of even small distresses
experienced in the family sphere.
One major source of job stress is the job itself. The way the job is designed, the
amount of time pressure an individual faces, and the amount of expectations others have
of a person at work can all lead to job stress. Interpersonal relationships are a second
source of job stress. How much contact an individual has with coworkers and bosses,
how much time he or she deals with clients or consumers, and how pleasant those
interactions are all influence how much stress an individual experiences at work. Third,
problems in personal lives can spill over into the work environment, adding further
tension to an already stressful work situation.
Sources of Job Stress
 Job Characteristics
• Role ambiguity
• Role conflict
• Role overload
• Role underload
• Ethical Dilemmas
 Interpersonal Relationships
• Amount of contact with others
• Dealing with people in other departments
• Organizational climate
  Organisational Factors
 Personal Factors
• Career concerns
• Geographical mobility
• Rate of life change
Job Characteristics :
A major source of job stress is a person’s role in the organisation. A role is simply
the set of expectations that other people in the organisation have an individual in his or
her job. Supervisors, coworkers, customers and suppliers – all of these people expect an
individual to behave in certain predictable ways. Often, the expectations others have of
an employee are unclear, in conflict, or too high for the employee to meet within the time
allotted, and he or she experiences stress.
Role Ambiguity :
When there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding job definitions or job expectations,
people experience role ambiguity. With the recent increase in mergers and acquisitions
among major corporations, for instance, more and more employees are experiencing job
stress as a result of role ambiguity. Role ambiguity is anxiety-arousing to employees,
and they consequently experience job stress.
Role Conflict :
Often employees discover that different groups of people in an organisation have
widely varying expectations of them, and that they cannot meet all these expectations.
This inconsistency of expectations associated with a role is called role conflict, which
results in stress.
Role Overload :
Role Overload is a situation in which employees feel they are being asked to do
more than time or ability permits. Working under time pressure is especially stressful.
Role Underload :
Role Underload is the condition in which employees have too little work to do or
too little variety in their work. Salespeople in a store with no customer, standing around
all day with nothing to do, could be said to experience role underload.
Ironically, role underload lead to many of the same problems as role overload: low
self-esteem; increased frequency of nervous symptoms and complaints; increased health
problems.
Ethical Dilemmas :
Ethical dilemmas such as whether or not one should report the observed unethical
behaviours of another person can cause extreme levels of stress in individuals. This will
be especially true for those who have strong moral values of right and wrong and a deep
sense of personal and corporate social responsibility. Tensions arise because one might
have to contend with whistle blowing against one’s own colleagues who might be close
friends, and may fear reprisal and other undesirable consequences which have to be pitted
against one’s sense of duty and loyalty to the organisation.
Interpersonal Relationships
A second major source of stress in organisations is poor interpersonal relationships
with others, be they supervisors, subordinates, coworkers, or clients. When interpersonal
relationships at work are unpleasant, employees develop a generalised anxiety, a diffuse
feeling of dread about upcoming meetings and interactions. Three aspects of
interpersonal relationships at work, in particular, have a negative impact on job stress:
1. Amount of contact with others: Jobs vary in terms of how much interpersonal
contact is built into them. Too much prolonged contact with other people can cause
stress.
2. Amount of contact with people in other departments: Having contacts with people
outside one’s own department creates a special sort of stress. People in other
departments do not always have an adequate understanding of jobs outside their own
areas. This causes stress.
3. Organisational climate: The overall psychological climate of the organisation can
create stress. When day-to-day life in an organisation is marked by unfriendly,
distant, or hostile exchanges, employees are continually tense and this causes stress.
Organisational Structural Factors
Work environment factors such as noise, heat, poor lighting, radiation and smoke
are stress-inducing agents. Insufficient resources such as time, budget, raw materials,
space or manpower are additional stressors in the work environment. When one has to
produce and perform with inadequate resources on a long-term basis, this naturally
imposes stresses and strains on the individuals who are responsible for getting the job
done. In addition, other structural factors in the organisational setting such as staff rules
and regulations and reward systems which are not platable to individuals may act as
stressors. The lack of career promotion in organiations may be additional organisational
stressors.
Certain types of interactions with significant forces in the external environment of
the organisation can also be sources of stress. These stresses may arise out of the
unreasonable expectations of external agents in the form of unrecorded money or gifts
before they would be willing to cooperate. Other environmental stressors include sudden
and unanticipated changes in the market place, technology, the financial market and so
on.
Personal Factors
Frequently, employees’ personal lives have a marked effect on their lives at work.
If things are going well personally, they are more likely to be upbeat and optimistic.
They have more energy and patience for dealing with problems at work. On the other
hand, if employees are having some personal problems, they might be more tense or
distracted when they go to work.
Three factors, in particular, influence how much stress people bring from their
personal lives to the work setting:
1. Career Concerns: One major career concern that can cause stress is lack of job
security. A second career concern that can cause employees stress is status
incongruity, i.e., having jobs with less status (power, prestige) than they think they
deserve.
2. Geographical Mobility: Geographical moves create stress because they disrupt the
routines of daily life. When geographical moves are undertaken as part of a job
transfer, the moves can be even more stressful. The transferred employees are likely
to feel out of control at work, too, and experience their new work environments as
unpredictable.
Consequences of Job Stress
Distress experienced by individuals has negative consequences for them, their
families and for the organisations they serve.
Consequences for the Individual
The impact of distress on individuals has subjective, cognitive, physiological,
behavioural and health facets to it.
The subjective or intrapersonal effects of stress are feelings of anxiety, boredom,
apathy, nervousness, depression, fatigue, anger, irritability and sometimes aggressive
behaviours on the part of the individual experiencing the stress.
The cognitive effects include poor concentration, short attention span, mental
blocks and inability to make decisions.
The physiological effects can be seen in increased heart and pulse rate, high blood
pressure, drynessof throat, and excessive sweating.
The behavioural consequences are manifest in such things as accident proneness,
drinking; excessive eating, smoking, impulsive behaviours, depression, and withdrawal
behaviours.
The manifest health effects could be stomach disorders, asthma, ecsema, and other
psychosomatic disorders. In addition, the mental health, i.e. the ability to function
effectively in one’s daily life, will also decline as excessive stress is experienced.
Consequences for the Family
 Distress which is handled by individuals in dysfunctional ways, such as reasoning
to drinking or withdrawal behaviours, will have an adverse effect on their home life.
Spouse abuse, child abuse, alienation from family members, and even divorce could
result from dysfunctional coping mechanisms.
Consequences to Organisations
The organisational effects of employee stress are many. The adverse
consequences include low performance and productivity, high rates of absenteeism and
turnover, poor decision-making, lost customers because of poor worker attitudes,
increased alienation of the worker from the job, and even destructive and aggressive
behaviours resulting in strikes and sabotage. The stresses experienced by employees who
take on critical roles and are responsible for safety can sometimes be detrimental to the
public. For instance, the stresses experienced by a train driver or railway guard, or that of
an airline pilot, navigator, or air traffic controller may result in serious accidents.
Needless to say that the costs of employee stress to the organisation in terms of lost
profits, poor image and loss of future business are enormous.
STRESS MANAGEMENT
Stress is a factor that everybody has to contend with on a daily basis both in the
work and non-work spheres of life. Since the body has only a limited capacity to respond
to stress, it is important for individuals to optimally “manage” their stress to operate as
fully functioning human beings.
There are several ways in which stress can be handled so that the dysfunctional
consequences of stress are dissipated. Some of them are:
Role Analysis Technique (RAT)
The Role Analysis Technique as it is referred to helps both the manager and the
employee to analyse what the job entails and what the expectations are. Breaking down
the job to its various components clarifies the role of the job incumbent for the entire
system. This helps to eliminate imposing overload can thus be considerably reduced
through this technique and stress levels lowered for the individual.

Job Relocation
Job relocation assistance is offered to employees who are transferred, by finding
alternative employment for the spouses of the transferred employees and getting
admissions in schools for their children in the new place. These arrangements help to
reduce the anxiety and stress for the moving family.
Recreational Programme
Providing recreational facilities, arranging group meditation programmes, help to
reduce the stress levels of the employees.
Employee Assistance Programme
 Another widely used strategy is the employee assistance programmes which offer
a variety of assistance to employees. These include counselling employees who seek
assistance on how to deal with alcohol and drug abuse, handling conflicts at the work
place, dealing with marital and other family problems, dealing with other kinds of
stresses and coping with health problems.
Career Counselling
Career Counselling helps the employee to obtain professional advice regarding
career paths that would help the individual to achieve personal goals. It also makes the
employees aware of what additional educational qualifications or specialised technical
training, if any, that they should acquire. By becoming knowledgeable about the possible
avenues for advancement, the employees who consider their careers to be important, can
reduce their stress levels by becoming more realistic about their options and can start
preparing themselves for it.
Time Management
Another way of coping with stress is to manage time more effectively. People can
learn to get better organised so that they can do their work more efficiently and fritter
away less time needlessly.

Delegation
Another way of coping with job stress is to delegate some responsibilities to
others. Delegation can directly decrease work demands put upon the manager and helps
to reduce the stress.
Getting more Information and Help
Some new employees work three times longer on a job than necessary rather than
admit they are not sure what they are doing. It is much more efficient, effective, and
anxiety-reducing to get some help before doing the work.
Health Maintenance
Probably the most frequently used organisational stress management program is
health maintenance. Many companies invest large sums of money in gym and sport
facilities for maintaining the health of the employees.
Supervisor Training
Another type of stress management programme that organisations are
experimenting with is supervisor training. The emphasis on supervisory training
programme is how to prevent job stress. Managers are trained to give better performance
appraisals, to listen to employees’ problems more effectively, and to communicate job
assignments and instructions more clearly.
Individual Stress Reduction Workshops
Some organisations have also sponsored individual stress reduction workshops for
their employees. These programs have run the gamut from bio-feedback, sensitivity
groups and transcendental meditation to career counselling, time management and
interpersonal skills workshops. In lectures and seminars, participants are given a basic
understanding of the causes of stress and its consequences for their well-being. Then,
participants are given materials to help them identify the major sources of stress in their
own lives, and some strategies for dealing with that stress more effectively.
In the final analysis, then, the management of stress lies by necessity with the
individual. Even if organisations continue to remain active in stress management
programmes, ultimately it is the individual who has to be responsible for his or her own
well-being.

Review Questions:
1. What is job stress? Can stress be positive? What are some factors in your life that are
stressful in a positive sense?
2. What are the causes of stress?
3. What are the consequences of job stress?
4. What are the most frequently used organisational programs to manage stress?

  
LESSON – 16
POWER AND POLITICS
Learning Objectives
After reading this lesson, you should be able to:
• Know the meaning and sources of power

• Understand how people use power

• Discuss how people use political behaviour in organisations

• Understand the techniques of political behaviour

Power is easy to feel but difficult to define. It is the potential ability of a person or
group to influence another person or group. It is the ability to get things done the
way one wants them to be done. Both formal and informal groups and individuals
may have power; it does not need an official position or the backing of an
institution to have power. Influence can take many forms. One person has
influenced another if the second person’s opinions, behaviour or perspectives have
changed as a result of their interaction. Power is a factor at all levels of most
organisations. It can be a factor in almost any organisational decision.
Power and Authority
Sometimes power and authority are used synonymously because of their objective
of influencing the behaviour of others. However, there is difference between the
two. Power does not have any legal sancity while authority has such a sanctity.
Authority is institutional and is legitimate. Power, on the other hand, is personal
and does not have any legitimacy. But still, power is a crucial factor in influencing
the behaviour in organisational situation.

Sources of Power
John R.P. French and Bertram Raven identified five bases or sources of power:
legitimate, reward, coercive, expert and referent power.
Figure:
Legitimate Power:
A person’s position within organisation provides him with legitimate power. The
organisation gives managers the power to direct the activities of their subordinates.
Legitimate power is similar to formal authority and hence it can be created,
granted, changed or withdrawn by the formal organisation. The structure of the
organisation also identifies the strength of the legitimate authority by position
location. For instance, higher-level positions exercise more power than lower-
level positions in a classical hierarchial organisational structure. Organisations
vary in how much legitimate power they grant to individuals. In such
organisations, everyone knows who has the most power and few people challenge
the power structure.

Reward Power:
This type of power is the extent to which one person has control over rewards that
are valued by another. The greater the perceived values of such rewards, the
greater the power. Organisational rewards include pay, promotions and valued
office assignments. A manager who has complete control over such rewards has a
good deal of power. Manager who uses praise and recognition has also a good
deal of power.
Coercive Power:
People have coercive power if they have control over some form of punishment
such as threat of dismissal, suspension, demotion or other method of
embarrassment for the people. Perhaps, a manager can cause psychological harm
also to an employee. A manager’s coercive power increases with the number and
severity of the sanctions over which the manager has control. Although the use of
coercive power is often successful in the short run, it tends to create resentment
and hostility and therefore is usually deterimental to the organisation in the long
run.
Expert Power:
It is more of personal power than organisational power. Expert power is that
influence which one wields as a result of one’s experience, special skill or
knowledge. This power occurs when the expert threatens to withhold his
knowledge or skill. Since any person who is not easily replaceable has more
power as compared to those who are easily replaceable. If the sub-ordinates view
their superior as competent, and knowledgeable, naturally they will obey and
respect the superior. To the extent, that a low-ranking worker has important
knowledge not available to a superior, he is likely to have more power.
Referent Power:
A person who is respected by certain others for whatever reason has referent power
over those people. A person with referent power may have charisma and people
who respect that person are likely to get emotionally involved with the respected
person and identify with, accept and be willing to follow him or her. People with
referent power are often imitated by others with the star’s actions, attitudes and
dress. This imitation reflects the rising star’s power over the imitations.
How People Use Power
An individual manager may have power derived from any or all of the five bases of
power and the manager may use that power in different ways. Therefore, good
managers must try to analyse the sources of their power and be careful how they
use that power.
The work of Gary Yukl provides both a way to predict the consequences of certain
uses of power and guidelines for using power. The following table lists the five
sources of a leader’s power and some of the variables that are likely to lead to three
general types of employee responses or outcomes - commitment, compliance and
resistance - when the leader uses the power. For instance, the table shows that a
leader’s use of referent power will lead employees to be committed to the leader’s
project if they see that the project is important to the leader. However, a leader
who relies on coercive power is very unlikely to have committed employees.
Using Legitimate Power
The use of legitimate power is seldom challenged in an organisation; when a
superior asks a sub-ordinate to do something, the sub-ordinate usually complies
without resistance. However, the way the superior makes the request and follows
it up are very important for ensuring the sub-ordinate’s future compliance and the
growth of the superior’s referent power. Though the secretary does what the boss
asks, still the boss could be cordial and polite when making requests and should
whenever possible explain why a particular task needs to be done. The secretary
who understands the importance of a task will be more likely to work
enthusiastically on it.
The boss must follow normal procedures and make sure the request is appropriate.
For instance, a vice-president whose secretary is busy should not assume that he or
she can just ask a supervisor’s secretary to drop all other work and type a letter.
Such by passing of the normal chain of command can cause hard feelings among
all the people involved.
Most of these suggestions imply that managers must be sensitive to employees
concerns. Managers who are insensitive to their employees may find that their
legitimate power dwindles and that they must resort to coercive power.
Using Reward Power
The manager, before giving a reward, must be sure that the employee has actually
done the job and done it well. Employees must know that they get rewarded for
good work.
Using Coercive Power
For some people, using coercive power is a natural response when something goes
wrong. But often employees resist coercive power, resent it and losing respect for
people using that type of power. Hence, coercion is now generally recognised to
be the most difficult form of punishment to use successfully in an organisation.
Managers who wish to maintain their credibility should make threats only when
they intend to carry through on them and should never threaten a punishment that
they cannot bring about. A good manager will be such that the punishment fit the
crime. For instance, warning an individual who uses copying machine to make
personal copies but firing someone who steals equipment from the organisation.
Public punishment makes everyone uneasy and humiliating and hence should be
done private.
Using Expert Power
To gain power from their expertise, managers must make people aware of how
much they know. Manager can use his expert power most effectively to address
employee concerns. If a particular sales person faces any difficulty in selling a
particular product and turns to manager for his help, the manager must be able to
identify the defect and must be able to help and educate him.
Using Referent Power
Leaders have traditionally strengthened their referent power by hiring employees
with backgrounds similar to their own. One of the most positive and subtle uses of
referent power is the process of role modelling. A respected manager who wants
her employees to be punctual, considerate and creative can simply demonstrate
those behaviours herself and her employees will likely imitate her actions.
Political Behaviour and Organisational Politics
Power and politics are inextricably interwoven with the fabric of an organisation’s
life. In any organisation, at any given moment, a number of people are seeking to
gain and use power to achieve their own ends. This pursuit of power is political
behaviour. Organisational politics refers to the activities carried out by people to
acquire, enhance and use power and other resources to obtain their preferred
outcomes in a situation where there is uncertainity or disagreement. One great
organisational scholar, Tushman defined politics, ‘as the structure and process of
the use of authority and power to affect definition of goals, directions and the other
major parameters of the organisation. Decisions are not made in rational or formal
way but rather through compromise accommodation and bargaining.
Managing Political Behaviour
The very nature of political behaviour makes it difficult to manage or even
approach in a rational and systematic manner. However a manager who
understands why people use political behaviour and the techniques people usually
employ has the best chance to manage political behaviour successfully.
People use political behaviour in organisations in response to the five main factors:
 Ambiguous goals

 Scarce resources

 Technology and the environment

 Non-programmed decisions

 Organisational change

Factors Influencing Political Behaviour

Ambiguous Goals:
When the goals of a department or the entire organisation are ambiguous then there
is more room available for playing politics. Some people may use the ambiguity to
manipulate the situation for their benefit.
Scarce Resources:
When resources are scarce, people have the tendency to use political behaviour to
make sure that they get the biggest possible share of the resource.
Changes in Technology and Environment:
Organisational effectiveness is largely a function of the organisation’s ability to
appropriately respond to external environment which is highly dynamic and
generally unpredictable as well as adequately adopt to complex technological
developments. Thus, political behaviour is increased when the internal technology
is complex and when external environment is highly volatile.
Non-Programmed Decisions:
Sometimes, the companies have to make a lot of non-programmed decisions on
certain issues. These decisions are not based on clear standards and precedents,
because such issues involve many factors and variables that are complex in nature.
Hence decisions are taken on intuition, hunches and guesses and all these
subjective feelings can be affected by political behaviour.
Organisational Change:
Whenever there are changes in the organisational structure and policies, peoples in
powerful positions have the opportunity to play politics. These changes may
include restructuring of a division or creating a division, personnel changes,
introducing a new product line and all these changes influence political behaviour
when various individuals and groups try to control the given situation.
It is widely accepted that managers have to be politicians in order to maintain their
positions in the organisational hierarchy as well as serve the interests of their units.
Pfeffer, who has done extensive research on the subject of power in organisations,
states as follows:
“If there is one concluding message, it is that it is probably effective and it is
certainly normal that these managers do behave as politicians. It is even better that
some of them are quiet effective at it. In situations in which technologies are
uncertain, preferences are conflicting, perceptions are selective and biased and
information processing capacities are constrained, the model of an effective
politician may be an appropriate one for both the individual and for the
organisation in the long-run”.
Techniques of Political Behaviour
The most commonly used techniques of political behaviour are:
• Controlling information

• Controlling lines of communication

• Controlling agenda

• Using outside experts

• Game playing

• Image building

• Building coalitions

One technique of political behaviour is to control the dissemination of critical

information to others. The more critical the information and fewer the people who
have it, the stronger is political power base of those who possess these information.
Controlling lines of communication is another political technique related to the
flow of information. People who have some control over lines of communication
can yield considerable political power. For example, the secretary may have
considerable power in deciding who sees the boss and who does not at a given
time. She may use this power in favouring those whom she likes and frustrating
those against whom she may have a grudge.
Controlling the agenda also gives a person power over information. The person
who controls a meeting’s agenda, for instance, may consistently put a particular
item last on the list and then take up time so that meeting adjourns before
considering the item.
The opinions of outside experts and consultants often carry much weight in
organisations and many consultants can be swayed by political interests.
Consultants know who is paying them and even honest consultants are likely to
give opinions consistent with those of their employer. Hence, hiring an outside
consultant can be a clever political move.
Game playing can range from fairly innocent to very manipulative. It involves
people doing something insincere, but not outright illegal or unethical to gain
political ends. For instance, a manager who does not want to answer a
committee’s tough questions may, for instance, avoid meeting by going out of the
town on the day of meeting.
Image building is creating positive impression reflected by the personality,
appearance and style. Some of the factors that enhance a preferred image consist
of being well dressed, having a pleasant smile, being attractive, honest, sociable
and loyal to the organisational interests. In addition, always project an image of
competence and self-assurance.
Building coalitions or alliance is another technique of gaining political power. It is
necessary to have the alliance with the right people. Coalition building can
become simply a matter of quid pro quo: I will support you if you will support me.
Managing Political Behaviour
Thought it is virtually impossible to eliminate political behaviour in organisations,
it is possible to reduce it, if a manager understands the reasons for and the
techniques of political behaviour. Politics when carried to the extreme can damage
morale, create enemies, destroy loyalty, damper co-operative spirit and much time
and energy is spent planning attacks and counter attacks which are detrimental to
organisational health. Accordingly, combating politics must be undertaken by the
top management and some of the steps that can be undertaken are: open
communication, reduction of uncertainty and creating awareness.
Open communication can reduce the political activity if all employees know how
and why an organisation allocates resources, the employees will be likely to put
their energy into meeting the stated criteria for getting resources rather than into
political activity. If the organisation is open about why it made particular decision,
then employees will be less likely to think that the decisions were political and less
likely to use political techniques to try to influence the next decision.
Uncertainty in the form of ambiguous goals and changes that affect the
organisation tends to increase the use of political activity. Reducing such
uncertainty can, therefore, reduce the political behaviour. Open communication is
one of the ways an organisation can reduce uncertainty. For instance, laying down
clear criteria and making it transparent to the employees who will be laid off, in
case of lay off, the organisation can reduce political behaviour.
Finally, managers who develop an ability to recognise and predict political activity
are in the best position to limit its effects. Managers with this awareness will
expect an increase in political activity during times of organisational change and
will learn how to handle it.

Review Questions :
1. What are the sources of power?

2. How people use power?

3. Identify the basic reasons for using political behaviour.

4. How to manage political behaviour?

  
 LESSON - 17
ORGANISATIONAL DESIGN
Learning Objectives
After reading this lesson, you should be able to:
• Identify the determinants of organisational design
• Discuss the forms of organisational design

Organisational design is the overall configuration of structural components that

defines jobs, groupings of jobs, the hierarchy, patterns of authority, approaches to co-
ordination and line-staff differentiation into a single, unified organisational system.
Consider, for example, the differences in organisational design that might exist between a
computer manufacturer and a University. Because the computer manufacturer has to
respond to frequent technological breakthroughs and changes in its competitive
environment, it is likely to have a relatively flat, decentralised design. The university, in
contrast, has a somewhat more stable environment and is less affected by technology.
Thus it may have a taller, more centralised structure with numerous rules and regulations.

Determinants of Organisational Design

The key situational determinants of organisational design are technology, the
organisational environment and organisation size and life cycle.
Technology:
Technology is the set of processes that an organisation uses to transform various
resources such as materials and labour into products or services. One of the first people
to see the link between technology and organisational design was Joan Woodward. In
particular, Woodward defined three basic types of technology.
1. In unit or small-batch technology, products are either made to customer specifications
or produced in small quantities. Examples are printing press, studios etc.
2. In large batch or mass-production technology, products are manufactured in
assembly-line fashion by combining component parts to create finished goods.
Examples are home-appliance, automobile and computer manufacturers.
3. In continuous-process technology, products are transformed from raw materials into
finished goods through a series of machine transformations that change the
composition of the materials themselves. Examples are petroleum refineries, food
processors and chemical manufacturers.
Woodward viewed unit or small-batch technology as the least complex and
continuous process as the most complex. She found that organisations within each set
had similar designs but the designs varied somewhat from set to set.
 Burns and Stalker argued that managers should examine the rate of change in
technology to determine the best organisational structure. They recommended a
bureaucratic or mechanistic structure for organisations with slowly changing technology
and an organic, flexible structure for organisations with rapidly changing technology.
Charles Perrow concluded that the key question concerning an organisation’s
technology is whether it is routine or non-routine. In his view, a highly formalised
centralised structure is appropriate for an organisation that uses the same routine
technology while a more flexible structure is necessary for an organisation that uses new
technology often.
An organisation that uses continuous process, non-routine or intensive technology
needs to ensure that its structure can adapt to changes in the technologies. Technology
can affect all aspects of an organisation, not just production, and the same technological
change can have very different effects on different organisations.

Environment:
The environment also influences the type of design an organisation is likely to
adopt. The environment of an organisation consists of all the factors and conditions
outside the organisation that might affect it, which include people (customers,
shareholders, inspectors), other organisations (competitors, legislatures and regulatory
agencies), economic factors (interest rates, unemployment rate, finance), objects
(buildings, machines etc.) and events (elections, war, floods etc).
If the managers are good at analysing and predicting changes in the environment,
they can help the organisation adjust to take advantage of any changes. Environmental
factors can affect the structure of an organisation as the organisation’s leaders try to adapt
to changes in competition or technology. Because the environment affects organisations
both directly and indirectly, managers must keep an eye on it and be ready to modify the
organisation’s design to respond to environmental changes. For instance, the more
unstable and dynamic the environment, the organisation should establish more sub-units
or departments. If the organisations environment is relatively stable and predictable less
differentiation is appropriate.
Organisational Size and Life Cycle
Organisation size refers to how large the organisation is, usually, in terms of the
number of its full-time employees. Life cycle is the organisation’s maturity relative to
that of other organisations.
Size can affect organisation design in many different ways. A group of
researchers in England found that large organisations tend to have more job
specialisation, more standard operating procedures, more rules and regulations, and more
decentralisation than small organisations. Thus, as organisations grow in size, they
should be prepared to adapt their design accordingly.
 An organisation’s life cycle is related to its size. Organisations tend to follow a
fairly predictable pattern of growth. After they are created, they grow for some period of
time and then eventually stabilise as a mature organisation.
To summarise, the organisation design needed by a small but rapidly growing
business is different from the organisation design needed by an established and
entrenched industry giant growing at a stable and predictable rate. An organisation’s life
cycle and growth rates are directly linked to the strategy that the organisation is pursuing.
Contemporary Forms of Organisational Design
Every organisation has its own unique design. As discussed above, depending on
the technology it uses, the limits and potentials of its environment and the life cycle stage
it occupies, each organisation creates varying configurations of specialisation,
departmentalisation and co-ordination that best fit its circumstances. In the midst of all
its uniqueness, however, one can discern five basic structural arrangements that generally
describe the designs adopted by many organisations.
The U-Form Organisation
The U-form organisation (the U stands for Unity), also called ‘functional design’
relies almost exclusively on the functional approach to departmentalisation. Members of
the organisation who perform the same functions are grouped together into departments.
Such organisation to operate smoothly, perfect co-ordination is essential among the
departments, since each department is highly dependent on another.

Managing Director

Manager Manager Manager Manager Manager

Production Finance Marketing Human Resources R&D
The U-form design has several advantages. It allows the organisation to staff each
department with experts. It also facilitates wide spans of management and allows the
Managing Director to maintain centralised authority.
However, the U-form design slows decision-making and employees within each
department may concentrate on their own function forgetting overall organisational goals.
It tends to make it hard for organisation to monitor the performance of individual
managers within each functional area.
When the organisations grow, organisations often find that the disadvantages of
the U-form tend to become more significant and adopt different designs as they evolve
through their life cycles.
The H-Form Organisation
The H-form organisation (the H stands for Hybrid) is sometimes called a
conglomerate. The design relies on product departmentalisation with the various
products actually constituting different businesses. This design usually results from the
corporate strategy of unrelated diversification of the products.

Managing Director

Manager Manager Manager Manager

Cosmetics Steel Furnitures Office Equipments Household Appliances

This design has two advantages. First such an organisation can protect itself from
cyclical fluctuations in a single industry. The loss in one product may be compensated by
a profit in another. A second advantage is that the organisation can buy and sell its
individual businesses with little or no disruption to the others.
The main drawback is that this form of organisation is so complex and diverse that
top managers have difficulty in knowing the knowledge of all products.

The M-Form Organisation

The M-form organisation, also called the divisional design, is similar to the H-
form design but has one notable distinction. Most or all of its businesses are in the same
or related industries. For example, an organisation with an M-form design might own
one business that makes automobile batteries, another that makes tires and still another
that makes car polish. Each is distinct from others but also related in that each makes
products of value to automobile owners. Thus, the M-form design is used to implement a
corporate strategy of related diversification.
A primary advantage of the M-form organisation is that it can achieve a great deal
of synergy in its operations. A consumer familiar with a firm’s batteries, for example,
may be inclined to buy its tires and car polish. Moreover, because the various units are
in the same or related industries, it is easy for top managers to understand, co-ordinate
and control them. However, if the businesses are too closely related, the organisation
cannot escape from the effect of cyclical fluctuations.
The Matrix Organisation
A matrix organisation is created by overlaying product based departmentalisation
on to a functional structure. A matrix design is seldom used for an entire organisation, it
is often used for a portion of it.

Managing Director

Manager Manager Manager

Production Finance Marketing

Design of a Matrix Organisation

A matrix design allows an organisation to capitalise on the advantages of both
functional and product departmentalisation. It has also some drawbacks. Since such an
organisation lacks a clear chain on command, confusion may result about which manager
has authority over a given employee. The organisation also has to devote more resources
to co-ordination because of high levels of interdependence that result from a matrix.
Product ‘A’

Product ‘B’

Product ‘C’
Global Organisation
A multinational organisation must modify and adapt its design to allow it to
function effectively. Nestle, for example, is a big multinational company and highly
decentralised. Its organisational design is like an umbrella. Each of Nestle’s companies
scattered around the world is operated by its own general managers who is empowered
with a great deal of autonomy and authority to make decisions. In effect, Nestle is really
almost a confederation of independent operating companies. Its design is similar to the
M-form but because the operating units are so far apart there is little synergy.
It is to be remembered that there is no one best form of design that all
organisations should adopt. Each organisation has to carefully assess its own strategy, its
strengths and weaknesses, its history, its technology, environment, life cycle and size. It
must then choose a design that fit these elements most effectively. But that design will
also need to be further tailored.

Review Questions:
1. What is organisational design? What are the determinants of organisational design?
2. Briefly explain different forms of organisational design.

  
 LESSON - 18
ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE AND CLIMATE
Learning Objectives
After reading this lesson, you should be able to:
• Define organisational culture and explain its importance
• Identify the factors affecting organisational climate

Organisational culture is the set of values that defines for members what the
organisation stands for, how it operates and what it considers important. According to
Deal and Kennedy, a strong culture is, “a system of informal rules that spells out how
people are to have most of the time”. Schein defines organisational culture as the pattern
of basic assumptions that a given group has invented, discovered or developed in learning
to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration.
All of the above definitions involve the firm’s values, its sense of what is right and
wrong, acceptable and unacceptable. For instance, one company might value solidarity
and loyalty to the company above all else, while another company might stress that good
relations with customers are most important. Such values are part of an organisation’s
culture instead of its rules and regulations because they are not written down. They do
not usually appear in the organisations training programme and in fact many
organisations have difficulty articulating their cultural values. As the unwritten code, an
organisation’s values enter into every employee’s own values and actions. Newcomers
learn in subtle ways what they should and should not do. Organisational culture may
have such a profound influence on individual employees precisely because it is an
implicit, generally accepted sets of values, rather than an explicit, written set of rules with
which employees might argue.

Importance of Culture
Culture plays a very significant role in any organisation by communicating
information about acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. Culture can communicate
whether the organisation expects its managers to be aggressive or conservative in making
decisions, to provide generous, or modest support to social causes or to be ruthless or
amiable in their competitive dealings.
Some organisations have clear, strong and well defined culture. Others have
ambiguous, weak and poorly defined cultures. Most managers agree that a strong and
clear culture is preferable because it helps provide a common frame of reference for
managerial decision-making and a wide variety of other organisational activities.
 An organisation’s culture generally takes shape over time and is often deeply
influenced by the values of the company’s founders. As organisational culture evolves,
various symbols, stories, heroes, slogans and ceremonies also come into being. These,
then, serve to maintain and perpetuate the culture through subsequent generations of
employees.
Changing Organisational Culture
Of course, it is sometimes necessary to change culture. Change is most often
needed when the organisation has lost its effectiveness and is struggling either to carry
out its strategic goals or perhaps to change them altogether. The manager trying to
change an organisational culture faces a very difficult task. Organisational cultures are
by definition difficult to change. Because they embody the organisation’s values, they
are in effect the organisation’s soul, the part of the organisation that stays stable through
changes in leadership and environment.
It is, however, possible to change organisational culture, to make it performance
enhancing. Managers must change employee’s ideas about what is and what is not
appropriate behaviour. They must create new role model heroes and new stories to help
employees understand the meaning of what is happening around them. One way to bring
about such changes is to manage the symbols that are important to the organisation. A
company’s suggestion box is a symbol of the company’s openness to employee’s ideas
and some companies try to emphasise the importance of those ideas by rewarding
employees for their suggestions. But if the suggestion box remains just a symbol and the
company never translates the suggestions into actions, the box will have little effect on
company morale and employee’s sense of their importance. Cultural changes can be
brought about by creating new organisational heroes, by promoting or rewarding
employees who have the best quality record or the best relationships with customers.
Once successfully made, changes in the organisational culture will be as stable as
the old culture was. But any organisation wanting to change its culture must realise that
such a change is never easy and will not be brought about simply by putting out
directives to employees.

Organisational Climate
Even though organisational culture and organisational climate are sometimes used
interchangeably, there are certain differences between the two. According to Bowditch
and Buono, ‘Organisational culture is concerned with the nature of beliefs and
expectations about organisational life, while climate is an indicator of whether those
beliefs and expectations are being fulfilled’. Organisational climate is a relatively
enduring quality of the internal environment that is experienced by its members,
influences their behaviour, and can be described in terms of the values of a particular set
of characteristics.
It is a set of characteristics and factors that are perceived by the employees about
their organisations which serve as a major force in influencing their behaviour. These
factors may include job descriptions, organisational structural format, performance and
evaluation standards, leadership style, challenges and innovations, organisational values,
culture and so on.

Factors Affecting Organisational Climate

In every organisation there exist certain elements that exert profound influence on
the climate. Schneider and Bartlett describes six items that have influence on
organisational climate such as managerial support, inter-agency conflict, agent
dependence and general satisfaction. Lawrence James and Allan Jones have identified
five factors influencing climate which include management philosophy, organisational
structure, process which include communication, motivation and leadership, physical
environment and values and norms. Similarly Kahn has identified five factors such as
rules orientation, the nurturance of subordinates, closeness of supervision, universalism
and promotional achievement orientation. Thus, it is very difficult to generalise exactly
the factors affecting the climate.
Organisational climate has a major influence on human performance through its
impact on the motivation, job satisfaction and attitudes of people.

Review Questions:
1. What is organisational culture? How does it affects the behaviour of the employees?
2. What is organisational climate? What are the factors affecting organisational climate?

  
LESSON - 19
ORGANISATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS
Learning Objectives
After reading this lesson, you should be able to:
• Understand the concept of organisational effectiveness
• Identify the factors contributing organisational effectiveness

Organisational effectiveness is the central theme of organisation theory. It is defined and

conceptualised in different ways. For instance, effectiveness could be defined “as the
degree to which organisation realises its goals”. “It is the extent to which an
organisation, given certain resources and means, achieves its objectives without placing
undue strain on its members”. Though a large volume of literature is available on the
concept of organisational effectiveness, there is often contradiction in the various
approaches.
The distinction between the concepts of effectiveness and efficiency is very important to
explain why some organisations are effective but not efficient or efficient but not
effective. Effectiveness is a broad concept and takes into account a conglomeration of
factors both inside and outside the organisation. It is commonly referred to as the degree
to which predetermined goals are achieved. On the other hand, efficiency is a limited
concept that pertains to the internal working of the organisation. It refers to the amount
of resources used to produce a particular unit of output. It is generally measured as the
ratio of inputs to outputs.
Further, effectiveness centres more on human side of organisational values and activities
whereas efficiency concentrates on the technological side. However, the concept of
effectiveness is not simple because there are many approaches in conceptualising this
term. Such approaches can be grouped into three: goal approach, functional approach
and system resource approach.
1. Goal Approach
Goal attainment is the most widely used criterion of organisational effectiveness. Goal
approach defines effectiveness as “profit maximisation `providing an efficient service’,
`high productivity’, or `good employee morale’. Campbell has suggested several
variables which can be used in measuring organisational effectiveness. He includes in his
list such items as quality, productivity, efficiency, profit, turnover, accidents, morale,
motivation, satisfaction etc. However, none of the single criteria has proved to be
entirely satisfactory.
The main limitations of this approach is the problem of identifying the real goals rather
than ideal and its realistic assessment.
2. Functional Approach
This approach solves the problem of identification of organisational goals. Parson states
that since it has been assumed that an organisation is defined by the primacy of a type of
goal, the focus of its value system must be the legitimation of this goal in terms of the
‘functional significance’ of its attainment for the super-ordinate system i.e. to satisfy the
needs of the society. Thus the vital question in determining effectiveness is how well the
organisation is doing for the super-ordinate system.
The limitation of this approach is that when the organisations have autonomy to follow its
independent courses of action, it is difficult to accept that ultimate goal of organisation
must always be functional significance of larger system. As such it cannot be applied for
measuring organisational effectiveness in terms of its contributions to social system.
Both the goal and functional approach do not give adequate consideration to the
conceptual problem of the relations between the organisation and its environment.
3. System Resource Approach
System-resource approach of organisational effectiveness is derived from the open
system model as it is applied to formal social organisations. It emphasises the
interdependency of processes that relate the organisation to its environment. The
interdependence takes the form of input-output transactions and include scarce and
valued resources such as physical, economic and human for which every organisations
compete. Organisational effectiveness, as such, is defined in terms of bargaining
position, as reflected in the ability of the organisation, in either absolute or relative terms,
to exploit its environment in the acquisition of scarce and valid resources.
The limitation of this model is that the acquisition of resources from the environment is
again relating to the goal of the organisation. As such this model is not different from the
goal model.
Thus, discussion of organisational effectiveness leads to the conclusion that there is no
single indicator of effectiveness, that can be used across organisations. Instead, the
approach must be that operative goals serve as the bases for assessment of effectiveness.
Managerial effectiveness is a causal variable in organisational effectiveness. It has been
usually defined in terms of organisational goal-achieving behaviour, i.e. the manager’s
own behaviour contributes to the achievement of organisational goals.
Factors in Organisational Effectiveness
The factors contributing organisational effectiveness have been classified by Likert into
three groups - causal, intervening and end result.
Causal Variables are those independent variables that determine the course of
developments within an organisation and the results achieved by the organisation. These
causal variables include only those independent variables which can be altered or
changed by the organisation and its management. Causal variables include the structure
of the organisation and management’s policies, decisions, business and leadership
strategies, skills and behaviour.
Intervening Variables: Likert states that the intervening variables reflect the internal
state and health of the organisation. E.g. the loyalties, attitudes, motivations, performance
goals and perceptions of all members and their collective capacity for effective
interaction, communication and decision-making.
End-Result Variables are the dependent variables which reflect the achievements of the
organisation such as its productivity, costs, loss and earnings.
Inter-Relationship Among Variables
The three variables - causal, intervening and end-result - are interrelated. The inter-
relationship may be visualised as psychological process where stimuli (causal variables)
acting upon the organism (intervening variables) and creating certain responses (end-
result variables). The causal, intervening and end-result variables comprise a complex
network with many interdependent relationships. The causal variables are key to
organisational improvement and hence to make organisation effective, attempt should be
made to improve the causal variables, while other variables will be corrected or improved
automatically because of causal variables.

Casual Variable Intervening End Result

Variable Variable
• Leadership
styles  Commitment to • Production
objective
• Management  Motivation and
• Costs
decisions morale of • Sales
• Organisational members • Earnings
philosophies,  Communication, • Turnover
objectives and leadership skills • Mangement-
policies  Conflict Union
• Technology resolution relationship
etc.  Decision making etc.

The above model is quiet simple. The effectiveness model can be presented in a more
complex way i.e. at three different levels - the individual, group and organisational levels
in order to make the organisation more effective.

Casual Variables End Result Variables

Physical attributes Individual

Individual Psychological
effectiveness
Level attributes Loyalty,
Intervening
commitment
Technical factors variables
Personal
development

Group
Group Structural task Intervening effectiveness
Level environment variables Group
productivity
Group morale
factors
Organisa- Organisational
Structural task Intervening effectiveness,
tional Level environment variables productivity,
morale factors

The effective organisation is built of effective individuals who work collectively in

groups.
The extent to which individual and organisational goals are integrated, affects the degree
of organisational effectiveness, because each individual tries to satisfy his needs by
working in the organisation and simultaneously satisfying organisational needs. He may
see need satisfaction in satisfying organisational needs. If there is no perfect integration
of individual and organisational goals, organisational effectiveness is affected adversely.
It should, however, be noted that organisational effectiveness is not the result of
integration of individual and organisational goals only and there are other causal
variables affecting it. But human factor is one of the most important factor integrating
other factors in the organisation.
Effectiveness Through Adaptive-Coping Cycle
The organisation must develop a system through which it can adapt or cope with the
environmental requirements. Schein has suggested that an organisation can do this
through the adaptive coping cycle which consists of various activities which enable the
organisation to cope with the dynamics of environment.
Adaptive-Coping cycle is a continuous process. There are six sages in the adaptive-
coping cycle.
1.Sensing of Change:
The first stage is the sensing of change in some part of internal or external environment.
Most of the organisations have adaptive sub-system such as marketing research, research
and development and other similar devices for effective coping with the environment.
2.Importing the Relevant Information:
The organisations must be able to take the relevant information from the environment
which constitutes the input.

3.Changing Conversion Process:

The organisation takes the inputs from the environment for further processing, normally
known as conversion process.
4.Stabilising Internal Changes:
The fourth stage of the cycle is to stabilise the internal sub-system of the organisation is
dependent upon others and change in one may affect others also but this effect may be
positive or negative.
5.Exploring New Outputs:
When the internal change is stabilised, the organisation can export new outputs which are
in accordance with the environmental requirements.
6.Obtaining Feedback:
The last stage in the cycle is the obtaining of feedback on the outcome of the changes for
further sensing of the state of the external environment and the degree of integration of
the internal environment. This is like a first stage.
A successful coping suggests that all of the stages must be successfully negotiated and
failure at any of these stages may result into ineffectiveness.
Following are the major organisational conditions for effective coping:
There should be an effective communication system through which reliable and valid
information may be passed.
There should be enough internal flexibility so that changes can be brought and
absorbed by the organisation.
Successful coping requires integration and commitment to the organisational goals
which provides willingness for change.
There should be supportive internal climate which can support good communication,
reduction in inflexibility and stimulation of self-protection.
Maintaining organisational effectiveness requires additional efforts, especially when the
major organisational changes take place.
Review Questions:
1. What do you understand by organisational effectiveness? Discuss the approaches to
organisational effectiveness.
2. Specify the factors contributing organisational effectiveness.
 LESSON - 20
MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE
Learning Objectives
After reading this lesson, you should be able to understand:
• The concept of change in the organisation
• Forces affecting the change
• Model and dynamics of planned change
• The reasons for resistance to change
• The method of overcoming resistance to change

Change simply means the alteration of status-quo. Even in most stable

organisations change is necessary, just to keep the level of given stability. The economic
and social environment is so dynamic that, without the change that would be adaptive to
the changed environment, even the most successful organisations will be left behind;
unable to survive in the new environment. Accordingly, management must continuously
monitor the outside environment, and be sufficiently innovative and creative to find new
and better utilisation of organisational resources so that the customer needs are
competitively met.
Organisation encounter many different forces for change. These forces come from
external sources outside the organisation and from internal sources.

External Forces
External forces for change originate outside the organisation. There are four key
external forces for change:
1. Demographic Characteristics : These include – age, education, skill level and
gender. Organisations need to effectively manage these diversity if they are to receive
maximum contribution and commitment from the employees.
2. Technological Advancements : Both manufacturing and service organisations are
increasingly using technology as a means to improve productivity and market
competitiveness.
3. Market Changes : The emergence of a global economy is forcing Indian companies
to change the way they do business. Companies are having to forge new partnerships
with their suppliers in order to deliver higher quality products at lower prices.
4. Social and Political Pressures : These forces are created by social and political
events. Personal values affect employees needs, priorities and motivation; managers
thus may need to adjust their managerial style or approach to fit changing employee
 values. Political events can create substantial change. Although it is difficult for
organisations to predict changes in political forces, many organisations hire lobbyists
and consultants to help them detect and respond to social and political changes.

Internal Forces
Internal forces for change come from inside the organisation. This may come
from both human resource problems and managerial behaviour/decisions.
Human Resource Problems/ Prospects
These problems stem from employee perceptions about how they are treated at
work and the match between individual and organisation needs and desires.
Organisations might respond to these problems by using the various approaches to job
design by implementing realistic job previews, by reducing employees’ role conflict,
overload and ambiguity, and by removing the different stresses. Prospects for positive
change stem from employee participation and suggestions.
Managerial Behaviour/ Decisions
Excessive interpersonal conflict between managers and their subordinates is a sign
that change is needed. Inappropriate leader behaviours, such as inadequate direction or
support, may potential solution for this problem.

Nature of Change
Organisations introduce changes through people. Unless the people are willing to
accept the need and responsibility for organisational change, intended changes can never
be translated into reality. In addition, individuals have to learn to adapt their attitudes
and behavioural patterns to constantly changing environments.
Management of change involves both individual change and organisational
change. Individual change is behavioural - determined by individual characteristics of
members such as their knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, needs, expectations, skills, etc. It is
possible to bring about a total change in an organisation by changing behaviours of
individual members through participative - educative strategies. Of course, the degree of
difficulty involved in the change and the time taken to change will be primarily depend
upon what exactly is your target of change.
Changing attitude is usually considered more difficult and time-consuming. The
“attitudes towards change” are largely dependent on the context of the situation, the
nature and the extent of change and the manner in which changes are initiated and
executed.
Changing individual behaviour is a still more time consuming and difficult task.
The linkage between attitude and behaviour is not so straight forward and for this reason
changing behaviour is more difficult than changing knowledge or attitudes. One’s
attitude does not necessarily get reflected in one’s behaviour. For example, we know that
honesty is the best policy and we have favourable attitudes towards people who are
honest but in certain situations we may still act in a less honest way.
Changing group behaviour is usually a more prolonged and harder task. Every
group has its own dynamics of push and pull which attempts to neutralise the change that
may have taken place in an individual as continuous efforts are expected to maintain
‘norm’. Due to this group dynamics, individual member’s ‘changed behaviour’ may
revert to earlier normative behaviour in order to maintain the ‘status quo’. However due
to the same reasons of a group’s over-riding influence on individual members, sometimes
it may be easier to tackle the group as a whole rather than trying to change the behaviour
of members one by one.
Bringing total behavioural change in all the groups and members of an
organisation/institution usually entails a very difficult long-range effort. More often than
not, it is a slow painful process to usher in a total cultural change in an organisation.
It is possible to influence and change total institution without focusing at the level
of individual’s change of knowledge, attitude and behaviour. Total institutional change
can be brought about by modifying the organisations structures, policies, procedures,
techniques, etc. These types of changes alter prescribed relationships and roles assigned
to members and eventually modify the individual members’ behaviour and attitudes. As
these two kinds of changes are interdependent, the complexity of managing change
increases manifold.

Approaches to Organisation Change

As organisation change is a complex process, managers must approach it
systematically and logically in order to being it to fruition. Some organisation change is
planned well in advance; other changes come about as a reaction to unexpected events.
Planned change is designed and implemented in an orderly and timely fashion in
anticipation of future by internal forces as a way of preparing for anticipated
environmental change. Thus, a head of the educational institution who envisions a future
environmental change and decides how to best address it, is engaging in planned change
or proactive change.
Reactive change, in contrast, is a piece-meal response to circumstances as they
develop. Reactive change is almost always induced by external forces that the
organisation either failed to anticipate or misinterpreted. Since reactive change may have
to be carried out hastily, it increases the likelihood of a poorly conceived and poorly
executed programme.
Planned change is almost always preferable to reactive change. Managers who sit
back and respond to change only when they can no longer avoid it are likely to waste a
lot of time and money trying to patch together a last-minute solution. The more effective
approach is to anticipate the significant forces for change working on an organisation and
plan ways to address them. To accomplish this, managers must understand the steps
needed for effective change.
A Comprehensive Model of Change
The model of change shown in the following figure outlines seven steps that can
lead to effective change. This model is useful for both planned and reactive change.
Comprehensive Model of Change

Recognise need for change

Establish goals for change

Diagnose relevant variables

Select change intervention

Plan implementation of change

Implement change

Evaluate implementation

The first step in this model is recognising need for change. For marketing
managers who anticipate needed change, recognition is likely to come much earlier, as
the result forecasts indicating new market potential, expert indications about impending
socio-economic change or a perceived opportunity to capitalise on a key technological
breakthrough. These managers tend to ‘initiate change because they expect it to be
necessary in the near future in any case’.
The manager must then set goals for the proposed change. It is important for the
manager to specify what the change is supposed to accomplish. To maintain or increase
the market standing, to enter new markets, to restore employee morale, to reduce
turnover, to settle a strike, to identify good investment opportunities - all these are
possible goals.
An important next step is diagnosing what organisational variables have brought
about the need for change. Turnover, for example, may be caused by a variety of factors
including low pay, poor working conditions, poor supervision, better alternatives in the
job market or employee job dissatisfaction etc. Thus, if turnover is the recognised
stimulus for change, the manager must understand what has caused it in this particular
situation in order to make the right changes. To carry out this diagnosis, the manager
may discuss the situation with employees and other managers, compare pay offered in
other institutions.
After the manager has developed an understanding of the problem and its causes,
he must select a change intervention that will accomplish the intended goal; to reduce
turnover. An intervention is a specific change induced in an organisation with the
intention of solving a particular problem or accomplishing a specific objective. If turn
over is being caused by low pay, a new reward system may be needed. If the cause is
poor supervision, interpersonal skills training for supervisors may be needed.
The manager must then carefully plan the implementation of change. Issues to
consider include the costs of the change, how the change will affect other areas of the
organisation and the degree to which employees should participate in bringing about
change. Hastily implemented change can result in more harm than good. For example, if
the change involves the use of new equipment, the manager should not make any changes
that rely on the use of that equipment until it has arrived and been installed and workers
know how to use it. Moreover, if change is thrust upon them too quickly, their resistance
may stiffen. A systematically implemented change is more likely to proceed smoothly
and to encounter fewer obstacles than is a change that is implemented too quickly and
without adequate preparation.
Finally, after the change has been implemented, the manager should verify that it
has accomplished its intended goals. A change may fail to bring about the intended
results. This may be due to inappropriate original goals, inaccurate diagnosis of the
situation or wrong selection of intervention.

Models and Dynamics of Planned Change

Managers are criticised for emphasising short-term, quick-fix solutions to
organisational problems. When applied to organisational change, this approach is
doomed from the start. Quick-fix solutions do not really solve underlying problems, and
they have little staying power. Researchers and managers alike have thus tried to identify
effective ways to manage the change process.
Lewin’s Change Model
Most theories of organisational change originated from the landmark work of
social psychologist Kurt Lewin. Lewin developed a three-stage model of planned change
which explained how to initiate, manage and stabilise the change process. The three
stages are unfreezing, changing and refreezing. Before reviewing each stage, it is
important to highlight the assumptions that underlie this model:
1. The change process involves learning something new, as well as discontinuing
current attitudes, behaviours, or organisational practices.
2. Change will not occur unless there is motivation to change. This is often the
most difficult part of the change process.
 3. People are the hub of all organisational changes. Any change, whether in
terms of structure, group process, reward systems, or job design, requires
individuals to change.
4. Resistance to change is found even when the goals of change are highly
desirable.
5. Effective change requires reinforcing new behaviours, attitudes and
organisational practices.
Let us now consider the three stages of change:
Unfreezing :
The focus of this stage is to create the motivation to change. In so doing,
individuals are encouraged to replace old behaviours and attitudes with those desired by
management. Managers can begin the unfreezing process by disconfirming the
usefulness or appropriateness o employees’ present behaviuors or attitudes. Managers
also need to devise ways to reduce the barriers to change during this stage.
Changing :
Because change involves learning, this stage entails providing employees with
new information, new behavioural models, or new ways of looking at things. The purpose
is to help employees learn new concepts or pints of view. Role models, mentors, experts,
benchmarking the company against world-class organisations, and training are useful
mechanisms to facilitate change.
Refreezing :
Change is stabilized during refreezing by helping employees integrate the changed
behaviour or attitude into their normal way of doing things. This is accomplished by first
giving employees the chance to exhibit the new behaviours or attitudes. Once exhibited,
positive reinforcement is used to reinforce the desired change. Additional coaching and
modelling are also used at this point to reinforce the stability of the change.

Expanded Process Model

Lewin’s model is very simple and straight forward, virtually all models of
organisational change use his approach, however, it does not deal with several important
issues. A more complex, and more helpful, approach is illustrated in the following
figure. This approach looks at planned change from the perspective of top management.
The model incorporates Lewin’s concept as part of the implementation phase.
Figure: An Expanded Model of the Organisation Change Process

1. Forces of 2. Recognition and 3. Problem-solving

Change Define Problems Process

Change Agent

5. Measures, Evaluate, 4. Implement the

Control Change

Transition
Management

Top management in this approach perceives that certain forces or trends call for
change, and the issue is subjected to the organisation’s usual problem-solving and
decision-making processes. Usually, the top management defines its goals in terms of
what the organisation or certain processes, or outputs will be like after the change.
Alternatives for change are generated and ealuated, and an acceptable one is selected.

Resistance to Change
Although organisations initiate changes in order to adjust to the changes in their
environments, people sometimes resist change. Managers need to learn to recognise the
manifestations of resistance both in themselves and in others, if they want to be more
effective in supporting change. For example, managers can use the list in figure below to
prepare answers and tactics to combat the various forms of resistance.
The Continuum of Resistance to Change
• Enthusiasm
• Cooperation
Acceptance • Cooperation under pressure from management
• Acceptance
• Passive resignation
• Indifference

 Apathy; loss of interest in the job

Indifference  Doing only what is ordered
  Regressive behaviour

• Non-learning
• Protests
Passive Resistance • Working to rule
• Doing as little as possible

 Slowing down
 Personal withdrawal (increased time off the job)
Active Resistance  Committing "errors"
 Spoilage
 Deliberate sabotage
The sources of resistance to change within organisations may be divided into
organisational sources of resistance and individual sources of resistance.

Organisational Sources of Resistance

According to Daniel Kantz and Robert L Khan, organisational sources of
resistance can be divided into six general groups.
 Over determination or structural inertia refers to the tendency of an organisation’s
rules, policies and structure to maintain the status quo and therefore resist change
even when change would benefit the organisation more than stability.
 When an organisation tries to change one of its elements - one division or job
category - without recognising the interdependence of the element with every other
part of the organisation, it is said to have a narrow focus of change. Often a part
cannot be changed without changing the whole.
 Group inertia may undermine an individual’s attempt to bring about change.
 Resistance may also take the form of threatened expertise if the change tends to
undermine special expertise built after years of experience. Organisational
restructuring, that involves reducing the number of job categories often meets this
kind of resistance.
 Any change that may alter the power relationships within an organisation may meet
the form of resistance known as ‘threatened power’.
 Resistance may occur when a change threatens quantum of resource allocation from
one part of the organisation to another.

Individual Sources of Resistance

According to researchers, individuals have the following reasons for resisting
change:
 Simple habits creates a lot of resistance. Most people prefer to do their work the way
they did it last week rather than learn a new approach.
Perhaps the biggest cause of employee resistance to change is uncertainty. In the face
of impending change, employees are likely to become anxious and nervous. They
may worry about their ability to meet the new job demands; they may think their job
security is threatened.
Some people resist change to avoid feelings of loss. For example, many organisations
change interventions alter work arrangements and thus disrupt existing social
networks. Social relationships are important to most people, so they resist any change
that might adversely affect those relationships. Change may also threaten people’s
feelings of familiarity and self-confidence.
People may resist change because their perceptions of underlying circumstances differ
from the perceptions of those who are promoting the change.
Valerie Stewart (1983), a British Psychologist and business consultant, has listed
the following characteristics of people who are good at managing changes.
1. They know clearly what they want to achieve.
2. They can translate desires into practical action.
3. They can propose changes not only from their own view point but also from that
of others.
4. They show reverence for tradition and respect for experience.
5. They are not discouraged by set backs.
6. They harness circumstances to enable changes to be implemented.
7. They clearly explain change.
8. They involve their staff in the management of change and protect their security.
9. They don’t pile one change on another, but await assimilation.
10. They present changes as a relational decision.
11. They make change personally rewarding for people, wherever possible.
12. They share maximum information about possible outcomes.
13. They show that change is ‘related to business/job’.
14. They have a history of successful change.

Overcoming Resistance to Change

Managers need not abandon planned change in the face of resistance. Before
recommending specific approaches to overcome resistance, there are three key
conclusions that should be kept in mind. First, an organisation must be ready for change.
Second, the top management should keep informed the employees about the process of
change. Third, the employees’ perceptions or interpretations of a change significantly
affect resistance.
Some of the methods of overcoming resistance to change are discussed below:
Participation:
Participation is generally considered the most effective technique for overcoming
resistance to change. Employees who take part in planning and implementing change are
better able to understand the reasons for the change than those who are not involved.
They become committed to the change and making it work. Employees who have the
opportunity to express their own ideas and to understand the perspectives of others are
likely to accept change gracefully. It is a time consuming process.
Education and Communication:
Educating employees about the need for and the expected results of an impending
change help reduce their resistance. Managers should maintain an open channel of
communication while planning and implementing change. But it is also a time
consuming process.
Facilitation of Change:
Knowing ahead of time that employees are likely to resist change; the managers
should do as much as possible to help them cope with uncertainty and feeling of loss.
Introducing change gradually, making only necessary changes, announcing changes in
advance and allowing time for people to adjust to new ways of doing things can help
reduce resistance.
Force-Field Analysis:
In almost any situation where a change is being planned, there are forces acting for
and forces acting against the change. In force-field analysis, the managers list each set of
forces and then try to remove or atleast minimise some of the forces acting against the
change.
Negotiation:
Where someone or some group will clearly lose out in a change and where that
group has considerable power to resist. Sometimes it is a relatively easy way to avoid
major resistance. But it can be too expensive in many cases, if it alerts others to negotiate
for compliance.
Manipulation and Cooperation:
This is followed when other tactics will not work or are too expensive. It can be
quick and inexpensive. But it can lead to further problems if people feel manipulated.
Explicit and Implicit Coercion:
 This is adopted where speed is essential and where the change initiators possess
considerable power. It is speedy and can overcome resistance.
Each of the above methods has its advantages and drawbacks. There is no
universal strategy for overcoming resistance to change. Hence the institution which plans
to introduce certain changes must also be prepared to face resistance, if any from its
employees and should have a planned approach to overcome such resistances.
ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
The term organisational development (OD) refers to a broad range of behavioural
science-based strategies used to diagnose the need for change in organisations and to
implement changes when necessary. Organisation development can be defined as a
technique for bringing change in the entire aspect of the organisation, rather than
focusing attention on individuals, so that change is easily absorbed.

Nature of Organisation Development

Organisation development is a general strategy or approach to organisational
change that can be employed to analyse and diagnose the sources of organisational
problems and to develop and implement action plans for their solution. According to
Bennis, OD has the following characteristics:
♦ It is an educational strategy for bringing planned change.
♦ It is related to real problems of the organisation.
♦ Laboratory training methods based on experienced behaviour are primarily
used to bring change.
♦ Change agent applying OD technique for change is external to the forms of
consultants.
♦ There is a close working relationship between change agents and the people
who are being changed. The relationships involve mutual trust, joint goals and
means, and mutual influence.
♦ The change agents share asocial philosophy about human value. They are
humanists seeking to get a humanistic philosophy in organisation.

OD Interventions
OD interventions refer to various activities which consultant and client
organisation perform for improving organisational functioning through enabling
organisation members better manger their team and organisation cultures. French and
Well have defined OD interventions as ‘sets of structured activities in which selected
organisational units (target groups or individuals) engage with a task or a sequence of
tasks where the task goals are related directly or indirectly to organisational
improvement. Interventions constitute the action thrust of organisation development;
they make things happen and are what is happening.
Intervention Techniques:
1. Sensitivity Training
2. Process Consultation
3. Team Development
4. Grid Organisation Development
1. Sensitivity Training
Sensitivity training is a small-group interaction under stress in an unstructured
encounter group which requires people to become sensitive to one another’s feelings in
order to develop reasonable group activity. In sensitivity training the actual technique
employed is T-group. T group has several characteristic features:
(i) the T-group is generally small, from ten to twenty members
(ii) the group begins its activity with no formal agenda
(iii) the role of trainer is primarily to call attention from time to time to the ongoing
process within the group
(iv) the procedure tends to develop introspection and self-examination, with
emotional levels of involvement and behaviour and the possibility of
colleagues and some breakdown of established insulation and self-defence on
the part of individuals.
The objectives of such training are increased openness with others, more concern
for others, increased tolerance for individual differences, less ethnic prejudice,
understanding of a group process, enhanced listening skills, and increased trust and
support.
3. Process Consultation
Process consultation (P-C) represents a method of intervening in an ongoing
system. The basic content of P-C is that the consultant works with individuals and
groups to help them learn about human and social processes and learn to solve problems
that stem from process events. P-C consists of many interventions and activities which
affect the various organisational processes, such as, communication, roles and functions
of group members, group problem-solving and decision-making, group norms, authority
and leadership, and intergroup cooperation and conflicts.
4. Team Development
The underlying aim of team development is to increase trust among team members
because people work better together when there is open and honest sharing about the
problems and difficulties that they have with one another. As such, at the initial level, the
attempt should be to develop such an environment where such trust can be developed
among the team members.
5. Grid Organisation Development
Grid organisation development, developed by Blake and Mounton, is a
comprehensive and systematic OD programme. The programme aims at individuals,
groups and the organisation as a whole. It utilises a considerable number of instruments,
enabling individuals and groups to assess their own strength and weaknesses; focuses on
skills, knowledge and processes necessary for effectiveness at the individual, group,
intergroup and total organisation levels.
In addition to these people focused interventions, there may be other types of
interventions too. For example, structural and job interventions – job enlargement, job
enrichment, management by objectives, rules, procedures, authority structure etc.
Organisation development offers some very attractive methodologies and
philosophies to practicing managers and academicians alike. William Halal is right when
he says “OD in future includes any method for modifying the behaviour in the
organisation, hereby, encompassing the entire spectrum of applied behavioural science”.
There has also been experiences of failure, and these are also being recorded and
collected to learn from them. In general, OD shows a promising future, since there are no
rigid set procedures in OD work, and different strategies have to be evolved for different
types of organisations.

Review Questions:
1. What are the external and internal forces affecting change?
2. Describe Lewin’s Model of change.
3. Why do people resist change? As a manager, how would you overcome such
resistance to change?
4. What is meant by organisation development? What are its characteristics?
5. What are OD interventions? Discuss the major OD interventions.

  
 CASE ANALYSIS

A case is a description of a situation involving problems to be solved. However,

the case may not have as complete information about the problem as a reader wishes.
The amount of detail required would make the case too long to read and too detailed to
analyse. A case may be presented either in structured form or in unstructured form. In a
highly structured case, there are leading questions at the end that indicate a focus and
predetermine the direction in which the discussion will go.
The case method of learning has the following objectives:
 The description of real business situation to acquaint the learner with the
principles and practices obtained in work setting;
 Introduction of realism into formal instruction;
 Demonstration of various types of goals, problems, facts, conditions, conflicts
and personalities obtained in organisational settings;
 Development of decision-making ability; and
 Development of independent thinking but cooperative approach to work in
team situations.

Guidelines for Case Analysis

The basic approach in a case analysis should be to get on the problem and provide
its solution. However, this can be achieved only when the participants go through a
number of sequential activities. For example, a case analyst can put following questions
in sequence to find the problem and its likely solutions:
(i) What are the actual problems involved in the case?
(ii) What are the relevant facts?
(iii) What are the crucial unknown aspects of the scene?
(iv) What are the major critical questions related to each specific event?
(v) In what ways, can logic and reasoning be used to determine crucial inference,
connections and relationships?
(vi) In what manners contradictory facts and arguments can be weighted in making
decisions?
(vii) In what ways can the decisions be implemented?
The answers of these questions will lead to define the problem, identify the
alternatives for problem solution, analysis of those alternatives, and finally to choose the
suitable alternative.
 Leadership
1. CHOICE OF A LEADER
Mr. Ranjan Kumar is the Managing Director of a Soaps Manufacturing Company.
To increase sales, the Board of Directors wanted to start a full-fledged marketing
department.Mr. Kumar is entrusted with the task of finding a suitable candidate to head
the proposed marketing department. After considering a number of candidates, he has
narrowed down his choice to two persons: Viswanath Dutt and Rajnarain.
Mr.Viswanath Dutt has an excellent track-record in the company. During his
fruitful association with the company, to be precise ten years, he has always shown a high
degree of enthusiasm and initiative in his work. He is still young (35 years) dynamic and
aggressive. He is result-oriented and is, naturally, more interested in ends rather than
means. One of the workers, testifying his leadership qualities, remarked thus: “Tough he
is harsh at times, you w’ll know where you stand when you work with him. When you
have done a good job, he lets you know it”. Mr. Dutt is willing to shoulder additional
responsibilities. He decides things quickly and when action is required, he is ‘always on
his toes’.
During his 15 years tenure in the Company, Mr. Rajnarain has endeared himself to
all his colleagues by his superior workmanship and pleasing manners. He always
believes in the principle of employee participation in the decision-making process.
Unlike Mr. Dutt, he encourages his subordinates to come out with innovative ideas and
useful suggestions. Before arriving at a decision he always make it a point to consult his
subordinates. Not surprisingly, all his subordinates are very pleased to work under him
and praise his leadership qualities. They readily admit that the participative climate has
encouraged them to use their talents fully in the service of the organisation. Company
records also bear evidence for the increase in the production soon after Rajnarain became
the head of his department.
Questions :
1. Analyse the leadership qualities and styles of Mr. Dutt and Mr.Rajnarain.
2. Between the two people, who would you recommend for the position of a marketing
manager?



OB Modification
2. IMPROVING ATTENDANCE WITH OB MOD
Absenteeism at SJR Foods plant had been getting steadily worse for many
years.Radha El-Barky, the production manager, felt that it would be worth investing
some money in solving the problem. In consultation with the company unions, she
developed and installed a lottery scheme which involved the issuing of free tickets to
employees who attended work. Each full day’s attendance entitled the employee to one
free lottery ticket; Full attendance for a week produced a bonus of two extra tickets. The
lottery was drawn every Friday evening and prizes were available for collection on the
spot. Within 2 weeks of its introduction, the scheme was more than paying for itself in
improved attendance.
At the same time, as she introduced the lottery system, Radha had agreed a goal
with the employee representatives of 90% attendance. At the end of each week, a chart in
the canteen was completed, which showed the attendance rate for that week.
Questions:
1. Using the terminology and concepts of OB modification, explain what had been done
at SJR Foods.
2. Discuss the extent to which this intervention adopted a pure behaviourist approach.


Conflict Management
3. IT’S THE SAME STORY EVERYWHERE
Prakash hails from a hard-working, immigrant family. Right from his childhood
he wanted to achieve something and acquire power for himself. Unfortunately, he could
secure only a low-paid job in the assembly line in a large manufacturing firm. It is a
harmless job having no promotional opportunities. Since has to support a large family,
he needed a well-paid job and all his efforts in this direction had gone waste. To blow off
his steam and to relieve himself from worldly woes, he started living in a “fool’s
paradise” and spent most of his days in day-dreaming. Not surprisingly, he fell a prey to
drinking and other vices. After exhausting his meager financial resources, he would get
depressed and start worrying about his family.
It has been a vicious circle and he wants to come out of it. Unable to bear with this
miserable situation, one fine morning, he wanted to seek advice and counsel from his
supervisor. But since his relationship with his supervisor is not too-intimate, he sought
help from his union leader. The union leader has listened to Prakash’s woes patiently. He
told Prakash in a sympathetic tone: “There is no use working in this company. We have
innumerable problems, and not a single problem is solved by management so far. The
working conditions are pathetic. Our salary is too low. And let’s unite together and
fight with management for better salary and working conditions”.
Questions:
1. Analyse the nature of role conflict experienced by Prakash in this case.
2. What type of conflict resolution strategy is the union leader suggesting in this case?
3. How do you advice Mr. Prakash?



Perception
4. BOMBAY PRINTERS
Bombay Printers is a large printing firm located in Mumbai. It has specialised in
printing calendars and greeting cards. Right from inception, this concentration brought
rich dividends and over the years sales have increased considerably, much to the envy of
competitors. Slowly but steadily, it has captured a major share of the market. Since
Bombay Printers is a family held company, exact figures are not readily available.
Despite this statistical deficiency, competitors knew very well that Ramakant Patil and
his children who own the company are extremely wealthy. The fact that the Patil
Foundation grants several lakhs of rupees every year to Charitable Institutions apeaks
volumes. Over the years the company has been investing its surplus in real estate and
equity capital in a calculated manner. Supported by a vast reservoir of funds, it is small
wonder, the company has achieved a stupendous growth rate leaving everyone behind in
the race.
Currently, Bombay Printers is the dominant employer in the printing industry.
Though there is no union, employees are well-paid. The demand for calendars and
greetings has increased considerably, in the recent past, and most of the employees
receive a fat overtime allowance. In an interview, given to a local magazine, Ramkant
Patil proudly declared, “Workers in Bombay Printers are highly motivated. They are
currently the highest-paid employees in the country. The future is rosy. Within a few
days we are going to introduce a new productivity incentive plan under which employees
are likely to get annual bonus based on a novel productivity formula devised by our
Accounting Staff. We always want our employees to grow along with us”.
To his surprise and dismay, Ramkant Patil received a nasty letter, containing a
long list of demands, from a group of anonymous employees – after the publication of the
interview in the magazine. Among their complaints were the following:

“We’re sick of all this overtime. You and other officers in the company may
like working day and night. We prefer the company of our families and friends
to machines and tools during holidays”.

“The new bonus plan is a hoax. None of us can understand how it operates.
As usual, it will be those people who lick the boots of management that’ll
benefit. Stop playing these dirty tricks. We hate working harder for something
we don’t have any chance of getting”.

“You are talking as if we’re one big happy family, thus yet trying to throw us
all on roads at the same time. Stop manipulating us. We know pretty well that
the company has bought land in Delhi and you’re going to settle there only
 throwing us all out of work. Why should we care for a company that is
abandoning us on stress?”
Questions:
1. From the standpoint of employee perceptions, what is going on here?
2. How can the company avoid these negative reactions?