Organisational Behaviour 9781642876192, 9789350243589

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ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

Prof. H. R. APPANNAIAH

Dr. P. N. REDDY

M.Com. Former Dean of Studies, Surana P.G.Centre, Kengeri, Bangalore-60, Founder President, Federation of Teachers' Council in Karnataka

Ph.D. Former Dean, Head.& Professor, Department of P.G. Studies in Commerce and Management, Bangalore University

Mrs. B. ROSE KAVITHA MBA, M.Sc(Psy).,(Ph.D.) HR Training Consultant, Faculty - HR, RJS Institute of Management Studies Koramangala, Bangalore - 34

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Revised Edition : 2010

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CONTENTS Chapter 1

Organisational Behaviour

1 - 48

Introduction to organisational,behaviour - What is organisational behaviour? Mean ing and Significance - Evol ution of the conceptElements of OB system - Scope and Application in ManagementContributions of other disciplines - Models of Organisational behaviour -Organisational Structure, challenges facing Management - Emerging Organisations - Review Case. Chapter 2

Perception

49 - 69

Perception - Definition - Need - The key factors influencing perception - Process of perception - Perceptual Mechanism Factors influencing Perception - Errors in perception -Interpersonal perception and Perception in organizational settings. Chapter 3

Motivation

70 - 100

Motivation - MearJi1,g, Nature of motivation - Motivation Process, Theories of Motivation - Maslow's Theory, Herzberg's Two Factor Theory-McGregorTheory X & Theory Y -Incentives - Financial and non-Financial Incentives - Application of motivation - Job Design - Job enrichment - Review case Chapter 4

Attitudes

101 ..;. 132

Attitudes - Meaning and Characteristics of attitudes -Components of Attitudes - Formation of attitudes - Types of attitudes Measurement of attitude - Values and concept ofvalues - Types of values -Importance of values - Review Case. Chapter 5

Learning and Behaviour Modification

133 - 152

Basic concepts of learning - Meaning and Definition - Principles of Learning & Reinforcement - Observational Learning - Cognitive Learning - Organisational Behaviour Modification-Steps in OB Modification -Organizational Reward Systems. Chapter 6

Personality

153 - 182

Personality - Determinants of Personality - Biological Factors Cultural Factors - Family and Social Factors - Situational Factor!>Big Five Model - Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) - Other Personality Attributes influencing OB - Types of Personality-Interactive Behaviour and Interpersonal Conflict - Review Case.

Chapter 7

Group Dynamics

183 - 208

Meaning - Concepts of Group behaviour - Types of Groups Functions of small groups - Group size and status - Managerial Implications - Group Behaviour - Group Norms - Factors determining group's success - Group decision-making and its techniques - Group Cohesiveness, Groupthink and group shift. Chapter 8

Leadership

209 - 241

Definitions of Leadership - Nature - Skills - Differences between Leadership and Management - Importance of Leadership - Theories of Leadership - Formal and Informal Leaders - Functions of a Leader - Leadership Styles - Continuum of Leadership Styles. Chapter 9

Organisational Change

242 - 274

Organisational Change - Meaning and Definition - Nature of Work Change - Pressure for Change - Types of Change - Management of change - Factors affecting change - Change Model and the role of change agent - Reasons of change and Resistance to change Strategies to Overcome resistance to change - Organisational Development - Different OD Techniques - OD and Organisational Effectivenss. Skill Development

275 - 281

Organisational Behaviour

"I keep six honest serving-men (They thought are all I know); Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who" - Rudyard Kipling

LEARNING OBJECTIVES After reading this chapter you should be able to:

Define the term organizational behaviour. Recognize as to why OB has to be studied State the upcoming developments in OB Understand Organisational Structure Learn about Emerging Organisations

Infosys or Wipro or BHEL or BEML are all today the business entities with wide recognition. The first two are private enterprises and the other two are public sector undertakings. There is a common feeling in the society that private sector undertakings do better compared to public sector undertakings. When we look at the operating results of these enterprises, we understand that

2

Organisational Behaviour

irrespecti ve of the sectors, the real power of the organization lies in effecti ve application of organizational behavioural theories and concepts. Today , than any time before, organizations are mainly depending on these concepts and theories to remain competitive. Forexample, Infosys empowers its employees with autonomy and responsibilities to manage. The organization is a flexible one and the enterprise 'is driven by a strong corporate culture. Socialisation practices, reward systems (revenue sharing through ESOPs since the beginning of the business) and effective leadership of Mr.Narayanamurthy keep Infosys employees weded to values. Thi s small trea~ise unfolds the various issues about people working in organisations. This tries to tell you behavioural aspects in organisations and depicts as to how effectively activities take place in the organisational settings. The knowledge about organisational behaviour is not only required to managers or leaders but also to anyone who works in and around the . organizations. Organisation is a social system. People are into it. Most people are born and educated in organisations, acquire most of their material possessions from organisations, and die as members of organisatiol!s . At one point or another, the social system called organisation will affect all. Mr. Oliver Sheldon defines that, "Organisation is a process of combining work in which individuals and groups have to perform with the faculties necessary for its execution so that they provide the best channels for efficient, systematic, positive and coordinated application of the avai lable effort" . Indi viduals should understand what role do organisations play in their life. At the same time the organisations should also understand people and their behaviour. Research in organisational behaviour demands the understanding, predicting and controlling of human behaviour. Many of the concepts and ideas are brought in light to know about the behaviour of the individuals and groups in the organisation. These concepts and the ideas are based on the knowledge acquired from the behavioural sciences.

08 RETROSPECTIVE If we look at the past history or evolution of business, we understand that OB issues were prevalent in business activities in an unstructured form. The concepts like (i) Equity in work relationship (ii) Persuasive communication (iii) Organisational power and politics (iv) Division of labour

Organisational Behaviour

3

(v) Rational organisations (vi) Leadership and (vii) Goal setting did exist in the past. Philosophers, classical economists, and management thinkers in their writings highlighted all reward systems. But OB concept got a formal recognitiol) only around 1940s.

Definitions "Organisational Behaviour is the study and application of knowledge of how people act or behave within organisation".

- Keith Davis and Newstrom. "Organisational Behaviour is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behaviour within organsiations for the purpose of applying such knowledge towards improving an oranganisation's effectiveness".

- Stephen P.Robbins. "Organisational Behaviour is directly concerned with the understanding, prediction and control of human behaviour".

- Fred Luthalls. In simple terms OB helps the employers to understand, predict and controls employee's behaviour. OB does this by taking a system approach. That is, it interprets people-organisation relationships in terms of the whole person, whole group, whole organisation, and as a whole social system. It's purpose is to build better relationships by achieving human objectives, organisational objectives, and social objectives. Organisational behaviour provides an umbrella for research that focuses on individuals and groups within the. workplace. Research in this area examines individual processes, group characteristics and processes as well broader organisational processes. It also asks how these processes impact on organisational outcomes such as performance, stress, absenteeism and turnover.

Basic Concepts of Organisational Behaviour When we call it as a 'behavioural science' we need to understand what is science. Science is 'the systemised body of knowledge'. Behaviour means 'an activity that occurs as a result of stimuli that is aroused for which the response takes place'. Behaviour is influenced by the group as well as by the individual's drive. What is organisational behaviour? Organisational behaviour is the study of what people think, feel and do in the organisation. Organisational Behaviour

4

Organisational Behaviour

(often abbreviated as OB) "is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups and structure have on behaviour within organisations for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organisation's effecti veness". Breaking down the definition, organisational behaviour is a study that is of a distinct area of expertise with a common body of knowledge. And what does it study'? It studies about the behaviour of the individuals, group and structure of the organisations. In addition, it applies the knowledge about individuals, groups and the effect ofstructure on behaviour to make organisations work more effectively. Organisational behaviour scholars try to understand and predict how these behaviours help companies succeed. Thus organisational behaviour is a science that studies the behaviour of people inside the organisations. Organisational behaviour is the study of human behaviour at work or in the organisational settings. To analyse organisational behaviour as per research, one has to describe - identify how people's behaviour is different in different situations, understand - find why individuals behave in a specific way, predict - forecast the individual's behaviour, and control the predicted behaviour to the expected behaviour. The key variables involved in identifying nature of people are: a. Individual differences b. Perception c. Values and Attitudes and d. Motivation. a. Indivtdual differences: Each individual is different from the other. When an indi vidual interacts, the environment plays a vital role in designing the human behaviour. Individuals inside the organisations are considered as valuable assets. As they come from various families, cultural background and environment they are diverse in nature. From the organisation's point of view, understanding and predicting of this di versity becomes complex. b. Perception: Each individual look at things differently. The way individuals perceive the objects and events in a given situation is called as perception. Individuals assign meanings according to their perception. It is the way individuals organise, interpret and derive meanings to objects, events and people. Interpretations are done according to the individual's experiences, importance of the events and the values attached to them. During the process of perception, selective perception occurs. Selective perception is where individuals tend to pay more attention to a certain feature that is consistent. It coincides with the individual's expectations. For example, if an employee expects the supervisor to help him in the job, the perception of the worker is

Organisational Behaviour

5

that the supervisor is helpful in nature. In this case, if the event takes place, i.e., if the supervisor helps .his co- worker, then the perception of the worker is right.

-c. Values and Attitudes: Individuals working in organisations have their own values and attitudes. Values represent the basic convictions of the individuals. These convictions are formed in a hierarchical way depending upon the importance attached to them: In turn, the importance of the convictions depends on its intensity. General convictions are freedom, selfrespect, honesty, obedience and ethics. Attitudes are evaluative statements - either favorable or unfavorable. It relates to the individuals views, regarding objects, people or events. Attitude reflects something related to "people's feelings".

d. Motivation: The other important key variable is motivation. What motivates you? Why are you in the college? If you are in college because that's what your parcnts want, you may find it difficult to motivate yourself. But if the motivation comes from within, then it is the self-motivation that makes the difference. Every individual works and tries to achieve certain levels in their life. For instance, students prepare themselves intensely to score high in examinations and the lecturers involve in publishing of the articles and in doing research works. Motivation is a key factor that makes people to behave in different ways. Managers strive to motivate the employees to achieve higher productivity, high sales turnover, quality of service and products. But the precise performance of an employee depends on, his or her ability to interact with the environment. The relationship of an individual with the environment is as follows: P

= Performance

M = Motivation A = Ability E = Environment. Apart form the key variables in identifying the behaviour of the indi viduals there is a concept called behavioural Psychology. This behavioural Psychology could be understood easily from Box 1. 1.

Box 1.1: Behavioural Psychology in 9 Basic Steps Behavioural psychology is one of the major topics taught in every introductory psychology course, yet many concepts that lie at the heart of this subject can be confusing for students. If you've ever found yourself

6

Organisational Behaviour

confusing the unconditioned stimulus with the conditioned stimulus, this basic lesson is for you. 1. What Is Behavioural Psychology? Behavioural psychology, also known as behaviorism, is a perspective that became dominant during the early half of the 20th century thanks to prominent thinkers such as B.F. Skinner and John B. Watson. The basis of Behavioural psychology suggests that all behaviors are learned.

2. Learning Can Occur Through Associations Have you ever heard someone compare something to "Pavlov's dogs" and wondered exactly what the reference means? The phrase refers to an accidental discovery by physiologist I van Pavlov, who found that dogs could be conditioned to salivate to the sound of a bell. This process, known as classical conditioning, became a fundamental part of Behavioural psychology.

3. Phenomena in Classical Conditioning There are a number of different phenomena that impact classical conditioning. These factors can impact how quickly a behavior is acquired and the strength of that association. For example, a process known as extinction occurs when an association disappears; this causes the behavior to gradually disappear.

4. Learning Can Occur Through Reward and Punishment In addition to conditioning natural responses through association, behaviorist B.F. Skinner described a process in which learning could occur through reinforcement and punishment. This process, known as operant conditioning, functions by forming an association between a behavior and the consequences of the behavior.

S. Reinforcement Schedules Are Important At first glance, the operant conditioning process seems fairly straight forward. Simply observe a behavior and then offer a reward or punishment. However, B .F. Skinner discovered that the timing of these rewards and punishments has an important influence on how quickly a new behavior is acquired and the strength of the response.

6. A Who's Who in Behavioural Psychology Behavioural psychology has been influenced by a number of promi nent thinkers. Part of understanding the history and background of these Behavioural principles involves learning more about the individuals who first discovered and advocated these theories . • Ivan Pavlov: The Russian physiologist who discovered classical conditioning.

Organisational Behaviour

7

• John B. Watson: An American psychologist who believed that psychology should be the science of observable behavior. • B.F. Skinner: One of the best-known Behavioural thinkers; best known for his theory of operant conditioning.

7. Behavioural Analysis While the dominance of Behavioural psychology eroded after 1950, Behavioural principles remain important today. Today, behavior analysis is often used as a therapeutic technique to help children with autism and developmental delays acquire new skills.

8. Change Isn't Always Easy Making a lasting change in behavior can be incredibly difficult, whether you're trying to lose weight, stop smoking or improve your study habits. However, by combining your understanding of Behavioural psychology with other proven psychological techniques, you can learn how to effectively change a behavior.

9. Learn Key Terms and Definitions • Classical Conditioning • Unconditioned Stimulus • Conditioned Stimulus • Unconditioned Response • Conditioned Response • Fixed-Interval Schedule • Fixed-Ratio Schedule • Variable-Interval Schedule • Fixed-Interval Schedule • Behaviorism The above key terms are discussed respecti vely.

III

the following chapters

Scope and Application of 08 in Management The field of OB has emerged as a multinterdiciplinary orientation and therefore it could be recognized as a separate field of study rather than addressing OB as a separate discipline. The nature of OB is that it discusses only the cause and effect relationship and also it discusses about the findings of the applied researches with respect to organisational goals. The concepts and theories ofOB is applied at three levels; the individual level, group level and the organsaitonallevel, as organisation comprises of individuals, groups and organiastional structure. Individual level includes indi vidual factors like personality, perception, attitudes and values etc. The group includes group

8

Organisational Behaviour

norms, leadership, power and politics, group conflicts, team working and group dynamics. Organisational level includes organisation structure, change and development and organisational effecti veness. Information Technology is shaking up organisations and the researchers are reexamining their concepts and theories in view of the IT changes. Information Technology also reshapes organisations and their interactions with other organizations.

Organisation Business enterprise is one compact unit called "organization". This unit is structured according to the needs of the business. Whether it is formal of informal, organizations have to be systematically structured. In this systematic structure people are put together to achieve some common goal and thereby get some benefits. Organisational activity is teamwork of people involved in designing, manufacturing, marketing etc., Organisations are required to keep pace with the time for development. They are essential. Even in past complex organizations existed. People in those organisations worked together very well. Historically also we see that many monuments are preserved to explain the future generation that very many organised organizations functioned in the past. Contemporary orgnisations with the application of Information Technology (IT) in business operations are very professionally functioning. We can site very many examples. In all these contemporary orgnisations , it is not only the infrastructure that plays a role in providing the organisation but also :he people'at work that playa major role in professionally and profitably ,maintaining the business unit. Thus an organization is an abstract construct that powerfully works and this abstract construct is not that strong and attractive building that exists to run the business, but the people who work together to achieve the goals of organisation. An invention of human kind is the organization. Therefore the same human once entering the organization focuses on certain issues. They are improvisin-g social systems, fulfilling the request of-the environment and the society. This is how the emergence of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) came into picture.CSR gained its popularity when the companies started competing in rendering services to the down-trodden and needy and at the same time take care of the share holders, its valuable customers, suppliers etc., There are major changes occurring in business objectives and tasks. Due to the changes most of the organizations are facing crisis in their organizational theory and practice. The new business is multidime~sional in terms of its polices and practices. Most of the organizations are heading towards services, process technology, knowledge and ITES (Information Technology Enabled

Organisational Behaviour

9

Services) industry. Most of the older theories are fading away in course of matching the findings with today's organization .Today the focus is on simulated decentralization, systems structure, knowledge based and team organization. People at work, function in an organised way. Organisations work with some commitment and objecti ves . But some OB thinkers say that there will be mismatch between the mission statement and functioning of the organization . They also argue that it is not correct to believe that every member of the organisation thinks of and work only for the goals of the organisation . There may be organisations without goals and directions to employees to work. These types of organisations may also exist and work. But when we speak orgnaisation, it means that a unit or structure having relationships interwoven between people and they work with collecti ve sense of purpose although there will be less understanding goals.

Structure of an Organisation How is organization born? One need to identify the "black box" of an organization. The "black box" here refers to the organization structure or people or systems thinking on which an organization is built. Today ' s companies talk of the buzzword "institutionalised teamwork" by way of including the lower level employees a all stages of decisions of the company. Orgnisation structure which form the organising process, is the basic framework within which the decision-making behaviour of an executive takes place. It is an established pattern of relationships among the components of the organisation. The relationships are relatively stable and change only slowly. This relationship governs the activities of the people who are dependent upon each other for achieving the common objectives. In complex organizations, the structure of major di visions is formed initially and the relationship between divisions and their subsystems and functions are established later.

Types of Organisation Structure Organisations may be departmentalised on the basis of function, product, place, or some combination of the three. An organisation's authority structure may range from the highly centralised to the decentralised. There may be small or large spans of management. Broadly, however, there are two types of structure: classical and behavioural. A classical organisation structure is usually pyramid-shaped. This impltes centralisation of authority at the top, departmentalisation of jobs, hierarchy of command, narrow span of supervision and intense division of labour. This is shown in Fig. 1.1. The behaviouralists generally advocate wider spans of control which foster a flatter organisation structure, more general supervision, and more

10

Organisational Behaviour The Pyramid , DECISION-MAKING CENTRE (AUTHORITY BASE)

Tall organisation implies: (a)

Distance from top to bottom (b) Extended communication lines (c) Impersonality (d' ) Narrow span of control (e) Centralisation

4

Fig. 1.1 Tall Organisation Flat organisation implies:

1 ./

~ 2

(a)

\

3

(b)

~

(c)

High levels of decentralisation , Extremely wide spans of control. Less extended communication lines,

Fig. 1.2 Flat Organisation decentralisation . An example of a behavioural structure is presented in the figure .

FACTORS INFLUENCING ORGANISATION STRUCTURE The organisation function is the immediate logical function after planning. To achieve the objectives s~t in the plan, somebody should work and should do the right work. The organising function makes the people to work. The function "involves managers in decisions which result in a system of , specialised coordinated jobs." In an organisation structure so many aspects are involved. Human, and non-human elements will be working. Orgnisational structure is an integrated whole. Job of each worker is specified, control measures are adopted for performing those jobs effectively. An organisational chart depicts tangibly the reporting relationships and channels of communication. Work flow and accountability are also shown . What factors actually determine the organisation structure? It is grouping activity of men, machine and material for attaining a specific objective. Hence the following factors determine the organisation structure: 1. Size of the unit. (a) Capital employed . (b) Development of Science and Technology.

Organisational Behaviour

11

(c) Men employed. (d) Nature of activity. 2. Job design. 3. Grouping of activities. 4. Span of control. 5. Delegation of authority. 1. Size of the Unit. Size indicates the scale of operation. Normally there are three scales of operation, viz., small, medium and large. Size is an important factor governing cost, efficiency and profitability of a business enterprise. Before any business or non-business enterprise is started, the organisers will have to decide the most profitable and viable size of the unit. Optimum or the best size is a dynamic concept and it changes with the development of science and technology. Therefore, technology is one factor which determines the size and the organisation structure. To introduce new technology, in business enterprise, the activity has to be expanded and hence' the structure changes. ,

The size of the orgnisation is also determined by the capital employed in the unit. There may be heavy capital outlay but it may be less labour intensive. In such cases the size will be small as authority relation will be less. However, capital outlay is one factor which determines the size of the organisation. Another important factor which determines the size of the organisation is "men employed." If more men are employed there will be more level of management and more authority relationships. If men employed are less, the size of the orgnisation will be less and less levels of management and authority relationships. The nature of business unit also determines the size and orgnisation structure. If it is capital goods industry with huge capital outlay, the orga:1isation structure will be complex in nature. Consumer goods industries will have more authority relationships in marketing division and less in production and finance line. Thus the nature of activity also determines the organisation structure. 2. Job Design. The bricks that develop an organisation structure are jobs. What are the jobs to be done in an organisation has to be decided by the top brass. Job design is the first managerial decision of the organisation structure. Jobs in a task have to be specified as one person cannot perform a task. It is a team work. Job in each task is to be specified and assigned. What an individual has to do to contribute to the overall tasks and objectives has to be decided. Therefore the fundamental factor, which determines the organisation structure is "Job' designing" and "numbering" them. These numbers decid'e the size of the organisation.

12

Organisational Behaviour

3. Grouping of Activities. The designed jobs have to be formed into groups according to the nature of acti vity. Grouping of acti vi ties are essential to achieve coordination. Each group is termed as "DEPARTMENT." Departmentation is another factor which determines the organisation structure. Thus in each business organisation we observe departments like Marketing Department, Production Department, Finance Department etc which discharge their functions. In each department we find authority relationships like Finance Manager, Assistant Finance Section Officer, Finance Supervisor etc., each assigned with specific job and responsibility to perform. There will be accountability to· higher ups also. Like this in every business or non-business activity, there will be grouping of similar jobs in the form of departments which are responsible to perform to specific task. There will be sub-departments in each basic department like Production Department in which we find (i) Purchase Department (ii) Stores Department (iii) Technical Design Department etc. These sub-departments constitute Production Department. All the functional departments put together forms an . organisation. Grouping of the designed jobs according to their nature and activity is another factor which determines the organisation structure. 4. Span of Control. Another factor that determines the organisation structure is the number of persons to be managed by each manager. This is called "Span of management." Depending upon the nature of organisation some departments will be big in size and some will be small. Therefore, each manager should be assigned with manageable tas~s and personnel. If the tasks are many in a department, there should be splitting the tasks into number of divisions and lower levels are to be created. All this takes place depending upon resources and personnel available. However, the span of management, i.e., the number of persons to be managed by each manager, has to be decided and that becomes one of the major factors to decide the size of organisation structure. The number varies from manager to manager and the number determines the span. Manageable span found out by experience is six, i.e., one manager can manage six, persons effectively. 5. Delegation of Authority. Authority relationship also decides the organisation structure. If the span is more, there will be more authority levels and top management has to delegate authority to each level. Authority, means "the right to make decisions without having to obtain approval from a higher up." In an organisation structure, if the span and levels of management are more, the delegation of authority will be more and there will be decentralisation of authority for smooth functioning of tasks. If the span is narrow, less levels and more centralisation of authority. Thus delegation of authority decides the organisation structure. The specialised job designs will have narrow spans, homogenous departments, little control, little authority and small structure will be designed.

Organisational Behaviour

13

Job designs with less or no specialisation will have heterogeneous departments, more spans of management, more delegation of authority and forms a complex organisation structure. Although these are the factors which decide the organisation structure, research and experience have shown that performance, attitudes, satisfaction and other factors also influence the structure.

Types of Organisations Organisations are formed with a specific purpose. It may be business organisation established with the purpose of earning profit for owners. It can even be established for serving the society like universities. hospitals or welfare organisations. These are called non-profit orgnisations. Some organisations are formed to serve and satisfy the needs of their members, which are called mutual benefit organisations like clubs, unions, political parties etc .. These are also organisations which proved standardized service to large groups of people i.e. people at large. These are called "Commonweal" organisations (non profit organisation serving all members of given population), which are in the form of Indian services, Fire stations, Police departments, Governments educational insititutions. Public utility services etc. These organizations are functioning with some standard structure. Our discussion here is focused on business enterprises. Keeping in view the business concept, the activities of the organization have to be divided, grouped and establish relationship between managers and employees, between managers and between employees. Each major activity becomes department with specific function. These departments have to be formally structured. There are three general structures standardized over the period. There are three common types. One of them is selected by an organization according to its objective. The three types are (i) Functional (ii) Product or Market and (iii) Matrix form. In business enterprises, we can observe all those three types. These organizations will have formal structure. But informal structure (invisible relationship between members) also exists.

LINE OR MILITARY TYPE OF ORGANISATION Line or military type of organisation is the oldest type of organisation. This type is also known as scalar organisation. In line organisation, each department is generally a complete self-sustaining unit. Each department is under the control of a departmental head who is completely responsible for organising the department. Above all the departmental heads, there is a general manager to whom all the department heads are responsible. The general manager in turn is responsible to the board of directors elected by the shareholders of the business concern (Fig. 1:3 shows the line authority.)

14

Organisational Behaviour Shareholders

I

Dirrctors General Manager

Works Manager

·I

I

Fmance Manager

I

Staff

OfLe

Manager

Sales Manager

Staff

Staff

I

I

Forjman-A

For1man -s

Foreran-c

Foremrn-D

worlers

Workers

Workers

Workers

Fig. 1.3 Line Authority One feature of line type of organisation is the existence of superiorsubordinate relationship. A superior delegates authority to a subordinate who in turn delegates authority to his subordinates and so on. Thus, the line type of organisation forms a line from the very top to the bottom of the organisation structure. Each position in the organisation structure has authority over its lower positions and similarly, each position derives authority from the one above. At each level, the superior makes decisions within the scope of authority derived by him from his own boss.

Characteristics of Line Organisation 1. It consists of direct vertical relationships. 2. Departmental head is given full freedom to manage his department. 3. It does not make provision for staff specialists. 4. Operation of this system is simple. 5. Existence of superior-subordinate relationshi p. 6. Instruction are given by the boss directly to his subordinates. 7. Superior at each level makes decisions within the scope of his authority.

Type of Line Organisation The line organisation can be of two types, viz., (a) pure line organisation and ( b) departmental line organisaiton.

15

Organisational Behaviour

(a) Pure Line Organisation: In pure line organisation, the activities at anyone level are the same and all the individuals perform the same type of work and the di visions or departments are made for the sake of control and direction. For example, at the lowest level of an organisation, workers may be performing a similar type of work, but for the sake of control and supervision, they may be divided into different groups and each group is placed under the control of a foreman. Fig. 1.4 shows a pure line organisation.

I

I

Foreman Dept. No.1

Foreman Dept. No.2

I

I

Foreman Dept. No.3

I

Workers

I

Foreman Dept. No.4

I

I

Workers

Workers

Workers

Fig. 1.4 Pure Line Organisation A pure line organisation does not exist in modern large industrial enterprises. This is suitable only for businesses which are run on a small scale producing only one item and in which the workers are divided into departments according to the type of work perfor;ned by each one of them.

(b) Departmental Line Organisation: In this type of organisation, the whole unit is divided into different departments that are convenient for control purposes. Each department is under the control of a departmental manager who is responsible to the superior over him. All the departmental managers enjoy equal status and work independently. Again, even within a department, there may be several sub-departments. For example, in the production department, there may be a number of foremen each in charge of a subdepartment and controlling a certain number of workers (Fig. 1.5). Each foreman works independently, without any formal line of authority or responsibility with other foremen and takes orders from his superior or superintendent to whom he is directly responsible. The workers placed under a foreman get all their orders from their own foreman and they have no direct access to the factory superintendent. Again, no departmental head can pass Factory Superintendent

I

I

I

I

Foreman Shrring Dept.

Foreman prer Dept.

Foreman Welrng Dept.

Foreman Finishing Dept.

Workers

Workers

Workers

worke1rs

Fig. 1.5 Departmental Line Organisation

16

Organisational Behaviour

on a message directly to a subordinate of another department. The message can be passed on only through the manager who has the authority over both the departments.

Advantages of Line Organisation Some of the advantages of line organisation are as follows:

(a) Simplicity. It is easy to establish and operate. It is also easy to explain to the workers. (b) Fixed Responsibility. Every member of the organisati9n knows his exact function, to whom he is responsible and who are responsible to him. Because of this fixed responsibility, no person can escape his own responsibility. (c) Unity of cOlltrol. There is unity of command and control according to which an employee can receive orders only from one superior. It means a subordinate is responsible to only one superior. (d) Prompt Decision. The unification of authority and responsibility quick and prompt decisions.

fa~iliates

(e) Discipline. Singleness of responsibility and control ensures strong discipline among the employees. (f) Flexibility. This type of organisation is elastic. The adjustments in the organisation can be easily made to suit the changing conditions.

(g) Co-ordillation. As all activities relating to one department are managed by one individual, there is a possibility for effective co-ordination. (h) Definition of Authority. As the powers and authorities of various person are defined, the conflict in their powers and authorities is avoided. (i) Less Expensive. It is less expensive as no expenditure on staff personnel is involved.

Disadvantages of Line Organisation (a) Lack of Specialisation. As one person looks after all the work relating to his department, there is no scope for specialisation. (b) Overloadillg. In this type, an executi ve is overloaded with work and hence he may not be in a position to direct and control the efforts of his subordinates properly. (c) Scope for Favouritism. Since only one executive controls all the activities relating to his department, there is much scope for favouritism and nepotism. (d) Limited Communicatioll. In this type, there is no communication from subordinates upwards and the workers should follow the orders of

Organisational Behaviour

17

superiors, without expressing any opinion about the orders communicated to them. This affects their creativity and capacity for independent thinking. Further, if superiors were to make a wrong decision, it would still be carried out, because the subordinates are afraid of pointing out that the decision is wrong. (e) Unitary Administration. All decisions relating to a department are taken only by one executive and hence, the successful functioning of that department depends on his abilities.

(j) Lack of eo-operation. One executive controls the various activities of a department and gets undue importance while the importance of other people in the department is not recognised. This may sometimes result in lack of co-operation and team spirit.

Suitability of Line Organisation In spite of many limitations, the importance of line organisation cannot be minimised. It is suitable for concerns. (i) which run on a small scale; (ii) which do not have many subordinates and operati ves; (iii) which have straight and simple methods of operations; and (iv) which are engaged in the work which is largely of a routine nature.

FUNCTIONAL ORGANISATION Under the line type of organisation, one person is in charge of all the activities relating to a department or section but there is a difficulty of getting men with sufficient capacity and training who can look after all the activities efficiently. Taylor, recognising this limitation, proposed a functional type of organisation. Under this type of organisation, men with special abilities or training in a specialised function may be employed. The specialists will be performing the functions which are common to different departments under one organisation. Thus, under the functional type of organisation, identical functions of various departments in an organisation are performed by a specialist, while in a departmental line organisation, one person looks after all the activities of the department of which he is the head. The workers under functional type of organisation receive instructions from a specialist in each of several supervisory functions which are assigned to the different specialists. F.W. Taylor recommended a functional organisation of activities at the shop floor level. He was of the view that the foreman should not be burdened with too many activities and instead, he should be assisted by a number of specialists in solving the problems of a technical nature (see Fig. 1.6). F.W. Taylor has recommended the following specialists:

Works Manager

Chemist

Fig. 1.6 Functional Type of Organisation

Organisational Behaviour

19

In the Planning Department (1) Route Clerk: His function is to lay down the exact route through .. which each and every piece of work should travel in the various stages of manufacture.

(2) Instruction Card Clerk: His function is to issue the necessary instructions to workers with regard to the manner in which they have to handle the job assigned to them.

(3) Time and Cost Clerk: He prepares the standard time for the completion of work and compiles the cost of that piece of work. In the Factory (4) Gang Boss: His work is to see that the various machines and materials are kept ready for workers to perform their operations. (5) Speed Boss: He is concerned with prescribing proper speeds for the machines.

(6) Inspector: His work is to check the quality of work done by the workers.

(7) Repair Boss: His function is to look after the maintenance of machines.

For the Entire Job (8) Disciplinarian: He enforces the rules and regulations of the organisation so that each job is performed in a systematic and perfect manner.

Functional Foremanship Taylor called functional type of organisation as "Functional Foremanship." The eight persons mentioned above are specialists in their jobs. The workers under this type of organisation are required to take orders from all the eight specialists. Taylor introduced this functional foremanship, because otherwise a single foreman has to look after all the functions. But no single person does have the capacity to perform all the functions.

Functional Organisation at the Top At the higher levels, Taylor's functional system invol ves the grouping of all functions into major functional departments and entrusting each department to one executive. For instance, the personnel manager may be entrusted with personnel matters relating to all the departments, the marketing manager with the responsibility for marketing of all the products of all the plants and so on. Another feature of this type of organisation is that the line exec uti ve recei ves orders not only from his line boss but also from one or more specialists (see Fig. 1.7).

20

Organisational Behaviour BOARD OJ DIRECTORS CHIEF EXECUTIVE

I Financial Controller

Works Manager

I Suptd. I Foremen 1

I

I

Personnel Manager

Secretary

I

I

Suptd.

Suptd.

2

Marketing Manager

3

4

Fig. 1.7 F.unctional Organisation at the Top Thus, a foreman in the production department may receive orders from the superintendent who is his line boss and also from the staff officers such as Financial Controller, Marketing Manager, Personnel Manager, etc.

Advantages of Functiona~ Organisation 1. Specialisation: It ensures maximum use of the principle of specialisation at every work point. 2. Efficiency: Since the workers have to perform a limited number of function, their efficiency would be very high. 3. Mass Production: Due to specialisation and standardisation, largescale production can be undertaken without much inconvenience. 4. Co-operation: As there is no scope for one-man control in the organisation, there is the possibility of promoting cooperation. 5. Relief to the Executives: Since instructions from specialists flow directly to the lower levels, the line executives are free from worries about the technical problems faced by the workers. '6. Flexibility: Any change in the organisation can be introduced without disturbing the whole organisation and hence there is an element of flexibility in this type of organisation. Disadvantages of Functional Organisation 1. Conflict amongst Foremen: Under this type, foreman of equal rank will be many in number and this may lead to conflict among them.

2. Discipline: Since worker~ have to work under different bosses, it is difficult to maintain discipline among them.

Organisational Behaviour

21

3. Lack of Co-ordination: There are several functional experts in the organisation and tI':is may create the problem of coordination.

4. Speed of Action: As control is divided among the various specialists, the speed of action is very much hampered. 5. Lack of Fixed Responsibility: Ifthere is any unsatisfactory progress, it is difficult for the top management to fix responsibility. 6. Expensive: As a large number of specialists to be appointed under this system, it is very expensive and small firms cannot afford it. LINE AND STAFF ORGANISATION In the foregoing paras, we have observed that both the line system and the functional system suffer from certain defects. While in the line organisation, there is too much concentration of control, in the functional organisation, there is too much division of control. Hence, there was need for a new system which could avoid the defects of both these systems. This need has been fulfilled by line and staff organisation. In a line and staff organisation, the work of administration of business units is divided into two broad divisions, viz., the staff which is responsible for planning and the line for the actual execution of the work. The staff is attached to the line to assist the line in discharging its duties efficiently. This method clearly distinguishes the difference between the two aspects of administration, viz., planning and execution. The staff personnel only give advice to the line officials but do not enforce it. The staff officials prepare plans and recommend to the line officials who implement them with the help of their departmental personnel. Thus, the staff members are thinkers while the line officials are doers. A typical line and staff organisation is given in Fig. 1.8. The line and staff organisation is based on the principle of specialisation. In the line organisation, as executives look after the entire work relating to their departments, there is no scope for specialisation. Whereas in the line and staff organisation, the staff officer is concerned with only one aspect of the total assignment of line officer and hence, attains specialisation in his job.

Type of Staff Staff personnel may consist of (a) Personal staff, personal assistant or adviser attached to a line executive, (b) Specialised staff, e.g., accountant personnel manager, public relations officer, etc., (c) General staff, e.g., other experts in different fields who normally operate at higher levels and advise the top management.

22

Organisational Behaviour

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT STAFF

------

GENERAL MANAGER

--

--

PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER

I

I

PERSONNEL MANAGER

PRODUCTION CONTROL STAFF

PRODUCTION MANAGER

~

__ __ __ __

FINANCE MANAGER

_ __ __ __ __ __

CHIEF CHEMIST

PRODUCTION SUPERINTENDENT

_I FOREMAN

WORKERS

I

- - Line Authority - - - - Staff Authority

Fig. 1.8 Line and Staff Organisation Advantages of Line and Staff Organisation

1. Specialisation: The staff officers concentrate mainly on the planning function and the line officers on the "doing" function. By this method, specialisation is attained.

Organisational Behaviour

23

2. Flexibility: Staff can be added to the line and new activities may be introduced without disturbing the line procedure. Hence, there is greater flexibility in the organisation. 3. Expert Advice: The staff officers provide expert advice and guidance to line officers and by this, the enterprise as a whole gets benefit. 4. Sound Decisions: In this type, the decisions are made by experts and hence, there is a possibility of making sound managerial decisions. 5. Relief to Line Executives: The Staff officers look after the detailed analysis of each important managerial activity which is a big relief to the line officers. 6. Opportunities for Advancement. In this type, a greater variety of responsible jobs are available and this provides more opportunities for advancement of capable workers. Disadvantages of. Line and Staff Organisation 1. Confusion: If the pattern of authority relationship between line and staff executi"ves is not clearly indicated, there may be considerable confusion throughout the organisation.

2. Advice Ignored: As the staff officers lack authority to put their recommendations into practice, their advice may be ignored by the line executives. 3. Encourages Carelessness: As the staff officer is not concerned with the execution of the plan, he may not take proper precautions and care before he advises the line officer. Thus, this system may encourage carelessness on the part of the staff officer.

4. Expensive: This type requires the appointment of a large number of experts involving heavy expenditure. Hence, it is quite expensive and small and medium-sized concerns cannot afford it.

5. Conflict between Line and Staff: One more important disadvantage is the conflict between the line and staff officers. The viewpoints of both line and staff of this conflict are given below: A. The Line Viewpoint. The line managers have the following to say about the staff people: (i) Staff authority undermines line authority and interferes in the work

of line managers. (ii) Staff authorities are not acquainted with the practical problems of the

enterprise as they are only academics. (iii) As staff officers are specialists only in a specific area, they cannot

see the whole picture objectively.

24

Organisational Behaviour

(iv) Advice given by the staff is not always sound. Advice is only

theoretical and unrealistic. (v) Staff take credit if the programme (as per the advice of the staff) is

successful and blame the line if it is not successful.

B. The Staff Viewpoint. Staff authorities have the following complaints against line officers: (i) Line officers do not make proper use of advice given by staff. (ii) Line officers reject the advice without giving reasons. (iii) Line officers are slow to accept new ideas and they resist change. (iv) Staff authorities feel that they do not have authority to get their ideas

implemented.

Improving Line and Staff Relationship For improving the relationships between the two and to resolve their conflict, the following steps may be taken: 1. The limits of authority of both line ~nd staff should be prescribed clearly. 2. Staff authority should be restricted to a purely advisory role. 3. Line officers should give due consideration to staff advice. They should state reasons in case they cannot accept the advice. 4. Line should value the special skills of staff and similarly the staff should try to appreciate the difficulties in implementing new ideas. 5. The advice of staff should be realistic and practicable. 6. Both line and staff should try to understand each other's responsibilities and difficulties and try to co-operate with each other for the achievement of enterprise objectives. MATRIX ORGANISATION

This is an organizational structure in which each employee reports to both functional manager and group manager. This is a "Multiple Command System." Workers will have two bosses. They work in two chains of command. In matrix organization, two types of structure operate simultaneously. One is vertical structure and the other is horizontal. In vertical structure, the command moves vertically and in horizontal, the command moves horizontally. As the business activity is becoming more and more global, matrix organizations, which are complex in nature, are emerging.

An Incident - Matrix Organisation A leading IT Company oflndia is exporting its products to three countries say (i) Bangladesh (ii) Nepal and (iii) Sri Lanka. The basic product being same, there is slight change in product features exported to three countries. Product

Organisational Behaviour

25

being X, it is XB for Bangladesh, XN for Nepal and XS for Sri Lanka. The workers working to produce these products report to two authorities (i) The Departmental Head in India where the product is produced and (ii) The Country Manager (Second Process) to which country the product is exported. This reduces several problems of production and product acceptance in the country to which it is exported. See the diagram. Product

Finance Manager

Product Manager

Marketing Manager

HR Manager

R&D Manager

.v .v .v .v .v .v 0 .v .v .v .v .v .v XN-------------~ o-------------~ o------------~ o------------~ o-----------~ 0 .v .v '.v .v .v .v XB-------------~ o-------------~ o------------~ o------------~ o-----------~

XS-------------~ o-------------~ o------------~ o------------~ o------------~

0

Fig. 1.9 Matrix Organisation Structure In this diagram, it may be observed that functional managers and their workers interact with each country manager regarding indi vidual products are concerned. Workers look at functional managers for general policy solutions and country managers for individual product policy.

Advantages of Matrix Structures 1. It is an efficient means of bringing together the diversified specialized skills required to solve a complex problem. 2. There will be many problems in functional designs. In matrix organization, it is minimized as people work together on various diversified issues. Workers of both teams acquire realistic attitude ab.out the work as they work together. For example, if hardware people and software people work together, they can produce better systems. Many problems will be solved in the process. 3. Matrix structure provides a great deal of cost-saving flexibility. Duplication of work is avoided.

Limitations 1. Workers do not easily adapt to a matrix system as members may not possess interpersonal skills and may be conservative in their attitude. 2. If hierarchies are not firmly fixed, there will be the danger of conflicting directives and ill-defined responsibility

Selecting the Type of Organisation In the foregoing pages, an analysis of the features, merits and demerits of the different types of organisation has been made. It may be stated here that there is no hard and fast rule for the type of organisation suited to a particular business unit. However, while selecting a suitable type of organisation for a

26

Organisational Behaviour

business unit, the management should consider such factors as the nature of industry, size of the business unit, scope for expansion in future, etc.

COMMITTEES IN ORGANISATION In modern business houses, there is a widespread use of committees for performing certain administrative tasks. According to Hicks, "A committee is a group of people who meet by plan to discuss or make a decision for a particular subject." Thus, a committee consists of a group of persons specifically designed to perform some administrative acts. Committees are widely used in the modern concerns for the purpose of discharging advisory functions of management relating to personnel, finance, industrial relations, production, etc. A committee's duties, responsibilities and authority are welIdefined and are accountable to the authority that appoints it.

Kinds of Committees Committees are of two types, viz., (i) Advisory committe and (ii) Executive committe. Advisory committee is vested with staff authority and its functions are to advise and recommend but has no power to enforce its advice or recommendations. Some examples of an advisory committee are sales committee, finance committee etc. Those committees are not constituted on a permanent basis and they may be dissolved at any time. In the case of executive committees, they are vested with line authority: these committees take decisions but also have the power to enforce their decisions.The Board of Directors of a company is an example of an executi ve committee. Executive committees are more or less of a permanent nature and are not likely to be dissolved.

Advantages of Committees 1. A committee may consist of all the departmental heads as members. In the committee meetings, the members are enabled to understand the various problems faced by the other departments in the organisation and this promotes better understanding among the departmental heads. 2. In committee meetings, decisions are taken after taking into consideration the different views of its members and thus the committee provides a forum for the pooling of knowledge and experience of many persons. 3. The committee encourages team spirit and co-operation of various departments in the execution of the plans. 4. The committee's work develops awareness of the problem of other departments among the members and this promotes co-ordination of the various activities of an enterprise.

Organisational Behaviour

27

5. In committee meetings, members discuss the various organisational problems and hence it can be said that the committee is an excellent means of transmitting information and ideas to the interested organisational members. 7. Members of the committee take part in the decision-making process and because of this, they will not resist the implementation of the decisions.

Disadvantages of Committees 1. Members with different background and ideals may express different views on the same subject and this may cause delay in taking a decision. 2. Committee is an expensive form of organisation because of the huge amount to be spent for convening committee meetings. 3. In case there is no mutual confidence among the members, not only will they fail to appreciate each other's views but also misrepresent each other's statements. 4. Because of the large number of members in a committee, it is difficult to maintain secrecy regarding the committee's decisions. 5. No member can be individuillly held responsible in case the committee takes incorrect decisions. Because of this, members may not actively participate in the deliberations of the meeting. 6. Decision may be arrived at on the basis of compromise among the members or the decisions may reflect accommodation of various viewpoints of the members and because of this, the quality of decision is watered down and not the best from anyone's viewpoint.

Suggestions for Making Committees Effective Even though a committee may suffer from certain disadvantages, an enterprise, by a careful concern for the weaknesses of the committee, can use it effectively for accomplishing its objectives. Herbert has rightly said that "the problems with committees are not so much as how to eliminate them as it is how to use them properly." For effective functioning of committees, certain conditions need to be adhered to. They are: 1. The functions and authority of the committee should be clearly stated. 2. The committee members should be selected carefully and they should be in a position to take part in the meetings actively. 3. To avoid lengthy discussion and delay in decisions, the number of members on a committee should not be large. ·4. Frank discussion must be encouraged in committee meeting and every member must have the freedom to express his views without any fear. 5. Committees must be worth the cost. The benefits that are secured from the functioning of the committee should be more than the cost involved.

28

Organisational Behaviour

6. There should be team spirit among the members and they should cooperate with the chairman of the committee in conducting th.e meetings properly. 7. The committee meetings should be organised and regulated in such a way that all the departments must get equal importance.

Organisation Structure -

Tomorrow

There is a rethinking of work culture in every business enterprise today. It is having a major impact on organisation structure. Job and work pattern are changing. The workers are now moving from one fob to another. The concepts of job security and steady income are losing ground. Part-time, contract and self-employed workers are increasing as a percent of total employees. Organisation structure is down sized and is becoming thinner and flatter. Levels will be reduced. Organisations linked to global competition have to overhaul their organisation structure. Boosting productivity and cost cuts have become major "mantras." Emphasis is on changing technology and developing entrepreneurship. Products and services are becoming smart and hence the ,employers and employees should be smart and be in the learning process as products lose ground at a faster rate. Therefore tomorrow's organisation will be "virtual" which means, the personnel need not be in office. They need not see each other every day. They communicate with each other with some communication system. Office will be small and will have few furniture not occupied all the time. Much of the work will be done outside the office. "Mutual Trust" becomes a vital factor. Intelligence, information and ideas are the key factors of tomorrow's organisation. This chapter focuses on the foundations of organisational behaviour, the nature of organisational behaviour and the influence of the individual's behaviour in the organisations. It also brings about the contributions of other disciplines and the challenges faced by management in managing people.

Disciplines Contributing to 08 Organisational behaviour does not exist as a single discipline. It gets wide concepts from other disciplines. It derives concepts from Psychology - which studies the individual behaviour, Sociology - which studies the group behaviour, Anthropology - the study of the society, and Political Science - the study of power and politics among individuals.

Organisational Behaviour

29

Organisations are basically social systems. Social and Psychological laws govern the activities of the organisations. Let us examine some of the disciplines contributing to OB.

08 and Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of behaviour and the mind. This . definition cont'ains three elements. The first is that psychology is a scientific enterprise that obtains knowledge through systematic and objective methods of observation and experimentation. Second is that psychologists study behaviour, which refers to any action or reaction that can be measured or observed -such as the blink of an eye, and increase in heart rate, or the unruly violence that often erupts in a mob. Third is that psychologists study the mind, which refers to both cons.cious and unconscious mental states. These states cannot actually be seen, only inferred from observable behaviour. Many people think of psychologists as individuals who dispense advice, analyze personality, and help those who are troubled or mentally ill. But psychology is far more than the treatment of personal problems. Psychologists strive to understand the mysteries of human nature-why people think, feel and act as they do. Some psychologists also study animal behaviour, using their findings to determine laws of behaviour that apply to all organisms and to formulate. theories about how humans behave and think. With its broad 'scope, psychology investigates an enormous range of phenomena: learning and memory, sensation and perception, moti vation and emotion, thinking and language, personality and social behaviour, intelligence, infancy and child development, mental illness and much more. Furthermore, psychologists examine these topics from a variety of complementary perspecti ves. Some conduct detailed biological studies of the brain, others explore how we process information; others analyze the role of evolution, and still others study the influence of culture and society. Psychologists seek to answer a wide range of important questions about human nature: are individuals genetically predisposed at birth to develop certain traits or abilities? How accurate are people at remembering faces, places or conversations from the past? What motivates us to seek out friends and sexual partners? Why do so many people become depressed and behave in ways that seem self-destructive? Do intelligence test scores predict success in school, or later in a career? What causes prejudice, and why is it so widespread? Can the mind be used to heal the body? Discoveries from psychology can help people understand themselves, relate better to others, and solve the problems that confront them.

The term psychology comes from two. Greek words: psyche. which means "soul" and logos, "the study of'. These root words were first combined in the 16'" century, at a time when the human soul, sprit, or mind was seen as distinct from the body. In the business world, psychology is applied in the

30

Organisational Behaviour

workplace and in the marketplace. Industrial- organisational (1-0) psychology focuses on human behaviour in the workplace and other organizations. 1-0 psychologists conduct researc'h, teach in business schools of universities, and work in private industry. Many 1-0 psychologists study the factors that influence worker motivation, satisfaction and productivity. Others study the personal traits and situations that foster great leadership. Still others focus on the processes of personnel selection, training, and evaluation. Studies have shown, for example, that face- tet-face interviews sometimes result in poor hiring decisions and may be biased by the applicant's gender, race, and physical attractiveness. Studies have also shown that certain standardized tests can help to predict on-the-job performance. Thus psychology is becoming and increasingly a discipline more relevance to OB.

OB and Sociology Sociology and Anthropology explain about human societies and cultures and also intersect with psychology. Both psychology and sociology tell as to how people behave when they are in groups. Sociology focuses on how behaviour is shaped by social forces and social institutions. Anthropologists investigate behaviour as well paying particular attention to the similarities and differences between human cultures around the world. Sociology

Psychology

Behavioural Science Political Science

Anthropology

Fig. 1.10 Disciplines contributing to Organisational Behaviour. Sociology is the scientific study of how people think, feel and behave in social situations. Researchers in this field have tried to answer to the issues such as the persuasion of people to change their attitudes or beliefs, the causes for people to conform in-group situations. Reasons for ignoring or helping a person in need by the people, under what circumstances do people obey or resist orders etc., By observing people in real-world social settings and by carefully devising experiments to test people's social behaviour, sociologists learn about the ways people influence, perceive and interact with one another. The study

Organisational Behaviour

31

of social infl uence includes topics such as conformity, obedience to authority, the formation of attitudes and the principles of persuasion. Researchers interested in social perception study how people come to know and evaluate one another, how people form group stereotypes and the origins of prejudice. Other topics of particular interest to social psychologists include physical attraction, love and intimacy, aggression, attrition and group processes. Many social psychologists are also interested in cultural influences on interpersonal behaviour. In organisational behaviour, these issues playa major role. Bnusiness organisations in particular, focus on productivity of people working in their units. To improve and maintain productivity of people, the employers will have to look at the social behavioural aspects of their employees, which is one of the key factors if improving producti vi ty. Here comes the role of sociological aspects I improving productivity of people. This contributes for the improvements of behaviour of people in work places, which will have its impact On productivity., Thus Sociology and its principles and functions influence the behaviour of people in work places.

OB and Political Science Political science is a discipline, which speaks about the administration of the state. It tells as to how people

(c) Equity

Other's outcomes

Your outcomes

Other's ou\(;omes

Other's inputs

Your inputs

Other's inputs

Fig. 3.5 Adam's Equity Theories For example, John and Jack are working together and doing the same job . Both of them had equal number of experience, qulification and had taken the training together. Their inputs are equal. John is paid a salary of Rs.300per week while Jack is paid Rs.500 per week. In this case John's ratio of outcomeslinputs is higher than Jack's, creating a state of under payment in equity for John and creating over payment in equity for Jack. Jack feels that he is paid more and there is a probability that he will feel guilty of his over payment. To the contrary, John feels that he is paid less for doing the same work compared to Jack and in turn will feel disappointed due to underpayment. Equitable payment will occur only if their outcomelinput ratios are equal leading them to feel satisfied. Box 3.2 gives clear guidelines to motivate a work environment.

86

Organisational Behaviour

Box 3.2: Guidelines for a Motivating Work Environment • Make only the minimum number of rules and policies need~d to protect oner organization legally and create order in the work place. • Publish the rules and policies and educate all employees. • With the involvement of many employees, identify organizational values and write value statements and a professional code of conduct. • Develop guidelines for supervisors and educate them about the fair and consistent application of the few rules and policies. • Address individual dysfunctional behaviors on a "need-to" basis with counseling, progressi ve discipline, and performance improvement plans. . • Clearly communicate work place expectations and guidelines for professional behavior.

INCENTIVES Individuals are always driven by need. The needs of individuals acts as a driving force. Management involves themselves in identifying the needs of the employees and most of the time they spend in satisfying these needs. The tools and mechanisms adopted by the management in order to satisfy employee's needs are called incentives. Different individuals have different type of needs. Some of the needs may be satisfied in monetary terms like money and we call them as "financial incentives" and some needs may be satisfied by promotion, increased responsibility and recognition and these may be called as "Non- financial incentives."

Financial Incentives In today's world, money has become the more important means of satisfying one's needs. Basic needs play a major role in satisfying the (physiological needs) like, food, shelter and clothing. Therefore money becomes the basic need for any individual. Employees are given wages and salaries in the form of money to satisfy their basic needs. When the wages/ salaries are provided to the employees, they feel that proper case is taken by providing proper wage structure for them. Improper design of wage structure may decrease the motivational level of employees. Traditional management thinkers like Abraham Maslow, Herzberg and Alderfer pointed out the importance of money as a motivator. They have placed a lot of emphasis for money. Some of the economists also have agreed the importance of money.

Motivation

87

Generally economic conditions affect the individuals family, an organizations growth and the development of a country and in this context, the following points are to be remembered to understand the importance of money as a motivator to a certain extent I. Money affects all the individuals to a certain extent irrespective of the necessi ty. 2. As organizations are going global, most of the organizations consider money as the major motivator. They try to keep their wages, provided to the employees are highly competitive. 3. If money is to act as a motivator, the performance of the employees is directly related with money since money is considered as reward to the employees 4. Most of the motivational theories substantiate that if money is given as a reward to employees then expected performance would exceed the actual performance. 5. Money acts as an important motivator irrespective of the demographic factors like age, sex, qualification and experience of a individual. Even the historical factors like the culture and background of an individual has to be considered by organisations, before determining the wages to an individual.

Non-Financial Incentives Not all the individuals would be motivated by money. We know that from chapter - I, that there are individual differences among the people. Apart from the physiological needs there exists the psychological and social ne.e ds of the individuals. The social needs are identif~ed as the sense of belongingness, where as the psychological needs are the acquisition of status, self- esteem etc., where one feels the worth of himself / herself. Let us briefly examine some of the non-financial incentives

Promotion: Promotion is moving from a lower position to a higher position, there by increasing the responsibilities of the individual. Once.the responsibilities increase the individual feels more of authority and control gained. The commitment towards his her organization increases promotion are given to individuals who perform high. Another importance of promotion is increasing the status of the individual in many ways. Job design . ~nd the rotation: Any job contains .its own job characteristics that are central in providing motivation to workers. The job may contain factors lik~, task, identifying, skill variety, autonomy and feedback. The combination of these factors and the proportion in which the job is designed and to the employees acts as the chief motivational factor.

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JOB DESIGN Job design is defined a.s the process of deciding on the content of a job in terms of its duties and responsibilities; on the methods to be used in carrying out the job, in terms of techniques, systems and procedures and on the relationships that should exist between the job holder and his superiors, subordinates and colleagues - Michael Armstrong. To enhance an employee's performance, job design is an important method . Job design is a method of how organizations define and structure the jobs . If the jobs are designed in a very poor manner, it could reduce the performance level of individuals motivational level and lead to job dissatisfaction. A job is designed based on the two objectives: 1. To meet the organisational requirements such as quality of products/ service in turn improving productivity 2 . To increase the operational efficiency and satisfy the needs of an employee based on the employee's interest, challenge, achievement or accomplishment. Job design is a process that integrates the · individual with the organizational requirements. There are various approaches to Job design . The management gurus Fredrick W.Taylor who come out with job specialization argue that the jobs should be studied scientifically. He came with the method of breaking down the jobs into different small tasks and then made it standardized to all the workers doing the same job. Some of the approaches in the early days were found out to find out the alternative ways of designing jobs. Three approaches are discussed here: i. Job rotation 11 .

Job enlargement

iii . Job enrichment (i) Job Rotation: Job rotation is an approach to management development where an individual is moved through a schedule of assignments designed to give an individual an exposure to the entire operation.Job rotation is also practiced to allow qualified employees to gain more insights into the processes of a company, and to reduce boredom and increase job satisfaction through job variation. The term job rotation can also mean the scheduled exchange of persons in offices. At the senior management levels, job rotation - frequently referred to as management rotation, is tightly linked with succession planning -

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developing a pool of employees capable of stepping into an existing job. Here the goal is to provide learning experiences which facilitate changes in thinking and perspective equivalent to the "horizon" of the level of the succession planning. For lower management levels job rotation has normally one of two purposes: promotability or skill enhancement.ln many cases senior managers seem unwilling to risk instability in their units by moving qualified employees from jobs where the lower level manager is being successful and reflecting positively on the actions of the senior manager,Many military forces use the job rotation strategy to allow the soldiers to develop a wider range of experiences, and an exposure to the different jobs of an occupation.For more insihgt of this concept read the box 3.3 below:

Box: 3.3 Job Rotation is a Big Motivator The challenges of keeping a 21 st century employee motivated at work are vast. Today, an organisation has very few options at hand, thanks to the ever increasing competition. Keeping an employee interested is not an easy job which is why employee retention is a major challenge that most HR teams face. This is where "Job Rotation' helps. Job rotation has many advantages. One of them is that it keeps the employee interested in his work as he gets different job profiles and his work does not become monotonous. One of the other major advantage of job rotation is that it gives an employee a chance to learn a lot more than he normally would. He becomes multi-skilled and this is an asset that is always helpful. For example, if an employee falls sick or is on leave and can't report to work and if there is a shortage of staff on a particular day, then thanks to the practice of job rotation, an organisation has enough skilled manpower to replace the employee temporarily and take up his job. Many organisations use job rotation as a tool to curb absenteeism. The reason being, if an employee gets something new to learn, he would be more willing to report to work. Clearly, job rotation has a lot of advantages and one feels that every organisation must have it. However, every silver cloud has a dark lining. In order to ensure that job rotation is done properly and efficiently a proper policy must be in place. Job rotation ensures that an employee does not feel 'stressed' out from the job, as this is a major issue that HR teams face today. To develop a good job rotation programme the organisation must assess its needs and requirements. This kind of a programme can be used either for promotion, sideward movements or succession planning. Whatever the need be, it should be clearly identified before making such a programme so as to help the organisation know in which direction it is moving.

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With so much cOmpetItlOn today, decisions made by the top 'management can change the fortunes of an organisation drastically. Thus, whatever training and advantage that can be given to them is an added bonus. One of the most difficult issues that an HR team faces would be the criteria on which job rotation should be done. The amount of experience, education, leadership assessment as well as management preference has to be kept in mind. This makes it very complex as a lot of details need to be looked into before selecting the right employee. Clearly job rotation has its advantages but making a fair policy for the same is not easy. However, if the organisation succeeds in doing this then it surely will have long term benefits in the end, a fact that every organisation needs to looks into. It involves systematically shifting workers from one job to another. This

takes place to maintain the employees interest and to increase the level of motivation. When Job Rotation is introduced unlike the job specialization, the tasks of a job do not differ and they remain same. For example; Mr. Patel may be rotated from job one to job three and then to job two. (ii) Job Enlargement It is otherwise termed as Horizontal Jl Loading. In a way it means expanding a workers job and include the tasks previously performed by other workers. For example; Mr. Patel, instead of doing two jobs he is made to do four jobs that he has done previously. This concept is generally followed in order to reduce monotony and boredom.

(iii) Job Enrichment

This is a complex approach to design a job as the other two approaches were considered as simple and more of theory oriented by some of the researchers. Job enrichment is based on the dual structure theory Itwo factor theory of motivation. The theory explains that employees can be motivated by certain job related feelings or experiences such as responsibility, recognition and achievement. Job Enrichment is otherwise termed as vertical job loading. Also increases extent to which the worker can control the planning, organizing, evaluation of his I her work. Apart form adding more tasks for ajob it also gives the employee more control over the tasks. Some of the companies that adapt the job enrichment Programme are AT &T, IBM and Texas Instruments. When the employees are given more control the researches conclude that the productivity is increased. When the employees feel that they control their tasks. They feel a sense of improvement in their status and recognition.

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The advantages of Job Enrichment are as follows: • Combine Tasks: It helps the mangers to combine the existing and the expected tasks and give a new form to current job. This combing of tasks of ajob helps the managers to improve the skills of the employee and gives to the identification for a task that is done. • Helps in creation of natural work units: Job Enrichment helps in the creation of natural work units as the employees feel no more boring and feel that they are doing irrelevant tasks. They feel that their work is becoming meaning full due to enrichment of the jobs. • It helps in establishing the relationship with Clint / Customer: The client / customer is the ultimate person who seeks for the satisfaction of the service or a product. Give to this enrichment and as the managers have direct relationship with client / customer they are able to get immediate feed back from client / customers which again helps the manager to increase and improve their skills.

• Job Enrichment enhances open feedback: By providing feed back, employees understand how they are performing their tasks, where they are standing and where they improvement is needed. This is possible with the help of applying job enrichment process. Finally to conclude job enrichment increases productivity in some companies and in others it is being found as per research that there is decrease in productivity.As job enrichment is a vertical loading, it increases the employee's independence, freedom, and responsibility. A new concept has emerged called as job engagement which is discussed below: 'Engagement Gap' In Global Workforce and Motivation A Towers Perrin survey of more than 90,000 employees worldwide, concludes that organizations are facing an "engagement gap," meaning they are not getting the discretionary effort they need from their employees to drive performance and growth agendas. "Globally only 21 percent of employees are engaged, meaning they are freely giving their time, energy, creativity and knowledge to their work. That's a di~turbingly small number when one think about the impact people have on a business and its customers," says Julie Gebauer, Towers Perrin Managing Director says that "Worse yet, fully 38 percent are either wholly or partly disengaged, meaning they might not know the right things to do to add value to the company, or they might be doing just the minimum to get by. Play those percentages out across a large workforce and it's easy to see the implications for performance".

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The study found that companies with the highest levels of employee engagement achieve better financial results and are more successful in retaining their most valued employees than companies with lower levels of engagement. In a regression analysis of company financial results against engagement data, the study found that firms with the highest percentage of engaged employees collectively increased operating income 19 percent and earnings per share 28 percent year-to-year. The companies with the lowest levels of engaged employees showed year-to-year declines of 33 percent in operating income and 11 percent in earnings per share.

Job Characteristics Approach Hackman and Oldham developed the job characteristics approach for designing any job. The theory explains that employees will work hard only when they are rewarded for the work they do and when the work gives them satisfaction. According to this approach, any job can be described in terms of five core job dimensions that are identified as follows: a. Skill Variety: The degree to which a job requires a variety of different activities so that the workers can use a number of different skills and talents. b. Task Identity: The degree to which the job requires completion of a whole and identifiable piece of work. c. Task significance: The degree to which the job has a substantial impact on the lives or work of other people. d. Autonomy: The degree to which the job provides substantial freedom, independence, and discretion to the individual in scheduling the work and in determining the procedures to be used in carrying it out. e. Feedback: The degree to which an individual requires direct and clear information about the effectiveness of his or her performance. The following Box item 3.4 below suggests some of the things that the employers may follow for to motivate the employees. Box 3.4 Do's and Dont's of Motivation What Doesn't Motivate: Money: We all need it to support our families and ourselves. It's definitely an incentive. But compensation, which includes pay and benefits, doesn't motivate; it normally activates employees to do the minimum that is required in their job descriptions. Competition: Whether in the form of sales contests, piecework incentives, or close supervision, competitive methods may seem to increase

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motivation and productivity. The perception is that they can and do, for a little while anyway.

Recognition: Praise and rewards are excellent ways to say, "Job well done." They are necessary in a consistent way for employees to gauge their performance, but should not be used as motivator. Such contingent use of rewards and praise makes employees wonder what your motives may be. In other words the employee says, "Now what does she want from me?"

Disdplinary Action: Negative feedback can be disastrous if employees are made to feel incompetent and controlled. While we cannot ignore poor performance, we can be autonomy-supportive in our manner of approach. This simply means that we try to see things from the employee's perception and we offer an opportunity for self-direction.

What Does Motivate: Since intrinsic motivation is key to an employee's performance and fulfillment on the job, create an environment where intrinsic motivation can flourish! Here's how.

Make sure employees have the expertise and tools they need to be, and feel, competent to do the job that's been entrusted to them. This may be in the form of physical tools, office equipment, skills training, or certain communication strategies.

Seek to understand their point of view by trying to see things from the employee perspective. Don't know what it is? Ask them. Conduct an ano'1ymous survey if need be. Talk to your customers, too.

Allow employees to make their own choices: Let them choose the ways and methods to get the results you're looking for. Let them bve a say in how things get done and what the outcome is expected to be.

Be responsive to employees: Show employees that you see them as human beings with a set of personal values and principles that they bri ng to the job. Suggestions to overcome the barriers as a student in Self-Motivation: Define your Aim clearly in your Mind: . • Once your aim is clearly defined in yeur mind, write it downon a piec\? of paper and paste it somewhere where you will see it cvery day. • Let the note help remind you of what it is you are trying to

ac~ieve.

• Show yourself that you mea!') learning, that you are heading for success. • Set yourself an initial cat;; to check on interim results. • Once you are clear nbout what, you want, make a notc in YOl;r c!!ury for a review of your progress in two weeks time.

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• What have you achieved? Have you take active steps towards your aim? Can you see any results yet? • Work out a course of action for the immediate future and take one step at a time. The box item 3.5 gives a story and reflection of how the motivational process has to be imbibed in an individual.

Box. 3.5 For Reflection - Follow your dream Once upon a time, there was a large mountainside, where an eagle's nest rested. The eagle's nest contained four large eagle eggs. One day an earthquake rocked the mountain causing one of the eggs to roll down the mountain, to a chicken farm, located in the valley below. The chickens knew that they must protect and care for the eagle's egg, so an old hen volunteered to nurture and raise the large egg. One day, the egg hatched and a beautiful eagle was born. Sadly, however, the eagle was raised to be a chicken. Soon, the eagle believed he was nothing more than a chicken. The eagle loved his home and family, but his spirit cried out for more. While playing a game on the farm one day, the eagle looked to the skies above and noticed a group of mighty eagles soaring in the skies. "Oh," the eagle cried, "I wish I could soar like those birds." The chickens roared with laughter, "You cannot soar with those birds. You are a chicken and chickens do not soar." The eagle continued staring, at his real family up above, dreaming that he could be with them. Each time the eagle would let his dreams be known, he was told it couldn't be done. That is what the eagle learned to believe. The eagle, after time, stopped dreaming and continued to live his life like a chicken. Finally, after a long life as a chicken, the eagle passed away.

The moral of the story: You become what you believe you are. So if you ever dream to become an eagle follow your dreams, not the words of a chicken. Box 3.6 putsforth a new example on how m.otivation could be carried in today's companies.

Box 3.6 Motivation :New Example When Ishan was named the new head of the sales department, he had his work cut out for him. The results in that department had been slowly decreasing, and the drop in results was crippling the company's ability to improve and expand. Before he stepped into his new role, he was given a quick overview of the problem. In essence, he was told the sales force was failing to meet

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expectations. If things didn't improve fast, he was to remove the current employees and hire a new team. Ishan understood motivation and the power of example enough to see through his supervisor's words. Working within the company before his latest promotion, Ishan was aware of the previous sales manager. He knew that the problem stemmed less from the sales force and more from a lack of leadership. By acting in a way that he wished others to act, Ishan quickly improved the moral of the team. He let them know that he would never ask more of them than he did of himself. Ishan showed up early, worked with focus and intent , and stayed late . He was the example and the employees followed his lead . In only a few weeks the sales force looked like a completely different group of employees . They were excited about their work, about their goals, and about their future. Results quickly improved and were on their way to breaking company records . While most would have replaced the 'problem' with a new set offaces, Ishan realized what the sales department was missing wasn't talented employees but the right example to follow. The employees hadn't changed - their example and expectations did . Examine not what one say to oner employees but who one are and what one communicate with oner own behavior. Be the example of what one wish to see in others . Source : Jason M. Gracia - www .Motivation123.com

CASE: STORY OF THE TROUBLE TREE The carpenter I hired to help me to restore an old farmhouse , had ju st finished a rough first day on the job. A flat tire made him lose an hour of work, his e1.ectric saw quit and now his ancient pickup truck refused to start. While I drove him home, he sat in stony silence. Upon arriving, he invited me in to meet his family. As we walked toward the front door, he paused briefly ata small tree, touching the tips of the branches with both hands. When he opened the door, he underwent an amazing transformation. His tanned face was wreathed in smiles; he hugged his two small children and gave his wife a kiss . Afterward he walked with me to the car. We passed the tree and my curiosity got the better of me. I asked him about what I had seen him do earlier. "Oh , that's my trouble tree," he replied. "I know I can't help having troubles on the job, but one thing for sure, troubles don't belong in the house with my wife and the children. So I just hang them up on the tree every night when I come home . Then in the morning I pick them up again. "Funny thing is," he smiled, "when '

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I come out in the morning to pick them up, there isn't nearly as many as I remember hanging up the night before."

Questions 1. 2.

What critical factor and method made the carpenter to release his tension? Name the theory that can be applied to this story?

STUDENT EXERCISE Interest is an important motivator for a student. So is a desire to learn . When you link these two things together, you create success . Often success in an endeavor leads to more interest and a greater desire to learn, creating an upward spiral of motivation toward a goal you have established. So be honest with yourself. Are you genuinely interested in being in college? Have you set realistic goals for yourself? How can you develop the internal motivation that really counts? When it comes to motivation, KNOWING is not as important as DOING. The following exercise reveals the motivation level regarding your study skills i.e. both your study habits and attitudes.

STUDY QUESTIONS Section - A (2 marks - Answer 4 Lines) 1.

Define motivation.

2.

Name the theories of Motivation .

3.

List out some important financial incentives.

4.

What are the two factors in dual factor theory?

5.

Define Job enrichment.

6.

What is job enlargement?

7.

What is vertical job loading?

8.

List out some important non-financial incentives.

Section - B (5 marks - Answer 15 Lines) 1.

Differentiate between need and drives.

2.

What is the nature and characteristics of motivation.

3.

Explain McClelland's theory of motivation .

4.

Bring out the importance and benefits of motivation .

5.

Motivation is an inner state that activates a person to work more . Discuss.

6.

Analyze the requirements of sound motivation system .

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Section - C (15 marks - Answer Essay Type) 1.

Explain in detail the importance of motivation theories in today's organizations.

2.

Compare and contrast Maslow's theory of motivation and Herzberg Two factor theory of Motivation.

3.

Explain the significance of ERG theory. (i) Write short notes on: (ii) Theory X and theory Y (iii) Porter and Lawler's Theory

4.

Give a detailed account of Vroom's Expectancy Theory of Motivation.

5.

Bring out the differences between financial and non-financial incentives.

6.

What is Job enrichment? From the employee's point of view how a job can be enriched?

7.

What is Job design? Explain with ao example how ajob could be designed and enriched?

8.

Discuss in detail the practical implications of different motivation theories.

9.

Identify salesman's needs and design a programme to motivate him.

10.

Design a programme to enhance the skills of middle level managers.

11.

"Motivating employees is increasingly becoming challenging " State with reasons.

SKILL EXECRISES

3.1

Read each statement and consider how it applies to you. If it does apply to you, check Y (yes). If it does not apply to you, check N (No). 1.

Y

N

I spend too much time studying for what I am learning.

2. __ Y

N

I usually spend hours cramming the night before an exam.

3.

Y

N

If I spend as much time on my social activities as I want to, I don't have enough time left to study, or when I study enough, I don't have time for a social life.

4.

Y

N

I usually try to study with the radio and TV turned on.

5.

Y

N

I can't sit and study for long periods of time without becoming tired or distracted.

Y 6. 7. -- Y Y 8.

N

I go to class, but I usually doodle, daydream, or fall asleep.

N

My class notes are sometimes difficult to understand later.

N

I usually seem to get the wrong material into my class notes.

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y

N

10.

Y

11.

Y ~N

I don't know how to pick out what is important in the text.

12.

Y

N

I can't keep up with my reading assignments, and then I have to cram the night before a test.

13.

Y

N

I lose a lot of points on essay tests even when I know the material well.

14.

-- Y

N

I study enough for my test, but when I get there my mind goes blank .

15.

Y

N

I often study in a haphazard, disorganized way under the threat of the next test.

16.

Y

N

I often find myself getting lost in the details of reading and have trouble identifying the main ideas.

-- Y --N

I rarely change my reading speed in response to the difficulty level of the selection, or my familiarity with the content.

N

.. -; -:::;

I don't review my class notes periodically throughout the semester in preparation for tests .

17.

18. -- Y 19. Y 20. -- Y 21. -- y '

- N

When I get to the end of a chapter, I can't remember what I've just read.

I often wish that I could read faster .

N

When my teachers assign papers I feel so overwhelmed that I can't get started.

N

I usually write my papers the night before they are due.

N

I can't seem to organize my thoughts into a paper that makes sense .

If you have answered "yes" to two or more questions please check for seeking help to improve your study skills. If you have one "yes" or less than one ~es" for the above statements, you are probably proficient enough in these areas that you don't need help from others . Feel free, however, to get information in areas that you may have special interests, even if you scored well. The above statements are prepared in the following dimensions: • Time Scheduling - 1, 2, and 3. • Concentration - 4, 5, and 6. • Listening & Note taking - 7, 8, and 9. • Reading - 10, 11, and 12. • Exams - 13,14, and 15 . • Reading - 16,17, and 18. • Writing Skills -19, 20, and 21.

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This is for students to read and reflect:

3.2

Effective Ways to Boost your Self Esteem

By Caroline falango 1. Get a life purpose statement. A well thought out life purpose statement is a powerful way to boost your selfesteem. It will define who you truly are, draw out your essence and affirm you. Whenever you read your life purpose statement, you will be reminded about who you are, what you represent and what you intent to accomplish in life.

2. Take personal development courses. Investing in the acquisition of knowledge and education will boost your selfesteem many levels higher! This will give you control over your life and you will gain self-confidence that will prepare you to face and deal with anything that comes your way.

3. Take action. Do something for yourself Start doing something for yourself. Take positive risks with your life. Don't Ii ve your life in chains. If you want to start a business ... do it. Don't live other peoples dreams. Live out loud, live your dream, do something that you feel i~ important to you. Make sure you accomplish it.

4. Socialize. Involve yourself actively in matter that interest you. Join clubs, networking organisations, associations or groups of similar interst and participate actively. Being part of a group gives you a sense of belonging, acceptance and appreclUtiOn. Knowing that you are a part of something important and meaningful, does a lot to boost your self-esteem.

5. Stand up for yourself Don'( allow people to put you down and don't allow other people's expectations to thwart what you are capable of becoming. Don't put up with people or situations that negate all the positi ve things that you can do. Stand up for your dreams!

6. Volunteer to help the less privileged. Volunteering will give you a sense of fulfillment, accomplishment and appreciation. Giving yourself in service to others is one of the noblest things to do. The look of gratitude on the faces of those that you have helped is enough to boost your self esteem

7. Set personal goals alld accomplish them. Living aimlessly leaves you with a feeling of emptiness and confusion. Goals give you a sense of purpose. They steer your life in a particular direction.

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They make your life purposeful. Accomplishing personal goals gives your self-esteem a big boost.

REfERENCE AND SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS 1.

John W. Newstrom and Keith Davis- Organizational Behavior at Work, Tenth Edition, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited, New Delhi, 1996.

2.

William C. Frederick, James E. Post and Keith Davis - Business and Society, Seventh Edition, Mc Graw-Hill Book Company New York ,1992.

3.

Steven L.Mc Shane and Mary Ann Von Glinow - Organizational Behavior, Irwin McGraw-Hill ,2000.

4.

Gregory Moorhead and Ricky W.Griffin, Organizational Behavior, Fifth Edition, A.I.T.B.S Publishers India, 1992.

5.

McGregor, D., The Human Side Of Enterprise, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1906.

6.

Likert, R., New Patterns Of Management, Mc Graw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1961.

7.

Reddin, W.J.Managerial Effectiveness, Mc Graw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1970.

8.

Fred Luthans, Organizational Behavior, Mc Graw-Hill Inc., New York, 1995.

9.

Ouchi, W.G, Theory Z, Avon, New York, 1982.

10. Business Today, 7-21 July 1996. 11.

Schien, E.h., Organizational Psychology, Prentice- Hall of India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 1979.

12. http://www.actionleadership.com 13. http://www .managementhelp.org

Attitudes

"Whenever I'm caught between two evils, I take the one I've never tried". -

Mae West

LEARNING OBJECTIVES After reading this chapter you should be able to:

Define A tti tude . Learn how attitudes are developed. Recognize the different types of workplace attitudes. Understand the need for change in attitudes and how to measure attitudes.

To identify the importance of values with respect to attitudes.

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Box 4.1 The Rose Within Certain man planted a rose and watered it faithfully and before it blossomed, he examined it. He saw the bud that would soon blossom, but noticed thorns UpOl\ the stem and he thought, "How can any beautiful flower come from a plant burdened with so many sharp thorns? Saddened by this thought, he neglected to water the rose, and just before it was ready to bloom ... it died. So it is with many people . Within every soul there is a rose . The God-like qualities planted in us at birth, grow amid the thorns of our faults. Many of us look at ourselves and see only the thorns, the defects . We despair, thinking that nothing good can possibly come from us. We neglect to water the good within us, and eventually it dies. We never realize our potential. Only if there is a positive attitude about us, then it helps to find our potential. Some people do not see the rose within themselves; someone else must show it to them. S9me individuals in their life like their prof~ssors , parents and friends show them the path to..reach and find their inner qualities . One of the greatest gifts a person can possess is to be able to reach past the thorns of another, and find the rose within them. This is one of the characteristic of love ... to look at a person, know their true faults and accepting that person into your life ... all the while recognizing the nobility in their soul. Help others to realize they can overcome their faults. If we show them the "rose" within themselves, they will conquer their thorns. Only then will they blossom many times over. Generally prospects for an individual's good health and long life are remarkably dependent upon mental habits learned in childhood. These attitudes cause emotional reactions, which strongly affect one's immune system, circulatory system and even one's risk of accidents. The medical profession has grossly underestimated the strength of this correlation between attitudes and health . The above box 4.1 clearly depicts what type of attitude is expected about an individual and he should walk towards in reaching success. The concept of attitude is a psychological phenomenon. Understanding this phenomenon took place in the field of social psychology. Interest and growth in this is necessary to identify the factors contributing to the formation of attitudes. In order to understand this concept one has to clearly understand the VALUE dimensions, what one has to perceive and adapt in one's own life. Hence it is attempted in this chapter to briefly explain the different value dimensions and how all or some of these values are considered, to understand the ATTITUDE. Till 1920' s most of the attitude researcher's attention was

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in defining and how to measure the attitude. Later as the concept speeded and started gaining importance in the organization, researchers stated taking factors and the opinions of soldiers regarding war to gi ve a theoretical framework to this concept. recently the researchers have come out with the various psychological processes accompanying the attitudes and how it affects the workers and its application in the workplace.

Allport, Gordon W., 1897-1967, an American psychologist was one of the first psychologists to study personality. Allport researched human attitudes, prejudices, and religious beliefs. His theory of personality, which rejected both Freudian psychology and behaviorism, emphasized the uniqueness of the individual and the need to treat problems in terms of present condItions as opposed to childhood experiences. He wrote Personality (1937), The Individual and His Religion (1950), and The Nature of Prejudice (1954). Most of our behaviours are affected by our attitudes. How we perceive the objects, events, what are the beliefs we hold about others, understanding of certain information etc., are some of the factors that is influenced by attitudes. Attitudes are the set or cluster of beliefs towards objects, events and situation. They are the basic intentions of individuals. These intentions might be right or wrong. The happiness that we receive from a promotion is called as emotion. By framing different emotions our attitudes are formed. Say nothing good of yourself, you will be distrusted; say nothing bad of yourself, you will be taken at your word. -

Joseph Raux

Values And Beliefs The foundation of each organization is the values and beliefs of employees to the operation of the organization. The leaders of each organization shape the value and beliefs of the employees in the organization. This value is a force, energy, and fuel for action toward excellence in the accomplishments of the objectives of the organization. A leader with vision who cannot articulate beliefs and values in the employees is a dreamer, not a leader. The values and beliefs have been the foundation of what our country stands for, and these two factors will continue to play very critical roles in maintaining the strength of our nation. The great leaders of each organization impart their own values and beliefs to the organization they created or directed~ As a result, each organization has its own unique set of values and beliefs which shape the character of the organization. Some of the common values and beliefs are belief in the importance of employee as individual, belief in superior service and quality, belief in leaders' good intentions in the decision making, belief in the sharing ideas and being innovator, and beliefin mission of the organization.

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Definitions Attitudes are generally defined in two different ways-conceptual basis and operational basis. Now let us look at some of the definitions from conceptual point of view. Most of the scholars have defined the term attitude in two major dimensions: set and readiness and effect and evaluation. It was Gordon Allport who found that most of the definitions contained that words 'readiness' 'set-otherwise termed as tendency to respond' and 'effect' Attitudes are derived from the action of stimuli in the environment. The general definitions that were given in the early days were " Attitudes are defined as a tendency, set or readiness to respond to some social object". "Evaluative statements or judgments concerning objects, people, or events." "Attitude is defined as a mental and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual's response to all objects and situations with which it is related".

- Gordon Allport. "Attitude represent the cluster of beliefs, assessed feelings, and behavioural intentions toward an object." - PR Lawrence. "Attitudes are learned predispositions towards aspects of our environment. They are positively or negatively directed towards certain - Munn. people, service or institutions". "An attitude is any cognitive representation that summarizes our evaluation of an object, which may be the self, other people, things, actions, - Smith & Mackie events, or ideas" The stories/explanations that has come up with to account for the world around us are nothing more than attitudes. Evaluating the inherent characteristics of attitudes will allow us to gain insight into new and more useful ways of thinking about persuasion i.e., "the process by which attitudes are developed, reinforced, or changed by communications", thereby allowing us to further understand why conflicting stories, specifically the stories of creationism vs. evolution, can be perceived as tremendously threatening. Apart from the conceptualized view there is an operationalised view of defining attitude. Operationalised in the sense taking only the evaluative part of attitude, and identifying the factors for measuring attitude, and from these points definitions were given. From the operational point of view let us read a definition. "Attitude is often used in a generic sense to any reports of what people think or feel or the ways in which they intend to act".

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Difference between Attitude and Belief As beliefs are commonly used with attitudes let us differentiate between the two. Attitudes are predisposition to react in some way towards the objects or concepts and the measurement of attitudes is generally based on the expressions of opinions. On the other hand a belief is an enduring organization of perceptions and cogni tions about some aspects of indi vidual's world. Thus belief is just a hypothesis concerning the nature of objects, especially concerning indi vidual's judgement of the probability regarding their nature.

How are attitudes formed? An individual's performance in a workplace is affected by many attitudes. It is not just a stimulus-response relationship. There are a great number of theories formed to explain how the attitudes are formed. Let us look into a few of the theories. The theories are classified into three main categories. They are: (a) Cognitive-Consistency Theory (b) Functional Theory (c) Social Judgement Theory

(a) Cognitive-Consistency Theory - This theory explains that attitudes do not exist or formed in isolation. Attitudes are concerned with the consistencies and inconsistencies with respect to various beliefs or evaluations. Let us look into one major theory under this classification of cognitive consistency. It is 'Conitive Dissonance Theory'. Tne word cognition simply means "knowing". This theory was developed by Festinger. An individual instead of having one idea for a particular belief may have two ideas. Cognitions are consonance when one belief's idea follows the other. But the cognitions become disonant (dissonance) when the idea of one belief is different from that of another idea about the same belief. For example, a person may believe that practising yoga may maintain your health. It may keep your health in good condition. But to the contrary the same individual is a smoker then there is inconsistency with the ideas regarding the belief about health. This is called as "Cognitive Dissonance".

(b) Functional Theory - The relationship between attitudes and efforts are considered in this theory. It also concentrates on the motivational structure of an individual. There are some important functions performed by attitudes. For the functions please refer the following paras containing four functions. Depending on these four functions there might be a change in the attitude. This must be considered as crucial for the reason that the four functions of attitudes are congnitive processes and the funcitons are quite complex in nature. Kelman has identified three processes of attitude change. They are 'Compliance, Identification and Internalisation'.

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Compliance comes into picture when the attitude change gives' a favourable reaction from the other individual. Identification happens when a positive relationship exists because of the influence of the other individual. Internalisatioll occurs when an attitude is being adopted, and because when the attitude is congruent with an indivdual's whole value systems. (c) Social Judgment Theory: The best theory which addresses just how difficult people can be in these and other situations is Social Judgment Theory. This theory is quite useful for three primary reasons. First, it explains why people get so agitated. Second, it explains why persuasion is so difficult to accomplish. Third, it offers a good common sense plan for doing persuasion in the real world.

The central idea of social judgment theory is that attitude change is mediated by judgmental processes and effects used to persuade people. This web page offers a summary to a research article on social judgment theory entitled "Social Judgment Theory". This theory was proposed by Sherif and Hoveland. When an attitude is formed, it produces lot of distortions. The initial attitude which is formed may be changed or altered when this attitude is compared with different opinions about the same attitude.

Judgements of Alternative Positions on an Issue On any given persuasive issue, there are likely to be a number of different positions or points of view available. Consider, for example, some different possible stands on an issue such as legalizing marijuana: One might think that all marijuana use should be illegal, or that its use should only be permitted for medical reasons, or marijuana should be legalized for everyday use. A person is likely to have varying beliefs of these different positions- a person will likely fi nd some of the positions acceptable, some of the positions objectionable, and some neither particularly acceptable nor unacceptable. Since, from a social judgment theory point of view, the person's reaction to persuasi ve communication on this topic will depend on: the person's judgment of the position the message advocates and it is important to be able to assess persons' judgments of the various possible positions. The assessment procedure offered by social judgment theory is known as the Ordereti Alternatives Questionnaire. Generally attitudes are formed by two ways (i) Direct Experience (ii) Social Learning. (i) Direct Experience: For example, if an individual happens to go in a bike and meets with accident, he/she may get an attitude formation that going in bike in future may cause accidents. This is called as attitude formation through direct experience.

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(ii) Social Learning: Attitudes may also be formed through social learning i.e., by way of observing other indi vidual's actions or opinions. It may be favourable or unfavourable. For eg., if Kapil Dev expresses his opinion for the energy drink 'Boost', the individual watching or observing may form an attitude towards the drink similar to that of the celebrity. This is viewed as 'Social Learning'.

Factors for Attitude Formation So far, from the above paragraphs it is known that the 'attitudes are learnt'. Now let us look into some of the important factors that are contributing for the attitude formation. They are: I. Group Factors (a) Family (b) Influence or Reference Groups (c) Society ILPersonality Factors

(aJ Family: In the group factors, the first thing that is considered is family because family plays an important role in socialization of an individual. During the process of socialization, the individual forms different attitudes. Families may be of two kinds, either nuclear family or joint family. The individuals brought up in these two families will have different set of attitudes. The mother and father form the basis for the formation of attitudes. Later the relatives join in, developing different set of attitudes, as there are different personalities playing different roles. ( b) Influence or Reference Groups: A reference or influenc,e group is one where lot of interactions take place. These interactions affect the indi vidual's behaviour. (c) Society: Society plays a major role in shaping the attitude of the individual. The norms, values and beliefs of the society gets closely attached and attracted by the individual. For example, if a particular society is against following rituals and celebrations, the individual brought up in the society, develops same attitude towards the rituals and celebrations followed by others. '

Attitudes and Behaviour As discussed in the chapter twO, (Perception), the relationship between stimulus-response and how it is affects the individual's behaviour, in this chapter let us find out how attitudes affect the individual's behaviour. Generally the individuals working in an organization are affected by the different attitudes of co-workers, management and customers Iclients. Interpretation of the situation should be well understood by an individual in order to develop a right attitude.

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The box 4.2 gives positive ideas of how to eliminate worries.

Box 4.2 Dale Carnegie, in his book "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living" feels that individuals must not take their worries which is caused by negative attitudes. He suggests taking animals as examples the individuals may act. Animals confront (fight) at night and if they are hungry they take it up calmly. He also explains that because of this tendency of taking things lightly the animals never get breakdowns or stomach ulcers or they never go insane. It is good that one remembers these lines of Mother Goose rhyme. 'For every ailment under the sun, There is a remedy, or there is none; If there be one, try to find it; If there be none, never mind it.'

Dale Carnegie gives some examples of leading American executives like, J.C.Penny, Founder of the nation-wide chain of Penny Stores, Henry Ford and K.T.Keller, of the Chrysler Corporation and how they lead their lives singularly free from worry. People form attitudes/ create stories because they are useful in mastering the social environment and in establishing important connections with others. It is a well-known fact in psychology that once an attitude is formed, it becomes very closely linked to the representation of the object to which that attitude has been ascribed. This cognitive connection helps us to negotiate our interactions with these attitude objects in two ways: through the "object appraisal or knowledge function" and/or the "instrumental or utilitarian function". The object appraisal function refers to the ways in which attitudes/stories help us to organize and simplify our experience, thus allowing us to "deal with it efficiently". The instrumental explanation of the usefulness and function of stories, events and things perceived serves to orient us "towards objects that will help maximize our rewards and reach desired goals while avoiding undesirable situations or events". Box 4.3 gives a clear picture of how to increase and strengthen the attitude and behaviour relationship.

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Box 4.3 Increasing the Attitude-Behavior Relationship

The Theory of Planned Behavior: Fishbein and Ajzen (1980) proposed that the best predictor of behavior is one's INTENTIONS 1. Whether a person behaves in an attitude consistent way or not depends on the nature of the behavior intention formed 2. Behavior intentions are influenced by three factors • Attitu.de toward the behavior: How does the person feel about the behavior in question? • Subjective norms: What others are doing • Perceived behavior control: How easy or hard is the behavior and what will the outcome of the behavior be? 3. Accuracy of behavior intentions is. supported by Gallup polls taken before presidential elections. Attitudes have basically four functions in order to affect the behaviour.they are: (a) lnstrumental or Utilitarian Generally attitude functions like a means towards a desired set of goals or objectives. It acts as an instrumental to reach the terminal goals and the terminal goals may be favourable or unfavourable feelings that would be aroused along with the activation of a need or cues. (b)

Ego-defensive

The acknowledgement of the psychological thought is the function of egodefensive. Attitudes here are required in order to protect one from threats and becoming aware of the things happening in the outside world. The internal threats or external threats are the frustrating events, arouses to form the ego-defensive attitudes. Attitudes protect us from our fears and rejections. (c) Value Oriented,Value Expressive As mentioned in the early paragraphs attitudes and values go hand in hand. The value-orientation function considers attitudes that are held as these attitudes express an individual's values or showing his/her self/identity. One must be aware of his/her self (Self-concept is where the individual is aware of oneself, his /her strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities) in order that the value orientation function takes place in an attitude. When there is a threat in the self-concept, self-image etc., the attitudes are formed with value- . orientation.

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(d) Function of Knowledge and Economy This is another function of attitudes. The knowledge part is nothing but the indi vidual's need to maintain a stable, organised and meaningful structure of the events, situation, objects and people around the world. Attitudes allow us to categorize information about objects and more easily, manage our world.

(e) Badge Value Finally, attitudes help to define us and make up-front statements about who we are and what we believe. An individual's behaviour is affected by these functions of attitudes. It involves the interpretation of the ideas and information acquired by the individual. In the orgnaisational setting the work itself and co-workers intervene with each others resulting in job satisfaction, and this job satisfaction is identified as a type of work attitude. If an individual has a right attitude towards his job then he is successful in his job and in turn the individual and the organisational producti vity is increased.

Attitude Change Different individuals have different attitudes. In this uncertain and changing world indi vidual need to keep changing their attitudes according the situation. The requirement of attitude change is the most important because attitudes affect the behaviour and this behaviour must be generally be desirable. Formation and change of attitude are not two separate things, they are interwoven. People are always adopting, modifying, and relinquishing attitudes to fit there ever-changing needs and interests. Attitude cannot be changed by simple education. Acceptance of new attitudes depends on who is presenting the knowledge, how it is presented, how the person is perceived, the credibility of the communicator, and the conditions by which the knowledge was received. Attitudes change when: 1. A person receives new info from others or media- Cognitive change. 2. Through direct experience with the. attitude object- Affective change. 3. Force a person to behave in a way different than normal- Behavioural change. Attitude can be changed by a number of sources including other people, family, media, church, or the object itself. In 1968, McGuire developed steps to changing an attitude: The steps are attention, comprehension, yielding, retention, and action. Attitude will be changed based on how a person sees the communication and the communicator. Less committed people will change ideas more frequently. Attitude change also has to do with other personality characteristics such as susceptibility to persuasion, intelligence, readiness to

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DUAL ROUTES TO PERSUASION Audience Factors

Persuasion Attempt

Message

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High motivation • and abil~y to think about the message

Processing Approach

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Deep processing, focused on the qual~y of the message arguments

Persuasion Outcome

Lasting change that resists fading .-' and counterattacks

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-

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Low motivation or ability to think about the message

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Superficial processing, focused on surface features such as the communicator's attractiveness or the number of arguments presented

,.,

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Temporary change that IS susceptible to fading and counterattacks

Fig: 4.1 Attitude Change Process (chart source from http://chiron.valdosta.edu/mawhatelyI767/attitude.htm)

accept change, etc. We are more likely to accept information if we feel the communicator has no intent to change their attitudes and opinions. The change in attitudes could be understood in detail only if the individual understands these three factors, which playa major role in the attitude change. They are (1) Characteristics of Attitude, (2) Personality, (3) Group Affiliation (1) Characteristics of Attitude

This is a most important element in understanding the attitude change. There are various characteristics identified in the theories of attitudes. Some of them are as follows. 1. Multiplicity 2. Consistency 3. Interconnectedness 4. Cognitive dissonance 5. Consonance of the attitude 6. The number of needs 7. The strength of the needs 8. The centrality of the related values 9. And the extremeness of the attitude. 10. Simplicity 11. Interconnectedness.

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Simplicity is the most important characteristic of an attitude. If an attitude is simple then it is easy to change. If the degree of interconnectedness is high then there is the possibility of change in the existing attitude. Cognitive dissonance refers to a paradoxical nature between two attitudes. For example a person is a chain smoker and ifhe is a regular yoga practicising person then there is cognitive dissonance in his attitudes. In this case the change may not be effective. ' Based on these characteristics there are two different types of attitude change that could be brought within the individuals. They are: (a) Congruent Change This involves an increase in the strength of an existing attitude. It may be for making a positive attitude more favourable or to make a negative attitude lllore unfavourable. For example, when an employee, Mr. Ram has an aversive attitude towards Mr.Raghu, and if the situation is also unfavourable, then the attitude of Mr. Ram would be strengthened because of the situation. (b) Incongruent Change An incongruent change is one in which the direction of change is opposite to the originally held attitude. For exampl~, if the employees are confident that their jobs would not be changed Gob security) and all of a sudden if the management is brining in the technological change, there is fear of unknown in the minds of the employees, which in turn brings a different direction in the change in their attitude. Generally the congruent attitude change is much easier than to bring a change in incongruent change. (2) Personality of Attitude Holder As individuals are different, each individual may be persuaded or influenced to different degrees. This is due to the individual's personality differences. As attitudes have the subjective qualities it depends on the individual's level of acceptance to bring about a change in his/her attitude. Several empirical studies hold vales for the formation of attitudes and the influence of the personality factors influencing the attitudes. It is not possible to change an individual's attitude that has the characteristic of being consistent and distinctive in their behaviour. It may be possible for a case that has the intellectual ability and if the personality is identified as a person who is open to experience then the change in attitude is possible. (3) Group Affiliation Generally as individuals we often express our attitudes in terms of group. Certain types of action are thus determined, and others inhibited, at the start by the group to which we belong. We are set, for example, to conform in our

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reactions to the conduct of the others. In thinking, we expand our range of associations to objects about us; and we tend to impress others with our conclusions, rather than prove them in a logical fashion. Less extreme attitudes (see characteristics of attitudes) may be expressed in terms of group because membership in the groups prevents existing attitudes from being disturbed by filtering the information. We set ourselves for rivalry, auto-competition, or cooperation, and are affected accordingly in our, work. We even assume an attitude to react as if certain imagined social stimulations are present. In all these instances the attitude, or preparation in advance of the actual response constitutes an important determinant of the ensuing social behavior. Upon entering the presence of various groups we assume specific attitudes, which control our responses in appropriate ways. There is a fairly universal readiness to communicate to others thoughts or feelings, which we regard as significant. We are usually aware that the information will produce a sensation, create a laugh, impress the hearer with our own importance, or otherwise control the reactions. We have so far discussed but one side of the attitudinal relations of individuals. It must not be forgotten that in social life the response to one's fellows forms a stimulus to which they in turn respond. Consequently each person toward whom the individual has prepared responses has also definite attitudes toward him. It makes a great deal of difference to us, moreover, what sort of attitudes our fellows assume. We stri ve to build up in them those settings which we them -to have toward us. Furthermore, when such attitudes are established we strive to keep them as they are. We are hemmed in our behavior by the manner in which others show they expect us to behave.

What can we do to change attitudes? • In order to produce change a suggestion for change must be reviewed and accepted. • Reception and acceptance are more likely to occur where the suggestion meets existing personality need or desires. • The suggestion is more likely to be accepted if: It is in harmony with valued group norms an loyalties. The source of the message is perceived as trustworthy or expert. The message follows certain rules of 'rhetoric' regarding order, presentation, organization of content, nature of appeal, etc. • A suggestion carried by mass media plus face-to-face reinforcement is more likely to be accepted than a suggestion carried by either one of these alone, other things being equal.

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• Change in attitude is more likely to occur if the suggestion is accompanied by change in other factors underlying belief and attitude.

What Roles does Attitude Play in Training? Soft skill training is mainly changing attitudes - a persisting feeling or emotion that influences a person's choice of action and response to a stimulus. It is defined as a "disposition or tendency to respond positively or negatively towards a certain thing (idea, object, person, situation)." Attitudes are closely related to, individual's opinions and beliefs and are based upon their experiences. Training that produces tangible results starts by changing behavior which ultimately changes attitudes. Since our attitudes are deeply rooted, they are very hard to change. That is, we infer that people have attitudes by what they say or do. What they actually say or do are behaviors. Thus the training developer must identify some sort of behavior that would seem to be representative of the display of the attitude in question. This behavior can then be measured as an index of the attitude construct.As the famous saying goes like this; The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.

-

Aristotle

Let us understand the need for education, learning, training all which leads to the development of the individuals. For example, if you are training diversity, you cannot be sure that you have eliminated prejudice from a learner. Therefore you have to measure behaviors, such as showing respect for other cultures. Another example is safety. Being able to perform safely in the work environment is not just about knowledge and skills. It also requires the correct attitude. For some tasks, doing something the safe way requires more effort or work. Thus employees must have the correct attitude towards safety or when it counts the most, they will relapse back into the faster or easier method rather then the safe method ... and this is not right for their coworkers as they deserve a safe working environment! To train soft skills, HRD practitioners must picture themselves not only as trainers, but also as educators and developers. To do so, requires a different mind set.

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Components of the Attitude Below is a quote, which tries to identify the components of attitude. I keep six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When And How Where ([nd Who.

Rudyard Kipling Let us examine these six people in the following paragraphs. There are three different components of attitude. They are: (a) Cognition Component, (b) Affective Component (c) Behavioural Component. These components playa major role in every individual's life. The word cognition literally means 'knowing'. Knowingly if an attitude is formed, then we call it as cognitive attitude.

Cognition - Opinion or belief segment of an attitude, i.e., knowing something and arriving at a conclusion. Affect - Emotion or feeling segments of an attitude. Behaviour - Intention to behave in a certain way towards someone or something i.e. basic response to a stimuli.

There are three "building blocks" of attitudes: cognitive information, affective informatioll and behavioral illformation. Each of these building blocks serves to solidify ones own attitudes about the stories we tell, as well as inhibit the possibility for the blending/reconciliation of different stories regarding the same attitude object (e.g., Creation). Take for example, the following schematic representation of the attitude/story of creationism: Cognitive Information= The bible says that God created man and the universe.

Workplace example: XYZ Organisation has a vision statement as 'To render the best customer service'. Affective Information= I feel comfort by my belief in God and the word of the bible.

Workplace example: The employees feel comfortable with the internal policies and procedures. Behavioral Information= I go to church every Sunday and read the bible before I go to bed

Workplace example: Everyday the employees are on time to the workplace. These Three components in combination= An Attitude/Story= God created man and the universe

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Workplace example: These Three components in combination= An Attitude/ Workplace example= to render the best customer service. Herein, lies a fundamental problem regarding the reconciliation of different versions of a story: cognitive information can be sharedllearned and behavioral information can be altered/adapted, but affective information is not so easily modified. For instance, evolutionary biologists can present a creationist with a quite convincing scientific story substantiated by dense "factual" information, and that creationist may even concede the plausibility and merit of such arguments. That same creationist may also become disillusioned with religious practices such as attending church or reading the bible. However, does the affective category of attitudes not somehow constitute the true foundations of many of our most important assertions? For instance, when an attitude or story is seen to be a fundamental cornerstone of our self-concept and therefore our identity (e.g., the way creationism is often crucial to our religious affiliations and thus our concept of self), it will likely take more than refusing cognitive information (e.g., the fossil record) to bring about a persuasive change in attitude. Box 4.4 gives a brief account of the components of attitude.

Box 4.4: Components of an Attitude • An'attitude comprises three parts: The AFFECTIVE component' is (like-dislike) component of an attitude

the

The BEHAVIORAL component is behavior attached to our internal attitudes

emotional the

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The COGNITIVE component is the storage component where we organize information about an attitude object Together these make up the ABCs of attitudes • The affective component makes an attitude different from categorization • A fourth component, the BEHAVIOR INTENTION, was later added to increase the attitude-behavior predictive relationship

Sources of Attitude Attitudes, like values are acquired from parents, teachers and peer group members. It is generally derived and developed from two important sources. Our own experiences and our perception towards the object, person or events.

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"Things are the way you think they are, because you think they are that way." Keep Smiling (Anonymous) When an individual confronts with any objects or events a series of emotions are followed, and by coming to a conclusion one decides this as an experience. The other source, individual's perception towards objects and events - the way the individuals selects. organises and interpret the stimuli and giving a meaning to objects or events. In contrast to values, attitudes are less stable, and in organisations attitudes are important be~ause they affect job behaviour. Job behaviour is a concept important in organ~sational behaviour as it directly correlates to the performance of the job by an employee.

Attitude Measurement There are five major approaches to collecting attitude data: • Records - These include observed behavior such as attendance records, anecdotal records, incidents, and interviews. • Self Reports - Such as inventories of employees reporting directly about their own attitudes. • Report of Others - These include information, rating scales, and interview results of others reporting about the attitude of an employee or team. • Sociometric Techniques - Such as sociograms and social distance scales in which members of a group report about their attitudes towards one another. • Projective Technique - Picture presentations and sentence completion in which the learner supplies a response to the stimulus.

Louis Thurstone Thurstone is the social psychologist who first created attitudemeasurement methodology. He is considered to be the "father" of attitude scaling. Thurstone scales are still the main way to measure attitude. Thurstones method involved defining and identifying the object, then making a pool of opinion statements, some positive, some negative, some neutral. Thurstone developed 3 scales for measuring attitude.

1. Paired Comparisons This method requires that attitude comparisons be paired in every possible combinaiton. Since 20 statements will result in the judging of 190 pairs, this method is a lot of work.

2. Equal-appearing intervals. Judges sort statements one at a time on a range of extremely favorable to extremely unfavorable. It is much like Likert scaling, but neutral items are required to incorporate the entire spectrum of attitude about an object.

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3. Successive intervals. This is an extension to the equal-appearing intervals scaling. It tries to statistically place items on a continuoum instead of relying on subjective answers given by judges. It uses the number of times different judges rate a statement to develop the rank order for the scales.

Likert Likert stressed that when trying to measure attitude for something, it is easier to measure for tangible objects than for abstract objects. If we want to measure abstract objects, we must define them clearly so the researcher and the subject will have the same object in mind. Likert believed in constructing multiple scales, or narrowly defining scales so other dimensions wouldn't be included. He generated an item pool which included statements about beliefs for the object in question. Each item was clearly positive or negative. Likert did not use neutral statements. Most surveys use five scales ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree.

Guttman Louis Guttman developed a scale much like Likert and Thurstone, but he placed extreme stress on unidimensionality of the scale. He believed that if a person agreed with an all inclusive category, they should also agree with the varying parts of the category.

Precautions in Attitude Measurement: • Attitudes are impossible to measure directly. The evaluator is relying on inference. • Behaviors, beliefs, and feelings, are not c{ Insistent, even when we assume they reflect a single attitude. The pattern of behavior may be very complex and be a manifestation of more that one attitude. • Attitudes do not stand still long enough for a one time snap shot measurement. Frequent measurements at selected intervals will reflect a more accurate representation of a consistent attitude. • Certain attitudes do not have a universal agreement on their nature or what the correct Behavioural display is. • Collection of certain types of personal data about learners may lead to legal complications invol ving their rights to pri vacy. An interesting part of attitude with respect to advertising let us read the box item 4.5.

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Box 4.5:Attitude and Advertising A great deal of attitude change research is being done in practical applications such as the military, advertising, and television networks. When changing attitudes through advertising, there are many factors to consider. One must choose a source who is attractive to the target audience, a message that will break through the clutter, and a channel that will maximize comprehension.

Attitude and its implications modern days The Message and the Source People pay more attention to messages and sources that are unusual, prestigious, loud, and exotic. They also prefer messages that are controversial, interesting, and surprising. Attention- Selective Exposure We can not absorb all information, so we select information that will be useful to us. We seek information that: • Increases our understanding • Does not attack our self esteem • Helps us adjust in the world • Lets us express our attitudes

Comprehension To get maximum comprehension from a message: • Choose a source the audience knows This is why celebrity endorsements are so prevalent today. People connect better with sources they know and trust. • Word the message so it connects with a specific audience This is easier than ever with the segmentation of audience due to cable television. Some companies give a message in several ways to several audiences. • Pick a channel that allows the message to be fully understood • Understand the defensiveness of the audience

Retention Powerful sources who are ever-present are more likely to increase retention. We remember sources who are attractive to us. Also, repetition increases retention. Radio and television can increase repetition more than personal selling or face to face can.

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TYPES OF ATTITUDES There are many different types of attitudes. We would discuss mainly the work related attitudes, as it is more relevant to our understanding of human attitudes in the workplace. The job related attitudes are, Job Involvement Organisational Commitment and Job Satisfaction.

Job Involvement Job involvement measures the degree to which a person identifies himself psychologically with his job and considers his perceived performance level important to self-worth. The level of the involvement of the worker towards his job shou.1d be kept at high. If it is low, the reasons for not invol ving in the job have to be analyzed and necessary corrections are to be done to maintain a high involvement. Some employees feel exhausted regarding routine acti vi ties, unchallengingjob nature etc. Performance of the employees is directly related to amount job involvement.

Organisational Commitment Organisational commitment is defined as a state in which an employee identifies with a particular organisation and its goals, and wishes to maintain membership in the organisation. It depicts the level of attachment of the individual towards the organisation. People who are less committed to the organisation feel that they are like the outsiders. Individuals who are more committed have a "we" feeling and they consider themselves as the partners of the company. Organisations that have employees who are more committed have greater productivity. Research works suggest that Japanese workers are more committed than the U.S workers.

Job Satisfaction What is job satisfaction? There are various questions raised by individuals, when diverse concepts regarding attitudes have to be discussed. Job satisfaction is a type of work attitude. Basically it is the individual's general attitude toward one's job. The level of the satisfaction differs from one job to another and also form one individual to other. Job Satisfaction refers to individuals general attitudes towards his or her job. A person with high level of job satisfaction holds positive attitude towards the job, and a person dissatisfied with his or her job holds negative attitude about the job. Individual's need's and desires differ form person to person. Their relationships with the co-workers also differ and interpersonal behaviour also differs from one individual to another. Difference in the needs,

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compensation and working conditions also matters . These factors determine whether the employees are satisfied or dissatisfied depending upon the fulfillment of the requirements.

Determinants of Job Satisfaction There are certain factors that contribute to the job sati sfaction. Factors that determine employee job satisfaction are, equitable rewards, challenging work, good working conditions, favorable organisational climate , supportive colleagues and person's perception.

Equitable Rewards In any organisaion, irrespective of whether it is a manufacturing unit or a service sector, 80% of the employees are bothered about their c