Introduction to Organization Behavior

M-3
INTRODUCTION TO ORGANIZATION
BEHAVIOUR
Dr. Jerry John

Topics
• Individual Behavior and Learning – Personality
– Transactional Analysis – Values & value
systems – Emotions – Attitudes – ABC Model –
Types of attitudes – Job related outcomes –
Perception processes, Nature – Factors
influencing individual decision making –
Implications in the organizational Context.
Dr. Jerry John-Assistant Professor_KCM

Individual Behavior and Learning
Behavior: how people act
Organizational Behavior: a field of
study concerned with the actions at
Work
A challenge with understanding
organizational behavior is seeing not
just the visible aspects of the
organisation (strategies, goals, policies
and procedures, structure, technology,
formal authority, chain of command)
but also understanding the hidden
aspects (attitudes, perceptions, group
norms, informal interactions,
interpersonal and intergroup conflict)

Focus of
organizational
behavior
• attitudes
• personality
• perception
• learning
• motivation
Individual behavior
• norms
• roles
• team building
• leadership
• conflict
Group behavior

Goals of Organizational Behavior
• To explain, predict and influence
behavior
– Managers need to be able to explain
why employees engage in some
behaviors rather than others, to
predict how employees will respond
to various actions the manager might
take, and to influence how
employees behave

Six important
employee
behaviors
that
managers
want to
explain,
predict and
influence
• is a performance measure of both efficiency
and effectiveness
• managers want to know what factors improve
employee efficiency and effectiveness
Employee Productivity
• is the failure to report to work
• although absenteeism can never be totally
eliminated, excessive levels will have a direct
and immediate impact on the organization's
functioning
Absenteeism
• is the voluntary and involuntary permanent
withdrawal from an organisation
• this causes increased recruiting, selection,
training costs and work disruption
• Managers wanted to try minimize this
Turnover

Six important
employee
behaviors that
managers want to
explain, predict
and influence
• Organizational Citizenship Behavior
– is discretionary behavior that is not part of an
employee’s formal job requirements, but
which promotes the effective functioning of
the organisation. E.g. helping others on one’s
work team; volunteering for extended job
activities; avoiding unnecessary conflict
– drawbacks of OCB: employees may
experience work overload, stress and work-
family conflict
• Job satisfaction
– refers to an employee’s general attitude
towards his or her job
• Workplace misbehavior
– is any intentional employee behavior that has
negative consequences for the organisation
or individuals within the organisation.
– Four ways: deviance, aggression, anti social
behavior and violence
– e.g. playing loud music to irritate others;
verbally abusing customers

Factors Affecting Behavior of an
Individual in the Organization
Every individual is different from each other, as the behavior of the
human is considered as the most complex one.
There are various challenges in an effective organization that could
directly or indirectly affect the behavior of the employees.
In certain situations, the manager of the organization have to first
analyze the particular task, determine the skills required and gather a
team that could complement and match the skills of each other.
For addressing various factors, safety settings, capabilities of people
and limitations have to be analyzed first

Biographic Characteristics
•Physical Characteristics
•Age
•Gender
•Religion
•Marital Status
•Experience
•Learned Characteristics
•Personality
•Perceptions
•Values
Environmental Factors
•Economic Factors
•Employment Level
•Wage Rates
•General Economic Environment
Organizational Factors
•Physical Facilities
•Structure and Design
•Leadership
•Reward System
Factors
Affecting
Behavior
of an
Individual
in the
Organizati
on

Personality
• Personality: is the unique combination of
emotional, thought and behavioural patterns
that affect how a person reacts and interacts
with others.
• It affects how an why people behave the way
they do
• Personality: A person’s unique and relatively
stable behavior patterns; the consistency of
who you are, have been, and will become
• Character: Personal characteristics that have
been judged or evaluated
• Temperament: Hereditary aspects of
personality, including sensitivity, moods,
irritability, and adaptability
• Personality Trait: Stable qualities that a person
shows in most situations
• Personality Type: People who have several
traits in common

Personality
Types and
Other
Concepts
Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist who was
a Freudian disciple, believed that we
are one of two personality types:
• Introvert: Shy, self-centered person whose
attention is focused inward
• Extrovert: Bold, outgoing person whose
attention is directed outward
Self-Concept: Your ideas,
perceptions, and feelings about who
you are
Self-Esteem: How we evaluate
ourselves; a positive self-evaluation
of ourselves
• Low Self-esteem: A negative self-evaluation

Personality
Theories: An
Overview
• Personality Theory: System of concepts,
assumptions, ideas, and principles proposed to
explain personality; includes five perspectives:
– Trait Theories: Attempt to learn what traits
make up personality and how they relate to
actual behavior
– Psychodynamic Theories: Focus on the inner
workings of personality, especially internal
conflicts and struggles
– Behavioristic Theories: Focus on external
environment and on effects of conditioning
and learning
– Social Learning Theories: Attribute
differences in perspectives to socialization,
expectations, and mental processes
– Humanistic Theories: Focus on private,
subjective experience and personal growth

Gordon
Allport
and Traits
Common Traits: Characteristics
shared by most members of a culture
Individual Traits: Describe a person’s
unique personal qualities
Cardinal Traits: So basic that all of a
person’s activities can be traced back
to the trait
Central Traits: Core qualities of a
personality
Secondary Traits: Inconsistent or
superficial aspects of a person

Trait
Theories
Trait theorists aim to
describe personality
with a small number
of traits or factors
Personality trait—
stable quality a
person shows across
most situations

Psychoanalytic
Theory and
Sigmund
Freud, M.D.
Freud was a Viennese physician who
thought his patients’ problems were
more emotional than physical.
Freud began his work by using
hypnosis and eventually switched to
psychoanalysis.
Freud had many followers: Jung and
Adler, to name a few.
Freud used cocaine and tobacco and
died from oral cancer.
More than 100 years later, his work is
still influential and very controversial

Some Key
Freudian
Terms
PSYCHE: FREUD’S TERM
FOR THE PERSONALITY
LIBIDO: ENERGY
EROS: LIFE INSTINCTS THANATOS: DEATH
INSTINCT

Figure 10.6
FIGURE 10.6 The approximate relationship between the id, ego, and superego, and the levels
of awareness.

Freud’s
Psychoanalytic
Theory: The Id
Innate biological instincts and
urges; self-serving, irrational,
and totally unconscious
Works on Pleasure Principle:
Wishes to have its desires
(pleasurable) satisfied NOW,
without waiting and
regardless of the
consequences

Freud’s
Psychoanalytic
Theory: The
Ego
• Executive; directs id energies
– Partially conscious and partially
unconscious
– Works on Reality Principle: Delays
action until it is practical and/or
appropriate

Freud’s
Psychoanalytic
Theory: The
Superego
• Judge or censor for thoughts and
actions of the ego
– Superego comes from our parents
or caregivers; guilt comes from the
superego
• Two parts
– Conscience: Reflects actions for
which a person has been punished
– Ego Ideal: Second part of the
superego; reflects behavior one’s
parents approved of or rewarded

Freudian Dynamics of Personality
and Anxieties
Ego is always caught in the
middle of battles between
superego’s desires for moral
behavior and the id’s desires for
immediate gratification
Neurotic Anxiety: Caused by id
impulses that the ego can barely
control
Moral Anxiety: Comes from
threats of punishment from the
superego
Unconscious: Holds repressed
memories and emotions and the
id’s instinctual drives
Conscious: Everything you are
aware of at a given moment
Preconscious: Material that can
easily be brought into awareness

Freudian
Personality
Development
Develops in stages; everyone
goes through same stages in
same order
Majority of personality is
formed before age 6
Erogenous Zone: Area on body
capable of producing pleasure
Fixation: Unresolved conflict or
emotional hang-up caused by
overindulgence or frustration

Freudian Personality
Development: Oral Stage
Oral Stage: Ages 0-1. Most of infant’s
pleasure comes from stimulation of the
mouth. If a child is overfed or frustrated, oral
traits will develop. Early oral fixations can
cause…
Oral Dependent Personality: Gullible,
passive, and need lots of attention.
Later oral fixations can cause…
Oral-aggressive adults who like to argue and
exploit others

Freudian
Personality
Development:
Anal Stage
• Anal Stage: Ages 1-3. Attention turns to
process of elimination. Child can gain
approval or express aggression by
letting go or holding on. Ego develops.
Harsh or lenient toilet training can
make a child:
– Anal Retentive: Stubborn, stingy,
orderly, and compulsively clean
– Anal Expulsive: Disorderly, messy,
destructive, or cruel

Freudian
Personality
Development:
Phallic Stage
• Phallic Stage: Ages 3-6. Child now notices
and is physically attracted to opposite sex
parent. The child is vain, sensitive,
narcissistic. Can lead to:
– Oedipus Conflict: For boys only. Boy
feels rivalry with his father for his
mother’s affection. Boy may feel
threatened by father (castration
anxiety). To resolve, boy must identify
with his father (i.e., become more like
him and adopt his heterosexual
beliefs).
– Electra Conflict: Girl loves her father
and competes with her mother.
– Both concepts are widely rejected
today by most psychologists

Freudian
Personality
Development:
Latency Stage
• Latency: Ages 6-Puberty. Psychosexual
development is dormant. Same sex
friendships and play occur here.

Freudian
Personality
Development:
Genital Stage
• Genital Stage: Puberty-on. Realization
of full adult sexuality occurs here;
sexual urges re-awaken.

Table 13.1
Freud’s Stages of Psychosexual Development

Figure 13.5
Freud believed that psychoanalysis could bring parts of the unconscious into the conscious mind, where the client could deal with them.

Freudian
Defense
Mechanisms:
Psychological
Defenders of
You!
• Defense Mechanisms: Habitual and
unconscious (in most cases)
psychological processes designed to
reduce anxiety
– Work by avoiding, denying, or
distorting sources of threat or
anxiety
– If used short term, can help us get
through everyday situations
– If used long term, we may end up
not living in reality
– Protect idealized self-image so we
can live with ourselves

Freudian Defense Mechanisms:
Some Examples
Denial: Most primitive; refusing to
believe, denying reality; usually occurs
with death and illness
Repression: When painful memories,
anxieties, and so on are held out of our
awareness
Projection: When one’s own feelings,
shortcomings, or unacceptable traits
and impulses are seen in others;
exaggerating negative traits in others
lowers anxiety
Rationalization: Justifying personal
actions by giving “rational” but false
reasons for them
Reaction Formation: Impulses are
repressed and the opposite behavior is
exaggerated

Learning
Theories
and Some
Key Terms
Behavioral Personality Theory:
Model of personality that
emphasizes learning and
observable behavior
Learning Theorist: Believes that
learning shapes our behavior and
explains personality
Situational Determinants: External
conditions that influence our
behaviors

Humanism
Approach that focuses on human experience,
problems, potentials, and ideals
Human Nature: Traits, qualities, potentials, and
behavior patterns most characteristic of humans
Free Choice: Ability to choose that is NOT controlled
by genetics, learning, or unconscious forces
Subjective Experience: Private perceptions of reality
Self-Actualization (Maslow): Process of fully
developing personal potentials
Peak Experiences: Temporary moments of self-
actualization

Personality
Assessment
Direct Observation: Looking at behavior
Interview: Face-to-face meeting designed to
gain information about someone’s personality,
current psychological state, or personal history
Unstructured Interview:
Conversation is
informal, and topics are
discussed as they arise
Structured Interview:
Follows a prearranged
plan, using a series of
planned questions

Shyness
Definition: Tendency to
avoid others and feeling
uneasiness and strain
when socializing
Social Anxiety: Feeling of
apprehension in the
presence of others
Evaluation Fears: Fears of
being inadequate,
embarrassed, ridiculed,
or rejected
Private Self-
Consciousness: Attention
to inner feelings,
thoughts, and fantasies
Public Self-
Consciousness: Intense
awareness of oneself as a
social object

TRANSACTIONAL
ANALYSIS
The study of human behaviour is very complex
and complicated concept.
It is affected by the psychological factors such
as perception, learning, peronality and
motivation.
In addition to these factors, individual
behaviour affects and affected by the
behaviour of others.
One of the major problems in the study of
organisational behaviour is to analyse and
improve, the interpersonal relationships.
One basic approach to study interpersonal
relations in an organisational system is
transactional analysis.
This analysis deals with understanding,
predicting and controlling interpersonal
relationships.

TRANSACTIONAL
ANALYSIS
It was introduced by Eric Berne.
Transactional analysis is a technique
used to help people better understand
their own and other’s behaviour,
especially in interpersonal relationships.
It is a good method for understanding
interpersonal behaviour.
It offers a model of personality and the
dynamics of self and its relationship to
others that makes possible a clear and
meaningful discussion of behaviour.

Transactional
analysisis
Primarily
concerned
with following:
Analysis of self awareness
Analysis of ego states
Analysis of transactions
Script analysis
Games analysis
Analysis of life positions
stroking

1.
ANALYSIS
OF SELF
AWARENESS
The interpersonal relationships are composed of interself.
Self is the core personality pattern which provides integration.
Self awareness is an important concept, it describes the self in
terms of image, both conscious and unconscious.
Joseph Luft and Harrington have developed a diagram to look at
one’s personality including behaviours and attitudes that can be
known and unknown to self and known and unknown to others.
This diagram is known as the JOHARI WINDOW.
It comprising of 4 parts.

JOHARI WINDOW
OPEN
(known to othersandalso self)
BLIND
(unknown to self but known to others)
HIDDEN
(known to self but unknown to others)
UNKNOWN
(unknown to self andunknown to
others)

2.
ANALYSIS
OFEGO
STATES
The ego plays an important role in human behavior.
People interact with each other in terms of
psychological positions or behavioural patterns known as ego
states.
Ego states are person’sway of thinking,
feeling and behaving at any time.
There are 3 important ego states.
Ego states: child, adult and parent.
A person of any age have these ego states in varying degree.
A healthy personis able to move from one ego state to
another.

THE EGO STATES
Personality
PARENT ADULT CHILD

1. Parent
Ego
• Parent ego state:
– The parent ego state means that
the values, attitudes and
behaviours of parents an integral
part of the personality of an
individual. These people tend to
talk to people and treat others like
children. The characteristics of a
person with parent ego state are:
– Judgemental
– Rule maker
– Moralising
– Over protective
– indispensable

•The adult ego state is authentic, direct, reality
based, fact seeking and problem solving.
•They assume that human beings as equal, worthy
and responsible.
•The process of adult ego state formation goes
through one’s own experiences and continuously
updating attitudes left over from childhood.
•People with adult ego state, gather relevant
information, carefully analyse it, generate
alternatives and make logical choices.
2. Adult ego state:
•The child ego state is characterized by very
immature behavior.
•The important features of child ego state are
creativity, anxiety, depression, dependence, fear,
joy, emotional sentimental etc.
3. Child ego state:

3.
ANALYSIS
OF
TRANSACTIO
NS
A transaction is a basic unit of social
interaction.
The heart of transactional analysis is the
study and diagramming of the exchanges
between two persons.
Thus where a verbal or non verbal stimulus
from one person is being responded by
another person a transaction occurs.
Transactional analysis can help us to
determine which ego state is most heavily
influencing our behaviour and the
behaviour of the other people with whom
we interact.

4.
SCRIPT
ANALYSIS
• In a layman’s view ,a script is the text
of play, motion picture, or a radio or
TV programme.
• In transactional analysis a person’s life
is compared to a play and the script is
the text of the play.
• According to Eric Berne,” a script is an
ongoing programme, developed in
early childhood under parental
influence which directs the individual
behaviour in the most important
aspects of his life.
• A script is a complete plan of living,
offering prescriptions, permissions
and structure which makes one winner
or loser in life.

5.
ANALYSIS
OF LIFE
POSITIONS
• In the process of growing up people make
basic assumptions about their own self
worth as well as about the worth of
significant people in their environment.
• The combination of assumptions about self
and the other person called as life
position.
• Transactional analysis constructs the
following classifications of the four
possible life positions or psychological
positions:
– I am OK,, you are OK.
– I am OK, ,you are not OK.
– I am not OK,, you are OK.
– I an not OK,, you are not OK

6.STROKING
• Stroking is an important
aspects of the transactional
analysis.
• The term stroke refers to “giving
some kind of recognition to
others.”
• People need strokes for their
sense of survival and well being
on the job. Lack of stroking
can have negative consequences
both on physiological and
psychological well being of a
person.
• There are three types of strokes:

There are three types of
strokes:
1. Positive strokes:
– The stroke one feel good, is a positive
stroke.
– Recognition, approval are some of the
examples.
2. Negative strokes:
– a stroke one feel bad or not good is a
negative stroke. negative strokes hurt
physically or psychologically.
3. Mixed strokes:
– a stroke may be of a mixed type also.
– Example :the boss comment to a
worker “you did an excellent job
inspite your limited experience.

7.
GAMES
ANALYSIS
• When people fail to get enough strokes
at work they try a variety of things.
• One of the most important thing is that
they play psychological games.
• A psychological game is a set of
transaction with three characteristics:
– The transaction tend to be
repeated.
– They make sense on superficial or
social level.
– One or more transactions is
ulterior.
• Types of games:
– A first degree game is one which is socially
acceptable in the agent’s circle.
– A second degree game is one which more
intimate end up with bad feelings.
– A third degree game is one which usually
involve physical injury.

Perception
• Perception is a process by which individuals
organize and interpret their sensory impressions
in order to give meaning to their environment
• None of us actually see reality, we interpret what
we see and call it reality
• Perceiver – personal characteristics heavily
influence interpretation
• e.g. attitudes, personality, motives, interests,
past experiences and expectations.

Emotion
• Emotions are reaction to a person or event.
• Emotions are intense feeling that are directed on
someone or something.
• Emotions are more fleeting than moods.
• Characteristics of Emotions
– Caused by specific event.
– Very brief in duration.
– Specific and numerous in nature.
– Usually accompanied by distinct facial expressions.
– Action oriented in nature.
– Emotions are never neutral.

Differentiation between Affect, Mood
and Emotion
• Affect : A broad term used to describe the
range of feelings that people experience.
It encompasses/comprises of emotions
and moods
• Emotions : Intense feelings that are
directed at something or someone.
• Moods : Feelings that tend to be less
intense than emotions and that lack a
contextual stimulus.

Characteristics of Mood
• Cause is often general and unclear.
• Lasts longer than emotions.
• More general and not too specific.
• Generally not indicated by distinct facial
expressions.
• Cognitive in nature.
• Moods may be neutral.

Relationship between emotions and
moods
• Emotions and moods are mutually influenced
by each other.
• Emotions can turn into moods when you lose
focus on the event or object that started that
feeling.
• Similarly, good or bad moods can make you
more emotional in response to an event.

Basic types of moods
• Generally moods are classified into two types
– positive affect and the negative affect.
• Positive affect :
– excitement, self-assurance, cheerfulness in the
high end.
– boredom, sluggishness, tiredness at the low end.
• Negative affect :
– nervousness, stress, anxiety at the high end
– relaxation, tranquility and poise at the low end

ABC Model

Values
Values
Basic convictions that a specific mode of conduct or
end-state of existence is personally or socially
preferable to an opposite or converse mode of
conduct or end-state of existence.
Value System
A hierarchy based on a ranking of an individual’s
values in terms of their intensity.

Importance of Values
• Provide understanding of the attitudes,
motivation, and behaviors of individuals
and cultures.
• Influence our perception of the world
around us.
• Represent interpretations of “right” and
“wrong.”
• Imply that some behaviors or outcomes are
preferred over others.

Types of Attitudes
Job Involvement
Identifying with the job, actively participating in it,
and considering performance important to self-worth.
Organizational Commitment
Identifying with a particular organization and its
goals, and wishing to maintain membership in the
organization.
Job Satisfaction
A collection of positive and/or negative feelings that
an individual holds toward his or her job.

THE NATURE AND DIMENSIONS OF
ATTITUDES
¨ “Attitudes”
Persistent tendency to feel and behave in
a particular way towards some object
¨ Characteristics of Attitudes
They tend to persist unless something is
done to change them.
They can fall anywhere along a continuum
from very favorable to very unfavorable.
They are directed toward some object
about which a person has feelings and
beliefs. Dr. Jerry John-Assistant Professor_KCM

ATTITUDE MODEL
Informational/
Cognitive
(i.e. beliefs)
Affective
(i.e. emotions)
Attitude Behavior

¨ Attitudes are generally positive or negative views of a
person, place, thing, or event-- this is often referred to as
the attitude object.
¨ People can also be conflicted or ambivalent toward an object,
meaning that they simultaneously possess both positive and
negative attitudes toward the item in question. Attitudes are
judgments. They develop on the ABC model (affect, behavior,
and cognition).
¨ The affective response is an emotional response that
expresses an individual's degree of preference for an entity.
The behavioral intention is a verbal indication or typical
behavioral tendency of an individual. The cognitive response
is a cognitive evaluation of the entity that constitutes an
individual's beliefs about the object. Most attitudes are the
result of either direct experience or observational learning
from the environment.
¨ It can also be defined as,” A complex mental state involving
beliefs and feelings and values and dispositions to act in
certain ways.”
• For example, if someone says that “I like my
Job”. This statement expresses his attitude
towards his Job.

TYPES OF ATTITUDES
¨ Job Satisfaction
¨ A collection of positive and or negative feelings
that an individual holds toward his or her job.
¨ Job Involvement
¨ Identifying with the job, actively participating in it, and
considering performance important to self- worth.
¨ Organizational Commitment
¨ Identifying with a particular organization and its goals,
and wishing to maintain membership in the
organization.

COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDES
¨ Attitudes structure can be described in
terms of three components.
¨ Affective component: this involves a
person’s feelings / emotions about the
attitude object. For example: “I am scared of
spiders”.
¨ Behavioral (or cognitive) component: the
way the attitude we have influences how we
act or behave. For example: “I will avoid
spiders and scream if I see one”.
¨ Cognitive component: this involves a
person’s belief / knowledge about an
attitude object. For example: “I believe
spiders are dangerous”.

Attitude and behavior are two quite
different things. Attitude is a
person's inner thoughts and
feelings, while behavior is usually
an outward expression of attitude,
but the two are not always related.
For instance, psychopaths are people whose
attitudes are composed of low morality.
However, this does not mean that they
always commit immoral acts. Psychopaths
are usually intelligent, so they know that
even though there will be no moral
consequences for them, there will still be
legal consequences to deal with. This
knowledge, in addition to their attitude,
governs their behavior.
When a person's attitude and behavior differ,
dissonance will likely result, and a change in
attitude or behavior will be the probable
outcome.
ATTITUDE
BEHAVIOUR

This model is known as the ABC model of
attitudes. The three components are usually linked.
However, there is evidence that the cognitive and
affective components of behavior do not always
match with behavior.
They evaluative statements in an attitude are either
favorable or unfavorable. They reflect how one feel
about something.
A person can have thousands of attitudes. But OB
focuses on a limited number of job-related attitudes.
¨ These include job satisfaction,
¨ job involvement (the degree to which person
identifies
¨ with his or her job and actively participates in it)
¨ And organizational commitment (an indicator of
loyalty to, and, identification with the
organization).

FORMATION OF ATTITUDE
¨ How attitudes are formed?
¨ How do you develop your attitude? Essentially attitudes are the outward
manifestation of your inner values and beliefs.
¨ These develop over time. As you grow you watch the significant people
around you behaving in a particular way; you are being told to cherish
certain things over others and you learn from your teachers and peers and
come to value certain thins over other, thus forming your value system.
These in turn give rise to development of your attitudes.

DIFFERENT ATTITUDE’S OFA PERSON

¨ Attitudes help predict
work behavior
¨ The following example might help to
illustrate it. After introducing a
particular policy, it is found from an
attitude survey, that the workers are
not too happy about it.
¨ During the subsequent week it is
found that the attendance of the
employees drops sharply from the
previous standard. Here
management may conclude that a
negative attitude toward new work
rules led to increased
absenteeism.

¨ Attitudes help people to
adapt to their work
environment
¨ An understanding of attitudes is
also important because attitudes
help the employees to get
adjusted to their work. If the
management can successfully
develop a- positive attitude
among the employees, they will
be better adjusted to their work

FUNCTIONS OF ATTITUDE
¨ According to Katz, attitudes serve four important functions from
the viewpoint of organizational behavior. These are as follows.
¨ The Adjustment Function. Attitudes often help people to adjust
to their work environment. Well-treated employees tend to
develop a positive attitude towards their job, management and
the organization in general while berated and ill treated
organizational members develop a negative attitude. In other
words, attitudes help employees adjust to their environment
and form a basis for future behavior.
¨ Ego-Defensive Function. Attitudes help people to retain their
dignity and self- image. When a young faculty member who is
full of fresh ideas and enthusiasm, joins the organization, the
older members might feel somewhat threatened by him. But
they tend to disapprove his creative ideas as ‘crazy’ and
‘impractical’ and dismiss him altogether.

¨ The Value-Expressive Function. Attitudes
provide individuals with a basis for
expressing their values. For example, a
manager who values hard and sincere
work will be more vocal against an
employee who is having a very casual
approach towards work.
¨ The Knowledge Function. Attitudes
provide standards and frames of
reference that allow people to
understand, and perceive the world
around him. If one has a strong negative
attitude towards the management,
whatever the management does, even
employee welfare programmes can be
perceived as something ‘bad’ and as
actually against them.

CHANGING ATTITUDES
¨ Employees’attitudes can bechanged and sometimes it is
in the best interests of managements to try to do so. For
example, if employees believe that their employer does
not look after their welfare, the management should try
to change their attitude and help develop a more
positive attitude in them.
¨ However, the process of changing the attitude is not
always easy. There are some barriers which have to
be overcome if one strives to change somebody’s
attitude. There are two major categories of barriers that
come in the way of changing attitudes:

¨ There are two major categories of barriers that come in
the way of changing attitudes:
¨ Prior commitment when people feel a commitment
towards a particular course of action that have already
been agreed upon and thus it becomes difficult for them
to change or accept the new ways of functioning.
¨ Insufficient information also acts as a major barrier to
change attitudes. Sometimes people simply see any
reason to change their attitude due to unavailability of
adequate information.

SOME OF THE POSSIBLE WAYS OF
CHANGING ATTITUDES
¨ Providing New Information.
Sometimes a dramatic change in
attitude is possible only by providing
relevant and adequate information to
the person concerned. Scanty and
incomplete information can be a
major reason for brewing negative
feeling and attitudes.
¨ Use of Fear. Attitudes can be
changed through the use of fear.
People might resort to change their
work habit for the fear of fear of
unpleasant consequences. However,
the degree of the arousal of fear will
have to be taken into consideration
as well.

¨ Resolving Discrepancies:
Whenever “people face “a dilemma
or conflicting situation they feel
confused in choosing a particular
course of action.
¨ Like in the case where one is to
choose from” between two
alternative courses of action, it is
often become difficult for him to
decide which is right for him. Even
when he chooses one over the
other, he might still feel confused. If
some one helps him in pointing out
the positive points in favor of the
chosen course of action, he person
might resolve the his dilemma.Dr. Jerry John-Assistant Professor_KCM

¨ Influence of friendsandpeersAvery effective way of
changing one’s attitude is through his friends and colleagues.
Their opinion and recommendation for something often
proves to be more important. If for example, they are all
praise for a particular policy introduced in the work place,
chances are high that an individual will slowly accept that
even when he had initial reservations forthat.
¨ Co-opting. If you want to change the attitude of some body
who belongs to a different group, it is often becomes very
effective if you can include him in your own group. Like in the
case of the union leader who are all the time vehemently
against any management decision, can be the person who
takes active initiative in implementing a new policy when he
had participated in that decisionmaking process himself.

JOB ATTITUDES AND ACTUAL BEHAVIOR
q The belief, attitude, intention
sequence is presumably
followed by actual behavior.
q This traditional model
suggests that behaviors
(including job performance)
are largely influenced by job
attitudes. (e.g.,
absenteeism)
q Recently, this traditional model
has been questioned as being
too simple and some more
comprehensive alternatives
have been developed.Dr. Jerry John-Assistant Professor_KCM

THE THEORY OF COGNITIVE
DISSONANCE
Desireto reducedissonance
• Importance of elementscreating dissonance
• Degreeof individual influenceover elements
• Rewardsinvolvedin dissonance

SELF-PERCEPTION THEORY

AN APPLICATION: ATTITUDE SURVEYS

MAJOR JOB ATTITUDES
¨ Job Satisfaction
¨ Job Involvement
¨ Psychological Empowerment
¨ Organizational Commitment
Affective commitment
Continuance commitment
Normative commitment
¨ Perceived Organizational
Support (POS)
¨ Employee Engagement

WHAT IS JOB SATISFACTION?
¨ A collection of attitudes that workers
have about their jobs.
¨ Two aspects of satisfaction.
¨ Facet satisfaction refers to the
tendency for an employee to be
more or less satisfied with various
facets of the job:
The work itself
Compensation
Career opportunities

HISTORY OF JOB SATISFACTION
¨ Based in history of Job Satisfaction
q Formal research began in mid-1930’s
q 1932 I/O textbooks had no mention of
job satisfaction or organizational
commitment
q By 1972 over 3000 articles published
specifically exploring worker attitudes
¨ Why interest developed
Methodological breakthroughs
Survey methods
Statistical techniquesDr. Jerry John-Assistant Professor_KCM

MEASURING JOB SATISFACTION
¨ Single Global Rating Method
Only a few generalquestions
Remarkably accurate
¨ Summation Score Method
Identifies key elements in the job and
asks for specific feeling about them

WHAT CAUSES JOB SATISFACTION?
¨ The Work Itself – the strongest correlation with
overall satisfaction
¨ Pay – not correlated after individual reaches a
level of comfortable living
Advancement
Supervision
Coworkers

THE EFFECT OF JOB SATISFACTION ON
EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE
¨ Satisfaction and Productivity
Satisfied workers aren’t
necessarily more productive.
Worker productivity is higher in
organizations with more
satisfied workers.
¨ Satisfaction and Absenteeism
Satisfied employees have
fewer avoidable absences.
¨ Satisfaction and Turnover
Satisfied employees are less
likely to quit.
Organizations take actions to
cultivate high performers and to
weed out lower performers.Dr. Jerry John-Assistant Professor_KCM

NEGLECT LOYALTY
PASSIVETOACTIVE
HOWEMPLOYEESCANEXPRESS
DISSATISFACTION
DESTRUCTIVETOCONSTRUCTIVE
EXIT VOICE

ORGANIZATIONALCITIZENSHIP
BEHAVIOUR(OCB)
¨ Voluntary, informal behaviour that
contributes to organizational
effectiveness.
¨ Jobsatisfaction is strongly related to
OCB.
¨ Thedifferent forms ofOCB:
Helping behaviour and offering
assistance.
Conscientiousness to the details of
work.
Being agood sport.
Courtesy and cooperation.

The Theory of Cognitive Dissonance
Desire to reduce dissonance
• Importance of elements creating dissonance
• Degree of individual influence over elements
• Rewards involved in dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance
Any incompatibility between two or more attitudes
or between behavior and attitudes.

Measuring the A-B Relationship
• Recent research indicates that attitudes (A)
significantly predict behaviors (B) when
moderating variables are taken into account.
Moderating Variables
• Importance of the attitude
• Specificity of the attitude
• Accessibility of the attitude
• Social pressures on the individual
• Direct experience with the attitude

Self-Perception Theory
Attitudes are used after the fact to make sense out of an
action that has already occurred.
Attitude Surveys
Eliciting responses from employees through
questionnaires about how they feel about their jobs,
work groups, supervisors, and the organization.

Attitudes and Workforce Diversity
• Training activities that can reshape employee
attitudes concerning diversity:
– Participating in diversity training that provides for
self-evaluation and group discussions.
– Volunteer work in community and social serve
centers with individuals of diverse backgrounds.
– Exploring print and visual media that recount and
portray diversity issues.

Job Satisfaction
• Measuring Job Satisfaction
– Single global rating
– Summation score
• How Satisfied Are People in Their Jobs?
– Job satisfaction declined to 50.4% in 2002
– Decline attributed to:
• Pressures to increase productivity and meet tighter
deadlines
• Less control over work

The Effect of Job Satisfaction on
Employee Performance
• Satisfaction and Productivity
– Satisfied workers aren’t necessarily more productive.
– Worker productivity is higher in organizations with
more satisfied workers.
• Satisfaction and Absenteeism
– Satisfied employees have fewer avoidable absences.
• Satisfaction and Turnover
– Satisfied employees are less likely to quit.
– Organizations take actions to retain high performers
and to weed out lower performers.

How Employees Can Express
Dissatisfaction
Exit
Behavior directed toward
leaving the organization.
Voice
Active and constructive
attempts to improve
conditions.
Neglect
Allowing conditions to
worsen.
Loyalty
Passively waiting for
conditions to improve.

Job Satisfaction and OCB
• Satisfaction and Organizational Citizenship
Behavior (OCB)
– Satisfied employees who feel fairly treated by and
are trusting of the organization are more willing to
engage in behaviors that go beyond the normal
expectations of their job.

Job Satisfaction and Customer
Satisfaction
• Satisfied employees increase customer
satisfaction because:
– They are more friendly, upbeat, and responsive.
– They are less likely to turnover which helps build
long-term customer relationships.
– They are experienced.
• Dissatisfied customers increase employee job
dissatisfaction.

How does
perception
affect
individual
decision
making?

Rational
Decision-
Making
Model
Define the problem.
Identify the decision criteria.
Allocate weights to the criteria.
Develop the alternatives.
Evaluate the alternatives.
Select the best alternative.

Common
Biases &
Errors
• Overconfidence Bias – We tend to be overly
optimistic (especially when our intellect and
interpersonal abilities are low)
• Anchoring Bias – Tendency to focus on initial
information as a starting point.
• Confirmation Bias – We tend to seek out info that
reaffirms our past choices and we discount info
that contradicts our past judgments.
• Availability Bias --or the tendency of people to base
their judgments on information readily available to
them.
• Representative Bias -- The tendency to assess
the likelihood of an occurrence by drawing
analogies and seeing identical situations in which
they don’t exist.
• Escalation of Commitment --an increased
commitment to a previous decision in spite of
negative information (all too often creeps into
decision making)
• Randomness Error – We tend to create meaning
out of random events (and superstitions).
• Hindsight Bias – We tend to believe falsely that
we’d have accurately predicted the outcome of an
event, after that outcome is actually known.

Individual Decision Making
• Individuals think and reason before they act.
• Under some decision situations, people follow the
rational decision-making model. However, this doesn’t
happen very often…
• So, what can managers do to improve their decision
making?
– Analyze the situation.
– Be aware of biases.
– Combine rational analysis with intuition.
– Don’t assume that your specific decision style is
appropriate for every job.
– Try to enhance your creativity

Decision making Implications in the
organizational Context
• Decision making is part of everyone’s life and all
of us have to make decisions every moment.
• Right from choosing what to wear to what to eat
to where we live and work and extending to
whom we marry, decisions are an integral part of
our lives.
• In an organizational context, it is worthwhile to
note that decision making needs the right kind of
information, the complete information and the
ability to synthesize and make sense of the
information.

• Corporate decision making happens at various
levels in organizations and can be top down or
bottom up.
• It needs to be remembered that the middle
management is often called the “sandwich” layer
• because they have to implement the decisions
made above and at the same time have to decide
about how to run the teams and have to
communicate them to the lower levels as well.
• Any process of corporate decision making, the
actual implementers play a critical role since the
best laid plans of the top management

Introduction to Organization Behavior

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Introduction to Organization Behavior