Chapter 2

Individual Behavior and

Learning in an Organization

By Aman A. (PhD)
Chapter Outline

– Perception and Individual Decision Making

– Attitude
– Personality
– Learning

By Aman A. (PhD)
Perception and Individual Decision
Making

1. What is perception?
2. What causes people to have different perceptions of
the same situation?
3. Can people be mistaken in their perceptions?
4. Does perception really affect outcomes?

By Aman A. (PhD)
What Is Perception?

Definition: A process by which individuals organize and

interpret their sensory impressions in order to give
meaning to their environment (Robbins)

Perception is like beauty that lies in the eyes of beholder

• What one perceives may be substantially different from reality !

By Aman A. (PhD)
Why We Study Perceptions?

• For better understanding

• We don’t see reality. We interpret
• The attribution process guides our behavior
• The study of perception is very important in the
organization because it is necessary for the manager
to perceive individuals correctly irrespective of their
status and perceive each of the situations as close to
the real fact or as it exists by interpreting the sensory
reflects in correct way

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Factors that Influence Perception

Factors in the perceiver

• Attitudes
• Motives
• Interests
• Experience
• Expectations

Factors in the situation

• Time
• Work setting
• Social setting
Perception

Factors in the target

• Novelty
• Motion
• Sounds
• Size
• Background
• Proximity
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Attribution Theory
• Attempt to explain the ways we judge people, based on the
meaning we attribute to their behaviour
• Causes of behaviour can be
– External (situation or environment)
– Internal (believed to be under the personal control of the
individual)
• Whether attribution is internal or external depends on
– Distinctiveness - Does this person behave the same way
across different situations?
– Consensus - Do other people behave the same way?
– Consistency - Does this person behave this way in different
occasions in the same situation?

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Attribution Theory
Observation interpretation Causes

High
External
Distinctiveness Low
Internal
High
External
Individual Consensus Low
Behaviour Internal
High
External
Consistency
Low
Internal

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Attribution Theory

• Fundamental Attribution Error

– The tendency to underestimate external factors.
• Self-Serving Bias
– The tendency to attribute one’s successes to internal
factors and failures to external factors.

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Common Perceptual Errors
• Selective Perception
– People selectively interpret what they see based on their
attitude, interest, background and experience..
• Halo Effect
– Drawing a general impression (judging an individual
based on single characteristics, such as intellectual
ability, sociability and appearance).
• Contrast Effects
– A person’s evaluation.
– We do not evaluate a person in isolation. Our reaction
to one person is relative to the other
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Perceptual Errors
• Projection
– Attributing one’s own characteristics
– You assume a person based on your own traits and not what he
actually possesses ( e.g. If you were hard working and dependable
you would expect others to be so)
• Stereotyping
– Judging someone
– In order to simplify matters, we often tend to classify people and
events into already known categories ( e.g. we generally perceive
man as executive and woman as secretary even if the situation may
be different)
• Prejudice
– An unfounded dislike/bias/
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Why Do Perceptions and
Judgment Matter?

• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
– A concept that proposes a person will behave in
ways consistent with how he or she is perceived
by others.

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Attitude

• According to G.W. Allport, “Attitude is a mental

and neutral state of readiness organized
through experience, exerting a directive or
dynamic influence upon individual’s response
to all objects and situations with which it is
related.”

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Attitudes

• Attitudes are evaluative statements concerning

objects, people or event
• Attitudes come from parents, teachers, peer group
members etc.
• Attitudes can directly affect work behaviour

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Components of Attitude

• Cognitive component- Opinion or belief segment

• Affective component- Emotional or feeling segment
• Behavioral component- Intention to behave in a
certain way toward someone or something

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Types of Job Related Attitudes

Job Satisfaction

Job Involvement

Organizational Commitment
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Job satisfaction

• An individual’s general attitude toward his/her job.

– A high level of job satisfaction equals positive attitudes
toward the job and vice versa.

• Employee attitudes and job satisfaction are frequently

used interchangeably.

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Job involvement

• The measure of the degree to which a person

identifies psychologically with his/her job
and considers his/her perceived performance
level important to self-worth.
– High levels of job involvement
– Fewer absences and lower resignation rates
• More consistently predicts turnover than
absenteeism

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Organizational commitment

An effective and emotional attachment held by

employees towards their work.
Factors

Belief in & acceptance of Willingness to exert

organizational goals considerable & sustained
effort for organisation

COMMITMENT

Desire to continue
to be part of the organisation
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Organizational commitment

• Negative relationships between organizational

commitment and both absenteeism and turnover.
– Organizational commitment is a better indicator of
turnover than the job satisfaction
– It is a more global and enduring response to the
organization as a whole than is job satisfaction.

• As employment becomes less permanent (casuals,

contracts etc.) organisational commitment may now be
less important than in the past
– May be being replaced by occupational commitment
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 Any incompatibility between two or more
attitudes or between behaviour and
attitudes.

By Aman A. (PhD)
Personality

 The sum total of ways in which an individual reacts

and interacts with others.
The consistent psychological patterns within an
individual that affect the way they interact with
others and the situations they encounter
• Personality Traits
– Enduring characteristics that describe an individual’s
behavior.

By Aman A. (PhD)
Personality determinants
(Nature &Nurture)

 Heredity

 Environment

 Situation

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Big Five Model of Personality

• The most widely accepted model of personality is

the five-factor model of personality— more
typically called the “Big Five”
• The Big Five model of personality places five
general personality traits at the top of the trait
hierarchy: extraversion, emotional stability ,
agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness, to
experience
• Each of the Big Five traits is composed of various
specific traits
By Aman A. (PhD)
 Big Five Model of Personality

Extraversion

Agreeableness Emotional
Stability

Conscientiousness Open to experience

By Aman A. (PhD)
 The Big Five Model
Classifications
• Extraversion - reflects a person’s comfort level with relationships
– Extroverts are sociable, talkative, assertive and open to establishing new
relationships.
– Introverts are less sociable, less talkative, less assertive and more reluctant to
begin new relationships

• Agreeableness - refers to a person’s ability to get along with others

– Highly agreeable = value harmony more
– Low agreeable = focus more on their own needs
• Conscientiousness - refers to the number of goals on which a
person focuses
– Highly conscientious = pursues fewer goals,
– Low conscientious = tend to be more easily distracted
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The Big Five Model

• Emotional Stability – focuses on an individual’s

ability to cope up the stress.
– Positive emotional stability = calm, enthusiastic
and secure
– Negative emotional stability = nervous, depressed,
and insecure
• Openness to Experience - addresses one’s range of interests
– Extremely open = fascinated by novelty
– Not open = appear more conventional
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Big Five Personality Factors

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Major Personality Attributes
Influencing OB
• Locus of Control
• Machiavellianism
• Self-Esteem
• Self-Monitoring
• Risk-Taking
• Type A Personality
• Type B Personality
• Proactive Personality

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Locus of Control

• The degree to which people believe they are in

control of their own fate.
– Internals
• Individuals who believe that they control what happens
to them.
– Externals
• Individuals who believe that what happens to them is
controlled by outside forces such as luck or chance.

By Aman A. (PhD)
Machiavellianism

• It refers to an individual propensity to manipulate

people
• Degree to which an individual is pragmatic,
maintains emotional distance, and believes that
ends can justify means.
• Machiavellians would be prone to participate in
organizational politics.
• They are also adept at interpersonal game playing,
power tactics and identifying influence system in
organizations.
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Self-Esteem
• Individuals’ degree of liking or disliking of
themselves.
– People with high self-esteem
• believe that they have abilities to undertake
challenging jobs.
• They tend to choose unconventional jobs than those
with lower self-esteem.
– People with low self-esteem
• are more susceptible to external influence than are
those with high esteem.
• are dependent on the receipt of positive evaluation
from others.
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Self-Monitoring

• A personality trait that measures an individual’s

ability to adjust behaviour to external situational
factors.

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Risk-Taking

• Refers to a person’s willingness to take chances

or risks.

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Type A Personality

– Moves
– Impatient
– Multitasks
– Dislikes leisure
– Obsessed with numbers

By Aman A. (PhD)
Type B Personality

– Never suffers
– Doesn’t need to display
– Plays for fun
– Can relax

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Proactive Personality

• A person who identifies opportunities, shows

initiative, takes action, and perseveres until
meaningful change occurs.

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Learning

Definition:
Any relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs
as a result of experience

Theories:
Classical conditioning
Operant conditioning
Social learning

By Aman A. (PhD)
Learning

Have a reading Assignment on Learning (Theories

of learning and Methods of shaping Behavior)

By Aman A. (PhD)
 Summary and Implications
1. What is perception?
– Perception is the process by which individuals
organize and interpret their impressions in order to
give meaning to their environment.
2. What causes people to have different perceptions
of the same situation?
– Perceptions are affected by factors in the perceiver,
in the object or target being perceived, and in
the context or situation.

By Aman A. (PhD)
 Summary and Implications

3. Can people be mistaken in their perceptions?

– Shortcuts, such as attribution theory, selective
perception, halo effect, contrast effects, projection,
and stereotyping are helpful and even necessary,
but can and do get us in trouble.
4. Does perception really affect outcomes?
– Perceptions often affect productivity more than the
situation does.

By Aman A. (PhD)
 Summary and Implications

5. What is personality and how does it affect behaviour?

– Personality helps us predict behaviour.
– Personality can help match people to jobs, to some
extent at least.

By Aman A. (PhD)
 Thank you
Questions and Comments

By Aman A. (PhD)