Module: II

Organisational Behaviour
Introduction
Organizational Behavior (OB) can be defined as the understanding, prediction and management of human
behavior both individually or in a group that occur within an organization.
Internal and external perspectives are the two theories of how organizational behavior can be viewed from an
organization’s point of view.
“Organisational behaviour can be defined as the study and application of knowledge about human behaviour
related to other elements of an organisation such as structure, technology and social systems.”
Everything you need to know about organisational behaviour. The field of organisational behaviour deals with
human behaviour in organisation.
It is the multidisciplinary field that seeks knowledge of behaviour in organisational settings by objective based
on studying individual, group and oganisational processes.
The role and field of organisation behaviour is not only concerned with a particular organisation. The concepts
and approaches of organisation behaviour are also more concerned with the society.

What is organizational behavior?

Organizational behavior (OB) is the study of how people behave in organizational settings. Its principles are
applied with the goal of making organizations and the people in them work more effectively together.
Organizational behavior research can focus on individual behavior within the organization, how groups work
together, how the organization itself behaves, and how all of these are interconnected and impact each other.

Why is organizational behavior important?

The principles of effective organizational behavior can be applied to many aspects of the workplace. It can be
used to improve productivity and performance, boost employee satisfaction, increase motivation, foster better
leadership, understand decision-making, and facilitate better cross-team collaboration.
As an academic discipline, organizational behavior is studied in many business administration programs.
Organizational behavior is also researched and applied by a number of business roles, such as consultants or
organizational management experts.

Types of organizational behavior models

Organizational behavior has been studied for decades, leading to a number of theories and models on effective
organizational management. The following five management models make up a popular framework for thinking
about organizational behavior:
1. Autocratic Model of Organizational Behavior: - The autocratic model of organizational behavior puts
the boss in charge and the subordinates in a position to obey commands or be fired. It's black and white,
regarding who is in charge and quickly establishes consequence for insubordination or lack of
performance. This environment uses a paycheck as the reward system rarely implementing any other
incentive programs.
Loyalty, if it exists, is generally to the boss and not the company. This model can create a fearful

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 workforce, unsure if any mistake could lead to disciplinary action.
2. Custodial Model of Organizational Behavior: - Custodial models seek to make employees feel as if
the boss is caring for their personal needs. This is often done through benefits packages such as
healthcare, retirement plans and other incentives. An executive visiting various territory offices could
get a company car as an incentive.
The custodial model looks to retain quality people by providing incentives that are meaningful to the
employee. Loyalty is to the company and not individual company leaders.
3. Collegial Model of Organizational Behavior: - The collegial model works to develop a structure in
which managers are more like coaches and employees are team members. Power is shared to some
degree. The coach leads through inspiration. In this model, the loyalty is to the bigger goal, and team
responsibility rather than to an individual. Employees feel invested in the success of the company and
take pride in the successful execution of goals.
4. Supportive Model of Organizational Behavior: - The supportive model seeks to understand what
motivates employees and focuses on those things to motivate and inspire. When employees are given
opportunities to improve themselves, they often take personal initiative to perform better at their job.
Managers support employees as they work toward established personal goals such as promotion or
acquisition of new skills. In this model, a manager would ask employees for professional goals and
would work with them to establish an action plan to succeed with them.
5. System Model of Organizational Behavior: - The system model is really the foundation of positive
corporate cultures. When people think about why LinkedIn is a great place to work, for example, it is
because of the incentives, work schedule flexibility and creative encouragement that leadership
provides. It is nurturing yet challenging, and so efficiency and productivity increase in a happier work
environment that's loyal to the company and excited to share its vision.
Small business owners don't need to try to compete with what LinkedIn does, but should develop
strategies within their resources to build a positive corporate culture.

ABILITY
is a current assessment of what one can do. From a management standpoint, the issue is not whether people
differ in terms of their abilities. The issue is knowing how people differ in abilities and using that knowledge to
increase the likelihood that an employee will perform his or her job well.
What we are acknowledging is that everyone has strengths and weaknesses in terms of ability that make him or
her relatively superior or inferior to others in performing certain tasks or activities.
According to Stephen P. Robbins, “Ability is an individual’s capacity to perform the various tasks in a job.”
According to Keith Davis, “Ability is the quality of being able to something, especially the physical, mental,
financial or legal power to accomplish something.”
We can say that ability is the quality or state of being able, power to perform whether physical, mental, moral
intellectual, skill in doing, the sufficiency of strength, available resources, etc.
There are two types of abilities, intellectual and physical abilities, which organizations look for employees to
have to depend on the job requirements.

Types of Ability
In Organizational Behavior, the 2 types of ability are;
1. Intellectual Ability.

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2. Physical Ability.

Intellectual Ability
Intellectual ability is the capacity to do mental activities thinking and reasoning and problem-solving. It
commonly refers to the ability measured by performance on an intelligence test. It is also sometimes used in the
context of discussing the performance of someone in an academic or real-world setting.
The seven most frequently cited dimensions making up intellectual abilities are number attitude, verbal
comprehension, perceptual speed, inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning, and memory.

Advantages
1. Highly reliable
2. Verbal reasoning and numerical tests have shown high validity for a wide range of jobs.
3. The validity rises with the increasing complexity of the job.
4. Combinations of aptitude tests have higher validities than individual tests alone.
5. It may be administered in group settings where many applicants can be tested at the same time.
6. Scoring of the tests may be completed by computer scanning equipment.
7. Lower cost than personality tests.

Physical Ability
Physical ability is the capacity to do tasks that demand stamina, desired, strength and similar characteristics.
It can identify individuals who are physically able to perform the essentials function of a job without risking
injury to others.
Research on the requirements needed in hundreds of jobs has identified nine physical abilities involved in the
performance of physical tasks.

There are significant differences between these abilities.

Intellectual Ability Physical Ability

1. Intellectual ability is the capacity to do

1. Physical ability is the capacity to do tasks that demand
activities like thinking, reasoning, and problem-
stamina, desired, strength and similar characteristics.
solving.

2. Intellectual ability is doing with the mind. 2. Physical ability is doing with the body.

3. It is a measure of intelligence, and involves 3. It is the capability of performing physical

understanding complex concepts and thinking accomplishments, such as flexibility, coordination, basic
critically. motor skills.

4. It is related to the skills of the mind. 4. It is related to the capabilities of the physical structure.

5. It plays a vital role in complex jobs with 5. It gains importance for successfully doing less-skilled
demanding information processing requirements. and more standardized jobs.

6. Intellectual ability is the ability of the mind – 6. Physical ability is the ability of the body – i.e. how
i.e. how clever, intuitive, etc. a person is. strong, agile, etc. a person is.

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7. Types of intellectual ability are number 7. Types of physical ability are dynamic strength, static
attitude, verbal comprehension, perceptual speed, strength, trunk strength, explosive strength, extent
inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning, and flexibility, dynamic flexibility, body coordination, balance,
memory. and stamina.

ATTITUDE
Simply explained, an “attitude” is an individual’s point of view or an individual’s way of looking at something,
or to be more explicit, an “attitude”, may be explained, as the mental state. An attitude is a positive, negative, or
mixed evaluation of an object expressed at some level of intensity. It is an expression of a favorable or
unfavorable evaluation of a person, place, thing, or event. These are fundamental determinants of our
perceptions of and actions toward all aspects of our social environment. Attitudes involve a complex
organization of evaluative beliefs, feelings, and tendencies toward certain actions.
How much we like or dislike something that determines our behavior towards that thing. We tend to approach,
seek out, or be associated with things we like; we avoid, shun, or reject things we do not like.
Some examples of attitudes are- he has a positive attitude about the changes, she is friendly and has a good
attitude, he was showing some attitude during practice today, so the coach benched him, I like my friends that
means I am expressing my attitudes towards my friends, etc.
According to Gordon Allport, “An attitude is 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.”
Frank Freeman said, “An attitude is a dispositional readiness to respond to certain institutions, persons or
objects in a consistent manner which has been learned and has become one’s typical mode of response.”

Characteristics of attitude are discussed below:

1. Attitude are predispositions
2. Attitude are different from values
3. Attitude are evaluative statement
4. Attitude influence human behavior
5. Attitude have intensity
6. Attitude are learnt

 Attitudes are predispositions: - Attitude are predisposition of purpose, interest or opinion of the person
to assess some objects in a favourable or an unfavourable manner.
 Attitudes are different from values: - Attitude are different from values: Values are the ideals,
whereas attitudes are narrow, they are our feelings.
 Attitudes are evaluative statement: - Attitude are evaluative statements: either favourable or
unfavourable concerning the objects, people or events.
 Attitude influence human behavior: - A positive attitude towards a thing will influence human
behavior towards the thing favorably and vice-versa.
 Attitudes have intensity: - It refers to the strength of the effective component. For example, we may

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 dislike an individual but the extent of our disliking would determine the intensity of our attitude towards
the person.
 Attitudes are learnt: - Attitude is not inborn phenomenon. Attitudes are learnt through social
interaction and experience.

Components of Attitude
1. Cognitive component
2. Affective component
3. Behavioral component
1. Cognitive component: - Cognitive component of attitude is associated with the value statement. It
consists of values, belief, ideas and other information that a person may have faith in.
Example: Quality of sincere hard is a faith or value statement that a manager may have.
2. Affective component: - Affective component of attitude is associated with individual feelings about
another person, which may be positive, neutral or negative.
Example: I don’t like Sam because he is not honest, or I like Sam because he is sincere. It is an
expression of feelings about a person, object or a situation.
3. Behavioral component: - Behavioral component of attitude is associated with the impact of various
condition or situations that lead to person behavior based on cognitive and affective components.
Example: I don’t like Sam because he is not honest is an affective component, I, therefore, would like to
disassociate myself with him, is a behavioural component and therefore I would avoid Sam.
Cognitive and affective components are bases for such behaviour. Former two components cannot be seen, only
the behaviour component can be seen. Former is important because it is a base for the formation of attitude.

Types of Attitude
There are broadly three types of attitude in term of organisational behavior
1. Job satisfaction
2. Job involvement
3. Organizational commitment

 Job satisfaction: - A collection of positive and/or negative feelings that an individual holds toward his
or her job. A person will hold a positive attitude if had a high level of satisfaction, while dissatisfied
people will generally display a negative attitude towards life. When we talk about attitude, we generally
speak about job satisfaction because they are inter-related in organizational behaviour.
 Job involvement: - Job involvement refers to the degree to which a person identifies himself
(psychologically) with his job, actively participates and considers his perceived performance level
important to self-worth. (Robbins). Higher job satisfaction leads to low absenteeism & employee
turnover and indicates that the individual cares for his job.
 Organizational commitment: - Organizational commitment refers to a degree to which an employee
identifies himself with the organizational goals and wishes to maintain membership in the organization.
Resigning from the job or absenting versus job satisfaction is a predictor of organizational commitment.
Organizational commitment depends upon the degree of autonomy & freedom job and job enrichment
factor.

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JOB SATISFACTION
Job satisfaction is the extent to which an employee likes or dislikes her work. Although it is an overall
attitude about the work and the organization, a number of facets or dimensions influence it, including job
conditions, supervision, nature of the work, co-workers, pay and benefits and personal characteristics.
Employers monitor workers’ job satisfaction through a variety of tools, such as employee satisfaction
surveys, to measure employee attitudes and identify opportunities for improving morale and job satisfaction.
The goals of such efforts are desired organizational behaviors and improved employee retention.
Job satisfaction refers to a person’s feeling of satisfaction on the job, which acts as a motivation to work. It is
not the self-satisfaction, happiness or self-contentment but the satisfaction on the job.
Job satisfaction relates to the total relationship between an individual and the employer for which he is paid.
Satisfaction means the simple feeling of attainment of any goal or objective. Job dissatisfaction brings an
absence of motivation at work.
According to P. E. Spector, “Job satisfaction is the extent to which people like or dislike their jobs”.
De Nobile defined job satisfaction as “the extent to which a staff member has favorable or positive feelings
about work or the work environment.”

Importance of job satisfaction is;

1. Lower Turnover.
2. Higher Productivity.
3. Increased Customer Satisfaction.
4. Employee Absenteeism.
5. Helps to Earn Higher Revenues.
6. Satisfied Employees Tend to Handle Pressure.

 Lower Turnover: - Turnover can be one of the highest costs attributed to the department. Retaining
workers help to create a better environment, and makes it easier to recruit quality talent and save money. A
person is more likely to be actively searching for another job if they have low satisfaction; whereas, a
person who is satisfied with their job is less likely to be job seeking.
 Higher Productivity: - Irrespective of job title and pay grade, employees who report high job satisfaction
tend to achieve higher productivity. When someone is happy with their job, they focus well and they pay
attention to their tasks. They seem themselves responsible and accountable for achieving the organizational
goal that does make them happy. When one member of a team displays high productivity, it is natural for
other members of the team to try to increase productivity at the desired level.
 Increased Customer Satisfaction: - Keeping employees safe and satisfied can lead to higher sales, lower
costs and a stronger bottom line. Profit can be earned by selling, the products or giving services to the
customers. If the employees are satisfied with their job then they can give better customer service and we
know that customer retention and loyalty are dependent based on the given service of the employees. If
customers’ loyalty is increased, automatically it will lead to an increase in profit. Job satisfaction and the
level of loyalty of that employee will be increased. And, they may be more likely to tell their friends, which
helps to spread goodwill.
 Employee Absenteeism: - It is likely that a satisfied worker may miss work due to illness or personal
matters, while an unsatisfied worker is more likely to take “mental health” days, i.e. days off not due to
illness or personal reasons. When people are satisfied with their job they may be more likely to attend work
even if they have a cold; however, if they are not satisfied with their job, they will be more likely to call in

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 sick even when they are well enough, to work.
 Helps to Earn Higher Revenues: - No amount of training or motivation-would help, unless and until
individuals develop a feeling of attachment and loyalty towards their organization. Employees waste half of
their time fighting with their counterparts or sorting out issues with them. Satisfied employees are the happy
employees who willingly help their fellow workers and cooperate with the organization even during
emergencies. For them, their organization comes first, everything else later. They do not come to the office
just for money but because they feel for the organization and believe in its goals and objectives.
 Satisfied Employees Tend to Handle Pressure: - Employees who are happy with their jobs are willing to
participate in training programs and are eager to learn new technologies, software which would eventually
help them in their professional careers. Satisfied employees accept challenges with a big smile and deliver
even in the worst of circumstances. Employee satisfaction is of utmost importance for employees to remain
happy and also deliver their level best. Satisfied employees are the ones who are extremely loyal towards
their organization and stick to it even in the worst scenario. Employees need to be passionate about their
work and passion comes only when employees are satisfied with their job and organization on the whole.

Factors affecting the level of job satisfaction are;

1. Fair Policies and Practice.
2. Caring Organization.
3. Appreciation.
4. Pay.
5. Age.
6. Promotion.
7. Feel of Belongings.

1. Fair Policies and Practice: - Individuals who perceive that promotion decisions are made in a fair and just
manner are likely to experience satisfaction from their jobs. Very often employees are demotivated and
dissatisfied with their jobs because unfair policies and practices prevail at their place of work. It is therefore
of utmost importance for an organization to have a fair and equal system regarding practices and policies so
that there is no discrimination and frustration.
2. Caring Organization: - Care can be shown in various ways, but it takes into consideration career
development, adult treatment, being taken seriously and being appreciated for a job well done. When people
feel that the organization; for which they are working, cares for them and takes actions to improve their
work and lives, they are happy, and this creates higher satisfaction.
3. Appreciation: - The human race loves to be appreciated. Even for the smaller job that does one seek to
have an appreciation, from colleagues, boss, and seniors. When one gets acknowledged in front of everyone,
it gives up a boost to their morale. When appreciation leads to encouragement, the ultimate result is
reflected in the efficiency of work automatically. Therefore, the level of job satisfaction is always higher
wherever appreciation is higher.
4. Pay: - Wages and salaries are recognized to be a significant but cognitively complex (Carraher, & Buckley,
1996) and multidimensional factor in job satisfaction. Money not only helps people attain their basic needs
but is also instrumental in providing upper-level need satisfaction. Employees often see pay as a reflection
of how management views their contribution to the organization. Fringe benefits are also significant, but
they are not as influential.

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5. Age: - Age is one of the factors affecting job satisfaction. Various studies carried out in this field have
shown that job satisfaction tends to increase with age. That is older employees tend to report higher
satisfaction, and younger employees say the lowest job satisfaction rates.
6. Promotion: - Promotional opportunities seem to have a varying effect on job satisfaction. This is because
promotions take some different forms and have a variety of accompanying rewards. In recent years, the
flattening of organizations and accompanying empowerment strategies, promotion in the traditional sense of
climbing the hierarchical corporate ladder of success is no longer available as it once was.
7. Feel of Belongings: - Most of the organization fails to understand this fundamental factor, whereas many
have started acting towards it. If an employee feels that he is considered an important part of the team, he
belongs to the organization then there are higher chances of job satisfaction. Texting or emailing an
employee on his/her birthday, communicating the crisis to even at the ground level employee, making
special efforts during festive seasons, all these small little gestures make an employee believe that he or she
belongs to the firm.

PERSONALITY
Personality is a patterned body of habits, traits, attitudes, and ideas of an individual’s, as these are organized
externally into roles and statues and as they relate internally to motivation, goals, and various aspects of
selfhood.
The study of personality focuses on two broad areas;
 One is understanding individual differences in particular personality characteristics, such as sociability
or irritability.
 The other is understanding how the various parts of a person come together as a whole.

What is Personality?
According to Gordon Allport, “Personality is the dynamic organization within the individuals of those
psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environments”.
Feist and Feist said, “personality is a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that give
both consistency and individuality to a person’s behavior.”
By personality Ogburn means “the integration of the socio-psychological behavior of the human being,
represented by habits of action and feeling, attitudes and opinions.”
According to Lundberg and others, “The term personality refers to the habits, attitudes and other social traits
that are characteristic of a given individual’s behavior”.
Hence personality is a sum total of ways in which an individual reacts and interacts with others. It is individual
differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving. It is the supreme realization of the innate
habit of a living being.
It is an act of courage flung in the face of life, the absolute affirmation of all that constitutes the individual, the
most successful adaptation to the universal conditions of existence, coupled with the greatest possible freedom
of self-determination.
For example- he has a very pleasant personality or he was an influential personality in genetic engineering.

Characteristics of Personality
1. Personality is something which is unique in each individual.
2. Personality refers particularly to the persistent qualities of an individual.

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 3. Personality represents a dynamic orientation of an organism to the environment.
4. Personality is greatly influenced by social interactions.
5. Personality represents a unique organization of persistent dynamic and social predisposition.
6. Consistency.
7. Psychological and physiological.
8. It impacts behaviors and actions.
9. Multiple expressions.

 Personality is something which is unique in each individual: - Personality refers to internal as well as
external qualities, some of which are quite general. But it is unique to each individual. It is not possible
for a person to reproduce or imitate the qualities of the personality of another person.
 Personality represents a dynamic orientation of an organism to the environment: - Personality
represents the process of learning. It takes place in reference to the environment. We do not acquire all
the traits of personality at once.
 Personality is greatly influenced by social interactions: - Personality is not an individual quality. It is
a result of social- interaction. In other words, it means that when we come in contact with other
members of society, we acquire certain qualities while We exhibit certain others. All these come to form
personality.
 Personality represents a unique organization of persistent dynamic and social predisposition: - In
personality, various qualities are not put together. They are, in fact, integrated into one. This integration
is nothing but a result of organization which may be different from man to man. The behavior of a
person directed to one particular individual may differ from the behavior of another person. That is why;
we put the condition of a suitable environment. This suitability is concerned with individual specificity.
 Consistency: - There is generally a recognizable order and regularity to behaviors. Essentially, people
act in the same ways or similar ways in a variety of situations.
 Psychological and physiological: - Personality is a psychological construct, but research suggests that it
is also influenced by biological processes and needs.
 It impacts behaviors and actions: - Personality does not just influence how we move and respond in
our environment; it also causes us to act in certain ways.
 Multiple expressions: - Personality is displayed in more than just behavior. It can also be seen in our
thoughts, feelings, close relationships, and other social interactions.

Factors of Personality
 Environmental Factors.
 Physical Factors.
 Situational Factors.
 Hereditary.
 Family and Social Factors.
 Identification Process.
 Cultural Factors.
 Intelligence.
 Sex Differences.
 Psychological Factors.

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 1. Environmental Factors: - Among the factors that exert pressures on our personality formation are the
culture in which we are raised; our early conditioning; the norms among our family, friends, and social
groups; and other influences that we experience. These environmental factors play a substantial role in
shaping our personalities. It establishes the attitudes, values, norms, and perceptions of an individual.
Based on the cultures and traditions, different senses of right and wrong are formed in individuals. These
environmental factors also include the neighborhood a person lives in, his school, college, university,
workplace, friends, parents; everybody plays a role as the determinants of one’s personality.
2. Physical Factors: - There are many physical factors which will determine a person’s personality. These
physical factors include the overall physical structure of a person: his height, weight, color, sex, beauty,
body language, etc. Physical factors are one of the major reasons for that. Most of the physical structures
change from time to time, and so does the personality. With exercises, cosmetics, surgeries etc. many
physical features are changed, and therefore, the personality of the individual also evolves.
3. Situational Factors: - The situational factors can be commonly observed when a person behaves
contrastingly and exhibits different traits and characteristics. In this way, situational factors impact a
personality in a significant way. They often bring out the traits of a person that are not commonly seen.
An individual’s personality, although generally stable and consistent, does change in different situations.
The different demands of different situations call forth different aspects of one’s personality. So we
shouldn’t look at personality patterns in isolation (canon, & Porter, 19&). This aspect is very important
for organization behavior because the manager has control over the organizational situation.
4. Hereditary: - Hereditary refers to those factors that were determined at conception. Physical structure,
facial attractiveness, gender, temperament, muscle composition, and reflexes, energy level, and
biological rhythms are characteristics that are generally considered to be either completely or
substantially influenced by the parents. Hereditary predisposes a certain mental, physical and emotional
states. It has been established through research that those psychological characteristics can be
transmitted through hereditary. However such conclusive proof is not available for human beings.
5. Family and Social Factors: - Family and social groups have the most significant impact on personality
development. Parents and other family members have a strong influence on the personality development
of the child. Parents have more effect on personality development as compared to other members of the
family. Besides a person’s home environment and family members, there are other influences arising
from social factors like- friends, neighbor, relatives, etc. These groups have their impact through
socialization and identification process.
6. Identification Process: - The identification process occurs when a person tries to identify himself with
some person to whom he feels ideal in the family. First identification can be viewed as the similarity of
behavior between the child and the model. Second identification can be looked in as the child motives or
desires to be like the model. Third, it can be viewed as the process through which the child actually
takes on the attributes of the model.
7. Cultural Factors: - Culture is the underlying determinant of human decision making. It generally
determines attitude towards independence, aggression competition, and cooperation. Each culture
expects and trains its members to behave in a way that is acceptable to the group.
8. Intelligence: - There is definitely some relationship between intelligence and personality. Intelligence is
mainly hereditary. Persons who are very intelligent can make a better adjustment in home, school, and
society than those persons who are less intelligent.
9. Sex Differences: - Boys are generally more assertive, tough-minded and vigorous. They have better

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 need to succeed with regard to interest and aptitudes. Boys show interest in machinery and outdoor
activities. They prefer adventures. But girls are less vigorous games. They are quieter and interested in
personal appearance. They are more injured by personal, emotional and social problems. Thus sex
differences play a vital role in the development of the personality of an individual.
10. Psychological Factors: - Psychological factors play a big role in the functioning of human behavior and
the development of one’s personality. Some of the psychological factors are- motives, acquired interests,
attitudes, character, intellectual capacities etc.
Beyond the joint influence of these factors however, the relative contribution of each factor to personality varies
with the character or personality process involved and perhaps with the individual concerned.

VALUES
Value has been taken to mean moral ideas, general conceptions or orientations towards the world or sometimes
simply interests, attitudes, preferences, needs, sentiments and dispositions.
Values defined in Organizational Behavior as the collective conceptions of what is considered good, desirable,
and proper or bad, undesirable, and improper in a culture.
Some common business values are fairness, innovations and community involvement.
According to M. Haralambos, “A value is a belief that something is good and desirable”.
According to R.K. Mukherjee, “Values are socially approved desires and goals that are internalized through the
process of conditioning, learning or socialization and that become subjective preferences, standards, and
aspirations”.
A value is a shared idea about how something is ranked in terms of desirability, worth or goodness. Sometimes,
it has been interpreted to mean “such standards by means of which the ends of action are selected”.
Sometimes, it has been interpreted to mean “such standards by means of which the ends of action are selected”.
Thus, values are collective conceptions of what is considered good, desirable, and proper or bad, undesirable,
and improper in a culture.

Characteristics of Value
1. These are extremely practical, and valuation requires not just techniques but also an understanding of the
strategic context.
2. These can provide standards of competence and morality.
3. These can go beyond specific situations or persons.
4. Personal values can be influenced by culture, tradition, and a combination of internal and external
factors.
5. These are relatively permanent.
6. These are more central to the core of a person.
7. Most of our core values are learned early in life from family, friends, neighborhood school, the mass
print, visual media and other sources within the society.
8. Values are loaded with effective thoughts about ideas, objects, behavior, etc.
9. They contain a judgmental element in that they carry an individual’s ideas as to what is right, good, or
desirable.
10. Values can differ from culture to culture and even person to person.
11. Values play a significant role in the integration and fulfillment of man’s basic impulses and desire stably
and consistently appropriate for his living.

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 12. They are generic experiences in social action made up of both individual and social responses and
attitudes.
13. They build up societies, integrate social relations.
14. They mold the ideal dimensions of personality and depth of culture.
15. They influence people’s behavior and serve as criteria for evaluating the actions of others.
16. They have a great role to play in the conduct of social life. They help in creating norms to guide day-to-
day behavior.

Importance of Values
 Values lay the foundations for the understanding of attitudes and motivation.
 Personal value system influences the perception of individuals.
 Value system influences the manager’s perception of the different situations.
 Personal value system influences the way in which a manager views the other individuals and the groups
of individuals in the organisation.
 Value system also influences a manager’s decisions and his solutions to the various problems.
 Values influence the attitudes and behaviours. An individual will get more job satisfaction if his values
align with the organisation’s policies. If the organisation’s policies are different from his views and
values, he will be disappointed; the disappointment will lead to job dissatisfaction and decline in
performance.
 The challenge and reexamination of established work values constitute important corner stone’s of the
current management revolution all over the world. Hence, an understanding of the values becomes a
necessity.

Sources of Values
1. Family Factor: - The most important factor which influences the value system of an individual is his
immediate family. Some values are inculcated in A person learn and develops values from the following
sources the individuals from the childhood and remain in his mind throughout his life. The child rearing
practices the parents adopt shape the personality of the human being. Family is the most influential
factor in the individual’s learning of social behaviour, values and norms.
2. Social Factors: - Out of all the social factors school plays the most important role in developing the
value system of an individual. The child learns the basic discipline from the school. Moreover, the
interactions with the teachers, classmates and other staff members in the schools and colleges make the
child inculcate values important to the teaching-learning process. Other social factors which may affect
values are religious economic and political institutional in the society.
3. Personal Factors: - Personal traits such as intelligence, ability, appearance and educational level of the
person determine his development of values. For example, if a person is highly intelligent, he will
understand the values faster. If he is highly educated, high values will be inculcated in him by his school
and college.
4. Cultural Factors: - Cultural factors include everything that is learned and passed on from generation to
generation. Culture includes certain beliefs and other patterns of behaviour. An individual is a
participant in social culture, group culture and organisational culture. Thus, he is known as a composite
of many cultural elements. Culture is based on certain implicit and explicit values. For example, whether
a person is co-operative, friendly or hostile depends upon to which culture he belongs to Individual

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 relationships are different in different cultures and within certain groups of society also. Whether, the
individual values money making or doing service to the mankind again depends upon his cultural
background.
5. Religious Factors: - Individuals, generally, receive strength and comfort from their religion. Religion
comprises of a formal set of values which are passed on from generation to generation. Advancement in
technology has under viewed faith in traditional religious beliefs and values.
6. Life Experiences: - A man learns the most from his own personal life experience. Sometimes man can
learn from the experience of others also. In the long run, most of the values which influence our
behaviour are validated by the satisfaction we have experienced in pursuing them. Individuals work out
their values on the basis of what seems most logical to them.
Values carry importance in direct proportion to how much faith the individual has in them. He should
have those values which can stand the test of reality. He should not have rigid values but flexible system
which can change with the changes in the individual himself, his life situation and the socio-economic
environment.
7. Role Demands: - The role demand refers to the behaviour associated with a particular position in the
organisation. All organisations have some formal and some informal code of behaviour. Role demand
can create problems when there is a role conflict. Thus, the managers will have to quickly learn the
value system prevalent in the organisation.
If they want to move up the ladder of success. For example, if the informal code of behaviour says that
the manager must mix up socially with the subordinates, he should learn to do so even though, his
personal value system conflicts with his role as a manager.
8. Halo Effect: - The halo effect refers to the tendency of judging people on the’ basis of a single trait,
which may be good or bad, favourable or un-favourable. Sometimes, we judge a person by one first
impression about him or her. For example, if a person is kind, he will also be perceived as good, able,
helpful, cheerful, nice, and intelligent and so on.

PERCEPTION
Perception is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and
understand the environment. All perception involves signals in the nervous system, which in turn result from
physical or chemical stimulation of the sense organs.
It is not the passive receipt of these signals but is shaped by learning, memory, expectation, and attention.

What is Perception?
Perception depends on complex functions of the nervous system but subjectively seems mostly effortless
because this processing happens outside of conscious awareness.
According to Joseph Reitz; “Perception includes all those processes by which an individual receives
information about his environment—seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling.”
Perception includes the 5 senses; touch, sight, taste smell and sound. It also includes what is known as
perception, a set of senses involving the ability to detect changes in body positions and movements.
It also involves the- cognitive processes required to process information, such as recognizing the face of a friend
or detecting a familiar perfume.
The study of these perpetual processes shows that their functioning is affected by three classes of variables—the
objects or events being perceived, the environment in which perception occurs and the individual doing the

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perceiving.

In simple words, we can say that perception is the act of seeing what is there to be seen.
But what is seen is influenced by the perceiver, the object and its environment. The meaning of perception
emphasizes all these three points.

Importance of Perception
1. Perception is very important in understanding human behavior because every person perceives the world
and approaches life problems differently. Whatever we see or feel is not necessarily the same as it really
is. When we buy something, it is not because it is the best, but because we take it to be the best.
2. If people behave on the basis of their perception, we can predict their behavior in the changed
circumstances by understanding their present perception of the environment. One person may be
viewing the facts in one way which may be different from the facts as seen by another viewer.
3. With the help of perception, the needs of various people can be determined, because people’s perception
is influenced by their needs.
4. Perception is very important for the manager who wants to avoid making errors when dealing with
people and events in the work setting. This problem is made more complicated by the fact that different
people perceive the same situation differently. In order to deal with the subordinates effectively, the
managers must understand their perceptions properly.
5. Perception can be important because it offers more than objective output; it ingests an observation and
manufactures an altered reality enriched with previous experiences.
6. Perception builds character (not necessarily good or bad character) that defines different roles
individuals fall into the clown, the hypocrite, the self-righteous, the victim, etc..
7. It is vitally important if we want to get along with others to try to see things from their perspective or
walk in their shoes for a while. If we walk in their shoes we will gain a new perspective about things and
in that understand the other and also can love and help the other more appropriately.
Thus, for understanding human behavior, it is very important to understand their perception, that is, how they
perceive the different situations.

3 stages of perception process are;

 Selection.
 Organization.
 Interpretation.

1. Selection: - The world around us is filled with an infinite number of stimuli that we might attend, but our
brains do not have the resources to pay attention to everything. Thus, the first step of perception is the
decision of what to attend to. When we attend to one specific thing in our environment — whether it is a
smell, a feeling, a sound, or something else entirely — it becomes the attended stimulus. Selecting is the
first part of the perception process, in which we focus our attention on certain incoming sensory
information. In selection, we choose stimuli that attract our attention. We focus on the ones that stand out to
our senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch). We take information through all five of our senses, but our
perceptual field includes so many stimuli that it is impossible for our brains to process and make sense of it
all. So, as information comes in through our senses, various factors influence what actually continues on

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 through the perception process.
2. Organization: - Once we have chosen to attend to a stimulus in the environment, the choice sets off a series
of reactions in our brain. This neural process starts with the activation of our sensory receptors (touch, taste,
smell, sight, and hearing). Organizing is the second part of the perception process, in which we sort and
categorize information that we perceive based on innate and learned cognitive patterns. Three ways we sort
things into patterns are by using proximity, similarity, and difference (Stanley, mo).
3. Interpretation: - After we have attended to a stimulus, and our brains have received and organized the
information, we interpret it in a way that makes sense using our existing information about the world
Interpretation simply means that we take the information that we have sensed and organized and turn it into
something that we can categorize. By putting different stimuli into categories, we can better understand and
react to the world around us. Perception of others involves sensing, organizing, and interpreting information
about people, and what they say and do. The sensation is a main characteristic of perception as it relates to
outside input. In the perceptual process, firstly the perceiver should select what will be perceived. Then, the
organization takes place when listeners identify the type of sound and compare it to other sounds heard in
the past.

Errors in Perception
As seen above perception is the process of analyzing and understanding a stimulus as it is. But it may not be
always possible to perceive the stimuli as they are. Knowingly or unknowingly, we mistake the stimulus and
perceive it wrongly. Many times the prejudices in the individual, time of perception, unfavorable background,
lack of clarity of stimulus, confusion, conflict in mind and such other factors are responsible for errors in
perception.
There are some errors in perception;
 Illusion.
 Hallucination.
 Halo Effect.
 Stereotyping.
 Similarity.
 Horn Effect.
 Contrast.

1. Illusion: - The illusion is a false perception. Here the person will mistake a stimulus and perceive it
wrongly. For example, in the dark, a rope is mistaken as a snake or vice versa. The voice of an unknown
person is mistaken as a friend’s voice. A person standing at a distance who is not known may be
perceived as a known person.
2. Hallucination: - Sometimes we come across instances where the individual perceives some stimulus,
even when it is not present. This phenomenon is known as a hallucination. The person may see an
object, person, etc. or he may listen to some voice though there are no objects and sounds in reality.
3. Selective Perception: - Selective perception means the situation when people selectively interpret what
they see on the basis of their interests, background, experience, and attitudes. It means any
characteristics that make a person, object, or event stand out will increase the probability that it will be
perceived. Because it is impossible for us to assimilate everything we see, only certain stimuli can be
taken in.

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 4. Halo Effect: - The individual is evaluated on the basis of perceived positive quality, feature or trait.
When we draw a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single characteristic, such as
intelligence, sociability, or appearance, a halo effect is operating.
In other words, this is the tendency to rate a man uniformly high or low in other traits if he is
extraordinarily high or low in one particular trait: If a worker has few absences, his supervisor might
give him a high rating in all other areas of work.
5. Stereotyping: - People usually can fall into at least one general category based on physical or
behavioral traits then they will be evaluated. When we judge someone on the basis of our perception of
the group to which he or she belongs, we are using the shortcut called stereotyping. For example, a boss
might assume that a worker from a Middle East country is lazy and cannot meet performance objectives,
even if the worker tried his best.
6. Similarity: - Often, people tend to seek out and rate more positively those who are similar to
themselves. This tendency to approve of similarity may cause evaluators to give better ratings to
employees who exhibit the same interests, work methods, points of view or standards.
7. Horn Effect: - When the individual is completely evaluated on the basis of a negative quality or feature
perceived. This results in an overall lower rating than an acceptable rate. He is not formally dressed up
in the office, that’s why he may be casual at work too.
8. Contrast: - The tendency to rate people relative to other people rather than to the individual
performance he or she is doing. Rather will evaluate an employee by comparing that employee’s
performance with other employees.

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