Unit2-Cognitive process-II

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES: DECISION MAKING STYLES

All of us bring our individual style to the decisions we make. Research or

decision styles has identified four different individual approaches to making
decisions. This model was designed to be used by managers and aspiring
managers, but its general framework can be used by any individual decision
maker.
High
Analytic Conceptual
for Ambiguity
Tolerance

Directive Behavioural
Low
Rational Intuitive

Way to Thinking

The basic foundation of the model is the recognition that people differ along
two dimensions. The first is their way of thinking. Some people are logical and
rational. They process information serially. In contrast, some people are
intuitive and creative. They perceive things as a whole. These differences are
above and beyond general human limitations such as we described regarding
bounded rationality.

The other dimension addresses a person’s tolerance for ambiguity. Some people
have a high need to structure information in ways that minimize ambiguity,
while others are able to process many thoughts at the same time when these
two dimensions are diagrammed. They form four styles of decision —
making.

People using the directive style have low tolerance for ambiguity and seek
rationality. They are efficient and logical. but their efficiency concerns result
in decision made with minimal information and with few alternative assessed.
Directive types make decisions fast and they focus on the short run.

The analytic type has a much greater tolerance for ambiguity than do directive
decision makers. This leads to the desire for more information and
consideration of more alternatives than is true for directives. Analytical
managers would be best characterized as careful decision makers with the
ability to adapt to or cope with new situations.
Individuals with a conceptual style tend to be very broad in their outlook and
consider many alternatives. Their focus is long range and they are very good
at finding creative solutions to problems.
The final category the behavioural style — characterizes decision makers who
work well with others. They’re concerned with the achievement of peers and
those working for them and are receptive to suggestions from others, relying
heavily on meetings for communicating. This type of manager tries to avoid
conflict and seeks acceptance. Although these 4 categories are distinct, most
managers have characteristics that fall into more than one. It’s probably best
to think in terms of a manager’s dominant style and his or her backup styles.
Some managers rely almost exclusively on their dominant style; however,
more flexible managers can make shifts depending on the situation.

Business students, lower-level managers and top executives tend to score highest
in the analytic style. That’s not surprising given the emphasis that formal
education, particularly business education, gives to developing rational
thinking: For E.g.: Courses in accounting, statistics and finance all stress
rational analysis.

In addition to Irainework or looking at individual differences, focusing on

decision styles can be useful for helping you to understand how two equally
intelligent people, with access to the same information, can differ in the ways
they approach decisions and the final choices they make.
 ORGANIZATIONAL CONSTRAINTS

The organization itself constrains decision makers. Previous organizational

decisions also act as precedents to constrain current decisions.

Performance evaluation

Managers are strongly influenced in their decision making by the criteria by

which they are evaluated. If a division manager believes that, the
manufacturing plants under his responsibility are operating best when he hears
nothing negative, we shouldn’t be surprised to find his plant managers
spending a good part of their time ensuring that negative information doesn’t
reach the division boss.

Reward systems

The organization’s reward system influences decision makers by suggesting to

them what choices are preferable in terms of personal pay off. If the
organization rewards risk aversion, managers are more likely to make
conservative decisions.

Formal regulations

All but the smallest of organizations create rules policies, procedures and other
formalized regulations in order to standardize the behaviour of their
members. By programming decision, organizations are able to get individual to
achieve high levels of performance without paying for the years of experience
that would be necessary in the absence of regulation. And of course, in so doing,
they limit the decision maker’s choice. System

Imposed Time constraints : Organisations impose deadlines on decision.

For E.g: department budgets need to be completed by next Monday. A host of
decisions must be made quickly in order to stay ahead of the competition and
keep customers satisfied. And almost all important decisions come with explicit
deadlines. These conditions create time pressures on decision makers and often
make it difficult, if not impossible, to gather all the information they might like
to have before making a final choice.
Historical precedence

Decision aren’t made in vacuum. They have a context. In fact, individual

decisions are more accurately characterized as points in a stream of decisions
made in .the past are ghost that continually haunt current choices. Government
budget decisions also offer an illustration of out point choices made today,
therefore, are largely a result of choices made over the years.
Cultural difference

The rational model makes no acknowledgment of cultural differences. We

need to recognize that the cultural background of the decision maker can have
significant influence on his or her selection of problems, depth of [Link]
importance placed on logic and rationality, or whether organizational decisions
should be made automatically by an individual cultures, for example, differ in
terms if time orientation, the importance of rationality, their belief in the
ability of people to solve the problems and preference for collective decision
making. While rationality is values in North America. A North American
manager might make an important decision intuitively, but he/ she knows that it
is important to appear to proceed in a rational fashion. This is because
rationality is highly valued in the west. In countries such as Iran, where
rationality is not defined, efforts to appear rational are not necessary.

Some cultures emphasize solving problems while others focus on accepting

situation as they are. The U.S. falls in the former category while Thailand and
Indonesia are examples of cultures that fall into the latter. Because problem
solving managers believe they can and should change situations to their
benefits. American managers might identify a problem long before their Thai
or Indonesia counterpart would choose to recognize it as such.

Decision making by Japanese is based on value of conformity and co-

operation. So before Japanese CEO’s make an important decision, they collect
a large amount of information which is then used in consensus — forming
group decisions.
ETHICS IN DECISION MAKING

No contemporary discussion of decision making would be complete without

inclusion of ethics, because ethical consideration should be an important
criteria in organizational decision making. We look at 3 different ways to
ethically frame decisions and look at the factors that shape an individuals
ethical decision making behaviour.

Three Ethical decision criteria

An individual can use 3 different criteria in making ethical choices, The first
the utilitarianism is to provide the greatest good for the greatest number. This
view tends to dominate business decision making. It is consistent with goals
such as efficiency, productivity and high profits. By maximizing profits for
e.g.: a business executive can argue he is securing the greatest good for the
greatest number—as he hands out
Disarmingly notices to his employees.
Another ethical criterion is to focus on rights. This calls on individuals to
make decisions consistent with fundamental liberties and privileges as set forth
in documents such as the Bill of Rights. An emphasis in rights in decision
making means respecting and protecting the basic rights of individuals, such as
the right to privacy, to free speech and to due process.
A third criterion is to focus on justice. This requires individuals to impose
and enforce rules fairly and impartially so there is an equitable distribution of
benefits and costs. Union members typically favour this view. It justifies
paying people the same wage for a given job, regardless of performance
difference and using seniority as the primary determination in making lay off
decisions. Each of these three criteria has advantages and liabilities. A focus
on utilitarianism promotes efficiency and productivity, but can result in
ignoring the rights of some individuals, particularly those with minority
representation in the organization. The use of rights as a criterion protects
individuals from injury and is consistent with freedom and privacy, but it can
create an evenly legalistic work environment that hinders productivity and
efficiency. A focus on justice protects the interests of the under represented
and less powerful, but it can encourage a sense of
entitlement that reduces risk taking, innovation and productivity.
Decision makers particularly for — profit organizations, tend to feel safe and
comfortable when they use utilitarianism. A lot of questionable actions can be
justified when framed as being in the best interest of “the organization” and
stock holders. But many critics of business decision makers argue that, this
perspective needs to change. Increased concern in society about individual
rights and social justice suggests the need for managers to develop ethical
standards based on non-utilization criteria. This presents a solid challenge to
today’s managers because making decisions using criteria such as individual
rights and social justice involves far more ambiguities than using utilization
criteria such as effects on efficiency and profits. This helps to explain why
managers are increasingly criticized for their actions. Raising prices, selling
products with questionable effects on consumer health, closing down plants,
laying off large number of employees,
moving production overseas to cut costs aud similar decisions can be justified in
utilitarian terms. But that may no longer be the single criterion by which good
decisions should be judged.

Ethics and national culture

What is seen as an ethical decision in China may not be seen as such in

Canada. The reason is that, there are no global ethical standards. Contrasts
between Asia and the West provide an illustration. Because bribery is common
place in countries such as China, a Canadian working in China might face the
dilemma; should I pay a bribe to secure business if it is an accepted part of that
country’s culture? Or how about this for a shock? A manager of a large U.S.
Company operating in China caught an employee stealing.

Following company policy, she fined him and turned him over to the local
authorities. Later, she was horrified to learn that the employee had been
summarily executed. While ethical standards may see ambiguous in the West
criteria, defining right and wrong are actually much clearer in the West than in
Asia. Few issues are black and white there; most are gray. The need for global
organizations to establish ethical principles for decision makers in countries
such as India and China and to modify them to reflect cultural norms, may be
critical if high standards are to be upheld and if consistent Practices are to
achieved.
Perception plays spoilsport with human behaviour. Bases like stereotyping,
halo effect, projection, attribution and self fulfilling prophecy distort perception.
Perception has implications in such areas as employee selection, training
performance evaluation, testing one’s loyalty to the organization and in
deciding on appropriate managerial practices based on Theory X and Theory Y
assumptions.
Being an important variable in individual behaviour, perception needs to be
managed effectively.
Social perception is the process of understanding other people accurately.

its narrow sense as implying one’s charm, popularity, dress and other
physical attractiveness. Perceiving personality in this narrow sense will not
help much in understanding an individual’s behaviours in an organization.

DEFINITION

The word personality in English is derived from the Latin word persona.
Originally, it denoted the masks worn by theatrical players in ancient Greek
dramas. Thus, the initial conception of personality was that of a superficial
social image that an individual adopts in playing life roles — a public
personality. This view is consonant with that of the contemporary layman
who equates personality with physical attractiveness such a conception is not
widely held in psychology. These different conceptions clearly indicate that the
meaning of personality in psychology extends far beyond the original
‘superficial social image’ concept. It refers to something much more essential and
enduring about a person.

For example

[Link] definitions depict personality as some kind of hypothetical internal

structure or organization. Behaviour, at least in part, is seen as being organised
and integrated by personality.

Most definitions stress the need to understand the meaning of individual

ii.
differences. Personality is what makes individuals unique. it is only through
the study of personality that the relevant differences among persons can be
made clear.
Personality may be understood as the characteristic patterns of behaviour and
modes of thinking that determine a person’s adjustment to the environment.
Personality can be described as how a person affects others, how he understands
and views himself and his pattern of inner and outer measurable traits.

Thus, personality represents the sum total of several attributes which

manifest themselves in an individual; the ability of the individual to organize
and integrate all the qualities so as to give meaning to life and the uniqueness of
the situation which influences behaviour of an individual. Personality is
therefore, a very diverse psychological concept.

THEORIES ON PERSONALITY

There are several theories but more prominent among them are:

Type Theory

Type theories place personalities into clearly identifiable categories.

Classification into types is the beginning of most sciences-types of rocks,
kinds of plants and so on. Thus, it is not surprising that the first student of
human nature try to classify kinds of people. In type theories relationship was
sought to be established between features of face or body and personality.
Classification of personalities on body basis is subjective. Type theories are
simple and popular but carry no substances. The second basis to type
personalities is psychological factors. One of the Freud’s pupils, the Swiss
psychologists Carl Jung, divided all personalities into introverts and extroverts.
These terms are normally associated with an individual’s sociability and
interpersonal orientation. Extroverts are gregarious, sociable individuals,
while introverts are shy, quiet and retiring.

Thus, type theories, body or psychological, though appealing as they provide a

simple way of looking at personality, fail to reveal all complexities of
personality.

Trait Theories

Trait theories is another way of understanding personality. A personality trait

is understood as an enduring attribute of a person that appears consistently in a
variety of situations. A trait of an individual is abstracted from his behaviour
and serves an useful — “unit of analysis” to understand personality.

Trait theorists assume that a personality can be described by its position on a

number of continuous dimensions or scales, each of which represents a trait.
Thus, we could rate an individual on a scale of intelligence, emotional
stability, aggressiveness, creativeness or any of a number of other dimensions.

It is important to remember that traits are reactions, not something a person

possesses. One does not possesse shyness, he feels and acts shy under some
circumstances. In many ways, the trait theory is a multiple model of type
theory.

History of Trait theory

The search for personality, social, physical or intellectual attributes that

describes leaders from non-leaders goes back to 1930s. Research efforts in
leadership traits resulted in a number of dead ends. A review of different
studies identified that, leadership traits were common in five out of twenty
cases. The research was carried out to find out a set of traits that would
differentiate leaders from followers but the research failed. The overall
cumulative finding from research conclude that, some traits increase the
likelihood of becoming leaders but none of the traits will guarantee a success.

Psychologists working in an area of trail theory are concerned with:

a. Determining the basic traits that provide a meaningful description of

personality.
b. Finding some way to measure them. There are two ways of assessing
personality traits:
i. The person describes himself by answering questions about his attitudes,
feelings and behaviours.
ii. Someone else evaluates the person’s traits from what he knows about the
individual.

With the first method, a personality inventory is most often used, whereas the
second, usually involves a rating scale. A personality inventory is essentially a
questionnaire in which the person reports the reactions or feelings in certain
situations.

A rating scale is a device for recording judgement about traits. A rating scale
is filled up by someone else by what he knows about the individual or by
studying his behaviour in certain situations.

Evaluation of trait theory

Trait theory is an improvement over type theories. The type theories

unrealistically, attempt to place personalities into discrete, discontinuous
categories. The trait theory, on the other hand, gives recognition to the
continuity of personalities. The theory has also contributed to personality
ratings and factor analysis techniques to behavioural science.

However, there are several problems with the trait approach. Terms are
different to define, there are contradictions and the scientific reliability of the
results is open to considerable challenge. A major objection to trait theories is
that, they are very descriptive rather than analytical and are a long way from
being comprehensive theories of personality. Further, some trait theories tend to
focus on isolated traits without specifying how these traits are organised
within the personality. Finally, traits are abstracted from behaviour. But we
cannot use the same traits to explain behaviour.

Trait theory with examples

Theories, which consider personal qualities and characteristics that differentiate

leaders from non-leaders, for example. Margaret Thatcher, former Prime
Minister of Great Britain was always known for her leadership. She was
described as confident, iron-willed, determined and decisive. These terms are
traits and people using them are trait willed, determined and decisive. These
terms are traits and people using them are trait Theorist supporters. The media
is a strong supporter of trait theories of leadership; say focusing on personal
qualities and characteristics. The media identifies people like Margaret
Thatcher, Nelson Mandela. New York mayor Rudolph Gintiani, Virgin group’s
CEO- Richard Branson as charismatic enthusiastic. Traits in different leaders
and non-leaders are ambitions and energy, the desire to live, honesty and
integrity, self-confidence, intelligence and job relevant knowledge. Recent
research shows that high self-monitors that is they are highly flexible to adjust
to indifferent situations and are more likely to immerge as leaders. When
leaders like Steve Jobs of Apple computer were described as charismatic or
enthusiastic, these adjectives reflected the trait theory of leadership that seeks
to identify specific personal qualities and characteristics of leaders to explain
their success. Effective leaders behave in unique manner. For example: Titan
International CEO Marry Tailor and Siebel System CEO Tom Siebel have led
their companies in very critical periods in a very successful manner. Their
leadership style consists of tough talking, intense and autocratic.

The difference between trait and behavioural theories in terms of applications

lies in their underlying assumptions. Trait theories are valid. The leaders are
born and not made by the specific behaviour identified leader. The leadership
could be taught and designed as to implant behavioural patterns in individuals
who desire to be leaders.

Drawbacks of Trait theory

The trait theory has certain limitations. First and foremost, there are no
universal traits that will give leadership in all situations, while trait appears to
predict leadership on relative situations. Secondly, trait predicts behaviour
more in weak situations rather than in strong situations. Strong situations are
there when the behaviour norms are strong incentives for specific type of
behaviour and clear expectations as to which behaviour is rewarded and which
is punished. Some strong situations create the opportunities for leaders to
express. Organizations with strong cultures fit in the description of strong
situation but here power of trait to predict leadership is limited. The third
drawback is the inability to separate cause from effect. For example: Does self-
confidence create leadership or does success as a leader build self-confidence.
Finally, trait helps in predicting the appearance of leadership than distinguish
between effective and ineffective leaders.

The major movement away from trait began as early as 1940’s. 1960
emphasized research in the behavioural theories.

This theory differs from that of trait theory. This theory is based on the in-
depth study of individual personalities.

Siemund Freud is credited with psychoanalytic theory. Freud, acknowledged

as one of the intellectual giants in the history of modern thought, developed.
i. The first comprehensive personality theory.
ii. A method for treating neurotic ills.

iii. An extensive body of clinical observations based on his therapeutic

experience and self-analysis.

Freud saw personality as composed of three structures:

[Link] ID: Refers exclusively to the innate component of personality. The id

is the mental agency containing everything inherited, present at birth, and
fixed in the individual’s constitution especially instincts. It is raw,
animalistic, unrecognized knows no laws, obeys no rules and remains basic to
the individual throughout life. The id, according to Freud, employs to rid the
personality of tension, reflex actions
and primary process. Primary process refers to attempts of an individual to
form a mental image of the object that will remove the tension.

ii. The ego: Mental images do not satisfy needs. The starving man cannot
satisfy hunger by eating images. Reality must be considered. This is the role
of the ego. The ego develops out of the id because of the necessity for dealing
with the real world.
iii. The super ego: In order for a person to function constructively in society,
he should acquire a system of values, norms, ethics and attitudes which are
reasonably compatible with that society. The superego, represents the internalized
representation of the values and morals of society as taught to the child by the
parents and others. The super ego judges whether an action is right or wrong
according to the standards of society. The id seeks pleasure, the ego tests reality
and the superego strives for perfection.

Sometimes, the three components of personality are at odds: the ego

postpones gratification that the id wants right away and the superego battles
with both the ego and the id, because behaviour often falls short of the moral
code it represents. But more often in the normal person the three work as a
team, producing integrated behaviour.
Evaluation of psychoanalytic theory

This theory has had an enormous impact on psychological and philosophical

conceptions of people.

Freud’s emphasis on the conscience has been partially supported by some of

the current research findings of cognitive psychologists. This work has
revealed that, mental processes about which people are unaware have all
important impact on thinking and actions.

The importance of this theory is underscored by the fact that it has spawned a
significant and enduring method of treating psychological disturbances.

Freud’s psychoanalytic theory has been criticize as it has been praised. One
criticism against the theory is that the approach is not based on empirically
verifiable facts. The psychoanalytic elements are largely hypothetical
constructs and are not measurable, observable items, susceptible to scientific
analysis and verification.

Some critics point out that Freud’s theory of personality is based almost
entirely upon his observations of emotionally disturbed individuals. It may
not represent an appropriate description of the normal, healthy personality.
Freud assumed that all human events (actions, thoughts, feelings, aspirations)
are lawful and determined by powerful instinctual forces i.e. aggression. Thus,
human beings are seen as essentially mechanistic, they are governed by the same
natural laws that apply to the behaviour of other organisms. In his approach,
there is no room for concepts such as free will, choice, personal
responsibility, spontaneity and self determination.
Social Learning Theory
Much of human behaviour is either learned or modified by learning. Through
learning, one acquires knowledge, language attitudes, values, fears,
personality traits and self- insight. Therefore, a study of the process of learning
throws more light on understanding human activities.

The social learning theorists on personality regard the situation as an

important determinant of behaviour. The social learning theory focuses on
behaviour patterns and cognitive activities in relation to the specific
conditions that evoke, maintain or modify them. The emphasis is what an
individual does in a given situation. Some of the personal variables like that
determine what an individual will do in a particular situation include:
i. Competencies: Intellectual abilities, social skills and other abilities.
ii. Cognitive Strategies: Habitual ways of selectively attending to information
and organizing it into meaningful units.
iii. Outcome expectations: Expectations about the consequences of different
behaviours and the meaning of certain stimuli.
iv. Self regulatory systems and plans: Individual differences in self
imposed goals, rules guiding behaviour, self-imposed rewards for success or
punishment for failure and ability to plan and execute steps leading to a goal
will lead to differences in behaviour. All of the above variables interact with
conditions of the particular situation to determine what an individual will do in
that situation.

The social learning theorists also believe in reciprocal behaviour patterns.

Situation is no doubt capable of evoking, maintaining or modifying the behaviour
patterns of individuals. An individual in turn, is able to mould conditions of a
situation. Our behaviour reflects the ‘situations’ of life as well as being
influenced by them, the relationship is reciprocal. By selectively attended to
what is happening, we can prevent certain conditions from imposing on us. And
by our actions we can partly create the conditions that imposing, changes in
behaviour towards others are usually followed by reciprocal changes in the
behaviour of others.

Evaluation of Social Learning Theory

Social learning theory has made a major contribution to both clinical

psychological and personality theory. It has led us to look more closely at the
situation that can be used to modify behaviour. Careful applications of
learning principles has proved very successful in changing maladaptive
behaviour.

Social learning theorists have been criticized for over emphasizing the
importance of situational factors in behaviour to the neglect of individual
differences. They show little interest.
An individual is regarded as flexible, malleable and passive victim of external
stimuli
—the permanent of environmental fate. Environmental conditions are held to
be superior to human nature.

The Humanistic Approach

The humanistic approach to the study of personality includes number of

theories, although different in some respects, share a common emphasis on
man’s potential for self direction and freedom of choice. They are concerned
with the ‘self’ and the individual subjective experiences. The theories stress
man’s positive nature — his push towards growth and self actualizations. Their
emphasis is also on the “here and now” rather than on events in early childhood
that may have shaped the individual’s personality.

Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow are credited with the humanistic theory of
personality.
Their views on personality are explained below.

Rogers Self Theory

Rogers approach to personality is described as phenomenological.

Phenomenology is the study of individuals subjective experience, feelings and
private concepts as well as his views of the world and self. For Rogers,
behaviour is utterly dependent upon how one perceives the world — that is,
behaviour is the result of immediate events as they are actually perceived and
interpreted by the individual. Such an approach to personality emphasises the
self and its characteristics.

Rogers ideas of human nature grew out of his experiences in working with
emotionally disturbed people. Roger has concluded that the inner most nature
of human nature is essentially purposive, forward moving, constructive,
realistic and quite trustworthy. He regards the person as an active force of
energy, oriented towards future goals and self- directed purpose rather than a
created pushed and pulled by forces beyond his control.
Rogers agrees that people occasionally express all kinds of bitter and antisocial
actions, but he argues that at such times they are not behaving in concert with
their inner natures. Thus, people are functioning as fully human beings, when
they are free to experience and to satisfy their inner nature, they show
themselves to be positive and rational creatures who can be trusted to live in
harmony with themselves and others. Roger has profound (almost religious)
sense of respect for human nature. He — that human organism has a natural
tendency to move in the direction of differentiation, self-responsibility, co-
operation, and maturity. Self-actualization, according to Rogers, is the basic
motivating force representing the inherent tendency of the organism to develop
all its capabilities in ways which serve to maintain or enhance the person.

Maslow’s Self-actualization Theory

Abraham Maslow is regarded as the spiritual father of humanism in

American psychology. Humanistic psychology of Maslow radically differ
from psychoanalytic and learning or behaviouristic theories. Humanistic
psychology of Maslow, on the other hand, postulates man as self actualiser. By
self-accusation, Maslow meant the development of full individuality, with all
parts of personality in harmony.

Maslow’s humanistic psychology is steeped in European existential

philosophy and psychology as developed by thinkers and writers as
Kierkegard, Camus, Binswanger and Boss.

Existential philosophy is concerned with man as an individual and each person

alone is responsible for his own existence. Contrary to popular belief, he is
never static. He is always in the process of becoming something different. He
tries to use his potentials to become a useful member of society and to lead a
truly authentic and fruitful life. This drive of a man which is inherent in him,
is called selfactualisation. Existential philosophy also stresses human
consciousness, subjective feelings and moods and personal experiences as
they relate to one’s existence in the world of other people. This outlook may
be called “here-and-now” perspective. Existentialists and humanist alike
emphasis subjective experience as the primary phenomenon in the study of
human nature. Both theoretical explanations and over-behaviour are
secondary to experience itself and its meaning to the experiencing person.

Thus, central to the humanistic approach are:

i. Individual is an integrated whole.

ii. Animal research is irrelevant to human behaviour.
iii. Human nature is essentially good.
iv. Man has creative potential.
v. Psychological health of man is more important.

THE SHAPING OF PERSONALITY

How personality develops from its infant to grown up stage is an interesting and
useful study. Psychologists have come out with different stages in the
development of personality. The most important are discussed below.

Freudian Stages
Sigmund Freud was a pioneering stage theorist. Although the analysis of
stages of development can be traced as far back as the ancient Greeks, it was
Freud who first formulated a meaningful stage theory. He was the first
psychologist to believe that childhood events might have a bearing on adult
behaviour and consciousness. Freud theorized that there are 4 universal stages
of psychological development which are decisive for the formation of
personality: oral, anal, phallic and genital. A period of latency, normally
occurring between the ages of 6 or 7 and the onset of puberty was included by
Freud in the overall scheme of development, but strictly speaking it is not a
stage. The first 3 stages of development extend from birth to five years and
are called pregenital stages;
since the genital zones of the body have not attained a dominant role in
personality formation. The fourth stage coincides with the attainment of
puberty. The names of these stages are based on the regions of the body whose
stimulation allows for the discharge of sexual energy.
[Link] Oral Stage: This stage extends throughout the first year of life. Infants
are totally reliant upon others for survival, dependence is their only way of
obtaining instinctual gratification. The mouth is the body zone through which
biological drives are sought to be reduced. Freud believed that the mouth
remains an important erogenous zone.
The Anal Stage: During the second and third years of life, the focus shifts
ii.
from mouth to the anal region.
iii. The Phallic Stage: Age about 4 years. —This is a stage of psychosexual
development. Adults males fixate at the phallic stage are usually brash vain,
boastful and ambitious while women are found to express traits of
flirtatiousness.
vi. The Latency Period: Between the ages of 6 or 7 and the onset of
adolescence, occurs the latency period (the elementary school age) which is
very important for the social development of the child, for acquiring the
knowledge and skills needed to get along in the workday world.
v. The Genital stage: The genital stage occurs during adolescence to
adulthood.
Freud believed that in order for people to attain the ideal genital character, they
must relinquish the passivity of early childhood days when love, security,
physical comfort indeed all gratification’s were freely given and nothing was
expected in return. They have to work, postpone gratification, become
responsible and above all assume a more active role in dealing with life’s
problems.

ASSESSMENT OF FREUD’S STAGES

Credit should be given to Freud, for he was the pioneering stage theorist. He
provides some valuable insights which provoked further study on personality
development. There exists hardly a sphere of modem life which has not been
influenced more or less by Freudian thought - sociology, social welfare,
politics, law, the family, education, the treatment of delinquency and mental
illness, medicine, propaganda, advertising, entertainment and even religion.
Freud has made our understanding of human personality both deeper and wider
than we chose to dream.

Although the human mind is invisible and intangible, Freud has shown that it’s
study can be carried out with something like scientific precision. Human
behaviour indeed seems unpredictable, swayed by unknown motives, but
Freud showed that it is possible to discern law which governs people’s words,
thoughts and feelings and that they do not behave irrationally as it might seem,
but in tune with their own inner dynamics. His works are considered to be a
revolution in our knowledge of human personality for two reasons: firstly.
because he evolved a new scientific method of studying the human mind and
secondly, because of the application of that method yielded results which
compels us to revise our ideas about the human personality. However, Freud’s
high reliance on sex to explain stages in personality development has been
criticized. The major disagreement centres on Freud’s choice of words.
Neo-Freud Stages

Among Neo-Freudians, Erik Erikson gave a new dimension to the

development of personality, which he claimed was nothing more than a
systematic extension of Freud’s psychosexual development. Erikson felt that,
relatively more attention should be given to the social rather than the sexual
adaptations of individual. He postulated that, the social problems encountered
in the course of development were more important stages in which the child
faces a wider range of human relationships as he grows up. Erikson asserted
that, a psychosocial crisis occurs within each of the stages and that in order
for the person to have a normal, fulfilling personality, each crisis should be
optimally resolved. For Erikson, a crisis is not a catastrophe but a turning point
in an individual’s development. Erikson’s eight stages of psychological
development can be enlisted as:
i. Infancy: Birth to one year.

ii. Early Childhood: One to three years.

iii. Play age: Four to five years

iv. School age: Six to eleven years.

v. Puberty and adolescence: Twelve to twenty years.

vi. Young adulthood: Twenty to twenty four years.

vii. Middle adulthood: Twenty five to sixty five years.

viii. Late adulthood: Old age.

Assessment of psychosocial stages

Eight stages of man, as postulated by Erikson, offer new perspectives about

personality. First, Erikson has formulated a theory in which the roles of
society and of persons themselves are accorded equal emphasis with respect to
the development and organization of personality. Second, Erikson has been
sensitive to the age of adolescence, a period largely ignored in the formation of
the person’s psychological and social well- being. Finally, Erikson has
stimulated a sense of optimum by demonstrating that each stage of
psychosocial growth has the potential for both strength and weakness, so that
failure at one stage of development does not necessarily indicate doom at a later
stage.
Although Erikson’s theory has gained prominence in both clinical and academic
setting, research efforts towards testing it have been sparse. Erikson himself
admits that his own conceptions of personality may not be directly applicable
to experimental verification.

Cognitive Stages

Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologists is credited with ‘cognitive’ or ‘conscious’

stages of personality development. For Piaget it is ‘conscious’ instincts which
are important variables in the development of personality. Being a lover of
children, Piaget spent most of his life observing children in order to understand
when and how they developed their reasoning abilities. He identified four
stages of personality development which are:

[Link]: Age 0-2 years: By sensorimotor, Piaget means that the

infant responds to stimuli quite directly with little in the way of complex
information processing.
Pre-operational Stage: During the pre-operational stage, the child learns
ii.
to separate himself from the environment and initially classifies objects
through the use of symbols and words.
iii. Concrete Operational Stage: The concrete operational stage is
characterized by an intellectual understanding of the concept of conversation of
a mass, irrespective of its shape.
iv. Formal Operation Stage: In this final stage, reasoning can take place on
abstract as well as concrete levels.
Piaget’s views on personality are valid as much as the cognitive stages do
have influence on organizational behaviour, particularly the formal
operational stage in which most people are active organization members. At
this stage, concrete things need not be manipulated to cause behaviour, as
employees are capable of analyzing reasoning, imagining and evaluating
objects. But the problem with the cognitive theory is that it fails to unravel all
dimensions of personality development.
IMMATURITY TO MATURITY
Professor Chris Argyris of Harvard has identified specific dimensions of the
human personality as it develops. He proposes that the human, rather than going
through distinct stages, progresses along a continuum from an infant to maturity
as an adult. However, at any stage, people can have their degree of
development plotted according to the seven dimensions as shown below:

The Immaturity to Maturity continuum.

Immaturity Characteristics Maturity Characteristic

Passivity Activity
Dependence Independence Few Ways of Behaving
Diverse Behaviour Shallow interests
Deep interests
Short-time perspective Longtime Perspective Subordinate position
Super ordinate position Lack of self
awareness Self Awareness Control

In contrast to the stage theories of Freud and Erikson, the Argyris’s

immaturity- maturity model of personality is specifically directed to the study
and analysis of organizational behaviour. Argyris assumes that the
personalities of organizational employees can be generally described by the
mature end of the continuum. In order to obtain full expression of employee’s
personalities, the formal organization should allow for activity rather than
passivity, independence rather than dependence, long-time rather than short-
time perspective, occupation of a position higher than that of peers and
expression of deep, important abilities. Argyris argues that, too often the exact
opposite occurs. The mature organizational participant becomes frustrated and
anxious and is in conflict with the modern formal organization. Argyris sees a
basic incongruity between the needs of the mature personality and the nature
of the formal organization.

DETERMINANTS OF PERSONALITY

What determinants go into the development of personality? Of all the

complexities and unanswered questions in the study of human behaviour, this
question may be the most difficult. For the convenience of study, the
determinants of personality can be grouped into five broad categories:
i. Heredity

The role of heredity in the development of personality is an old argument in

personality theory. Heredity refers to those factors that were determined at
conception. Physical stature, facial attractiveness, energy level, muscle
composition and reflexes and biological rhythms are characteristics that are
generally considered to be imported either completely or substantially by one’s
parents. The heredity approach argues that the ultimate explanation of an
individual’s personality is the molecular structure of the genes, located in the
chromosomes which contain thousands of genes, which seem to be
transmitters of traits. The role of heredity on personality development is still
an unsettled area of understanding. The problem is that geneticists face a major
obstacle in gathering information scientifically on the human being.
Nevertheless, the role of heredity on personality development cannot be
totally minimized. Physical attributes, for instance, may be largely attributed to
heredity.

The following classification of characteristics is said to be inherited by all

humans-
a. Physical Structure (how tall or short one is, whether one has a long or
short nose, large or small feet — briefly, how one is put together)
b. Reflexes (direct response to stimuli, such as withdrawing from a pin prick,
blinking when something approaches the eye)
c. Innate drives (impulses to act based on physiological tensions; but these
must be linked through learning with activities which will reduce the tensions)
d. Intelligence (the capacity to learn, to modify responses)
e. Temperament (patterned and recurrent responses associated with basic
emotional makeup for e.g.- phlegmatic, excitable and or lethargic)
ii. Environment

If all personality characteristics were by heredity, they would be fixed at birth

and no amount of experience could alter them. Personality development owes
as much to environment as it does to heredity. Environment is a broad term and
includes such factors as culture. Culture establishes norms, attitudes and values
that are passed along from one generation to the next and create consistencies
overtime. Anthropologists, to whom culture as a subject belongs, have clearly
demonstrated the important role culture plays in the development of the human
personality.
While growing, the child learns to behave in ways expected by the culture of
the family into which the baby was born. Most cultures expect different
behaviour from males than from females.
Every culture has its own subcultures, each with its own views about such
qualities as moral values, standards of cleanliness, style of dress and definitions
of success. The cultural sub-group exerts its influence on personality. All boys
are expected to show certain personality characteristics (as compared with
girls), but a poor boy raised in an urban slum is expected to behave differently
in some respects than a well-to-do raised in a middle class suburb.

Although culture has significant influence on personality development, linear

relationship cannot be established between personality and the given culture, for
2 reasons:
a. The culture impacts upon an individual are not uniform, because they are
transmitted by certain people-parents and others who are not all alike in their
values and practices.
b. The individual has some experiences that are unique. Each individual reacts
in his own way to social pressures, differences in behaviour being caused by
biological factors.

iii. Contribution from the family

The family has considerable influence on personality development, particularly

in the early stages. The parents play an important part in the identification
process which is important to an individual’s early development. The process
can be examined from three different perspectives:

a. First, identification canbe viewed as the similarity of behaviour (including

feelings and attitudes between child and model)
b. Second, identification can be looked upon as the child’s motives or desires to
be like the model.
c. Third, identification can be viewed as the process through which the child
actually takes on the attributes of the model.

The overall home environment created by the parents, in addition to their direct
influence, is critical to personality development. Siblings (brothers and
sisters) also contribute to personality. It has been argued that, sibling position is
an important psychological variable because it represents a microcosm of the
significant social experience of adolescence and adulthood. It is argued that
those first born are more prone to be schizophrenic, more susceptible to social
pressures and more dependent than those later-born. The first born are also
more likely to experience the world as more orderly, predictable and rational
than later-born children.

iv. Socialization process

There is greater realization that other relevant persons, groups and
organizations exercise their due role in personality development. This is
commonly called the socialization process. It is especially relevant to
organizational behaviour, because the process is not Confined to early
childhood, rather taking place throughout one’s life. In particular, evidence is
accumulating that, socialization may be one of the best explanations of why
employees behave the way they do in today’s organizations.

Socializations involves the process by which a person acquires, from the

enormously wide range of behavioural potentialities that are open to him or her,
starting at birth, those behaviour patterns that are customary and acceptable to
the standards of, initial’, the family, and later the social group and the
employing organization. Thus, socialization starts with the initial contact
between mother and her new infant. After infancy, other members of
immediate family (father, brothers, sisters and close relatives or friends)
followed by the social group (peers, school friends and members of the
working group) play influential roles.

v. Situational considerations

Above determinants discussed are no doubt important to personality, but it

must be recognized that, it is the immediate situation which may predominate
finally.

While it seems logical to suppose that, situations will influence an

individual’s personality, a neat classification scheme that would tell us the
impact of various types of situations has so far eluded us. However. we do
know that certain situations are more relevant than others in influencing
personality. What is of taxonomically, wrote Lee Sechrest, is that situations
seems to differ substantially in the constraints they impose on behaviour with
some situations, e.g. church. constraining many behaviours and others, e.g., a
picnic in a public park — constraining relative few. From the above
discussion, it is clear that personality is a complex concept that reflects many
influences both within and outside the individual. Personality progresses
through identifiable stages and never really stops developing. One can,
however, examine personality at any point in time within its developmental
sequence in order to compare and contrast individual personalities.
PERSONALITY TRAITS

A trait is understood as a predisposition to respond in an equivalent manner to

various kinds of stimuli. Traits, in effect, are psychological entities that render
many stimuli as well as many responses equivalent. Many stimuli may evoke
the same response, or many responses (perceptions, interpretations, feelings,
actions) have the same functional meaning in terms of the traits. Various
attempts have been made to isolate traits, but the efforts have been hindered
because there are so many of them. However, it is virtually impossible to
predict behaviour when such a large number of traits requires to be considered. As
a result, attention has been directed towards reducing these thousands to a
manageable number to ascertain the source of primary traits.
One researcher identified 171 surface traits but concluded that they were
superficial and lacking descriptive power. What he sought was a reduced set
of traits that would identify underlying patterns. The result was the
identification of sixteen personality factors, which he called source or primary
traits, that are basic underlying causes of surface traits.

Vs Outgoing
i. Reserved
ii. Less Vs More intelligent
intelligent
iii. Affected by Vs Emotionally more
feelings stable
iv. Submissive Vs Dominant
v. Serious Vs Happy-go-lucky
vi. Expedient Vs Conscientious
vii. Timid Vs Venturesome
viii. Tough- Vs Sensitive
minded
ix. Trusting Vs Suspicious
x. Practical Vs Imaginative
xi. Fortright Vs Shrewd
xii. Self-assumed Vs Apprehensive
xiii. Conservative Vs Experimenting
xiv. Group Vs Self-dependent
dependent
xv. Uncontrolled Vs Controlled
xvi. Relaxed Vs Tense
These sixteen traits have been found to be generally steady and constant
sources of behaviour, subject, of course, to the influence of particular
situations.

THE MYERS - BRIGGS FRAMEWORK

This is a popular questionnaire with 100 items and is widely used to

understand personalities in organizations. Based on the classical work of Carl
Jung, the Myers — Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) asks people how they
usually feel or act in particular situations. Based on the answers received,
people are differentiated in terms of four general dimensions: sensing.
intuiting, judging and perceiving. Highest and lower positions in each of the
dimensions are used to classify people into sixteen different categories.
The MBTI is a popular instrument used to assess personality types. It is widely
used in selection process. As many as two million people are reported to be
taking it each year in the U.S. Research suggest that the MBTI is a very useful
method for determining communication styles and interaction preferences. In
terms of personality attributes, however, doubts exist about the validity and
the stability of the instrument.
3.9.1 The Big Five Model
Stability and validity of the MBTI may be in doubt, but the same cannot be said
for the five-factor model of personality — popularly called the “Big Five”.
 Agreeableness

Conscientiousness

Emotional Stability

Extroversion

Openness

Agreeableness
Refers to a person’s ability to get along with others. High agreeable people
value harmony more than they value having their say or their way. They are
co- operative and trusting others. People who low on agreeableness focus more
on their own needs than the needs of are others.

Conscientiousness
Refers to the number of goals on which a person focuses. A high
conscientiousness person focuses on relatively few goals at one time. He or she
is likely to be organised; Systematic, careful, thorough, responsible, self-
disciplined, and achievement-oriented. A person with low conscientious tends
to focus on a more number of goals at one time. Consequently, the individual
is more disorganized, careless and irresponsible, as well as less thorough and
self-disciplined.
Emotional stability
Focuses on an individual’s ability to cope up the stress. The individual with
positive emotional stability tends to be calm, enthusiastic and secure. He or
she with negative score tends to be nervous, depressed and insecure.
Extroversion 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.
Openness
addresses one’s range of interests. Extremely open
people are fascinated by novelty and innovation. They are willing to listen to
new ideas and to change their own ideas, beliefs and attitudes in response to
new information. On the other hand, people with low levels of openness tend
to be less
respective to new ideas and less willing to change their minds. They also tend
to have fewer and narrow interests and to be less curious and creative.
The “Big Five” framework continues to attract the attention of both
researchers and managers. The potential value of this framework lies in the
fact that it encompasses an integrated set of traits that appear to be valid
predictions of certain behaviour in certain situations. However, the “Big Five”
model is primarily based on research conducted in the
U.S. Its generalibility to other cultures, therefore, presents unanswered
questions.

MAJOR TRAITS INFLUENCING ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

There are many different personality traits, but some of the more important
ones for organizational behaviour are authoritarianism, locus of control,
machiavellianism, introversion-extroversion, achievement orientation, self-
esteem, risk taking, self-monitoring and type A personality.

i. Authoritarianism
It is a concept developed by the psychologist Adorn during World War II to
measure susceptibility to autocratic, fascistic or antidemocratic appeals. Since
that time, the concept has been extended to the authoritarianism personality, a
generic term used to describe an individual who has a strong belief in the
legitimacy of established mechanisms of formal authority, views obedience to
authority as necessary, exhibits a negative philosophy of people, adheres to
conventional and traditional value systems, is intellectually rigid and opposes
the use of subjective feelings. Authoritarians also tend to be rigid in their
positions, place high moral value on their beliefs and are strongly oriented
towards conformity to rules and regulations. They naturally prefer stable and
structured work environments which are governed by clean rules and
procedures. Similarly, authoritarians are likely to prefer autocratic or directive
leadership and would exhibit high respect for individuals in positions of
authority.
ii. Locus of Control
It refers to an individual’s belief that events are either within one’s control
(internal locus of control) or are determined by forces beyond one’s control
(external locus of control). These personality traits are manifested in different
behaviour which are significant to manager. It has been proved that externals
(those who believe that events are determined by external forces) are less
satisfied with their jobs, have higher absenteeism rates, more alienated from
work setting and are less involved on their jobs than internals (those who believe
that events are within one’s control). Internals typically have more control over
their own behaviour, are more active in seeking information to make decisions,
and are more active socially than externals.
iii. Machiavellianism

It refers to an individual propensity to manipulate people. 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. Do the Machiavellians make good employees? The answer
depends on the type of job and whether one considers ethical considerations in
evaluating performance. In jobs that require bargaining skills (such as labour
negotiation) or where there are substantial rewards for winning (commissioned
sales), Machiavellians perform better.
iv. Introversion and Extroversion

These are the most common descriptions of personality traits. These terms
are normally associated with an individual’s sociability and interpersonal
orientation. Extroverts are gregarious and sociable individuals while
introverts are shy, quiet and retiring. It is generally established that, introverts
and extroverts have significantly different career orientations and require
different organizational environments to maximize performance. Extroverts
are more suitable for positions that require considerable interaction with
others, whereas introverts are more inclined to excel at tasks that require
thought and analytical skills. Not surprisingly, managerial
positions are dominated by extroverts, thus suggesting that, this managerial
trait is a factor in managerial success.
v. Achievement Orientation

It is yet another personality character which varies among people and which
can be used to predict certain behaviours. Employees with a high need to
achieve, continually strive to do things better. They want to overcome
obstacles, but they want to feel that their success or failure is due to their own
actions (read internals). This means that they like tasks of moderate difficulty.
An easy task shall not evoke challenges and is, therefore, not liked by high
achievers. Similarly, a task with high risk is not linked by these people as the
failure rates are more. Given the high achievers propensity for tasks where the
outcome can be directly attributed to his or her efforts, the high achiever looks
for challenges having approximately a 50-50 chance of success on the job,
high achievers will perform better where there is moderate difficulty, rapid
performance feedback and direct relationship between effort and reward. This
means that the high achievers tend to do better in sales, sports or in
management.
vi. Self-esteem

It refers to feeling of like or dislike of one-self. This trait, naturally, varies

from person to person. Self- esteem is directly related to desire for success.
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. Low esteems are dependent on the
receipt of positive evaluation from others. As a result, they are more likely to
seek approval from others and more prone to conform to the beliefs and
behaviours of those they respect than high esteems. In managerial positions,
low esteems will tend to be concerned with pleasing others, and therefore less
likely to take unpopular stands than high esteems. Self-esteem is also related
to job satisfaction. High esteems are more satisfied with their jobs than the
low esteems.
vii. Risk-taking
People differ in their willingness to take chances. Their propensity to assume
or avoid risk has been shown to have an impact on how long it takes
managers to make a decision and how much information they require before
making their choice. For instance, 79 managers worked on simulated personnel
exercise that required them to make decisions. High-risk-taking managers
made more rapid decisions and used less information in making their choices
than did low-risk- taking managers. Interestingly, the decision accuracy was the
same for both groups.
While it is generally correct to conclude that managers in organizations are
risk aversive, there are still individual differences on this dimension. As a
result, it makes sense to recognise these differences and even to consider
aligning risk- taking propensity with specific job demands. For instance, a
high-risk-taking propensity may lead to more effective performance for a stock
trader in a brokerage firm. This type of job, demands rapid decision-making.
On the other hand, this personality characteristics might prove a major obstacle
to accountants performing auditing activities. This Iatter job might be better
filled by someone with a low-risk- taking propensity.
viii. Self-monitoring
It refers to an individual’s ability to adjust his or her behaviour to external
factors. Individuals high in self-monitoring can show considerable adaptability
in adjusting their behaviour to external, situational factors. They are highly
sensitive to external cues and can behave differently in different situations. High
self-monitors are capable of presenting striking contradictions between their
public, personal and their private selves. Low self- monitors cannot deviate their
behaviour. They tend to display their true dispositions and attitude in every
situation, hence there is high behavioural consistency between who they are
and what they do.
The high self-monitors tend to pay closer attention to the behaviour of others
and are more capable of conforming than are low self-monitors. We might
also hypotheses that high self-monitors will be more successful in managerial
positions where individuals are required to play multiple and even
contradicting roles. The high self-monitor is capable of putting on different
“faces” for different audiences.
ix. Type of personality

Finally, there is type ‘A’ personality and type ‘B’ personality. Type A
personality typifies a person who is always in a hurry, is extremely
competitive and is often hostile and irritable. Opposite is Type B personality
who is relaxed, incompetent and easy going. How do the two perform in
organizations? Type A’s are no doubt highly competitive and hardworking.
But it is the Type ‘B’ who climbs up to the top of organization. Type A’s will
make most successful sales people and senior executive yes are usually Type B’s.
Why this paradoxes? Answer lies in the tendency of Type A’s to trade off
quality of effort for quantity. Executive positions usually go to those who are
patient rather than to those who are merely hasty, to those who are tactful rather
than to those who are hostile and to those who are creative rather than to
whose who are merely agile in competitive strife.

PERSONALITY AND ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

Personality is an important determinant of employee behaviour. If an
employee likes monotonous or boring work; if he steadfastly refuses
additional responsibilities in the form of promotion; if a supervisor fails to
reprimand an unruly subordinate; or if a middle level manager tries to climb
over you the ladder to reach the top of an organization callously ignoring
ethical considerations; the explanation for such behaviour in each case depends
on the individual personality, which predisposes an individual to certain
behavioural patterns. Thoughtful application of personality concepts, through
subjective, helps us understand unique beings and groups with similar
personality characteristics.
Personality is the focal point determining motivation. It is impossible to give a
full and comprehensive account of executive behaviour without raising
questions of why they behave as they do. For e.g., why do effective executives
spend so much time on personnel matters? Why don’t they concentrate their
efforts on production? When we ask such questions regarding executive
behaviour, we are trying to explore questions of motivation. Motivation is
concerned with the study of the direction and persistence of action. Personality is
the organism centre around which people’s motives form a unified and
integrated system.
Personality characteristics into centrifugation of individuals to occupy various
positions in an organization. The traits required for a successful sales manager
are different from those required for an executive in charge of production.
The concept of personality is not be understood in an organizational context
only. The need for understanding human characteristics, in general is more
significant than comprehending personality in the context of organizations.
Despite serious attempts, experts have not been able to comprehend the real
nature of personality. Of all the problems that have confronted human beings
since the beginning of recorded history, perhaps the most significant has been
the riddle of their own nature. Attempts to answer ‘what is man?’ are
countless, a great many avenues have been explored with an enormous variety
of concepts being employed along the way. Astrology, philosophy and the life
sciences are but a few of the many directions that the quest to understand
human nature has taken. At this point in history, some of these avenues have
been proved to dead ends, while other are just beginning to flourish. And today
the problem is more pressing than ever, since most of the world’s ills, for
example: overpopulation, war, pollution, prejudice are brought about by the
behaviour of people. So it may not be overstating the case to say that the
quality of human life in the future, indeed our own survival, may well depend
upon an increased understanding of human nature.

ATTITUDES

Attitude is important variable in human behaviour:

Nature

The salient features which contribute to the meaning of attitudes are:

i. Attitudes refer to feelings and beliefs of individuals or groups of individuals.
ii. The feelings and beliefs are directed towards other people, objects or ideas.
iii. Attitudes tend to result in behaviour or action.
iv. Attitude can fall anywhere along a continuum from very favourable to
very unfavourable.
v. Attitudes endure.
vi. All people, irrespective of their status or intelligence, hold attitudes. Some
of the definitions of attitude are as below:

a. “The word attitude describes a persistent tendency to feel and behave in

a particular way towards some object”.
b. “Attitudes are evaluative statements either favourable or unfavourable
concerning objects, people or events. They reflect how one feels about
something”.
c. “Attitudes are learned predispositions towards aspects of our environment.
They may be positively or negatively directed towards certain people, service
or institutions”.

FORMATION OF ATTITUDE

Individuals acquire attitudes from several sources, but the point to be stressed
is that the attitudes are acquired, but not inherited. The most important
sources of acquiring attitudes are:
i. Direct experience with the object
Attitudes can develop from a personally rewarding or punishing experience
with an object. Employees form attitudes about jobs on their previous
experiences. For e.g.. if everyone who has held a job has been promoted within
six months, current job holders are likely to believe that they will also be
promoted within six months. Attitude formed on experience are difficult to
change.
ii. Classical conditioning and attitude

One of the basic processes underlying attitude formation can be explained on

the basis of learning principles. People develop associations between various
objects and the emotional reactions that accompany them. For e.g., many
soldiers who were stationed in the Persian Gulf during the war with Iraq
reported that, they never wanted to sit on a sandy beach again. This is the
soldiers formed negative attitudes towards sand. Similarly, positive
associations can develop through classical conditioning. Advertisers make
use of the principles of classical conditioning of attitudes by attempting to link
a product they want consumers to buy with a positive feeling or event.
iii. Operant conditioning and Attitude acquisition

Another learning process, operant conditioning, also underlies attitude

acquisition. Attitudes that are reinforced, either verbally or non-verbally, tend
to be maintained. Conversely, a person who states an attitude that elicits
ridicule from others may modify or abandon the attitude. But it is not only
direct reinforcement or punishment that can influence attitudes.
iv. Vicarious learning

In which a person learns something through the observance of others, can

also account for attitude development — particularly when the individual has
no direct experience with the object about which the attitude is held. It is
through vicariously learning processes that children pick up the prejudice of
their parents.
We also learn attitudes vicariously through television, films and other media.
a. Family and Peer groups

A person may learn attitudes through imitation of parents. If parents have

positive attitude towards an object and the child admires his parents, he is
likely to adopt a similar attitude, even without being told about the object and
even without having direct experience. Attitudes towards the opposite sex,
religion, tolerance or prejudice, education, occupations and almost all other
areas where attitudes are capable of expression are the result of our accepting or
rejecting the attitudes held by members of our family. Similarly, attitudes are
acquired from peer groups in colleges and organizations.
b. Neighbourhood

The neighborhoods we live has a certain structure in terms of its having

cultural facilities, religious groupings and possibly ethnic differences. Further,
it has people who are neighbours. Neighbouring — adults or children- tolerate,
condone, or deny certain attitudes and behaviour and as a result we are either
Northerners or Southerners. Further, we accept these moves and conform, or
we deny them and possibly rebel. The conformity or rebellion in some respects
is the evidence of the attitudes we hold.
c. Economic status and occupations

Our economic and occupational positions also contribute to attitude

formation. They determine, in part, our attitudes towards unions and
management and our belief that certain laws are “good” or “bad”. Our socio-
economic background influences our present and future attitudes.
d. Mass communication

All varieties of mass communications — televisions, radio, newspaper and

magazines feed their audiences large quantities of information. The
presentation of news or information is constructed so as to cater to the
attitude of the audience. In turn, the audience selects the specific form of
mass communication that best reflects
its attitudes on various subjects. The material we select helps us either to
substantiate our opinions or to establish new ones.
TYPES OF ATTITUDES
Individuals possess hundreds of attitudes. But in organizational behaviour,
we are concerned with work related attitudes which are mainly three:
i. Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction refers to one’s feeling towards one’s job. An individual

having satisfaction is said to posses positive attitude towards the job.
Conversely, a dissatisfied person will have negative attitude towards his orher
job. When people speak of employee attitudes they invariably refer to job
satisfaction. In fact, the two terms are used interchangeably, though subtle
difference does exist between the two.
ii. Job Involvement

Job involvement refers to the degree with which an individual identifies

psychologically with his or her job and perceives his or her perceived
performance level important to self worth. High degree of job involvement
results in fewer absence and lower resignation rates.
iii. Organizational Commitment

The last job attitude refers to organizational commitment. It is understood as

one’s identification with his or her organization and feels proud of being its
employee. Job involvement refers to one’s attachment to a job whereas
organizational commitment implies an employee’s identification with a
particular organization and its goals. Needless to say, it is to state that, an
individual may be attached to his or her job but may be indifferent to the
organization and its objectives. Turnover and absenteeism are low when
employees have organizational commitment.

FUNCTIONS OF ATTITUDE

Why do we hold on to certain attitudes towards individuals or objects? It is

because these attitudes help us respond to the individuals or objects in a
meaningful way. Attitudes serve four important functions:

i. Utilitarian
An attitude may develop because either the attitude or the object of the attitude
is instrumental in helping one to obtain rewards or avoid punishments. In some
cases the attitude is a means to an end. A worker finds that when he expresses a
negative attitude towards his boss, his co-workers pay attention to and
sympathies with him, but when he expresses a positive attitude, he is ignored
or chastened. The negative attitude is instrumental in obtaining rewards
(acceptance) and avoiding punishment (reflection). In another case, the object
is a means to an end, and the attitude develops from association of the object
and its outcome.
For Example
A car salesman may develop favourable attitudes towards blue-collar workers,
to whom he can easily sell, and a negative attitude towards doctors, who he
finds always searching for a bargain and difficult to sell to. He associates
success and profit with blue collar workers and failure and difficulty with
doctors and thus he develops appropriate attitudes towards those objects
through association.
ii. Ego-defence

People often form and maintain certain attitudes to protect their own self-
images. For e.g., workers may feel threatened by the employment or
advancement of minority or female workers in their organization. These
threatened workers may develop prejudices against the new workers. They
may develop an attitude that such newcomers are less qualified, and they
might mistreat these workers. Such an ego defensive attitude is formed and
used to cope with a feeling of guilt or threat. Unless this feeling is removed,
this kind of attitude will remain unchanged.
iii. Value Expressive

Our attitude reflects our value systems. And our value expressive attitudes
are closely related to our self- concept. One whose central value is freedom,
the individual may express very positive attitudes towards decentralization of
authority in the organization, flexible work schedules and relaxation of dress
standards.
iv. Knowledge

Attitude is often substituted for knowledge. In the absence of knowledge, we

use our attitude to organise and make sense out of the perceived object or
person. For e.g., people who are not familiar with nuclear energy may develop
an attitude that it is dangerous and should not be used as an energy source.
Stereotyping is another example. In the absence of knowledge about a
person, we may use a stereotyped attitude for judging the person.
Why should managers know about these attitude functions? Such knowledge
can serve two purposes. First, it helps us understand and predict how a certain
person is likely to behave. For e.g., if a person is “prejudiced” against another,
he is less likely to be fair in judging the other person. Moreover, this
knowledge helps the manager see why the person has developed such an
attitude. Second, it can help the manager change the attitude of another
person. He can do this by changing the conditions that sustain the attitude.
For e.g., he can change people with low self-images by helping them increase
their ability to solve their problems, or by providing them with positive
feedback on what they accomplish.

CHANGING ATTITUDE

Attitudes of employees can be changed and it is in the best interest of the

organization to try for the change. But change is difficult as there are barriers
to it.
Barriers to Change
One obstacle to the change of attitude is the attitude theory of balance and
consistency. That is, human beings prefer their attitudes about people ad things
to be in line (i.e. balanced, consistent) with their behaviours towards each
other and objects. When attitudes or behaviours are not consistent, people
usually seek to reduce the inconsistency rewarding internally. Leon Festinger
has developed a theory in support of attitude consistency called cognitive
dissonance. Festinger’s theory states that dissonance makes an individual feel
uncomfortable. This feeling makes the individual try to reduce dissonance.
Cognitive dissonance also occurs when a person behaves in a fashion that is
inconsistent with his or her attitudes. For e.g., a person may realize that
smoking and overeating are dangerous, yet continue to do both. Because the
attitudes and behaviour are not consistent with each other, the person probably
will experience a certain amount of tension and discomfort and may engage in
dissonance reduction, seeking ways to reduce the dissonance and tension it
causes. The dissonance associated with smoking might be resolved by
rationalizing. In general, the person attempts to change the attitude, alter the
behaviour or perceptually distort the circumstances to reduce tension and
discomfort. In the organizational setting, cognitive dissonance occurs when an
employee desires to leave the present job as there is no use in continuing and
working hard. The individual may rationalize his or her stay with such
explanations as, “organization is not bad after all” or “what is the alternative?”
The second barrier
The second barrier to change of attitude is prior commitments. This occurs
when people feel a commitment to a particular course of action and are
unwilling to change.
The third barrier
The third barrier results from insufficient information. Sometimes people see no
reason why they should change their attitudes. The boss may not like a
subordinate’s negative attitude, but the latter may be quite pleased with his
behaviour. Unless the boss can show the individual why a negative attitude is
detrimental to career progress or salary increases or some other personal
objective, the subordinate may continue to have negative attitude.
WAYS OF CHANGING
A few important ways of changing attitudes have been described below:
i. Providing new information
New information will help change attitudes. Negative attitudes are mainly
formed owing to lack of or insufficient information. Workers generally
become pro-union because of the ignorance about the good intentions of the
management. Once they come to know how the management cares for the
welfare of the workers, they change their attitude and might turn pro-
management.
ii. Use of Fear

Fear can change attitude. However, the change depends on the degree of fear.
For e.g., if low levels of fear arouses are used, people often ignore them. The
warnings are not strong enough to warrant attention. If moderate levels of fear
arousals are used, people often become aware of situation and will change
their attitudes. However, if high degrees of fear arousal are used, people often
reject the message, because it is too threatening and thus not believable. On the
contrary, high degrees of fear may prove counter productive. On being
threatened too far, people tend to become stubborn in their attitudes and may
refuse to change.
iii. Influence of friends or peers

Change of attitude can come about through persuasion of friends or peers.

Credibility of the others, specially peers, is important to effect change. Peers
with high creditability shall exercise significant influence on change. The
same is not true with peers who have low creditabilities.
iv. The co-opting approach

Co-opting is another way of changing attitude. This means taking people who
are dissatisfied with a situation and getting them involved in improving things.
v. Others

Research has shown that an individual is more likely to change a privately

held attitude than one he has stated publicly. It is, therefore, necessary that a
situation is avoided where the individual makes his attitude public prior to the
change attempt.
The individual from a culturally deprived environment who holds an array of
hostile attitudes, may change when he is given opportunities for education. A
person from privileged subculture, who has always held to a democratic attitude,
may become negative towards some group because of one unfortunate
experience. Again, through continued association with others holding similar
attitudes, one can be influenced in a positive or negative direction. Here the
attitudes of both the reference group and the social climate are important.
TYPES OF CHANGE

Attitude change may be classified into congruent and incongruent change.

Congruent change in attitude involves a movement in the same direction but
with reduced intensity of feeling. For e.g., a negative or positive attitude of a
boss towards his subordinate will persist, but the degree of like or dislike is
reduced. Incongruent change involves change of direction itself from positive
(or negative) attitude towards a person to negative (or positive) attitude
towards the same person. This change is observable in behavioural terms
such as change in retail store purchases, resigning from an organization or
joining one.

ATTITUDE AND OB

Employee attitudes are important to management because of their influence

on behaviour, attitudinal influences or perception, job-satisfaction, job-
involvement, and organizational commitment.
Attitudinal Influences on Behaviour

Attitudes affect employee behaviour. However, a direct relationship between

attitudes and actions is not agreeable to some, since attitude does not lead to
any specific action. For e.g., a manager may dislike certain people in minority
groups, but he may nevertheless treat them fairly and pleasantly in his office.
This inconsistency occurs because the manager does not allow his attitude to
interfere with his professional judgement. However, these attitudes may
manifest themselves in other behaviour. For e.g., the manager may treat the
minority workers fairly on the job but not invite them to his son’s or
daughter’s marriage.
Although the influence of attitudes on behaviour is not clearly discernible, two
theories,
i.e. cognitive dissonance and self fulfilling prophecy, helps us understand the
direction of attitudinal influences.

Cognitive dissonance will be more intense when any of the following

conditions exist:
i. The decision is an important one psychologically or financially.
ii. There are a number of foregone alternatives.
iii. The foregone alternatives have many positive features. Typically an individual
will try to minimize the dissonance by using any of the four methods. The
methods are:
i. The individual seeks information that confirms the wisdom of the decision.

ii. The individual selectively perceives (distorts) information in a way that

supports the decision.
iii. The person adopts a less favourable attitude towards the foregone alternatives.

iv. The person down plays the importance of any negative aspects of the choice
and magnifies the positive elements.

The self fulfilling prophecy is the process by which we try to convert our
attitudes, beliefs and expectations into reality. If we predict that something is
going to happen, we will try very hard to make it happen. For e.g., if we feel
that we are competent, we will undertake challenging tasks.

Consequently, we gain experience and skills that make us more competent, so

that we accomplish even more. However, if we have a negative attitude towards
ourselves, we will not provide ourselves with the chance to become competent.

Attitudinal Influence on Perception

Perceptual outcomes are derived from past experiences and perceptions, but
they also influence the way we perceive stimuli such sayings as “Beauty is
altogether in the eye of the beholder” and “one person’s trash is another
person’s treasure” emphasise the importance of attitudes in perceiving the
world around us. If our attitudes are positive, things will look brighter to us
than if they are negative.
JOB SATISFACTION

Employee attitudes are important to monitor, understand and manage. They

develop as a consequences of the feelings of equality or inequality in the
reward system as well as from supervisory treatment. Managers are
particularly concerned with three types of attitudes, namely job satisfaction, job
involvement and organizational commitment.

Although many of the factors contributing to job satisfaction are under the
control of managers, it is also true that people do differ in their personal
dispositions as they enter organizations. Some people are optimistic, upbeat,
cheerful and courteous. They are said to have positive affectivity. Others are
generally pessimistic, downbeat, irritable and even abrasive. They are said to
have negative affectivity. Appears that people are predisposed to be satisfied or
dissatisfied. But it is important to explore the nature and effect of job
satisfaction.

Elements of job satisfaction

Job satisfaction is a set of favourable or non-favourable feelings and emotions
with which employees view their work. Job satisfaction is an affective attitude.
Job satisfaction refers to the attitude of an individual single employee. The
general term used to describe overall group satisfaction is MORALE. Group
morale is important to monitor since individuals often take their social cues
from their work associates and adapt their attitudes to conform to those of the
group.
Job satisfaction studies focus on various parts that are believed to be
important, since job-related attitudes predispose an employee to behave in
certain ways. Important elements of job satisfaction include pay, one’s
supervisor, the nature of tasks performed, an employers co-workers or team and
the immediate working conditions. Managers should not allow an employee’s
high satisfaction on one element to offset high dissatisfaction on another by
arithmetically bonding both feelings into an average rating. The attention
should be divided between elements that are related to job content (i.e. nature of
job) and those which are part of the job-context. (supervisor, co-workers and
organization)
Like attitudes, job satisfaction or dissatisfaction emerges over a long period of
time, but job satisfaction is dynamic. Manager must pay attention to employee
attitudes week after week, month after month, year after year since the stability
in job satisfaction varies in level.
Job satisfaction is one part of life satisfaction. So, it is said that there is a
spill-over effect that occurs in both directions between job and life satisfaction.
Therefore, managers need to monitor not only job and immediate work
environment but also their employee’s attitudes towards other parts of life.
The level of job satisfaction across groups is not constant, but is related to
number of variables. The key variables revolve around age, occupational level
and organizational size. The level of job satisfaction are higher in smaller
organization units. Larger organizations tend to overwhelm with people,
disrupt supportive processes and limit the amounts of personal closeness,
friendship, and small group team work that are important aspects of job
satisfaction for many.

JOB INVOLVEMENT

Two other distinct but related, employee attitudes are important to many
employers in addition to job satisfaction. Job involvement is the degree to
which employees immerse themselves in their job, invest time and energy in
them and view work as a central part of their overall lives. Job-involved
employees are likely to believe in the work, to exhibit high growth needs, and
to enjoy participation in decision making. As a result, they are willing to work
long hours and they will attempt to be high performers.

ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT

Organizational commitment or employee loyalty, is the degree to which an

employee identifies with the organization and wants to continue actively
participating in it. It is a measure of the employee’s willingness to remain
with a firm in the future. It reflects the
Employee’s belief in the mission and goals of the firm, willingness to expend
effort in their accomplishment and intentions to continue working here.
Commitment is usually stronger among longer term employees.
Organizationally committed employees will usually have good attendance
records, demonstrate a willing abstinance to company policies, lower turnover
rates. A comprehensive approach to OB suggests that a manager should consider
ways in which the work environment can help produce all three key employee
attitudes
— job satisfaction, job involvement and organizational commitment. Higher job
involvement tends to higher levels of dedication and productivity in workers.
High performance and equitable rewards encourage high satisfaction through a
performance-satisfaction-effort loop. Higher job satisfaction usually is
associated with lower turnover and fewer absence. Committed employees are
also more likely to embrace company values and its culture.

VALUES

Value is generally used in two different ways: as a characteristic of an object or

as an attribute possessed by an individual and thought desirable. The focus
here is on the latter.
A value is defined as a “concept of the desirable, an internalizes criterion of
standard of evaluation a person possesses. Such concepts and standards are
relatively few and determined or guide an individual’s evaluation of the many
objects encountered in everyday life”.
Values are tinged with moral flavor, involving an individual’s judgement of
what is right, good or desirable. Thus, values provide standards of competence
and morality.

i. Are fewer in number than attitudes.

ii. Transcend specific objects, situations or persons.

iii. Are relatively permanent and resistant to change.

iv. Are most central to the core of a person.

Values and Attitudes

There are differences between values and attitudes. Attitudes essentially

represent predisposition’s to respond. Values focus on the judgement of what
ought to be. This judgement can represent the specific manifestation of a
determining tendency below the surface of the behaviour. Attitudes represent
several beliefs focussed on a specific object or situation. Value, on the other
hand, represents a single belief that transcendently guides actions and
judgements across objects and situations. Finally, a value stands in relation to
some social or cultural standards or norms while attitudes are mostly personal
experiences.
There are similarity between values and attitudes. Both are powerful
instruments influencing cognitive process and behaviour of people both are
learned and acquired from the same sources — experience with people and
objects. Values and attitudes are relatively permanent and are resistant to change.
Finally, values and attitudes influence each other and are, more often than not,
used interchangeably.

TYPES OF VALUES

In extensive research conducted during the last 2 decades, Milton Rokeach

has identified 2 basic types of values- terminal and instrumental. A terminal
value is an ultimate goal in a desired status or outcome. An instrumental value,
on the other hand, is a tool or means for acquiring a terminal value. For e.g., a
person may desire and strive to achieve happiness, a terminal value by being
ambitious, independent and responsible (instrumental values).
Some of the terminal values are- Equality, Freedom, Family Security,
Happiness, National security. Some of the Instrumental values are —
Ambitious, Broad-minded, Capable, Cheerful, Honest.
The different values an individual has, both terminal and instrumental,
combine to create an enduring cluster of values, a value system. Our values
and value system then are primary determinants of who and what we are as
individual.
Another way of categorizing values is given below:
Theoretical — Interest in the discovery of truth through reasoning and
systematic thinking.
i. Economics- Interest useful and practicality, including the accumulation of
wealth.
ii. Aesthetic- Interest in beauty, form and artistic harmony.
iii. Social- Interest in people and love as a relationship.
iv. Political- Interest in gaining power and influencing people.
v. Religious- Interest in unity and understanding the cosmos as a whole.

Formation of Values

Values are learned and acquired primarily through experience with people,
institution. Parents, for e.g., will have substantial influence on the values of
their children values. Parents relation to everyday events demonstrates what is
good and bad, acceptable and unacceptable, and important and unimportant
values are also taught and reinforced interest in schools, religious organization,
and social groups. As we grow and develop, each source of influence
contributes to our definition of what is important in life.
Cultural moves have influence on the formation of values. Basic conviction of
what is good or bad are derived from one’s satisfaction about own culture.

Values and OB
An understanding of values is useful to a manager interest following ways:
i. Values are important to the study of OB because they lay the foundation for
the understanding of attitudes and motivation as well as influencing our
perception. Individual enter an organization with preconceived notion of what
“ought” and what “ought not” to be. Of course, these notions are not value free.
On the contrary they contain interpretation of right and wrong. Further, they
imply that certain behaviours or outcomes are preferred over others. As a result, it
clouds objectivity and rationality.
ii. Values generally influence attitudes and behaviour. Suppose an individual
enters an organization with the view that allocating pay on the basis of
performance is right, whereas allocating pay on the basis of seniority is
wrong or inferior. He is likely to get disappointed if the organization rewards
seniority and merit, disappointment is likely to lead to dissatisfaction and
decline interest performance. His attitude and behaviour would be different if
his values are aligned with the organization‘s pay policies.
iii. The challenge and relationship-examination of established work values
constitute of the cornerstones of the current management revolution all over the
world. Hence, an understanding of values becomes a necessity
iv. Values differ across culture What is permissible in the U.S may be
simple considreation. Strangely, majority of the principles and concepts of OB
have been developed by American, using American subjects within domestic
context. A study of more than 11000 articles published in 24 management and
OB journals over a ten-year period reveals that, approximately 80% of studies
have been done in the
U.S and have been conducted by Americans. This implies that OB specialists
should remember that, no theories and principles are universally applicable to
managing people around the world. They should take into consideration
cultural values when trying to understand the behaviours of people’s interest
different in countries.

JOB SATISFACTION

It is useful to highlight the important aspects of job [Link]

important dimensions to Job satisfaction are:
i. Job satisfaction refers to one’s feeling towards one’s job. It can only be
inferred but not seen.
ii. Job satisfaction is often determined by how well outcomes meet or
exceed expectations. Satisfaction with one’s job means increased
commitment in the
Fulfillment of formal requirements. There is greater willingness to invest
personal energy and time into job performance.
iii. The terms job satisfaction and job attitudes are typically used
interchangeably. Both refer to effective orientation on the part of individuals
towards their work and roles which they are presently occupying. Positive
attitudes towards the job are conceptually equivalent to job satisfaction and
negative attitudes towards the job dissatisfaction:

Though the terms job satisfaction and attitudes are used interchangeably, there
are differences between the two. Job satisfaction, on the other hand, relates to
performance factor. Attitudes reflect ones feeling towards individuals,
organizations and objects. But satisfaction refers to one’s attitude to a job. Job
satisfaction is therefore, a specific subset of attitudes. Attitudes endue
generally, but job satisfaction is dynamic, it can decline ever more quickly
than developed. Managers, therefore, cannot establish the conditions leading
to high satisfaction as now and then employee needs may change. Managers
need to pay attention to job satisfaction constantly.

Some of the few definitions of job satisfaction:

a. Job satisfaction is defined as a “pleasurable or positive emotional state

resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experience”.
b. Job satisfaction is a set of favourable or unfavourable feeling with which
employees view their work.
c. Job satisfaction will be defined as the amount of overall positive affect ( or
feeling) that individual have towards their jobs.

Consequences of satisfaction

High job satisfaction may lead to improved productivity, increased

turnover,improved attendance, less job stress and lower unionization

i. Productivity
The relationship between satisfaction and productivity is not definitely
established. The result, however, is that in the long run job satisfaction leads
to increased productivity. But, 4 decades of research into this issue,
unfortunately, does not lend support to this belief.
First, the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance is weak.
(Brafield and Crokett, 1955 and from 1964). Interestingly, the latest finding is
that the median correlation between satisfaction and performance is only 0.14
Second, there is more evidence to suggest that job performance leads to job
satisfaction and the other way round (Lawler and Porter, 1967). An employee
who performs well in his job gets both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards which
will lead to his satisfaction. A poor performance will make him feel worse about
his incompetence and will receive fewer rewards. He will be less satisfied with
his work experience.
Third, there are some conditions under which high productivity, more clearly
leads to high job satisfaction. One condition is that the employee perceives that,
intrinsic and extrinsic rewards are contingent upon his productivity. The
second condition is that, the extrinsic rewards (pay for example) be distributed
equitably. Inequitable distribution fails to convince the employees that there is
close correlation between hard work and rewards.
However, the adage “a happy worker is a productive worker” is not always
wrong. True, there may not be a relationship between job satisfaction and
productivity. Performance may be affected indirectly by absenteeism or
turnover which is related (negatively) to satisfaction.
ii. Job satisfaction and Employee Turnover

High employée turnover Is of considérable concern for employee because it

disrupts normal operations, causes morale problems for those who stick on
and increases the cost involved in selecting and training replacements. The
employer does whatever possible to minimize turnover, making the employee
feel satisfied on their jobs, being one such.
Unlike the relationship between satisfaction and productivity, the connection
with turnover is established beyond doubt.
However, the withdrawal behaviour of employee is modified by certain factors.
Loyalty to the organization is one such. Some employees cannot imagine
themselves working elsewhere, however dissatisfied they are in their present
jobs. Availability of other places of employment also influence turnover. If
greener pastures are available, an employee does not mind going in search of
them, not withstanding the present level of job satisfaction he enjoys.
iii. Satisfaction and Absences
Correlation of satisfaction to absenteeism is also proved conclusively.
Workers who are dissatisfied are more likely to take “mental health” days i.e.
days off due to illness or personal business. Simply stated, absenteeism is high
when satisfaction is low. As in turnover, absenteeism is subject to
modification by certain factors. The degree to which people feel that their
jobs are important has a moderating influence on their absences. Employees
who feel that their work is important tend to clock in regular attendance.
Besides, it is important to remember that while high job satisfaction will not
necessarily result in low absenteeism, low satisfaction is likely to bring about
high absenteeism.
iv. Satisfaction and Safety
Poor safety practices are a negative consequence of low satisfaction level.
When people are discouraged about their jobs, company and superiors, they
are more liable to experience accidents. An underlying reason for such
accidents is that, discouragement may take one’s attention away from the task
at hand. Inattention leads to accidents. For e.g., many hand injuries from poorer
tools can be attributed to the operator not paying careful attention.
v. Satisfaction and Job stress
Job stress is the body’s response to any job- related factor that threatens to
disturb the person’s equilibrium. In the process of experiencing stress, the
employee’s inner state changes. Prolonged stress can cause the employee
serious ailment such as heart disease, ulcer, lower back pain and muscles
aches. Chronic job dissatisfaction is a powerful source of job stress. The
employee may see no satisfactory short- term solution to escaping this type of
stress. An employee trapped in a dissatisfying job may withdraw by such
means as high absenteeism and tardiness or the employee may quit.
Employee under prolonged stress stemming from job dissatisfaction often
consume too much alcohol, tobacco and drugs. These employees are costly to
the management in terms of time lost due to frequent absences and increased
payment towards medical reimbursement.
vi. Unionization

It is proved that job dissatisfaction is a major cause for unionization.

Dissatisfaction with wages, job security, fringe benefits, chances for
promotion and treatment by superiors are reasons which make employees join
unions. Another dimension is that job dissatisfaction can have an impact on
the tendency to take action within the union, such as filing grievances or
striking.
Other effects of Job-Satisfaction
In addition to above, it has been claimed that a satisfied employee tend to
have better mental and physical health and learn new job- related tasks more
quickly. Practicing manager and OB researcher would agree that, job satisfaction
is important to an organization. Critics however, point out that, this is pure
conjecture because there is so much we do not know about the positive effects
of satisfaction. On the other hand, when job satisfaction is low, there seems to
be negative effects on the organization that have been documented. So, if only
from the stand point of viewing job satisfaction as a minimum requirement or
point of departure, it is of value to the organization’s overall health and
effectiveness and is deserving of study and application in the field of OB.
Sources of job satisfaction
Several job element contribute to job satisfaction .The most important
amongst them are wage structure, nature of work, promotion chances, quality
of superior, work group and working conditions
I. Wages
Wages play a significant role in influencing job satisfaction. This is because
of 2 reason. First, money is an instrument in fulfilling one’s needs, and two,
employees often see pay as a reflection of management’s concern for them.
Employee want a pay system which is simple, fair and in line with their
expectations. When pay is seen as fair, based on job demands, individual skill
level, and community pay standards, satisfaction is likely to result. What
needs emphasis is that, it is not the absolute pay that matters, rather it is one’s
perception of fairness.
ii. Nature of works
Most employees crave intellectual challenges on jobs. They tend to prefer
being given opportunities to use their skills and abilities and being offered a
variety of tasks, freedom and feedback on how well they are doing. These
characteristics make jobs mentally challenging. Jobs that have too little
challenge create boredom. But too much challenge creates frustration and a
feeling of failure. Under conditions of moderate challenge, employees
experience pleasure and job satisfaction.
iii. Promotions
Promotional opportunities affect job satisfaction considerably. The desire for
promotion is generally strong among employees as it involves change in job
content, pay, responsibility, independence, status and the like. An average
employee in a typical government organization can hope to get two or three
promotions in his entire service, though chances of promotion are better in the
private sector. It is no surprise that the employee takes promotion as the
ultimate achievement in his career and when it is realized, he feels extremely
satisfied.
iv. Supervisions

There is a positive relationship between the quality of supervisor and job

satisfaction. Supervisor who establishs a supportive personal relationship with
subordinates and takes a personal interest in them, contributes to their
employee satisfaction. On realizing the role of supervision in creating
satisfaction, a number or supervisory roles have been suggested for the
purpose. Some of the supervisory roles are:
a. Maintain open lines of communication
b. Create a good physical environment.
c. Remedy sub-standard conditions.
d. Transfer discontent employees.
e. Change the perception of dissatisfied employees.
f. Display concern for employees.
g. Give ample recognition.
h. Allow for participative in management.
i. Practice good management
j. Conduct morale building programs.
v. Work Group
Work Group does serve as a source of satisfaction to individual employées. It
dose so, primarily by providing the group member, with opportunities for
interaction, with each other. It is well known that, for many employees, work
fills the need for social interaction. The work group is a even stronger source of
satisfaction when members have similar attitudes and values. Having people
around with similar attitudes causes less friction on day to day basis. Co-
worker’s with similar attitudes and values can provide some confirmation of
people’s self concept.
vi. Working condition
Working condition that are compatible with an employee’s physical comfort
and that facilitate doing a good job, contribute to job satisfaction. Température,
humidity, ventilation, lighting and noise, hours of work, cleanliness of work
place and adequate tools and equipment are the features which affect job
satisfaction.
The assumption that working condition and satisfaction are interrelated
contradicts the two-factor theory of motivation. According to this theory,
working conditions are a part of maintenance factor which, when provided,
help remove dissatisfaction. And the opposite of dissatisfaction is no
dissatisfaction, but not satisfaction. Thus, while working condition constitute a
source of job satisfaction they are a relatively minor source. Generally, unless
working conditions are either extremely good or bad, they are taken for
granted by most employees. Only when employees themselves change jobs or
when working conditions change dramatically over time. (e.g.; moving into new
facilities) do working conditions assume more relevance. In other words, all
workers are not satisfying dissatisfaction by favourable or unfavourable work
environment.

Personality is the product of heredity, environment, and family, social and

situational factors. The “Big Five” personality trait includes extroversion,
agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness of
experience.