THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE ORGANIZATION NOTES
Introduction
People are the organization’s most valuable and expensive resource but
they are most difficult element of organization to manage. Individuals
are almost infinitely different, they act differently in different
circumstances and are in many ways , entirely unpredictable.
Organizations are interested in the way which people behave at work for
them to perform effectively in pursuit of the organizations goals. It is important first to understand what makes people behave in
the way rather do by looking into the following determinants;
PERSONALITY
Personality is the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts to
and interacts with others .Personality describes the growth and
development of a persons whole psychological system.
“Personality is defined as the dynamic organizations within the
individual of these psycho-physical system that determine his unique
adjustment to his environment “ by Gordon Allport.
Personality Determinants
- Heredity
Heredity refer to those factors that were determined at conception e.g.
physical structure , facial attractiveness , gender , temperaments ,
muscles composition & reflexes , energy level and biological rhythms are
characteristics that are influenced by biological parents either
completely or substantially. - Environment
Environmental factors play a role in shaping personalities .They
include; the norms among family, friendship and social groups. These
factors determine what individual experience in life. - Situation
These influences the effects of heredity and environment on personality
.An individual personality while generally stable and consistent , does
change in different situation . Different demands in different
situations call forth different aspects of one’s personality .
Personality Traits and Types
Those characteristics describes an individuals behavior .The more
consistent the characteristics, the more frequently it occurs in diverse
situations ,the more important, that trait is in describing the
individual. According to Myers -Briggs Type Indicator personality has
been classified as follows .
- Extraverted vs. introverted
Extraverted individuals are outgoing , sociable and assertive while
introverts are quit and shy. - Sensing vs. Intuitive
Sensing types are practical and prefer routine and order focusing on
details while intuitive rely on unconscious processes and look at
the “Big picture”. - Thinking vs. feeling
Thinking type use reason and logic to handle problems while feeling
types rely on their personal values and emotions. - Judging vs. perceiving
Judging types want to control and prefer world to be ordered and
structured while perceiving types are flexible and spontaneous.
Major Personality Attributes Influencing Organization Behaviour
- Core self evaluation
These is the degree to which individuals like or dislike themselves
whether they see themselves as capable and effective and whether they
feel they are in control of their environment or powerless over it .an
individual core self evaluation is determined by:
- Self esteem :- which is to individuals degree of liking or disliking
themselves and the degree to which they feel worthy or unworthy as a
person . - Locus of control :- which is the degree to which people believe that
they are masters of their own fate - Internals:-Individuals who believe that they control what happens to
them. - Extends : -individuals who believe that what happens to them is
controlled by outside factors such as luck or chance.
- Machiavellianism
Machiavellianism (Mach) is named after Niccolo Machiavelli who wrote on
how to gain and use power. Machiavellianism is the degree to which an
individual is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance and believes that
ends in justifies means. - Narcissm
Narcissm is the tendency to be arrogant, have a grandiose sense of self
importance, require excessive admiration and have sense of entitlement.
Narcissm’s are not effective especially when dealing with people. - Self monitoring
Self monitoring refers to an individual ability to adjust his/ her
behavior to external or situational factors. Individual’s high in self
monitoring show considerable adaptability in adjusting their behavior to
external situational factors. - Risk taking
People differ in their willingness to take chances. This 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. Highrisk taking managers are said to make
more rapid decision compared to low risk taking managers - Type A personality
A person with type A personality is aggressively involved in a chronic ,
incessant struggle to achieve more and more in less and less time and if
necessary against the opposing efforts of other things or other people
.Type A’s operate under moderate to high levels of stress .They subject
themselves to more or less continuous time pressure ,creating for
themselves a life of deadlines. - Proactive personality
These are people who identify opportunities , show initiative ,take
caution and persevere until meaningful change occurs .They create
positive change in their environment regardless or even in spite of
constraints or obstacles .
VALUES
Values represent basic convictions that “ a specific mode of conduct or
end state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an
opposite or converse mode of conduct or end state of existence .
- Values contain a judgmental element in that they carry an individual
idea as to what is right, good or desirable. - In organization behaviour values are important study because they
lay on foundation for the understanding of attitudes , perceptions
and motivation
Sources of value systems
- The values people hold are essentially established in their early
years from parents , teachers , friends and relatives .However as
one grows up ,he gets exposed to other value systems and this alters
some of his values. - Values can be reactive ,tribalism
, egocentric , conformity , manipulative ,socio centric , existential .
PERCEPTION AND INDIVIDUAL DECISION -MAKING
Definition
Perception is a process by which individuals organize and interpret
their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment .
These factors can reside in the perceiver ,in the object or target being
perceived or in the context of the situation in which the perception is
made. When an individual looks at a target and attempts to interpret
what he/she sees that interpretation is heavily influenced by the
personal characteristic of the individual perceiver .Personal
characteristic that affect perception include; a person’s attitudes,
personality motives , interests, past experience and expectations.
Characteristic of the target being observed can effect what is perceived
e.g. loud people are more likely to be noticed in a group than quite
ones . The context in which objects are seen is important .The time at
which an object or event is seen can influence attention as locations
,light , heat and any number of situational factors.
Factors in the perceiver
- Attitudes
- Motives
- Interest
- Experience
Factors in the situation
- Time
- Work setting
- Social setting
*PERCEPTION *
Factors in the target
- Novelty
- Motion
- Sounds
- Size
- Background
- Proximity
Reasons as to why people see things differently.
- Their physical senses vary e.g. color blindness , ,less than perfect
vision ,poor hearing , imperfect sense of smell . - Healthy differences.
- Their general intelligence levels vary.
- Nature and effects of past experienced are different for individuals .
- Individual values and attitudes cause people to see things differently
- Personality differs and thus individuals tend to adopt particular
stances towards outside events. - Individuals aspirations and goals also differ widely and these
affect the relative importance attached to outside events. - Status also effect on perception.
- The situation or context in which perception take place can have a
major bearing on the behavior of the perceiver . - The perceptual process can also be affected by the number of parties
involved.
ATTITUDES AND JOB SATISFACTION
Attitude is defined as a persistence tendency to feel and believe in a
particular way towards some object .
Attitudes are complex cognitive process but can be characterized in
three ways:
- They tend to persist unless something is done to change them
- Attitudes can fall anywhere along the continuum from very favorable
to very unfavorable. - Attitudes are directed towards some object about which a person has
feelings and beliefs.
Dimensions for attitude
- Basic components
Attitudes can be broken into basic components
Emotional
Emotional component is the person’s feelings about an object i.e.
Positive, negative or neutral.
- Expressions of emotions, either positive like a customer representative.
- Negative, like a bill collector or a police officer.
- Neutral, Like an academic administration or public.
- Servant is all important to work behavior.
Informational
These consists of the beliefs and information the individual has about
the object
Behavioral
These consist of a person tendencies to believe in a particular way
towards an object
- Attitude formation
Past experience
People come to believe or not to believe things on the basis of what
they have seen happen or experienced in the past. Example; If everyone
who has held job A has been promoted within six months , current job A
holders are likely to believe that they also will be promoted within six
months.
Available information
If employees hears from personnel department that job A holders are
going to be promoted rapidly ,this will influence without they believe.
Generalization
This comes from similar events or situations Examples ;if no one has
held closely related job B has never been promoted ,this may lead job A
holders to believe that they will not be promoted either . The important
thing about attitude formation is that it is learned. Employees learn
attitude from experiences, co-workers, group membership, family and friends.
Functions of Attitude
- The adjustment function
Helps people adjust to their work environment .When the employees in an
organization are well treated by the boss, they will develop a positive
attitude toward supervision and the organization .When the boss treats
the employees negatively , the opposite is the true. - The ego-defensive function
Attitudes help employees to defend their self images .Examples, an older
manger whose decision are continually challenged by a younger
sub-ordinate manager may feel that he is brash ,cocky, immature and
inexperienced, though the manager may be ineffective and poor in his
strategies. - The value expressive
Attitudes provide people with a basis for expressing their values.
Example .A manager who believes strongly in the work ethics will tend to
voice attitudes toward specific individuals or work practices as a means
of reflecting this value. - Knowledge value
Attitude help supply standards and names of reference that allow people
to organize and explain the world around them e.g. a union organizer may
have a negative attitude toward management.
Changing Attitudes
Employees attitudes can be changed and sometimes, it is in the best
interest of management to try to do so. Attitude change is sometimes
difficult to accomplish because of certain barriers .After the barriers
are examined , ways of overcoming them and effectively changing
attitudes will be examined . The barriers can be overcome by providing
new information ,use of fear and
through dissolving discrepancies ,use of influence of friends or peers
and the co-opting approach.
JOB SATISFACTION
Job satisfaction is a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting
from the appraisal of one’s job or job experience .It is a result of
employees perception of how well their job provides those things which
are reviewed as important .
Dimensions of job satisfaction
- Job satisfaction is an emotional response to a job satisfaction.
- Job satisfaction is often determined by how well outcomes meet or
exceed expectations. - Job satisfaction represents several related attitude namely; work
itself , pay ,promotion opportunity , supervision and co-workers.
Source and Consequences of Job Satisfaction
- Pay
Wages are a significant factor in job satisfaction .Money not only helps
people to attain their basic needs, but it is instrumental in providing
upper level need satisfaction - Work itself
The content of the work itself is another major source of satisfaction
.Work should be challenging not boring and a job that provides status. - Promotions
Promotional opportunities seem to have a varying effect on job
satisfaction .This is because promotions take a number of different
forms and have a variety of accompanying rewards . - Supervision
Supervision is another moderately important source of job satisfaction
.A participative climate created by the supervision has a more
substantial effect on workers satisfaction than it does in participation
a specific decision . - Work group
The nature of work groups will have an effect on job satisfaction.
Friendly cooperative co-workers are a modest source of job satisfaction
to individual employees. - Working conditions
Working conditions are another factor that have a modest effect on job
satisfaction e.g. clean and attractive surroundings for instance will
enable the personnel to find its easier to carry out their jobs.
LEARNING
Learning is a process in which experience brings about permanent changes
in behaviour or attitudes .The study of learning has had to concentrate
on observable changes. Learning is a process by which human beings
becomes aware of themselves and their environment and the need to adopt
the one to the other in order to survive, grow and prosper . Learning is
a process by which people acquire knowledge , understanding skills and
values and apply them to solve problems throughout their daily life.
Results of learning
- Learning usually implies change.
- Learning implies relatively permanent change.
- Learning usually manifests itself through behavior.
- Learning involves some stimulus or experience.
- Learning is influenced by personal characteristics.
- Learning is influenced by others (teacher’s roles model)
- Learning requires feedback.
- Learning is aided by success.
- People can also learn their mistakes or failures.
Factors affecting learning
Human learning is a complex process involving numerous internal and
external factors .
Internal Factors
- Health
- Intellectual capacity
- Motivation
- Special aptitudes
- Temperament
- Personal values
- Past experiences
External factors
- Ability of teacher’s role
- Learning consent
- Teaching methods
- Feedback of results
- Learning Aids
- Learning context
Theories of Learning
- Classical conditioning
Classical conditioning grew out of experiments to teach dogs to
salivates in response to the ringing of a bell , conducted in the early
1900’s by Ivan Pavlov. A simple surgical procedure allowed Pavlov to
measure accurately the amount of saliva secreted by a dog .When Pavlov
presented the dog with a piece of meat ,the dog exhibited a noticeable
increase in salivation .When Pavlov withheld the
presentation of meat and merely rang a bell , the dog did not salivate
Then Pavlov proceeded to link the meat and the ringing of the bell .Then
Pavlov withheld the presentation of meat and merely rang a bell , the
dog did not salivate. Then he proceeded to link the meat and the ringing
of bell. After repeatedly hearing the bell before getting the food ,the
dog began to salivate as soon as the bell rang. After a while the dog
would salivate merely at the sound of the bell, even if no food was
offered .The meat was an unconditioned stimulus that caused the dog to
react in a specific way .The bell was an artificial stimulus. Learning a
conditioned response involves building up an association between a
conditioned stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus .Classical
conditioning is passive, meaning if something happens one reacts in a
specific way
