B.Com.(Hons.)/B.Com. (Prog.

) Semester-V/VI Commerce

Discipline Specific Elective (DSE-1)

Discipline Specific Elective (DSE-4)
Organizational Behavior
Unit : I-V

SCHOOL OF OPEN LEARNING

University of Delhi

Department of Commerce
 CONTENT

UNIT-I INTRODUCTION Dr. Rakesh Gupta

Chapter-1 Introduction to Organizational Behavior

UNIT-II INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR Dr. Rakesh Gupta

Chapter-1 Personality
Chapter-2 Perception
Chapter-3 Attitudes, Values and Job Satisfaction
Chapter-4 Emotions and Moods

UNIT-III MOTIVATION Dr. Rashmi Goel

Chapter-1 Motivation

UNIT-IV GROUP BEHAVIOR AND LEADERSHIP Dr. Rashmi Goel

Chapter-1 Power and Politics

UNIT-V DYNAMICS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR Dr. Rashmi Goel

Chapter-1 Organizational Culture
Chapter-2 Job Stress

Edited by :
Sh. K.B.Gupta

SCHOOL OF OPEN LEARNING

University of Delhi
5, Cavalry Lane, Delhi-110007
 UNIT-I
CHAPTER-1
INTRODUCTION TO ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

1.0 Learning Objectives

After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
 Define organisational behaviour.
 Identify the key elements, nature and scope of organisational behaviour.
 Describe why managers require knowledge of organisational behaviour.
 List the discipline that contributes the understanding of O.B.
 Provide an overview of the major challenges faced by today's management.
 Delineate the process organisational behaviour follows.
 Present models of organisational behaviour in use.
All organisations, be these business, educational or government, are social systems.
These are run by people. Take a business/industrial organisation, for example. It is a
combination of men, money, machinery, material and management, commonly known as
five Ms. In fact, it is management, i.e. people who actually take care of other four Ms.
Then, it means that the functioning of an organisation depends upon how people work or
behave in the organisation.
Human behaviour is caused and is highly unpredictable also. Why people behave as they
behave has, therefore, been a subject of much interest and concern since our earliest
years. Therefore, understanding human behaviour has assumed great significance for the
managers for managing people effectively. In other words, knowledge about why people
behave as they behave helps managers extract maximum results from people's efforts for
accomplishing organisational goals in an effective manner. For this, managers need to
seek answers mainly to these two questions : (1) Why people behave as they behave or
why people do what they do at work in organisations? and (ii) What influences people's
behaviour at work? The same constitute the subject matter of organisational behaviour
(often abbreviated as OB). This chapter being the first one, accordingly, presents an
introduction to organisational behaviour i.e. OB.
We shall begin with the definition of OB.
1.1 DEFINITIONS
"There is no animal more difficult to understand than man".
- Leonardo Salviati
"I am not smart. I try to observe. Millions saw the apple fall, Newton was the one who
asked why".

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 - B. Baruch
OB is concerned with the study of human behaviour at work. In other words, OB is the
study and application of knowledge about how people as individuals and as groups
behave or act in organisations. Different behavioural scientists have defined OB
differently. A few important definitions on OB are given here.
According to Luthans! "OB is directly concerned with the understanding, prediction, and
control of human behaviour in organisations."
Davis and Newstrom? have defined OB as "the study and application of knowledge how
people act or behave within organisation. It is a human tool for human benefit. It applies
broadly to the behaviour of people in all types of organisations such as business,
government, schools and service organisations."
In the opinion of Robbins”, “OB is a field of study that investigates the impact that
individuals, groups, and structure have on behaviour within organisations for the purpose
of applying such knowledge towards improving an organisation's effectiveness."
The above definitions are comprehensive ones as these contain all characteristics of OB.
In brief, what OB studies is three determinants of behaviour in organisations :
individuals, groups, and structure.
To sum up, OB is concerned with the study of how and what people act in organisations
and also how their acts affect the performance of the organisation. It also applies the
knowledge gained about individuals, groups and the effect of structure on human
behaviour in order to make organisations work more effectively.
1.2 KEY ELEMENTS OF OB
Like all other disciplines/subjects, OB is also based on certain key elements also called
'fundamental concepts or assumptions'. There are four key elements in OB. These are:
people, structure, technology, and the environment. Each of these four elements of OB
are now discussed briefly.
People
As mentioned earlier, organisations are run by people. People consist of individuals and
groups. Though people have much in common (they become happy by having gains and
sad by losing something valuable), yet they differ from each other. One can find glaring
differences in people's trait, intelligence, personality or any such trait. It is, in fact,
individual differences the manager cannot adopt one formula or standard across the board
for dealing with employees. Instead, manager has to treat employees with individual
differences differently. It is because of individual differences, the subject matter of OB
begins with individual.
An individual joins organisation along with his/her social background, likes and dislikes,
pride and prejudices. What is to say is that an individual's family life cannot be separated
from organisational life. Therefore, OB studies an individual as a whole person.

2
Human behaviour is always caused. Behaviour is directed towards some goals. here is
always a cause behind every human behaviour or act. For example, when a worker is
absent from work, there is a cause behind. The manager must know the cause to solve the
problem. People are living, thinking, feeling beings. The manager, therefore, needs to
treat them with human dignity, not just like an economic tool.
Structure
Organisations are social systems. There are two types of social systems that exist side by
side in an organisation. One is the formal and other is the informal social system. The
formal relationship of people in organisations is called structure. Different jobs are
required to accomplish the organisational goals and objectives. For example, there are
managers and employees, accountants and assemblers. These all people performing
different jobs at different levels have to be related in some structural way so that their
work can be effectively coordinated.
That people need organisations and organisations also need people also comes under the
purview of OB. It means that OB is based on mutuality of interest. It is mutual interest
that unites people and organisation to go side by side for accomplishing individual and
organisational goals.
Technology
Technology provides the resources with which people work and also affects the tasks that
they perform. The great benefit of technology is that it allows people to do more and
better work. But, it also restricts people from doing things in various ways. In fact, it has
costs as well as benefits.
Environment
All organisations operate within a given internal and external environment.4 in fact, no
organisation exists alone. An organisation is a part of a larger system that contains other
factors or elements, such as a government, the family, and other organisations. All of
these mutually influence one another in a complex way. Thus, organisations are
influenced by the external environment. Environment, thus, affects people by influencing
their attitudes, working conditions, etc. It will not be less than correct to mention that an
organisation is the effect for which environment is the cause. Hence, environment also
becomes a key element in the study of OB.
1.3 NATURE AND SCOPE
Organisational behaviour has emerged as a separate field of study. The nature it has
acquired by now is identified as follows:
1. A Separate Field of Study and Not a Discipline only: By definition, a discipline
is an accepted science that is based on a theoretical foundation. But, OB has a
multiinterdisciplinary orientation and is, thus, not based on a specific theoretical
background. Therefore, it is better reasonable to call OB as a separate field of study
rather than a discipline only.

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2. An Interdisciplinary Approach: OB is essentially an interdisciplinary approach to
study human behaviour at work. It tries to integrate the relevant knowledge
drawnfrom related disciplines like psychology, sociology, and anthropology to
make them applicable for studying and analysing organisational behaviour.
3. An Applied Science: The very nature of OB is applied. What OB basically does is
the application of various researches to solve the organisational problems related to
human behaviour. The basic line of difference between pure science and OB is that
while the former concentrates on fundamental researches, the latter concentrates on
applied researches. As OB involves both applied research and its application in
organisational analysis, hence, OB can be called both science as well as art.
4. A Normative Science: OB is a normative science also. While the positive science
discusses only cause effect relationship, OB prescribes how the findings of applied
researches can be applied to socially accepted organisational goals. Thus, OB deals
with what is accepted by individuals and society engaged in an organisation. Yes, it
is not that OB is not normative at all. In fact, OB is normative as well that is well
underscored by the proliferation of management theories.
5. A Humanistic and Optimistic Approach: OB applies humanistic approach
towards people working in the organisation. It treats people as thinking, feeling
human beings. OB is based on the belief that people have an innate desire to be
independent, creative, and productive. It also realizes that people working in the
organisation can and will actualise these potentials if they are given proper
conditions and environment. As stated earlier, environment affects performance of
workers working in an organisation.
6. A Total System Approach: The systems approach is one that integrates all the
variables affecting organisational functioning. The systems approach has been
developed by the behavioural scientists to analyse human behaviour in view of his/
her socio-psychological framework. Man's socio-psychological framework makes
him a complex one and the systems approach tries to study his/her complexity and
find solution to it.
Scope of OB
As mentioned earlier, OB is the study of human behaviour at work in organisations.
Accordingly, the scope of OB includes the study of individuals, groups and
organisation/structure. Let us briefly reflect on what aspects each of these three cover.
Individuals: Organisations are the associations of individuals. Individuals differ in many
respects. The study of individuals, therefore, includes aspects such as personality,
perception, attitudes, values, job satisfaction, learning and motivation.
Groups of Individuals: Groups include aspects such as group dynamics, group conflicts,
communication, leadership, power and politics, and the like.
Organisation/Structure: The study of organisation/structure includes aspects such as
formation of organisational structure, culture and change and development.

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In nutshell, OB studies how organisations influence people or how people influence
organisations.

fig 1.1 scope of ob

1.4 NEED FOR STUDYING ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

As mentioned earlier also, organisational behaviour is the study of people at work in
organisations. And we study organisations because we spend our lives interacting with
them. If all the world is a stage, it is a stage filled with organisations. Regardless of the
part we play as a student, employee, manager or customer, we play our roles/parts on an
organisational stage. By acting our parts, we influence organisations and organisations
also influence us. The same underlines the need for studying OB.
The study of OB benefits us in several ways.
Firstly, the study of OB helps us understand ourselves and others in a better way. This
helps greatly in improving our inter-personal relations in the organisat and cordial
relations between employees and management and also among the employees create a
congenial work environment in organisations.
Secondly, the knowledge of OB helps the managers know individual employees better
and motivate employees to work for better results. It helps managers apply appropriate
motivational techniques in accordance to the nature of individual employees who exhibit
glaring differences in many respects.
Thirdly, one of the basic characteristics of OB is that it is human in nature. So to say, OB
tackles human problems humanly. It helps understand the cause of the problem, predicts
its future course of action and controls its evil consequences. Thus, treating employees as
human beings enables the managers to maintain cordial industrial relations which, in turn,
creates peace and harmony in the organisations.
Fourthly, the most popular reason for studying OB is to learn how to predict human
behaviour and, then, apply it in some useful way to make the organisation more effective.
Thus, knowledge of OB becomes a pre-requirement for a person like you the students of
MBA who is going to assume a managerial job and succeed as a manager.
Finally, all organisations are run by man. It is man working in the organisations makes all
the difference. Then, it implies that effective utilization of people working in the
organisation guarantees success of the organisation. This is where OB comes into the
picture. OB helps managers how to efficiently manage human resources in the
organisation. It enables managers to inspire and motivate employees towards higher
productivity and better results.

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1.5 CONTRIBUTING DISCIPLINES TO OB
OB is an applied behavioural science. It has drawn heavily from a number of other
applied interdisciplinary behavioural disciplines of psychology, sociology and
anthropology. Figure 1.2 presents an overview of the major contributions to the study of
organisational behaviour. A brief description of each is in order.
Psychology: The discipline that has had the greatest influence on the field of OB is
psychology. It is a science that focuses directly on understanding and predicting
individual behaviour. It has greatly contributed to the intra-personal dynamics of human
behaviour. Topics such as personality, perception, attitude, opinion, learning and
motivation describe intra-personal aspects of OB.
Sociology: Auguste Comptes, a French philosopher of the nineteenth century, is
generally credited with coining the term sociology as part of his attempt to reclassify and
rearrange the field of science. Sociology is the study of people in relation to their fellow
human beings. Whereas psychologists focus on the individuals, sociologists study groups
of individuals. The field of sociology has made valuable contributions to our
understanding of group dynamics within organisations. The topics derived from
sociology include group dynamics, formation of groups, communication, formal and
informal organisations and the like.
Anthropology: Anthropology is the study of societies to learn about human beings and
their activities. Anthropology helps us understand differences in fundamental values,
attitudes, and behaviour between people in different regions and organisations. In sum
and substance, anthropology studies culture. Culture dictates what people learn and how
they behave. Organisations create a unique culture that influences the. way organisational
members think about the organisation and how they should behave.
Some important insights about organisational culture are derived from the field of
anthropology. Organisation culture is studied, in detail, later in chapter 21.
Other Social Sciences: Besides psychology, sociology and anthropology, three other
disciplines also contributed to our understanding of OB are economics, political science,
and history. Several economic models describe the behaviour of individuals when they
are confronted with a choice, and these economic models have made valuable
contributions to our understanding of both individual and organisational decision-making
processes. Power, politics, and authority are popular topics derived from the field of
political science. They help explain certain influence processes in OB. History has also
greatly contributed to our understanding of OB by describing the lives of great leaders
and the successes and failures of organisations they managed.
fig1.2
The, case studies from history have helped in clarifying the roles played by decision-
makers in particular circumstances and situations.

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1.6 THE CHALLENGES FACED BY MANAGEMENT
Although the field of OB has been around the past three decades, there are a few dramatic
challenges taking place as we have entered the twenty-first century. For example, the
typical employee is becoming older, his/her expectations are fast changing, loyalties to
the organisations have become a feature of the other day, more and more women and
nonwhites are joining the work force, and the ever increasing global competition of
business is requiring employees to become more flexible and to learn to cope with rapid
changes posing challenges. In sum, there are a lot of challenges for OB to face in the
twenty-first century. In fact, a time has come to understand OB better and more than
before. Here, we are discussing some of the more critical issues/challenges confronting
managers for which OB offers solutions or atleast some meaningful insights towards
solutions.
Work-force Diversity
Work-force diversity can be defined as the situation that exists when members of a group
or organisation differ from each other in terms of age, gender, race, ethnicity, and
education. When workers join organisations, they come with their differing cultural
values and lifestyle preferences. Therefore, the challenge for organisations is to make
themselves accommodating to diverse groups of people at work place by addressing their
different lifestyles, cultural moorings, family needs, and work styles. Managing people
through melting pot assumption was a fact till the other day. Now, it is being replaced by
one that recognizes and values differences among workers in organisations. If diversity is
managed properly, it can increase creativity and innovations. On the contrary, diversity, if
not managed properly, can result in higher turnover, heightened inter-personal conflict,
and ineffective communication”.
Changing Demographics of Workforce
The demographic characteristics of workforce have undergone changes over the years.
Increasing number of women joining industrial workforce, higher proportion of young
workers, increasing share of aged people in work-force due to increased life-expectancy,
and increasing tendency of husband and wife as working are the prominent changes
occurred in workforce demographics everywhere in the world including India. Employees
with such changing demographics need to be handled with circumspection.
Changing Employee Expectations
Besides changes in workforce demographics, employees expectations and aspirations
have changed from traditional allurement such as job security, good and attractive
remunerations, housing facility to empowerment, equality and quality of work life
(QWL). Employee expect equality with management. They emphasise on leading by
example.
That a new change in employees' expectation has been shifting them from factory place
to the home is illustrated by a Bangalore-based Veri-Fone.
In this organisation, all the 100 employees used to work with computers at home. They
were linked to the office and customers. Thus, employees' homes turned into surrogate

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offices. In the recent years, such paradigm shift has undergone even in educational field.
Under open/distance education system, the student does not go to the educational
institution for learning his/her subject. Instead, the teacher in such case goes to the
student's place through the study material, tele conferencing, radio broadcast, etc.
That the average worker's expectations have now changed to better treatment, challenging
jobs and career advancements is well evidenced by the voices raised for these by the
workers' unions of Hindustan Lever, Tomco, Blue Star, and Central Bank in the recent
years. That is why monetary incentives alone are not found sufficient to motivate workers
all the times, as is discussed later in Chapter 10. The manager has, then, to redraw new
methods of motivation such as job design, for example, to motivate workers to contribute
toward accomplishment of organisational goals.
Ever Expanding Globalisation
By now, the whole world has become a global village. Business has crossed the national
boundaries and, thus, has become global, popularly known as 'multinational business'.
This has made managing men more complex. Globalisation of business poses at least two
major challenges for managers:
First, in case of multinational companies, the managers are frequently transferred to
another countries. In a new country, the managers have to manage a workforce that is
very different in needs, aspirations, and attitudes from the ones they were used to back in
the former country.
Second, even in their own country, the managers have to work with superiors,
subordinates, and peers who were born and brought up in a different culture. The
managers' problem, then, is what motivates them may not motivate others, i.e., superiors,
subordinates, and peers. For example, the manager may like to adopt an open and
straightforward communication style, but the subordinates may find the same style as
threatening and uncomfortable. In order to manage these people effectively, the managers
need to understand their varying culture accurately and know how it has shaped as such
and then learn to adapt the management styles accordingly. In súm, the managers need to
modify their practices to face the challenges before them.
Towards Improving Quality
Yet another major challenge before today's managers have to face is offering of quality
products and services to the customers. This is because the delivery of quality products
and services to the customers has a direct impact on the success of organisations. The
ever increasing concern for quality products and services has given genesis to today's
buzzword 'Total Quality Management'. (TQM). TQM is different things to different
people and has been both "cussed" and discussed in the management literature and the
actual practice of management. TQM is a philosophy of modern management that is
driven by the constant attainment of customer satisfaction through
he continuous improvement of all organisational processes. There is no denying the fact
that price, brand loyalty, attractive design, and technical innovations are st important to
consumers in developing and developed countries, yet the quality product has surged
ahead in relative importance. Similarly, the delivery of qualit services in the ever

8
exploding service sector has become very critical. The challeng for managers across the
world is, therefore, have human resources to deliver qualit to products and services to the
customers and clients.
1.7 ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR PROCESS
As mentioned earlier, OB studies human behaviour at work. Thus, OB can be the
behaviour of the members of the organisation toward each other, toward the organisation,
toward the customers or clients, and toward the society at large. Humar behaviour is often
caused. Psychologists have taken it as axiomatic that a cause must precede its effect. For
example, a Professor, who enters the classroom after having a hot exchange and quarrel
with his colleagues, may reveal bitterness to his students in the class. Similarly when a
manager comes to office after quarrelling with his wife in the morning, may possibly
exhibit unpleasant behaviour like rebuking for pretty things to his subordinates. In sum
and substance, OB is the behaviour of people with each other in an organisational
framework. It follows cause-effect process and affects both inter-personal relations and
managerial effectiveness in the organisation.
OB process is now illustrated with an imaginary cause-effect model as shown in Figure
1.3.
Fig 1.3
In Figure 1.3, circle represents organisational framework. It contains three levels of
managers, viz., Top Level Managers (TM), Middle Level Managers (MM), and Lower
Level Managers (LM) and people denoted by P. The hierarchy of managers is indicated
by the triangle within the overall organisational framework. The bold line and dotted line
of triangale represent managerial effectiveness and human relations respectively.
The diagram exhibits that behaviour is caused, or say, behaviour has a causeeffect
relationship. In other words, the behaviour of one individual serves as cause for another's
behaviour. The behaviour of another individual, thus, becomes effect. For example, B,
behaviour of top level management (TM) toward its people (P) becomes cause for B,
behaviour (i.e. effect) of the people. Similarly, B, is the cause of B, effect. This goes on
and on in the whole organisational framework. Finally, the diagram shows a positive
relationship between behaviour, human relations, and managerial effectiveness in the
organisation. To be precise, better the human relations maintained among the people,
greater would be the positive behaviour, and in turn, greater would be the managerial
effectiveness and vice versa. Thus, it becomes clear that OB follows a cause-effect
process.
1.8 MODELS OF ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Models are frameworks or possible explanations why do people behave as they behave at
work. There are so many models as many are organisations. Varying results across the
organisations are substantially caused by differences in the models of organisational
behaviour. All the models of organisational behaviour are broadly classified into four
types: autocratic, custodial, supportive, and collegial. We now discuss these four models
beginning with the autocratic.

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The Autocratic Model
In case of an autocratic model, the managerial orientation is dictorial. The managers
exercise their commands over employees. The managers give orders and the employees
have to obey the orders. Thus, the employees' orientation towards the managers/bosses is
obedience. Under autocratic conditions, employees usually give minimum performance
and, in turn, get minimum wages. Some employees give higher performance either
because of their achievement drive or their personal liking to the boss or because of some
other factor.
Evidences such as the industrial civilization of the United States and organisational crises
do suggest that the autocratic model produced results. However, its principal weakness is
its high human cost. 12 The combination of emerging knowledge about the needs of the
employees and ever changing societal values and norms suggested managers to adopt
alternative and better ways to manage people at work. This gave genesis to the second
type of models of organisational behaviour.
The Custodial Model
While studying the employees, the managers realized and recognized that although the
employees managed under autocratic style do not talk back to their boss, they certainly
think bad about the system. Such employees filled with frustration and aggression vent
them on their co-workers, families and neighbours. This madethe managers think how to
develop better employee satisfaction and security. It was realized that this can be done by
dispelling employees' insecurities, frustration, and aggression. This called for
introduction of welfare programmes to satisfy security needs of employees. Such
provision for an on-site day-care centre for quality child care is an example of such
welfare programme meant for employees. Welfare programmes lead to employee
dependence on the organisation. Stating more accurately, employees having dependence
on organisation may not afford to quit even there seem greener pastures around. Here is a
case of IGNOU in point.
The welfare programmes for employees started by the Indira Gandhi National Open
University (IGNOU), New Delhi are worth citing in this context. IGNOU, in the
beginning provided its employees facilities like house-lease facility, subsidized transport
facility, day-time child care centre in the campus, etc. These made employees dependent
on IGNOU which, in turn, became custodian of its employees.
Although the custodian approach brings security and satisfaction, it suffers from certain
flows also. Employees produce anywhere near their capacities. They are also not
motivated to increase their capacities of which they are capable. Though the employees
are satisfied, still they do not feel motivated or fulfillled in their work they do. This is in
confirmity with the research. findings that "the happy employee is not necessarily the
most productive employee. 13 Consequently, managers and researchers started to address
yet another question, “Is there better approach/way to manage people?" The quest for a
better way provided a foundation for evolvement to the next type of model of
organisational behaviour.
The Supportive Model

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The supportive model is founded on leadership, not on money or authority. In fact, it is
the managerial leadership style that provides an atmosphere to help employees grow and
accomplish their tasks successfully. The managers recognize that the workers are not by
nature passive and disinterested to organisational needs, but they are made so by an
unappropriate leadership style. The managers believe that given due and appropriate
chances, the workers become ready to share responsibility, develop a drive to contribute
their mite, and improve themselves. Thus, under supportive approach, the management's
orientation is to support the employee's job performance for meeting both organisational
and individual goals.
However, the supportive model of organisational behaviour is found more useful and
effective in developed nations and less effective in developing nations like ours because
of employees' more awakening in the former and less one in the latter nations.
The Collegial Model
The collegial model is an extension of the supportive model. As the literal meaning of the
word 'college' means a group of persons having the common purpose, the collegial model
relates to a team work/concept. The basic foundation of the collegial model lies on
management's building a feeling of partnership with employees. Under collegial
approach, employees feel needed and useful. They consider managers as joint
contributors to organisational success rather than as bosses.
Its greatest benefit is that the employee becomes self-discipline. Feeling responsible
backed by self-descipline creates a feeling of tearn work just like what the members of a
football team feel. The research studies report that compared to traditional management
model, the more open, participative, colllegial managerial approach produced improved
results in situations where it is appropriate.
Now, the sum and substances of these four models of organisational behaviour are
summarized in Figure 1.4.

Authocratic Custodial Supportive Collegial

Basis of model Power Economic Leadership Partnership
sources
Managerial Authority Money Support teamwork
orientation
Employee Obedience Security and job Responsible
orientation benefits performance behaviour
Employee Dependence on Dependence on participation Self-discipline
psychological boss organization
result
Employee need Subsistence Security status and Self-
met recognition actualization
Performance Minimum Passive Awakened Moderate
result cooperation drives enthusiasm

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Figure 1.4 : Four Models of OB
1.9 SUMMARY
 OB is the study and application of knowledge about how people - as individuals and
groups - behave at work places.
 There are four key elements in OB : people, structure, technology, and environment.
OB has emerged as an interdisciplinary discipline, an applied science, a normative
science, and a humanistic approach.
 The main objective of OB is to make managers more accurate and effective at
describing, understanding, predicting, and controlling human behaviour at work.
 OB, being an interdisciplinary discipline, draws heavily from other behavioural
sciences as psychology, sociology, and anthropology
 Changing demography, work - force diversity, ever increasing expectations, of work
force, ever expanding globalization of business, and increasing concern for
improving quality in offering quality products and services pose challenges for
managers to deal with human behaviour at work.
 OB being often caused follows a cause - effect process.
 Autocratic, custodial, supportive, and collegial are the major models of OB.
1.10 EXERCISE
FILL IN THE BLANKS-
1. OB is the study and application of ............. about how people behave or act in
organisations.
2. OB is also based on certain key elements called .............
3. In .............. model, the managerial orientation is dictorial.
4. Collegial model’s greatest benefit is that employee becomes ...............
5. TQM is a philosophy of modern ............... that is driven by the constant attainment
of customer satisfaction.
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS-
1. Which of the following is not a key element of OB?
A. Structure
B. Environment
C. Science
D. Technology
2. Work attitudes can be reflected in an organisation through
A. Job satisfaction

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 B. Organisational commitment
C. Both “A” and “B”
D. None of the above
3. The models of OB is (are):
A. Autocratic
B. Custodial
C. Supportive
D. All of the above
4. At the norming stage, the team is involved in defining
A. Goals
B. Roles
C. Relations
D. None of the above
5. Challenges which are not faced by management in OB
A. Workforce diversity
B. Change in employee expectation
C. Change in demographic of workforce
D. Employee personal dispute

SHORT ANSWERS TYPE QUESTIONS

1. What is organisational behaviour?
...................................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................
2. Briefly explain the key elements of OB.
3. What are challenges faced by management?
4. What are the models of organisational behaviour?
5. What is TQM?

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 UNIT-II
CHAPTER-1

PERSONALITY

1.0 MEANING OF PERSONALITY

Personality of an individual also affects human behaviour. Personality is the sum total of
an individual’s psycho-physical systems that determine his/her behaviour in a given
environment/situation. Personality differs from person to person depending on their
varying psycho-physical aspects. For example, we find in our day-to-day life that some
people are quiet and passive, while others are loud and aggressive in their behaviours.
Therefore, understanding human/employees behaviour in organisations in a better way
underlines the need to understand personality in its various aspects. What exactly
personality is? What do determine an individual’s personality? How do the theories of
personality help us understand and predict human behaviour in a given situation? The aim
of this chapter is to attempt to answer these questions.
1.1 CONCEPT OF PERSONALITY
There may be so many personalities as many persons. Hence, there is no consensus
what personality is. Personality means different things to different people. To some, it
means one’s charm, dress and attractiveness, to others, it means a unitary mode of
response to life situations.
The English word ‘personality’ has been derived from the Latin word per sonare. It
means ‘to speak through’. Originally, the term denoted the masks worn by the actors in
the ancient Greek dramas. In this way, personality is used in terms of physical
attractiveness. However, perceiving personality in terms of external appearance is in
narrow sense. Personality includes something more. Let us go through some definitions
on personality that will help us understand personality in a proper and better sense.
According to Hilgard et at! “Personality may be understood as the characteristic
patterns of behaviour and modes of thinking that determine a person’s adjustment to the
environment.”
In the opinion of Ruch, “Personality can be described as how he understands and
views himself, and his pattern of inner and outer measurable traits”.
Allport3 has defined personality as: the dynamic organisation within the individual
of those psycho physical systems that determine his unique adjustment to his
environment.”
Thus, it reflects from above definitions that personality includes both internal and
external aspects of a person. Here, external aspects relate to one’s height, weight, facial
features, colour and other physical aspects and traits. One’s attitude, values, learning etc.
are the examples of internal aspects of personality. Of more importance to organisational
behaviour are internal aspects of personality.

14
 Now, personality can be defined as the sum total of ways in which an individual
reacts and interacts with others and environment. In other words, personality is an
organised behaviour of an individual to react to a given stimulus in a set manner. This is
most often in the form of consistent response to environmental stimuli.
An individual’s personality is influenced by the personal life and where he/she is
working. We now, therefore, turn our attention to this aspect of personality.
1.2 DETERMINANTS OF PERSONALITY
In this section, we shall try to probe into what determines an individual’s
personality. Is the personality predetermined at birth itself? or is it the result of
individual’s interaction with one’s environment? Strictly speaking, there is no clearcut
answer to this question. Different thinkers have listed different determinants of
personality. For example, McClelland4 has categorised them into four fundamental
theories – (i) Traits, (ii) Schema, (iii) Motives, and (iv) Self Schema. There are others
Scott and Mitchells, who have classified personality determinants into heredity groups
and cultural factors. However, the various determinants of personality are broadly
classified into three groups, namely (i) Heredity, (ii) Environment, and (iii) Situation.
These are now discussed in seriatim.
Heredity
Heredity refers to those factors that were determined at conception. Thus, heredity
refers to biological factors. Heredity is the transmission of the qualities from the parents
to the children through a biological mechanism lying in the chromosomes of the germ
cells. Physical stature, facial attractiveness, temperament, sex, muscle composition and
biological rhythms are the examples of heredity characteristics that are generally
influenced by who one’s parents are.
Besides, studies on job satisfaction also lend credibility to the argument that
heredity surely plays a role in determining one’s personality. Research has proved that
individual job satisfaction remains remarkably stable over time. Not only that, job
satisfaction tends to remain stable even when employers or occupations change.
Environment
The environment, i.e., one’s early conditioning, the family norms, friends and social
groups exerts pressures on one’s personality formation, Culture establishes the norms,
attitudes and values that are passed along from generation to generation. Thus, a cultural
consistency is created over time. Evidences are available to believe that the cultural
environment in which people are raised plays a major role in shaping personality. For
example, in India, children learn from an early age the values of hard work, frugality and
family closeness. The Indian culture expects different behaviours from males and
females.
Home environment generated to a child also exerts important influence in shaping
his/her personality. For example, children reared in orphans or in unstimulating homes
are much more likely to socially and emotionally maladjusted than their counterparts
raised by parents in a warm, loving and stimulating environment Research studies have

15
also revealed that parents have more effect on the personality development of their
children as compared to other members of the family. Besides parents, siblings (brothers
and sisters) also influence shaping of personality. Elders serve as models for youngers.
The 16hallengin impact of different social groups called, socialisation process, on
an individual also affects his/her personality development. The socialisation process starts
with the initial contact between a mother and her new infant. They, infact, gradually
come into contact with the social groups outside home/family such as peers, school
friends, and the members of the work group. The socialisation process is, thus, not
confined to early childhood, rather it takes place throughout one’s life. Organisation itself
also contributes much to socialisation. On the whole, this socialisation process influences
one’s personality development.
Situation
No doubt, both heredity and environment are the primary determinants of
personality. But, there is a third factor also, i.e., the situation, that influences the effects of
heredity and environment on personality. In practice, an individual’s personality does
change depending on the situation. This is because the different demands of the different
situations call forth different aspects of one’s personality. As an example, the same
person while facing an employment interview and while enjoying picnic with his/her
friends in a public park behaves quite differently depending on two different situations.
Situation, in fact, exerts an important pressure on the individual to behave in a
particular manner. In certain cases, how one will behave is not determined by what kind
of person one is, but by in which kind of situation one is placed. There may be, for
example, a worker whose personality history suggests that he had need for power and
achievement. But, when the same worker is placed in a highly bureaucratised work
situation, may feel frustrated and behave apathetically or aggressively. This clearly
indicates that his personality changed under changed situation.
However, it is difficult, if not impossible, to state the exact impact of various types
of situations exert on one’s personality. Nonetheless, it can safely be mentioned that
certain situations are more relevant than others in influencing personality. Hence,
personality needs to be looked at situational context, not in isolation.
1.3 TYPES OF PERSONALITIES
As stated earlier, there are so many personalities as many are persons. Personalities
differ in traits. A trait is any distinguishable, relatively enduring way in which one
individual differs from another. Though behavioural researchers have attempted to
identify the personality traits, the 16 traits reported by Cattell are generally accepted ones.
These are listed in the following Table 2.1

16
 Table 1.1 : Sixteen Primary Traits of Personality
1. Reserved vs Outgoing
2. Less Intelligent vs More Intelligent
3. Affected by Feeling vs Emotionally Stable
4. Submissive vs Dominant
5. Serious vs Happy-Go-Lucky
6. Expedient vs Conscientious
7. Timid vs Venturesome
8. Tough-Minded vs Sensitive
9. Trusting vs Suspicious
10. Practical vs Imaginative
11. Forthright vs Shrewd
12. Self-assured vs Apprehensive
13. Conservative vs Experimenting
14. Group-Dependent vs Self-Sufficient
15. Uncontrolled vs Controlled
16. Relaxed vs Tense
Groups of above traits serve as basis for classifying personalities into types. Based
on these groups, following are the main types of personalities:
1. Introvert and Extrovert Personalities
2. Type A and Type B Personalities
3. Judging and Perceptive Personalities
Let us discuss what each of these types means.
Introvert Personalities: Introvert is one of the two basic orientations of people
have. Persons with introvert orientation are primarily oriented to the subjective world.
Such people look inward and experience and process their thoughts and ideas within
themselves. They also avoid social contacts and initiating interaction with other group
mates, withdrawn, quiet and enjoy solitude. People with introvert personality are found
more inclined to excel at tasks that require thought and analytical skill.
Extrovert Personalities: Simply speaking, extroverts are just contrary to introverts.
Extroverts are friendly, sociable, lively, gregarious, aggressive and expressing their
feelings and ideas openly. Accordingly, they are more suitable and successful for the
positions that require considerable interaction with others. Sales activities, publicity

17
departments, personal relations unit, etc. are the examples of activities suitable for
extroverts.
Look at following Table 2.2 and see how introverts differ from extroverts.
Table 1.2: Introverts vs Extroverts

Introverts Extroverts
Like quiet for concentration Like variety and action.
Tend to be careful with details, dislike Tend to work faster, dislike complicated
sweeping statements procedure.
Have trouble remembering names and Are often good at greeting people.
faces. Often act quickly, thinking.
Like to think a lot before they act,
sometimes without sometimes without Like to have people around.
acting
Usually communicate freely.
Work contentedly alone.
Are often impatient with long slow jobs.
Have some problems communicating
Tend not to mind working on one project
for a long time uninterruptedly. Often do not mind interruptions of
answering the telephone.
Dislike telephone intrusions and
interruptions.

Validity of results have showed that introvert/extrovert is applicable to only the rare
extremes. The fact remains that most of the people really tend to be neither introverts nor
extroverts, but ambiverts. That is, they are in between introversion and extroversion.
Type A Personality: Type A people are characterised by hard-working, highly
achievement-oriented, impatient, have sense of time urgency, aggressive, with
competitive drive, etc. Such people tend to be very productive and work very hard. In
fact, they are 18hallenging. Being impatient and aggressive, such people are more prone
to heart attack.
Type B Personalities: Easy-going, sociable, free from urgency of time, laid-back
and non-competitive are the characteristics of Type B personalities. Such people do better
on tasks involving judgements, accuracy rather than speed and team work.
Judging Personalities: People with judging personality types like to follow a plan,
make decisions and need only that what is essential for their work.
Perceptive Personalities: These are the people who adapt well to change, want to
know all about a job and at times may get overcommitted. Go through the following
Table 2.3, will help you understand better about the two types of personalities.

18
 Table 1.3: Judging vs. Perceptive Personalities
Judging Type Perceptive Type
Work best when they can plan work and Adapt well to changing situations.
follow the plan.
Like to get things settled.
Do not mind leaving things open for
alterations.
May decide things too quickly. May have trouble making decisions.
May not notice new things that need to be May start too many projects and have
done difficulty in finishing them.
Want only essential things needed to begin Want to know all about their work.
their work
Tend to be satisfied once they reach a
judgement on a thing or situation or person Tend to be curious and welcome new
information on a thing or a situation or a
person.

1.4 THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

As there are so many definitions of personality, so are theories of personality as
well. As such, there is no consensus among the theorists about the theories of personality.
Among several theories, the more prominent are: type, trait, psycho-analytic, social
learning and self theory. A brief discussion of each follows.
Type Theory
Like other sciences, the first students of human nature also endeavoured to study
human personality by classifying them into certain types. Personality classification was
made on two bases: (i) Body Build, and (ii) Psychological Factors. In case of body build
basis, personalities were classified into types by establishing relationship between one’s
body build/features and personality. Accordingly, persons having a short or plumb body
build were characterised as sociable and relaxed, tall and thin persons as restrained, self-
conscious and fond of solitude and those with heavy set mascular body build as noisy,
callous and fond of physical activity. Admittedly, an individual’s body build/physique
may exert some influence on his/her personality, yet the relationship between the two
seems much subtle than what such classification implies.
Personality types on the basis of psychological factors are based on the assumption
that personality is the totality of a person’s interacting sub-systems. Then, personalities
are, accordingly, classified into two types: (i) introverts, and (ii) extroverts. As already
mentioned while discussing types of personalities, introverts are those who primarily look
inward at themselves, avoid social contacts and interaction with others, quiet and enjoy
solitude. On the contrary, extroverts are sociable, friendly, gregarious, aggressive, etc. No
doubt, typing personalities into introverts and extrovers looks simple and interesting, but

19
it does not serve much of its purpose in understanding personalities in more detail and
depth. The reason is that, as stated earlier also, most of the people tend to be neither
introverts nor extroverts but ambiverts, that is, they are in between the two extremes of 20
hallengi and extroverts.
Trait Theory
Some psychologists have tried to understand personality on the basis individual’s
traits. Trait is an enduring characteristic of a person in which he/she differ from another.
Popular human characteristics include shy, aggressive, submissive, lazy, ambitious, loyal
and timid. In practice, the more consistent the characteristics an more frequently these
occur in diverse situations, the more important traits become in describing a person. Thus,
traits can be described as individual variables or dimensions.
Trait theory is based on the following three assumptions:
1. Traits are common to many individuals but vary in absolute amounts between
the individuals.
2. Traits are relatively stable. Their consistent occurrence influences the human
behaviour
3. One’s trait can be inferred by measuring his/her behavioural indicators.
Allport and Cattell have been among the early psychologists who made efforts to
isolate individual traits. Allport, in his study, identified as many as 17,953 traits,
Obviously, predicting human behaviour based on such a large number becomes virtually
impossible. Realising the need for reducing such large number to a manageable one,
Cattel first isolated 171 traits and, then, the same reduced to 16 traits, which he termed as
source or primary traits. These 16 traits have already been listed in Table 5.1 while
describing the types of personalities on page 41.
Thus, trait theory of personality attempts to understand how a set of personality
variables exerts on one’s behaviour. However, this theory suffers from one lacuna is that
it is very descriptive rather than analytical. In fact, no hard evidence supports trait theory
as a valid measure of personality.
In recent years, John has propounded a personality model called The Big 5 Model.
In this model, he advocates that the following five basic personality variables dimensions
underly all other variables:
1. Extraversion: Who is sociable, talkative, and assertive.
2. Agreeableness: One who is good natured, co-operative and trusting.
3. Conscientiousness: A person who is responsible, dependable, persistent and
achievement oriented.
4. Emotional Stability: Someone characterised by calm, nervous, enthusiastic,
depressed and insecure.

20
 5. Openness to Experience: A person who is imaginative, artistically sensitive,
and intellectual.
Psychoanalytical Theory
Psychoanalytical theory is yet another type of personality. The basic notion on
which psychoanalytical theory is based on is that human behaviour is influenced more by
unseen forces than conscious and rational thoughts. Sigmund Fraud developed
psychoanalytical theory based on his 40 years of writings and clinical practice. Fraud’s
clinical experiments on his patients’ behaviour led him to conclude that behaviour is
mainly influenced by unconscious framework. This unconscious framework is composed
of three elements id, ego and super ego. Fraud himself considers the division as
hypothetical one rather than specific structures of one’s personality. The reason being the
failure of neuroanatomy in properly locating them within the central nervous system.
A brief description of these three elements i.e., id, ego and super ego, follows:
(i) The Id: The id is innate and the source of psychic energy. It seeks immediate
gratification for biological or instinctual needs. It is like raw and, thus, remains
basic to the individual throughout life. The id follows the basic principal of all
human life i.e., the immediate discharge of psychic energy (libido) produced by
animal drives such as sex and aggression which if pent up, causes tension in the
personality system. The id, by immediately reducing tension, thus, obeys the
pleasure principle. As id knows and obeys no laws and rules, it may result in, as
Fraud himself felt danger for the person concern and for society as well.
(ii) The Ego: The id is unconscious part while the ego is conscious part of human
personality. The ego is associated with reality. It checks the id through logic and
intellect. The ego can best be described as controlling id through realities. A
starving man cannot control or satisfy his hunger simply by eating images, but by
really having food. Thus, here lies the role of ego i.e. reality in satisfying hunger or
reducing tension created by hunger.
(iii) The Super Ego: The super ego represents system of values, norms, and ethic that
guide and govern a person to behave properly in the society. In one sense, the super
ego can be described as conscience. It provides norms and values to ego to
determine what is wrong or right at a given time in given situation/society. In other
words, the super ego judges whether an action/ behaviour is right or wrong as per
the set norms and standards of the society.
In total, it can be concluded that the id seeks pleasure, the ego verifies reality and
the super ego strives for perfection.
As mentioned earlier, Fraud’s psychoanalytical theory is hypothetical based on
theoretical conception. However, it does not provide any measure for its scientific
verification and validity. That is why this theory is not found very relevant and
appropriate in predicting human behaviour. Nonetheless, it provides the idea of
unconscious motivation which adds to the understanding of human behaviour in a better
manner.

21
Social Learning Theory
In fact, human behaviour is generally either learnt or modified by way of learning.
Though learning is discussed, in detail, in Chapter 8, here you are mainly exposed to how
learning affects one’s behaviour or personality.
Learning can simply be defined as any change in one’s behaviour that occurs as a result
of experience. In other words, learning occurs when an individual behaves as a result of
experience in a manner different from the way he/she formerly behaved.
Learning occurs through two ways: (1) Reinforcement, and (ii) Observing Others.
Learning by observing others is also called ‘vicarious learning’. The social learning
theory emphasises on how an individual behaves or acts in a given situation. This theory
holds the view that the specific characteristics of a situation determine how an individual
will behave in such situation. His/her understanding of the situation and behaviour
evinced in past in similar situations may also influence how he/she will behave in given
situation. Admittedly, situation evokes an individual’s behavioural pattern. At the same
time, it is also true that an individual’s behaviour also at times influences the situational
conditions. Individual, by selectively attending to what is happening, can prevent certain
conditions from impinging on him/her. Thus, the relationship between the situation and
the individual is of reciprocal pattern.
Self Theory
Carl Rogers15 is credited with self theory of 22 challenging. This theory is also described
as ‘phenomenological’ which studies individual’s subjective experience, feelings and his
concepts of world and self. Rogersself theory is composed of perceptions of the ‘l’ or
‘me’. The following four factors are included in self theory:
(i) Self-Image: By nature, every person has certain beliefs about what or who he/she is.
In other words, self-image is one’s image of oneself. This is how one sees oneself.
(ii) Ideal-Self: The ideal-self refers to what one would like to look like. The basic line
of difference between self-image and ideal-self is that the former indicates the
reality of a person whereas the latter implies the ideality of the person. The latter
one, i.e., ideal self stands more important to motivate an individual to behave in a
particular manner.
(iii) Looking Glass-Self: This refers to how others are perceiving the individual.
In other words, this means the way an individual thinks people perceive about him
and not the way people actually see him. This indicates that one’s belief about self
is a reflection of others’ perception about the person.
(iv) Real-Self: The real-self is what one actually is. The first three self-concepts relate to
an individual’s perception about himself/herself. They may be the same or differ
from the real-self. People perceive the same situation differently depending upon
their conception of the situation. This, in turn, influences them to behave
differently. Thus, in any attempt of analysing and understanding organisational
behaviour, the self-concept plays a significant role in reacting/behaving in a
particular manner.

22
1.5 HOW PERSONALITY DEVELOPS ?
Personality develops with advancement in an individual’s age passing through certain
stages in a sequential order. Different psychologists and behavioural scientists have come
out with different stages explaining how an individual’s personality develops or shapes.
The more important of them have been discussed here.
Fraud’s Four Stages of Personality
Sigmund Fraud is considered one of the pioneers among the stage theorists. Fraud’s
personality stages are based on the belief that events occurred in one’s childhood has their
bearings on adulthood and, in turn, behaviour in adulthood According to Fraud, there are
four stages of psychological development that shape one’s personality and its
development. These are: (i) oral, (ii) anal, (iii) phallic, and (iv) genital. These names refer
to the regions of body which stimulate the discharge of sexual energy. These are now
briefly discussed one by one.
The Oral Stage: The oral stage lasts for the first year of one’s life. This can also be
called the infancy stage of personality development. The infants are totally dependents
upon others for their survival and growth. For an infant, mouth becomes the first body
zone through which biological drives are sought to be met or reduced. Thumb sucking by
an infant gratifies his/her sex drive. Later on when teeth erupt, biting satisfies the drive
for seeking pleasure. That mouth remains an important zone of body throughout one’s
life, as believed by Fraud also, is indicated by one’s adulthood oral behaviour in the
forms of gum chewing, nail biting, smoking, kissing, over eating, etc.
Fraud postulates that the stimulation given to the infant both in excessive and inadequate
amounts, makes the infant optimistic about the world. He/she also has a tendency to
exploit or dominate others to satisfy the needs.
The Anal Stage: The anal stage extends throughout the second and third year of a child.
In this age, the anal becomes the body zone for sexual gratification. How the parents give
toilet training to the child gets its reflection in adulthood behaviour. For example, in case
a mother becomes harsh in toilet matters, the child tends tv withhold faces. When faces
become excessive, the child develops personality traits like orderliness, punctuality and
cleanliness. On the other hand, if mother advises her child for having regular bowel
movements, its reflection on the personality is in the form of cruelty, destructiveness,
disorderliness and hostility.
The Phallic Stage: The phallic stage develops at the age of four years. Now, the focus of
body zone for sexual gratification shifts from anals to sexual organs. This stage is also
characterised as the stage of psychosexual development. The children in this age can be
observed examining and fondling their genitalia, masturbating and enjoying in discussing
matters of birth and sex.
The Latency Stage: The latency period takes place between ages of six and seven years.
This period is characterised by children’s disinterest in matters related to sex. They are
interested in seeking gratification of the libido from the external sources, knowledge and
alike. The latency period also refers to the elementary school age. Hence, this period has
long lasting effects in one’s personality and its shaping in a definite pattern or type.

23
The Genital Stage: During adolescence and adulthood occurs the genital stage. The
sexual drive and interest are revived in this stage. One takes interest in opposite sex. In
other words, one tends to seek sexual gratification through 24challenging24 love and
attraction.
Erikson’s Eight Life Stages
Erikson extended Fraud’s psychosexual development in a more systematic manner and
identified eight stages of human life. Erikson asserted that each stage is plagued by
conflicts that need to be resolved successfully before an individual moves to the next
stage. Movement from one stage to next one is developmental. At times, movement can
even involve regression i.e. from next stage to earlier stage when events are of traumatic
nature. A brief description of these eight stages follows:
1. Infancy: The first year of life of a person is characterised by trust vs mistrust. The
infants raised in loving and affectionate atmosphere learn to trust others. Lack of
love and affection, on the contrary, leads to mistrust. This bears long lasting impact
on one’s personality and the reluctant behaviour.
2. Early Childhood: This stage spreads between two and three years of a child.
During this period, the child starts to acquire independence. When the child is
allowed to it, he/she feels autonomy. If disallowed, a sense of shame and doubt
develops in the child.
3. Play Age: In the age of four and five years, the child seeks to discover what can be
done. If the child is allowed and encouraged to do what he/she wants to do, the
child develops a sense of initiative. Alternatively, if the child is discouraged to do,
he/she feels lack of self-confidence.
4. School Age: When the child joins school from ages 6 to 12 years, he/she learns
knowledge and skills. If the child makes progress compatible with his/her abilities,
it develops in child a sense of industry. The opposite results in a sense of inferiority.
It! 5. Adolescence: The children during their teenage period try to gain a sense of
identity for them in the society. They do not want to become confused about
themselves who they are. The autonomy, initiative and industry developed in earlier
stages help the teenagers gain identity for them. ar 6. Young Adulthood: The young
during their twenties try to develop deep and permanent relationship with others to
have a feeling of intimacy. Failing in it results in a sense of isolation. Ons
7. Adulthood: The adults during fourtees and fiftees of their ages face the situation of
generativity or self-absorption. Adults who are productive in work, raise children
with serious concern and guide to next generation are called generative. Self-
absorbed adults do not look beyond themselves. They are absorbed in their career
development and maintenance.
8. Old (Sunset) Age: The adult of integrity gains a sense of wisdom. He/she
appreciates continuity of past, present and future and becomes fully satisfied. Fear
of death is dispelled. The reverse situation results in a sense of despair, fear from
death, desire for living second time and depressed.

24
Argyris Immaturity to Maturity Stages
Professor Chris Argyris of Harvard identified distinct stages in one’s personality
development. He postulated that all healthy people seek such situations that can offer
them autonomy, equality and the opportunity to show their ability and competency.
According to him, the healthy people follow the following seven dimensions to move
from immaturity to maturity.
1. From passivity to activity.
2. From dependence to independence.
3. From selective behaviour to diverse behavio
4. From shallow interest to deep interest.
5. From short-time perspective to long-time perspective.
6. From subordinate position to superordinate position.
7. From lack of self-awareness to self awareness and control.
Accordingly, the healthy people evince the behaviour of maturity while unhealthy
demonstrate behaviour like childish. Argyris observes that most organisations tend to
treat their employees like children i.e., making them dependent on organisations.
1.6 Sheldon’s Personality Development
Sheldon tried to explain personality development based on an individual’s body build.
He. labelled different body builds reflecting certain personality characteristics. His three
body builds with their personality characteristics are presented in Table 5.4.
Table 2.4: Body Builds vis-a-vis Personality Characteristics
Body Builds Personality Characteristics
1. Endomorph (Fleshy) Friendly, people oriented, seeks others when in trouble,
slow to react, loves to eat.
2. Mesomorph (Athletic) Seeks physical adventure, enjoys exercise, aggressive, risk
taker, competition oriented.
3. Ectomorph (Thin). Likes privacy, socially inhibited, quick to react and
hypersensitive to pain.
1.7 HOW PERSONALITY INFLUENCES ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR?
By now, you have learnt various personality attributes and traits that help predict
one’s behaviour. In this section, you will learn how some of the attributes influence an
individual’s behaviour in organisations. Some of more important personality attributes
that determine how one will hehave are locus of control, 25hallenging25nism, self-
esteem, self-monitoring, risk-taking propensity and Type A personality. These are
discussed one by one.

25
 Locus of Control: Locus of control refers to one’s belief that what happens is
either within one’s control or beyond one’s control. The former is called internals and the
latter is called externals. Those who have internal locus of control believe that they are
masters of their own fate. On the contrary, those who have external locus of control see
themselves as pawns of fate and believe that what happens to them in their lives is due to
luck or factors beyond their control.
A large amount of research comparing internals with externals have proved that
externals are less satisfied with their jobs and have higher absenteeism rates than
internals. But, the dissatisfied internals are more likely to quit a dissatisfying job.
Machiavellianism: The personality characteristic of Machiavellianism (Mach) is
named after Niccolo Machiavelli who wrote in the sixteenth century about how to gain
and manipulate power. Thus, Machiavellianism refers to an individual’s propensity
Machiavellianism tends to be cool, logical and assessing the system around him,
pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, tries to control people, events and situations by
manipulating the system to his advantage. In sum, “if it works, use it” is consistent with a
high Machiavellianism. They manipulate more, win more, are persuaded less and
persuade others more than do individuals having low Machiavellianism. However these
thigh outcomes are moderated by situational factors.
However, the Machiavellianism can be considered as good in jobs that need
bargaining skills (for example, labour negotiations) or in jobs offering substantial rewards
for winning (such as commissioned sale). But, in jobs where ends cannot justify the
means i.e. in jobs ethical consideration is involved, the Machiavellianism can not perform
better.
Self-Esteem: An individual’s liking or disliking oneself is called self-esteem. This
trait is bound to vary from individual to individual. Self-esteem is related to aspects
individuals regard themselves as capable to achieve success. The research on self-esteem
has revealed that individuals with high self-esteem tend to take on more 26 Challenging
assignments and of unconventional nature. People with low self-esteem, on the contrary,
are characterised by their susceptibility to extrernal influences and approval seekers from
others. They depend on the receipt of positive evaluations from others. As regards job
satisfaction, individuals with high-self-esteem are found more satisfied with their jobs
than those with low self-esteem.
Self-Monitoring: Self-monitoring is personality trait that has recently received
increasing attention. Simply speaking, self-monitoring is an individual’s ability to adjust
his/her behaviour to external factors/situations. Individuals with high self-monitoring trait
show greater adaptability to adjust themselves with external situations. They can behave
differently in different situations. Hence, there is very less behavioural consistency
between who they are and what they do. It can be hypothesised that individuals high in
self-monitoring are likely to be more successful managers who at times are required to
play multiple, and even contradicting roles to perform their managerial activities. In other
words, individuals with high self-monitors are capable of showing different faces for
different audiences as per the requirements of the situations.

26
 Risk-Taking: Individuals differ in taking risks. The propensity to assume or avoid
risks affects a manager’s behaviour in making decisions. Research has shown that
managers with high risk-taking make more rapid decisions and use less information in
making choices than do the low risk-taking managers. In practice, the propensity to
assume risks varies depending upon the nature of the job. For example, a high risk-taking
propensity may be good for a stock trader in a brokerage firm which demands rapid
decision-making. But, the same personality trait may not be considered as good in
auditing activities which require concentration and low risk-taking propensity.
Type A Personality: You have already learnt under title 5.3 Types of Personality
who are type A Personalities. In brief, type A people are impatient and aggressive to
achieve more and more in less and less time. These characteristics result in some specific
behavioural outcomes. Working fast, emphasizing quantity over quality, working for long
hours, making quick decisions etc., are some of the behavioural examples of Type A
people.
In organisations, great salespersons are usually Type A’s. The reason is, sales
occurs in a competitive market which requires rigorous and aggressive efforts to sell
one’s product. But, senior executives are usually Type B’s. The answer lies in the fact
that promotions in corporate organisations usually go to those who are wise, tactful and
creative rather than to those who are merely hasty and hostile in doing things
1.8 SUMMARY
 Personality is the sum total of an individual’s psycho-physical systems that
determine his behaviour in a given environment or situation.
 Personality can be described as how he understands and views himself, and his
pattern of inner and outer measurable traits.
 Various determinants of personality are broadly classified into three groups which
are Heredity, Environment, and Situation.
 There are three types of personality which are Introvert and Extrovert Personalities,
Type A and Type B Personalities & Judging and Perceptive Personalities.
 Personality develops with advancement in an individual’s age passing through
certain stages in a sequential order.
 Sheldon labelled different body builds reflecting certain personality characteristics
i.e. Endomorph (Fleshy), Mesomorph (Athletic) and Ectomorph (Thin).
 Type theory, Trait theory, Psycho-analytic theory, Social learning theory and self
theory are the theories of personality.

27
1.9 EXERCISE

FILL IN THE BLANKS

1. Extroverts are just contrary to ............
2. Type ............ personality are workaholic.
3. Various determinants of personality are broadly classified into three groups,
normally ............. , ............... , ...............
4. The English word “Personality” has been derived from the Latin word ...............
5. Personality of an individual also affects ..............
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
1. Which of the following is not a Fraud’s stages of personality.
A. Oral
B. Anal
C. Operational
D. Genital
2. Which of the following is not the characteristics of Extrovert personality.
A. Friendly
B. Avoid social contacts
C. Sociable
D. Openly express ideas
3. Which of the following is the group of determinants of personality.
A. Heredity
B. Environment
C. Situation
D. School
4. Which of the following is not the characteristics of type-A personality.
A. Non-competitive
B. Aggressive
C. Hard-working
D. Impatient
5. Factor affecting personality.
A. Religion thoughts
B. Culture
C. Work place environment
D. All of these

28
SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS
1. What is the difference between Introvert and Extrovert?
2. What is Personality?
3. What is the difference between type-A personality and type-B personality?
4. Explain Fraud’s four stages of personality.
5. What are the factors that affect the personality?

29
 CHAPTER-2
PERCEPTION

2.0 INTRODUCTION
We all come across various objects or things in our everyday life. We are also
constantly bombarded with various stimuli. Then, what we do in practice is while we
receive some objects, we reject others. Further, we look at the same thing, yet perceive it
differently. Looking at a painting, for example, some may perceive it as beautiful, the
others as ugly. Then, the question arises is why the same object is perceived/understood
differently by different people. The answer to it is perception which is a cognitive factor
of human behaviour. Strictly speaking, perception lies at the base of every human
behaviour. There can be no behaviour without perception. This chapter deals with various
aspects of perception such as meaning of perception, process of perception, factors
influencing perception and application of perception in organisational behaviour.
Impression management which has direct implications for human behaviour, at the end of
the chapter is also discussed.
2.1 WHAT IS PERCEPTION?
In simple sense, perception means perceiving i.e., giving meaning to the
environment around us. It is perceiving of objects what we are faced with. We can
definitions of it given by some behavioural scientists.
According to Udai Pareek and others! Perception can be defined as the process of
receiving, selecting, organising, interpreting, checking and reacting to sensory stimuli or
data".
Stephen P. Robbins defines perception as “a process by which individuals Organise
and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment”.
Fred Luthans opines that “Perception is an important mediating cognitive process
through which persons make interpretations of the stimulus or situation they are faced
with”.
Now, perception can safely be defined as a process which involves seeing, receiving
selecting, organising, interpretine and giving meaning to the environment. The
functioning of the whole process is influenced by the individual doing the perceiving, the
objects or events being perceived, and the environment in which perception occurs.
2.2 PERCEPTION DIFFERS FROM SENSATION
People usually mean sensation and perception the same. But, there is a clear-cut
distinction between the two. In simple words, sensation may be described as the response
of a physical sensory organ to some stimuli. Our physical senses i.e., vision, hearing,
touch, smell and taste are continuously bombarded by numerous stimuli that are both
inside and outside of our body. Our physical sensory organs often react to these stimuli.
The reaction of our eye to colour, ear to sound, nose to odor, and so on are the examples
of our every day sensations. What these examples indicate is that sensation activates the

30
functioning of the physical sensory organs. Thus, sensation precedes perception. In this
way, sensation serves as a raw input to be processed so as to make sense out of them to
perceive the environment or stimuli around us.
Perception is much more than sensation. As noted before, perception depends upon
the sensory raw data, yet it involves a cognitive process that includes filtering, modifying
or even changing these sensation raw data to make sense out of them. In other words, the
perceptual process adds to or/and subtracts from the sensory world. A simple illustration
may be looking at an object. We see by means of our eyes. Remember, it is not our eyes
but what we see and tend to see in its totality, with a figure and form against a
background. Thus, we find that eyes activate us to see an object, i.e., sensation and what
is being seen, i.e., perception. In this seeing process, though both sensation and
perception are involved, yet perception process overcomes sensation process to make
what is being seen.
Study the following examples. These will help you understand the difference
between sensation and perception more clearly:
1. You buy a two-wheeler that you think is the best, but not the one that the engineer
says is the best.
2. A subordinate's answer to a question is based on what he heard his boss says, but
not on what the boss actually said.
3. The same Professor may be viewed by one student as a very good Professor and by
another student of the same semester as a poor Professor.
4. The same item may be viewed by the manufacturing engineer to be of high quality
and by a customer to be of low quality.
2.3 PERCEPTUAL PROCESS
We have already defined perception as a process of receiving, selecting organising,
interpreting, checking and reacting to stimuli. This is like an inputthroughput-output
process in which the stimuli can be considered as 'inputs', transformation of 'inputs
through selection, organisation and interpretation as throughputs' and the ultimate
behaviour/action as 'outputs'. This whole perceptual process can be presented as follows:

Inputs Through Outputs

puts

Stimuli Selection  Organisation Action

Interpretation

Fig. : Perceptual Process

31
Let us discuss each of these in turn :
1. Receiving Stimuli: The perception process starts with the reception of stimuli. The
stimuli are received from the various sources. Through the five organs, we see
things/objects, hear sounds, smell, taste and touch things. In this way, the reception
of stimuli is a physiological aspect of perception process. Stimuli may be external to
us (such as sound waves) and inside us (such as energy generation by muscles).
2. Selection of Stimuli: People, in their everyday life, are bombarded by myriads of
stimuli. They cannot assimilate all what they observe or receive from the
environment at a time. Hence, they select some stimuli for further processing to
attach meanings to them while the rest are screened out. Selection of stimuli is not
made at random, but depending on the two types of factors, namely, external factors
and internal factors. While external factors relate to stimuli such as intensity of
stimuli, its size, movement, repetition, etc., internal ones relate to the perceiver such
as his/her age, learning, interest, etc. Normally, people selectively perceive objects
or things which interest to them most in a particular situation and avoid those for
which they are indifferent. This is also called ‘selective perception’.
The ‘selective perception’ involves the following two psychological principles:
(i) Figure Ground Principle: As we just noted, we select stimuli for further
processing that we consider important for us or which we cannot study. The
meaningful bits and pieces of stimuli are called the “figure” and the meaningless
ones are levelled as “ground”. More attention is given to figure and less to ground.
(ii) Relevancy: Relevancy is yet another principle involved in selective perception. In
practice, people selectively perceive things that they consider relevant to meet their
needs and desires.
3. Organisation of Stimuli: Having selected stimuli or data, these need to organised
in some form so as to assign some meanings to them. Thus, organising the bits of
information into a meaningful whole is called “organisation”. There are the ways by
which the selected data i.e., inputs are organised. These are:
(i) Grouping: Grouping is based on the similarity or proximity of various stimuli
perceived. The tendency to group stimuli i.e., people or things appearing
similar certain ways has been a common means of organising the perception.
For example all the workers having similarity in certain aspects may be
perceived have similar opinion about their boss. Similarly, all the workers
coming from the same place may be perceived as similar on the basis of
proximity.
(ii) Closure: When people face with incomplete information, they tend to fill the
gaps themselves to make it more meaningful. They may do it on the basis of
their experience, hunches, guess or past data. Take an example of an
advertisement of an alphabet written by putting electric bulbs. You may have

32
 noticed the name of a newspaper, for example, The Hindustan Times in your
or other city shaping the alphabet by putting electric bulbs in broken line. In
such case, you tend to fill up the gap among different bulbs to get meaning out
of these. Thus, the tendency to form an complete meassage from an
incomplete one is known as Closure.
(iii) Simplification: When people find themselves overloaded with information
they try to simplify it to make it more meaningful and understandable. In this
process. what they do is to subtract less salient information and concentrate on
important ones only.
4. Interpretation: The data collected and organised remain meaningless for the
perceiver till these are assigned meanings. Assigning meanings to data is called
‘interpretation’. Thus, interpretation of data forms one of the most important
element in the entire perceptual process. Strictly speaking, data collected and
organised do not make any sense without interpretation. Several factors influence
interpretation in organisations. The most important ones are halo effect, attribution,
stereotyping personality, situation, person perceived, etc. These are discussed one
by one.
A brief description of these follows in seriatim:
(i) Halo Effect: Drawing a general impression about an individual based on a
single characteristics or trait is called halo effect. But, it has an important
implication for understanding or evaluating an employee in the organisation. An
employee, based on halo effect, may be rated as bad in one trait, but good in
other traits. Let us illustrate it with an example.
The students of the MBA Ist semester are asked to appraise their one teacher teaching
them OB. In doing so, the students may isolate a single trait/characteristics enthusiasm,
for example, and do their appraisal/evaluation to be tainted by how they appraise the
teacher on this one trait. If the teacher is quiet, assured, knowledgeable, and highly
competent, but lacks zeal in his teaching style, he will be rated as poor or lower on this
trait (enthusiasm and a number of other traits and characteristics. This example well
indicates how hallo effect can distort one's perception about another. In organisations,
halo effect usually occurs in selection interviews and at the time of performance
appraisal. Research studies suggest that halo effect tends to be most extreme when (a) the
traits to be perceived are ambiguous in behavioural terms, (b) when the traits imbibe
moral overtones, and (c) when the perceiver judging the traits has had limited experience
or knowledge.
(ii) Attribution: Explaining human behaviour in terms of cause and effect is called
'attribution'. However, attributing casual explanation to a particular human
behaviour sometimes tends to distort perception. For example, if a prosperous
worker does overtime on any day, it is perceived that he has done it in the
interest of organisation. But, if a poor worker also does the same, the action or
behaviour is perceived as being for money. A unique tendency is also observed

33
 among individuals is that they attribute their own behaviour to situational
requirements but explain the behaviour of others by their personal disposition".
(iii)Stereotyping: When individuals are judged on the basis of the characteristics of
the group to which they belong, this is called 'stereotyping'. The word stereotype
was first, in 1922, applied by Walter Lipmann to perception. Since then, it has
become a frequently used term to describe perception. In particular, it is
employed in analyzing prejudice. Most stereotypes have favourable and
unfavourable traits. That 'older workers cannot learn new skills', 'over-weight
people lack discipline', 'Japanese are nationalistic', 'Indians are fatalistic', and
'workers are anti-management', are some common examples of stereotypes. The
basic problem with stereotyping suffers is that it is so widespread that it does
not give indepth truth. The fact otherwise remains that it may not contain even a
shred of truth or may be irrelevant. Thus, stereotyping makes the perception
inaccurate based on a false premise about a group.
(iv) Personality: Personality of the perceiver also affects what is to be perceived. In
this context, researchers have reported that secure individuals tend to perceive
others as warm not cold and indifferent and persons accepting themselves and
having faith in their individuality perceive things favourable. These also imply
that persons being insecure and nonaccepting themselves are less likely to
perceive others around them.
(v) Situation: The situation or context in which we observe or see things also
influences our perception about them. Just think. A management Professor may
not notice his 20-years-old girl student in an evening gown and heavy makeup at
a marriage party in a five-star hotel. Now, if the same girl student so attired
attends his class on next day would certainly catch the Professor's attention
alongwith that of the rest of the class. This indicates how situation affects our
perception. Closely related to situation is time, light, heat or other situational
factors that affect perceiver's perception about the things or events to be
percieved.
(vi) Perceiver: So far we have learnt how factors residing in objects and situations
affect one's perception about things and events. Factors residing in the perceiver
himself/herself do also operate to shape and sometimes distort his/her
perception. The perceiver's attitudes, motives, interests, past experience, and
expectations are among the more relevant personal factors/characteristics that
affect perception. Let us give an example how personal factors influence what
he or she perceives.
If you have bought a new Hero Honda, then you suddenly notice a large number of Hero
Hondas just like yours plying on the road. Remember, it is unlikely that the number of
such Hero Hondas suddenly increased. Rather, your own purchase (of Hero Honda) has
influenced you so. You are now likely to notice them around you.

34
5. Action: Action is the last phase in the perceptual process. Action is the resultant
behaviour of individual emerging from the perceptual process. The action may
positive or negative depending upon favourable perception held by the perceiver an
example, a student may respond favourably to the motivational intentions of the
Professor provided his understanding about his Professor is positive or favourable
The action also may be covert or overt. The covert action relates to change in
attitudes opinion, feelings, impressions, etc. The overt action may be in the form of
one behaviour easily noticeable and visible.

2.4 FACTORS AFFECTING PERCEPTION

Factors that influence perception relate to the perceiver, perceived and situation All
these factors are of two kinds - Internal (Endogeneous) Factors, and in External
(Exogeneous) Factors. These are now discussed in detail.
Internal factors
These factors reside in person concern. These include one's needs, desires
personality and experience.
(i) Needs and Desires: An individual's perception about stimuli is influenced by,
inter alia, his needs and desires at that time. Perception varies depending upon
variations in his/her needs and desires from time to time.
(ii) Personality: Closely related to needs and desires is the personality of the
perceiver, which affects what is attended or perceived in the given situation. As
mentioned earlier, research studies suggest that secure individuals tend to
understand or perceive others as warm and self-accepting individuals perceive
themselves as liked, wanted and accepted by others'.
(iii) Experience: Experience and knowledge serve as basis for perception. While
one's successful experience enhances his/her perceptive ability, failure erodes
his/her self-confidence. Successful experience also helps perceiver understand
stimuli with more accuracy.
External Factors
The external factors relate to what is to be perceived and situation. These are size,
intensity, frequency, status, etc.
(i) Size: The principle of size says that the larger the object, the more is the
probability that it is perceived. Size attracts the attention of the individual. A
full-page spread advertisement attracts more attention than a few lines in a
classified section. The reason is not difficult to seek. The size establishes
dominance and enhances perceptual selection.
(ii) Intensity: Intensity is closely related to size. The intensity principle of
attention states that the more intense the stimuli, the more likely it is to be

35
 perceived. As an example, a loud noise or strong odour will be noticed more
than a soft sound and weak odour. Following the intensity principle, the
superiors may yell at their subordinates to gain attention. Advertisers also use
intensity to attract and gain the consumer's attention.
(iii) Frequency/Repetition: The repetition principle states that a repeated external
stimulus is more attention-getting than a single one. It is for this reason that
advertisers go for repetitions advertising to gain the customers' attention to
their product.
(iv) Contrast: As per contrast principle, the external stimuli which stands out
against the background will receive more attention. For example, plant safety
signs with black lettering on a yellow background or white lettering on a red
background are more attention-attracting.
(v) Status: Status held by an individual also influences his/her perception about
things or events. Researchers suggest that people with high status often exert
more influence on the perception of an individual as compared to those
holding low status.
(vi) Movement: The movement principle says that people pay more attention to a
moving object than the stationary ones. People will be attracted more by a
running train than one standing on the platform.

2.5 HOW TO IMPROVE PERCEPTION?

By now, you have learnt that perception precedes behaviour. How one (say, boss)
will behave with others (say, subordinates) depends on how the former perceives the
latter. More accurate the perception, the better will be behaviour and vice versa.
Inaccurate perception distorts behaviour. And, in this lies the need for and importance of
improving perception. Perception can be improved by making various attempts.
Following are the important ones that can help one improve his/her perception.
1. Perceiving oneself Accurately.In order to perceive others accurately, one first
needs to perceive oneself accurately. Therefore, one needs to improve more
awareness about himself/herself. Frequent and better interaction with peers;
free, frank and open communication with others and mutual trust are some
commonly adopted practices for perceiving oneself more accurately,
2. Improving One's Self-Concept: When people successfully accomplish what
they want, it develops a sense of self-regard and self-esteem. It is called 'self-
concept'. Research studies suggest that people having self-concept tend to
perceive others more accurately. Abraham Maslow' also contends that self-
actualising people have more accurate perceptions about themselves and others
than those who are not self-actualising. It also indicates that correct perception
about oneself helps perceive others also more accurately.

36
 3. Be Empathetic: Empathy means to be able to see a situation as it is perceived
by other people. In a way, it is like putting your feet in another's shoes. Looking
at a problem from others' point of view enables the person to perceive the other
side of the problem.
The role of empathy in improving perception can be appreciated by a story of 'A
Puppy'.

A PUPPY
A boy went to the pet store to buy a puppy. Four puppies were sitting together, priced at
Rs. 1,000 each. Then there was one sitting alone in a corner. The boy asked if that was
from the same litter, if it was for sale, and why it was sitting alone. The store owner
replied that it was from the same litter and that it was a deformed one, and not for sale.
The boy asked what the deformity was. The store owner replied that the puppy was born
without a hip socket and had a leg missing. The boy asked, "What will you do with this
one?" The reply was it would be put to sleep. The boy asked if he could play with that
puppy. The store owner said, "Sure." The boy picked the puppy up and the puppy licked
him on the ear. Instantly the boy decided that was the puppy he wanted to buy. The store
owner said "That is not for sale!" The boy insisted.
The store owner agreed. The boy pulled Rs. 200 from his pocket and ran to get Rs. 800
from his mother. As he reached the door the store owner shouted after him, "I don't
understand why you would pay full money for this one when you could buy a good one
for the same price." The boy didn't say a word. He just lifted his left trouser leg and he
was wearing a brace. The pet store owner said, "I understand. Go ahead, take this one".
This is empathy.
4. Having Positive Attitudes: Positive attitude makes one's perception positive or
more accurate. Hence, the managers need to try to overcome their personal bias,
get rid of any negative feelings, if any, they have of others. These enhance an
individual's perceptual skill.
5. Avoiding Perceptual Distortions: As discussed earlier, some factors such as
halllo effect, stereotyping, attribution, first impression, etc. distort one's
perception about things or problems. Therefore, sincere and continuous efforts
should be made to guard oneself against such biases. This, in turn, improves
one's perceptual ability.
6. Communicating Openly: Experience suggests that sometimes perception gets
distorted due to communication gap or/and inadequate communication. In such
case, effective communication needs to be developed to ensure that true and
right message reaches at the right place and at the right time. This will enable to
know the problem in a better perspective which, in turn, will improve person’s
perception about the problem.

37
In short, it can be summed up that perception skills can be enhanced/improved by:
 Knowing and perceiving oneself accurately.
 Seeing a situation/problem as it is experienced by others, i.e. empathy.
 Having positive attitude towards the problems and situations we are confronted
with.
 Improving one’s self-esteem or self-concept.
 Avoiding the common biases in perception.
 Making two-way/effective communication to dispel mis-communication or lack
of communication.
 Making a conscious effort to avoid attribution.

2.6 PERCEPTION AND ITS APPLICATION IN OB

The word 'organisation', among other things, implies where host of individuals work
together for achieving the organisational and individual goals. In this process, They are
always judging each other on a continuous basis. One tries to evaluate how much effort
his/her co-worker is putting into his/her job. Even when a new worker fins a department,
he/she is immediately sized up by the other departmental workers. The perceptual
process, as discussed earlier, suggests how one judges/assesses others largely depends
upon how he/she perceives/understands them. In this way perception tends to influence
decision-making. Thus, perceptions, in many cases, have important effect on
organisations. Let us briefly look at a few of the more obvious applications of perception
in organisations.
Employment Interview: Interviewers make perceptual judgements that are often
inaccurate. Different interviewers try to see different things in the same candidate and,
thus, arrive at different perceptions about the same candidate. Who one thinks is a good
candidate and who another thinks is a bad one may differ markedly. Importantly,
interviewers form early impression about the candidate that weights in the final selection
of the candidate. So to say, information elicited early in the interview carries greater
weight than does information elicited latert. That is why a good candidate is characterised
more by the absence of unfavourable characteristics than by the presence of favourable
characteristics. In this way, it is clear that where interview is an important input into
selection decision, the perceptual factors influence the decision who is to be selected.
This, in turn, influences the quality of labour force selected in an organisation
Performance Appraisal: Assessment of an employee's performance very much
depends on the perception of the evaluator about the employee. In practice, an employee's
future is closely tied to his or her performance appraisal. Promotions, pay raises and
continuation of job are the most obvious and common outcomes of the employee's
performance. Performance appraisal is both objective and subjective. It may be objective
when performance can easily be quantified. For example, a salesman's performance can
be assessed based on how many Rupees of sales he/she generated in his/her territory
during a given period of time. However, many employees jobs are evaluated in subjective

38
terms. An impressive amount of evidence demonstrates that subjective measures are, by
definition, judgemental. Judgements, as we discussed earlier, make one's perception more
susceptible to distortions. Thus, subjective approach may influence the appraisal outcome
Performance Expectation: New employees during their selection process acquire a
set of expectations both about the organisation and about the job he is expecting to
achieve. In case, there is a big difference between what expected and what actually
acquired, it results in increased employee absenteeism and turnover.
Employee Effort: In many organisations, the level of an employee's performance is
given high importance. Hence, an employee's future in an organisation depends on his/her
effort made for achieving the organisational goals. However, assessment of an
individual's performance is a subjective judgement and thus, susceptible to perceptual
distortions and bias also.
Employee Loyalty: While assessing employees, the managers also make another
important decision whether the employees are loyal to organisation or not. Like effort,
assessment of loyalty is also a subjective judgement susceptible to perceptual distortions
and bias. As an example, an employee looking for greener pastures outside the
organisation may be labelled as disloyal to the organisation. As a resultant behaviour, the
organisation may cut off his future advancement opportunities.

2.7 SUMMARY

 Perception can be defined as a process which involves seeing, receiving selecting,

organizing, interpreting and giving meaning to the environment. It is an important
mediating cognitive process by which individuals Organize and interpret their
sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment.
 Perception and sensation are different. Perception is much more than sensation.
Sensation may be described as the response of a physical sensory organ to some
stimuli.
 Perceptual Process are: Receiving Stimuli, Selection of Stimuli, Organization of
Stimuli, Interpretation, and Action.
 There are two factors that affecting perception : Internal Factors(Needs and
Desires, Personality, Experience) & External Factors(Size, Intensity,
Frequency/Repetition, Contrast, Status, Movement)
 One can improve his/her perception by perceiving oneself accurately, by Improving
Self-Concept, with Empathetic behavior& Positive Attitudes, by Avoiding
Perceptual Distortions & by openly communicating with others.
 Perception are important in an organization because individual always judging each
other on a continuous basis. One tries to evaluate how much effort his/her co-
worker is putting into his/her job. In job interview, Performance Appraisal,
determining employee’s efforts, loyalties etc. perception plays an important role.

39
2.8 EXERCISE

FILL IN THE BLANKS

1. Perception is a process which involves seeing, receiving selecting,& …………….
and giving meaning to the environment.
2. The ‘selective perception’ involves………… psychological principle & ………….
Principle.
3. Grouping, Closure & Simplification are the ways of ……………….
4. Halo effect, Attribution, Stereotyping, etc. are factors that influence…………. in
organizations.
5. Performance appraisal which is an applications of perception in organizations both
……………. and ………….

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

1. This whole perceptual process does not includes:

A. Receiving &Selection of Stimuli
B. Organization of Stimuli
C. Interpretation & Action
D. Frequency/Repetition
2. External factors that affect perception includes:
A. Needs and Desires
B. Experience
C. Intensity
D. None of above.
3. Perception can be improved by which way:
A. Perceiving oneself Accurately
B. Communicating Openly
C. Improving self-esteem or self-concept
D. All of above
4. Applications of perception in organizations are:
A. Interview process
B. Performance evaluation process
C. Decision making process
D. All of the above
6. Perception as a process which includes:
A. Receiving & Selecting stimuli
B. Organizing & Interpreting stimuli
C. Checking and Reacting to stimuli
D. All of the above.

40
SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS

1. What is perception? How it is different form sensation?

2. Explain the Perception process with the help of example.
3. What are the factors that influence perception relate to the perceiver, perceived and
situation. Give example.
4. Briefly explain the application of perception in organizational behavior.
5. How one can improve his/her perception. Explain with the help of an example.

41
 CHAPTER-3

ATTITUDES, VALUES AND JOB SATISFACTION

3.0 ATTITUDES

Attitudes are evaluative statements. They respond one’s feeling either favourably or
unfavourably to persons, objects or/and events. In other words, attitudes reflect how one
feels about something. For example, Professor Philip Kotler says “I like teaching,” he is
expressing his attitude about his work.

3.1 CONCEPT OF ATTITUDES

Let us consider some important definitions on attitudes given by the behavioural

thinkers to understand the meaning of attitude in a better manner: Krech and Crutchfiled
define attitude as “as enduring organisation of motivational, emotional, perceptual, and
cognitive processes with respect to some aspect of the individual’s world.”
According to Munn, “attitudes are learned predispositions towards aspects of our
environment. They be positively or negatively directed towards certain people, service or
institutions.”
Now, attitudes can precisely be defined as a persistent tendency to feel and behave
in a particular way towards some objects, persons or events.
Salient Features: The salient features of attitudes flowing from above definitions
are summarized as follows:
1. Attitudes are related to the feelings and beliefs of people.
2. Attitudes respond to persons, objects or events.
3. Attitudes affect behaviour either positively or negatively.
4. Attitudes undergo changes.
Attitudes affect perception and, in turn, behaviour. This underlines the need for
managers to understand different types of attitudes and their formation, how attitudes are
measured and what causes change in attitudes. The subsequent sections unfold the same.

3.2 FORMATION OF ATTITUDES

Attitudes are not inherited. These are acquired or learned by the people from the
environment in which they interact. The formation of attitudes is broadly classified into
two sources:
1. Direct Experience, and
2. Social Learning
Direct Experience: One’s direct experience with an object or person serves as a
powerful source for his/her attitude formation. In other words, attitudes are formed on the

42
basis of one’s past experience in concerned object or person. Take your own case, for
instance. How do you know that you like organisational behaviour or dislike financial
management? The answer to it is that you have formed these attitudes from your
experience in studying the two subjects. Research has shown that attitudes derived from
the direct experience are more powerful, stronger, durable and are difficult to change than
are attitudes that are formed through indirect experience. This is because of their
availability in our cognitive processes.
Social Learning: The process of deriving attitudes from family, peer groups,
religious organisations and culture is called social learning. In social learning, an
individual acquires attitudes from his/her environment in an indirect manner. Social
learning starts from early age when children derive certain attitudes from their parents.
This is often evident from when young children express their political preferences similar
to those held by their parents.
Attitudes are derived from peer groups also. For example, if Ravi Saxena has been
attending his duty late for some days but co-workers have always been on time, Ravi
Saxena is likely to attend his duty on time.
Individuals acquire much of their attitudes by merely observing their models whom
they admire and respect. The observer overhears their models expressing their opinion or
watches them displaying a behaviour that reflects their attitude. Then, the same attitude is
imbibed and displayed by the observer. So to say, individuals shape their attitudes to
align with their models.
Learning attitudes from observation involves the following four processes:
1. Attention: Attention must be focussed on model.
2. Retention: What was observed from the model must be retained.
3. Reproduction: Behaviour must be practised again and again.
4. Motivation: The learner must be motivated to learn from the model.
An individual’s association with others also shapes one’s attitude about him/her.
For example, the teacher’s attitude, be if favourable or unfavourable, about X student will
often be formed by associating him with Y student about whom the teacher had already
formed an opinion or attitude.
Added to these is culture that also plays a definitive role in forming attitudes.
Consider, for example, the contrast in thinking about earning income in India and
America. People in India earn mainly for future requirements of life while their
counterparts in America earn money to enjoy the present. The American attitude is: ‘live
to-day not tomorrow?

3.3 TYPES OF ATTITUDES

Though an individual can have numerous attitudes, but organisational behaviour

focuses on job related attitudes only. As such, job-related attitudes are of three types-job

43
satisfaction, job involvement and organisational commitment. A brief description of these
follows.
Job Satisfaction: The term job satisfaction refers to an individual’s pleasurable or
positive emotional state toward his or her job. Job satisfaction is related with the five
specific dimensions of the job: pay, the work itself, promotion opportunities, supervision,
and co-workers. When people speak of employee attitude, more often than not, they mean
job satisfaction. In fact, the two terms attitude and job satisfaction are frequently used
interchangeably. Without question, job satisfaction has received bulk of attention in
organisational behaviour. Therefore, this is discussed in considerable detail later in this
chapter.
Job Involvement: Job involvement is the degree to which employees immerse
themselves in their jobs, invest time and energy in them, and consider work as a central
part of their overall lives. Employees with a high level of job involvement strongly
identify with their jobs and take utmost care about the kind of job they do. Such
employees seldom will be tardy and absent. The will attempt to be high performer.
Organisational Commitment: Organisational commitment is an attitude about
employee’s loyalty to their organisation. It is a process through which employees identify
with the organisation and want to maintain membership in the organisation. In fact, like a
strong magnetic force attracting one metallic object to another, organisational
commitment is a measure of the employees’ willingness to remain with a firm in the
future also. It is usually stronger among longer-term employees, and those who have
relished personal success in the organisation.
So, while job involvement means identifying with one’s job, organisational
commitment means identifying with one’s employing organisation.

3.4 MEASUREMENT OF ATTITUDE

Our thoughts and feelings tend to compromise our attitudes towards anything from
the other person, to the environment to the world. There is intention which is also shaped
by our beliefs and which also influences the formation of our attitude. One could, then,
say that between intention and action is attitude. An awareness of our attitude tells much
about our self at any given moment. Attitude thinkers have identified five types of
attitudes which are worthy of appreciation:
1. Attitude of Kindness
2. Attitude of Mercy
3. Attitude of Compassion
4. Attitude of Forgiveness
5. Attitude of Humility and Self-respect
Each is worthy of discussion.

44
 When you extend true love to everyone with selfless motivation that is an Attitude
of Kindness
Three concepts meet and merge into one action - love, selflessness and kindness.
These are rarely seen but are often aspired to. Then question is why? Most probably this
is because the love has become more of a fuzzy idea, than a real and authentic gesture.
That is why it seems 'love' is now one of the most misused words in our language. For
example, if I say: 'I love my country, it is not true love, but just my identification. If I say:
'I love you (my wife) sounds good feels OK, but can easily be translated as I want you. It
all means that only the speaker knows his or her own real motive. Therefore, true love is
neither identification, stimulation, dependency nor desire. The extending of true love is
simply the extending of the self as a conscious and benevolent connection is made with
the other. It's not even motivated by the thought, "I want to give". That's nearly love, but
even that is tinged by desire, and true love has no desire. Or does it? As soon as the
self'wants' then the energy of the self, which is love itself, ceases to radiate naturally. It
ceases to flow outwards without distortion, and it tries to bring some part of the universe
into itself. Ultimately love neither gives nor takes nor wants. It simply is and it simply
does. Without the distorting 'intention' of giving, taking or wanting, the energy of the self
simply radiates as it must, creating the appropriate action as it must and whoever it
touches feels the gentle touch of kindness, they feel touched, and that's why we
sometimes even say... 1 was so touched'. Understanding the true nature of love seems to
be one of the deepest challenges at this particular time. The fact remains that true love
cannot be expressed in words. So to say, ultimately all words are inadequate to express
true love.
When you send good wishes and pure feelings to those who are in deep sorrow
that is an Attitude of Mercy.
Generally, we tend to 'sympathize and create sorrow for ourselves under the illusion
that by doing so we are giving support to those who are in sorrow. It means we have
either forgotten or not yet learned the real meaning of empathy, which is to understand
someone from their point of view by sensing perspective and their feelings/ emotions
without allowing ourselves to create the same emotions. Empathy is also rooted in the
energy of love. It is love's natural response when faced with the suffering of another.
Love is where empathy gets its strength not to be affected by the others' sorrows. The
others' emotion is a symptom of their momentary weakness, and being in the company of
someone who does not cry, but remains strong, can give them the strength to pull
themselves up and out of their emotional trough. In a world where we learn that the
loving thing to do is to cry with the other, and thereby adding to their tears, it's not easy to
not to join in and add to the sorrowfulness

45
When you see the virtues rather than the weaknesses in others that is an Attitude of
Compassion
It also happens in this world that people not only look at the weaknesses of others
but also more at the strengths i.e. positive side of others. Thus, they turn it into virtue.
Yes, as much it is good to form virtue, it is not so easy and simple. It fire requires that we
be able to do the same for ourselves. We may do things that we may label bad or stupid
but we are not an innately bad or stupid person. Self-criticism both toxic and disabling.
To know our own innate goodness and strengths become the only way we can see it
genuinely in others. And as we do we give them the gift of a higher vision of themselves
than that which they have for themselves in that moment This is both a subtle and a
spiritual empowerment. It empowers the other in a way they may not even notice at the
time.
When you bless and uplift someone even as they defame you that is an Attitude of
Forgiveness
It is hard not to react and feel personally insulted when someone criticizes or
defames us. By nature, we are conditioned to 'be offended'. But it's just another of ego's
games. It is really the conditioning that is offended not the self. Whenever we take
anything personally it just means we don't yet know ourselves as we truly are. We are still
identifying with a false image we have given to our self. When we know ourselves as
conscious beings with no self-image, when we are aware of our self only as
consciousness, words cannot touch and, therefore, hurt us. The one who would insult us is
then seen to be suffering within themselves. Their words, and the energy behind the
words, are recognized as a symptom of their own discomfort. A need is discerned, so love
as compassion arises. And that is forgiving. Love senses the need of the other and makes
it available. This is because love is ultimately for giving.
When you tolerate a situation and take responsibility as well as give cooperation,
even when not appreciated that is an Attitude of Humility and Self-respect.
Perhaps such attitude profiles a 'hero'. Who is a 'hero?' A hero is someone who
saves the day. He has the courage to step up and put himself in danger, to take what
seems to be a risk that few others would dare to take. The attitude of humility is only
possible where there is the courage to let go of the illusion upon which the ego is based. It
is always a false image that the self attaches to, perhaps even for a lifetime, hence the
courage that is required is to let go or to see through the illusion to the truth. "I am not
that (image)". This is why humility cannot be pursued but arises only when there is the
courage to let go of the illusion that the fear is real. All fear arises from the ego, and the
ego is not real, so the fear is also unreal. Fear always loses its power when reality is
restored. Only then, when the self stops being busy in ego's game of self-protection, can
the self be fully available for all, which is cooperation in the most complete sense.
We have maintained that attitudes affect behaviour. Changes in attitudes make
behaviour unpredictable. But, the managers need to know the dimension of attitude so as

46
to anticipate employees' behaviour at work. One way to know the attitudinal dimension is
attitude measurement.
Measurement in its broadest sense is the assignment of numerals, to objects or
events according to rules. There are many methods of attitude measurement methods are
classified into four types:
1. Self-Report
2. Indirect Tests
3. Direct Observation technique
4. Psychological Reaction Techniques
However, attitude measurement of employees in organisations is most commonly
carried out with Self-Report Method. Self-report usually elicits responses from
employees through questionnaires dealing with their feelings about their work and related
matters. Self-report is carried out through the use of attitude surveys.
Attitude surveys contain a set of statements or questions to be answered by the
employees. A definite scale is assigned to each answer. Scaling-terms assigned are
tailored to obtain the information what managers actually want. Table 7.1 illustrates what
an attitude scaling might look like.
Statement in the questionnaire is: 'My job makes the best use of my abilities'.
Table 3.1: Attitude Scaling for the Statements

Strongly Agree 5
Agree 4
Undecided 3
Disagree 2
Strongly Disagree 1

There are three types of attitude scaling commonly used in attitude measurement of
employees in the organisations. These are:
1. Equal Appearing Interval Scales (L.L. Thurstone Scale)
2. Summated Rating Scales (Rensis Likert Scale)
3. Semantic Differential (C.E. Osgood et al Scale)
These are briefly discussed in the following paragraphs.
Equal Appearing Interval Scales: Perhaps the most widely used procedure of
attitude measurement is L.L. Thurstone's technique of equal appearing interval scales. It
is simple in application as it requires only one judgement for each item/statement. The
statements range from pile 1 to pile 11 corresponding to the most favourable and the most
unfavourable respectively. The other statements fall between these two extremes. The

47
scales so prepared are then presented to the respondents for their responses on the
statements. The responses given by the respondents are then summed up.
Summated Rating Scales: This scale is experimented by Likert for measuring
attitudes. The scale has five points viz, always, often, sometimes, seldom and never
statement is presented to the respondent who checks one of the five points assigned to
each statements. These points indicate the degree of agreement or disagreement with the
statements given to the respondents. Then, the scores or points given to statements by the
respondents are summed and averaged to yield an individuals attitude.
The Likert scale is considered better as compared to Thurstone's one because its
simplicity in making numerous statements which require only one statement every aspect
Semantic Differentials: Semantic differential refers to the successive allocation
made of a concept to a score in a given multidimensional space by selection from set of
given scaled semantic alternatives. It comprises of many pairs of opposite alternatives
having a scale value in between the extremes. The respondent marks the score along the
scale for his/her attitude about the given object. Finally, the respondent scores assigned to
each statement are summed. The sum reflects the individual attitude to the object, person
or event, whatsoever it may be.
Apart from these, the other scales developed for attitude measurement include the
Guttman technique, the error-choice method, and the sentence completion method.
However, these have been least in use and hence have not been discussed here for want of
space.

3.5 ATTITUDE CHANGE

As mentioned earlier, attitude formation involves three major components, namely,

(i) conative (i.e, knowledge and awareness), (ii) affective (i.e. feelings), and (ii) conative
(i.e, action or behaviour). As regards change in attitude, it covers all above three
components. Several theories have been propounded to explain how attitude changes.
Some of the prominent among them are discussed here.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Cognitive dissonance theory propounded by Festinger is the best known and most
researched framework pertaining to attitude change. According to this theory attitude
change is caused by inconsistency, or say, dissonance in beliefs. The reason is not
difficult to seek. One cannot remain for long in inconsistent belief system. One needs to
remove inconsistency in beliefs by resuming to one belief as good or right: To show how
attempts to avoid cognitive dissonance may be involved in changing our own attitudes, let
us consider an imaginary example.
Suppose, you say one thing but do another (e.g., claim you like administration (Job
A) but take teaching (Job B). One attitude you hold is inconsistent with another (e.g., you
cherish your health but also enjoy drinking alcohol). Then, an unpleasant state known as

48
'cognitive dissonance' arises. What happens is you feel uneasy about the inconsistencies
between your words and deeds, or between your various attitudes, and you are tempted or
motivated to change your attitude so as to resolve the dissonance. What we are saying, in
its most general form, is that for the most cases, people's attitude toward selected
alternatives tend to become more positive, and toward rejected alternatives become more
negative. This is because people derogate the characteristics of an alternative they do not
accept and tout the advantages of the one they take as an attempt to avoid cognitive
dissonance.
Reinforcement Theory
This theory is propounded by Hovland et.al.10 and is based on the effects of
persuasive communication. According to this theory, change in attitude takes place to the
reward or incentive offered in the communication. More the communication persuasive,
more likely is change in attitude.
Balance Theory
Developed by Heider", the balance theory explains that when one's beliefs are
unbalanced, these create stress or tension. Then, one feels pressure to relieve stress by
balancing, i.e., changing one's attitude. Two factors, namely, sentiment (e.g., liking,
admiring) and unity l.g., similarity, proximity) affect balance in one's beliefs. Balance
occurs when sentiments or unity between beliefs about people or events or things are
equally positive or negative. Imbalance happens when they are dissimilar in nature.
Comprehensive Theory
It was McGuire who has been credited with the development of most
comprehensive theory of attitude change. In his theory, Mc Guire has elaborated attitude
change in five aspects, namely, attention, comprehension, yielding, retention, and action.
According to him, change in attitude follows through these five stages. He has also
showed that attitude change also follows a definite type of communication process
comprising of five processes, namely, source, message, channel, receiver, and
destination. While explaining how attitude changes, McGuire has suggested a matrix
showing five stages (or modes) of attitude change on one axis and the five
communication processes on the other axis (see Exhibit 7.1).
Exhibit 3.1: Mc Guire’s Matrix of Attitudinal Change

Aspects of Attitude Communication Process

Change
Source Message Channel Receiver
Attention
Comprehension
Yielding

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Retention
Action
Now, we shall briefly discuss each of communication processes in relation to
attitude change.
Source
The source of communication has great influence on the first three phases of
attitude change, i.e. attention, comprehension, and yielding. A source bears three
characteristics in relation to attitude change, namely, credibility, attractiveness, and
power. All three perform different functions in changing attitude. While credibility helps
the receiver in internalising the message and attractiveness helps in identifying the
receiver with the source, power of source helps in complying with the message.
Message
Like source, message also has four types of characteristics: suggestion, conform
persuasion, and indoctrination. Suggestion is a repetitive presentation of messa target
population/person with an objective to create an understanding about messa in the minds
of receivers. T.V. advertisements are such examples. As regar conformity, it refers to
feedback given on the discrepancy between a person's behavio and the norms or desired
behaviour in this regard. For example, a T.V. advertiseme shows a woman having long
flowing hair by using Sun Silk Shampoo and, the emphasizes a discrepancy between the
viewers' behaviour and espoused or desired behaviour, i.e., use of Sun Silk Shampoo.
Persuasion is some what more active in the sense it also gives reasons for the acceptance
of the particular behaviour. Appeals can be either rational or emotional, yet rational
appeals are found more effective in influencing the receiver of the message. Similarly,
compared to messages producing fear in the minds of receiver, messages offering
pleasant feeling are found more likely to influence the receiver/people. The advantage of
this tendency is taken by several organisations like banks when offering new products or
services. For example, the Director of the National Institute of Financial Management (A
Government of India Institute), Faridabad invited to its also faculty members to Jaipur for
two days to inform and impress upon them the new changes to be introduced in the
institute from the academic year 2008-09. The rationale behind taking faculty members
200 kms, away from Faridabad to Jaipur is people are likely to be more positively
susceptible and induced towards changes in pleasant atmosphere.
Channel
There are four variables related to a channel of communication. These are: direct
experience, inter-personal communication, group discussion, and mass media, As regards
the direct contact, the receiver's initial attitude - be favourable or unfavourable - toward
the thing influences the change in attitude of the receiver. It is observed that direct
experience for long often produces a favourable attitude. This is mainly because long
contact produces and increases familiarly with the thing and, in turn, influences attitude.

50
There is evidence to believe that increasing familiarly changes attitude from utter dislike
to extreme liking. Long contact between husband and wife may be one such case.
Regarding inter-personal communication, evidence suggests that spoken communication
produces more influence than written communication on receiver. The reason is not
difficult to seek. In case of spoken communication, the source of communication, i.e., the
sender also becomes an added factor in persuasion. As far as mass media is concerned,
research results on impact of mass media on attitude change have so far been
inconclusive. Nonetheless, the findings are that mass media affects attention,
comprehension, and yielding which are basic elements involved in attitude change.
Receiver
Receivers as individuals differ in personality characteristics and, in turn, in
suggestibility and persuability. While some individuals are easily influenced by
suggesting them about what is expected of them, others cannot be. Similarly, some people
some people are more susceptible to persuasion process, others are not. Active
participation of individuals in the development of change programme is also found more
effective in changing their attitudes toward positive direction.
Destination
Here, destination means the variables used to change attitude. There can be three
major variables involved in the process of attitude change: (i) the duration of change, (ii)
the delayed action effect, and (iii) developing resistance to counter the contrary effect.
Regarding the duration of change, research findings report that attitude change through
intensive persuasion lasts for a short - duration like 3-4 months and requires repetitive
persuasion to make the change last for longer period. Some times there are some
messages that produce impact on receiver only some time after the message sent. As far
as immunization effect is concerned, it is produced through various ways. However,
anchoring is found the most effective way to offset the influence of counter message on
the receiver. Anchoring is done by linking a message with the core value of the
individuals with whom the receiver wants to belong. This technique is generally used in
T.V. advertisement by linking the advertisement message with models, hero's, celebrities,
etc.
Attitudes affect behaviour. Hence, it is in the interest of the organisation to try for
the favourable change in the attitudes. The following are some important ways that can be
used for changing attitudes:
1. Filling in the Information Gap: Unfavourable attitudes are mainly formed owing
to information gap or inadequate supply of information. Then, providing
information to fill in the gaps can change attitudes. For example, workers may be
anti-management because of the ignorance about the good intentions of
management. If they are made known about the same, they may change their
attitudes to pro-management.

51
2. Use of Fear: Researches report that attitudes can also be changed by giving fear.
However, both low and high degree of fear arousal do not cause attitude change.
The reason is while the former is often ignored, the latter makes the people stubborn
in their held attitudes. In fact, only moderate level of fear arousal makes the people
aware of the situations and induces to change their attitudes.
3. Resolving Discrepancies: Resolving discrepancies between attitude and behaviour,
if any, is yet another way to change attitudes. For example, people try to have good
attitude about the job they have held and negative ones about the jobs they did not
choose to work.
4. Impact of Peers: Persuasion by peers with high credibility can also cause change in
attitude. The same is not true with peers having low level of credibility
5. The Coopting Approach: Coopting is also yet another way to change attitudes. In
coopting approach, the people who are dissatisfied with a certain situation are taken
to make them involved in improving things.
However, it would be naive to assume that attitude only affects behaviour.
Sometimes, behaviour also, on reciprocal manner, influences attitudes, as this illustration
demonstrates.
Nalini Pandey, a supervisor in Cachar Paper Mills, was resisting the implementation of
personnel computers at work. After six months passed, RupakDayal, the General
manager decided to purchase computers without wasting time to change supervisor's
attitude. The computers were immediately installed and training on how to use
computers was offered. Just after three weeks, Nalini emerged the most enthusiastic
supporter for the computers and confided to her colleague: "We waited so long
unnecessarily to get computers". Clearly, the General Manager's behaviour changed the
supervisor's attitude.
Attitude affects performance. Hence, the need for positive attitude toward
whatsoever work one does. Here is an interesting story of attitudes of three brick layers.
Three Brick Layers
Three people were laying bricks. A passerby asked them what they were doing. The
first one replied, "Don't you see I am making a living," when the same question was
asked to the second one, he said, "Don't you see I am laying bricks to construct a wall".
In answer of the same question, the third one replied, "I am building a beautiful
cathedral/ monument." See, these three people doing the same thing had very different
attitudes about their work. Their attitudes will certainly affect their performance. Third
attitude is the example of pride of performance, i.e. positive attitude.

3.6 CONCEPT OF VALUE

Values are one of the sources of individual differences which are discussed earlier
in Chapter 4. Values are general beliefs tinged with moral flavour containing an

52
individual's judgemental ideas about what is good, right or desirable. In other words, the
answers to the questions-what is right or wrong and good or bad-are value laden. A few
definitions of value will help us understand the meaning of value in a better manner.
Rokeach defined value as "a specific mood of conduct or end-state of existence is
personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conductor end-state
of existence".
According to White and Bednar, "Value is a concept of the desirable, an
internalised criterion or standard of evaluation a person possesses. Such concepts and
standards are relatively few and determine or guide an individual's evaluations of many
objects encountered in everyday life."
Thus, values are the basic convictions that give us a sense of right and wrong good
and bad. In this way, values form the basis for ethical behaviour. Like attitudes, an
individual may have numerous values. A hierarchy based on a ranking of an individual's
values in terms of their intensity forms his/her value system. All of us have a value
system.
Values are learned. These change as individuals grow and mature. As changes in
values change individual behaviour, managers have shown increasing interest in the study
of values. This interest goes alongwith the emphasis on culture and ethics in organisations
which we will discuss in Chapter 21. Here, our emphasis is confined to as sources of
individual differences at work.
Values and Attitudes
Both attitudes and values are tinged with moral. There are some similarities and
dissimilarities between the two. The similarities are:
1. Both are learned or acquired from the same sources-experience with people, object,
and event.
2. Both affect cognitive process and behaviour of people.
3. Both are endurable and difficult to change.
4. Both influence each other and more often than not, are used interchangeably.
The sharp differences between attitudes and values are summarized in Table
Table: Differences between Attitudes and Values
Attitudes Values
1. Attitudes exhibit predisposition to Values represent judgemental ideas like what
respond. is right.
2. They refer to several beliefs relating They represent single belief focused on
to a specific object or objects or situation.
situations.
These are derived from social and cultural
3. These are one's personal experiences. mores.

53
3.7 TYPES OF VALUES

Milton Rokeach, a pioneer in studying human values, conducted a research survey

on human values. On the basis of his research findings, he identified two basic types of
values: terminal value and instrumental value.
Terminal Values: Terminal values represent the desirable end-states of existence;
the goals an individual would like to achieve during his/her life time. Rokeach identified
18 terminal values.
Instrumental Values: Instrumental values reflect the way to achieving goals. In
other words, these represent preferable modes of behaviour or means of achieving one's
terminal values. Rokeach identified another set of 18 instrumental values.
Both terminal and instrumental values work in concert to provide individuals with
goals to strive for and acceptable ways to achieve the goals. A complete list of Rokeach's
terminal and instrumental values is presented in Table.
Table: Terminal and Instrumental Values

Instrumental Values Terminal Values

1. World Peace 1. Honesty
2. Happiness 2. Forgiving Nature
3. Equality 3. Helpfulness
4. Achievement 4. Self-Control
5. Inner Peace 5. Independence
6. Beauty in Nature 6. Obedience
7 Family Security 7. Ambition
8. Self-Respect 8. Open-mindedness
9. Salvation 9. Cleanliness
10. Friendship 10. Affection and Love
11. Mature Love 11. Politeness
12. Pleasure 12. Rationality
13. Freedom 13. Responsibility
14. Wisdom 14. Courage
15. Prosperity 15. Competence
16. National Security 16. Cheerfulness
17. Social Respect 17. Intelligence
18. Exciting Life 18. Imagination
Source:Adapted from Milton Rokeach: The Nature of Human Values, The Free Press,
New York, 1973.

54
 Allport and associates in their Study of Values, identified six types of values as
follows:
1. Theoretical: Accords high importance on the discovery of truth through a critical
and rational approach.
2. Economic: Emphasises on the usefulness and practicability.
3. Aesthetic: Places the top most importance on form and harmony.
4. Social: Accords the highest value to the love and affection of mankind.
5. Political: Assigns importance to the acquisition of power and influence.
6. Religious: Have concern with the unity of experience and understanding of the
cosmos as a whole.
Allport and associates developed a questionnaire containing a description of
different situations. The respondents were asked to preference-rank a fixed set of
answers. Based on respondents' answers, the two researchers ranked all the respondents
in terms of the emphasis they accorded to each of the six types of values. One of their
major findings, based on above ranking, was that people in different occupations give
different importance to the six value types. For example, religious respondents gave the
most value to religious values and rated the economic values least important. On the
contrary, the purchasing executives placed the highest importance on economic values.
Values and Ethics: Sometimes some people consider values and ethics.
synonymous and use them interchangeably. However, the two mean the two different
meanings. The major line of distinction between the two is that values are beliefs that
affect an individual's judgemental ideas about what is good or bad. The ethic is the way
the values are acted out. Ethical behaviour is acting in ways consistent with one's
personal values and the commonly held values of the organisation and society.

3.8 FORMATION OF VALUES

Where do after all our values come from? How are our values formed? The answers
to these follow.
Research has proved beyond doubt that a significant portion (40 per cent) of one's
values is genetically determined. The rest of values, like attitudes, is learned and acquired
through experiences with parents, school-mates, friends, peers, models and organisations
Formation of values starts from family and is influenced by the parents. Recall your
childhood when many of your mothers told you "Wash your hands and feet and brush
your teeth." This they told because being lazy has been considered bad. Parents own
behaviour to their everyday events also demonstrates what is good and bad, important and
unimportant for the children. Thus, children imbibe many values from the parents.
Class-mates and peers also help shape one's values. As we grow and develop, our
values also change. Here again, recollect your values during your school days. Your
values about somethings, more often than not, had been the same as held by your parents.

55
But, by now when you have grown up and exposed to several situations, might have
changed.
Culture also influences the formation of values. As culture varies across the regions,
so do values also.
Now, some reflection on how values affect behaviour before we leave this section
on values'.
VALUES AND BEHAVIOUR
We have maintained throughout the section that values affect behaviour because
they affect employee's views of what constitutes right and wrong. Therefore, the diversity
of the work force makes it imperative that the managers understand difference in values.
On the whole, an understanding of values is useful to a manager in the following ways:
1. Values serve as foundations for attitudes. In practice, individuals enter organisations
with a pre-conceived notion of what "ought" and what "ought not" to be. These
notions are value laden.
2. Individuals hold their own interpretations of right and wrong. Such situations cloud
objectivity and rationality.
3. Values affect both attitude and behaviour. Let it be illustrated.
Suppose, Ravi Shanker enters Cachar Paper Mills with the view that payment
of salary on piece-rate system is right and on time-rate basis is wrong. He is
likely to disappointed if the Mill allocates salary on time-rate basis. His
disappointment is like to breed his job-dissatisfaction. This will, in turn,
adversely affect his performance. H attitude and, in turn, behaviour would be
different if his values are aligned with the organisation's reward/pay policy.

4. Re-examining the established values poses challanges for the mode management.
That is why the value-based management has been receiving increa attention in the
recent years.
How to Develop Values?
That value, whether organisational or individual, are important for better conduct
and performance is well established and accepted conclusion arrived at different studies.
Then, a question arises is where do values come from? Are values inherited or these can
be developed? If values can be developed, then, how? Research has established that
values can be developed, of course, not by sermons or preaches or lectures on values, but
by role modeling and an examination of the gap between the values desired and values
practiced. There is more often than not, a gap between the espoused or desired values and
the practiced ones, also called 'value incongruence'. Hence, there is a need to reduce or
fill in the gap, i.e., value incongruence. In practice, the less the gap between the values
desired and the values practiced, the more is the value congruence or vice versa in the

56
organisation Behavioural practitioners and researchers have conducted experiments or
interventions to reduce the gap, i.e., incongruence in values. One most commonly
suggested and used intervention for developing values in organisations is 'Value
Clarification originally suggested by Kirschenbaum. A discussion on 'Value Clarification'
follows subsequently
Value Clarification
Interest on value clarification as an intervention used for developing values has
increased and intensified over the period. One of such research on value clarification in
the recent past is conducted by Uma Jain. The following description on value clarification
as an intervention for development of values has been extracted from Uma Jain's study.
According to Uma Jain, value clarification is done through a typical workshop
which involves the following sequential steps:
 Participants are first of all asked to list their five most important values without
giving them any input about values.
 Participants select the five most important values from an instrument, or call it, list
that contains values.
 With an objective to facilitate the participants to add to and / or appropriate their
five values, a value auction is organized.
 Participants participate in the value auction to bid for and buy certain values they
want. For this, they are made available a specific budget which they can use the
ways they like. They are also allowed to opt for two joint biddings while
participating in the value auction.
 Once the above stage of participating in value auction is over, the participants are
asked once again to list their final five most important values.
 Besides, the above individual value clarification exercises, the participants are also
asked to form groups and then groups are asked to make decisions based on value
criteria.
 Thereafter, each group presents its criteria used for their decisions and the other
groups identify the values upheld by these decisions.
 In addition to individual and group value clarification, some other exercises like
Psychic Power, Who to Retain and Discovery are also used to appropriate values to
the maximum extent possible?
However, experiences of value clarification workshops have revealed the negative
feelings in terms of frustration, disappointment, and helplessness felt by the participants.
This is because the participants cannot practice the values that they cherish and want
because of one type or other constraints in organisations. In her study on value
clarification intervention (workshop). Uma Jain has identified the following constraints
found in work organisations:
 Unawareness on the part of participants about one's own values and practice.

57
 Decisions on values are based on others rather than own values.
 Use of differing criteria of values for oneself and others.
 Tendency to avoid pain rather willingly seek pleasure and meaning.
 Desiring others change their values but supporting maintaining status quo in own
case.
 Terminal (ends) values not supported by instrumental (means) values.
 Incongruence of materialistic goals with spiritual goals or values.
Uma Jain also found some important changes in participants introduced through value
clarification workshops. The following are the major ones:
 More clarity of one's own values.
 More awareness of the priority of one's values, or say, own'value system'.
 Courage and willingness to pay the price.
 Setting materialistic goals in congruence with own values.
 Increased awareness of broader horizons of the things.
 Understanding, accepting, and respecting others' values.
 Identifying the gap between values exposed and values practiced and making efforts
to remove the gap.

3.9 SUMMARY

o Attitudes can precisely be defined as a persistent tendency to feel and react

positively or negatively directed towards certain people, service or institutions.
o There are two sources of formation of attitudes: Direct Experience & Social
Learning.
o Job Satisfaction, Job Involvement, Organisational Commitment are attitude related
to job or we can say that job-related attitudes that comes under organizational
behavior.
o There are five types of attitudes which are worthy of appreciation identified by
Attitude thinkers: Attitude of Kindness, Attitude of Mercy, Attitude of Compassion,
Attitude of Forgiveness, Attitude of Humility and Self-respect.
o Measurement in its broadest sense is the assignment of numerals, to objects or
events according to rules. Scaling-terms assigned are tailored to obtain the
information what managers actually want.
o Attitude formation involves knowledge and awareness, feelings, and action or
behavior. On the basis of this several theories have been propounded to explain how
attitude changes like Cognitive Dissonance Theory, Reinforcement Theory, and
Balance Theory & Comprehensive Theory.
o Communication process includes Source, Message, Channel, and Receiver&
Destination. Filling in the Information Gap, The Co-opting Approach, Resolving
Discrepancies, Use of Fear etc. are some important ways that can be used for
changing attitudes

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o Values are the basis of ethical behavior. It is the basic convictions that give us a
sense of right and wrong good and bad. There are two types of values: Terminal
Values &Instrumental Values
o Values can be developed, by role modeling and an examination of the gap between
the values desired and values practiced, hence, there is a need to reduce or fill in the
gap, i.e., value incongruence. One commonly used intervention for developing
values in organisations is 'Value Clarification’.

3.10 EXERCISE

FILL IN THE BLANKS

1. Learning attitudes from observation involves Attention, Retention,&…………….
2. Research has shown that attitudes derived from the …………. are more powerful,
stronger, durable and are difficult to change than are attitudes that are formed
through …………...
3. Attitude surveys contain a set of …………. or …………..to be answered by the
employees.
4. In practice, the less the gap between the………..And the …………, the more is
the value congruence or vice versa in the organization.
5. Descriptions on value clarification as an intervention for development of values
has been extracted from……………..

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

1. Methods of attitude measurement involved:

(1) Self-Report &Indirect Tests
(2) Direct Observation technique
(3) Psychological Reaction Techniques
(4) All of above
2. Equal Appearing Interval Scales is also known as:
(1) C.E. Osgood et al Scale
(2) L.L. Thurston Scale
(3) Rensis Likert Scale
(4) None of above
3. Which of the following is not a terminal value:
(1) Beauty in Nature
(2) Open-mindedness
(3) National security
(4) Achievement
4. Which of this is not the value identify by Allport and associates in their study of
values:
(1) Theoretical
(2) Aesthetic

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 (3) Rationality
(4) Social
5. Learning attitudes from observation does not involves:
(1) Reproduction
(2) Motivation
(3) Attention
(4) Kindness

SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS

1. Define attitude & their features.

2. What are the types of attitude and How to measure & change attitude?
3. Explain the Cognitive Dissonance Theory & Comprehensive Theory with the help
of an example.
4. Explain the concept of Values and Attitudes. How values are different from attitude.
5. Briefly explain the Formation of values & value clarification.

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 CHAPTER-4
EMOTIONS AND MOODS

4.0 DEFINITIONS OF EMOTIONS AND MOODS

"Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and
unruffled under all circumstances."
- Jefferson
"Anybody can become angry-that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to
the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way -
that is not within everybody's power and is not easy." - Aristotle
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
Define emotions and moods and distinguish between the two.
Identify the sources of emotions and moods come from.
Delineate and discuss the different aspects of emotions.
Discuss the major theories of emotions.
Establish, with the help of 'Affective Events Theory (AET), the relationship between
workplace events, emotions, and employee behavior.
Justify the need for and significance of emotional intelligence at work.
Like attitude, perception, and personality, emotions and moods are yet another individual
characteristics that also affect human / employee behavior. Seeing the others behaviour or
mode of conduct, we often comment like he / she is (highly) emotional or he / she is not
in good mood. We also hear from some of our colleagues saying: "Today my mood is not
good." Let emotions and moods be whatever they are, the fact remains that emotions and
moods always remain with people and affect their behaviour. It is against this backdrop,
the present chapter is devoted to discuss the various aspects of emotions and moods with
their implications for organizational behavior.
4.1 MEANING OF EMOTIONS AND MOODS
Emotions and moods vary from person to person and from time to time in case of same
person and, accordingly affect the behaviour. Before we can proceed with our analysis, it
seems pertinent first to clarify the terms emotions and moods and distinguish between the
two.
The three terms affect, emotion, and mood are used interchangeably throughout much of
the literature, without distinguishing between them. The confusion, to some extent, may
be a result of the overlap among the concepts of three terms. Though we do not want to
obsess over their definitions, let us define and clarify the differentiation between these
three terms.

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Of late, the term emotion has become a major variable in psychology and has been
receiving increasing attention in the field of organisational behaviour. Similar to other
psychological constructs, the exact definition and meaning of emotion are not totally
agreed upon. Different authors have defined emotions differently. According to N. H.
Frijda, "Emotions are intense feelings that are directed at someone or something." In
practice, we show our emotions when we are happy about something, angry at some
person, and afraid of something. For example, we feel happy or glad when we see our
friend after a long time, become angry when our directives are not followed by our
subordinates, and we become afraid of technological changes to replace us in our
organisation. Thus, emotions can best be described as how a person feels about
something.
4.2 TYPES OF EMOTIONS
What are the types of emotions? Or how many emotions are there? Like the meaning of
emotion, there is also not total agreement on the types of emotions. Some try to list as
many number of emotions as they can. The list includes anger, contempt, enthusiasm,
envy, fear, frustration, disappointment, disgust, happiness, hate, hope, jealousy, joy, love,
pride, surprise, and sadness. There are other researchers who try to limit emotions into a
few primary or basic ones such as anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise.
They argue that all the others are composed of some of these six basic emotions. Some
researchers have tried to place these six basic emotions along å continuum ranging from
happiness, surprise, fear, sadness, anger to disgust.
Table 4.1 summarizes the primary emotions and their descriptors mentioned in the
psychological literature.
Table 4.1: Types of Emotions

Positive Primary Emotions Other Descriptors

Love/affection Acceptance, adoration, longing, devotion,
infatuation
Happiness/joy Cheerfulness, contentment, bliss, delight,
amusement, enjoyment, enthrallment, thrill,
euphoria, zest.
Surprise Amazement, wonder, astonishment, shock.
Negative Primary
Negative Primary Emotions: Other Descriptors
Fear Anxiety, alarm, apprehension, concern,
qualm, dread, fright, terror.
Sadness Grief, disappointment, sorrow, gloom,
despair, suffering, dejection.
Anger Outrage, exasperation, wrath, indignation,
hostility, irritability.

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Disgust Contempt, disdain, abhorrence, revulsion,
distaste.
Shame Guilt, remorse, regret, embarrassment,
humiliation.

Source: Daniel Goleman: Emotional Intelligence, Bantam Books, New York, 1995, pp.
289-290.
• Each of these emotions is common in the organisations and, hence, seems
worthwhile to mention:
• (Late) Dhirubhai Ambani grew to love his team of engineers as they make
• Patalganga Project operational within the shortest possible time duly appreciated by
Du Pont engineers.
• S. S. Khanka feels happy when the Vice Chancellor appreciated his research
• contribution the his Convocation Speech of the University.
• Ashutosh Das surprised to hear that the Director of his institute has resigned from
the post.
• Arun Suri fears that nuclear deal with the US will be dangerous for India.
• Mrinmoy feels sad for Chandan because he contributed maximum to the
development of the University but gets no recognition from the Vice Chancellor.
• Alok was angry over the Director because he was not considered for
• promotion to the post of Professor for the second time.
• Karan is disgusted with favouritism shown to his colleague Shekhar by the Director
when the customized Management Development Programmes (MDPs) were
allocated. Suresh Kumar Garg has a sense of shame for claiming expense
reimbursement for a trip he did not take.
Plutchik, in his psycho-evolutionary theory of basic emotions has developed the
following 10 postulates:
1. The concept of emotion being applicable to all evolutionary levels applies to
animals as well as to humans.
2. Emotions have been evolutionary in various forms of expression in different
species. Nonetheless, there are some common elements identifiable in different
species.
3. Emotions served an adaptive role in helping organisms deal with key survival issues
posed by the environment.
4. There common or prototype emotions are essentially small in their numbers.
5. All other emotions are mixed or derivative states; that is, they occur as
combinations, mixtures or compounds of the primary emotions.
6. Primary emotions are hypothetical constructs in the sense that their properties and
characteristics can only be inferred based on evidence.

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7. All emotions vary in their degree of similarity to one another.
8. Each emotion can exist in depending on the varying degrees of intensity of arousal,
emotions vary from each other. Moods, on the other hand, tend to be less tense and
also less fleeting than emotions. These are not directed at an object. Moods last for
longer time than emotions. For example, one may wake up one morning feeling a
bit down and stay that way for most of the day. One may also be sent into a mood
by an unexpected event like, from the happiness of seeing a school day old friend to
the anger of knowing cheated by a colleague. At times, one also just falls into a
mood.
Difference between Affect, Emotion and Mood
There have been three inter-related terms namely, affect, emotion, and mood commonly
used in the psychology literature. The meanings of emotion and mood have just been
described. As regards affect, it is generic term that covers a broad range of feelings that
people experience.
The specific differences between affect, emotion, and mood are summarized as follows:
"Emotions are reactions to an object, not a trait. They are object specific. You show your
emotions when you are happy about something, angry at someone, afraid of something.
Moods, on the other hand, are not directed at an object. Emotions can turn into moods
when you lose focus on the contextual object. So when a work colleague criticizes you
for the way you spoke to a client, you might become angry at him, i.e. emotion. But later
in the day, you might find yourself just generally dispirited. This affective state describes
a mood.
That affect, emotion, and mood are closely connected and, in turn, influence each other is
shown in the following exhibit 4.1:
Exhibit 4.1 : Close Connection between Affect, Emotion, and Mood Affect
Defined as a broad range of feelings that people experience. Affect can be experienced in
the form of emotions and moods.

Emotions Moods
Caused by specific event Cause is often general and unclear
Very brief in duration (seconds or Last longer than emotions (hours or days).
minutes).
Specific and numerous in nature More general (two main dimensions positive affect
and negative affect).
Usually accompanied by distinct Generally not indicated by distinct expressions
facial expressions.
Action-oriented in nature Cognitive in nature.
Source: Robbins, Judge, and Sanghi: Organisational Behaviour, Pearson Education,
Delhi, 2007, p. 293.

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4.3 SOURCES OF EMOTIONS AND MOODS
We all human beings experience and display emotions and moods. A human void of
emotion and mood would be unable to function. Think for a moment, have we ever tried
to know where our emotions and moods come from? Like types of emotions, researchers
have identified not one source but more where emotions and moods come from. The main
sources of emotions and moods are discussed subsequently:
1. Gender 2. Age 3. Personality 4. Time 5. Stress 6. Relaxation / Sleep 7. Exercise 8.
Social Activities
Now, we will turn to discuss these main sources of emotions and moods on. by one.
Gender : Like in many other matters, researchers have also tried to study and identify
emotions and moods between men and women. There has been a general belief or
assumption that women are more emotional than men. The research evidence confirms
that women experience both positive and negative emotions more intensely and, in turn,
also show greater emotional expression than men. In contrasting genders, women react
more emotionally and are better able to read emotions in others due to their stronger sixth
sense, as believed in the Indian culture. Besides, women are better at reading and
understanding non-verbal and paralinguistic cues than their counterpart men'. Several
explanations are given to explain these gender differences in emotional reactions.
Perhaps, the strongest explanation given is the social framework of the two genders. For
example, men are taught to be strong and tough and, in turn, show emotions consistent
with their image. In contrast, women are taught to be caring and loving. They, thus,
socialize in a nurturing type of social framework. Gert Hofsteed nomenclatures the two
cultural or social frameworks as masculinity and femininity. As mentioned earlier, one
more explanation to such gender difference is that women may have a better innate
ability, also called sixth sense of women, to read and understand others and display their
emotional reaction than do their counterparts, i.e., men.
Age: That age affects emotions is generally accepted, but the exact effect of age on
emotions is so far not agreed upon. The general belief is that younger people experience
more extreme and generally positive emotion as compared to older people do. The reason
attributed to it is youthful exuberance characterized by high need for achievement.
But, research suggests contrary to it. One study reports that elder people experience less
negative feeling / emotion than the younger do. Also the duration of positive emotion /
mood of elder people lasted longer and the negative one faded relatively more quickly.
Research has given two possible explanations. One, people gain experience with
advancement in age that helps them better rationalize the things and experience emotions.
Second, the intensity of negative feelings or emotions tends decrease as one becomes
older and older in life?.
Personality: What is personality? In simple words, personality is the unique and relatively
stable pattern of behaviour, thoughts, and emotions shown by an individual. Research
confirms that personality predisposes people to experience certain emotions and moods.
Based on personality, people are classified into different types such as introverts and
extroverts, and type A and type B.

65
You might have seen people with type A personality who experience emotions and
moods very quickly like India's former cricket captain Saurav Ganguly. There are also
people who are calm and cool no matter the situation like Rahul Dravin, the another
cricket captain of India.. Rahul Dravin scores higher on emotional stability. Perhaps you
are such one. People with emotional stability experience more positive and less negative
emotions. Thomas Alwa is one such example. Extrovert and introvert personalities do
also predispose people to experience emotions and moods differently in nature and
degree. Let us illustrate with an imaginary example. Suppose two colleagues Ashutosh
Das and Brijesh Kumar were scolded and rebuked by the chairman in a faculty meeting
for not taking classes regularly and sincerely. While Ashutosh who is an extrovert, took it
very positively to prove himself as a serious teacher in future, Brijesh an introvert by
nature, felt it as an insult in front of colleagues and became very sad for about two days.
In brief, extroverts are likely to be affected more by positive events and, in turn, positive
emotions and moods. Conversely, negative events are more likely to affect the negative
emotions and moods of introverts.
Time: Here, time means the day of the week and / or time of the day people experience
emotions / moods. We generally work 5 days in a week from Monday to Friday.
Generally, when people are to join work on Monday, they are usually low spirited
perhaps because of the work load to be completed during the week ahead. But, mood
starts becoming increasing with progress in work made day by day. It becomes highest
positive towards the weekend with the feeling of weekend relaxation. That people tend to
be in their worst mood, i.e. with the highest negative affect and lowest positive affect
during the early week period and their best mood, i.e. with the highest positive affect and
lowest negative affect towards the end of the week is shown by exhibit 10.2.
Exhibit 4.2 : Our Moods Are Affected by the Day of the week
Source: D. Watson: Mood and Temperament, Gullford Publications, New York, 2000.
As regards time of the day, people are generally at lower positive mood in the morning
which starts increasing with the joining of work till mid-day. The positive mood of the
people starts decreasing towards evening as they get exhausted both mentally and
physically and, in turn, feel low spirited.
Tension/Stress: Tension or stress also affects our emotions and moods. Remember, a
particular stress does not remain with us life long. Stress emerges and dissipates too. To
illustrate, we feel higher level of fear and tension before an interview for a job, but our
fear dissipates once the interview is over. So is in case of students like you. You
experience higher levels of fear or tension before an examination, but your fear/ tension
dissipate once the examination is over. In a work place situation, boss's reprimand, an
impending deadline, even a disturbing e-mail, and so on negatively affect our emotions
and moods. Many times, such negative emotions and moods accompany us to our family
also and get exhibited via our behaviour.
Rest/Relaxation: That the rest precedes the best performance is in conformity with "a
healthy mind rests in a healthy body". For good mind and physical health. rest or
relaxations is necessary. Sleep is the best form of rest or relaxation. More the sleep and
rest, better one's emotions and moods because person can coolly think over and make

66
his/her decision. On the contrary, less sleep or no sleep causes greater feeling of fatigue,
anger, and hostility. One of the reason why less or poor sleep or rest puts people in a bad
mood is attributed to poor decision making and difficulty in controlling one's emotions.
Besides the poor sleep previous night causes one tired, exhausted, fatigued, and irritative
the next day which, in turn, impairs one's job satisfaction also. Job satisfaction also
affects emotions and moods.
Exercise: Exercise is also called "sweat therapy" and enhances people's spirit, i.e.,
positive mood. Research evidence supports it. Recognizing that the exercise enhances
positive moods, resulting in happier, healthier, and more productive employees,
organisations have been providing fitness centers for their employees. No doubt, the
effects of exercise on moods are consistent; nonetheless they are not stronger and do not
last for longer period. It means exercise may improve one's mood for a while, but cannot
show charisma by lasting for long. The effects of exercise are found stronger for the
people who are in depressed mood.
Social Activities: We have heard man is a social animal. That is man likes peoples i.e.
society around him/her. Does society in the form of social activities improve one's
positive mood? What types of social activities improve mood? The social activities like
picnic with friends and eating with others improve mood. The social activities that give
one a feeling of ease, comfort, and relaxation give good feelings and, in turn, improve
mood. But social activities such as attending a meeting and watching a cricket match with
friends do not put one at ease or comforts and, hence, do not improve mood instead at
times impair mood.
4.4 ASPECTS OF EMOTIONS
Along with primary sources of emotions are important to understand the fundamental or
basic aspects of emotions. Just like sources, researchers have tried to list a number of
aspects related to emotions. The important aspects of emotions are shown in the
following exhibit 5.3: and
Exhibit 4.3 : Aspects of Emotions
Emotions
Intensity of Emotion Biology of Emotion Rationality of Emotion
Frequency and Duration) of Emotion
Let us discuss these in seriatim.
Intensity of Emotion: We all experience emotions but not in the same intensity in
response to the same or identical stimuli. Look at the people around you be in the family
or in the college or in the work organisation, you will find different people show their
emotions in varying intensities. You may find people who seem be on an emotional roller
coaster. When they are happy, they are highly ecstatic. But, when they are sad, they are
deeply depressed and too much low spirited. You ay also find people who remain almost
calm and cool, rarely get angry and seldom show anger. So to say, there are some people
who hardly show their feelings. In nutshell, the intensity aspect of emotion is related to

67
one's personality and it has just discussed a little ago. Intensity of emotion is also affected
by the nature of job one holds. In practice, there may be some jobs where job holder
needs to alter his / her emotional intensity as and when need arises. Lawyers and public
administrators may be such examples.
Biology of Emotion: Emotions are cognitive in nature. A specific biology works how
cognition takes place. Emotions originate in the brain's limbic system of the person8. The
size of the limbic system of brain is about the size of a walnut. The relatively inactive
limbic system makes a person to be happy, i. e. person experiences more positive than
negative emotions. The nature of job a person holds also affects the intensity of emotion.
For example, a receptionist, a traffic controller, and a moderator in a panel discussion
need to be cool, calm, and controlled even in stressful situations. Contrary to it, the active
limbic system of the person causes negative emotion when sadness dominance over
happiness. To put simply, limbic system works like a lens. That is one finds things
positive when limbic system is inactive and negative when limbic system is active.
Frequency and Duration of Emotion: Experience shows that responding to one's
emotional demands depends not only on what emotions in what intensity need to be
displayed, but also on how frequently and for how long one needs to display emotions.
Let us exemplify this with an example. Suppose, Prof. Amarjyoti Choudhary, the Vice
Chancellor of Gauhati University, is by nature a very quit and reserved person. He likes
and enjoys his teaching job as an academician. But, he does not like to give speeches and
attend social functions to make him known and visible in the society. But as a Vice
Chancellor, he still has to attend programmes and give speeches. He expresses his
experience: "If I had to give large number of speeches and that too to large audiences
every day, I would like to quit this job. I think this is good for me because I can fake the
interest for a short time only, not for ever."
Rationality of Emotion: Finally, rationality is yet another important aspect of emotions.
That is, should a person experience and demonstrate emotion or not? There is, of course,
no agreement on this. A group of thinkers including the famous astronomer Carl Sugan
disapprove emotion in human conduct. Carl Sugan once viewed: "Where we have strong
emotions, we are liable to fool ourselves." They view that emotion and rationality are in
conflict with one another and demonstration of emotion is very likely to make one act
irrationally. Emotional display is likely to make us more often than not weak, down,
discouraged, brittle, or irrational
At the same time, there is also research evidence to believe that human devo of emotion
would be unable to function and remain alive as well. Emotions found critical for rational
thinking. Research studies on human brain found th: losing the ability to emote led to the
loss of the ability to reason. From thic discovery, researchers learned that our emotions
provide us with valuable information that improves our thinking processo. Emotions
provide us information and knowledge about how we see and understand the things
around us. Emotions, thus help us rationalize things as good or bad. To sum up, emotions
enable us to use both feeling and thinking which are considered the hallmarks of good
decision making.
Some authors have identified three major aspects of emotions'. These are discussed in
turn.

68
1. Emotion is a feeling that is personal and subjective as well. Of course, human
beings can report an extraordinary range of states, which they can feel or
experience. Some reports are accompanied by obvious signs of enjoyment or
distress, but often these reports have no overt indicators to mention. In many cases,
the emotions we note in ourselves seem to be blends of different states.
2. Emotion is a state of psychological arousal, i.e., an expression or display of
distinctive somatic and autonomic responses. This emphasis suggests that emotional
states can be defined by particular constellations of bodily responses. Specifically,
these responses involve autonomously innervated visceral organs, like the heart or
stomach. This second aspect of emotion allows us to examine emotions in both
animals and human beings.
3. Emotions are actions commonly deemed such as defending or attacking in response
to a threat. This aspect of emotion is especially relevant to Darwin's point of view of
the functional roles of emotion. He said that emotions had an important survival
role because they generated actions to dangerous situations.
4.5 THEORIES OF EMOTION
Emotions being an end, the psychologists and physiologists have tried to understand and
explain what causes emotions. In other words, they have tried to identify the causes of
emotions by developing cause-effect relationship between the two. The important
theories of emotions are discussed as follows:
James-Lange Theory: This theory was proposed way back in 1884 by William James and
Danish Physiologist, Carl Lange and has been considered the oldest theory of emotion12.
This theory is founded on the experiences we have in our lives that creates physiological
reactions / events such as muscular tension, heart rate increases, perspiration, dryness of
the mouth, etc. In essence, this theory proposes that emotions happen as a result of our
reactions, rather than being the cause of them. While explaining his theory, William
James mentions:
"My theory ... is that the bodily changes follow directly the perception of the exciting
fact, and that our feeling of the same changes as they occur is the emotion. Common
sense says we lose our fortune, are sorry and weep; we meet a bear, are frightened and
run; we are insulted by a rival, and angry and strike. The hypothesis here to be defended
says that this order of sequence is incorrect …..and that the more rational statement is that
we feel sorry because we cry, angry because we strike, afraid because we tremble ...
Without the bodily states following on the perception, the latter would be purely
cognitive in form, pale, colorless, destitute of emotional warmth. We might then see the
bear, and judge it best to run, receive the insult and deem it right to strike, but we should
not actually feel afraid or angry13."
Despite being an old theory, it has also certain implications for managing emotions. That
this theory also serves as a basis of behaviour modification approach can be exemplified
with an imaginary example. Suppose, if a person wants to become democratic in his
decision taking function, he/ she should consult and listen to others' views. If the person
continues his consulting behaviour for some time, his/ her behaviour, thus, gets modified

69
and starts enjoying the modified behaviour. Daniel Goleman explains such modification
in behaviour by giving an example of 'managing' anger by one's changing behaviour14.
Cannon-Bard Theory: This theory is also one of the oldest theories of emotions.
According to this theory, emotions precede responses. In other words, action is the effect
for which emotion is the cause. People feel emotions first as stimulus and then respond to
action upon stimulus. Yes, actions may be of varied types like breathing, muscular
tension, and perspiration. For example, when we see a snake, we become afraid (i. e.
emotion) and start perspiration (action or response). In nutshell, this theory postulates that
an action (response) is the effect for which emotion is the cause (stimulus).
Two-Factor Theory: Schachter and Singer have proposed this theory of emotions15. In a
way, this theory resembles with the Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion in the sense that it
is also developed on the premise that people experience feelings (emotions) first and then
try to know and understand its meaning. For example, when we suffer from fever, we try
to find the cause of fever from its symptoms like shivering cold. Thus, this theory is
based on the experience of physical arousal. How to Express Emotions
As mentioned earlier, all living beings experience emotions or feelings. Emotions affect
our action/ behaviour. In other words, emotions get expressions via behaviour. Hence, the
need for understanding how to express emotions. It is easy to express emotions. Every
one does it. But to express emotion in a right manner, at right time, and in right
proportion is not so simple. It requires some thinking. There can not be a universally
accepted and applicable way to all experiencing and expressing emotions. The reason is
not difficult to seek. The manner used to express emotion may vary from person to person
and from situation to situation. In fact, self-help approach may help on better respond to
one's emotions. Following are some guidelines that may help one express his / her
emotions in a better manner:
Accept and Recognize the Emotions: Remember that emotions do not emerge in vacuum.
Instead, emotions succeed some happenings. For example, a student experiences sadness,
or say, sad emotion on his failure in the examinations. A teacher feels happiness on the
publication of his research article in an international journal of high academic repute.
Find Out the Alternative Ways to Express the Emotion: An emotion can expressed in
various manners and the person has to decide his / her manner express the emotion. For
example, in our above example, a student may have save options to express his sadness
on failure in the examinations. He may keep regret till his failure for weeks together. He
may give up the idea to reappear in the examinations. He may blame the examiner for
awarding him less mark. He ma ponder over the reasons for his failure and devise action-
plan for hard study future.
Besides, following are some relevant questions to be considered and answer while
deciding the appropriate manner to express one's emotions :
• Does the intensity of my feelings appropriate as per the situation?
• Do I also have other feelings that I need to pay due attention to?
• What are the options available to me to express my feelings?

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What are the merits and demerits of each option for me?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of each option for others?
What end result do I expect?
• What do I ultimately want to do?
• What will be the consequences if I do not do any thing?
4.6 AFFECTIVE EVENTS THEORY (AET)
By now, it is clear that emotions and moods are an integral part of our dayto-day life,
more especially in our work lives. Then an obvious question arises is whether emotions
and moods also affect our job behaviour and, in turn, perfor. mance. Attempts have been
made by the researchers to examine the relationship between emotions and job
performance. The two organisational psychologists Howard M. Weiss of Purdue
University and Russell Cropanzano of University of Arizona developed a model to
identify how emotions and moods influence job satisfaction and job performance. The
model is popularly known as 'Affective Events Theory (AET).'7' The model proposes that
organisational events are proximal causes of affective reactions.
What is event? The concept of event is not well defined in the literature. Weiss and
Cropanzano18 used definitions from the World Book Dictionary, i.e. " happening
especially an important happening" and from the Random House Dictionary, i.e.
"something that occurs in a certain place during a particular period of time." From the
point of view of emotion, simply event is not important but affect-eliciting event is
important. In other words, it is the appraisal, evaluation, and interpretation of events,
rather than the events themselves that determine the emotion that is experienced19.
The relationship between workplace events, emotions, and behaviour is summarized in
the following exhibit 4.4:
Exhibit 4.4 Affective Events Theory
Work Environment
Characteristics of the job
job demands
Requirements for emotional labor
Work Events Emotional Reactions Job Satisfaction
Daily hassles Positive
Daily uplifts Negative Job Performance

71
Source: N. M. Ashkanasy and C. S. Daus: Emotion in the Workplace: The New
Challenge for Managers, Academy of Management Executive, February 2002, p. 77.
The AET is developed on the assumption that our emotions are response to an event in
the work environment. In an organisational context, work environment refers to every
thing surrounding the workplace. Examples of such things may be n arises is job varieties
and their characteristics, autonomy, job demands, and emotional rn, perfor- labour. The
work environment creates work events that can be either hassles or lationship uplift or
even both. Hassle means happening that creates confusion. The common chologists
examples of hassle at the workplace are contradictory or confronting directives iversity of
given by different superiors, avoiding to performing the assigned job, declining to jence
job perform some crucial task at the last moment, etc. 'Affective Many things happen at
the workplace and, in turn, affect peoples' emotions proximal and behaviour. A research
study shows that people who sought out others,
including co-workers, when good things happened to them were consistently literature.
happier than those who did not share their good news20. Added to this is if two ry, i.e. "
people both have positive things happen to them, the happier person would be the n
House one who shared the good news. Here, it is also important to mention that the lar
period response of person with whom good things or news are shared is also important to
ortant but generate happiness. So to say, only genuine enthusiasm of others to one's good
ition, and thing does generate happiness, the indifference or feigned response does not.
There is yet another type of workplace event that at times people experience one type of
emotion but simultaneously display other type of emotion. The former aviour is is termed
as 'felt emotion' and the latter as 'displayed emotion.' There can be many such workplace
events. For example, the ritual look of delight on the face of the first runner-up as the
'Indian Idol' is announced by the anchor is a display emotion of the loser to mask his/her
felt sadness with a display emotion of happiness for the winner of the 'Indian Idol.' This
means employees need to display organisationally desired emotions during interpersonal
transactions at the workplace. This is also called 'emotional labour. Obviously, emotional
labour is likely to affect employe emotions and moods and, in turn, behaviour and
performance.
Workplace events depending on their type trigger either positive or negat emotional
responses. Emotional response may vary in intensity ranging from vi light to very intense.
Intensity of emotions inter alia depends on the emotion stability of the person. Higher one
scores on emotional stability, more likely one to respond strongly to positive events. On
the contrary, one responds with Is score on emotional stability. Since the intensity of
emotion determines the type mood and, in turn, type of mood influences the affect or
response. Hassles, il negative events create negative emotion and uplifts, i.e. positive
events general positive emotion. Ultimately, emotions and moods influence a number of
wor related variables such as job satisfaction, job involvement, organisational comm
ment, organisational citizenship behaviour, etc.. Different types of events caus different
emotions. The events that cause anger are quite different from those th cause joy, and fear
is created by entirely different events than pride.

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Let us try to exemplify the types of emotions with an imaginary example,
You have been working as a Professor in HRM in the National Institute Financial
Management, Faridabad (Haryana) for the last one year. Because of th forte of the
Institute on financial management, you have just learned that th Institute is considering
outsourcing of faculties in HRM and economics areas Expectedly, the outsourcing event
is likely to experience a fear, i.e.negativ emotion that you might lose your job and
income. Not only that, it also leads to a series of events called 'emotional episode'. You
approached the Director and the Director assures you that your job is safe. One faculty
who is also a member in the Institute's Board of Management, tells you that the matter of
outsourcing faculties is in the agenda of the Institute's next Board of Management (BOM
meeting. Someone also told you that the proposal of outsourcing faculties in the allied
subjects has already been implemented in some other similar type of national institutes.
Yet another colleague of yours told that Government is to rehabilitate the layoff faculties
in some other national-level institutes. Just think how are you affected by above events?
Some day you experience good or upbeat or positive emotion or other day you feel
depressed or low or negative emotion. You, thus, experience emotional swings which
affect your work attitude, behaviour, and performance.
In sum and substance, the AET offers the message that emotions and moods affect work
attitude, behaviour, and, in turn, performance.
4.7 EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Before we discuss emotional intelligence, let us first define the two terms emotional and
intelligence separately. In brief, emotion means a strong mental and instinctive feeling
such as love or fear. Intelligence means the quickness of a person's thinking, reasoning,
and understanding faculty. Psychologists have been uncovering other types of
intelligences for some time now, and grouping them mainly into three clusters: abstract
intelligence (the ability to understand and manipulate with verbal and mathematic
symbols), concrete intelligence (the ability to understand and manipulate with objects),
and, social intelligence (the ability to nderstand and relate to people). Edward L.
Thorndike defines social intelligence "the ability to understand and manage men and
women, boys and girls - to act wisely in human relations.
Howard Gardner has identified three distinct types of intelligence :
1. Linguistic Intelligence: Persons who manifest this type of intelligence are good at
writing, reading, telling stories or solving crossword puzzles.
2. Logical-Mathematical Intelligence: People high on logical intelligence are
interested in patterns, categories and relationships. They are attracted to arithmetical
problems, strategy games and experiments.
3. Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence: This type of intelligence processes knowledge
through bodily sensations and such persons are often athletes, dancers or good at
crafts such as sewing and woodwork. Now that we have defined the two terms
emotional and intelligence separately, we can now profitably explain the meaning
of 'emotional intelligence (EQ).' The concept of emotional quotient (EQ) was first

73
 coined by Reuven Bar-On in 1988 in his doctoral dissertation. However, the term
emotional intelligence was first used by the two American psychologists, Peter
Salovey of Yale University and John Mayer of the University of New Hampshire.
They summed up emotional intelligence as human qualities such as empathy, self-
awareness, and emotional control. Salovey and Mayor defined emotional
intelligence as "the ability to monitor the feelings of the self and others,
discriminate among them and use this information to guide one's thinking and
action." For a while, the term they coined and used - emotional intelligence -
languished in academic obscurity. Being a cognitive construct, different thinkers
have defined EQ differently.
According to Bar-On and Parker: "Emotional intelligence is an array of emotional,
personal and social abilities which influence one's overall ability to cope effectively with
environmental demands and pressures.
It was the psychologist/journalist Daniel Goleman of The New York Times, who adopted
the term 'emotional intelligence and introduced it in his bestseller 'Emotional Intelligence
- Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. He gave the term a new meaning of emotional
intelligence. He defined emotional intelligence as: "The capacity for recognizing our own
feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in
ourselves and in our relationships."
An Indian author Dilip Singh defined emotional intelligence in the Indian context in these
words: "Emotional intelligence is the ability of an individual to appropriately and
successfully respond to a variety of emotional stimuli elicited from the inner self and the
immediate environment.
The meaning of emotional intelligence can best be summed up by quoting the views of
Aristotle: "Anyone can become angry-that is easy. But to be angry with the right person,
to the right degree at the right time, for the right purpose and in the right way is not that
easy."
There are four essential ingredients as corner stones for emotional intelligence. These are:
1. Emotional Literacy 2. Emotional Fitness 3. Emotional Domain 4. Emotional Alchemy
Now, a brief description of these follows:
Emotional Literacy: Just as general literacy enables people to be aware of what is
happening around them, emotional literacy helps people become more aware their as well
as other people's emotions. By managing emotions in others, problem solving becomes
easier and better. Emotional literacy also helps build self-confidence through emotional
honesty, energy, emotional feedback, intuition, responsibility, and connection.
Emotional Fitness: What significant role physical fitness plays in doing physical/mental
activities with confidence and resilience, so does emotional intelligence in the case of
feelings. Emotional fitness strengthens one's resilience and believability for listening and
managing conflict.
Emotional Domain: Emotional domain means realm of control by emotions. It explores
the ways to align one's life and work with his / her unique potential and purpose.

74
Emotional Alchemy: Through emotional alchemy, one extends one's creative instincts
and capability to flow with problems and pressures. It also enables one to compete for the
future by building one's capacity to sense more readily and assess the hidden solutions
and untapped potential and possibilities. Emotional Competence
Effectiveness of emotional intelligence depends on emotional competence. What is
emotional competence? An emotional competence can be defined as one's underlying
capability that results in better and/or superior performance at work. Daniel Goleman,
based on his research, has identified five broad dimensions of emotional competence, also
called by some people as 'dimensions of emotional intelligence. These are:
Self-awareness: The ability to recognize one's emotions as well its effect on those around
us.
Self-regulation: The ability to control one's impulsive judgement and reaction.
Self-motivation: The ability to pursue goals persistently as a higher calling and not for
money or status alone.
Empathy: The ability to empathize with emotional state of others and respond
accordingly. This is popularly expressed as "put your shoes in others shoe."
Social Skills: The ability to network and build rapport with others.
The above five dimensional framework of emotional competency is subsumed into
twenty-five competencies as shown in the following Table 10.2:

Major Dimensions Sub-dimensions

Self-awareness 1. Emotional self-awareness
2. Accurate self-assessment
3. Self-confidence
Self-regulation 1. Self-control
2. Trustworthiness
3. Conscientiousness
4. Adaptability
5. Innovativeness
Self-motivation 1. Achievement drive
2. Commitment
3. Initiative
4. Optimism
Empathy 1. Service orientation
2. Developing others dogovor
3. Leveraging Diversity
4. Social awareness
5. Political awareness

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Social skills 1. Influence
2. Communication
3. Leadership wabadoo bris
4. Change catalyst
5. Conflict management
6. Building bonds Dialobasarwolle
7. Collaboration and cooperation
8. Team capacity

Subsequently, some researchers, based on his factor analysis study on emotional

competence, zeroed the above listed twenty five competencies to four major categories as
shown in Table 5.3 . The classification labels one axis as awareness and management and
the other axis as self and others.
Table 4.3: A Framework of Major Emotional Competencies
Self (Personal Competence) Others (Social Competence)
Awareness Self-awareness Social awareness (reading
understanding feelings and people and groups
accurate self-assessment) accurately)
Managemen Self-management Relationship management
(managing internal states, (inducing desirable
impulses and resources) response in others)

Benefits of Emotional Intelligence

Should emotions be displayed at workplace or not has been a topic of debate among the
scholars. According to conventional school of thought, the workplace not the right place
for emotions. The reason attributed to this belief is that emotion disrupt the organisational
order carefully crafted over the years and cause indiscipline at the workplace. This is
generally prompted by the mistaken notiol that work is serious business and any display
of emotions ought to be regarded with extreme suspicion. Hence emotions had to be
reigned in, buttoned up, and locked away. However, the fast paced developments taken
place in the business world since mid-eighties has intensified interest in emotional
intelligence. Prodigious volume of research work carried out on the subject over the
period has turned the tide. There is research evidence to believe that emotional
intelligence proved competitive advantage for organisations. It is increasingly recognized
that intelligence quotient (IQ) may account for only about 20 per cent of a person's
success in life. The remaining 80 per cent depends largely on a person's emotional
intelligence (EQ). It is also opined that one may get a good job with high IQ, but one
must also have a high EQ to up the ladder. That emotional intelligence (EO) helps one
grow and develop in one's career and life can be exemplified with some examples.

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Mother Teresa who was an ordinary nun could do so much service to poor and needy
with no resources of her own. Mahatma Gandhi presents another example of high IQ as
well high EQ to make India independent from the colonial regime. M. S. Oberoi and
Dhirubhai Ambani rose from humble beginnings to build vast business empires all over
the world. The college drop out Bill Gates succeeded to build a vast empire like Micro
Soft for which he is envied by the entire world. There are many people who could not
complete their education and dropped out, but went on to be extremely successful in
business and life. Nelson Mandela also opines that a good head (IQ) and a good heart
(EQ) are always a formidable combination for achieving success in career and life.
Following is an anecdote of this type:
There is a tale about two MBA students - Peter and Mathew.
Emotional intelligence benefits people and, in turn, the organisations why they work in
multiple ways. There is research evidence to believe that emotional intelligence helps
managers or leaders create competitive advantage, i.e. a mantra for success in today's
business33. Following is an abridged list of competitive advantages that emotional
intelligence may offer to an organisation:
Table 4.4 : Competitive Advantages through Emotional Intelligence
1. Increased Performance
2. Effective leaders
3. More teamwork
4. Initiative and infectious enthusiasm result in quality customer service
5. Improved and enhanced innovation
6. Effective use of time and resources
7. Restored trust
8. Courage and resilience in times of adverse environment
Emotional intelligence is found more useful and effective in management which involves
decision-making. This is so because Emotional Quotient) EQ enables managers to have
skills motivating oneself, managing relationships, and being able to get along well with
subordinates and teammates. Research studies have also established that emotional
intelligence plays a prominent role in group effectiveness of an individual. It is often
opined that one may get a good job with high IQ, but one must also have a high EQ to go
up the ladder. EQ helps a manager manage him / her and others in a meaningful manner
so that the goals - both individual and organisational - are achieved.
The major EQ ingredients with their contributions to the organisation are summarized in
the following Table 5.5:

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Table 4.5: EQ Ingredients and Their Contributions

EQ Ingredients Their Contributions

Motivating oneself as well as others around Multiplies achievements.
one.
Adopting empathy towards others. Works like magic.
Controlling negative thinking. Checks from spoiling.
• Building confidence and developing trust. Returns from investments (you get when
you give)
Managing conflicts. Resolves what causes conflict.
Building stress immunity. Adjusts one to cope with stressors
Controlling anger Cools thoughts and feelings
Building and maintaining a cohesive team Win cooperation, i.e. a must toperform
group activities.

4.8 OB APPLICATIONS OF EMOTIONS AND MOODS

Before we leave this chapter, one last mention about application of emotions and moods
to OB seems relevant. Emotions and moods being psychological constructs affect almost
all aspects of human behaviour, i.e. OB. However, we shall examine here how an
understanding of emotions and moods can affect OB with respect to employee selection,
motivation, leadership, decision making, employee conflict, and job attitudes. Now, we
shall reflect on these in seriatim.
Employee Selection
It will not be less than correct to mention that employee selection in like marriage
between employee and employer, i.e. organisation and hence, needs good compatibility
or harmonious match between the two for organisational success. Experience suggests
that considering employees' emotions in selection process especially for the jobs that
involve more social interaction helps hire right employees for the organisation. There is
evidence to believe that employees with higher levels of positive emotions perform better
than those with lower levels of emotions. A study of sales personnel showed that the sales
persons scoring higher on emotional intelligence measures performed two-third more
than those selected using traditional selection procedure. This is the reason why
increasing number of employers are, of late, not only using emotional intelligence
measure to select employees but also impart training on emotional intelligence to their
employees For example, all new financial advisors in the American Express receive four
days of emotional competence training.
Motivation
Emotions and moods through AET also help motivate employees to exert more efforts for
the attainment of organisational goals. As is generally believed, research also supports
that good or positive emotions and moods motivate people to perform their jobs. In a

78
research study, two groups of people were asked to solve some word puzzles. One group
was shown a funny video clip with an objective to generate good or positive emotions
and moods before starting to solve the puzzles. The other group, i.e. controlled group was
not shown any video clip and it just started solving the puzzles. The results were quite
different and encouraging. The first group with positive mood solved more puzzles and
worked harder at them than the second, i.e. controlled group36. Thus, the study suggests
that instilling and strengthening positive emotions and moods helps have more motivated
workforce.
Leadership
Leadership is one's ability to influence followers to willingly exert higher level of efforts
to achieve the organisational goals. Emotions and moods help leaders influence
employees to act as per their vision. For this, leaders at times opt for the evocation,
framing, and mobilization of their emotions to arouse affective feelings in their
employees to accept and act for the leaders' vision. It is also seen that when leaders are in
high spirit and enthusiastic for organisational cause, they may use emotional contagion to
convey them a sense of self-efficiency, competence, internal locus of control, positively,
etc. Research also reports that when leaders are in good mood, their followers are more
positive and, in turn, more cooperative and productive as well 37.
Decision Making
Decision making involves selecting the best based on rationality amongst the alternatives
available. Researchers have also tried to examine the role of emotions and moods in
decision making activity. OB researchers are in agreement that positive emotions and
moods help make good decision. However, they are in continuous debate on the effect of
negative emotions and moods in decision making activity. Some researchers suggest that
people in depressed or sad or negative mood make better decisions. For them the saying
"sadder but wiser" holds true. But there are some other researchers who forward evidence
to argue that people in depressed or negative mood make poorer decisions than people in
happy and positive mood. The justification they give is that the depressed or sad people
are poorer and slower in rationalizing the things involved in decision making activity. In
contrast, happy people are better able to analyze and rationalize the issues involved in
decision making activity and, in turn, making good / better decision.
Employee Conflict
Emotions and moods have been at the root of interpersonal compatibility and conflict
between the employees. In other words, incompatibility in feelings or emotions causes
conflict between the employees. The successes of a manager in conflict resolution,
therefore, largely depends on identifying incompatible and / or deviant emotions and
moods between employees and, then, try to resort to emotional compatibility. As
mentioned earlier also, managers can use emotional mapping, evocation, and
mobilization to establish emotional compatibility between the employees and thus,
resolve inter-personal conflicts.

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Job Attitudes
Job attitude means liking or disliking of job holder towards his / her job. A question
asked is: Does job attitude affect employee's emotions and moods? Answer is generally in
affirmative. If we ourselves introspect into our case we find that when we have a good
day in the institution or organisation where we study or work, we tend to be in a good
mood at home also that evening. Just contrary also holds true, i.e. when we had a bad day
at work also tend to be in bad mood at home that evening. Depending on the intensity of
the bad mood resulting from a bad day at work, it may also be carried over to the next day
to work place. That is why we at times hear an advice: "never take your work home with
you." But, this is easier sad than done because emotions and moods accompany a person
just like his / her shadow does. Just as shadow cannot be seen all the times, similarly
emotions and moods may not be felt all the times. Nonetheless, these are always with the
person. No person may be devoid of emotions and moods.
4.9 SUMMARY
This summary is organised by the 'learning objectives' given on page no. 156 :
 Emotions are intense feelings directed at someone or something. Moods are
relatively less intense feelings that last longer than emotions. Affect is a generic
term that covers a broad range of feelings that people experience in their lives.
 Emotions and moods come from various sources such as gender, age, personality,
 day and time, stress, exercise, social activities, etc.
 The aspects of emotions like intensity, biology, frequency, and rationality affect
human behaviour.
 The major theories of emotions that explain cause-effect relationship between
emotion and response include James-Lange Theory, Cannon-Bard Thoeory, and
Two-Factor Theory.
 A model that explains the relationship between emotions and human
(organisational) behaviour is called 'Affective Events Theory (AET)'.
 An individual's capacity for recognizing one's own feelings and those of others for
managing emotions to deal well with others is called 'emotional intelligence'.
 The need for and significance of emotional intelligence lies in the fact that it
improves human behaviour and, in turn, performance. Research reports that IQ
accounts for only about 20 per cent of a person's success in life. The balance can be
attributed to EQ, i.e., 'Emotional Intelligence.'
4.10 SUMMARY

 Emotions are intense feelings directed at someone or something. Moods are

relatively less intense feelings that last longer than emotions. Affect is a generic
term that covers a broad range of feelings that people experience in their lives.

80
 Emotions and moods come from various sources such as gender, age, personality,
 day and time, stress, exercise, social activities, etc.
 The aspects of emotions like intensity, biology, frequency, and rationality affect
human behaviour.
 The major theories of emotions that explain cause-effect relationship between
emotion and response include James-Lange Theory, Cannon-Bard Thoeory, and
Two-Factor Theory.
 A model that explains the relationship between emotions and human
(organisational) behaviour is called 'Affective Events Theory (AET)'.
 An individual's capacity for recognizing one's own feelings and those of others for
managing emotions to deal well with others is called 'emotional intelligence'.
 The need for and significance of emotional intelligence lies in the fact that it
improves human behaviour and, in turn, performance. Research reports that IQ
accounts for only about 20 per cent of a person's success in life. The balance can be
attributed to EQ, i.e., 'Emotional Intelligence.'
4.11 EXERCISE
FILL IN THE BLANKS
1. ………………… of Emotion in the sense that it is also developed on the premise
that people experience feelings (emotions) first and then try to know and
understand its meaning.
2. Howard Gardner has identified three distinct types of intelligence that is
Linguistic Intelligence, Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence & ……………………….
3. …………….. is an array of emotional, personal and social abilities which
influence one's overall ability to cope effectively with environmental demands
and pressures.
4. …………………… intelligence is found more useful and effective in
management which involves decision-making.
5. ……………………..Involves selecting the best based on rationality amongst the
alternatives available.
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

1. Which of the following is a positive primary emotions:

A. Surprise
B. Happiness/joy
C. Love/affection
D. All of the above
2. James-Lange Theory proposed by:
A. Schachter and Singer
B. Cannon-Bard

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 C. William James and Danish Physiologist
D. None of above
3. Which of the following are not part of emotional intelligence:
A. Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence
B. Linguistic Intelligence
C. Logical-Mathematical Intelligence
D. Naturalistic intelligence
4. Which of the following includes in ‘dimensions of emotional intelligence’
A. Self-awareness
B. Social Skills
C. Empathy
D. All of these
5. Applications of emotions and moods in organizational behavior includes:
A. Decision Making
B. Employee Selection
C. Employee Conflict
D. All of these

SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS

1. Explain the emotions and its type with the help of an example.
2. Differentiate between Affect, Emotion and Mood.
3. Explain the theories of emotion. Also give example.
4. Explain emotional intelligence and its types.
5. Explain the applications of emotions and moods in organizational behaviour.

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 UNIT-III
MOTIVATION
MOTIVATION AS A CONCEPT
The term ‘motivation’ is derived from the Latin word ‘movere’ which means “to
move”. It is an inner state that causes people to behave in certain ways. The common
frame of reference includes one of the following words in the definition of motivation:
drives, goals, incentives, desires, wants, need as almost everybody has their own
definition of motivation. Motivation is the process that accounts for an individual’s
intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward the attainment of a goal.
According to Ken Shah & Prof. Param J. Shah “it is a general tendency to believe
that motivation is a personal trait. Some people have it and the others don’t. In practice,
some are labeled to be lazy because they do not display an outward sign of motivation.
However, individuals differ in their basic motivational drives. It also depends upon their
areas of interest. The concept of motivation is situational and its level varies between
different individuals and at different times. If you understand what motivates people, you
have at your command the most powerful tool for dealing with them.
Motivation is to inspire people to work, individually or in groups in the ways such
as to produce best results. It is the will to act. It is the willingness to exert high levels of
effort towards organizational goals, conditioned by the efforts and ability to satisfy some
individual need.
Motivation is getting somebody to do something because they want to do it. It
was once assumed that motivation had to be injected from outside, but it is now
understood that everyone is motivated by several differing forces.
Motivation is a general term applied to the entire class of drives, desires, needs,
wishes and similar forces. To say that managers motivate their subordinates is to say that
they do those things which they hope will satisfy these drives and desires and induce the
subordinates to act in a desired manner.
To motivate others is the most important of management tasks. It comprises the
abilities to communicate, to set an example, to challenge, to encourage, to obtain
feedback, to involve, to delegate, to develop and train, to inform, to brief and to provide a
just reward.
Motivation can be referred as a catalyst as it determines the intensity of willingness
and the level of efforts a person puts for the achievement of organizational objectives.
The Role of Motivation
Why do we need motivated employees? The answer is survival (Smith, 1994).
Motivated employees are needed in our rapidly changing workplaces. Motivated employees
help organizations survive. Motivated employees are more productive. To be effective,
managers need to understand what motivates employees within the context of the roles
they perfoi in. Of all the functions a manager performs, motivating employees is arguably
the most complex. This is due, in part, to the fact that what motivates employees changes
constantly (Bowen & Radhakrishna, 1991). For example, research suggests that as

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employees' income increases, money becomes less of a motivator (Kovach, 1987). Also, as
employees get older, interesting work becomes more of a motivator.
Definitions OF MOTIVATION
Some of the definitions of motivation given by eminent scholars are: According to Robert
Dubin (1970),
“Motivation is the complex set of forces starting and keeping a person at
work in an organization. Motivation is something that moves the person to action,
and continues him in the course of action already initiated.”
Dalton E. McFarlard (1974) stated that:
‘Motivation refers to the way in which urges, drives, desires, aspirations, and
strivings or needs direct, control or explain the behaviour of human beings.”
In the words of C.B Mamoria (1995),
“Motivation is a willingness to expend energy to achieve a goal or reward. It
is a force that activates dormant energies and sets in motion the action of the people.
It is the function that kindles a burning passion for action among the human beings of
an organization.”
According to Kreitner (1995), motivation has been defined as:
“The psychological process that gives behavior purpose and direction.”
Buford, Bedeian, and Lindner (1995) states that:
“Motivation is a predisposition to behave in a purposive manner to achieve
specific, unmet needs.”
THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
Despite the fact that motivation is a basic psychological process, much relevant
motivation theories have been identified so far. Over time, these major theoretical streams
of research in motivation were classified into two major schools:
The content theories of motivation and The process theories of motivation.
A classification of these theories can be depicted front the figure 1.1 as given below.

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Theories of Motivation

Content Process
Approaches
Theories

Maslow Herzberg Alderfer McClelland

Hierarchy Motivators and ERG needs Learned Needs of needs Hygiene factors

Cognitive Evaluation Expectancy Equity Theory Theory

Theory
Goal Setting Reinforcement lieory Theory
Classification of Major Motivation Theories
CONTENT THEORIES
Content (or need) theories of motivation focus on factors internal to the individual
that energize and direct behaviour. These theories suggest that people have certain needs
and/or desires which have been internalized. These theories look at what it is about certain
people that make them want the things that they do and what things in their environment
will make them do or not do certain things. In general, such theories regard motivation as
the product of internal drives that compel an individual to act or move (hence,
“motivate") toward the satisfaction of individual needs. The content theories of motivation
are based in large part on early theories of
motivation that traced the paths of action backward to their perceived origin in internal
drives. Ma/J or content theories of motivation are:
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs
• Herzberg’s motivator-hygiene theory
• Alderfer's ERG theory
• McClelland's learned needs or three-need theory

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PROCESS THEORIES
Process (or cognitive) theories of motivation focus on conscious human decision
processes as an explanation of motivation. The process theories are concerned with
determining how individual behaviour is energized, directed, and maintained in the
specifically willed and self-directed human cognitive processes. Process theories of
motivation are based on early cognitive theories which posit that behaviour is the result of
conscious decision-making processes. Process theories of motivation look at what people
are thinking about when they decide whether or not to put effort into a particular activity.
4“1ie major process theories of motivation are:
• Cognitive Evaluation theory
• Expectancy theory
• Equity theory
• Goal setting theory
• Reinforcement theory
APPLICATION OF MOTIVATIONAL CONCEPTS
It is very important to apply the various motivational concepts to the organizations so that
organizational effectiveness can be achieved. Various motivation techniques and
programs have gained varying degrees of acceptance in organizations. Some of applications
of motivation and their linking with motivational theories as depicted by Robbins have
been discussed below.
• Management by Objectives
• Employee Recognition Programs
• Employee Involvement Programs
• Variable Pay Programs
• Skill-Based Pay Plans
• Special Issues in Motivation
MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTIVES
Management by Objectives (MBO) was first outlined by Peter Drucker in 1954 in
his book ‘The Practice of Management’. In the 90s, Peter Drucker himself decreased the
significance of this organization management method, when he said: “It's just another
tool. It is not the great cure for management inefficiency... Management by Objectives
works if you know the objectives. 90% of the time you don’t.”
Management by objectives (MBO) is a systematic and organized approach that
allows management to focus on achievable goals and to attain the best possible results
from available
-resources. It aims to increase organizational performance by aligning goals and
subordinate objectives throughout the organization. Ideally, employees get strong input to

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identify their objectives, time lines for completion, etc. MBO includes ongoing tracking
and feedback in the process to reach objectives. The principle behind Management by
Objectives (MBO) is to make sure that everybody within the organization has a clear
understanding of the aims, or objectives, of that organization, as well as awareness of their
own roles and responsibilities in achieving those aims.
MBO Principles
Principles of MBO include the following:
• Cascading of organizational goals and objectives
• Specific objectives for each member Participative decision making
• Explicit time period
• Performance evaluation and feedback
Linking MBO and Goal-Setting Theory
 Goal Setting Theory exhibits that:
 Hard goals result in a higher level of individual performance, specific hard goals result in
higher levels of performance than do no goals or generalized goals, and
 Feedback on one’s performance leads to higher performance
 MBO directly believes in
 specific goals and feedback
 MBO would be most effective when the goals are difficult enough to require the
person to do some stretching.
EMPLOYEE MCOGNITION PROGRAMS
Employee Recognition Programs are the programs that use multiple sources and
recognize both individual and group accomplishments. A recognition program does not
have to be expensive. The structure of a recognition program is limited only by your
imagination. An effective program has the following components:
 Fairness
 High visibility and consistency
Linking Employee Recognition Programs and Reinforcement Theory
 In accordance with the reinforcement theory. Rewarding a behaviour with
recognition immediately following that behaviour is likely to encourage its
repetition.
EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT PROGRAMS
Employee involvement is creating an environment in which people have an
impact on decisions and actions that affect their jobs. Employee involvement is not the
goal nor is it a tool, as practiced in many organizations. Rather, employee involvement is

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a management and leadership philosophy about how people are most enabled to
contribute. It is a participative process that uses the entire capacity of employees and is
designed to encourage increased commitment to the organization’s success.
Ways of Employee Involvement
 Participative Management - A process where subordinates share a significant degree
of decision-making power with their immediate superiors.
 Representative Participation - Workers participate in organizational decision-
making through a small group of representative employees.
 Work Councils - Groups of elected or nominated employees who must be consulted
when management makes decisions involving personnel.
 Board Representatives - A form of representative participation; employees sit on a
company’s board of directors and represent the interests of the firm’s employees.
 Quality Circles - A work group of employees, who meet regularly to discuss their
quality problems, investigate causes, recommend solutions, and take corrective
actions.
 Employee Stock Ownership Plans - Company established benefit plans in which
employees acquire stock as part of their benefits.
Linking Employee Involvement Programs and Motivation Theories
Many motivational theories can be linked with employee involvement programs. Theory Y of
motivation shows consistency with participative management while in case of hygiene
theory; employee involvement programs could provide employees with intrinsic
motivation by iiacreasing opportunities for growth, responsibility, and involvement in the
work itself. Employee involvement is attuned with ERG theory and efforts to stimulate the
achievement need.
VARIABLE-PAY PROGRAMS
Variable pay programs are an increasingly popular mode of compensation in today's
business world. These programs, which are also sometimes referred to as “pay-for-
performance” or “at-risk” pay plans, provide some or all of a work force's compensation
based on employee performance or on the performance of a team. Variable pay proponents
contend that providing tangible rewards for superior performance—a true merit system—
encourages hard work and efficiency and serves as an effective deterrent to mediocre or
otherwise uninspired work performance. In Variable Pay Programs a portion of an
employee’s pay is based on some individual and/or organizational measure of
performance. Some of the more widely used variable pay programs are:
 Piece-rate pay plans - Workers are paid a fixed sum for each unit of production
completed.
 Profit-sharing plans - Programs that distribute compensation based on some
established formula designed around a company’s profitability.
 Gain sharing plans - An incentive plan where improvements in group productivity
determine the total amount of money that is allocated.

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Linking Variable-Pay Plans and Expectancy Theory
 Evidence supports the importance of this linkage, especially for operative
employees working under piece-rate systems.
 Group and organization wide incentives reinforce and encourage employees to
sublimate personal goals for the best interests of their department or organization.
SKILL-BASED PAY PLANS
Skill-based pay refers to a pay system in which pay increases are linked to the number or
depth of skills an employee acquires and applies and it is a means of developing broader
and deeper skills among the workforce. Such increases are in addition to, and not in lieu
of, general pay increases employees may receive. The pay increases are usually tied to
three types of skills:
 Horizontal skills, which involve a broadening of skills in terms of the range of tasks
 Vertical skills, which involve acquiring skills of a higher level
 Depth skills, which involve a high level of skills in specialized areas relating to the
same job. Robbins has identified some of the following reasons which make skill
based pay system an appeal for management. He also identified the downside of
skill based pay system.
Appeal of skill-based day
 Flexibility - Filling staff needs is easier when employee skills are interchangeable.
 Facilitates communication - It facilitates communication in the organization because
people gain a better understanding of other’s jobs.
 Lessens “protective territory” behaviour - As management is less likely to hear the
phrase
 ‘It’s not my job’.
 People can “top out”
 Employee frustration can increase
 Skills become obsolete
 Paying people for acquired skills not used
Linking Skill Based Pay Plans and Motivational Theories
There is a link between equity theory and skill based pay. Employees whose lower order
needs are substantially satisfied; the opportunity to experience growth can be a motivator.
Paying people to expand their skill levels is also consistent with research on the
achievement need. High achievers have a compelling drive to do things better or more
efficiently.
SPECIAL ISSUES IN MOTIVATION MOTIVATING PROFESSIONALS
 How are “Professionals” different?

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  Receive a great deal of “intrinsic” satisfaction from their work;
 Strong and long-term commitment to their field of expertise;
 Well paid/ Chief reward is work itself;
 Value support;
 More focused on work as central life interest.
 How do we motivate professionals?
 Provide challenging projects;
 Give them autonomy in following interests and structure work;
 Reward with educational opportunities;
 Recognize their contributions.
MOTIVATING CONTINGENT WORKERS
 No simple solutions to motivating contingent workers.
 Contingent or temporary workers have little or no job security/stability,
therefore they don’t identify with the organization or display the commitment
of permanent employees.
 Contingent or temporary workers are typically provided with little or no health
care, pensions, or similar benefits.
 Greatest motivating factor is the opportunity to gain permanent employment.
 Motivation is also increased if the employee sees that the job he or she is doing for
the firm can develop scalable skills.
MOTIVATING THE DIVERSIFIED WORK FORCE
 Not all, employees are motivated by money.
 Flexibility is the key to maximizing your employees’ motivation by understanding
and responding to the diversity of needs.
 specially designed work schedules
 flexible compensation plans
 flexible benefits plans
 physical work settings
 child care
 elderly care
 flexible work hours
 job sharing

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  flexible leave
 work teams
MOTIVATING THE LOW-SKILLED SERVICE WORKER
 One of the most challenging problems in industry today.
 Many “plans” have been tried, almost all unsuccessfully
 flexible work schedules
 broader responsibility for inventory, scheduling, and hiring
 creation of a “family” atmosphere among employees
 Unless pay and benefits rise significantly, continued high turnover can be expected.
MOTIVATING PEOPLE DOING HIGHLY REPETITIVE TASKS
 Motivating individuals in these jobs can be made through careful selection:
 People vary in their tolerance for ambiguity.
 Many individuals prefer jobs that have a minimal amount of discretion and
variety.
 High pay and careful selection can reduce:
 Recruitment problems and high turnover, however, this
 Doesn’t necessarily lead to highly motivated workers.
 Creative personnel programs have exhibited some success by providing:
 Clean and attractive work surroundings, ample work breaks and opportunity to
socialize during breaks, and empathetic supervisors.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MOTIVATION, SATISFACTION,
INSPIRATION AND MANIPULATION
Motivation refers to the drive and efforts to satisfy a want or goal, whereas
Satisfaction refers to the contentment experienced when a want is satisfied. In contrast,
Inspiration is bringing about a change in the thinking pattern. On the other hand
Manipulation is getting the things done from others in a predetermined manner. Hence,
manipulation or external stimulus as well as inspiration or internal stimulus acts as carries
of either demotivation or motivation which in turn results into dissatisfaction or
satisfaction depending upon.

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PROCESS OF MOTIVATION

Environment
Opportunit
y

Rewards
Needs and
drives Tension Performance

Goals and
Ability
Incentives
Need
satisfaction

Source: Figure 2.1, A Model of Motivation, Organizational Behaviour (John W

Newstrom, p 101).
The motivational process begins with identifying a person’s needs and drives.
Needs are the deficiencies, a person experiences at a particular point of time that make
certain outcomes appear attractive. These deficiencies cause psychological (e.g., the need
for recognition), or physiological e.g.. Need for water, air, or food) imbalances within the
individuals. The deprived person in turn examines the environment (surroundings) to find
the sources to gratify these imbalances.
Needs often act as energizers as they create tension within the individuals. Who find them
Painful and therefore explore the ways to satisfy them.
Next comes an effort within a context of opportunity (resources at disposal) to bridge the
gap.
Efforts should be goal-oriented as motivation is primarily goal directed.
Goal directed efforts upshot performance towards '*which skill and technology
(i.e., ability) undoubtedly contribute greatly.
In the next phase, if performance is suitably rewarded it results in need satisfaction.
Finally once the employees have received rewards or punishments, they reassess their
needs.
TYPES OF MOTIVATION
Motivation is that which activates human behavior and gives it direction. Accordingly, it can
be either intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic (internal) motivation is an internal state or
condition that drives choices and behavior, without obvious external incentives, such as a
hobby. Extrinsic (external) motivation on the other hand refers to direction from outside
the person, including the promise of rewards, the threat of punishments, intimidation, and

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coercion. Both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are essentially related to goals.
Intrinsic Motivation
Put simply, intrinsically motivated people act in certain ways because they desire and like
the outcomes and their actions are satisfying for them. Intrinsic motivation may be
determined by any of the following:
1. Bodily State/Needs: Employees may seek sensory stimulation or seek to decrease
hunger, thirst, or other physical discomfort.
2. Emotional Needs: An employee may seek to calm over-aroused emotions, increase
good feelings, decrease negative emotions, maintain optimism and enthusiasm
develop a sense of productivity, or increase self-esteem.
3. Cognitive Needs: Employees may seek to increase knowledge and understanding,
maintain attention to interesting and personally meaningful events and activities,
solve problems, or resolve uncertainty or confusion.
4. Social Needs: Employee(s) may seek to be like a role model, to be part of a group, to
help others, or to be accepted by peers and have friends.
5. Volitional/Self-Determination Needs: Finally, an employee may seek to achieve
goals that he has set for herself, take control of her affairs, reduce others’ control over
her (become self-determined), or pursue her dreams.
In summary, intrinsically motivated employees act as they do because they are driven by
their own needs, goals, and wants versus external inducements, they like the outcomes,
and the outcomes make them feel good — give them a sense of satisfaction. The agent of
motivation is inside the person; they have an internal locus of control.
Note that the idea of reward for achievement is absent from this model of intrinsic
motivation, since rewards are an extrinsic factor.
Extrinsic Motivation
Extrinsically motivated human resources act in certain ways as they believe they will receive
rewards offered by others, avoid punishments threatened by others, or please others by doing
so. The agent of motivation is outside of the recruits; they have an external locus of
control. Manageluent systems in many rehabilitation centers, schools, and homes are based
on the assumption that people are extrinsically motivated — that they will not engage in
positive behavior without external inducements. The underlying belief is that most human
resources engage in activities because they are directed to do so, because they are required
to do so, or because they are provided with either promises of rewards or threats of
punishment in order to sustain their participation. Thus rewards (e.g., points, stickers,
food) are offered for activities as basic as being present at assigned work or therapy
sessions.
BEHAVIOUR MODIFICATION AND REINFORCEMENT
Behavior modification is the use of empirically demonstrated behavior change techniques to
improve behavior, such as altering an individual's behaviors and reactions to stimuli through
positive and negative reinforcement of adaptive behavior and/or the reduction of
maladaptive behavior through positive and negative punishment." This is not as simple as
it sounds—always reinforcing desired behavior, for example, is basically bribery. The
"schedule" of reinforcement is critical. Behavior modification is much used in clinical and
educational psychology, particularly with people with learning difficulties. In the

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conventional learning situation it applies largely to issues of class- and student
management, rather than to learnedly content. It is very relevant to shaping skill
performance, however.
Characteristics of behavior modification
Pear and Martin indicate that there are seven characteristics of behavior modification’,
they are
 There is a strong emphasis on defining problems in terms of behaviour that can be
measured in some way.
 The treatment techniques are ways of altering an individual’s current environment
to help that individual function more fully.
 The methods and rationales can be described precisely.
 The techniques are often applied in everyday life.
 The techniques are based largely on principles of learning - specifically operant and
respondent (or Pavlovian or classical) conditioning.
 There is a strong emphasis on scientific demonstration that a particular technique
was responsible for a particular behaviour change.
 There is a strong emphasis on accountability for everyone involved in a behaviour
Modification.
GOAL SETTING AND ITS EFFECTS ON PERFORMANCE
Motivation is goal directed. A goal is the object or aim of an action, for example, to
attain a specific standard of proficiency, usually within a specified time limit. An
employee’s goals often are driving forces and accomplishing those goals has a direct
bearing on performance. Goals affect performance through four mechanisms.
First, goals serve a directive function; they direct attention and effort toward goal-
relevant activities and away from goal-irrelevant activities.
Second, goals have an energizing function. High goals lead to greater effort than low
goals as they (a) directly entail physical effort, (b) entail repeated performance of simple
cognitive tasks, such as addition; (c) include measurements of subjective effort.

Third, goals affect persistence. When participants are allowed to control the time
they spend on a task, hard goals prolong effort. (here is often, however, a trade-off in work
between time and intensity of effort. Faced with a difficult goal, it is possible to work
faster and more intensely for a short period or to work more slowly and less intensely for
a long period.
Fourth, goals affect action indirectly by leading to the arousal, discovery, and/or use
of task- relevant knowledge and strategies. It is a virtual maxim that action is the result of
cognition and motivation, but these elements can interact in complex ways.

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SUMMARY
 Motivation is the process that initiates, guides, & maintains goal-oriented
behaviour.
 There are two types of motivation theories – Content theory, Process Approach.
 Content theories contain Maslow hierarchy of needs, Herzberg Motivators &
Hygiene factors, Alderfer ERG needs & McClelland Learner Needs.
 Process Approach are Cognitive Evaluation theory, Expectancy theory, equity
theory, Goal setting theory & reinforcement theory
 Abraham Maslow developed a model in which basic, low-level needs must be
satisfied before higher-level needs.
 Herzberg developed a list of factors that are based on Maslow’s hierarchy of
needs, except that his version is more closely related to working environment.
 The main point of the learned needs theory is that when one of there needs is
strong in a person, it has the potential to motivate behaviour that leads to its
satisfaction.
FILL IN THE BLANKS
1. A _________ is a need or internal motivational state that activates behaviour to
reduce the need and restore homeostasis.
2. In Maslow’s hierarchy, __________ needs are the need for food, water, warm the
,rest, security and safety Maslow’s hierarchy, __________ needs are the need for food,
water, warm the rest, security and safety.
3. _________ is an innate, typically fixed pattern of behaviour in animals in response
to certain stimuli.
4. the process by which activities are started, directed, and continued so that physical
or psychological needs or wants are met is known as _______________.
5. A psychological tension and physical arousal arising when there is a need that
motivates the organism to act in order to fulfil the need and reduce the tension is
called a ________.
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
1. The motivational process & not the Motivators as such is associated with
a) Need hierarchy theory.
b) Two factor theory
c) Berg theory
d) Expectancy theory
2. The basis of theory z is the reliance on.
a) External Control of human behaviour.
b) Self control & Self direction.
c) The belief that productivity is linked to trust, openness, subtlety & intimacy in
the work environment.
d) Government Regulatory frame work.

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3. Who has given the hierarchy of needs hierarchy theory of motivation?
a) Abraham Maslow
b) David McClelland
c) Victor Vroom
d) Frederick Herzberg
4. How many levels are there in Needs Hierarchy theory of motivation?
a) 2
b) 3
c) 4
d) 5
5. Name the motivation theory that is based on Satisfaction-progression?
a) Alderfer – ERG theory
b) Maslow – hierarchy of needs theory
c) Herzberg – Two factor theory
d) Skinner’s reinforcement theory

SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS

1. Define motivation & its role

2. Explain Cognitive evaluation theory.
3. Explain Maslow’s need theory and is implications for management.
4. Explain the Herzberg’s hygiene and motivational factors.
5. Explain expectancy theory of motivational.

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 UNIT-IV
CHAPTER-1

POWER AND POLITICS

1.0 DEFINITION
"Authority intoxicates."
– Samuel Butler
"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted
counts."
- Albert Einstein
1.1 Learning Objectives
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
 Define power and distinguish between power and authority.
 Describe the bases or sources of power a manager uses to influence other people.
 Identify the symbols of power and powerlessness in organisations..
 Explain the meaning of organisational politics.
 State the various reasons for emergence and existence of organisational politics.
 Discuss the ways managers can manage politics in organisations.
You know that organisations are built by the aggregations of people who work for
achieving the organisational goals. The behaviour of the people needs to be influenced in
a required manner so that the set objectives are successfully achieved. The power and
politics inter alia help manager influence the subordinates' behaviour to achieve the
organisational goals. Hence, any discussion on organisational behaviour is likely to
remain incomplete without a reference to power and politics. This chapter is, therefore,
devoted to discuss various aspects of power and politics exercised and played in
organisations.
1.2 MEANING OF POWER
As seen so far, the various terms and concepts used in the subject of organisational
behaviour seldom have universally agreed upon definitions. Similarly, the concept of
'power' may have ever more diverse definitions than most. Almost all authors who write
about power define it differently. For example, the famous pioneering sociologist Max
Weber', quite way back in 1947 defined power as “the probability that one actor within a
social relationship will be in a position to carry out his own be in a position resistance".
According to Homan!, “power is an exchange ... between an agent and a target." "Power
is an exchange relationship that occurs in transactions between an agent and a target. The

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agent is the person who uses the power, and target is the receipt of the attempt to use
power.' White and Bednar have also defined
people or things, usually obtained through the control of important resources. In simple
words, power is one's ability to influence other people.
Sometimes, people consider power, influence and authority as synonymous However,
these mean different meanings. We have just defined power as the ability to influence
someone else. Power being an ability, individuals can learn to use it effectively. Influence
is the process of affecting the thoughts, behaviour, and feelings of another person.
Authority is the right to influence another person”. In other words authority is a
legitimate right to influence others,
1.3 DISTINCTION BETWEEN POWER AND AUTHORITY
"Having understood the meanings of power and authority, the two can be distinguished
from each other as follows:
1. Authority is right to influence others but power is ability to influence people or
things.
2. Authority is legitimate while power is not.
3. Authority confers legitimacy to power but power itself need not be legitimate.
1.4 BASES OR SOURCES OF POWER
Where does power come from? French and Raven have answered this question by
identifying five sources from a manager derives power. They are reward, coercive,
legitimate, referent, and expert power
Reward Power: Reward power is based on the agent's/manager's ability to control
rewards the target/employee wants. The common examples of reward power are
managers control rewards of salary increases, bonuses, and promotions. This power is
based on old saying that wealth is power'. People comply this power because they get
benefits out of its compliance.
Coercive Power: Coercive power is opposite of reward power. Coercive power is based
on a manager's ability to cause an unpleasant experience for its people. To coerce
someone into doing something means to force the person to do so, often with threats or
punishment. In organisational situation, it may be in the form of action for or threat for
dismissal, suspension, demotion, or other method of embarrassment for the people
working in organisations.
Legitimate Power: Legitimate power is power that is based on position and mutual
agreement. Both the agent and target agree that the agent has the right to influence his
employees. In organisational setting, such legitimate power is in the form of authority
which is delegated to the positions of organisational members. In our culture, age has still
certain premium and the aged people have legitimate power and the members of the
society believe in his right to influence the decisions in their lives.

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Referent Power: Referent power is an elusive power that is based on interpersonal
attraction. The agent has referent power over the target because the target identifies with
or wants to be like the agent. Charismatic individuals are often thought to have referent
power. Such power may take place without organisational context as most of the people
take somebody as ideal and behave accordingly upto a certain stage. Advertisers use this
type of power when they use celebrities, such as movie stars or sports figures, to do
testimonial advertising. Research has found that arguments, especially emotional ones,
are more influential which come from beautiful people.
Expert Power: Expert power exists when the agent has information or knowledge that the
target needs. It is based on the proverb, knowledge is power'. For expert power to work,
three conditions need to be fulfilled. First, the target must trust that the information given
by the agent is accurate and correct. Second, the information given should be relevant and
useful to the target. Third, the target must consider the agent as an expert. It is important
to mention that if an agent considers himself/herself as an expert but not the target, then
the expert power will not be effective.
1.5 ACQUISITION OF POWER
We know that some people enjoy more power than others. Then, the question arises is
what makes them enjoy more power. The answer is they do so because of the following
doings:
1. They do extraordinary things. Doing things in a routine manner does not contribute
much to personal power. It is non-routine or extraordinary works that involve risks
increase one's power. In organisational context, negotiating a new contract,
developing a new product, or formulating a new programme are the examples of
extraordinary activities that contribute to power.
2. They do the right things: Doing right and relevant activities does also increase one's
power. Simply performing the assigned roles may not necessarily increase an
individual's power.
3. They do visible activities: Even extraordinary activities not known to others do not
generate much power. Therefore, activities need to be visible or known to others.
Instead of individuals 'blowing their own trumpets', their activities announced and
appreciated by the people of higher echelons bring more power to the people.
4. They cultivate right people: Individuals can also increase their personal power by
developing their interpersonal relationships with their superiors, subordinates, and
peers.
5. They form coalitions: Coalescing is yet another way to earn power. In practice,
individuals or groups often combine their resources to pursue common goals and
objectives. The philosophy behind joining together is gaining increased capability to
influence others. In organisations, a labour union comprising many labourers with a
view to promote the collective interest of workers is an outstanding example of
coalescing..

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6. They co-opt: In addition to coalescing, individuals can increase their personal
power by co-opting people or groups whose support is needed into positions of
limited influene. Coopting is different from coalescing. Co-opting specifically seeks
to eliminate threats and opposition to an individual's base of power.
Closely related to power acquisition is symbols of power and powerlessness to which we
turn our attention in the subsequent paragraphs.
1.6 SYMBOLS OF POWER AND POWERLESSNESS
As we mentioned earlier, people may have authority, but may have no power.
Organisation charts, of course, show who has authority, but they do not reveal much
about who has power. Hence, it becomes interesting to look at symbols of power
powerlessness. Kanters has identified several symbols of power or characteristic
acteristics of powerful people in organisations. These are:
1. Ability to intercede for someone in throuble. An individual who can pull
someone out of a jam has power.
2. Ability to get placement for favoured employees. Arranging and getting a key
promotion for an employee is a sign of power.
3. Exceeding budget limits. A manager who can go beyond and above budget limits
without being reprimanded has power.
4. Procuring above-average raises for employees. A manager who can pull
incentives above-average for his/her employees has power.
5. Getting items done on own terms at meetings.
6. Access to early information. Having access to information before anyone else is an
indication or signal that a manager is holding key position plugged to key sources.
7. Top managers seeking out opinion. Top managers when facing a problem may
seek advice from their lower-level managers. These lower-level managers, thus,
have power.
A theme that runs through Kanter's list is doing things for others, i.e. for people in
trouble, for employees, for bosses reflects power.
Unlike Kanter, Michael Korda6 takes a different look at symbols of power in
organisations. He identified three symbols of power: office furnishing, time power, and
standing by. A brief description of these follows:
1. Office Furnishing: Office furniture is not only a facility but a message about power
one has. Locked file cabinets are signs that the manager has important confidential
information in his office. Size of the manager's table conveys the amount of power
the manager has. Similarly, most executives' preference to have large, expensive,
and attractive desks speaks of power they have.

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2. Time Power: Korda says that the powerful executives value time much. For that
matter, a full calendar of the day is a proof of manager's power. Personal planners
are left open on the desk of the executive to display his/her busy schedule.
3. Standing By: Standing by is a game in which people are obliged to stay close to
their phones so that the executive can have access to them. The idea is that the more
you can impose your schedule on your people, the more power you have. Korda
says that closely tied to this is the ability to make others perform simple tasks for
you, such as getting your coffee or fetching the mail.
1.7 How to Measure Power ?
How much power one holds can be measured by using some tests. Here is one example.
Indicate how strongly you agree or disagree that each of the following statements
accurately describes your supervisor. Answer by using the following numbers:
My supervisor can :
1. See that I get a raise
2. Give me jobs I dislike
3. Make sure I get the promotion I desire
4. Make my work life miserable
5. Explain my responsibilities
6. Give me good advice on getting the job done
7. Understand the tasks that I have to accomplish
8. Make me feel good
9. Give me the benefit of his/her technical-know-how
10. Give me to feel important.
Follow the following directions :
To score add your responses to numbers 1 and 3. This measures your belief about your
supervisor's reward power.
The sum of 3 and 4 measures coercive power. The sum of numbers 5 and 7 measures
legitimate power. The sum of numbers 6 and 9 measures expert power. Finally, the sum
of 8 and 10 measures referent power.
This is an illustrative questionnaire and exercise. This will give you a good idea of how
social scientists measure individual in an organisational context. Symbols of
Powerlessness tas Kanter has also identified certain symptoms of powerlessness i.e., a
lack of power in managers at different levels of the organisation. For example, the first-
line supervisors often display three symptoms of powerlessness. These are: (i) overly
close supervision, (ii) inflexible adherence to rules, and (iii) a tendency to do the jobs
themselves rather than educating and training their subordinates to do these.
One symptom of powerlessness is to use mask of powerfulness or business. Here is one
interesting story of how people put on a mask to show them what they are not.

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Putting on a Mask A middle level manager was promoted to the executive cadre.
However, he could not reconcile himself to his new office and position. There was a
knock at his door. To show how important and busy he was, he picked up the phone and
then asked the visitor to come in. As the man waited for the executive, the executive kept
talking on the phone, nodding and saying, “No problem, 1. can handle that." After a few
minutes he hung up the phone and asked the visitor what he could do for him. The man
replied, “Sir, I am from the BSNL office and am here to connect your phone."
As regards staff professionals such as accountants and lawyers, when they feel powerless,
they often tend to resist change and try to protect their turf.
Top executives can also feel powerless at times. They display different sym of powerless
such as focusing on budget cutting, punishing others, and using dictato top-down
communication.
In addition to managers, employees also at any level can feel powerless. Whe placed on
jobs that are powerless, they may react passively as well as disp overdependence on their
boss. There may be another sign of powerless. Emplovec may fall prey to frustration and
disrupt the work-groupe.
Then, the problem is how to overcome powerlessness. In sum and substanc the key to
overcome powerlessness is to share power i.e., empowerment and delegate tasks to
subordinates.
1.8 POWER TACTICS
Having reviewed where power comes from, it's logical to know how employees translate
their power bases into actions. The ways in which people/employees translate power
bases into desired actions are called 'power tactics'. o
Recent research has shown that people use different types of power tactics to make others
do what they want. Based on their comprehensive research, Yukl and his associates have
found nine tactics that are used by people to translate their power bases into specific
actions or behaviours. These are given in Table 22.1. Tactic

Tactic Description

Rational persuasion Using logical arguments and facts to persuade

another that a desired result will occur
Inspirational appeal Arousing enthusiasm by appealing to one's values
and ideals
Consultation Asking for participation in decision making of
planning a change
Ingratiation Getting someone to do what you want by putting her
in a good mood or getting her to like you
Exchange Promising some benefits in exchange for complying
with a request

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Personal appeal Appealing to feeling of loyalty and friendship before
making a request
Coalition Persuading by seeking the assitance of others, or by
noting the support of others
Legitimating Pointing out one's authority to make a request, or
verifying that it is consistent with prevailing
organisational policies and practices
Pressure Seeking compliance by using demands, threats, of
intimidation
Source : G. Yukl, C.M. Fable and J.Y. Youn : Patterns of Influence Behaviour for
Managers, Group & Organisational Management, Vol. 18, 1993, pp. 5-28.
In general, the most popularly used tactics to influence people at all levels are
consultation, inspirational appeal, and rational pursuation.
1.9 SUMMARY
 Power is an exchange relationship that occurs in transactions between an agent
and a target. The agent is the person who uses the power, and target is the receipt
of the attempt to use power.
 Authority is the right to influence another person.
 Authority is right to influence others but power is ability to influence people or
things.
 There are five sources from a manager derives power which are reward, coercive,
legitimate, referent, and expert power.
 Symbols of power or characteristic of powerful people in organizations are:
Ability to intercede for someone in trouble, Ability to get placement for favored
employees, Exceeding budget limits, Procuring above-average raises for
employees,
Getting items done on own terms at meetings, Access to early information and
Top managers seeking out opinion.
 Symbols of power: Office furnishing, Time power, and Standing by.
1.10 EXERCISE

FILL IN THE BLANKS

1. ………….is right to influence others but ………….. is ability to influence people or
things.
2. Michael Korda6identified three symbols of power that …... time power, and
………..
3. Getting someone to do what you want by putting her in a good mood or getting her
to like you is known as …………….
4. …………. power exists when the agent has information or knowledge that the
target needs.

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5. Power is an exchange relationship that occurs in transactions between ………….
and …………
6. The ………… is the person who uses the power, and ……….. is the receipt of the
attempt to use power.
7. French and Raven identifying five sources from a ………………..
8. The ways in which people/employees translate power bases into desired actions are
called ………………
9. Persuading by seeking the assistance of others, or by noting the support of
others is known as …………..
10. The most popularly used tactics to influence people at all levels are ……........ &
……………
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

1. Which of the following is not a five sources from a manager derives of French and
Raven.
A. Legitimate
B. Coercive
C. Consultation
D. Referent
2. What makes people enjoy more power than other.
A. They do extraordinary things
B. They cultivate right people
C. They co-opt
D. All of above

3. Which of the following are Michael Kordasymbols of power.

A. Office Furnishing
B. Time Power
C. Standing By
D. All of these
4. “Using logical arguments and facts to persuade another that a desired result will
occur” which tactic highlighted in this line:
A. Ingratiation
B. Legitimating
C. Personal appeal
D. Rational persuasion
5. Getting someone to do what you want by putting her in a good mood is known as
A. Ingratiation
B. Legitimating
C. Personal appeal
D. Rational persuasion

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6. Which of these symptoms of powerlessness is often display by the first-line
supervisors
A. Inflexible adherence to rules
B. Educating and training their subordinates
C. Benefit of his/her technical-know-how
D. None of these
7. Co-opting specifically seeks for eliminate what to an individual's base of power.
A. Threats and opposition
B. Interpersonal relationships
C. Exceeding budget limits
D. None of these
8. What is known as Appealing to feeling of loyalty and friendship before making a
request.
A. Ingratiation
B. Legitimating
C. Personal appeal
D. Rational persuasion
9. The power and politics inter alia help manager to influence the what to achieve the
organisational goals:
A. superiors
B. subordinates
C. trusty
D. creditors
10. Reward power is based on the what ability to control rewards the other wants
A. Agents/manager's.
B. target/employee
C. both
D. None of these.

SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS

1. What is a power? How it is different from authority.

2. Explain the sources of power with the help of an example.
3. What makes some people enjoy more powerthan other?
4. Briefly explain the characteristic of powerful people in organisations.
5. What is power tactics? Give some explain.
6. Explain the three symbols of power identify by Michael Korda6.
7. How to measure power one can hold? Give some example.
8. Explain Inspirational appeal & Personal appeal. How it is different from each other.
9. Explain the importance of power and authority.
10. Explain any 5 tactics and give real life example.

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 UNIT-V
CHAPTER-1

ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

1.0 DEFINITION AND LEARNING OBJECTIVES

"In any organisation, there are the ropes to skip and the ropes to know."
- R. Ritti and G. Frank Louse
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
 Define organisational culture and list its characteristics.
 Discuss the various types of cultures.
 Outline the functions performed by culture.
 List the factors that create, sustain, and change a culture. Describe how employees
learn an organisation's culture.
 Discuss theory Z Culture.
You have already studied in Chapter 5, the individual personality and its impact on
behaviour. Just as individuals have personalities, so too do organisations. The
organisational personalities are called organisational cultures. Just what organisational
culture is, how it is created and maintained, how it is learnt, and how it affects the
employees' behaviour at work are the main foci of the present chapter.
Let us first understand what organisational culture is.
1.1 DEFINITION OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE
Culture is something which is created and resides in the minds of the people. Culture is,
therefore, interpreted and defined differently by different people. For example, Ott'
reviewed 58 books and journal's articles, and identified as many as 73 key words/phrases
used by different authors to define organisational culture. The meanings attributed to
organisational culture range from behavioural to cognitive, from explicitly stated to
tacitly followed, from being consciously enacted to being unconsciously felt and so on.
That an appreciation of some important definitions may profitably contribute more to our
understanding of organisational culture, a few important definitions are, therefore,
produced here.
Edgar Schein, who is the most closely associated with the study of organisational culture,
defines it as “A pattern of basic assumptions invented, discovered, or developed by a
given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adoption and internal
integration that has worked well enough to be considered valuable and, therefore, to be
taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel, in relation to those
problems."

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Turnstall defined organisational culture as "A general constellation of beliefs, morals,
value systems, behavioural norms, and ways of doing business that are unique to each
corporation".
Recently, Joanne Martin“ while emphasizing differing perspectives of cultures in
organisations, defined it as:
“As individuals come into contact with organisations, they come into contact with dress
norms, stories people tell about what goes on, the organisation's formal rules and
procedures, its formal codes of behaviour, rituals, tasks, pay systems, jargon, and jokes
only understood by insiders, and so on. These elements are some of the manifestations of
organisational culture".
One central theme flowing from above definitions is a system of shared meaning. This
system of shared meaning is a set of key characteristics that the organisation values.
Thus, organisational culture can be defined as a pervasive underlying set of beliefs,
assumptions, values, shared feelings and perceptions, which influence the actions and
decisions taken by the organisations. The same distinguishes one organisation from
another.
Organisational culture is marked by a number of characteristics. Following are the most
readily agreed upon ones :
1. Observed Behavioural Regularities: When people in the organisations interact
with one another, they generally use common language, terminology, and other
rituals that relate to deference and demeanor.
2. Norms: Standards of behaviour are set to guide the organisational members how
much work to do. This, in many organisations, is expressed as “Do not do too
much, do not do too little."
3. Dominant Values: Organisations advocate some major values and expect the same
to be imbibed by its organisational participants. A few examples of such popular.
values are high product quality, regularity, and efficiency.
4. Philosophy: Organisations set forth certain beliefs about how employees and/ or
customers are to be treated.
5. Rules: There are guidelines prescribed how the new participants of the
organisations have to adopt so as to be accepted the full-fledged members of their
group in the organisation.
6. Organisational Climate: This is an overall "feeling" that is conveyed by the
physical layout, the way organisational participants interact with one another, and
the mode organisational members conduct themselves with outside persons.
Each of these characteristics exists on a continuum from low to high. There is empirical
research support for most of them, such as the important role that dominant values play in
organisational culture. Here is a real-world illustration.

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In the Reliance Group, one of the much talked about and practised principles is the value
of time. There are also countless stories of how people (ranging from departmental
managers to (Late) Dhirubhai Ambani himself) took quick decisions to meet a crisis, how
people show their concern about doing things, and doing them in shortest possible time.
Not surprisingly, the Reliance Group completed their Patalganga project in a record time
of 15 months. Even their collaborators, El Du Pont de Nemours found this achievement
unbelievable and unparalleled.
As stated earlier, an organisational culture is a common perception held by the members
of the organisation. However, all members may not do so to the same degree As a result,
there can be more than one type of culture. The next section discusses the same, i.e.,
types of cultures.
1.2 TYPES OF CULTURES
The more prominent types of cultures are discussed here include:
1. Dominant Culture and Subculture: A dominant culture is marked by a set of core
values that are shared by a majority of the organisational members. In fact. when we talk
about an organisation's culture, we refer to its dominant culture. The dominant culture
gives a macro view of organisation's personality. For example, most of the eňployees at
the Reliance Group seem to share a concern for the value of the time. This creates a
dominant culture in the organisation that helps guide the day-today behaviour of
employees.
A subculture expresses a set of values that are shared by the members of a division or
department. Subcultures typically are a result of problems or experiences that are shared
by members of a particular department or unit. These subcultures can form vertically or
horizontally. When one product division of a coglomerate has a culture unique from that
of other divisions of the organisation, a vertical subculture exists. When a specific set of
functional specialists, such as accountants, have a set of common shared understandings,
a horizontal subculture is formed. It is important to mention that a particular department
will include the core values of the dominant culture plus values distinct to the members of
the particular department.
2. Strong and Weak Cultures: Based on intensity of sharedness, organisational cultures
are of two types: strong and weak. A strong culture. is characterised by the organisation's
core values being intensely held and widely shared. So to say, more intensely the core
values are shared, the stronger the culture is. The degree of sharedness depends on two
factors: orientation and rewards. In order for people to share the same cultural values,
orientation programmes are organised to tell the new comers about the organisation's
philosophy and method of operation. Orientation may be done through both words-of-
mouth and day-to-day work habits and examples. Rewards do also affect sharedness. For
example, promoting employees those who hold the core values helps others as well better
understand the core values. This, in turn, results in lower employee turnover. When core
values are not shared with high degree of intensity, it forms weak culture. Weak culture is
usually characterised by high turnover of employees.

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1.3 FUNCTIONS OF CULTURE
We have just alluded how organisational culture affects the employee turnover. In other
words, we mentioned about organisational culture's impact on employee behaviour. What
other functions organisational culture performs are more carefully reviewed in this
section.
As a matter of fact, culture performs several functions in an organisation. Based on
review of studies on organisational culture, the major functions performed by culture are:
1. Culture provides shared patterns of cognitive perceptions or understanding about
the values or beliefs held by the organisation. This enables the organisational
members how to think and behave as expected of them.
2. It also provides shared patterns of feelings to the organisational members to make
them know what they are expected to value and feel.
3. It provides a boundary that creates distinctions between one organisation and other.
Such boundary-defining helps identify members and non-members of the
organisation.
4. Culture facilitates the generation of commitment to something larger than one's
individual self-interest.
5. It enhances social stability by holding the organisational members together by
providing them appropriate standards for which the member should stand for.
6. It serves as a control mechanism that guides and shapes the attitudes and behaviour
of organisational members. It helps organisational members stick se to the
confirmity to the prescribed and expected mode of behaviour.
7. Culture finally, ensures that everyone is pointed in the same direction.
Culture exists in every organisation. Now, the question arises is whether it is good or bad.
It is clear from the functions just outlined that culture is valuable for both the organisation
and the employee. Culture is valuable for the organisation because it enhances
organisational commitment of the employees. It guides employees how things are done
and what is important for them. These clearly are benefits to employees. But, it does not
mean that culture is free from dysfunctional aspects.
Sometimes, culture is marked by dysfunctional aspects as well especially when the shared
values do not agree with those that will further the organisation's effectiveness. Such a
situation mostly occurs when the organisational environment is quite dynamic. This is so
because the organisation's embeded culture may not remain appropriate any more in the
changed environment of the organisation. Behaviour remains consistent in the stable
environment. Given the culture's inability to respond to changes in the environment
becomes organisation's liability. Liability, be it in any form, requires to be discharged.
Hence, the embeded culture needs to be changed or modified to suit to the changed
environment of the organisation. Change in culture is discussed little later in this chapter.

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1.4 CREATING, SUSTAINING, AND CHANGING A CULTURE
As mentioned ealier, culture is sharedness of understanding values among the
organisational members. Culture once established may fade away also. The established
cuiture needs to be changed to respond to the environmental changes. Then, it is against
this background, certain obvious questions arise: How is culture created ? What forces
sustain culture? and How does culture change? This section answers these questions one
by one. Creating a Culture
Beliefs and values have their base on the past happenings. It implies that the ultimate
source of an organisation's culture is its founders. The founders start theirorganisation
with a vision of what their organisation should be. Then, the vision is imposed on all
organisational members. The members imbibe the vision through interaction and their
own experience. Thomas Watson of IBM is a good example. Watson's views on research
and development, product innovation, employee dress attire, and compensation policies
still influence practices at IBM, though he died long back in 1956.
J.R.D. Tata is another example who typifies this type of culture creation. His supportive-
consultive role, his belief on professionalism, and assumption that only honesty and fair
dealings will pay have made the vast Tata empire what it is today.
Luthans" has outlined a distinct process involved in the creation of a culture. The process,
according to him, involves the following steps:
1. A single person (founder) has an idea or vision for an enterprise.
2. The founder brings in some people and creates a core group that shares a common
vision with the founder. All in the core group accept the idea or vision and work for
it.
3. The founding core group begins to act in concert to create an organisation by raising
funds, obtaining patents, incorporating, locating space, building, and so on.
Sustaining a Culture Culture once established may fade away also. Hence, once a
culture is created, it needs to be sustained through reinforcement practices of human
resources. Three such practices particularly important in sustaining a culture are
selection practices, the actions of top management, and socialization methods. Let's
take a closer look at each of these.
Selection: The first step involved in sustaining culture is the careful selection of entry
level candidates. The basic purpose of selection process is to appoint right people for
right jobs. For this, the trained recruiters interview candidates and attempt to screen out
candidates those whose personal styles and values do not make a fit with the
organisation's culture. Thus, by identifying the suitable candidates who can culturally
match the organisational culture, selection helps sustain culture considerably. Let's
illustrate it with a real-world illustration.
In Procter and Gamble (P&G), applicants for entry-level positions undergo an
exhaustive application and screening process. The interviewers who will identify the
candidates who will best fit in at P & G, are trained extensively via lectures, videotapes,

110
films, and role plays. The candidates are thoroughly interviewed to adjudge their
suitability to fit in organisation's culture. P & G values rationality and seeks applicants
also who think rationally. All these practices count for success at P & G.
Top Management: Subordinates emulate their superiors. Hence, the actions of top
management such as what the managers say and how they behave have a major impact on
the employees working at lower levels. As a matter of fact, this filters down in the entire
organisation and becomes a common feature or culture of organisation. Managerial
actions like degree of freedom granted to the subordinates, prescriptions for the employee
uniform, pay off in terms of pay raises, promotions, and other rewards also help create a
common history i.e., culture in the organisation.
Socialisation: Socialisation can be conceptualised as acquisition of work skills and
abilities, adoption of appropriate role behaviours and adjustment to the norms and values
of the work group. In simple words, socialisation is the process of adaptation. New
organisational members coming from different moods and mores are likely to disturb the
common customs and beliefs already established in the organisation. Therefore, the new
employees need to be indoctrinated to adapt the organisational culture. This adaptation
process is called socialisation. Socialisation process involves three phases:
 Pre-arrival
 Encounter
 Metamorphosis
A brief description of these follows:
Pre-arrival refers to all the learning that occurs before a new member joins the
organisation.
Encounter is the stage of induction which the new recruit joins the firm and put on the
job. The role playing starts here. The recruit starts comparing expectations, the image,
which he had formed during pre-arrival stage with reality. If expectation and reality
concur, the encounter is smooth. But seldom it concurs. When the two differ, stress and
frustration set in. What follows thereafter is a mental process of adjustment. In this
adjustment, the individual tries to replace his/her own values and norms with those of the
organisation at least in vital areas, if not in all. In the other extreme, the recruit simply
cannot reconcile to those values and norms of the organisation and get illusioned and quit
the job.
Metamorphosis is the completion stage of changes and consolidation of changed
behaviour (defreeze). In this stage, the employees master the skills required for their new
roles, and make the adjustment to the organisation's norms and values. This is, of course,
a voluntary process and a conscious decision which enables them to become compatible
with the group and organisation. This signals the completion of socialisation process.
Changing a Culture
The ever fast changing business environment has made everything euphemeral in nature.
So is organisational culture also: As organisations do not remain the same over a period

111
of time, so is the case of culture as well. Culture established in one type of environment
may not remain effective in changed environment. If it is so, the organisation must either
adapt to new conditions of environment or it may not survive. Hence, the need for change
in organisational culture.
However, changing culture is as much important is not so simple. Changing a strong
culture is particularly difficult because the cultural values and assumptions have taken
deep roots and employees become so committed to them. Yes, it is easier to change the
culture when it is weak.
Deal and Kennedy identified five situations which facilitate change in th culture:
1. When the environment is going rapid changes, and the company has always been
highly value-driven.
2. When the industry is highly competitive and the environment changes quickly.
3. When the company is mediocre, or worse.
4. When the company is truly at the threshold of becoming a large corporation.
5. When the company is growing very rapidly.
Among other major factors that create the right conditions for change in culture include:
A Dramatic Crisis: At times, there can be some shocks that undermine the status quo of
culture and question its relevance in a new crisis. The examples of such crises might be a
surprising financial setback, the loss of a major customer, or a dramatic technological
breakthrough by a competitor which can change the market structure. For example, once
the Maruti car was introduced in the Indian market, it shock up the otherwise sedate
passenger car market, and forced other companies to take a more productive stance.
Similarly, the economic reforms initiated during the 1990's, as well as the opening up of
the global market, forced many companies to attempt changing their cultural orientation.
Change in Leadership: Changing top leadership can also have a major impact on
organisational culture. New leadership at the organisational apex heralds signals of
change. It will not be less than correct to say that the top leadership is the personification
of the culture. This is because the top leadership sets the norms, values and formal reward
system for achieving organisational goals. Many Indian companies like MMTC, SAIL
and ACC, saw major changes occuring after new Chief Executive Officers (COEs) took
over.
1.5. HOW IS CULTURE LEARNT ?
Since the term organisational culture refers to the underlying beliefs and values that are
shared by organisation members, culture can't be dictated by the top management.
Instead, organisational culture is transmitted to employees in a number of forms. The
most potènt ones are stories, rituals, symbols, and language.
Stories
The stories, be these true or false, told to the organisational members can have a profound
impact on organisational culture. Most stories are narratives based on true events about

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the organisation's founders, rule breaking, rags-to-riches successes, reductions in the
work force, relocation of employees, reactions to past mistakes, and organisational
coping. Some stories are considered legends because the events are historic. However,
there also may be stories embellished with fictional details. Stories are useful because
they preserve the primary values of the organisation by anchoring the present in the past.
The popular practice of story telling by the grand-parents to their grand children in our
own society also aims at inculcating old values and beliefs in the new generation so as the
same can be preserved for all the times.
Here is a real world case.
During the days, when Henry Ford II was chairman of the Ford Motor Co., one would
have been hard-pressed to find a manager who had not heard the story about Mr. Ford's
reminding his executives, when they got too argumentative, that "It's is my name that is
on the building". The message was clear. Henry Ford II ran the company!
Rituals
Rituals also are a means for transmitting culture. Activities such as award ceremonies,
weekly Friday picnic, and annual general meetings are some examples of rituals. These
rituals reinforce the key values of the organisation, what goals are important, which
people are important and which are expendable. The annual convocation function
organised by the Tezpur Central University is an example of ritual performed in an
educational institution.
Many organisational researchers have even considered some of the established
management methods and techniques as cultural rituals. Managers employ techniques
such as PERT/CPM, complex modelling and simulation, dissemination of regular updates
on projects, brainstorming sessions, etc. The work is still performed in the same manner
as it was being done earlier.
Symbols
A symbol is something that represents something else. Physical symbols in organisations
are often used to represent and support organisational culture. Examples of symbols
include the size of offices, the elegance of office furnishings, executive perks, and the
presence of reserved parking spaces for certain employees. The value of these symbols is
that they communicate important cultural values. Symbols become more powerful
facilitator of culture if symbols are consistent with the stories that are narrated to the
organisational members.
Languages
As language is a means of universal communication, most organisations tend to develop
their own language in the forms of jargon, phrases, acronym, slogans, etc By learning this
language, the members attest to their acceptance of the culture and in so doing, help
preserve the organisational culture.
Organisations use a specific slogan, metaphor, or saying to convey special meaning to
employees. Metaphors are often quite meaningful and convey an entire sermon in only a
short sentence. Slogans can be readily picked up and repeated by employees as well as

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customers of the company. “IBM means service" is an example of slogan that
symbolizes what the company stands for to both employees and the society.
Organisations also develop unique terms to describe their key personnel, products,
equipments, and so on. For example, IBM has developed a term "a one performer" to
identify an employee with IBM's top performance rating. New employees frequently
come to hear such terms and over time, these terms become part of their language.
Organisational Culture at NIIT
Go through the following caselet of NIIT. It will help you understand how the various
manifestations like shared values, beliefs, and assumptions create informal organisational
culture.
NIIT was founded in 1981 by two IIT, Delhi graduates, Rajendra S. Pawar and Vijay K.
Thadani with a vision of meeting basic requirements for IT talent in a world moving into
an information based economy. They had anticipations about the unpreparedness of
Indian society to cope with the forthcoming information age and adopted the mission
“bringing people and computers together, successfully." Initially, NIIT delivered IT
training to a broad spectrum of people-from students seeking a career in computers to IT
professionals requiring advanced skills; from managers giving their careers an edge, to
school children using computers as a learning tool. NIIT's innovative offerings
demonstrated the company's ability to constantly renew itself to anticipate future
technology trends. From a computer training institute, NIIT has emerged as a global IT
solutions corporation offering knowledge solutions along with developing software
solutions. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, NIIT operates through 100% subsidiaries
in the US, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Japan and has operations in about 40 countries.
Its mission keeps pace with the development in the field of IT and is evolved through
organisation-wide discussions which helps develop commitment among employees. The
organisation operates with the help of task teams designed for specific customer
requirements for a specific period to carry out the work. Team culture and openness are
emphasised a great deal. NIIT's corporate culture focuses on values such as quality,
creativity, and customer satisfaction. The quality culture of NIIT has been result of the
sustained efforts of its management-perpetuated through induction socialisation,
reinforcement, innovation, and concern for internal and external customers, the quality
culture is ingrained at NIIT in such a way that the priority is to prevent mistake rather
than ractify them. Also, quality efforts are backed by results, which are rewarded.
Employees are treated as intellectual capital and looked after well. The happy and
committed employees ensure customer satisfaction and this has got them wideacceptance
across the globe. It has got well designed mechanisms for monitoring the quality for its
products, services and/or software processes. Most of NIIT's businesses have ISO 9000
certification. The work culture at NIIT has gone through all the stages of culture
development like symbols, behaviour, organisational values, attitudes, and shared
assumptions, and probably this is the reason it has been able to sustain it. .

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Source: Adapted from Mirza S. Saiyadain (Ed.): Organisational Behaviour, Tata
McGraw Hill Publishing Company Limited, New Delhi, 2003, pp. 255-256. 27.6
THEORY Z CULTURE
The remarkable economic success of Japanese firms influenced the U.S. organisations to
imitate some selected Japanese practices, if not all. In consequence, some of the major
American organisations such as IBM, Kodak, and Procter & Gamble attempted to adopt
the Japanese management styles in their organisations. The American adaptation of the
Japanese style of management is known as the “Theory Z Organisational Culture".
The overriding feature of a type Z organisation is a feeling of cooperation and
collaboration between managers and employees. In case of theory Z management culture,
the employees feel a sense of equality and identity and also involvement as the partners
of the organisation. Employees have a better and greater understanding about one
another's point of view which serves a seedbed for shared norms and values in the
organisation. In summary, in the type Z organisations, employment is effectively a
lifetime commitment. Consequently, employee turnover is low and employees progress
through a well defined order of career positions over the period. Decision-making is done
by consensus. There is a shared sense of collective responsibility for the success of a
decision. The sense of collective responsibility increases productivity.
The basic distinction among type A, i.e., the typical American corporation, type J, i.e., the
Japanese organisation, and type Z, i.e., an organisation patterned after the Japanese
hierarchical clan is illustrated in the following Table 27.1.
Table 1.1: Comparison of Three Organisational Cultures

Type A (American) Type J (Japanese) Type Z (Modified

American)
Short-term employment Lifetime employment Long-term employment
consensual
Individual decision making Consensual decision making decision making Individual
Individual responsibility
responsibility Rapid Collective responsibility Slow evaluation and
evaluation and promotion Slow evaluation and promotion
promotion
Explicit, formalized control Implicit, informal control Implicit, informal control
with
explicit, formalized
measures
Specialized career path Nonspecialized career Moderately specialized
path career
path
Segmented concern Holistic concern Holistic concern, including
family

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1.6 SUMMARY
 The organisational personalities are called organisational cultures.
 Culture is something which is created and resides in the minds of the people.
 There are two types of cultures which are Dominant Culture and Subculture &
Strong and Weak Cultures.
 Socialisation is the process of adaptation.
 Culture provides shared patterns of cognitive perceptions or understanding about
the values or beliefs held by the organisation.
 Organisational culture's impact on employee behaviour
 Practices which are important in sustaining a culture are selection practices, the
actions of top management and socialization methods.
 Culture is learnt by stories, rituals, symbols, and language.
1.7 EXERCISE

FILL IN THE BLANKS

1. Subcultures typically are a result of ………………. or ………………. that are
shared by members of a particular department or unit.
2. The degree of sharedness depends on two factors: ………………..and
………………...
3. Once a culture is created, it needs to be sustained through ……………… of
human resources
4. The new employees need to be indoctrinated to adapt the organisational culture.
This adaptation process is called ……………….
5. The overriding feature of a type ………… organisation is a feeling of cooperation
and collaboration between managers and employees.

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

1. How organisational culture is transmitted to employees :

A. Through stories
B. Through rituals & language
C. Through symbols
D. All of above
2. Which of the following is not a characteristic of Organisational culture.
A. Philosophy
B. Organisational Climate
C. Legitimating
D. Dominant Values
3. Which of the following is not a function of culture.
A. Shared patterns of cognitive perceptions
B. control mechanism that guides and shapes the attitudes and behaviour
C. Office Furnishing

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 D. Provides a boundary to identify members and non-members of the
organisation
4. Which of the following is an adaptation process:
A. Pre-arrival
B. Encounter
C. Metamorphosis
D. All of above
5. Long-term employmentconsensual is part of which type of organisational cultures:
A. Type A (American)
B. Type J (Japanese)
C. Type Z (Modified American)
D. None of these
SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS

(1) Explain organisational culture and its characteristics.

(2) Briefly explain function and types of culture.
(3) What is socialisation? Explain the process of socialisation with the help of an
example.
(4) “Organisational culture is transmitted to employees in a number of forms”
Explain.
(5) Compare different types of Organisational Cultures.

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 CHAPTER-2
JOB STRESS

2.0 DEFINITIONS
t's better to bend than to break."
- Aesop.C
Stress is spice for life. Absence of it is death."
- Hans Selye
2.1 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
Define stress and scan its symptoms.
Explain how to measure stress.
Trace out the causes of stress called, 'stressors'.
Discuss the various consequences of stress.
Show the impact of stress on task performance.
Suggest strategies for coping with stress or managing stress.
The origin of the concept of stress predates antiquity. Derived from the Latin word
'stringere,' stress was popularly used in the seventeenth century to mean hardship, strain,
adversity, or affliction. It was used in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to denote
force, pressure, strain, or strong efforts with reference to an object or person.
In the modern times, stress has become a buzzword and legitimate concern for people of
all walks of life. In fact, no one is immune to stress. Right from the time of birth till
death, an individual is invariably exposed to various stressful situations. Hence stress is a
subject which is hard to avoid. Stress has been a much and widely talked about
phenomenon in corporate (western) world because it is a costly business expense! that
affects both employee health and corporate profits. To quote, studies of stress among
American workers reveal that 69 percent of workers reported that health problems related
to stress made them less productive, 30 percent executives believe their work has
adversely affected their health, and the number of stress-related workers' compensation
claims tripled in one decade, jumping from 5 percent to 15 percent of all claims.
Stress featured in the Indian corporate world since 80's when the Indian market turned
competitive. But now, it has become a subject of great concern and action. As regards the
consequences of stress, what is true of corporate America is true of corporate India also.
As confirmed by research studies, stress bears debilitating effects on both the employee
and the employer.
At the Escorts Heart Institute in Delhi, India, routine cardiac screening indicate that most
executives are in the advanced stages of stress. "Corporate India is finally waking up to

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the fact that a lot of human potential is being drained away because of stress and
burnout," says Shekhar Bajaj, CEO of the Indian consumer, electronics manufacturer
Bajaj Electricals. In this lies the need for and importance of preventing or managing
stress.
Accordingly, in this chapter we discuss what stress is, what causes stress, and, how it
affects negatively both the individual and the organization. We conclude the chapter by
discussing various techniques to be used for managing or coping with stress.
2.2 WHAT IS STRESS?
The concept of stress is borrowed from the natural sciences. It was first introduced in the
life sciences by Hans Selye in 1936. What is stress? Different people have different views
about stress as different people experience it from a variety of sources. For example, the
businessman views stress as frustration or emotional tension; the air traffic controller sees
it as a problem of alertness and concentration; and the biochemist thinks of it as a purely
chemical event. Not only that, the term stress is used variously by scholars of different
disciplines and professions. To quote, in physics, stress is a force which acts on a body to
produce strain. In physiology, the various changes in the physiological function in
response to evocative agents donate stress(rather than strain). In psychology, stress refers
to a particular kind of state of the organization resulting from some interaction between
him/her and the environment.
In general sense, stress is the pressures people feel in life due to their reaction to situation.
Hans Selye defines stress as "an adoptive response to the external situation that results in
physical, psychological, and/or behavioural deviation for organizational participants ".
However, individual differences account for a wide range of reactions to situations and,
in turn, to stress. For example, a task viewed as challenging by one person may produce
high level of anxiety, or say, stress in another. According to Beehr and Newman, stress is
a condition arising from the interaction of people and their jobs and characterized by
changed within people that force them to deviate from their normal functioning. This side
of stress is called distress. There is also a positive side if stress, called eustress. Eustress
refers to the healthy, positive, constructive outcome of stressful events and the stress
response. Eustress is the stress experience that activates and motivates people to achieve
their goals and succeed in their life's challenges. This means people need some stress to
survive. That is why Hans Selye views stress as the spice of life and absence of stress is
death. However, the negative side of stress, i.e. distress has attracted much attention and
concern as it adversely affects the employees mental and physical health and, in turn,
their performance. Consequently our subsequent discussion will focus on distress side of
stress.
GENERAL ADAPTATION SYNDROME (GAS)
Hans Selye, a pioneer in stress research, developed about 50 years ago a comprehensive
model to explain that people have a fairly consistent physiological response to stressful
situations. This response, called General Adaptation Syndrome (GSA) provides an
automatic defense system to help people cope with external/ environmental demands. The
defense system occurs in three stages: alarm reaction, resistance, and exhaustion. A
diagrammatic view of these stages is shown in Figure 19.1. The line in this figure shows

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the individual's energy and ability to cope with the stressful situation, i. e. the normal
level of resistance.
Alarm Reaction. In the alarm reaction stage, also called 'initial/shock phase', the
perception of a threatening or challenging situation causes the brain to send a biochemical
massage to various parts of the body that, in turn, make the defense mechanisms active.
This stage is characterized by increased respiration rate, heart beat, blood pressure,
muscle tension, adrenalin discharge, and gastro intestinal ulceration. At first, the
individual's energy level/resistance capacity and coping effectiveness decrease in
response to the initial shock. The extreme shock may result in incapacity of individual to
cope with stress. In most situations, the alarm reaction alerts the person to the
environmental condition and prepares the body for the resistance stage.
Resistance. The bodily signs characteristics of the alarm reaction disappear and the body
has activated various biochemical, psychological, and behavioural mechanisms. As a
result, the person's resistance increases above the normal level during this stage.
However, if the stress persists, or the defensive mechanism proves ineffective, the
person's organism deteriorates to the next stage of exhaustion.
Exhaustion. People have a limited resistance capacity. When the resistance adaptation
capacity is exhausted, the signs of alarm reaction reappear. Resistance level begins to
decline abruptly. Finally, the organism gets collapsed.
Fig. 6.1 Hans Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome.
We have just seen how the General Adaptation Syndrome describes the stress experience.
But, this is only part of the picture. To effectively manage work-related stress, we must
understand its symptoms, causes and consequences. What follows next is the same.
2.3 SYMPTOMS OF STRESS
As already mentioned, stress is a pressure people feel in life. When stress persists and
becomes excessive, it culminates to strain and, in turn, adversely affects a person's
physique, psychology and behaviour. The body prepares itself for "fight' or 'flight'.
The excessive stress develops various symptoms that harm the employee's job
performance and health, and threaten their inability to cope with the environment. The
various symptoms of stress are diagrammatically presented in Figure 19.2 :
For the convenience of the study, the various symptoms of stress can be classified into
three broad categories, viz, 1. Psychosomatic, 2. Psychological, and 3. Behavioural.
Psychosomatic. The word “Psychosomatic" combines the two words, namely, 'psyche'
which means mind and 'soma' which means body. The psychosomatic symptoms of stress
are bodily or physical for which the causes are mental. Research studies8 report that a
number of physical complaints like ulcer, headaches, chest pains, constipation, bronchial
asthma, etc. are emotionally induced. Here, it is important to mention that the casual
effect between mind and physique will be unique for each individual. For example, one
person may suppress anger and may eventually develop depression, whereas another may
suppress anger and eventually develop migraine headaches.

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Psychological. Stress also manifests in various forms of emotional disorders. Researches
have found that stress gets its reflection in the form of anxiety, depression, helplessness,
hopelessness, and anger. The stressful people with the slightest provocation are easily
induced to anger and anxiety and become unable to relax. In his study, Dual reports that
the employees suffering from occupational stress generally tend to have low
psychological commitment to the organization.
Behavioural. Job stress also bears behavioural symptoms which are easily observable
also. There is general agreement that a high degree of job stress drives people adopt
certain easily visible behavioural symptoms such as sleeplessness, excessive drinking,
smoking, absenteeism, obesity, and gluttony. Job stress can also lead to less visible
behavioural symptoms in the form of bad decision-making, negative internal politics,
reduced creativity, apathy, and so on. According to a recent survey", about 25 percent of
Indian executives and 44 per cent of middle level executives report that job stress drives
them to high level of alcohol consumption.
2.4 MEASUREMENT OF STRESS
Just as a doctor needs first to measure the intensity of the health problem of his her
patient to prescribe the right treatment for its cure, so does need the level of stress also to
be measured before applying right kind of strategy for coping with stress. Hence, the
researchers have felt the need for measuring stress and have developed some instruments
for its measurement. Though various instruments have been developed in the West to
measure stress, in India, there are so far mainly two techniques developed which have
been extensively used to measure stress. These are:
1. Organisational Role Stress (ORS)
2. Occupational Stress Index
Organisational Role Stress (ORS)
Organisational Role Stress, popularly known as ORS, is developed by Udai Pareek 12 to
measure stress in the Indian context. Pareek's ORS instrument is based on integration of
an employee's job role with overall" organizational structure within he/ she works. In
other words, in his instrument, Pareek assumes that the role assigned to an employee is
linked with different parts and persons of an organization and it is. through this role the
employee interacts and integrates himself with the entire organizational structure. Here, it
is important to mention that the type of organizational structure within which employee
works influences the role he/she plays at times producing strain and stress for the role
performer/ employee. This is because different significant persons of organization, even
including the employee, have different expectations from the job role assigned to an
employee. In course of role performance, the expectations of different persons may clash
and, in turn, produce stress for the employee. Pareek explains this stressful experience
with the help of two closely related concepts of 'role space' and 'role set'.
Role Space. In practice, each individual occupies and plays several different roles
simultaneously. For example, a person can be and play the roles of an executive, a son, a
father, a husband, a club member, and so on at the same time. All these roles assumed
and played by the individual constitute 'role space'. But, self stands at the centre of the

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role space. Thus, role space can be defined as “the dynamic interrelationship between the
self and the various roles an individual occupies."
Role Set. What role an individual plays is influenced by the expectations of other
significant roles and those of the individuals himself/ herself. In this sense, role set can be
defined as " the pattern of relationship between the role being occupied and other roles
related to an individual."
Pareek developed his ORS scale based on 50 items measuring ten types of organisational
role stresses. The ORS scale with 50 items is given at the end of this chapter. The ten
different types of organisational role stresses are:
(i) Inter-Role Distance (IRO). It emerges when there is a conflict between
organisational and non-organisational roles.
(ii) Role Stagnation (RS). It is the feeling of being stuck to a specific role.
(iii) Role Erosion (RE). It is the feeling of the role occupant that some roles which
should belong to his / her role are assigned to some one else.
(iv) Role Expectation Conflict (REC). Stress is caused by varying expectation of
significant persons like superiors, subordinates, peers, family members and role
performer's dilemma as to whom to please. Role Overload. The feeling of the role
occupant that there are too many expectations from his/her role.
(v) Role Isolation (RI). This refers to the felt distance between the occupied role and
other roles in the same role set.
(vi) Personal Inadequacy (PI). It arises when the role occupant feels that he lacks in
required skill or training to effectively play his/her role.
(vii) Self- Role Distance (SRD). This refers to the role occupant's feelings that the role
occupied by him/her is against his / her self concept.
(viii) Role Ambiguity (RA). It is the confusion about the expectations of role one
occupies. Resource Inadequacy (Rin). It arises when role occupant feels that he /
she is not given enough resources for performing his / her role. Occupational Stress
Index Occupational Stress Index as an instrument to measure stress was constructed
by Srivastava and Singh'. The index consists of 46 items relating to all relevant
components of a job life causing stress in one way or other, Like Pareek's'
organisational role stresses', the 46 items of the index measure twelve different
types of occupational stresses. These are:
1. Role Overload 7. Powerlessness
2. Role Ambiguity Polo Amhicuity 8. Poor Peer Relations
3. Role Conflict 9. Instrinsic Improvement
4. Group and Political Pressures 10. Low Status
5. Responsibility for Persons 11. Strenuous Working Conditions
6. Under Participation 12. Unprofitability

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2.5 CAUSES OR SOURCES OF STRESS
Management of stress is difficult unless the individual experiencing stress is not aware of
the specific causes or sources of stress. As we will soon see, many things/ conditions can
cause stress. Conditions that cause stress are called 'stressors' or 'Loads'.
Stressors can be defined as the causes of stress, including any environmental conditions
that place a physical or emotional demand on the individual. Stress emanates from a
misfit between environmental demands and personal adequacies to meet these demands.
Different researchers have tried to classify the various causes of stress into different
categories. For example, Motowidlo and others's have classified the causes of stress into
two broad categories: organisational stressors and life stressors. Pestonjee has identified
three important sources where stress emanates from. These Are : (a) job and
organisational, (b) social sector, and (c) intra psychic sector. For purposes four
discussion, the various causes of stress are classified into four broad categories:
Covironmental , Organisational , Group and Individual Causes or Stressors. These are
briefly discussed below:
Environmental Causes. Environmental factors do also have impact on employee stress.
The environmental factors to which an employee responds mainly include things such as
fast technological change, family demands and obligations, economic and financial
conditions, race, caste, class, ethnic identity and relocation and transfers.
Of late, the phenomenal rate of social and technical change also has had its great impact
on people's life style which is carried over into their jobs. To mention, while medical
science has increased the life span of the people by eradicating or reducing the life
claiming threats of many dreaded diseases, on the one hand, the modern living style
caught up in the rush -rush, mobile, urbanised and crowded has deteriorated the wellness
and increased the potential for stress on the job, on the other. For most people in the
recent years, their weak financial position has forced them to do extra job or the spouse
has had to join work to meet ever increasing ends. This situation reduces time for
recreation, relaxation and family activities. The overall effect is more stress on the
employees. These are, according to some stress researchers, examples of stressors as
unresolved environmental demands.
The physical environmental conditions, such as excessive noise, poor lighting, safety
hazards, poorly designed office space, lack of privacy, and poor air quality also cause
stress. For example, a study19 found that clerical employees experience significantly
higher stress levels in noisy open offices than in quiet areas.
Here is an example of stress caused by physical environment.
Ravi Sachdeva, an employee of BSNL was transferred from a small hill town Nainital to
a very large city Delhi where his commuting time to work was nearly one hour. He
disliked city noises, heavy traffic, and crowds, and he felt he was wasting his time while
commuting. Besides these, his new job also had more responsibilities.
Within a few months he developed intestinal problems. When medical examination
showed no medical cause of his difficulties, he was sent to a counselor. There was only
slight improvement and finally his counselor in cooperation with his physician

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recommended that he be transfer red to a small city. His firm arranged his transfer to
Kashipur and within a short time, his problems disappeared.
Organisational Causes /Stressors
Stressors occur not only outside the organisation, but within it also. Oranisational
stressors may come in many forms, such as organisational policies, procedures, and
structure. As we shall learn in Chapter 28, most forms of organisational change are
stressful. For example, downsizing (reducing the number of employees) is extremely
stressful to both employees who lose their jobs and also who remain in the organisation.
As a result of downsizing, the remaining workers have been forced to pick up the slack of
the the workers who have left. For example, a research study found that thepercentage of
employees suffering from high blood pressure doubled after the company laid off 10
percent of its work force. The reason being the fear of lay off and over burden of work.
The long-term sick leave taken by remaining employees doubled after the down sizing.
Organisational policies, such as unfair performance evaluation, rotation of work,
inequality in remuneration and incentives etc. also serve as Stressor. There is also
research evidence that the difference between perceived actual leadership style and
expected leadership style leads to a conflict and dissonance between the managers and
subordinates. This conflict and dissonance serves as a source of stress.
Whether the position held by one in the organisation has something to do with stress or
not, the research findings are inclusive. For example, Ray in his study of 53 scientists ( 23
junior and 30 senior) revealed that junior scientists experienced greater occupational
stress then their senior counterparts. On the contrary, there is one research evidence that
the level of stress experienced does not vary much across the positions. For example,
there is not much significant difference in the level of stress experienced by the
executives and supervisor.
Group Causes/Stressors
People are usually member of various formal and informal groups. The department,
division or section to which one belongs, for example, is formal group. As already seen in
Chapter 11, group bears tremendous influence on individual member's behaviour.
Therefore the group can also be a potential source of stressor. These group stressors' can
be categorized into three broad categories.
(i) Lack of Group Cohesiveness. The famous Hawthorne studiese have made it clear
that cohesiveness, or say, togetherness provides satisfaction to the employees. Lack
of cohesiveness creates conflict and tension which serves as potential stressor for
the employees. According to Selye, learning to live with other people in a work
setting is one of the most stressful aspects of life. There are three crucial
relationships at work an employee has to maintain- with superiors, with
subordinates, and with colleagues. At times, these relationships can produce stress
for an employee.
(ii) Lack of Social Support. There is an old saying “Misery loves company." With
respect to stress, this statement implies that we as the members of groups look for
support from other co-workers in terms of stress or difficulty. If we get this social

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 support, we feel much better off. If such support is lacking for an individual
employee, the same can cause stress for him/her.
When individuals believe that they have co-workers and friends to support them at times
of sorrow or difficulty, their ability to resist the adverse effects of stress seems to
increase. Several mechanisms come into play. First, having people/ friends to turn to in
times of difficulty may help individuals perceive stressful events as less threatening and
more under their control would otherwise be the case. Second, friends can often suggest
useful strategies for dealing with sources of stress. Third, by providing a pleasant
distraction, friends can help reduce the negative feelings that often result from stressful
events. It is for these reasons, social support serves as an important buffer against the
effects of stress.
(iii) Interpersonal and Inter Group Conflict. The incompatibility in terms of needs
and values between co-workers /colleagues usually creates interpersonal conflicts.
Likewise, variance in objectives and goals between groups leads to intergroup
conflict. Conflict studies indicate that such dysfunctional conflicts can also lead to
considerable stress for individuals.
Individual Causes / Stressors
Apart from the stressors discussed so far (environmental, organisational and group
stressors), there are individual factors also that cause stress, These are:
(1) Role Conflict. People play various roles in organisations. When people face
conflicting demands in discharging their roles, it is called 'role conflict'. When two
roles conflict with each other, it is called 'Inter role conflict'. For example, sales
staff in the Indian banking industry experience inter role conflict in trying to
balance the needs of their bank 'and the needs of customers. Role conflict also
occurs when an employee receives contradictory massages from different people
about how to perform a job. It is called 'intrarole conflict'.
(ii) Role Ambiguity. Role ambiguity occurs when employees are uncertain about
several aspects of their jobs (e.g. duties, performance expectations, level of
authority, and other job conditions). This ambiguity tends to occur when people
enter new situations, such as joining the organisation or taking a foreign
assignment, because they are uncertain about task and social expectations.
Ivancevich and Matteson have identified role conflict, role ambiguity, and degree of
responsibility for others as major sources of stress. In another study, Chand and
Sethi have found significant positive relationship between job-related strain and role
overload and role conflict.
(iii) Workload. When the phrase" work- related stress" is mentioned, usually people
envision scenes in which employees are asked to do more work than they can do in
a given period of time. This is a case of work overload. In fact, in today's business
environment, where downsizing is common, fewer employees are often required to
do more work than ever before. This causes stress. A distinction needs to be made,
however, between 'quantitative overload', situations in which employees are asked
to do more work than they can complete in a specific period of time, and' qualitative

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 overload, the employees' beliefs that they lack the required skills or abilities to
perform a given job. Both types of overload are unpleasant and can lead to high
levels of stress. Work overload is such common problem in Japan that death from
overwork has its own name Karoshi. For Example, whereas the average American
spends about 1,600 hours working per year, the comparable figure for Japanese is
2,159 hours.
As work overload can be stressful, so can be work inderload also. Work underload
is a situation of receiving too little work ('quantitative underload) or having tasks
that do not sufficiently use the employee talent ('qualitative overload) Both types of
work underload serve as a possible stressors. This is because as the saying goes; "
The hardest job in the world is doing nothing - you cann't take a break.".
(iv) Life Events. Life events, such as the death of a spouse, divorce, injury to one's
family members, unwanted pregnancy etc., have dramatic effect on people. This
was first studied by Holmes and Rahe, who asked large groups of people to assign
arbitrary points (from 1 to 100) to various life events according to how much
readjustment each had required. They proved that more the person experiences
sudden life events like death and divorce of spouse ,the more is stress experienced
and, in turn, the poorer will be his consequent health.
(v) Personality Traits. Personality affects behaviour. Different people possess
different kinds of personality (discussed, in details, in chapter 5). Individual
characteristics of personality moderate the extent to which people experience stress.
That is why different people experience different levels of stress for the same
stressors. Why people experience different levels of stress for the same stressors
might be for three reasons: One, each of us depending on our self-efficacy perceives
the same situation differently. Self - efficacy refers to one's belief that he or she has
the ability and motivation to perform the task successfully. Second, different people
have different thresholds of resistance to a stressor. Third, different people use
different coping strategies for the same stressors. Even, some people tend to ignore
the stressor, hoping that it will go away its own.
There is some evidence (although still inconclusive) that women cope with stress better
than their male counterparts. The reason attributed to it is women are more likely to seek
emotional support from others in stressful situations, whereas men try either to change the
stressor or use less effective coping strategy. However, we must remember that
exceptions are always there.
People are classified into two types of personality dimensions - Type A and Type B. Type
A people are hard-driving, competitive, impatient, loose temper, talk rapidly, and
interrupt others during conversations. In contrast, those with type B dimensions work
steadily, take a relaxed approach to life, and be even-tempered. Heart researchers report
that type A employees experience considerable stress than type B employees.
2.6 CONSEQUENCES OF STRESS
By now, you are probably convinced that stress stems from many sources, and that it
exerts important effects on the people who experience it. What may not yet be apparent,

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though, is just how powerful and far reaching such effects can be. In fact, so widespread
are the detrimental effects of stress that it has been estimated that its annual costs exceed
10 per cent of the US gross national product. The general adaptation syndrome,
introduced earlier in this chapter, describes how chronic stress diminishes the individual's
resistance, resulting in adverse consequences for both the employee and the organisation.
The various consequences of stress are classified into physiological, psychological, and
behavioral consequences.
Physiological Consequences. Stress takes its toll on human body. People experience
tension, headaches, high blood pressure, high level of cholesterol, ulcers, arthritis etc. due
to stress. Studies have found that upto 90 per cent of patients complain of stress related
symptoms and disorders.
According to medical researchers, the long-term effect of stress on the heart goes
something like this: Wherever people are stressed, their blood pressure goes up and
down. That frequent pressure change causes injury to the blood vessel walls,
which eventually makes them constrict and function abnormally. Overtime, this sequence
leads to heart disease. Unfortunately, we often cannot tell when we are physiologically
stressed. For example, researchers have found that people think they are in a low -stress
state when, in fact, their palms are sweating and their blood pressure has risen.
Psychological Consequences. Apart from physical consequences, stress produces various
psychological consequences also. Job dissatisfaction, moodiness, depression, anger,
anxiety, nervousness, irritability and tension are the manifestations of the psychological
consequences of stress. Emotional fatique is another psychological consequence of stress
and related to job burnout.
What is job burnout? Different people have described job burnout differently. Some
contend that burnout is type of stress itself. Others describe it as the process of emotional
exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment resulting from
prolonged exposure to stress. Following Table 6.1 compares and contrasts between stress
and burnout.
Table 1.1: Stress vs Burnout

Stress Burnout
The person feels fatigued The individual encounters chronic
exhaustion The person is anxious The individual is hypertensive
The person feels moody The individual feels impatient, irritable,
and unwilling to talk others.
The person feels guilty The individual encounters mental
depression
The person experiences increased blood the individual begins to voice
pressure and heart beat psychosomatic complaints

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Behavioural Consequences. When stress becomes distress, it adversely affects the
employee's behaviour. The consequences of high level of stress are undereating or
overeating; sleeplessness, obesity, increased drinking and smoking, and drug abuse. Over
stressed also tend to have higher levels of absenteeism. There might be two reasons for it.
One reason is that stress makes people sick. The other reason is that absenteeism is a
coping mechanism, Absenteeism is a temporarily withdrawing from the stressful situation
so that the stressful employee has an opportunity to re-energize. There is sufficient
research evidence to confirm such consequences of stress. In a recent study, Babani38
shows that 1 in 4 Indian executives suffer from obesity and 44 percent of middle -level
executives report that job stress drives them to high level of alcohol consumption.
Besides, high level of stress also impairs our ability to remember information, make
effective decisions, and take appropriate action. You have probably experienced this level
of stress, or call it distress, in an examination or emergency work situation.
2.7 STRESS AND TASK PERFORMANCE
Having studied the various consequences of stress, it also seems pertinent to see the
impact of stress on employee's task performance and, in turn, organisational performance.
A number of studies have been undertaken to examine the impact of stress on empolyee's
task performance. The research evidence shows that stress is both helpful and harmful to
task performance. In other words, stress is both a friend and a foe. Absence and too low
level of stress does not stimulate the employee to work more or and perform better.
Instead, increasing research evidences show that increase in stress level till its mild level
serves as a stimulus to activate employee to respond to the challenges of task and, in turn,
facilitates employee's task performance. Such mild level of stress can be called eustress.
People in certain jobs such as journalists and television announcers, who work under time
pressures would seem to benefit from a mild level of stress, You also probably would
have benefitted from mild stress caused by time pressure to write your examinations
better and more speedily. Yes, the mild level of stress will vary from individual to
individual depending on how long it continues, how much complex the task is, and how
strong the individual's resilience power is.
But, if the stress level continues to increase beyond the employee's resilience capacity, it
causes emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion, also called 'job burnouť to the
employee exposed to stress Such exhaustion distracts and interferes with the employee's
task performance.
How both no or too low and too high stress levels interfere with one's performance can be
exemplified with tennis players' experience of stress.
In tennis, upsets occur often at Wimbledon when an unseeded tennis player who is " not
supposed to win” rises to the occasion and later admits to having felt only mild stress.
The vanguished opponent, who took the match too lightly, may have experienced either
no or too low stress to stimulate his/ her early performance. When the match appears to
be slipping away, the losing player begins experiencing too much stress to play his /her
optimum game. Here, what does it imply is that the athletes like tennis players need to
maintain the right balance between their stress and performance.

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Newstrom and Devis have compared the relationship between stress and performance
with that of strings and music on a violin, Just as either too little or too much tension on
the strings does not produce suitable music and the violin strings need to be readjusted to
accommodate the changing conditions, such as increased humidity, either too low or too
high stress level interferes with employee's performance and, therefore, stress level needs
to be periodically adjusted and moderated. Generally, the relationship between stress and
performance on many tasks is believed to be curvilinear. Figure 6.3 shows such
curvilinear relationship between employee stress and his/her task performance.
Employee Stress and Task Performance
Having said all this, we must also note that there are exceptions to this curvilinear
hypothesis of stress and task performance. While even relatively mild or moderate stress
level can interfere with task performance, because the prolonged or repeated exposure to
mild stress may have harmful effects on employee’s health, too high level of stress can
produce better performance by making the person rise to the occasion. Both types of
examples abound in organisations.
Having mentioned all this, now the most reasonable conclusion we can give concerning
stress and task performance it that the precise impact of stress on performance depends on
different factors, such as the duration of stress continues, the complexity of the task
peiformed, the resilience power of the person exposed to stress, and one’s previous
experience with the task. Therefore, in view of such complexities, generalization about
the impact of stress on task performance should be made with considerable caution.
2.8 HOW TO MANAGE OR COPE WITH STRESS ?
It is better to bend than to break. Hence, the need for coping with stress. Though stress is
helpful, but it is usually harmful as it impinges on employee’s health and his/ her task
performance. Therefore, stress needs to be managed or coped with to minimize its
debilitating effects. The word ‘managing’ or ‘coping’ bears two connotations in stress
literature 42. It has been used to denote the way of dealing with stress, or the effort to
master conditions of harm, threat, or challenge when routine or automatic response is not
readily available. Researchers have indicated various strategies to be used to manage or
cope with stress. However, these strategies vary from person to person and in the same
person from time to time. Nonetheless, the various strategies can be classified into two
broad categories:
1. At Individual Level Gorositnousha
2. At Organisational Level
At Individual Level
Individual strategies are based on ‘self-help’ or ‘do yourself approaches. Some specific
techniques that individuals can use to effectively manage their job stress are:
Physical Exercise. Exercise in any form, be it walking, jogging, swimming, riding,
bicycling or playing games helps people combat stress. This is excellent stress modifier.
The obvious reason is that side effects of exercise such as relaxation, enhanced self-

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esteem and simply getting off one’s mind off the work for a while help people better cope
with stress. Exercise works as a stress inoculation not only relieving the pressure at the
end of a hectic day, but making it possible to deal more effectively with it next day.
Walking offers many benefits and can put one in excellent cardiovascular condition and
reduce stress. The survey by A Babani shows that two out of three Indian executives say
that they find it difficult to exercise regularly due to long working hours.
(ii) Behavioural Self-Control. A conscious analysis of the causes and consequences of
their own behaviour help managers controlling the situation instead of letting the situation
control them.
(iii) Social Support. “Misery loves company.” Studies have suggested that social support
moderates the effects of stress on personal well-being. It is one of the important aspects
of the quality of social milieu. We see in practice people give and receive different types
of social support, such as money, material and emotional help. Adequate social support
may reduce intensity and frequency of stressors.
(iv) Yoga and Meditation. Yoga and mediation which are of the Indian origin, also
affect the psychological well-being of people. Researchers have reported that mediators
were less anxious than non-meditators. Yoga is, according to Patanjali, a” suspension” of
the functions of the mind. It is an integrated system which emphasises harmony of body
and mind. Yoga can help managers lead a stress free life and be more effective.
Yoga teaches us to follow a set of behaviours called ,yam and niyam. There are five yam:
non-violance (ahimsa), truthfulness (satyam) , non-stealing (asteya) ,continence
(brahmcharya), and non-convetousness (aparigriha). Similarly, there are five niyam also:
purification (saucha), contentment (santosh), austerity (tapas), study (swadhaya), and
self-surrender to the lord (iswarapravichara). In total, both yam and niyam are guidelines
for an enlightened lifestyle. Lack of adherence to these guidelines lessens the positive
effects of yoga on the physical, psychological, and spiritual well being of managers.
Closely related to yoga is asan that also helps reduce the debilitating effects of stress and
tension of life. According to Patanjali, comfortable bodily posture is asan. There are a
variety of assans varying from simple to complex ones. Swami Shivananda in Yogasana
has suggested a few asan useful for the managers to reduce stress. These asans are:
padnasana (the lotus posture), ‘Siddhasana (the perfect posture)., Sirshasana (the
130ounselling posture) and sarvangshamasana. A manager needs to learn asans from a
trained yoga teacher before he begins the asans.
Meditation relates to a pscho-spiritual processes. Meditation is one step further to
concentration. While concentration focuses on an object, meditation opens it. In
meditation, both self and external world blend together harmoniously. Rajneesh has
defined meditation as “ a state of mind”. In meditation, there is nobody inside, nothing
outside. Research has proved that both concentration and meditation have positive effects
on physiological psychological and spiritual processes which buffer stress. Like asans,
managers must learn meditation from a learned mediator –teacher.

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(v) Changing Gears. Changing gears involves shifting one’s attention from main work to
something else, such as a hobby. Yet, while changing gears, the changed work needs to
capture the worker’s attention. Changing gears helps in removing one’s attention from
pressure of work, on the one hand, and draining of pent-up tensions, on the other.
(vi) Pampering oneself. We pamper others when they experience a crisis in life. We send
flowers to a friend who is admitted in the hospital struggling with his life and death. We
do these because they break routine and help cope with stress. One can pamper oneself in
many ways. A manager may plan a series of short-vacations instead of one long vacation.
The objective is to break routine.
(vii) Warming Up Oneself. A manager also needs to warm up before starting work just
as the football player warms up before the buzzer sounds to start the game. The basic
object in warming up is to set tone for the day. Warming up, thus, prepares one for the
tensions he will have to encounter during the day.
(viii) Rearranging One’s Job Schedule. Researchers have revealed that managers taking
their job seriously, working harder and assuming increasing responsibilities become more
susceptible to job stress, One of the ways of releasing job pressure is to rearrange one’s
schedule. An effective way to deal with job stress is to confront difficult tasks when one
is fresh.
At Organisational Level
Like an individual, an organisation can also help manage stress through various proactive
interventions. Some of these interventions are listed below:
(i) Setting Clear Objectives. Organisations should set clear objectives for its members.
This helps minimize role ambiguity which usually filters down the organisation in the
form of neuoris.
(ii) Stress Audit. Pestonjee has suggested stress audit as one of the effective proactive
intervention to combat stress. According to him, when an organization decides to have a
scientific peep into mental and physical health status of its backbone group (executives),
the exercise is called a stress audit. It involves an attempt that organisations make to
study, explore, and control various types of stresses which the individual executives
experience by virtue of their 131ounselling131al membership.
Stress audit as an OD intervention involves the following four stages:
Phase – 1: Conducting an exploration of ‘Stress Tolerance Limit’ ( STL) with the help of
psychometric instruments in terms of anxiety, depression, anger, dominant motive/ need
profile and alike.
Phase – II: Identify the dominant organisational role stress dimensions by measuring Role
Efficacy Index ( REI) for the executives,
Phase – III : Collecting both qualitative ad quantitative information on stress variable and
their impact on individual health and task performance with the help of conducting
structure interviews.

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Phase – IV: Suggesting remedial ways and means for introducing desired changes and
modifications made in organizational activities and practices. This might also include
organizational restructuring of slight of minor nature.
(iii) Counselling: Counselling is yet another proactive strategy to be used by
organisations to deal with stress. Counselling to employees in the matters like career
planning to provide them clarity in their job roles, helping them in identifying their
strengths and weaknesses help them better cope with stress. Dissemination of information
to employees on how to face stressors within the organisation and outside proves useful
for employees in dealing with stress.
(iv) Spread the Message: Spreading the message about the importance of regular habits
of work, leisure, proper diet, exercise, and mental peace among the organisational
members helps them better cope with stress.
(v) Fit between Person and Work: Research evidence shows that striking a fit between
worker and his / her work environment serves as one of the best strategy to manage
stress. This congruence can be attained by linking the worker to the job characteristics,
for high internal motivation, high quality performance, high work satisfaction, and low
absenteeism and turnover.
(vi) Clarity in Roles: There is enough evidence46 to show that defining individual roles
through role efficacy helps them reduce their role- shared stresses. This is so as a result of
an individual’s movement from a reactive i.e. role taking behaviour to a proactive i.e role
–making behaviour. Role efficacy is found negatively related role stress and role efficacy
helps in overcoming the experience of role stress.
2.9 SUMMARY
Stress is non-specific response to demands from environment that result in physical,
psychological and / or behavioural deviations for people. No one is immune to stress.
Stress in work settings stems from different sources such as individuals, group,
organisational, and environmental. Though the precise impact of stress is difficult to
predict, it adversely are the physiological, psychological, and behavioural aspects of peop
experiencing to it. Effects of stress vary from person to person depending their resilience
capacity, perception of stimuli, prior experience to it, complexity of task to be performed.
Stress can be managed at both the individual level and the organisat. level. Individual
approaches to manage stress include exercise, 132ounse control, proper diet, meditation,
relaxation, etc. Organisational Strategies to manage stress include clarity of employee
roles, proced policies and rules, change in organisational structure, 132ounselling, sprea
message of evil effects of stress, and so on.
2.10 EXERCISE
FILL IN THE BLANKS-
1. The incompatibility in term of needs and value between co-workers/colleagues
usually creates ...............
2. The physical environmental conditions, ............ , ............. , .............. also cause
stress.

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3. ............... emerges when there is a conflict between organisational and non-
organisational roles.
4. ................ arises when the role occupant feel that he lacks in required skill on
training to effectively play his/her role.
5. The word “Psychosomatic” combines the two words, ............ and ..............
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS-
1. Which of the following is not a type of occupational stresses
A. Unprofitability
B. Group and political pressures
C. Family dispute
D. Role overload
2. Feeling of the role occupant that some roles which should belong to her/his role are
assigned to some one else is -
A. Role erosion
B. Role expectation conflict
C. Role ambiguity
D. None of the above
3. Which of the following is the broad category of symptoms of stress.
A. Psychological
B. Psychosomatic
C. Behavioral
D. All of the above
4. Techniques developed to measure stress in/are
A. Organisational role stress
B. Occupational stress index
C. Both (A) and (B)
D. Neither (A) nor (B)
5. Feeling of being stuck to a specific rule is known as:
A. Self-role distance
B. Role stagnation
C. Personal inadequacy
D. Role conflict

SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS-

1. What is job stress? Is it always bad for the individual? Explain.
2. Where does stress come from? Describe three sources of your own stress.
3. Bring out the impact of stress on performance and satisfactory of employees.
4. How can stress be coped with ?
5. What are the symptoms of stress?

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