Unit I

Introduction to Organisational Behaviour

Organisational Behaviour Definition:

Organizational behaviour is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups
and structure have on behaviour within organization for the purpose of applying such
knowledge toward improving an organization’s effectiveness.

Disciplines Contributing to Organisational Behaviour

Psychology

Psychology is the science that attempts to measure, explain, and at times change the behavior
of humans and other animals. Early industrial/organizational psychologists were concerned
with problems of fatigue, boredom, and other factors relevant to working conditions that could
disrupt/ impede efficient work performance. More recently, their contributions have been
expanded to include learning, perception, personality, emotions, training, leadership
effectiveness, needs and motivational forces, job satisfaction, decision making processes,
performance appraisals, attitude measurement, employee selection techniques, work design,
and job stress.

Sociology

Sociologists study the social system in which individuals fill their roles; that is, sociology
studies people in relation to their fellow human beings. Their significant contribution to OB is
through their study of group behavior in organizations, particularly formal and complex
organizations.

Social Psychology

Social psychology blends the concepts of psychology and sociology. It focuses on the
influence of people on one another. The major challenge deals with the issue of how to
implement it and how to reduce barriers to its acceptance.

Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of societies to learn about human beings and their activities.
Anthropologists work on cultures and environments; for example, they have aided in
understanding differences in fundamental values, attitudes, and behavior among people in
different countries and within different organizations.

Political Science

Political science studies the behavior of individuals and groups within a political environment.
It focuses on areas, such as, conflict, intra-organizational politics and power.

Nature and scope of Organisational Behaviour

It is the study and application of knowledge about how people act with organizations.

It is a human tool for human benefit. It applies broadly to the behaviour of people in all
types of organizations. Wherever organizations are, there is a need to understand
organizational behaviour.

The nature it has acquired 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,
O.B. has a multi- interdisciplinary orientation and is, thus, not based on a specific theoretical
background. Therefore, it is better reasonable to call O.B. a separate field of study rather than a
discipline only.

2. An Interdisciplinary Approach:
Organizational behaviour is essentially an interdisciplinary approach to study human behaviour
at work. It tries to integrate the relevant knowledge drawn from related disciplines like
psychology, sociology and anthropology to make them applicable for studying and analysing
organizational behaviour.

3. An Applied Science:
The very nature of O.B. is applied. What O.B. basically does is the application of various
researches to solve the organizational problems related to human behaviour. The basic line of
difference between pure science and O.B. is that while the former concentrates of fundamental
researches, the latter concentrates on applied researches. O.B. involves both applied research
and its application in organizational analysis. Hence, O.B. can be called both science as well as
art.

4. A Normative Science:
Organizational Behaviour is a normative science also. While the positive science discusses
only cause effect relationship, O.B. prescribes how the findings of applied researches can be
applied to socially accept organizational goals. Thus, O.B. deals with what is accepted by
individuals and society engaged in an organization. Yes, it is not that O.B. is not normative at
all. In fact, O.B. is normative as well that is well underscored by the proliferation of
management theories.

5. A Humanistic and Optimistic Approach:

Organizational Behaviour applies humanistic approach towards people working in the
organization. It, deals with the thinking and feeling of human beings. O.B. 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 organization can and will actualise these potentials if they
are given proper conditions and environment. Environment affects performance or workers
working in an organization.

6 A Total System Approach:

The system approach is one that integrates all the variables, affecting organizational
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 man a complex one and the systems approach tries to study
his/her complexity and find solution to it.
Features (Characteristics) of OB

1. OB is a part of general management and not the whole of management. It represents

behavioural approach to management.

2. OB contains a body of theory, research and application associated with a growing

concern for people at the work place. It helps in understanding human behaviour in work
organizations.

3. OB is a human tool for human benefit. It helps in predicting the behaviour of

individuals.

4. OB is inter-disciplinary field of study. It tries to synthesize knowledge drawn from

various behavioural and social sciences such as Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology,
Political-science, Economics, etc. In fact, OB is an applied behavioural sciences.

5. OB involves three levels of analysis of behaviour-individual behaviour, group behaviour

and behaviour of the organization itself.

6. OB is an action-oriented and goal-directed discipline. It provides a rational thinking

about people and their behaviour

7. OB is both a science and an art. The systematic knowledge about human behaviour is a
science. The application of behvioural knowledge and skills clearly leans towardss being
an art.

8. OB seeks to fulfil both employees’ needs and organizational objectives.

Scope of OB

The scope of OB may be summed up in the words of S.P.Robbins as follows:

“OB is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure
have on behaviour within organizations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge towards
improving an organisation’s effectiveness”.

The scope of OB involves three levels of behaviour in organizations: individuals, groups

and structure.

1. Individual Behaviour
(i) Personality
(ii) Perception
(iii) Values and Attitudes
(iv) Learning
 (v) Motivation

2. Group Behaviour
(i) Work groups and group dynamics
(ii) Dynamics of conflict
(iii) Communciation
(iv) Leadership
(v) Morale

3. Organization: Structure, Process and Application

(i) Organizational Climate

(ii) Organizational Culture
(iii) Organizational Change
(iv) Organizational Effectiveness
(v) Organizational Development

Key Elements in OB

The key elements in organizational behaviour are people, structure technology and the
environment in which the organizations operates. When people join together in an organisation
to accomplish an objective, some kind of structure is required. People also use technology to
help get the job done, so there is an interaction of people, structure and the technology as
shown in fig.1. In addition, these elements are influenced by the external environment, and
they influence it.
People

Environment Environment
Fig. 1:Key elements in
organizational behaviour

Organization
Structure Technology

Environment

Each of the four elements of organizational behaviour will be considered briefly.

People: People make up the internal social system of the organisation. They consist of
individuals and groups. There are formal and informal groups. Groups are dynamic. They
form, change and disband. Organizations exist to serve people, rather than people existing to
serve organizations.

Structure: Structure defines the formal relationships of people in organisations. Different jobs
are required to accomplish all of an organisation’s activities. There are managers and
employees, accountants and assemblers. These people have to be related in some structural
way so that their work can be effectively co-ordinated. These relationships create complex
problems of co-operation, negotiation and decision-making.

Technology: Technology provides the resources with which people work and affects the tasks
that they perform. The technology used has a significant influence in working relationships.
The great benefit of technology is that it allows people to do more and better work, but it also
restricts people in various ways. It has costs as well as benefits.

Environment: All organizations operate within an external environment A single organisation

does not exist alone. It is part of a larger system that contains many other elements such as
Govt, the family, and other organizations.

Environmental and Organisational Context:

Impact of IT
Globalization

Diversity
Ethics
Organisation Culture:

Culture is one that defines standards of acceptable and unacceptable behaviourforemployees. It

takes few months for the employees to understand the organisationculturelike how to dress for
work, whether or not rules are rigidly enforced, what kinds ofquestionablebehaviours are sure
to get them into trouble and which are likely to beoverlooked, the importance of honesty and
integrity. Many organisations have subculturewhich are defined by the work groups, which still
has a dominant culture that conveys to allemployees, those values which the organisation holds
nearer. So these cultures are to beimplied to remain in good standing.

Reward System:
‘Reward system refers to all the monetary, non-monetary and psychological payments that an

organization provides for its employees in exchange for the work they perform.’

Rewards schemes may include extrinsic and intrinsic rewards. Extrinsic rewards are items such
as financial payments and working conditions that the employee receives as part of the job.
Intrinsic rewards relate to satisfaction that is derived from actually performing the job such as
personal fulfilment, and a sense of contributing something to society.

Organisational Design:

Perception Meaning
Perception is an intellectual process of transforming sensory stimuli to meaningful information.
It is the process of interpreting something that we see or hear in our mind and use it later to
judge and give a verdict on a situation, person, group etc.

According to S. P. Robbins, perception can be defined as “the process by which

individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions to give meaning to their
environments.”

Perceptual Process
Perceptual process are the different stages of perception we go through. The different stages
are –

 Receiving
 Selecting
 Organizing
 Interpreting
 Behaviour
Receiving
Receiving is the first and most important stage in the process of perception. It is the initial
stage in which a person collects all information and receives the information through the sense
organs.

Selecting
Selecting is the second stage in the process. Here a person doesn’t receive the data randomly
but selectively. A person selects some information out of all in accordance with his interest or
needs. The selection of data is dominated by various external and internal factors.
  External factors − The factors that influence the perception of an individual externally
are intensity, size, contrast, movement, repetition, familiarity, and novelty.
 Internal factors − The factors that influence the perception of an individual internally
are psychological requirements, learning, background, experience, self-acceptance, and
interest.

Organizing
Keeping things in order or say in a synchronized way is organizing. In order to make sense of
the data received, it is important to organize them.

We can organize the data by −

 Grouping them on the basis of their similarity, proximity, closure, continuity.

 Establishing a figure ground is the basic process in perception. Here by figure we mean
what is kept as main focus and by ground we mean background stimuli, which are not
given attention.
 Perceptual constancy that is the tendency to stabilize perception so that contextual
changes don’t affect them.

Interpreting
Finally, we have the process of interpreting which means forming an idea about a particular
object depending upon the need or interest. Interpretation means that the information we have
sensed and organized, is finally given a meaning by turning it into something that can be
categorized. It includes stereotyping, halo effect etc.

Importance of Perception in OB

We need to understand what the role of perception in an organization is. It is very important in
establishing different role of perceptions like −

 Understanding the tasks to be performed.

 Understanding associated importance of tasks allotted.
 Understanding preferred behavior to complete respective tasks.
 Clarifying role perceptions.
 Perception is very important in understanding human behavior because every person
perceives the world and approaches life problems differently. Whatever we see or feel is
 not necessarily the same as it really is. When we buy something, it is not because it is the
best, but because we take it to be the best.
 If people behave based on their perception, we can predict their behavior in the changed
circumstances by understanding their present perception of the environment. One person
may view the facts in one way, which may be different from the facts seen by another
viewer.
 With the help of perception, the needs of various people can be determined because their
needs influence people’s perceptions.
 Perception is very important for the manager who wants to avoid making errors when
dealing with people and events in the work setting. This problem is made more
complicated by the fact that different people perceive the same situation differently. In
order to deal with subordinates effectively, managers must understand their perceptions
properly.
 Perception can be important because it offers more than objective output; it ingests an
observation and manufactures an altered reality enriched with previous experiences.

Perceptual Barriers

Selective Perception

In the organizational context, selective perception means paying attention to information

that supports your ideas and ignoring the rest. For instance, if you dislike some teachers,
you would tend to focus on their negative personality characteristics and ignore any
positive qualities that would be inconsistent with your opinion of them. Another type of
selective perception is perceptual defense. This is the tendency for people to protect
themselves from ideas, objects, or situations that are threatening. For instance, you may
ignore a person who has ideas that threaten your deeply held convictions.

1. Stereotypes

A stereotype is an oversimplified mental picture that is associated with a particular group

(e.g., women are emotional, Scots are thrifty, and fat people are jolly). Stereotypes persist
because people who hold them tend to practice selective perception. For example, a
foreperson who believes that young people are lazy may notice that some of the younger
 workers are taking extra breaks, but fail to perceive that older workers are doing the same.
Positive stereotypes can be as misleading as negative ones. For instance, regardless of the
reality, some of us tend to stereotype attractive people as warm, kind, sensitive, and
honest.

2. Halo Effect

The halo effect1 occurs in organizations when managers provide overly

favorableevaluations of employees based on their observations of isolated successes. A
typical halo error made by managers is to assume that a person with a good attendance
record is responsible in all areas of performance. Another is being influenced by the
previous year's performance evaluations.

3. Projection

Projection is the tendency to attribute one's own beliefs, feelings, tendencies, motives, or
needs to other people. For instance, a manager who enjoys taking on new responsibilities
may project this tendency onto employees by assigning them extra job duties without first
consulting them. Managers can avoid the negative consequences of projection by
cultivating empathy and developing their listening skills.

4. Expectations

An expectation is the tendency to find in a situation or a person what one expects to find.
Our expectations have a big impact on how we perceive the world around us. For instance,
when we ask people how they are doing, we expect them to answer, "Fine, thank you." If
their response is accompanied by negative body language, we may choose to ignore the
nonverbal information because it is not consistent with our expectations.

PERCEPTUAL SELECTIVITY
Selective perception is the process by which individuals perceive what they want to in
media messages while ignoring opposing viewpoints. It is a broad term to identify the
behaviour all people exhibit to tend to "see things" based on their particular frame of
reference. It also describes how we categorize and interpret sensory information in a way
that favours one category or interpretation over another. In other words, selective
perception is a form of bias because we interpret information in a way that is congruent
 with our existing values and beliefs. Psychologists believe this process occurs
automatically.

SOCIAL PERCEPTION
Social perception (or person perception) is the study of how people form
impressions of and make inferences about other people. Social perception refers to
identifying and utilizing social cues to make judgments about social roles, rules,
relationships, context, or the characteristics (e.g., trustworthiness) of others. People
learn about others' feelings and emotions by picking up information they gather from
physical appearance, verbal, and nonverbal communication. Facial expressions, tone of
voice, hand gestures, and body position or movement are a few examples of ways people
communicate without words. A real-world example of social perception understands that
others disagree with what one said when one sees them roll their eyes. There are four
main components of social perception: observation, attribution, integration, and
confirmation.

Social perception begin with observing persons, situations, and behaviours to

gather evidence that supports an initial impression.

Persons – physical influence

Although society tries to train people not to judge others based on their physical traits, as social
perceivers, we cannot help but be influenced by others' hair, skin colour, height, weight, style
of clothes, pitch in voice, etc., when making a first impression. People have the tendency to
judge others by associating certain facial features with specific personality types. For example,
studies indicate that people are perceived as stronger, more assertive, and competent if they
have small eyes, low eyebrows, an angular chin, wrinkled skin, and a small forehead. People
tend to associate baby-faced people with impotence and harmlessness.

Situations – context from prior experiences

are able to easily predict the sequences or results of an event based on the extent and depth of
their past experiences with a similar event. The ability to anticipate the outcomes of a situation
is also greatly influenced by an individual's cultural background because this inevitably shapes
the types of experiences. Situational observations either lead humans to have present notions
about certain events or to explain the causes of human behaviours.
Behaviours – nonverbal communication

Nonverbal communication helps people express their emotions, attitudes, and personalities.
The most dominant form of nonverbal communication is the use of facial expressions to
channel different emotions. Greatly influenced by Charles Darwin's research on facial
expressions and book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872), it is
believed that all humans, regardless of culture or race, encode and decode the six "primary"
emotions, (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, and disgust), universally in the same way.
To encode means to communicate nonverbal behavior, while to decode means to interpret the
meaning or intention of the nonverbal behaviour. Decoding sometimes is inaccurate due to
affect blend, (a facial expression with two differently registered emotions), and/or display
rules, (culturally dictated rules about which nonverbal behaviours are acceptable to
display) Other nonverbal cues such as: body language, eye contact, and vocal intonations can
affect social perception by allowing for thin-slicing. Thin-slicing describes the ability to make
quick judgements from finding consistencies in events based only on narrow frames of
experience.

Factors that influence social perception

1. Accuracy

The accuracy of social perception relates to the connection between judgments people make of
others' psychological attributes, and the reality of those attributes with regards to the people
being judged. There are three slightly varying approaches to interpreting accuracy the:
pragmatic, constructivist, and realistic approaches. Empirical research suggests that social
perception is mostly accurate, but the degree of accuracy is based on four major moderator
variables. These moderators are attributes of the: judge, target, trait that is judged, and
information on which the judgment is based. The Realistic Accuracy Model (RAM) explains
that these moderators are a result of the process for accurate judgment. The process of accurate
personality judgment starts with the target revealing relevant information, which then must be
available to a judge, who then identifies and uses it to form a final judgment.

2. Testing

TASIT (The Awareness of Social Inference Test) is an audiovisual test. The test is based upon
several critical components of social perception that are crucial for social competence using
complex, dynamic, visual, and auditory cues to assess these critical components. The test
assesses the ability to identify emotions, a skill that is impaired in many clinical
conditions. It also assesses the ability to judge what a speaker may be thinking or what
their intentions are for the other person in the conversation, also referred to as theory of
mind. Lastly, the test was developed to assess the ability to differentiate between literal and
non-literal conversational remarks. The test is divided into three parts to measure; emotion,
social inference – minimal, and social inference enriched. The test is composed of scenes, or
vignettes, and those being assessed are asked to identify the emotions, a, feelings, beliefs,
intentions, and meanings of the interactions. They are also assessed on more complex
interactions to assess ability to interpret sarcasm.The results of this testing assess the level of
social perception of an individual.

TASIT has adequate psychometric properties as a clinical test of social perception. It is not
overly prone to practice effects and is reliable for repeat administrations. Performance on
TASIT is affected by information processing speed, working memory, new learning and
executive functioning, but the uniquely social material that comprises the stimuli for TASIT
provides useful insights into the particular difficulties people with clinical conditions
experience when interpreting complex social phenomena.

Inaccuracy/distortions/fallacies
1. Bias

People are prone to numerous types of confirmation biases—tendencies to construe, find, and
formulate information in ways that prove existing opinions. [1] Preconceived prejudices,
stereotypes, and discrimination otherwise known as social biases can contribute towards these
tendencies. People are also subject to exhibiting belief perseverance, the tendency to hold false
convictions even after they have been disproved.

2. Self

 Availability heuristic – Tendency to place more importance and reliance on more

immediate memories when evaluating specific topics, methods, concepts, or decisions. It is
a mental shortcut that operates on the notion that if something can be recalled, then it must
at least be as important as alternatives that are less easily recalled.
 Dunning–Kruger effect – An effect by which test takers fail to understand their poor
performance because they suffer a double fault: A.) Shortfall of knowledge prevents them
 from producing correct responses & B.) Shortfall of knowledge prevents them from
recognizing their lesser responses when compared to those of others.
 Overconfidence bias – When one's confidence in their ability is greater than their actual
ability.
 Egocentric bias – The tendency to rely too heavily on one's own judgements and abilities,
stemming partially from the need to satisfy one's ego.
 Defensive attribution hypothesis – Tendency of people to attribute more blame to the
perpetrator of an accident as the consequences become more severe. However, if people
perceive that they are more similar to the perpetrator characteristically or circumstantially,
they rate the perpetrator as less culpable for the accident as the severity of consequences
increase. If people perceive themselves as less similar, they rate the perpetrator as more
culpable.
 Forer effect (Barnum effect) – Placing high belief in a general, vague description thinking it
was meant specifically for an individual. For instance, people interpret horoscopes as
applying to their specific situation, when in actuality the horoscope was written to apply to
a wide range of people's experiences.
 Counterfactual thinking – Tendency to think up alternative events or outcomes that might
have happened, but did not.
 Belief perseverance – Tendency to continue to maintain one's beliefs despite firm
contradictory information.
 Self-fulfilling prophecy – Method by which an individual's expectations about other
individuals or themselves eventually cause actions in ways that confirm those expectations.
 Correspondence bias – Tendency to draw inferences about a person's characteristics from
behaviours that could be explained by the situation alone.
3. Group
Status quo bias – Tendency to favor current or certain circumstances because they are familiar.
Any changes to these circumstances are perceived as a loss.

 In-group bias – Tendency to favorone's own group members and their actions over those of
outsiders.
 Stereotyping – Attributing traits to people based on certain traits of the group they are
perceived to belong to.
 Ensemble Coding—also known as ensemble perception or summary representation, is
the ability to see the average or variance of a group of objects. There are extensive amounts
of information available to the visual system.
4. Interaction

 Halo effect – Tendency for the observed overall impression of an individual to affect the
observers feelings and thoughts about other attributes or traits of the individual
 False-consensus effect – Tendency for people to overestimate the magnitude to which
people share their behaviours, opinions, and attributes.
 Base-rate fallacy – Tendency to prefer specific information over Base rate or generic
information.
 Social projection – Tendency for individuals to believe others are similar to themselves.
 Psychological projection – A defense mechanism people unconsciously use to grapple with
challenging feelings or emotions by attributing them to others. This incorporates Blame
shifting.
 Actor-Observer bias – Tendency of those acting in a situation to blame their actions on the
situation, while those observing have the tendency to place the blame on the actors

1. Interactions when they have a greater history of experiences with the other people.
2. People can make more circumscribed predictions of how other individuals will act when
in their presence.
3. Social perception skills can be improved through learning the rules of probability and
logic.
4. People can make more precise inferences about others when motivated by concerns for
open-mindedness and accuracy.

Attribution Theory:

Meaning: Attribution theory attempts to explain some of the causes of our behaviour.

Importance of Attribution Theory:

Attribution theory is important for organizations because it can help managers understand
some of the causes of employee behavior and can assist employees in understanding their
thinking about their own behaviors. If you can understand why you behave a certain way, and
why others around you do so, then you have a better understanding of yourself, others, and
your organization. The perception of the causes of a certain behavior may affect the judgment
and actions of both managers and employees. It may also play a significant role in motivation.

Locus of Control
Locus of control is a psychological concept that refers to how strongly people believe they
have control over the situations and experiences that affect their lives. In education, locus of
control typically refers to how students perceive the causes of their academic success or failure
in school.
Students with an “internal locus of control” generally believe that their success or failure is a
result of the effort and hard work they invest in their education. Students with an “external
locus of control” generally believe that their successes or failures result from external factors
beyond their control, such as luck, fate, circumstance, injustice, bias, or teachers who are
unfair, prejudiced, or unskilled. For example, students with an internal locus of control might
blame poor grades on their failure to study, whereas students with an external locus of control
may blame an unfair teacher or test for their poor performance.

There are two types of locus of control, internal and external.

Internal Locus of Control. By Renée Grinnell. The belief that events in one's life, whether
good or bad, are caused by controllable factors such as one's attitude, preparation, and
effort. Example: When the boy failed a test, he acknowledged that he hadn't studied enough
and didn't understand a few of its key questions.

An internal locus of control is associated with achievement and success because of the
tendency to attribute both your successes and failures to your actions. It gives employees a
reason to study their actions and find out where they went wrong and take the necessary
actions to improve.

An external locus of control supports a belief that one is helpless, without blame, and not
in control of one's successes and failures. While a student with an internal locus of
control will attribute their success and failures to their own efforts.
The Attribution Theory is concerned with how individuals perceive the information they
receive, interpret events, and how these form causal judgements.

Attribution Process

There is a three-stage process underlying attribution:

1. Perception. Observe. The person must perceive or observe the behavior.

2. Judgment. Determine deliberateness. The person must believe that the behavior was
intentionally performed.

3. Attribute. The person must determine if he believes the other person was forced to
perform the behavior (in which case the cause is attributed to the situation) or not (in
which case the cause is attributed to the other person).

Attribution Error:

The fundamental attribution error refers to an individual's tendency to attribute another's

actions to their character or personality, while attributing their behavior to external
situational factors outside of their control. In other words, you tend to cut yourself a
break while holding others 100 percent accountable for their actions.

For instance, if you've ever chastised a "lazy employee" for being late to a meeting and
then proceeded to make an excuse for being late yourself that same day, you've made the
fundamental attribution error.

The fundamental attribution error exists because of how people perceive the world.
While you have at least some idea of your character, motivations, and situational factors
that affect your day-to-day, you rarely know everything that's going on with someone
else. Similar to confirmation and overconfidence biases, its impact on business and life
can be reduced by taking several measures.

FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR EXAMPLES

It's clear to see how the fundamental attribution error (FAE) can impact your personal
life, but it's important to recognize the influence it can have on your work, as well.
Whether you're an employee or manager, cognitive biases, like the FAE, can play a role
 in how you interact with others in the workplace and how you make key business
decisions.

In working with your colleagues, for example, you probably form a general impression
of their character based on pieces of a situation, but never see the whole picture. While it
would be nice to give them the benefit of the doubt, your brain tends to use limited
information to make judgments.

IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT

Definition

Impression management is defined as a process where someone or other tries to influence the
decision, opinion or observation of others about something or someone in particular. Within a
business entity, it can be someone in a management position who might try to regulate
information during his interaction with other employees or even the general public.

MEANING OF IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT

Impression management is described as an effort that can be both conscious and subconscious.
It happens because individuals are interested in changing the perception of
other people regarding an event, a person or something. In business, this is a very
effective strategy as it helps to enhance the brand image and boost sales figures.

The concept of impression management is used in both every day in personal life and
professional life with friends, family members, colleagues, and peers. With the help of this
process, the people try to align the perception of other individuals with their own goals and
objectives.

It is also applicable in academic fields of study, for instance, sociology and psychology along
with functional areas like media and corporate communication.

MOTIVES BEHIND IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT

Managing impressions is what impression management is all about. The concept tries to create
a positive impression to boost its revenue figures. The two main motives behind the process of
impression management are

1. Expressive motive

This concept is the result of an individual’s response towards expectations, restrictions or

social norms. Expressive motive encourages a person to be in charge of his behaviour and
identity and influence others accordingly.

2. Instrumental motive

It is the aspiration of a person to boost his self-esteem to gain desired rewards. This is why he
tries to use influence and perception to get back something from other individuals.

Examples of impression management

We see instances of impression management in business via the advertising strategies that the
entities have conceptualized. The promotional policies of all the organizations are centred on a
theme that will encourage consumer’s attention and nudge them to buy the related product or
service.

For example, a soft drink company will emphasize on the taste of its drink and not on the
caffeine content that the cola drink has..

TACTICS OF IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT

Some typical behaviour and tactics that people use to manipulate impressions are

1. Lying or gossiping

People tend to resort to lying or gossiping to change a particular outcome as part of impression
management
2. Intimidation

A person uses aggression so that he can compel others to obey him and this is a form of
bullying for impression management

3. Flattery

An individual uses flowery words to improve his standing in the hope that others will like him
better because of it. This is also a form of impression management

4. Dressing

The way a person dresses shows his desire to manage and change the perception of the person
with whom he is going to come into contact.

5. Conforming to social norms

A person follows all the agreed-upon rules and regulations for behaviour to make a favourable
impression. For instance, an employee stays late even if he has completed his work because his
boss is still in the office and leaving after he has left is the usual norm in his organization.

6. Boasting

This is self-presentation and includes excessive bluster to gain acceptance.

7. Self-promotion

In this form of impression management a person displays his skills, know-how, and success to
others to promote himself and improve his image

8. Supplication

It is also a form of impression management where a person shows his shortcomings to appear
needy or to gain desperate approval from others
9. Behavioural matching

This tactic of impression management is used by a person who wants to match his behaviour
with someone superior or even a colleague to make a favourable impression. If an employee’s
boss is soft-spoken, then he will naturally try to control his aggression and show his modest
and soft-spoken side in front of the boss to create a good impression

10. Appreciation

This is one of the most popular tactics of impression management where a person compliments
another person on being in his good books

STRATEGIES OF IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT

It is a fact that perception matter in an organization. The managers must monitor their
attributions, perceptions, opinions, and assumptions so that they can treat every single
employee as a unique person.

This will help in organizational growth and development. Individuals can use two types of
basic strategies as part of the impression management concept. These are

1. The demotion-preventive strategy of impression management

If an individual is trying to stay out of some trouble or issue or is trying to lessen the impact or
responsibility of an adverse event, he will be using a Demotion-preventive strategy of
impression management. The essential characteristics of Demotion-preventive strategy of
impression management are as follows-

 An individual will try to justify his actions with whatever means at his disposal. He will
try to find viable excuses for his actions so that he can prove himself right
 Employees are telling their superiors or boss in confidence that although they were
fighting for the right thing, they were ultimately overruled and dismissed. This strategy is
used by employees or individuals that are looking for ways to disassociate themselves
from a specific issue or a particular group
  An employee in an organization will offer his apologies to his superior or his boss for
some adverse event to lessen its impact on himself

2. The promotion-enhancing strategy of impression management

If an individual is looking to appear much better than he is or is trying to increase his

responsibility for a positive outcome, then he will tilt towards a Promotion-enhancing strategy
of impression management. The essential characteristics of Promotion-enhancing strategy of
impression management are as follows-

 A person or an employee in an organization harboring a feeling that he has not been given
credit for the positive outcome or that his accomplishments have not been acknowledged
 A person or an employee identifying obstacles that can be either personal or related to the
organization and then overcoming those obstacles to achieve a positive outcome expects a
higher credit in front of others
 A person or an employee pointing out that his contribution was more, but even then he
was accorded lesser credit
 An individual or an employee makes sure that he is in most cases seen with the right
people at the right time to boost his impression on others

How to manage impression in an effective manner

Human beings are inclined to manage impressions either subconsciously or in a conscious way
so that they can place their best foot forward. This is so because everyone wants others to have
a good impression and like them. It becomes necessary to control and monitor responses and
the way a person authentically appears in front of others.

Some important guidelines to manage impressions effectively are as follows

1. Self-awareness

One of the essential criteria of impression management is self-awareness. A person must be

aware of his worth, about who he is and what he stands for. There are hordes of people who are
part of a crowd and cruise along with others.
Refrain from being an individual who fits in instead be someone that stands out even in a group
because of a strong personality. One can show himself in good light only when he knows
himself inside-out.

This self-awareness will prove a blessing when he is standing in a crowd and can mold the
impressions and assumptions of others to suit his needs and wants.

2. Observe dignity and decorum

There are already established norms in place that guide a person and show him the behaviour
that is considered acceptable and which is not in both professional environments and social
settings. Observe propriety and decorum along with set rules of etiquette if you are looking for
ways to implement an effective impression management strategy.

It is critical to follow the set standards to the dot and make a right and favorable impression on
others. Once you have established your reputation, it becomes easy to influence others in
different situations.

3. Be thoughtful

Do not take any random actions because a person who is intelligent and wants to make a
difference will think his actions through and then make a gesture. Being thoughtful is an
essential trait if you are looking for ways to boost your impression management strategy. Take
the help of this skill while interacting with others as it will encourage you to be mindful of
others.

Be a good listener to understand the viewpoint of others and now make think about your action
and its consequences. This will help a person in making changes in his attitude so that he can
influence the impressions of others. Some people believe that disclosing personal things about
themselves will cement their relationship and make it stronger.

Still, it is a fact that one should be very careful while disclosing own stuff to others. Today you
might have a good relationship, but no one has seen the future, and one cannot predict what it
will look like in later years. Be thoughtful and divulge only that much information that will
have the least repercussion in your life in case of any leak. Sometimes people only try to act as
your well-wisher, and you do not want them to misuse any confidential information about
yourself.

Be prudent and thoughtful if you are effectually looking for impression management.

4. Have the courage

Be bold and courageous if you want to make a change. If you are a yes-man, then you can only
nod your head and follow the lead of others. It is imperative to have the conviction that you
will be able to do it and the courage that will be needed to implement whatever is going in your
head.

Be a leader and take the necessary initiative to make a change so that you can easily influence
the assumptions and impressions of another person.

People will respect you for taking the lead and will align with your convictions if you show
that you are worthy of that respect from others.

5. Control your emotions

Being emotional is not always a good thing as you cannot let it have a direct impact on your
decision-making abilities. Be mindful of every situation and react appropriately if you are
looking for ways to implement an effective impression management strategy.

Emotions no doubt will help a person in making good emotional contact, but one should be
able to draw impeccable boundaries to avoid any emotional scenes or displays. Negative
emotions like disgust, irritation, and anger can prove your downfall; try to avoid them at all
costs in social or public settings.

Emotional restraint is a soft skill that one should be adept at if he wants to succeed in the
professional world. Be subtle and only let out a glimpse of those emotions that you are relevant
to then to make your point.
6. Be positive

Optimistic nature and positive behaviour are appreciated by one and all. Be positive if you are
looking for ways to implement proper and effective impression management theory.
Individuals who show this trait can influence others very easily.