DELHI SCHOOL OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES AND

RESEARCH (DSPSR)

Management Process and Organizational Behavior (MPOB)

NOTES FOR UNIT - 3

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 Q1. Discuss in details the factors that determine behaviour of an individual in
an organization? Support your answers with examples.
The word personality is derived from Latin word called “persona” means a “mask” or “personare”
means “to speak through”.
 Personality is the characteristics, qualities, skills, competencies and outward appearances of
individuals.
 In other words, personality is a way to respond people, situations, and things that are
consistent (more or less).
 In short, Personality is the psychological factor that influences individual behaviour.
 The reason manager’s need to know how to measure personality is, it’s helpful in hiring
decisions
 An early argument centered on whether an individual’s personality was the result of
heredity or of environment. Personality appears to be a result of both influences. However,
research has tended to support the importance of heredity over the environment.

DETERMINANTS OF PERSONALITY:

1. Biological Factors
a. Physique and Personality: Various things influence the development of the
personality. Physical development infrequence the development of personality such
as; height, weight, physical defects, etc.
b. Intelligence: Intelligence is the thinking power of human. Due to intelligence, human
is now in road towards development. Human beings can defeat anyone due to
intelligence. Persons who are very intelligent can make better adjustment in around
them and depicts good personality.
c. Gender Differences: Generally, boys are more assertive and tough minded. They
show interest in wining also in outdoor activities. Girls are interested in less vigorous
(physically and mentally strong) games. They remain quiet and show interest in
personal or physical appearance. That is why, most of the girls have a better sense of
fine art. Thus, gender differences play a vital role in the development of individual’s
personality.
d. Nervous System: Other major system which plays important role is nervous system.
Nervous System controls or limits ones learning capacity. It is evident that
development of personality is influenced by nature of nervous system.

2. Social Factors of Personality

When an individual interact with other persons in his/her group give and take relationship
takes place and it affects the personality of an individual social factors of personality are
responsible for the formation of personality, when an individual has group experience and
contact with others personality of an individual is influenced by others may be bad or good
but depends on the association in which he/she keeps. In a society every person plays a
specific role and status.

For example, in our society younger are expected to be respectful for elders. Many other
social factors like environment, group life, family, media with which an individual interact in
his/her society daily life mould their personalities. We can say that whatever comes in
contact with an individual’s social life affects personality of that individual and develop good
or bad personality.

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 3. Cultural Factors of Personality
An individual living in his/her culture adopts the traits consciously or unconsciously and acts
accordingly. Culture of any society determines the behaviours and personality of an
individual and he/she is expected to act according to the culture. A person follows all the
social norms of a culture which results in the formation of good personality while non-
conformity to the cultural rules develops abnormal or bad personality. So, the culture in
which an individual seeks satisfaction adjusts himself/herself and develops personality.

4. Environment
Physical environment also determines the personality of an individual. Environmental factors
include land, river, mountains, hills, forests, plain area, atmosphere etc. which affect the
personality to be good or bad, healthy or weak.
a. Geographical environment: Individuals personality is influenced by the geographical
conditions All the feelings, emotions, ideas, attitudes, habits and behaviour as well
as body structure is the result of physical environment of to which an individual
belongs. For example, body structure, physique, colour and health of the rural
people are different from urban people. These people have different environment
due to which they develop variety of personalities. The people living in cities have
facilities and modern ways of life which creates to develop delicate bodies and
minds as compare to the rural people who are deprived of these facilities.
b. Childhood experiences: It is of vital importance. When in childhood, the individual is
hunted by tensions and emotions, it influences its development.

5. Situational Factors of Personality:

Situational factors of personality also have a complete share in the formation of personality
of an individual. Situational factors of personality are charging according to the social
situations. Every person face may situations in his life which enables him/her to change
his/her behaviour. For example, a teacher may be rigid and strict with students but may not
with his/her family. An officer may behave with the subordinates differently as compare to
his/her friends. Personality is not the result of only one factor but every factor is responsible
to give complete share in its formation. A person behaves and his/her personality exists
when interacts with environment, culture, society, parents, friends and to those who come
in contact by chance.

Q2. Distinguish between Type A and Type B personality.

Personality refers to the pattern of emotions, thoughts, and behaviours that make each individual
who they are.Personality can affect how people interact with others, their approach to work, and
how they respond to stressful events.

A person may have a Type A or B personality depending on the key characteristics they display.
These traits may impact their work or studies and their interactions with others. They may also affect
their health.

Type A personality typifies a person who is always in a hurry, is extremely competitive and is often
hostile and irritable. Opposite is Type B personality who is relaxed, incompetent and easy going.

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 How do the two perform in organizations? - Type A’s are no doubt highly competitive and
hardworking. But it is the Type ‘B’ who climbs up to the top of organization. Type A’s will make most
successful sales people and senior executives are usually Type B’s.

Why this paradoxes? - Answer lies in the tendency of Type A’s to trade off quality of effort for
quantity. Executive positions usually go to those who are patient rather than to those who are
merely hasty, to those who are tactful rather than to those who are hostile and to those who are
creative rather than to those who are merely agile in competitive strife.

BASIS FOR
TYPE A PERSONALITY TYPE B PERSONALITY
COMPARISON

Meaning Type A personality is one which is Type B personality is one which is

stress prone, in a hurry, impatient and less stress prone patient, relaxed
fast in whatever they do. and easy going.

Nature Sensitive and proactive Reflective and innovative

Patience level Low High

Temperament Short-tempered Even-tempered

Competition Highly-competitive Less-competitive

Multitasking Does several things at a time. Does one thing at a time.

Stress level High Low

Time constraints Encounters pressure because of time Is not affected by time constraints.
constraints

Q3. What are the Big Five Personality Traits, also

explain the factors influencing the development of
personality?
Personality research has generated a variety of different theories that attempt to define
and measure personality. The most widely accepted taxonomy of personality among
industrial-organizational psychologists is the Big Five Personality Traits model, or the
Five Factor Model of personality. The Five Factor Model breaks personality down into
five components: Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Openness, and Stress
Tolerance (emotional stability). Personality tests that are based on this model measure
where an individual lies on the spectrum of each of the five traits.
Each trait measures a unique aspect of human personality:

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  Agreeableness is a measure of an individual’s tendencies with respect to social
harmony. This trait reflects how well the individual gets along with others, how
cooperative or skeptical they are, and how they might interact within a team.
 Conscientiousness is a measure of how careful, deliberate, self-disciplined, and
organized an individual is. Conscientiousness is often predictive of employee
productivity, particularly in lower-level positions.
 Extraversion is a measure of how sociable, outgoing, and energetic an
individual is. Individuals who score lower on the extraversion scale are
considered to be more introverted, or more deliberate, quiet, low key, and
independent. Some types of positions are better suited for individuals who fall on
one side of the spectrum or the other.
 Openness measures the extent to which an individual is imaginative and
creative, as opposed to down-to-earth and conventional.
 Stress Tolerance measures the ways in which individuals react to stress.

Personal Factors Affecting Personality Development

The individual factors are those factors inherent in a person. Some of them are not
changeable or cannot develop. The individual factors include:

a) Heredity

Heredity is something that passes from generation to generation. You may possess some
skills your father or your mother has. It is transferred to you as an inborn character from your
parents. Traits, skills that is passed to you from your parents in the form of genetic transfer
can determine your personality.

b) Physique

You may be a short person, you may be a tall person, like that each people have different
physical appearances. Physique of a person affects his personality. That is biological makeup
or body type of a person is a factor that determines personality of that person.

c) Biological Factors

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 Difference in biological factors like gender, hormone level, functioning of endocrine glands
like thyroid, parathyroid, pituitary gland, adrenal gland, gonads etc. will affect personality of
a person. This determines how an individual behaves in certain situations. These biological
factors enable a person to mold the social environment according to his requirements.

d) Nervous System

Central nervous system which includes brain and the spinal cord has a fundamental and
important role in determining behavior of a person. The brain and the spinal cord play an
important role in a person’s reaction and adjustments to a situation. Thus, growth and
functioning of nervous system affects personality of a person.

e) Intelligence

Persons with different intelligence behaves or adjust differently in social environments

surrounding them. They are different in dealing with society, have different habits, etc. Thus,
it is considered as a factor that determine personality of a person.

Environmental or Social Factors Affecting Personality Development

Environment has its own impact on the development of an individual’s personality. Social
factors or environmental factors are those factors which surrounds a person. Some social
factors affect the personality of a person are as follows:

a) Family

First and the foremost important factor that influence personality development of a person is
family. A child spends more time with his family so, home atmosphere influences personality
development of a child. Parent’s behavior and attitude, their expectations from the child, their
education and attention to the child, all make an influence in child’s personality development.
The type of experiences received from family in early childhood will play an important role
in the development of personality. Economic and social conditions of the family will also
influence child’s personality development.

b) School

Next social factor that affect child’s personal development is school. School atmosphere and
discipline affects personality development of a child. Teacher’s personality and character,
peer students’ attitude and character, all influences child’s personality development.

c) Maturation

Maturation is the process of learning to cope and react in an emotionally appropriate way.
Social surroundings around them helps to understand how to react to various situation. It is
part of growth, but not always happen with aging or physical growth. Maturation improves
the coordination of numerous relationships and thus in personality development of a person.

d) Early Experience

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 Development of brain and personality has a clear influence with the early experience of a
person. Good experience and interaction from surrounding can help child to develop positive
attitude, while bitter experience can affect negatively. So, creating positive experience at the
early stage is important for personality development.

e) Success and Failures

Success and failures are part of life and it is only how we perceive it. That is, it depends on
where we fix our frame of reference in life. When it comes to personality development, it can
consider as a factor as it has the power to motivate and demotivate a person.

f) Cultural

Cultural traditions, environment and values in a society can influence personality of a person.
This can contribute greatly to the development of believes, and moral values in a person.
Along with that culture can also influence the way people behave and develop social
interaction.

g) Geography

Many studies show that geography plays an important role in personality development of a
person. Place of birth and living influences people’s lifestyle and the way they live. Thus,
determines their behavior and reactions to various situations.

Q4. What do you understand by Learning? Briefly discuss the nature and
process of learning.
Learning is a key process in human behaviour. If we compare the simple, crude ways in which a child
feels and behaves, with the complex modes of adult behaviour, his skills, habits, thought, sentiments
and the like- we will know what difference learning has made to the individual.

The individual is constantly interacting with and influenced by the environment. This experience
makes him to change or modify his behaviour in order to deal effectively with it. Therefore, learning
is a change in behaviour, influenced by previous behaviour. As stated above the skills, knowledge,
habits, attitudes, interests and other personality characteristics are all the result of learning.

Learning is defined as “any relatively permanent change in behaviour that occurs as a result of
practice and experience”. This definition has three important elements.
a. Learning is a change in behaviour—better or worse.
b. It is a change that takes place through practice or experience, but changes due to growth or
maturation are not learning.
c. This change in behaviour must be relatively permanent, and it must last a fairly long time.

Everyday new changes are taking place, new laws are introduced, new policies are made, and new
ideas and approaches are formed which require alarming changes in the way we work. If we do not
regularly learn as we go about our day-to-day business, then each day we are getting further &
further out of touch with the demands of the modern working world.

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 Expectations change over time, and if we do not adapt to the new circumstances, we will steadily be
out of tune with what is required of us. This makes it mandatory for us to engage in the process of
“continuous learning.”

The manager’s goal, then is to provide learning experiences in an environment that will promote
employee behaviours desired by the organization.

 The process of continuous learning involves being clear about what is required of the
individual in high-quality jobs.
 It makes sure that we have the knowledge and skills required to carry out our jobs
appropriately and fill any gaps in our knowledge base and skills.
 Learning is an important source of motivation & job satisfaction. It helps us to remain
updated with the latest developments in our area of interest.

NATURE OF LEARNING
1. Learning is growth: The individual grows as he lives. This growth implies both physical as well
as mental development of the learner. The individual gains experiences through various
activities. These are all sources of learning. The individual grows through living and learning.
Thus growth and learning are inter-related and even synonymous.
2. Learning is purposeful: All kinds of learning are goal-oriented. The individual acts with some
purpose. He learns through activities. He gets himself interested when he is aware of his
objectives to be realized through these activities. Therefore, all learning is purposive in
nature.
3. Learning is experience: The individual learns through experiences. All these experiences
provide new knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes. Learning is not mere acquisition
of the knowledge, skills and attitudes. It is also the reorganization of experiences or the
synthesis of the old experiences with the new.
4. Learning is intelligent: Mere cramming without proper understanding does not make
learning. Thus, meaningless efforts do not produce permanent results. Any work done
mechanically cannot yield satisfactory learning outcomes. Learning therefore must be
intelligent.
5. Learning is both individual and social: Although learning is an individual activity, it is social
also. Individual mind is consciously or unconsciously affected by the group activities.
Individual is influenced by his peers, friends, relatives’ parents and classmates and learns
their ideas, feelings and attitudes in some way or others. The social agencies like family,
church, markets, and clubs exert immense, influence on the individual minds. As such,
learning becomes both individual as well as social.
6. Learning is-the product of the environment: The individual lives in interaction of the society.
Particularly, environment plays an important part in the growth and development of the
individual. The physical, social, intellectual and emotional development of the child is
moulded and remoulded by the objects and individuals in his environment. Therefore,
emphasized that child’s environment should be made free from unhealthy and vicious
matters to make it more effective for learning.
7. Learning affects the conduct of the learner: Learning is called the modification of behaviour.
It affects the learner’s behaviour and conduct. Every learning experience brings about
changes in the mental structure of the learner. Therefore, attempts are made to provide
such learning experiences which can mould the desired conduct and habits in the learners.

PROCESS OF LEARNIG
“Learning is a process of acquiring knowledge, skills, behaviour and attitude.” Learning includes
following four stages.

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  Stimulus: Everyone needs a source of motivation to perform something and Stimulus is a
motivating source or an incentive. Learners should have a good perception of stimuli, as the
learner should be supported in the learning process. When there are no triggers there is no
thought. Stimulus can take the form of 'knowledge expansion,' 'abilities and skills,' 'job
quality improvement,' 'productivity and profitability,' 'effectiveness,' 'career development,'
and 'financial and non-financial incentives.'
 Response: In theory, reaction is the result of the learner to the stimulus. When the result is
reached, response is the first step in the process of learning. Learner will respond positively,
because only then does the learning process take place and can he / she respond positively
to certain negative reactions only if the learner is persuaded of positive behavioural changes.
 Motivation: Motivation is the key catalyst to motivate individuals to learn, because learning
cannot take place without motivation. It's the enthusiasm for learning that boosts curiosity
and attitude. No one can learn without willingness and this willingness comes from
motivation because we all know that whatever thinking and understanding capacity one has
without motivation, nobody can learn.
 Rewards:In learning process, rewards are incentives which learner gets. In learning process,
there should be a clear incentive scheme, and it should be straightforward and predictive.
Employees should be well aware in advance when studying at various rates of what they can
get as return or bonuses. Rewards can come in both financial and non-financial form. For
examples, praise is the incentive and salary increment etc.

Q5. Explain the theories of learning with an example.
Learning is defined as “any relatively permanent change in behaviour that occurs as a result of
practice and experience”. This definition has three important elements.
d. Learning is a change in behaviour—better or worse.
e. It is a change that takes place through practice or experience, but changes due to growth or
maturation are not learning.
f. This change in behaviour must be relatively permanent, and it must last a fairly long time.

Everyday new changes are taking place, new laws are introduced, new policies are made, and new
ideas and approaches are formed which require alarming changes in the way we work. If we do not
regularly learn as we go about our day-to-day business, then each day we are getting further &
further out of touch with the demands of the modern working world.

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 Expectations change over time, and if we do not adapt to the new circumstances, we will steadily be
out of tune with what is required of us. This makes it mandatory for us to engage in the process of
“continuous learning.”

The manager’s goal, then is to provide learning experiences in an environment that will promote
employee behaviours desired by the organization.

 The process of continuous learning involves being clear about what is required of the
individual in high-quality jobs.
 It makes sure that we have the knowledge and skills required to carry out our jobs
appropriately and fill any gaps in our knowledge base and skills.
Learning is an important source of motivation & job satisfaction. It helps us to remain updated
with the latest developments in our area of interest.

1. Classical Conditioning: Classical conditioning is the association of one event with another
desired event resulting in a behaviour. The most well-known experiments on classical
conditioning were conducted by Ivan Pavlov, the Russian psychologist. Pavlov conducted an
experiment on dogs and tried to establish a Stimulus-Response (S-R) connection. He tried to
relate the dog’s salivation and the ringing of the bell. In his experiments, he put some meat
in front of dog. The dog responded to this stimulus by salivating. This response was
instinctive or unconditioned. Pavlov next began to ring a bell at the same time as the meat
was presented. Ringing the bell in itself, without the presentation of meat, was not
connected to any responses. But by ringing the bell at the same time as presentation of
meat, Pavlov established a relationship between the two stimuli-the bell and the meat- in
the mind of the dog. By continuing this process, the ringing of bell alone was sufficient
stimulus to elicit a response of salivating, even when no meat was presented. Thus, the bell
became a conditioned stimulus, resulting in conditioned or learned response.

The above diagram explains that the meat was an unconditioned stimulus. It caused the dog to react
in a certain way i.e. noticeable increase in salivation. This reaction is called the unconditioned
response. The bell was an artificial stimulus or conditioned stimulus. But when the bell was paired
with the meat (an unconditioned stimulus), it eventually produced a response. After conditioning,
the dog started salivating in response to the ringing of the bell alone. Thus, conditioned stimulus led
to conditioned response.

In an organizational setting we can see classical conditioning operating. For example, at one
manufacturing plant, every time the top executive from the head office would make a visit, the plant

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 management would clean up the administrative offices and wash the windows. This went on for
years.
• From the managerial point of view, classical conditioning usually is not considered applicable
to the work setting.
• Desired employee behaviours typically do not include reflexive responses that can be
changed by using classical conditioning techniques.
• Instead, managers are interested in the voluntary behaviours of employees and how these
behaviours can be influenced.

2. Operant Conditioning: Operant is defined as behaviour that produces effect. Operant

conditioning is based on the work of B.F. Skinner who advocated that individuals emit
responses that are rewarded and will not emit responses that are either not rewarded or are
punished. Operant conditioning argues that behaviour is a function of its consequences.
Behaviour is likely to be repeated if the consequences are favourable. Behaviour is not likely
to be repeated if the consequences are unfavourable. Thus the relationship between
behaviour and consequences is the essence of the operant conditioning. Based upon this
direct relationship between the consequences and the behaviour, the management can
study and identify this relationship and try to modify and control behaviour. Hence, certain
types of consequences can be used to increase the occurrence of a desired behaviour and
other types of consequences can be used to decrease the occurrence of undesired
behaviour. One can see examples of operant conditioning in the organisations. For instance,
working hard and getting the promotion will probably cause the person to keep working
hard in the future. On the other hand, if a boss assures his subordinate that he would be
suitably compensated in the next performance appraisal, provided the employee works over
time. However, when the evaluation time comes, the boss does not fulfil his assurance to his
subordinate, even though the latter had worked overtime. Next time, the subordinate coolly
declines to work overtime when the boss requests him to do so. Thus, it can be concluded
that the behaviour consequences that are rewarding increase the rate of response, while the
aversive consequences decrease the rate of response. Operant conditioning techniques are
extensively used in clinical and educational research, control of alcoholism and control of
deviant children in a class room.

3. Social Learning: Individuals can also learn by observing what happens to other people and
just by being told about something, as well as by direct experiences. Much of what we have
learned comes from observing and imitating models-parents, teachers, peers, superiors, film
stars etc. we can learn through both observation and direct experience which is known as
social learning theory.
This theory assumes that learning is not a case of environmental determinism (classical and
operant views) or of individual determinism (The cognitive view). Rather it is a blending of
both. Thus, social learning theory emphasizes the interactive nature of cognitive,
behavioural and environmental determinants. The influence of model is central to the social
learning view point.

Q6. "Perception affects the working style and behaviour of an employee ".
Comment.
What is perception?

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 Perception is the process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in
order to give meaning to their environment. What one perceives can be substantially different from
what another person perceives, and both can be very different than the actual objective reality. In
fact, behaviour is based on one’s perception of what reality is, not reality itself.
In other words, perception is a process by which people regard, analyze, retrieve and react to any
kind of information from the environment. For example, some people feel happy about earning
money while others feel happy about spending money. 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.

PERCEPTUAL PROCESS

 Receiving: Receiving is the first 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.

 Selection: The world around us was packed with endless stimuli that we should follow, but
our brains didn't have the energy to pay attention to everything. And the first decision stage
is to decide what we want. When we pick one object in our universe, whether it's a smell, a
feeling, a sound, or something else, it's the stimulus that's being attended. Selecting is the
first aspect of the perception process, where we concentrate our attention on the sensory
feedback that is coming in. In selection, we choose stimuli which attract our attention. We
focus on those that distinguish our senses (seeing, sound, smell, taste and touch).

 Organization: When we have chosen to take care of stimuli in the world, and the option sets
in our brain a sequence of reactions. This neural process starts when our sensory receptors
(touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing) are triggered. Organizing is the second part of the
process of perception in which we sort and categorize information we perceive based on
cognitive patterns that are innate and learnt. Through using proximity, similarity, and
difference, we sort items into patterns three ways.

 Interpretation: Having attended to a stimulus, and having obtained and arranged the
information from our minds, we perceive it in a way that makes sense using our current
knowledge. The word Interpretation means we're taking the information we've sensed and
organized and turning it into something we can classify. We can better understand and react
to the world around us by putting different stimuli into the categories. Other experiences
include sensing, arranging, and processing details about people and what they are doing and
doing. The feeling is a primary function of perception, because it relates to external
information. First of all the perceiver will pick what will be experienced in the perceptual
phase. Instead, as listeners recognize the type of sound and equate it with other sounds
heard in the past, the organization is retained. Interpretation and categorization are
generally the most subjective areas of perception, since they involve decisions as to whether
listeners like what they hear and want to continue listening. We conduct instant
assessments that cause unconscious conclusions of positive and negative reactions to others
outside of our consciousness.
Selection, organization, and interpretation of perceptions can differ from one person to another.
Based on these, the perceptual performance of the perceiver implies varying beliefs, attitudes,
behaviours, etc. Therefore, when people react differently in a situation, by examining their
perceptual process, they can explain part of their behavior, and how their perceptions lead to
their responses.

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 Why is perception important in the workplace?
Behaviour in the workplace is based on people’s perception of the workplace. There are many
factors that influence how something is perceived. Factors pertaining to the perceiver can involve
the person’s attitudes, motives, interests, experience and expectations. Contextual factors can
involve time, work setting and social setting. Finally, factors related to the actual target can involve
novelty, motion, sounds, size, background and proximity.

Factors affecting Perception

Examples of perception in the workplace

1. As you can imagine, the way a person perceives a job applicant during an interview can affect
an organization. For example, interviewers may like one aspect of the interviewee and—
pursuant to the halo effect—assume that person is entirely a good fit with the company. Or,
interviewers may learn they have one thing in common with the interviewee and project that
they are similar to the candidate in every way, making a good fit for the organization.
2. An employee may not get a promotion because an employer has formed a negative
impression about the employee simply because that person belongs to a particular religious
group. This is stereotyping, and is clearly contrary to human rights legislation. However, given
human nature’s tendency to gather things and people into groups and make general
impressions, this can occur more often than one might think.
3. An employee may be considered disloyal or not putting enough effort into a project. These
characteristics are subjectively judged based on an employer’s perceptions. For instance, one
supervisor may selectively perceive an employee to be loyal, while another supervisor may
selectively perceive that same employee to be too conforming and insincere.

Employee perception is a significant factor in employee acceptance and satisfaction of job. A good
perception will create a positive working environment in the organization, while a negative
perception will affect the company performance. These perceptions depend on the manager or
supervisor’s actions and behaviors toward the employee. If the organizations are perceived as unfair,
therefore, the benefits can diminish rather than enhance employee’s positive attitudes and
performance.

Employee’s perception can affect organizational productivity positively when they are willing and
committed to organizational goals. Willingness and commitment can be exhibited by employees
towards their job if they are perception are taken into consideration in decision making in the
organization. Thus, for management to win the commitment of employees to get their job done
properly, individual employees should not be treated in isolation, but must be involved in matters

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 concerning them and the organization. When employee’s perceptions are considered, staff
absenteeism is reduced, there’s greater organizational commitment, improved performance,
reduced turnover and greater job satisfaction.

Employees’ perception has been widely recommended as one of the means of improving the quality
of work life. The implied goal is to provide an environment where an individual will have the
freedom and autonomy to make choices which are related to his work environment and to improve
the fit between his personality and the job demands as well as between his work and non-work
domains.

Q7. What do you understand by attitude? Discuss the various components of

attitude with example.
“Attitude is manner, disposition, feeling and position with regard to a person or thing, tendency or
orientation especially in the mind.”
 An attitude defined as the way a person feels about something- a person, a place, a
commodity, a situation or an idea.
 In other words, attitudes are the set or cluster of beliefs towards objects, events and
situation.
 Different people may have different views about their jobs.Some people may find their
jobs highly interesting, while others may complain about boredom.
 Some like some things about their jobs (e.g., my boss is great) and dislike others (e.g., the
pay is terrible).

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

i. Attitudes refer to feelings and beliefs of individuals or groups of individuals.

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

Three major components of an attitude:

 Cognitive component:
– The belief or knowledge (whether accurate or false) that one has towards a
particular person, item or event.

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Delhi School of Professional Studies and Research
 – My boss is misusing company funds.
 Evaluative or Affective component:
– Refers to our feelings of like or dislike towards a particular person, item or event.
– I can’t stand working for him.
 Behavioral component:
– A predisposition (tendency) to act in a certain way.
– I think I am going to look for a new job.

Individuals possess hundreds of attitudes. But in organizational behaviour, we are concerned with
work related attitudes which are mainly three:

i. Job Satisfaction: Job satisfaction refers to one’s feeling towards one’s job. An individual
having satisfaction is said to possess positive attitude towards the job. Conversely, a
dissatisfied person will have negative attitude towards his other job. When people speak of
employee attitudes they invariably refer to job satisfaction. In fact, the two terms are used
interchangeably, though subtle difference does exist between the two.
ii. Job Involvement: Job involvement refers to the degree with which an individual identifies
psychologically with his or her job and perceives his or her perceived performance level
important to self-worth. High degree of job involvement results in fewer absence and lower
resignation rates.
iii. Organizational Commitment: The last job attitude refers to organizational commitment. It is
understood as one’s identification with his or her organization and feels proud of being its
employee. Job involvement refers to one’s attachment to a job whereas organizational
commitment implies an employee’s identification with a particular organization and its
goals. Needless to say, it is to state that, an individual may be attached to his or her job but
may be indifferent to the organization and its objectives. Turnover and absenteeism are low
when employees have organizational commitment.

Q8. Concept and type of Values

Values: Basic convictions on how to conduct yourself or how to live a life that is personally or socially
preferable – “How To” live life properly.

 Attributes of Values:
– Content Attribute: that the mode of conduct or end-state is important
– Intensity Attribute: just how important that content is
 Value System
– A person’s values rank ordered by intensity
– Tends to be relatively constant and consistent

Importance of Values
 Provide understanding of attitudes, motivation, and behaviors
 Influence our perception of the world around us
 Represent interpretations of “right” and “wrong”
 Imply that some behaviors or outcomes are preferred over others

Types of Values
1. Terminal Values
– Desirable end-states of existence; the goals that a person would like to achieve
during his or her lifetime

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 2. Instrumental Values
– Preferable modes of behavior or means of achieving one’s terminal values

People in same occupations or categories tend to hold similar values

 But values vary between groups
 Value differences make it difficult for groups to negotiate and may create conflict

Value Differences Between Groups

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Delhi School of Professional Studies and Research