MODULE 5: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Lesson 1.Characteristics of People (Armstrong, 2006)

 To manage people effectively, it is necessary to understand the factors that affect how people
behave at work.
 This means taking into account the fundamental characteristics of people as examined in this
module under the following headings (Armstrong, 2006):
 individual differences – as affected by people’s abilities, intelligence, personality, background
and culture, gender and race;
 attitudes – causes and manifestations;
 influences on behavior – personality and attitudes;
 attribution theory – how we make judgments about people;
 orientation – the approaches people adopt to work;
 Roles – the parts people play in carrying out their work.

Individual Differences
- The management of people would be much easier if everyone were the same, but they are, of
course, different because of their ability, intelligence, personality, background and culture
(the environment in which they were brought up), as discussed below.

- Gender, race and disability are additional factors to be taken into account. Importantly, the
needs and wants of individuals will also differ, often fundamentally, and this affects their
motivation, as described in the next module (Armstrong, 2006).
 The headings under which personal characteristics can vary have been classified by as follows
(Armstrong, 2006):

 competencies – abilities and skills;

 constructs – the conceptual framework which governs how people perceive their environment;
 expectations – what people have learned to expect about their own and others’ behavior;
 values – what people believe to be important;
 Self-regulatory plans – the goals people set themselves and the plans they make to achieve them.

Ability
Ability is the quality that makes an action possible. Abilities have been classified into
two major groups:
● V: Ed – standing for verbal, numerical, memory and reasoning abilities;
● K: m – standing for spatial and mechanical abilities, as well as perceptual (memory) and motor skills
relating to physical operations such as eye/hand coordination and mental dexterity.
 Intelligence
Intelligence has been defined as:
● ‘the capacity to solve problems, apply principles, make inferences and perceive relationships’
● ‘the capacity for abstract thinking and reasoning with a range of different contents and media’
● ‘the capacity to process information’
● ‘what is measured by intelligence tests’
 General intelligence, as noted above, consists of a number of mental abilities that enable a person to
succeed at a wide variety of intellectual tasks that use the faculties of knowing and reasoning.

Personality
- The term personality is all-embracing in terms of the individual’s behavior and the way it is
organized and coordinated when he or she interacts with the environment.

- Personality can be described in terms of traits or types (Armstrong, 2006).

The trait concept of personality

- Personality can be defined as the relatively stable and enduring aspects of individuals that
distinguish them from other people.
- This is the ‘trait ‘concept, traits being predispositions to behave in certain ways in a variety of
different situations.
- The assumption that people are consistent in the ways they express these traits is the basis for
making predictions about their future behavior.
The so-called big five personality traits are (Armstrong, 2006):
 neuroticism- anxiety, depression, hostility, self-consciousness, impulsiveness, vulnerability;
 extraversion – warmth, gregariousness, assertiveness, activity, excitement seeking, positive
emotions;
 openness – feelings, actions, ideas, values;
 agreeableness – trust, straightforwardness, altruism, compliance, modesty, tender
mindedness;
 Conscientiousness – competence, order, dutifulness, achievement-striving, self-discipline,
deliberation.
The main criticisms have been as follows (Armstrong, 2006):
 People do not necessarily express the same trait across different situations or even the same
trait in the same situation. Different people may exhibit consistency in some traits and
considerable variability in others.

 Classical trait theory assumes that the manifestation of trait behavior is independent of the
situations and the persons with whom the individual is interacting – this assumption is
questionable, given that trait behavior usually manifests itself in response to specific
situations.
  Trait attributions are a product of language – they are devices for speaking about people and
are not generally described in terms of behavior.

Lesson 2.Type Theories of Personality (Armstrong, 2006)

- Type theory identifies a number of types of personality that can be used to categorize people
and may form the basis of a personality test.
- The types may be linked to descriptions of various traits.
 relating to other people – extraversion or introversion;
 gathering information – sensing (dealing with facts that can be objectively verified)
or intuitive (generating information through insight);
 using information – thinking (emphasizing logical analysis as the basis for
decision-making) or feeling (making decisions based on internal values and beliefs);
 Making decisions – perceiving (collecting all the relevant information before
making a decision) or judging (resolving the issue without waiting for a large
quantity of data).
This theory of personality forms the basis of personality tests such as the Myers Briggs Types
Indicator.

The influence of background

- Individual differences may be a function of people’s background, which will include the
environment and culture in which they have been brought up and now exist.
Individual life structure’s shaped by three types of external event (Armstrong, 2006):
● the socio-cultural environment;
● the roles they play and the relationships they have;
● The opportunities and constraints that enable or inhibit them to express and develop their
personality.
Differences arising from gender, race or disability
- It is futile, dangerous and invidious to make assumptions about inherent differences between
people because of their sex, race or degree of disability.
- If there are differences in behavior at work, these are more likely to arise from environmental
and cultural factors than from differences in fundamental personal characteristics.
Attitudes
- An attitude can broadly be defined as a settled mode of thinking. Attitudes are evaluative.
- Attitude contains an assessment of whether the object to which it refers is liked or disliked.
Attitudes are developed through experience but they are less stable than traits and can change
as new experiences are gained or influences absorbed.
 Influences on Behavior at Work
- Behavior at work is dependent on both the personal characteristics of individuals (personality
and attitudes) and the situation in which they are working.
- These factors interact, and this theory of behavior is sometimes called interactionism.
- It is because of this process of interaction and because there are so many variables in personal
characteristics and situations that behavior is difficult to analyze and predict.
- It is generally assumed that attitudes determine behavior, but there is not such a direct link as
most people suppose.
They suggested that the key environmental variables are (Armstrong, 2006):
● role characteristics such as role ambiguity and conflict (see the last section in this chapter);
● job characteristics such as autonomy and challenge;
● leader behaviors, including goal emphasis and work facilitation;
● work group characteristics, including cooperation and friendliness;
● Organizational policies that directly affect individuals, such as the reward system.
Lesson 3.Attribution Theory – How We Make Judgments About People
- The ways in which we perceive and make judgments about people at work are explained by
attribution theory, which concerns the assignment of causes to events.
- We make an attribution when we perceive and describe other people’s actions and try to
discover why they behaved in the way they did.
- We can also make attributions about our own behavior. In everyday life we form ideas
about other people and about social situations.
. Kelley (1967) has suggested that there are four criteria that we apply to decide whether behavior is
attributable to personal rather than external (situational) causes:
 distinctiveness – the behavior can be distinguished from the behavior of other people in
similar situations;
 consensus – if other people agree that the behavior is governed by some personal
characteristic;
 consistency over time – whether the behavior is repeated;
 Consistency over modality (ie. the manner in which things are done) – whether or not the
behavior is repeated in different situations.
Lesson 4.Orientation to Work (Armstrong, 2006)
- Orientation theory examines the factors that are instrumental, ie serve as a means, in directing
people’s choices about work.
- An orientation is a central organizing principle that underlies people’s attempts to make sense
of their lives.
- An orientation is a persisting tendency to seek certain goals and rewards from work which
exists independently of the nature of the work and the work content.’
- The orientation approach stresses the role of the social environment factor as a key factor
affecting motivation
Lesson 5. Roles (Armstrong, 2006)
- When faced with any situation, eg. carrying out a job, people have to enact a role in order to
manage that situation.
- This is sometimes called the ‘situation-act model’. The model indicates that the person must
act within situations: situations are rule-governed and how a person behaves is often
prescribed by these socially acquired rules.
- The person thus adopts a suitable role in order to perform effectively within the situation.’
- At work, the term role describes the part to be played by individuals in fulfilling their job
requirements.
- Roles therefore indicate the specific forms of behavior required carrying out a particular task
or the group of tasks contained in a position or job.
Role ambiguity
When individuals are unclear about what their role is, what is expected of them, or how they
are getting on, they may become insecure or lose confidence in themselves.

Role incompatibility
Stress and poor performance may be caused by roles having incompatible elements, as when
there is a clash between what other people expect from the role and what individuals believe is
expected of them.

Role conflict
Role conflict results when, even if roles are clearly defined and there is no incompatibility between
expectations, individuals have to carry out two antagonistic roles.
Lesson 6. Implications for HR Specialists
The main implications for HR specialists of the factors that affect individuals at work are as follows:
Individual differences – when designing jobs, preparing learning programs, assessing and counseling
staff, developing reward systems and dealing with grievances and disciplinary problems, it is necessary
to remember that all people are different.
Personalities should not be judged simplistically in terms of stereotyped traits. People are complex
and they change, and account has to be taken of this.
Judgments about people (attribution theory) – we all ascribe motives to other people and attempt
to establish the causes of their behavior.
Orientation theory – the significance of orientation theory is that it stresses the importance of the
effect of environmental factors on the motivation to work.

Role theory – role theory helps us to understand the need to clarify with individuals what is expected
of them in behavioral and outcome terms and to ensure when designing roles that they do not contain
any incompatible elements.
 MODULE 6: MOTIVATION
Lesson 1.the Process of Motivation
- Motivating other people is about getting them to move in the direction you want them to go in
order to achieve a result.
- Motivating yourself is about setting the direction independently and then taking a course of
action which will ensure that you get there.
- Motivation can be described as goal-directed behavior.
The three components of motivation are:
 direction – what a person is trying to do;
 effort – how hard a person is trying;
 Persistence – how long a person keeps on trying?
Lesson 2. Types of Motivation (Armstrong, 2006)
- Motivation at work can take place in two ways.
- First, people can motivate themselves by seeking, finding and carrying out work (or being
given work) that satisfies their needs or at least leads them to expect that their goals will be
achieved. Secondly, people can be motivated by management through such methods as pay,
promotion, praise, etc.
There are two types of motivation as originally identified below
1. Intrinsic motivation – the self-generated factors that influence people to behave in a
particular way or to move in a particular direction.

- These factors include responsibility (feeling that the work is important and having control
over one’s own resources), autonomy (freedom to act), scope to use and develop skills and
abilities, interesting and challenging work and opportunities for advancement.
2. Extrinsic motivation – what is done to or for people to motivate them. This includes
rewards, such as increased pay, praise, or promotion, and punishments, such as
disciplinary action, withholding pay, or criticism.

- Extrinsic motivators can have an immediate and powerful effect, but it will not
necessarily last long.
Lesson 3. Motivation Theory (Armstrong, 2006)
Approaches to motivation are underpinned by motivation theory. The most influential theories are classified as
follows (Armstrong, 2006):
 Instrumentality theory states that rewards or punishments (carrots or sticks) serve as the means of
ensuring that people behave or act in desired ways.
 Content theory focuses on the content of motivation. It states that motivation is essentially about
taking action to satisfy needs, and identifies the main needs that influence behavior. Needs theory was
originated by Maslow and in their two-factor model; Herzberg listed needs which they termed
‘satisfiers’.
  Process theory focuses on the psychological processes which affect motivation by reference to
expectations.
Lesson 4. Instrumentality Theory (Armstrong, 2006)
- ‘Instrumentality’ is the belief that if we do one thing it will lead to another. In its crudest
form, instrumentality theory states that people only work for money.
Lesson 5. Content (Needs) Theory (Armstrong, 2006)
- The basis of this theory is the belief that the content of motivation consists of needs. An
unsatisfied need creates tension and a state of disequilibrium.
- To restore the balance, a goal that will satisfy the need is identified, and a behavior pathway
that will lead to the achievement of the goal is selected.
- All behavior is therefore motivated by unsatisfied needs.
Lesson 6.Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
1. Physiological – the need for oxygen, food, water and sex.

2. Safety – the need for protection against danger and the deprivation of physiological needs.

3. Social – the need for love, affection and acceptance as belonging to a group.

4. Esteem – the need to have a stable, firmly based, high evaluation of oneself (self-esteem) and to
have the respect of others (prestige). These needs may be classified into two subsidiary sets: first, the
desire for achievement, for adequacy, for confidence in the face of the world, and for independence
and freedom, and, second, the desire for reputation or status defined as respect or esteem from other
people, and manifested by recognition, attention, importance, or appreciation.

5. Self-fulfillment (self-actualization) – the need to develop potentialities and skills, to become

what one believes one is capable of becoming.

Lesson 7.Process Theory

- In process theory, the emphasis is on the psychological processes or forces that affect
motivation, as well as on basic needs.
- It is also known as cognitive theory because it is concerned with people’s perceptions of their
working environment and the ways in which they interpret and understand it.
Process or cognitive theory can certainly be more useful to managers than needs theory because it provides
more realistic guidance on motivation techniques.
The processes are:
● expectations (expectancy theory);
● goal achievement (goal theory);
● feelings about equity (equity theory).
Lesson 8. Expectancy Theory (Armstrong, 2006)
- The concept of expectancy was originally contained in the valency–instrumentality–
expectancy (VIE) theory.
- Valency stands for value, instrumentality is the belief that if we do one thing it will lead to
another, and expectancy is the probability that action or effort will lead to an outcome.
which follows Vroom’s ideas by suggesting that there are two factors determining the effort people put into
their jobs (Armstrong, 2006):
1. the value of the rewards to individuals in so far as they satisfy their needs for security, social
esteem, autonomy, and self-actualization;
2. The probability that rewards depend on effort, as perceived by individuals – in other words, their
expectations about the relationships between effort and reward.
The two variables additional to effort which affect task achievement are (Armstrong, 2006):
- ability – individual characteristics such as intelligence, manual skills, know-how;
- Role perceptions – what the individual wants to do or thinks he or she is required to do.
These are good from the viewpoint of the organization if they correspond with what it thinks
the individual ought to be doing. They are poor if the views of the individual and the
organization do not coincide
Lesson 9. Goal Theory (Armstrong, 2006)
- Goal theory) states that motivation and performance are higher when individuals are set
specific goals, when goals are difficult but accepted, and when there is a feedback on
performance.
- Participation in goal setting is important as a means of getting agreement to the setting of
higher goals.

Lesson 10. Equity Theory (Armstrong, 2006)

- Equity theory is concerned with the perceptions people have about how they are being treated
compared with others.
- To be dealt with equitably is to be treated fairly in comparison with another group of people
(a reference group) or a relevant other person.
- Equity involves feelings and perceptions and is always a comparative process.
There are two forms of equity:
distributive equity, which is concerned with the fairness with which people feel they are rewarded in
accordance with their contribution and in comparison with others; and
procedural equity, or procedural justice, which is concerned with the perceptions employees have about the
fairness with which procedures in such areas as performance appraisal, promotion and discipline are being
operated.

Interpersonal factors are closely linked to feelings about procedural fairness. Five factors that
contribute to perceptions of procedural fairness are (Armstrong, 2006):
1. adequate considerations of an employee’s viewpoint;
 2. suppression of personal bias towards the employee;
3. applying criteria consistently across employees;
4. providing early feedback to employees concerning the outcome of decisions;
5. Providing employees with an adequate explanation of the decision made.

Lesson 11. Herzberg’s Two-Factor Model (Armstrong, 2006)

- The two-factor model of satisfiers and dissatisfies was developed by Herzberg following an
investigation into the sources of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction of accountants and
engineers.
- These groups form the two factors in Herzberg’s model: one consists of the satisfiers or
motivators. The other consists of the dissatisfies, which essentially describe the environment
and serve primarily to prevent job dissatisfaction

MODULE 7:THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MOTIVATION, JOB

SATISFACTION AND MONEY
Lesson 1.Job Satisfaction
- The term ‘job satisfaction’ refers to the attitudes and feelings people have about their work.
Positive and favorable attitudes towards the job indicate job satisfaction.
- Negative and unfavorable attitudes towards the job indicate job dissatisfaction.
- Morale is often defined as being equivalent to job satisfaction.
- It is defined morale as ‘the extent to which an individual’s needs are satisfied and the extent
to which the individual perceives that satisfaction as stemming from his total work situation’
Lesson 2.Factors Affecting Job Satisfaction
- The level of job satisfaction is affected by intrinsic and extrinsic motivating factors, the
quality of supervision, social relationships with the work group and the degree to which
individuals succeed or fail in their work.
Lesson 3.Job Satisfaction and Performance
- It is a commonly held and a seemingly not unreasonable belief that an increase in job
satisfaction will result in improved performance.
- But research has not established any strongly positive connection between satisfaction and
performance.
Lesson 4. Measuring of Job Satisfaction (Armstrong, 2006)
- The level of job satisfaction can be measured by the use of attitude surveys. There are four
methods of conducting them (Armstrong, 2006):

1. By the use of structured questionnaires.

- These can be issued to all or a sample of employees. The advantage of using standardized
questionnaires is that they have been thoroughly tested and in many cases norms are available
against which results can be compared.

2. By the use of interview.

- These may be ‘open-ended’ or depth interviews in which the discussion is allowed to range
quite freely. Or they may be semi-structured in that there is a checklist of points to be

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 covered, although the aim of the interviewer should be to allow discussion to flow around the
points so that the frank and open views of the individual are obtained.

3. By a combination of questionnaire and interview.

- This is the ideal approach because it combines the quantitative data from the questionnaire
with the qualitative data from the interviews. It is always advisable to accompany
questionnaires with some depth interviews, even if time permits only a limited sample.

4. By the use of focus groups.

- A focus group is a representative sample of employees whose attitudes and opinions are
sought on issues concerning the organization and their work. The essential features of a
focus group are that it is structured, informed, constructive and confidential.

Lesson 5. Assessing Results

- It is an interesting fact that when people are asked directly if they are satisfied with their job,
many will say that on the whole they are. This can be regardless of the work being done and
in spite of strongly held grievances.
Lesson 6.Motivation and Money (Armstrong, 2006)
- Money, in the form of pay or some other sort of remuneration, is the most obvious extrinsic
reward. Money provides the carrot that most people wan