Individual dimensions of organizational behavior

Individual Dimensions of
Organizational Behaviour
Presented by : Ashutosh Verma

What Is Perception, and Why Is It
Important?
•People’s behavior is
based on their
perception of what
reality is, not on
reality itself.
•The world as it is
perceived is the world
that is behaviorally
important.

Factors That
Influence Perception

Attitudes and
Behaviors
Organization and
Interpretation
Selective Attention
Perceptual Process Model
Feeling Hearing Seeing Smelling Tasting
Environmental Stimuli

The Perceptual Process
1.Sensation
• An individual’s ability
to detect stimuli in the
immediate
environment.
2.Selection
• The process a person
uses to eliminate
some of the stimuli that
have been sensed and
to retain others for
further processing.
3.Organization
The process of placing
selected perceptual
stimuli into a
framework for
“storage.”
4.Interpretation
The stage of the
perceptual process at
which stimuli are
interpreted and given
meaning.

Steps in perception
•1.Selection: It depends on interests, background,
experience, attitudes, etc.
• People unconsciously focus on those aspects of the
individuals, events, or situations that are consistent
with, or reinforce, their preceding attitudes, moods,
values, needs, and they screen out other, relevant
information as inconsistent with their pre-held beliefs.

• THE ORGANIZING PROCESS:
• The stimuli received must be organized so as to give some meaning
to them. This aspect of forming bits of information into meaningful
whole is called the perceptual organizing. The three dimension of
PO are
• Figure ground: This principle states that the relationship of a
target to its background influences perception
• Perceptual grouping:
Principle of similarity
Principle of proximity
Principle of closure
• Perceptual constancy: Our ability to perceive certain
characteristics of an object as remaining constant, despite
variation in the stimuli that provides us that information.

a. Figure-Ground Illustration
• Field-ground differentiation
• This principle states that the relationship of a target to its background
influences perception.

B. PERCEPTUAL GROUPING
Our tendency to group several individual stimuli
into a meaningful and recognizable pattern.
 It is very basic in nature and largely it seems to be
inborn.
Some factors underlying grouping are
-Continuity -Closure
-Proximity -Similarity

Individual dimensions of organizational behavior

INTERPRETING
• After the data has been received and organized, the
perceiver interprets or assigns meaning to the
information. Perception has said to have taken place
only after the data have been interpreted.

CHECKING & REACTING
CHECKING: After the data have been interpreted, the
perceiver tends to check whether his interpretation is
right or wrong. One way of checking is introspection.
REACTING: The last phase in the process is reaction.
The perceiver shall indulge in some action in relation
to his perception. The action depends on whether the
perception is favourable or unfavourable,

Person Perception: Making Judgments
About Others
Distinctiveness: shows different behaviors in different situations.
Consensus: response is the same as others to same situation.
Consistency: responds in the same way over time.
Attribution Theory
When individuals observe
behavior, they attempt to
determine whether it is
internally or externally
caused.

Errors and Biases in Attributions
Fundamental Attribution Error
The tendency to underestimate the influence
of external factors and overestimate the
influence of internal factors when making
judgments about the behavior of others.

Errors and Biases in Attributions (cont’d)
Self-Serving Bias
The tendency for individuals to attribute
their own successes to internal factors
while putting the blame for failures on
external factors.

Frequently Used Shortcuts in Judging Others
Selective Perception
People selectively interpret what they see on
the basis of their interests, background,
experience, and attitudes.

Halo Effect
Drawing a general impression
about an individual on the basis
of a single characteristic
Contrast Effects
Evaluation of a person’s characteristics that are
affected by comparisons with other people recently
encountered who rank higher or lower on the
same characteristics.

Projection
Attributing one’s own
characteristics to other
people.
Stereotyping
Judging someone on the
basis of one’s perception of
the group to which that
person belongs.

Specific Applications in Organizations
• Employment Interview
• Perceptual biases of raters affect the accuracy of interviewers’
judgments of applicants.
• Performance Expectations
• Self-fulfilling prophecy (Pygmalion effect): The lower or higher
performance of employees reflects preconceived leader
expectations about employee capabilities.
• Ethnic Profiling
• A form of stereotyping in which a group of individuals is singled
out—typically on the basis of race or ethnicity—for intensive
inquiry, scrutinizing, or investigation.

Specific Applications in Organizations (cont’d)
• Performance Evaluations
• Appraisals are often the subjective (judgmental) perceptions of
appraisers of another employee’s job performance.
• Employee Effort
• Assessment of individual effort is a subjective judgment subject to
perceptual distortion and bias.

MOTIVATION
Motivation is a force that drives a
person to action.
Motivation is a force that energizes behavior , gives
direction to behavior and underlies the tendency to
persist-Steers and Porter

Key Elements
1. Intensity: how hard a person tries
2. Direction: toward beneficial goal
3. Persistence: how long a person tries

MOTIVE MOTIVATING MOTIVATION
Needs in
Individual
Activating needs &
providing need
satisfaction environment
Engagement of
individuals in work
behaviour
MOTIVATION

THE MOTIVATION PROCESS
UNSATISFIED NEEDS
TENSION
DRIVES
SEARCH BEHAVIOUR
NEED SATISFIED
TENSION REDUCED

FEATURES OF MOTIVATION
•Motivation is an internal feeling
•It influences human behavior
•It can be both positive & negative
•It is a complex process
•It relates to attainment of satisfaction
•It is a continuous process

TYPES OF MOTIVATION
•Extrinsic
•Intrinsic
•Tangible
•Intangible
•Monetary
•Non-monetary

THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
Carrot & Stick Policy: The
traditional method
CARROT: Reward
STICK: Punishment

NEED HIERARCHY THEORY (A. MASLOW)
Physiological needs
Safety needs
Social needs
Esteem needs
Self-
actualization
needs
Lower-order
needs
Higher-order
needs

• PHYSIOLOGICAL: Includes hunger, thirst, shelter, and other bodily
needs.
• SAFETY: Includes security and protection from physical and
emotional harm.
• SOCIAL: Includes affection, belongingness, acceptance, and
friendship.
• ESTEEM: Includes internal esteem factors such as self respect,
autonomy, and achievement and external esteem factors such as
status, recognition, and attention.
• SELF-ACTUALIZATION: is represented by the drive to become what
one is capable of becoming. This includes growth, achieving one’s
potential, and self-fulfillment

TWO-FACTOR THEORY (FREDERICK
HERZBERG)
• Herzberg categorized two set of factors that provide
satisfaction or dissatisfaction : Hygiene Factors and
Motivators
Hygiene Factors : They provide no dissatisfaction to employees,
i.e the presence of these factors do not motivate the employees, but
their absence becomes a source of dissatisfaction.
• They are also called Extrinsic factors, maintenance factors
dissatisfier’s.
• Maintenance factors because they maintain the level of performance
on the job
• Dissatisfiers because their absence dissatisfy the workers and
deteriorate the performance
• Extrinsic factors because they are related to work environment (job
context) and not the job content.

TWO-FACTOR THEORY (FREDERICK
HERZBERG)
Motivators: These are the factors related to job
content like recognition, achievement, opportunities for
growth.
• Their absence provides no satisfaction or
motivation but their presence results in high degree
of motivation and job satisfaction.
• Also called intrinsic factors or satisfiers.
• related with the job content.

MC CLELLAND'S THEORY OF NEEDS
Need for achievement (nAch) - drive to excel
Need for power (nPow) - the need to make others behave in a
way they would not have behaved otherwise
Need for affiliation (nAff) - the desire for friendly and close
interpersonal relationships
•High achievers prefer jobs with personal responsibility, feedback,
and intermediate degree of risk.
• High achievers are not necessarily good managers.
• Affiliation and power are closely related to managerial success
• Employees can be trained to stimulate their achievement need.

ADAM’S EQUITY THEORY
Employees weigh what they put into a Job situation (input) against what
they get from it (outcome). Then they compare their input-outcome ratio
with the input-outcome ratio of relevant others.
Outcomes (self)
Inputs (self)
Outcomes (other)
Inputs (other)
compared
with

If they perceive their ratio to be EQUAL to that of relevant others, a state of
equity exists.
If the ratios are UNEQUAL, inequity exists, either under-reward or over-
reward.
 When inequities occur, employees will attempt to correct them. When
employees envision an inequity, they may make one or more of five choices:
•Distort either their own or others’ inputs or outcomes
•Behave in some way so as to induce others to change their inputs or outcomes
•Behave in some way so as to change their own inputs or outcomes
•Choose a different comparison referent
•Quit their job

THEORY X AND THEORY Y (DOUGLAS MC
GREGOR)
Assumptions of Theory X
 Workers lack ambition, avoid responsibility and work
only if directed.
 Managers direct, control, motivate and modify human
behavior to meet the organizational goals.
 People are resistant to change and want to work in
sable conditions.
 Workers lower order needs are stronger than Higher
order Needs

Assumptions of Theory Y
 Workers are not lazy , they have the potential to
develop.
 People are ambitious . Not only they accept
responsibility but seek it from managers.
 people are self directed and motivated to work towards
organizational goals.
 People are not resistant to change.

The Expectancy Theory of Motivation explains the behavioral process of why
individuals choose one behavioral option over another.
 It also explains how they make decisions to achieve the end they value.
 Vroom introduces three variables within the expectancy theory which are valence
(V), expectancy (E) and instrumentality (I).
Three components of Expectancy theory:
1. Expectancy: Effort → Performance (E→P)
 Expectancy is the belief that one's effort (E) will result in attainment of desired
performance (P) goals.
 This will effect how the individual's decision making process because they will ultimately
chose behaviors that will ensure their desired goals.
2. Instrumentality: Performance → Outcome (P→O)
 Instrumentality is the belief that a person will receive a reward if the performance
expectation is met.
 This reward may come in the form of a pay increase, promotion, recognition or sense of
accomplishment. Instrumentality is low when the reward is the same for all performances
given.

3. Valence- V(R) : The valance refers the value the individual personally places
on the rewards. This is a function of his or her needs, goals, values and Sources
of Motivation.
The valence refers to the value the individual personally places on the
rewards. -1 →0→ +1
-1= avoiding the outcome 0 = indifferent to the outcome +1 = welcomes
the outcome
The Expectancy Theory of motivation can help managers understand how
individuals make decisions regarding various behavioral alternatives, and
why they pursue these decisions.
The model below shows the direction of motivation, when behavior is
energized:
Motivational Force (MF) = Expectancy x Instrumentality x Valence

Actual performance in a job is primarily determined by the effort
spent. But it is also affected by the person’s ability to do the job and
also by individual’s perception of what the required task is.
So performance is the responsible factor that leads to intrinsic as well
as extrinsic rewards.
These rewards, along with the equity of individual leads to
satisfaction. Hence, satisfaction of the individual depends upon the
fairness of the reward.

PERSONALITY
Personality
The sum total of ways in which an individual reacts
and interacts with others.
Personality Traits
Enduring characteristics
that describe an
individual’s behavior.
Personality
Determinants
• Heredity
• Environment
• Situation

The Big Five Model of Personality Dimensions
Extroversion
• Sociable, outgoing, and assertive
Agreeableness
• Good-natured, cooperative, and trusting
Conscientiousness
• Responsible, dependable,
persistent, and organized
Emotional Stability
• Calm, self-confident, secure under stress
(positive), versus nervous, depressed,
and insecure under stress (negative)
Openness to
Experience
• Curious, imaginative, artistic,
and sensitive

How Do the Big Five Traits Predict Behavior?
• Certain traits have been shown to strongly relate to
higher job performance:
• Highly conscientious people develop more job knowledge, exert
greater effort, and have better performance.
• Other Big Five Traits also have implications for work.
• Emotional stability is related to job satisfaction.
• Extroverts tend to be happier in their jobs and have good social skills.
• Open people are more creative and can be good leaders.
• Agreeable people are good in social settings.

• Locus of control
• Machiavellianism
• Self-esteem
• Self-monitoring
• Risk taking managers
• Self Efficacy
• Type A & B personality
Major Personality Attributes influencing OB

Locus of Control
The degree to which people believe they
are masters of their own fate.
Internals
Individuals who believe that they
control what happens to them.
Externals
Individuals who believe that
what happens to them is
controlled by outside forces
such as luck or chance.

Conditions Favoring High Machs
• Direct interaction
• Minimal rules and regulations
• Distracting emotions

Self-Esteem and Self-Monitoring
Self-Esteem (SE)
Individuals’ degree of liking
or disliking themselves.
Self-Monitoring
A personality trait that measures
an individuals ability to adjust
his or her behavior to external,
situational factors.

• High self-monitors
• flexible: adjust behavior
according to the situation
and the behavior of others
• can appear unpredictable &
inconsistent
• Low self-monitors
• act from internal states
rather than from situational
cues
• show consistency
• less likely to respond to work
group norms or supervisory
feedback
Self-Monitoring
Behavior based on cues from people & situations

Risk-Taking
• High Risk-taking Managers
• Make quicker decisions
• Use less information to make decisions
• Operate in smaller and more entrepreneurial organizations
• Low Risk-taking Managers
• Are slower to make decisions
• Require more information before making decisions
• Exist in larger organizations with stable environments

Self-Efficacy :
Power or capacity to produce a desired effect;
effectiveness.- beliefs and expectations about one’s ability to
accomplish a specific task effectively
Sources of self-efficacy
• Prior experiences and prior success
• Behavior models (observing success)
• Assessment of current physical & emotional capabilities

Personality Types
Type A’s
1. are always moving, walking, and eating rapidly;
2. feel impatient with the rate at which most events take place;
3. strive to think or do two or more things at once;
4. cannot cope with leisure time;
5. are obsessed with numbers, measuring their success in
terms of how many or how much of everything they acquire.
Type B’s
1. never suffer from a sense of time urgency with its
accompanying impatience;
2. feel no need to display or discuss either their achievements
or accomplishments;
3. play for fun and relaxation, rather than to exhibit their
superiority at any cost;
4. can relax without guilt.

Trait Theories: Attempt to learn what traits make up personality and how
they relate to actual behavior
Psychodynamic Theories: Focus on the inner workings of personality,
especially internal conflicts and struggles
Humanistic Theories: Focus on private, subjective experience and
personal growth
Social-Cognitive Theories: Attribute difference in personality to
socialization, expectations, and mental processes
Personality Theories

Carl Jung: Swiss psychiatrist who believed that we are one
of two personality types:
• Introvert: Shy, self-centered person whose attention is
focused inward
• Extrovert: Bold, outgoing person whose attention is directed
outward
Jung’s Theory
Carl Jung

• Eysenck defined personality as a more or less stable and
enduring organization of a person’s character, temperament,
intellect, and physique, which determines his unique
adjustment to the environment.
• His definition emphasized traits (stable and enduring
characteristics), which, when clustered together, are
organized as types.
Eysenck’s Three Factor Theory
Hans Eysenck

Eysenck’s Three Factor Theory
Hans Eysenck,: English psychologist, believed that there are three
fundamental factors in personality:
• Introversion versus Extroversion
• Emotionally Stable versus Unstable (neurotic)
• Impulse Control versus Psychotic ( element of psychotic was
added later on)

Extraverts are sociable and impulse individuals who like
excitements and who are oriented toward external reality.
Introverts are quiet, introspective individuals who are oriented
toward inner reality and who prefer a well-oriented life.
Neurotics are emotionally unstable individuals. Some
unreasonably fear certain objects, places, persons, animals, open
spaces, or heights; others exhibit obsession or impulsive
symptoms.
Psychotics differ from neurotics. psychotics are insensitive to
others, hostile, cruel, and inhumane, with a strong need to
make fools of people and to upset them. Despite these socially
undesirable traits, psychotics tend to be creative.

Eysenck’s Theory, continued
The first two factors create 4 combinations, related to
the four basic temperaments recognized by ancient
Greeks:
• Melancholic (introverted + unstable): sad, gloomy
• Choleric (extroverted + unstable): hot-tempered, irritable
• Phlegmatic (introverted + stable): sluggish, calm
• Sanguine (extroverted + stable): cheerful, hopeful

Raymond Cattell: believed that there were two basic
categories of traits:
• Surface Traits: Features that make up the visible areas
of personality
• Source Traits: Underlying characteristics of a
personality
Cattell also constructed the 16PF, a personality test
identifying 16 personality factors (source traits).
Cattell: Source & Surface Traits
Raymond Cattell

The Sixteen Personality Factors

Cattell: The Big Five
Cattell believed that five factors were
most important:
 Openness
 Conscientiousness
 Extraversion
 Agreeable
 Neuroticism (instability, anxiety,
aggression)

Sigmund Freud : Viennese physician who thought his patients’
problems were more emotional than physical.
Freud began his work by using hypnosis and eventually
switched to psychoanalysis.
Freud had many followers: Jung and Adler, to name a few.
More than 100 years later, his work is still influential and very
controversial
Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory
Sigmund Freud

Id: Innate biological instincts and urges; self-serving &
irrational
• Totally unconscious
• Works on Pleasure Principle: Wishes to have its desires
(pleasurable) satisfied NOW, without waiting and regardless
of the consequences
The Id, Ego, and Superego
Ego: Executive; directs id energies
• Partially conscious and partially unconscious
• Works on Reality Principle: Delays action until it is practical
and/or appropriate

Superego: Judge or censor for thoughts and actions of the
ego
• Superego comes from our parents or caregivers; guilt
comes from the superego
• Two parts
- Conscience: Reflects actions for which a person has
been punished (e.g., what we shouldn’t do or be)
- Ego Ideal: Second part of the superego; reflects
behavior one’s parents approved of or rewarded (e.g.,
what we should do or be)
The Id, Ego, and Superego…….

Conscious: Everything you are aware of at a given moment
Preconscious: Material that can easily be brought into
awareness
Unconscious: Holds repressed memories and emotions and
the id’s instinctual drives
Levels of Awareness

Unconscious theory
• Conscious
• Freud’s first level of awareness, consisting of the thoughts,
feelings, and actions of which people are aware.
• Preconscious
• Freud’s second level of awareness, consisting of the
mental activities of which people gain awareness by
attending to them.
• Unconscious
• Freud’s third level of awareness, consisting of the mental
activities beyond people’s normal awareness.

PART 3
SOCIAL-COGNITIVE THEORIES

Self-system: the set of cognitive processes by which a person
observes, evaluates, and regulates his/her behavior. Bandura
proposed that what we think of as personality is a product of this
self-system.
Children observe behavior of models (such as parents) in their social
environment. Particularly if they are reinforced, children will
imitate these behaviors, incorporating them into personality.
Bandura also proposed that people observe their own behavior and
judge its effectiveness. Self-efficacy: a judgment of one’s
effectiveness in dealing with particular situations.
Bandura’s Theory

Julian Rotter: American psychologist, began as a Freudian!
His personality theory combines learning principles, modeling,
cognition, and the effects of social relationships
External locus of control: perception that chance or
external forces beyond personal control determine one’s fate
Internal locus of control: perception that you control your
own fate.
Learned Helplessness: a sense of hopelessness in which a
person thinks that he/she is unable to prevent aversive events
Rotter’s Theory of Locus of Control

Attitude
"A learned predisposition to respond in a consistently
favourable or unfavourable manner with respect to a
given object.“
Attitudes can be positive / Negative
“Attitudes are evaluative statements indicating one’s
feeling either favourably or unfavourably towards
persons, objects,events or situations”

Attitudes
Evaluative statements or judgments concerning
objects, people, or events.
Three components of an attitude:
Attitude
Behavioral
Cognitive
Affective
The emotional or
feeling segment
of an attitudeThe opinion or
belief segment
of an attitude
An intention to
behave in a certain
way toward someone
or something

ABOVE SEA LEVEL
BEHAVIOR
VALUES – STANDARDS – JUDGMENTS
ATTITUDE
MOTIVES – ETHICS - BELIEFS
KNOWLEDGE &
SKILLS
KNOWN TO
OTHERS
UNKNOWN TO
OTHERS
10 %
90 %

Features of Attitude
Changes with time & situation
Related to feelings & beliefs of people
Effects one’s behavior positively or negatively
Affect perception
Learned through experiences

Family and
Peers Group
Neighborhood
Attitude
Vicarious
Learning
Economical
Status
Mass
Communication
Experience with
the object
Formation Of Attitude

Formation Of Attitude
 Experience with Object : Attitude can develop from a personally
rewarding or punishing experience with a object.
 Vicarious Learning : Formation of attitude by observing behavior of
others and consequences of that behavior.
 Family and Peer Groups : A person may learn attitudes through imitation of
parents.
 Neighbourhood : Involves being told what attitudes to have by parents,
schools, community organizations, religious doctrine, friends, etc.
 Economic Status : Our Economical and occupational positions also
contribute to attitude formation.
 Mass Communication : Television, Radio, Newspaper and magazine
feed their audiences large quantities of information.

Determinants of Attitude
Experience
Education
Environment
Environment consists of the
following:
•Home: positive or negative
influences
•School: peer pressure
•Work: supportive or over critical
supervisor
•Media: television, newspapers,
magazines, radio, movies
•Culture
Experiences
our behavior changes according to our experiences with people and
events in our life. If we have a positive experience with a person, our
attitude toward him becomes positive

Change of Attitude.
Changing attitude
of self.
Changing attitude
of employees.

Changing attitude of self.
 Be aware of one’s attitude.
 Realize that there are few , if any, benefits from harboring
negative attitude.
 Keep an open mind.
 Built a positive self esteem.
 Stay away from negative influence.

Changing Attitude of Employees
 Give feedback.
 Accentuated positive conditions.
 Positive role model.
 Providing new information.
 Use of fear.
 Influence of friends or peer group.

Learning
1. “a persisting change in human performance
or performance potential . . . (brought) about
as a result of the learner’s interaction with the
environment” (Driscoll).
2. “the relatively permanent change in a
person’s knowledge or behavior due to
experience” (Mayer).
3. “an enduring change in behavior, or in the
capacity to behave in a given fashion, which
results from practice or other forms of
experience” (Shuell).

Nature of learning
• Learning involves change.
• The change must be relatively permanent.
• Learning involves change in behavior.
• There is no age for learning

The behavioral learning is represented as an S-R .The organism is
treated as a “black box.” We only know what is going on inside the
box by the organism’s overt behavior.
Stimulus
(S)
Organism
(O)
Response
(R)
Behavioral Learning

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING THEORY
Classical conditioning was the first type of learning to be
discovered and studied within the behaviorist tradition (hence the
name classical).
Classical conditioning can be defined as a process in which a
formerly neutral stimulus when paired with an unconditioned
stimulus, becomes a conditioned stimulus that illicit a
conditioned response. (Luthans)
The major theorist in the development of classical conditioning is
Ivan Pavlov, a Russian scientist trained in biology and medicine
(as was his German contemporary, Sigmund Freud).

The specific model for classical conditioning is:
• A stimulus will naturally (without learning) elicit or bring about a
reflexive response
• Unconditioned Stimulus (US) elicits >
Unconditioned Response (UR)
• Neutral Stimulus (NS) --- does not elicit the response of interest
• This stimulus (sometimes called an orienting stimulus as it elicits an
orienting response) is a neutral stimulus since it does not elicit the
Unconditioned (or reflexive) Response.

OPERANT CONDITIONING THEORY
 Type of learning in which behavior is influenced by its
consequences.
 The operant conditioning states : “ a behavior that has a
rewarding consequence tends to be repeated, whereas a negative
or punishing consequence tends not to be repeated again”
a) Operant-> Operant is the behavior that produces effects.
b) Responses -> Skinner put forward the idea that most of our
responses cannot be attributed to unknown stimulus

SKINNER’S EXPERIMENT WITH RAT
• Skinner developed a special apparatus known as skinner’s box.
• This box has a grid floor, a system of light or sound produced at the
time of delivery of a pellet of food, in the food cup, on the pressing of
lever.
• Skinner placed a hungry rat in the box.
• In this experiment, pressure on the bar in a certain way, by the rat
could result in the production of a click and emergence of a food
pellet.
• The rat was rewarded for each proper pressing of the lever.
• The rat repeated this process, and ultimately learned to press the
lever as desired by the experimenter.

MECHANISM OF OPERANT CONDITIONING
• Shaping: The process of building a chain of responses
through a step by step process called shaping.
• Chaining: Chaining refer to a process in which required
behavior or task is broken down into small steps for its
effective
learning.
• Discrimination: It is a process of using signals, clues to
determine when behavior is likely to be reinforced or
punished.
• Generalization: It refer to the ability of an organism dealing
with the perception of response to, similar stimuli.

© 2003 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved.
2–
104
CLASSICALCONDITIONING Vs OPERANT CONDITIONING
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING OPERANT CONDITIONING
Behavior is the result of stimulus
(there may be direct relationship
between stimulus and response)
Behavior is the result of
consequence. ( many possible
behaviors can result in particular
stimulus situation)
Responses are fixed to stimulus (no
choice)
Responses are variable in types
and degree (choice)
CS is stimulus such as a sound , an
object, a person, etc.
CS is situation such as an office, a
social setting, a specific set of
circumstances
Reinforcement is not received by
choice
Person is instrumental in securing
reinforcement by ‘operating’ on the
environment

COGNITIVE THEORY OF LEARNING
 This theory is based on the experiments conducted by Tolman
using rats in the laboratory.
 He showed that they learned to run through a complicated maze
towards their goal or food.
 The learning took place when the relationship between the cues
and the expectancy was strengthened because the cues led to the
expected goals.
 Based on this theory training programs have been designed to
strengthen the relationship between the cognitive cues such as
supervision, job procedures etc and workers expectations like
monetary rewards.

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
Social learning theory recognizes that learning is a blend of
conditioning and cognitive process.
is a type of learning that occurs as a function of observing,
retaining and replicating novel behavior executed by others
occurs when an observers behavior changes after viewing the
behavior of a model
also known as vicarious learning, social learning or modeling.
Social learning theory holds that children in particular, learn by
observing and imitating models
Children take an active part in their own learning
The child’s own characteristics influence the choice of models.

Guiding principles behind Social learning theory:
1. The observer will imitate the model’s behavior if the model
possesses desirable characteristics.
2.The observer will react to the way the model is treated and imitate
the models behavior.
3. People can learn by observing the behavior of others and the
outcomes of those behaviors.
4. Learning by observation involves four separate processes:
Attention, Retention, Production, and
Motivation.

Reinforcement Theory ( B.F Skinner)
 According to this theory , past actions and outcomes
influence a persons present and future actions.
 Past behaviors associated with positive outcomes
are repeated in future , while the negative ones are
avoided.
 The behavior of a person is thereby influenced by
External environment.
 The future behavior is thus reinforcement of past
outcomes.

Positive Reinforcement: It is a method of strengthening behavior
by offering rewards for good performance. ( e.g. Manager using
rewards or praise for an employee for his performance)
 Positive reinforcement is a reward for a desirable behavior.
 The reward should be sufficiently powerful and durable , so that it
increases the probability of occurrence of desirable behavior.
 Negative reinforcement or Avoidance learning : It takes place
when an individual learns to escape or avoid unpleasant
consequences. Eg. Driving carefully to avoid any accident.
 Negative reinforcement is different from Punishment which is
used to curb undesirable behaviour.
TYPES OF REINFORCEMENT

Extinct behavior: It means non –reinforcement i.e if a response is
not reinforced, it will eventually disappear. This is used to weaken
the behavior. ( eg. A manger ignoring the behavior of an employee)
 Punishment: This is the last resort used to restrain the behavior of
an employee ( eg a manager reprimanding an employee for coming
late, an deducting his salary).
 Punishment is used to avoid undesirable behavior in future.
 The undesirable behavior should be focused and not the person
 Punishment should be administered privately, and not in public.
 Punishment should immediately follow the undesirable behavior
to have the maximum effect.

Individual dimensions of organizational behavior

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Individual dimensions of organizational behavior