Organizational/Industrial Behaviour (Free Access)

  • Major focus on the human resources of an organisation
  • Hawthorne studies
    • from the illumination studies
  • Origins of OB
    • First few people – Henri Fayol, Chester Bernard and Mary Parker Follet
    • Frederick Taylor – Scientific Management (19th century)
    • Lillian and Frank Gilbreth – Time and Motion studies
    • Ford
    • Hawthorne (1920)
      • whether lighting increased or decreased productivity
      • created need for studying motivation
    • Motivation: Herzberg, Maslow, McClelland, Vroom, McGregor
    • Simon on decision making

(Study Tip: (TGMHS) Frederick TayloràGilberth → Elton Mayo (Hawthorne) → Motivation → Simon)

  • Motivation: An individual’s intensity, direction and persistence of effort towards attaining a goal
    • Intensity – how hard a person tries
    • Direction – where the intensity is channelled
    • Persistence – how long the intensity lasts
  • Motives are of two types:
  • Primary motives
    • unlearned and physiological
      • e.g. hunger, thirst, sex
  • Secondary motives 
    • Learned through experience
      • E.g. money, hard work, etc
  • Many theories of motivation exist. First we will see 4 major old theories
  • Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
    • Self actualisation is the main goal
    • Esteem – the need of an individual to value themself
    • Social- the need an individual feels with regard to their interpersonal existence
      • higher order needs – Social, esteem and self actualisation
      • satisfied internally
    • Safety – the need to feel protected by one’s environment
    • Physiological – the type of need that is innate and instinctual
      • lower order needs – Physiological & Safety
      • satisfied externally
    • Work will motivate more if culture is high in nurturing
    • (Study Tip: PS: ESE)
  • Theory X and Theory Y
      • Individuals view motivation is brought out in two ways:
        • X – negative
          • managers assume employees dislike work and coerce them to work
        • Y – positive
          • Managers view employees to be naturally interested so much so that they accept and seek responsibility
  • Two-factor theory/Motivational hygiene
    • Frederick Herzberg
    • Hygiene factors- are not related to motivation but to prevent dissatisfaction. If these factors are good and present, it will prevent dissatisfaction. If not present or bad, it will lead towards dissatisfaction
    • Manifested in conditions such as:quality of supervision
      • pay
      • company policies
      • physical working conditions
      • relationship
      • job security
      • Motivating factors – are internally rewarding factors such aspromotional opportunities
      • personal growth
      • recognition
      • responsibility
      • achievement
  • McClelland Theory of Needs
    • Need for Achievement (nAch) – drive to excel
      • High achievers prefer 50-50 chance
      • No satisfaction due to chance
      • Low odds require less skills and dislike
      • Prefer jobs with high degree personal responsibilities, feedback and intermediate risk
    • Need for Power (nPow) – need to make others do things that they wouldn’t otherwise
    • Need for Affiliation (nAff) – desire for friendly and close interpersonal relationships
    • N(Aff and Pow) combination
      • Good managers
      • Best managers (task oriented) are low in nAff and high in nPow
  • Contemporary theories
  • Self Determination Theory (SDT) [Deci and Ryan]
    • Cognitive Evaluation Theory (CET)
      • Extrinsic rewards will reduce intrinsic interest in a task
      • Important are the needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness
        • Self-concordance – predicts the closeness of people’s reasons for pursuing goals and are consistent with their interest and values
        • Job engagement – the involvement of an employee’s physical, cognitive and emotional energies into job performance
          • depends on
            • employees’ view on meaningfulness of work
            • values and those of the organisation
  • Goal setting (Edwin Loeke)
      • specific goals increase performance
      • difficult goals lead to better performance
      • feedback leads to better performance
      • task characteristics define goal setting
      • national culture also affect goal setting
        • Management by objective (MBO)
          • tangible, verifiable and measurable
  • Equity theory (J. Stacy Adams)
    • Employees perceive what they get from a job to what they put in and compare the same to others
      • creates guilt if there work requires less effort and more pay
    • 4 referents points for comparison
      • Self inside – employees’ experiences in a different position inside the current organisation
      • Self outside – employees’ experiences in a different or same position outside
      • Other inside – another individual inside the same organisation
      • Other outside – another individual outside the same organisation
    • Moderators of motivation are
      • gender
      • length of tenure
      • level in organisation
      • amount of education 
      • professionalism 
    • Equity distribution are based on:
      • Distributive justice
        • employees perceive fairness of the amount of rewards based on individuals who receive them
      • Expanded to organisation justice
        • perception that rewards and the way of their distribution are fair
      • Procedural justice
        • The process used towards distribution of justice
      • Interactional justice
        • perception of treatment in terms of dignity, concern and respect
  • Expectancy theory (Victor Vroom)
    • our actions are determined by our expectancy of results
  • Self-efficacy/socio-cognitive /social learning (Albert Bandura)
    • An individual’s belief in their ability to perform a task
    • high self-efficacy individual perform better
    • 4 ways towards better performance:
      • Enactive mastery – relevant mastery with the task
      • Vicarious Modelling – the sight of someone else doing the job
      • Verbal persuasion – feeling confident because someone else convinces the individual
      • Arousal – an optimum level of arousal aids performance; too much ruins it.
    • Social learning depends on 4 processes
      • Attentional process – only when people pay attention to critical features
      • Retention – how well an individual remembers
      • Motor reproduction – from watching to doing
      • Reinforcement – provide positive incentive
  • Pygmalion effect or Rosenthal effect – Other people’s view affecting the individuals performance 
    • Can hinder and assist
  • Galatea effect- individual’s self-fulfilling prophecy i.e. their own belief in their capability affecting their performance.

Leadership is the ability of an individual to move a group toward the achievement of certain visions or goals.

  • Trait theories focused on personal traits and characteristics as related to leadership with extraversion being important, followed by conscientiousness, openness to experience, emotional stability and agreeableness
  • Behavioural theories on leadership
    • Initiating structure – definition of roles of employees and oneself
    • Consideration – consideration and appreciation of employees
    • Employee oriented – leadership that looks to benefit the employees
    • Performance oriented – leadership that looks to get work done for the organization.
  • Contingency theories
    • Friedler Model
      • effective group performance depends on match between leader’s style and the leader’s degree of control
      • Identifying leadership style (Cognitive Resource theory)
        • least preferred co-workers test
          • If one answers favourably – relationship oriented
          • If one answers unfavourably – task oriented
          • ↓unfavourable
          • ↑favourable
    • 3 situational determinants
      • Leader-member relations
        • degree of confidence, trust and respect
      • Task structure
        • how procedurized (structured or unstructured)
      • Positional power
        • degree of influence on power variables
  • Matching leaders and situations
    • High and low control – task oriented
    • Moderate control – relationship oriented
  • Situational leadership theory (Hercy and Blanchard)
    • Leadership depends on followers, 
    • It should be contingent on follower-readiness
    • 4 types of behaviours of employees
      • unable and unwilling – leader needs to give clear and specific instructions
      • unable and willing – high task orientation and relationship
      • able and unwilling – supportive and participative style
      • able and willing – not much is required from the leader
    • not supported much by research
  • Path-Goal theory (Robert House and Martin Evans)
    • Leadership looks to help employees reach their goals
    • All the following styles can be used by one person
      • Directive leadership – tasks are ambiguous
      • Participative leadership – asks suggestion but leader makes decisions
      • Achievement oriented leadership – sets challenges for associative and shows confidence in them
  • Leader Participation Model
    • method of leader decision-making is important
  • Normative decision-making [Victor Vroom]
    • 5 types
      • Decide – makes all decisions
      • Consult – leader to group members individually
      • Consult (group) – group decisions but leader makes decisions
      • Facilitate – group decisions but leader is equal
      • Delegate – doesn’t participate but provides resource
  • Leader-Member Exchange Theory
    • In-group of leaders, who take turns → Better performance
  • Charismatic leaders → charisma (Max Weber)
    • Robert House
    • followers attribute heroic or extraordinary leadership abilities when they observe certain behaviour
    • 4 steps
      • vision
      • vision statement
      • new set of rules and follows it himself/herself
      • Emotion-inducing
  • Transformational leadership (James McGregor Burns)
    • Transactional leaders – guide followers toward established goals by clarifying role and task requirement
    • Transformational leaders – guide followers to transcend self-interest
    • characterised by
      • idealised leadership
      • inspiring leadership
      • intellectual stimulation
      • individualised consideration
  • The IOWA Leadership Studies (1930) (Ronald Lippitt and Ralph White)
    • Authoritarian – single man show
    • Democratic – group decision
    • Laissez-faire – complete freedom; no leadership
    • Reactions to employees bad quality work –
      • Authoritarian
        • either aggressively or apathetically
        • born out of frustration
      • Laissez-faire
        • produced most number of aggressive acts
      • Democratic
        • in between
  • The Ohio State Leadership Studies
    • Leader Behaviour Description Questionnaire (LBDQ)
    • 2 dimensions
      • Consideration (relationship oriented)
      • Initiating structure (goal oriented)
  • Performance Evaluation
    • Task performance – performing duties and responsibilities that contribute to the production of goods and services or to administrative tasks
    • Citizenship – actions that contribute to the psychological environment of the organisation
    • Counter productivity – actions that actively damage the organisation
  • What do human resources evaluate?
    • Individual task outcomes – end counts rather than means
    • Behaviour – overt
    • Traits – personality
  • How do HR’s evaluate?
    • Written essays – narrative about self
    • Critical incidents – specific behaviour involved in performing a task effectively or not
    • Graphic Rating Scales
      • performance factors and rates each item from highest to lowest scale
      • less time and quantitative
    • Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scales
      • rated on actual behaviours
      • participants provide illustrations of effective and ineffective behaviour and then performance scores are measured
    • Forced comparison
      • compare one to the other
      • relative
      • 2 types
        • Group order
          • particular classification
            • eg. top fifth
        • Individual ranking
          • best to worst
  • Purpose of HR
    • Human Resource Decisions on hiring, firing, etc.
    • Identify training and Personnel development needs
    • Provide Feedback
    • Basis for Reward Allocation
  • Selection process
    • Initial selection
      • Application form
      • Background checks
    • Substantive selection
      • Written tests
      • Performance Simulation Test
      • Interviews
    • Contingent selection
      • Drug test
  • Types of training
    • Basic skills – reading, writing, math
    • Technical skills – technical knowledge given to new hires and older employees
    • Problem solving skills – for managers in order to sharpen logic, rearing, etc.
    • Interpersonal skills – to improve interaction
    • Civility training – to protect from bullying, abusive supervision, etc
    • Ethics training
    • Training methods
      • Formal
      • Informal – on the job

Suggested Reading(s):

  1. I would absolutely recommend enrolling in the course. The content is organised and well-explained. They have covered entire domain included…