Organizational 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 as
        • promotional 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):

• Industrial Organizational Psychology
• Organizational Psychology: A Scientist Practitioner Approach
• Organizational Psychology