Thursday, November 29, 2007

OB Handout # 3

Personality and Attitudes

What is personality?

Personal characteristics that lead to consistent patterns of behavior
Observable patterns of behaviour that last over time (Trait theory)
How the unconscious of an individual reacts to stimuli (Psychoanalytic theory)
Self-actualization and the drive to realize one’s potential (Humanistic theory)

According to Fred Luthans, people’s external appearance and traits, their inner awareness of self, and the person-situation interaction make up their personalities. S P Robbins has defined personality as ‘sum total of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with others’.


What shapes personality?
Heredity: physical stature, facial attractiveness, gender, temperament, muscle composition and reflexes, energy levels etc are broadly attributed to biological factors. Parents’ biological, physiological and inherent psychological make-up contribute to an individual’s personality to a great extent. According to ‘Heredity’ approach, the ultimate explanation of an individual’s personality is the molecular structure of the genes, located in the chromosomes.
However, the critics observe that if personality characteristics were completely dictated by heredity, they would be fixed at birth and no amount of experience/learning could alter them. There are evidences to prove that experience and learning can shape one’s personality to a fairly great extent although changing physical features and personal disposition is not possible.

Environment: Environment plays an important role in shaping one’s personality. People are greatly influenced by culture, values, traditions, formal and informal groups etc. More importantly, an individual learns to react to situations in a particular way as a result of socialization process one is exposed to.

Person-situation interaction: An individual’s personality, although generally stable and consistent, does change in different situations. Individuals react to different situations differently. Moreover, individuals may also react differently to an identical situation. Thus, person-situation interactions keep adding to overall development of one’s personality.



Personality Traits
The Big Five Personality Traits:
There are five core personality traits that best predict performance at the workplace. Although, the five traits are largely independent factors of personality, they operate alongside other traits to provide a unique mix of personality.
Following are the five core traits of personality:
Conscientiousness: Dependable, hardworking, organized, self-disciplined, persistent, responsible. A high conscientious person pursues fewer goals in a purposeful way.
Emotional Stability: Calm, secure, happy, enthusiastic. Those with low emotional stability tend to be nervous, depressed and insecure.
Agreeableness: Cooperative, warm, caring, good-natured, courteous, trusting. People with low agreeableness tend to focus more on their personal needs rather than needs of others.
Extraversion: Sociable, outgoing, talkative, assertive, gregarious.
Openness to experience: Curious, intellectual, creative, cultured, artistically sensitive, flexible, imaginative.

Myers Briggs Type Indicators
This is based on the theory proposed by Carl Jung in 1920. Jung observed that people can be classified into Extrovert-Introvert, Sensing-Intuitive, Thinking-Feeling, Judging-Perceiving. In 1940s, Katherine Briggs and Isabel Briggs-Myers developed a 100-item personality test asking participants how they usually feel or act in particular situations in order to measure the preferences on the four pairs of traits yielding 16 distinct types.
ISTJIntroverted Sensing with Thinking
ISFJIntroverted Sensing with Feeling
INFJIntroverted iNtuition with Feeling
INTJIntroverted iNtuition with Thinking
ISTPIntroverted Thinking with Sensing
ISFPIntroverted Feeling with Sensing
INFPIntroverted Feeling with iNtuition
INTPIntroverted Thinking with iNtuition
ESTPExtraverted Sensing with Thinking
ESFPExtraverted Sensing with Feeling
ENFPExtraverted iNtuition with Feeling
ENTPExtraverted iNtuition with Thinking
ESTJExtraverted Thinking with Sensing
ESFJExtraverted Feeling with Sensing
ENFJExtraverted Feeling with iNtuition
ENTJExtraverted Thinking with iNtuition


A large number of companies are using MBTI in their MDPs and team-building initiatives. Examples: AT & T, Exxxon, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard etc.

Attitude
Attitude is a persistent tendency to feel and behave in a particular way towards some object. Like personality, attitudes are a complex cognitive process that has three basic features: they persist unless changed in some way, they range along a continuum, and they are directed towards an object about which a person has feelings/beliefs. According to Breckler and Wiggins, attitudes are enduring mental representations of various features the social and physical world.

Functions of Attitude
helps people adjusts to their environment
helps people defend their self-image
provides a basis for people’s value system
supplies standards and frames of references that allow people to organize their worldview

Process of Formation of Attitudes
Social Learning: acquiring attitudes by way of social interactions and value system
Direct Experience
Modeling: acquiring attitudes by observing others.

Mechanism of changing attitudes

Richard M Steers has suggested following methods of engineering attitude change
1. Providing new information
2. Fear arousal or reduction
3. Dissonance arousal (dissonance leads to inconsistencies in attitude and behaviour causing unpleasant feeling which results in change in attitude)
4. Position discrepancy
5. Participation in decision-making

Kelman has suggested the following processes to alter attitude:
· Compliance: applying subtle pressure on the individual to comply with a particular norm either by threat of punishment or by promise of reward
· Identification: Change agent influences the individual with his own attributes that is so powerful that people start identifying with him and following his way of looking at things.
· Internalization: new attitude is integrated with other attitude and becomes a part of individual’s personality.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

OB Handout # 4

Job Satisfaction

What is Job Satisfaction?

--A psychological expression of contentment on the job.
--An emotional response to job situation.
--The extent to which an individual find fulfillment in his/her work.
--Employees’ perception of how well their job provides those things that are viewed as important.
--Individual’s general attitude towards his/her job.

According to Locke, job satisfaction is a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experience.

Sources of Job Satisfaction

Work itself: The content of the work itself is great source of job satisfaction. The management may augment job satisfaction of the employees by redesigning the work. Some of the important measures may be as under:
Job Engineering: making the job interesting by innovative techniques and improved design of the equipments.
Job Enrichment: vertically loading the job to provide more responsibilities.
Job Rotation: moving employees from one relatively simpler job to another after short periods. (example: an employee at Mc Donald’s may cook French Fires one day, fry hamburgers the other day, wait on the customer the next day and draw soft drinks the following day.)
Job Enlargement: increasing the number of tasks each employee performs (example: A sales clerk who waits on customers, finalizes sales, helps with credit applications, arranges merchandize, and records stock has an enlarged job.)
Job Characteristics:
Skill Variety:
the extent to which the job requires the employees to draw from a number of different skills and abilities as well as on a range of knowledge.
Task Identity: job should have an identifiable beginning and end. The employee will be more satisfied if he is involved in a job from beginning to end.
Task Significance: involves the importance of the task. If the task is important both for the company and the society at large, the employees are likely to derive a lot more satisfaction.
Autonomy: job independence. Job satisfaction will depend on how much freedom and control do employees have, for example, to schedule their own work, make decisions, or determine the means to accomplish the objectives.
Feedback: objective information about progress and performance.
Various job characteristics lead to three critical psychological states:
Meaningfulness: comes from task significance.
Responsibility: comes from task identity, autonomy and autonomy.
Knowledge of results: comes from feedback.

Rewards: Employees often see pay as a reflection of how management views their contribution to the organization, which in turn has a bearing on job satisfaction. The companies have therefore come up with various reward programmes linked to employees’ performance such as variable pay, skill-based pay, profit sharing, gain sharing, trust pay, employee stock ownership plan etc.

Promotional avenues: Employees are likely to have low job satisfaction in case there are hardly any promotional avenues within the organization. To augment job satisfaction, a number of companies have elaborate career development programmes, succession plans, assessment centers etc.

Supervision: Supervisory styles have a direct bearing on job satisfaction. In case the supervisor is autocratic, the employees are likely to be dissatisfied. On the other hand, if the supervisor makes way for employees’ participation in decision-making, goal-setting and making action plan to accomplish a job, the employees are likely to experience far more satisfaction at the work place.
Co-workers: Nature of co-workers may also have significant bearing on employee’s job satisfaction. In case the co-workers are hostile, non-cooperative and bad mouthed, the employee might experience dissatisfaction at the workplace. On the other hand, friendly co-workers may provide a lot of job satisfaction despite the job being quite tiring and demanding. Management can take corrective measures by providing more opportunities for socialization.

Working conditions: Working condition has a modest impact on job satisfaction. If the working condition is good ( for example: clean attractive surrounding, controlled temperature, proper illumination) the employees find it easier to work. On the other hand, if the working condition is poor (for example: hot and sultry environment, noisy surrounding, unhygienic workplace, etc.) the employees find it difficult to carry out their job. These days, most of the companies are working on Quality of Work-life programmes so as to make the workplace conducive for better performance and increased job satisfaction.

Personality: Personal disposition of an employee also has a direct bearing on job satisfaction. A cynical employee would never ever experience job satisfaction where as a person with positive outlook and attitude would experience satisfaction at the workplace despite all odds.


Outcomes of Job Satisfaction

Performance: It has been generally viewed that higher job satisfaction leads to higher performance (productivity).
Turnover: Low job satisfaction leads to higher labour turnover, on the contrary, high job satisfaction leads to low labour turnover.
Absenteeism: Low job satisfaction leads to higher absenteeism, on the contrary, high job satisfaction leads to low absenteeism.

How the employees express job dissatisfaction?

Exit: leaving the organization, looking for a new job
Voice: actively and constructively attempting to improve conditions
Loyalty: passively but optimistically waiting for conditions to improve, speaking up for organization in the wake of external criticism and trusting the organization and its management to do the right thing.
Neglect: passively allowing conditions to worsen, chronic absenteeism, reduced efforts, increased error rate.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

OB Handout # 5

Motivational Needs and Processes

What is motivation?
‘Motivation’ is derived from the Latin term ‘movere’ that means ‘to move’. Thus, motivation is a process that starts with a physiological or psychological deficiency or need that activates a behaviour or a drive that is aimed at a goal or incentive (Luthans). Broadly speaking, motivation is willingness to exert high levels of efforts towards organizational goals, conditioned by the efforts’ ability to satisfy some individual needs (Robbins). Need means some internal state that make certain outcomes appear attractive. An unsatisfied need creates tension that stimulates drives within the individual. These drives generate a search behaviour to find particular goals, that if attained, will satisfy the need and lead to the reduction in tension. In other words, needs create motives for a particular action (behaviour).

Primary motives are hunger, thirst, maternal concerns, avoidance of pain, etc. These motives are involuntary. Then there are secondary motives which play an important role in employee motivation. Examples of secondary motives are: need for achievement, need for power, need for affiliation, need for security, and need for status.

Theories of Motivation

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:
Abraham Maslow suggested that needs of human being can be arranged in a hierarchical order. He maintained that the moment a particular need is satisfied, it ceases to be a motivator. Given below is the hierarchy of needs (with company strategies to meet those needs in brackets)

Self-Actualization: self-fulfillment
(opportunities for personal growth, realization of potentials)

Esteem Needs: self-respect, autonomy, achievement, recognition
(titles, status, symbols, promotion)

Social Needs: affection, belogingness, acceptance
(formal and informal work groups)

Safety Needs: security and protection from any contingencies
(seniority plans, health insurance, social security measures)

Physiological Needs: Basic Needs
(Salary and Wages)

Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene
Fredrick Herzberg proposed Motivation-Hygiene theory of motivation. According to Herzberg, the factors leading to job satisfaction are distinctly different from those that lead to job-dissatisfaction. Therefore, the managers who seek to eliminate factors that create job-dissatisfaction can bring about peace at the workplace but cannot motivate the employees. These factors are termed as hygiene factors comprising administration, supervision, working conditions, salary and wages etc. While absence of hygiene factors will lead to dissatisfaction, mere presence of these factors will not satisfy (i.e. motivate) the employees. In order to motivate the employees, managers must resort to ‘motivators’ (those factors that motivate the employees towards better performance) such as recognition, challenging assignment, responsibility, opportunities for growth and self-fulfillment etc.

ERG Theory
Clayton Alderfer proposed the ERG theory of motivation. According to Alderfer, there are three groups of core needs: Existence (basic material existence, safety needs); Relatedness (social and self-esteem needs); and Growth: an intrinsic desire to grow and self-fulfillment. Contrary to Maslow’s theory, he proposed that more than one need may be operative at the same time and if the gratification of higher level need is stifled, the desire to satisfy lower level need would increase. For example, inability to satisfy the need for socialization may lead an individual to concentrate on making more money.

Mclelland’s Theory of Needs
David Mclelland and his associates developed a theory of needs that provides a practical framework for motivational programmes at workplaces across the globe.

The theory focuses on three needs:

Need for Achievement: Drive to excel and become champions

Need for Power: Urge to control actions/ behaviour of others

Need for Affiliation: Desire for intense socialization

Some reflections on the Theory of Needs

A high achievement need does not necessarily mean that the person would be a good manager, especially in large organizations. People with high achivement needs are interested in how well they do personally and not in influencing others to do well. A salesperson with high achievement need would not necessarily make a good sales manager, and a good general manager in a large organization may have low achievement need.

A person with high affiliation need may be a good team-worker. However, a manager with high affiliation need may face a lot of problems. The best managers have high need of power and low need of affiliation.

Goal-setting Theory
Edwin Lock proposed the Goal Setting theory in 1960s. He observed that intention to work toward a goal is a major source of motivation. A goal tells the employees what is to be done and what should be the intensity of efforts. Specific goals have invariably resulted in higher performance. If factors like ability and acceptance of the goals are held constant, difficult goals are likely to produce better results. Feedback plays an important role in Goal-setting theory. Feedback reinforces high performance behaviour. Lack of feedback may jeopardize goal accomplishment.

Besides feedback, success of Goal-setting theory also depends on goal commitment, self-efficacy and culture.

Goal commitment: employee is committed to goal i.e. he is determined not to lower or abandon the goal.

Self-efficacy: employee’s belief in his/her ability to accomplish the goal

Culture: shared values and meanings are crucial. Due to cultural influence, Japanese tend to have higher goal commitments and self-efficacy.

Expectancy Theory of Motivation
Victor Vroom proposed the Expectancy Theory of Motivation. Vroom observed that the strength of a tendency to act in a certain way depends on the strength of an expectation that the act will be followed by a given outcome and on the attractiveness of that outcome to the individual. For example, an employee will be motivated to exert a high level of effort when he or she believes that efforts will lead to good performance appraisal which in turn will result in salary hike, incentive, bonus, promotion that will satisfy personal goals of the employee.

The theory is based on the following three relationships:
Effort-Performance Relationship: The probability perceived by the individual that exerting a given amount of effort will lead to performance
Performance-Reward Relationship: The degree to which the individual believes that performing at a particular level will lead to the attainment of a desired outcome.
Reward-Personal Goal Relationship: The degree to which organizational rewards satisfy an individual’s personal goals and attractiveness of those potential rewards for the individual.

Linking Motivational Theories with HR Practices at the Workplace

Management by Objective (MBO)
MBO is linked to goal-setting theory. Peter Drucker proposed this concept. Broadly speaking, MBO is a process of agreeing upon objectives within an organization. MBO is often accomplished by using set targets. Objectives should be SMART i.e. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-specific. Reliance Industries Limited in India has successfully implemented MBO programme. Any MBO initiative must be implemented along side suitable adjustment in rewards and feedback system.

Employee Recognition Programmes
Employee recognition programmes cater to the social needs and self-esteem needs of the employees. These include awards, newsletter announcements regarding accomplishments of an individual or a group, appreciation letter, certificate of merit, employee of the month/year programme, annual felicitation programmes to honour outstanding performers etc.

Employee Involvement Programmes
This is aimed at augmenting the commitment of the employees towards organization by providing them a role in decision making, autonomy, empowerment and stock ownership. Thus, employee involvement strategies link the destines of the employees with the of the company/organization. For example, by granting the employees a role in decision-making, Ford Motors has benefited in terms of improved product design, cost reduction, quality improvement and overall productivity.

In number of organizations, workers participation in management is ensured by works council, works committees, quality circles etc. Besides many companies are now offering Employee Stock Ownership Plans in a big way to ensure employee involvement.

Reward System
A number of companies are resorting to performance-linked rewards in order to motivate employees. Examples are Variable Pay, Profit Sharing, Gain Sharing, Skill-based pay, flexible benefits, etc.