MPOB – UNIT 3 & 4

PERSONALITY
The word personality is derived from a Greek word “persona” which means “to speak
through.” Personality is the combination of characteristics or qualities that forms a person’s
unique identity. It signifies the role which a person plays in public. Every individual has a
unique, personal and major determinant of his behaviour that defines his/her personality.
Personality trait is basically influenced by two major features −

 Inherited characteristics
 Learned characteristics

Inherited Characteristics

The features an individual acquires from their parents or forefathers, in other words the gifted
features an individual possesses by birth is considered as inherited characteristics. It consists
of the following features −

 Colour of a person’s eye

 Religion/Race of a person
 Shape of the nose
 Shape of earlobes

Learned Characteristics

Nobody learns everything by birth. First, our school is our home, then our society, followed by
educational institutes. The characteristics an individual acquires by observing, practicing, and
learning from others and the surroundings is known as learned characteristics.
Learned characteristics includes the following features −
 Perception − Result of different senses like feeling, hearing etc.
 Values − Influences perception of a situation, decision making process.
 Personality − Patterns of thinking, feeling, understanding and behaving.
 Attitude − Positive or negative attitude like expressing one’s thought.

Traits of Personality

Personality traits are the enduring features that define an individual’s behavior. A personality
trait is a unique feature in an individual. Psychologists resolved that there are five major
personality traits and every individual can be categorized into at least one of them. These five
personality traits are −

 Extrovert
 Neurotic
  Open
 Agreeable
 Conscientious

Major Personality Attributes

Following are the five major personality attributes that influence OB −

 Locus of Control
Locus of control is the centre of control of an individual’s code of conduct. People can be
grouped into two categories i.e., internals and externals respectively.
People who consider themselves as the masters of their own fates are known as internals, while,
those who affirm that their lives are controlled by outside forces known as externals.
Before making any decision, internals actively search for information, they are achievement
driven, and want to command their environment. Thus, internals do well on jobs that craves
complex information processing, taking initiative and independent action.
Externals, on the other hand, are more compliant, more willing to follow instructions, so, they
do well in structured, routine jobs.
 Machiavellianism
Machiavellianism is being practical, emotionally distant, and believing that ends justify means.
Machiavellians are always wanting to win and are great persuaders. Here are the significant
features of a high-mach individuals −

 High-Machs prefer precise interactions rather than beating about the bush.
 High-Machs tend to improvise; they do not necessarily abide by rules and
regulations all the time.
 High-Machs get distracted by emotional details that are irrelevant to the outcome
of a project.
 Self-esteem
It is the extent up to which people either like or dislike themselves. Self-Esteem is directly
related to the expectations of success and on-the-job satisfaction.
Individuals with high self-esteem think that they have what it takes to succeed. So, they take
more challenges while selecting a job.
On the other hand, individuals with low self-esteem are more susceptible to external
distractions. So, they are more likely to seek the approval of others and to adapt the beliefs and
behaviours of those they respect.
 Self-monitoring
Self-monitoring is the capability of regulating one’s behaviour according to social situations.
Individuals with high self-monitoring skill easily adjust their behaviour according to external,
situational factors. Their impulsive talents allow them to present public personae which are
completely different from their private personalities.
However, people with low self-monitoring skills cannot cover themselves. Regardless of any
situation, they are always themselves. They have an attitude of, “what you see is what you get.”
 Risk taking
Generally, managers are reluctant on taking risks. However, individual risk-taking inclination
affects the bulk of information required by the managers and how long it takes them to make
decisions.
Thus, it is very important to recognize these differences and align risk-taking propensity with
precise job demands that can make sense.

Determinants of Personality
The determinants of personality can be grouped in five broad categories:
1. Biological Factors
2. Cultural Factors
3. Family Factors
4. Social Factors
5. Situational Factors

Biological Factors

The study of the biological contributions to personality may be studied under three heads:

Heredity
Heredity refers to those factors that were determined at conception. Physical stature, facial
attractiveness, sex, temperament, muscle composition and reflexes, energy level, and
biological rhythms are characteristics that are considered to be inherent from one’s parents.
The heredity approach argues that the ultimate explanation of an individual’s personality is the
molecular structure of the genes, located in the chromosomes.

Brain
The second biological approach is to concentrate on the role that the brain plays in personality.
The psychologists are unable to prove empirically the contribution of the human brain in
influencing personality.

Preliminary results from the electrical stimulation of the brain (ESB) research give
an indication that a better understanding of human personality and behaviour might come from
the study of the brain.

Cultural Factors

Among the factors that influence personality formation is the culture in which we are raised,
early conditioning, norms prevailing within the family, friends and social groups and other
miscellaneous experiences that impact us.
The culture largely determines attitudes towards independence, aggression, competition,
cooperation and a host of other human responses.
According to Paul H Mussen, “each culture expects, and trains, its members to behave in ways
that are acceptable to the group. To a marked degree, the child’s cultural group defines the
range of experiences and situations he is likely to encounter and the values and personality
characteristics that will be reinforced and hence learned.”
Family Factors

Whereas the culture generally prescribes and limits what a person can be taught, it is the family,
and later the social group, which selects, interprets and dispenses the culture. Thus, the family
probably has the most significant impact on early personality development.

A substantial amount of empirical evidence indicates that the overall home environment
created by the parents, in addition to their direct influence, is critical to personality
development.
The parents play an especially important part in the identification process, which is important
to the person’s early development.

Social Factors

There is increasing recognition given to the role of other relevant persons, groups and
especially organisations, which greatly influence an individual’s personality. This is commonly
called the socialization process.

Socialization involves the process by which a person acquires, from the enormously wide range
of behavioural potentialities that are open to him or her, those that are ultimately synthesized
and absorbed.
Socialization starts with the initial contact between a mother and her new infant. After infancy,
other members of the immediate family – father, brothers, sisters and close relatives or friends,
then the social group: peers, school friends and members of the work group – play influential
roles.

Socialization process is especially relevant to organisational behaviour because the process is

not confined to early childhood, taking place rather throughout one’s life. In particular, the
evidence is accumulating that socialization may be one of the best explanations for why
employees behave the way they do in today’s organisations.

Situational Factors

Human personality is also influenced by situational factors. The effect of the environment is
quite strong. Knowledge, skill and language are obviously acquired and represent important
modifications of behaviour.
An individual’s personality, while generally stable and consistent, does change in different
situations. The varying demands of different situations call forth different aspects of one’s
personality.

According to Milgram, “Situation exerts an important press on the individual. It exercises

constraints and may provide a push. In certain circumstances, it is not so much the kind of
person a man is, as the kind of situation in which he is placed that determines his actions”. We
should therefore not look at personality patterns in isolation.
LEARNING
Learning can be defined as the permanent change in behaviour due to direct and indirect
experience. It means change in behaviour, attitude due to education and training, practice and
experience. It is completed by acquisition of knowledge and skills, which are relatively
permanent.

Nature of Learning

Nature of learning means the characteristic features of learning. Learning involves change; it
may or may not guarantee improvement. It should be permanent in nature, that is learning is
for lifelong.
The change in behaviour is the result of experience, practice and training. Learning is reflected
through behaviour.

Factors Affecting Learning

Learning is based upon some key factors that decide what changes will be caused by this
experience. The key elements or the major factors that affect learning are motivation, practice,
environment, and mental group.
Coming back to these factors let us have a look on these factors −
 Motivation − The encouragement, the support one gets to complete a task, to
achieve a goal is known as motivation. It is a very important aspect of learning
as it acts gives us a positive energy to complete a task. Example − The coach
motivated the players to win the match.
 Practice − We all know that” Practice makes us perfect”. In order to be a
perfectionist or at least complete the task, it is very important to practice what
we have learnt. Example − We can be a programmer only when we execute the
codes we have written.
 Environment − We learn from our surroundings; we learn from the people
around us. They are of two types of environments – internal and
external. Example − A child when at home learns from the family which is an
internal environment, but when sent to school it is an external environment.
 Mental group − It describes our thinking by the group of people we chose to
hang out with. In simple words, we make a group of those people with whom
we connect. It can be for a social cause where people with the same mentality
work in the same direction. Example − A group of readers, travellers, etc.
These are the main factors that influence what a person learns, these are the root level for our
behaviour and everything we do is connected to what we learn.

How Learning Occurs?

Learning can be understood clearly with the help of some theories that will explain our
behaviour. Some of the remarkable theories are −

 Classical Conditioning Theory

 Operant Conditioning Theory
 Social Learning Theory
 Cognitive Learning Theory

Classical Conditioning Theory

The classical conditioning occurs when a conditioned stimulus is coupled with an

unconditioned stimulus. Usually, the conditioned stimulus (CS) is an impartial stimulus like
the sound of a tuning fork, the unconditioned stimulus (US) is biologically effective like the
taste of food and the unconditioned response (UR) to the unconditioned stimulus is an
unlearned reflex response like salivation or sweating.
After this coupling process is repeated (for example, some learning may already occur after a
single coupling), an individual shows a conditioned response (CR) to the conditioned stimulus,
when the conditioned stimulus is presented alone. The conditioned response is mostly similar
to the unconditioned response, but unlike the unconditioned response, it must be acquired
through experience and is nearly impermanent.

Operant Conditioning Theory

Operant conditioning theory is also known as instrumental conditioning. This theory is a

learning process in which behaviour is sensitive to, or controlled by its outcomes.
Let’s take an example of a child. A child may learn to open a box to get the candy inside, or
learn to avoid touching a hot stove. In comparison, the classical conditioning develops a
relationship between a stimulus and a behaviour. The example can be further elaborated as the
child may learn to salivate at the sight of candy, or to tremble at the sight of an angry parent.
In the 20th century, the study of animal learning was commanded by the analysis of these two
sorts of learning, and they are still at the core of behaviour analysis.
Social Learning Theory

The key assumptions of social learning theory are as follows −

 Learning is not exactly behavioural, instead it is a cognitive process that takes
place in a social context.
 Learning can occur by observing a behaviour and by observing the outcomes of
the behaviour (known as vicarious reinforcement).
 Learning includes observation, extraction of information from those
observations, and making decisions regarding the performance of the behaviour
(known as observational learning or modelling). Thus, learning can occur
beyond an observable change in behaviour.
 Reinforcement plays an important role in learning but is not completely
responsible for learning.
 The learner is not a passive receiver of information. Understanding,
environment, and behavior all mutually influence each other.
Cognitive Learning Theory

Cognition defines a person’s ideas, thoughts, knowledge, interpretation, understanding about

himself and environment.
This theory considers learning as the outcome of deliberate thinking on a problem or situation
based upon known facts and responding in an objective and more oriented manner. It perceives
that a person learns the meaning of various objects and events and also learns the response
depending upon the meaning assigned to the stimuli.
This theory debates that the learner forms a cognitive structure in memory which stores
organized information about the various events that occurs.
Learning & Organizational Behaviour
An individual’s behaviour in an organization is directly or indirectly affected by learning.
Example − Employee skill, manager’s attitude is all learned.
Behaviour can be improved by following the listed tips −
 Reducing absenteeism by rewarding employees for their fair attendance.
 Improving employee discipline by dealing with employee’s undesirable
behaviour, drinking at workplace, stealing, coming late, etc. by taking
appropriate actions like oral reprimands, written warnings and suspension.
 Developing training programs more often so as to grab the trainees’ attention,
provide required motivational properties etc.

PERCEPTION
Perception is an intellectual process of transforming sensory stimuli to meaningful information.
It is the process of interpreting something that we see or hear in our mind and use it later to
judge and give a verdict on a situation, person, group etc.
It can be divided into six types −
 Of sound − The ability to receive sound by identifying vibrations.
 Of speech − The competence of interpreting and understanding the sounds of
language heard.
 Touch − Identifying objects through patterns of its surface by touching it.
 Taste − The ability to receive flavour of substances by tasting it through sensory
organs known as taste buds.
 Other senses − They approve perception through body, like balance,
acceleration, pain, time, sensation felt in throat and lungs etc.
 Of the social world − It permits people to understand other individuals and
groups of their social world. Example − Priya goes to a restaurant and likes their
customer service, so she will perceive that it is a good place to hang out and will
 recommend it to her friends, who may or may not like it. Priya’s perception
about the restaurant is good.

Perceptual Process
Perceptual process are the different stages of perception we go through. The different stages
are −
 Receiving
 Selecting
 Organizing
 Interpreting
Receiving
Receiving is the first and most important stage in the process of perception. It is the initial stage
in which a person collects all information and receives the information through the sense
organs.
Selecting
Selecting is the second stage in the process. Here a person doesn’t receive the data randomly
but selectively. A person selects some information out of all in accordance with his interest or
needs. The selection of data is dominated by various external and internal factors.
 External factors − The factors that influence the perception of an individual
externally are intensity, size, contrast, movement, repetition, familiarity, and
novelty.
 Internal factors − The factors that influence the perception of an individual
internally are psychological requirements, learning, background, experience,
self-acceptance, and interest.
Organizing
Keeping things in order or say in a synchronized way is organizing. In order to make sense of
the data received, it is important to organize them.
We can organize the data by −
 Grouping them on the basis of their similarity, proximity, closure, continuity.
 Establishing a figure ground is the basic process in perception. Here by figure
we mean what is kept as main focus and by ground we mean background stimuli,
which are not given attention.
 Perceptual constancy that is the tendency to stabilize perception so that
contextual changes don’t affect them.
Interpreting
Finally, we have the process of interpreting which means forming an idea about a particular
object depending upon the need or interest. Interpretation means that the information we have
sensed and organized, is finally given a meaning by turning it into something that can be
categorized. It includes stereotyping, halo effect etc.

Importance of Perception in OB
We need to understand what the role of perception in an organization is. It is very important in
establishing different role of perceptions like −
 Understanding the tasks to be performed.
 Understanding associated importance of tasks allotted.
 Understanding preferred behaviour to complete respective tasks.
 Clarifying role perceptions.
For example, every member in a group has to be clear regarding the role allotted to them.
Programmer writes the code, tester checks it, etc.

Factors Influencing Perception:

The factors which affect perceptual mechanism are of three kinds:

1. Characteristics of the Perceiver
2. Characteristics of the Perceived or target, and
3. Characteristic of the Situation

Characteristics of the Perceiver (Internal Factors):

These are the personal characteristics of the individuals:
(i) Needs & Motives:
Individuals’ perception is basically determined by their inner needs and motives. They take
things differently according to their different needs and motives. Different needs results in
different stimuli, similarly people select different items to satisfy their needs. According to
Freud, “Wishful thinking is the means by which the Id, a part of personality, attempts to achieve
tension reduction.” In such cases, people will perceive only those items which suit their wishful
thinking.
(ii) Self Concept:
How actually a person views others or the rest of the world will clearly decide that how he
thinks about himself, or what his self-concept is. It is largely based upon individuals complex
psychological make-up. Self-understanding helps understanding others.
(iii) Beliefs:
A person’s belief has direct impact on his perception. It is very difficult for an individual to
think beyond his personal beliefs because most of the times people go as per their beliefs and
they perceive in the same manner.
(iv) Past Experience:
People’s perception is greatly influenced by their past experiences. A person, having good
experience in past will perceive accordingly and vice versa.
(v) Current Psychological State:
Current psychological or emotional state of people plays an important role in perception.
Present position of the person defines how a person will perceive thing. Like, a person in a
good mood will perceive in a different manner as compared to a person who is not in a good
mood.

(vi) Expectations:
Again, expectations are major players in deciding how a person will perceive. Expectations are
related with the state of anticipation of particular behaviour from a person. E.g. If a person
thinks that Mr. X will never do anything good to him then even if Mr. X is right that person
will always remain under an impression that Mr. X is wrong.
2. Characteristics of the Perceived or Target:
(i) Size- The bigger is the size of the perceived stimulus, the greater the possibility that it is
perceived & vice versa. People tend to understand things better when it is explained in a clearer
manner and they understand the same accordingly.
(ii) Intensity- More intense the external stimulus is, the more likely it is to be perceived e.g. a
loud sound, bright colour etc. is more likely to attract attention than a soft sound or relatively
dull colour.
(iii) Frequency- The greater the frequency of repetition of things, the greater will be the
perceptual selectivity. This is also in accordance with the repetitive theory of learning.
(iv) Status- Perception is also influenced by the status of the perceiver. High status people can
have greater influence on perception of an employee as compared to low status people.
(v) Contrast – The stimulus which is in contrast with the surrounding environment attracts more
attention as compared to the stimuli that blends in.
3. Situational Factors:
Time, place and situation at the time of the communication plays an important role in
perception.
Such situational factors can be further classified as:
(i) Physical setting- This includes place, location, light, heat, ventilation, basic amenities etc.
If all these things are proper then people may perceive positively and vice versa.
(ii) Social setting- This includes human resources i.e. the people around you or the affected
parties or the people concerned about you or the persons you are concerned about or the people
who you work with.
(iii) Organizational setting- This includes the hierarchy in the organization, organizational
setup, structure etc. All these influences the perception.

VALUES
Values defined in Organizational Behaviour as the collective conceptions of what is
considered good, desirable, and proper or bad, undesirable, and improper in a culture.
Some common business values are fairness, innovations and community involvement. Values
refer to stable life goals that people have, reflecting on what is most important to them.

Several values interact with each other to form value system in a society. These are established
throughout one’s life as a result of accumulating life experiences and tend to be relatively
stable.
The values that are important to people tend to affect the types of decisions they make, how
they perceive their environment, and their actual behaviours.

Moreover, people are more likely to accept job offers when the company possesses the values
people care about.
Value attainment is one reason why people stay in a company, and when an organization does
not help them to attain their values, they are more likely to decide to leave if they are
dissatisfied with the job itself.
Types of Values
Rokeach divided values into two types.
Two types of values are;
1. Terminal Values.
2. Instrumental Values.
Terminal Values are most desirable to humans and Instrumental values are views of how
human desires should be achieved.
Terminal Values
These are values that we think are most important or most desirable.
These refer to desirable end-states of existence, the goals a person would like to achieve during
his or her lifetime.
They include happiness, self-respect, recognition, inner harmony, leading a prosperous life,
and professional excellence.

Instrumental Values

Instrumental values deal with views on acceptable modes of conductor means of achieving the
terminal values.
These include being honest, sincere, ethical, and being ambitious. These values are more
focused on personality traits and character.
There are many typologies of values. One of the most established surveys to assess individual
values is the Rokeach Value Survey.

Values can be categorized on the basis of the level at which they operate.

-- Personal values which are formed from past experience and interaction with others;
-- Cultural values which are the dominant beliefs held collectively society;
-- Organizational values which are at the heart of organizational culture in terms of shared
assumptions, values and beliefs; and
-- Professional values which are held by the members of an occupational group.

ATTITUDE
Attitude is defined as a more or less stable set of predispositions of opinion, interest or purpose
involving expectancy of a certain kind of experience and readiness with an appropriate
response.

Attitudes are also known as “frames of reference“. They provide the background against
which facts and events are viewed.
Attitudes are evaluation statements either favourable or unfavourable or unfavourable
concerning objects, people or events. They reflect how one feels about something.

In simple words, an “attitude” is an individual’s way of looking or an individual’s point of

view at something.
To be more specific, an “attitude” may be defined as the mental state of an individual, which
prepares him to react or make him behave in a particular pre-determined way. It is actually an
acquired feeling.
Attitude is the mixture of beliefs and feelings that people have about situations, specific ideas
or other people.

Components of Attitude
1. Cognitive component
2. Affective component
3. Behavioural component

Cognitive Component

The cognitive component of attitudes refers to the beliefs, thoughts, and attributes that we
would associate with an object. It is the opinion or belief segment of an attitude. It refers to that
part of attitude which is related in general knowledge of a person.
Typically, these come to light in generalities or stereotypes, such as ‘all babies are cute’,
‘smoking is harmful to health’ etc.

Affective Component

Affective component is the emotional or feeling segment of an attitude.

It is related to the statement which affects another person.
It deals with feelings or emotions that are brought to the surface about something, such as fear
or hate. Using the above example, someone might have the attitude that they love all babies
because they are cute or that they hate smoking because it is harmful to health.
Behavioural Component

Behaviour component of an attitude consists of a person’s tendencies to behave ‘in a particular

way toward an object. It refers to that part of attitude which reflects the intention of a person
in the short-run or long run.
Using the above example, the behavioural attitude maybe- ‘I cannot wait to kiss the baby’, or
‘we better keep those smokers out of the library, etc.

Types of Job Attitudes

A person can have thousands of attitudes, but within the sphere of organizational behaviour,
researchers focus their attention on three types of work-related attitudes. They include job
satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment.

1. Job satisfaction

The term job satisfaction describes a positive feeling about a job, resulting from an evaluation
of its characteristics. A person with a high level of job satisfaction holds positive feelings about
his or her job, while a dissatisfied person holds negative feelings tending to job dissatisfaction.

2. Job involvement

Related to job satisfaction is job involvement, which measures the degree to which people
identify psychologically with their job and consider their perceived performance level
important to self-worth. Employees with a high level of job involvement strongly identify with
and really care about the kind of work they do. See Job Involvement Opens in new window

3. Organizational commitment

The third major job attitude is organizational commitment, a state in which an employee
identifies with a particular organization and its goals and wishes to maintain membership in
the organization.
MOTIVATION

What is Motivation?

Motivation can be understood as the invisible force that moves, activates or pushes people and
causes them to act. It is something that incites a person into action and makes him continue the
course of action with enthusiasm, to accomplish the desired goals.
Motivation is goal-directed behaviour. People are motivated when they expect that a course
of action is likely to lead to the attainment of a goal and a valued reward – one that satisfies
their needs and wants.

Motivation is essential to the operation of organizations and classroom activities. The

behaviour is caused by the certain causes which relate to person’s needs and consequences that
results from acts.
Motives are expressions of a person’s needs. Incentives on the other hand, are external to the
person.

Sources of Motivation to Learn:

 Curiosity

It is a strong motivator of learning. Since, people adapt rather quickly to surprising events,
curiosity must be sustained in order to be a continuing source of motivation. To keep the
learners alert, instructors can employ such strategies as varying their tone of voice, using
relevant humour occasionally, etc.

 Learning Task Relevance

Students are more motivated to learn things that are relevant to their interest.

 Goal Setting

It is an important source of motivation. When individuals set goals, they determine an external
standard, to which they will internally evaluate their present level of performance. Setting goals
improves self-motivation and performance to a greater extent. When learners set goals, they
seek to gain favourable judgments of their competence or avoid negative judgments of their
competence. The recommendation to foster a learning goal orientation runs counter to much
current educational practice, which attempts to instil learner confidence within a performance
goal orientation.

 Motive Matching

It is the degree to which learning tasks meet particular students’ needs or align with
students’ values. A need can be defined as “any type of deficiency in the human organism or
the absence of anything the person requires or thinks he requires for his overall well-being.”
The instructor should be sensitive to individual’s needs for achievement and for affiliation.

 Self-Efficacy

Motivation also comes from learner’s beliefs about themselves. According to Bandura, self-
efficacy involves a belief that one can produce some behaviour, independent of whether one
actually can or not. Learners can be sure that certain activities will produce a particular set of
outcomes. These expectations are referred as outcome expectations.

Why Motivation Is Important?

Motivation serves as a guiding force for all human behaviour. So, understanding how
motivation works and the factors that may impact it can be important for several reasons.
Understanding motivation can:
 Increase your efficiency as you work toward your goals
 Drive you to take action
 Encourage you to engage in health-oriented behaviours
 Help you avoid unhealthy or maladaptive behaviours, such as risk-taking and addiction
 Help you feel more in control of your life
 Improve your overall well-being and happiness
EXTRINSIC AND INTRINSIC MOTIVATION

What Is Extrinsic Motivation?

Extrinsic motivation is when we are motivated to perform a behaviour or engage in an activity

because we want to earn a reward or avoid punishment. You will engage in behaviour not
because you enjoy it or because you find it satisfying, but because you expect to get something
in return or avoid something unpleasant.
Extrinsic Motivation Examples
1. Going to work because you want to earn money
2. Studying because you want to get a good grade
3. Helping others because you hope for praise
4. Volunteering because it looks good on a resume
5. Going to the same store because you benefit from loyalty programs
6. Cleaning your apartment because you do not want your partner to get mad
7. Going to new places because you want to post it on social media
8. Paying taxes because you want to avoid a fine
9. Pursuing a certain degree because you want to make your parents proud
10. Going on a business trip because you were ordered by your boss to do so

What Is Intrinsic Motivation?

Intrinsic motivation is when you engage in a behaviour because you find it rewarding. You are
performing an activity for its own sake rather than from the desire for some external reward.
The behaviour itself is its own reward.

Intrinsic Motivation Examples

1. Playing sports because you enjoy how they make you feel
2. Staying longer at work because you believe in your work
3. Using positive affirmations because you want to change your mindset positively
4. Investing money because you want to become financially independent
5. Traveling because you want to explore different cultures
6. Working in a team because you enjoy collaboration
7. Learning about personal development because you want to improve yourself
 8. Going to the playground with your children because it makes you happy
9. Studying because you are curious about the topics
10. Trying to be a good leader because you want to inspire

LEADERSHIP

Leaders and their leadership skills play an important role in the growth of any organization.
Leadership refers to the process of influencing the behaviour of people in a manner that they strive
willingly and enthusiastically towards the achievement of group objectives.
A leader should have the ability to maintain good interpersonal relations with the followers or
subordinates and motivate them to help in achieving the organizational objectives.

Features of Leadership
 Influence the behaviour of others: Leadership is an ability of an individual to
influence the behaviour of other employees in the organization to achieve a
common purpose or goal so that they are willingly co-operating with each other for
the fulfilment of the same.
 Inter-personal process: It is an interpersonal process between the leader and the
followers. The relationship between the leader and the followers decides how
efficiently and effectively the targets of the organization would be met.
 Attainment of common organizational goals: The purpose of leadership is to guide
the people in an organization to work towards the attainment of common
organizational goals. The leader brings the people and their efforts together to
achieve common goals.
 Continuous process: Leadership is a continuous process. A leader has to guide his
employees every time and also monitor them in order to make sure that their efforts
are going in the same direction and that they are not deviating from their goals.
 Group process: It is a group process that involves two or more people together
interacting with each other. A leader cannot lead without the followers.
 Dependent on the situation: It is situation bound as it all depends upon tackling the
situations present. Thus, there is no single best style of leadership.
Importance of Leadership:
 Initiating Action: Leadership starts from the very beginning, even before the work
actually starts. A leader is a person who communicates the policies and plans to the
subordinates to start the work.
 Providing Motivation: A leader motivates the employees by giving them financial
and non-financial incentives and gets the work done efficiently. Motivation is the
driving force in an individual’s life.
 Providing guidance: A leader not only supervises the employees but also guides
them in their work. He instructs the subordinates on how to perform their work
effectively so that their efforts don’t get wasted.
 Creating confidence: A leader acknowledges the efforts of the employees, explains
to them their role clearly and guides them to achieve their goals. He also resolves
the complaints and problems of the employees, thereby building confidence in them
regarding the organization.
 Building work environment: A good leader should maintain personal contacts with
the employees and should hear their problems and solve them. He always listens to
the point of view of the employees and in case of disagreement persuades them to
agree with him by giving suitable clarifications. In case of conflicts, he handles
them carefully and does not allow it to adversely affect the entity. A positive and
efficient work environment helps in stable growth of the organization.
 Co-ordination: A leader reconciles the personal interests of the employees with the
organizational goals and achieves co-ordination in the entity.
 Creating Successors: A leader trains his subordinates in such a manner that they
can succeed him in future easily in his absence. He creates more leaders.
 Induces change: A leader persuades, clarifies and inspires employees to accept any
change in the organization without much resistance and discontentment. He makes
sure that employees don’t feel insecure about the changes.
Often, the success of an organization is attributed to its leaders. But, one must not forget that it’s
the followers who make a leader successful by accepting his leadership. Thus, leaders and
followers collectively play a key role to make leadership successful.
Leader Vs Manager

A leader is someone whom people follow or someone who guides or directs others. A manager
is someone who is responsible for directing and controlling the work and staff in an
organization, or of a department within it.
The main difference between the two is that a leader works by example, while a manager
dictates expectations. If a manager goes against the rules, that will tarnish his position as a
manager. If a leader goes against the example he or she is trying to set, that will be seen as a
setback. Following are a few subtle differences between the two −
 A leader is an innovator and creator whereas a manager is a commander.
 A leader can’t be a manager but the opposite is possible, a manager is more than
a leader.
 A leader does what is right, while the manager makes things right.
 A leader deals with change whereas a manager plans for a change.
 A leader gives direction to do something whereas the manager plans for
everything that is to be done.
 A leader encourages people whereas the manager controls people.
 A leader handles communication, credibility, and empowerment whereas a
manager deals with organizing and staffing.

Leadership Styles

Different leadership styles exist in work environments. The culture and goal of an organization
determine which leadership style fits best. Some organizations offer different leadership styles
within an organization, depending on the necessary tasks to complete and departmental needs.
We find five different leadership styles in the corporate world. They are as follows −

Laissez-Faire

A laissez-faire leader does not directly supervise employees and fails to provide regular updates
to those under his supervision. Highly experienced and trained employees with minimal
requirement of supervision fall under the laissez-faire leadership style.
But not all employees possess these features. This leadership style blocks the production of
employees needing supervision. The laissez-faire style implements no leadership or
supervision efforts from managers, which can lead to poor production, lack of control and
increasing costs.

Autocratic

The autocratic leadership style permits managers to make decisions alone without the input of
others. Managers access total authority and impose their will on employees. No one opposes
the decisions of autocratic leaders. Countries like Cuba and North Korea operate under the
autocratic leadership style.
This leadership style benefits those who require direct supervision. Creative employees who
participate in group functions detest this leadership style.

Participative

This is also known as the democratic leadership style. It values the input of team members and
peers, but the responsibility of making the final decision rests with the participative leader.
Participative leadership motivates employee morale because employees make contributions to
the decision-making process. It accounts to a feeling that their opinions matter.
When an organization needs to make changes within itself, that is internally, the participative
leadership style helps employees accept changes easily as they play a role in the process. This
leadership style meets challenges when companies need to make a decision in a short period of
time.

Transactional

Transactional leadership style is formed by the concept of reward and punishment.

Transactional leaders believe that the employee's performance is completely dependent on
these two factors. When there is an encouragement, the workers put in their best effort and the
bonus is in monetary terms in most of the cases. In case they fail to achieve the set target they
are given a negative appraisal.
Transactional leaders pay more attention to physical and security requirements of the
employees.
Transformational

Transformational leadership has the ability to affect employee's perceptions through the returns
that organization gets in the form of human capital benefits. These leaders have the ability to
reap higher benefits by introducing knowledge management processes, encouraging
interpersonal communication among employees and creating healthy organizational culture.
It helps in flourishing organizational innovation by creating a participative environment or
culture. It promotes a culture where the employees have autonomy to speak about their
experiences and share knowledge.
It has been seen that transformational leaders are more innovative than transactional and laisse-
faire leaders.

CONFLICT

Conflicts are natural in all walks of daily life – both at workplace and home. Thus, conflict is
ever present and both charming and maddening. But conflict is a complex and big subject.
There are many sources of conflict. Conflict occurs when individuals or groups are not
obtaining what they need or want and are seeking their own self-interest. Sometimes the
individual is not aware of the need and unconsciously starts to act out. Other times, the
individual is very aware of what he or she wants and actively works at achieving the goal. It
would be better to identify conflict at an early stage and come to an understanding.
Conflict may be defined as breakdown in the standard of decision making and it occurs when
an individual or group experience difficulty in selecting an alternative.
Conflicts may be at individual level, group level and at organizational level. At all levels, it
may develop and be managed. In resolving a conflict, managers should first diagnose the causes
of conflict and then think of the strategy for a particular kind of conflict. There may be different
strategies to be used to handle the conflict efficiently in different cases.

POWER
Power is the ability to influence the behaviour of others to get what you want. It is often
visible to others within organizations. Conformity manifests itself in several ways, and research
shows that individuals will defer to a group even when they may know that what they are doing
is inaccurate or unethical.

Power is the ability to influence other people. It refers to the capacity to affect the behaviour
of the subordinate with the control of resources. It is an exchange relationship that occurs in
transactions between an agent and a target. The agent is the person who uses the power and
target is the receipt of the attempt to use power.

Distinction between Power, Authority and Influence

Power is the ability to influence someone else. Influence is the process of affecting the
thoughts, behaviour and feelings of another person. Authority is the right to influence another
person. Authority is a legitimate right to influence others.
(1) Authority is right to influence others but power is ability to influence people.
(2) Authority is legitimate while power is not.
(3) Authority confers legitimacy to power but power itself need not be legitimate.

Bases of Power
The concept of power derives its ultimate meaning from the 2 strong bases of power. In other
words, the following 2 bases are the core foundation for organizational power. They are as
follows:
 Informal Power refers to the power that comes from an individual’s unique
characteristics. These are the most effective because personal skills, traits and
knowledge influence personal power.
 Formal Power refers to the power that establishes because of the individual’s
position in an organization.

Sources of Formal Individual Power

1. Legitimate Power – The power to monitor and use the organization’s resources in
order to accomplish organizational goals. For example, Firing, demotion, &
subordinate’s authority. Another example is that of a CEO who uses a Private Jet
to travel.
 2. Reward Power – The power that allows you to give pay raises, promotion, praise,
interesting projects, and other rewards to your subordinates. Moreover, there is a
limit to the number of rewards, however, it can be a great tool to motivate
subordinates.
3. Coercive Power – The power to punish or to withhold a punishment. Punishments
have negative side effects and should be used with caution. Furthermore,
punishments can be:
o Suspension to demotion
o Termination
o Unpleasant job assignments
o Withholding of praise and goodwill

Sources of Informal Individual Power

1. Expert Power – An informal concept of power that stems from superior ability or
expertise. In this, the group members will tend to consult this person (the expert)
for advice or help on a project. However, it is this dependency is what gives the
individual power over their peers.
2. Referent Power – Fame is a critical aspect of referent power. However, this fame
could be in the field of film, sports, music stars, etc. Moreover, agreeable,
conscientious, and giving people are also awarded referent power. People with
referent power possess high expertise. Their ability to obtain resources, and also to
secure their surroundings is what provides them referent powers.
3. Charismatic Power – Intense form of referent power that comes from someone’s
personality. It also comes from physical attributes or abilities that induce others to
follow and believe in that person.

The Concept of Power Tactics

There are 9 organizational power tactics. These tactics are ways in which individuals translate
power bases into specific actions. The 9 influence tactics are legitimacy, rational persuasion,
inspirational appeals, consultation, exchange, personal appeals, ingratiation, pressure and
coalitions.
  Rational persuasion. A tactic that is used to try and convince someone with a valid
reason, rational logic, or realistic facts.
 Inspirational appeals. A tactic that builds enthusiasm by appealing to emotions,
ideas and/or values.
 Consultation. A tactic that focuses on getting others to participate in the planning
process, making decisions, and encourage changes.
 Ingratiation. A tactic that emphasizes on getting someone in a good mood prior to
making a request. It includes being friendly, helpful, and using praise or flattery.
 Personal appeals. A tactic that refers to friendship and loyalty while making a
request.
 Exchange. A tactic that suggests that making express or implied promises and
trading favours.
 Coalition tactics. Refers to a tactic that prescribes getting others to support your
effort to persuade someone.
 Pressure. A tactic that focuses on demanding compliance or using intimidation or
threats.
 Legitimating tactics. This tactic suggests that basing a request on one’s authority
or right, organizational rules or policies, or express or implied support from
superiors, is a best.

ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE AND CLIMATE:

Difference between organizational culture and organizational climate is that the culture is about
the norms, values and behaviour adopted by the employees within the organization while the
climate is about the atmosphere of the organization that is created based on the culture.

What is Organizational Culture?

Organizational culture is a set of values, beliefs, behaviours, customs and attitudes that govern
how people behave within organizations. The culture of an organization provides boundaries
and guidelines that help the employees of the organization to know the correct way of
performing their jobs.
The culture of an organization is ingrained in the behaviour of the employees within an
organization and in a way, it shows the ‘personality’ of the organization. The unique culture of
an organization creates a distinct atmosphere that is felt by the people who are a part of the
group, and this atmosphere is known as the climate of an organization.

 Organizational culture refers to the shared behavioural expectations and norms in a

work environment. This is the collective view of “the way work is done.”
 Organizational climate represents staff perceptions of the impact of the work
environment on the individual. This is the view of “how it feels” to work at the agency
(e.g., supportive, stressful).

The primary characteristics of an organisational culture are as follows: -

1. Innovation and Risk Taking: It can be described as the degree or extent to which
employees are encouraged to take innovative steps and calculated risk.
2. Attention to Detail: It can be described as degree or extent to which employees are
expected to pay attention to details.
3. Outcome Orientation: It can be described as the degree or extent to which management
focuses outcome rather than on process to achieve outcome.
4. People Orientation: It can be described as the degree or extent to which management
gives attention to effect of decisions on people working in the organisation and on its
shareholders.
5. Team Orientation: It can be described as the degree or extent to which works are
organised around team rather than individuals.
6. Aggressiveness: It can be described as the degree or extent to which people are
aggressive or competitive rather than unconcerned or relaxed.
7. Stability: It can be described as the degree or extent to which maintaining status quo is
emphasized in contrast to growth.
8. Individual Autonomy: It can be described as the degree or extent of responsibility,
independence, and opportunities for exercising initiative that individuals in an
organisation have.
9. Structure: It can be described as the degree or extent of rules and regulations and the
amount of direct supervision that is used to supervise and control behaviour.
10. Support: It can be described as the degree or extent of assistance and warmth managers
provide for their subordinates.
 11. Identity: It can be described as the degree or extent to which members identify with the
organisation as a whole rather than with their particular work group or field of
professional expertise.
12. Performance-Reward: It can be described as the degree or extent to which reward in the
organisation are based on employee work performance.
13. Conflict Tolerance: It can be described as the degree or extent of conflict present in
relationships between peers and work groups as well as the motivation to be honest and
open about differences.
14. Attitude towards Change: It can be described as the response given to new methods,
ways, and values.
15. Focus: It can be described as the vision of the goals and objectives of an organisation's
operations as communicated by those in control.
16. Standard and Values: The levels of performance and behaviour considered to be
acceptable by both types of criteria – formal and informal.
17. Rituals: It can be described as the expressive events that support and reinforce
organisational standards and values.
18. Openness, Communication, and Supervision: It can be described as the amount and
type of interchange permitted. The communication flow can be downward, upward,
across the organisation, and in other directions as spelled out by the culture.
19. Market and Customer Orientation: It can be described as the degree or extent to which
the organisation is responsive to its markets and customers.
20. Excitement, Pride, and esprit de corps: It can be described as a perceptibly good feeling
about the organisation and its activities.
21. Commitment: It can be described as the degree or extent to which individuals are
willingly working towards goals on a long-lasting basis.

Determinants of organisation climate

1.Structure - feelings about constraints and freedom to act and the degree of formality or
informality in the working atmosphere.
2.Responsibility - the feeling of being trusted to carry out important work.
3.Risk - the sense of riskiness and challenge in the job and in the organization; the relative
emphasis on taking calculated risks or playing it safe.
4.Warmth - the existence of friendly and informal social groups.
5.Support - the perceived helpfulness of managers and co-workers; the emphasis (or lack of
emphasis) on mutual support.
6.Standards - the perceived importance of implicit and explicit goals and performance
standards; the emphasis on doing a good job; the challenge represented in personal and team
goals.
7.Conflict - the feeling that managers and other workers want to hear different opinions; the
emphasis on getting problems out into the open rather than smoothing them over or ignoring
them.
8.Identity - the feeling that you belong to a company; that you are a valuable member of a
working team.
9.Autonomy - the perception of self-determination with respect to work procedures, goals and
priorities;
10.Cohesion - the perception of togetherness or sharing within the organization setting,
including the willingness of members to provide material risk;
11.Trust - the perception of freedom to communicate openly with members at higher
organizational levels about sensitive or personal issues, with the expectation that the integrity
of such communications will not be violated;
12.Resource - the perception of time demands with respect to task competition and
performance standards;
13.support - the perception of the degree to which superiors tolerate members' behaviour,
including willingness to let members learn from their mistakes without fear of reprisal;
14.Recognition – the perception that members' contributions to the organization are
acknowledged;
15.Fairness - the perception that organizational policies are non-arbitrary or capricious;
16.Innovation - the perception that change and creativity are encouraged, including risk-
taking into new areas where the member has little or no prior experience.

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