Chapter two
Foundation of individual behavior and learning
What is perception?
Perception is the cognitive process through which individuals
select, organize, and interpret sensory stimuli to derive meaningful
information about their work environment and surroundings.
Ø It involves noticing and making sense of information
received through the five senses: sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste.
Ø Perception serves as a filter or screen through
which information passes before it influences individuals.
Ø Organizational behavior plays a critical role in
understanding how individuals react to various situations, as they process
incoming information and translate it into responses that encompass both
emotions and actions.
Ø However, it's important to note that perception and
reality are not always the same. Even when individuals are describing the same
event, their perceptions and responses may not be identical.
Ø There are cases where perceptions can be subjective.
Different people may view the same stimuli differently due to psychological
factors and individual differences.
Perceptual process
It involves three main
steps: selection, organization, and interpretation.
1.
Selection:
Individuals are exposed to a vast
amount of sensory stimuli constantly. However, they cannot assimilate and
process all of it.
Ø Selectivity is the process of choosing certain stimuli for
further processing based on the interest, background, experience, attitudes of
the perceiver and other factors. Two psychological principles of selectivity
are:
a)
Figure-ground principle: Certain
stimuli are considered significant and meaningful (figure), while others are
considered insignificant or meaningless (ground).
b)
Relevance: People
selectively perceive things that are relevant to their needs and desires.
2.
Organization:
Once selected, the perceived inputs
or stimuli are organized into meaningful patterns or wholes. This process is
often referred to as the "Gestalt process." There are several methods
of perceptual organization:
a)
Grouping: People tend to group objects or events based on
similarity or proximity. Similar events or objects are perceived as a group,
even if they are unrelated.
b)
Closure: When
faced with incomplete information, individuals have a tendency to fill in the
missing parts and perceive a complete message.
c)
Simplification: When
overloaded with information, individuals simplify it by subtracting less
salient information and concentrates on important one, filtering out
unnecessary or unimportant details.
3.
Interpretation:
Interpretation is the subjective
and judgmental process of assigning meaning to the perceived information. It is
influenced by various factors, including:
a)
Mental setup: The
current state or mindset of the individual.
b)
First impressions: Initial
perceptions of stimuli upon first sight.
c)
Halo effect: Using
a single quality or trait of an individual to form a general impression of
them.
d)
Stereotype: Judging
individuals based on the characteristics of the group to which they belong.
e)
Attribution: Attaching
cause-and-effect explanations to others' behavior.
f)
Inference: Forming
judgments about people based on limited information.
g)
Situational factors: The
context, place, time, and other situational factors that can influence
interpretation.
Factors that can affect individual
perceptions include:
1.
Indigenous/Internal Factors:
Ø Needs
and desires: Personal needs and desires influence how individuals
perceive and interpret information.
Ø Personality: Different
personality traits can shape perceptions. Optimistic individuals may perceive
things more positively, while pessimistic individuals may have a more negative
perception.
Ø Experience
and knowledge: Past experiences and knowledge contribute to how
individuals interpret and make sense of new information.
2. Exogenous/External
Factors:
Ø Characteristics of the perceived
object/event/person: The size, intensity, frequency, status, and contrast of
the stimuli can influence how they are perceived.
ü The perceiver's past experiences, needs, motives,
personality, values, and attitudes all play a role in shaping the perceptual
process. For example, someone with a strong
achievement need will prioritize aspects related to achievement when evaluating
different situations.
ü Additionally, attitudes towards others are
influenced by previous experiences with them. The setting, including the
physical, social, and organizational context, also affects perception. People
may behave differently towards their boss at a social function compared to in
the office.
ü Lastly, characteristics of the perceived person, object,
or event, such as contrast, intensity, figure-ground separation, size, motion,
and repetition or novelty, impact the perceptual process. These characteristics
can lead to different interpretations of the same object. For instance, a person's appearance, facial
expression, age, gender, manner of communication, and behavior all contribute
to how they are perceived.
Attitudes
Attitude is an internal
state of the person that is focused on objects, events, or people in their
psychological world.
Ø It is a predisposition to evaluate something in a
favorable or unfavorable manner. For instance, when we say, "I enjoy my
job," we are expressing our attitude towards work.
Ø Attitudes are not just cognitive elements but also
have a behavioral component. They influence an individual's behavior and can
shape their responses to people, objects, and situations.
Ø Although attitudes are often persistent and
enduring, they are subject to change. They are learned and can be influenced by
experiences and new information.
Ø Attitudes are closely linked to a person's core
personality. They provide the emotional basis for interpersonal relations and
identification with others.
Ø Attitudes can vary in direction (favorable or
unfavorable), intensity (strength of the attitude), and the extent of
consciousness (awareness of one's own attitude).
Attitude vs. values
ü Attitudes are narrower than values. Values are
abstract ideas that represent beliefs about ideal conduct,
ü Attitudes are specific feelings, thoughts, and behavioral
tendencies towards a particular object or situation.
Functions of Attitudes: Attitudes
serve several functions:
§ Adjustment: Attitudes
help individuals adapt to new or changing situations and provide a rationale
for their behaviors. For example, someone may
develop a positive attitude towards a new work environment to adapt more
easily.
§ Ego-Defensive: Attitudes
protect individuals from acknowledging negative truths about themselves,
minimizing threats to their self-esteem. An example is
an employee developing an attitude that their supervisor dislikes them to
defend their self-esteem, even if the real issue is their lack of productivity.
§ Values
Expressive: Attitudes allow individuals to express important
beliefs and values that are significant to them. Examples
include attitudes towards curbing corruption, fighting drug abuse, or defining
the role of church and state.
§ Knowledge: Attitudes
assist in structuring the environment and bringing order to a potentially
chaotic world. Stereotypes are mentioned as an example of
attitudes serving the knowledge function, such as the belief held by some union
members that management could not be trusted.
Characteristics of attitudes:
1.
Valence: refers
to the degree of favorableness or unfavorableness towards an object, person, or
event. Attitudes can range from highly positive to highly negative.
2.
Multiplicity: Attitudes
can vary in terms of multiplicity, which refers to the number of elements or
components that constitute the attitude.
3.
Relation to Needs: Attitudes
can also vary in relation to the needs they serve.
4.
Centrality: Centrality
refers to the importance or significance of an attitude about the object to an
individual.
Components of an attitude:
1. Affective
Component: The affective component of an attitude refers to the
emotional or feeling aspect associated with the attitude object.
Ø It involves the individual's emotional response or
evaluation of the object.
Ø Developed as a conditioned response through
association with stimuli having rewarding or punishing effects.
Ø For example, it includes expressions of like or
dislike, good or bad, pleasing or displeasing, favorable or unfavorable
feelings towards the object.
2. Cognitive
Component: The cognitive component represents the beliefs,
opinions, and thoughts a person holds about the attitude object.
Ø It is based on the individual's perceptions, learned
experiences, information, and rational thinking.
Ø The cognitive component involves the individual's
knowledge and understanding of the object.
3. Overt
Component: Also known as the behavioral or conative component,
the overt component relates to the behavioral intentions or tendencies
associated with the attitude object.
Ø It reflects how an individual intends to behave or
act towards the object based on their affective and cognitive components.
Ø The overt component is influenced by both the feeling
and belief aspects of the attitude.
Cognitive Dissonance: refers to the mental state of anxiety or discomfort
that arises when there is a conflict among an individual's various cognitions,
such as attitudes and beliefs, after a decision has been made.
Ø It occurs when there is a discrepancy between
attitudes and behaviors. To reduce or avoid cognitive dissonance, individuals
can employ strategies such as reducing the conflicting elements, adding
consonant elements, or changing the dissonance elements altogether.
Attitude
Formation
Attitudes are primarily
shaped through two influential factors:
1.
Direct
Experiencing:
- Attitudes formed through direct
experience with an object or person are stronger, more confident, and
resistant to change.
- Direct experiences leave a lasting
impact on attitudes, making them readily accessible and active in
cognitive processes.
- Attitudes formed through direct
experience are more deeply ingrained and less easily recalled.
2.
Social
Learning:
- Influences from family, peer
groups, religious organizations, and culture indirectly shape individuals'
attitudes.
- Children learn attitudes through
reinforcement received from parents for displaying appropriate behaviors.
- Peer pressure molds attitudes
through group acceptance of individuals expressing popular attitudes.
- Culture plays a definitive role in
shaping attitudes by providing a framework for societal norms and values.
Source of
Attitude
Attitudes, like values,
are acquired from various sources, including:
1.
Genetic
Predispositions: Individuals may
have innate predispositions that influence their attitudes.
2.
Modeling:
During early years, individuals
model their attitudes after those they admire, respect, or fear.
3.
Imitation:
People imitate the attitudes of
popular individuals and those they admire and respect.
4.
Environmental
Factors: Attitudes are influenced
by the environment, including family, friends, and societal norms.
5.
Advertising
Messages: External factors, such
as advertising messages, attempt to alter attitudes toward products or
services.
Types of Attitudes in Organizational
Behavior (OB):
In OB, the focus is on
a limited number of job-related attitudes that employees hold about aspects of
their work environment.
1.
Job Satisfaction: refers
to an individual's general attitude towards their job. It reflects whether a
person holds a positive or negative evaluation of their job. Factors that
contribute to job satisfaction include:
Ø Mentally
Challenging Work: Employees prefer jobs that allow them to use their
skills and abilities, offer a variety of tasks, freedom, and feedback on their
performance. And they prefer the task to be moderate challenges that fostering
pleasure and satisfaction.
Ø Equitable
Rewards: Employees seek fair pay systems and promotion
policies that align with their expectations and are based on job demands,
individual skill level, and community pay standards.
Ø Supportive
Working Conditions: Employees value a safe, comfortable, clean, and
minimally distracting work environment.
Ø Supportive
Colleagues: Positive and supportive relationships with coworkers
contribute to increased job satisfaction.
2.
Job Involvement: measures
the degree to which a person psychologically identifies with their job and
considers their perceived performance level important to their self-worth.
Individuals with high job involvement strongly identify with their work, and it
is personally significant to them. High job involvement is associated with
fewer absences and lower resignation rates.
3.
Organizational Commitment: refers
to an employee's identification with a particular organization and its goals,
along with a desire to maintain membership in the organization. Categorized
into two types:
Ø Affective
Commitment: reflects an employee's intention to remain in an
organization because of a strong desire to do so. It is characterized by a
belief in the organization's goals and values, willingness to exert effort on
behalf of the organization, and a desire to maintain organizational membership.
Ø Continuance
Commitment: is an employee's tendency to remain in an
organization because they feel they cannot afford to leave. It is driven by
perceived costs associated with leaving, such as the loss of invested time,
effort, and benefits that cannot be easily replaced.
Attitudes and consistency
Individuals often try
to align their attitudes with their actions to appear rational and consistent.
When there is a discrepancy between attitudes and behavior, individuals may
experience internal conflict and seek to resolve it by either changing their
attitudes or behavior, or by finding a rationalization for the inconsistency.
For example, a
recruiter who is in conflict because he personally believes that the company he
represents has poor working conditions and limited opportunities for new
college graduates. The recruiter may choose to change his attitudes over time
by continuously emphasizing the positive aspects of the company.
Alternatively, he may
become openly negative about the company, resulting in a decline in his
enthusiasm. Finally, the recruiter may acknowledge the company's drawbacks but
rationalize that his professional obligation is to present a positive image of
the company to potential candidates.
Personality
Personality refers to
the unique, stable, or enduring pattern of thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and
characteristics that define an individual and distinguishes them from others.
Ø It encompasses the various ways in which a person
reacts to and engages with others.
Ø Relatively stable set of feelings and behaviors and significantly
influenced by genetic and environmental factors.
Personality
Determinants
1.
Biological
Factors:
Ø Heredity: Certain
physical characteristics, such as facial attractiveness, temperament, and
energy level, are inherited from parents through genes.
Ø Brain: The
role of the brain in influencing personality is recognized, although the
specific contributions of the brain are still not fully understood.
Ø Physical
Features: External appearance has a significant impact on
personality.
2. Cultural Factors: encompasses
the beliefs, values, and techniques for dealing with the environment that are
shared among a group of people.
3.
Family
and Social Factors:
Ø Socialization
Process: The combined influence of family, social groups, and
culture contributes to the socialization process, helping an individual acquire
behavior patterns acceptable within their community.
Ø Identification
Process: Children often emulate actions of family members,
particularly parents, as a part of the identification process.
4.
Situational
Factors:
Ø Environment: The
overall environment, including culture, family, friends, and social groups,
significantly influences personality formation.
Ø Situational
Influences: While
personality is generally stable and consistent, it can also change in different
situations. Various demands of different situations evoke different aspects of
one's personality.
Personality Attributes influencing OB
1.
Locus of Control: refers
to an individual's belief about the degree of control they have over their own
fate.
Ø People with an internal locus of control believe
that they have control over their actions and outcomes, while External Locus People
believe external factors or others control their fate.
Ø Internals tend to have higher job satisfaction,
motivation, and are more likely to assume managerial positions. They prefer
participative management styles and display less anxiety.
Ø Externals may prefer a more structured work setting
and may be less inclined to participate in decision-making.
2.
Self-esteem: is
an individual's overall evaluation of their self-worth.
Ø Those with high self-esteem have positive feelings
about themselves, perceive their strengths as more important than weaknesses,
and are less affected by the opinions of others. They tend to perform better,
be more satisfied with their jobs, and seek higher-status jobs.
Ø Individuals with low self-esteem often have negative
self-perceptions, are strongly influenced by others' opinions, and seek
validation from positive feedback.
3.
Self-efficacy: refers
to an individual's belief in their ability to accomplish tasks effectively.
Ø People with high self-efficacy believe in their
capabilities, are confident in their problem-solving skills, and perceive
themselves as capable of overcoming obstacles.
Ø Self-efficacy is influenced by prior experience,
observing the success of others, persuasion from others, and self-assessment.
Ø High self-efficacy is associated with high
performance and success in various tasks and endeavors.
4.
Self-monitoring: is
a personality trait that measures an individual's ability to adjust their
behavior based on external situational factors.
Ø High self-monitors are attentive to social cues,
adapt their behavior to fit the situation, and are considered more
unpredictable.
Ø Low self-monitors, on the other hand, rely more on
internal states and are less influenced by situational cues. Their behavior
tends to be consistent across different situations.
5.
Authoritarianism: refers to the belief in the existence of status and
power differences within organizations.
Ø Individuals with high authoritarianism tend to value
hierarchical structures, exhibit rigidity in their thinking, defer to
authority, and resist change.
Ø They may struggle in jobs that require empathy,
adaptability, and dealing with complex situations. However, in highly
structured roles where adherence to rules and regulations is important,
high-authoritarian individuals may perform well.
6.
Propensity for Taking Risk: People
differ in their willingness to take risks. This propensity for risk-taking
affects decision-making processes, with some individuals being more cautious
and requiring more information before making decisions, while others are more
willing to take chances and make quicker decisions.
Matching personality and job
Satisfaction and job
retention depend on the degree to which individuals successfully align their
personalities with a congruent occupational environment.
Ø Holland identifies six personality types and
suggests that individuals who match their personality type with a corresponding
job type experience higher satisfaction and lower turnover rates.
Ø For example, social individuals are best suited for
social jobs, while conventional individuals thrive in conventional jobs.
Ø Individuals in congruent job environments are more
likely to be satisfied and less likely to voluntarily resign compared to those
in incongruent job environments.
The
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
1.
Extraversion (E) versus Introversion
(I): Extraverts are outgoing and sociable, while
introverts are more reserved and prefer solitude.
2.
Sensing (S) versus Intuition (N): Sensing
types focus on practical details and prefer routine, while intuitive types rely
on unconscious processes and look at the bigger picture.
3.
Thinking (T) versus Feeling (F): Thinking
types make decisions based on logic and reason, while feeling types rely on
personal values and emotions.
4.
Judging (J) versus Perceiving (P): Judging
types prefer structure and order, while perceiving types are more flexible and
spontaneous.
The Big
Five Personality Model, also known as the Five-Factor Model,
1.
Extraversion: This
dimension captures an individual's comfort level with relationships. Extraverts
are gregarious and assertive, while introverts are reserved and quiet.
2.
Agreeableness: Agreeableness
refers to an individual's willingness to defer to others. Highly agreeable
people are cooperative and trusting, while those low in agreeableness tend to
be disagreeable and antagonistic.
3.
Conscientiousness: Conscientiousness
measures reliability and responsibility. Highly conscientious individuals are
organized, dependable, and persistent, while those low in conscientiousness may
be disorganized and unreliable.
4.
Emotional Stability (or Neuroticism): Emotional
stability measures a person's ability to handle stress. Those with positive
emotional stability tend to be calm and self-confident, while those with high
negative scores may be anxious, nervous, or insecure.
5.
Openness to Experience: Openness
to experience reflects an individual's range of interests and openness to
novelty. Highly open individuals are creative, curious, and receptive to new
ideas, while those who are less open prefer familiarity and conventionality.
Learning in an organization
In an organizational
context, learning
refers to a lasting change in behavior or behavioral inclinations that arises
from experience or practice.
Some key points to
understand about learning in organizations include:
1.
Learning involves a change: Learning
implies that individuals behave, react, and respond differently as a result of
their experiences compared to how they did before.
2.
Change must be relatively permanent: Learning
results in lasting changes in behavior rather than temporary or situational
adjustments.
3.
Experience is necessary for learning: Learning
requires some form of experience, whether it's through study, observation, or
direct interaction with the environment.
4.
Reinforcement enhances learning: The
practice of learning must be reinforced for it to occur effectively.
Reinforcement strengthens and intensifies certain aspects of desired behavior.
Learning
influences various aspects of individual behavior within organizations:
1.
Ability: Employees
develop competencies and skills through formal and informal learning processes,
enhancing their ability to perform tasks and responsibilities.
2.
Role Perception: Learning
clarifies individuals' understanding of their roles within the organization,
helping them gain clarity on expectations and responsibilities.
3.
Motivation: Learning
is a fundamental assumption in many theories of motivation. Employees learn to
associate certain behaviors and performance with expected rewards or outcomes,
which influences their motivation levels.
4.
Knowledge Management: Learning
is essential for effective knowledge management within organizations. It
involves acquiring, sharing, and utilizing knowledge to enhance the
organization's survival and success.
Ø Behavior
modification plays a role in
learning within organizations. Individuals learn from their previous
interactions with the environment, adjusting their behaviors to maximize
positive consequences and minimize adverse consequences.
Ø Experience teaches individuals how to "operate" on
the environment to achieve desired outcomes.
Types of
Learning
1.
Classical Conditioning:
·
Developed by
Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov in 1904.
·
Also known as
the law of exercise, it involves repetitive association between a stimulus and
a response (S-R association).
·
Limited value in
the study of organizational behavior as it explains simple and reflexive
behaviors.
·
Represents
passive learning, where something happens, and individuals react in a specific
or particular fashion.
·
Classical
conditioning occurs in response to a clearly identifiable event.
Ivan Pavlov's Classical Conditioning
Experiment:
·
1st: Food
(Unconditioned Stimuli) ➔ Salivation of dog (Unconditioned Response)
·
2nd: Associating
food with the sound of a bell (Neutral Stimuli) ➔
Salivation
·
3rd: Ringing the
bell independently ➔ Salivation (Conditioned Stimuli and Response)
2.
Operant Conditioning:
·
Developed by
B.F. Skinner.
·
Behavior is the
function of consequences, effects, and results.
·
Involves
voluntary behavior determined, maintained, and controlled by its consequences.
·
Assumes that
individuals emit responses that are rewarded and avoid responses that are not
rewarded or are punished.
·
Behavior
produces effects, and individuals learn by altering their environment.
·
Reinforcement is
given when the correct response is made, and changing behavior involves
modifying the consequences.
·
Consequences
play a significant role in shaping organizational behaviors. It is a valuable
tool for managing people in organizations.
3.
Observational Learning:
·
Occurs as a
result of watching the behavior of another person and assessing the
consequences.
·
Does not require
an overt response from the observer.
·
Individuals
learn from observing others being rewarded or punished for certain behaviors.
·
Plays a crucial
role in altering behaviors in organizational settings.
4.
Cognitive Learning:
·
Emphasizes
knowledge and understanding how events and objects are related.
·
Often associated
with classroom learning and understanding relationships between concepts.
·
Important in
increasing the likelihood that learners will perform correctly without
extensive operant conditioning.
·
Focuses on
mental processes and the acquisition of knowledge.
Shaping Behavior- Strategies of
reinforcement, punishment and extinction
1.
Positive Reinforcement: involves
providing something pleasant or desirable following a desired behavior.
Ø For
example, praising an employee
for a job well done or giving a bonus for achieving a sales target.
Ø Positive reinforcement strengthens the desired
behavior and increases the likelihood of its repetition.
2.
Negative Reinforcement: involves
the termination or withdrawal of something unpleasant or undesirable following
a desired behavior. It is not the same as punishment.
Ø An
example of negative reinforcement is when an employee avoids
being called on in a meeting by quickly looking through their notes.
Ø The behavior of looking through the notes is
reinforced because it prevents an undesirable consequence. Negative
reinforcement also strengthens the desired behavior and increases its
likelihood of recurrence.
3.
Punishment: involves
introducing an unpleasant consequence in response to an undesirable behavior
with the aim of decreasing the likelihood of that behavior recurring.
Ø For
instance, suspending an
employee without pay for showing up drunk to work. The intention is to decrease
the occurrence of the undesirable behavior through the association of negative
consequences.
4.
Extinction: involves
the removal or absence of reinforcement that was previously maintaining a
behavior, leading to a reduction in the occurrence of that behavior.
Ø It occurs when a behavior is no longer reinforced.
Ø For
example, if instructors ignore
students who raise their hands to ask questions, the behavior of raising hands
will gradually diminish as it no longer receives reinforcement.