Organisational Behaviour

ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

Q1. Why should every manager study the discipline of OB?

Answer:

Study of OB important for every manager:

The efficiency of the people a manager is working with puts a ceiling on hi effectiveness. If, there, he wants to be effective and efficient he must study the discipline of organizational behavior, which tries to synchronize the internal environment with the external environment.

According to Fred Luthans, “ Organizational behavior is the understanding, predicting and controlling of human behavior at work”.

According to Keith Davis, “Organizational behavior is the state and application of knowledge about how people act within organizations. It’s a human tool for the human benefit applies broadly to the behavior of people in all types of organizations such as business, government, schools etc. It helps people, structure, technology and the external environment bend together into an effective operative system”. Like, in the discipline of Accountancy, the fundamental concept is “for every debit entry there will be a credit center. The disciple of Organizational behavior has fundamental concepts revolving round the nature of people and the nature of organization. The concepts dealing with the nature of individuals include:

1. Individual differences.2. Whole person.3. Motivation i.e. caused behavior.4. Human Dignity.

The concepts dealing with nature of organization includes,

1. Organization is a social system.2. Mutuality of Interests.

Individual Differences: The concept tells that every person is an entity in himself. When it comes to human behavior there cannot be a prescriptive solution. Every individual is to be treated differently even though two persons may have the same behavioral problems. The concept also tells the manager that he had better be aware of his own stereotypes. A stereotype is a tendency to attribute the traits of a group to an individual because he belongs to the said group. This concept, not only tells that a manager should treat every person as an entity in himself but he should also examine his own stereotypes.

Whole Person: An organization hires not only the hands of an employee but hires a complete men with all his pluses and minuses. At the same since a person performs many roles at the same time, the happenings in one role are bound to affect the behavior in others roles of the person. The concept tells the manager that when it comes to behavioral problems, he must also take into account the other roles of the person. If the whole person

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is to be developed then only the benefits will extend beyond the organization of the entire society, in which the employee lives.

Caused Behavior (Motivation): This concept states that the manager, by his own behavior can cause an employee behave in a particular way. If he is respectful to his employees they are bound to be respectful to him not otherwise. This concept is similar to Newton’s law, which states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

Human Dignity: It is more than an ethical philosophy than a scientific conclusion. This concept tells that every person should be respected simply because he happens to be an employee just as the manager is. It confirms that people are to be treated differently from other factors of production because they are of a higher order, they want to be treated differently with respect and dignity. When everyone, the employee, the manager as the CEO of an organization are engaged in the same pursuit, the pursuit of enabling their organization to achieve the objectives for it has come in existence. Thus, they are on the equal footing and should be given equal respect, as the manager.

Organization as a Social System: All parts of the organization system are interdependent and are subject to influence by other parts of the organization as well as the society at large. All the employees comprising organizations are the members of the society from which they come. Thus, the organization becomes a social system, where the values systems, customs etc conform to those of the society at large. Any organization that has inconsistent value system with the external society does not last long. The organization is a social system also implies that the organizational environment is not static and it keeps on changing from time to time.

Mutuality of Interests: Organizations are formed and maintained on the basis of some mutuality of interests because the organizations have a human purpose. Organizations help people achieve their own personal objectives, at the same time people help organizations achieve its objectives. It is a symbiotic relation. Everybody must bear in mind that the organizational and employees interests are intertwined in such a way that if the interests of one suffer the interest of another do suffer. Both the employees and organization can prosper if they help each other to prosper.

Organization models along with various factors:

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AUTOCRATIC CUSTODIAL SUPPORTIVE COLLEGIAL

Model depends on Power Economic resources

Leadership Partnership

Managerial Orientation

Authority Money Support Teamwork

Employee Orientation

Obedience Security Job Performance

Responsibility

Employee Psychological Result

Dependence on boss

Dependence on organization

Perception Self-Discipline

Employee needs met

Subsistence Maintenance Higher-Order Self Actualization

Performance result Minimum Passive Co operation

Awakened Drives

Moderate enthusiasm

The organizational behavior models express the shift in the outlooks of the manager of looking towards their employees and the resultant organizational environment. The autocratic model was very much in existence at the time of industrial revolution and sometime after. Subsequently because of the changes in thinking of industrialists and managers custodial model of OB which consisted of concessions, economic privileges for employees came into existence. In both the above said models, managers did not bother to create and atmosphere which would be conductive to the development of the employee. The question of motivating, guiding and developing the employees did not arise. With the supportive model coming up the change in managerial orientation can be perceived. It emerged as a sequel to the human relations era. Here, the theory assumes that employees have the skill and will to contribute to the organizational efforts. It came to be recognized that manager is not the boss but a leader of the team of employees entrusted to him. The collegial model has limited application and is useful when one is dealing with scientific and professional employees. Here, managers role is changed from that of a leader to that of a partner. Whatever the work, its to be done as a team where lines between the manager and employee are obliterated.

Hence, it is proved that the fundamental concepts of the organizational behavior revolve around the nature of the human being and nature of organization. These fundamental concepts help the manager understand some basics of human behavior at work. This helps in providing employees with respect equal to that of manager on one hand and on the other helps in motivating employees to achieve the desired organizational objective. The study of OB further helps in developing mutual interests and catering to making an organization live in the society. Therefore, for understanding all the above said points and also employee’s psychology it is necessary that every manager should have the knowledge of Organizational behavior.

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Q 5. What are intra-personal Conflicts? Define and discuss some of the common defense mechanism with illustration.

Answer:

INTRA PERSONAL CONFLICTS

Many a times situations arise in such a way that human being does not understand as to what he should do; or many times his self image is likely to be criticized by the world; or the need fulfillment gets continually blocked. When this occurs a phenomenon known as intra personal conflict arises. Intra personal conflicts are of three types: Role Conflicts, Goal Conflicts and Frustration.

Role Conflict: Role Conflict arises when a person is performing two different roles having

contrary or contradictory expectations at the same time.Illustration: A worker who is also a worker-director is sandwiched between different

expectations. On one hand he is a worker and on the other hand he is director in the board of directors. As a director he may have to concur with the decision role which may not be, from his point of view, in the interests of the workers as such. If he performs his role as a worker he fails in his role as a director. Conversely if he performs his role as a worker he fails in his role as a director.

Goal Conflict:There are three types of goal conflicts. They are:

a. approach-approachb. avoidance-avoidancec. approach-avoidance

Approach – Approach conflict arises when there exist two equally positive but mutually exclusive situations. Both are equally attractive but a person can choose only one of them. A person receiving two equally good job offers gets into this kind of conflicts. In life somehow or the other a person makes a choice and settles down with. This kind of conflict is not know to create stress and tensions for a long time.

Avoidance - Avoidance conflict arises when there exists two equally negative situations one of which has to be accepted. For a prisoner continuing in the jail is negative but at the same time if he breaks jail there is a likelihood of his getting caught and increase in the punishment. He detests but he has to choose either. This conflict also is not known to create stress for a long time. Somehow or the other a person makes a choice and settles down with it.

Approach – Avoidance conflict is known to create stress in the mind of a person for a long time. This type of conflict arises when a positive situation is coupled with a negative

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one. If a person wants positive, he must choose negative too. A person wanting a promotion but not the transfer that comes in its wake faces this kind of conflict.

FrustrationFrustration occurs when need fulfillment is continually blocked or when one’s

self image is in jeopardy.

Defense Mechanisms:

1. Rationalization is giving pseudo justification to explain one’s failures. The common examples are sour grapes or a bad workman quarreling with his tools.

2. Regression is sliding back in terms of one’s chronological age. Certain patterns of behaviors are learnt during the childhood that is subsequently, in the adult age, replaced by the behavior acceptable by the society. At an unguarded moment, in the adulthood, in the flush of emotions, however, these childhood behaviors take charge of the personality of the people. A superior getting angry with his subordinate and throwing files at him or a person throwing a pen because of the ink not flowing, are the examples of this defense mechanism.

3. Aggression is also known as emotional transference. This is giving vent to the pent up feelings by an offensive behavior towards a third object or a person unconnected with the source of frustration. The offensive behavior is, almost always, against the third object or the person that can not retaliate. A superior scolding his subordinate because of something happening at home is the example of this defense mechanism.

4. Fantasy is building castles in the air with a view to escaping from the problem situation. Fantasy is temporarily removing one self, mentally, from the problem situation and losing oneself in the imaginary world where things happen at his behest. As long as a person is in his imaginary castle he is happy but some time or the other he has to come down to the mother earth. When he comes out of the imaginary world the problem starts pinching him again. The increased frequency of fantasizing is a signal that one had better seek some help from a psychiatrist.

5. Resignation, flight or withdrawal is a complete surrender to the problem situation. This is accepting a situation and ceasing any effort to deal with the problem.

Q 7. Discuss critically Fredric Herzberg’s theory of Job loading. What do understand by “Job Content” and “Job Context” factors.

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Answer:

FREDRIC HERZBERG’S THEORY OF JOB LOADING:

For several years managers had been wondering why their fancy personnel policies and fringe benefits were not increasing employee motivation on the job. To answer this, Frediric Herzberg of Case Western Reserve University provided an interesting extension of Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Theory and developed a scientific content theory of work motivation. Its also called the Dual Factory theory and the Motivation-Hygiene theory of Motivation. The theory originally was derived by analyzing “critical incidents” written by 200 engineers and accountants in nine different companies in Pittsburgh area, USA. Herzberg and his associates conducted extensive interviews with the professional subjects in the study and asked them what they liked or disliked about their work. The resent approach was simplistic built around the question “think of a time when you felt exceptionally good or exceptionally good about your job, either your present job or other you have had”. This approach has been repeated many a times with variety of job holders in various countries. The results indicated that when people talked about feeling good or satisfied they mentioned features in string to the job and when people talked about feeling dissatisfied with the job they talked about factors extrinsic to the hob. Herzberg called these motivation and maintenance factors respectively.

HYGIENE FACTORS (Job Context Factors):

Hygiene factors represent the need to avoid pain in environment. They are not an intrinsic part of a job, but they are related to the conditions under which a job is performed. They are associated with negative feelings. They are environment related factors, hygiene. They must be viewed as preventive measures that remove source of dissatisfaction from the environment like physical hygiene they do not lead to growth but only prevent deterioration. Maintaining a hygiene work environment will not improve motivation any more than garbage disposal or water purification. Hygiene factors produce no growth in worker output, they prevent loss in performance caused by worker restriction. These are job context factors.

MOTIVATORS (Job Content Factors):

Motivators are associated with positive feelings of employees about the job. They are related to the content of the job. They make people satisfied with their job. If manager wish to increase motivation and performance about the average level, they must enrich the work and increase a person’s freedom on the job. Motivators are necessary to keep job satisfaction and job performance high. On the other hand, if they are not present they do not prove highly satisfying.

Variables affecting motivation in organizational setting

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Hygiene MotivatorsCompany policies and administration AchievementRelationship with supervisor RecognitionWork Conditions Work ItselfSalary and status ResponsibilityRelationship with peers AdvancementPersonal life GrowthRelationship with subordinatesSecurity

MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS:

Herzberg’s theory casts new light on the content of work motivation. During the last 30 years employees have been paternalistically maintained too much and enthusiastically motivated to little. Managers have been focusing their attention on hygiene factors often with poor results. They were preoccupied with the environment of work rather than work it self. The distinction of motivational and maintenance factors will help managers in spurring individuals to peak performance. The most basic implication of the Motivation Maintenance Theory is that in order to maximize human productivity it is absolutely necessary to satisfy employees maintenance needs and provide the opportunity to gratify their motivational needs. The key to motivation lies in structuring meaningful jobs, jobs that are challenging and rewarding that provide increased opportunities for achievement, responsibility growth and recognition. That is to say, in place of dull, boring and de-motivating jobs, the managers should provide challenging jobs.

DEPARTURE FROM TRADITIONAL VALUES:

Traditionally, job satisfaction and dissatisfaction were viewed as opposite ends of a single continuum. When certain things are present on a job – good pay, opportunity for growth, healthy working environment – the employee will be satisfied. When they are absent, he/she is dissatisfied. The absence of dissatisfaction is satisfaction.

Herzberg’s finding indicate that dissatisfaction is not simply opposite of satisfaction or motivation. One can feel no dissatisfaction and yet not be satisfied. Satisfaction and dissatisfaction appear to be somewhat independent. They are not viewed as symmetrical items on a single scale, rather, they are viewed as attributes of different scales. The factors that cause dissatisfaction are different from those that result in satisfaction. Motivators and dissatisfaction affect satisfaction by hygiene factors.

LIMITATIONS AND CRITICISM:

Herzberg’s theory has been subjected to several troubling criticisms. Like Maslow’s model, Herzberg has been as controversial as it has been influential.

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Research Methodology:1. Herzberg is shackled to his method. His model is method bound. When

researchers did not use the critical incident method, they obtained different results.

2. Actually the theory is limited by the “Critical incident” method used to obtain information. The subject stated extremely satisfying and dissatisfying job experiences. People tend to tell the interviewer what they think the individual would like to hear. So results obtained under the method may be a product of people’s defensiveness than a correct revelation of objective sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction.

3. The method is fraught with procedural deficiencies also. The analysis of responses derived from his approach is highly subjective, sometimes the researchers had to interpret the responses.

Assumptions: The assumption that the two sets of factors operate primarily in one direction is also not accurate. Critics questioned the mutual exclusiveness of the dimension. In some cases ‘maintenance factors’ were found to be viewed as motivators by blue-collar employees. In one study it was found that hygiene factors were as useful in motivating employees, as were his motivators.

Herzberg’s Contribution:

Despite these criticisms, Herzberg’s two factor theory has made a significant contribution towards improving manager’s basic understanding of human behavior. He advanced a theory that was simple to grasp, based on some empirical data and equally significant. It offered specific action recommendation for managers to improve employee motivation levels. He drew the attention of managers to the importance of job content factors in work motivation which had been neglected previously.

Q 8. What do you understand by personality? Discuss in a nutshell some theories of personality.

Answer:

PERSONALITY

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Personality is the supreme realization of the innate individuality of a particular living being.According to Allport’s definition, “personality is the organization (a dynamic one) within an individual of those psycho-physical systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environment”. This makes personality as those psychological characteristics that both determine and reflect how a person responds to his or her environment.

Nature of Personality:

In the concept of personality, three distinct properties are of central importance which are mentioned as below:

1. Personality reflects individual differences – Because the inner characteristics that constitute an individual’s personality are a unique combination of factors, no two individuals are exactly alike. For instance, many people can be described as “high” in sociability while others are low in sociability.

2. Personality is consistent and enduring – An individual’s personality is commonly thought to be both consistent and enduring. Indeed, the mother who comments that her child “has been stubborn from the day he was born” is supporting the contention that the personality has both consistency and endurance.

3. Personality can change – Although personality tends to be consistent and enduring, it may still change under certain circumstances like an individual’s personality may be altered by major life events such as birth of a child, death of a loved one, a divorce or a major career promotion. An individual’s personality changes not only in response to abrupt events, but also as part of a gradual maturing process.

Determinants of Personality are:

1. Biological Factors: These may be studied under three heads – Heredity, Brain and Physical features. The relative effects of heredity comprise an extremely old argument in personality theory. Certain characteristics, primarily physical in nature, are inherited from one’s parents, transmitted by genes in the chromosomes contributed by each parent. A preliminary result of electrical stimulation of brain research gives indication that better understanding of human personality and behavior might come from study of brain. Also, an individual’s external appearance is proved to be having a tremendous effect on his personality.

2. Cultural Factors: Its one of the major determinant of an individual’s personality and largely determines what a person is and what a person will learn. The personality of an individual, to a marked extent, is determined by the culture on personality, researchers are unable to correlate the two concepts of personality and culture.

3. Family and Social Factors: The contribution of family and social group in combination with culture is known as socialization, a process which an

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individual infant acquires, from enormously wide range of behavioral, potentials that are open to him at birth, those behavioral patterns that are customary and acceptable according to standards of his family and social group. Identification is another process that helps in building personality, it starts when a person begins to identify himself with some other members of the family. Identification process can be examined from three angles: a. it can be viewed as the similarity of behavior between child and model, b. it can be looked as the child’s motives or desires to be like the model, c. it can be viewed as the process through which the child actually takes on the attributes of the model.

Apart from socialization and identification processes, the home environment influences personality of the individual. Researchers have developed several theories of personality and no theory, at the outset, is complete in itself.

1. Psychoanalytic Theory/Intrapsychic Theory of Sigmund Frend:

This theory provides the foundation for the study of motivational research, which operates on the premise that human drives are largely unconscious in nature and serve to motivate people’s action. According to Frend, human mind is composed of three elements the preconscious, Conscious, and the Unconscious. According to him the “Conscious” is guided by a “reasoned reality” principle and the “unconscious” is guided by the famous “hedonistic principle” of pleasure. Frend developed an organization of personality consisting of three structures within the human mind the id, the ego and the super ego. These three parts of mind are primarily responsible for originating human actions and reactions and modifications. Frend constructed this theory on the basis of patient’s recollections of early childhood experiences, analysis of dreams and specific nature of their mental and physical adjustment problems.

Id, EGO, SUPEREGO – Frend proposed that human personality consists of three interacting systems: the id, the ego and the superego. The id was conceptualized as a ‘warehouse’ of primitive and impulsive drives – basic physiological needs such as thirst, hunger and sex for that individual seeks immediate satisfaction without concern for specific means of satisfaction. In contrast to the id, the superego is conceptualized as the individual’s internal expression of society’s moral and ethical code of conduct. The superego’s role is to see that the individual satisfies needs in a socially acceptable fashion. Thus, the superego is a kind of “brake” that restrains or inhibits the impulsive forces of the id. Finally, the ego is the individual’s conscious control. It functions as an internal monitor that attend to balance the impulsive demands of the id and the socioculture constraints of the superego. The figure below represents inter-relation among the three interacting systems:

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IDSYSTEM 1

EGOSYSTEM 3GRATIFICATION

2. TYPE THEORY:

The type theories represent an attempt to scientifically describe personalities by classifying individuals into convenient categories. Carl Jung’s extrovert-introvert theories, sheldon’s physiogram theory are some examples of type theories.

CARL JUNG THEORIES – Jung’s contribution to modern psychology is extensive and his theories and insights pertaining to personality type are especially relevant to consumer behavior. Some pairs of Jung’s inspired psychological dimensions are 1. Sensing – Intuiting 2. Thinking – Feeling 3. Extroversion – Introversion 4. Judging – Perceiving. Each of these four pairs of dimensions reflects two distinctly different personality characteristics that offer a picture as to how people respond to the world around them. Few people are completely extroverts or introverts. But mixture of these two ingredients determines the kind of overall personality on an individual.

3. TRAIT THEORIES:

Trait theory constitutes a major departure from the basically qualitative measures that typify the Frendian and neo-frendian movements ( e.g. personal observation, self reported experiences, dream analysis, projective techniques). The orientation of trait theory is primarily quantitative or empirical, it focuses on measurement of personality in terms of specific psychological characteristics called traits. A trait is defined as “…. Any distinguishing, relatively enduring way in which one individual differs from another”. Accordingly, trait theorists are concerned with the construction of personality tests that pinpoint individual differences in terms of specific traits. Allport is one of the trait theorists, who is of the opinion that each individual possesses a set of traits that are not shared by any other individuals. He emphasizes the uniqueness of personality. Sheldon (another trait theorist) extended physical structuring by asserting that physique consists of three components endomorphs (soft and spherical structure), mesomorphy (tough and muscular body) and ectomorphy (linear and fragile). The relative existence of these three physical elements indicates specific personality traits or patterns. Corresponding to these three physical aspects, he assumed three aspects of

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SUPEREGOSYSTEM 2

temperament, viscerotonia (love of comfort and affection), somatotonia (physical adventure and risk taking) and cerebrotonia (restraint and inhibition). Although he assumed a close relationship between respective aspects of structure and personality, there is no evidence to support this view.

Trait theories (unlike type theories), give recognition to continuity of personalities but also suffer from certain limitations.1. Traits may be too abstract. E.g.- anxiety can’t be measured.2. Trait approach focuses on isolated traits without specifying how these

traits are organized within the personality.3. Another drawback is that they are essentially descriptive rather than

analytical.

Social learning approach focuses on patterns of behavior, individuals learn in coping with the environment, some of which can be learnt through direct experiences. Thus, these theorists believe that reinforcement facilitates learning by focusing attention.

4. SELF THEORY:

The intrapsychic, physiognomy and trait theories represent the traditional approaches to understanding the complex human personality. Self theory rejects both psychoanalytic and behavioristic conception of human nature as two mechanists portraying people as creatures helplessly tossed about by internal instincts or external stimuli. Rogers and his associates have developed the self theory that places emphasis on individual as an initiating, creating, influential determinant of behavior within the environmental framework. In Roger’s theory understanding of self concept, organism and development of self is important. Self concept is a result of one’s perceptual process. It’s a cognitive factor and maintained through thinking related activities. Self Theory is appreciated on the ground that its organized around the concept of self and says that personality and behavior are largely determined by individual.

Q 9. What is perception? Discuss factors influencing Perception.

Answer:

PERCEPTION

Perception can be described as “how we see the world around us”. Two individuals may be subject tot the same stimuli under the same apparent conditions, but how each person recognizes them, selects them, organizes them and interprets them is a highly individual process based on each person’s own needs, values and expectations.

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Perception is defined as the process by which an individual selects, organizes and interprets stimuli into a meaningful and coherent picture of the world. A stimulus is any unit of input to any of the senses. The study of perception is largely the study of what we subconsciously add to or subtract from raw sensory inputs to produce our own private picture of the world. As diverse individuals, we all tend to see the world in our own special ways. Four people can view the same event at the same time, and each will report in total honesty a story different from all the others. For each individual, reality is totally personal phenomenon, based on that persons wants and personal experiences. Reality to an individual is merely that individual’s perception of what is “out there” – of what has taken place. Individuals act and react on the basis of their perceptions, not on the basis of objective reality.

The study of divergence, between the perceptual world and reality world, is of great significance for human relations and organizational behavior. As its frequently observed, managers assume that subordinates are always keen for promotions even though factually subordinates may really feel psychologically compelled to accept their promotion. The perceptual worlds of the managers and of the subordinates may differ markedly from each other as well as both of them may diverse substantially from reality. To get the desired results from promotion, the management should have the proper assessment of the perceptual world of its subordinates.

Perception has five sub-processes that are mentioned as below:

1. Stimulus: Perception initiates with the presence of stimulus. In organizational settings the superior forms the stimulus situation for the subordinates perceptual process.

2. Registration: It involves the physiological mechanism including both sensory and neural. Obviously, an individual’s physiological ability to hear and see influences his perception.

3. Interpretation: This is a highly crucial sub-process where psychological process like motivation, personality etc help in the perceptual process.

4. Feedback: In work settings, psychological feedback is likely to affect a subordinate’s perception may be in the form of a variation in superior’s behavior, hence forming an important part of perceptual process.

5. Consequence: Perception ends in reaction or response, which may be in overt or covert form. As a consequence of perception an individual responds to work demands.

These five sub-processes indicate the complexity of the perception.

FRED LUTHANS DIAGRAM OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

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EXTERNAL ENVIORNMENT

SENSUAL STIMULATION

PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENTOFFICE, RESEARCH LAB, CLIMATE ETC

SOCIO CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT

MANAGEMENT STYLESVALUES, DISCRIMINATION ETC

CONFRONTATION OF SPECIFIC STIMULUS

REGISTRATION OF STIMULUS

FACTORS AFFECTING PERCEPTION

Factors that influence perception can be those that attract attention lie in the situations and some are within the individual. The factors that are in the situations are called ‘external attentions factors’ and those that are within an individual are called ‘internal set factors’. The details of both external as well as internal factors are listed below,

EXTERNAL ATTENTION FACTORS:

1. Intensity: The intensity of stimulus is very important to draw customers attention, this is so because the more intense the stimulus either audio or visual, the more is the likelihood that it will be perceived. It may be bright colors, strong odor, good music or peppy punch line, anything which is different and receives positive views of customers.

2. Contrast: According to contrast principle, anything which stand out against the background or which people usually do not expect will receive attention. Any change in the accustomed atmosphere attracts change.

3. Novelty and Familiarity: A novel object in the familiar situation or a familiar object in a novel situation tends to attract attention. Job rotation is a good example of this principle.

4. Repetition: The repeated external stimulus attracts more attention than that one which occurs at one time alone. This is the reason why advertisers while putting T.V. or radio advertisements repeat the brand name they are advertising.

5. Motion: The individual attend to changing objects in their field of vision than to static objects, this is what the factor of motion applies to. It is because of this advantage/benefit that advertisers involve signs, which include moving objects in their campaigns.

6. Size: According to this, any odd size attracts attention i.e. any size which is different attracts attention. The size can be extra-ordinary large or extra-

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FEEDBACK FOR CLARIFICATION

INTERPRETATION OF STINULUS

BEHAVIORE.G. OVERT OR COVERT FORM

CONSEQUENCEE.G. ORG. OUTCOME

ordinary small, both tends to attract people in some way or the other. A good example of this is that whenever there is a full page or half page advertisement in the news paper people’s attention is caught.

INTERNAL SET FACTORS:

1. Motivation and Interest: Motivational factors increase the individual’s sensitivity to those stimuli which he considers as relevant to the satisfaction of his needs in view of his past experience with them. Hunger and thirst are good examples of motivational factors. A hungry person would like to eat first and then do any other thing, no matter how important other things are.

2. Habit: There are several instances in life settings where individual’s tend to react with the right response to the wrong signals. For example – a Sikh will bow whenever he sees a Gurudwara, a Hindu will bow and do namaskar on seeing temple because of his well established habits.

3. Learning: Although interrelated with motivation and personality, learning may play the single biggest role in developing perceptual set. Learning affects set by creating an expectancy to perceive in a certain manner.

4. Organizational Role and the Specialization: The modern organizations value specialization. Consequently the specialty of a person that casts him in a particular organizational role predisposes him to select certain stimuli and to disregard others.

Q 10. “Leadership is practiced by the leadership in style” – Elaborate.

Answer:

“Leadership is practiced by the leadership in style”

Leadership is a process of influence on a group. It is the ability of a manager to induce subordinates to work with confidence and zeal. It is the driving force which gets things done by others. A good leader achieves maximum cooperation from the group members by providing two-way communication and by motivating. He is also able to coordinate the activities of the followers to achieve common objectives.

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SIGNIFICANCE: Leadership can be an important modifier of behavior and people working in a organization. Effective leadership is necessary for inspiring the people to work for the accomplishment of given objectives. It provides a cohesive force which holds the group intact and develops a spirit of cooperation. Effective leadership is also important for efficient direction of human efforts towards the predetermined goals. Leadership is the essence of manager ship.

Functions of leader are as follows:1. Determination of Goals.2. Organization of activities.3. Achieving Co-ordination.4. Representation of Workers.5. Providing Guidance.6. Inspiration of Employees.7. Building employees morale.8. Facilitating change.

Leadership is the mechanism to convince workers about the need for change. Dynamic leadership is the cornerstone of organizational change. A leader interprets the objectives of people working under him and guides towards the achievement of those objectives. According to Haimann,

“Leadership is the process by which an executive imaginatively directs, guides and influences the work of others in choosing and attaining specified goals by mediating between individuals and the organization in such a manner that both will obtain maximum satisfaction”.

Leadership is a psychological process of influencing followers and providing guidance to them. Its always related to a situation, which means a leader may be effective in one situation while ineffective in other. To be effective, a leader should change his leadership style depending upon the requirements of the situation.

Characteristic’s of leadership are as follows:1. Leadership is a process of influence – by leader on the group members.2. Leadership is a function of stimulation – motivating people to strive

willingly to attain organizational objectives.3. Leadership gives an experience o helping attain the common objectives.4. Employees must be satisfied with the type of leadership provided – A

good leader shares everything with his followers, he shares credit, he shares blame, he shares ideas, opinion and experience.

5. Leadership is related to a situation – This means leadership styles will be different under different circumstances. At one point of time, the subordinates may accept autocratic behavior of leader while at a different point of time and under a different set of circumstances, only participative

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leadership style may be successful. That’s why, leadership is always particular and never general.

STYLES OF LEADERSHIP:Leadership style refers to a leader’s behavior. Behavioral pattern which the leader

reflects in his role as a leader is often described as the style of leadership. Different leadership patterns exist among leaders in different time and in different situations. Leadership style is the result of leader’s philosophy, personality, experience, skills and value system. It also depends upon the types of followers and the organizational atmospheres prevailing in the enterprise.

Negative leadership gets acceptable performance in many situations, but it has high human costs. Negative leader act domineering and superior with people. To get work tone, they hold over their personnel such penalties as lose job, reprimand in the presence of others etc. They display authority in the false belief that is frightens everybody into productivity. They are bosses more then leaders. Even the most competitive leaders will at times have to fall back upon negative leadership. Perfection can never be achieved, but the historical trend that managers need more and more positive leadership skills in order to be rated “satisfactory”. Better employee education, greater independence and other factors have made satisfactory employee motivation more dependent on positive leadership. Different types of leadership styles are:

a. Autocratic leadershipb. Participative leadershipc. Free rein leadership

A

B D C Autocratic Participative Free Rein

In practice, a leader may use all styles over a period of time, but one style tends to predominate as his normal way of using power. E.G. – Factory supervisors who is normally autocratic, may be participative in determining vacation schedules and free rein in selecting the departmental representative for safety committee. This classification is not scientific. In practice, a leader adopts a combination of styles because there are thousands of in between styles of power which each manager applies his own way. Power use exists along a continuum ranging from total power use at all and effective managers usually show some flexibility along this continuum as shown in the figure above.

1. Autocratic or Authoritarian Leader: The autocratic leader gives orders which he insists must be obeyed. He determines policies for the group without consulting them and does not give detailed information about future plan but simply tells that group what immediate steps they must

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A

D

E C

A

C

DE

take. He gives personal praise or criticism to each member on his own initiative and remains aloof from the group for the major part of time. Here, all decision making is centralizes in the leader and he does not give subordinates the freedom to influence his behavior. Such a leader may be called strict autocrat who relies on negative influences and gives orders, which the subordinates must accept. When his motivational style is positive he is often called Benevolent Autocrat, who is effective in getting high productivity and developing effective human relation. A manipulative autocrat is one who makes subordinates feel that they are participating in decision-making process even though he has already taken the decision. Its advantages includes strong motivation and reward for leader, permits quick decisions best style in emergencies, also it gives good results while dealing with unskilled employees. Its disadvantages include disliking, frustration, dissatisfaction, and fear. Also, the self-interest and creativity is lost/suppressed.

2. Participative or Democratic Leader: In this style, orders are given only after consulting the group store, its made sure that policies are worked out in group discussions and with acceptance of the group. Participative measures decentralize managerial authority. Control is exercised here mostly by using forces within the group. This style is better style of managing people. As far as disadvantages are concerned, its useless when leader is dealing with emergency. Also, the basic assumption that people have the skill and will help organizational effort may not be correct.

3. Free Rein or Laissez Fair Leader: Such a leader does not lead, but leaves the group entirely to itself. Chairman of board who does not manage, but leaves all responsibility for most of the work to his subordinates represents him. Leader plays only a minor role, he happens to be a bystander and fails to guide, motivate and develop his subordinates. This style is good where one is dealing with scientific and professional employees, who require more job-freedom. This mode of direction can produce good and quick results if the subordinates are highly educated and brilliant people who have sincere desire to go ahead and perform their responsibilities. However, it suffers from the ignorance on managers side.

CONCLUSIONLeadership has been defined as a process of influencing others by many scholars

although it starts from influencing one’s own self. Various leadership styles have been discussed and success of each one depends on the situation in which any style is implemented. Hence the success of leadership style depends upon the right understanding of the situation. Any leadership style may prove to be effective in certain situations and may prove to be ineffective in some other situations. Managers need to learn the art of diagnosing the environment/situation to adopt suitable leadership style. Leadership is psychological process of influencing followers or subordinates and providing guidance to them. Also, its always related to a situation, so making it clear that in some situations a leader would be effective, while in others he won’t be. To be effective, a leader should change his leadership styles depending upon the requirements of the situation.

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Q 11. As a manager what steps would you take to reduce the stress on your employees.

Answer:According to Dr. Seyles “Stress is a non-specific response of the body to

situation”

Other definitions of stress are:

“Stress is a physiological abnormality at the structural or bio-chemical level caused by overloading experiences.”

“Stress is an adaptive response to an external situation that results in physical, psychological and or behavioral deviations.”

Organizational membership is a dominant source of stress. The concept of organizational stress was first evolved in the classic work of Kahn et al. They were the earliest to draw attention to organizational stress in general and role stress in particular.

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Some of the organizational stressors are intrinsic to the job. They are boredom, time pressures and deadlines, exorbitant work demands and technical problems. Some organizational stressors relate to the role in the organization. They are role ambiguity, role conflict, role overload etc.

Some organizational stressors relate to the organizational structure and climate. They are lack of participation in the decision-making, lack of responsiveness and appreciation, pressers towards conformity etc.

At the organizational level the stress of the employees may have negative effect on the job satisfaction, morale, motivation to perform at high levels.Even though stress has multifarious deleterious effects on individual and the organization, stress cannot be done away with. Every success has at its roots in stress. Stress propels a man do something that ultimately results in success. Stress is like the voltage on an electric bulb. High voltage fuses the bulb; at the same time less voltage dims the bulb. Stress is necessary evil but it has bad effects. Therefore the only thing man can do is to keep stress from harming him. One must manage stress.

Some Behavioral Symptoms of Stress are:

Low productivity, decreased work performance;Tendency to remain absent from work;Much of interpersonal conflict;Tendency to remain isolated;Sudden change in habit (clothing, eating, drinking);Talking around a subject;Poor eye contact while talking;Making others look ridiculous;Brooding; feeling worthless;Frequent references to death, suicide etc.

Organizational Strategies for managing employee stress:

Create supportive organizational climate;Convince employees that their contribution are significant;Rotate employees out of potentially stressful positions and do not allow them to overwork;Organize training programs to help employees cope with stress provide employee counseling.

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Q 12. “Organizational Change is a complex phenomenon involving considerable diligence on the part of Management – To deal with Resistance to change as well as to Introduce the change” – Discuss.

Answer:

We live in an age of transition. One of the few things of real permanence in our world is change. It has become an inescapable fact of life; a fundamental aspect of historical evolution. Change is inevitable in a progressive culture. Change, in fact, is accelerating in our present day society. Revolutions are taking place in political, scientific, technological and institutional areas. Sophisticated communication capabilities have increased. Telemarketings, ‘robotics’ taking over some jobs currently performed by employees are some examples that bear testimony of the fast paced, rapidly changing organization. Pressures for change are created both outside and inside organization. In fact an organization that refuses to adapt and adopt change cannot live longer.

Organizations are, of course, learning to cope with the devastating rate of internal and external changes with the help of some fundamental changes in management philosophy and organizational technology.

Characteristics of organizational change:

1. Change basically results from stimuli from both outside and inside the enterprise.

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2. Change takes place in all organizations but at varying rates of speed and degrees of significance.

3. Change takes place in all parts of organization but at varying rates of speed and degrees of significance.

4. Finally, the enterprise changes in several ways. Its technology may change; its structure, people, procedures and other elements may change.

Any alteration that occurs in the overall work environment is called change. Change requires new adjustments and new equilibrium. The nature of work change is so complicated that the management should gain acceptance for the change, and restore the group equilibrium and personal adjustment that change upsets.

Organizational Resistance to change:

The resistance to change from the organization comes because of the

a. Structure of the organization.b. Resources constrains.c. Sunk costs, andd. General apathy.

The Structural resistance:Some organizational structures have inbuilt mechanism for resistance to change.

For instance, consider a typically bureaucratic structure where hobs are narrowly defined, lines of authority are clearly spelled out, the flow of information is stressed from top to bottom. In such organizations the channels of communication make the new idea difficult to travel and eventually it increases the probability that the new ideal/innovation will be screened out because it is not suitable for the structure of the Organization.

Some organization are so designed that they resist innovations. For example, those that perform narrowly prescribed assortment of functions oppose change. They also sometimes create strong defense against changes.

Resources Constraints:Organizations, many a times, operate under some resource constraints. If the

resources with which to operate are available in abundance there will be no problem of introducing change. But the necessary financial, material and human resources may not be available to the organization to make the needed changes.

Sunk Costs:The plight of some companies is such that the heavy capital is blocked in the

fixed or permanent assets. Even though the management in such organizations is convinced of the necessity of change, they may face resource constraints because of the money already sunk in the purchase of block capital assets.

The following management styles are available to the manager for overcoming the resistance to change.

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Negotiations: convincing the employees about the necessity of change. At this stage some give-and-take may be required.Participation of the employees in setting up the change. If these fail, forcing the employees to accept the change.

Introducing Change

Management of organizational change is a complex phenomenon involving formidable exercises on the part of management. Before a particular change is shaped and implemented effectively in an organization certain minimum number of steps need be followed viz.

1. Recognize the forces demanding change;2. Recognize the need for the change;3. Diagnose the problem;4. Plan the change;5. Implement the change6. Follow-up or feedback.

Forces Demanding Change:Whenever a manager intends introducing change he should proceed in a logical

sequential order. Manager should, first of all, identify the forces demanding change. Change is the reaction to the pressures created both within and outside the organization. These forces thus, may be internal or external. Depending upon the nature of the change agent, as well as the strength of the forces would depend upon the managerial strategy to introduce the change.

Recognize of the need for Change:All forces certainly do not demand change but some do require careful attention

on the part of the management. Manager should identify the discrepancy between what is and what should be. He must analyze the forces that attribute to this gap through evaluation or performance reports. Management then must try to separate unnecessary forces and keep a close eye on next step in the process known as diagnosis.

Diagnose the Problem:Next observable phase in management of change is a thorough and careful

diagnosis of the problem. This involves the identification of the root cause. It is advisable that the work of diagnosing the problem be entrusted to an outside consultant. Generally the services of an outsider are useful at this stage because he is not restrained by the internal inhibitions. He can afford to call a spade a spade. Various diagnostic techniques such as interviews, questionnaires, observation and secondary data/unobtrusive measure, etc., are used in this stage. The manager or change agent depending on the nature of the problem and capabilities of the enterprise employs these diagnostic techniques.

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Plan the Change:The diagnosis would tell the manager if the change has to be adopted; it might

also give him a cue as to the manner and the phases in which it is to be introduced. All organizational changes can be classified as change in structure, task, technology or people. Changing structure involves reorganization of the departments, re-specification of span of control, decentralization etc. Changing task includes job enrichment, job specification and specialization and job redefinition or any other changes concerned with the task of employees. Changing technology involves introduction of new lines of production, installing new control system, instituting new selection and recruitment etc. And finally, changing people comprises of training, meeting, development activities etc.

Implementing the Change:Having identified the focal points of concentration, the manager’s immediate job

is to implement change. Here he confronts a biggest challenge through resistance by the employees.

Conclusion

In today’s fast pace of life the only factor that is permanent is the change itself. An organization’s ability to manage change decides whether the organization will prosper or perish. Even-though the change is in the interest of the employees and the organization; many times the change is resisted by the employees as well as by the organization. Employees resist change because of the economic reasons or personal and social reasons. Most importantly, many a times, a change throws up the necessity retraining. Generally people do not like to be retrained. Because, they take a pride in their existing skills, People also feel that retraining means that their skills are obsolete. Organization resists change because of the structural inertia, resource constrains, sunk costs or the general apathy.

Thus “Organizational change is a complex phenomenon involving considerable diligence on the part of Management – To deal with Resistance to change as well as to introduce the change”

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Q 13. Define “work”. What are basic concepts involved in the work performance?

Answer:

WORK

Work, in essence, is the use of person’s physiological and mental processes in attainment of some goal.

The basic characteristic of work is that before peak productivity is reached there is an initial warming-up period, the peak period is constant for some time and then there is a decrement or falling of productivity. Often, in anticipation of the end of the workday, there is a spurt. There are two reasons for the decrement in work to occur. They are Fatigue and boredom.

Fatigue: Can be defined as the tiredness of the body as a result of continuous physical activity, which can be avoided by introduction of authorized rest pauses.

How can we account for the beneficial effects of rest pause on production?Rest provides the opportunity to recover from fatigue. The physiologist has

demonstrated that work causes accumulation of waste products within the organism that reduces work capacity. Rest provides a period during which the waste products are dissipated and bodily capacity restored. In heavy muscular work, physiological fatigue is unquestionably a major factor contributing to work decrement.

Boredom: When work does not involve the expenditure of a great deal of physical energy, the beneficial effect of rest periods may be due to relief from a task that engenders in the worker feeling of boredom. The worker is not physically tired. He is irritated, lacks interest, and is fed up with his job. He wants a change, a break from what seems to be interminable activity. Rest pauses provide an opportunity to talk and think

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about non-job activities. When the worker returns to his job, he is psychologically and physiologically refreshed, and this is reflected in the increased output.

Creating a favorable work environment:There is no doubt that people generally prefer pleasant surroundings to unpleasant

ones and that when attention is paid to creating a favorable working environment as well as to actual job performance methods, overall pleasantness prevails. However, one must be somewhat cautious in accepting all the claims made as to the result of creating favorable work environment. Much of the work that has been done in this field suffers from errors in experimental methodology. With this in mind we may discuss some changes in environmental factors that may be useful to make surroundings more acceptable.

1. Noise: Noise is usually regarded as a distracter and therefore as interfering with work efficiency. Clear-cut evidence that noise reduces work output is very scant. Normally high tones and very low tones are more annoying and irritating than middle range tones. Also the intermittent, reverberating noises are irritating most people. Thus it is necessary to possibly sound-treat work areas in order to reduce the irritating effects of noises.

2. Music: Music is alleged to have salutary effects on attitudes, to improve morale, and to increase production. Music increases productivity only indirectly through improvement in the morale and the attitudes of the employees. However, for the jobs requiring close attention requiring application of mind, music is a total waste. Despite these findings the workers seem to be favorably disposed toward music and perhaps more significantly, they believed that it increase actual production.

3. Illumination: The lights should be adequate, not too bright or not too dim. The research tells that intermittent bright flashes of light tire the eyes fast and hence affect productivity.

4. Color: The color dynamics of the workspaces is often claimed to be an important determinant of work efficiency, but supporting evidence is conspicuously nonexistent. It can, therefore be safely said that color scheme affects productivity only indirectly through soothing the eyes.

5. Atmospheric Effects: Atmosphere affects human beings and the work efficiency also. The problem actually is complicated because almost always when atmospheric temperature varies, other conditions such as humidity do not remain constant. It is felt that the ideal temperatures for sedentary work in winter are from 68 to 73 F and the same kind of work in summer, 75 to 80 F; for moderately hard work in all seasons, the desirable temperature is 65 F and for strenuous work 60 F. The role of humidity has been demonstrated in a number of studies, so that there is a factual basis for the common expression that “it is not the heat, but the humidity” which causes discomfort. Besides temperature and humidity, air circulation is another atmospheric condition that is critical in a good working environment.

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Thus there are certain factors in the physical surround like noise, color scheme, temperature, humidity, dust and fumes, music etc, which need be paid proper attention to avoid the fall in the productivity.

Q 14. Write short notes on (Any Two)a. Content and Process Theory of Motivationb. Attitudes and Valuesc. Perceptiond. The Id and Ego

Answer:

b. Attitudes and ValuesAttitudes are an expression of inner feelings that reflect whether person is

favorably or unfavorably predisposed to some “object” because they are an outcome of psychological processes, attitudes are not directly observable but must be inferred from what people say or what they do. Attitudes are relatively consistent with the behavior they reflect. However, despite their consistency, attitudes are not necessarily permanent, they do change. Attitude change as learned, they are influenced by personal experience and other source of information and personality affects the receptivity with which attitudes are likely to be altered.

According to the tri-component attitude model, attitude consists of three major components, an affective component and a cognitive component. The cognitive component in the knowledge and perceptions that are acquired by a combination of direct experience with the attitude object and related information from various sources. The affective component is a person emotions about a particular object which are evaluative in nature and helps in individual’s rating to be favorable or unfavorable. They cognitive component is concerned with an individual’s likelihood or tendency that an individual will undertake a specific action or behave in a particular way with regards to the attitude object.

The attitude is always directed to some object, such as temple, school etc. The object may be of social significance or purely personal. Moreover, it may be abstract as the philosophy of rebirth or as concrete as a car. An attitude is a tendency to react in a certain way and until some situation arouse it, the attitude is latent. Attitudes are for or against things. We tend to have favorable attitudes towards sources of gratification and unfavorable attitudes towards sources of punishment and frustration.

“The stronger an attitude, less the stimulation which is necessary to arouse it”

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The greater the degree of arousal of the affective component of an attitude, the greater the strength of reaction to other attitude-related stimuli. If a person is already stirred up about something relevant to an attitude, he will tend to react to some new attitude stimulus more strongly than he would otherwise do. A community that is angry about a “communal incident” will be likely to be sensitized to new threats to its values. It is not even necessary that the affective arousal be related to an attitudinally relevant stimulus for its effect to occur.

VALUES:

Value can be explained as a “concept of desirable, an internalized criterion or standard of evaluation a person possesses”. These concepts and standards which are relatively very few, help an individual’s evaluations of many things in routine day-to-day life. Values are tinged with moral, flavor, which involves an individual’s judgement of choosing between right, good and desirable.

Values provides standards of competence and morality which are relatively permanent and resistant to change. Values are the most central to the core of a person that transcend specific objects, situations or persons. Also, these are fewer in number than attitudes.

Difference Between Attitudes and Values

ATTITUDES VALUESAttitudes essentially represent predisposition to respond.

Values focus on the judgement of what ought to be. This judgement can represent the specific manifestation of a determining tendency below the surface of the behavior.

Attitudes represents several beliefs focused on specific object or situation

Value represents a single belief that transcendentally guides actions and judgements across objects and situations

Attitudes are mostly personal experiences

Values stand in relation to some social or cultural standards or norms

Values and attitudes share some similarities too. Both are powerful instruments influencing cognitive process and behavior of people. Both are learned and acquired from the same source i.e. experiences with permanent and resistant to change. Also, both influence each other and are, more often than not, used interchangeable.

C. PERCEPTION

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Perception can be described as “how we see the world around us”. Two individuals may be subject tot the same stimuli under the same apparent conditions, but how each person recognizes them, selects them, organizes them and interprets them is a highly individual process based on each person’s own needs, values and expectations.

Perception is defined as the process by which an individual selects, organizes and interprets stimuli into a meaningful and coherent picture of the world. A stimulus is any unit of input to any of the senses. The study of perception is largely the study of what we subconsciously add to or subtract from raw sensory inputs to produce our own private picture of the world. As diverse individuals, we all tend to see the world in our own special ways. Four people can view the same event at the same time, and each will report in total honesty a story different from all the others. For each individual, reality is totally personal phenomenon, based on that persons wants and personal experiences. Reality to an individual is merely that individual’s perception of what is “out there” – of what has taken place. Individuals act and react on the basis of their perceptions, not on the basis of objective reality.

The study of divergence, between the perceptual world and reality world, is of great significance for human relations and organizational behavior. As it is frequently observed, managers assume that subordinates are always keen for promotions even though factually subordinates may really feel psychologically compelled to accept their promotion. The perceptual worlds of the managers and of the subordinates may differ markedly from each other as well as both of them may diverse substantially from reality. To get the desired results from promotion, the management should have the proper assessment of the perceptual world of its subordinates.

Perception has five sub-processes that are mentioned as below:

1. Stimulus: Perception initiates with the presence of stimulus. In organizational settings the superior forms the stimulus situation for the subordinates perceptual process.

2. Registration: It involves the physiological mechanism including both sensory and neural. Obviously, an individual’s physiological ability to hear and see influences his perception.

3. Interpretation: This is a highly crucial sub-process where psychological process like motivation, personality etc help in the perceptual process.

4. Feedback: In work settings, psychological feedback is likely to affect a subordinate’s perception may be in the form of a variation in superior’s behavior, hence forming an important part of perceptual process.

5. Consequence: Perception ends in reaction or response, which may be in overt or covert form. As a consequence of perception an individual responds to work demands.

These five sub-processes indicate the complexity of the perception.

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