Institute of Management, NIRMA University

MBA (FT) 2019-21

Supplementary Assignment on

Organizational Behavior
(MFT4CCOB02)

Submitted To: Prof. Nina Muncherji

Submitted By: Abhinav Jain (191203)

Submission Date: 30th June, 2020

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Q1. Discuss with examples the impact of Attitude, Perception, Personality,
Organizational Culture, Organizational Leadership on behavior and
performance of an employee in a Pandemic Situation.

Ans:

As we all know this novel coronavirus has changed the lives we used to live at least temporarily
if not permanently. This has impacted not just economy, businesses and industries across the
globe but has also brought in a change in attitude, behavior, consumption and the overall
personality which has impacted not just personally but professionally as well.

Attitude:

`. These could be formed from past experience or present or could a product of both- thus it’s
very complex in nature and identifying the underlying reasons is important.

As we have been studying that attitude follow behavior and can help in framing the future
actions or outlook towards things. As the question is about the impact of performance of an
employee during this pandemic phase, let us understand the different types of attitude in work
environment and their impact on behavior and performance with examples aligned with
ongoing pandemic situation.

a) Job Satisfaction: I believe apart from the perks of fresh-home-made food and zero
commute time – there exist a flip side too- the most important being the social isolation.
Employees are missing out on effective discussions in physical meeting rooms and the
distressing environment around (continuous news of covid-19 cases across globe),
various pay cuts and no bonus quarter already declared in many organizations, all these
factors have led to lower job satisfaction than before. Also, companies are expecting
24*7 availability and no fix set hours from employees- which in turn has increased the
overall workload with minimal physical activity. This has led to a negative feeling
about their job and also the frustration of being helpless about the situation – as
switching jobs is nearly impossible during this tough time, has made it all more to the
overall dissatisfaction and thus performance has gone down drastically with time.
Also lack of job satisfaction is a key input for a negative organizational citizenship
behavior (OCB) which would hamper the image and brand value of a company in the
long run. If that trust is not maintained between the employer and employee during
these gives and take times- this could lead to a serious damage for both the company
and the employees and thus could impact the overall profitability.

b) Job Involvement: This involves the psychological identification with one’s work and
how central it is to an individual’s identity. Higher the job involvement more strongly
they identify themselves in their job. In my opinion during this pandemic the workload
has increased in general due to various factors which in turn means more the person is
involved now with the job. Now this gives a feeling of importance and dependency the
team or the organization has on the employee, which in turn is a motivating factor for
the employee and can positively impact the behavior and performance for an individual.

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 There could also exist a totally opposite situation where in as could be observed, there
are various all- day meetings being conducted online anytime, with different teams and
team leaders, this shift in the environment can lead to a negative attitude towards the
working and can lead to downfall in performance.

c) Organizational Commitment: This aspect covers the emotional attachment and belief
the employee hold for the organization. Higher the degree of emotional connect, better
the job performance. Now, considering the live examples of so many companies like
Swiggy, Uber, Airbnb, Zomato and many others who have layed off employees in bulk
in past 3-4 months, gives out a very discouraging message to other employees of the
respective organization as they feel insure and emotionally detached than ever before.
This type of attitude and resulting behavior would definitely demotivate employees and
would see a huge dip in the productivity and performance from the employees.

d) Employee Engagement: All the above type of attitude like satisfaction and
involvement see a negative aspect attached to it in this pandemic situation, it is very
obvious that this would also lead to a lower engagement with the organization as all
interlinked indirectly. Same routine jobs with less of challenging and new projects
could also add further add to disengagement with the company

So, all these factors when combined, we see a less motivating workforce with limited
opportunity leading to much lower productivity, changed behaviors and low reduced
performance than usual times is a new common this pandemic has brought in that could
be observed and is omnipresent irrespective of the type of industry.

Perception:

It’s a complex process of interpreting objects and converting them into meaningful
information. There are multiple factors that could govern your perception differently at
different times like attitude, interests, past or present experience, motives etc. Individual
perceptions shape organizational behavior and consequently individual and organizational
success.

For e.g. when we take this ongoing situation, there are set of people who embrace this change
in working style and WFH mode and this see an opportunity whereas some would just be
fearful of this change and do not approve of it internally and in turn are demotivated to perform
even the regular routine work. They have basically perceived the whole situation as negative
without understanding the company’s point of view and the existing market situation around.
So, perceiving the situations through a right lens can shape positive behavior and vice-versa
which could further the degree of performance for an individual.

Attribution theory: It suggests that the way our perceptions are formed and the behavior that
could be observed in any individual, it depends whether it was internally or externally caused.
Internal caused behaviors are the ones which we think are under our control and we ca govern
them whereas in contrast the external ones are which are attributed to external factors. Now,
for e.g. Companies are focusing on various cost saving measures and reducing the staff due to
various reasons, say if in a team of say eight, three people got terminated from their
employment. Now those 3 employees would point to the external factors for this decision and
would ignore one’s own performance chart and their past contribution to the team work. They

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would simply blame the market conditions and judge the leadership which is erroneous in
nature and creates a unhealthy atmosphere and behavior in a team.

Selective Perception: This type of perception existing in the workplace can impact the
behavior of the team members with one another leading to more arguments and bifurcated
goals leading to low team performance in the long run. The reason being, it is governed by self
-interest and personal motives and expectations that an individual seek from others and form a
negative perception if the conditions are not met. This type of attitude creates a very
demotivating work culture and unwanted conclusions are formed impacting the overall morale
of the workforce.

Pygmalion effect: It is simply a phenomenon of where the degree of others expectations can
affect the performance of an individual. Hence it is very important to keep the expectations
high even though a change in working culture has taken a paradigm shift, but maintaining the
high standards and belief can transform to better performance and keep the up the morale of
the workforce high and in continuous check.

Personality:

Personality is an amalgamation of different characteristics and behavior of an individual that

defined his overall character and uniqueness. When we talk about the role of personality in
work behavior and job performance say for e.g. Consider this pandemic situation where 80-
85% of the workforce of any organization is working from home, so people who are
hardworking and achievement oriented won’t care about the mode of work whether it’s in
office or home. All they care is the output and have higher job performance as compared to
others. This could be related to Big Five Personality traits where high conscientiousness people
would focus more on learning than just performing the routine job. Likewise, the more who is
more rational and is emotionally stable would definitely have better job satisfaction leading to
better job performance even during this tough time. Another aspect of big five personality trait
that could be related here is openness. We also know that there is huge shift in the working
style, so people who are more open about the change and are able to adapt in the environment
tend to perform better and thus have enhanced performance.

Core Self Evaluation: The individuals who are high on this core self-evaluation know that
they are capable enough to handle such change in the working environment and adapt to these
at a very fast pace because their main focus is on high deliverables and ambitious goals. So for
them environment is not much of a criteria and thus have better job satisfaction even if the
environment is not comfortable to them. (Individuals who have high score on this would
perform equally good during this pandemic period, just like before).

Self-Monitoring: This personality trait refers to how well an individual can mold his/her
behavior to external and situation-based factors. This personality trait can be very well related
to this pandemic phase where it all depends how fast you can come to terms with the reality
considering the situation in the world. So, these are better performers in their work routine and
deliver consistently by close monitoring themselves.

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Organizational Leadership:

Leadership is the art of influencing a set of groups and getting the work done which is in the
alignment with the common pre-set goals to be achieved. There are no defined benchmark or
level for someone to be declared as a leader. It can be an office boy to the CEO of the company.
Leaders are required to create a vision and drive the change by keeping everyone together with
a defined roadmap.

Emotional Intelligence (EI): This is one of the traits that could measure how effective the
leadership is. The heart of EI is empathy. Leaders who have shown to be emphatic towards
their employees and can understand what exactly the employee expect from them and can
understand their emotions in a detailed manner have achieved great success both personally
and professionally. For e.g. The importance of having an effective leader comes into check
during the tough times like this pandemic. We all know how people are going to a rough patch
with cost-cutting, withdrawal of jobs and limited opportunities- which really gets the morale
of employees to a standstill. Owning up to these times and being empathic is the key to motivate
and support the employees so that they are willing to work and give their best both in terms of
performance as well as in the personal front. The effective leadership definitely defines the
overall behavior of the staff.

Path- Goal Theory: It highlights the point of providing the necessary information, roadmap
and resources to the employee to meet their goals. It is very important when we are witnessing
a change in the working style and limited access, for leaders to take a step forward and provide
all the necessary guidance and information about the near plan of action, so that employee can
visualize and are motivated to work to achieve a certain set of goals specially during this
unprecedented times that lies ahead.

Charismatic Leadership: These are the testing times for such leadership that employees look
forward to. Charismatic leaders have the ability to change the complete ball game in any
situation through their attitude, behavior and willingness to push the extra mile. This leadership
is a input for high level of satisfaction and motivation amongst the employees. They have also
proved to run more profitable companies with a healthy environment keeping the well-being
of the workforce into consideration at all times. These types of leader are also known to reduce
stress and create more meaningful environment, which is indeed the need of the hour.

Organizational Culture:

Every organization has its own culture and values and is one of the major factors in deciding
the overall environment of the organization and also governs the behavior and attitude of the
employees to a great extent. The culture can be broadly classified into strong and weak culture.

Strong Culture: It represents to what extent the employees resonate and accept the culture in
the organization. An organization with such a culture would find the employees carrying
forward this culture and depicting in the same in their professional work. It is directly
proportional to the impact it has on its employees.

For e.g. When we talk about say Accenture, a consulting firm, it has not laid off a single
employee from past 3 months, no bonuses withheld, rather the appraisal cycle was not delayed

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during this pandemic. These non -verbal actions speaks volume of the organization culture.
Employees feel they have the job security, a back-up force for himself and the family, which
in turn affects the behavior of an individual towards the organization and helps exponentially
in giving out best for the team with excellent performance results, irrespective of the conditions
prevailing in the external environment because the sense of belongingness and strong
motivation force within the internal environment is strong and healthy.

Weak Culture: It represent the lack of mutual trust and cooperation between the employee and
the employer. The main focus is just the business model and not the overall well-being of the
employees. Here the opinion of employees vary for the organization and the goals are divided
and are not well shared amongst the workforce.

For e.g. In tough times like these, the true nature and motive comes out in reality and shows
the true intentions. There have been numerous companies which have provided termination
letter without proper notice, no provision for mutual understanding for terms and conditions.
These actions- when the employee is in the support and expect certain back up from the
organization are not met, the weak culture and values comes into play and the effect is
widespread.

Climate through culture: Culture plays a key role in defining the overall climate of the
organization. It’s the perception and the shared culture which created a healthy and a positive
environment. The important point to be analyzed here is that the climate was linked to
individual’s job satisfaction and thus decide the motivation level the employees would carry.
This is also helpful in having a free communication in the office, where employees can believe
and trust each other and support each other in times like this, as this type of climate would
empower the team mates to work efficiently and give out the best results.

Top Management Role: This is very important for any organization how their front leadership
is as these acts as fatherly figure for lot of employees and they actually look up to their
immediate bosses. So, the role of management governs the overall behavior and the degree of
motivation the employee carries to deliver. Constant support and push with the freedom to
innovate, experiment and design from the management is crucial in determining the overall
performance as a whole.

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Q.2 Evaluate how to motivate individuals and teams to achieve a goal in dynamic
conditions in context of the different motivational theories.

Ans: Motivation is nothing but a sort of internal force that governs the direction, intensity and
per of a person’s choice of behavior. The reasons why motivation holds such an important
place is work-related environment are:

• Highly motivated are more productive and balanced as compared to

other employees.
• It helps them in creating innovative ideas and be creative at work and
thus are able to perform better.
• They are independent and goal-oriented people whose prime focus is to
attain goals in efficient and timely manner.

Theories of Motivation

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:

Source: professionalacademy.com

According to Maslow there exist five categories of needs as shown above. The concept is to
start from the basic level of physiological needs, then climbing up the ladder while the below
ones are accomplished before moving on to the next level.

Physiological Needs: These include the basic needs for any individual like food, water, shelter
and clothing. This can be fulfilled in this pandemic and crises like situation is to give out the
basic pay to all the employees of the organization if not perks. This would ensure that people
are able to meet their daily requirements without much strain.

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Security and Safety Needs: This need caters to the security and safety for an individual and
the family. This could financial safety, health and wellness etc. There are numerous ways in
which company can provide security in this dynamic world through health insurance cover,
timely rewards, contributing some minimal amount to the savings account based on
performance and targets achieved, providing job security on minimum contractual basis. Also
by providing a safe and a healthy environment at workplace could definitely boost up the
motivation level and bring in a sense of security and safety in the minds of employees.

Belongingness and social needs: Once the basic needs are met, the person moves on to this
next stage. Here an individual looks for acceptance in the society and the need for emotional
relationships which is a driver for behavior. This is very important in times like these where
every other day is a new day with constant changes, which can lead to loneliness, anxiety and
interdependence.
So here the individual looks for social interaction and effective interpersonal relations with
others, in order to share and vent out and seek for opinions. Managers can actually promote
this environment which can motivate people to interact, discuss and cooperate in decision
making process. This also involves companies promoting open communication, discussion
platforms and provide access to all levels of management irrespective of the designation. Also,
with changing times, people are very insecure about what lies ahead for them in the company
in terms of growth, working environment etc. So, it’s the duty or a practice that should be
followed to discuss future plans with the team members and provide them the roadmap well
ahead of time, so that even the employees can feel that sense of belongingness and thus work
more efficiently.

Self-esteem needs: At this fourth level in the hierarchy, the need to gain appreciation of others
and being recognized takes a front seat. For e.g. an individual working in a project for last 10
years may not be in limelight despite of continuous timely deliverables and they see their
growth to be stagnant and not challenging. This is when the need of being recognized and
appreciated come into play. If these are not taken care of the individual might feel incompetent
and inferiority complex can push in.
So, from the company point of view this could be achieved by providing various cross-training
to be market ready in this everyday changing technology environment, shifting the managers
and team leaders across different projects with special assignments. Also involving the team
mate in decision making process can really give them their due importance on various matters.
Also, its equally important to recognize the hidden talent and reward them suitably and in a
timely fashion by being unbiased and maintaining the balance across the workforce.

Self -Actualization needs: In this highest level, the individual is interested in growth and
overall self -development and the urge of giving out their best in whatever field they are capable
of and thus fulfilling their potential goals. Companies can fulfill these needs by providing them
global platforms and financial aid to compete with the competitors in terms of education,
certifications from renowned institutes or some on shore project opportunities where in an
individual can self-challenge and push the boundaries to achieve better and freedom to define
his or her own processes and team formation to achieve the organizational objectives along
with self-development.

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Theory X and Theory Y:

This theory was proposed by McGregor on two different aspects of human behavior or based
on their views which were based on certain assumptions. Theory X was credited with negative
annotation and Theory Y with positive.

Theory X: This theory believes that employees are naturally unmotivated and generally do not
like their work and lack ambition. For management point of view, they must be constantly
pushed hard and a centralized control framework is maintained. To meet the targets close
supervision(authoritarian) is required. These are the employees which resist change.

Theory Y: They are sincere in their work and shows commitment to the organization. The
people in this category are skillful and have strong capabilities. To motivate them the
management should provide platforms where they can exploit the resources in a healthy way
and can help in solving organizational problems. They have optimistic approach towards work.
They form the majority of the workforce and employees are provided with performance-based
appraisal and frequent opportunities for promotion.

Herzberg’s Two Factor theory (Motivation-hygiene theory):

Source: Knowledgehut.com

Motivators are nothing but factors which encourage employees to work harder. They are
present within the job itself. The motivators could include better growth opportunities and
recognition, performance-based compensation etc. The company can provide such motivation
through job enrichment – by giving them more challenging tasks, Job enlargement- by allotting
variety of different types of tasks, Employee Empowerment- by giving them more
responsibility and liberty to work in their own space and expanding the work-base, by training
programs, enhanced promotion cycle and giving the employee’s the freedom to ‘own’ up their
work to feel the sense of achievement and maintain the level of motivation to higher standards.

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Hygiene Factors include the culture and core values of the organization, the working
environment, diversity and variedness in work, status, company policies, job and privacy
security and relationship with collogues. Absence of these factors will demotivate the
workforce and would work less hard in comparison when present. This could be achieved that
day to day working culture is supportive and strict policies for disrespect and harsh behavior,
by ensuring the salaries are revised regularly and are competitive within the industry, ensuring
no disparities in salary and compensation.

Thus to summarise, Taking away the dissatisfaction factors doesn’t necessarily mean
employees will be satisfied. To motivate a team using motivation factors, the hygiene factors
need to be taken care of first.

McClelland’s theory of Needs: This theory provides us the three motivating drivers and
how these needs significantly influence the behavior of an individual which is helpful to
understand from the company’s perspective. It could be considered as an extension to
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs discussed above.

Need for Achievement: It is nothing but an inner urge that drives a person to work and challenge
oneself to push the limits and achieve the end goal. These types of people generally avoid
indulging in low-risk work opportunities as they don’t feel that they are up-to their mark.
Thus, the more the achievements with the challenging work better is their performance and
thus in turn increases their level of motivation further. What company can do provide such
motivation is to give the high achievers – an immediate feedback for their work, which these
types of people actively seek for to understand their progress and quality of work.

Need for Affiliation: It’s the urge to have interpersonal and social relationships with people.
These types of people are motivated by being largely accepted by the society as a whole and
being liked by their surrounding members. These types of people believe in collaborating and
avoid high risk situations and uncertain outcomes. Also, they try their best to stick to the basic
and follow the conventional approach to the problems. The employer can help in organizing
various team outings and social gatherings involving high level of interaction and ensuring
healthy effective open communication channels are opened all times.

Need for Power: This involves a basic instinct or desire to hold control and have an authority
over others. They also aim to be in a position where they can take powerful decisions and work
according to their requirements without involvement of others in the process change and look
forward to influence others and implement their ideas to a large extent. They are generally
strong leaders and are outspoken and possess a practical approach towards their work and
decisions. The simplest way to motivate such people is to provide them with challenging tasks
and tough competition, as they don’t like stand on a losing side and thus would push their limits
to achieve success.

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Vroom’s theory of expectancy: This theory suggests that their exists two conditions if
met, would make people highly motivated and productive. The conditions were
a) People believe that their efforts would not go in vain and would produce successful
results and
b) They would be adequately rewarded for their success.

It is further governed by three beliefs:

1) Valence: It refers to the emotional aspect the individual hold with respect to the
rewards. It could be both extrinsic or intrinsic. To motivate such Ipeople, it is very
important for management to understand the employee in and out and offer what makes
him/her connect emotionally with the reward.

2) Expectancy: It is nothing but faith that more the efforts better would be the end results.
They seek right resources and access to various information required to meet their
targets and an overall support for completing the assigned task. Management can ensure
and make these expectations meet by being a constant support and investing in the
employee as per their expectations.

3) Instrumentality: people falling under this category believe that if performance is more
than 100% then a desired outcome would be there without fail. This is affected by the
transparency of the whole process that decides who gets what outcome and also the
trust that the decision makers would play a fair game. The least thing that an
organization can do motivate such people is to provide a fair platform and fulfilling the
promises of the expected rewards and achievement they were told about.

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