Organizational Behaviour

B.Com VI Semester
Module – 1
Introduction to Organizational Behaviour
Meaning and Definition:
Organizational behaviour (OB) is the study of human behavior in organizational settings, the
interface between human behavior and the organization, and the organization itself.

According to Fred Luthans - “Organizational behaviour is directly concerned with the

understanding production and control of human behaviour in organization”.

According to Stephen P Robbins: “Organizational behaviour is a field of study that

investigates the impact that individuals, groups and structure have on behavior within
organizations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge towards improving an
organizations‟ effectiveness”.

Concepts / Key Elements of Organizational Behaviour: Organizational behavior as a

discipline / subject is based on certain key elements also called as fundamental concepts /
assumptions. There are 4 key elements in organizational behavior. They are

1. People
2. Structure
3. Technology
4. Environment

People: Organizational behavior mainly deals with the way people behave in organizations;
it ties to understand people as closely and intimately as possible and makes it highly human
oriented. Organizational behavior attaches maximum focus to individual; his feelings, needs,
attitudes, values, aspirations, aptitudes, beliefs, experiences, expectations, conflicts, fears,
goals, interest, learning capabilities, motivational needs, personality, skills. This is used to
decide on the various motivational aspects. For instance – some people are motivated by
monetary benefits while some of them are motivated by just a pat on the back.
Structure: Organization structure refers to responsibilities, authorities and relations
organized in such a way as to enable the organization to perform its functions. Organizations
are social systems. There exists tow type of social systems in organizations. Formal and
informal social system. The formal relationship of people is called structure. Different jobs
are required to accomplish the organizational goals and objectives. People performing
different jobs at different levels have to be related in some structural way so that their work
can be effectively coordinated. The people need organization and organization also need
people, also comes under the scope of Organizational behavior.
Technology: Technology provides the resources with which people work and also affects the
tasks that they perform. The great benefit of technology is that it allows people to do more
and better work. The growth of technology has also to the development of production
concepts, which embraced both technological and organizational dimensions of work re
organization and restructuring
Environment: Every organization operates within a given internal and external
environment. An organization is a part of a larger system that contains other factors or
elements. Such as government, family and other organization. All of these mutually
influence one another. Thus organizations are influenced by the external environment.
Environment, thus affects people by influencing their attitudes, working conditions etc. It is
be stated that an organization is the effect for which environment is the cause.

Nature of Organizational behaviour:

• Integral part of Management
• Field of study
• Inter Disciplinary Approvals
• Analysis of Behaviour
• Goal Oriented
• Human Tool
• Science and Art
• Fulfillment of Employees need
• Humanistic and Optimistic
• Oriented towards Organizational goals
• Total System Approach
Integral part of Management:
OB is a part of general management and not the whole management. It represents
behaviour approach to management because of importance of human behaviour in
organizations.
Field of Study:
OB is a field of study backed by a body of theory, research and application associated
with a growing concern for people at the work place . Its study helps in understanding the
human behaviour in work Organizations. It inculcates creative thinking among the managers
to solve human problems in organization.
Analysis of Behaviour: OB involves three levels of analysis of behaviour – Individual
behaviour, group behaviour and behaviour of the Organization itself. It helps in demolishing
“Incorrect” assumptions one may hold about behavior. It provides a rational thinking about
people.
Goal Oriented: OB is an action oriented and goal directed discipline. The major goals of OB
are to understand, explain and predict human behaviour in the organizational context so that
it may be molded in to result yielding situations.
Science and Art:
OB is both science as well as an art. The systemic knowledge about human behaviour
is a science. The application of behavioural knowledge and skills clearly towards being an
art.
Fulfillment of Employee’s Needs:
OB seeks to fulfill employees needs and aspirations. Every employee in the organization
wants to fulfill his needs through organizational activities. It is the organization's
responsibility to provide congenial climate in the organization so that people may get need
satisfaction and the Organization may attain its objectives. Thus, both organization and
individuals can be benefited by each other.
Humanistic and Optimistic:
OB focuses the attention of people from humanistic point of view. It is based on the
belief that needs and motivation of people are of high concern. There is an acceptance of the
value of the individual as a thinking, feeling being and without these consideration the
organization may not be fully operational as a social entity. Further, there is optimism about
the innate potential of man to be independent, creative, productive, and capable of
contributing positively to the objectives of the organizations. The man will actualize these
potentials if given proper conditions and environments.
Oriented towards Organizational Objectives:
Though an organization may have several objectives and sometimes conflicting with
indivivdual’s objectives, it should not be understood that OB only emphasises the
achievement of individual objectives at the cost of organizational objectives. In fact that OB
tries to integrate two types of objectives so that both are achieved simultaneously. For this
purpose, it suggests various behavioural approaches.
Total Systems Approach:
OB is an total system approach wherein the living system of the organization is
viewed as an enlargement of a man. The system approach is an integrative approach which
take into account all variables affecting organizational functioning. In fact the system
thinking in organizational analysis has been developed by behavioural scientists.

Concepts of OB:
Organizational behavior is based on a few fundamental concepts which are relevant to the
nature of people and Organizations. There are some basic assumptions in organizational
behavior such as,
• (1) difference between individuals;
• (2) a whole person;
• (3) behavior or an individual is caused;
• (4) an individual has dignity,
• (5) Organizations are social systems;
• (6) mutuality of interest among Organizational members;
 • (7) holistic organizational behavior.

Individual differences
Every person is different from the day of birth, every person is unique and personal
experiences make a person more different than the other. Every individual differs in many
ways like intelligence, personality, learning capability, communicative ability etc. Therefore
only an individual can take responsibility and make decisions, whereas a group is powerless
until all the individuals within the group act accordingly.
A whole person
When an individual is appointed in an Organization, he/she is not hired only on the basis of
skills, but also on likes and dislikes, pride and prejudices. An individual’s way of living in a
family cannot be separated from Organizational life. This is why the Organizations need to
provide their employees with a proper work environment where they can work hard to
progress and develop their abilities to become a better employee and also a better person in
terms of growth and fulfillment.
Caused behavior:
When an individual behaves in an unmannerly fashion then there is a cause behind it.
Anything could be the reason of this cause such as personal problems at home within the
family, or problems with coming early to the office etc. If an individual starts reacting in an
unmannerly fashion with other staff members then a manager should understand that there is
definitely a cause behind it. Managers should investigate about the cause and tackle the issue
at the root level.
Human dignity
Every individual needs to be treated differently. It shows human dignity because people at
every level of professional ladder want to be treated with respect and dignity. Every job
needs to be done with respect and recognition this helps every individuals aspirations and
abilities to improve. The concept of human dignity rejects the idea of using employees as
economic tools.
Organizations are social systems
From sociology we know that Organizations are social systems; therefore the activities
within the Organizations are governed by social and psychological laws. Organizations have
formal and informal social systems. Social systems in an Organization indicate that the
company has dynamic change ability rather than static set of relations. Every part in the
system is interdependent on each other.
Mutuality of interest
Both the Organization and people need each other. Organizations are formed and maintained
on the basis of some mutuality of interest among the participants. People require
Organizations to reach their goals, while Organization needs people to reach Organizational
objectives. Lack of mutual interest causes disorientation among the participants and the
group. Mutual interest provides a common goal for all the participants, which results in
encouragement of the people to tackle problems of the Organization instead of raising
fingers at each other.
Holistic concept
When all the above six concepts of Organizational behavior are placed together a holistic
concept arises. This concept interprets the relationship between people and Organization in
terms of the whole person, entire group, entire Organization and the whole social system.
Views of different people are taken into account in an Organization to understand the factors
that influence their behavior. Issues are analyzed in terms of the total situation affecting them
rather than in terms of an event or problem.

Scope of Organizational Behaviour

Organizational behavior is the study of human behavior at work in organizations.
Accordingly the scope of organizational behavior includes the study of:

and
Organization / Structure

Individuals: Organizations are the associations of individuals. Individuals differ in many

aspects. The study of individuals includes aspects such as personality, perception, attitudes,
values, job satisfaction, learning and motivation.
Groups: Groups include aspects such as group dynamics, group conflicts, communication,
leadership, power and politics etc.
Organization / Structure: The study of organization or structure includes aspects such as
formation of organizational structure, culture and change and development. To conclude,
organizational behavior studies how organization influence people or how people influences
organizations.

Disciplines That Contribute to the OB Field

OB is an applied behavioral science built on contributions from a number of behavioral
disciplines, mainly psychology and social psychology, sociology, anthropology, political
science and economics.
Psychology’s contributions have been principally at the individual or micro level of
analysis, while the other disciplines have contributed to our understanding of macro concepts
such as group processes and organization.
Following chart is an overview of the major contributions to the study of
organizational behavior

Psychology
Psychology has perhaps the first influence on the field of organizational behavior because it
is a science of behavior. A psychologist studies almost all aspects of behavior.
Psychology deals with studying human behavior that seeks to explain and sometimes
change the behavior of humans.
Those who have contributed and continued to add to the knowledge of OB are
teaching theorists, personality theorists, counseling psychologists, and primary, industrial,
and organizational psychologists.
Understanding Psychological principles and their models helps significantly in gaining
the knowledge of determinants of individual behavior, such as-
 The learning process,
 Motivation techniques,
 Personality determinants and development,
 Perceptual process and its implications,
 Training process,
 Leadership effectiveness,
 Job satisfaction,
 Individual decision-making,
 Performance appraisal,
 Attitude measurement,
 Employee selection,
 Job design and work stress.

Sociology
Sociological concepts, theories, models, and techniques help significantly to understand
better group dynamics, organizational culture, formal organization theory and structure,
corporate technology, bureaucracy, communications, power, conflict, and intergroup
behavior.
Psychologists are primarily interested in focusing their attention on individual
behavior.
Key concepts of Sociology are;
Most sociologists today identify the discipline by using one of the three statements:
 Sociology deals with human interaction, arid this communication are the key
influencing factor among people in social settings.
 Sociology is the study of plural behavior. Two or more interacting individuals
constitute a plurality pattern of behavior.
 Sociology is the systematic study of social systems:
 A social system is an operational social unit that is structured to serve a purpose.
 It consists of two or more persons of different statuses with various roles playing a
part in a pattern that is sustained by a physical and cultural base.

Social Psychology
It has been defined as the scientific investigation of how individuals’ thoughts, feelings, and
behavior are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.
 Social Psychology deals with many of the same phenomena but seeks to explain whole
individual human interaction and human cognition influences culture and is influenced by
culture.
Social Psychology deals with many of the same phenomena but seeks to explain whole
individual human interaction and human cognition influences culture and is influenced by
culture.

Anthropology
 The main aim of anthropology is to better understand the relationship between human
beings and the environment.
 Adaptations to surroundings constitute culture. The manner in which people view their
surroundings is a part of the culture.
 Much of our current understanding of organizational culture, environments, and
differences between national cultures are the results of the work of anthropologists or
those using their methodologies.
 Anthropologists contribute to studying some aspects of organizational settings –
similar values, comparative attitudes, and cross-cultural analysis between or among
employees.

Political Science
 The contributions of political scientists are significant to understanding behavior in
organizations. Political scientists study the behavior of individuals and groups within a
political environment.
 They contribute to understanding the dynamics of power centers, structuring of
conflict and conflict resolution tactics, allocation of power, and how people
manipulate power for individual self-interest.
 The knowledge of political science can be utilized in studying the behavior of
employees and executives at the micro and macro levels.

Economics
 Economics contributes to organizational behavior to a great extent in designing the
organizational structure. Transaction cost economics influence the organization and its
structure.
 This transaction cost economics examines the extent to which the organization
structure and size of an organization vary in response to attempts to avoid market
failures by minimizing production and transaction costs within the constraints of
human and environmental factors.
 Costs of transactions include both costs of market transactions and internal
coordination.
 A transaction occurs when a good or service is transferred across a ‘technologically
separable barrier’ Transaction costs arise for many reasons.
So we can assume that various types of disciplines involve organizational behavior. They
directly and indirectly influence the overall activities of OB.

Need to understand human behavior

It is very essential to understand human behaviour in today's world as the existence of the
Organization depends upon the employees or individuals. Without understanding human
behaviour it is very difficult to work in an Organization.
Human behavior is absolutely fascinating. Observing people and trying to predict what they
will do next can provide a real learning experience.
Human behavior is quite predictable in many instances. Personalities can be extremely
complex but there are areas that can be understood with a high degree of accuracy. That is
part of the value in using validated personality assessments. It's a lot like on the job training
in the human behavior department.
Another interesting fact about human beings is that they sometimes behave badly just
because they don't know any other way to express themselves. It can effectively spot those
individuals and defuse potential problems before they ever get out of the box.
The more that you work with a personality assessment instrument, the more proficient you
will become in understanding and reading people accurately. This is an enormous help when
interviewing and screening applicants or in conflict resolution. When you understand what is
driving the behavior, you will be able to predict the outcome much more successfully. You
will not become a guru overnight, but a little coaching can take you a long way very quickly.

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOUR

• Improving Peoples’ Skills.
• Improving Quality and Productivity.
• Total Quality Management (TQM).
• Managing Workforce Diversity.
• Responding to Globalization.
• Empowering People.
• Coping with Temporariness.
• Stimulating Innovation and Change.
• Helping Employee Balance Work / Life Conflicts
• Improving Ethical Behavior
• Changing Work Environment
•Responding to Labour Shortage
Improving People’s Skills
Technological , Structural , Environmental changes are accelerated at a faster rate in the
business field. Unless employees and executives are equipped to possess the required skills
to adapt those changes, the targeted goals cannot be achieved in time.
• Two different categories of skills – Managerial skills and Technical skills.
• Managerial skills include listening skills, motivating skills, problem-solving skill, decision-
making skills etc.
• These skills can be enhanced by organizing a series of training and development programs,
career development programs, induction, and socialization etc.
Improving quality and productivity
Quality is the extent to which the customers believe the product or service surpasses their
needs and expectations. In order to survive in this dynamic world it is mandatory to increase
productivity and improve quality. More and more managers are confronting the challenges to
face the world. They have to improve their organization productivity and the quality of the
product and services they offer.
Total quality management (tqm)
It is a philosophy of management that is driven by the constant attainment of customer
satisfaction through the continuous improvement of all organizational process.
The components of TQM are;
(a) An intense focus on the customer,
(b) Concern for continual improvement,
(c) Improvement in the quality of everything the organization does
(d) Accurate measurement and,
(e) Empowerment of employees.
Managing workforce diversity
The major challenge for organizations is to become more accommodating to diverse groups
of people by addressing their different life styles, family needs, and work styles.
If work force diversity is managed more effectively, the management is likely to acquire
more benefits such as creativity and innovation as well as improving decision making skills
by providing different perspectives on problems.
Responding to globalization
Today’s business is mostly market driven; wherever the demands exist irrespective of
distance, locations, climatic Conditions i.e. the business operations are expanded to gain their
market share and to remain in the top rank etc. Business operations are no longer restricted to
a particular locality or region.
Company’s products or services are spreading across the nations using mass communication,
the internet, faster transportation etc.
Empowering people
Empowerment is defined as putting employees in charge of what they do by eliciting some
sort of ownership in them. The executive must learn to delegate their tasks to the
subordinates and make them more responsible in their work.
If all the employees are empowered, it drastically changes the type of leadership styles,
power relationships, the way work is designed and the way organizations are structured.
Coping with temporariness
Managers and employees must learn to cope with temporariness. As the Product life cycles
are slimming due to rapid changes in method of operation and demand.
They have to learn to deal with flexibility, spontaneity, and unpredictability. The knowledge
of Organizational Behaviour will help in understanding the current state of a work in the
world of continual changes.
Stimulating Innovation and Change
• Today’s successful organizations must foster innovation and be proficient in the art of
change, otherwise they will become candidates for extinction in due course of time and
vanished from their field of business.
• Victory will go to those organizations that maintain flexibility, continually improve their
quality, and beat the competition to the market place with innovative products and services.

Importance of Organizational Behaviour:

Study of organizational behavior is beneficial in different ways. Following are some of the
important benefits of organizational behavior which signifies its importance:

1. Organizational Behaviour Provides Roadmap to Our Lives.

2. Organizational Behaviour Helps to Predict Organizational Life
3. Organizational Behaviour Helps Us Influence Organizational Events
4. Organizational Behaviour Helps An Individual Understand Himself / Herself and Others
Better.
5. Organizational Behaviour Helps for Motivation
6. Organizational Behaviour is Useful for Maintaining Cordial Industrial Relations.
7. Organizational Behaviour is Also Useful in the Field of Marketing.
8. Organizational Behaviour Helps in Improving People Skills
9. Organizational Behaviour Helps for Effective Management.

1. Organizational Behaviour Provides Roadmap to Our Lives:

Human being need to know about world in which they live. This is also true in case of
organizations, as they have their effects on our behavior. The behavior of people in
organizations is not uniform, but they behave in different ways. Organizational behavior
helps us to study the behavior of people in organizations and to ensure proper functioning of
organizations.
2. Organizational Behaviour Helps to Predict Organizational Life:
The field of organizational behavior uses scientific research to help us understand and
predict organizational life. The field of organizational behavior not a pure science and it
helps us to make sense of the workplace and to some extent, predict what people will od
under various conditions.
3. Organizational Behaviour Helps Us Influence Organizational Events:
Though it is good to understand and predict organizational events, most of us want to
influence the environment in which we live. Whether one is marketing specialist, finance
manager or a computer programmer, he/she needs to know how to communicate effectively
with others manage conflict, make decisions, ensure commitment to ideas etc. Organizational
behavior theories and concepts will help us to influence organizational events.
4. Organizational Behaviour Helps An Individual Understand Himself / Herself and
Others Better:
Organizational behavior helps an individual to improve interpersonal relations. Of particular
significance are topics like attitude, perception, leadership, communication. An
understanding of which will change the very style of tackling of an individual.
5. Organizational Behaviour Helps for Motivation:
Since the manager of a business is concerned with the getting things done through
delegation, he/she should be able to motivate the subordinates to work for better results.
Organizational behavior will help the manager understand the basis of motivation and what
he/she do to motivate subordinates.
6. Organizational Behaviour is Useful for Maintaining Cordial Industrial Relations:
In other words relation between management and employees are often strained for reasons
which are personal issues, not technical. A human problem needs to be tackled humanly.
Organizational behavior helps in this content as it helps understand the cause of the problem,
predict its course of action and control consequences. Field of organizational behavior is the
basis for HRM.
7. Organizational Behaviour is Also Useful in the Field of Marketing:
The field of organizational behavior is also useful in the field of marketing. In the dynamic
mechanism of the flow of goods and service from producer to consumer, awareness of the
nature of individual and social processes has an immediate contribution to the success or
failure of the business. Consumer behavior, nature of influence and the channels involved
represent the leading topics for behavior in this area.
8. Organizational Behaviour Helps in Improving People Skills:
The more important reason for studying organizational behavior is that the leader is
interested in pursuing career in management and wants to learn how to predict behavior of
people and to apply it in making organizations more effective. A successful manager should
have good people skills which include ability to understand one‟s employees and use this
knowledge effectively to make them more efficient.
9. Organizational Behaviour Helps for Effective Management:
In recent years, our economy has been witnessing a upward trend. Every sector of the
economy is doing well. In order to sustain this trend, the effective management of all sectors
of the economy particularly the industrial sector is of more importance. Effective
management does not mean competent utilization of technical or financial resources alone;
rather it involves effective management of human resources.
 Module – 2
Individual Behaviour
Personality
Personality means the constitution of mental as well as the physical health of an
individual. Personality may be defined as the characteristic pattern of behaviour that
determines an individual’s adjustment to the environment or situation.

“Personality is the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts and interacts with
others.” — Stephen P. Robbins

Determinants of Personality
Several factors influence the shaping of our personality. Major among these are
1. Heredity
2. Culture
3. Family
4. Society
5. Situation
Heredity:
Heredity refers to biological factors. Heredity is the transmission of qualities from the
parents to the children through biological mechanism lying in the chromosomes of germ
cells. Physical status, facial attraction, sex, stamina are examples of heredity characteristics
that are generally influenced by who one‟s parents are. Heredity plays a role in determining
the personality. Research proved that individuals job satisfaction remains remarkably change
even when employee or jobs change.
Culture:
Culture establishes the norms, attitudes and values that are passed along generation to
generation. Evidences are available to prove that cultural environment plays an important
role in shaping personality.
Family:
Home environment generated to a child exert important influence in shaping his/her
personality. Children reared in orphanage are socially maladjusts than reared by parents love
and warmth. Parents have more effect on personality development of their children. Besides
parents, brother and sisters, elders serve as a models for younger.
Society:
Continues impact of social groups called socialization process also affect an individual‟s
personality. Personality development starts with between mother and infant. They intact
gradually come into contact with outside, home/family, such as peers, school friends.
Organization itself contributes for socialization.
Situation:
Situation influences the effects of heredity and environment on personality. Practically, the
personality does change depending on the situation. Different demands of different situation
call for different aspects of one‟s personality. Same person facing an interview and enjoying
picnic behaves differently. Situation influences a person to behave in a particular manner.

PersonalityTraits:
So many personalities as many are persons. Personalities differ in traits. A trait is any
distinguishable, relatively enduring way in which one individual differ from another. 16
traits reported by Cattell which are generally accepted.

1. Reserved v/s Outgoing

2. Less Intelligent v/s More Intelligent
3. Affected by Feeling v/s Emotionally Stable
4. Submissive v/s Dominant
5. Serious v/s Happy-Go-Lucky
6. Expedient v/s Conscientious
7. Timid v/s Venturesome
8. Tough Minded v/s Sensitive
9. Trusting v/s Suspicious
10. Practical v/s Imaginative
11. Forthright v/s Shrewd
12. Self assured v/s Apprensive
13. Conservative v/s Experimenting
14. Group Dependant v/s Self Sufficient
15. Uncontrolled v/s Controlled
16. Relaxed v/s Tensed

Types of Personality:
Based on the traits personalities are classified into different types:

 Introvert and Extrovert Personalities

 Type A and Type B Personalities
 Judging and Perceptive Personalities

Introvert Personality:
Persons with introvert personality are primarily oriented to subjective world. Look inward
and experience and process their thoughts and ideas within themselves. Avoid social contacts
and interaction with others. They excel in tasks that require thought and analytical skill. Ex:
Research and Development, Scientists, Policy Making.
Extrovert Personality:
Simply speaking, extroverts are contrary to introverts. Persons with extrovert are friendly,
sociable, lively, aggressive and expressing feelings openly. Most suitable for positions that
requires considerable interaction with others. Ex: Sales activities, Personal relations etc. The
fact remains that most of the people are really tend to be neither extrovert nor introvert but
Ambiverts, in between introversion and extroversion.
Type A Personality:
Persons with Type A personality are characterized by hard working, achievement oriented,
impatient, aggressive, competition driven etc. Very productive and work very hard. They are
workaholics. Being impatient and aggressive they are prone to heart attack.
Type B Personality:
Persons with Type B personality are characterized by easy going, sociable, free from
urgency of time, noncompetitive. Do better on tasks involving judgments, accuracy rather
than the speed and team work.
Judging Personality:
People with judging personality types like to follow a plan, make decision and need only that
what is essential for their work.
Perceptive Personality:
Perceptive personality people are the one, who adapt well to change, wants to know all about
the job and may get overcommitted.

Perception
Perception refers to the way we try to understand the world around us. The way in which
something is regarded, understood, or interpreted.

According to Stephen P Robbins: “A process by which individuals organize and interpret

their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment. “

Perceptual process:
From the definitions of perception discussed above it is very clear that perception is
composed of various sub-processes: receiving, selecting, organising, interpreting, checking
and reacting to stimuli. The process is influenced by perceiver, object and situation. The
process of perception is explained in the following figure:
Receiving:
It is the initial stage in which a person collects all information and receives the information
through the sense organs.
Human body is comprised of five sensory organs viz. eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin.
These sensory organs help in sensing the environment in the form of vision, hearing, smell,
touch and taste. The sensory organs receive the stimuli form the outer environment.. The
stimuli which we receive serve as inputs for the process of perception.
Selecting:
Many things happen in the environment simultaneously but, human mind cannot pay equal
attention to all events or things equally. Therefore, individuals filter or screen out the
irrelevant things and select the things which are relevant with their existing beliefs, values
and needs. This process of selecting relevant things from the environment for paying the
attention is called perceptual selectivity. The following factors influence the process of
selecting stimuli from the environment:
External factors: the factors that influence the perception of an individual externally are
Size, Intensity, Repetition, Contrast, Movement, Novelty and Familiarity, Nature etc.
Internal factors: the factors that influence the perception of an individual internally are
Psychological Requirements, Learning, Experience, Interest etc.

Organizing:
In order to make sense of the data received, it is important to organize them. Perceptual
organization is the process by which people group stimuli into some recognizable patterns,
so as to assign some meaning to them. The data received must be organized in a particular
fashion so that we can extract some meaning out of it. This aspect of organizing the
information into a meaningful whole is called perceptual organization.
Interpreting:
The process of interpreting which means assigning meaning to the data collected and
organized by the perceiver.
Perceptual interpretation is the essential part of the perceptual process. After the selection
and organization of the information, perceiver interprets the information in order to assign
meaning to it. Actually perception is said to be formed only when the information is
interpreted.
Checking:
After the information is received, organized and interpreted, the perceiver checks whether his
interpretation of the information is right or wrong. The perceiver tends to check whether his
perceptions are right or wrong. One way of checking is to put a series of questions to himself
and the answers will confirm whether his perception is correct or incorrect. Another way is
to check with others.
Reacting:
The last phase of perceptual process is reaction. The perceiver will indulge in some action in
relation to is his perception. The action of perception is also called perceptual output.
The action is positive when the perception is favorable and action is negative when the
perception is unfavorable.

Factors Influencing Perception

Factors Affecting of Perception

External Factor
Internal Factors
1. Size
2. Intensity
1. Needs and Desires 3. Frequency
2. Personality 4. Contrast
3. Experience 5. Status
4. Habits 6. Movement
5. Expectations 7. Familiarity
8. Novelty
9. Situation
10. Objects

Internal Factors: These factors reside in person concerned. Includes one’s

1. Needs and Desires:

An individual’s perception is influenced by his needs and desires at that time. Perception
varies depending upon variations in his needs or desires from time to time.
2. Personality:
Personality affects the perception in a given situation. Secured individuals tend to understand
or perceive others as warm.
3. Experience:
Experience and knowledge serve as a basis for perception. While one‟s successful
experience enhances his/her perceptive ability, failure removes his/her confidence.
4. Habits:
Individuals perceive objects, situation and conditions differently according to their habits.
Many people learn quickly. Some people work by smoking or chewing pan.
5. Expectations:
Expectations distort perception. People see what they expect to see. If they see the
objects/situation differently from their expectation they get frustrated. The workers may
expect more salary from management.

External Factor: Related to what is to be perceived and situation.

1. Size:
The principle of size says that, the larger the object, the more is the probability that is
perceived. Size attracts the attention of the individual. A full page spread advertisement
attracts more attention than a few lines in a classified section. Size establishes dominance
and enhances perception.
2. Intensity:
Intensity is closely related to size. Intensity principle states that more intense the stimuli
more likely it to be perceived. Loud noise and a strong odour will be noticed than a soft
sound and weak odour.
3. Frequency (Repetition):
Repetition/frequency principle states that a repeated external stimulus is more attention
getting than a single one. Hence advertisers go for repetitive advertising to gain customer
attraction.
4. Contrast:
As per contrast principle, the external stimuli which stand out against the background will
receive more attention. Black letter on yellow background White letters on a red background.
5. Status:
Status held by individuals also affects his/her perception about things. Researches show that
people with high status often exert more influence on the perception of an individual than
poor one.
6. Movement:
Movement principle says that, people pay more attention to a moving object than the
stationery ones. People will be attracted more by running train than one standing on the
platform.
7. Familiarity:
Employees would like to hear and see those programmes which they are familiar. Training
programme demonstrated in a language of the employees are highly attended and
recognized.
8. Novelty:
Novel actions get more attention. New idea will draw the attention of the perceiver. Novel
idea objects and situation are recognized clearly by the perceiver.
9. Situation:
Situation has a great influence on people’s perception. Favourable work environment creates
a positive attitude.
10. Objects:
Physical nature of objects, their proximity, and complex nature have great impact on
perception.

LEARNING
Learning is a process by which new behaviors are acquired. It is generally agreed that
learning involves changes in behavior, practicing new behaviors and establishing
permanency in the change.

According to Stephen P Robbins: “Learning is any relatively permanent change in

behavior that occurs as a result of experience.”

Components of Learning:

1. Learning involves change, be it good or bad.

2. Change in behavior must relatively permanent. (Temporary change in behavior is not
learning).
3. Only change in behavior acquired through experience is considered learning.
4. Some form of experience is necessary for learning.
5. Learning is life long process.

Determinants of Learning: The important factors that determine learning are:

1. Motive
2. Stimuli
3. Responses
4. Reinforcement
5. Retention
1. Motive:
Motives also called drives prompt people to action. They are the ways of behavior. They are
largely subjective and represent the mental feelings of human beings. They arise
continuously and determine the several direction of an individual’s behavior. Without motive
learning cannot occur.
2. Stimuli:
Stimuli are objects that exist in the environment in which a person lives. Stimuli increase the
probability of eliciting a specific response from a person. Stimuli are of two types:
Generalisation and Discrimination.
3. Responses:
The stimulus results in response in the physical terms of attitudes or perception or in other
phenomenon. However, the responses need to be operationally defined and preferably
physically observable.
4. Reinforcement:
Reinforcement is a fundamental conditioning of learning. Reinforcement can be defined as
anything that both increases the strength of response and tends to induce the repetition of
behavior.
5. Retention:
Retention means remembrance of learned behavior over time. Converse is forgetting.
Learning which is forgotten is called extinction.

Theories of Learning: The most basic purpose of learning theory like any other theory is to
better explain how learning occurs. Attempts have been made by the psychologists and
behavioural scientists to develop theories of learning. To date most widely recognized
theories of learning are four:

1. Classical Conditioning Theory

2. Operant Conditioning Theory
3. Cognitive Learning Theory
4. Social Learning Theory

1. Classical Conditioning Theory:

Classical conditioning is modifying behavior so that conditioned stimulus is paired with an
unconditioned stimulus and elicits an unconditioned behavior. Ivan Pavlov, a Russian
psychologist developed classical conditioning theory bases on his experience to teach dog to
salivate in response to the ringing of a bell. When Pavlov presented meat (unconditioned
stimulus) to the dog, he noticed a great deal of salivation (unconditioned response).

Presented Meat Salivation

(Unconditioned stimulus) (Unconditioned response)
But when merely bell was rung no salivation was noticed in the dog.
Ringing of Bell No Salivation
Then, what next Pavlov did was to link meat and the ringing of the bell.
Presented Meat + Ringing of Bell
He did for several times. Afterwards, he merely rang the bell without presenting the
meat.
 Ringing the Bell without Presenting the Meat
Now the dog began to salivate as soon as the bell rang
Ringing of Bell Salivation
After a while the dog would salivate, merely at the sound of a bell, even no meat was
presented. In effect, the dog has learned to respond, i.e.: to salivate to the bell.
The above cited example is logical, yet classical conditioning has real limitations in
its application to human behavior in organizations for at least 3 reasons:

1. Human beings are more complex than dogs.

2. Behavioural environment in organizations are also complex.
3. Human decision making process being complex.

2. Operant Conditioning:
Operant conditioning theory is also known as instrumental conditioning. This theory is a
learning process in which behavior is sensitive to, or controlled by its outcomes.
Operant Conditioning is concerned primarily with learning as a consequence of
behaviour Response-Stimulus (R-S). In Operant Conditioning particular response occurs as a
consequence of many stimulus situations
In the 20th century, the study of animal learning was commanded by the analysis of these
two sorts of learning, and they are still at the core of behavior analysis.

3. Cognitive Learning Theory:

Cognition defines a person’s ideas, thoughts, knowledge, interpretation, understanding about
himself and environment.
This theory considers learning as the outcome of deliberate thinking on a problem or
situation based upon known facts and responding in an objective and more oriented manner.
It perceives that a person learns the meaning of various objects and events and also learns the
response depending upon the meaning assigned to the stimuli.
This theory debates that the learner forms a cognitive structure in memory which
stores organized information about the various events that occurs.
Social Learning Theory
Social learning theory integrates the cognitive and operant approaches to learning. It
recognises that learning does not take place only because of environmental stimuli (classical
and operant conditioning) or of individual determinism (cognitive approach) but is a blend of
both views.
Social Learning theory is also called observational learning theory. This theory
emphasizes on learning through observation of other’s.

Factors Affecting Learning:

Learning is based upon some key factors that decide what changes will be caused by this
experience. The key elements or the major factors that affect learning are motivation,
practice, environment, and mental group.
Motivation:
The encouragement, the support one gets to complete a task, to achieve a goal is known as
motivation. It is a very important aspect of learning as it acts gives us a positive energy to
complete a task.
Practice
We all know that “Practice makes us perfect”. In order to be a perfectionist or at least
complete the task, it is very important to practice what we have learnt.
Environment
We learn from our surroundings, we learn from the people around us. They are of two types
of environment – internal and external.
Mental group
It describes our thinking by the group of people we chose to hang out with. In simple words,
we make a group of those people with whom we connect. It can be for a social cause where
people with the same mentality work in the same direction.
Generalisation
The principle of generalisation has important implications for human learning.
Generalisation takes place when the similar new stimuli repeat in the environment. When
two stimuli are exactly alike, they will have probability of eliciting specific response. It
makes possible for a manager to predict human behavior when stimuli are exactly alike.
Responses
The stimulus results in responses - be these in the physical form or in terms of attitudes or
perception or in other phenomena. However, the responses need to be operationally defined
and preferably physically observable.
Retention
Retention means remembrance of learned behaviour overtime. Converse is forgetting.
Learning which is forgotten over time is called "extinction".
 Values
Values are convictions or evaluative standards that help us define what is right or wrong /
good or bad.
According to M. Haralambos, “A value is a belief that something is good and
desirable.”

Importance of Values
 Values lay the foundation for the understanding of attitudes and motivation because
they influence our perceptions.
 Individuals enter organizations with notions of what is right and wrong with which
they interpret behaviors or outcomes.
 Values generally influence attitudes and behavior .

Types of values
The values important to people tend to affect their decisions, how they perceive their
environment, and their actual behaviors.
There are two types of values are
 Terminal Values.
 Instrumental Values.

Terminal Values
Terminal Values refer to desirable end-states of existence, the goals a person would like to
achieve during his or her lifetime.
They include happiness, self-respect, recognition, leading a prosperous life, and
professional excellence.
Instrumental Values
Instrumental values deal with views on acceptable modes of conductor means of achieving
the terminal values.
These include being honest, sincere, ethical, and ambitious. These values are more
focused on personality traits and character.

Factors that can affect our values:

Environment: our values are often the result of the environment we live in. The country
we are in, the culture surrounding us, etc.
Family Situation: our family and close relatives will significantly impact our value
systems and decisions.
 Network: the people we know play a key role in our values, as we will often have similar
ones.
Locus of control: someone with an internal locus of control will think that problems are
in their hands and that it's their job to find a solution. In contrast, someone with an
external locus control is more focused on what surrounds them.
Education: can also greatly impact how people think and define their values.

Formation of values
 Formation of values are learned and acquired primarily through experiences with
people and institutions.
 Formulation of values begin from the home where our parents and elder siblings and
other relatives transfer the strong form of values.
 After home, Schools, Colleges and Universities along with the collective behaviours
of teachers, our peers and other administrative staffs are the source of values.

Sources of Values
Values of people have their roots in numerous aspects of contemporary society. In
particular, there are 4 sources of value formation in any society.
1. Social Institutions
2. Organizational Values
3. Peers & Colleagues
4. Work & Career
Social Institutions:-
There are various institutions in the society which inculcate values in an individual. In
particular there are 4 major institutions which provides the basic sources of values for
persons & organizations: family, school, State & religion.
The basic process of value formation by these institutions is that they prescribe what is good
or bad for an individual. Good behaviour is rewarded & bad behaviour is punished.
Organizational Values:-
Every organization has a set of values, whether or not they are written down. The values
guide the perspective of the organization as well as its actions. Writing down a set of
commonly-held values can help an organization define its culture and beliefs. When
members of the organization subscribe to a common set of values, the organization appears
united when it deals with various issues.
Values play a very important role in determining how the organization confronts problems
and issues.
Peers & Colleagues:-
An individual gets clue of behaviour from his peers & colleagues. He develops and applies
beliefs, attitudes, & values derived from the groups of peers & colleagues with whom he/she
is associated. In the case of values, the individual feels an inmate involvement with a
number of people, a nation, a society, or a business org. , or a work group.
Values strengthen, protect, & solidify a given group. Therefore, the individual tries to follow
that group norm of behaviour.
Work & Career:-
Work consists of the tasks or responsibilities associated with a particular job or position in an
organization. In Work & Career create special values that give unity, structure, and meaning
to persons & groups. Therefore, each work will have its own values & persons performing
the work will follow those values.
Forex:- in an org. sales people, accountants, & engineers will have different values according
to their work.

Attitude
Attitude is evaluative statement indicating one’s feeling either favourably or unfavourably
towards persons, objects, events or situations Attitude is very complex cognitive process just
like personality of an individual.

According to Stephen P Robbins, “Attitude are evaluative statements, either favorable or

unfavorable concerning objects, people or events.”

Features of Attitude:
1. Attitudes are related to feeling and belief of the people.
2. Attitudes respond to person, objects or events.
3. Attitudes affect behavior either positively or negatively.
4. Attitudes undergo changes.
5. Attitudes are evaluation system either favorable or unfavorable.
6. Attitudes are acquired over a period of time.

Types of attitude
 Job Satisfaction
 Job Involvement
 Organizational Commitment

1. Job Satisfaction:
The term job satisfaction refers to an individual’s pleasurable or positive emotional
state toward his or her job. Job satisfaction is related with the five specific dimensions
of the job: pay, the work itself, promotion opportunities, supervision, and co-workers.
When people speak of employee attitude, they mean job satisfaction.
2. Job Involvement:
Job involvement is the degree to which employees immerse themselves in their jobs,
invest time and energy in them and consider work as central part of their life.
 Employees with high level of job involvement strongly identify with their jobs and
take utmost care of their jobs.
3. Organizational Commitment:
Organizational commitment is an attitude about employee’s loyalty to their
organization. It is process through which employees identify with the organization and
want to maintain membership in organization.

Formation of Attitude
Attitudes are not inherited. These are acquired or learned by the people from the
environment in which they interact. The formation of attitudes is broadly classified as
follows-
1. Direct experience with the object
One can form attitude towards an object with the help of his direct exposure or direct
experience of that object. Employees, for example , generally form their attitude to jobs
based on their previous experiences. Attitudes can develop from an object experience which
is personally rewarding or punishable. And the attitude created by experience can hardly be
modified.
2. Classical conditioning and attitude
One can also develop attitude with the help of classical condition. If an event occurs again
and again, it develops a different kind of learning and that will leads towards a particular
kind of attitude.
Operant conditioning and Attitude acquisition
Another learning process, operant conditioning, also underlies attitude acquisition. Attitudes
that are reinforced, either verbally or non-verbally, tend to maintained. Conversely, a person
who states an attitude that elicits ridicule from others may modify or abandon the attitude.
3. Vicarious learning
One can also learn certain things by observing the behavior of other people which
automatically develop a certain kind of attitude. And this learning is known as vicarious
learning in which a person learns by observing behavior of others. For example watching
TV, movies etc.
4. Family and Peer groups
A person may also learn the attitudes by imitating his or her parents or other family
members. Even from his party of peers too. If parents have a positive attitude toward a
particular phenomenon, the child will admire his parents, and it is evident that he will adopt a
similar attitude, even without being told. Similarly, behaviors in universities, schools, are
learned from peer groups.
5. Neighborhood
Sometimes neighbors also play a significant role in developing a particular kind of attitude.
Each and every neighbor has something different value system or culture aspects which will
automatically provide a kind of impact on our personality.
6. Economic condition and occupation
The economic condition and work-related roles of one often lead a great deal to the creation
of a certain kind of behavior, and this will shape an attitude automatically. Our socio-
economic history has a very important part to play in our current and future attitudes.
7. Mass communication
Mass media like television, radio, newspaper, and magazines can also add a lot to
somebody's personality. Media coverage is designed to build a public attitude.
 Module – 3
Group Dynamics
Group
A group is an aggregation of people who interact with each other, are aware of one another,
have a common objective and perceive themselves as a group. Mere collection of people
does not constitute a group. People gathered as a crowd to watch a match is not a group.
The word dynamics comes from a Greek word meaning force.
Definitions of Group:
According to Stephen P Robbins: “A Group is a collection of two or more individuals,
interacting and independent, who have come together to achieve particular common
objectives.”

Group Dynamics:
“Group dynamics refers to a study about all dimensions of a group- formation, development,
structure and its relationship with individuals, other groups within an Organization.”
According to Keith Davis – “The social process by which people interact face to
face in small groups is called group dynamics.”

Characteristics of Groups:
Based on the definitions of groups, following characteristics of group can be listed:
1. Two or More Persons: A single individual cannot form a group. For group formation,
at least two persons must be present.
2. Collective Identity: Each group member knows one another. Each member of the group
perceives that he/she is a part of the group.
3. Interaction: There is an interaction among the members of the group.
4. Common Purpose: The members of the group work to achieve some common purpose
or objective.
5. Organization: There must be a proper organization of the group.
6. Interdependency: The group members should be interdependent for discharging their
tasks.
7. Structure: The structure of the group must systematic.

Why Do People Form and Join Groups?

People form and become members of groups for a variety of different reasons. Any one
or more of the following explains why people join groups:
1. Safety and Security Needs
2. Relatedness/Belongingness Needs
 3. Esteem Needs
4. Power
5. Identity
1. Safety and Security Needs:
Groups provide protection to their members from outside pressures. That is why workers join
trade unions to feel safe and secure. By joining group, we can reduce our insecurity – we feel
stronger and more resistant to threats.
2. Relatedness/Belongingness Needs:
Relatedness refers to the desire to feel loved, connected to others, and meaningfully involved
with the broader social world. Research has shown that the desires to affiliate with and
nurture others are important dimensions distinguishing among ease activities.
3. Esteem Needs:
When one is member of a group and does some good work and gets praise from other
it brings a sense of recognition to the group member. It fulfills the need for growth towards
higher achievement. Esteem needs encompass confidence, strength, self-belief, personal and
social acceptance, and respect from others.
4. Power:
Power is an essential element to group life because it gives the group the ability to
effectively complete its goals. Authorities use power to control the behaviors of others and to
coordinate their activities. Groups represent power and also offer power their members.
Workers enjoy greater power by joining groups rather than as individuals.
5. Identity:
A person can have the two aspects of identities, one which has own individual’s
perspective and the other which he can get from his group. As a member of group, an
individual gets identity.
Types of Groups:
Formal Groups:
A formal group is set up by the organization to carry out work in support of the
organization’s goals. In formal groups, the behaviour that one should engage in are
stipulated by and directed towards organizational goals. The formal group may be a
command group or a task group.
Formal groups are further classified into:
1 Command Group
2 Task Group
3 Project Group
4 Committee
(i) Command group
A command group comprises a manager and the employees who report to him or her.
Thus, it is defined in terms of the organization’s hierarchy. Membership in the group arises
from each employee’s position in the organizational chart.
(ii) Task group
A task group comprises employees who work together to complete a particular task or
project. A task group’s boundary is not limited to its immediate hierarchical superior. It can
cross-command relationships. A task group comprises of persons working together to
complete a common task.
(iii) Project Group
Project groups are formed to complete a specific project. Length of the project group
depends upon length of a project.
Groups of individuals within an organization that work together on a specific task or
project are called project groups. Individuals with different skills and expertise are typically
included in these groups, which are formed to address a specific need or goal.
(iv) Committees
Committees are usually created outside the usual command group structure to solve recurring
problems. Its life may be short or long.
A committee is a group of people who take on the responsibility of managing a specific topic
for an organization that is too complicated to be handled by the larger group to which they
belong.

Informal Groups:
An organization’s informal groups are groups that evolve to meet social or affiliation
needs by bringing people together based on shared interests or friendship. Thus, informal
groups are alliances that are neither formally structured nor organizationally determined.
These groups are natural formations in the work environment that appear in response to the
need for social contact.
Informal groups are further classified into:
1 Friendship Group
2 Interest Group
3 Reference Group
(i) Friendship groups
Groups often develop because the individual members have one or more common
characteristics. These formations are known as friendship groups. Social alliances, which
frequently extend outside the work situation, can be based on similarities age, political view,
education, etc.
(ii) Interest groups
People who may or may not be aligned to common command or task groups may
affiliate to attain a specific objective with which each is concerned. This is an interest group.
Interest groups are composed of individuals who may not be members of the same
organization, but they are united by their interest in a common issue.
(iii) Reference groups
Sometimes, people use a group as a basis for comparison in making decisions or
forming opinions. When a group is used in this way, it is called a reference group.
Employees have reference groups inside or outside the organization where they work. For
most people, the family is the most important reference group.

Change of membership:
On the basis of changes of members in group, it is categorised in two types-
Open group: In this group members are keep changing – new members joining and existing
ones leaving. New members bring new perspectives to the group activities and problems.
Close group: It maintains a relatively stable membership, with few additions and losses in
members over time. Power, relationship and status are usually well established.
In or Out groups:
The in group versus out group concept is applicable to friendly rivalries between college,
club and hostile. Based on the position of members groups are classified as follows-
In Group: The groups which we belong are in groups.
Out Group: the groups which we do not belong are out groups.

Stages of Group Development:

The best-known scheme for group development was advanced by Bruce Tuckman in 1965.
Initially, Tuckman identified four stages of group development, which included the stages of
forming, storming, norming, and performing. A fifth stage was later added by Tuckman
about ten years later, which is called adjourning.
1. FORMING
The forming stage represents a time when the group is just starting to come together and is
characterized by anxiety and uncertainty. Members are cautious with their behavior, which is
driven by the desire to be accepted by all members of the group.
2. STORMING
The storming stage is where conflict and competition are at their greatest. The storming stage
is where the more dominant of the group members emerge, while other, less argumentative
members stay in the comfort and security of suppressing their feelings just as they did in the
previous stage.
3. NORMING
The norming stage is the time when the group becomes a cohesive unit. Morale is high as
group members actively acknowledge the talents, skills, and experience that each member
brings to the group.
4. PERFORM
The performing stage is marked by high productivity. Group members are unified, loyal, and
supportive.
The group’s overall objective during the performing stage is to complete its mission. Conflict
is identified and resolved through group discussion. The members of the group involve for
task accomplishment.
5. ADJOURNING
For permanent work groups, performing is the last stage in their development. However,
there is an adjourning stage for temporary committees, teams, task forces, and similar groups
that have a limited task to perform.
Groups are adjourned for two reasons. First, the group has completed its task. Secondly, the
members decide to disband and close the group with sentimental feelings.
Theories of Group Formation:
Formation of the group simply means two or more persons came together for working
toward the achievement of the same goals and objectives. Group creation enables the
performance of difficult tasks easy and efficient. It enables sharing of a wide range of
knowledge and experiences of numerous people working in a group which will helps in
the formulation of better plans.
Thought a number of theories have been developed by various experts to explain the
dynamics of group formation, the most important ones are:
1. Homan’s Theory
2. Exchange Theory of Reward and Cost Outcome
3. Balance Theory
4. Propinquity Theory
1. Homan’s Interaction Theory
George C, Homan propounded the Homan’s Interaction theory. Activities, interaction and
sentiments are the three main factors for group formation according to this theory.
These factors directly affect each other’s and are responsible for affiliating people with one
another. This theory states more the activities people’s share, more will be their interactions
and stronger will be their shared activities and sentiments, and more the sentiments peoples
have for one another, then they will share their activities more which will also increase their
interactions.
2. Exchange Theory
Exchange theory was put forward by Thaibaunt and Kelly. Outcomes of interactions that are
basically reward and cost are main factors for formation of group.
Peoples joins group by considering what they are getting in return for interaction with group
members. According to exchange theory, outcomes of interactions should be able to attract
and affiliate the peoples in group. It should be ensured that minimum level of positive
outcomes should be maintained. Reward from interactions gratifies needs whereas cost
results in anxiety, frustration, fatigue and embarrassment.
3. Balance Theory
Balance theory states that people having similar attitudes and values are attracted
towards each other and form a group.
This theory was put forward by Theodore Newcomb. Similarity of attitudes is the main
factor for developing a group among people as per this theory. After forming group and
creating relationship, it is ensured that there is symmetrical balance between the attraction
and common attitudes.
Propinquity and interaction theory have vital role in this theory and that’s why balance
theory is additive in nature.
4. Propinquity Theory
Propinquity theory of group formation states that individuals form group due to spatial and
geographical nearness. The word propinquity means “Nearness’’.
According to this theory, people who work within the same business area or at nearby places
are more likely to affiliate with each other and form a group than those who works at a
distant places.
Proximity of people is the only factor considered by propinquity theory for group formation
of people. It does not take into account several other factors or complexities that affects the
formation of group of peoples.

Group norms
Group norms are the spoken or unspoken rules that guide how team members interact,
collaborate effectively, and work efficiently.
As per Feldman, 1984 "Group norms are the informal rules that groups adopt to regulate and
regularise group members' behaviour".

Importance of Group Norms:

1. It facilitates group’s survival.
2. It increases the predictability of group member’s behaviors’.
3. It reduces embarrassing interpersonal problems for group members.
4. It allows members to express the central values of the group and clarify what is
distinctive about group’s identity.

Every group has different established norms depending upon the nature of its members and
location. Following are some classes of norms which are common to all groups:
1. Performance Norms
2. Appearance Norms
3. Social Arrangement Norms
4. Allocation of Resources Norms
5. Behaviour Norms
1. Performance Norms:
Performance norms are centered on how hard a person should work in a given group.
They are informal cues, if you will, that tells a person or helps a person understand
how hard they should work and what type of output they should have.
2. Appearance Norms:
This type of norm informs or guides us as to how we should look or what our physical
appearance should be - what fashion we should wear or how we should style our hair
or any number of areas related to how we should look.
 3. Social Arrangement Norms:
When we talk about this type of norm we generally do not equate it to a business
setting. This norm is centered on how we should act in social settings. Once again,
there are reminders we need to pick up on when we are out with friends or at social
events that help us fit in and get a closer connection to the group.
4. Allocation of Resources Norms:
For this type of norm we're focusing on the allocation of resources in a business
environment. This can include raw materials as well as overtime or any other resource
found or needed within an organization.
5. Behaviour Norms:
Behavior norms are rules that standardise how individuals act while working on a day-
to-day basis. Examples are. “do not come to committee meetings unless you have read
the reports to be ‘”discussed”‘, “greet every customer with a smile”, etc.

Group Cohesiveness
Group cohesiveness/Team Cohesiveness is known as Social cohesion is a degree of unity of
any group. It is a degree to which group members are attracted or motivated by each other.

According to Stephen P Robbins, “Group cohesiveness is the degree to which members are
attracted to each other and are motivated to stay in the group.”

Factors Affecting Group Cohesiveness:

There are many factors which cause cohesiveness in the group. Some of the more important
factors are as follows:

1. Similarities of Attitudes and Values

2. Size of the Group
3. Group Leadership
4. Location of the group
5. Group status
6. Difficulty in Entry / Severity of Initiation
7. Competition
8. Interdependency
9. Management Behaviour
10.Member Turnover
11.Previous Successes and Shared Goals
12.Threat
1. Similarities of Attitudes and Values

One of the strongest sources of group cohesiveness is the similarity in attitudes and values
among group members. We enjoy company of people who hold similar opinions, morals,
beliefs and code of conduct, because the person who shares the same opinions as we do
provide us with a kind of social validation for our beliefs.

2. Size of the Group

Other things being equal, size has an inverse relationship with group cohesiveness. This is so
because group cohesiveness increases through interaction among group members. Thus,
larger a group becomes, the less opportunity exists for interaction among the members.

Small groups are effective. The larger the size of the group, the less cohesive

3. Group Leadership
The qualities of the group leader determine the extent to which the group members bind
themselves with the group. If the leader is dynamic and energetic, he motivates the group
members to work with zeal for the attainment of common goals. He tries to build and
maintain high group loyalty among members.

4. Location of the group

Location of the group affects group cohesion in two ways.
First, if the group members are located close to each other, they interact themselves
frequently and freely. Therefore, group cohesion would be high.
Second, if the group is isolated from other groups, cohesion is high.
Where the line of dividing between one group and other groups does not exist, cohesion is
not easy to achieve because a chain of interactions develops among members of various
groups.
5. Group status
A group with high status with success stories is more attractive to its members. Therefore,
they show solidarity among themselves and group cohesion tends to be high. As against this,
a group which is denounced by all tends to have less cohesion.
6. Difficulty in Entry / Severity of Initiation
The more difficult it is to get in a group, the more cohesive that group becomes.
The reason is that in exclusive and elite groups the members are selected on the basis of
certain characteristics and these characteristics being common to all add to the degree of
liking and attraction towards each other.
7. Competition
Type of competition affects the group cohesiveness. Two classes of competition have
different types of effects on group cohesion.
There are intragroup competition, that is among the group members and intergroup
competition, that is competition as a whole.
Competition between members of the group is usually destructive to group cohesiveness. As
against this, intergroup competition brings cohesiveness in the group.
8. Interdependency
When each member of a group has independent activities, the cohesiveness among the
members of such group will be less as compared to the group whose members are doing the
operations which are independent upon each other. Thus, mutual dependency leads to greater
cohesiveness.
9. Management Behaviour
The behaviour of management has a direct influence on the degree of cohesiveness that
exists within a group. The manager can make close relations difficult by creating unhealthy
competition among employees.
10. Member Turnover
To make a group more cohesive, there is need for some degree of stable relationships among
members. The higher the degree of member turnover, the less cohesive a group becomes,
because the more frequently members leave a particular group the more time a new member
takes to get attached to the group and the more time the old member takes to get attached to
the new group.
11. Previous Successes and Shared Goals
When a group achieves a meaningful goal, the cohesiveness of the group increases because
the success is shared by all the members and each one feels responsible for the achievement.
If the group agrees on the purpose and direction of its activities, this serves to bind the group
together.
For this reason, successful companies find it easy to hire new talented employees.
12. Threat
Threat is a very powerful force which unifies the group, particularly when it comes from
(i) outside the group
(ii) co-operation can help overcome the threat and
(iii) there is little or no chance for escape.
For example, the management threats frequently bring together an otherwise disarrayed
union. Thus, the threatening party will have a less chance of success when faced with a
unified force.
 Module – 4
Organizational Culture and Conflict Management
Organizational culture is generally understood as all of a company's beliefs, values and
attitudes, and how these influence the behaviour of its employees.

According to Alan Adler, “Organizational culture is civilization in the workplace.”

According to Bruce Perron, “Organizational culture defines a jointly shared

description of an organization from within.”

Functions of Organizational Culture:

• Conflict reduction: A common culture promotes consistency of perception, problem
definition, evaluation of issues and opinions, and preferences for action.
• Coordination and control: Largely because culture promotes consistency of outlook
it also facilitates Organizational processes of coordination and control.
• Reduction of uncertainty: Adopting of the cultural mind frame is an anxiety
reducing device which simplifies the world of work, makes choices easier and rational
action seem possible. ™
• Motivation: An appropriate and cohesive culture can offer employees a focus of
identification and loyalty, foster beliefs and values that encourage employees to
perform.
• Competitive advantage: Strong culture improves the Organization’s chances of being
successful in the marketplace.

Characteristics of Organizational Culture:

1. Innovation: Companies that value innovation will encourage their people to be
brave and take risks. This will empower people and inspire them to think creatively.
Companies that do not value innovation will have set guidelines and practices that
must be adhered to. This links closely to the neuroscience theme of Clarity, and in
particular ideas of requirements.
2. Attention to Detail: This dictates the level to which employees are expected to be
accurate in their work. For some organizations, attention to detail is key to success.
Financial organizations and law firms are prime examples of this.
3. Outcome (Results): Companies that value outcomes will focus on results above all
else. They will strive for results by any means necessary. In contrast, other
Organizations will consider the wider impact of their work and strive to ding things in
'the right way'.
4. Relationships: Organizations that value relationships will be focused on building a
culture where people work collaboratively and feel supported by their managers and
leadership teams.
 5. Values: Values are something every Organization will have… however - for some
Organizations values such as fairness, doing the right thing, and supporting
environmental or sustainable societal actions will be more important.
6. Freedom: This characteristic looks at whether Organizations give their employees
the freedom and autonomy to work when, where and how they like! Organizations that
don’t prioritise freedom may have more rigid processes and structures. Freedom is
linked to the instinctive brain system.
7. Stability: A company that encourages stability will be administrative and rule-
orientated. It will focus more on outputs and processes than growth. Companies that
do not value stability will regularly adapt their processes and practices.

Learning Culture (How Culture is Learnt):

Since the term organizational culture refers to underlying beliefs and values that are
shared by organizational members‟ culture cannot be dictated by the top management.

1. Stories
Employees learn the organizational culture through the stories which flow through a
lot of organizations. They generally comprise a story of events about the
organization’s originators, rule breaking, rags-to-riches achievements, reduction in the
personnel, transferral of employees, responses to previous errors, & organizational
handling.
2. Rituals
It refers to any practice or pattern of behaviour repeated frequently in a prearranged
manner. Key values of the organization, most significant goals and most important
people are reflected in rituals.
Repeated activities assist the employees in learning the culture of the organization.
3. Materials Symbols
 Material symbols of a particular organization expresses to the employees, the
organizational culture. These symbols express to the employees who and what is
significant and the type of the behaviour that is suitable.
4. Language
Several organizations & units use language as a technique to identify members of
culture or subculture. The organizations sometimes build up their own terms which
operates as a common denominator which bonds members of a given culture or sub-
culture.
Examples- Cool- everything is fine, Promo- Promotion, etc,.

Organizational Socialization:
It is a process by which a person learns the values, norms, and required
behaviors which permit him to participate as a member of the organization.
Organizational socialization is the process by which new employees become
acclimated to the culture of a new workplace.

Practical Application of Socialization Research

• Managers should avoid a unsystematic approach to organizational socialization.
• Managers play a key role during the encounter phase.
 • Organization can benefit by training new employees to use proactive socialization
behaviors.
• Managers should pay attention to the socialization of diverse employees.

Types of Culture: The most prominent types of culture include:

Dominant Culture and Subculture

Strong Culture and Weak Culture

Dominant Culture: A dominant culture is set by a set of core values that are shared by
majority of the organizational members. Dominant culture gives a macro view of
organizational personality. Ex: Most of the employees at Reliance Group seem to share a
common concern for the value of time. This creates a dominant culture in the organization
that helps guide the day to day behavior of employees.

Subculture: Subculture expresses a set of values that are shared by the members of a
division or department. They are typically are a result of problems or experiences that are
shared by members of a particular department or unit.

Strong Culture: When core values of the organization are shared with high degree of
intensity it forms strong culture. The degree of sharedness depends on two factors –
orientation and rewards. Orientation programmes are organized for people to share cultural
values. Rewards do also affect sharedness.

Weak Culture: When core values of the organization are not shared with high degree of
intensity it is called weak culture.

Creating and Sustaining Culture:

 • How a Culture Begins Ultimate source of an organization’s culture is its founders.
• Founders have the vision of what the organization should be. Unconstrained by
previous ideologies or customs.
• New organizations are typically small, which facilitates the founders’ imparting of
their vision on all organizational members.
So, how does a culture begin?
The ultimate source of an organization’s culture is its founders. Founders have the
vision of what the organization should be and they are unconstrained by previous
ideologies or customs. New organizations are typically small, which facilitates the
founders’ imparting of their vision on all organizational members.

Culture creation occurs in three ways

• Founders hire employees who think and feel the way they do. Employees are
indoctrinated and socialized into the founders’ way of thinking.
• Founders’ own behavior encourages employees to identify with them and internalize
their beliefs, values, and assumptions. Culture creation occurs in three ways.

1. First is when founders hire employees who think and feel the way they do.
2. Second, employees are indoctrinated and socialized into the founders’ way of
thinking.
3. And third, the founders’ themselves act as role models, encouraging employees to
identify with them and internalize their beliefs, values, and assumptions through their
own behaviors.

Sustaining Culture
Culture once established may fade away also. Hence, once a culture is created, it needs to be
sustained through reinforcement practices of human resources. Three such practices
particularly important in sustaining a culture are selection practices, the actions of top
management and socialization methods.
• So how can cultures be sustained?
1. The first way is in the selection of employees. The explicit goal of the selection
process is to identify and hire individuals with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to
perform successfully.
2. The final decision, because it’s significantly influenced by the decision maker’s
judgment of how well the candidates will fit into the organization, identifies people
whose values are essentially consistent with at least a good portion of the
organization’s.
3. Selection thus becomes a two-way street, allowing employer or applicant to avoid a
mismatch and sustaining an organization’s culture by selecting out those who might
 attack or undermine its core values. The actions of top management also have a major
impact on the organization’s culture.
4. Through words and behavior, senior executives establish norms that filter through the
organization about, for instance, whether risk taking is desirable, how much freedom
managers give employees, what is appropriate dress, and what actions earn pay raises,
promotions, and other rewards.
5. Socialization is the process of helping new employees adapt to the organization’s
culture.

Changing a Culture:
• An organization does not remain the same over a period of time, so is the case of
culture as well.
• Culture established in one type of environment may not remain effective in changed
environment.
• It is so, the organization must either adapt to new conditions of environment or it may
not survive.
• Hence, the need for change in organizational culture.
Managing Conflict
Organizational conflict is an internal misunderstanding or disagreement that can occur
between colleagues or leaders.
Conflict is disagreement between two or more Organizational members or groups arising
from the fact that they must share scarce resources or work activities and/or from the fact
that they have different statuses, goals, values, or perceptions.
According to S. P. Robbins defines conflict as “a process in which an effort is
purposefully made by a person or unit to block another that result in frustrating the
attainment of others goals or furthering of his or her interests.”
Sources of Conflict:
Structural Factors:

1. Specialisation:
As the highly specialized people have little awareness of the tasks that other perform, such a
case leads to conflict among the specialists.
2. Interdependence:
Depending on other people to work done is good when the process works smoothly.
However, when problem arises, it becomes easy to blame other party, and as such, conflict
increases.
3. Goal Differences:
Sometimes different work groups having different goals have incompatible goals. Sometimes
conflict arises when two parties think that their goals are mutually exclusive.
4. Jurisdictional Ambiguities:
It refers to the presence of unclear lines of responsibility within an organization. Ambiguous
jurisdictions exist in an organization when the task and authority structures are not clearly
established.
5. Common Resources:
Resources such as money, time, and equipment are often scarce. Competition among people
or departments for limited resources is a frequent cause for conflict.
6. Authority Relationships:
Staff takes the credit for achieving the results, which is actually achieved by the line people.
But if anything goes wrong, they blame the line. Failure to understand authority causes
misunderstandings between the line and staff.

Personal Factors

1. Skills and Abilities:

Work force in an organization or department is composed of people with varying levels of
skills and abilities. Such diversity in skills and abilities leads to conflict, especially when
jobs are interdependent.
2. Personalities:
Personality also causes individual differences. It is differences in personality that neither the
manager likes all of his co-managers and subordinates nor all of them like the manager. This
creates conflict among them.
3. Perception:
A perception is an opinion or belief that may be erroneous and untested. Perceptions are one
of the main causes of conflict or break-ups in relationships. Our personal belief of what the
other person did or did not do and our understanding of that, often leads to anger, hurt, and
frustration.
4. Values and Ethics:
Organizational ethics and values are the principles and standards which determine acceptable
conduct in the organization. They relate to actions, which are characterized by honesty,
integrity, morality, and good management practices.
5. Emotion:
The moods of the people can also be a source of conflict in the work place. Problems at
home often spill over into the work arena, and the related moods can be hard for others to
deal with.
6. Communication Barriers:
Conflict is typically centered around disagreements in communication. Differing
perceptions, language, ineffective listening, “style” differences, and power and status
dynamics can all cause barriers to how a message is conveyed.

Types of Conflict

1. Intra-personal conflict:
Intra-personal conflict arises inside an individual. It arises due to divergent goals and
multiple roles, which the individual is expected to play. It also occurs due to role ambiguity.
Role ambiguity occurs when an individual is not clear regarding his duties and
responsibilities.
2. Interpersonal Conflict:
It occurs in a condition when two or more persons interact with one another. Such interaction
may take place between peers or seniors and subordinates. The main causes of it are
personality differences, perceptions, clash of values and interests, power and status
differences, scarcity of resources, etc.
3. Inter-Group Conflict:
It occurs between two or more groups in the organization. Many intergroup conflicts arise
for organizational causes rather than interpersonal causes. The major reasons for intergroup
conflicts are competition for scarce resources, joint decision making, task interdependence,
introduction to change, and incompatible goals.
4. Inter-Organizational Conflict:
It arises between two organizations. It is a result of business competition. Both the
conflicting parties generally engage in providing similar types of services or products. Both
parties become barriers to each other’s success.

Process of Conflict
In 1967, Pondy developed a process model of conflict which is very useful in understanding
how conflict starts and what stages it goes through. Pondy identifies five stages in what he
calls a "conflict episode

1. Latent Conflict
Latent conflict is the stage in which factors exist in the situation which could become
potential conflict inducing forces. These can be, competition for scarce resources,
communication barrier. Four basic types of latent conflict are :
(i) Competition for scarce resources
(ii) Drive for autonomy
(iii) Divergence of goals
(iv) Role conflict.
2. Perceived Conflict
Conflicts may, sometimes, arise even if no conditions of latent conflict exist. This is the
stage when one party perceives the other to be likely to thwart or frustrate his or her goals.
The case in which conflict is perceived when no latent conflict arises, is said to result from
the parties misunderstanding each other's true position.
Such conflict can be resolved by improving communication between the groups.
3. Felt Conflict
Felt conflict is the stage when the conflict is not only perceived but actually felt and
cognized. The personalization of conflict is the mechanism which causes many people to be
concerned with dysfunctions of conflict. In other words, it makes them feel the conflict.
There are two reasons for the personalization of the conflict:
• (i) the inconsistent demands on efficient organization and individual growth which is
caused within the individual. Anxieties may also result from crisis or from extra-
organizational pressures. Individual need to vent these anxieties in order to maintain
internal equilibrium.
• (ii) Conflict becomes personalized when the whole personality of the individual is
involved in the relationship. Hostile feelings are most common in the intimate
relations that characterize various institutions and residential colleges.
4. Manifest Conflict
Manifest conflict is the stage when the two parties engage in behaviours which evoke
responses from each other. The most obvious of these responses are open aggression,
laziness, interrupt, withdrawal and perfect obedience to rules. Except for prison riots,
political revolutions and extreme labour unrest, violence as a form of manifest conflict is
rare.
The motives towards violence may remain but they tend to be expressed in less violent
forms.
5. Conflict Aftermath
The aftermath of a conflict may have positive or negative repercussions for the organization
depending upon how the conflict is resolved. If the conflict is genuinely resolved to the
satisfaction of all participants, the basis for a more co-operative relationship may be laid; or
the participants in their drive for a more ordered relationship may focus on latent conflicts
not previously perceived and dealt with.

Conflict Resolution Strategies:

The most common set of negotiation strategies, known as the Thomas-Kilmann model,
identifies five different approaches to resolution.

What is conflict resolution?

Conflict resolution or negotiation is a way for the opposing parties to find a solution to their
disagreement that leaves everyone reasonably satisfied.
• Sometimes, the person who resolves a conflict may be a neutral party or mediator
while at other times, they may be someone involved in the conflict who takes an
outside perspective to find a solution.
 • Conflict often is a byproduct when there’s human interaction, so responding
professionally requires conflict-resolution strategies.
• When a dispute arises, the best course of action is to use negotiation to resolve the
problem.

Thomas-Kilmann model, identifies five different approaches to resolution.

1. Avoiding
This method involves simply ignoring that there may be a conflict. People tend to
avoid conflict when they don’t want to engage in it. Avoiding allows them to ignore
that there is a problem.
There are situations when avoiding conflict can be an appropriate response, such as
when there is no clear solution or a frustrated party needs time to calm down before
confrontation.
2. Competing
Competing is an uncooperative, overly assertive method used by people who insist on
winning the dispute at all costs.
It’s known as a win-lose strategy.
This method is not often identified as bringing satisfactory resolutions, as it doesn’t
allow for collaborative problem-solving.
3. Accommodating
This strategy, also known as smoothing, involves one party acquiescing, giving the
opposing party exactly what it needs to resolve the problem.
This method allows you to resolve a problem in the short-term while working
toward a long-term solution.
 In some cases, accommodating can be an appropriate resolution to a conflict.
For example, if your opinion on the matter is not very strong, it is often easier to
comply.
4. Collaborating
Like the compromising method, collaboration involves working with the other party to
find a mutually agreeable solution to a problem.
It’s known as a win-win strategy.
For example, a salesperson and client may work together to negotiate contract terms
until both parties find it agreeable.
5. Compromising
This strategy, also known as reconciling, seeks a mutual agreement to settle a dispute.
It’s known as a lose-lose strategy since both parties willingly forfeit some of their
needs in the interest of reaching an agreement.
This can be a quick way to resolve a conflict without it becoming a bigger issue.
Compromise can also be used as a temporary method to avoid conflict until the parties
involved can implement a more permanent solution.

Empowerment and Participation:

Empowerment
The term empowerment means giving employees power and authority to make decisions on
their own.
Employees can be empowered by ensuring their participation in decision-making.
According to Bowen and Lawler, “employee empowerment refers to the management
strategies for sharing decision-making power.”
Importance of Employee Empowerment:
1. The investment in employees can improve productivity, which can reduce the costs.
2. Individual employees experience a feeling of self-esteem, self-efficacy and self-
confidence.
3. Employee empowerment also helps in making employees more self-reliant.
4. It allows independent decision-making by the employees.
5. Empowerment of employees helps a firm to assign different projects to hone the
competence of employees.
6. More freedom given to employees can be utilized for taking judicious decisions.
7. Assigning proper authority can improve the organizational effectiveness.
8. Independent decision-making can improve self-confidence among the employees.
9. It can boost up the morale of the employees.
10. Empowerment encourages innovation and creativity on the part of stage.
Participation
Participation is a process by which authority and responsibility of managing industry are
shared with workers.
As per Newstrom and Davis, Participation is defined as “the mental and emotional
involvement of people in the activities of the group, which encourages them take
responsibility for and contribute to the achievement of group goals.”

Three most important elements of participation are

(i) involvement,
(ii) contribution and
(iii) responsibility.
• Degrees of Participation: There are four degrees of participation:
1. Communication: It involves sharing information about all management decisions with
workers.
2. Consultation: Under it, workers express their views on work related issues. Final
decisions are taken by management after consultations.
3. Code-termination: Herein, managers and workers jointly take decisions.
4. Self-management: In it, workers enjoy complete autonomy right from decision making to
execution.

Importance of participation:
1. Participation tends to improve motivation because employees feel more involved and
committed to the organizational tasks.
2. Their self-esteem, job satisfaction, and cooperation with the higher authorities also
improve.
3. Participation can reduce stress and conflict among the employees.
4. Employee turnover and absenteeism may reduce when employees realize that they are
a part of the organization.
5. It can boost up the morale of the employees.
6. The values and dignity of employees are protected through participation.
7. The mental and physical health of employees can be improved by minimizing the
effect of alienation at work place.
8. It is a democratic process in contradiction to authoritarian organization.
9. A sense of self-respect can be inculcated among every employee.
10. Finally, the act of participation in itself establishes better communication, as
employees mutually discuss all problems.
 Module – 5
Organizational Change
Organizational change is known as the change in attitude, behavior, and interest of
employees, rules regulations, policies, and technological and environmental changes of an
organization so that organization aligns with the forces affecting the organization.
Definition
“Organizational change was expressed as an empirical observation of difference in form,
quality, or state over time in an organizational entity. The entity may be a person’s job, a
workgroup, an organizational strategy, a product, a program, or the overall organization” –
Van de Ven and Poole

Feature of Organizational Change:

1) Organization change is a continuous process.
2) Change is any part or element of the organization that affects the whole organization.
Some elements of the organization may be affected more, others less if any change takes
place.
3) The aim of organizational change is to modify or transform the organization which affects
the status quo.
4) Change is inevitable.
5) Organization change affects individual behavior, group behavior, and management
behavior.
6) Change supports the organization’s survival.

Factors Affecting Organizational Change:

Factors affecting organizational change categorized into two groups- internal and external
factors of change.

INTERNAL FACTORS AFFECTING EXTERNAL FACTORS AFFECTING

Organizational change Organizational change
1. Leadership 1. New Technology
2. Organizational Culture 2. Government Regulation
3. Employees 3. Politics and Economy
4. The Domino Effect 4. Social Change
5. Organizational Life Cycle 5. Competition
INTERNAL FACTORS
• Leadership
Sometimes change in leadership is the reason behind organizational change. Every new
leadership brings new vision, new strategies and new working culture to organization. So
new leadership is a strong internal factor which affects change.
• Organizational Culture
Organizational culture has a powerful impact on the future of the organization. If work place
culture is vibrant, dynamic and leadership encourages creativity, then it is likely that
organization accepts and implements change.
• Employees
Confidence of an organization to make change depends on attitude and skills of its
employees. If employees approve and accept change and their skills are also in line with
intended change then there is more chances that organization will be successful in managing
change.
• The Domino Effect
The source of change is change itself. The domino effect means one change triggers off a
series of related changes. For example, establishment of a new department may cause
changes in series of other related changes.
• Organizational Life Cycle
As human beings pass through certain sequential stages of life cycle, so do the organizations
also. As an organization grows from any sized to giant sized or from young to mature stage,
according to Larry Greiner, it passes through five stages. Each stage creates new demands
for adjustment for the organization, and so, acts as a potent source of organizational change.

EXTERNAL FACTORS
• New Technology
Technology is also a powerful factor which shapes changes. In this digital world,
organizations need to upgrade technologies in order to remain competitive in the market. For
instance, it is absolutely necessary nowadays for every organization to have its presence on
online marketing platforms which was not the case ten years ago.
• Government Regulation
Government laws and regulation such as trade policies, taxation, industry specific regulation,
labour laws greatly affect the way of doing business. Organizations need to stay vigilant in
connection to government policies and adapt to changes.
• Politics and Economy
Internal and external politics and economy also affect business. One single event can damage
country’s economy. Organizations need to closely follow and analyze political events and
economy and make changes as situations demand.
• Social Change
The social changes refer to change in norms, change in level of education, urbanization,
migration etc. These social changes are also powerful external factors which affect the
environment which push organizational change to make change.
• Competition
Competition is getting tougher every day. Organizations innovate new marketing tool and
strategies and disrupt the entire trend of market. It is such a compelling factor that every
player of the industry has to respond and develop it own strategy to survive and thrive in
market.

TYPES OF CHANGE
Organizational change management refers to an event or program that a business or
enterprise wishes to initiate, which causes significant disruption to their daily operations.
There can be a variety of factors that lead to change within an organization.
Changes are classified as follows-
1. Planned and Unplanned Change
2. Evolutionary and Revolutionary Change
3. Reactive Change And Proactive Change

Planned and Unplanned Change

Planned change is a change that occurs when managers or employees make a conscious
effort to change in response to a specific problem.
An unplanned change occurs randomly and spontaneously without any specific intention on
the part of managers or employees of addressing a problem.

Evolutionary and Revolutionary Change

Evolutionary change is gradual and incremental. The stages of change are often so small that
those affected don’t even recognize the shift, or they do and they’re able to adjust their work
and processes a little at a time.
Revolutionary change, or frame-breaking change, is rapid and dramatic. It, too, can be
planned or unplanned. A planned revolutionary change might mean dramatic changes to an
organization’s staffing, structure, or procedures.

Reactive Change and Proactive Change

Reactive change is change initiated in an organization because it is made necessary by
outside forces. A reactive change refers to a change which is undertaken when the
organization is forced by some factors either internal or external. The organizations respond
to events and adopt to change only when they are forced to do so.
Proactive change is change that is initiated by an organization because it is desirable to do
so. Proactive, also known as anticipatory, Proactive change refers to change undertaken in
anticipation of the likely changes in the forces affecting the organization. These
organizations introduce change much before it becomes a firefighting situation.

Resistance to Change
Resistance to change is the opposing behaviors of employees in the change made by the
organization. There are many reasons employees resist change one of them is, they
think the frequent change made in an organization has a bad effect on their position.
Resistance to change may also be very indirect such as dissatisfaction, grievances, and
request for transfer, absenteeism and conflict among members of a work team.
The reasons for resistance to change can be divided into two categories:
• Individual Resistance to Change
• Organizational Resistance to Change

Individual Resistance to Organizational Resistance to

Change: Change
• Threats to Power Structure
• Fear of the Unknown
• Resource constraint
• Fear of Loss
• Structural Inertia
• Status quo
• System Relationships
• New Learning
• Sunk Costs and Vested
• Disruption of Stable
Interest
Friendship
• Distrust of Management

Individual Resistance to Change

• Fear of the Unknown- Changes often bring with it ambiguity and uncertainty.
Adopting new technology may develop a negative attitude toward the introduction of
new technology.
• Fear of Loss- When a change is impending, some employees may fear losing their
jobs, status particularly when an advanced technology is introduced.
• Status quo- change may pose disturbance to the existing comforts of status quo
• New Learning: For doing new task, it requires to learn a new language, develop a
new technology, or adjust to a totally new culture. No doubt, learning new ideas can
be exciting, most people report that excitement comes only after the learning is
occurred, not before.
• Disruption of Stable Friendship: Almost all organizational changes disrupt the
previous stable friendship. This, in turn, results in uncomfortable feelings of social
isolation and loneliness. This may serve as a source of indirect resistance to change.
 • Distrust of Management: There are well-documented findings available from the
history of labour relations that managers exploited labourers. That's why employees
often suspect the reason for change and try to oppose the same.

Organizational Resistance to Change

• Threats to Power Structure: Most changes have the capacity to disrupt the
organization’s power structure. Introduction of decentralized decision making is
example of change that is often seems as threats to the power of supervisors and
middle level managers but a welcome by lower level employees.
• Resource constraint: resources are major constraints for many organizations. The
necessary financial , material & human resources may not be available to the
organization to make the needed changes.
• Structural Inertia: Organizational structures have several mechanisms designed to
produce stability. Accordingly, job assignments, selection and training of new
employees, and performance reward systems are designed to maintain stability,
thereby resist to change.
• System Relationships: Any change has domino effect. Change in one subsystem
affects changes in other subsystems also.
• Sunk Costs and Vested Interest: Sunk costs are investments in fixed assets, such as
land and building and machinery. Vested interests are the personal commitments of
individuals to programs, policies, or other people

Managing Resistance to Change

Organizational change is unavoidable. So manager should be sensitive to the barriers
or resistance to changes so that it can be overcome.
Approaches have been developed and suggested to manage the organizational change.
Following are some of the important approaches to overcome or manage resistance
change:
1. Education and Communication
2. Participation and involvement
3. Facilitation and Support
4. Negotiation and agreement
5. Manipulation
6. Co-optation
7. Explicit and implicit Coercion
1. Education and Communication:
If the reasons of resistance to change are misunderstanding about the change, it can be
reduced by providing employees with details why change is needed. Employees can be
educated about the change through one-on-one discussion, group discussion etc.
2. Participation:
Research evidence lends support to the fact that individual find it difficult to resist a change
decision in which they participated. When, before a change is introduced, particularly those
who oppose change can be brought into the decision making process.
3. Negotiation:
Negotiation particularly with a group of powerful individuals resisting to change is yet
another strategy to deal with potential resistance to change.
4. Facilitation and Support:
Providing support and empathy to those employees who have trouble in dealing with the
change. Counseling, skill training are examples of support.
5. Manipulation:
Manipulation implies secret attempts to influence. Examples of manipulation are twisting the
facts to make the more attractive, withholding information not pleasant to the receiver,
spreading rumors to make employees ready to accept change.
6. Co-optation:
Co-optation includes appointing to membership of a committee or other body by invitation
of the existing member. Leaders of a resistance group are invited not to reach to a better
decision but to get their endorsement.
7. Explicit and implicit coercion:
If there’s no time and no choice, managers can rely on force to push past change. The
organization as a last resort can apply direct threats on the resistor to make them ready to
accept the proposed change. Threats of transfer, loss of promotion, negative performance
evaluation are examples of coercion.