Chapter#2

Influences on Employee Behavior

 A Major Purpose of Human Resource
Development
• A major goal of HRD interventions is to assist employees
and organizations in achieving their goals.
• HRD Professionals help employees by designing and
developing programs that promote individual
development.
• HRD also improves organizational performance.
• Another goal of HRD interventions is an effort to change
employee behavior.
• HRD provides skills and behaviors to employees which
assist in increasing their performance which leads to great
accomplishments.

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 Types of Behavior

• Task Performance Behavior

• Organizational Citizenship Behavior

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 Model of Employee Behavior
• Forces that influence behavior:

– External to the employee:

• External environment (economic conditions, laws and
regulations, etc.)
• Work environment (supervision, organization, coworkers,
outcomes of performance)

– Within the employee:

• Motivation, attitudes, knowledge/skills/abilities (KSAs)

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The External Environment

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 Factors in the External Environment
• Economic conditions

• Technological changes

• Labor market conditions

• Laws and regulations

• Labor unions

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Example of External Environment Force
• Example: Downsizing
• In the wake of any economic, political or technological
upheaval, the external forces often lead organizations to
reduce their workforce.

• Downsizing refers to the voluntary actions on the part of

organizations to reduce the overall size of their
workforce.

• HRD must advise organizations must invest and train the

survivors of the downsizing on how to carry out their
responsibilities after downsizing and help in retaining
rather than laying off.

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 Factors in the Work Environment
 Outcomes

 Supervision and leadership

 Organization

 Coworkers

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Outcomes Can Influence Employee Behavior
• Personal outcomes are those that have value to the
individual, such as pay, recognition or reward etc .

• Organizational outcomes are things valued by the

organization, such as teamwork, productivity or
quality etc.

• Employee perception of outcomes are important

determinants of employee behavior.

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Outcomes Can Influence Employee Behavior
• Expectancy Theory:
• This theory states that employees will perform
behaviors that they perceive will bring
valued outcomes.

• Equity Theory:
• This theory states that outcomes are evaluated
by comparing them to the outcomes
received by others.

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 Supervisor and Leaders Influence Employee
Behavior

• Supervisors and Leaders still continue to play an important

role in the success of organizations.

• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy:

• The Pygmalion effect describes that how the

expectations of a supervisor can influence the
behavior of the subordinates.

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 Supervisor and Leaders Influence Employee
Behavior

• The supervisors' approach to leadership also

influences the behavior of employees.

• Leadership is the use of non-coercive influence to

direct and coordinate the activities of a group towards
accomplishing a goal.

• (Leader Member Exchange Theory) LMX Theory:

Suggests that supervisors tend to develop different
quality relationships with their subordinates.

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 Organizational Influences
• Reward structure:
– This includes not only the tangible (pay, benefits, bonuses) but also
the intangible things such as acceptance, recognition, training etc.

• Organizational culture:
– It is a set of values, beliefs, norms, patterns of behavior shared by the
organizational members and that guide their behavior.

• Job design:
– it is the development and alteration of the components of a job (such as
the tasks, scope, responsibilities, duties etc.) to improve productivity and
quality.

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 Coworker Influence
• Coworkers exert a strong influence on employee
behavior in 3 ways:

• Norms:
• Informal rules for appropriate behavior established
within a work group.

• Trust and cohesiveness:

• ( sense of togetherness and willingness to remain
part of group) among memebers important :
important crietria for succesful teamwork

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 Motivation

• Psychological processes that initiates, directs, and

persists voluntary actions that are goal-directed.

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 HRD & Motivation
• Motivation is critical to HRD.

• Success of many HRD programs and processes

depends on in part on whether individuals are
motivated to participate, learn and use what is
learned to improve performance.

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