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Module I: Understanding Human Behaviour

Concept, Nature and Significance of Human Behaviour – Human behavior is the potential
and expressed capacity (mentally, physically, and socially) of human individuals or groups to
respond to internal and external stimuli throughout their life. Behavior is driven by genetic and
environmental factors that affect an individual. Behavior is also driven, in part, by thoughts and
feelings, which provide insight into individual psyche, revealing such things as attitudes and
values. Human behavior is shaped by psychological traits, as personality types vary from person
to person, producing different actions and behavior. Human behaviors are how persons act and
conduct themselves in ways that include physical, mental, and emotional activities, and are
influenced by a variety of factors.

Factors Affecting Human Behaviour: Behaviour is affected by factors relating to the person,
including:

 physical factors - age, health, illness, pain, influence of a substance or medication

 personal and emotional factors - personality, beliefs, expectations, emotions, mental
health
 life experiences - family, culture, friends, life events
 what the person needs and wants.
 Behaviour is also affected by the context, including:
 what is happening at the time
 the environment - heat, light, noise, privacy
 the response of other people, which is affected by their own physical factors, personal and
emotional factors, life experiences, wants and needs.

Levels of Human Behaviour; The most widely accepted model of OB consists of three
interrelated levels:
(1) micro (the individual level),
(2) meso (the group level), and
(3) macro (the organizational level).

The behavioral sciences that make up the OB field contribute an element to each of these levels.
In particular, OB deals with the interactions that take place among the three levels and, in turn,
addresses how to improve performance of the organization as a whole.

The Micro (Individual) Level of Analysis: The micro or individual level of analysis has its
roots in social and organizational psychology. In this article, six central topics are identified and
discussed:
(1) Diversity;
(2) Attitudes and job satisfaction;
(3) Personality and values;
(4) Emotions and moods;
(5) Perception and individual decision-making; and
(6) Motivation.

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1. Diversity: An obvious but oft-forgotten element at the individual level of OB is the

diverse workforce. It is easy to recognize how different each employee is in terms of
personal characteristics like age, skin color, nationality, ethnicity, and gender. Other, less
biological characteristics include tenure, religion, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

2. Job Satisfaction and Job Engagement: Job satisfaction is an attitudinal variable that comes
about when an employee evaluates all the components of her or his job, which include
affective, cognitive, and behavioral aspects (Weiss, 2002). Increased job satisfaction is
associated with increased job performance, organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs),
and reduced turnover intentions (Wilkin, 2012). Moreover, traditional workers nowadays
are frequently replaced by contingent workers in order to reduce costs and work in a
nonsystematic manner. According to Wilkin’s (2012) findings, however, contingent
workers as a group are less satisfied with their jobs than permanent employees are.

3. Emotions and moods: Emotional labor occurs when an employee expresses her or his
emotions in a way that is consistent with an organization’s display rules, and usually
means that the employee engages in either surface or deep acting (Hochschild, 1983).
This is because the emotions an employee is expressing as part of their role at work may
be different from the emotions they are actually feeling (Ozcelik, 2013). Emotional labor
has implications for an employee’s mental and physical health and wellbeing. Moreover,
because of the discrepancy between felt emotions (how an employee actually feels) and
displayed emotions or surface acting (what the organization requires the employee to
emotionally display), surface acting has been linked to negative organizational outcomes
such as heightened emotional exhaustion and reduced commitment

4. Personality: Personality represents a person’s enduring traits. The key here is the concept
of enduring. The most widely adopted model of personality is the so-called Big Five
(Costa & McCrae, 1992): extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional
stability, and openness. Employees high in conscientiousness tend to have higher levels
of job knowledge, probably because they invest more into learning about their role. Those
higher in emotional stability tend to have higher levels of job satisfaction and lower levels
of stress, most likely because of their positive and opportunistic outlooks. Agreeableness,
similarly, is associated with being better liked and may lead to higher employee
performance and decreased levels of deviant behavior.

5. Employee Values: Personal value systems are behind each employee’s attitudes and
personality. Each employee enters an organization with an already established set of
beliefs about what should be and what should not be. Today, researchers realize that
personality and values are linked to organizations and organizational behavior. Years ago,
only personality’s relation to organizations was of concern, but now managers are more
interested in an employee’s flexibility to adapt to organizational change and to remain
high in organizational commitment. Holland’s (1973) theory of personality-job fit
describes six personality types (realistic, investigative, social, conventional, enterprising,
and artistic) and theorizes that job satisfaction and turnover are determined by how well
a person matches her or his personality to a job. In addition to person-job (P-J) fit,
researchers have also argued for person-organization (P-O) fit, whereby employees desire
to be a part of and are selected by an organization that matches their values. The Big Five

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would suggest, for example, that extraverted employees would desire to be in team
environments; agreeable people would align well with supportive organizational cultures
rather than more aggressive ones; and people high on openness would fit better in
organizations that emphasize creativity and innovation.

6. Individual Differences, Affect, and Emotion: Personality predisposes people to have

certain moods (feelings that tend to be less intense but longer lasting than emotions) and
emotions (intense feelings directed at someone or something). In particular, personalities
with extraversion and emotional stability partially determine an individual predisposition
to experience emotion more or less intensely. Effect is also related as describing the
positive and negative feelings that people experience Moreover, emotions, mood, and
affect interrelate; a bad mood, for instance, can lead individuals to experience a negative
emotion. Emotions are action-oriented while moods tend to be more cognitive. This is
because emotions are caused by a specific event that might only last a few seconds, while
moods are general and can last for hours or even days. One of the sources of emotions is
personality. Dispositional or trait affects correlate, on the one hand, with personality and
are what make an individual more likely to respond to a situation in a predictable way.
Personality, affective traits have proven to be stable over time and across settings. State
affect, on the other hand, is similar to mood and represents how an individual feel in the
moment.

7. Perception and individual decision-making; Like personality, emotions, moods, and

attitudes, perceptions also influence employees’ behaviors in the workplace. Perception
is the way in which people organize and interpret sensory cues in order to give meaning
to their surroundings. It can be influenced by time, work setting, social setting, other
contextual factors such as time of day, time of year, temperature, a target’s clothing or
appearance, as well as personal trait dispositions, attitudes, and value systems. In fact, a
person’s behavior is based on her or his perception of reality—not necessarily the same
as actual reality. Perception greatly influences individual decision-making because
individuals base their behaviors on their perceptions of reality. In this regard, attribution
theory (Martinko, 1995) outlines how individuals judge others and is our attempt to
conclude whether a person’s behavior is internally or externally caused. Decision-making
occurs as a reaction to a problem when the individual perceives there to be discrepancy
between the current state of affairs and the state s/he desires. As such, decisions are the
choices individuals make from a set of alternative courses of action. Each individual
interprets information in her or his own way and decides which information is relevant to
weigh pros and cons of each decision and its alternatives to come to her or his perception
of the best outcome. In other words, each of our unique perceptual processes influences
the final outcome

8. Motivation: The last but certainly not least important individual level topic is motivation.
Like each of the topics discussed so far, a worker’s motivation is also influenced by
individual differences and situational context. Motivation can be defined as the processes
that explain a person’s intensity, direction, and persistence toward reaching a goal. Work
motivation has often been viewed as the set of energetic forces that determine the form,
direction, intensity, and duration of behavior (Latham & Pinder, 2005). Motivation can
be further described as the persistence toward a goal. In fact, many non-academics would

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probably describe it as the extent to which a person wants and tries to do well at a
particular task.

The Meso (Group) Level of Analysis: The second level of OB research also emerges from social
and organizational psychology and relates to groups or teams. Topics covered so far include
individual differences: diversity, personality and emotions, values and attitudes, motivation, and
decision-making. Thus, in this section, attention turns to how individuals come together to form
groups and teams, and begins laying the foundation for understanding the dynamics of group and
team behavior. Topics at this level also include communication, leadership, power and politics,
and conflict.

A group consists of two or more individuals who come together to achieve a similar goal. Groups
can be formal or informal. A formal group on the one hand is assigned by the organization’s
management and is a component of the organization’s structure. An informal group on the other
hand is not determined by the organization and often forms in response to a need for social
contact. Teams are formal groups that come together to meet a specific group goal.

1. Group Decision-Making: Although many of the decisions made in organizations occur in

groups and teams, such decisions are not necessarily optimal. Groups may have more
complex knowledge and increased perspectives than individuals but may suffer from
conformity pressures or domination by one or two members. Group decision-making has
the potential to be affected by groupthink or group shift. In groupthink, group pressures
to conform to the group norms deter the group from thinking of alternative courses of
action (Janis & Mann, 1977). In the past, researchers attempted to explain the effects of
group discussion on decision-making through the following approaches: group decision
rules, interpersonal comparisons, and informational influence. Myers and Lamm (1976),
however, present a conceptual schema comprised of interpersonal comparisons and
informational influence approaches that focus on attitude development in a more social
context.

2. Elements of Team Performance: OB researchers typically focus on team performance and

especially the factors that make teams most effective. Researchers (e.g., see De Dreu &
Van Vianen, 2001) have organized the critical components of effective teams into three
main categories: context, composition, and process. Context refers to the team’s physical
and psychological environment, and in particular the factors that enable a climate of trust.
Composition refers to the means whereby the abilities of each individual member can best
be most effectively marshaled. Process is maximized when members have a common goal
or are able to reflect and adjust the team plan

3. Communication: In order to build high-performing work teams, communication is

critical, especially if team conflict is to be minimized. Communication serves four main
functions: control, motivation, emotional expression, and information (Scott & Mitchell,
1976). The communication process involves the transfer of meaning from a sender to a
receiver through formal channels established by an organization and informal channels,
created spontaneously and emerging out of individual choice. Communication can flow
downward from managers to subordinates, upward from subordinates to managers, or
between members of the same group. Meaning can be transferred from one person to

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another orally, through writing, or nonverbally through facial expressions and body
movement.

4. Team Conflict: Because of member interdependence, teams are inclined to more conflict
than individual workers. In particular, diversity in individual differences leads to conflict
(Thomas, 1992; Wall & Callister, 1995; see also Cohen & Bailey, 1997). Jehn (1997)
identifies three types of conflict: task, relationship, and process. Process conflict concerns
how task accomplishment should proceed and who is responsible for what; task conflict
focuses on the actual content and goals of the work (Robbins et al., 2014); and relationship
conflict is based on differences in interpersonal relationships. While conflict, and
especially task conflict, does have some positive benefits such as greater innovation
(Tjosvold, 1997), it can also lead to lowered team performance and decreased job
satisfaction, or even turnover. De Dreu and Van Vianen (2001) found that team conflict
can result in one of three responses: (1) collaborating with others to find an acceptable
solution; (2) contending and pushing one member’s perspective on others; or (3) avoiding
and ignoring the problem.

5. Team Effectiveness and Relationship Conflict: Team effectiveness can suffer in particular
from relationship conflict, which may threaten team members’ personal identities and
self-esteem (Pelled, 1995). In this regard, Murnighan and Conlon (1991) studied members
of British string quartets and found that the most successful teams avoided relationship
conflict while collaborating to resolve task conflicts. This may be because relationship
conflict distracts team members from the task, reducing team performance and
functioning. As noted earlier, positive affect is associated with collaboration, cooperation,
and problem resolution, while negative affect tends to be associated with competitive
behaviors, especially during conflict (Rhoades, Arnold, & Jay, 2001).

6. Team Climate and Emotionality: Emotional climate is now recognized as important to

team processes (Ashkanasy & Härtel, 2014), and team climate in general has important
implications for how individuals behave individually and collectively to effect
organizational outcomes. This idea is consistent with Druskat and Wolff’s (2001) notion
that team emotional-intelligence climate can help a team manage both types of conflict
(task and relationship). In Jehn’s (1997) study, she found that emotion was most often
negative during team conflict, and this had a negative effect on performance and
satisfaction regardless of the type of conflict team members were experiencing. High
emotionality, as Jehn calls it, causes team members to lose sight of the work task and
focus instead on the negative affect. Jehn noted, however, that absence of group conflict
might also may block innovative ideas and stifle creativity (Jehn, 1997).

7. Power and Politics: Power and organizational politics can trigger employee conflict, thus
affecting employee wellbeing, job satisfaction, and performance, in turn affecting team
and organizational productivity (Vigoda, 2000). Because power is a function of
dependency, it can often lead to unethical behavior and thus become a source of conflict.
Types of power include formal and personal power. Formal power embodies coercive,
reward, and legitimate power. Coercive power depends on fear. Reward power is the
opposite and occurs when an individual complies because s/he receives positive benefits
from acting in accordance with the person in power. In formal groups and organizations,
the most easily accessed form of power is legitimate because this form comes to be from

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one’s position in the organizational hierarchy (Raven, 1993). Power tactics represent the
means by which those in a position of power translate their power base (formal or
personal) into specific actions.The nine influence tactics that managers use according to
Yukl and Tracey (1992) are (1) rational persuasion, (2) inspirational appeal, (3)
consultation, (4) ingratiation, (5) exchange, (6) personal appeal, (7) coalition, (8)
legitimating, and (9) pressure. Of these tactics, inspirational appeal, consultation, and
rational persuasion were among the strategies most effective in influencing task
commitment.

8. Organizational Politics: Political skill is the ability to use power tactics to influence others
to enhance an individual’s personal objectives. In addition, a politically skilled person is
able to influence another person without being detected (one reason why he or she is
effective). Persons exerting political skill leave a sense of trust and sincerity with the
people they interact with. An individual possessing a high level of political skill must
understand the organizational culture they are exerting influence within in order to make
an impression on his or her target. While some researchers suggest political behavior is a
critical way to understand behavior that occurs in organizations, others simply see it as a
necessary evil of work life (Champoux, 2011). Political behavior focuses on using power
to reach a result and can be viewed as unofficial and unsanctioned behavior (Mintzberg,
1985). Unlike other organizational processes, political behavior involves both power and
influence (Mayes & Allen, 1977). Moreover, because political behavior involves the use
of power to influence others, it can often result in conflict.

9. Organizational Politics, Power, and Ethics: In concluding this section on power and
politics, it is also appropriate to address the dark side, where organizational members who
are persuasive and powerful enough might become prone to abuse standards of equity and
justice and thereby engage in unethical behavior. An employee who takes advantage of
her position of power may use deception, lying, or intimidation to advance her own
interests (Champoux, 2011). When exploring interpersonal injustice, it is important to
consider the intent of the perpetrator, as well as the effect of the perpetrator’s treatment
from the victim’s point of view. Umphress, Simmons, Folger, Ren, and Bobocel (2013)
found in this regard that not only does injustice perceived by the self or coworkers
influence attitudes and behavior within organizations, but injustice also influences
observer reactions both inside and outside of the organization.

The Macro (Organizational) Level of Analysis: The final level of OB derives from research
traditions across three disciplines: organizational psychology, organizational sociology, and
organizational anthropology. Moreover, just as teams and groups are more than the sum of their
individual team members, organizations are also more than the sum of the teams or groups
residing within them. As such, structure, climate, and culture play key roles in shaping and being
shaped by employee attitudes and behaviors, and they ultimately determine organizational
performance and productivity.

1. Organizational Structure: Organizational structure is a sociological phenomenon that

determines the way tasks are formally divided and coordinated within an organization. In

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this regard, jobs are often grouped by the similarity of functions performed, the product
or service produced, or the geographical location. Often, the number of forms of
departmentalization will depend on the size of the organization, with larger organizations
having more forms of departmentalization than others. Organizations are also organized
by the chain of command or the hierarchy of authority that determines the span of control,
or how many employees a manager can efficiently and effectively lead. With efforts to
reduce costs since the global financial crisis of 2009, organizations have tended to adopt
a wider, flatter span of control, where more employees report to one supervisor.

2. The Physical Environment of Work: The topic of organizational structure to discuss, from
a psychological perspective, how the physical work environment shapes employee
attitudes, behaviors, and organizational outcomes. pointed out that the space within which
employees conduct their work is critical to employees’ levels of performance and
productivity. The work environment is likely to be the immediate cause of employee
behavior and performance in organizations.

3. Organizational Climate and Culture: Although organizational structure and the physical
environment are important determinants of employee attitudes and behaviors,
organizational culture and climate lie at the heart of organizational interactions.
Organizational culture derives from an anthropological research tradition, while
organizational climate is based on organizational psychology. Organizational Climate and
its Relation to Organizational Culture

4. Organizational culture creates organizational climate or employees’ shared perceptions

about their organization and work environment. Organizational climate has been found to
facilitate and/or inhibit displays of certain behaviors in one study (Smith-Crowe, Burke,
& Landis, 2003), and overall, organizational climate is often viewed as a surface-level
indicator of the functioning of the employee/organizational environment relationship .For
instance, a more restrictive climate may inhibit individual decision-making in contrast to
a more supportive climate in which the organization may intervene at the individual level
and in which the ability/job performance relationship is supported.

5. Organizational Change: The final topic covered in this article is organizational change.
Organizational culture and climate can both be negatively impacted by organizational
change and, in turn, negatively affect employee wellbeing, attitudes, and performance,
reflecting onto organizational performance. Often, there is great resistance to change, and
the success rate of organizational change initiatives averages at less than 30% .In order to
overcome this resistance, it is important that managers plan ahead for changes and
emphasize education and communication about them. As organizations becoming
increasingly globalized, change has become the norm, and this will continue into the
future.

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Disciplines contributing to OB: Organizational Behavior (OB) is a multidisciplinary field that

draws on various disciplines to understand, predict, and influence human behavior in
organizations. Each contributing discipline offers unique perspectives and insights that help in
comprehensively analyzing and managing organizational issues. Here are the main disciplines that
contribute to OB:

1. Psychology: Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. It contributes
to OB by helping to understand individual behavior, motivation, perception, learning, and
personality within organizational settings.

 Key Contributions:
o Personality and Individual Differences: Understanding how personality traits
influence job performance and satisfaction.
o Motivation Theories: Exploring what drives individuals to achieve goals and how
motivation affects performance.
o Perception and Cognition: Analyzing how individuals perceive their work
environment and how this influences their behavior.
o Learning and Behavior Modification: Applying principles of learning to influence
employee behavior through training and reinforcement.

2. Sociology: Sociology is the study of social behavior, society, and social institutions. It
contributes to OB by providing insights into group dynamics, organizational structure, and social
processes within organizations.

 Key Contributions:
o Group Behavior and Dynamics: Understanding how groups form, develop, and
interact within an organization.
o Social Structure and Roles: Examining how organizational hierarchies, roles, and
social networks influence behavior.
o Organizational Culture: Studying the shared values, norms, and practices that
define an organization’s culture.
o Power and Conflict: Analyzing how power dynamics and conflicts arise and are
managed in organizations.

3. Anthropology: Anthropology is the study of human societies, cultures, and their development.
In OB, it provides insights into organizational culture, cross-cultural differences, and the impact
of globalization on organizational behavior.

 Key Contributions:
o Organizational Culture: Investigating how culture develops within organizations
and its impact on behavior and performance.
o Cross-Cultural Management: Understanding how cultural differences affect
communication, leadership, and teamwork in global organizations.
o Rituals and Symbols: Analyzing how organizational rituals, symbols, and traditions
shape employee behavior and identity.

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4. Social Psychology: Social psychology is the study of how individuals influence and are
influenced by others. It bridges psychology and sociology, contributing to OB by examining
interpersonal relationships, group behavior, and social influence in organizations.

 Key Contributions:
o Group Dynamics: Understanding how groups form, function, and influence
individual behavior.
o Communication and Influence: Studying how communication processes and social
influence affect organizational behavior.
o Leadership: Exploring how leaders influence followers and how leadership styles
affect group performance and satisfaction.

Organizational Behavior is a multidisciplinary field that integrates knowledge from psychology,

sociology, anthropology, political science, economics, social psychology, I/O psychology,
management, and HRM. This interdisciplinary approach provides a comprehensive understanding
of human behavior in organizational settings, enabling practitioners to effectively manage and
influence organizational dynamics.

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