FUNDAMENTALS OF MANAGEMENT & ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
A business develops in course of time with complexities. With increasing complexities managing the business has become a difficult task. The need of existence of management has increased tremendously. Management is essential not only for business concerns but also for banks, schools, colleges, hospitals, hotels, religious bodies, charitable trusts etc. Every business unit has some objectives of its own. These objectives can be achieved with the coordinated efforts of several personnel. The work of a number of persons are properly co-ordinated to achieve the objectives through the process of management is not a matter of pressing a button, pulling a lever, issuing orders, scanning profit and loss statements, promulgating rules and regulations. Rather it is the power to determine what shall happen to the personalities and happiness of entire people, the power to shape the destiny of a nation and of all the nations which make up the world." Peter F. Drucker has stated in his famous book "The Practice of Management" that, "the emergence of management as an essential, a distinct and leading social
institution is a pivotal event in social history. Rarely in human history has a new institution proved indispensable so quickly and even less often as a new institution arrived with so little opposition, so little disturbance and so little controversy?"
Management is a vital aspect of the economic life of man, which is an organised group activity. It is considered as the indispensable institution in the modern social organization marked by scientific thought and technological innovations. One or the other form of management is essential wherever human efforts are to be undertaken collectively to satisfy wants through some productive activity, occupation or profession.
It is management that regulates man's productive activities through coordinated use of material resources. Without the leadership provided by management, the resources of production remain resources and never become production.
Management is the integrating force in all organized activity. Whenever two or more people work together to attain a common objective, they have to coordinate their activities. They also have to organize and utilize their resources in such a way as to optimize the results. Not only in business enterprises where costs and revenues can be ascertained accurately and objectively but also in service organizations such as government, hospitals, schools, clubs, etc., scarce resources including men, machines, materials and money have to be integrated in a productive relationship, and utilized efficiently towards the achievement of their gals. Thus, management is not unique to business organizations but common to all kinds of social organizations.
Management has achieved an enviable importance in recent times. We are all intimately associated with many kinds of organizations, the most omnipresent being the government, the school and the hospital. In fact, more and more of major
social tasks are being organized on an institution basis. Medical care, education, recreation, irrigation, lighting, sanitation, etc., which typically used to be the concern of the individual or the family, are now the domain of large organizations. Although, organizations other than business do not speak of management, they all need management. It is the specific organ of all kinds of organizations since they all need to utilize their limited resources most efficiently and effectively for the achievement of their goals. It is the most vital forces in the successful performance of all kinds of organized social activities.
Importance of management for the development of underdeveloped economies has been recognized during the last one and a half decade. There is a significant gap between the management effectiveness in developed and underdeveloped countries. It is rightly held that development is the function not only of capital, physical and material resources, but also of their optimum utilization. Effective management can produce not only more outputs of goods and services with given resources, but also expand them through better use of science and technology. A higher rate of economic growth can be attained in our country through more efficient and effective management of our business and other social organizations, even with existing physical and financial resources. That is why it is now being increasingly recognized that underdeveloped countries are indeed somewhat inadequately managed countries.
The emergence of management in modern times may be regarded as a significant development as the advancement of modern technology. It has made possible organization of economic activity in giant organizations like the Steel Authority of India and the Life Insurance Corporation of India. It is largely through the achievements of modern management that western countries have reached the stage of mass consumption societies, and it is largely through more effective management of our economic and social institutions that we can improve the quality of life of our people. It is the achievements of business management that
hold the hope for the huge masses in the third world countries that they can banish poverty and achieve for themselves decent standards of living.
CHARACTERISTICS OF MANAGEMENT
Management is a distinct activity having the following salient features:
1. Economic Resource: Management is one of the factors of production together with land, labour and capital. As industrialization increases, the need for managers also increases. Efficient management is the most critical input in the success of any organized group activity as it is the force which assembles and integrates other factors of production, namely, labour, capital and materials. Inputs of labour, capital and materials do not by themselves ensure production, they require the catalyst of management to produce goods and services required by the society. Thus, management is an essential ingredient of an organization.
2. Goal Oriented: Management is a purposeful activity. It coordinates the efforts of workers to achieve the goals of the organization. The success of management is measured by the extent to which the organizational goals areachieved. It is imperative that the organizational goals must be well-defined and properlyunderstood by the management at various levels.
3. Distinct Process: Management is a distinct process consisting of such functions as planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling. These functions are so interwoven that it is not possible to lay down exactly the sequence of various functions or their relative significance.
4. Integrative Force: The essence of management is integration of human and other resources to achieve the desired objectives. All these resources are made available to those who manage. Managers apply knowledge, experience and management principles for getting the results from the workers by the use of non- human resources. Managers also seek to harmonize the individuals' goals with the organizational goals for the smooth working of the organization.
5. System of Authority: Management as a team of managers represents a system of authority, a hierarchy of command and control. Managers at different levels possess varying degree of authority. Generally, as we move down in the managerial hierarchy, the degree of authority gets gradually reduced. Authority enables the managers to perform their functions effectively.
6. Multi-disciplinary Subject: Management has grown as a field of study (i.e. discipline) taking the help of so many other disciplines such as engineering, anthropology, sociology and psychology. Much of the management literature is the result of the association of these disciplines. For instance, productivity orientation drew its inspiration from industrial engineering and human relations orientation from psychology. Similarly, sociology and operations research have also contributed to the development of management science.
7. Universal Application: Management is universal in character. The principles and techniques of management are equally applicable in the fields of business, education, military, government and hospital. Henri Fayol suggested that principles of management would apply more or less in every situation. The principles are working guidelines which are flexible and capable of adaptation to every organization where the efforts of human beings are to be coordinated.
1.4 MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS /PROCESS OF MANAGEMENT
There is enough disagreement among management writers on the classification of managerial functions. Newman and Summer recognize only four functions, namely, organizing, planning, leading and controlling. Henri Fayol identifies five functions of management, viz. planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling. Luther Gulick states seven such functions under the catch word "POSDCORB' which stands for planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting and budgeting. Warren Haynes and Joseph Massie classify management functions into decision-making, organizing, staffing, planning, controlling, communicating and directing. Koontz and O'Donnell divide these functions into planning organizing, staffing, directing and controlling.
For our purpose, we shall designate the following six as the functions of a manager: planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating and controlling.
1. Planning: Planning is the most fundamental and the most pervasive of all management functions. If people working in groups have to perform effectively, they should know in advance what is to be done, what activities they have to perform in order to do what is to be done, and when it is to be done. Planning is concerned with 'what', 'how, and 'when' of performance. It is deciding in the present about the future objectives and the courses of action for their achievement. It thus involves:
(a) determination of long and short-range objectives;
(b) development of strategies and courses of actions to be followed forthe achievement of these objectives; and
(c) formulation of policies, procedures, and rules, etc., for the implementation of strategies, and plans.
The organizational objectives are set by top management in the context of its basic purpose and mission, environmental factors, business forecasts, and available and potential resources. These objectives are both long-range as well as short-range. They are divided into divisional, departmental, sectional and individual objectives or goals. This is followed by the development of strategies and courses of action to be followed at various levels of management and in various segments of the organization. Policies, procedures and rules provide the framework of decision making, and the method and order for the making and implementation of these decisions.
Every manager performs all these planning functions, or contributes to their performance. In some organizations, particularly those which are traditionally managed and the small ones, planning are often not done deliberately and systematically but it is still done. The plans may be in the minds of their managers rather than explicitly and precisely spelt out: they may be fuzzy rather than clear but they are always there. Planning is thus the most basic function of management. It is performed in all kinds of organizations by all managers at all levels of hierarchy.
2. Organizing: Organizing involves identification of activities required for the achievement of enterprise objectives and implementation of plans; grouping of activities into jobs; assignment of these jobs and activities to departments and individuals; delegation of responsibility and authority for performance, and provision for vertical and horizontal coordination of activities. Every manager has
to decide what activities have to be undertaken in his department or section for the achievement of the goals entrusted to him. Having identified the activities, he has to group identical or similar activities in order to make jobs, assign these jobs or groups of activities to his subordinates, delegate authority to them so as to enable them to make decisions and initiate action for undertaking these activities, and provide for coordination between himself and his subordinates, and among his subordinates. Organizing thus involves the following sub-functions:
(a) Identification of activities required for the achievement of objectives and implementation of plans.
(b) Grouping the activities so as to create self-contained jobs.
(c) Assignment of jobs to employees.
(d) Delegation of authority so as to enable them to perform their jobs and tocommand the resources needed for their performance.
(e) Establishment of a network of coordinating relationships.
Organizing process results in a structure of the organization. It comprises organizational positions, accompanying tasks and responsibilities, and a network of roles and authority-responsibility relationships. Organizing is thus the basic process of combining and integrating human, physical and financial resources in productive interrelationships for the achievement of enterprise objectives. It aims at combining employees and interrelated tasks in an orderly manner so that organizational work is performed in a coordinated manner, and all efforts and activities pull together in the direction of organizational goals.
3. Staffing: Staffing is a continuous and vital function of management. After the objectives have been determined, strategies, policies, programmes, procedures and rules formulated for their achievement, activities for the implementation of
strategies, policies, programmes, etc. identified and grouped into jobs, the next logical step in the management process is to procure suitable personnel for manning the jobs. Since the efficiency and effectiveness of an organization significantly depends on the quality of its personnel and since it is one of the primary functions of management to achieve qualified and trained people to fill various positions, staffing has been recognized as a distinct function of management. It comprises several sub-functions:
(a) Manpower planning involving determination of the number and the kind of personnel required.
(b) Recruitment for attracting adequate number of potential employees to seek jobs in the enterprise.
(c) Selection of the most suitable persons for the jobs under consideration.
(d) Placement, induction and orientation.
(e) Transfers, promotions, termination and layoff.
(f) Training and development of employees.
As the importance of human factor in organizational effectiveness is being increasingly recognized, staffing is gaining acceptance as a distinct function of management. It need hardly any emphasize that no organization can ever be better than its people, and managers must perform the staffing function with as much concern as any other function.
4. Directing: Directing is the function of leading the employees to perform efficiently, and contribute their optimum to the achievement of organizational objectives. Jobs assigned to subordinates have to be explained and clarified, they have to be provided guidance in job performance and they are to be motivated to contribute their optimum performance with zeal and enthusiasm. The function of directing thus involves the following sub-functions:
(a) Communication
(b) Motivation
(c) Leadership
5. Coordination: Coordinating is the function of establishing such relationships among various parts of the organization that they all together pull in the direction of organizational objectives. It is thus the process of tying together all the organizational decisions, operations, activities and efforts so as to achieve unity of action for the accomplishment of organizational objectives.
The significance of the coordinating process has been aptly highlighted by Mary Parker Follet. The manager, in her view, should ensure that he has an organization "with all its parts coordinated, so moving together in their closely knit and adjusting activities, so linking, interlocking and interrelation, that they make a working unit, which is not a congeries of separate pieces, but what I have called a functional whole or integrative unity". Coordination, as a management function, involves the following sub-functions:
(a) Clear definition of authority-responsibility relationships
(b) Unity of direction
(c) Unity of command
(d) Effective communication
(e) Effective leadership
6. Controlling: Controlling is the function of ensuring that the divisional, departmental, sectional and individual performances are consistent with the predetermined objectives and goals. Deviations from objectives and plans have to
be identified and investigated, and correction action taken. Deviations from plans and objectives provide feedback to managers, and all other management processes including planning, organizing, staffing, directing and coordinating are continuously reviewed and modified, where necessary.
Controlling implies that objectives, goals and standards of performance exist and are known to employees and their superiors. It also implies a flexible and dynamic organization which will permit changes in objectives, plans, programmes, strategies, policies, organizational design, staffing policies and practices, leadership style, communication system, etc., for it is not uncommon that employee’s failure to achieve predetermined standards is due to defects or shortcomings in any one or more of the above dimensions of management.
Thus, controlling involves the following process:
(a) Measurement of performance against predetermined goals.
(b) Identification of deviations from these goals.
(c) Corrective action to rectify deviations.
It may be pointed out that although management functions have been discussed in a particular sequence-planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating and controlling – they are not performed in a sequential order. Management is an integral process and it is difficult to put its functions neatly in separate boxes. Management functions tend to coalesce, and it sometimes becomes difficult to separate one from the other. For example, when a production manager is discussing work problems with one of his subordinates, it is difficult to say whether he is guiding, developing or communicating, or doing all these things simultaneously. Moreover, managers often perform more than one function simultaneously.
1.5 NATURE OF MANAGEMENT
Management has been conceptualized earlier in this lesson, as the social process by which managers of an enterprise integrate and coordinate its resources for the achievement of common, explicit goals. It has developed into a body of knowledge and a separate identifiable discipline during the past six decades. Practice of management as an art is, of course, as old as the organized human effort for the achievement of common goals. Management has also acquired several characteristics of profession during recent times. Large and medium-sized enterprise in India and elsewhere are managed by professional managers – managers who have little or no share in the ownership of the enterprise and look upon management as a career. The nature of management as a science, as art and as a profession is discussed below:
Management as a Science
Development of management as a science is of recent origin, even though its practice is ages old. Fredrick W. Taylor was the first manager-theorist who made significant contributions to the development of management as a science. He used the scientific methods of analysis, observation and experimentation in the management of production function. A perceptive manager, as he was, he distilled certain fundamental principles and propounded the theory and principles of scientific management. His work was followed by many others including Gantt, Emerson, Fayol, Barnard, etc. During the last few decades, great strides have been made in the development of management as a systematized body of knowledge which can be learnt, taught and researched. It has also provided powerful tools of analysis, prediction and control to practicing managers. The scientific character of management has been particularly strengthened by management scientists who have developed mathematical models of decision making.
Another characteristic of science in management is that it uses the scientific methods of observation, experimentation and laboratory research. Management
principles are firmly based on observed phenomena, and systematic classification and analysis of data. These analyses and study of observed phenomena are used for inferring cause-effect relationships between two or more variables. Generalizations about these relationships result in hypotheses. The hypotheses when tested and found to be true are called principles. These principles when applied to practical situations help the practitioner in describing and analyzing problems, solving problems and predicting the results.
Even though management is a science so far as to possess a systematized body of knowledge and uses scientific methods of research, it is not an exact science like natural sciences. This is simply because management is a social science, and deals with the behaviour of people in organization. Behaviour of people is much more complex and variable than the behaviour of inanimate things such as light or heat. This makes controlled experiments very difficult. As a result, management principles lack the rigour and exactitude which is found in physics and chemistry. In fact, many natural sciences which deal with living phenomena such as botany and medicine are also not exact. Management is a social science like economics or psychology, and has the same limitations which these and other social sciences have. But this does not in any way diminish the value of management as a knowledge and discipline. It has provided powerful tools of analysis, prediction and control to practicing managers and helped them in performing their material tasks more efficiently and effectively.
Management as an art
Just as an engineer uses the science of engineering while building a bridge, a manager uses the knowledge of management theory while performing his managerial functions. Engineering is a science; its application to the solution of practical problems is an art. Similarly, management as a body of knowledge and a discipline is a science; its application to the solution of organizational problems is an art. The practice of management, like the practice of medicine, is firmly
grounded in an identifiable body of concepts, theories and principles. A medical practitioner, who does not base his diagnosis and prescription on the science of medicine, endangers the life of his patient. Similarly, a manager who manages without possessing the knowledge of management creates chaos and jeopardizes the well-being of his organization.
Principles of management like the principles of medicine are used by the practitioner not as rules of thumb but as guides in solving practical problems. It is often said that managerial decision making involves a large element of judgement. This is true too. The raging controversy whether management is a science or an art is fruitless. It is a science as well as an art. Developments in the field of the knowledge of management help in the improvement of its practice; and improvements in the practice of management spur further research and study resulting in further development of management science.
Management as a Profession
We often hear of professionalisation of management in our country. By a professional manager, we generally mean a manager who undertakes management as a career and is not interested in acquiring ownership share in the enterprise which he manages. But, is management a profession in the true sense of the word? or, is management a profession like the professions of law and medicine? According to McFarland a profession possesses the following characteristics: (i) a body of principles, techniques, skills, and specialized knowledge; (ii) formalized methods of acquiring training and experience; (iii) the establishment of a representative organization with professionalisation as its goal; (iv) the formation of ethical codes for the guidance of conduct; and (v) the charging of fees based on the nature of services.
Management is a profession to the extent it fulfils the above conditions. It is a profession in the sense that there is a systematized body of management, and it is distinct, identifiable discipline. It has also developed a vast number of tools and
techniques. But unlike medicine or law, a management degree is not a prerequisite to become a manager. In fact, most managers in India as elsewhere do not have a formal management education. It seems reasonable to assume that at no time in the near future, the possession of a management degree will be a requirement for employment as a career manager.
Management is also a profession in the sense that formalized methods of training is available to those who desire to be managers. We have a number of institutes of management and university departments of management which provide formal education in this field. Training facilities are provided in most companies by their training divisions. A number of organizations such as the Administrative Staff College of India, the Indian Institutes of Management, Management Development Institute, the All India Management Association, and the university departments of management offer a variety of short-term management training programmes.
Management partially fulfils the third characteristic of profession. There are a number of representative organizations of management practitioners almost in all countries such as the All India Management Association in India, the American Management Association in U.S.A., etc. However, none of them have professionalisation of management as its goal.
Management does not fulfill the last two requirements of a profession. There is no ethical code of conduct for managers as for doctors and lawyers. Some individual business organizations, however, try to develop a code of conduct for their own managers but there is no general and uniform code of conduct for all managers. In fact, bribing public officials to gain favours, sabotaging trade unions, manipulating prices and markets are by no means uncommon management practices. Furthermore, managers in general do not seem to adhere to the principle of "service above self". However little regard is paid to the elevation of service over the desire for monetary compensation is evidenced by switching of jobs by
managers. Indeed, such mobile managers are regarded as more progressive and modern than others.
It may be concluded from the above discussion that management is a science, an art as well as a profession. As a social science, management is not as exact as natural sciences, and it is not as fully a profession as medicine and law.
MANAGEMENT VS. ADMINISTRATION
The use of two terms management and administration has been a controversial issue in the management literature. Some writers do not see any difference between the two terms, while others maintain that administration and management are two different functions. Those who held management and administration distinct include Oliver Sheldon, Florence and Tead, Spriegel and Lansburg, etc. According to them, management is a lower-level function and is concerned primarily with the execution of policies laid down by administration. But some English authors like Brech are of the opinion that management is a wider term including administration. This controversy is discussed as under in three heads:
(i) Administration is concerned with the determination of policies and management with the implementation of policies. Thus, administration is a higher level function.
(ii) Management is a generic term and includes administration.
(iii) There is no distinction between the terms management and administrationand they are used interchangeably.
(i) Administration is a Higher Level Function: Oliver Shelden subscribed to the first viewpoint. According to him, "Administration is concerned with the determination of corporate policy, the coordination of finance, production and distribution, the settlement of the compass of the organization and the ultimate control of the executive. Management proper is concerned with the execution of
policy within the limits set up by administration and the employment of the organization in the particular objects before it... Administration determines the organization; management uses it. Administration defines the goals; management strives towards it".
Administration refers to policy-making whereas management refers to execution of policies laid down by administration. This view is held by Tead, Spriegel and Walter. Administration is the phase of business enterprise that concerns itself with the overall determination of institutionalobjectives and the policies unnecessary to be followed in achieving those objectives. Administration is a determinative function; on the other hand, management is an executive function which is primarily concerned with carrying out of the broad policies laid down by the administration. Thus, administration involves broad policy-making and management involves the execution of policies laid down by the administration as shown in Table 1.
Basis
1. Meaning
2. Nature of work
3. Decision Making
4. Status
Table 1: Administration Vs. Management Administration Management
Administration is concerned with
the formulation of objectives, plans and policies of the organization Administration relates to the decision- making. It is a thinking function. Administration determines what is to be done and when it is to be done
Administration refers to higher levels of management
Management means getting the work done through and with others.
Management refers to execution of decisions and is a doing function Management decides whoshall implement the administrativedecisions.
Management is relevant at lower levels in the organization.
(ii) Management is a Generic Term: The second viewpoint regards management as a generic term including administration. According to Brech, "Management is a social process entailing responsibility for the effective and economical planning and regulation of the operation of an enterprise in fulfillment of a given purpose or task. Administration is that part of management which is
concerned with the installation and carrying out of the procedures by which the programme is laid down and communicated and the progress of activities is regulated and checked against plans". Thus, Brech conceives administration as a part of management. Kimball and Kimball also subscribe to this view. According to them administration is a part of management. Administration is concerned with the actual work of executing or carrying out the objectives.
(iii) Management and Administration are Synonymous: The third viewpoint is that there is no distinction between the terms 'management' and 'administration'. Usage also provides no distinction between these terms. The term management is used for higher executive functions like determination of policies, planning, organizing, directing and controlling in the business circles, while the term administration is used for the same set of functions in the Government circles. So there is no difference between these two terms and they are often used interchangeably.
It seems from the above concepts of administration and management that administration is the process of determination of objectives, laying down plans and policies, and ensuring that achievements are in conformity with the objectives. Management is the process of executing the plans and policies for the achievement of the objectives determined by an administration. This distinction seems to be too simplistic and superficial. If we regard chairmen, managing directors and general managers as performing administrative functions, it cannot be said that they perform only planning functions of goal determination, planning and policy formulation, and do not perform other functions such as staffing functions of selection and promotion, or directing functions of leadership, communication and motivation. On the other hand, we cannot say that managers who are responsible for the execution of plans and formulation of plans and policies, etc. do not contribute to the administrative functions of goal determination, and formulation
of plans and policies. In fact, all manages, whether the chief executive or the first line supervisor, are in some way or the other involved in the performance of all the managerial functions. It is, of course, true that those who occupy the higher echelons of organizational hierarchy are involved to a greater extent in goal determination, plans and policy formulation and organizing than those who are at the bottom of the ladder.
1.7 LEVELS OF MANAGEMENT
An enterprise may have different levels of management. Levels of management refer to a line of demarcation between various managerial positions in an enterprise. The levels of management depend upon its size, technical facilities, and the range of production. We generally come across two broad levels of management, viz. (i) administrative management (i.e., the upper level of management) and (ii) operating management (i.e., the lower level of management). Administrative management is concerned with "thinking" functions such as laying down policy, planning and setting up of standards. Operative management is concerned with the "doing" function such as implementation of policies, and directing the operations to attain the objectives of the enterprise.
But in actual practice, it is difficult to draw any clear cut demarcation between thinking function and doing function. Because the basic/fundamental managerial functions are performed by all managers irrespective of their levels or, ranks. For instance, wage and salary director of a company may assist in fixing wages and salary structure as a member of the Board of Directors, but as head of wages and salary department, his job is to see that the decisions are implemented.
The real significance of levels is that they explain authority relationships in an organization. Considering the hierarchy of authority and responsibility, one can identify three levels of management namely:
(i) Top management of a company consists of owners/shareholders, Board of Directors, its Chairman, Managing Director, or the Chief Executive, or the General Manager or Executive Committee having key officers.
(ii) Middle management of a company consists of heads of functional departments viz. Purchase Manager, Production Manager, Marketing Manager, Financial controller, etc. and Divisional and Sectional Officers working under these Functional Heads.
(iii) Lower level or operative management of a company consists of Superintendents, Foremen, Supervisors, etc.
1. Top management: Top management is the ultimate source of authority and it lays down goals, policies and plans for the enterprise. It devotes more time on planning and coordinating functions. It is accountable to the owners of the business of the overall management. It is also described as the policy making group responsible for the overall direction and success of all company activities. The important functions of top management include:
(a) To establish the objectives or goals of the enterprise.
(b) To make policies and frame plans to attain the objectives laid.
(c) To set up an organizational frame work to conduct the operations as perplans.
(d) To assemble the resources of money, men, materials, machines and methods to put the plans into action.
(e) To exercise effective control of the operations.
(f) To provide overall leadership to the enterprise.
2. Middle management: The job of middle management is to implement the policies and plans framed by the top management. It serves as an essential link between the top management and the lower level or operative management. They are responsible to the top management for the functioning of their departments. They devote more time on the organization and motivation functions of management. They provide the guidance and the structure for a purposeful enterprise. Without them the top management's plans and ambitious expectations will not be fruitfully realized. The following are the main functions of middle management:
(a)
(b) the
(c)
(d) the
(e) control.
(f) To motivate personnel to attain higher productivity and to reward them properly.
(g) To cooperate with the other departments for ensuring a smooth functioning of the entire organization.
(h) To collect reports and information on performance in their departments.
(i) To report to top management
To interpret the policies chalked out by top management.
To prepare the organizational set up in their own departments for fulfilling objectives implied in various business policies.
To recruit and select suitable operative and supervisory staff.
To assign activities, duties and responsibilities for timely implementation of plans.
To compile all the instructions and issue them to supervisor under their
(j) To make suitable recommendations to the top management for the better execution of plans and policies.
3. Lower or operative management: It is placed at the bottom of the hierarchy of management, and actual operations are the responsibility of this level of management. It consists of foreman, supervisors, sales officers, accounts officers and so on. They are in direct touch with the rank and file or workers. Their authority and responsibility is limited. They pass on the instructions of the middle management to workers.
They interpret and divide the plans of the management into short-range operating plans. They are also involved in the process of decisions-making. They have to get the work done through the workers. They allot various jobs to the workers, evaluate their performance and report to the middle level management. They are more concerned with direction and control functions of management. They devote more time in the supervision of the workers.
SIGNIFICANCE OF MANAGEMENT
Management is concerned with acquiring maximum prosperity with a minimum effort. Management is essential wherever group efforts are required to be directed towards achievement of common goals. In this management conscious age, the significance of management can hardly be over emphasized. It is said that, anything minus management amounts to nothing. Koontz and O' Donnel have rightly observed "there is no more important area of human activity than management since its task is that of getting things done through others."
The significance of management in business activities is relatively greater. The inputs of labour, capital and raw material never become productive without the catalyst of management. It is now widely recognized that management is an important factor of growth of any country. The following points further highlight the significance of management:
1. Achievements of group goals: Management makes group efforts more effective. The group as a whole cannot realise its objectives unless and until there is mutual co-operation and co-ordination among the members of the group. Management creates team work and team spirit in an organization by developing a
sound organization structure. It brings the human and material resources together and motivates the people for the achievement of the goals of the organization.
2. Optimum utilization of resources: Management always concentrates on achieving the objectives of the enterprise. The available resources of production are put to use in such a way that all sort of wastage and inefficiencies are reduced to a minimum. Workers are motivated to put in their best performance by the inspiring leadership. Managers create and maintain an environment conducive to highest efficiency and performance. Through the optimum use of available resources, management accelerates the process of economic growth.
3. Minimization of cost: In the modern era of intense competition, every business enterprise must minimise the cost of production and distribution. Only those concerns can survive in the market, which can produce goods of better quality at the minimum cost. A study of the principles of management helps in knowing certain techniques used for reducing costs. These techniques are production control, budgetary control, cost control, financial control, material control, etc.
4. Change and growth: A business enterprise operates in a constantly changing environment. Changes in business environment create uncertainties and risk and also produce opportunities for growth. An enterprise has to change and adjust itself in the everchanging environment. Sound management moulds not only the enterprise but also alters the environment itself to ensure the success of the business. Many of the giant business corporations of today had a humble beginning and grew continuously through effective management.
5. Efficient and smooth running of business: Management ensures efficient and smooth running of business, through better planning, sound organization and effective control of the various factors of production.
6. Higher profits: Profits can be enhanced in any enterprise either by increasing the sales revenue or reducing costs. To increase the sales revenue is beyond the control of an enterprise.Management by decreasing costs increases its profits and thus provides opportunities for future growth and development.
7. Provide innovation: Management gives new ideas, imagination and visions to an enterprise.
8. Social benefits: Management is useful not only to the business firms but to the society as a whole. It improves the standard of living of the people through higher production and more efficient use of scarce resources. By establishing cordial relations between different social groups, management promotes peace and prosperity in society.
9. Useful for developing countries: Management has to play a more important role in developing countries, like India. In such countries, the productivity is low and the resources are limited. It has been rightly observed, "There are no under-developed countries. They are only undermanaged ones".
10. Sound organization structure: Management establishes proper organization structure and avoids conflict between the superiors and subordinates. This helps in the development of spirit of cooperation and mutual understanding, and a congenial environment is provided in the organization.
Nudge Theory
Nudge theory was originally developed 21st century by American behavioural economists Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein and they presented this theory is the renowned book ‘Nudge – Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness which was published in 2008.
A nudge refers to principle that small action can influence on the choice of people or the way people behave. It focuses on engaging people by knowing that how people make choices or make decisions.
The Nudge theory encourages indirect techniques to influence the behaviour instead of giving direct instructions. For example, instead of saying that monitoring of diabetes is essential, availability and accessibility of glucometer can be improved which will positively influence human behaviour. Similarly, asking people to join a gym or play a sports in office, create conditions that people start using stairs.
How can Nudge Theory be helpful in Leading Change in an Organization?
As the Nudge theory central idea is to indirectly influence individuals without taking freedom of choice. It discourages any change in behaviour of employees through following strict orders and directions. It is about giving choices and through providing enabling environment and encouragement there will be change in behaviour of employees.
It is not an easy process and it starts with analysing the current behaviour of employees and what are the desired changes in their behaviour. Following are the three actions which are necessary to leading change in organization.
Perception Nudges
These are actions which play around perceptions of organisational behaviour. Individual have different perception of the different situation. So, it is important to have an understanding of employees’ perception of the desired change. This will also give an idea that what are impediments to change and how these can be overcome by influencing perception of employees.
Motivation Nudges
These are actions which are needed to make employees care about a change. There are many forms of motivational nudges and organization can take example of other individual example to show the others that it is the best behaviour and it fits to the idea of change.
Ability and Simplicity Nudges
When change is hard and complex and employees feel it is difficult to adopt changes then simple nudges are needed by organization. These simple and tiny actions will improve employees’ ability to adopt to change.
Key Steps of Nudging for Implementing Change
Defining Change
It is like knowing your destination. If the desired change is clearly defined and articulated among the employees than it is more likely that it will be successfully achieved.
Stakeholder Analysis
It is also necessary to have analysis of how change will be perceived by all stakeholders and how the expected change is going to affect all of these stakeholders. This analysis will provide with change leaders more clarity and better strategy to implement change.
Timeline
Making a rational plan to implement a change is also a part of nudging process. It will also help in identifying what resource will be needed and when these resources will be required to execute the change.
Inclusive Decision Making
It is also essential part of nudging process that those who matter most and those who are affected by the desired change should be involved in decision making process.
Receptive to Feedback
Listening to feedback is a powerful nudging technique. Whether the feedback is coming from employees or it is from customers, it is important to be open about feedback and learn from it.
Remove Bottlenecks
The road of change is full of thorns. The role of change leaders and management is to remove bottlenecks on the way to change. By doing this, change leaders will get support from the employees and all other important stakeholders.
Consistency
Patience is needed to implement change. The change leaders need to keep morale of team high and keep moving consistently. Teams should not show complacency on initial wins and real goal should be remain in focus till it is achieved.
MEANING & CONCEPT OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
CONCEPT OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR
Every field of social science (or even physical science) has a philosophical foundation of the basic concepts that guide its development. In accounting, for example, a fundamental concept is that “for every debit there will be a credit’’. The entire system of double entry accounting was built on this equation, when it replaced single-entry bookkeeping many years ago. In physics, a basic belief is that elements of nature are uniform. The law of gravity operated uniformly in Tokyo and in London, and an atom of hydrogen is identical in Moscow and Washington, D.C., but the same cannot be said about people. Human behavior starts with a set of fundamental concepts revolving around the nature of people and organizations.
The Nature of People
a) Individual Differences :People have much in common (they become excited by an achievement, or they are grieved by the loss of a loved one), but each person in the world is also individually different (and we expect that all who follow will be different). Each one is different from all others, probably in millions of ways, just as each of their fingerprints are different, as far as we know. And these differences are usually substantial rather than meaningless. All people are different. This is a fact supported by science.
The idea of individual differences comes originally from
psychology.From the very birth,each person is unique, and the
individual experiences after birth tend to make people even more different. Individual differences mean that management can get the greatest motivation among employees by rating them differently. If it were for individual’s differences, some standard, across-the-broad way of dealing with employees could be adopted, and minimum judgment would be required thereafter. Individual differences require that a manager’s approach to employees be individual, not statistical. This belief that each person is different from all others is typically called the law of individual difference.
b) Perception : People look at the world and see things differently. People use an organized framework that they have built out of a lifetime of experience and accumulated values. This is another way in which people insist on acting like human beings rather than rational machines.Employees see their world differently for a variety of reasons. They may differ in their personalities, needs, demographic factors, a past experience,or they may find themselves in different physical settings, time periods, or social surroundings. Whatever may be the reasons, they tend to act on the basis of their perceptions.
c) A whole Person : Although some organizations may wish that they could employ only person’s skill or brain, they actually employ a whole person, rather than certain characteristics. Different human traits may be separately studied, but in the final analysis they are all part of one system making up a whole person. Skill doesn’t exist apart from background or knowledge. Home life is not totally separable from work life, and emotional conditions are not separate from physical conditions. People function as total human beings.
d) Motivated Behavior : From psychology, we learn that normal behavior has certain causes. These may relate to a person’s needs and/or the consequences that result from acts.
In the case of needs, people are motivated not by what we think they ought to have but by what they themselves want.
To an outside observer a person’s needs may be unrealistic, but they are still controlling. This fact leaves management with two basic ways to motivate people. It can show them how certain actions will increase their need fulfillment, or it can threaten decreased need fulfillment if they follow an undesirable course of action. Clearly a path toward increased need fulfillment is the better approach.
Desire of Involvement : People wish to feel good about themselves. This is reflected in their drive for self-efficacy, or the belief that one has the necessary capabilities to perform a task, fulfill role expectations, make a meaningful contribution or meet challenging situation successfully. Many employees today are actively seeking opportunities at work to become involved in relevant decisions, thereby contributing their talents and ideas to the organization’s success. They hunger for the chance to share what they know and also to learn from the experience. Organizations need to provide opportunities for making full involvement, which will result in mutual benefit for both parties.
ValueofthePerson(EthicalTreatment)
People deserve to be treated differently from other factors of production (land, capital, technology) because they are of a higher order in the universe. Because of this distinction, they want to be treated with respect and dignity, and increasingly they demand it from employers. They refuse to accept the old idea that they are simply economic tools. They want to be valued for their skills and abilities and to be provided with the opportunities to develop themselves.
This demand for respect and for an opportunity for development suggests strongly that organizations must treat employees in an ethical fashion. More and more firms are recognizing this need and are responding with a variety of programmes to ensure a higher standard of ethical performance. Companies have established codes of ethics, publicized statements of ethical values, rewarded employees for notable ethical behavior, and set up internal procedures to handle misconduct. They have begun to recognize that since organizational behavior always involves people, ethical philosophy is involved in one way or the other in each action they take; human decisions cannot, and should not, be made apart from ethical values.
CONCEPT OF SELF- THEORY
Organizational applications of learning concepts are not restricted to managing the behavior of others. These concepts can also be used to allow individuals to manage their own behavior and in doing so, reduce the need for managerial control. This is called self-management.
Self-theory is composed of perception of the “I” or “me”. The following four factors are included in self-theory:
a) Self-Image : By nature, every person has certain beliefs about whator who he/she is. In other words, self-image is one’s image of oneself.This is how one sees oneself.
b) Ideal-Self : The ideal-self refers to what one would like to look like.The basic line of difference between the self-image and ideal-self is that the former indicates the reality of a person whereas the latter implies the ideality of the person. The latter one i.e., ideal-self stands more important to motivate an individual to behave in a particular manner.
c) Looking Glass Self : This refers to how others perceive the individual. In other words, this means the way an individual thinks people perceive about him and not the way people actually see him. This indicates that one’s belief about self is a reflection of others’ perception about the person.
d) Real Self : The real self is what one actually is. The first three self- concepts relate to an individual’s perception about himself/herself. They may be the same or they may differ from real self.People perceive the same situation differently depending upon theirconception of the situation. This, in turn, influences them to behave differently.
CONCEPT OF ABILITY
It is known that we all are not created as equal; most of us are to the left or to the right of the median on some normally distributed ability curve. For example, regardless of how motivated you are; it’s unlikely that we can act as well as Rani Mukherjee, play cricket as well as Sachin Tendulkar, write as well as J. K. Rowling, or play the guitar as well as Jimmy Hendrix. Of course, just because we aren’t equal in the abilities doesn’t imply that some individuals are inherently inferior to others. What we are acknowledging is that everyone has strengths and weaknesses in terms of ability that make him or her relatively superior or inferior to others in performing certain tasks or activities.
From management’s standpoint, the issue is not whether people differ in terms of their abilities. The issue is how people differ in abilities and using that knowledge to increase the likelihood that an employee will perform his or her job well.
Ability refers to an individual’s capacity to perform the various tasks in a job. It is a current assessment of what one can do. An individual’s overall abilities are essentially made up of two sets of factors: Intellectual ability and Physical ability.
Intellectual Abilities
Intellectual abilities are those needed to perform mental activities-for thinking,reasoning and problem solving. People in most societies place a high value on intelligence and for good reason. Smart people generally earn more money and attain higher levels of education. Smart people are also more likely to emerge as leaders of groups. Intelligence Quotient (IQ) tests, for example are designed to ascertain one’s general intellectual abilities. The popular colleges conduct admission tests such as SAT and ACT and graduate admission tests in business (GMAT),Common Admission Test (CAT), law (LSAT), and medicine (MCAT) to test their intellectual abilities. These testing firms don’t make the argument that their tests assess intelligence, but experts know that they do.
The seven most frequently cited dimensions making up intellectual abilities are number aptitude, verbal comprehension, perceptual speed, inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning, spatial visualization and memory.
Jobs differ in the demands they place on incumbents to use their intellectual abilities. The more complex a job is in terms of information-processing demands, the more general intelligence and verbal abilities will be necessary to perform the job successfully.
Physical Abilities
To the same degree that intellectual abilities play a larger role in complex jobs with demanding information-processing requirements, specific physical abilities gain importance for successfully doing less-skilled and more standardized jobs. For example, jobs in which success demands stamina, manual dexterity, leg strength, or similar talents require management to identify an employee’s physical capabilities.
Research on the requirements needed in hundreds of jobs has identified nine basic abilities involved in the performance of physical tasks. These are described in Table below. Individuals differ in the extent to which they have each of these abilities.
CONCEPT OF LEARNING AND LEARNING THEORIES
Learning occurs when any relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of experience. We can say that, changes in behavior indicate that learning has taken place and that learning is a change in behavior.
Theories of Learning : Three theories have been offered to explain the process by which we acquire patterns of behavior. These are classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning; these can be explained as follows :
a) Classical Conditioning : Classical conditioning grew out of
experiments to teach dogs to salivate in response to the ringing of a bell, conducted in the early 1900s by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov. A simple surgical procedure allowed Pavlov to measure accurately the amount of saliva secreted by a dog. When Pavlov presented the dog with a piece of meat, the dog exhibited a noticeable increase in salivation. When Pavlov withheld the presentation of meat and merely rang a bell, the dog did not salivate. Then Pavlov proceeded to link the meat and the ringing of the bell. After repeatedly hearing the bell before getting the food, the dog began to salivate as soon as the bell rang. After a while, the dog would salivate merely at the sound of the bell, even if no food were offered. In effect, the dog had learned to respond – that is, to salivate – to the bell. Here the meat was an unconditioned stimulus; it invariably caused the dog to react in a specific way. The bell was an artificial stimulus, or conditioned stimulus.
Using these concepts, we can summarize classical conditioning. Essentially, learning a conditioned response involves building up an association between a conditioned stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus. When the stimuli, one compelling and the other one neutral, are paired, the neutral one becomes a conditioned stimulus and, hence, takes on the properties of the unconditioned stimulus.
b) Operant Conditioning : What Pavlov did for classical conditioning, the Harvard psychologist B. F. Skinner did for operant conditioning. Operant conditioning argues that behavior is a function of its consequences. People learn to behave to get something they want or to avoid something they don’t want. Operant behavior means voluntary or learned behavior in contrast to reflexive or unlearned behavior. The tendency to repeat such behavior is influenced by the reinforcement or lack of reinforcement brought about by the consequences of the behavior. Therefore, reinforcement strengthens a behavior and increases the likelihood that it will be repeated.
c) Social Learning : Individuals can also learn by observing what happens to other people and just by being told about something, as well as by direct experiences. So, for example, much of what we have learned comes from watching models – parents, teachers, peers, motion picture and television performers, bosses, and so forth. This view that we can learn through both observation and direct experience is called social learning theory.
MEANING AND DEFINITION OF VALUES
A value is something that has worth or importance to an individual. It contains a judgmental element, in that it carries an individual’s ideas as to what is right, good or desirable. Values contain both content and intensity attributes. The content attribute reveals how important it is. Values are emotionally charged priorities and are passionately defended.
According to Rokeach, “values represent basic conviction that a specific mode of conduct or end state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end state of existence.”
Chakraborty defines values as “the manner in which an individual tends to make judgments or choices, both about goals and means, at different stages of one’s life, in different facets of it, as are deemed to lead to the well-being and happiness of oneself and society.”
From the above definitions one can understand that values are learnt from the society and hence are acceptable to the society as preferred ‘mode of conduct’ or ‘end state’. Values are stable and long-lasting beliefs about what is important in a variety of situations. They are evaluative standards that help us distinguish between right and wrong or good and bad in the world. Values do not represent what we need but they indicate what we ought to do to achieve the need in a socially desirable way. Some people value practicality while others value aesthetics. Some people value frugality while others value generosity.
Value System
The term ‘value system’ implies a ranking of individual values (relating to obedience, freedom, pleasure, self-respect, equality, punishments etc.) according to their importance. The value system is a framework of personal philosophy, which governs and influences the individual’s reactions and responses to various situations. Values are:
Moralisticinnature;
1. Fewer In Number Than Attitudes;2. Mostcentraltoanindividual;
3. Relativelypermanentandresistanttochange;
4. Guide actions and judgments across specific objects orsituations.
Types of Values
Values do not operate in isolation. Several values interact with each other to form a value system in a society. According to Rokeach, the value system is composed of rank-ordered sets of values that fall into two general categories namely terminal values and instrumental values.
○ Instrumental Value: This refers to single belief that as pecific
mode of conducte.g.,courage, honesty, cleanliness is personally and socially preferable in all situations with respect to all objects. It is a tool or means for reaching terminal values.
○ TerminalValue:This Refers to the belief that a particular end- state of existence (e.g., prosperity, world peace, freedom, equality) is personally and socially worth striving for. For example, a person may desire and strive to achieve prosperity (terminal value) by being ambitious and hardworking (instrumental values).
Values can be categorized on the basis of the level at which they operate. These may be:
● Personal values which are formed from past experience and interaction with others.
● Cultural values of which the dominant beliefs are held by a collective society.
● Organizational values which are at the hear to forganizational culture in terms of shared assumptions, values and beliefs.
● Professional values which are held within an occupational group.
Values may also be classified as the espoused values and enacted values. Espoused values represent the values that we want others to believe or abide by. Values are socially desirable and so people create a positive public image by claiming to believe in values that others expect them to hold. Contrary to this, enacted values represent the values actually practiced. These values, in fact, guide our decisions and behaviors.
CONCEPT OF ATTITUDE
Attitudes are evaluative statements. They respond to one's feelings either favorably or unfavorably to persons, objects or/and events. In other words, attitudes reflect how one feels about something. For example, when Professor Kotler says, “I like teaching”, he is expressing his attitude about his work i.e. teaching.
Attitudes can be defined as a persistent tendency to feel and behave in a particular way toward some objects, persons or events.
Attitudes Vs.Values
While attitudes and values are different, there are also some similarities. Both are powerfulinstruments influencing cognitive processes and behavior of people. Both are learned and acquired from the same sources – people and objects. Both are relatively permanent and resistant to change. Both values and attitudes influence each other and are used interchangeably. Hence, values people hold can explain their attitudes and, in many cases, the behaviors they engage in. However, we cannot determine which values underlie which attitudes and behaviors.
In contrast to values, attitudes are less stable. That is why advertising messages attempt to change one’s attitudes toward a certain product or service.
Formation of Attitudes
Attitudes are not inherited. These are acquired or learned by the people from the environment in which they interact. The formation of attitude is broadly classified into two sources: Direct experience and Social learning.
Direct Experience : One’s direct experience with an object or person serves as a powerful source for one’s attitude formation. In other words, attitudes are formed on the basis of one’s past experience in a concerned object or person. For instance, how does one know that he/she likes the subject organization behavior or dislikes financial management? The answer to it is that he/she formed these attitudes from his/her experience in studying the two subjects. Research has shown that attitudes derived from direct experience are more powerful, stronger, and durable and are difficult to change than the attitudes that are formed through indirect experience. This is because of their availability in our cognitive processes.
Social Learning:Theprocessofderivingattitudesfromfamily, peer groups, religious organizations and culture is called social learning. In social learning, an individual acquires attitudes from his/her environment in an indirect manner. Social learning starts from an early age when children derive certain attitudes from their parents. This is often evident from when young children express their policies similar to those held by their parents.
Human behavior starts with a set of fundamental concepts revolving
around the nature of people and organizations. These include individual difference, perception, a whole person, motivated behavior, desire for involvement and value of the person. The self-concepts can be used to allow individuals to manage their own behavior and in doing so, reduce the need for managerial control. Self-theory includes the study of self-image, ideal self, looking glass self and real self.
● Ability refers to an individual’s capacity to perform the various tasks in a job. It is a current assessment of what one can do. An individual’s overall abilities are essentially made up of two sets of factors: intellectual and physical.
● Learning occurs when any relatively permanent change in behavior occurs as a result of experience. We can say that changes in behavior indicate that learning has taken place and that learning is a change in behavior. Three theories have been offered to explain the process by which we acquire patterns of behavior. These areclassical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning.
● The value system is a framework of personal philosophy, which governs and influences the individual’s reactions and responses to various situations. Values people hold can explain their attitudes and, in many cases, the behaviors they engage in. The formation of attitudes is broadly classified into two sources: Direct experience and Social learning.
PERSONALITY
Meaning of Personality
Personality is a set of qualities that make a person (or thing) distinct from another. Personality is the complex of all the attributes– behavioural, temperamental, emotional and mental– that characterize a unique individual.
Personality embodies the totality of somebody’s attitudes, interests, behavioural patterns, emotional responses, social roles, and other individual traits that endure over long periods of time.
Determinants of Personality
Different thinkers have listed different determinants for personality. For example, McClelland has categorized them into four fundamental theories– (i) traits, (ii) schema (iii) motives and (iv) self schema. There are others like Scott and Mitchell, who have classified personality determinants into heredity groups and cultural factors.
1) Heredity Factors : Heredity refers to those factors that are determined at conception. Thus, heredity refers to biological factors. Heredity is the transmission of the qualities from the parents to the children through a biological mechanism lying in the chromosomes of the germ cells. Physical stature, facial attractiveness, temperament, sex, muscle composition and biological rhythms are the examples of heredity characteristics that are generally influenced by one’s parents.
2) Environmental Factors : The environment, i.e., one’s early conditioning, the family norms, friends and social groups exerts pressures on one’s personality formation. Culture establishes the norms, attitudes and values that are passed along from generation to generation. Thus a general consistency is created over time. Evidences are available to believe that the cultural environment in which people are raised plays a major role in shaping personality. For example, in India, children learn from an early age the values of hard work and family closeness. The Indian culture also expects different behaviors from males and females.Home environment generated to a child also exerts important influence in shaping his/her personality ; for example, children brought up in orphanages or in non stimulating house are much more likely to be socially and emotionally maladjusted than their counterparts raised by parents in a warm, lovingand stimulating environment. Research studies have also revealed that parents have effect on the personality development of their children as compared to other members of the family. Besides parents, siblings (brothers and sisters) also influence the shaping of personality. Elders serve as models for the younger.
3) Situation : No doubt, both heredity and environment are the primary determinants of personality, but situation also influences the effects of heredity and environment on personality. In practice, an individual’s personality does change depending on the situation. This is because the different demands of the different situations call for different aspects of one’s personality. As an example, the same person while facing an employment interview and while enjoying picnic with his/ her friends in a public park behaves quite differently depending on the two different situations
FACTORS AFFECTING PERSONALITY
Our personality differentiates us from other people, and understanding someone’s personality gives us clues about how that person is likely to act and feel in a variety of situations. In order to effectively manage organizational behavior, an understanding of different employees’ personalities is helpful.
Having this knowledge is also useful for placing people in jobs and organizations. Having a strong personality is the key to success. This is also a key determinant of good leadership.
A person with a positive attitude can direct his thoughts, control his emotions and regulate his attitude. Every person has a different personality and there are a lot of factors which contribute to that personality. We call them the ‘determinants of personality’or the‘factors of personality’.
● Environmental Factors.
● Physical Factors.
● Situational Factors.
● Hereditary.
● Family and Social Factors.
● Identification Process.
● Cultural Factors.
● Intelligence.
● Sex Differences.
● Psychological Factors.
Environmental Factors
Among the factors that exert pressures on our personality formation are the culture in which we are raised; our early conditioning; the norms among our family, friends, and social groups; and other influences that we experience.
These environmental factors play a substantial role in shaping our personalities.
It establishes the attitudes, values, norms, and perceptions of an individual. Based on the cultures and traditions, different senses of right and wrong are formed in individuals.
These environmental factors also include the neighborhood a person lives in, his school, college, university, workplace, friends, parents; everybody plays a role as the determinants of one’s personality.
Physical Factors
There are many physical factors which will determine a person’s personality. These physical factors include the overall physical structure of a person: his height, weight, color, sex, beauty, body language, etc.
Physical factors are one of the major reasons for that. Most of the physical structures change from time to time, and so does the personality. With exercises, cosmetics, surgeries etc. many physical features are changed, and therefore, the personality of the individual also evolves.
Situational Factors
The situational factors can be commonly observed when a person behaves contrastingly and exhibits different traits and characteristics. In this way, situational factors impact a personality in a significant way.
They often bring out the traits of a person that are not commonly seen. An individual’s personality, although generally stable and consistent, does change in different situations.The different demands of different situations call forth different aspects of one’s personality. So we shouldn’t look at personality patterns in isolation (canon, & Porter, 19&). This aspect is very important for organization behavior because the manager has control over the organizational situation.
Hereditary
Heredity refers to those factors that were determined at conception. Physical structure, facial attractiveness, gender, temperament, muscle composition, and reflexes, energy level, and biological rhythms are characteristics that are generally considered to be either completely or substantially influenced by the parents.
Hereditary predisposes a certain mental, physical and emotional states. It has been established through research that those psychological characteristics can be transmitted through hereditary. However such conclusive proof is not available for human beings.
Family and Social Factors
Family and social groups have the most significant impact on personality development. Parents and other family members have a strong influence on the personality development of the child. Parents have more effect on personality development as compared to other members of the family.
Besides a person’s home environment and family members, there are other influences arising from social factors like- friends, neighbor, relatives, etc. These groups have their impact through socialization and identification process.
Identification Process
The identification process occurs when a person tries to identify himself with some person to whom he feels ideal in the family.
First identification can be viewed as the similarity of behavior between the child and the model.
Second identification can be looked in as the child motives or desires to be like the model.
Third, it can be viewed as the process through which the child actually takes on the attributes of the model.
Cultural Factors
Culture is the underlying determinant of human decision making. It generally determines attitude towards independence, aggression competition, and co-operation. Each culture expects and trains its members to behave in a way that is acceptable to the group
Intelligence
There is definitely some relationship between intelligence and personality. Intelligence is mainly hereditary. Persons who are very intelligent can make a better adjustment in home, school, and society than those persons who are less intelligent.
Sex Differences
Boys are generally more assertive, tough-minded and vigorous. They have better need to succeed with regard to interest and aptitudes. Boys show interest in machinery and outdoor activities. They prefer adventures.
But girls are less vigorous games. They are quieter and interested in personal appearance. They are more injured by personal, emotional and social problems.
Thus sex differences play a vital role in the development of the personality of an individual.
Psychological Factors
Psychological factors play a big role in the functioning of human behavior and the development of one’s personality. Some of the psychological factors are- motives, acquired interests, attitudes, character, intellectual capacities etc.
Beyond the joint influence of these factors however, the relative contribution of each factor to personality varies with the character or personality process involved and perhaps with the individual concerned.
The Big Five Personality Traits
The Big Five personality traits are five broad factors or dimensions of personality discovered through empirical research.
The five factors are Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. They are also referred to as the Five Factor Model (FFM).
The Big Five factors and their constituent traits can be summarized as follows:
● Openness : Appreciation for art,emotion,adventure,unusual ideas, imagination,curiosity, and variety of experience.
● Conscientiousness : Atendency to show self-discipline,act dutifully, and aim for achievement; planned rather than spontaneous behaviour.
● Extroversion : Energy, positive emotions, and the tendency to seek stimulation and the company of others.
● Agreeableness : A tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others.
● Neuroticism : Atendency to experience unpleasant emotions easily, such as anger, anxiety, depression, or vulnerability; sometimes called emotional instability.Thus, trait theory of personality attempts to understand how a set of personality variables affects on one’s behaviour. However, this theory suffers from one lacuna that it is very descriptive rather than analytical. In fact, no hard evidence supports trait theory as a valid measure of personality.
Type theories
Personality type refers to the psychological classification of different types of people. Personality types are distinguished from personality traits, which come in different degrees.
Type A and Type B personality theory: During the 1950s, Meyer Friedman and his co-workers defined what they called Type A and Type B behavior patterns. In this theory, personalities that are more competitive, outgoing, ambitious, impatient and/or aggressive are labeled Type A, while more relaxed personalities are labeled Type B.
1. Social learning theory is a theory of learning and social behavior which proposes that new behaviors can be acquired by observing and imitating others. It states that learning is a cognitive process that takes place in a social context and can occur purely through observation or direct instruction, even in the absence of motor reproduction or direct reinforcement. In addition to the observation of behavior, learning also occurs through the observation of rewards and punishments, a process known as vicarious reinforcement. When a particular behavior is rewarded regularly, it will most likely persist; conversely, if a particular behavior is constantly punished, it will most likely desist. The theory expands on traditional behavioral theories, in which behavior is governed solely by reinforcements, by placing emphasis on the important roles of various internal processes in the learning individual.
CONCEPT OF REINFORCEMENT
Reinforcement is the attempt to develop or strengthen desirable behavior. There are two types of reinforcement in organizational behavior: positive and negative.
Positive reinforcement strengthens and enhances behavior by the presentation of positive reinforcers. There are primary reinforcers and secondary reinforcers. Primary reinforcers satisfy basic biological needs and include food and water. However, primary reinforcers don not always reinforce. For instance, food may not be a reinforcer to someone who has just completed a five course meal. Most behaviors in organizations are influenced by secondary reinforcers. These include such benefits as money, status, grades, trophies and praise from others. These include such benefits as money, status, grades, trophies and praise from others. These become positive reinforcers because of their associations with the primary reinforcers and hence are often called conditioned reinforcers.
It should be noted that an event that functions as a positive reinforce at one time or in one context may have a different effect at another time or in another place. For example, food may serve as a positive reinforcer for a person who is hungry, but not when the person, as stated above, has already a large meal. Clearly, a stimulus that functions as a positive reinforcer for one person may fail to operate in a similar manner for another person.
Within itself, positive reinforcement has several principles.
● The principle of contingent reinforcement states that the reinforcer must be administered only if the desired behavior has occurred. A reinforcer administered when the desired behavior has not been performed becomes ineffective.
● The principle of immediate reinforcement states that the reinforcer will be most effective if administered immediately after the desired behavior has occurred. The more time that elapses after the behavior occurs, the less effective the reinforcer will be.
● The principle of reinforcement size stated that the larger the amount of reinforcement delivered after the desired behavior, the more effect the reinforcer will have on the frequency of the desired behavior. The amount or size of reinforcer is relative. A reinforcer that may be insignificant to one person may be significant to another person. Thus, the size of the reinforcer must be determined in relation both to the behavior and the individual.
● The principle of reinforcement deprivation states that the more a person is deprived of the reinforcer, the greater effect it will have on the future occurrence of the desired behavior. However, if an individual recently has had enough of a reinforcer and is satisfied the reinforcer will have less effect.
In negative reinforcement, an unpleasant event that precedes a behavior is removed when the desired behavior occurs. This procedure increases the likelihood that the desired behavior will occur. Just as there are positive reinforcers, there are the stimuli that strengthen responses that permit an organism to avoid or escape from their presence. Thus, when we perform an action that allows us to escape from a negative reinforcer that is already present or to avoid the threatened application of one, our tendency to perform this action in the future increases. Some negative reinforcers such as intense heat, extreme cold, or electric shock, exert their effects the first time they are encountered, whereas others acquire their impact through repeated association.
We see negative reinforcement in organizations and in personal life. Supervisors apply negative reinforcement when they stop criticizing employees whose poor performance has improved. By withholding the criticism, employees are more likely to repeat behaviors that enhance their performance. Negative reinforcement also occurs when parents give in to their children’s tantrums- especially in public places, such as restaurants and shopping malls. Over time, the parent’s tendency to give in may increase, because doing so stops screaming.
Thus, both positive and negative reinforcement are procedures that strengthen or increase behavior. Positive reinforcement strengthens and increase behavior by the presentation of desirable consequences. Negative reinforcement strengthens and increases behavior by the threat of and the use of an undesirable consequence or the termination or withdrawal of an undesirable consequence.
Negative reinforcement is sometimes confused with punishment, because both use unpleasant stimuli to influence behavior. However, negative reinforcement is used to increase the frequency of a desired behavior, where as punishment is used to decrease the frequency of an undesired behavior.
PERCEPTION
Perceptions vary from person to person. Different people perceive different things about the same situation. But more than that, we assign different meanings to what we perceive. And the meanings might change for a certain person. One might change one’s perspective or simply make things mean something else
The meaning of something will change when we look at it differently. We can look at anything differently and it will have a different meaning.
There is no fixed meaning to anything. We can always change perspectives and change meanings. Why not change them to what we prefer them to be?
In a simple sense, perception means perceiving i.e., giving meaning to the environment around us. It perceives of objects what we are faced with. We can understand the meaning of perception in a better sense if we go through some definition of it given by some behavioural scientists.
According to UdaiPareek and others, “Perception can be defined as the process of receiving, selection, organization, interpreting, checking and reacting to sensory stimuli or data”.
Stephen P Robins defines perception as “a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment”.
Perception is important in the study of OB because people’s behaviouris based on their perception of what reality is, not on reality itself.
Factors Affecting Perception
Factors that influence perception relate to the perceiver, the perceived and the situation. All these factors are of two kinds– (i) Internal (Endogenous) Factors and (ii) External (Exogenous) Factors.
Figure 12.5
1) Internal Factors : These factors reside in the person concerned. These include one’s needs,desire, personality and experience.
i) Needs and Desires : an individual’s perception aboutstimuli is influenced by inter alia, his needs and desires from time to time.
ii) Personality : closely related to needs and desires is the personality of the perceiver, which affects what is attended or perceived in the given situation. As mentioned earlier, research studies suggest that secure individuals tend to understand or perceive others as warm and selfaccepting individuals perceive themselves as liked, wanted and accepted by others.
iii) Experience : experience and knowledge serve as basis for perception. While one’s successful experience enhances his/ her perceptive ability, failure erodes his/ her selfconfidence. Successful experience also helps the perceiver understand stimuli with more accuracy.
2) External Factors : The external factors relate to what is to be perceived and situation. These are size, intensity, frequency, status, etc.
i) Size : the principle of size says that the larger the object,the more is the probability that it 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. The reason is not difficult to seek. The size establishes dominance and enhances perceptual selection.
ii) Intensity : intensity is closely related to size. The intensity principle of attention states that more intense the stimuli, the more likely it is to be perceived. As an example, loud noise or strong odor will be noticed more than a soft sound and weak odor. Following the intensity principle, the superiors may yell at their subordinates to gain attention. Advertisers use intensity to attract and gain the consumer’s attention.
iii) Frequency/Repetition : the repetition principle states that a repeated external stimulus is more attention getting than a single one. It is for this reason that advertisers go for repetitions advertising to gain the customers attention to their product.
Contrast : as per contrast principle, the external stimuli which stand out against the background will receive more attention. For example, plant safety signs with black lettering on a yellow background or while lettering on a red background are more attracting.Status : status held by an individual also influences his/ her perception about things or events. Researchers suggest that people with high status often exert more influence on the perception of an individual as compared to those holding low status.
Movement : the movement principle says that people pay more attention to a moving object than the stationary ones. People will be attracted more by a running train than one standing on the platform.
MOTIVATION
The term ‘motivation’ is derived from the Latin word ‘mover’ which means to move and represent the force that moves people, and causes them to act. So, motivation can be defined as a process of channeling a person’s inner drive so that he wants to accomplish the goals of the organization. Motivation is a behavioral concept by which we try to understand why people behave as they do. A human being is an organic and not a mechanical system. He or she is a self-activated person. The force of motivation lies within our mind. It is a dynamic force, setting a person into motion or action.
In this context, we can discuss some of the definitions of motivation given by management experts. Robert Dubin has defined motivation as “The complex of forces starting and keeping a person at work in an organization” Moreover, Dalton E. Mc Farland said “The concept of motivation is mainly psychological. It relates to those forces operating within the individual employee or subordinate which impel him to act or not to act in certain ways.” On the other hand, Koontz and O’ Donnell define motivation as “Motivation is a general term applying to the entire class of drives, desires, needs, wishes and similar forces”.
Out of the above discussion, it can be understood that motivation is highly individualistic. It is the essence of human behavior. Motivation consists of three parts.They are (a) Motives (b) Motivating factors and c) Attainment of objectives. In an organization motivation implies a planned management process, which stimulates people to work to the best of their capabilities.
IMPORTANCE OF MOTIVATION
Motivation is an important function of management. All managers should induce their employees on the job to extract performance by motivating them. Below, we discuss some important aspects of motivation.
i) Utilisation of human resource : By motivation techniques,management can properly utilize its human resources. This helps the managers to increase the productivity of employees. By virtue of motivation employees can understand organizational culture. Thereby, human resources can be properly utilized.
ii) Use of material resources : By motivating employees of an organization, the material resources can also be used in a proper way which increases organizational efficiency.
iii) Willingness for work : In an organization, there may be some employees who are physically and mentally capable to do work, but may not be willing to work. In such a situation, motivation can create willingness among the employees for work.iv) Good labour relations : Motivation also helps an organization in building up a good labour relation. Therefore motivation becomes beneficial to management and employees. So, motivation can reduce different labor problems such as absenteeism, labor turnover, indiscipline, grievances etc.
v) Develops cooperation : Motivation can build up team spirit. Therefore, motivation makes it possible to increase the collective effort of employees to the organization. So, motivation forms the basis for cooperation to get the best achievement of organization objectives.vi) Improve skill and knowledge : Motivated employees always try to be as efficient as possible and to improve their skill and knowledge. Because, motivated emplyees always resolve to do theirresponsibilities in the best manner.
vii) Boosts Morale : Morale implies the attitude and feelings of employeesabout their work as well as the situation of work. Motivation can improve the attitude and feelings of employees towards work. So, motivation can also improve the morale of employees.
viii) Facilitates change:Research based fact says that Properly Motivated employees are more receptive to accept changes. So, motivation helps the employees to adjust with changing environment.
Sense of belongingness : A proper motivation system can improve the sense of belongingness among the employees. As a result, employees can feel that the organization belongs to them. So, employees become more concerned about the well being of the organization. Achieve organizational objectives : Motivation can be defined as the core of management. By motivation managers directly encourage the employees towards the accomplishment of organizational objectives.
THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
Now, we are aware of the fact that motivating the employees is very important in organizations. But motivating employees is a difficult task for the managers.
Many researches have been carried out on motivation. All of them emphasize that due to complex nature of human being no generalization is possible. On the other hand, all theories are not universally applicable and these are affected by time, place, and circumstances. Various theories of motivation can be classified as below -
MASLOW’S NEED HIERARCHY THEORY
A.H. Maslow has developed the Need Hierarchy Theory for understanding human needs. According to Maslow, human needs tend to follow a basic hierarchical pattern from the most basic needs to the highest level needs. Until the basic needs are fulfilled, person will not try to meet his higher level needs. The theory of Maslow is
based on the needs of the people. He proposed a hierarchy of five types of needs which are mentioned below-
1) Physiological needs :- These are the primary needs of human
beings and relate to the survival of the body. These needs are more or less universal. These are called the needs of the lowest level and they are to be satisfied first for existence and survival. Unless these needs are satisfied to the degree needed for the efficient operation of the body, a person’s activities will be at this level and the other needs will provide him with little motivation. So, this is a powerful motivating force.
i) The physiological needs are -
Food, shelter, clothing, water, air, sleep, sex etc.
ii) Safety or Security needs : These needs come next in the hierarchy. They are concerned with physical and financial security. Man is always worried about security as life is full of uncertainties. So human beings always expect physical security, job security and security of income at all times. In an organization, management can motivate employees by providing security against uncertainties in the form of secured jobs, insurance plansand pension plans.
Examples of safety needs are Protection against deprivation, danger and threat on or off the job e.g. unemployment, protection from physical harm, ill health, old age or any other reason.
iii) Social needs : Man being a social animal is always interested in living in a society or group which loves him most. He wants to give or receive love. These are to be reflected by recognition, conversation, sociability, exchange of feelings and grievances, acceptance and friendship. When social needs become dominant, a person will strive for meaningful relations with others. If the opportunity for association with other people is reduced, men often take vigorous action against the barriers to social intercourse.
Examples of social needs are: affection, love, friendship, acceptance by the group, communication etc.
Esteem or Ego needs : These needs relate to the prestige and respect of the individual and include such things as self- confidence, independence, achievement, competence, knowledge and control.
Satisfation of thse needs produces feelings of self-confidence, prestige, power and control.. The esteem needs can be classified mainly into two types, such as 1) Self -esteem needs 2) Public esteem needs. Self-esteem needs refer to an individual’s feeling that he is doing something worth while, While the public esteem needs refer the image in the eyes of the public like praise, admiration and public appreciation etc.
Examples of esteem needs are: Status, approval, appreciation, freedom from control, recognition, self- respect of others.
v) SelfActualisationneed:Itisalsocalledselfrealisationneeds.This refers to the need to realise specific goals. It is need “to become everything that one is capable of becoming”. According to Maslow “This need might be phrased as the desire to become more and more what one is to become everything that one is capable of becoming.” A musician must make music, a peot must write, a general must win battles, an artist must paint, a teacher must teach if he is to be ultimately happy.
Examples of self actualisation need are : need for self- development, self-actualisation, self-advancement, desire to take on increased responsibilities etc.
ERG THEORY OF MOTIVATION
To bring Maslow’s need hierarchy theory of motivation in synchronization with empirical research, Clayton Alderfer redefined it in his own terms. His rework is called as ERG theory of motivation.
The belonging needs can be important motivating forces on the job. Workers can develop a social support network and a sense of belonging through interac- tions with co-workers. Esteem needs can be satislied by buying a bigger house or car, which contributes to the feeling that we are successful, and through on-the-job rewards such as praise from the boss, an office with a window, or a reserved parking space. To satisly the self-actualization need, employees should
be provided with opportunities for growth and responsibility so that they can ex- ercise their abilities to the utmost. A routine and boring job will not satisfy the self-actualization need, no matter how high the salary.
Maslow's theory has received little research support and is judged to have low scientific validity and applicability. Its complexity makes it difficult to test
empirically. However, the self-actualization concept became popular with man- agers and executives who accepted this high-level need as a potent motivatingforce.
Related to Maslow's needs hierarchy theory is the ERG theory of work motiva- tion developed by Clayton Alderfer. He proposed three basic needs: Existence needs, Relatedness needs, and Growth needs. These needs encompass the needs proposed by Maslow and they can be satisfied within the work environment (Alderfer, 1972).
Existence needs, at the lowest level, are concerned with physical survival and include the needs for food, water, shelter, and physical safety. Organizations can satisfy these needs through pay, fringe benefits, a safe working environment, and job security. Relatedness needs involve interaction with other people and the satisfaction these social relationships bring in terms of emotional support, re- spect, recognition, and belonging. The relatedness needs can be satisfied on the
job by interactions with co-workers and mentors and off the job by family and
friends. Growth needs focus on the self, such as our need for personal growth and
development. These needs can be satisfied by using our skills and abilities to the fullest. Growth needs include Maslow's self-esteem and self-actualization needs. A job can satisfy growth needs if it involves challenge, autonomy, and creativity.
The ERG needs are not arranged in a hierarchy; all the needs can influence us at the same time. Therefore, satisfaction of one set of needs does not automat
cally lead to the emergence of higher needs. However, frustration of the related- ness or growth needs can lead us to revert to the existence needs. Whereas Masiow believed that a person will persevere to satisfy a need, Alderfer sug- gested that a person will give up on that need and refocus attention on a more basic need. For example, if employees cannot find emotional support or recogni- uon on the job (relatedness needs), they may demand higher pay or better health care coverage (existence needs) as compensation for failing to satisfy the other needs.
Maslow suggested that once a need is satisfied, it no longer motivates us. By contrast, Alderfer said that satisfying a need may increase its strength. For exam- ple, if a job provides a great deal of challenge and creativity, our growth needs might become stronger, leading us to seek greater challenges at work.
The ERG theory has considerable empirical research support as well as an intuitive appeal. It is more directly applicable to employee motivation than is Maslow's needs hierarchy theory.
MCCLELLAND’S THEORY OF MOTIVATION
David mcClelland’s Human motivation theory gives a way for identifying people’s motivating drivers. This theory helps one to give praise and feedback, effectively assign suitable tasks and keep people motivated.
Achievement Need
According to McClelland , achievement oriented people are highly motivated to achieve goals in life; they have a high drive for achieving targets and they are performance oriented. Desire to do better, solve problems, master complex problems.
The people who possess achievement motive take moderate risk in their profession. They avoid Low risk and high risk. They avoid low risk because there are few chances of getting acknowledgement for their efforts. And in high risk, they see major part of
the outcome is ‘chance’ than their efforts. Hence, they prefer to take moderate risk where they get acknowledgement. These people tend to work alone or with other successful persons.
The n-Achievement individuals seek accomplishment of realistic but challenging or thoughtprovoking goals, and progress in the job. They feel a strong need for feedback. Sense of accomplishment motivates them.
Charecteristics of Achievement need (n-Achievement) people
People needing achievement display the following behaviors:
● Strive to find solutions of problems
● Has a strong need to set and accomplish challenging and thought provoking goals.
● Self motivated and insists on getting rapid feedback on their performances to asses their progress
● Takes calculated risks to accomplish their goals
● Wants to take challenging job and takes personal responsibility for getting things done
● Wants to feel successful at doing something over which they have control.
● Task centered
● Future oriented
● Prefer to work alone
● Performs to internal standard of excellence
● Take responsibility for results of behaviour
● Set moderate achievement goals
● Prefer to set performance standards for themselves
● Prefer non routine tasks to routine assignments
Affiliation Need
Another motive mentioned in McClelland Need theory of motivation is affiliation motive. According to McClelland, affiliation oriented people like to work in a group and tend to stick to the group norms or work cultural norms. They feel the need to be loved and accepted in the group.
Individuals with a high need for affiliation strive for building and maintaining relationships with people. They value people more than accomplishment of goals and objectives. They are fit for fields such as public relations and human resources where interaction with people and understanding of human resources is highly appreciated.
The n-Affiliation person has a need for friendly relationships and is motivated towards interaction with other people. These people are team players. Individuals having the need for affiliation look for companionship, social acceptance, and satisfying interpersonal relationships.
Characteristics of Affiliation need (n-Affiliation) People People needing affiliation display the following behaviors:
● Take a special interest in work that provides companionship and social acceptance
● Strive for friendship
● Prefer cooperative situations rather than competitive ones
● Desire relationships involving a high degree of mutual understanding
● Doesn't like high risk or uncertainty
● Focuses on "establishing, maintaining, and restoring positive affective relations withothers"
● Want close, warm interpersonal relationships
● Seek the approval of others, especially those about whom they care
● Like other people, want other people to like them, and want to be in the company ofothers
● Prefer work that provides significant personal interaction; they perform well incustomer service and client interaction situations
● Wants to belong to the group
● Will often go along with whatever the rest of the group wants to do
● Individuals with affiliation need do not make the best managers because their desire for social approval and friendship may complicate managerial decision making.
Power Need (n-Pow)
Power motive is the third motive mentioned in David McClelland Need theory of motivation. According to McClelland Power oriented people desire to control others and influence others’ behavior. They want to make an impact on others, influence others, change people or events, and make a difference in life.
Those with a strong power motivation are often divided into two groups: personal and institutional. People with a personal power drive want to control others, while people with an institutional power drive like to organize the efforts of a team to further the company's goals. Those with an institutional power need are usually more desirable as team members. Managers with a high need for institutional power tend to be more effective than those with a high need for personal power.
There are Two ways of expressing the Need for Power
i. Dominance, physical aggression, exploitation- View situations from a win-lose perspective.- Have approach that he / she must win and the other party must lose.
ii. Persuasion and interpersonal influence-Tries to arouse confidence in those he or she wants to influence, clarifies group’s goals and persuades members to achieve those goals, emphasizes group members’ ability to reach goals,tries to develop a competence belief in group members.
McClelland felt this type of power behavior characterized effective leaders in organizations.
Application of McClleland’s Need Theory of MotivationManager should be capable of identifying the need of others.Managers should motivate individuals according to their needs.
Let's take a closer look at how to manage team members who are driven by each of McClelland's three motivators:
Achievement needPeople motivated by ‘achievement’ need prefer challenging, but not unachievable tasks.They work very effectively either alone or with other high achievers. So it’s essential to provide feedback and let them be aware about their triumphs and mistakes as well for further improvement. To satisfy this need in the workplace employees must be able to take on responsibility and set their own goals. They must be given freedom to recognise their achievements and accomplishments.
People with high Achievement need should be given challenging projects. They should be given feedback, appreciation and recognition for their work.
When providing feedback, give achievers a fair and balanced appraisal. They want to know what they are doing right and wrong so that they can improve.
Affiliation need
People motivated by ‘affiliation’ work best in a group environment, so engage them in teamwork rather than asking them to work alone if or whenever possible. This can be achieved in the workplace when employees are encouraged to have strong relationship with one another. To accomplish this organizations can sress bonding activities and strong ‘WE’ culture. As such individuals dislike uncertainty and risk do not assign them task with high risk. While providing feedback, give it personally. People with high affiliation need should be given task in team/group. They should be given feedback in private rather than in front of others.
When providing feedback to these people, be personal. It’s important to give balanced feedback. Start appraisal by emphasizing their good working relationship and your trust in them. Remember that these people often don’t want to stand out, so it might be best to praise them in private rather than in front of others.
Power need
People with a high need for power can work best when they're in command of the situation. Such individuals enjoy competition. They can be proved very effective in negotiations or in situations where the objective is to convince others. While providing feedback, be direct with these team members. Fulfilling the need for power in the workplace means allowing employees to pitch ideas and give inputs that might influence the organization. People with need for power should be allowed to make decisions on their own and ensure that they have some kind of influence. People with high power need should be given leadership roles whenever possible.They should be motivated by offering career development opportunities. Those with high need for power work best when they are in charge because they enjoy competition. They do well with goal oriented projects or tasks.
HERZBERG’S TWO FACTOR THEORY
During the late 1950’s Fredrick Herzberg, a US behavioural scientist (Psychologist) and his associates developed two factor theory of motivation. This theory is also known as Motivaion Maintenance Theory and Motivation Hygiene Theory. According to this theory, work dissatisfaction and satisfaction arise from two different sets of factors. These are motivational factors and Hygiene or maintenance factors. These are described below - Motivational Factors : These factors are mostly related to the job itself.The availability of these factors create a highly motivating situation. On the other hand, absence of these factors does not cause dissatisfaction. According to Herzberg, there are mainly six motivational factors, such as Achievement, Recognition, Advancement, possibility of growth and Responsibility. Motivational factors are the primary cause of job satisfaction. The employer can increase the performance of employees by providing these factors. These factors differ from individual to individual.
Hygiene or Maintenance factors :
Hygiene factors are mostly related to environment outside the job. Though, the availability of hygiene factors do not significantly motivate the employees, yet the absence of these factors cause serious dissatisfaction. These factors are necessary to maintain a reasonable level of satisfaction among the employees. According to Herzberg, various hygiene factors are company policies, and administration, supervision, interpersonal relationships, salary, job security, working conditions, job status, personal life etc.
Process theories
EQUITY THEORY OF MOTIVATION
According to equity theory, it is the perception of equitability and in-equitability. In 1960s, John Adams a workplace and behavioral psychologist introduced the idea of how fairness and equity perceived by an individual at workplace, motivates the individual to give his /her best. This forms the basis of Adam’s Equity theory. Equity theory could be applied to any social situation in which an exchange takes place (e.g. between a man and his wife, between neighbours, between relatives, between club members, and between employee and employer)If people feel fairly or advantageously treated, people are motivated and satisfied. If people feel unfairly treated, disaffection, dissatisfaction and demotivation results. Thus, according to Adams, the focus of the equity theory is on the exchange relationship where individuals give something and expect something in return. For e.g., Equity theory is at play when a person feels that he/she handles more responsibilities at the workplace than Employee X but does not even get paid half of what X gets or When a person feels that he/she gets paid much less than what employee Y gets, but this organization cannot operate without me. In such situations, the employee is comparing his/her input output ratio and is losing motivation in the process.
Equity theory
To understand equity theory we need to understand three terms associated with Equity theory.
The three terms are as follows:
Inputs:
What the individual gives in the exchange relationship is called inputs. Inputs are each person’s contributions to the relational exchange and are viewed as entitling him/her to rewards.
For e.g. Inputs would involve education, intelligence, training, seniority, age, gender, ethnic background, personal appearance, health, spouse’s characteristics, time, effort put in, loyalty, hard work, commitment, ability, adaptability, tolerance, determination, trust in superiors, skill, experience and the like shown by the individual.
Outcomes/ outputs:
Due to the inputs, what the individual receives is called outcomes/ outputs. Outputs are positive and negative consequences that an individual perceives has incurred as a consequence of his/her relationship with another.
Outputs can be tangible in the form of pay / monetary benefits or intangible in form of praise or recognition.
For e.g. Outputs would be job security, esteem, salary, employee benefit, recognition, reputation and sense of achievement, responsibility and praise that an individual gets, satisfying supervision, seniority benefits, fringe benefits, job status, Status symbols, poor working conditions, monotony, fate, and uncertainty
The first two terms i.e. inputs and outputs need to be understood from some point of reference.
Reference person or group:
Reference person can be a co-worker, relative, neighbour, it may even be the person himself/herself in another job or another social role and reference group may be a group of co workers or relatives in the family.
There are three classes of reference groups- other, self and system. ‘Other’ denotes some other employee in the same organization or in a different organization. The ‘other’ person can be a friend, relative, spouse or neighbour as well. ‘Self’ refers to the input output ratio perceived by the person in the past job. ‘System’ refers to the contract between the employer and the employee decided at the time of joining the job.
Some people may have one reference group whereas some others may have more than one reference group. For e.g., incase of pay an employee may compare his/her pay with only one reference group which may be people staying in his/her building or his/her relatives. In case of other welfare benefits received by him/her, he/she may compare the benefits with people in his/her building, people in his/her organization and also his/her relatives.
Referent person may not be the person earning the same salary or doing the same work. For e.g., Comparing the organization’s director’s salary with the work he/she
does is an example of comparison with a referent person not getting the same salary or doing the same work.
As it can be seen from the above figure, Equity theory is about achieving balance between inputs and outputs which is measured against a reference point.
Inequalities would arise if Inputs are less than outputs or if Outputs are less than Inputs. Inequalities may not actually exist but still may be perceived by the person.
State of equality or inequality:
Adams (1965) proposed that, a state of equity exists only when Op/Ip=Oa/Ia. Where O= the sum of all outcomes, I= the sum of all inputs, p=person, a=other and a state of inequity results if Op/Ip>Op/Ip or Op/Ip< Oa/Ia.
Thus, inequity results not only when a person is under-benefited but also when he/she is over benefited.An important issue of the equity theory is the emphasis on the individual’s perception of what exists, even though it may not be real.
Application of Equity theory:
Inequalities in outputs or rewards can result into the individual exhibiting one of the following behaviours:
1. lower levels of job satisfaction
2. loss of motivation
3. deviant workplace behavior
4. low employee morale
The above behaviours shown by the individual can cause performance problems that negatively impact the entire organization. The equity theory does not predict what behaviours would result incase inequality is experienced.
Equity theory proposed that when a state of inequity is perceived by the individual, the individual would experience a state of distress. This distressing state will move individual to take action to restore equity. The greater the inequity, the more distress individuals feel, and the harder they will try to restore equity.
The result of inequity is also tension. If an individual experiences a deficit, an anger results but if he or she receives more than others, a feeling of guilt develops. This anger is usually directed toward other people and institution that caused inequity and sometimes it is self-directed.As seen earlier also, if individual perceives equity at workplace, individual feels motivated.And if individual perceives inequity at workplace, distress is experienced by the individual and individual will try to restore equality through use of equality restoration methods. The restoration of equality happens in two ways- actual restoration and other is psychological restoration. Restoring equity is either actual or psychological. Actual restoration of equity refers to the behaviour of the individuals who feel injustice to work less (decrease inputs), to demand a raise from their company (increase outputs) or destroy company equipment (decrease companyoutcome). Psychological restoration of equity refers to convincing one’s self that this inequitable relationship is somewhat equitable by distorting reality (Adams, 1965).
Because of that, Adams (1965) theorized, perceived inequity results in individual feel unpleasant and encourages people to move in the direction of reducing it, and the strength of motivation to do so will vary directly with the magnitude of inequity experienced. As a result Adams proposed several methods called “methods of inequityreduction” or “equity restoration methods”. The “equity restoration methods” adopted by an employee may result in a state of satisfaction for the employee but may not be be favourable for the organization.
Inequality reduction methodsPerson altering his inputs:
In the case of felt inequity, a person may increase or decrease his inputs depending on whether the inequity is advantageous or disadvantageous. A person may view his or her outputs less than others resulting in decreasing inputs by the person. Similarly a person may view his or her outputs more than others resulting in increasing inputs by the person.
Inputs in the form of educational qualifications, skills, time, efforts, dedication and commitment can be altered but inputs in the form of gender, race, caste which the individual perceives as inputs cannot be altered.
For e.g., If X feels his/her outputs are less than Y’s outputs, which is because his/her inputs in the form of educational qualifications and ICT skills are less than Y, then X may try to acquire higher educational qualifications and upgrade his/her ICT skills so as to restore the balance of inputs and outputs.
Similarly, if X feels his/her outputs are more than Y’s outputs, inspite of X not showing the same commitment at workplace as that of Y, then X may try to show more commitment at workplace by taking on additional responsibilities so as to restore the balance of inputs and outputs.
Person altering his outputs:
A person may change his outcome either by increasing or decreasing them depending on whether the equity is advantageous or disadvantageous.
A person may view his or her inputs less than others resulting in decreasing outputs by the person. Similarly, a person may view his or her inputs more than others resulting in increasing outputs by the person.
For e.g., If A feels that his/her inputs are less than B’s inputs because A’s inputs in the form of time spend at workplace and efforts put are less than B’s, inspite of the same salary, A may decrease his/her output by not asking for travel benefits which A is entitled to.
Likewise, if A perceive that his/her inputs are more than Y’s inputs, which is because A’s inputs in the form of time put in at workplace and efforts put in are more, A will try to increase his/her output by convincing the boss or management to give a salary raise or other monetary benefits so as to restore the balance of inputs and outputs.
Person altering Perceptions of Self:
A person may cognitively vary perceptions of self by convincing oneself that balance is achieved by distorting reality. If a person feels others get less output, then the person may convince self that he or she deserves the same.
Person altering Perceptions of Others:
A person may cognitively vary his perceptions of others. If a person feel others get more outputs then the person may convince self that others deserve the same.
Change the situation:
If the person who perceives inequality cannot alter inputs, outputs, perceptions of self and others, than there are chances the person might quit his or her job, obtain a transfer, or increased cases of absenteeism are seen.
For e.g., If C perceives inequality in an organization, where he/she feels other employees are not as committed and motivated at workplace as C, then C would change the situation by asking a transfer to other branch of same organization or some other organization to restore the input output ratio
Change Comparisons:
It is possible mentally to switch from one reference group or person to another, while still remaining physically in the same primary exchange relationship. In this method of equality restoration, person may change “the comparison other” with whom he or she compares himself or herself when he or she experiences inequality. This would reduce the severance of inequity.For e.g., If D perceives inequality as his comparison is with the referent group of people staying in his building who gets better pay than D, then D may change the referent group by comparing his pay with his relatives who get paid equal or less than D and restore the severity of felt inequality.
To conclude, Adams proposed this theory in particular on how employees would behave in response to situations when they are treated less or more justly in comparison to others. As per the equity theory, the head or management of the organization must work to eliminate or minimize inequality when rewards or outputs are being allocated. When a balance is achieved between inputs and outputs, it is believed that employees will be more satisfied and willing to work towards higher levels of productivity or else dissatisfaction results which would harm the organization’s productivity if left unattended.
EXPECTANCY THEORY – VICTOR VROOM; 1964
In organizational behavior study, expectancy theory is a motivation theory first proposed by Victor Vroom of the Yale School of Management in 1964.
The expectancy theory says that individuals have different sets of goals and can be motivated if they have certain expectations. This theory is about choice, it explains the processes that an individual undergoes to make choices. Motivation, according to Vroom, boils down to the decision of how much effort to apply in a specific task situation. This choice is based on a two-stage sequence of expectations (effort leads to performance and performance leads to a specific outcome/reward).
First, motivation is affected by an individual’s expectation that a certain level of effort will produce the intended performance goal. For example, if you do not believe increasing the amount of time you spend studying will significantly raise your grade on an exam, you probably will not study any harder than usual. Motivation also is influenced by the employee’s perceived chances of getting various outcomes as a result of accomplishing his or her performance goal. Finally, individuals are motivated to the extent that they value the outcomes (i.e. rewards) received.
Vroom used a mathematical equation to integrate these concepts into a predictive model of motivational force or strength. For our purposes, however, it is sufficient to define and explain the three key concepts within Vroom’s model—expectancy, instrumentality, and valence.
Expectancy Theory Expectations:-
There is a positive correlation between efforts and performance,
Favourable performance will result in a desirable reward,
The reward will satisfy an important need and the desire to satisfy the need is strong enoughto make the effort worthwhile.
Vroom’s Expectancy Theory is based upon the following three beliefs.
EXPECTANCY THEORY BELIEFS
1. Valence. Refers to the emotional orientations which people hold with respect to outcomes [rewards]. The depth of the want of an employee for extrinsic [money, promotion, free time, benefits] or intrinsic [satisfaction] rewards. Management must discover what employees appreciate.
2. Expectancy. Employees have different expectations and levels of confidence about what they are capable of doing. Management must discover what resources, training, or supervision the employees need.
3. Instrumentality. The perception of employees whether they will actually receive what they desire, even if it has been promised by a manager. Management must ensure that promises of rewards are fulfilled and that employees are aware of that.Vroom suggests that an employee’s beliefs about Expectancy, Instrumentality, and Valence interact psychologically to create a motivational force, such that the employee will act in a way that brings pleasure and avoids pain.
How to Apply this Theory to the Workplace
As a manager, it is important to recognise that individuals have different sets of goals and expectations and therefore must be motivated according to their personal preferences and choices.
The key to applying this theory in the workplace therefore, is to gain a true understanding of individual’s expectations in relation to the following:-
Valence - What is most attractive in motivating them as an individual? - is it intrinsic motivation (such as a simple thank you or personal sense of achievement) or extrinsic motivation (such as a gift card or box of chocolates)? By understanding and appreciating what motivates individuals will help you to tailor the right kind of reward that will be most desirable/valuable to them personally.
Performance - Is it their expectation that a certain level of effort will produce the intended performance goal? If not, what’s holding them back? Are they lacking in the right skills, resources and technical ability to meet the goal? Or are they capable but simply not bothered? By understanding their view, you can work on putting into place the appropriate training, coaching or supervision, or indeed have a chat about why they feel negative about achievement of the goal, in order to help change their views.
Instrumentality – What are the individual’s perceived chances of achieving the goal/s set? Is their expectation that they can achieve the goals, even though they may be challenging/stretching, or do they see them as unrealistic? By understanding this, you can work on agreeing how their goals/objectives can be achieved or indeed modify the goals as appropriate. In addition, do they believe that they will actually receive a reward that they most desire? You can help with this by explaining at the outset what they can expect as a reward so the individual is aware of what the outcome will be and ensure you stick to your promises. Reminders of this whilst they are working towards the goal is a great way to maintain focus, increase personal motivation and support achievement of the goal.
Managing Expectations - In carryout out the above actions you must also be aware of the following:-
○ Make sure you understand the financial/budgetary constraints in your organization and be realistic with potential reward types – if monetary rewards are not going to be possible, then extrinsic reward expectations need managing – maybe get your employees to come up with suitable alternatives.
○ The offer of increased accountability/promotions as a reward might be a problem with workers who know that higher positions mean more hours and weekend work for example – so make sure individuals are aware of the implications of possible rewards so their expectations are not mismanaged!
○ Always ensure that you connect effort and performance with reward –remember the three components are linked. Never speak of work without linking it obviously and immediately with the rewards involved. This is central to the Expectancy Theory working and being a success.
LEADERSHIP
In an organization, human resources are the most precious resource. So, the capacity of human resources should be used to the utmost level so that an organization can show its excellence in every aspect. It depends upon the management of the organization. They can get the optimal result from those human resources by winning their support. However, it is possible when a manager becomes their leader in a real sense to influence their behavior in the desired direction. Here, we can take the example of a cricket team. In the team, out of a total eleven players one member is selected as the captain and he leads the team i.e. the leader. To win a cricket match, it is totally dependent upon the efficiency of the captain as a leader. It is believed that under the guidance of an efficient leader the team is sure and certain to win the match. In this unit, we will discuss leadership and the qualities that a leader should possess to influence his subordinates and to provide them with guidance. In this unit, we will cover the importance of leadership in achieving the desired objectives and goals in an organization. Moreover, we will discuss the three different styles of leadership and Likert’s management system.
MEANING OF LEADERSHIP
Meaning of Leadership : Leadership is a part of management and one of the most significant elements of direction. Being a leader, the manager must lead his subordinates and inspire them to achieve organizational goals. Leadership is an abstract quality in a man and a psychological process through which a leader tries to influence the behavior of followers to work willingly and enthusiastically for achieving predetermined goals. Thus, leadership acts as a driving force to get the things done by others. Management can get the result from the human beings of an organization in two ways:
l Firstly,by exercising the authority vested in it.
l Secondly,by winning the support of the people.
Out of these, the second method is the better one as it has a lasting effect over the employee’s motivation in an organization. Thus it is seen that the essence of leadership is “followership” because willing followers can alone make a person “leader”. An executive has to earn followers. An executive may get subordinates due to his positional authority, but unable to get a follower unless he makes the people to follow him.
The word ‘Psychological’ has been derived from the word ‘Psychology’. It is the study of human mind. It is related with human emotion, cognition, behavior and the interaction among them.
Now, let us discuss some of the definitions of leadership given by management experts-
According to Chester Bernard, “Leadership is the quality of behavior of individuals whereby they guide people or their activities in organizing efforts”. From this definition, it is seen that a leader interprets the objectives of the people working under him and guides them towards the accomplishment of those objectives.
In the words of Koontz and O’ Donell, “ Leadership is the ability of a manager to induce subordinates to work with zeal and confidence”. This definition reflects that the primary job of a leader is to build a team for the achievement of organizational goals.
Tennenbaum et al have defined leadership as follows:
“Leadership is the interpersonal influence exercised in a situation and directed through the communication process, towards the attainment of a specific goal or goals”. This definition emphasizes on the influencing of people through communication. However, the enthusiasm with which the receiver of the communication will act is hidden here.
A more recent definition of leadership is as follows:
“Leadership is the process of influencing and supporting others to work enthusiastically towards achieving objectives”.
Features of Leadership :
The various features of leadership are as follows:-
● It is a continuous process of influencing the follower’s behavior rather than one-shot activity.
● It is a personal quality of character and behavior in man which makes him fit to exert an interpersonal influence.
● There should be a group of followers for leadership functions.
It is the relationship between a leader and his followers (individuals and/or groups) which arises out of their functioning for common goals. Laying down objectives and policies for the followers, motivating them and coordinating their efforts to accomplish the objectives all come under the umbrella of leadership.
The style of leadership may differ from situation to situation.
It includes the ability to persuade others and to motivate them to work objectively to accomplish certain specific goals. Itisnecessarytoguidethefollowersinattainingcommongoals.While giving guidance, the leader shows his feelings of recognition for the followers as well as conveys them the importance of their works. Itisaprocessthroughwhichtheleaderexercisesaninfluenceonthe members of a group.
IMPORTANCE OF LEADERSHIP
Leadership is a process of influencing the behavior of members of a group. Thus effective leadership is highly essential in inspiring the people to accomplish the specified objectives. When you recall the history of success, you will recognize whether in a war, a political movement, a business, or a team game, the success can be attributed largely to leadership.
Here, we are more concerned about manager as a leader. For efficient and effective functioning of an organization, it needs the guidance of a good leader, since an organization is deliberately created by human beings for certain specified objectives. So, there is a need to direct the activities of its members in a certain way to achieve the specified objectives in time. Otherwise any departure from this way will lead to inefficiency in the organization. Direction of activities in the organization is affected by the leader.
According to P.F. Drucker, “Good leadership is a must for the success of a business but business leaders are the scarcest resources of any enterprise.”
John G. Gloves, in his book, Fundamentals of Professional Management, states that “more failures of business concerns are attributable to poor leadership than any other cause.”
All these management expert emphasize the importance of leadership in achieving the organizational goals. The importance of Leadership in management will be clear if the following functions performed by the leaders are known:
● Determination Goals;As Creative Function,aleaderlaysdown
● the goals and policies for his followers.
● Organisation Activities:A Good Leader Divides The Organizational
● activities among the employees in a systematic way to reduce the
● chances of conflict between them.
● Accomplishing coordination: A leader accomplishes the
● organizational goals by directing and unifying the efforts of all the
● individuals of a group.
● Providing Guidance:Agoodleaderbesidesguidinghissub-ordinates
● provides advice whenever they face any problem.
● Building employee’s morale : A good leader is a source of developing
● employee’s morale, which in turn ensures high productivity and stability
● in the organization.
● Facilitating change: Dynamic leadership is the corner stone of
● organizational change. A dynamic leader can facilitate change, as he is able to overcome the resistance which comes in the way of change.
● Motivating employees:Motivation is an essential factor for Influencing the work performance of employees. Higher the motivation, better would be the performance. A good leader motivates the employees to perform high to accomplish the organizational goals. Good leadership in the organization itself is a motivating factor for the individuals.
QUALITIES OF A GOOD LEADER
A leader to be effective must possess the following basic qualities:
l Intelligence : Intelligence means the capacity of thought and reasoning especially to a high degree. Though intelligence is a natural quality of an individual [i.e inherent in nature, but it is the claim of many psychologists that the level of Intelligence can be increased in an
individual through various training methods.
l Initiative and creative ability: At the time of uncertainty, a leader
must function in an orderly and purposeful manner to overcome the hurdles. People also look to the leader during the times of uncertainty and unfamiliarity with hope.
l Power of judgment : A good leader should have the ability to judge a thing analytically. Keeping the main goals or objectives in focus, he is able to break down the whole situation into manageable sub parts for closer inspection. Thus, a good leader makes a progress towards the main goals of an organization.
l Vision and fore sight : A successful leader should have The Capability to assess the future environment along with its trends. And accordingly he devises his policies and programmes with foresight based on logical programmes.
l Mental and emotional maturity : A leader should have a high level of emotional and mental stability. He should not be biased in any situation. He should show consistency in action and be able to refrain from anger. He must have the capacity to adjust in all situations importantly at the time of troublesome or difficulty.
Flexibility: According to the need under different circumstances, leadership styles varies giving rise to three different types namely Autocratic, Democratic and Free-rein leadership style.
l Technical competence: The leader must follow some definite principles for getting success while leading the people. “Technical competence” of Leadership means the use of important abilities of a leader for handling certain functions of management like planning, organizing , analyzing, advising , decision making, controlling and winning cooperation etc. The technical competence of leader may help him in winning his follower’s support.
l Self confidence: To be a good leader, a person must be first self- confident who can lead and set direction in the desired way. Such a confident leader becomes a source of inspiration and confidence for others. Thus, the confidence of a leader helps him to draw out the trust and best efforts of the team members to complete the tasks well.
l Human relations attitude: A successful leader should have an adequate knowledge of human relations that means the way of dealing with human beings. Since an important job of a leader is to get people’s voluntary and full cooperation for achieving the set goal, so he must try to get an intimate knowledge of people and their relationship to each other. The knowledge of human behaviour and their reaction to various situations is quite meaningful to a leader.
SUCCESSFUL LEADERSHIP VS EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP
The way through which a manager always tries to influence the behaviour of the subordinates is known as “leadership”. In practical situation, the subordinate may come up to the expectations of the leader or not. If the leader succeeds in this, that means, the behaviour of the subordinate is compatible with the expectations of the leader, then it may be due to two reasons:-
(i) impact of leader’s appropriate style; or
(ii) because of the position power of the leader;
In the first case, the leader is effective because he has influenced the behaviour of the subordinates to accomplish the organisational goals by satisfying their personal needs via or during the process of goals accomplishment. In the second case, the leader is successful but he is not effective because he has received the desired response from the subordinates but by using his positional authority.
Successful leadership and effective leadership are the two different modes of leadership and thus depend on different factors. Like, success of leaders is attributed to position, power and close supervision while effectiveness of leadership is due to personal power and general supervision.
Though the position can be delegated downward in the organization, but the personal power cannot be delegated. Rather it is generated upward from below through acceptance of the leadership style of a leader by his subordinates
Thus, a manager can be successful but ineffective. It means that he has only a short-run influence over the behaviour of others but unable to continue with the same influence for a longer period of time. On the contrary, a successful and effective manager is an ideal person, who has a long run influence on the productivity of his subordinates.
THEORIES OF LEADERSHIP
In influencing the people in the organization towards the goals of the organization, there have been various approaches adopted by different set of leaders, as one model may not be suitable for different organizations with different set of objectives. Moreover, such models or theories of leadership also depend on the qualities that a leader inherit or display in managing her/his team. Some of the theories of leadership ranging from conventional theories to contemporary theories have been dealt with over here, the chief of them being the following:
● Great Man Theory/Trait Theory
● Behavioural Theories
● Transactional Theory of Leadership
● Transformational Theory of Leadership
Great Man Theory/Trait Theory of LeadershipSome of the leaders in the history have always been identified as strong leaders based on the qualities or traits that they display. Leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher, Nelson Mandela, Narayana Murthy of Infosys, Apple‟s Cofounder Steve Jobs etc. has been identified, based on the traits that they displayed. For instance, when Margaret Thatcher was the prime minister of the Great Britain, she was regularly described as a confident, iron-willed, determined and decisive leader. Thus, the trait theories of leadership consider personal qualities and characteristics that differentiate leaders from non-leaders (Robbins, Judge, & Sanghi, 2007).
In the beginning, the assumption behind trait theory was that „leaders are born and not made‟.
This concept was popularly known as the „Great Man Theory‟ of leadership. The great man theory was originally proposed by Thomas Carlyle in 1949 and the assumption behind this theory is that „great leaders will arise, when there is great need‟. The theory also assumes that a leader cannot be a normal person and they are different from the average person in terms of personality traits such as intelligence, perseverance and ambition. However, a proposition of „Great Woman‟ finds no place, especially in leadership studies mainly due to the fact that gender issues were out of context, when the theory was proposed and moreover, it was only male members of the society who were into such research and such biasness was hardly realized by the people then.
A comprehensive review of the leadership literature on traits, reveal that one of the significant approach that was developed was the Big Five Personality Framework. Though various traits were identified by different studies, it was possible that such traits were somehow clubbed or subsumed under the Big Five approach. Though the approach seems to be complex, it offers useful insights. Leaders who are extraverted (individuals who like being around people and are able to assert themselves), conscientious (individuals who are disciplined and keep commitments they make), and open (individuals who are creative and flexible) do seem to have an advantage when it comes to leadership, suggesting that good leaders do have key traits in common.
Behavioral Theories
In the 1940s, apart from the research studies being conducted on the traits displayed by leaders, research was also conducted on the behaviors exhibited by leaders. The first and foremost study on leadership was carried out by psychologist, Kurt Lewin and his associates in 1939 and identified different styles of leadership, viz. autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire leadership, which has been discussed in the next unit. While the assumption behind traits theory is that „leaders are born, rather than made‟, behavioural theories assume that specific behavioural patterns of leaders can be acquired through learning and experience. While the trait theory concentrates on „what the leaders are‟, the behavioural theories concentrate on „what the leaders do‟. In this section, four different behavioural pattern of leadership has been dealt with, which are as follows:
(1) Ohio State Studies
One of the foremost studies that emanated on behavioural theories was the study made by Ohio State University in 1945 by E.A. Fleishman, E.F. Harris and H.E. Burtt. The study narrowed the leadership behaviours into two categories, viz. initiating structure and consideration, under which the various leadership behaviours were clubbed.
(i) Initiating Structure: Initiating structure refers to the extent to which a leader is likely to define and structure his or her role and those of employees in the search for goal attainment. It includes behaviour that attempts to organize work, work relationships, and goals. A leader with initiating structure is generally task oriented, with focus on performance of employees and meeting of deadlines.
(ii) Consideration: As per „consideration‟ category, a leader pays more attention to the employee of the organization rather than the task and shows concern for the well-being, comfort and satisfaction of employees. That is, a leader focuses on the relationships that are characterised by mutual trust, respect for employees‟ ideas, and regard for their feelings.
The two-factor conceptualization of Ohio Studies has been gaining wide recognition in recent times.
(2) University of Michigan Studies
Similar to the Ohio State University studies, research on leadership studies was also carried out by the University of Michigan‟s Research centres, in 1946 by Rensis Likert and his associates. The study made an analysis of the relationship between leadership behaviours and organizational performances. Michigan Studies also identified a two- factor component, viz. „employee-oriented leader‟ and „production-oriented leader‟.
(i) Employee-Oriented Leader: The concern of the employee-oriented leaders were more on the interpersonal relations with the employees and such leaders paid more attention on the needs of the employees and accepted the individual differences among members.
(ii) Production-Oriented Leader: The production oriented-leaders paid attention to the technical aspects of the job or the tasks assigned to the employees, rather than on employees. Such leaders gave least importance to the group members, and regarded the employees as only a means to achieve the ends, that is, the goals of an organization.
It can be found that the two-factor conceptualization of the Ohio study is similar to the two way dimension of the Michigan studies. While the employee-oriented leadership can be compared with the „consideration‟ component of Ohio studies, production-oriented leadership can be compared with „initiating structure‟. While the Ohio studies considered both its components to be important for effective leadership, the Michigan studies gave supremacy to the component of „employee-orientation‟ over „production-orientation‟
(3) The Managerial Grid
Like the Ohio State studies and Michigan studies, the Managerial Grid theory of leadership was also based on the styles of „concern for people‟ and „concern for production‟. The ManagerialGrid theory of leadership was proposed by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton in 1964. This theory which is depicted in a graphical form is also known as the „Leadership Grid Theory‟.
This theory, thus offers a useful framework for conceptualizing and understanding the leadership styles.
Though behavioural theories make its contribution in understanding leadership effectiveness, it cannot be considered as the utmost option, to determine the success of leadership. In other words, it cannot be said with utmost clarity that a leader depicting a certain kind of leadership traits and behaviours are always successful. At times, the situational contexts play a strong role in determining the effectiveness of leaders.
Contingency/Situational Theories
Sometimes the success of a leader does not depend upon the qualities, traits and behaviour of a leader alone. The context in which a leader exhibits her/his skills, traits and behaviour matters, because same style of functioning may not be suitable for different situations. Thus the effectiveness of leadership also depends upon situations. Several research studies, when analyzing the reason for inconsistent results in differing conditions with the same leadership style, laid their focus on situational variables. This theory views leadership in terms of a dynamic interaction between a number of situational variables like the leader, the followers, the task situation, the environment, etc. Some of the noteworthy studies on situational contexts that gained wide recognition include Fiedler‟s model, Hersey and Blanchard‟s Situational theory, LeaderMember Exchange theory, Path-Goal theory and Leader-Participation model, which has been discussed over here.
Fiedler Model
Fred Fiedler was the first person to develop a comprehensive model for the contingency theory of leadership in 1967. The basic premise behind this theory is that, effective performance of an organization or a group of people in an organization highly depend upon the style adopted by a leader and the degree to which a situation gives control to the leader.
In order to assess the style followed by a leader, Fiedler developed „Least-Preferred Coworker‟ (LPC) scale, in which the leaders were asked to give their preference on the employee with whom they have least preference to work with. If the least preferred co-worker was described in favourable terms, such response was rated as ‘relationship- oriented’ and if rated in unfavourable terms, a leader was regarded as ‘production- oriented’. However, in contrast, the response derived from such study did not show a clear cut picture, as some of the responses had a score in the mid range. Through such responses, it was difficult to classify a leader either as a relationship-oriented or a production oriented leader, as the scoring was neither high nor low. Fiedler‟s model thus illuminated attention on a new dimension of leadership studies. Thus through this study, it was suggested that, if a situation requires a task-oriented leader and the person in that leadership position is relationship-oriented, either the situation has to be modified or the leader replaced, if optimal effectiveness is to be achieved (Robbins, Judge, & Sanghi, 2007).
Transactional Theory of Leadership
The transactional theory of leadership was first discussed by Max Weber in 1947 and was later developed by Bernard M Bass in 1981. There are several assumptions that underlie the transactional theory, which are as follows:
People perform their best when the chain of command is definite and clear.
Workers are motivated by rewards and punishments.
Obeying the instructions and commands of the leader is the primary goal of thefollowers.
Subordinates need to be carefully monitored to ensure that expectations are met.Under the transactional theory of leadership, the leaders guide or motivate their followers in the direction of established goals by clarifying role and task requirements. The characteristic features exhibited by transactional leaders are as follows:
(i) Contingent Reward: The leader links the goals of the organization to rewards and clearly specifies and expectations , provides the needed resources and set SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely) goals for the subordinates;
(ii) Management by Exception (Active): The leader actively monitors the performance of the subordinates, watches and searches for deviations from rules and standards, and take corrective actions to prevent mistakes;
(iii) Management by Exception (Passive): In terms of passive management, a leader intervenes only if standards are not met and even use punishments for poor performances; and
(iv) Laissez-Faire: In this for, the leader gives an environment to subordinates, where they can take decisions. In this form, the leader himself abdicates from responsibilities and avoids making decisions, due to which the followers lack the direction.
This kind of leadership may not be suitable for all occasions and be suitable, where organizational problems are quite simple and clearly defined. The transactional leaders tend to be highly directive and action oriented and their relationship with the followers tends to be transitory and not based on emotional bonds. In taking this style of leadership, gender differences exist. Several studies found that, in using transactional leadership style, women were more likely to focus on the „rewards‟ component, while the men laid their focus on „punishment‟ component.
Transformational Theory of Leadership
Transformational leadership is also equated to an extent with the charismatic leadership. In order to bring transformation in the followers‟ or employees‟ interest and reshape their capacity, one critical component that has been considered essential is the charisma of the leader. In this form of leadership, a leader inspires her/his followers to transcend their own self-interests for the betterment of the organization. Transformational leaders pay attention to the developmental needs and concerns of the followers, and inspire followers to give a new outlook for the old problems and thus motivate the followers towards achievement of the goals of the organization, by giving them new perspective. According to Bass and Riggio, there are four dimensions to the transformational theory of leadership, viz. Idealized Influence (II), Inspirational Motivation (IM), Intellectual Stimulation (IS) and Individualized Consideration (IC), which are as follows:
(i) Idealized Influence (II): In this form of leadership, the leaders act as role models for their subordinates and they exhibit high morals and ethical standards. They further provide the vision and sense of mission, instill pride amidst the followers and gains respect and trust;
(ii) Inspirational Motivation (IM): In this dimension of leadership, leaders inspire their subordinates in various ways and give meaning to their work and bring new challenges and enthusiasm. The leader expresses the organizational purposes in simple terms to the followers and has high expectations on the followers;
(iii) Intellectual Stimulation (IS): In this form, the leaders stimulate the intellectual ability of their followers. That is, through new approaches, the leaders try to stimulate the way of thinking of their subordinates and thus, raise the creativity in them and promote intelligence, rationality and problem solving skills; and
(iv) Individualized Consideration (IC): The leaders, under this dimension, pay more attention to the individual needs of development of the subordinates so as to achieve success (Kuchynkova, 2013).
Research was also made on the gender differences in transformational leadership and it was found that, women were rated higher than men on most dimensions of transformational leadership and higher outputs were achieved by women, by following this style of leadership.
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
At the most general level however, emotional intelligence refers to the ability to recognize and regulate emotions in ourselves and others. Goleman’s (1995) Emotional Intelligence theory includes both non – intellective and intellective elements of intelligence. The non – intellective elements include: affective personal and social factors. Regardless of the differences between definitions of emotional intelligence, it is very clear that what is being referred to is distinct from standard intelligence, or IQ.
Although the concept of emotional intelligence has different definitions it describes the ability, capacity, skill or, in the case of the trait emotional intelligence model, a self – perceived ability to identify, assess and manage emotions of one’s self, of others, and of groups. The idea of emotional intelligence lies in a handful of basic principles identified by Salovey and Mayer (1990) that they used to test how well people could identify emotions in faces, abstract designs and colors from which they wrote articles about something called “emotional intelligence”.
According to Goleman (1995) emotionally intelligent people have the ability to control their emotional impulses at least more so than those who are not emotionally intelligent, they have the self – awareness to know what they are feeling, and are able to think about and express those things, they have empathy for the feelings of others and insight into how others think, they can do things like delay gratification, they are optimistic and generally positive; they understand easily the dynamics of a given group and, most importantly, where they fit inside that group.
The model introduced by Goleman (1995) focuses on emotional intelligence as a wide array of competencies and skills that drive leadership performance. The model outlines four main emotional intelligence constructs: self-awareness, self- management, social awareness and relationship management. He includes a set of emotional competencies within each construct of emotional intelligence, and suggests that emotional competencies are not innate talents, but rather learned capabilities that must be developed to achieve outstanding performance. He posits that individuals are born with a general emotional intelligence that determines their potential for learning emotional competencies.
Importance of Emotional Intelligence
Just because you walk through the door and into an office building does not mean you check your emotions at that door before starting work, although it used to seem that way. In reality, emotions have always been in the workplace, but they were to be kept in check, with people pretending not to feel while they were on the clock.
These days, however, we are allowing emotions at work and recognizing the benefits of doing so. And emotional intelligence matters more than it used to because the workplace has changed. Today we work largely in teams, not isolation, for one thing, and savvy companies are realizing that recognizing emotions can exist lead to healthier environments. This doesn’t mean it’s an emotional free-for-all by any means, but it does mean people are more likely to be aware of their own and others’ emotions and act accordingly. People with higher emotional intelligence are also more adaptable to change—a must in our fast-changing digital age.
In addition, leaders with higher emotional intelligence tend to have happier employees who then stay longer, reducing the costs of attrition, and try harder, increasing productivity. An article from SuperOffice cites examples of salespeople with higher emotional intelligence significantly outperforming other salespeople and states that in a study of 515 executives, emotional intelligence was a higher predictor of success than experience or IQ.
Companies that are hiring want to make sure they choose job candidates who will mesh well with existing teams. As a result, about 71 percent of organizations are now valuing emotional intelligence in an employee over IQ. Even the smartest person needs good people skills to succeed these days. A high IQ alone is no longer enough.
Five Dimensions of Emotional Intelligence
● Self–awareness: Self–awareness occurs when the individual knows what he is feeling in the moment, and using those preferences to guide decision- making, having a realistic assessment of his own abilities and a well-grounded sense of self-confidence.
● Self-regulation: This involves handling our emotions so that they facilitate rather than interfere with the task at hand; having conscientious and delaying gratification, to pursue goals; recovering well from emotional distress.
● Motivation: This dimension of emotional intelligence involves using available deepest preferences to move and guide the individual toward desired goals, to help in taking initiative and striving. To improve, and to persevere in the face of setbacks and frustration.
● Empathy: This is related to sensing what other people are feeling, being able to take their perspective, and cultivating rapport and attunement with a broad diversity of people.
● Relationship management: Relationship management manifests in handling emotions in relationships well and accurately reading social situations and networks, interacting smoothly; using these skills to persuade and lead, negotiate and settle disputes, for cooperation and teamwork. These dimensions of EI are critical for transformational leadership.