MCom I Semester Foundation of Individual Behavior Study Material Notes

MCom I Semester Foundation of Individual Behavior Study Material Notes: Biographical Characteristics Ability Intellectual Abilities Physical Abilities The Ability  job fit Learning Definition fo Learning Shaping a managerial tool  Some Specific Organiationa Application Summary and Implication for Managers Biographical Characteristics Ability Learning :

CCC NIELIT Questions Paper Practice Test Paper 6

Biographical Characteristics

As discussed in Chapter 1, this textbook is essentially concerned with finding and analyzing the variables that have an impact on employee productivity, absence, turnover, citizenship, and satisfaction. The list of those variables-as shown in Exhibit 1-7–is long and contains some complicated concepts. Many of the concepts-motivation, say, or power and politics or organizational culture are hard to assess. It might be valuable, then, to begin by looking at factors that are easily definable and readily available: data that can be obtained, for the most part, simply from information available in an employee’s personnel file. What factors would these be? Obvious characteristics would be an employee’s age, gender, and length of service with an organization. Fortunately, there is a sizable amount of research that has specifically analyzed many of these biographical characteristics

Age

The relationship between age and job performance is likely to be an issue of increasing importance during the next decade. Why? There is a widespread belief that job performance declines with increasing age. Regardless of whether it’s true or not, a lot of people believe it and act on it.

What is the perception of older workers? Evidence indicates that employers hold mixed feelings.” They see a number of positive qualities that older workers bring to their jobs: specifically, experience, judgment, a strong work ethic, and commitment to quality. But older workers are also perceived as lacking flexibility and as being resistant to new technology. And in a time when organizations actively seek individuals who are adaptable and open to change, the negatives associated with age clearly hinder the initial hiring of older workers and increase the likelihood that they will be let vo during cutbacks. Now let’s take a look at the evidence. What effect does age actually have on turnover, absenteeism, productivity, and satisfaction?

The older you get, the less likely you are to quit your job. That conclusion is based on studies of the age-turnover relationship. Of course, this shouldn’t be too surprising. As workers get older they have fewer alternative job opportunities. In addition, older workers are less likely to resign than are younger workers because their long tenure tends to provide them with higher wage rates, longer paid vacations, and more attractive pension benefits.

It’s tempting to assume that he is also inversely related to absenteeism. Met a ll older workers are less likely to quit won’t they also demonstrate the coming to work more regularly? Not necessarily. Most studies do shown inverse relationship, but close examination finds that the age-absence relation smp is partially a function of whether the absence is avoidable or unavoidable general, older employees have lower rates of avoidable absence than do younger employees. However, they have higher rates of unavoidable absence, probably due to the poorer health associated with aging and the longer recovery period that older workers need when injured.

How does age affect productivity? There is a widespread belief that productivity declines with age. It is often assumed that an individual’s skills particularly speed, agility, strength, and coordination-decay over time and that prolonged job bore dom and lack of intellectual stimulation all contribute to reduced productivity. The evidence, however, contradicts that belief and those assumptions. For instance, dur ing a 3-year period, a large hardware chain staffed one of its stores solely with employees over 50 and compared its results with those of five stores with younger employees. The store staffed by the over-50 employees was significantly more pro ductive measured in terms of sales generated against labor costs) than two of the other stores and held its own with the other three. Other reviews of the research find that age and job performance are unrelated. Moreover, this finding seems to be true for almost all types of jobs, professional and nonprofessional. The natural conclusion is that the demands of most jobs, even those with heavy manual labor requirements, are not extreme enough for any declines in physical skills attributable to age to have an impact on productivity: or, if there is some decay due to age. it is offset by gains due to experience.

Our final concern is the relationship between age and job satisfaction. On this issue, the evidence is mixed. Most studies indicate a positive association between age and satisfaction, at least up to age 60. Other studies, however, have found a Ushaped relationship. Several explanations could clear up these results, the most plausible being that these studies are intermixing professional and nonprofessional employees. When the two types are separated, satisfaction tends to increase continually among professionals as they age, whereas it falls among nonprofessionals during middle age and then rises again in the later years., to keep physically fit by working out in its fitness center,

Gender

Few issues initiate more debates, misconceptions, and unsupported opinions than whether women perform as well on jobs as men do. In this section, we review the research on that issue.

The evidence suggests that the best place to begin is with the recognition that there are few if any, important differences between men and women that will affect their job performance. There are for instance, no consistent male-female differences in problem-solving ability, analytical skills. competitive drive, motivation, sociability, or learning ability. Psychological studies have found that women are more willing to conform to authority and that men are more aggressive and more likely than women to have expectations of success, but those differences are minor. Given the significant changes that have taken place in the past 35 years in terms of increasing female participation rates in the workforce and rethinking what constitutes male and female roles, you should operate on the assumption that there is no significant difference in job productivity between men and women.

One issue that does seem to differ between genders, especially when the employee has preschool-aged children, is preference for work schedules, 12 Working mothers are more likely to prefer part-time work, flexible work schedules, and telecommuting in order to accommodate their family responsibilities.

But what about absence and turpover rates? Are women less stable ou should operate on the assumption that employees than men? First, on the question of turnover, the evidence indicates no significant differences. 13 Women’s quitates are similar to those there is no significant difference in job for men. The research on absence, however, consistently indicates that productivity between men and women.

women have higher rates of absenteeism than men do. Tu most logical explanation for this finding is that the research was conducted worm America, and North American culture has historically placed homena family responsibilities on the woman. When a child is ill or someone needs to stay home to wait for the plumber, it has been the woman who has traditionally taken time off from work. However, this research is undoubtedly time-bound. The historical role of the woman in caring for children and as secondary breadwinner has definitely changed in the past generation, and a large proportion of men nowadays are as interested in day care and the problems associated with child care in general as are women.

Foundation of Individual Behavior

Tenure

The last biographical characteristic we’ll look at is tenure. With the exception of the issue of male-female differences, probably no issue is more subject to misconceptions and speculations than the impact of seniority on job performance.

Extensive reviews of the seniority-productivity relationship have been conducted. If we define seniority as time on a particular job, we can say that the most recent evidence demonstrates a positive relationship between seniority and job productivity. So tenure, expressed as work experience, appears to be a good predictor of employee productivity.

The research relating tenure to absence is quite straightforward. Studies consistently demonstrate seniority to be negatively related to absenteeism. In fact, in terms of both frequency of absence and total days lost at work, tenure is the single most important explanatory variable.18

Studies have long proven that job seniority is related to job attitudes. Employees at different seniority levels in a particular cadre may vary in their job attitudes. Employees working for a long! time for the same organization will be better acquainted with the principles, rules, regulations, policies, and so on and will have a favorable attitude towards the organization.

Tenure is also a potent variable in explaining turnover. The longer a person is in a job, the less likely he or she is to quit.19 Moreover, consistent with research that suggests that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior, evidence indicates that tenure on an employee’s previous job is a powerful predictor of that employee’s future turnover.21

The evidence indicates that tenure and satisfaction are positively related. In fact, when age and tenure are treated separately, tenure appears to be a more consistent and stable predictor of job satisfaction than is chronological age.

Foundation of Individual Behavior

Ability

Contrary to what we were taught in school, we weren’t all created equal. Most of us are to the left of the median on some normally distributed ability curve. Regardless of how motivated you are, it’s unlikely that you can act as well as Meryl Streep, play golf as well as Tiger Woods, write horror stories as well as Stephen King, or sing as well as Celine Dion. Of course, just because we aren’t all equal in abilities does not imply that some individuals are inherently inferior to others. What we are acknowl edging 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 a management Standpoint, the issue is not whether people differ in terms of their abilities. They clearly do. The ste 15 kilowing how people differ in abilities and using that knowledge to increase the me that an emplovee will perform his or her job well.

What does ability mean? As we will use the term ability refers to an individual’s capacity to per form the various tasks m a job. It is a current assessment of what one can do. An individuals over abilities are essentially made up of two sets of factors: intellectual and physical

Foundation of Individual Behavior

Intellectual Abilities

Intellectual abilities are those needed to perform mental activities for thinking, reasoning, and problem solving. Intelligence quotient (10) tests, for example, are designed to ascertain one’s gen eral intellectual abilities. So, too, are popular college admission tests such as the SAT and AC and graduate admission tests in business (GMAT). common admission test (CAT), law (ISAT), and med icine (MCAT). 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 Exhibit 2.1 describes those dimensions.

Jobs differ in the demands they place on incumbents to use their intellectual abilities. Generally speaking, 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. Of course, a high IQ is not a prerequisite for all jobs. In fact, for many jobs-in which employee behavior is highly rou tine and there are little or no opportunities to exercise discretion a high I may be unrelated to performance. On the other hand, a careful review of the evidence demonstrates that tests that assess verbal, numerical, spatial, and perceptual abilities are valid predictors of job proficiency at all levels of jobs. Therefore, tests that measure specific dimensions of intelligence have been found to be strong predictors of future job performance. This explains why companies like Amazon.com and Microsoft emphasize assessing candidates intelligence as a key element in their hiring process.

Companies visiting campus for recruiting MBAs in India prefer going to business schools that select students through CAT. CAT has three components: logical reasoning, quantitative analysis, and verbal ability

The major dilemma faced by employers who use mental ability tests for selection, promotion mining and similar personnel decisions is concern that they may have a negative impact on and ethnic groups. For instance, some minority groups score, on the average, as much as one stan dard deviation lower than whites on verbal, numerical, and spatial ability tests. However after review ing the evidence, researchers recently concluded that despite group differences in mean test per formance, there is little convincing evidence that well-constructed tests are more predictive of educational training, or occupational performance for members of the majority group than for members of minority groups.”

In the past decade, researchers have begun to expand the meaning of intelligence beyond mental abilities. The most recent evidence suggests that intelligence can be better understood by break ing it down into four subparts: cognitive, social, emotional, and cultural. Cognitive intelligence encompasses the aptitudes that have long been tapped by traditional intelligence tests. Social intel ligence is a person’s ability to relate effectively to others. Emotional intelligence is the ability to identity, understand, and manage emotions. And cultural intelligence is awareness of cross-cultural differences and the ability to function successfully in cross-cultural situations. Although this line of inquiry-toward multiple intelligences is in its infancy, it does hold considerable promise. For instance, it may be able to help us explain why so-called smart people those with high cognitive intelligence don’t necessarily adapt well to everyday life, work well with others, or succeed when placed in leadership roles.

Foundation of Individual Behavior

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 doing less skilled and more-standardized jobs successfully. 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 Exhibit 2-2. Individuals differ in the extent to which they have each of these abilities. Not surprisingly, there is also little relationship between them: A high score on one is no assurance of a high score on others. High employee performance is likely to be achieved when management has ascertained the extent to which a job requires each of the nine abilities and then ensures that employees in that job have those abilities

The Ability-Job Fit

Our concern is with explaining and predicting the behavior of people at work. In this section, we have demonstrated that jobs make differing demands on people and that people differ in their abilities. Therefore, employee performance is enhanced when there is a high ability-job fit.

The specific intellectual or physical abilities required for adequate job performance depend on the ability requirements of the job. So, for example, airline pilots need strong spatial visualization abilities: beach lifeguards need both strong spatial visualization abilities and body coordination senior executives need verbal abilities; high-rise construction workers need balance and journalists with weak reasoning abilities would likely have difficulty meeting minimum job performance stan dards. Directing attention at only the employee’s abilities or only the ability requirements of the job ignores the fact that employee performance depends on the interaction of the two

What predictions can we make when the fit is poor? As alluded to previously, if employees lack the required abilities, they are likely to fail. If you’re hired as a word processor and you can’t meet the job’s basic keyboard typing requirements, your performance is going to be poor irrespective of your positive attitude or your high level of motivation. When the ability-job fit is out of sync because the employee has abilities that far exceed the requirements of the job, our predictions would be very different job performance is likely to be adequate, but there will be organizational inefficiencies and possible declines in employee satisfaction. Given that pay tends to reflect the highest skill level that employees possess, if an employee’s abilities far exceed those necessary to do the job, management will be paying more than it needs to. Abilities significantly above those required can also reduce the employee’s job satisfaction when the employee’s desire to use his or her abilities is particularly strong and is frustrated by the limitations of the job.

Foundation of Individual Behavior

Learning

All complex behavior is learned. If we want to explain and predict behavior, we need to understand how people learn. In this section, we define learning, present three popular learning theories, and describe how managers can facilitate employee learning.

A Definition of Learning

What is learning? A psychologist’s definition is considerably broader than the layperson’s view that “it’s what we did when we went to school.” In actuality, each of us is continuously “going to school.” Learning occurs all the time. Therefore, a generally accepted definition of learning is any relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of experience. Ironically, we can say that changes in behavior indicate that learning has taken place and that learning is a change in behavior.

The previous definition suggests that we can see changes taking place but not the learning itself. The concept is theoretical and, hence, not directly observable:

You have seen people in the process of learning, you have seen people who behave in a particular way as a result of learning and some of you (in fact, I guess the majority of you have “learned” at some time in your life. In other words, we infer that learning has taken place if an individual behaves, reacts, responds as a result of experience m a manner different from the way he formerly behaved.

Our definition has several components that deserve clarification. First, learning involves change Change may be good or bad from an organizational pomt of view. People can learn unfavorable behaviors-to hold prejudices or to restrict their output, for example as well as favorable beha lors. Second, the change must be relatively permanent. Temporary changes may be only reflexive and may not represent learning. Therefore, the requirement that learning must be relatively permanent rules out behavioral changes caused by fatigue or temporary adaptations. Third, our definition is concerned with behavior. Learning takes place when there is a change in actions. ACH an individual’s thought processes or attitudes, if not accompanied by a change in behavior. would not be learning. Finally, some form of experience is necessary for learning. Experience may be acquired directly through observation or practice, or it may be acquired indirectly, as through reading. The crucial test still remains: Does this experience result in a relatively permanent change in behavior? If the answer is Yes, we can say that learning has taken place.

Foundation of Individual Behavior

Theories of Learning

How do we learn? 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.

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 hear ing the bell before getting the food, the dog began to salivate as soon as the bell rang. After a while. he dog would salivate merely at the sound of the bell, even if no food was offered. In effect the dog had learned to respond that is, to salivate-to the bell. Let’s review this experiment to introduce the key concepts in classical conditioning,

The meant was and unconditioned stimulus I t Invariaby caused the dog to react n a specific way the reaction that took place whenever the unconditioned stimulus occurred was called the uncondition response for the noticeable increase in salivation, in this case). The bell was an artificial what we call the conditioned stimulus. Although it was originally neutral after the bell was pane the meat an unconditioned stimulus) it eventually produced a response when presented on The last key concept is the conditioned response. This describes the behavior of the dog; it salivated in reaction to the bell alone.

Using these concepts, we can summarize classical conditioning. Essentially, learning a condi toned response involves building up an association between a conditioned stimulus and an uncom ditioned stimulus. When the stimuli, one compelling and the other neutral, are paired, the neutral one becomes a conditioned stimulus and, hence, takes on the properties of the unconditioned sum ulus.

Classical conditioning can be used to explain why Christmas carols often bring back pleasant memories of childhood; the songs are associated with the festive Christmas spirit and evoke fond memories and feelings of euphoria. In an organizational setting, we can also see classical condition mg operating. For example, at one manufacturing plant, every time the top executives from the head office were scheduled to make a visit, the plant management would clean up the administrative offices and wash the windows. This went on for years. Eventually, employees would turn on their best behavior and look prim and proper whenever the windows were cleanedeven in those occasional instances when the cleaning was not paired with the visit from the top brass. People had learned to associate the cleaning of the windows with a visit from the head office.

Classical conditioning is passive. Something happens and we react in a specific way. It is elicited in response to a specific, identifiable event. As such, it can explain simple reflexive behaviors. But most behavior-particularly the complex behavior of individuals in organizations—is emitted rather than elicited. That is, it’s voluntary rather than reflexive. For example, employees choose to arrive at work on time, ask their boss for help with problems, or “goof off” when no one is watching. The learning of those behaviors is better understood by looking at operant conditioning,

Foundation of Individual Behavior

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 Behar for. 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 behavior and increases the likelihood that it will be repeated.

What Pavlov did for classical conditioning, the Harvard psychologist B.F. Skinner did for operant conditioning. Skinner argued that creating pleasing consequences to follow specific forms of behavior would increase the frequency of that behavior. He demonstrated that people will most likely engage in desired behaviors if they are positively reinforced for doing so that rewards are most effective if they immediately follow the desired responses and that behavior that is not rewarded, or is punished, is less likely to be repeated.

You see illustrations of operant conditioning everywhere. For example, any situation in which it is either explicitly stated or implicitly suggested that reinforcements are contingent on some action on your part involves the use of operant learning. Your instructor says that if you want a high grade in the course you must supply correct answers on the test. A commissioned salesperson wanting to eam a sizable income finds that doing so is contingent on generating high sales in het territory. OL course, the linkage can also work to teach the individual to engage in behaviors that work against the best interests of the organization. Assume that your boss tells you that if you will work overtime during the next three-week busy season, you’ll be compensated for it at your next performance appraisal. However, when performance appraisal time comes, you find that you are given no positive reinforcement for your overtime work. The next time your boss asks you to work overtime, what will you do? You’ll probably declinel Your behavior can be explained by operant conditioning. If a behavior fails to be positively reinforced, the probability that the behavior will be repeated declines.

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 per formers, bosses, and so forth. This view that we can learn through both observation and direct expe rience is called social-learning theory

Although social learning theory is an extension of operant conditioning–that is, it assumes that behavior is a function of consequences-it also acknowledges the existence of observational learning and the importance of perception in learning. People respond to how they perceive and define consequences, not to the objective consequences themselves.

The influence of models is central to the social-learning viewpoint. Four processes have been found to determine the influence that a model will have on an individual. As we’ll show later in this chapter, the inclusion of the following processes when management sets up employee training programs will significantly improve the likelihood that the programs will be successful

1 Attentional processes. People learn from a model only when they recognize and pay attention to its critical features. We tend to be most influenced by models that are attractive, repeatedly avail able, important to us, or similar to us in our estimation.

2. Retention processes. A model’s influence will depend on how well the individual remembers the model’s action after the model is no longer readily available.

3. Motor reproduction processes. After a person has seen a new behavior by observing the model. the watching must be converted to doing. This process then demonstrates that the individual can perform the modeled activities.

4. Reinforcement processes. Individuals will be motivated to exhibit the modeled behavior if positive incentives or rewards are provided. Behaviors that are positively reinforced will be given more attention, learned better, and performed more often .

Foundation of Individual Behavior

Shaping: A Managerial Tool

Because learning takes place on the job as well as prior to it, managers will be concerned with how they can teach employees to behave in ways that most benefit the organization. When we attempt to mold individuals by guiding their learning in graduated steps, we are shaping behavior. Consider the situation in which an employee’s behavior is significantly different from that sought engagement. Il management rewarded the individual only when he or she showed desirable very little reinforcement taking place. In such a case, shaping offers a logical approach toward achieving the desired behavior.

We shape behavior by systematically reinforcing each successive step that moves the individual closer to the desired response. If an employee who has chronically been a half-hour late for work comes in only 20 minutes late, we can reinforce that improvement. Reinforcement would increase as responses more closely approximated the desired behavior.

Methods of Shaping Behavior There are four ways in which to shape behavior: through positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment, and extinction

Following a response with something pleasant is called positive reinforcement. This would describe. for instance, the boss who praises an employee for a job well done. Following a response by the ter mination or withdrawal of something unpleasant is called negative reinforcement. If your college instructor asks a question and you don’t know the answer, looking through your lecture notes is likely to preclude your being called on. This is a negative reinforcement because you have learned that looking busily through your notes prevents the instructor from calling on you. Punishment is! causing an unpleasant condition in an attempt to eliminate undesirable behavior. Giving an employee a two-day suspension from work without pay for showing up drunk is an example of pun ishment. Eliminating any reinforcement that is maintaining a behavior is called extinction. When the behavior is not reinforced, it tends to be gradually extinguished. College instructors who wish to discourage students from asking questions in class can eliminate this behavior in their students by Ignoring those who raise their hands to ask questions.

Foundation of Individual Behavior

Reinforcement Schedules and Behavior Continuous reinforcement schedules can lead to early satiation, and under this schedule behavior tends to weaken rapidly when reinforcers are withheld. However, continuous reinforcers are appropriate for newly emitted, unstable, or low-frequency responses. In contrast, intermittent reinforcers preclude early satiation because they don’t follow every response. They are appropriate for stable or high-frequency responses

In general, variable schedules tend to lead to higher performance than fixed schedules (see Exhibit 2-5). For example, as noted previously, most employees in organizations are paid on fixed-interval schedules, But such a schedule does not clearly link performance and rewards. The reward is given for time spent on the job rather than for a specific response (performance). In contrast, variable-interval schedules generate high rates of response and more stable and consistent behavior because of a high correlation between performance and reward and because of the uncertainty involved-the employee tends to be more alert because there is a surprise factor

Behavior Modification There is a now-classic study that took place a number of years ago with freight packers at Emery Air Freight (now part of FedEx). Emery’s management wanted packers to use freight containers for shipments whenever possible because of specific economic savings. When pack ers were asked about the percentage of shipments contained, the standard reply was 90 percent. An analysis by Emery found, however, that the actual container utilization rate was only 45 percent. In order to encourage employees to use contamers, management established a program of feedback and positive reinforcements. Each packer was instructed to keep a checklist of his or her daily packing both containerized and noncontainerized. At the end of each day, the packer computed his or her container utilization rate. Almost unbelievably, container utilization jumped to more than 90 percent on the first day of the program and held at that level. Emery reported that this simple program of feedback and positive reinforcements saved the company $2 million over a three-year period.

This program at Emery Air Freight illustrates the use of behavior modification, or what has become more popularly called OB Mod. It represents the application of reinforcement concepts to individuals in the work setting.

Foundation of Individual Behavior

The typical OB Mod program follows a five-step problem-solving model: (1) identifying critical behaviors; (2) developing baseline data; (3) identifying behavioral consequences; (4) developing and implementing an intervention strategy; and (5) evaluating performance improvement.

Everything an employee does on his or her job is not equally important in terms of performance outcomes. The first step in OB Mod, therefore, is to identify the critical behaviors that make a significant impact on the employee’s job performance. These are those 5 to 10 percent of behaviors that may account for up to 70 or 80 percent of each employee’s performance. Freight packers at Emery Air Freight using containers whenever possible is an example of critical behavior.

The second step requires the manager to develop some baseline performance data. This is obtained by determining the number of times the identified behavior is occurring under present conditions. In our freight packing example at Emery, this would have revealed that 45 percent of all shipments were containerized.

The third step is to perform a functional analysis to identify the behavioral contingencies or consequences of performance. This tells the manager the antecedent cues that emit the behavior and the consequences that are currently maintaining it At Emery Air Freight oral norms and the greater difficulty in packing containers were the antecedents. This encouraged the practice packing items separately. Moreover, the consequences for conting the behavior, prior to the OK Mod intervention were social acceptance and escaping more demanding work.

Once the functional analysis is complete the manager is ready to develop and implement intervention strategy to strengthen desirable performance behaviors and weaken undesirable beha lors. The appropriate strategy will entail changing some elements of the performance-reward link age-structure, processes, technology, groups, or the task-with the goal of making high-level per formance more rewarding. In the Emery example, the work technology was altered to require the keeping of a checklist. The checklist plus the computation at the end of the day of a container lization rate acted to reinforce the desirable behavior of using containers.

The final step in OB Mod is to evaluate performance improvement. In the Emery intervention, the immediate improvement in the container-utilization rate demonstrated that behavioral change took place. That it rose to 90 percent and held at that level further indicates that learning took place. That is, the employees underwent a relatively permanent change in behavior.

OB Mod has been used by a number of organizations to improve employee productivity, to reduce errors, absenteeism, tardiness, and accident rates and to improve friendliness toward cus tomers. For instance, a clothing manufacturer saved Rs 60,000 in 1 year from fewer absences. A packing firm improved productivity 16 percent, cut errors by 40 percent, and reduced accidents by more than 43 percent-resulting in savings of over Rs 10 lacs. A bank successfully used OB Mod to increase the friendliness of its tellers, which led to a demonstrable improvement in customer satis faction.

Some Specific Organizational Applications

We have alluded to a number of situations in which learning theory could be helpful to managers. In this section, we’ll briefly look at four specific applications substituting well pay for sick pay, disciplin. ing problem employees, developing effective emplovee training programs, and applying learning theory to self-management.

Well Pay Versus Sick Pay Most organizations provide their salaried employees with paid sick leave as part of the employee’s benefit program. But, ironically, organizations with paid sick leave programs experience almost twice the absenteeism of organizations without such programs. 15 The reality is that sick leave programs reinforce the wrong behavior-absence from work. When employees receive 10paid kassavear, it’s the usual employee who isn’t sure to use them all up. regardless of wine he or she is sick. Organizations should reward attendance not the absence

Foundation of Individual Behavior

For instance, Starkmark International, a Florida marketing firm that employs 10. pays employee son for eacli unclaimed sick day, up to an extra $600 a year for perfect attendance And General Dynamics Electric Boat Division holds regular lotteries with awards such as $2.500 in cash and reserved parking spaces-however only employees with perfect attendance records can participate. Both of these programs have proven to significantly reduce the number of work days lost because of use of sick leave and to limit sick leave to serious illnesses.

Forbes magazine listed this approach to cut its health care costs. It rewarded employees who stayed healthy and didn’t file medical claims by paving them the difference between $500 and their medical claims. then doubling the amount. So if someone submitted no claims in a given year, he or she would receive $1.000 ($500 x 2). By rewarding employees for good health, Forbes cut its major, medical and dental claims by over 30 percent

Foundation of Individual Behavior

Employee Discipline Every manager will, at some time, have to deal with an employee who drinks on the job, is insubordinate, steals company property, arrives consistently late for work, or engages in similar problem behaviors. Managers will respond with disciplinary actions such as oral reprimands, written warnings, and temporary suspensions. But our knowledge about punishment’s effect on behavior indicates that the use of discipline carries costs. It may provide only a short-term solution and result in serious side effects

Disciplining employees for undesirable behaviors tells them only what not to do. It doesn’t tell them what alternative behaviors are preferred. The result is that this form of punishment frequently leads to only short-term suppression of the undesirable behavior rather than its elimination. Continued use of punishment, rather than positive reinforcement, also tends to produce a fear of the manager. As the punishing agent, the manager becomes associated in the employee’s mind with adverse consequences. Employees respond by “hiding” from their boss. Hence, the use of punishment can undermine manager-employee relations.

Discipline does have a place in organizations. In practice, it tends to be popular because of its ability to produce fast results in the short run. Moreover, managers are reinforced for using discipline because it produces an immediate change in the employee’s behavior.

Developing Training Programs Most organizations have some type of systematic training program. Billions of rupees are being spent on training in a single year by organizations the world over. Can these organizations draw from our discussion of learning in order to improve the effectiveness of their training programs Certainly?

Social-learning theory offers such a guide. It tells us that training should offer a model to grab the trainees attention provide motivational properties: help the trainee to file away what he or she has learned for later use; provide opportunities to practice new behaviors: offer positive rewards for accomplishments; and, if the training has taken place off the job, allow the trainee some opportunity to transfer what he or she has learned to the job.

Self-Management 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 so doing, reduce the need for managerial control. This is called self-management.”

Self-management requires an individual to deliberately manipulate stimuli, internal processes, and responses to achieve personal behavioral outcomes. The basic processes involve observing one’s own behavior, comparing the behavior with a standard, and rewarding oneself if the behavior meets the standard.

So how might self-management be applied? Here’s an illustration. A group of state government blue-collar employees received eight hours of training in which they were taught self-management skills. They were then shown how the skills could be used for improving job attendance. They were instructed on how to set specific goals for job attendance, in both the short and intermediate terms. They learned how to write a behavioral contract with themselves and to identify self-chosen rein. forcers. Finally, they learned the importance of self-monitoring their attendance behavior and administering incentives when they achieved their goals. The net result for these participants was a significant improvement in job attendance.

Summary and Implications for Managers

This chapter looked at three individual variables-biographical characteristics, ability, and learning. Let’s now try to summarize what we found and consider their importance for the manager who is trying to understand organizational behavior.

Biographical Characteristics

Biographical characteristics are readily available to managers. For the most part, they include data that are contained in almost every employee’s personnel file. The most important conclusions we can draw after our review of the evidence are that age seems to have no relationship to productivity and older workers and those with longer tenure are less likely to resign. But what value can this information have for managers? The obvious answer is that it can help in making choices among job applicants

Foundation of Individual Behavior

Ability

Ability directly influences an employee’s level of performance and satisfaction through the ability-job fit. Given management’s desire to get a compatible fit. what can be done?

First, an effective selection process will improve the fit. A job analysis will provide information about jobs currently being done and the abilities that individuals need to perform the jobs adequately. Applicants can then be tested, interviewed, and evaluated on the degree to which they possess the necessary abilities.

Second, promotion and transfer decisions affecting individuals already in the organization’s employ should reflect the abilities of candidates. As with new employees, care should be taken to assess critical abilities that incumbents will need in the job and to match those requirements with the organization’s human resources.

Third, the fit can be improved by fine-tuning the job to better match an incumbent’s abilities. Often, modifications can be made in the job that while not having a significant impact on the job’s basic activities, better adapts it to the specific talents of a given employee. Examples would be to change some of the equipment used or to reorganize tasks within a group of employees.

A final alternative is to provide training for employees. This is applicable to both new workers and job incumbents. Training can keep the abilities of incumbents current or provide new skills as times and conditions change.

Learning

Any observable change in behavior is prima facie evidence that learning has taken place.

We found that positive reinforcement is a powerful tool for modifying behavior. By identifying and rewarding performance-enhancing behaviors, management increases the likelihood that they will be repeated. Our knowledge about learning further suggests that reinforcement is a more effective tool than punishment. Although punishment eliminates undesired behavior more quickly than negative reinforcement does, punished behavior tends to be only temporarily suppressed rather than permanently changed. And punishment may produce unpleasant side effects such as lower morale and higher absenteeism or turnover. In addition, the recipients of punishment tend to become resentful of the punisher. Managers, therefore, are advised to use reinforcement rather than punishment

Managers should also expect that employees will look to them as models. Managers who are constantly late to work, or take two hours for lunch, or help themselves to company office supplies for personal use should expect employees to read the message they are sending and model their behavior accordingly

Foundation of Individual Behavior