Using Practical Examples Suggest and Explain Alternative Strategies

ASSIGNMENT: “Using practical examples suggest and explain alternative strategies that can be employed to mitigate effects of factors that affect individual behaviour and performance. ” Date:17 February 2012 Submitted in partial fulfilment of the Master of Commerce Degree in Strategic Management and Corporate Governance Part 1.

1? Introduction Organizations are composed of individuals and each individual is different from the other. And also the behavior and performance of each individual is influenced by several different factors.Every individual has Particular motives, ambitions, perceptions, and abilities. To understand the human behavior in organization in a better way, a careful study of all the factors which affect the human behavior is must.

Individual behavior is the way in which one person acts apart from another person or group. Individual behavior can be different than anyone else and is personalize by that person. This behavior is influenced by his attitude, personality, perception, learning and motivating.Theories of human behavior have been developed and explained below are some of them, 1. Respondent Learning This theory was formulated by a Russian psychologist called Ivan Pavlov.

It is known as classical conditioning and is based on a stimuli-response formula. 2. Operant Conditioning This theory is based on the work of B. F. Skinner, who drew on the idea of Classical conditioning, but thought individuals to be more active in the learning process than that theory allowed.

For learning to occur, it is essential that the person be an Active participant.In this theory, when learning is rewarded, behavior is perpetuated or maintained, while punished behavior is removed. 3. Social Cognitive Theory / Social Modeling: This is based on the work of Albert Bandura (1978), who thinks that most learning is a result of copying or imitating what others do, i. e.

vicarious learning. The social modeling theory emphasizes the importance of external reinforces, and allows learning to occur independently of reinforcement. There are also some factors that influence individual performance at the workplace.The amazing feature of humans is their diversity. What is work for one person is pleasure for another (gardening for example) what motivates one worker will demotivate another.

Being effective at work as an individual is related to how the personal qualities and characteristics of the individual interact with the requirements of the work environment. Understanding oneself as well as the others can greatly add to personal effectiveness and the effectiveness of others. The individual performance equation proposed by Wood et al. (2001, P. 1) captures the ideas that Job Performance = Individual Attributes X Work Effort (Motivation) X Organizational Support This equation views performance as a result of the personal attributes of an individuals, the work effort they make and the organizational support they receive. The multiplication sign indicates that all three factors must be present for high performance to be archived.

? Individual attributes Demographic or Biographic Factors The demographic factors are socio economic background, education, nationality, race, age, sex, etc.Sex affect performance in the sense that most female managers feel their subordinates are undermining their authority and tend to be more virtuous and want to be felt that they are in charge, and with new young managers emerging, some people found themselves being managed by a person young enough to be their child, and they feel they should be respected just as they do at home and expect the same at work. Organizations prefer persons that belong to good socio-economic background, well educated, young etc. s they are believed to be performing better than the others. The young and dynamic professionals that have good academic background and effective communication skills are always in great demand.

Abilities and Skills or Competence Factors Different occupations require different skills, competencies and abilities. The physical capacity of an individual to do something can be termed as ability. Skill can be defined as the ability to act in a way that allows a person to perform well. The individual behaviour and performance is highly influenced by ability and skills.A person can perform well in the organisation if his abilities and skills are matched with the job requirement.

The managers plays vital role in matching the abilities and skills of the employees with the particular job requirement. Perception: The cognitive process meant for interpreting the environmental stimuli in a meaningful way is referred to as perception. Every individual on the basis of his/he reference can organize and interpret environmental stimuli. There are many factors that influence the perception of an individual.The study of perception plays important role for the managers. It is important for mangers to create the favorable work environment so that employees perceive them in most favorable way.

The employees are likely to perform better if they are going to perceive it in a positive way. Attitude: According to psychologists, attitude can be defined as a tendency to respond favourably or unfavourably to certain objects, persons or situations. The factors such as family, society, culture, peers and organisational factors influence the formation of attitude.The managers in an organisation need to study the variables related to job as to create the work environment in a favorable way that employees are tempted to form a positive attitude towards their respective jobs. The employees can perform better in the organisation if they form a positive attitude. Personality: Personality can be defined as the study of the characteristics and distinctive traits of an individual, the inter-relations between them and the way in which a person responds and adjusts to other people and situations.

The several factors that influence the personality of an individual are heredity, family, society, culture and situation. It implies to the fact that individuals differ in their manner while responding to the organizational environment. Personality can be regarded as the most complex aspect of human beings that influences their behaviour in big way. It can be concluded that the study of personality traits offers an opportunity to understand the individuals. It helps them properly in directing their effort and motivating them for the accomplishment of the organisational goal.

It refers to the fact that different environmental factors may generate different responses. The study of these responses is very important for the organisation. To mitigate the effects of these Individual Attributes/Factors managers should use recruitment and selection procedures. Different frameworks may be used such as the A. S. A framework by Ben Schneider (1987) Which in 1987 Ben Schneider, propounded the Attraction-Selection-Attrition framework, which says that an organisation attracts and recruits employees with same values, personalities and attitudes, which are the same as those of the organisation.

ATTRACTION: People are attracted to organizations that suit their personal attributes. SELECTION: Organizations selects people who share common personal attributes. ATTRITION: When people do not fit in an organization’s environment, they tend to resign During the cycle of Attraction-Selection-Attrition, organizations end up with people who share the same attributes. This creates a homogeneous organisation. Environmental Factors Economic Factors a. )Empowerment level If the job opportunities are less, the individual will have to stick to a particular organisation even though he does not have job satisfaction.

On the other hand, if the job opportunities are more, the employees’ turnover will be more. Managers should be entrepreneurs and should b. )Wage rates What a person will get in money terms is the major factor affecting the decision of a worker to stay in a particular organisation or shift to another one which will pay more wages. c. )General economic environment Some employees who are working in government offices or public sector undertakings are not affected by economic cycles. Whatever economic conditions they will receive their salaries, whereas the employees who work n organizations which are severely affected by economic cycle are subject to lay off and retrenchment.

d. )Technological development The technological development has made the job more intellectual and upgraded. This makes it the duty of management to retrain the employees. For those who pickup and acquaint themselves with new technology, the job will be rewarding and challenging. ? Socio – Cultural Factor Relationship with many family members, friends, colleagues, supervisors and subordinates.Similarly every individual has cultural background; which shapes his values and beliefs.

Work ethics achievement need. Effort-reward expectations and values are important cultural factor having impact achievement need effort-reword Expectations and values are important cultural factor having impact on the individual bahaviour. Political Factors In a politically stable country there will be a steady level of employment and high level of capital investment. Whereas companies are reluctant to invest large sums of money in a politically instable country.Legal environment Rule and laws are formalized and written standers of behaviour. Both rules and laws are strictly enforced by the legal system.

Organisational Factors Physical Facilities Arrangement of people and things so that is has a positive influence of people, quote the light experiment, Some of the factors which influence individual behavior and performance are noise level, light , ventilation, cleanliness, nature of the job, office furnishing, number of people working at a given place, etc. Organisational Structure and designReporting system lines of communication established among different levels in the organisation Leadership The human behavior is influenced to large extent by the behavior of the superiors or leader. Behavior of the leader is more important than their qualities. Reward System Behavior and performance of the individuals is also influenced by the reward system established by the organisation to compensate their employees. ? The complexity of human behavior makes it difficult to develop one set of ideal characteristics and behaviors which make leaders successful in all situations.An effective leader is not only self-aware but has understanding of others and considers the different attributes that drive the behavior of those he or she is influencing.

In the process of understanding our employees, showing respect for them as individuals and as members of teams, we will be setting the climate or environment that helps facilitate performance. ? Bibliography 1. 1. Kristof-Brown, A. L.

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