MMPC 11
Social Process And Behavioural Issues
MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
MMPC 11 Free Solved Assignment July 2022 & Jan 2022
Q1- Describe and discuss various approaches to understand behaviour and explain how managers can manage and control human behaviour at work with relevant examples?
Ans- This approach recognizes that human resources in an organisation are the central force.
Their development will contribute to the success of the organisation. Human resources approach provides for the changes in the managerial role.
It requires that the managers, instead of controlling the employees, should provide active support to them by treating them as part of the group.
The superiors and managers should practice a style where workers are given the opportunities and encouragement to perform under loose supervision.
By treating individuals as mature adults, organisations can increase productivity and at the same time meet the needs of individuals for independence and growth.
OB is the body of knowledge and people skills (Robinson: 1993) that helps managers to understand, analyze, predict, and manage or control (Fred Luthans: 2000) human behaviour at work. MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
The body of knowledge is enriched by social sciences such as psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics, philosophy, politics, law, ethics and moral sciences, there by resorting to an inter-disciplinary approach.
In a limited way biological sciences like human anatomy and genetics, and physical and environmental sciences have influenced the OB theory.
Various approaches to understand behaviour Behaviour is activity directed towards goals (Paul Hersey & Ken Blanchard).
Manifestation is essential to be recognized as behaviour. Latent state of mind is the psyche of which cognition is an important feature. Cognition is an inherent ability to comprehend, compare and cognize.
It is the cognitive ability that receives, organizes and responds to external stimulus thereby playing a crucial role of bringing about parity between the latent state of mind and manifest behaviour. The following are some important approaches to OB.
(1–Sigmund Freud’s model is characterized by three interrelated but often conflicting psychoanalytic frames of mind, namely Id, Ego and Superego and unconscious motivation.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
‘Id’ is the impulse struggling for gratification; Superego is the unconscious conscience that differentiates the right and wrong and blocks the impulses of Id; and Ego is the conscious which acts as a balancing force.
This inherent conflict in the intra-person explains the behavioural aberrations and clinical methods of treating mental illness came out of this model.
Though it provides for a framework for analyzing behaviour at the intrapersonal level; yet it remains a ‘black box’ and cannot be applicable for analyzing behaviour at inter-personal, group and organisational levels.
Eric Bernie’s Child, Adult and Parent Ego stages (Transactional Analysis) model further explains the cognitive dissonance (Leon C. Festinger) leading to behavioural problems
(2- The cognitive approach (Edward Tolman) emphasized the positive and free-will aspects of human behaviour as against Freudian obsession with negative, irrational, sexually motivated human behaviour.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
It explains the intervening and mediating conditions between stimulus and behaviour in terms of expectancy.
(3- Behaviour is caused. Stimulus is the cause which shapes the response (manifest behaviour). It is captured by the Stimulus-Response model (S-R) espoused by the Classical Conditioning theory (Ivan Pavlov).
(4- Behaviour is shaped by consequences. Behavior resulting into pleasant consequences will be repeated and behaviour resulting into unpalatable consequences will extinguish.
This is explained by the principle of hedonism, by the cognitive theory advanced by Edward Tolman that “behaviour is purposive” and by the more scientific explanation of Response-Stimulus model (R-S) propounded by the operant conditioning theory (B.F.Skinner).
(5- The Antecedents-Behaviour-Consequence (ABC) model converges the above two facets of behaviour namely “Behaviour is caused” & “Behaviour is shaped by consequences”
(6-Stimulus – Organism- Response (SOR) model attempted to focus on the organism i.e. ‘individual differences’ characteristic of people, indicating the fact that same stimulus may not result in same response due to organism interventions.
(7- The Stimulus-Organism-Behaviour-Consequence (SOBC) model (Fred Luthans) takes the best of all models such as S-R, R-S and S-O-R inclusive of the whole person and human dignity features of people.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
It is captured by the Social Learning theory of Albert Bandura when he takes the position that behaviour can best be explained in terms of continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioural and environmental determinants.
How managers can manage and control human behaviour at work it is pertinent that managers shall learn how to manage and control human behaviour at work to the advantage of all.
Keith Davis provides for four Models of Organisational Behaviour as given in table below.
Managers like any human being have mental models about people and organisations which they develop through assimilation, and socialisation.
After careful perusal of the Table given below the learning managers in the making can place their belief patterns into the framework and work upon their mental models.
They should keep in mind that these four models are the essence of managerial styles in handling human behaviour developed over and learnt from history.
No model shall be conceived exclusively good or bad and always effective. Basing on the maturity of organisations and the people in it, all the models at different periods of time and situation may be helpful.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
Autocratic model works with formal official authority and power is used to oblige employees to follow orders without questions and interpretation as the management implicitly assumes that it knows what is best.
Management assumes that employees are passive and even resistant to organisational needs- they have to be persuaded and pushed into performance, and this is the management task (Theory X postulate of McGregor). F.W.Taylor Scientific Management largely focused on it.
Employees in turn shall be obedient and exhibit high degree of compliance i.e. takes orders and does not talk back. It has worked in history.
Autocratic model combined with benevolence has been upheld as a workable method of managing.
| Variables | Autocratic | Custodial | Supportive | Collegial |
| Depends On | power | economic resource | leadership | contribution |
| Managerial orientation | authority | material rewards | support | teamwork |
| Employee result | obedience | security | performance | responsibility |
| Employee needs | personal dependency | organisational dependency | participation | self-discipline |
| Performance result | subsistence | security | high order | self-realization |
| moral measure | minimum | passive coperation | drives | enthusiasm |
A compliant employee may not talk back but cannot be stopped from ‘thought back’. Pent up feelings of frustration, insecurity and aggression sometimes erupt to the detriment of both the organisation and the employee.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
Satisfaction came to be an important outcome for employees under the custodial model. The managers used welfare, and HR practices to keep the employees happy.
The purpose however is perhaps to add ‘organisational dependency’ atop a reduced ‘dependency on the boss’. The subordinate may extend passive cooperation under subdued conditions.
Herzberg calls it hygiene factors with no motivational value and cautions that with a satisfied need being not a motivator, psychological expectations towards autonomy and challenging responsibilities may emerge.
The supportive model expects mangers to give their employees more of psychological support than economic support. MMPC 11 Free Solved Assignment
Rensis Likert’s ’employeeoriented supervisor supporting Elton Mayo’ small work groups in a supportive role is considered more satisfying than the economic support of welfare and HR.
It is the supportive leader who makes the difference in taking people along with as a motivator (Theory Y proposition of McGregor) The collegial model readily adapts to the flexible, intellectual environment of project and matrix organisations.
It promotes team work, recognises individual contributions as worthy, and instils a sense of self-discipline.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
To conclude,it needs appreciation that all these models have relevance depending on the situational dynamics, maturity of ‘actors’ and above all the changing contexts Managers have to monitor the work activities of their team and the external forces the impact the way their team performs.
Without that monitoring, you won’t know whether your management plan is working or if it needs to be adjusted.
As a manager, you must control those elements that you can control to keep everyone moving toward the goal.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
Examples of elements under your control include things like employee workstations and the temperature of the workspace.
Q2- Describe various personality theories and discuss how personality plays an important role in organisational behaviour with examples ?
Ans-In organizational behavior studies individual personality is important because the employees individual personality refer to their dynamic mental structure and coordinated process of the mind,
which determine their emotional and behavior adjustments to organisation.
various personality theories various personality theories.
Emotional Orientations- Jung feels that the two basic Orientations of people are extroversion and introversion. Introverts are primarily oriented to the subjective world.
They look inward at themselves, avoid ‘social contacts and initiating interaction with others, withdrawn, quiet and enjoy solitude.
Extroverts are friendly, enjoy interaction with people, are generally aggressive and express their feelings and ideas openly.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
Managers should gain an understanding of themselves and learn how understanding others can make them better managers.
Validity results showed that introvert/extrovert is really applicable to only the rare extremes. Most individuals tend to be ambiverts, that is, they are in between introversion and extroversion.
Problem-solving Styles Jung identified two basic steps in problem solving: collecting information and making decision. Collecting data occurs in a continuum from sensing to intuition.
In terms of decision-making, it ranges from thinking’ to ‘feeling’ types. Sensing-type: The person approaches the problem in a step by step organised way.
The person works steadily and patiently with details. Intuitive type: One who does not show a lot of emotion, who can put things in a logical order and who can be firm and fair.
THEORIES OF PERSONALITY Passages TheorySheehy (1976) with her extensive research concluded that adults progress through five crises:
(1– Pulling up Roots: This period occurs between the ages of eighteen and twenty two, when individuals exit from home and incur physical, financial, and emotional separation from parents.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
They cover their fears and uncertainty with acts of defiance and mimicked confidence.
(2– The Trying Twenties: This period is a time of opportunity, but also includes the fear that choices are irrevocable.
Two forces push upon us – one is to build a firm, safe structure for the future by making strong commitments and the other is to explore and experiment and keep flexible as to commitments
(3– The Catch – Thirties: Approaching the age thirty is a time in which life commitments are made, broken or renewed. It may mean setting towards a new phase or calming down of idealistic dreams to realistic goals.
Commitments are changed or they are deepened. There is change, turmoil, and often an urge to be out of the routine.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
(4- The Deadline Decade: The ten years between the age of thirty-five and forty-five represent a crossroad. This period is characterised by a reexamination of one’s purposes and how the resources will be spent from now on.
(5– Renewal or Resignation: The mid forties bring a period of stability. The individual who can find a purpose and direction upon which to continue building his or her life, the mid forties may well be the best years.
(6– These stages are related to working places. It is expected that all employees face crises during their careers – Just as young people pass through identity crises, during their teenage years, adults too go through stages – insecurity, opportunities presented, opportunities forgone and lost, and either the acceptance of new challenges or resignation.
These crises create the opportunity for an employee to alter his or her goals, commitments, and loyalties to the organisation.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
When employees reach their forties, they re-examine their goals and make important adjustments in their lives.
Their personalities may undergo significant changes resulting in behavioural patterns quite different from his or her environment.
Maturation Theory: Chris Argyris has postulated a maturation theory of personality development that proposes that all healthy people seek situations that offer autonomy, wise interests, to be treated equally, MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
and the opportunity to exhibit their ability to deal with complexity.
Healthy individuals tend to move from immaturity to maturity:
1) From being passive to engaging in increasing activity,
2) From dependence on others to independence.
3) From having few ways to behave to possess many alternatives.
4) From having shallow interests to developing deeper interests.
5) From short time perspective to having a longer time perspective.
6) From being in a subordinate position to viewing oneself as equal or superior
7) From lack of awareness of oneself to awareness of oneself,
According to Argyris, healthy people will show the behaviours of maturity while unhealthy people tend to demonstrate childlike immature behaviours.
Further, Argyris argues that most organisations tend to their employees like children, making them dependent.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
The manager who understands personality development is better able to predict these crises and recognise them as natural transitions that adults encounter.
Neither trait nor type approach, or theories of personality presented help in predicting behaviour of an individual. The reason is, they ignore situational contexts.
Personality an important role in organisational behaviour Understanding of personality is very important because by determining what characteristics will make for effective job performance,MMPC 11 Free Solved Assignment
it can aid in personnel selections; by increasing understanding of how personality and job characteristics interact it can result in better hiring,
transfer and promotion decisions, and by providing insights into personality development it can help to anticipate, recognise and prevent the operationalising of costly defenses by organisational members.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
There are certain procedures by which personalities can be predicted:
1) Rating Scales’ from peers or friends help in predicting the behaviour.
2) ‘Experimental procedures’ which help in the assessment of some
characteristics of person.
3) With the help of Questionnaire’ one can assess behaviour of the other,
provided the answers are genuine.
4) Projective Tests like Thematic Appreciation Test, Rorschach’s Ink-Blot test
help in predicting the personality of an individual.
These measures help in effectiveness of the organisation.
Q3- What are the various sources of conflict in organisations and discuss how to manage and prevent conflicts citing suitable examples?
Ans-Conflict can be defined as the situation or circumstances where the differences between two people, groups or individual and group remain unsettled or ambiguous.
Conflict has always been considered as something negative and harmful experience. Conflict can be good or bad but it totally depends on the individuals how to take it.
The values, beliefs, feelings of the individuals or groups who are involved in conflict plays major role in a good or bad conflict.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
Various sources of conflict in organisations In an organisation take place simply due to lack of understanding between people.
A large number of potential sources of conflict exist in organisational life as antecedent conditions and form a realistic basis for some conflicts.
In this section, we shall quickly review some such sources. Competition for Limited Resources Any group exists for the purpose of attaining some goals within the available resources.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
These resources may be tangible like men, materials, and money or intangible like power, status or the manager’s time.
No organisation can provide all the resources demanded by different units. If resources are limited, different groups have to compete for these and many conflicts may arise in such a situation.
Diversity of Goals Different groups in an organisation perform different functions and hence develop their own norms and goals.
Theoretically, achievement of these goals should help an organisation to fulfil its mission.
But, in practice, it is possible that goals of one group may not be compatible with the goals of another group. Take, for example, a company which manufactures electric fans, which have seasonal demand.
Three departments – marketing, production and finance – would be involved in various operations. Since the demand for the product is seasonal, the marketing manager would like to have sufficient stock.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
The production department will have to gear up its capacity during the season but if labour market is tight, s/he may find it difficult to hire labour temporarily and therefore suggest resorting to employment of people on a permanent basis.
The finance manager may find the storage costs high and it may be expensive to keep stock build up. Besides, maintaining the production line during slack season imposes an additional burden. MMPC 11 Free Solved Assignment
This example shows that goals of different departments may be conflicting and one department may try to achieve its goals at the expense of another.
This happens quite often when the reward system is linked to group performance rather than to overall organisational performance. Does such a source of conflict exist in your utility?MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
Task Interdependence Groups in an organisation do not function independent of one another. They have to interact with one another in order to accomplish their tasks.
The sales department will have nothing to sell unless the production people generate power to meet the ever growing demand and for this the finance department has to provide adequate funds.
Thus smooth interaction between various groups is essential for efficient functioning of the organisation. Three types of interdependences can cause inter-group conflict pooled, sequential and reciprocal.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
(1— Pooled interdependence exists when two groups, which do not interact with each other directly, are affected by each other’s actions.
It is then possible that if one independent group performs poorly, all other groups may suffer financially. This can happen when rewards are contingent upon collective performance.
For example, if T&D losses are high and metering/ billing is faulty, the overall revenue generation will be low and adversely affect the interest of all in a power utility
(2 – Sequential interdependence occurs when one group’s performance depends on another group’s prior performance.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
In a construction project, for example, the excavating team must prepare the foundation before the masons can work on the building structure.
Since the masons depend on the excavators, conflict between the groups can occur when the excavators’ work is delayed.
(3— Reciprocal interdependence occurs when two or more groups are mutually interdependent in accomplishing their tasks.
For example, in developing and marketing a new product, three major departments (marketing, production and research) depend on each other to perform their tasks.
Information possessed by a department is needed by another department.
That is, the research department needs market information and marketing needs research to provide customer services.
When one group is unable to meet the expectations of another, inter-group conflict usually results.
Differences in Values and Perception A lot of conflict is generated within organisations because various groups within a organisation hold ‘conflicting’ values and perceive situations in a narrow and individualistic manner. Managementlabour conflict is a well-known example.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
Labour nurtures the feeling that management is exploiting it, if in spite of making a profit, the latter does nothing for the economic welfare of the former.
On the other hand, management feels that the profits should go to cash reserves so as to make the company an attractive proposition for investors. Can you think of a similar situation in your power utility? MMPC 11 Free Solved Assignment
Organisational Ambiguities Conflict may emerge when two organisational units compete over a new responsibility.
Inter-group conflict stemming from disagreement about who has the responsibility for ongoing tasks is an even more frequent problem.
Newcomers to organisations are often struck by the ambiguity that exists about job responsibilities.
Few organisations make extensive use of job descriptions or periodically update the job descriptions. Further, it is rare that a manager or employee consults her/his own job description.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
Introduction of Change Change can breed inter-group conflict. Acquisitions and mergers, for example, encourage intergroup conflict, competition, and stress.
When one organisation. is merged into another, a power struggle often sets in between the employees of the acquiring and acquired companies.
To minimise conflict, it is important to lay down plans for power sharing before the acquisition or merger is consummated.
Frequently, the acquired company is given representation on the Board of Directors of the acquiring company. Nevertheless, power struggles are difficult to avoid.
Nature of Communication One of the major fallacies abounding about conflict is that poor communication is the cause of all conflicts.
A typical statement is: ‘if we could just communicate with each other well, we could eliminate our differences.’MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
Since we have very little time for communicating with one another, considering the workload most of us have, conflict due to poor communication can arise unknowingly.
In fact, the potential for conflict increases when either too little or too much communication takes place.
Apparently, an increase in communication is functional only up to a point; over-communication can result in potential for conflict.
That is, too much or too little information sharing can lay the foundation for a conflict.
Aggressive Nature of People Another factor that has immense potential for generating conflict within an organisation is personality characteristics that account for individual differences.
Evidence suggests that certain personality types-for example, individuals who are highly authoritarian, arrogant, autocratic or dogmatic-lead to potential conflict.
People have a natural need to find an outlet for their aggressive tendencies.
Organisations are sometimes used as arenas for expression of aggression – ‘blowing off steam’ -leading to conflict.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
This discussion on the sources of conflict is intended to emphasise that no organisation can remain conflict-free for all times. However, these sources are not to be confused with the causes of a conflict.
A conflict, in ultimate analysis, is caused by perceptions and feelings people experience when an incompatibility exists between what they want and what someone else wants.
When perception of incompatibility and feeling of frustration are translated into actions, conflict is manifested.
Many conflicts happen in the workplace, for example conflicts between employees because of the power that one of them have.
Another example is conflicts between employees and employer because of not giving any bonuses or other types of motivation.
Conflict should never be avoided in an organization as this may affect the performance of the individuals and the organization.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
Addressing the issues at the initial stage is important that will not make the situation worse and also helps in increasing team cohesiveness.
Q4- What is Social Perception? Discuss the problems involved in social perception and how to overcome them with examples?
Ans-Social Perception –Perception is the process through which people receive, organize, and interpret information about their environment.
Perceiving involves becoming aware of the world around us and processing information about that world. Perception is the method by which we come to understand ourselves, other people, situations, and events. MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
Social perception is the process by which we interpret information about another person or other people. Our social perceptions help us form opinions and judgments about others.
Social perception is of interest to organizational behaviorists because so many managerial activities are based on perceptions of employees.
For instance, managers use social perceptions when they recruit, hire, train, and evaluate employees. To arrive at an understanding of the factors that influence social perception,
we will consider the characteristics of the perceiver, the person being perceived, and the situation. Of particular interest in organisational behaviour is the process of social perception or person perception.
Person or social perception is the process by which individuals attribute characteristics or traits to other people.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
It is closely related to attribution which will also be discussed in this unit later on.
The concept of social perception has relevance to organisational behaviour because here the object being perceived in the environment is another person.
Even though an understanding of perceptions of situations, events and objects are important, it is the knowledge of individual differences in perception of other people which plays a crucial role in employee behaviour in work environment.
Thus, social perception is merely concerned with knowing how one individual perceives other individuals. We usually categorise factors that influence how a person perceives another in terms of : MMPC 11 Free Solved Assignment
Characteristics or attributes of the person being perceived
• Characteristics of the perceiver
• Situation or context within which the perception takes place.
It is such attributes which make the social perception a very complex phenomenon.
It is important to note that usually one’s social perception process is greatly influenced by one’s own characteristics and also the characteristics of the other person. Let us take an example.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
For instance, if the marketing manager with a high self-esteem sees an attractive and pleasant regional manager (sales) is relocated to head office,
the marketing manager is likely to perceive the regional manager in a favourable and positive frame of mind.
But if the marketing manager was a person with average or low self-esteem while the regional manager is confident and outspoken and aggressive,he may be perceived in a negative and unfavourable manner.
Thus, attributes do play a significant role in social perception. Simply stated, very often we have the tendency to perceive others through the filters of our own image of ourselves.
Problems in Social Perception There are four common problems or errors which affect the social perception process namely, halo effect, stereotyping, projection, and expectancy.
Halo Effect ErrorThe halo effect, also referred to as the halo error, is a type of cognitive bias whereby our perception of someone is positively influenced by our opinions of that person’s other related traits.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
Evaluation of another person solely on the basis of one attribute, either favourable or unfavourable, is called the halo effect.
This means the halo effect blinds the perceiver to take notice of the other attributes which also are to be considered if the evaluator has to obtain a complete and accurate impression of the other person.
Managers have to make efforts to guard against the halo effect especially during a preliminary interview with a prospective employee or rating an existing employee’s job performance.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
One trait may be singled out and used for passing judgment on the performance of the individual.
For instance, the interviewer may perceive a beautiful candidate to be suitable to be a personal secretary, though actually she may be a poor typist and bad.
Stereotyping refers to the tendency to assign attributes to a person solely on the basis of a category of people of which he or she is a member.
People have a tendency to expect someone identified as a doctor, lawyer, or a politician to possess certain attributes even if they have met few others who did not have these attributes Stereotyping often results in attributing favourable or unfavourable traits to the person being perceived.
Very often the person may be aware of only the overall category to which the person being perceived belongs and is thus put into a stereotype.
(The perceiver fails to recognise the characteristics that will distinguish the person as an individual and his unique traits and qualities).
For instance, common man may refer to a politician saying “he is a politician and hence will be corrupt.”MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
It can be inferred from this statement that what the common man may want to say was that because he belongs to the class of politicians he can safely be labelled as “corrupt”.
Stereotyping affects social perceptions in organisations where the most common stereotyped groups are managers, blue collared workers, supervisors, administrative staff and trade union members.
Projection Under certain conditions, people tend to see in another person traits that they themselves possess. That is, they project their own feelings, tendencies, or motives into their judgement of others.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
This may be particularly true regarding undesirable traits which the perceiver possesses but fails to recognise in himself.
For example, an individual who is himself not very energetic may see others as lazy or may explain their lack of achievement as resulting from their unwillingness to work hard.
One who is dishonest may be suspicious of others and may perceive dishonest intentions in others where they do not exist.
People who are afraid may interpret others’ behaviour as fearful or anxious.
Expectancy is a tendency to perceive people, objects or events on the basis of what we expected them to be in the first place. It is sometimes referred to as “pygmallion effect”.
Pygmallion was a mythical Greek sculptor who made a statute of a girl that he wanted and made her come to life so that what sprang to life was what he expected.
Through expectancy, one may create certain things in the work situation that he/she is expected to start with. This aspect is also known as “self-fulfilling prophecy”.
The Social Perception and Faces subtests both require processing facial information.
When patients have low scores on Social Perception and Faces, they may have a general deficit in face processing that may be affecting their performance on the Social Perception test. MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
In contrast, patients whose Social Perception scores are low and whose Faces scores are within normal limits are likely to have intact face processing, suggesting a specific deficit in emotion recognition or processing of emotional content.
Q5- What is organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) and it’s antecedents. How does OCB help organizations. Discuss with relevant examples?
Ans- Organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB)Organisational Citizenship Behaviours (OCB) refer to the level to which employees are prepared to go above and beyond the behaviours and tasks that are designated by their role for the good of the organisation and the people within it.
Organizational citizenship behaviours (OCBs) are individual,discretionary actions by employees that are outside their formal job description.
Managers who are aware of the pros and cons of OCBs can help employees contribute optimally to the organization and avoid burnout.
The term ‘Organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB)’ was coined in the late 1980.
Since then it has undergone few revisions, though the basic concept remains the same.
OCB refers to any spontaneous action that is executed by the employee, as desired by him/her, which is not mandated by the organization or demanded by the seniors even.
The basic understanding of OCB as going ‘the extra mile’ or ‘above and beyond’ to help others at work is what many are familiar with, and that is how OCB is conceptualised.
An employee extending a helping hand to a newcomer, or helping a colleague in his task or volunteering to change shifts are few typical examples of OCB.
Apart from these organizational related acts like extending the shift to complete the task or volunteering to organise events without expecting any additional remuneration, also come under OCB.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
Even before the term OCB was coined, Barnard (1938) came out with a definition that would rightly define OCB.
He stated that “the willingness of individuals to contribute cooperative efforts to the organization was indispensable to effective attainment of organizational goals.
ANTECEDENTS OF OCB
As OCB is found to be beneficial in every organization, identifying and thoroughly investigating the factors which influences engagement in OCB, would furthermore enable people to engage in OCB. MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
Serious attempts have been and are being made by academicians, to identify the predictors of OCB, and they have undoubtedly succeeded in doing so.
“A wide range of employee, task, organizational and leader characteristics are consistently found to predict different types of OCB across a range of occupations” (Podsakoff et. al, 2000).
The predictors so far identified by researchers include, Attitude, Employee engagement, organizational commitment, job satisfaction, perceived organizational support, perceived supervisory support and organizational justice.
Personality variables such as conscientiousness and agreeableness also influence people to engage in OCB (Organ & Ryan, 1995).
Organ (2006) stated that leadership styles like Instrumental leadership, Supportive leadership and Transformational leadership, can encourage OCB in various ways if deployed effectively, provided the quality of leader-member exchange (LMX) is high.
Leader-member exchange deals with the interaction between a superior and a subordinate.
Such interaction is characterised by mutual trust and liking, which facilitates OCB.
Leadership characteristics and a healthy Leader-member exchange have a strong influence on an employee’s willingness to engage in OCB.
Ultimately it is the trust between the Leaders and subordinate, that counts, rather than different styles of leadership (Podsakoff et al., 2000).
The reward behaviour of the leader, that is recognising and appreciating the employees on their achievements and rewarding them appropriately, is positively related to OCB (Podsakoff et. al, 2000).MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
The research on the antecedents of OCB conducted by Smith & Bateman, (1983) and Organ (1983) revealed that job satisfaction is the best predictor of OCB.
It was further substantiated by (Brown, 1993) who stated that Employees with high levels of job satisfaction are more likely to be engage in OCB.
Moreover, individuals with higher levels of job satisfaction never had the intention to leave the organization (Sager, 1994)
Affective organizational commitment is another factor which is often cited as an antecedent of OCB. MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
Affective commitment is conceptualized as a strong belief in, and acceptance of, an organization’s goals and a strong desire to maintain membership in the organization (Van Dyne et al., 1995).
Affective commitment enhances engagement to OCB, without expecting any formal rewards. (Allen & Meyer, 1996).
Organizational Justice refer to whether or not employees feel organizational decisions are unbiased, and also if employee opinion is considered before decision making.
It also refer to whether or not employees perceive that they are being treated equally with respect to training, tenure, responsibility or workload.
Perceptions of fairness are positively related to OCB (Moorman, 1991)
Research on the role of Group Characteristics on OCB, revealed that group cohesiveness, teammember exchange, group potency and perceived team support were positively related to OCB (Organ et al., 2006)
Perceived organizational support (POS) is the degree to which employees believe that their organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being and fulfils socioemotional needs.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
Perceived Organizational Support (POS) refers to employees’ perception concerning the extent to which the organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being.
The relationship between POS and OCB has always been positive.
Perceived supervisory support (PSS) is defined as the degree to which supervisors value the contributions, opinions or gestures of their subordinates and care about their well-being (Rhoades and Eisenberger 2002).
As such, PSS has been conceptualized to explain why subordinates display commitment to their supervisor.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
PSS is defined as the degree to which supervisors value the contributions, opinions or gestures of their subordinates and care about their well-being (Rhoades and Eisenberger 2002). The relationship between OCB and POS have always been positive.
How does OCB help organizations
The different forms of OCB (helping others, civic virtue and sportsmanship) contribute to promoting organizational effectiveness in different ways.
Because these extra efforts enhance organizational performance even if OCBs are not rewarded by the employer, a great deal of effort has been made to understand why employees are willing to go the extra mile.
“The extent to which employees exhibit OCB is a function of ability, motivation and opportunity” (Organ et al., 2006). MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
The antecedents identified by the academicians and researchers can be used as guidelines to improve the rate of OCB.
It becomes essential for the top management and supervisors to focus on motivating employees to engage in OCB. This could be achieved by various strategies as follows:
Sense of Belongingness: Top management should always work towards increasing the sense of belongingness among employees.
This can be done by encouraging staff to attend office functions, get-togethers outside office premises, cultural events and office-wide birthday lunches
Enlightening Supervisors: Launching an awareness programme on OCB among the supervisors will make them more aware of employee displays of OCB.
They can include OCB in their performance appraisals, or devise their own casual/ informal reward system to encourage OCB. Supervisors should readily recognise and reward employees’ OCB.
Recruitment – While recruiting freshers, the panel should look for an outgoing, attentive, enthusiastic employee with a positive outlook and ‘can do’ attitude, who will be more inclined to engage in OCB.MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
The panel should also look for traits related to OCB in their psychometric testing.Such employees would definitely motivate others to perform OCB.
Environment: the working environment and the process should be designed such that it is conducive for employees to engage in OCB.
Certain types of group norms (e.g. everyone should only do the minimum amount of work required, no one should talk to the supervisor) can hinder the employees’ initiative and spontaneity, and this will decrease incidents of OCB.
Top Management: The top management should have an inclination towards OCB, thereby motivating the employees to engage in OCB.
The process of the organization should be such that it encourages employees to exhibit extra-role behaviour. MMPC 11 Solved Free Assignment 2022
Managers play an important role when it comes to encouraging organizational
citizenship behavior. First, as leaders, they need to set an example.
If people see their manager being polite and considerate, supporting team members where they can, be ‘good losers’, and participating in (charity) events outside work, it will inspire them to do the same on their own level, at least to a certain extent.
MMPC 13 Free Solved Assignment July 2022 & Jan 2022
MMPC 12 Free Solved Assignment July 2022 & Jan 2022