Individual Behavior at work

Objectives: The nature of individual differences. Basic theories of personality , perception , attitude. Their Significance for human behavior at work Managerial strategies for the diagnosis and control of individual behavioral problems, such as stress , and resistance to change.

Individual Behavior at work Perception Personality Individual Behavior at work Attitude Conflict ,Stress and Change Ability and Aptitude

Individual Behavior at work Personality Personality: -What is personality -Traits and types -The big 5 factors -Self and self image -Personality and work behavior Perception Individual Behavior at work Attitude Conflict ,Stress and Change Ability and Aptitude

Personality: What is personality ? Traits and types It is the total pattern of characteristic ways of thinking , feeling and behaving that constitute the individual distinctive method of relating to environment. Tow main approaches (nomothetic and idiographic ) Traits and types Traits are consistently observable properties , or the tendency for a person to behave in a particular way. If you say someone is generally sweet-tempered or undemonstrative ,you are identifying traits in their personality

The Big Five factors The five-factor model is comprised of five personality dimensions OCEAN Openness to experience vs. not open to experience Conscientiousness vs. undirectedness Extroversion vs. introversion Agreeable vs. antagonism Neuroticism vs. emotional stability

Self and self image Self George Herbert Mead (1934) noted that despite the constraints of social values and norms, people still display originality and individuality. Self has two components: I – spontaneous and unique eg: knowledgeable ME – learnt through exposure to society eg: leadership, soft skills Self image People have subjective picture of what their own self is like; this is called a ‘self-image’.

Personality and Behavior at work Managers will have to consider the following aspects: 1-compatability of individual’s personality with the task. 2-compatability of individual’s personality with the systems and management culture of the organization 3-compatability of individual’s personality with that of the others in the team. Incase incompatibilities occur , managers will have to: 1- restore compatibility 2-achieve compromise 3-remove the incompatible personality

Individual Behavior at work Perception Perception: What is Perception Perception and Work behavior Personality Individual Behavior at work Attitude Conflict ,Stress and Change Ability and Aptitude

Perception: What is Perception: Perception is the psychological process by which stimuli or in-coming sensory data are selected and organised into patterns which are meaningful to the individual.

Perceptual Organization Perceptual Selection Context – People ‘ see what they want to see’ Nature of the stimuli – Our attention tends to be drawn to large, bright, loud, unfamiliar, moving and repeated stimuli Internal factors – Our attention is drawn to stimuli that match out personality, needs, interests, expectation and so on. Fear or trauma – People are able to avoid seeing things that they don’t want to see. Perceptual Organization -Is the process through which incoming stimuli are organized or patterned in systematic and meaningful ways. -A complementary process of perceptual organisation deals with the interpretation of the data which has been gathered and filtered. -The brain groups, separates and patterns stimuli to make them recognisable and useful to the individual.

Perception and Behavior at work Consider whether you might be misinterpreting the situation. e.g.: you are in a meeting and doing a presentation about some crucial information. May a part of the information is very awkward and you try to skip it. There are possibilities that this act might make you misinterpret the information. Consider whether others might be misinterpreting the situation, or interpreting it differently from you. Similarly there are times that you say something very nice to your friend but in a different tone and your friend might misinterpret the whole situation and then might stop talking to you. When tackling a task or a problem, get the people involved to define the situation as they see it. Therefore, it is always suggested that try to get the people involved i.e. ask them to repeat what they heard before the confusion goes on and creates problems.

Individual Behavior at work Attitude Personality Perception Individual Behavior at work Attitude: What are attitudes. Attitudes at work Conflict ,Stress and Change Ability and Aptitude

What are attitudes Attitudes are the established ways of responding to people and situations that we have learned, based on the beliefs, values and assumptions we hold. Attitudes become manifest through your behavior. An attitude is a mental and neural state of readiness exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is related.

Attitudes at work Behavior in the work is influenced by: -Attitude to work -Work conditions -People -Task -The organization and management -Other people -Politics Non-work factors -Class and class consciousness -Age -Race, culture or religion -Lifestyle and interests -Gender -Interpersonal relations at work -The self concept of the individual Attitudes to work

Individual Behavior at work Ability and Aptitude: Perception Personality Individual Behavior at work Attitude Ability and Aptitude: Ability and Aptitude Intelligence Learning Conflict ,Stress and Change

Ability and Aptitude / Intelligence Abilities are things that people can do or are good at – largely believed to be inherited where as aptitude is the capacity to learn and develop abilities or skills. Intelligence is a wide and complex concept. Recent work appears to confirm the commonsense observation that intelligence takes many forms including : Analytic Intelligence (measured by IQ) / Spatial intelligence / musical intelligence / Physical Intelligence / practical intelligence / intra personal intelligence / interpersonal intelligence

Learning Learning is the acquisition and development of memories and behaviors, including skills, knowledge, understanding, values, and wisdom. It is the product of experience and the goal of education. Learning ranges from simple forms of learning such as habituation and classical conditioning . The learning cycle by David Kolb

Conflict ,Stress and Change: Personality Perception Individual Behavior at work Attitude Conflict ,Stress and Change: -Conflict -Controlling conflict -Symptoms of stress -Causes of stress Change Overcoming resistance to change Ability and Aptitude

Conflict ,Stress and Change: Main reasons of conflict: The need to share scarce resources Differences in goals between organizational units Differences in values, attitudes or perception among members of different units Stress : Stress is a term which is often loosely used to describe feelings of tension or exhaustion usually associated with too much, or overly demanding work. Symptoms of stress: Nervous tension – irritability and increased sensitivity, digestive disorders Withdrawal – unusual quietness and reluctance to communicate Low morale – low confidence, dissatisfaction, poor discipline Causes of stress: -Too many demands on the individual -Too few demands on the individual -Uncertainty and therefore insecurity -Personality factors

Change Change affects individuals in all sorts of ways. Examples: change in the shift, change in the layout, change in the working conditions Overcoming Resistance to change: The pace of change The scope of change The manner of change