IGNOU ASSIGNMENT SOLUTIONS
MASTER OF COMMERCE (MCOM - SEMESTER 1)
MCO-01 - Organisation Theory and Behavior
MCO - 01 /TMA/2024
Please Note:
These assignments are valid for two admission cycles (January 2024 and July 2024). The validity is given below:
1 Those who are enrolled in January 2024, it is valid upto June 2024.
2 Those who are enrolled in July 2024, it is valid upto December 2024.
In case you are planning to appear in June Term-End Examination, you must submit the assignments to the Coordinator of your Study Centre latest by 15th March, and if you are planning to appear in December Term-End Examination, you must submit them latest by 15th September.
Question No. 1
What are various principles of management? How are modern organisations different from typical classical organisations, in terms of practices of various principles of management?
Answer:
An organisation is a coordinated social entity, grouped together and interact for the achievement of the common goal. It refers to the process of identification and grouping of activities, defining and establishing the authority responsibility relationship and determining the manner in which the organisational activities are interrelated. Thus the organisation consists of a group of people working together for the achievement of the organisational goal. Various theories have been propounded which explain the organisation in terms of closed, open and dynamic system.
The principles of organisation are guidelines for planning an efficient organisation structure. Let us discuss the important principles of organisation :
Unity of Objectives : An enterprise strives to accomplish certain objectives. The organisation and every part of it should be directed towards the attainment of objectives. Every member of the organisation should be familiar with its goals and objectives. There must be unity of objective so that all efforts can be concentrated on the set goals. The principle requires objectives to be clearly formulated and well understood.
Division of Work and Specialisation : The entire work in the organisation should be divided into various parts so that every individual is confined to the performance of a single job. This facilitates specialisation which in turn leads to efficiency and quality. However, each area of specialisation must be interrelated to the total integrated system by means of coordination of all activities of all departments.
Definition of Jobs : Every position in the organisation should be clearly defined in relation to other positions in the organisation. The duties and responsibilities assigned to every position and its relationship with other positions should be so defined that there is no overlapping of functions.
Separation of Line and Staff Functions : Whenever possible, line functions should be separated from staff activities. Line functions are those which accomplish the main objectives of the company. In many manufacturing companies, the manufacturing and sales departments are considered to be accomplishing the main objectives of the business and so are called the line functions. Other functions like personnel, plant maintenance, financing and legal are considered as staff functions.
Chain of Command or Scalar Principle : There must be clear lines of authority running from the top to the bottom of the organisation. Authority is the right to decide, direct and coordinate. The organisation structure should facilitate delegation of authority. Clarity is achieved through delegation by steps or levels from the top position to the operating level. From the chief executive, a line of authority may proceed to departmental managers, to supervisors or foremen and finally to workers. This chain of command is also known as scalar principle of organisation.
Parity of Authority and Responsibility or Principle of Correspondence : Responsibility should always be coupled with corresponding authority. Each subordinate must have sufficient authority to discharge the responsibility entrusted to him. This principle suggests that if a plant manager in a multiplant organisation is held accountable for all activities in his plant, he should not be subject to seek orders from company headquarters for his day to day activities.
Unity of Command : No one in the organisation should report to more than one line supervisor. Everyone in the organisation should know to whom he reports and who reports to him. Stated simply, everyone should have only one boss. Receiving directions from several supervisors may result in confusion, chaos, conflicts and lack of action.
Unity of Direction : According to this principle a group of activities that have a common goal should be managed by one person. There should be one head and one plan for a common objective of different activities. This facilitates smooth progression towards the achievements of overall organisational goals.
Exception Principle : This principle suggests that higher level managers should attend to exceptional matters only. All routine decisions should be taken at lower level, whereas problems involving unusual matters and policy decisions should be referred to higher levels.
Span of Supervision : The term ‘span of supervision’ means the number of persons a manager or a supervisor can direct. No manager should be required to supervise more subordinates than he can effectively manage within the limits of available time and ability. The exact number may vary according to the nature of the job and the frequency of intensity of supervision needed.
Principle of Balance : There should be proper balance between various parts of the organisation and no function should be given undue importance at the cost of others. Balance should be maintained also between centralisation and decentralisation, span of supervision and lines of communication, and authority allocated to department and personnel at various levels.
Communication : A good communication network is essential to achieve the objectives of an organisation. No doubt the line of authority provides channels of communication downward and upward, still some blocks in communication occur in many organisation. The confidence of superior in his subordinates and two-way communication are the factors that unite an organisation into an effectively operating system.
Flexibility : The organisation structure should be flexible so that it can be easily and economically adopted to the changes in the nature of business as well as technological innovations. Flexibility of organisation structure ensures the ability to change with the environment without disrupting the basic design.
Continuity : Change is the law of nature. Many changes take place outside the organisation. These changes must be reflected in the organisation. For this purpose the form of organisation structure must be able to serve the enterprise to attain its objective for a long period of time.
Differences between traditional and modern organization structures
The following list demonstrates how traditional and modern organizational structures differ from one another:
Decision-making
In a traditional organizational structure, the decision-making power is highest at the top and reduces as it moves down the chart. The CEO has the most decision-making power and may delegate some decisions to their department heads, who may then turn some decisions over to their team supervisors. In this structure, employees have little decision-making power and instead receive instructions from their supervisors. Having power centralized amongst a few members of the organization can be beneficial because it provides clear organization-wide messages about goals and expectations, eliminating the potential for confusion.
A modern organizational structure, however, does not use that system of centralized power. Instead, non-management employees often can determine what projects they want to work on and the methods they use to complete them. In some situations, managerial staff may even collaborate with employees or take their feedback on decisions made at the company. This method helps empower employees by making their voices and ideas heard at the company. Because employees have more decision-making power in a modern organizational structure, they can also proactively determine when and how to help other teams on projects rather than waiting for instructions from their supervisor to do so.
Communication
Due to the hierarchical nature of a traditional organization structure, the individuals at the highest level of management may have little communication with employees who are not their direct subordinates. For example, information from upper management may get disseminated through emails, newsletters or department heads.
A modern organizational structure has fewer departmental boundaries, which enables faster and easier communication methods. They may employ the use of instant messaging apps or software that allows everyone in the organization to communicate with one another. And in a flat organizational structure, for example, there is no middle management, so employees have more opportunities to speak directly to higher-level managers.
Teamwork
Businesses that follow the traditional organizational structure divide their employees into departments or divisions depending on their roles. As a result, employees from different departments may have few chances to work with one another. The focus on their specific role also enables them to gain significant knowledge and experience, potentially making them experts in their field. However, because they only perform their particular job and work with colleagues performing similar tasks, it may limit their opportunities to stretch their abilities and learn more about other aspects of the business.
Businesses with modern organizational structures promote the ideas of teamwork and collaboration, enabling employees from different areas to work together. Pulling in resources can help solve problems or reach goals more quickly. These teams often have more autonomy than those in traditional structures, who must wait for instructions from their supervisor on how to complete tasks or projects. This system can help build relationships throughout the company, as employees realize they need to rely on one another, no matter what line of business they are in, to reach company goals.
Flexibility
Employees in traditional organizational structures have set roles and responsibilities that they fulfill. Organizations in stable business environments benefit from this structure because employees know how to complete their job and meet the typical challenges associated with it. If the nature of the organization's business rarely changes, then these set roles can make work more productive and efficient. Due to the more rigid nature of these organizations, it may be difficult for them to adapt to dynamic environments, or they may be slower to meet unexpected challenges.
Employees in modern organizational structures have more flexibility in their responsibilities, which benefits organizations in more dynamic environments. Having that flexibility enables employees to easily collaborate across departments to solve challenges. These employees also gain the opportunity to learn new things by working on projects or teams of their choosing.
Question No. 2
(a) How do principles of organisation facilitate smooth functioning of the organisation?
(b) How is team building useful for organisational development interventions?
Answer - (a part)
The principles of organization that can facilitate smooth functioning of organization are as follows:
Unity of objectives: There should be unity of objective for each member of the organization so that all collective efforts can be concentrated on the set goals. The objectives of organization should be well understood and formulated so that every member is familiar with it.
Division of work and specialization: The division of total work is done as to confine every individual to the performance of a single job. It facilitates specialization in the organization and enhances efficiency and quality. Every area of specialization should be interconnected to the total integrated system by means of coordinating together of all activities done in all departments.
Definition of job: There should be appropriate defining of every position in relation to other positions in the organization. The overlapping of functions should be avoided. It can be done by assigning duties and responsibilities to every position and its relationships with other positions in the organization.
Separation of line and staff functions: Line functions are those functions that help in accomplishing the main objectives of the company. These line functions should be separated from staff activities. The functions other than line functions are staff functions.
Chain of Command and Scalar Principle: According to this scalar principle, the line of authority from top level to bottom level of organization should be clearly defined. This authority refers to the right to decide direct and coordinate. The structure of the organization should facilitate delegation of authority. The clarity is completely achieved through delegation by steps or levels from the top position to the operating level of the organization. It is also referred to as chain of command.
Parity of Authority and Responsibility or Principle of Correspondence: The responsibility delivered to every employee should be accompanied with its corresponding authority. Every subordinate should have sufficient authority to perform responsibilities entrusted to him. It will make himself reliant and can help him in taking quiet decisions without concerning higher departments or authorities.
Unity of command: Every subordinate should report to his assigned superiors or boss. It will avoid state of confusion, chaos, conflicts and lack of action in the organization.
Unity of Direction: The unity of direction states that group of activities with a common goal should be managed by one person. It encourages one head and one plan of action for a common objective of different activities.
Exception principle: The exception principle states that high level of managers should attend to exceptional matters only. The higher level of managers should deal with problems that concerns with unusual matter and policy decisions. The routine decisions should be referred to lower level of managers.
Span of supervision: It refers to the number of persons that a manager or supervisor can direct or control. Every manager is confined with restricted numbers of subordinates so that he can direct them efficiently within the limits of available time and ability. The number of persons is dependent on the nature of job and the desired frequency of intensity of supervision required in the organization.
Principle of Balance: The principle of balance states that there should be proper balance between various parts of the organization. No function should be given undue importance at the cost of other functions. This balance should also be maintained between centralization and decentralization, span of supervision and lines of communication and authority allocated to department and personnel at various levels.
Communication: The objectives of organization desires good communication network. The two way communication between superiors and subordinates helps in uniting organization into working as effectively operating system.
Flexibility: The flexibility in organizational structure helps in adapting to changes in the nature of the business as well as changes corresponding to technological innovations.
Continuity: The continuity in efficient performance of organization can be achieved by adapting to new changes that takes place inside or outside the organization. It will help organization to survive and excel for longer duration of time.
Answer - (b part)
Team building is an effective strategy for organizations that want to cultivate an effective corporate culture where employees enjoy coming to work, trust each other, and collaborate easily. Creating a strong team goes beyond hiring competent and kind employees. Once a company hires employees, it's helpful to explore the next step of focusing on how to bring them together and transform them into a productive team. In this article, we discuss the importance of team building, share some team building tips, and suggest unique team building activity ideas.
The importance of team building
Here are reasons that convey the importance of team building activities in an organization and how you can implement them:
1. Builds trust
Trust is an essential element of an effective team. For employees to collaborate, knowing and earning trust from each other is crucial. Team building is an engaging activity involving diverse teams who interact through different activities away from office work to improve their teamwork. When an organization builds trust in the workplace, it allows employees to complete their tasks and make their own decisions.
Trust makes employees feel safe and quickly establishes their strengths and weaknesses. It may also make employees more proactive with their ideas, feel ready to take risks, listen to one another, and arrive at consensus more easily. Eventually, the entire team becomes more confident about exposing their vulnerabilities to each other.
2. Fosters better communication
When employees work together, they strategize the best way to handle tasks and deliver excellent results. They can divide tasks to work in small groups, share ideas, and complete the work efficiently. With proper communication, employees understand their roles and what their colleagues are doing. This enhances involvement in how others are performing, improves collaboration, and encourages people to assist each other in achieving their goals.
3. Improves performance
Team building involves doing activities that help foster the importance of sharing tasks in the workplace. If an employee has less work to do, they can help other teams to complete their work. This enhances the realization of project objectives, which increases the overall productivity of an organization. Through team building activities, employees learn new skills, which they incorporate into their existing skill set. It enhances the performance of a team, makes them more efficient and eventually complete tasks on time.
4. Encourages collaboration
One of the most significant benefits of team building is the improvement of interpersonal skills among employees. When people work together, they share their good and bad experiences. This brings them closer to each other and enhances trust. It also creates a friendly working environment where employees are free to request help or willingly assist others.
5. Connects remote teams
Organizations that have some of their teams working remotely use team building activities as an effective way of uniting all team members working from different locations. Even though remote teams also contribute to the production of a company, coming together helps them understand each other better. It's through these connections that people build new networks and create a more positive remote working environment.
6. Embrace diversity among working teams
Team building also promotes diversity. Most companies have employees who come from different countries, backgrounds, and cultures, and speak different languages. The importance of team building is to foster an inclusive environment, where people celebrate their differences, learn from each other, and open new opportunities for communication.
7. Attracts new talent
Candidates often look for roles based on more than earning a salary, including how an organization takes care of employees' welfare. Potential candidates may search for a friendly working environment that helps them achieve their career goals. Team building is an ideal strategy to attract and retain talented employees as it fosters cohesion, productivity, and a happy team.
10. Encourages innovativeness
When employees work together, they can generate great ideas. Organizations that encourage open forums where creative people sit and interact are likely to foster innovations. Typically, this improves critical thinking among team members and helps generate new ideas that are helpful for a company to advance.
11. Builds a happy team
When a company has a happy team, the result is happy and satisfied clients and customers. It motivates employees to work and makes them less likely to leave their job. This minimizes turnover costs related to recruiting and onboarding new employees. Customers can also become more loyal to the business when they enjoy quality customer services from the team.
12. Promotes health
Team building benefits employees by fostering physical and mental health. Team building often involves events outside the office that require teamwork among employees to solve problems. Typically, this requires employees to complete tasks aside from their typical job responsibilities, like participating in fun activities and physical challenges. These activities promote networking, communication, and mental health for the team.
13. Promotes company culture
Team building activities help a company improve its culture. When employees communicate and collaborate, it improves their performance, helps resolve conflicts, and enhances respect for each other. As an organization recognizes more talents, it motivates others to do better in their areas of work.
Conclusion:
Creating a strong team goes beyond hiring competent and kind employees. Once a company hires employees, it's helpful to explore the next step of focusing on how to bring them together and transform them into a productive team. In this article, we discuss the importance of team building, share some team building tips, and suggest unique team building activity ideas.
Question No. 3
Comment briefly on the following statements:
(a) Study of OB lead to managerial effectiveness.
(b) Learning results in change in behaviour and it also enhance the performance.
(c) Attitude influence behaviour, and behaviour also influences attitude.
(d) Social learning theory help in shaping of personality.
Answer 3 (A) Part
Organizational Behavior can be seen as a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups and structures have on behavior within an organization, to enable applying this knowledge towards improving organizational effectiveness. Organizational Behavior is an important concept for any organization, since it deals with the three determinants of behavior in organizations: Individuals, Groups and Structure. Organizational Behavior then applies the knowledge gained about individuals, groups and the effect of structure on behavior in order to make organizations work more effectively. In a nut shell, OB is concerned with the study of what people do in an organization and how their behavior affects the organizations performance.
Seeing as OB is concerned with employee related situations, it tends to emphasize behavior related to jobs, work, absenteeism, employment turnover, human performance and management. The organization’s base rests on management’s philosophy, values, vision and goals. This in turn drives the organizational culture which is composed of the formal organization, informal organization, and the social environment. The culture determines the type of leadership, communication, and group dynamics within the organization. The workers perceive this as the quality of work life which directs their degree of motivation. The final outcomes are performance, individual satisfaction, and personal growth and development. All these elements combine to build the model or framework that the organization operates from.
The ability to use the tools of organizational behavior to understand behavior in organizations is one reason for studying this subject. A second reason is to learn how to apply these concepts, theories, and techniques to improve behavior in organizations so that individuals, groups, and organizations can achieve their goals. Managers are challenged to find new ways to motivate and coordinate employees to ensure that their goals are aligned with organizational goals. Organizational Behavior addresses the following points:
- Organizational behavior studies the factors that impact individual and group behavior in organizations and how organizations manage their environments. Organizational behavior provides a set of tools, theories and concepts to understand, analyze, describe, and manage attitudes and behavior in organizations.
- The study of organizational behavior can improve and change individual, group, and organizational Behavior to attain individual, group, and organizational goals.
- Organizational behavior can be analyzed at three levels: the individual, the group, and the Organization as a whole. A full understanding must include an examination of behavioral factors at each level.
A manager’s job is to use the tools of organizational behavior to increase effectiveness, and the organization’s ability to achieve its goal. Management is the process of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling an organization’s human, financial, material, and other resources to increase its effectiveness.
In view of the fact that OB is the grounds on which an organization builds itself, Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology play a vital role in understanding workplace behavior and employee related situations.
- Psychology – is a science which seeks to measure, explain and sometimes change the behavior of humans. Early organizational psychologists concerned themselves with the problems of fatigue, boredom, and other factors which could have an effect on efficient workforce performance. More recently, contributions in the field of organizational psychology have expanded to learning, perception, personality, emotions, job satisfaction, decision making processes, leadership, needs and motivational forces, employee selection techniques and job stress.
- Sociology – Studies people in relation to their social environment or culture. Sociologists have contributed to OB through their study of group behavior in organizations, both formal and complex. Sociology has contributed to research on organizational culture, formal organization theory and structure, organizational techniques, communications, power and conflict.
- Anthropology – is the study of societies to learn about human beings and their activities. Work on this field has helped understanding differences in fundamental values, attitudes and behavior between people in different countries and within different organizations.
Organizational Behavior is an indigenous learning of techniques which deals with the knowledge gained about individuals, groups and the effect of structure on behavior in order to make organizations work more effectively. Through these methods a budding manager can gain several virtues to induce personal growth of self and group related issues. Since managers are individuals who achieve goals through other people, OB makes us aware of the various roles we need to play as managers to encourage the workforce to work with more satisfaction and profitability.
As managers we will participate in several roles, mainly:
1. Interpersonal Roles:
Figurehead: All managers are required to perform duties that are ceremonial and symbolic in nature, representing the organization/unit to outsiders.
Leader: All managers also have a leadership role. This role includes hiring, training, motivating employees, disciplining employees and unifying efforts.
2. Informational Roles:
Monitor: Managers monitor the flow of information. All managers, to some degree, collect information from outside organizations and institutions. And Transmit necessary information to outsiders.
Disseminator: Managers then act as a conduit to transmit info to organizational members.
3. Decisional role:
Managers initiate and design change. They allocate resources and negotiate on behalf of the organization. Here managers deal with various affairs such as, overseeing new projects, taking corrective measure in an unforeseen event and discuss issues and bargain with other units to gain advantages for their own unit.
These roles demand a deep understanding of human behavior in both individual and group forms, and so OB provides us with the means of tackling these issues with confidence. Understanding OB has never been more important for managers than it is today. In today’s world, the people of earth are much closer than before and managers need to deal with a vast array of diversities, such as,
• Culture
• Demography
• Religion
• Higher demand of customer satisfaction
• Coping with rapid changes in technology
• Balancing Stress related lifestyle of the workers
• Ethical behavior
As a manager, the teachings of OB can significantly increase one’s personal sensibilities and outlook on these attributes;
1. Working with people from different cultures:
What might seem motivating to a manager might not appeal to his workforce at all. Or a manager’s style of communication may be straightforward, but the workforce may find it threatening and uncomfortable. As a manager one must learn how to adapt his managerial style to their cultural, geographic and religious disparities.
2. Workforce diversity:
Organizations are increasingly becoming a more heterogeneous mix of people in terms of gender, race, age, ethnicity and sexual orientation. No longer can these disparities and clichés be ignored, these people are in the real world educated and ready to work. So mangers must recognize the fact that they don’t leave their lifestyles, cultural values and perception at home, so we as managers must learn to accommodate this diverse group of people by addressing their different lifestyles, family needs and work styles.
3. Customer Service:
Many an organization has failed because its employees failed to please its customers. Management needs to create a customer-responsive culture. OB can provide considerable guidance in guidance in helping managers create such cultures- cultures in which employees are friendlier and courteous, accessible, knowledgeable and prompt in responding to customer needs, in order to please the patron.
4. Ethics:
Today’s manager needs to create an ethically healthy climate for his employees, where they can work productively and confront a minimal level of uncertainty regarding what constitutes right and wrong behavior. Organizational behavior is the path to understanding how elements of the work place fall into place. As a nascent manager one can develop the self with the help of these learning’s and partake in managerial roles confidently.
Answer 3 (B) Part
Every action and behaviour of an individual has some element of learning involved. Behaviour is something which can be publicly viewed, but there is also an unobservable, inner cognitive behaviour which will influence the individual. Thus, the outcome can take the form of desirable or undesirable behaviour. Of course, only desirable work behaviour can contribute towards achieving organisational goals. That is why, it is necessary on the part of the individual employee to learn periodically new knowledge and skills. Further, learning is a powerful incentive for many employees to stick to certain organisations. Learning has significant impact on individual behaviour as it influences abilities, role perceptions, and motivation. Along with its role in individual behaviour, learning is essential for knowledge management that enhances an organisation’s capacity to acquire, share, and utilise its resources in ways that improve its survival and success.
The concept of learning is very important for organisational behaviour. It has assumed tremendous significance because everything that we do in an organisation, some learning is definitely involved. The concept of learning can be used in many contexts. It refers to the process of acquiring the response adequately to a situation which may or may not have previously encountered. A widely accepted simple definition of ‘learning’ is any relatively permanent change in behaviour that occurs as a result of experience.
As per this definition, one cannot see the process of learning but if there is a noticeable change in behaviour then it can be said that learning has taken place. This means we are actually seeing the changed behaviour in individuals as a result of learning. Thus, learning as a concept seems to be an abstract and a theoretical one and is not observable directly. It is also said that learning is a relatively permanent change in the frequency of occurrence of a specific individual behaviour. In an organisational setting, it is the work-set and organisational norms, which will act as objective bases for determining whether an employee’s behaviour is desirable or undesirable and whether he or she needs to learn and practise productive work behaviour. Thus, it is the process by which skills, knowledge, attitudes and behaviour are formed and developed as a result of education, training, socialisation and experience.
Learning also occurs as a result of conditioning and restriction. A person is persuaded to adopt guidance or regulation or conformity and compliance based on each situational requirement. Moreover, people learn at different rates, times and stages during their life time. Of course, ultimately it is the individual’s own needs and drives, and rewards that enhance one’s potential and expertise, marketability along with increased esteem, and respect and status that will act as the motivational drive(s) in inducing the person to learn.
There are six important components of learning:
1) Learning involves change, although the change may be for good or bad from an organisation’s point of view.
2) Not all changes reflect learning. To constitute learning, change should be relatively permanent.
3) Learning is reflected in behaviour. A change in an individual’s thought process or attitudes, not accompanied by behaviour, is no learning.
4) The change in behaviour should occur as a result of experience, practice, or training.
5) The practice or experience must be reinforced in order for learning to occur. If reinforcement does not accompany the practice or experience, the behaviour will eventually disappear.
6) Learning occurs throughout one’s life.
When employees learn, they acquire both explicit and tacit knowledge. Explicit knowledge is organised and can be communicated from one person to another. Explicit knowledge can be written down and given to others. However, this is only a small portion of total knowledge. Majority of the people have tacit or implied knowledge. Tacit knowledge is the idea that one knows more than what he or she can tell. Tacit knowledge is embedded in our actions and ways of thinking, but is not clearly understood and therefore cannot be communicated explicitly. This knowledge is acquired through observation and direct experience. Most knowledge in organisations is tacit and one of the challenges in knowledge management is to make implicit knowledge explicit so that it may be stored and shared more easily.
The importance of learning was first put forward by a Chinese philosopher, Confucius (551-479 BC) in these words: “Without learning, the wise become foolish; by learning, the foolish become wise”. Learning refers to relatively permanent changes in behaviour occurring as a result of experience. The concept of learning organisation is not new; many authors have talked about it from others and their own past experiences. Probably, Garratt was the first to publish a book on the subject in 1987. But the concept was popularised by Senge when his famous book “The Fifth Discipline” was released in 1990. Senge’s book triggered a great deal of interest in the subject of learning organisations. A large number of publications appeared on the subject during the current decade.
A learning organisation:
• Is an active philosophy; not merely an organisational system.
• Believes that its only competitive advantage is learning.
• Encourages people to learn to produce the results they desire.
• Nurtures creative and innovative patterns of collective learning.
• Develops fresh organisational capabilities all the time.
New ideas are essential if learning is to take place. Whatever their source, these ideas trigger organisational improvement. However, creating or acquiring new knowledge is not enough; what is more important is the successful application of knowledge in one’s own activities. Learning organisations are skilled at five main activities:
1) Systematic Problem-Solving:
- Learning and Behavioural Modification
- Relying on the scientific method rather than guesswork for diagnosing problems.
– Insisting on data rather than assumptions, as background for decision- making.
– Depending on simple statistical tools to organise data and draw inferences
2) Experimentation:
– Systematic searching for and testing of new knowledge. Continuous improvement in new methods and technologies.
– Successful ongoing programmes to ensure a steady flow of new ideas, even if imported from outside the organisation.
– Demonstration of organisational capabilities by introducing self- managing teams and high level of worker autonomy.
3) Learning from Past Experience:
– Companies must review their success and failures, assess them systematically and record lessons in a form that employees find open and accessible.
4) Learning from Others:
– Sometimes, the most powerful insights come from one’s immediate outside environment.
– Even companies in completely different businesses can be fertile sources of ideas and catalysts for creative thinking.
– Best industry practices are to be uncovered, analysed, adopted and implemented.
– The greatest benefits come from studying practices; the way work gets done rather than results.
5) Transferring Knowledge:
– Knowledge must spread quickly and efficiently throughout the organisation.
– Make use of mechanisms such as written and oral communications, site visits and tours, personnel rotation programmes, education and training programmes for transferring knowledge.
– Transfer may be from division to division, department to department, or facility to facility; they may involve senior, middle, or first level managers.
Characteristics of Learning Organisation
Some of the common operational practices of learning organisations dealing with people are openness, systematic thinking, creativity, awareness of personal and organisational values, empathy and sensitivity. Senge, who popularised the term learning organisation states that such organisations have the following five principles:
1) Personal Mastery: Creating an organisational environment, which encourages all its members to develop themselves toward goals and purposes they choose.
2) Mental Models: Reflecting upon, continually clarifying, and improving internal pictures of the world, and seeing how they shape our actions and decisions.
3) Shared Vision: Building a sense of commitment in a group, by developing shared images of the future and guiding principles and practices.
4) Team Learning: Transforming conversational and collective thinking skills, so that groups of people can reliably develop intelligence and ability greater than the sum of individual members’ talents.
5) Systems Thinking: Thinking about, and a language for describing and understanding forces and interrelationships that shapes the behaviour of systems.
These principles translate into the following three key practices that enable an organisation to promote and support continuous learning:
1) The ability to learn from each other
2) The ability to learn from personal experience
3) The ability to learn from the system (that is, organisation successes and failures)
A learning organisation is characterised by:
Openness: The learning organisation has to be open to enquiry and tolerant of criticism and debate.
Innovation: The learning organisation has an organic structure and culture which permits it to evolve rapidly. It has a deep skill base and capacity to deal internally with complexity and uncertainty. Strategic
Orientation: The learning organisation cares both for its customer and its employees.
Organisations of the future will not survive without becoming communities of learning. It is absolutely essential for organisations to learn from their environments, to continually adjust to new and changing data, and just as in the case with the individual, to learn how to learn from the uncertain and unpredictable future.
Answer 3(C) Part
Although attitude is a common term which is very frequently used in our daily conversations, social psychologists define attitudes in a specific way. One of the pioneers of the field, Gordon Allport (1935) defined attitude as “mental and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is related.” There have been a number of attempts to define attitude in different expressions by different social psychologists, however the definition given by Allport has been still regarded as a comprehensive definition of attitude. The definition describes three different aspects of attitudes.
Firstly, Allport refers attitudes as mental and neural states of readiness. This assumption implicitly asserts that attitudes are entirely personal affair and cannot be observed or measured directly by other people. Only the person who holds an attitude has access to it. Social psychological tools that claim to measure attitudes are in fact indirect measures of attitudes.
Secondly, the definition states that attitudes are acquired and organized through experience. This indicates that the genesis of the attitudes we form about various people, issues, events and situations lies in the experiences that we have in our families, neighbourhood, peer groups, work place and larger society. However, this assumption overemphasises the importance of social learning in attitude formation and underestimates the role of genetic factors in this process.
Finally, the definition states that attitude exerts a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is related. Thus, attitudes are not merely feelings or beliefs that we have regarding people, issues, events and situations but they also guide and predict our future responses to those people, issues, events and situations.
Do attitudes really guide our behaviour? This has been a long debated issue for social psychologists. In one of the classic study, LaPiere (1934) visited to almost 250 hotels and restaurants of different places of the United States with a Chinese couple to see whether the couple was offered the service or not. After travelling for almost 2 years, he saw that the couple was denied for service by only one hotel and restaurant. However, in reply to a mailed questionnaire 92 per cent of the hotels and restaurants said that they would not offer service to a Chinese couple. This indicated that their behaviour, offering service to the Chinese couple, was inconsistent with their attitude expressed in reply to the questionnaire. Although surprising, the findings of LaPiere’s study suggested that attitudes do not always predict behaviour. Rather, there are some factors that affect the relationship between attitude and behaviour.
1. Attitude Specificity
In many cases, our general attitudes fail to predict our specific behaviours. For example, we might, in general, like psychology as a discipline. However, when it comes to social psychology, one of its specific branches, we may not like it. Similarly, in LaPiere’s study the attitude reported in the questionnaire was regarding Chinese couple in general; however, the behaviour observed was toward a specific Chinese couple. Furthermore, despite of being prejudiced and having negative attitude toward a particular community in general, one may have friendship with one or more specific members of that community.
2. Attitude Accessibility
Extending availability heuristic to the issue of behaviour-attitude link, it is suggested that the attitude which is more easily accessible more strongly influences the person’s behaviour (Fazio, 1995). The concept of automatic behaviour argues that the attitudes which are more readily available activate the behaviour consistent with the attitude by priming
3. Self Awareness
People may hold two different types of self awareness: private self awareness and public self awareness (Echabe & Garate, 1994). It is suggested that people holding private self awareness act consistent with their own attitude; whereas, people holding public self awareness behave according to the attitude held by the majority of people present in social setting. In the other words, people with public self awareness act under majority pressure, an instance of conformity. For example, a person with private self awareness with positive attitude toward Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan will behave according to his or her attitude and consequently would not litter at public places. However, when the person is with his or her friends and the public self awareness of the person is activated, it is more likely that the person would behave consistent with the attitude of majority of the group.
4. Attitude Certainty
Attitude certainty includes two components: attitude clarity, the extent to which person is clear about his or her attitude and attitude correctness, the extent to which person thinks that his or her attitude is correct, valid and appropriate to hold. Petrocelli, Tormala and Rucker (2007) have reported that the attitude high on the dimension of certainty is more likely to influence the individual’s behaviour and furthermore, less likely to be affected or changed by persuasive messages.
5 Attitude Strength
Link between attitude and behaviour is stronger with stronger attitudes as compared to the weaker attitudes. Strength of a particular attitude is determined by three different factors that further affect the link between attitude and behaviour: processing of information regarding the attitude object, personal involvement or relevance with the issue pertaining to the attitude and direct experience. Liberman and Chaiken (1996) have reported that when information pertaining to the attitude is processed more often, it results into enhanced attitude strength and stronger link between attitude and behaviour. Similarly, attitudes that are more relevant and important to the person and serve some purpose to the person’s life are stronger and more capable of predicting behaviour. Finally, the attitudes that are formed through direct experience become stronger and predict behaviour with greater consistency.
Answer 3 (D) Part
People keep on observing the behaviours of others. They model those behaviours which result in favourable outcomes. At the same time, they avoid those behaviours that result in unfavourable outcomes. Since the very beginning of childhood, people observe the behaviour of parents, teachers, achievers etc. They try to model those behaviours which influence them most. This theory advocates that the people learn their own behaviour themselves by observing the environment. This theory focuses on cognitive process of learning where learners integrate the environmental factors and try to select the favourable outcome oriented behaviour. Steven and Mary Annvon mentioned three features of social learning theory.
These features are behavioural modeling, learning behaviour consequences and self-reinforcement. Let us learn them in detail.
1. Behavioural Modeling : Individual keeps on observing or interacting with a number of persons in the environment. He/she observes behaviour and tries to model those behaviours which have favourable outcomes. The modeling depends on the impact of particular behaviour on the individual. For example, the oganisation develops the training programme of sales person based on role model. Here, the high performer sales persons are rewarded in terms of extra bonus, praise, appreciation, recognition, etc. The role of high performers is highlighted by the organisation. The salesperson observes the behaviours of high performer and tries to model them.
2. Learning Behaviour Consequences: In the social learning theory, the cognitive process play very important role in learning the new behaviour. In fact, individuals actively analyse the situations and learn those behaviours which result in favourable outcome. Here the thought processing activities get activated. The person applies logic and evaluates the favourable and unfavourable consequences of the behaviours. In this way, the desired behaviours may be activated by associating them with the favourable outcomes. For example, if you complete job target, your boss appreciates you. You learn the consequences of completing the job in time which brings favourable outcome.
3. Self Reinforcement: This is the most important aspect of social learning theory. When the individual analyses the impact of reinforcements on the behaviour and finds the positive outcome, he/she tries to learn positive outcome oriented behaviours. Gradually he/she may develop self reinforcement technique for his own behaviour. He may start setting his own goal and reinforcing himself after achieving the goal. The development of self reinforcement strategy is the most challenging task before the organisation. This provides freedom and control to the employees to manage his own behaviour. Moreover, he/she recognizes his/her own ability to complete the job.
Social learning theory is very important in formulating the training programme of the organisation. In the training programme, the importance of high performer, high achievers etc. is highlighted. These behaviours are also reinforced. The employees observe their behaviours and also realize that these behaviours lead to success. Thus, they are encouraged to model the favourable behaviours.
Robbins has identified four processes that determine the influence of a model on the behaviour of a person. They are discussed below:
1. Attentional Processes: In order to learn from the behaviour of the model, people need to pay attention on the behaviour. This means that observable behaviour must be designed in such a way that catches the attention of the people.
2. Retention Process: When the person observes others behaviour, the question arises how much he is going to retain? The process of retention depends on the degree of influence people have on other’s behaviour. For example, people may easily retain the unique behaviour of the model.
3. Motor Reproduction Process: This is a technique of converting observed behaviour into action. The person must learn the process of reproducing the observed behaviour. Therefore, the ideal performance technique must be shown in such a manner that people learn to reproduce the performance.
4. Reinforcement Processes: People are encouraged to perform the observed behaviour if they are provided adequate incentives or rewards. The reinforcement motivates them to act in that fashion. The positive reinforcement is an important technique for enhancing the attention and retention process and improving the performance of the people.
Question No. 4
Difference between the following:
(a) Maslow’s Need Hierarchy and Herzberg’s Two Factors Theories (b) Job enrichment and Job enlargement.
(c) Formal Communication and Informal Communication
(d) Autocratic leadership style and Democratic leadership style
Answer (A) Part
Difference Between Maslow and Herzberg’s Theories of Motivation
Motivation implies the process of encouraging people to act in order to attain the desired objectives. It is something that stimulates an individual to keep doing the act already initiated. In this context, Abraham Maslow, a renowned psychologist, highlighted the elements of the theory of motivation, in a classic paper released in 1943. His theory is based on human needs and its fulfilment.
On the other hand, Frederick Herzberg is an American psychologist, who coined out the concept of job enrichment and two-factor theory on motivation based on rewards and incentives. He attempted to shed more light on the concept of work motivation.
Definition of Maslow’s Theory
Abraham Maslow was an Americal psychologist, who introduced the popular ‘Need hierarchy theory’ on motivation. The theory emphasizes the urge to satisfy needs of people working in the organization.
The theory is divided into two categories, i.e. growth needs and deficiency needs, which are further sub-classified into five needs, within each individual, represented in the shape of a pyramid. The theory is based on the premise that human needs are in proper sequence, wherein psychological need is at the bottom, and self-actualisation needs are at the top level. Other needs, i.e. safety needs, social needs and esteem needs are in the middle.
It infers that higher level needs cannot evolve until the lower level needs are satisfied. As the needs of human beings are unlimited, whenever one need is satisfied, another need take its place. Moreover, an unsatisfied need is the motivator which governs the behaviour of the individual.
Definition of Herzberg’s Theory
Frederick Herzberg was a behavioural scientist, who developed a theory in the year 1959 called ‘The two-factor theory on Motivation or Motivation-Hygiene Theory’.
Herzberg and his associates carried out interviews of 200 persons including engineers and accountants. In that survey, they were asked about the components of a job that make them happy or unhappy, and their answers made it clear that it was the working environment that causes unhappiness or dissatisfaction.
As per the theory, hygiene factors, are essential to keep a reasonable level of satisfaction among employees. Such factors do not actually result in satisfaction, but their absence causes dissatisfaction, that is why, they are known as dissatisfiers. Secondly, motivational factors are inherent to the job, and so the increase in these factors will lead to the rise in the satisfaction level, while the decrease does not cause dissatisfaction in employees.
Key Difference Between Maslow and Herzberg’s Theory of Motivation
The basic points of difference between Maslow and Herzberg’s theory of motivation can be summed up as follows:
1. Maslow’s Theory is a general theory of motivation which expresses that the urge to satisfy needs is the principle variable in motivation. In contrast, Herzberg’s Theory on motivation reveals that there are some variables existing at the workplace that results in job satisfaction or dissatisfaction.
2. Maslow’s theory is descriptive, whereas the theory propounded by Herzberg is simple and prescriptive.
3. The basis of Maslow’s theory is human needs and their satisfaction. On the other hand, the Herzberg’s theory relies on reward and recognition.
4. In Maslow’s theory, there is a proper sequence of needs from lower to higher. Conversely, no such sequence exists in the case of Herzberg’s theory.
5. Maslow’s theory states that unsatisfied needs of an individual act as the stimulator. As against, Herberg’s theory reveals that gratified needs govern the behaviour and performance of an individual.
The needs of an individual are divided into two categories i.e. survival/deficiency needs and growth needs as per Maslow. On the contrary, in Herzberg’s model, the needs of an individual are classified into Hygiene and motivator factors.
6. In Maslow’s theory, any unsatisfied need of an individual serves as the motivator. Unlike in the case of Herzberg, only higher level needs are counted as the motivator.
Conclusion
The two models developed by the two experts aims at simplifying the motivational process which proved that motivation is an important factor to improve the performance level of employees. Herzberg’s theory is an addition to the Maslow’s theory. These are not contradictory but complementary to one another.
Answer (B) Part
Difference Between Job Enlargement and Job Enrichment
Once job analysis is completed, it is followed by job design which involves continuous eforts in organizing activities or tasks, duties and responsibilities into work unit, to achieve the objectives. There are five approaches to job design, which are job rotation, job engineering, job enlargement, job enrichment, and socio-technical system. Two of these approaches which are most commonly juxtaposed are job enlargement and job enrichment. The former refers to the increase in the number of tasks performed by an employee at the same job.
On the other hand, the latter refers to adding certain stimulators to the job so as to make it rewarding. A job is said to be enriched when the incumbent has the power to make decisions and plans.
Definition of Job Enlargement
Job Enlargement means to increase the tasks of an employee performed by him in a single job. It is an attempt of management to decrease the monotony of the repetitive task. Under this technique, few tasks are added to the existing job which is similar in nature.
In this way, variety in the job is added, and it will become more interesting for the job holders. There are some advantages of job enlargement which are indicated below:
It increases the degree of satisfaction in workers because when the job is enlarged, one employee is assigned the whole or the maximum part of the project. In this way, their contribution to that particular project is appreciated.
In job enlargement, both the physical and mental abilities of a worker are utilized. However, the jobs should be enlarged to a limited extent, i.e. up to the capacity of the employee. It should not create pressure and frustration in an employee.
It increases the task variety that reduces boredom in performing the job.
With the introduction of a new task in the same job, workers may require additional training to perform the task. It may also happen that the worker productivity will fall after the implementation of new system. Further, the employee may demand increment in their pay for the increase in their workload.
Definition of Job Enrichment
Job Enrichment is a job design strategy, applied to motivate the employees by delegating them extra responsibilities to make it more rewarding. In short, we can say that job enrichment means to upgrade the quality of a job and to make it more exciting, challenging and creative.
The job holder is given responsibilities and power to plan, control and make important decisions. The requirement of supervision will now be less or it can also be said that the worker himself will perform the tasks of a supervisor.
The concept of job enrichment was first proposed by an American psychologist Fredrick Herzberg in 1968. The salient features of job enrichment are discussed with the help of the following figure:
Job Enrichment helps to improve the efficiency of the worker along with raising their level of satisfaction. There are more responsibilities, diversity of tasks, autonomy and growth possibilities in an enriched job as compared to a normal job.
Key Differences Between Job Enlargement and Job Enrichment
The major differences between job enlargement and job enrichment are mentioned as under:
1. A job design strategy in which the number of tasks performed by a single job is increased is known as Job Enlargement. Job Enrichment is defined as a motivational tool, used by the management in which the range of activities performed by a single job is increased to make it better than before.
2. Job Enlargement involves quantitatively extending the scope of activities carried out by the job whereas in Job Enrichment improvements are made in the existing job to increase its quality.
3. Job Enlargement reduces boredom and monotony while performing a single task, on and on. Conversely, Job Enrichment makes the job more challenging, exciting as well as creative.
4. Job Enlargement does not require additional skills but job enrichment does.
5. In job enlargement, the expansion of tasks is made horizontally, i.e. at the same level. On the other hand, job enrichment involves vertical expansion of activities like controlling and doing the task.
6. Job enlargement requires more supervision as compared to job enrichment.
7. The consequence of introducing job enlargement is not always positive, but job enrichment will produce positive outcomes.
8. Job Enlargement makes employees feel more responsible and valuable, while Job Enrichment brings satisfaction and efficiency in employees.
Conclusion
Both job enlargement and job enrichment are regarded as motivational tools for the employees, used by the management. However, employees find job enrichment is a far better tool than job enlargement. Job Enrichment gives planning, controlling and decision-making powers to the job holder. It helps them to grow and develop. As opposed to job enlargement, which is just a tactic of management to increase the workload of existing employees. The job holders feel satisfied that his tasks have been extended, without knowing that his role and responsibilities are increased.
Answer (C) Part
Communication plays an essential role in our lives. One needs to have good communication skills in order to excel in any field. On an organizational level, communication is of utmost importance. People exchange their ideas, opinions, perceptions with one another through communication. Communication can be oral/ verbal, or written. Oral communication includes speaking out, talking to each other regarding different things, while written communication includes writing down or penning a letter in order to communicate with the person. Sign language is also a part of communication wherein people use various signs and symbols in order to converse with other people. Body language, eye contact, expressions, etc., are important aspects of communication. So, today we will be discussing two significant types of communication, i.e., formal communication and informal communication. Let us begin by understanding the primary meaning of the same.
Formal Communication
Formal communication is defined as the communication in which the information is reached through proper channels or routes. It is also called official communication. The main aim of this communication is to properly converse and making sure that the information has reached correctly. This communication is considered as an effective communication mode as it saves time through its systematic flow of communication. Examples of formal communication include reports, post descriptions, work command, information related to sales and inventory, etc. There are four kinds of formal communication, i.e., upward communication, downward communication, vertical communication, and horizontal communication. The superior and the subordinate conversation comes under formal communication. One of the major disadvantages of formal communication is that rules and regulations are very rigid.
More importance is given to the rules; instead of the person. It results in low cordiality among relationships between the superior and subordinates.
Informal Communication
Informal communication is defined as communication that does not undertake formal methods to communicate. People/ subordinates do not follow the rigid rules of the organization. People converse freely without any bondage. On an organizational level, informal communication is the spontaneous kind of communication in which the subordinates and the superior can talk freely. There are no official rules, systems, or guidelines to communicate. Talking to your friend or family is a common example of informal communication. One of the major advantages of informal communication is that it is very flexible. There is no rigidity or any kind of formality to hinder the communication. Grapevine communication is a significant kind of informal communication. The disadvantage of this kind of communication is that rumors or misinformation spread at a rapid pace. Now, let us look at some of the differences between formal and informal communication.
So, these are some of the significant differences between formal and informal communication. Both kinds of communication are practiced by several organizations. The main goal of this is to meet the organization's and personal objectives.
Answer (D) Part
Difference Between Autocratic and Democratic Leadership
Leadership is a skill, which requires a person, to influence the subordinates to work voluntarily, and stimulating them to put their efforts, in achieving the goals of the organisation. Based on the objectives and the subordinates, the organisation can choose from different leadership styles. Autocratic leadership also called as monothetic leadership, is one of the styles, which encompasses centralization of the decision making power.
In autocratic leadership, the leader directs the subordinates regarding what is to be done and how is to be done. On the other extreme, the Democratic leadership is one that gives the subordinates equal chance of participating in the decision-making process as to what is to be done and how it is to be done.
Definition of Autocratic Leadership
Autocratic Leadership, or otherwise called as authoritarian leadership, is a leadership style adopted by the management, involving one man control over all managerial decisions of the organisation, without consulting with the subordinates. Under autocratic leadership, centralization of power exists, that lies in the hands of the leader, and so there is marginal input from the group members. Thus, all the decisions regarding the policies and procedures are taken by the leader himself/herself.
The autocratic leader dominates the entire group of subordinates, through coercion and command. The subordinates are supposed to follow the orders given by the leader unquestioningly.
It best suits the organisations where quick decision making is required. Further, when the subordinates are not much educated and experienced, autocratic leadership is appropriate.
Definition of Democratic Leadership
The leadership style which involves the considerable amount of participation of the employees in the decision-making process and organisation’s management is known as participative or democratic management. The suggestions and opinions of the subordinates are given importance. Indeed they are frequently consulted, on different matters.
Here, the leaders consider the opinion of the group and work accordingly. Moreover, the employees are informed about every matter which affects them.
There exist an open-end communication, through which the subordinates can communicate directly with the other members of the organisation, be it top level or bottom level. Democratic leadership encourages freedom of expression, independent thinking and participative decision making.
Key Differences Between Autocratic and Democratic Leadership
The difference between autocratic and democratic leadership can be drawn clearly on the following grounds:
1. Autocratic leadership can be defined as a leadership style, wherein a clear line of demarcation between leader and follower exist, as the leader has got the absolute power of commanding and decision making. On the other hand, a leadership style in which the leader values the opinions and suggestions of the followers, but retains the final decision-making power in his/her hands is known as democratic leadership.
2. There is centralization of powers in case of autocratic leadership, whereas the authority is delegated to the group members in democratic leadership.
3. Autocratic leadership is task oriented that gives more emphasis on the completion of the task successfully. As against, the Democratic leadership is relation oriented, which aims at improving the superior-subordinate relationship, by sharing powers with the group members.
4. The idea of autocratic leadership is derived from McGregor’s Theory X on motivation. On the contrary, democratic leadership is conceived from McGregor’s Theory Y on motivation.
5. High level of control is present in autocratic leadership, whereas democratic leadership involves the low level of control.
6. There is a freedom of expression and independence in thinking, in democratic leadership, which is not in the case of autocratic leadership.
7. Autocratic leadership is best suited when the followers or group members are not so educated and skilled, but at the same time, they are obedient. As against, the Democratic leadership is appropriate when the group members are experienced, qualified and professional.
Conclusion
When it comes to effectiveness, democratic leadership is a step ahead than autocratic leadership.
One can make a choice between the two leadership styles, considering the immediate goal and subordinates. When the immediate goal of the concern is increase in output and subordinate’s need for independence is low, autocratic leadership style proves better. However, the immediate goal tends to be job satisfaction as well as the subordinates require the greater degree of independence, democratic leadership style is best.
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