Handout One

ORGANISATION BEHAVIOUR

Introduction

There is evidence that the world is changing in terms of government regulations,

information technology, global competitions, trade unions and customer needs and
demands.
As such organization need to change to adopt to the turbulent environment. There is need
to know how organizations operate in a world that is rapidly changing.
This course therefore concerns with people working within organizations or interacting
from outside with those working in organizations. Their should be emphase on
application of sound management practices and techniques thus efficient planning,
systematic organizing and effective leadership of workers. To that effect we need to come
up with new techniques, new methods and new styles of management that fit the time, the
workforce and the mission.
According to Gisbon etal (1997), an organization is a coordinated unit consisting of at
least 2 people who work to achieve a common goal or set of goals.
In other words, these are entities that enable society to persue acomplisments that can be
attained/ achieved by persons acting alone. The field of studying and analyzing
operations of the organization is what is called organization behaviour.
It is the field of study that draws on theory, methods and principlemanistic orientation
( people attitudes, perception, learning capacitiesriented. How it impacts on the
organization
 Application orientation by providing answers to questions.

Why Study Behaviour in Organizations

 Learning about behaviour in organization can help provide skills of
observation, prediction and implementation.

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  Those pursuing a career in management will want to know as much as
possible about behaviors and how to properly apply leadership principles in an
organizational setting.
 Learning and knowledge about behaviour helps a manager to distinguish
between those behaviour that enhance / improve from those that retard/ limit
organizational development.
 Managers also learn how to influence people behaviour towards achieving
organizational goals.

Roles/Usefulness of Organizations
 Organizations contribute to government revenue ie PAYE from every
employee.
 Bringing services nearer to people eg Banks, universities
 Bring income to people as workers/suppliers ie thus improving standard of
living of people.
 Social stability and congruence e.g. Churches mosques that provide marriage.
 Enhancement of development by easing communication eg roads, electricity,
water, telephone companies, etc.

Demerits of these Organizations

 Environmental pollution eg TCI, Mukwono industry.
 Conflict and disputes among staff.
 Over exploitation of natural resources eg
 Tendencies of uncivilized acts including bribery, rape, moral decay.
 Production of harmful goods and services eg BAT
 Disputes between the firm and community

Types or Organisations
1. Private Organization
2. Pubic organization

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 3. Large profit seeking. These are firms that sell goods and services to generate profits
to the owener e.g. Mukono industries, BIDCO.

Managers in Enterprise
Firms stand better chances of survival and effective performance with professionals in
charge. These are persons who gone through the science and art of management.
The management process is the ability to effectively and efficiently utilize resources to
attain organizational goals. People who do this are called managers. To that effect, a
manager is a person responsible for carrying out activities with in the management
processes, he does work through others.
Types of Resources
 Financial Resources
These are funds a firm utilizes to finance its operational costs, they are obtainable from
stake holder investments, sales, bank loans.
 Physical Resources
These are the materials, such as building tools, equipment and thus a firm necessitates to
produce goods and services.
 Human Resources (H/R)
These are the personnel who make up a firms work force including the support staff.
 Information Resources.
These include economic forecast, sales projections, customer needs, etc. A performing
manager is duty bound to utilize organizational resources effectively and efficiently to
attain original goals.

Managing Behaviour in Organizations

Firms have people’ and assign them to do jobs. People are not robots and can’t easily
be commanded to do their work it’s therefore important that a manager understands the
needs and personalities that influence the behaviour of the employees. Managers should
recall that every human being is unique; we work for different reasons, respond to

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 stimuli differently and perceive reality differently. Some people are self motivated and
others need external re-enforcement to work.
Leadership skills and ability to influence others are very critical tools to further success
of a manager. He/she must motivate staff, encourage team work though some of them
may be loners difficult and un cooperative. It is the managers duty to ensure that stress
and conflict levels in a firm are kept to the minimum levels.

Managerial roles and skills

While executing their work at all levels in an organisation and while carrying out the 3
initial functions, managers ought to be effective and efficient by bringing some skills to
their jobs. Management is no-longer a province of guess work, short cuts, gambling and
trials, competency and professionalism are a must if successful stories in firms are to be
registered.
A role is a specific set of behaviours that ought to be reflected by managers. They are
categorized into the following
 Interpersonal roles
These capture 3 managerial roles between a manager and other people in a firm. They
include.
(a) Figurehead role. This invloes representing the firm in a symbolic/ ceremonial
fashion.
(b) Leader role. This is carried out whenever and wherever a manager effects any
leadership tasks e.g. monitoring subordinates.
(c) Linking role. It involves coordinating the activities or tasks of two or more units in
a firm so that workers may work as a team to attain the same goal.

 Information Role
A manager plays the role to disseminate information to others in terms of the following.
(a) Dissemination role. This entitles transmission of information to others e.g. new
policies by government employee i.e. PAYE

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(b) Spokes person role. This is played whenever or wherever a manager speaks for the
enterprise in a substantive fashion e.g. appearing on talk shows, making après release.

 Decisional Role
This involves the entrepreneur’ role played by taking risky decisions for a firm initiating
change e.g. the academic registrar UCU Mbale mounting new driven academic
programmes like say ?
(a) Resource allocation role. The manager also plays this by deciding on the
expenditure of the organizational resources committing its resources in new
ventures, promoting transferring the human resources else where .
(b) Negotiator role. The manager also negotiates, lobbys signing contracts with other
firms on behalf of the firm

Important Skills a Manager Must Have.

The skilled mix of managers is important for organization successful story.
According to Griffen (1992) argues that successful manager must have a strong
combination of technical, interpersonal, conceptual skills.

 Technical Skills
These are important in the accomplishment of specialized tasks in form of e.g. writing
aprèss release, decision making conflict resolution, handling difficult persons and
producing audited books of accounts.
 Interpersonal skills.
These guide a manager in effectively communicating, motivating and inspiring staff.
Managers ought to be sensitive and sympathetic to subordinates. Successful managers
treat people with dignity and respect and always open and direct when talking to
subordinates.

 Conceptual Skills.

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These reflect the managers ability to think big and loudly even if things are abstract.
He/She is optimistic of success even during difficult periods, He/She fuses opportunities
of threats, other may not be sure off.

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Handout Two

WORK IN CONTEXT
How work came into existence
Global aspect of work.
Alternative approaches to work are taking over from traditional mass industries and
production. The computerized technology is important and emphasis is on the market
context and work organization in which technology is located hence flexibility inform of
using labour and resources in a strategic manner to enable production systems to be
responsive to market changes.
Flexiability is simply the removal of occupational barriers to the use of labour, on either
creation of new skills that operate in a cross range of tasks thus reducing on competition
and market uncertainty.
Flexable systems can provide customized goods at low unit costs, they can produce
quality and volume and they are held to be both specialists and efficient. Service
industries are experiencing changes similar to features of flexibility e.g. new definition of
quality, new market awareness and customer orientations e.g. Telecom industries, Banks,
hotels.
The desire for flexability has therefore resulted into new approaches thus systems of
work like a flexible organization in Britain, just in time production in Japan, lean
production in America and flexable specialization in German. All these systems of
production /work form what is called Fordinism.

The fordist system of production.

This production technique was invented by Henry Ford in 1913, the provider of mass
produced motor vehicles of FORD. The line assembly helped to discover the new secret
of mass production as their idea was moving the work to the men rather than the reverse
in his definition of this system, charles Sabel (1982) referred to fordist system as amethod
for the efficient production of one thing.

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Fordism was the system of production/ mass consumer markets and the standardization of
the products in that century. It’s a system of mass production along an assembly line in
agiant factory.

Features of Fordism
 Work is based on large mainly unskilled laborer.
 Production of the standardized products in massive volume
 It emphasizes design of its products for easy assembly.
 Production uses dedicated( specialized) machinery designed for a given product
and production system.
Fordism system is closely connected to Taylor’s work system of scientific management.
Whereas, Taylor accomplished his ideas through administrative means, fordism
accomplished it by technology.

Post Fordism
 As much as fordist principles create large economies of scale thus fragmented
work, dedicated machinery, they however have a weakness of flexability. This
inflexibility is seen in.
 Existence of other small markets. Fordism depend on stable mass market for large
volumes of standardized products. However mass market are breaking up.
 It aims at producing a standardized product in large volume. This is seen in fords
phase; “You can get it in any colour you like as long as its black”
 Consumers have changing needs that have led to the fading of, of mass markets.
Market are fragmenting and becoming specialized to target consumer needs.
 Consumers need other products rather than one standardized products.

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 GLOBALISATION
There is increasing global interrelationship interms of products, capital and human
resources. This is simply because business organizations consider their markets to be
global rather than just domestic. To this effect, there is need for organizational analysis
and the employee of new ideas of managing such organizations looking at how
management practiced in one organization in one country and transplanting the same
practices to a different organization in a different country is not sufficient. We need to
acknowledge that they are differences between groups of employees in their different
countries. We should therefore acknowledge, study, interpret and manage these
differences in different countries and groups of people.
According to Gisbon (1997) defined globalization as the interdependence of
transportation, distribution communication and economic networks across international
borders.
Global business offer low cost universal standardized products for a unified world market
as opposed to a multinational businesses that operate in high countries adapting their
product and practices to local conditions and producing for special market.
Globalisation therefore, means dealing with people of different cultures. This is what is
called cross-cultural management which is the study of the behavioral persons in
organizations around the world.

Skills Required by Global Managers to Compete Effectively

 Global strategic skills. Global manages need to be knowledgeable of international
relationships and foreign affairs like global financial market, international laws
exchange rates, alongside laws of the host country.

 Team building skills. Team work is needed to ensure success in addition to a

balance between different meanings attached to activities in different countries
e.g. auditing many mean adhering to legal requirement in one country but mean
an accuracy check of a condition in another country team building should
therefore consider cultural diversity.

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  Organizational skills. As managers of global organization we need to note that
such organization emphasise, learning responsiveness and effectiveness. This
therefore means that there is need for creativity and innovativeness, and ability to
coordinate different departments or operations of the organizations.

 Communication skills. Communication is what keeps every organization moving.

It is like the lubricant to machinery. In global organization, Communication is
possible if managers possessed the multi-lingual skills and cross cultural
awareness and sensitivity.

 Transfer of knowledge Skills. With the increasing competition information

transfer is very important. This is because advancement in the new technology
information and every organization is trying to adopt it. Global management
therefore calls for help in the transfer of information from one place to another.

International Human Resource Management-HR for Global Operations

Global operations have awide range of sources of employees. Broadly these are
categorized into 3 major sources.

 The host country national

These are workers from the local population e.g. from within the country where the
business organization is located.
 Parent Country nationals.
These are employees from the country in which the organization is Headquartered e.g. an
American manager assigned to Uganda to manage a US based company is refered to as a
parent country national.

 Third Country nationals

These are employees form another country different from that where the organization is
H/qtered or where the operations are based a located e.g ARwandan national working in
Uganda in a US based company is refered to as a 3rd country national.

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Factor for the Success of an Expatriate Manager
 Strong technical skills. He should be a person who understands the operations of
the business.
 He should be a person with good language skills especially that language of the
country of operation e.g. Kiswahili.
 He should have strong desires to work oversees e.g. a person should be interested
in and have the national argue to work abroad,
 The expatriate’s family should be well at adjusting to new situations in order to
give him or her concentration at work.
 The spouse should have/give complete support towards the cause.
 The expatriate should be flexible in behaviour since she/her operate with other
people of different origin.

Training the Expatriate Manger

This is done in 3 phases
Before departure
While over sear and
At repatriation (coming back)

Pre –departure. Issues addressed under this section include but limited to the following
 Language skills to make communication easy.
 Personal and family orientation to get a first glance of anew place and
working event.
 Career planning to help the person plan how to progress thru different Jobs.
 National and cultural orientation for this person to know and perhaps have an
idea on the way things are done in the country he is going to work in.
Over seer Assignment.
 Language skills continue to be acquired as the person is on the job.
 Local mentoring for one to adopt to the new environment.
 Training in stress management as operations may be totally new and stressing.

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  Business issues which are central to the operations of the business are
explained.

Repatriation.
 Financial management is taught to the expatriate manager in order for one to
live a meaning full life, after going backhome.
 RE-entry shock as the person might have gotten used to overseer environment
and operations and hence most likely to find the home environment totally
new.
 Carrier management for the person to know how to live for the rest of his/her
life.

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Handout Three

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE & AUTTHORITY

This is the pattern of jobs and groups of jobs in an organization. When we talk of
organizational structure, we mainly focus on the division of labour, departmentalization,
size of departments and delgationof authority in an organization.
Out of these attributes we can tell how formal complex and centralized an organization is.
The structure of an organization therefore determines the effectiveness of an organization

Why interested in the concept of an organ structure

 The organization structure has an influence on the behaviour of individuals and
groups of people who make up such organizations. Through organizational
structures, we can see control and the different parts of units. Each person in each
department adheres to the polices and rules there in.
 The structure ensures regular occurrence of activities in an organization. There are
several activities going on every day as people work and interact and
communicate and make decisions.
 Organisational structures contribute to organizational effectiveness. This is just
because just like organizations, structures have purposes and goals for which they
are established. Organizations attempt to design structures that guide individual
and group behaviour to attain productivity and efficiency.

Span of control
This is the number of individuals under a specific manager. It is concerned with the
number of employees who report to a specific manager or a number of jobs included in a
specific group.

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The issue of span of control is critical for interpersonal relationships for a departmental
manager. Indeed actual relationships determine the level of span of control and this is
reflected in the following dimensions;
 Frequent contact between the boss and the subordinates which could be through
consultations with team members
 The degree of specilsation. Highly specialized managers like those at lower level
of management control and supervise more subordinates than those at high levels
of management.
 Ability to communicate. People who can communicate clearly and precisely with
their subordinates are able to manage more people.

Delegation of Authority
Is the distributing of authority from the top downwards in an organization? Low level
units are given authority to make decisions. For instance, an H.O.D having powers to hire
a staff.
Advantages
 Delegation of authority encourages development of professional managers.
Managers under delegated authority learn to make significant decisions, gain
skills and develop themselves.
 Delegation trains managers for promotions in positions of greater authority and
responsibility
 Managers also learn how to influence people’s behaviour towards attaining
organizational goals.
 Delegation leads to efficiency and productivity within the organization.
Employees of the organization undertake different responsibilities within short
times and at low costs.
 Managers gain authority and exercise independence which translates into desire to
participate in problem solving and hence creativity.

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  Delegation reduces on the pressure that would be put on managers when
conducting management cores for the organization single handedly.
 Delegation helps in the reduction of work related stress that is caused by work
over load.

Disadvantages
 Delegation needs training managers into the process which training is costly.
 Many managers think delegating authority means control and hence they are most
likely to resist it.
 There is a cost of duplication at the local level. This is because each unit may do
what the other does since each is autonomous and self supporting.
 Many employees lack technical skills and hence curtailing the effectiveness and
efficiency of delegation
 Some managers misuse delegation to shun away from responsibilities. This breeds
inefficiency on the side of some managers
 Managers are held accountable for delegated authority. This puts managers in
tricky situations of answering questions on actions that could have been
deliberately carried out by the juniors.

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Handout Four

INDUSTRY/ORGANISATIONAL LIFE CYCLE

Firms are said to go through a life cycle when they experience rapid changes in the
environment. Some of these changes could be say competition from rival firms.
Firms over time do grow, as they grow they experience increase in sales. At this point, in
respect to increased volumes of sales they reach a peak level. At this peak level they three
options to go by;
 Maintaining the status quo of their sales.
 Leave the firm to go into decline
 Renewal of the firms capacity.

Important to note is that different leadership styles will help us cope with the different
demands of the varying stages

An illustration showing the different leadership stages in an Organizational’ Life

Cycle

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Entrepreneurial Collectivity Stage Formalization Stage Elaboration Stage
Stage

1. Entrepreneurial Stage.
At this stage, its basically a new organization being created through an innovation. Most
likely through the initiative of one person though at times its coupled with a few. Given
the limited activities and size of the organization, the leader in this stage carries on the
planning, coordination, decision making function.
The survival of the business entirely lies on the skills and the ability of the leader. This is
because there is continuous need for resources or money. The leader has to look for other
sources of money to inject into the business.
If the leader meets all the above requirements, he is seen successful and ready to go to the
next stage which is collectivity stage.
Leadership style
The leader style used to describe the leader under this stage is Champion. The leader is
designed with an art of defending the infant organization besides wining orders or
businesses for it. He has a small workforce and usually he possesses skills of persistence
and flexibility which will enable him solve the awaiting problems to the infant
organization.

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2. Collectivity Stage.
As he carries on with the persistence, he is joined by a small number of those who share
the idea that it can be a success. At this stage the firm needs a small number of dedicated
members with a mission. Members at this stage are identified with;
 Dedicating more hours to the young company than would be,
 Much of the pay is in stock, still investing and ,
 A high exhibition of committement.
With the informal type of communication in existence whereby major decisions making
issues are left to the whole group as there is an indication that the firm is growing.
Overtime, the firm moves to success as reflected by the informal structures and
management systems becoming over loaded. It means that its now prudent to have in
qualified leaders to give the firm a sense of direction and control.
Consequently the entrepreneur since he doesn’t have management techniques is forced to
hire professional managers because he can not handle a large entity.
Leadership style
The type of leader described in this stage is called a Tank Commander. Given the fact
that the business has entered its growth, the tank commander should posses exceptionally
high levels of mobilization techniques. He should be able to develop his team to be
supportive and get ready to start enjoying their efforts over the next stage.

3. Formalization and Control Stage.

Here the organization’s structures now get formalized. There is a departmentalized
structure according to the specialized areas available. This includes perhaps marketing,
accounting, human resource, production and many more depending on the nature of the
firm.
The organization aims at capturing and consolidating the market shares besides
improving its efficiency. Rules and procedures start biting the workers so as to bring in
order, sanity and maintain its position as its expenditure falls. There is amore
conservative tendency that discourages any involvement in risk taking and any
innovation that might come along.

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As the organization becomes larger more competitive firms crop in, technology changes
and coordination and information processing start developing problems as it now comes
from centralized point. Members start realizing difficulties caused by delays because of
hierarchy and size of the organization
Leadership Style
The type of leader under this stage is described as a House Keeper. He takes care of an
established business; a business that has possibly out competed some. The business at this
level is at its maturity level. The leader to that effect must be an expert at establishing
efficiency and economic management of the organization. The leader should ensure cost
effectiveness, developing effectiveness personnel polices suitable for the organization
and its employees.

4. Elaboration of Structure Stage.

As the firm has grown bigger at this level, the leader under this level looks for avenues of
reducing bureaucracies in the firm and control structures. There is now need to come off
from a centralized to decentralized mode of leadership.
If it’s a product company, this is where you see two manager of same company
competing against each other interms of the product lines they are spear heading.
Work moves to coordinating the human resource that is at the same level. The manager
starts cutting costs by exploiting those directions that are favourable for the organization.
This stage has three different routes;
Renewal-Maintenance-Decline.
Firms are like human beings-they are born, grow and die but unlike human being they
can not be renewed. However, important to note is that this is the stage where a firm can
renew the innovative system to avoid a decline yet not all firms that attempt to renew
become successful. The resources that were saved during the maturity period can now be
ploughed back in R&D inorder not to allow the firm to die.

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Leadership Style
At this stage the leader is described as a Lemon Seqeezer. He is confronted with a very
big challenge of not allowing the firm to sink. This type of leader is pre dominantly
focused on reducing the operating costs since the profits are being channeled to other
avenues.
He is said to be strict, consistent in decision making with a high affection for high
productivity levels besides by ensuring that he has the relevant staffing. He is charged
with the responsibility of extracting maximum results from the prevailing situation.

In conclusion absolutely it’s a reality that its pretty difficulty to get one leader who will
be suitable for the four stages, having looked at the many leaders are one way although
exceptional cases may surface.

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Handout Five

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACT

On being recruited, workers are given the does and don’ts of the organization and this
package is embedded in the psychological contract.
“This is the overall set of expectations that an individual worker holds with all the due
respect to his/her contributions to the organization and the organization’ response to the
individual workers.”

Workers make the following contributions.

 Commitment-deligency
 Loyalty,
 Respect,
 Organizational citizenship,
 Hard work
 Integrity
 Honest and
 Working beyond the call of duty.
These contributions will help the firm to survive the test of time. However as a response
towards the contribution, an individual worker gives to his /her firm with in the
psychological contract the firm is expected to offer serve tangible/ intangible rewards to
an individual worker.
NB: A pay rise, career opportunities are examples of tangible reward, yet job security and
status are examples of intangible rewards.
NOTE:
On considering the psychological contract as being fair and equitable both the workers
and the organization will work tirelessly to ensure that their relationship is strengthened.

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The moment there is un imbalance, staff agitate for a change inform of an increment in
payment.
This implies that managers in firms should adapt a rational, logical, objective and
realistic psychological contract as not to demotivate the staff.
The Person- Job- Fit
Person job fit is the specific aspects in the management of the psychological contracts. It
is the extent to which the contribution made by the individual worker tally /watch with
the inducements made by the firm. It is common practice that every employee has a
specific set of needs to fulfill, coupled with a specific set of job related behaviour and
abilities to contribute which management need, to tactifully and strategically exploit.
Person job fit implies that an individual worker should have the qualities and
competencies that are required for him/her to fit in a specific job.
If one does not fit the job/merit the job, then performance problems are going to be
registered as one skills may be wanting.

The Nature of Individuals in Firms

It is arguably true that there are no people who are the same to the extent that even
identical twins are not identical. Therefore, due to these facts, individuals in firms are
expected to behave differently and their behaviour in the firm may either be positive or
negative.
The underlined factors behind the differences in behaviour of individual workers in firm
are basically two.
 Every individual has a unique psychological life. The way he/she perceives things
or ideas may be different from others.
 Every individual has a unique emotional life e.g. high temper due to differences in
terms of dress, sex, age and many other demographic features that are observable.

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Personality.
Industry psychologists argue that physical differences are observable and can easily be
assessed. However regarding personality in organizations it may be hard to observe and
assess it. Personality may be defined as the relatively stable set of psychological and
behaviour attributes that distinguish one person from another.
The personality of an individual is believed to be formed long before child birth. It runs
through child hood youth state to the time when one becomes a grown up.
At least 4 variables are advanced by industrial psychologist for shaping personality of
individual s. these include
 Hereditary features such as body shape and height.
 The social context make up of friends and family members.
 The cultural content such the tribe, language, religion
 Original experiences e.g a manager who is subjected to pre-longed periods of
stress. Conflict at work. May become nervous moddy and wit draw from public.

Personality attributes in Organizations

Researchers have found out that there are a number of personality attributes that are very
relevant to the performance and endurance of organizations. After all they are functioning
in a very competitive atmosphere. These among others include
 Locus of control. This is the degree to which an individual believes that his/her
behaviour has a direct impact an the consequence of that behaviour. This explains
why some people believe that with hardwork they can be successful. They cannot
fail to perform even if they are not motivated, they have no facilities to that effect
to them success come as a result of ones internal locus of control.
However, there are employees in organizations who attribute their failure to perform to
lack of facilities, lack of encouragement, witchcraft, misfortune and unwillingness and un
co-operation from other worker e.g An individual may fail to work for promotion to a
greener position in a firm and he/she attributes this failure to the boss who is not co-
operative. This is therefore an external factor technically called external locus of control.

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  Dogmatism.
This is the rigidity in an individual’s beliefs as well as an individual openness to other
divergent views. Industry psychologists assert that managers who are receptive of other
people ideas, argument, suggestions and try other new ideas/alternatives that might be
better than those they have are reffered to as being open minded and less dogmatic.
Dogmatism therefore, can either be constructive or destructive to all organisation but this
will depend on the environment and the organization it self. It is believed that people who
are less dogmatic are always useful organisational members for one reason they listen to
other people’ points as they have a listening ear. Managers who are not dogmatic always
consult and end up investing in constructive projects that are usefull to the well being and
endurance of the origin.
 Self esteem
This is the extent to which one beliefs that one is a deserving end worthwhile member of
an organization. Therefore one with high self esteem is most likely to seek for high status
positions in an organization and may seek for greener positions. Such individuals work
tireless for the growth and development of the firm.
In contrast, a person with less self esteem may be contented with anything little that
comes his/her way from the organization. He/she is happy with the small office is
occupying. Therefore he/she doesn’t see any reason as to why he/she should be one of the
policy makers in the firm. He is contented with the lower level job which may be fetching
him little salary small as the office is there are no chances for promotion.

 Risk
This is the degree and the level to which one is willing to take chances and make risky
decisions. Psychologists contend that a manager with a high risky propensity may not
fear to try out experiments, adopt new ideas, try new strategies for the production of new
services and goods. All these may affect his/her firm positively or-negatively.
It therefore demands that a leader should be forward looking, inventive, creative and
flexible.
It is however absurd (unfortunate) to note that leaders with high risky propensity levels
might be compromised by collogues who fear taking risks. A firm may disintegrate if

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they took wrong decisions but it will indeed prosper (progress) if they took the right
decision. In contrast a leader with low risk propensity may stagnate the firm as he/she is
to reserved rigid, conservative and does not well come divergent views so easily. His/her
firm may be out competed easily.

 Authoritarianism
This is the extent to which an individual belives that power and status differences are
appropriate within hierarchical social systems such as orgns. For e.g. A manager
/supervisor who is so Authoristarian may be so much demanding, find subordinates who
are expected to contribute a lot towards the success of the firm becoming publicly
uncompromising.
Alternatively a manger who is less authoritanarian may offer chance to subordinates to
contribute willingly to the success of the company.
But this less authoritarian manager may unfortunately prove a problem to the
organization because the employees may take their boss for granted. (A friendly simple
manager just begs and does not command work to be done)

 Self Monitoring
This is a situation where one pays much attention’ to the behaviour of others. People
who are highly self monitoring emulate and behave the way others do particularly in a
work place environment. This is reflected in form of dress code, time management skills,
and the values workers attach to their organization. Those who emulate others just follow
can not initiate change because for them, they are short sighted, not creative, not
innoventive, this qualifies them to conformists. They usually endorse other peoples ideas.
However, those who are less self monitoring are most likely to be more independent and
free at the place of work. Therefore such people can initiate change as they are vibrant
outward looking.

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Types of work place behaviour
Work place behaviour is a pattern of action by the original members that either directly or
indirectly influence organizations effectiveness. Therefore the concept of work place
behaviour is analysed by describing it impact on performance and productivity
absenteeism and turn over.

 Performance behaviour
This is the total set of work related behaviour expected of an individual weaker to reflect
while on duty. Such behaviour in most cases and in most orgns is measured by the actual
work done/ the actual output realized e.g a medical doctor is evaluated as a performer
after conducting successful operations.
 Withdraw behaviour.
This manifests itself in the following ways;
(a) Absenteeism. This occurs when a person is expected to feature or execute his /her
expected job tasks but he/she misses in action and ends up not doing it.
Causes of Absentism
 Lack of incentives at the workplace.
 Illness
 Death
 Over commitments and lazyness.
Work does not get done unless the substitute is got to fill the gap. Absentism leads to
poor quality of work and the orgn may not achieve its goals.

b) Turn over. On the contra rally turnover often occurs when personnel quit their jobs.
Orgns usually incur costs at this time of advertising, recruiting and selecting employees.
The management ought to work tirelessly to curb situations that lead to turn over of
orgnal members.
Causes of turn over
 Polices of the organization
 Political factors are stability and instability.
 Lack of person job fit.

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Handout Six

MOTIVATION

Managers worldwide are concerned with the issue of some employees performing better
than others. Some explanations have been advanced such as ability, instinct, aspiration
levels, age education, and family background, out of this concern, managers focus their
attention on how to motivate employees.

Motivation is therefore concerned with the factors that incite and direct a person’s
activities. It can also mean focusing on how behaviour gets started, energized, sustained
and directed.
Motivation is the influencing of the employees’ behaviour to attain desired performance.
It is therefore about creating a work environment where it is comfortable for workers to
do their jobs. It is also the concept used to describe the forces acting on or within an
individual to initiate and direct behaviour.

As managers, we are therefore interested in motivation because

 High level of motivation are significantly contributes to exceptional performance
motivated employers strive for best ways of performing their jobs.
 Motivated employees are interested in producing quality work.
 Motivated employees are always willing to be part of a team they always want to
help support and encourage co-workers.
 Motivation leads to self supervision hence minimizing on supervision costs.
 Motivation leads to commitment of employees to work and the organization.

It is worth while noting that as individuals, we have needs. A need is a deficiency that an
individual experiences at a particular point in time and the deficiency may be food, social
interaction or even self esteem. Such needs energize or trigger behaviour responses
thereby the individual seeking to fulfill them. In this way, they become susceptible to
managers’ motivational efforts.

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Theories of Motivation
There are two broad categories of motivation and these are content theories and process
theories.
1. Content theories.
These theories focus on the factors within the person that energize, direct, sustain and
stop behaviour. Their focus is on specific needs that motivate people. They are hence
also referred to as need theories. The assumption here is that people are driven to
meet basic needs that produce satisfaction when met.
2. Process theories on the other hand describes and analyze how behaviour is energized
directed, sustained and stopped by mainly external factors to the person.
Each of these two categories of theories will be looked at in detail as below

Content Theories
People have individual need deficiencies that activates and lead to a behavioral response.
Since it is every manager’s goal to be effective, managers must:
 Find out the needs that trigger desired performance, and behaviours
 Be able to offer meaningful rewards that help the employee to satisfy their needs
 Know when to offer appropriate rewards to optimize performance behaviour.
 Not assume that a person’s need deficiencies will repeat them selves in a regular
pattern.
 People change because of experiences, life events, aging, cultural and
environmental changes.
 The main content theories of motivation include; Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Alderfers ERG theory, Herzberg’s two factor theory and Mc Clelland’s learned
needs theory.

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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
The proponent of this theory is Abraham Maslow. He structured the individual needs in a
pyramid form with the physiological needs at the bottom and self-actualization at the top
through safety and security needs, social needs and self-esteem. In other words, the
individual needs are arranged in a hierarchical way in a pyramid starting with
physiological needs, social needs, safety and security needs, self-esteem and self-
actualization.

Esteem

Social Needs

Safety and Security

Physiological Needs

 Physiological needs include food, drink, shelter and relief from pain. They are the
basic needs.
 Safety and security- this is the need for freedom from threat i.e. security within
the environment.
 Belongingness, social and love-this is about friendship interaction and love.
 Esteem-this is the need for respect from others i.e self esteem
 Self actualization-this is the need to fulfill oneself by maximizing the use of
abilities skills and potential.
The theory assumes that a person attempts to satisfy more basic needs (physiological)
before moving to the upper level needs.
To Maslow, a satisfied need can no longer motivate.

Strengths

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The theory suggests strategies to managers that organizations can implement to correct
need deficiencies. Managers need to pay attention to areas of self-esteem and self-
actualization, which are often ignored while concentrating on low level needs.
Needs, work styling and work ethics may differ across cultures and the pyramid can help
us trace where different people belong.

Limitations
 Maslow’s theory has not been supported by field research/studies.
 The theory cannot be used to predict and explain individual behaviour.
 People don’t necessarily observe the order by Maslow in their pursuit for needs
satisfaction
There are several human needs that occur simultaneously.
 The urgency of any given need varies.
 The theory ignores the influence of external environment on human needs and
behaviour.

ALDERFER’S ERG THEORY

This theory agrees with that of Mawslow that needs are arranged in a hierarchy. However
Alderfer’s hierarchy involves only three sets of needs;
1. Existence; needs satisfied by food, air, water, pay, working conditions and other
related factors.
2. Relatedness; needs satisfied by meaningful social and interpersonal relationships.
3. Growth; needs satisfied by an individual making creative or productive
contributions.

The acronym ERG therefore comes from the three needs Existence (E), Relatedness (R),
and Growth (G)
This theory is related to that of Maslow in that existence relates to Maslow’s
physiological and safety needs;
Relatedness needs are similar to belongingness, social and love category; and the growth
needs are similar to esteem and self actualization categories.

30
The two theories however differ on how people move through the different sets of needs.
Maslow stated that a person only moves up the need hierarchy once his lower level needs
have been effectively met, and unsatisfied needs at one level are important. To Alderfer’s
ERG theory in addition to progression as under Maslow, a frustration- regression to
satisfy growth needs, relatedness needs re-emerge as a major motivating force and a
person redirects his efforts towards the same.
This theory means that the individuals engage in behaviours to satisfy one of the three
sets of needs.
This theory therefore provides managers with alternatives in redirecting the a
subordinate’s efforts.
Limitations
 There are limited research studies hence difficulties in empirical verification of
Alderfer’s ERG claims.
o The assumption by Maslow and Alderfer that individuals shape the actions to
satisfy unfulfilled needs gives purpose and direction to individual activity.
o There are many needs to a manager to know which one to provide at a time.
o Score for strength of desire for growth differ in individuals depending on parents
who achieve higher education levels, while men score high on existence needs
and low on relatedness as opposed to women.

HERZBERG’S TWO-FACTOR THEORY

Fredrick Herzberg is the proponent of this theory. Herzberg’s theory holds the view that
job satisfaction results from the presence of intrinsic motivators and that job
dissatisfaction stems from not having extrinsic factors. To Herzberg, motivators leads to
satisfaction, but their absence does not necessarily lead to dissatisfaction.
On the other hand, the extrinsic factors even if provided to the satisfactions of the
employee don’t necessarily motivate him, but their absence results in dissatisfaction.
They however need to be maintained at least at a level of no dissatisfaction. The extrinsic
conditions are called dissatisfers or hygiene factors. These conditions include: salary
{pay}, job security, working conditions, status, company procedures/policies, quality of

31
supervisor, quality of interpersonal relations among peers with superiors and the
subordinates.
The intrinstic factors include the job content among others like; achievement,
advancement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility, the possibility of growth, etc,
Weaknesses
 The theory was mainly based on a sample of accountants and engineers hence
difficult to generalize to other groups.
 The technology, background and environment are different from those of other
groups.
 It assumes that managers can easily change hygiene factors on satisfiers to
produce job satisfaction.
 People cannot be aware of all that motivates or dissatisfies them. Sub conscious
factors are ignored.
 Little is done to test the theory’s performance. He doesn’t show how intrinstic and
extrinsic factors affect performance.

Strengths
The theory spells out specific job factors that managers can work with to create a
motivational atmosphere.
It brings out differences in perspectives held by practicing managers and academics.

MCCLELLAND’S LEARNED NEEDS THEORY

Propounded by David C. McClelland as a motivation theory closely associating with
learning concepts.
The three learned needs are the need for achievement, affiliation and power.
Achievement is a person’s desire for cleat, self set, moderately difficult goals with
feedback.
Affiliation is the desire to work with others, learn from them and be accepted by them.
Power is the desire to work with others, learn from them and be accepted by them.
Power is the desire to have influence and control over others.

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To McClelland, a strong need in a person motivates her to use behavoiur leading to its
satisfaction.
He emphasized measurement of attainment of the above three needs. For example, he
said that you cannot judge a person as hardworking because of the Hours spent on work.
He recommend the use of Thematic Appreciation Test (TAT). Under this, a person is
shown pictures and asked to write a story about what he sees as ported in them. Therefore
people will tend to write stories reflecting their dominant needs ( need for achievement ,
need for power, need for affliction).
To McClelland economic growth is based on the level of need achievement inherent
in people, and backward nations can be improved by stimulating the need for
achievement in the population.
 The theory is useful in western countries with free market economies.
 There is complexity in achievement motive as it differs between those focusing on
attaining success and those focusing on avoiding failure.
 Gender differences exist regarding competitiveness money believes.
 The use of projective TAT to determine the three needs has been questioned.
 McClelland’s view that need for achievement can be learned contradicts the view
that motives are normally acquired in childhood and difficult to alter at adulthood.
 There is doubt whether needs are learned and something learned in training and
development can be sustained on the job.

Process Theories
These are theories that attempt to explain and describe some of the factors, typically
outside of the individual that energize, direct, sustain and stop behaviour. Content
theories describe and analyze the process by which behaviour is energized, directed,
sustained and stopped. This is because employees in most cases want to work and do a
good job, and management’s role should therefore provide an environment that facilitates
high levels of performance.

The major process theories of motivation include; reinforcement, expectance, equality

and goal setting.

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It is important to note that behaviour and its influences are key in these theories.
Employees therefore acquire behaviours and influences that motivate them and this is
done through learning. For example people in organizations can learn perceptions,
attitudes, goals, emotional reactions and skills among others.

Learning is the process by which a relatively enduring change in behaviour occurs as a

result of practice. Learning in this context may occur in the following ways.
1. Social learning- this is where we acquire much of our behaviour by observation and
imitation of others in a social context. This occurs out of continuous interaction. Out
of social learning we develop self-efficiency, which is the belief that one can perform
adequately in a particular situation. Self-efficiency is enhanced by Pygmalion effect.
This is an enhance learning or performance that results from others having positive
expectations.
2. Operant learning- this is learning that occur as a consequence of behaviour. Operants
are behaviours that can be controlled by altering the consequences rein forcers and
punishments) that follow them. Examples of operants include pulling a defective part
off a production line, listening to a customer’s complaint about poor service and
coming to work on time. Operant conditioning in individuals is described as
behaviour modification.

Operant conditioning is based on some principles:

 Positive reinforcement; this is action that reinforces the likelihood of a particular
behaviour. It both increases the strength of response and induces repetition of the
behaviour that preceded the reinforcement. These could be praises, bonuses,
promotions or encouragement.

Note should be taken that reinforcers should be connected with desired behaviour.
They shouldn’t also be administered long after the occurrence of the desired
behaviour.
 Negative reinforcement-this is a response that removes some painful or unpleasant
stimulus or enables the organism to avoid it. It is aimed at removing wrongful

34
 behaviour to increase performance. The example of negative reinforcement is not
having to listen to a nagging boss. Instead the employee works hard, which can keep
the boss away. Another example is turning on an air conditioner on a seemingly hot
day. The air conditioner helps cool down the high temperature in the room or a car.

 Punishment: this is an undersirable consequence of a particular behaviour. For

example by a lecturer deducting 5 marks for each day a course work is late is
exercising punishment. An employee who doesn’t submit in a report on time and is
suspended for one day without payment is being punished. However punishment may
not be as good as reward because;
o The results of punishment are not predictable as those of reward.
o The effects of punishment are less permanent than those of reward
o Punishment is always accompanied by negative attitudes towards the
administrator of the punishment, as well as towards the activity that led to the
punishment.

 Extinction- this is the decline in the response rate because of non-reinforcement. For
example if a member always tells jokes at meetings and others laugh. The moment
these people see no meaning in his jokes and stop laughing at his jokes for some time,
he will see them as not being desirable.

Behaviors Modification
Managers should learn to focus on specific behaviours that lead to observable acts. This
is then followed by an analysis of the consequences of behaviour. When this is done, then
behaviour modification in organizations follows five steps of problem solving process.
 Managers should identify and define the specific behaviour. Such behaviour
should be seen and measured.
 Managers should measure or count the occurrence of pinpointed behaviour. This
shows the strength of the behaviour.
 Managers conduct an analysis of antecedents, behaviour and consequences. This
tries to determine where the problem lies.

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  The thre steps above set the stage for actual actions by the manager, this stage
involves the strategies for accomplishing desirable and observable critical
performance behaviour (the goal of operant conditioning) i.e positive
reinforcement, negative reinforcement and punishment. However, managers
prefer using positive reinforcement.
 Evaluation- this permits the manager to trace and review changes in behaviour
before and after implementation of an action program. Managers are also able to
measure performance.

Criticisms of behaviour modification

 Reinforcers have no real change in behaviour as the person is just being bribed to
perform.
 Reinfrocement cannot modify responses automatically independent of a person’s
beliefs, values or mental processes. People can learn by observing others get
reinforcement and by imitating those who are reinforced.
 Operant conditioning also ignores self reinforcement.
 Individuals don’t depend on intrinsic reinforcers. Behaviours don’t necessarily
depend on reinforcement and they can perform without the promise of a
reinforcer.
 The utilization of positive reinforcement may be more perceived than actual.
About 80% of managers claim to use of praise, recognition and promotion, but
only 20% of employees report that their supervisors express forms of appreciation
more than occasionally.
 There are cultural differences, which may have an impact on the approach used.

Behavioural Self Management (BSM)

This is the process where by a person faces immediate response alternatives involving
different consequences and selects or modifies behaviour by managing cognitive process,
causes or consequences

36
Expectancy Theory
This theory was developed by Victo Vroom. Vroom defines motivation as a process
governing choices among alternative forms of voluntary activity. This theory describes
the process people use to evaluate the likelihood that their effort will yield a desired
outcome, and how much they want the out come.
This is a theory in which an employee is faced with a set of first level outcomes and
selects an outcome based on how choice is related to second level outcome. To this
theory, motivation is based on valence, expectancy, and instrumentality.
The individual’s preferences are based on strength of valance of desire to achieve second
level state and perception of relationship between first and second level outcomes. First
level outcomes are associated with doing the job itself e.g productivity, absenteeism,
turnover, quality of productivity. Second level outcomes are the rewards and punishments
that first level outcomes are likely to produce e.g. merit pay increase, group acceptance or
rejection and promotion.
Instrumentality is the individual’s assessment of how likely it is that successful effort will
be rewarded. Instrumentality in expectancy theory is an individual’s perception that first
level outcomes are associated with second level outcomes.
Valence is the value of the outcome to an indivudal Valence is the preference for
particular outcome as seen by the individual. It is the strength of a person’s preference for
particular outcomes.
Expectancy is the individual’s belief concerning the likelihood that a particular behaviour
will be followed by a particular outcome. It is a perceived chance of something occurring
because of behaviour. This is the individual’s assessment the effort will produce the
desired result.

Out of this theory , managers can develop their own motivation programmes after taking
the following actions.

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  Managers need to focuses on employee expectations for success. Do employees
feel they can attain the set performance goals? Therefore managers need to realign
assignments and rewards.
 Managers must actively determine which second level outcomes are important to
the employee.
 Managers should link desired second level outcomes to the organisation’s
performance goals. This will show that there is an actual association between
performance goals and desired second level outcomes.
 Employees then allocate their behaviour according to anticipated consequences of
actions. Behaviour is thus a product of what employees believe will happen in the
future.

Criticism
 The theory attempts to predict effort can be adequately measured. Management
only tends to use self, peer or supervisor ratings to measure effort.
 First level performance outcomes are difficult to determine. The theory doesn’t
specify which outcomes are relevant to a particular individual in a situation.
 The theory assumes that all motivation is conscious. Expectancy theory says
nothing about subconscious motivation. This includes the thoughts, instincts, and
fears in the mind. One is not fully a ware of them but they influence his actions.
 Most of the studies testing this theory relied on employees from a single
organization doing the same or similar jobs.

Equity Theory
This theory was developed and tested by J. Stacey Adams; a Research Psychologist. The
theory states that employees compare their efforts and rewards with those of others in
similar work situations. The theory looks at the fairness in the relationship between the
efforts expended the resulting reward from such efforts. The assumption for this theory is
that individuals are motivated by a desire to be equitably treated at work.

This theory emphasizes the following terms.

38
  Person –the individual for whom equity or inequity is perceived.
 Comparison other- any individual(s) or group used by person as a referent
regarding the ratio of input and outcomes.
 Inputs- the individual characteristics brought by a person to the job e.g skills,
experience, age, sex, race etc.
 Outcomes- what person received from the job e.g. recognition, fringebenefits, pay
etc.

Equity exists when employees feel that their inputs (efforts) and outcomes (rewards) are
equivalent to those of the similar employees.
Inequity exists between inputs and outputs of different employees.
The theory suggests that following ways to achieve equity.
 Changing inputs. These include reliability, co-operation with others, initiative and
acceptance of responsibility.
 Changing outcomes eg asking for a raise, more time off or better assignments
 Changing the reference person.
 Changing the inputs or outcomes of the reference person eg asking one to work
harder.
 Changing the situation e.g. quitting the job or asking for transfer.

GOAL SETTING THEORY

Developed by Edwin Locke. He holds that an individual’s conscious goals and intentions
are the primary determinants of behaviour. This behaviour keeps going until it reaches
completion. Conscious goals are the main goals that a person is striving for and is aware
of when directing behaviour.
The goal setting theory calls for involvement of both superiors and subordinates working
together to set subordinate’s goals for a specified period of time.
A goal is a specific target that an individual is trying to achieve; the target (objective) of
an action.
Locke described the attributes of the mental process of goal setting as:
1. Goal specificity- degree of quantitative precision of goal.

39
2. Goal difficulty-degree of proficiency or the level of goal performance sought.
3. Goal intensity-the processing of setting the goal or determining how to reach it. This
is related to goal commitment-this is the amount of effort used to achieve a goal.
The key steps for goal setting are;
Diagnosing if people, technology and organizations are suited for goal setting.
 Prepare employees via communication, interaction, training and action plans
for goal setting.
 Specific goals lead to high output than vague goals. Specific goals therefore
lead to increased performance.

Weaknesses
 Setting difficult goals
 Goal setting may be frustrated by little participation, meaning little
commitment to the goal
 Individual differences
 Goal setting works well for simple jobs eg clerks, typists, technicians but
not for complex jobs. In some jobs, goals are not easily measurable e.g
nursing, teaching, engineering etc.
 Goal setting encourages game playing ie setting low goals to look good
later.
 Goal setting is used to as a check on employees. It is a control device to
monitor performance.

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Handout Seven

GROUP BEHAVIOUR AND TEAM WORK.

In addition to analyzing individual behaviour, original behaviour also consider the
behaviours of groups that interract and the activities within groups. A group is a
collection of individuals in which behaviour and performance at one member is
influenced by behaviour or performance of other members/ groups?

TYPES OF GROUPS
1. Formal groups.
2. Informal groups
1. Formal groups
These are groups created by management decision to accomplish stated goals of the
organization.
Types of formal
(i) Command group. It the group aviated by management with a task that is specified
by this original client compusing of subordinates who directly report to a given
supervisor.
(ii) Task group. This comprises of employees who work together to complete a
particular task of project. For example nurses assigned on duty in the emergency
room of a hospital usually consists of a task group.
(iii) A special type of task group is called a TEAM. The team . the team performance
is affected by all the factors that influence groups but teams are also affected by
additional factors that do not affect the productivity of other soots of groups.

2. Informal/groups
These are groups that arise from individual effect and develop around common interest
and friendship ruther than a deliberate design. They are natural groupings of people in the
work situation who come together in response to sexual needs.
TYPES OF INFORMAL

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(i) Friendship s. This is where members form a group lise they have something in
common e.g. Age political beliefs, others background, etc.
(ii) Interest groups. Those include persons who may not be members of the serve task
a command group affiliating to achieve some mutual objective. The objective here
may be related to those of the orgn but specific to each group.

Why people form groups

Satisfaction of needs like social esteem, self actualization, security/ sense of belonging
can be best satisfied by affiliating to a group.
Promixty and attraction. Promixty means the physical distance between employyess
performing a particular job while attraction is the degree to which people are drown to
each other. Individuals working working close to another find it easy to exchange ideas,
thoughts.
Group goals. People may join groups to understand its goals very well inorder to improve
on productivity through new group production methods.

Stages in Group Development

Mutual acceptance. In early stages of group formation, members are refluctant to
express their opinions, attitudes, belifs. It is until members accept and trust one another
that interaction occurs.
Communication and decision making. Upon mutual acceptance, members can now
communicate openly because of increased confidence and more interaction. Members can
now focus their decisions on problem solving tasks and developing alternative sets of
goals to accomplish tasks.
Motivation and productivity. Here members expand their efforts to accomplish group
goals thus cooperation rather than competition. They aim at effectiveness of decisions
and actions

42
Conflict.
Employees are shifting from working alone to where there are dependent to one
another. This then necessitates employees to share information, cooperate with each
other, address personal differences and share desire to work for the greater good of the
entire organization. However, there are conflicts within and with other groups in the
organization, asituation that produces both negative and positive results.
Conflict can be benefical if it is used as an instrument for change or innovation. This
therefore makes us not concerned with conflict itself but how it is managed. Conflict
can be either functional or dysfunctional conflict.
Functional conflict is aconfrontation between groups that ehances and benefits the
organisation’s performance. For instance, it two departments of ahospital conlict over
the most efficient method of delivering health care to low income rural families,
whatever their outcome, low income rural families will probably end up with better
medical care once the conflict is settled. Functional conflict is atype of creative tension.
Whereas, dysfunctional conflict is any confronation between groups that hinders
organizational performance. Management must therefore seek to eliminate
dysfunctional conflict.

Causes of Conflict in organization.

(i) Limited resources. Resources like money, space, labour and materials are
limited and as such each group can not pursue its own goals. Resources
must be shared and allocated. Such resources limited in scope result into a
win-lose competition that can easily result into dysfunctional conflict.
(ii) Reward structures. Where reward systems is related to individual group
performance rather than organizational performance, conflict is likely to
occur. Also where one group is responsible for distribution of rewards, it
is mostly to favour its own members.
(iii) Differences in perception of reality may translate into conflict. For
instance, the department and student’ guild may perceive differently the
importance of wining a football match. The different perceptions could be
because of different goals.

43
 (iv) Different time horizon. Deadlines influence the priorities and importance
that groups assign to their various activities. As such, issues deemed
critical by one group may be dismissed as an important by another, hence
conflict.
(v) Status incongruence. Organizations have many different status standards
rather than an absolute one. For instance members of a particular academic
discipline perceive themselves for one reason or another as having higher
status than others.
(vi) Work dependence. This is when two or more organizational groups
depend on one another to complete their tasks.

Ways of Managing Conflict

Conflict may be managed through resolution, negotiation, team building and stimulation
1. Resolution.
(a) Problem solving. This seeks to reduce tension through face to face meeting of the
conflicting groups. The aim of the meeting is to identify conflict and resolve them by the
conflicting groups openly debating various issues looking at relevant information until a
decision is made.
(b) Expansion of resources. Limited resources like money, space were seen as one of the
causes of conflict. Expansion of such resources can therefore solve such problems.
(c )Compromise. This is used effectively when the goal sought like money can be divided
equitably. If its not possible, one group must give up something of value as a concession.
There is no distinct winner or loser
(d) Avoidance. Managers can also decide to avoid conflict. However, this can be a short
term solution.
2. Negotiation.
This involes having two sides with differing or conflicting interests come together to
forge an agreement. Negotiations differs from compromise in that successful negotiations
are those in which all parties affected walk away feeling like they have worn.

44
3.Team building.
Teams lead to improved productivity, streamling, flexibility, quality, increased employee
committement and improved customer care. Team building enables work groups to more
effectively get the work done to improve their performance. It encourages people who
work together to meet as a group inorder to identify common goals, improve on
communication and resolve conflicts.
3. Stimulation
This entails techniques through which conflict contributes positively to organizational
performance.
(a) Communication. A manager can use communication channels or information to
stimulate benefical conflict. For instance a hosiptital administrator may start a
rumour of a proposed reorganization of the hospital to stimulate ideas on how to
effectively work and reduce apathy among staff.
(b) Bringing an outside individual into agroup. Hire or transfer in people with
different attitudes, values and backgrounds from those of the present members.
(c) Altering the organizational structure.

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Handout Eight

MANAGERIAL DECISION MAKING

A decision is a choice made from available alternatives. Decision Making is the act of
choosing one alternative from asset of alternatives. Decision Making can also be defined
as an aspect of planning which involves setting objectives, strategies to apply to each
objective, how much and the type of resources to be budgeted for, and the policies that
are appropriate.

The Decision Making process according to Griffin (2004: 232) is the recognition of the
nature of decision situation, identifying alternatives, choosing the ‘best’ alternative and
putting it into practice. In short, the decision making process are the steps through which
decisions are made.

Decision making process is a very important aspect of management as the decisions made
by managers determine the performance of the organization. The effectiveness of a
manager is determined by the quality of decisions he/she makes. Managers are thus
rewarded depending on the decisions they make.

TYPES OF DECISIONS
Decisions are basically categorized as programmed and non-programmed decisions.

Programmed decisions:
These are decisions made to address problems that are repetitive or that recur. A manager
may develop a routine procedure for handling a particular situation that occurs often for
example, if a hardware dealer knows that he to keep a maximum of 20 bags of cement in
stock, he can establish a system where the order is automatically made when the
minimum stock is reached.

Non-programmed decisions

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These are decisions that are made to address problems that are not similar to those that
have arisen in the past. These are decisions that occur much less often than programmed
decisions. Such decisions are made for non-programmed problems and hence a creative
process.

DECISION MAKING CONDITIONS

There are different conditions under which decisions are made. At times, managers have
almost perfect understanding of conditions surrounding a particular decision, while at
other time they may not have or may have little knowledge about such conditions. Thus
managers make decisions under conditions of certainty, risk, or uncertainty

1. Decision making under certainty

The decision maker is reasonably certain of alternatives and the conditions associated
with each alternative. All the information the decision maker needs is fully available and
managers have information on operating conditions, resource costs or constraints, and
each course of action and possible outcome.

2. Decision making under risk

This is a condition or situation where each available alternative, results, and costs are all
associated with probability estimates. A decision has clear cut goals, and good
information is available, but the future outcomes associated with each alternative are
subject to chance. However, enough information is available to allow the probability of a
successful outcome for each alternative to be estimated. Statistical analysis might be used
to calculate the probabilities of success. For example, a working IT student who gets a
project assignment for extra hours of work after normal office hours faces two dilemma
situations.
(i) A risk of failing or not performing well in class in favor of extra earnings

(ii) Better performance out of regular class attendance at a cost of additional earning out
of extra hours of work in the evening.

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Under such conditions managers or any person must determine the probabilities
associated before making a decision.

3. Decision making under uncertainty

This is a condition or situation in which the decision maker does not know all the
alternatives, the risks associated with each, or the consequences each alternative is likely
to have. In short the decision maker does not know all the alternatives, the risks
associated with each alternative or the likely consequences of each alternative.

THE DECISION MAKIING PROCESS AND MODELS

The rational perspective/the classical model of decision making
This perspective looks at managers or decision makers as rational people, and hence they
should be rational in decision making
The model shows a step-by-step process of decision-making.

The major assumptions underlying the model are;

The decision maker operates to accomplish goals that are known and agreed upon.
Problems are precisely formulated and defined

The decision maker strives for conditions of uncertainty, gathering complete information.
All alternatives and the potential results of each are calculated.

Criteria for evaluating alternatives are known. The decision maker selects the alternative
that will maximize the economic return to the organization.

The decision maker is rational and uses logic to assign values, order preferences, evaluate
alternatives, and make the decision maximize the attainment of organizational goals.

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 STEPS IN RATIONAL DECISION MAKING
Recognize and define the decision situation
This is when some stimulus or spark indicates that there is need for a decision. This
stimulus or reason for the decision could be negative or positive, for example high labor
turnover. Managers confront a decision requirement in the firm of either a problem or an
opportunity. A problem is a situation where organizational accomplishments have failed
to meet established goals; an opportunity is a situation in which managers see potential
organizational accomplishments that exceed current goals. Scanning the environment;
sources of information internally and externally

Identify or develop alternatives

Having recognized and defined the situation, the next step is to identify the possible
alternative courses of action. Managers should generate possible alternative solutions that
will respond to the needs of the situation and correct the underlying causes. For the case
of high labor turnover, the manager could think of increasing wage, increasing other
benefits, improving on work conditions or changing living standards.

Selection of desired alternative

This step is the main indicator of rationality in decision making and invloes identifying
several ways in which a correct solution to the problem could be established. If this step
is effectively carried out, it will help the decision maker to avoid the temptation to slove
the problem quickly, avoid resorting to easy alternatives which are not always the best,,
avoid emotions interfering with the decision making process.

Evaluate the available alternatives

Each alternative is then evaluated for feasibility, satisfaction in solving the problem and
its consequences. Alternatives are evaluated interms of disadvantages /advantages, Cost
Vs benefits entailed, availability of resoures to carry out the alternatives() human and non
human

Select the best alternative for action

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The manager chooses the best alternative that fits the situation. This should be after
considering the situational factors and evaluating the available alternatives for feasibility,
satisfaction and consequences.

Implementation of the chosen alternative

The decision is useless when it is not implemented. Having chosen the best alternative
course of action, it must be effectively implemented, i.e. put into action. The
implementation stage involves the use of managerial, administrative and persuasive
abilities to ensure that the chosen alternative is carried out/translated into action.

Follow-up and evaluation

There is need to ascertain the extent to which an alternative course of action chosen is
implanted. This also needs to continuously monitor how the alternative choice works.
There is need to see that the implementation is on planned course or any deviations and
unplanned for conditions addressed. At this stage decision makers gather information that
tells them how well the decision was implemented and whether it was effective in
achieving its goals.

Strengths of the classical model

The classical model of decision making is considered to be normative, which means it
defines how a decision maker should make decisions and provide guidelines for reaching
an ideal outcome for the organization.

The value of the classical model has been its ability to help its ability to help decision
makers be more rational.

The classical model approach has been given wider application because of the growth of
quantitative decision techniques that use computers. E.g. breakeven analysis, forecasting,
decision trees, payoff matrices, linear programming, and operations research models.

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The classical model is most valuable when applied to programmed decisions
characterized by certainty or risk, because relevant information is available and
probabilities can be calculated.

Weaknesses of the classical model

Rational procedures are not always used; when they are, they are confined to a simplistic
view of the problem that does not capture the complexity of the real organizational
events. More so it is very difficult for all decision situations to be logically as described.

There is little consideration for logic and rationality.

Even organizations that attempt to be logical also fail sometimes. This is because
decisions made sometimes with little regard for logic can still turn out to be correct.

It wastes a lot of time in the gathering information and analysis of all possible
alternatives and courses of action.

It is very difficult to have complete information on a subject. A decision maker may not
know all the possible alternatives.

Managers’ search for alternatives is limited because of human, information and resource
constraints. It is very difficult for a manager to maximize (make the best choice that gives
the best result). There are always trade offs

Decision goals are vague, conflicting and lack consensus among managers. Managers
often are unaware of problems or opportunities that exist in the organization

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The administrative model;
The model was advanced by Herbert A. Simon. Herbert Simon was among the first
people to recognize that decisions are not always made with rationality and logic.

Simon’s focus was not on prescribing how decisions should be made, but rather
describing how decisions are often actually made.

Thus the administrative decision making model is a model that describes how managers
actually make decisions in situations characterized by non-programmed decisions and
uncertainty. Many management decisions are not sufficiently programmable to lend
themselves to any degree of qualification. Managers are unable to make economically
rational decisions even if they wanted.

Herbert Simon holds/assumes that managers;

(i) do not have complete information, but rather incomplete and imperfect
information
(ii) managers are not rational but rather constrained by bounded rationality
(iii) managers do not maximize but rather tend to satisfy when making decisions

Simon proposed two (2) concepts

(a) bounded rationality
This means that people have limits, or boundaries on how rational they can be. The
organization is a complex system, and managers have the time and ability to process
only a limited amount of information with which to make decisions.
(b) satisfying
This means that decision makers choose the first solution alternative that satisfies
minimal decision criteria. Rather than pursuing all alternatives to identify the single
solution that will maximize economic returns, managers will opt for the first solution
that appears to solve the problem even if better solutions are presumed to exist.

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 Strength
The administrative model focuses on organizational factors that influence individual
decisions and is more realistic than the classical model for complex and non-
programmed decisions

Weaknesses
The administrative model is considered to be descriptive, meaning that it
describes how managers actually make decisions in complex rather than dictating
how they should make decisions according to a theoretical idea.

Factors Affecting the decision making process

Internal factors
 Importance of the decision.
 Number of people involved
 The consequences of reaching the wrong decision
 The length of chain of command
 The personalities involved
 Limitation of the information needed

External Factors.
 The political dimensions such as ideologies.
 The number of interested parties
 The extent of compliance required y external agencies eg donors
 The level of competition with silmillar outside organizations
 National and international. For instance sending troops to war ravaged areas for
purpose of image building. Iraq, Sudan, Congo

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Handout Nine

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Technology is the art of science effected to simply work cores from labour intensive to
say capital intensive
Disadvantages
 Accidents are less registered easily.
 Unemployemnt
 Registered stress to employees
 Inequality in light of income to society
 Capital repatriation

Advantages
 Productivity levels are increased
 Effective utilization of space
 Fastens the decision making process
 Redesigning of jobs for better
 Less costly
 Reduces on waste levels
 Sense of security
 Corporate image.

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COURSE WORK II- BBA 11 EVE CLASS
NB
Members in the following Groups will generate presentations on the sub themes

Group One Members

Task.- Presentation Change Management
(i) Definition of Change
(ii) Causes of change
(ii) Why people resist change
(iii) Way forward

Group Two Members

Task –Presentation on Leadership
(i) Definition of leadership
(ii)Theories of leadership
(iii)Generate a debt on whether leaders make a difference on organizational performance
or not.

Group Three Members

Task-Presentation on organizational Culture
(i)Definition of organizational culture/corporate culture
(ii)Importance of corporate culture
(iii)Definition of Power and politics
(iv)Bases of power

Date of submission/ Presentation 01-11-2016 strictly adhere to the date.

Please find the respective group you belong to as per the allocation schedule for the
groups attached.

Thank You

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