Biological Characteristics and their impact on 

organisational behaviour 
 

 
Organisational theory & behaviour (PPG 501) 

Masters of Public Policy and Governance 

Department of general and continuing education 

North South University, Dhaka 

Prajwal Mani Pradhan 

prdhan.pm@gmail.com  

2010 
Table of Contents
Topics Page No.

CHAPTER I

1. Introduction 1

1.1. Purpose of the study 3

1.1.1. General Objective 3

1.1.2. Specific Objectives 3

CHAPTER II

2. Methodology 4

2.1. Conceptual Methodology 4

2.2. Data Analysis 4

2.3. Sample size 5

2.4. Limitations 5

2.5. Ethical Considerations 5

CHAPTER III

3. Findings and Discussions 6

3.1. Age 6

3.2. Gender 10

3.3. Leadership Perception 13

3.4. Job Satisfaction and turnover perception 15

CHAPTER IV

4. Conclusion 20

5. References 22

6. Appendix (questionnaire) 25
CHAPTER I

1. Introduction

People’s behaviour makes sense if you think about it in terms of their goals, needs, and
motives.

Thomas Mann
1875-1955

This aphorism provides us with humorous peril of organisational behaviour. Behaviour is one
of the key interest areas for most management gurus. Following the advent of Humanistic
approach and/or organisation humanism to management, many have started looking further
into this part of management. It also gains its impetus from the fact that since carrot and stick
motivation doesn’t work always, based on Maslow need hierarchy-it is difficult to find at
which hierarchy staff is, what to do next, whereas, many find Kurt Lewin’s theory brief to
wield it exactly in to practicality. There must be something that is construing every theory,
and transcending into realities: behaviour – largely a construct of socialisation but also and
often influenced by biological characteristics of an individual. Biographical characteristics of
an individual are those characters which are in born/innate and not based upon the preference
of the individual. For e.g.: Age, Gender, Race\Ethnicity etc.

Organisational behaviour is the systematic study and careful application of knowledge about
how people- as individuals and as groups –act within organisations. Five levels of analysis
for organisational behaviour are: individuals within an organisation, interpersonal relations,
small groups, intergroup relations, whole systems. (Davis & Newstrom, 2007)

There is a major conceptual question as to whether emotion and the individual-level

components can be meaningfully characterised at the group level. When people enter a group,
they bring their affective personalities and individual affective experiences and skills with
them. There are many types of affect that can comprise individual-level moods and emotions.
At least five general affective factors can be identified that may form aspects of the affective
composition of the group: dispositional affect, mood, acute emotions, emotional intelligence
and sentiments (affective evaluations of the group). (Kelly & Barsade, 2001)

 
1 
In the first family study on the inheritance of talent, Sir Francis Galton, the father of
behavioural genetics, presented evidence that talent is inherited from parents to offspring: ‘I
find that talent is transmitted by inheritance in a very remarkable degree . . . . I justify my
conclusions by the statistics I now proceed to adduce, which I believe are amply sufficient to
command conviction’. (Galton, 1865, p. 157), (Ilies, Arvey & Bouchard, 2006)

A decade ago, in their review of the behavioural genetics findings with respect to measures
used in organizational settings (Arvey &Bouchard, 1994) made a strong case that, in
psychology in general, ‘biology is back.’ That is, research in most domains of psychology has
shown that human behaviour is influenced by genetic and biological characteristics of
individuals (Bouchard & McGue, 2003; Dick and Rose, 2002; Plomin et al., 2003; Sherman
et al., 1997). In the organizational domain, though progress in understanding the role of
genetic differences has been rather slow-paced (Arvey & Bouchard, 1994), it has become
increasingly accepted that traits, attitudes, and behaviours relevant to the workplace also have
a genetic component.

Findings form behavioural genetics research has profound implications for the study of
organisational behaviour. Heritable constructs such as intelligence, personality and attitudes
are central to the study of behaviour in organisations, and calibrating the relative contribution
of genotypic and environmental differences to the variation in these constructs across
individuals informs research and theory in the areas of selection, work attitudes and a variety
of work outcomes such as voluntary behaviour and job performance. (SEIRnet, 2008)

Evolutionary psychology also called modern Darwinism is a convergence of research and

discoveries in genetics, neuropsychology and paleobiology among other sciences,
evolutionary psychology holds that although human beings today inhabit a thoroughly
modern world of space exploration and virtual realities, they do so with the ingrained
mentality of Stone Age hunter-gatherers, a drive to trade information and share secrets. You
can take the person out of the Stone Age, but you can’t take the Stone Age out of the person-
according to evolutionary psychologists.  The discipline recognizes the individual differences
caused by a person’s unique genetic inheritance, as well as by personal experiences and
culture. 

 
2 
Evolutionary psychology goes far as to raise the questions: how might organisations be
designed to work in harmony with our biogenetic identity? And are modern-day executives
managing against the grain of human nature?

This paper’s level of analysis is individuals within an organisation solely based on their
biological characteristics (particularly age, gender, genetics, job satisfaction and turnover
rates) that affect an organisation.

1.1. Purpose of the study

1.1.1. General Objective:

To understand some features of biological characteristics for individual influencing his/her

organisational behaviour.

1.1.2. Specific Objectives:

 To outline differences related with age in an organisational environment.

 To outline differences related with gender in an organisational environment.
 To assess leadership perception for a public and private organisation.
 To assess job satisfaction and turnover perception.
 To collate the biological characteristic’s influence upon organisational behavior.

 
3 
CHAPTER II

2. Methodology:

2.1. Conceptual Diagram

Age 

Gender   
Biographical  Influences 
Organisation 
characteristics  
behaviour 

Job 
satisfaction 

Leadership 

= Primary data

= Intermediate variable/vehicle

= Acting/influencing/shaping

= Ultimate output/bigger picture for analysis

The study considers typically four factors: Age, Gender, Job Satisfaction and Leadership
which are key variables for biographical characteristics which inturns influences organisation
behaviour.

2.2. Data Analysis

To increase the strength of the analysis, both primary and secondary data are used. For
collection of primary data, a custom questionaire was prepared and adminstered amongst the
students of MPPG-3rd batch students of North South University, Dhaka. The findings from
that questionaire were analysed using SPSS Program and main findings extrapolated to

 
4 
Microsoft word. For Secondary data, a literature review was done in a step-wise manner; first
course books were reviewed, then a brief internet search was done and finally a list of
documents and relevant materials were downloaded form the social and psycological journal
whose article were relevant.

The data from the primary sources are used as evidences to back up the arguments in relation
with the theories and finding from other studies, it has also been used extensively whereever,
analysis of same was rendered necessary upon authors discretion.

2.3. Sample Size

The students of MPPG were selected because all of them had work experience in public
sector and/or development sector. 17 questionaire were adminstered amongst 24 students of
MPPG 2010 intake, which means that the study findings are representative at a level of 70.83
percentage for MPPG 2010 intake(3rd batch).

2.4. Limitations

It was noted that the primary data has very few sample population despite the great
percentage, out of which to generalise on basis of these is quite difficult. However, the
sample is strongly suggestive of general view of MPPG 3rd batch class.

2.5. Ethical Considerations

For ensuring the respondents privacy, no name whatsoever, has been recorded in the
questionaire. No extra information for tracking the respondents were collected during the
filling of questionaire.

 
5 
CHAPTER III

3. Findings and Discussions

3.1. Age

The relationship between age and job performance is likely to be an issue of increasing
importance during the next decade for at least three reasons. First, there is a widespread belief
that job performance declines with increasing age. Regardless of whether this is true, a lot of
people believe it and act on it. Second, the workforce is aging. Third, reason is U.S.
legislation that, for all intents and purposes, outlaws mandatory retirement. Most U.S.
workers today no longer have to retire at age 70. (Robbins & Judge, 2009)

Table 1: Discrimination percept according to age group

age_categories * Objective_discrimination

Objective_discrimination

Yes No Total

Age_categories 18-30 5 3 8

31-40 5 4 9

Total 10 7 17

Based on the primary data survey it was found out that 10 out of 17 feel being discriminated
just based upon their age. Analysis reveal that both age group strata of the respondent have
equally felt being discriminated based upon age. (See Table 1) This finding should come with
surprise that given 60 year is the age for retirement; 31-40 age group people should have less
discrimination regarding age. People of age group 18-30 and 31-40 both seem to have equal
views regarding discrimination related with age. Some of the literatures were indicative of
workplace discrimination directly and indirectly associated with age.

 
6 
Table 2: Areas of discrimination by age group
age_categories * Areas_of_discrimination

Areas_of_discrimination

career_planning
(including Participation
Information promotion, _at_decision Sanctioning_
No_response _sharing transfer issues) _making of_leave Total

age_categories 18-30 1 1 1 2 3 8

31-40 4 2 0 3 0 9

Total 5 3 1 5 3 17

On a tick as many applies, for the discrimination areas participation at decision making was
the area with most ticks whereas least discrimination was seen in areas of career planning.
Surprisingly, people at age group 31-40 elected participation at decision making as one of the
areas where they faced discrimination regarding age. (See Table 2) Generally speaking, it is
considered that younger people are often disregarded when it comes to participation at
decision making, but the contrary revealed amongst the survey of MPPG students.

Table 3: Job selection perception among age group for young

age_categories * younger_age than_recruiting_officier_increased_chances_for_job

younger_age
than_recruiting_officier_increased_chances_for_job

Yes No Total

age_categories 18-30 4 4 8

31-40 6 3 9

Total 10 7 17

Upon a popular question “being younger than the recruiting officer would increase ones
chances for job selection” has been held to be true for the MPPG students. 10 out of 17 and
especially 31-40 age group holds conviction that being younger has an advantage over job

 
7 
selection. (See Table 3) This can be explained by two reasons, Firstly, the young employees
are more likely to obey, learn and adapt to organisational culture. Secondly, the increasing
population surge of youth leaves little or no room for the recruiting officers not to select them
as they have apparently better education, and other qualifications.

Table 4: Job selection perception among age group for old

age_categories * older_age than_recruiting_officier_increased_chances_for_job

older_age
than_recruiting_officier_increased_chances_for_job

Yes No Total

age_categories 18-30 3 5 8

31-40 1 8 9

Total 4 13 17

A counter question was also asked in the response to which 13 respondents said being older
than recruiting officer has no advantage on being selected for a job. (See Table 4) This can
also be viewed under the notion that recruiting officer is generally older than other staffs and
being older than him/her would certainly disqualify an applicant based on age limit.

Table 5: Who initiates Sifarish/Sycophancies/Afno-manche/Tadbir culture

age_categories * more likely to initiate a sifarish/sycophancies/Afno-manche/tadbir

more likely to initiate a sifarish/sycophancies/tadbir

Young_age Middle_age Old_age Total

age_categories 18-30 0 3 5 8

31-40 2 5 2 9

Total 2 8 7 17

 
8 
Another popular question that is much contested was “who actually initiate the
Sifarish/Sycophancies/Afno-Manche/Tadbir culture in an organisation based on age. The
findings show a mixed response. Age group of 18-30 firmly believe that old age people (40+)
initiate this kind of culture (5 out of 17) whereas middle aged respondents(31-40) replied that
young age people are the one to initiate this culture(5 out of 17). (See Table 5)

Table 6: Age based discrimination and working capacity

age_categories * Age based discrimination working capacity

Age based discrimination make you work less than capacity

No response Yes No Total

age_categories 18-30 1 5 2 8

31-40 0 8 1 9
Total 1 13 3 17

On a final question related with age and job performance, 76.47 % of the respondents
sounded their answer with yes. (See Table 6) Age group of 31-40 prompted a majority of yes
than 18-30 age groups for hampering their working capacity.

When people grow older they tend to become more social and less ego oriented lower mas at
the same time the gap between women’s and men’s mas values becomes smaller and around
age fifty it has closed completely this the age at which a woman’s role as a potential child
bearer has ended there is no more biological reason for her values to differ from a man’s.
(Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005)

The older you get the less likely you are to quit your job as cited in Robbins & Judge, of a
study based on age-turnover relationship. They add further that as workers get older, they
have fewer alternative job opportunities.

Assumptions like age is inversely related with absenteeism, core questions like if older
workers are less likely to quit, won’t they also demonstrate higher stability by coming to
work more regularly the answer according to Robbins & Judge is not necessarily, because

 
9 
many researchers have pointed out that that this age-absence relationship is partially a
function of whether the absence is avoidable or unavoidable. Older people have higher rates
of unavoidable absence. Probably due to the poorer health associated with aging and the
longer recovery period that older workers need when injured.

On an enquiry upon age and productivity, Robbins & Judge quote study findings and debunk
the myth that productivity declines with age. Whereas, other reviews of the research find that
age and job performance are unrelated.

Another probing issue is the relationship between age and job satisfaction. Robbins & Judge
find a mix response based upon their literature review. A generalised study has however lead
to a finding of U-shaped relationship-indicating satisfaction tends to continually increase
among professionals as they age, whereas it falls among non-professional during middle age
and then rises again in the later years.

3.2. Gender

No consistent male-female differences in problem-solving ability, analytical skills,

competitive drive, motivation, sociability or learning ability according to a study finding cited
by Robbins & Judge. They further assert that when the employee has preschool-age-children,
is preference for work schedules. Working mothers are more likely to prefer part-time work,
flexible work schedules and telecommuting in order to accommodate their family
responsibilities. On questions of turnover, the evidence indicates no significant differences;
same research shows however women rates of absenteeism are higher than of men.

 
10 
Table 7: Discrimination based on Gender
Gender * behaved differently based on gender

Count

behaved differently based on gender

Yes No Total

Gender Male 3 6 9

Female 6 2 8

Total 9 8 17

A mixed response was obtained from the survey, 6 males responses for No was ruled even
with 6 Yes responses from female. However, on an average it was seen that 52.94 % faced
some sort of different behaviour based on their gender. (See Table 7) However, it should be
acknowledged that being male also doesn’t give you the immunity from being discriminated
based on gender.

Table 8: Areas for discrimination based on gender

Gender * areas discriminated based on gender

Count

areas discriminated based on gender

Career
planning(includi
No Information ng promotion, Participation at Sanctioning of
response sharing transfer issues) decision making leave Total

Gender Male 4 1 2 2 1 10

Female 3 1 4 2 1 11

Total 7 2 6 4 2 21

Career planning (including promotion, transfer issues) was one of most gender discrimination
prone areas as perceived by the MPPG students. The least frequency was related with leave.
(See Table 8) though the finding suggest that women have been facing career planning issues
but it doesn’t explain why those issues having been occurring in women only.

 
11 
Table 9: Gender advantage in job selection

Gender * opposite gender to recruiting officer advantage

Count

opposite gender to recruiting officer advantage

Yes No Total

Gender Male 2 7 9

Female 1 7 8

Total 3 14 17

Overtly, it was found that being of opposite gender to the recruiting officer gave no added
advantage to the prospective employee. (See Table 9)Equal frequencies of No from both the
sexes are indicative that being of opposite gender only doesn’t make it happen.

Table 10: Gender danger on working capacity

Gender * Gender based discrimination make you work less than capacity

Count

Gender based discrimination make you work less than

capacity

Yes No Total

Gender Male 4 5 9

Female 5 3 8

Total 9 8 17

It has been revealed that gender is not that much of threat to the working environment
according to the survey of MPPG students. Gender based discrimination did not have
significant impact on full working capacity of the employers. (See Table 10) however it
should be noted that gender based discrimination would often make female work less than
their capacity than compared with male.

 
12 
Table 11: Which gender likely to start Sycophancy

Gender * more likely to initiate sifarish/sycophancy/Afno-manche/tadbir

more likely to initiate sifarish/sycophancy/tadbir

Male Female Total

Gender Male 5 4 9

Female 7 1 8

Total 12 5 17

It was found out that males were more likely (70.58 %) to start sifarish/sycophancy/Afno-
manche/tadbir cultures. A closer look reveals that men are more undecided about this
question as their opinion is slightly divided, whereas female seem to have a clear idea for this
kind of practices, to be initiated by males. (See Table 11)

Both are equally necessary for the success of an enterprise, but the optimal balance between
the two differs for masculine and feminine cultures. The masculinity feminity dimension
affects ways of handling industrial conflicts. Organisation in masculine societies stresses on
results and try to reward it on the basis of equity that is, to everyone according to
performance. Organisation in feminine societies are more likely to reward people on the basis
of equality (as opposed to equity) that to everyone according to need. Girls in a masculine
society are polarised between those who want a career and the majority who don’t. (Hofstede
& Hofstede, 2005)

3.3. Leadership Perception

With an astounding majority males (73 %) were seen as better leader for the public
organisation than females (27 %).(See Figure 1) This might have several implications for the
analysis, few of which includes the traditional male dominated mentality, high presence of
male in organisations, insufficiently available skilled female workforce etc.

 
13 
Figure 1: Better leeader of pu
ublic organ
nisation

Better LLeader o
of Publiic Organ
nisationn

27
7%

Male
73%
%
Female

73 % oof the MPP

PG students believed th
that male were
w better leader of ppublic organ
nisation.
Only 227 % of stuudents beliieved femaale as a beetter leader of public organisatio
on. This
variatioon can be exxplained by
y the organiisation cultu
ure and tren
nd, whereass Bangladessh is the
countryy where the head of staate of is a ffemale addittionally the opposing pparty head is also a
female though majority
m of students sstill believ
ve that leadership esppecially in
n public
organisation is larggely a male domain. Caan a patriarcchal society
y explain thiis paradox situation
s
where leader of a patriarchal
p society
s is a female?

 
14 
Figure 2: Better leeader of prrivate organ
nisation

B
Better LLeader o
of Privatte Organisationn

19%

81%

Male
M
Female
F

Better lleader for private

p organisation go t even more votes, 81 % of the rrespondent believed
b
that maale are betterr suited for private orgaanisation on
nly 19 % off the responddent were in
n favour
of femaale leadershiip for a priv
vate organissation.

3.4. Job
b satisfactioon and turn
nover percception

Table 112: Last performance based on

Frequency Perceent

Valid Performance 11 52.44

Gender 1 4.88

Age 2 9.55

Sifarissh/sycophant//Tadbir/Afnom
manche 3 14.33

Total 17 81.00

Missing Syste
em 4 19.00

Total 21 100..0

Most thhe respondennt answered

d that their llast perform
mance was based
b on perrformance; some of
the respponses werre as sycop
phancy, geender and age.
a (See Table
T 12) SSince mostt of the

 
15 
responddents were at
a some stag
ges of gettinng governm
ment beneficiaries rightffully, the frequency
for perfformance coould have go
one higher.

Figure 3: Children career pa

athing simiilar to pareents

Chilldren ca
areer paathing similar to parennts

29%
%

Yes
71%
7
No

71 % oof the respoondents den

ny that chilldren do no
ot tend to take
t similarr career paathing to
parents. (See Figuure 3) How
wever, it sshould be noted that this class often deb
bates on
dominaance of polittical system
m by one fam
mily only, for e.g: Gan
ndhi familyy in India, Kennedy
K
family iin US, Koirrala family in Nepal, R
Rajapakshyaa family in Srilanka annd Rahaman
n family
in Bangladesh. Thherefore, based
b on thheir ideology this kin
nd of findiing should not be
somethiing very disstracting but rather preddictable. Maybe genetiics could haave better ex
xplained
this thann a percept survey.

 
16 
Figure 4: Satisfacction with current
c job

1 = Abssolutely yes 2 = Maybee Yes 3 = Not Sure

4= Mayybe No 5 = Absoluutely No

It has bbeen found out that mo

ost of the reesponses an
nswered weere “maybe yes” for which
w the
mean is also sugggestive of. With the normality curve draw
wn we can inference that the
standardd deviation is of 1.061 meaning thhe choices th
hat has been
n made otheer than majo
ority.

Table 113: Job satiisfaction am

mong gendeer
Gender * satisfied with cu
urrent job Cro
osstabulation
n

Count

satisfie
ed with currentt job

Absolutely yes Maybe

e yes Not sure
s Absolutely no Total

Gender Male 4 2 2 1 9

Female 2 5 1 0 8

Total 6 7 3 1 17

 
17 
Though various literatures suggest that female tend to be more satisfied in terms of job
satisfaction it was found that it was male who were more satisfied with their job than females.
(See Table 13)

Figure 5: Likely to quit current job (Turn over)

It was found out that “maybe yes” and “not sure” got the equal votes with a standard
deviation of 1.218. It means that most of the MPPG students will not return to their previous
jobs or are having second thought about it.

Table 14: Gender and turnovers

Gender * likely to quit current job Crosstabulation

Count

likely to quit current job

Absolutely yes Maybe yes Not sure Maybe no Absolutely no Total

Gender Male 0 2 2 2 3 9

Female 1 3 3 1 0 8

Total 1 5 5 3 3 17

 
18 
Though it appears that on an average respondent were divided among “maybe yes” and “not
sure” categories. Upon closer inspection, it has been found that more females were likely to
quit their current jobs than males.

 
19 
CHAPTER IV

4. Conclusion

Upon comparative analysis with general belief versus published research versus a first hand
research amongst MPPG revealed following:

 Age and performance were debateable, though in lack of sufficient literature the study
has not given its any objective or subjective judgements.
 Discrimination based on age was perceived significantly amongst student of MPPG
3rd batch, whereas various other literatures also support it.
 A key area of discrimination based on age is participation at decision making.
 Being young age than recruiting officer was perceived to give some advantage.
Whereas, being old was a total turn off based on the same survey.
 The initiation of sifarish/sycophancy/afno-manche/tadbir based on age was quite
unclear but when combined with gender it can be understood that male of middle age
group are more likely to initiate sycophancy culture.
 Age based discrimination would often be detrimental to working capacity of the
staffs.
 Half of the respondents (both gender combined) felt some form of discrimination
based on gender.
 Career planning (including promotion, transfer) was one of the areas for gender based
discrimination.
 Gender was perceived not to give any advantage for being selected on job interviews.
 Combined view of both gender, would not mean much of threat to working of both
gender but on terms of individual gender, gender related discrimination would make
female work often less than their capacity.
 Male was seen as better leader for public organisation, whereas this figure increased
by 8 percentage when it came to select better leader for private organisation.
 The respondent hugely believed that children do not take similar career-pathing as
their parents.
 Majority of the respondents were satisfied with their current job.
 Male were more satisfied than female, which is seemed as quite contrary to held
beliefs.

 
20 
  More females were likely to quit their jobs than males, this was also in conflict with
other research findings which indicated that female employee were more stable than
male employees.

Biological characteristics were one of the key determinants shaping organisational

behaviour. Without taking them into considerations, an organisation would often have to
reshuffle its staffs; chief reason for doing that would be incompliance, incompatibility
and less efficiency and program effectiveness. Therefore, this research has identified and
probed into areas that are often overlooked by existing literatures and has found that
biological characteristic was an answer to the unexplained behaviour within an
organisation.

 
21 
5. References

Reference list created using Referencing software Mendeley Desktop Version 0.9.8.1 © 2008-
2010 Mendeley Ltd.

Akinola, M. & Mendes, W.B., 2008. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin The Dark
Side of Creativity : Biological Vulnerability and Negative Emotions Lead to. Society.

Anon, 2008b. Genetic Influences in Organisational Behaviour. Behaviour, (May), pp.2008-

2008.

Anon, 2007. The international journal of volunteer administration volume XXIV, Number 6.
Volunteer Administration, XXIV(6), pp.47-56.

Appelbaum, S.H., Ritchie, S. & Shapiro, B.T., 1994. Mentoring Revisited : An

Organizational Behaviour Construct. International Journal, 6(3), pp.3-10.

Brief, A.P. & Weiss, H.M., 2002. Organizational behavior : Affect in the Workplace. Signs,
pp.279-307.

Davis, K.& Newstrom, J.W. 2007. Organisational behaviour: Human behaviour at work,
twelfth edition, McGraw-Hill Education (Asia). Singapore. pp 1-18.

Hofstede, G. & Hofstede, G.J. 2005. Cultures and organisations software of the mind:
Intercultural cooperation and its importance for survival. 2nd edition.McGraw-Hill. USA.
pp 125-160.

Ilies, R., Arvey, R.D. & Bouchard, T.J., 2006. Darwinism , behavioral genetics , and
organizational behavior : a review and agenda for future research. Darwin, 141(February
2005), pp.121-141.

Kelly, J.R., 2001. Mood and Emotions in Small Groups and Work Teams. Organizational
Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 86(1), pp.99-130.

 
22 
Longino, H. & Doell, R., 2010. Body , Bias , and Behavior : A Comparative Analysis of
Reasoning in Two Areas of Biological Science. Analysis, 9(2), pp.206-227.

Luthans, F., Youssef, C.M. & Luthans, F., Emerging Positive Organizational Behavior
Emerging Positive Organizational Behavior. Journal of Management.

Nicholson, N. & White, R.O.D., 2006. Darwinism — A new paradigm for organizational
behavior ? Social Science, 119(February 2005), pp.111-119.

Noor, S., 2008. Examining the Relationship between Work Life Conflict , Stress And
Turnover Intentions among Marketing Executives in Pakistan. Journal of Business
Ethics, (2002), pp.93-102.

Peltokorpi, V., 2006. Japanese organizational behavior in Nordic subsidiaries. Employee

Relations, 28(2), pp.103-118.

Provaznik, B., 2008. Lost in Translation: Organizational Behavior Constructs Across

Cultures – Hope as an Example. October, 1(1).

Robbins, S.P. & Judge, T.A., 2009. Organizational behaviour. Pearson Education, USA.
pp.82-85.

Trewavas, A., 2010. Historical perspective essay A Brief History of Systems. Society, 18(10),
pp.2420-2430.

Waters, E. & Deane, K.E., 1985. Defining and assessing individual differences in attachment
relationships: q-methodology and the organization of behavior in infancy and early
childhood. Society.

White, R.E., Thornhill, S. & Hampson, E., 2006. Entrepreneurs and evolutionary biology:
The relationship between testosterone and new venture creation. Organizational
Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 100, pp.21-34.

 
23 
Woodman, R.W. et al., 2007. Toward a theory of organizational creativity. Management,
18(2), pp. 293-321.

 
24 
Questionnaire 
Sex of the respondent:              Age: 

I. Do you feel you were behaved differently in your workplace based on your age? 

Yes (go to question 1)      No 

1.  On what areas were you discriminated (behaved differently)? [Please tick as many as 
applies] 

a. Information sharing      b. Career planning (including Promotion, transfer issues) 

c. Participation at decision making  d. sanctioning of leave 

2. Do you think being of young age (than recruiting officer) would increase the chances to be 
selected for a job? 
Yes           No 
3. Do you think being of old age (than recruiting officer) would increase the chances to be 
selected for a job? 
Yes           No 

4. Which age do you think are more likely to initiate a Sifarish/Sycophant/Afano‐
manche/Takbir culture? 

Young age [18‐30]     Middle age [31‐40]       Old Age [40+] 

5.  Did this kind of discrimination make you work less than your full capacity? 

 Yes           No  

II. Do you feel you were behaved differently in your workplace based on your gender? 

Yes (go to question A)                No 

A. On what areas were you discriminated (behaved differently)? [Please tick as many as 
applies] 

Information sharing      Career planning (including Promotion, transfer issues)
  Participation at decision making   sanctioning of leave   

B. Do you think being an opposite gender (to the recruiting officer) gives some advantage 
on selection for the new job? 

Yes              No 

C. Did this kind of discrimination make you work less than your full capacity? 

     Yes               No  

Thank you for filling the form, your responses will be kept anonymous. Data confidentiality is the top 
priority of this research. 
 D. Which gender do you think are more likely to initiate a Sifarish/Sycophant/Afano‐
manche/Takbir culture? 

Male         Female 

E. Who do you think would make a better leader for a public organisation? 

Male        Female 

F. Who do you think would make a better leader for a private organisation? 

Male        Female 

III. What do you feel your last promotion, transfer and/or sanction of leave based on? 

Performance        Gender        Age   

   

Race          Sifarish/Sycophant/Takbir/Afano‐manche 

IV. Do think that a son/daughter of an organisation head would often choose similar career path 
as their parents did? 

Yes           No 

V. Are you satisfied with your current job? 

Absolutely Yes 

Maybe yes 

Not sure 

Maybe No 

Absolutely No 

VI. What are the chances that you will quit your current job? 

Absolutely Yes 

Maybe yes 

Not sure 

Maybe No 

Absolutely No 

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐Thank you for your time and consideration; This is the End of questionnaire‐‐‐‐‐‐ 

Thank you for filling the form, your responses will be kept anonymous. Data confidentiality is the top 
priority of this research.