Understanding Organizational Behaviour

Oxford University Press Malaysia, 2009

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Ch5: 1

Human Behaviour at
Work
CHAPTER

Understanding Organizational Behaviour

Oxford University Press Malaysia, 2009

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Ch5: 2

Learning Objectives
In this chapter, you will:

Understand attitudes at work.

Understand conformity.
Comprehend how rights to privacy are
interpreted.
Appreciate the bases for discrimination at work.
Recognize the different approaches to
discipline.
Know individuals responsibility.
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5.1

Attitudes at Work

Job satisfaction is the general attitude that people

have about their jobs. Many factors can bring about
satisfaction or dissatisfaction such as pay, the job
itself, promotion opportunities, support from
supervisors and relationship with co-workers.
Employee job satisfaction in an organization is the
main source of concern for management. Studies
have shown that job satisfaction can partially explain
variations in employees commitment, absenteeism
and turnover levels.
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5.1.1

Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction: How an individual feels

about his job.
Measures of job satisfaction: The job
characteristics model (JCM) uses the job
diagnosis survey (JDS) as a job analysis
method.
The job diagnosis survey (JDS) is a data
collection instrument that can be used to
measure job characteristics.
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5.1.1

Job Satisfaction (cont.)

The five core job characteristics

measured by JDS are skill variety, task
identity, task significance, task autonomy
and task feedback.

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5.1.2
Organizational
Commitment
How a person identifies with and feel
that he/she is a part of the
organization.

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5.1.3 Job Involvement

How willing a person is to work hard
and to apply efforts beyond normal job
satisfaction.

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5.2

What is Conformity?

Conformity is a dependence on the norms of

others without independent thinking.
The basic thesis of individual conformity stated
that those individuals who were so involved in
corporate life became psychologically dependent
on it that they tend to conform to those values
without even questioning them.
Employees may become passive in their attempt
to adapt to a restrictive work environment .
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To What Does One

Conform?
One normally conforms to three general
situations:
First, an individual conforms to the organization
that has employed him/her. An example for this
situation is switching off the fire once the water
comes to a boil.
Second, the individual may conform to the
informal work group.
Thirdly, the individual may conform to the
external community.
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5.3

Rights of Privacy

Refer to organizational invasion of a persons

private life and the unauthorized release of the
persons information.
Employees believe that their religious, political and
social beliefs are their own personal domain and
should not be intruded upon and be subject to
exploration and scrutiny.
However, large organizations develop policy
guidelines to establish uniform practices, at the
same time provide course of actions for any
unusual situations as and when they arise.
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5.4 Bases for Discrimination

at Work
The equal employment opportunity (EEO) is the
provision of equal opportunities to secure jobs and
rewards.
The EEO laws prohibit discrimination on factors
other than job performance.
Two key issues related to privacy: sexual
harassment on the job and type of disease that
employees have the right to maintain medical
privacy, continue working and receive medical
care.
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Bases for Discrimination

Racial discriminationbased on race.
Colour discriminationbased on the colour of the
skin.
Religious discriminationbased on religion.
Handicap discriminationbased on
ability/disability.
Age discriminationbased on age.
National origin discriminationbased on national
origin.
Sexual harassmentbased on gender.
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Sexual Harassment
As defined by Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission, sexual harassment is
unwelcome sexual advances, requests for
sexual favours, and other verbal or physical
conduct of a sexual nature.
Sexual harassment is a violation of ones
personal rights and an offense to human
dignity.
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Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome
There are many difficult issues related to this.
Employers need to consider and develop policies
before the first case arises in the organization.
Employers need to be aware of relevant laws that
include persons with AIDS under the definition
and protection of handicapped or disabled.
These include the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of
1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of
1960.
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5.5

Discipline

Defined as the act of influencing behaviour

through reprimand.
Two types of discipline: preventive discipline
and corrective discipline.
Preventive discipline is action taken to encourage
employees to follow rules and regulations to avoid
violation of the law.
Corrective discipline is action that follows the breach
of a law or rule.
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5.6

Individuals Responsibilities
to the Organization
Employees can demonstrate their
responsibilities in three different ways:
Organizational citizenship
Ethical leadership
Whistle blowing

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5.6.1 Organizational
Citizenship
Organizational citizenship refers to the
situation when an employee goes beyond
his/her job descriptions to help the
organization achieve its mission and goals.
Employees who are organizational citizens
engage themselves in helping others such as
volunteering on projects, sharing their time
and resources, and cooperating with others.
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5.6.2 Ethical Leadership

Forms of white-collar crimes such as the Enron
case have received so much media attention
across the globe. These ethical problems
proliferate in most cultures. Some of these are
even widely accepted in some parts of the
world and an example of this is bribery.
The solution may partly lie in ethical leadership.
Company policies should be written and strictly
practised and reinforced organization wide.
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5.6.3 Whistle Blowing

Whistle blowing is the act of disclosing
misconduct to an internal or external source.
Such misconduct can be the failure on the part of
the organization to inform the general public the
defect of a certain product or any other form of
activities which seriously violate social standards.
However, whistle blowers often have been the
subject of employer retaliation, such as
harassment, transfer or to a greater extent, or
even discharge.
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5.7

Levels of Conflict

Generally, there are three different levels of

conflict.
First, conflict can take place within the employee
himself or herself (intrapersonal conflict).
Second, conflict can occur between individuals or
groups (interpersonal conflict).
Thirdly, it can occur across organizations
(inter-group conflict).

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5.7.1 Assertive Behaviour

Conflict is never easy to deal with. Some
managers may choose not to deal with it.
However, a more constructive approach is to
practise assertive behaviours.
Assertiveness is the process of expressing
feelings, asking for legitimate changes, and
giving and receiving honest feedback.

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5.7.2 Transactional Analysis

Transactional analysis is the study of social
transaction between people in the assertive or
non-assertive manner.
The objective is to provide better understanding
of how people relate to one another to enable
them to develop better communication and
human relationships.
When two people interact with each other, they
are interacting from one of three psychological
positions: parent, adult and child. These are
known as ego states.
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Ego States
Parent ego state: The individual is protective,
controlling, nurturing, critical or instructive. May
occasionally refer to policies and standards.
Adult ego state: Appear as rational, calculating,
factual and unemotional behaviour.
Child ego state: It reflects the emotions
developed in response to childhood experiences.
May be spontaneous, dependent, creative or
rebellious. Desires approval from others and
prefers immediate rewards.
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Review Questions
1. What is conformity?
2. What does rights of privacy refer to?
3. Identify the bases for discrimination at work.
4. What are the different approaches to
discipline?
5. List the individuals responsibilities to the
organization.
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