According to Milton Rokeach, a value is "an enduring belief that a specific mode of conduct or end-stated of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct are end-state of existence".
Ethics involve the study of moral
issues and choices. It is concerned with right versus wrong and good versus
bad. Relative to the workplace, the terms business ethics and management ethics
are often heard.
Moral Principles for Managers
- Judge actions by their
consequences; achieve the greatest good for the greatest number of people.
- Basic human rights should be respected.
- Rules and rewards should be administered
impartially, fairly and equitably.
Improving Organization's Ethical
Climate
- Managers are powerful role models whose habits
and actual behavior send clear signals about the importance of ethical
conduct. Ethical behavior is a 1
top to bottom proposition.
- Screen potential employees by
checking references, credentials, and other information for ascertaining
their ethical behavior.
Personality is a complex,
multi-dimensional construct and there is no simple definition of what
personality is. Maddi defines personality as, “A stable set of
characteristics and tendencies that determine those commonalities and
differences in the psychological behavior and that may not be easily understood
as the sole result of the social and biological pressures of the moment".
From the above definition we can infer
that all individuals have some universally common characteristics. Yet they
differ in some other specific attributes. This makes it difficult for the
managers to assume that they can apply same reward types or motivation
techniques to modify different individual behaviors. The definition, however,
does not mean that people never change. In simple terms, it asserts that
individuals do not change all at once. Their thoughts, feelings, values and
actions remain relatively stable over time. Changes in individual's personality
can, however, occur gradually over a period of time. The managers should,
therefore, attempt to understand certain dimensions of personality. This can
enable them to predict the behavior of their employees on a daily basis.
Some personality theorists stress the
need 6f identifying person-situation as interaction. This is equivalent to
recognizing thd social learning aspects related to personality. Such a social
learning analysis is one of the most comprehensive and meaningful ways included
in the overall study of organizational behavior. From this perspective,
personality means the way people affect others. It also involves people's
understanding themselves, as well as their pattern of inner and outer
measurable traits, and the person and situation interaction. People affect
others depending primarily upon their external appearance such as height,
weight, facial features, color and other physical aspects and traits.
Personality traits are very important
in organizational behavior. In particular, five personality traits especially
related to job performance have recently emerged from research. Characteristics
of these traits can be summarized as follows:
1.
Extroversion: Sociable, talkative and assertive.
2.
Agreeableness: Good-natured, cooperative and trusting.
3.
Conscientiousness: Responsible, dependable, persistent and achievement-oriented.
4.
Emotional Stability: Viewed from a negative standpoint such as tense, insecure and
nervous.
5.
Openness to Experience: Imaginative, artistically sensitive and intellectual.
Identifying the above "big
five" traits related to performance reveals that personality plays an
important role in organizational behavior. Besides physical appearance and
personality traits, the aspects of personality concerned with the self-concept
such as self-esteem and self-efficacy and the person-situation interaction also
play important roles.
PERSONALITY FORMATION
The personality formation of an
individual starts at birth and continues throughout his life. Three major types
of factors play important roles in personality formation, which are as follows:
- Determinants: The
most widely studied determinants of personality are biological, social and
cultural. People grow up in the presence of certain hereditary
characteristics (body shape and height), the social context (family and
friends) and the cultural context (religion and values). These three parts
interact with • each other to shape personality. As people grow into
adulthood, their personalities become very clearly defined and generally
stable.
- Stages:
According to Sigmund Freud human personality
progresses through four stages: dependent, compulsive, oedipal and mature.
This concept of stages of growth provides a valuable perspective to
organizational behavior. Experienced managers become aware of the stages
that their employees often go through. This helps them 19 deal with these
stages effectively and promote maximum growth for the individual and for
the organization.
- Traits:
Traits to personality are also based on
psychology. According to some trait theories, all people share common
traits, like social, (political, religious and aesthetic preferences but
each individual's nature differentiates that person from all others.
PERSONALITY FACTORS IN ORGANISATIQN5
Some of the important personality
factors that determine what kind of behaviors are exhibited at work include the
following:
Need Pattern
Steers and Braunstein in 1976
^developed a scale for the four needs of personality that became apparent in
the 'work environment. They are as follows:
- The need for achievement: Those with a high achievement need
engage themselves proactively in work behaviors in order to feel proud of
their achievements and successes.
- The need for affiliation: Those in greater need for
affiliation like to work cooperatively with others.
- The need for autonomy:
Those in need for autonomy function in the
best way when not closely supervised.
- The need for dominance:
Those high in need for dominance are very
effective while operating in environments where they can actively enforce
their legitimate authority.
Locus of Control
Locus of control is the degree to which
an individual believes that his or her behavior has direct impact on the
consequences of that behavior. Some people, for example, believe that if they
work hard they will certainly succeed. They, strongly believe that each
individual is in control of his or her life. They are said to have an internal
locus of control. By contrast, some people think that what happens to them is a
result of fate, chance, luck or the behavior of other people, rather than the
lack of skills or poor performance on their part. Because- these individuals
think that forces beyond their control dictate the happenings around them, they
are said to have an external locus of control.
As a personality attribute, locus of
control has clear implications for organizations. For example, certain
individuals have an internal locus of control, which means they have a
relatively strong desire to participate in the management of their
organizations and have a' freedom to do their jobs. Thus, they may prefer a
decentralized organization where they have a right of decision-making and work
with a leader who provides them freedom and autonomy. They may like a reward
system that recognizes individual performance and contributions.
Conversely, people with an external
locus of control, are likely to prefer a more centralized organization where
they need not take any decisions. They may incline to structured jobs where
standard procedures are defined for them. They may prefer a leader who makes
most of the decisions and a reward system that considers seniority rather than
merit.
Introversion and Extroversion
Introversion is the tendency of
individuals, which directs them to be inward and process feelings, thoughts and
ideas within themselves. Extroversion, on the contrary, refers to the tendency
in individuals to look outside themselves, searching for external stimuli with
which they can interact. While there is some element of introversion as well as
extroversion in all of us, people tend to be dominant as either extroverts or
introverts. Extroverts are sociable, lively and gregarious and seek outward
stimuli or external exchanges. Such individuals are likely to be most
successful while working in the sales department, publicity office, personal
relations unit, and so on, where they can interact face to face with others.
Introverts, on the other Hand, are quiet, reflective, introspective, and
intellectual people, preferring to interact with a small intimate circle of
friends. Introverts are more likely to be successful when they can work on
highly abstract ideas such as R&D work, in a relatively quiet atmosphere.
Since managers have to constantly interact with individuals both in and out of
the organization and influence people to achieve the organization's goals, it
is believed that extroverts are likely to be more successful as managers.