Determinants of Individual Behavior

Individual behavior offers justifications for why people act the way they do. People make up an organization as distinct members. They do a variety of jobs. They vary from person to person. Individual organizational behavior places a strong emphasis on comprehending and controlling individual behavior. It investigates how psychological elements affect people's behavior and productivity at work. Needs, goals, motives, values, beliefs, motivation, perception, personality, and job satisfaction can all be considered as factors.

Determinants of Individual Behavior

Concept of Needs

Needs serve as the foundation for each person's actions. They operate as a catalyst for action. They cause a reaction. They show a feeling of deprivation. These are the shortcomings that motivate people to look for solutions to their problems. They are anything that a person needs or wants. They are fundamental needs of people. They play a significant role in influencing people's conduct. They operate as a catalyst for activity. Unmet needs lead to tension within a person. To satiate those demands, the person participates in activity that is goal-directed. This lessens the tension.

Various people have different needs. They come in two varieties:

• Primary Needs: They are the fundamental necessities for a person to live. They are based on physiology. Food, water, shelter, and safety are some examples.
• Secondary Needs: They are standards that people learn through their surroundings and cultures. They are based on psychology. Examples include the desire for power, allegiance, and success. These requirements appear in corporate contexts. As time passes and the environment changes, so do individual needs. Individual conduct is determined by unmet wants.

Concept of Motives

They have immediate needs. They encourage people to look for fulfillment. They represent an internal state that propels a person to fulfill a need. They stand for urgent needs. They are occasionally lacking feelings. People act in a way that aids in overcoming such feelings. Needs are the source of motivation. Motive explains why a person selects a particular activity from a range of options. It serves as a means of meeting needs. It exhibits behavioral decisions. A need is to advance in your career. A motivation is to work more in order to advance.

Motives can be of two types:

• Primary Motives: They have uneducated motivations. They are based on physiology. They ease the pressure. Examples include thirst, hunger, sleep, etc. For survival, they are essential. They go by the name intrinsic motives as well. They are produced internally.
• Secondary Motives: They have acquired motivations. They have a psychological foundation. They are crucial for the investigation of particular behavior. An affiliation, rank, authority, accomplishment, etc. are examples. Also called as external motives, they are. They come from outside sources. They pick them up from their surroundings and cultures.

Concept of Goals

Each person acts with a specific objective in mind. In companies, individual behavior is influenced by goals. End results that must be attained are goals. They direct activities. They provide initiatives a united direction. They might be numerous and contradictory.

• The individual has direction because to their goals. They encourage workers to perform better. The presence of goals inspires an individual to work toward achieving them.
• Goals serve as a foundation for control. They offer benchmarks for determining how successfully the performance has been accomplished.
• The person should agree to their own goals. They ought to be precise and suitably difficult for the person.
• According to the goal-setting hypothesis, creating detailed, challenging goals and receiving feedback encourages better performance.
• Effective objectives should be: agreed-upon, specific, quantifiable, realistic, and time-bound ( SMART)

Nature of Goals

• Multiple: People have a variety of objectives to achieve, which may or may not be financial in nature.
• Conflicting: Having several aims can cause intra-personal conflicts. Long-term aims and short-term objectives could clash.
• Goals that are focused on the future: Goals act as targets for achieving future end results.
• Succession: Old goals may be replaced by new ones. This might be required for the person to adjust to their environment. The objectives have changed on purpose.
• Displacement: This occurs when people pursue undesired aims as a result of an inadvertent change in direction.

Concept of Values

Values are an individual's fundamental beliefs about what is true, honorable, or desirable. They convey moral flavor and imply steadfast commitment. They have a judgmental component. They usually are steady. The majority of values are learned from culture, educators, friends, peer groups, and the media. Individual behavior in companies is influenced by values. Values are fundamental beliefs that a particular course of action or ultimate goal is individually or socially preferable. They last a long time and are stable. They operate as standards for evaluating human behavior.

• The hierarchy of values that each person holds comes from their value system. A system of values like this determines the relative weight of a collection of values.
• Values primarily come from culture. Parents, teachers, friends, the media, and reference organizations are additional sources.

Importance of Values

• Values serve as the cornerstone for comprehending attitudes.
• Values affect how people perceive things.
• A person's motivation is influenced by their values.
• An individual's incentive to pursue particular outcomes, such as money, a promotion, or prestige, is influenced by their values.
• Values have an impact on the kinds of activities that a person finds appealing. They direct people's actions.
• Values affect how we act. Performance is improved when individual variances in values are matched with the right working environment.

Types of values

Values can be categorized as instrumental and terminal:

• The term "terminal values" refers to ideal final conditions of existence. They are the objectives that people want to accomplish in their lifetimes. A pleasant and exciting life is an illustration of a terminal value. the feeling of success, respect for oneself, approval from others, independence, joy, and companionship, etc.
• Instrumental values are preferred ways to conduct oneself.
• they serve as tools for accomplishing the ultimate goals; examples of instrumental values are being ambitious, competent, upbeat, honest, independent, and responsible.

Seven level classification of values

Additionally, values can be categorized as follows:

• Being reactive is being oblivious of oneself and other people while responding to basic physiological requirements.
• Tribalistic: authority figures wield great power; there is much reliance; tradition has a strong effect.
• Egocentrism is a belief in the individual and a desire for personal accountability.
• Conformity: limited tolerance for ambiguity and conflicting values; desire for others to share his values.
• Manipulative: achieving objectives through the control of others and/or objects.
• Sociocentric: tries to build relationships with people through work; wants to get along with people.
• Existential: great tolerance for ambiguity and conflicting values; seeks self-fulfillment through work.

Concept of Beliefs

Beliefs are evocative ideas that a person has about something. They may be founded on facts, beliefs, or both. They are learned from parents, teachers, peers, and other members of the reference group. They have an impact on people's conduct. The foundation of a person's psychology is their set of beliefs. They act as the cornerstone on which individuals organize and structure their lives. They give personality continuity and give perception significance.

Development of Beliefs

On this, the formation of beliefs is based.

• The majority of the information supporting beliefs is provided by the cultural environment. Individuals' ideas vary because of variances in the cultural context.
• Functional Factors: Individual variances in beliefs are explained by the needs, demands, and emotions of the individual. Such elements are particular to each person.

Importance of Beliefs

• Beliefs give an individual's personality consistency.
• All attitudes take beliefs into account.
• Beliefs give daily perceptions and actions of an individual meaning.
• One's beliefs have a significant impact on their motivation.
  • People should have confidence in their ability to exhibit the behavior expected of them.
  • People should think that performing well will result in good things happening.

Attitudes

Evaluative comments or conclusions about things, concepts, people, or events constitute attitudes. They show an individual's attitudes and feelings regarding something. Positive or negative attitudes can be expressed in remarks. Parents, teachers, peers, and other people in your reference group can all influence your attitude. Attitudes are shaped by a person's experiences, education, media, and surroundings. Individual conduct in organizations is affected by attitudes.

A person's learned propensity to react to things, ideas, people, or situations is known as their attitude. They are consistent, precise, and either positive or negative. They can be altered, though, and are less reliable. Campaigns for product advertising, for instance, can alter consumer views. All behaviors reflect beliefs.

• The traits of attitudes include:
• Unless something is done to change them, they have a tendency to continue. They lack the same stability as beliefs.
• They may be positive or negative.
• They are focused on things, concepts, people, or events that a person has feelings about.
• They are specific in their emotional expression.

Components of Attitudes (Structure of Attitudes)

A person's attitude is made up of three parts:

• Cognitive Component: This is the attitude's knowledge or belief portion. Additionally, it is the attitude's educational component. It consists of opinions and knowledge regarding things, people, or events.
• Affective Component: This refers to the attitude's emotional component. The most crucial aspect of attitude is feelings, which can be either positive, negative, or neutral.
• The purpose to act in a particular way toward someone or something is known as the behavioral component, or component c. It might be blunt.

Attitude Formation

A personality is made up of attitudes. A continuous tendency to feel and act in a certain manner toward things, people, or events is known as an attitude. The following factors have an impact on attitude formation:

• Situational Determinants: The situational context has always been valued as being significant in attitude formation. It gives workers information based on their sentiments or emotions.
• character traits: The personality of an individual is characterized by their traits. Personality qualities play a significant role in determining attitudes toward the workplace.
  • Positively affective (PA) people typically have good attitudes and a general sense of well-being.
  • People who have negative affectivity (NA) frequently experience anxiety, tension, and worry. They encounter unfavorable attitudes.

Types of Attitudes

A person can adopt thousands of different mindsets. Thoughts about the workplace are crucial for comprehending a person's behavior in the setting of OB.

Three types of attitudes toward one's work are possible:

• Job satisfaction: This concept refers to a person's overall feelings about his or her job. High levels of job satisfaction are implied by a positive attitude. An unfavorable attitude suggests a bad job. It's common to use the terms "employee attitude" and "job happiness" interchangeably.
• Job involvement: This refers to how much a worker:
  • Identifies with his job, engages in it actively, and believes that job performance affects his sense of worth.
  • An employee who is very engaged in his work has positive attitudes regarding his work. He will probably produce more.
• Organizational Commitment: This refers to an employee's level of
  • Identifies with a specific organization and its objectives and desires to stay a part of that organization.
  • High organizational commitment employees identify with their employers. He will probably perform better.

Importance of Attitudes

Grasp one's own actions requires an understanding of attitudes. They are significant in the following ways:

• A person's attitude affects how satisfied they are with their employment and how well they perform. Productivity is influenced by attitudes.
• Attitudes contribute to a decrease in accidents, turnover, complaints, and absenteeism.
• Attitudes offer a "frame of reference" for how to see certain aspects of working life, like compensation, job hours, supervision, advancement, etc.
• Values are expressed on the basis of attitudes. They support self-image defense. Positive feelings result from positive attitudes.
• Attitudes aid in a person's ability to adapt to their workplace.
• People with different mindsets have diverse perspectives on the same events.

Reference

AGRAWAL, DR. GOVIND RAM. Organization Relations. Bhotahity, Kathmandu: M.K. Publishers & Distributors , 2013. textbook.