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Category: Behavior

  • Communication – Communication Technologies & Behavior 4

    In the last byte, we began our discussion on looking at how communication technology affects behavior. In today’s byte, we continue this discussion.

    Thus long we have been talking about modern communication means. These means however could push people to miss their social interactions – they would be working through their system all the while! Their social needs thus could be unmet – this would mean absence of the small talks; they would try to get to the point of discussion right away.

    Managers could increase their effectiveness in communication by making note these simple pointers:

    1. Strive for completeness in your message
    2. Build in opportunities for feedback
    3. Do not assume you will get an immediate response
    4. Ask yourself if the communication is really necessary
    5. “Disconnect” yourself from the technology at regular intervals
    6. Provide opportunities for social interaction at work.

    With this byte, we complete our discussion on Work Place Communication.

  • Communication – Communication Technologies & Behavior 3

    In the last byte, we began our discussion on looking at how communication technology affects behavior. In today’s byte, we continue this discussion.

    The new technology also enables the mangers get into multiple activities simultaneously – today’s managers can simultaneously make a phone call, reply to emails or even work on memos. These kinds of activities are called polyphasic activities. These activities allow the manager to multi-task; however the advantages are only to a certain extent. The diversion of attention across the various tasks/activities could quickly end up reducing effectiveness. We have discussed in depth about some cues into multi-tasking in the article here.

    It could eventually turn out that constantly focusing on multiple tasks could become a habit, and this would make it psychologically difficult for an individual to let go of work.

    Modern technology provides speed in execution and this makes people less patient with face-to-face communication too. Extrapolated, the inherent nature of a quick communication using modern technology could build up expectation of higher speed in other forms of communication! It is important to keep a good balance and understand that one might not like to be pressed to make choices just because there is a communication system available.

  • Communication – Communication Technologies & Behavior 2

    In the last byte, we began our discussion on looking at how communication technology affects behavior. In today’s byte, we continue this discussion.

    As mentioned in the last byte, it is clear that the modern communication means break the implication of hierarchy etc. In a group interaction settings too – this acts as an equalizer for the participants. The charismatic or higher status members have equal power as that of another member with a less power/authority. So it is possible that better decisions might emerge out of these discussion where everyone is on an equal footing, however it has also been found that computer-mediated groups take longer to decide, i.e. reach consensus compared to the face-to-face interactions.

    The ease of access to information at the click of a button also has another implication to the decision maker (let’s call a manager). This could just create a potential overload of information! The manager would now need to be more selective about the information accessed through these technologies!

    Another issue that arises through the use of this technology is the danger of intruding into the personal lives – managers can no longer get away from their offices unlike in the past – through modern technology they are more accessible to their coworkers, subordinates of bosses. The pleasure of an 8 to 5 job is not present any more!

  • Communication – Communication Technologies & Behavior

    In the last byte, we looked at the various technologies that were available today. In today’s section, we begin our journey looking at how Communication Technologies affect Behavior.

    Most of the technologies we discussed over the last couple of bytes form part of Information Communication Technology (ICT). ICT refers to the various technologies such as electronic mail, voice mail, teleconference, and wireless access which are used for impersonal communication. These technologies provide faster, more immediate access to information that any earlier technology. This instant exchange makes the concept of schedule and office hours irrelevant in the modern world – these considerations are less relevant if not completely irrelevant. Thus these technologies have an important influence on the behavior of people using these technologies.

    It is given that almost all forms of computer-mediated communication are impersonal in nature – the sender interacts with the machine (not a human being) and the receiver also interacts with the machine (not the human sender). As discussed earlier – flaming is definitely an issue in these cases. The tact, grace, etc are all lost and there is no element of interpersonal communication that would prevent the managers from being blunter when using ICT!

    The nonverbal cues that one relies to decipher a message is absent in the new technologies – gesturing, touching, facial expressions, eye contact are all missing so the emotional elements of message gets difficult to assess. Through Video Conferencing and the use of smilies in these communication means to certain extent this reduces – but there are still a lot of gaps present!

    It would be interesting to note, that the cues to the positions of power also disappears in the use of emails!

  • Attitude in Work a Environment Setting

    In the last blog we looked at the predictability of a behavior based on the attitude. In today’s blog, we attempt to understand attitude in the context of work environment and the impact it is able to create.


    Imagine a situation where you are working with a “boss” who is not from the domain of the company you have been working for the last 1 year almost. He is recently joined your company and has taken over just a couple of weeks earlier. Your project has been in development stage for more than 2 years now, most of the team members who started working on the project have now moved out of the company, and there are many fresh faces around you. You are in fact the oldest resource of the project, which also has a US team working on it. There are over hundred defects that have been raised in the project which have been pending at various stages since no one has a clear idea of the source of these defects. Conditions seem to be completely against you – How would you react to a situation like this?


    Definitely the situation like this wouldn’t be getting you excited working on the project. The lack of control over the project, the demanding requirements of the project etc all create an attitude in the mind of the employee that is negative and this would affect the work. On the other hand a positive climate at work would lead to a positive attitude and good performance. This positive performance could in many cases lead to a better return for the company. Take the following example in the hospitality industry:


    You go and stay in a hotel and invariably meet a lot of employees out there. The employee gestures, facial expressions, and words used. If you had an unpleasant experience when in contact with the employee of the organization, would definitely put you off and you might decide never to visit the hotel again!


    There are many such work attitudes that we observe. In the forth coming bytes, we shall discuss some of these.

  • Attitude and Behavior Relationship – 2

    In the last byte, we looked at the components that help us understand the relation between attitude and the behavior that follows. In today’s blog we continue to understand when this prediction of the behavior is possible.

    In a working environment like Bangalore there are people who come from all parts of the country. Let us assume for the time being that you come from a part of the country where there is a negative attitude held in the society towards women and the prevailing attitude is that women wouldn’t be in positions of power. If as a new employee an organization, you are supposed to report to a female supervisor; the inconsistency in the behavior with your attitude and cultural belief becomes clearly visible. Thus we see that the social context is an important provider of information that would define the outcome of the relation between acceptable attitudes and behavior.

    We have already learnt about self-monitoring in an earlier byte. The people who are low self-monitors relay on their internal states to make decision about behavior, while the high self-monitors are extremely responsive to the situational cues. Given the versatile nature of the people who are high self-monitors, there would be a lower degree of predictability of behavior from the attitude that is held, compared to those who are low self-monitors.

    Timing of the measurement also affects attitude-behavior correspondence. If the time is shorter between the attitude measurement and the observed behavior, the relationship would be stronger. This is exactly the benefit that the surveys before the actual voting reap on.

  • Attitude – Behavior Relationship – 1

    In the last blog, we looked at the way an attitude gets formed. In today’s blog we look at the possibility of understanding if we can have a relation between the attitude we carry and the behavior show.

    It is extremely difficult to predict by knowing one’s attitude what that person’s behavior would be, given this, a lot of the research has been focused on understanding when attitude could predict a behavior and when it wouldn’t. To get a strong grasp of this, we could look at 5 components

    1. Attitude Specificity
    2. Attitude Relevance
    3. Timing of Measurement
    4. Personality Factors
    5. Social Constraints

    As individuals, we have both specific and general attitudes. For example if I am against “black money laundering” (this is a general attitude) and I support Baba Ramdev in his agitation (a specific attitude) but I don’t attend the rallies etc. Since I do not join the rallies, my attitude could be seen as having little relation with my behavior. However, if I were to choose between a contestant who promises to get back the “black money” and one who doesn’t, it would be easier to predict that I would definitely vote for the first candidate and not the second. Thus, we can conclude – greater the attitude specificity, the stronger its link to behavior.

    Let’s consider another situation – Temporarily assume we are undergraduate students, the finance minister decided to reduce the tax slabs of the first 2 lakhs from being tax free to 1.5 lakh only to be tax free. We invariably would just not give this issue a lot of importance. However if we were in the working class, this decision of the government would immediately catch our attention and would become an item of discussion! Thus, we can conclude that the relevance of the subject is another important factor that could help us define a relation between attitude and behavior.

    We shall discuss the other components in the next blog.