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Category: Organizational Behavior

  • Performance: Organizational Citizenship Behavior

    In the last byte, we began our discussion on performance management and identified the various stages in it. In today’s byte, we look at how do we define performance and set the stage for other stages in performance management.

    It is very clear from the discussion thus far that employees need to understand their performance expectations very clearly to perform well at work. This process of getting the expectations understood falls under the performance definition stage. Expectations about an individual’s performance will not be on any single dimension, but would be on multi-dimensions – these could include not just the task specific skill but others like interpersonal skills, administrative and finance skills etc depending on the stage at which one is in the career growth.

    Let’s take for example – an individual doctor working in a hospital. In addition to knowing the necessary diagnostic and treatment skills, he/she would be expected to have good interpersonal skills (presented as bed-side manners) to enhance the healing process of a patient. Extending this to other professions, we can clearly see that each specific job in an organization requires its own definition of skills and behaviors essential for excellent performance.

    It would be interesting to remind the readers here of the discussion we had on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). OCB is a sought after dimension of individual performance that pans across jobs. It involves individual discretionary behavior that promotes the organization and is not explicitly rewarded! This is an important dimension of expectations that organizations look for and hence worth mentioning here.

  • Performance Management

    In the last byte, we looked at how goal setting is related to performance. In today’s byte, we begin our discussion on performance management and shall continue the same over the next few bytes.

    Performance management deals with the attempt of an organization to achieve the best performance from its employees. Given this challenge, performance management could be thought of as having the following phases:

    1. Defining
    2. Measuring
    3. Appraising
    4. Providing Feedback
    5. Improving performance.
    The above order is extremely important to be kept in mind. Only if the definition of performance in behavioral terms is gone well can the next few stages be really built on. Once defined, we could use the definition to make performance more measurable and then perform an assessment on the same. This information of the measurement and assessment could be fed back to the individual and used as basis for goal setting and establishing plans for performance improvement.

    Coupling this with the way we can reinforce learning through rewards, poor performance can be corrected. We shall discuss some of these stages performance management as we move ahead.

  • Goal Setting: Summary

    In the last byte, we looked at how goal setting improves performance evaluation. In today’s byte, we look to summarize the discussion on goal setting thus far and then build the bridge for transitioning to the next topic of performance and its management.

    We began with outlining the need for goal setting and identified the characteristics of an effective goal. We mentioned that the goals would have to be defined in a SMART method to make it more effective. The relation between a goal which is challenging and the manner in which an individual’s task performance increases was briefly highlighted.

    We then went on to explore the functions that goal setting performs. Broadly it performs 3 functions:

    1. Increasing work motivation and Task Performance
    2. Reducing role-stress, conflict and ambiguity
    3. Improving performance evaluation.
    Goal setting programs are widely applied in the industry and the ease of implementation is defined by the state in which the company is – Companies in the stable predictable industrial settings would find it more easily implementable than those working in a dynamic environment.

    As goal setting is related to the ability to improve performance at work place, we shall move the next discussion on to the issue of performance management.

  • Goal Setting: Management By Objective

    In the last byte, we looked at how goal setting reduces role stress, conflict and ambiguity. In today’s byte we look at how goal setting could help improve performance evaluation.


    In effect, goal setting increases the accuracy and validity of performance evaluation. One example in such a goal setting process is the famous method – Management By Objectives (MBO) a concept originated by Peter Druker. This goal setting process could be called by various names like – work planning and review, performance planning and evaluation etc.


    If we can categorize the stages of these goals setting process, we see two distinct stages:
    1. Planning
    2. Evaluation
    The Planning stage involves the individuals and departments being given discretionary control to develop operational and tactical plans to support the corporate objectives. Clear, Consistent, Measurable and Ordered set of goals to articulate WHAT to do are the primary outcome, the HOW is generally determines by the operational support planning. Once the goals are set, the individual know both the WHAT and HOW pieces and understands that both are important.


    The Evaluation stage consists of interim reviews of the goal progress. Typically a formal process, these are designed to help employees take self corrective action, and are not designed for the final evaluation. There is no “once size fits all” in this approach – these evaluation methods need to tailored for the business.

  • Goal Setting: Stress and Effectiveness

    In the last byte, we looked at how we could improve the effectiveness of goal setting in an organizational context. In today’s byte, we discuss regarding role stress.

    It is not uncommon that once an employee joins an organization, he/she would be expected to do a lot of things in the work place. The individual is trying to exert pressure on self to perform to the expectations of all around, in many cases it also happens that there are conflicts that the individual would have to handle.
    When an employee joins the organization, it is really the supervisors, coworkers and other employees that form important sources of task-related information.  Ensuring that these are communicated well is important to ensure that role-stress is not hard-hitting on the employee, which in adverse cases could lead to the employee leaving the organization.

    Effective goal setting definitely reduces role stress associated with the conflicting and confusing expectations. Managers and supervisors play a major role in clarifying the task-role expectations that are communicated to the employees.

    Improved communication related to the role-clarity leads to reduction in role-stress. It is the right communication that forms the source of success of any goal-setting process. Employee participation is a must to ensure that the goal is attainable.

    It is just prudent for the manager to ensure employees are constantly in communication and there is a constant touch to really be successful!

  • Goal Setting: Work motivation and Task performance

    In the last byte, we looked at aspects of setting up SMART goals the role these goals play in the context of an organization. In today’s byte, we look at how to improve work motivation and task performance using goal setting.

    In setting up the goals we mentioned that challenging goals achieve a better performance corresponding to the effort put in by the people. If we look at this aspect closely, in the context of organizations 3 important behavioral aspects are necessary to enhance performance these are:

    1. Employee Participation
    2. Supervisory Commitment
    3. Performance feedback
    Employee participation in the goal setting process enhances their commitment towards the goal to be accomplished. Goal acceptance is the beginning of this commitment process and finally leads to goal accomplishment.

    Supervisory commitment is the reflection of the organization’s commitment too. It is only in ensuring that the commitment of the organization and the supervisors that would drive towards ensuring the success of any program.

    The other important role that the supervisor plays is that of providing the employee performance feedback on the progress towards goals. These sessions of performance feedback are found to be most useful when the goals are specific.

  • Goal: Characteristics

    In the last byte, we looked at how goal setting could help enhance motivation, and what would be the requisites from a goal in order to be effective. In today’s byte, we look the requisite characteristics of a goal – SMART in more detail.

    Specific and Challenging goals helps an individual focus his/her attention on what is to be accomplished and to arouse the person to peak performance. It has been observed in many occupations that people with specific and rather challenging goals outperform people who have easy or unspecific goals.

    Goals must be measurable – these could be either qualitative or quantitative, and act as a basis for feedback about goal progress. Time-bound goals enhance the ability to make these goals measurable – the implicit time limit makes it more targeted and removes unspecificity.

    Prioritization of goals allows for effective decision making and also allows better allocation of the resources. Individuals can direct their effort and behavior in case of resource conflicts – time, effort etc.

    Goal setting essentially plays three functions at the minimum:

    1. Increases work motivation and task performance
    2. Reduces role stress in case of conflicting/confusing expectations
    3. Improves accuracy and validity of performance evaluation

  • Goal Setting

    In the last byte, we looked at how personality differences influence the way individuals learn. This discussion was part of understanding how individuals learn. In many ways, learning is also influences by motivation and we have discussed about it prior to starting our discussion on learning. One way to motivate individuals is also by setting up goals. Over this byte and the next few, we shall look at understanding the process of goal setting its various dimensions.

    Goal setting could be described as a process of establishing desired results that guide and direct behavior. Goals not just give direction but also help crystallize the sense of purpose and mission that is essential to succeed at work. This goal setting process helps get priorities and purpose aligned with the goals and there by act as important sources of motivation for people at work – this leads to collective achievement even in difficult times.

    Let us begin with understanding how a goal is to be designed.

    The way one defines the goal plays a very important role in the influence it creates on the team members trying to achieve the goal. A lousy, unclear goal could be least expected and in many cases also gets the team to lose its motivation with its shifting nature. Goals are best when they are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time Bound. These could be remembered by their acronym – SMART.

    We shall continue the discussion of these characteristics of the Goal in the next byte.

  • Learning: Personality Differences

    In the last byte, we looked at how a manager could develop self-efficacy and encourage a particular behavior at work. In today’s byte, we look at how individual personality differences can affect learning.

    If we were to reflect to see if there exists any relation exists between the personality types – extroverts and introverts we begin to see some observations that are important. Introverts prefer quite time to study, concentrate and reflect on what they learn. Their ability to think is best when they are alone. Extroverts on the other hand tend to derive their energy from the surrounding – they think best in groups and while they are talking. They need to interact with other people, and generally learn through the process of expressing and exchanging ideas with others.

    If we also look at other ways to classify people, we could classify them as: Intuitors and Sensors based on the way they prefer to gather information or as Thinkers and Feelers based on the way they prefer to make decisions. We find that people who are Intuitors prefer theoretical frameworks, and look for meaning in material; their constant attempt is to understand the grander scheme of things and is constantly on the outlook for possibilities and interrelations. Sensors prefer specific and empirical data. They look for practical applications of what they learn and attempt to master the details of a subject, they are constantly on the lookout for what is realistic and doable. Thinkers prefer to analyze data and information, work to fair-minded and even headed; they seek logical and just conclusions and don’t like to be too personally involved. The feelers are found to prefer interpersonal involvement, are seen to be tenderhearted and harmonious, they seek subjective, merciful results and generally don’t like factual or objective analysis.

    It is important to understand form the above that each person has preferred mode gathering information and a preferred mode of evaluating and making decisions about that information! The functions of thinking and feeling determine how the individual evaluates and makes decisions about newly acquired information.

  • Learning: Self-Efficacy

    In the last byte, we looked at social learning and the role of self-efficacy in the same. In today’s byte, we look at how self-efficacy can be developed and used by a manager.

    It is clear from the last byte that self-efficacy is an extremely sought after behavior. Managers who want to develop self-efficacy in their teams would need to work on their available people resources – give them challenging jobs then support them with time investing in coaching, counseling to ensure that the performance improves and finally reward the employee’s achievement. It would be very important in this attempt that the employees are empowered, power shared with them – these help increase the employee’s self-esteem and self-efficacy.

    At this point it would be important to highlight that social reinforcement in combination with self-efficacy can have a very strong influence on the behavior and performance of employees at work. It was also recognized by Bandura that financial and material rewards often occur following or in conjunction with the approval of others and also, undesirable experiences often follow social disapproval.

    The actual challenge in real life for a manager lies in selecting and developing employees to achieve higher self-efficacy at work! The remaining would pretty much follow…