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Q1. Describe Interpersonal roles.
Ans: All managers are required to perform du�es that are ceremonial and symbolic in nature. When the president of a college hands out diplomas at commencement or a factory supervisor gives a group of high school students a tour of the plant, he or she is ac�ng in a figurehead role. All managers have a leadership role. This role includes hiring, training, mo�va�ng, and disciplining employees. The third role within the interpersonal grouping is the liaison role. Mintzberg described this ac�vity as contac�ng outsiders who provide the manager with informa�on. These may be individuals or groups inside or outside the organiza�on. The sales manager who obtains informa�on from the personnel manager in his or her own company has an internal liaison rela�onship. When that sales manager has contacts with other sales execu�ves through a marke�ng trade associa�on, he or she has an outside liaison rela�onship.
Interpersonal roles are roles that involve interac�ng with other people inside and outside the organiza�on. Management jobs are people-intensive: Research suggests that managers spend somewhere between 66 and 80 percent of their �me in the company of others. 20 Seldom do managers work alone for long periods without outside communica�on. As Linda Hill noted, managers get things done through their network of interpersonal rela�onships. Mintzberg iden�fied three types of interpersonal roles: a figurehead role, a leader role, and a liaison role.
Figurehead Role
The figurehead performs symbolic legal or social du�es. All social, inspira�on, legal and ceremonial obliga�ons. In this light, the manager is seen as a symbol of status and authority. Managers at all levels are figureheads. They greet visitors, represent the company at community events, serve as spokespeople, and func�on as emissaries for the organiza�on. For example, when Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A opens a new restaurant, it gives a year’s worth of free meal coupons to the first 100 customers. This incen�ve draws big crowds, who camp outside the restaurant before opening day in the hope of being among the first 100 customers.
The chain’s president, Dan Cathy, joins them, camping outside the night before the opening, cha�ng with them, and then signaling the grand opening by playing his trumpet. By doing this, Cathy is ac�ng as a figurehead for Chick-fil-A. At lower levels in a company, func�onal and frontline managers perform a variety of
figurehead roles. They welcome new staff, help their teams celebrate performance milestones, give performance awards to employees, accompany senior execu�ves or outside visitors on tours through the work area, and so on.
Leader Role
The Leader builds rela�onships with employees and communicates with, mo�vates, and coaches them.
In this context, his duty is hire, train and mo�vate employees. In this role, the manager is supposed, formally or informally, to show subordinates how to do things (or perform specific tasks), how to work under pressure {i.e., under strains and stresses) and how many hours a company person should devote to accomplish a par�cular task (or perform a par�cular func�on).
Du�es are at the heart of the manager-subordinate rela�onship and include structuring and mo�va�ng subordinates, overseeing their progress, promo�ng and encouraging their development, and balancing effec�veness.
Leadership is one func�on of management, and it is perhaps the most pivotal. However, leadership is more than a func�on that managers must fulfill. Managers, also take on a leadership role to get things done within organiza�ons. Managers behave as leaders to influence, mo�vate, and direct others within organiza�ons and to strategize, plan, organize, control, and develop. A central task of leaders is to give their organiza�ons a sense of direc�on and purpose.
They do this by iden�fy and ar�cula�ng strategic visions for the organiza�ons (by strategizing) and then by mo�va�ng others to work toward this vision. This is exactly what Rose Marie Bravo did at Burberry: She gave the organiza�on a strategic vision, reposi�oning it as a hip, high-end brand, and she engaged Burberry’s employees in that vision.
Liaison Role
The liaison maintains a network of contacts outside the work unit to obtain informa�on. Describes the informa�on and communica�on obliga�ons of a manager. One must network and engage in informa�on exchange to gain access to knowledge bases.
In their liaison role managers connect with people outside their immediate units. These, may be the managers of other units within the organiza�on or people
The answer is probably because they perceive themselves as having li�le control over those organiza�onal outcomes that are important to them. Internals, facing the same situa�on a�ribute organiza�onal outcomes to their own ac�ons. If the situa�on is una�rac�ve, they believe that they have no one else to blame but themselves. Also, the dissa�sfied internal is more likely to quit a dissa�sfying job.
The impact of locus of control or absence is an interes�ng one. Internals believe that health is substan�ally under their own control through proper habits, so they take more responsibility for their health and have be�er health habits. This leads to lower incidences of sickness and, hence, lower absenteeism.
We shouldn’t expect any clear rela�onship between locus of control and turnover. The reason is that there are opposing forces at work. “On the one hand, internals tend to take ac�on and thus might be expected to quit jobs more readily. On the other hand, they tend to be more successful on the job and more sa�sfied, factors associated with less individual turnover.
The overall evidence is that internals generally perform be�er on their jobs, but that conclusion should be moderated to reflect differences in jobs. Internals search more ac�vely for informa�on before making a decision and are more mo�vated to achieve, and make a greater a�empt to control their environment. Externals however are more compliant and willing to follow direc�ons. Therefore, internals do well on sophis�cated tasks, which includes most managerial and professional jobs that require complex informa�on processing and learning. Addi�onally, internals are more suited to jobs that require ini�a�ve and independence of ac�on. In contrast, externals should do well on jobs that are well
structured and rou�ne and where success depends heavily on complying with the direc�on of others.
ACHIEVEMENT ORIENTATION
We have noted that internals are mo�vated to achieve. This achievement orienta�on has also been singled out as a personality characteris�c that varies among employees and that can be used to predict certain behaviors.
Research has centered around the need to achieve (nAch). People with a high need to achieve can be described as con�nually striving to do things be�er. They want to overcome obstacles, but they want to feel that their success (or failure) is due to their own ac�ons. This means they like tasks of intermediate difficulty. If a task is very easy, it will lack challenge. High achievers receive no feeling of accomplishment from doing tasks that fail to challenge their abili�es. Similarly, they avoid tasks that are so different that the probability of success is very low and where, even if they do succeed, it is more apt to luck than to ability.
In jobs that provide intermediate difficulty, rapid performance feedback, and allow the employee control over his or her results, the high-nAch individual will perform well.
AUTHORITARIANISM
There is evidence that there is such a thing as an authoritarian personality, but its relevance to job behavior is more specula�on than fact. With that qualifica�on, let us examine authoritarianism and consider how it might be related to employee performance.
Authoritarianism refers to a belief that there should be status and power differences among people in organiza�ons. The extremely high authoritarian personality is intellectually rigid, judgmental of others, deferen�al to those above and exploita�ve of those below, distrus�ul, and resistant to change.
MACHIAVELLIANISM
Closely related to authoritarianism is the characteris�c of Machiavellianism (mach), named a�er Niccolo Machiavelli, who wrote in the sixteenth century on how to gain and manipulate power. An individual high in Machiavellianism is pragma�c, maintains emo�onal distance, and believes that ends can jus�fy means. “If it works, use it” is consistent with a high-Mach perspec�ve.
respect than are high-SEs. In managerial posi�ons, low-SEs will tend to be concerned with pleasing others and, therefore, are less likely to take unpopular stands than are high SEs.Not surprisingly, self-esteem has also been related to job sa�sfac�on. A number of studies confirm that high-SEs are more sa�sfied with their jobs than low-SEs.
SELF-MONITORING
Another personality trait that has recently received increased a�en�on is called self- monitoring. It refers to an individual’s ability to adjust his or her behavior to external and situa�onal factors.
Individuals high in self-monitoring show considerable adaptability in adjus�ng their behavior to external situa�onal factors. They are highly sensi�ve to external cues and can behave differently in different situa�ons. High self-monitors are capable of presen�ng striking contradic�ons between their public person and their private self. Low self-monitors can’t disguise themselves this way. They tend to display their true disposi�ons and a�tudes in every situa�on; hence there is high behavioral consistency between who they are and what they do.
The research on self-monitoring is in its infancy, so predic�ons must be guarded. However, preliminary evidence suggests that high self-monitors tend to pay closer a�en�on to the behavior of others and are more capable of conforming than are low self-monitors. We might also hypothesize that high self-monitors will be more successful in managerial posi�ons where individuals are required to play mul�ple, and even contradic�ng, roles. The high self-monitor is capable of pu�ng on different “faces” for different audiences.
RISK-TAKING
People differ in their willingness to take chances. This propensity to assume or avoid risk has been shown to have an impact on how long it takes managers to make a decision and how much informa�on they require before making their choice. For instance, seventy-nine managers worked on s�mulated personnel exercises that required them to make daring decisions. High risk-taking managers made more rapid decisions and used less informa�on in making their choices than
did the low-risk- taking managers. Interes�ngly, the decision accuracy was the same for both groups.
While it is generally correct to conclude that managers in organiza�ons are risk- aversive, there are s�ll individual differences on this dimension. As a result, it makes sense to recognize these differences and even to consider aligning risk- taking propensity with specific job demands. For instance, a high-risk-taking propensity, may lead to more effec�ve performance for a stock trader in a brokerage firm because this type of job demands rapid decision-making. On the other hand, this personality characteris�c might prove a major obstacle to accountants performing audi�ng ac�vi�es. The la�er job might be be�er filled by someone with a low-risk-taking propensity.
Q5. Explain the link between percep�on and individual decision-making.
Ans: Percep�on is the process of gathering, organizing, and interpre�ng of sensory informa�on in order to represent and understand the presented informa�on or the environment. Decision making is the process of iden�fying and choosing alterna�ves based on the values, performance, and beliefs of the decision maker.
Every individual face a point where he expected to make an important decision from Avast array of alterna�ves. An individual is required to go through all the alterna�ves and make a ra�onal decision. But people cannot process all the informa�on and scru�nize every single problem. As a result, they make a habit deciding on the basis of percep�on so we can argue that there is a link between percep�on and decision making.
On the basis of percep�on, individuals make decisions towards con�nua�ons or termina�on makes decisions towards con�nua�on or termina�on, make behavior pa�ern at the workplace and with supervisor managers and team member, Thus, the percep�on theories are much useful in organiza�onal decision making.
each will need to be evaluated. Again, because alterna�ves don’t come with a red flag iden�fying them as such or with their strengths and weakness clearly marked, the individual decision maker’s perceptual process will have a large bearing on the final outcome. Finally, throughout the en�re decision process, perceptual distor�ons o�en surface that have the poten�al to bias analysis and conclusions.
Q6. Describe Hierarchy of Needs Theory
Ans: The psychologist Abraham Maslow developed a theory that suggests we, humans, are mo�vated to sa�sfy five basic needs. These needs are arranged in a hierarchy. Maslow suggests that we seek first to sa�sfy the lowest level of needs. Once this is done, we seek to sa�sfy each higher level of need un�l we have sa�sfied all five needs.
It’s probably safe to say that the most well-known theory of mo�va�on is Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. He hypothesized that within every human being there exists a hierarchy of five needs.
The Hierarchy of Needs is as follows:
- Physiological Needs: basic issues of survival such as salary and stable employment. Includes hunger, thirst, shelter, sex, and other bodily needs. These refer to basic physical needs, such as drinking when thirsty or ea�ng when hungry. According to Maslow, some of these needs involve our efforts to meet the body’s need for homeostasis; that is, maintaining consistent levels in different bodily systems (for example, maintaining a body temperature of 98.6 degrees).
Maslow considered physiological needs to be the most essen�al of our needs. If someone is lacking in more than one need, they’re likely to try to meet these physiological needs first. For example, if someone is extremely hungry, it’s hard to focus on anything else besides food. Another example of a physiological need would be the need for adequate sleep.
- Safety & Security Needs -Includes security and protec�on from physical and emo�onal harm. Stable physical and emo�onal environment issues such as benefits, pension, safe work environment, and fair work prac�ces. Once people’s physiological requirements are met, the next need that arises is a safe environment. Our safety needs are apparent even early in childhood, as children have a need for safe and predictable environments and typically react with fear or anxiety when these needs are not met. Maslow pointed out that, in adults living in developed na�ons, safety needs can be more apparent in emergency situa�ons (e.g. war and disasters), but this need can also explain why we tend to prefer the familiar or why we do things like purchasing insurance and contribu�ng to a savings account.
- Social or "Belongingness" Needs -social acceptance issues such as friendship or coopera�on on the job. Includes, affec�on, belongingness, acceptance, and friendship. According to Maslow, the next need in the hierarchy involves feeling loved and accepted. This need includes both roman�c rela�onships as well as �es to friends and family members. It also includes our need to feel that we belong to a social group. Importantly, this need encompasses both feeling loved and feeling love towards others.
Since Maslow’s �me, researchers have con�nued to explore how love and belonging needs impact well-being. For example, having social connec�ons is related to be�er physical health and, conversely, feeling isolated (i.e. having unmet belonging needs) has nega�ve consequences for health and well-being.
- Self-esteem Needs: Includes internal esteem factors such as self-respect, autonomy, and achievement; and external esteem factors such as status, recogni�on, and a�en�on. Confident self-image and respect and recogni�on issues such as job �tles, nice work spaces, and pres�gious job assignments. Our esteem needs involve the desire to feel good about ourselves. According to Maslow, esteem needs include two components. The first involves feeling self- confidence and feeling good about oneself. The second component involves feeling valued by others; that is, feeling that our achievements and contribu�ons have been recognized by other people. When people’s esteem needs are met, they feel confident and see their contribu�ons and achievements as valuable and important. However, when their esteem needs are not met, they may experience what psychologist Alfred Adler called “feelings of inferiority.”
Old theories, especially ones that are intui�vely logical, apparently die-hard. One researcher reviewed the evidence and concluded that although of great societal popularity, need hierarchy as a theory con�nues to receive li�le empirical support.” Further, the researcher stated that the “available research should certainly generate a reluctance to accept uncondi�onally the implica�on of Maslow’s hierarchy.” Another review came to the same conclusion. Li�le support was found for the predic�on that need structures are organized along the dimensions proposed by Maslow, that unsa�sfied needs mo�vate, or that a sa�sfied need ac�vates mo�va�on to a new need level.
