GHANA COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

UNIVERSITY
IT 461: Human Resource Development
Lecture 2: Influences on Employee Behaviour

Elias Kekesi
Instructor
13.02.2023
 Learning Objectives
1. Identify factors that influence employee behavior
2. Describe outcomes resulting from behavior and tell how
they influence future behavior
3. State how a supervisor’s leadership and expectations for
employees can affect their behavior
4. Recognize the impact that coworkers and the
organization itself have on employee behavior
5. Define motivation and describe the main approaches to
understanding motivation at work
6. Discuss how knowledge, skill, ability, and attitudes
influence employee behavior
Goals of HRD
To assist employees and organizations in attaining their goals
Ultimate objective is to improve organizational performance
Major focus of most HRD interventions is an effort to change employee
behavior
Model of Employee Behavior
Factors in the External Environment

Economic Technological Labor Market Laws and Labor

Conditions Changes Conditions Regulations Unions

Supervision
Leadership
Performance
Expectations

Organization Employee Behavior

Reward Motivation Task Outcomes
Structures Attitudes Performance Personal
Culture Knowledge, Organizational Organizational
Job Design Skill, Ability Citizenship
Behaviors

Coworkers
Norms
Group
Dynamics
Teamwork
Control Over
Outcomes
Major Categories of Employee Behavior
Individual performance is multidimensional
Most HRD focuses on “Task Performance”
◦ Behaviors central to doing one’s job
Organizational citizenship behaviors
◦ Critical to organizational effectiveness
◦ Not specific to any one task
Major Categories Affecting Behavior
External forces
◦ Outside the organization
◦ State of economy/employment rate
◦ Inside the work environment
◦ Leadership
◦ Coworkers
◦ Outcomes of performance
Internal Forces
◦ Within employee
◦ Motivation
◦ KSAs
Workforce Investment
Organizations invest a lot of time and money in
their workforce
They must maintain their investment, even when
restructuring or downsizing
Re-training “survivors” to do other work rather
than laying them off
◦ Coaching and mentoring
◦ Individual development
◦ Multi-rater feedback
 Employee Perceptions Drive
Behavior
◦ Expectancy Theory:
◦ Workers will perform behaviors that they
perceive will bring valued outcomes
◦ Better the outcome, better the work
◦ Equity Theory
◦ Outcomes are evaluated by comparing them to
the outcomes received by others
Supervision and Leadership
Immediate supervisor:
◦ Delegates tasks and responsibilities
◦ Sets expectations
◦ Evaluates performance
◦ Provides feedback
◦ Rewards desirable behavior
◦ Provides discipline
Supervisory Influences
Self-fulfilling prophecy
◦ Supervisor's expectations can influence workers behavior

Leadership:
◦ Non-coercive influence to direct and coordinate the activities of a group
toward accomplishing a goal
 Rewards Structure
Focuses on:
◦ Types of rewards used
◦ How rewards are distributed
◦ The criteria for rewards distribution
Rewards are more than money or plaques
◦ They can include recognition and acceptance
The Organizational Culture
A set of values, beliefs, norms and patterns of
behavior that are shared by organization members,
and that guide their behavior
Rewarding Performance
Reward Structure
◦ Types of rewards used
◦ How rewards are distributed
◦ The criteria for reward distribution
 Job Design
▪The development and alteration of the
components of a job to improve productivity and
the quality of an a employee’s life
▪A job design can affect behavior and attitudes
▪Altering the job may improve performance and
attitudes
Influence of Coworkers
▪They control some of the outcomes and therefore some of the behavior
▪They may offer or withhold friendship and recognition
▪Norms set the guidelines for behavior in the group
▪Group dynamics influence the way an employee behaves when
interacting with a group
Group Dynamic Characteristics
Groupthink -- concerned with unanimity rather than
making good decisions
Social Loafing -- tendency for individuals to reduce level
of effort as group becomes larger
Teamwork:
◦ Trust
◦ Cohesiveness
Motivation
▪One of the basic elements of human behavior
▪Factors that cause the arousal, direction and
persistence of voluntary actions that are goal
directed
 Factors to Consider
Work motivation pertains to voluntary behavior
Motivation focuses on
◦ Energizing—The generation or mobilization of
effort
◦ Direction—Applying effort to one behavior over
another
◦ Persistence—Continuing (or ceasing) to perform
a behavior
Worker Motivation
Based on the individual because of unique
◦ Needs
◦ Desires
◦ Attitudes
◦ Goals
The Need-Based Approach
Underlying needs, such as Theories include:
the needs for safety or ◦ Mazlow’s Needs
power, drive motivation Hierarchy
◦ Alderfer’s Existence,
Relatedness and Growth
Theory
◦ Herzberg’s Two-Factor
Theory
Cognitive Process Approach
Motivation is a process Theories include:
controlled by conscious
Expectancy Theory
thoughts, beliefs and
judgments Goal-Setting Theory
Social Learning Theory
Equity Theory
Non-Cognitive Approach
Motivation is explained as Theories include:
an interaction between ◦ Reinforcement Theory
behavior and external
events without appealing
to internal thoughts or
needs
Needs-Based Approach
Needs: deficiency states or imbalances, whether
physiological or psychological, that energize and direct
behavior
Needs drive behavior through need activation and
need satisfaction
 The Need Activation-Need
Satisfaction Process
Process Example
Fig. 2-2
Need is activated Layoff announced;
Need for security
is activated

Tension is created Tension expressed in

fear and worry

Search for ways Improve performance?

to reduce tension Politics?
Job search?

Perform behaviors Performance improvement

to reduce tension leads management to
remove employee's
name from layoff list

Tension eliminated Fear and worry

or significantly No significantly reduced
reduced?

Yes

Need satisfied; Need for security

Need no longer satisfied
drives behavior
Mazlow’s Need Hierarchy
In Order of Importance
◦ Physiological
◦ Safety and security
◦ Love
◦ Status and Esteem
◦ Self-actualization

The item(s) above must be satisfied before those below can be satisfied
Alderfer’s ERG Theory
Existence
Relatedness
Growth

Basically reduces Mazlow’s five to three items

Deficiencies of Need-Based
Difficult to test and apply
Insufficient for explanation of motivation
Some programs based on theories have been successful
◦ Job enrichment
◦ Achievement motivation
Cognitive Process Theories
Expectancy theory
◦ Assumes that motivation is a conscious choice process
◦ Employees
◦ believe they can perform successfully (high expectancy), and
◦ believe are connected (high instrumentality) to outcomes they desire (high valence) or
◦ believe will prevent (negative instrumentality) outcomes they want to avoid (negative valence)
Expectancy Theory and HRD
Employees will not attend HRD sessions unless
◦ They will learn something
◦ It will increase their job performance
◦ They will be rewarded for their efforts
 Graphical Representation of
Expectancy Theory
Fig. 2-3

Expectancy Instrumentality Valence

Should I How likely is it that Will I receive various How desirable or
exert effort? I will reach my outcomes if I reach undesirable are
performance goal? my performance goal? these outcomes?
Goal Setting Theory
Goals can
◦ Mobilize employee effort
◦ Direct their attention
◦ Increase their persistence
◦ Affect strategies used to accomplish a task
Goal Setting
Goals that are specific, difficult, and accepted by employees lead to
better performance
Feedback enhances effectiveness of goal setting
Goals must be achievable
Social Learning Theory
Outcome and self-efficacy expectations affect individual performance
An Outcome Expectation
◦ person’s belief that performing a given behavior will lead to a given outcome

Self Efficacy
◦ “people’s judgments of their capabilities to organize and execute courses of
action required to attain designated types of performances”
Major Prediction of Social Learning
Theory
A person’s self-efficacy expectations will determine

• whether a behavior will be performed,

• how much effort will be spent, and
• how long the person will continue to
perform the behavior
Equity Theory
Motivation is strongly influenced by
◦ People’s desire to be treated fairly
◦ Perceptions about whether they have been treated
fairly
Basis of Equity Theory
People develop beliefs about what is fair for them
to receive in exchange for the contributions that
they make to the organization
People determine fairness by comparing their
relevant returns and contributions to those of
others
People who believe they have been treated unfairly
(called inequity) will experience tension, and they
will be motivated to find ways to reduce it
Reducing Feelings of Inequity
Cognitively distorting views of contributions or
rewards (“She must be smarter than I thought.”)
Influencing the perceived rival to change his or her
contributions or rewards (e.g., convincing the
person to be less productive)
Changing one’s own contributions or rewards
(either working harder or contributing less)
Comparing oneself to a different person leaving the
situation (requesting a transfer or quitting)
 Equity Theory Graphically
Fig. 2-5 Outcomes/rewards
Outcomes/rewards
received by
received by self
relevant others

Inputs of self Inputs of

relevant others

Social comparison
of outcomes to inputs

Perceived Perceived
inequity equity

Motivation Motivation to
to correct or maintain present
reduce inequity equity relationships
Reinforcement Theory
A non-cognitive theory
Based on “Law of Effect”
◦ Behavior that is followed by a pleasurable consequence
will occur more frequently
◦ Process known as “reinforcement”
◦ Behavior that is followed by an adverse consequence will
occur less frequently
Behavior Modification
Positive reinforcement refers to increasing the
frequency of a behavior by following the behavior with
a pleasurable consequence
Negative reinforcement increases the frequency of a
behavior by removing something aversive after the
behavior is performed
Extinction seeks to decrease the frequency of a
behavior by removing the consequence that is
reinforcing it
Punishment seeks to decrease the frequency of a
behavior by introducing an aversive consequence
immediately after the behavior
 Attitudes
▪ Second major influence on work behavior
▪ Attitude: a person’s general feeling of favorableness or
unfavorableness toward some stimulus object
▪ A combination of attitudes with perceived social pressure to
behave in a certain manner influences an individual’s behavior
 The Behavioral Intentions
Model
Perceived situational
Fig 2-7 Beliefs about Attitude or internal constraints
behavior/outcome toward the
relationships behavior

Intentions Behavior

Beliefs about
Perception
group/society
of norms
norms

SOURCE: From Organizational Behavior 5th edition by Hellriegel/Slocum/Woodman. © 1989. Reprinted with permission
of South-Western, a division of Cengage Learning: [email protected]. Fax 800 730-2215.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSAs)
If employees lack the KSAs to perform a task or behavior, they will likely
fail
Abilities – general capacities related to the performance of a set of
tasks
Skills – combine abilities with capabilities that are developed as a result
of training and experience
Knowledge – an understanding of factors or principles related to a
particular subject