Influences on Employee Behavior Jayendra Rimal Introduction o

Influences on Employee Behavior Jayendra Rimal

Introduction o Employee behaviour is dependant on promotion of individual development and meeting organizational goals. o HRD programs help improve organizational performance through activities aimed at changing employee behavior. o HRD has had a strong focus on employee behaviour. o What are the major factors influencing employee behaviour?

Categories of Employee Behaviour 1. External Influences: (a) External environment (outside the organization) (b) Work environment (inside the organization) 2. Internal Influences: (a) Within the employee including motivation, attitudes, KASOCs (knowledge, abilities, skills and other characteristics) etc These two forces interact to produce a given behaviour that has direct relationship to the personal and organizational outcomes

External Influences on Employee Behavior Factors in the External Environment: o State of the economy (inflation; unemployment etc. ) o Govt. laws and regulations o What competitors are doing o Labour unions o Global and technological issues o In general STEP-L (Social, technological, economic. political and legal issues) o Special mention – downsizing and mergers & acquisitions

External Influences on Employee Behavior, contd… Factors in the Work Environment: o Outcomes: Personal and organizational o Supervision & leadership: Self-fulfilling prophecy o The organization: Reward; org culture; job design o Coworkers: Norms; group dynamics; teamwork; trust

Internal Influences on Employee Behavior 1. Motivation – The psychological process that causes the arousal, direction and persistence of voluntary action that are goal directed. It is a fundamental internal influence on employee behaviour. Some theories: a. Need based – Underlying needs like need for safety or power drive motivation (Maslow’s Need; Alderfer’s ERG; Herzberg’s theories) b. Cognitive Process – A process controlled by conscious thoughts, beliefs and judgments (Expectancy; Goalsetting; Social learning; Equity theories) c. Non-cognitive – An interaction between behaviour and external events without appealing to internal thoughts or needs (Reinforcement theory)

Other Internal Influences on Employee Behavior 2. Attitudes Represents a persons general feeling of favorableness or unfaborableness towards some stimulus object. e. g. person, place, event or idea 3. Knowledge, skills, abilities & other characteristics – Knowledge is an understanding of factors or principles related to a particular subject (cognitive) – Skills are similar to abilities but combine abilities with capabilities developed as a result of training or experience (psychomotor) – Abilities are long lasting general capacities related to the performance of a set of tasks and generally develop over time through interaction of heredity and experience (cognitive)

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