Foundations of Individual
Behavior
Dr. Fred Mugambi Mwirigi
JKUAT
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Why study OB?
‘It helps to develop best fit between
the employee and the job, the
employee and other employees,
the employee and the
organization’
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Biographical Characteristics
 Does
age influence productivity at work?
 Does marital status influence productivity
at work?
 Do physical characteristics influence
productivity at work?
 Does Gender influence productivity at
work?
 Does ethnicity influence productivity at
work?
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Abilities

Everyone has strengths and weaknesses in
terms of ability in performing certain tasks or
activities

Ability refers to an individual’s capacity to
perform the various tasks in a job. It is a current
assessment of what one can do.

Abilities can be categorized into:
1. intellectual
2. physical
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Intellectual abilities
 Intellectual

abilities
The capacity to do
mental activities such
as thinking, reasoning
and problem solving.
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Multiple Intelligences
Intelligence can be subdivided into four subparts:




Cognitive intelligence
• Traditional aptitudes associated with intelligence
Social intelligence
• Ability to relate effectively to others
Emotional intelligence
• Ability to identify, understand and manage emotions
Cultural intelligence
• Awareness of cross-cultural differences
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Another view (Howard Gardner’s
Theory)
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Contd.

Intellectual abilities are those needed to perform mental
activities – for thinking, reasoning and problem solving.

IQ tests are designed to ascertain one’s general
intellectual abilities. Examples of such tests are
admission tests used by some universities such as the
GMAT.

The seven most frequently cited dimensions making up
intellectual abilities are: number aptitude, verbal
comprehension, perceptual speed, inductive
reasoning, deductive reasoning, spatial
visualisation, and memory.
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Physical ability
The capacity to do tasks demanding
stamina, dexterity, strength and similar
characteristics.
Employee’s
Abilities
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Ability-Job
Fit
Job’s Ability
Requirements
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Contd
 Research
has identified nine basic abilities
involved in the performance of physical
tasks, dynamic strength, trunk strength,
static strength, explosive strength,
extent flexibility, dynamic flexibility,
body coordination, balance, stamina.
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Influencers of Abilities
1. Biographical factors
Personal characteristics—such as age, gender,
and marital status—that are objective and easily
obtained from personnel records.
2. Social factors
The society and its interplay with the persona
society influences abilities
3. Learning
Is the key influencer of abilities
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Learning
Any relatively permanent change in
behaviour that occurs as a result of
experience.
 Characteristics of learning:
1. Involves change
2. Is relatively permanent
3. Is acquired through experience and
exposure to learning material
Learning enhances ability.
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Theories of Learning
Three main:
1. Classical conditioning
2. Operant conditioning
3. Social learning
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Classical conditioning
A type of conditioning in which an
individual responds to some stimulus that
would not ordinarily produce such a
response.
Key Concepts
• Unconditioned stimulus
• Unconditioned response
• Conditioned response
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Classical Conditioning




Classical conditioning grew out of experiments
conducted at the turn of the century by a Russian
physiologist, Ivan Pavlov, to teach dogs to salivate
in response to the ringing of a bell.
The meat was an unconditioned stimulus; it
invariably caused the dog to react in a specific way.
The bell was an artificial stimulus, or what we call
the conditioned stimulus.
The conditioned response. This describes the
behaviour of the dog; it salivated in reaction to the
bell alone.
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Operant conditioning
A type of conditioning in which desired
voluntary behaviour leads to a reward or
prevents a punishment.
Key Concepts
• Reflexive (unlearned) behaviour
• Conditioned (learned) behaviour
• Reinforcement
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Operant Conditioning
 Premiered
by Harvard psychologist B.F.
Skinner.
 Operant conditioning argues that
behaviour is a function of its
consequences. People learn to behave
to get something they want or to avoid
something they do not want.
 The tendency to repeat behaviour
influenced by reinforcement or lack of it.
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Tenets of Operant Conditioning
Behaviour is learned.
2. People are likely to engage in desired
behaviours if they are positively reinforced for
doing so.
3. Rewards are most effective if they immediately
follow the desired response.
4. Any situation in which it is either explicitly stated
or implicitly suggested that reinforcements are
contingent on some action on your part involves
the use of operant learning.
1.
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Social-learning theory
People can learn through observation and
direct experience.
Key Concepts
• Attention processes
• Retention processes
• Motor reproduction processes
• Reinforcement processes
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Social Learning Theory Contd.
 Individuals
can also learn by observing
what happens to other people, by being
told about something, as well as by direct
experiences.
 The
influence of models and celebrities is
central to social learning.
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Determinants of influence of models
Attentional processes. People learn from a model only
when they recognise and pay attention to its critical
features.
2. Retention processes. A model’s influence will depend
on how well the individual remembers the model’s
action after the model is no longer readily available.
3. Motor reproduction processes. After a person has
seen a new behaviour by observing the model, the
watching must be converted to doing.
4. Reinforcement processes. Individuals will be
motivated to exhibit the modelled behaviour if positive
incentives or rewards are provided.
1.
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Shaping Behavior
 Systematically
reinforcing each successive
step that moves an individual closer to the
desired response- especially by rewarding
or punishing.
Key Concepts
• Reinforcement is required to change behaviour
• Some rewards are more effective than others
• The timing of reinforcement affects learning
speed and permanence.
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Types of Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement
 Providing a reward for a desired behaviour

Negative reinforcement
 Removing an unpleasant consequence when the
desired behaviour occurs

Punishment
 Applying an undesirable condition to eliminate an
undesirable behaviour

Extinction
 Withholding reinforcement of a behaviour to cause its
cessation.
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Schedules of Reinforcement
Two main types:
1.
Continuous reinforcement

A desired behaviour is reinforced each time it
is demonstrated.
2.
Intermittent reinforcement

A desired behaviour is reinforced often
enough to make the behaviour worth
repeating but not every time it is
demonstrated.
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Types of intermittent
reinforcement
 Fixed-interval
schedule
 Rewards are spaced at uniform time
intervals.
 Variable-interval
schedule
 Rewards are distributed at random
times; reinforcements are
unpredictable
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Contd.
 Fixed-ratio

schedule
Rewards are initiated after a fixed or
constant number of responses (e.g.
payment for piece-rate workers)
 Variable-ratio

schedule
Rewards are varied relative to the
behaviour of the individual.
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Behavior Modification
The application of reinforcement concepts to
individuals in the work setting.
Problem-solving model for Behavioral
Problems
• Identify critical behaviours
• Develop baseline data
• Identify behavioural consequences
• Apply intervention
• Evaluate performance improvement.
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Critical behaviours
 Critical
behaviours make a significant
impact on the employee’s job
performance; these are those 5–10
percent of behaviours that may account for
up to 70 or 80 percent of each employee’s
performance.
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Implications to Managers
Ability directly influences an employee’s level of
performance.
 An effective selection process will improve ability-job-fit.
 The fit can also be improved by fine-tuning the job to
better match an incumbent’s abilities.
 Biographical characteristics are readily observable to
managers, however, that doesn’t mean all must be used
to select employees
 Any observable change in behaviour is prima facie
evidence that learning has taken place.
 Positive reinforcement is a powerful tool for modifying
behaviour.

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End of lesson two
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Compiled by Fred Mugambi Mwirigi
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