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Information Technology & Business

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DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

POST GRADUATE PROGRAM (MBA)

Reading Assignments

Submitted to: Kahsu Mebrahtu (Assistant professor)

Submitted by: Berhane Gebreselassie #MBA/00264/16

 August, 2017

Reading Assignments
Learning and Methods of Shaping Behavior

According to operant conditioning, both good and bad behaviors are controlled
by reinforced consequences. Identifying behavioral reinforces and removing them can
decrease a behavior. An undesired behavior without reinforcement can diminish until it no
longer occurs. Thisprocessiscalledextinction.
Extinction can modify the behavior of a worker who spends much time talking or telling
jokes. The attention of coworkers reinforces this behavior. If coworkers stop talking and
laughing, the worker is likely to stop telling jokes. Although extinction is useful, it takes
time to eliminate the undesired behavior. When behaviors need to stop immediately,
managers may resort to punishment.

Punishment:

Punishment consists of administering a negative consequence when the undesired behavior

occurs. Punishment is not the same as negative reinforcement. It decreases a behavior,
whereas negative reinforcement increases the frequency of a behavior. Punishment
administers a negative consequence, whereas negative reinforcement removes a negative
consequence.

Reinforcement

Reinforcement is the process that increases the probability that desired behaviors occur by
applying consequences. Managers use reinforcement to increase the likelihood of higher sales,
better attendance, or observing safety procedures.

Reinforcement begins by selecting a behavior to be encouraged. Correctly identifying the

behavior is important, or reinforcement will not lead to the desired response. A manager must
decide if attendance at meetings is the desired behavior or attendance and participation. The
manager would need to reinforce both behaviors if both are desired.

Mood Definition
In literature, mood is a literary element that evokes certain feelings or vibes in readers through
words and descriptions.

Usually, mood is referred to as the atmosphere of a literary piece, as it creates an emotional

situation that surrounds the readers. Mood is developed in a literary piece through various
methods. It can be developed through setting, theme, tone and diction. Let us see how writers use
the afore-mentioned elements in their literary works to create a particular mood.

Relationship Between employee and Customer Satisfaction

This study aims to examine whether the relationship between employee satisfaction (ES) and
customer satisfaction (CS) is bilateral or unilateral based on dyadic data. In addition, it seeks to
examine the role of moderating variables which have incremental impacts on this link.

Design/methodology/approach

– The authors conducted an empirical test on this relationship in an educational service context.
Structural equation modeling was employed to test the hypotheses.
Findings

– Results indicate that employee satisfaction leads to CS but CS did not affect ES, which
suggests that the relationship between ES and CS is unilateral rather than bilateral. The findings
also demonstrate that the dispositional variables (i.e. self-efficacy, cooperative orientation)
moderate the impact of ES on CS.

Research limitations/implications

– This study provided theoretical implications for the ES‐CS relationship.

Practical implications

– This finding suggests that top level management in the service industry must take an
active role in recruiting employees who are confident in their abilities and who display pro ‐
social dispositions.

“We found that there was a cause-and-effect relationship between the two; that it was impossible
to maintain a loyal customer base without a base of loyal employees; and that the best employees
prefer to work for companies that deliver the kind of superior value that builds customer
loyalty… building loyalty has in fact become the acid test of leadership.” — Frederick
Reichheld, The Loyalty Effect and Loyalty Rules

FEELING , EMOTION , AFFECTION , SENTIMENT , PASSION

Mean a subjective response to a person, thing, or situation. FEELING denotes any partly mental,
partly physical response marked by pleasure, pain, attraction, or repulsion; it may suggest the
mere existence of a response but imply nothing about the nature or intensity of
it. ⟨the feelings that once moved me are gone⟩ EMOTION carries a strong implication of
excitement or agitation but, like FEELING, encompasses both positive and negative
responses. ⟨the drama portrays the emotions of adolescence⟩ AFFECTION applies to feelings that
are also inclinations or likings. ⟨a memoir of childhood filled with affection for her
family⟩ SENTIMENT often implies an emotion inspired by an idea. ⟨her feminist sentiments are
well known⟩ PASSION suggests a very powerful or controlling emotion. ⟨revenge became his
ruling passion⟩

Four – Drive Theory of Motivation

In order to maximize motivation leaders need to provide an opportunity for employees to satisfy
the four drives: Acquire & Achieve, to Bond & Belong, to be Challenged & Comprehend, and to
Define & Defend. Leaders can begin to influence and start to fulfill each of these drives by
using some of the systems and processes they already have in place. Alterations and
enhancements to those systems and processes can help the organization be one in which
employees can satisfy their drives and become highly motivated!

We attempt to map the connection between each of the four drives and the different
organizational systems/processes that impact them.

Drive A: Achieve & Acquire

This drive is primarily satisfied through a company’s Reward System. This drive is met when
companies have a total reward system that: highly differentiates top performers from average
performers and average performers from poor performers; clearly ties rewards to performance;
recognition is given for outstanding performance; pay is above competitive benchmarks in the
city/industry; and top employees are promoted from within.

Drive B: Bond & Belong

This drive is mostly met through an Organizations Culture. Organizations who’s culture is one
that: embraces teamwork; encourages the development of friendships and bonding; one in which
employees can depend on their peers to help them; a culture that values collaboration; a culture
that celebrates and shares; and a culture that is focused on the “employee first” are crucial to this
drive being met.

Drive C: Challenge & Comprehend

This drive is fulfilled primarily through Job and Organizational Structure. Organizations
need to ensure that the various job roles within the company provide employees with stimulation
that challenges them or allows them to grow. Job roles that satisfy this drive should: be seen as
important in the organization; jobs should provide personal meaning and fulfillment; roles should
engender a feeling of contribution to the organization; organizational structures that provide
growth opportunities within the company; learning offerings (training, seminars, etc) that
provide employees with new skills and knowledge, job sharing/rotational opportunities that can
provide new challenges are the key to fulfilling this particular drive.

Drive D: Define & Defend

This drive is met mostly through an employee feeling alignment and connection to the
organization. This can be done through a company’s Vision/Reputation and their
Performance Management System. Organizations that have a strong vision or positive
reputation in the marketplace can help create that alignment with employees. The company
should be perceived to be: fair; providing a valued service or good; ethical; and good stewards.
Organization’ performance management systems can also help through giving insight into the
company’s vision. Performance management system should be one that is: open and transparent;
perceived to be fair; provides direction; and that is trusted by employees.

Is Money Motivator or not?

Companies reward employees for exceptional work by giving them extra money. Is this a good
way of encouraging employees to work hard?
Ideas:
You need at least three or four ideas to support whatever point of view you come up
with.

Money awards are effective:

- Money motivates people, and extra money motivates people to work extra.
- Employees compete to raise productivity or standards.
- It is not always possible to promote people, so money is a simple way to reward
workers.
Money is not acceptable to all workers:
- Some may not appreciate a particular present, or some gifts may be insulting.
- Money is only sometimes effective, or sometimes does not work.
- If employees are highly paid, money may not be sufficient. They may prefer other
benefits, such as an award ceremony or dinner, a club membership, a travel ticket, a
car, a window office, etc.
- Money may set employees against each other, leading to conflict in the office.
- It may be difficult to determine the standard or basis for the decision to award the
employee.
- Employees may feel forced to compete.
Money is not effective:
- Employees work for a salary - they do not want to perform like circus animals if
paid more.
- Money trivializes work, which for many professional employees should be its own
reward.
- The amount may not bear relation to what the employee does.
If the employer finds it motivating to award money, perhaps the salaries are too low
there are many other ways to motivate employees.
What do you want to do now?

Formal and Informal Organization

An organization is a collection of people who work together to attain specified objectives. There
are two types of organization structure that can be formal organization and informal
organization. An organization is said to be formal organization when the two or more than two
persons come together to accomplish a common objective, and they follow a formal relationship,
rules, and policies are established for compliance, and there exists a system of authority.

On the other end, there is an informal organization which is formed under the formal
organization as a system of social relationship, which comes into existence when people in an
organization, meet, interact and associate with each other. In this article excerpt, we are going to
discuss the major differences between formal and informal organization.

Formal and informal Groups

In an organization, the formation of groups is very natural, whether it is created by the
management for the purpose of accomplishing the goals of the organization or by the members
of the organizations themselves to fulfill their social needs. There are two types of group,
namely, formal groups and informal groups. Formal groups are the ones that are created as per
official authority, so as to fulfill the desired objective. Unlike, informal groups are formed by
the employees as per their likes, interests, and attitudes.

Formal and Informal Communication

Formal communication is one that passes through predefined channels of communication
throughout the organization. On the contrary, Informal communication refers to the form of
communication which flows in every direction, i.e. it moves freely in the organization.

Formal and Informal Network

Formal and Informal Networks 2 “The world of the human service agency is a complex one”
(Woodside & McClam, 2011, p.227). Each organization has a mission or various goals that they
want to accomplish. At times obstacles can get in the way that halts a company fulfilling its
purpose. These obstacles can range from various things such as case manager burnout, not being
able to provide the services that a client needs, and being unsuccessful in building community
and agency-to-agency relationships. All of the above-mentioned processes need to operate to the
full scope of necessity if a company wants to be successful in the delivery of the services they
provide. “Human service professionals face many challenges throughout a typical day”
(Woodside & McClam, 2011, p.239). They have to decide how to allocate their greatest
resource, time.

3. Formal and Informal Networks 3 “Within the context of the human service
delivery system, there is a tension between competition and coalition building
among agencies” (Woodside & McClam, 2011, p.243). Although all organizations
involved when collaborating have the underlying purpose of service, the delivery
of such can be prohibited for various reasons. One motive for this happening is turf
issues. Turf issues can arise when numerous establishments service the same area
or clientele. Another reason turmoil can occur is because one organization is
unaware of or does not trust the other. Complications within working together can
also arise because one organizations is not aware of the others formal and informal
processes.

Managerial Strategies to manage informal Groups

Informal work‐groups are described, and their characteristics and development are discussed.
They are compared with formal groups which are defined by the structure of the organization
and an individual′s role within that structure. Informal groups will always occur in any
organization; so management′s task is to understand and use informal groups to achieve the
organization’s ends. This is especially true as regards productivity, and the variables affecting
productivity are discussed. The article then concentrates on leadership as a factor affecting group
productivity. In this context, interactions between leaders (formal and informal) and group
members are considered. A model is presented of how management can use informal groups to
increase productivity. The importance of good relationships between formal and informal groups
is emphasized, and a list of ways in which management can foster good relationships is provided.
If, for any reason, the informal group will not co‐operate with the organization, but continues to
work against it, management must ensure that the group is disbanded
 Explain The Characteristics of work Teams
Today, most workers are part of a work team. What are the qualities of good team members?

1. Honest and Straightforward. A good team member is up front. He/she doesn’t play games,
or lead others on. You can count on a good team member to tell you what’s what, regardless of
whether it is good news or bad news.

2. Shares the Load. A good team member does his or her fair share of the work. There is a sense
of equity and fairness in the good team member. A sense of equity is critically important for
team members’ collective motivation.

3. Reliable. The good team member can be counted on. She or he meets deadlines and is on
time.

4. Fair. A good team member takes appropriate credit, but would never think of taking credit for
someone else’s work.

5. Complements Others’ Skills. An important characteristic of effective work teams is the

shared capacity. Every member has areas of strength and some weak spots. A good team member
provides some unique skills and/or knowledge that move the team forward.

6. Good Communication Skills. Teamwork is social, so good team members need to be skilled,
and tactful, communicators.

7. Positive Attitude. No one would ever follow a pessimistic leader, and the same goes for team
members. A positive, “can-do” attitude is critical for the good team member

Path - Goal Leadership

The path goal theory centers on the motivational factors of the subordinates that havesignificant influence
on the outcome of the task. It was originally proposed by RobertHouse(1971) while he was trying to
explain various anomalies that were found in studies related to people vs. task concern leadership styles.
According to the “situational-leadership” , if the leader adapted his style to complement the
developmental level of the employees, the outcome should be maximized, but it was not found to be true
in practice. The main reason was that the leadership was still focused on its own goals of task completion,
while the employee’s perception of goal is the rewards that he might get on task completion. The subtle
question that comes to every employee’s mind is “what do I gain out of this task?” Hence the path-goal
theory intrinsically rests on the expectancy theory which states that an individual cognitivelydetermines
his motivation based on amount of effort required, the rewards or returns of the effort and the importance
the individual gives to the rewards.

Lewin’s Three Participatory Leadership Styles (1939)

Kurt Lewin and colleagues did leadership decision experiments in 1939 and identified three
different styles of leadership, in particular around decision-making.

Autocratic
In the autocratic style, the leader takes decisions without consulting with others. The decision
is made without any form of consultation. In Lewin's experiments, he found that this caused
the most level of discontent.

An autocratic style works when there is no need for input on the decision, where the decision
would not change as a result of input, and where the motivation of people to carry out
subsequent actions would not be affected whether they were or were not involved in the
decision-making.

Democratic
In the democratic style, the leader involves the people in the decision-making, although the
process for the final decision may vary from the leader having the final say to them facilitating
consensus in the group.

Democratic decision-making is usually appreciated by the people, especially if they have been
used to autocratic decisions with which they disagreed. It can be problematic when there are a
wide range of opinions and there is no clear way of reaching an equitable final decision.

Laissez-Faire
The laissez-faire style is to minimize the leader's involvement in decision-making, and hence
allowing people to make their own decisions, although they may still be responsible for the
outcome.
 Laissez-faire works best when people are capable and motivated in making their own
decisions, and where there is no requirement for a central coordination, for example in sharing
resources across a range of different people and groups.

Romance Perspective of Leadership

Suggesting that as an explanatory concept, leadership has assumed a heroic, larger-than-life

quality, this research investigated the effects of leadership attributions on evaluations of
organizational performance. In study 1, we found that subjects gave better evaluations to
performance outcomes attributed to leadership factors than they gave to the same outcomes when
these were attributed to no leadership factors. Study 2 sought specific information on the nature
and quality of leadership's value as an explanatory concept for performance outcomes through
analyzing the attributions themselves. The discussion focuses on the phenomenological value
and significance of leadership for the analysis of organizations.

Transactional and Transformational Leadership

Transactional Leadership

Transactional leadership styles are more concerned with maintaining the normal flow of
operations. Transactional leadership can be described as "keeping the ship afloat." Transactional
leaders use disciplinary power and an array of incentives to motivate employees to perform at
their best. The term "transactional" refers to the fact that this type of leader essentially motivates
subordinates by exchanging rewards for performance. A transactional leader generally does not
look ahead in strategically guiding an organization to a position of market leadership; instead,
these managers are solely concerned with making sure everything flows smoothly today.
Transformational Leadership

A transformational leader goes beyond managing day-to-day operations and crafts strategies for
taking his company, department or work team to the next level of performance and success.
Transformational leadership styles focus on team-building, motivation and collaboration with
employees at different levels of an organization to accomplish change for the better.
Transformational leaders set goals and incentives to push their subordinates to higher
performance levels, while providing opportunities for personal and professional growth for each
employee.
 Organizational Development
Is the study of successful organizational change and performance. OD emerged from human
relations studies in the 1930s, during which psychologists realized that organizational
structures and processes influence worker behavior and motivation. More recently, work on
OD has expanded to focus on aligning organizations with their rapidly changing and complex
environments through organizational learning, knowledge management and transformation of
organizational norms and values. Key concepts of OD theory include: organizational climate
(the mood or unique “personality” of an organization, which includes attitudes and beliefs that
influence members’ collective behavior), organizational culture (the deeply-seated norms,
values and behaviors that members share) and organizational strategies (how an organization
identifies problems, plans action, negotiates change and evaluates progress).

Social Loafing and Group Think

Social loafing is the phenomenon of a person exerting less effort to achieve a goal when they
work in a group than when they work alone. This is seen as one of the main reasons groups are
sometimes less productive than the combined performance of their members working as
individuals, but should be distinguished from the accidental coordination problems that groups
sometimes experience.

Research on social loafing began with rope pulling experiments by Ringelmann, who found that
members of a group tended to exert less effort in pulling a rope than did individuals alone. In
more recent research, studies involving modern technology, such as online and distributed
groups, have also shown clear evidence of social loafing. Many of the causes of social loafing
stem from an individual feeling that his or her effort will not matter to the group.[3

Group Think

groupthink: “a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a
cohesive in-group, when the members’ strivings for unanimity override their motivation to
realistically appraise alternative courses of action
Virtual Organizations
Is an organization involving detached and disseminated entities (from employees to entire
enterprises) and requiring information technology to support their work and
communication. Virtual organizations do not represent a firm’s attribute but can be considered as
a different organizational form.

Unfortunately, it is quite hard to find a precise and fixed definition of fundamental notions such
as virtual organization or virtual company. The term virtual organization ensued from the phrase
“virtual reality”, whose purpose is to look like reality by using electronic sounds and
images. The term virtual organization implies the novel and innovative relationships between
organizations and individuals. Technology and globalization both support this particular type of
organization.

Virtual can be defined as "not physically existing as such but made by software to appear to do
so", in other words “unreal but looking real”. This definition precisely outlines the leading
principle of this unconventional organization, which holds the form of a real (conventional)
corporation from the outside but does not actually exist physically and implicates an entirely
digital process relying on independents web associates. Thus, virtual organizations are centered
on technology and position physical presence in the background. Virtual organizations possess
limited physical resources as value is added through (mobile) knowledge rather than
(immovable) equipment.

Virtual organizations necessitate associations, federations, relations, agreements and alliance

relationships as they essentially are partnership webs of disseminated organizational entities or
self-governing corporations.