Page 250 - DMGT106_MANAGING_HUMAN_ELEMENTS_AT_WORK

Managing Human Element at Work

Notes and conflict free team. In reality, a manager has to use the existing resources for a given
task, and must have the ability to understand the differences in individual behaviours and
use them appropriately to increase the synergy.
Factors influencing individual behaviour are as follows:

11.4.1 Abilities
Abilities of a person are the natural or learnt traits. Abilities can be classified into mental
and physical abilities and different task requires different level of the two. Mental abilities
represent the intelligence, person’s deductive reasoning, and memory, analytical and verbal
comprehension. Physical abilities include muscular strength, stamina, body coordination and
motor skills. An individual’s self awareness of his own abilities determines how he feels
about the task, while the manager’s perception of his abilities determines the kind of task
he assigns to the individual.

11.4.2 Gender
Although, research concludes that men and women are equal in their mental abilities and
job performance, society does emphasize differences. However, absenteeism is one area
where differences are found and can be attributed to being primary caregiver to children.
However, this creates a difference in self perception of one’s abilities, personal values and
social behaviour. Similarly, a manager’s personal values might influence how he considers
gender as factor in his task assignment and evaluation.
11.4.3 Race

Race and culture exert significant influence when both workplace and society have
considerable diversity. Stereotyping and attributing behaviour based on race and culture
are common mistakes that influence individual behaviour. It is important for both
management and the staff of diverse workforce to learn about different cultures, their
values, common artefacts and communication protocols. This would create a more
comfortable corporate culture and would subdue behaviours that might be perceived as
insensitive and offensive.

11.4.4 Perception
Perception is the basic cognitive process that transforms sensory stimuli into meaningful
information. Most real life problems are multidimensional and the rational approach is often
entwined with the gut feeling, resulting in individual perception. This quells the famous
notion that reality is objective and thus everyone must perceive it the same way. Both
managers and subordinates must recognize that perceptual differences exist and often are the
reason for mutual dissatisfaction.
Stereotyping: It is categorization of individuals on basis of single attribute, it ends up
creating a generalized and simplified belief that do not take into account other significant
characteristics. Age, race and sex are the three most common basis of stereotyping; not only
they are unethical but can cost missing resources. In general, stereotyping leads to decisions
that are based on inaccurate data that can result in unfair performance evaluations, job design
or promotion.

Selective Perception: It is the process of selecting only the information that supports our pre-
existing belief system, thereby eliminating the discomforting information. Selective perception
acts like a catalyst to stereotyping because people tend to notice things that fit their existing
notion and not notice things that do not. Both stereotyping and selective perception can be
beneficial only by chance since they are based on partial information. The specific situations
in which they can be positively exploited cannot be used as reliable methods.

244 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY