Directing and individual behaviour: goals, determinants and attitudes
Directing guides people toward goals. Understanding behaviour helps managers explain, predict and influence it; attitudes, personality, perception and learning are its main determinants.
What directing is
Directing is the management function of guiding, supervising, leading, motivating and communicating with employees so that they work willingly toward organizational goals. Many texts call it leading. Its four elements are supervision, motivation, leadership and communication. Directing starts action: plans and structures achieve nothing until people act on them. To direct well, managers study organizational behaviour (OB), the study of how people act at work.
The organization as an iceberg
Most of what drives behaviour lies below the surface, which is why managers study OB.
Goals of understanding individual behaviour
| Behaviour managers explain and predict | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Employee productivity | How efficiently and effectively people produce output |
| Absenteeism | Failing to report for work |
| Turnover | Leaving the organization, voluntarily or not |
| Organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) | Helpful behaviour beyond formal job duties, such as helping a new colleague |
| Job satisfaction | An employee's general attitude toward the job |
| Workplace misbehaviour | Deliberate behaviour that harms the organization or people in it, such as deviance, aggression or incivility |
Determinants of individual behaviour
| Determinant | Meaning | Key ideas |
|---|---|---|
| Attitudes | Evaluative statements about people, objects or events | Job satisfaction, involvement, commitment, engagement |
| Personality | A person's unique, fairly stable pattern of emotions, thoughts and behaviour | MBTI, Big Five, locus of control (next topic) |
| Perception | Giving meaning to the environment by organizing and interpreting what we sense | Attribution theory (Harold Kelley); shortcuts such as the halo effect, stereotyping and selective perception |
| Learning | A relatively permanent change in behaviour that comes from experience | Operant conditioning (B. F. Skinner); social learning (Albert Bandura); shaping |
| Biographical factors and ability | Age, gender, length of service; mental and physical ability | Match ability to the job's demands |
Attitudes and job performance
Leon Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory: people feel discomfort when their attitudes and behaviour clash, and try to reduce it. Attitude surveys help managers track how employees feel.
Many large Sri Lankan employers, such as banks and diversified groups, run regular employee engagement surveys. Low scores in one department warn managers early about likely absenteeism and turnover, so they can act before skilled staff leave, a real risk when skilled workers are migrating abroad.
Short answer: “What is organizational citizenship behaviour?” Voluntary behaviour that is not part of an employee's formal job duties but helps the organization, such as helping a colleague.
Structured question: “Explain the three components of an attitude.” Cognitive (beliefs), affective (feelings) and behavioural (intention to act), with one workplace example showing all three, and a line on cognitive dissonance.
Essay: “Define directing. Explain the determinants of individual behaviour in organizations.” Definition and elements of directing, goals of OB (explain, predict, influence; six behaviours), then attitudes, personality, perception and learning with examples.
Six behaviours managers watch: 'People Always Talk Over Some Milk tea' = Productivity, Absenteeism, Turnover, OCB, Satisfaction, Misbehaviour. Attitude parts = ABC: Affective, Behavioural, Cognitive.