Organizational Behavior: Analysis of Individual Behavior Factors

This essay delves into the multifaceted realm of organizational behavior, examining critical elements such as diversity, personality, and individual behavior within the context of a globalized business environment. It begins by highlighting the increasing importance of managing diversity, discussing theories like social categorization and decision-making theory, and emphasizing the significance of fostering an inclusive workplace. The essay then explores personality traits using the Five-Factor Model, relating these traits to employee performance and adaptability within diverse organizational settings. Furthermore, it analyzes individual behavior, emphasizing the influence of factors like personality, abilities, and attitudes, along with the application of the MARS model to understand motivation, ability, role perceptions, and situational factors. The discussion is anchored by real-world examples from Telstra Corporation Limited, illustrating how these concepts are applied in a practical business environment to enhance organizational effectiveness.

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Organizational Behavior
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Introduction
The increasing rate of globalization enhances more interactions amongst people from
different beliefs, cultures and diverse backgrounds in the contemporary business world. Now,
employees do not prefer staying at one place or within a confined marketplace, rather now
they prefer being a part of the global competition and the economy. This cause has led the
organization facing more diversity; therefore managing the diversity has been a major
organizational challenge as well (Aplin et al. 2014). The managers and supervisors should be
prepared for learning the specific management skills which are significant for managing the
diverse situation. In such situation, the management should consider few factors of the
organizational behavior such as individual behavior, personality and values. These factors
can play significant part within the diverse culture within the organization. The internal
behavior of the organization can be very important as it tend to draw different factors from
diverse disciplines for applying the organizational knowledge about the acting of the groups
and individuals within the organization (Schwartz 2013). There can also be three layers of
organizational behavior analysis as this field constitutes of the organization, group and the
individual. In this essay, the factors in the individual layer such as the behavior, personality
and cultures will be discussed. Different models and theories will be discussed to ensure that
the managers of the contemporary organizations require these factors within their
organizations in terms of the Telstra Corporation Limited, a famous telecommunication
company in Australia.
Diversity within Organization
Leslie, Manchester and Dahm (2017) defined the diverse situation within the
organization can come at different situations. It is very significant keeping a culture that is
devoid of including any kind of gender inequality. This article mostly determines the factors

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that are implied within the organization for meeting the gender equality within the
organization; however the gathered data indicates that there is always a sense of gender
inequality in the globally diverse organizations. However, this article has entirely ignored the
other concerns such as social discriminations. On the other hand, Hajro, Gibson and Pudelko
(2017) defines that there are several factors that play a major role in defining the effective
culture diversity within the organizations. The most significant one is the exchanging of
knowledge. The more the employees share their individual knowledge with each other, the
easier it is to gain the understanding about the productive cultural diversity. However, it is
also important to understand the dimensions of diversity, such as, the primary dimension like
the sexual orientation, gender, age etc. and the secondary dimension such as education,
income, geographical location, religion etc. The primary dimensions are mostly noticeable in
the first encounters; however the secondary orientations are not. Most of the organizations try
to adopt the diverse workplace in order to be open to any kind of change and creative. The
managers are expected to learn the managerial skills for working within the multicultural
workplace. The managers are supposed to ensure that the cultural differences of the
employees are valued within the organizations, so that they are treated with sufficient dignity.
Lambert (2016), states that the goal of every multicultural organization should be preventing
discrimination. The workforce diversity can also help the organization to gain competitive
advantages and bring more innovation in the organization. Therefore the leaders of any
organization should take care that any employee should not be discriminated at any ground.
In order to manage the organizational diversity, two theories can be very helpful,
social categorization theory and decision making theory. The social categorization theory
entails that the situations which enhances the person in perceiving the people from
surroundings and the consequences as a group (Rawat and Basergekar 2016). This theory also
defines the categorization procedure of social interaction and perception in terms of the issue

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of individual identity within the group. In Telstra Corporation Ltd, the management ensures
that the individual identity of each employee is identified and valued within the teams as
well. Their individuality is considered as unique features for strengthening the team. The
decision making theory also considered as the procedure of administration utilizing several
applications within the system (Dorsey 2017). This theory can also be broken into two
sections, normative decision theory and descriptive decision theory. The normative theory is
concerned with the identification of the best decision while the descriptive theory is
concerned with the description of the observed behavior adhering to the behavior that the
agents for making decisions behave under constant rules (Keiser and Pruitt 2014). The
diversity has a major impact on the decision making of the managers as it can produce more
new ideas for the organization.
Defining Personality
Walker, Machold and Ahmed (2015) states that, the concept of personality refers to
the characteristics of the individual for making that individual different from others within a
group. It is a set of unique characters which are utilized to differentiate one individual from
another. There are different natures of an individual such as their external and internal
elements, inherited element and the others which are dependent on the particular
environment. The nature of one’s personality is comparatively stable and mostly it is shaped
by the outer environment. (Pratkanis, Breckler and Greenwald 2014) The external
characteristic is mostly the observable behaviors of an individual which shapes the basic
personality traits. On the other hand, the internal characteristics are the values and thoughts
which are mostly inferred from the observable behavior. However, there are some
characteristics of a person which can vary according to the situation.

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Five factor Personality Model
The Five factors Personality Model constitutes of give big personality traits. The
defined factors are conscientiousness, agreeableness, extraversion, neuroticism and openness
to experiences (Sih et al. 2015). Under all these proposed factors, there are numbers of
codependent factors such as assertiveness, activities, gregariousness, and positive emotions
and so on. The defined five factors are:
Conscientiousness
This refers to the tendency of being dependable and organized showing the idea of
self discipline, aiming for achievement, acting dutifully and preferring the planning events
than the spontaneous ones (Sih et al. 2015). The higher conscientiousness is generally
perceived as a symbol of stubbornness and lower conscientiousness indicates to flexibility.
Agreeableness
This trait refers to the tendency of being cooperative and compassionate than being
antagonistic and suspicious (Anderson, Potočnik and Zhou 2014). This can also be
considered as the measurement of the helpful and trustworthy nature of an individual.
Neuroticism
This refers to the tendency of experiencing the unpleasant emotions such as anxiety,
anger, vulnerability and depression in an easier manner. This trait refers to the degree of the
emotional stability within an individual.

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Openness to experience
This trait defines the appreciating the adventure, art, curiosity, emotion and several
other emotions. This trait tends to reflect the degree of intellectual curiosity in an individual
(Anderson, Potočnik and Zhou 2014).
Extraversion
This trait differentiates between the outgoing and talkative nature versus the reserved
or solitary nature (Trinh 2014). Higher extraversion generally indicates to the domineering
and attention seeking characteristics, whereas the lower extraversion indicates to the reserved
personality.
Five factors of personality and diverse organizational behavior
These five factors of the personality traits are closely related to the organizational
behavior within a diverse culture. As the emotional stability and conscientiousness refers to
the motivational components of an individual personality, it is mostly referred to as the
strongest predictors of the personality performance. Therefore within the diverse work
culture, such as Telstra Corporation Limited, the managers can easily find out the employees
with higher motivation who can be more productive. The notion of extroversion is also
related to the employee performance. In Telstra Corporation Limited, this trait is mostly
related to the mgt and sales performance. As extroversion is related to the social persuasion
and interaction, therefore having more of this quality indicates to better sales performance. In
addition to that, the agreeableness can be very much effective in the diverse work place as
employees would require more help and cooperation from their colleagues in such situation.
The openness to experience also linked to produce higher adaptability and creativity in the
change management. Therefore employees in a diverse work culture can become more
creative and bring a adaptable culture in the organization.

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Individual Behavior
The organization is fundamentally an association of the individual beings, therefore
within the global environment; the contemporary organizations are making more contribution
and efforts for the management of the organization. It should also be noted that in the
workplaces the entire work consists of association of the individual performances. However,
there are always differences amongst the individuals and their respective jobs; therefore the
management is responsible for putting right people to the right places (Pratkanis, Breckler
and Greenwald 2014). There are different variables that influence the individual behavior
within the workplace. The most important individual factors that influence the individual
performance are the personality, abilities and skills, attitudes, perceptions, ethics and values.
On the other hand, the environment of the work group and the organization, job profile also
influences the performance of the employees and managers. The foundation of the individual
behavior is the psychological and personal factors, organizational resources and systems and
the environmental factors. The individual behavior is the allover combination of the character
traits of the person as the individual interacts and reacts with the people in his or her
surroundings (Zhou 2014). It is basically the combination of the mental and physical
characteristics which reflects the individual traits of the person. This also includes the
dynamics of the personality which indicates to the way of organizing and integrating the
social values, traits and motives, along with emotional adjustments and personal conceptions
(Keise and Pruitt 2014). However, the self concept including the self efficacy and self esteem
also shapes the personality of a human being as it reflects the view of that person regarding
the social, physical, moral and spiritual beings. In the diverse work environment these traits
help in the problem solving to a great extent, as the managers can differentiate between the
individuals by evaluating their personality traits.

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MARS model of Individual Behavior
The MARS model of Individual Behavior is a model seeking more elaboration of the
individual behavior as an outcome of the external and internal influences together. The major
factors that are indicated through this model are the Abilities, Motivation, Situational factors
and Role perception (Cervone and Pervin 2015). These factors contribute to building the
individual performance. The factors are discussed below:
Motivation
It can be defined as the internal force that influences the intensity, direction and the
endurance of the voluntary choices of the individual behavior. Mostly it is a combination of
the direction which is the center point of the predetermined goals; intensity which indicates to
the allocated effort; persistence which is the allotted time for making necessary effort for the
work (Keiser et al. 2014). In Telstra Corporation Limited, the team leaders continuously
encourage his or her team members for working in a more efficient way.
Ability
It is the naturally learned abilities and the tendencies which are required for
completing any job in a successful way. There are four different sections of this, such as
 Aptitude which is the natural talent of any individual which makes them work in a
more efficient way and perform more effectively.
 Learned capabilities which are the already accomplished knowledge and skills of an
individual (Keiser et al. 2014).
 Competencies which reflect the individual values, abilities, characteristics and the
other features of which can enhance the performance level of people.

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 Individual fit jobs which can entail to three ways of matching people with their jobs
by selecting skilled employees and developing their capabilities through training and
development.
In Telstra Corporation Limited, the superior performances of the employees are
determined by the time taken for completing any task.
Role perceptions
As stated by Somech and Drach-Zahavy (2013) this behavior is essential for
achieving the preferred outcomes along with checking whether everyone is doing their parts
or not. This is a major factor for the team leaders and managers for comprehending what
tasks are to be performed along with understanding the related significance of the allotted
tasks, comprehending the desired behavior for completing the tasks and clarifying the
perceptions of roles. Therefore, in Telstra Corporation Limited, while the manager or the
team leader gives out the jobs, considers the roles of the individuals before allocating them a
particular task.
Situational factors
These indicates to the environmental factors such as the team members, allotted time,
facilities for working and budget which can facilitate or limit the individual behavior. If these
factors do not match the control of the individuals, there are high chances that the task is not
completed.
Defining Values
The individual behavior is mostly constant to the individual values. There are two
kinds of behavior that adheres to the individual values within the work place, the habitual
behavior and the conscious behavior (Lyons and Kuron 2014). The habitual behavior is

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mostly related to the individual values, on the other hand the conscious behavior are less
concerned with the individual values. Within the diverse work environment, the individual
behavior and the decision making process are closely linked to the individual values. The
individuals mostly have several logical reasons for applying the values to different situations,
even if the situation does not interfere.
Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory
Hofstede has developed this framework which defines the impact of the culture of the
society on the value of the members of the society. This framework is also helpful in relating
the value with the individual behavior. There are six dimensions mentioned in the theory,
those are:
Power distance:
This is defines the differentiation between the powerful and the powerless people in
the society (Keise and Pruitt 2014). This dimension also indicates to the unequal distribution
of the power in the organization and how that can shape the behavior of employees.
Individualism vs. collectivism
On one hand, individualism indicates to the value of the personal freedom, control
over the individual self and the self sufficiency, whereas, on the other hand, collectivism
indicates to valuing the harmonious group membership within the organization (Schwartz
2013).

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Uncertainty avoidance
This trait indicates to the uncertainty and ambiguity of the employees. The lower
score in this dimension indicates more uncertainty whereas people with higher scores feel
threatened by ambiguity.
Conclusion
In the contemporary business world, the organizations, such as Telstra Corporations
limited have recognized the increasing importance of diverse workforce. The organizations
have made the management of diversity a crucial part of their organizational management.
The productivity has been enhanced to a great extent which also ignited the loyalty of the
employees. With so many diverse and different minds coming to a same place have also
improved their way of solving issues, thinking and making decision at the crucial stages. It is
also easier for the organizations to retain and attract more talent and add a competitive
advantage in the market place. The communication skills of the employees are also improved
in a diverse work environment. However, there are few individual factors such as individual
behavior, personality and values play a significant part in the organizational behavior context.
As globalization has enhanced working with more people at the same place, the work
environment is also affected by the individual personality traits. The more employees are
interested in coping up with the entire diverse work environment; the organization can
enhance their productivity level. This essay has discussed all the major factors that can affect
the organizational behavior in a diverse work place. It should be noted that ignoring the
potential impacts of such factors will only keep the organization at losing all the profitability
and higher productivity.

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