INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN BEHAVIOUR

Timeframe: 8 hours

Learning Outcome: • Understand factors contributing to the successful management of people in the work environment.

Multimedia:

• LearningRxcom. 2010, ‘Increase Brain Power – How to work out your brain and get smarter’ [video clip], http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aykuFhQIob4 (accessed 12 November 2013).

Section overview

People are very complex and different. To understand and to be able to predict how they would react, it will be easier if we understand how human behaviour works. This section focuses on issues that make people different, so that managers and HR managers realise the complexity of managing people.

7.2.1 Introduction

Understanding human behaviour will assist human resource managers to control the outcome of situations that arise in the workplace. People, by nature, are all different, with varying values, morals, histories, and beliefs. Studying human behaviour sheds light on how to successfully manage people in a work environment to keep them motivated and working efficiently and effectively towards the organisations’ and their own personal goals.

7.2.2 HR links to Behavioural Science

Behavioural science is the study of the behaviour of humans. It includes disciplines like Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, History, Economics, and Political science. These disciplines study the interactions and activities of humans in their environments. The elements of behavioural sciences are embedded into Human Resource Management in the following way:

• The organisation can be seen as a socio-technical system

• Employees are individuals with personalities which are to be managed

• Employees are motivated by their needs

• Employees work in teams within a specific environment and using specific processes These disciplines are often applied in the study of organisational behaviour, customer behaviour, and employee behaviour in the workplace. As HR managers are expected to manage the human resources of their organisation, it is therefore important that they understand human behaviour.

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7.2.3 Four Aspects of Individuals

When one works with people, there are four important aspects that one has to take into account.

These are discussed in Table 1 (Mayor, 2012).

Table 1: Four aspects of individuals

Physical aspect

This includes your body, your level of health and fitness, your ability to do things and the contact that you make with other people. Body language is also something that one would include as a physical aspect. Physical intelligence involves making appropriate decisions and choices that will be of benefit to one’s body.

Intellectual aspect

When we look at the intellectual side of a human, one takes into account the thinking process of individuals. This aspect involves being able to think critically, analyse, problem solve, synthesise, meta-analyse and also process emotions. It is crucial that we develop awareness about our thoughts because these thoughts affect our behaviour – what we think, we become. Positive thoughts will tend to result in positive behaviour and negative thoughts will generally result in negative behaviour.

Emotional aspect

This aspect refers to our emotions or feelings. It is very important that one is in touch with one’s feelings in order to have a deeper understanding of oneself. It is also important to know what other people are feeling and to respond appropriately to how they are feeling. Emotions can also be referred to as a feeling state (including physiological responses and cognitions) that convey information about relationships.

For example, happiness is a feeling state that also conveys information about a relationship – feeling comfortable with the person. Similarly, fear is a feeling state that conveys information about a relationship – perhaps the urge to flee from other person (Mayor, 2012).

Spiritual aspect

Spirituality refers to living according to virtuous or positive values and being guided by an ultimate purpose. Spirituality also involves feeling connected with others, the world and the Universe. There is a deep realisation that if you hurt others, one ultimately hurts oneself, because we are all interconnected. Spirituality also entails being authentic – where there is alignment between one’s inner and outer experience. Spiritual intelligence enables us to heal ourselves and make ourselves whole.

(Mayor, 2012) It is important to note that these aspects of an individual constantly influence one another in an intricate manner. For example, if your work is not aligned to your ultimate purpose and core values (spiritual level), then it might make you feel frustrated and resentful in your job (emotional level) because you are not expressing your full potential and talents (mental level). This might influence your diet where you resort to eating unhealthy foods and stop exercising (physical level), which will make you feel even worse about yourself, and affect your sense of self. It is therefore important to ensure that you take care of each of these aspects so that you can live a balanced and harmonious life. All these aspects should therefore be aligned as illustrated in Figure 2.

© Regenesys Business School 20 Figure 2: Four intelligences

7.2.4 Perception

Perception is an impression that one has of a situation. Our worldviews or mental models influence our perceptions. Perceptions refer to the mental processes used to interpret, give meaning to and understand our internal and external environments (Swanepoel, Erasmus, and Schenk, 2009: 76).

People see things differently and therefore perceptions are subjective. Our behaviours and attitudes are greatly influenced by the perceptions we have of people or experiences. For example, some people might perceive women to be excellent managers because they have better emotional intelligence skills. However, others might feel that women managers are aggressive and will stop at nothing to get what they want. Managers therefore have to be extremely careful that their perceptions and the perceptions that their staff have of others do not cloud their opinion and result in the unfair treatment of other staff.

7.2.5 Personalities

Personality refers to “the way in which the biological, physical, social, psychological and moral traits of an individual are organised into a whole, and also to the relatively stable set of behavioural patterns which flow from the dynamic interaction between the individual and his or her environment in a particular situation” (Swanepoel, Erasmus and Schenk, 2009: 81). Personality therefore involves aspects of emotions, interests, attitudes, values, and mental behaviours that have been influenced by our genetics and environment (Swanepoel, Erasmus and Schenk, 2009: 80).

Personality does influence the work environment in that people with a particular personality will generally tend to find work that matches their personality. For example, a person who is very

Individual  

Emo-onal  

Spiritual  

Physical   Intellectual  

© Regenesys Business School 21 creative, talkative and enjoys interacting with people will generally prefer a career in marketing than working in a laboratory as a scientist. In certain jobs, personality can have an influence on the ability the person has to effectively perform her/ his job. This is particularly apparent of jobs that require extensive direct contact with others, such as sales, public relations work, etc. (Swanepoel, Erasmus and Schenk, 2009: 81). A person with a more extroverted personality will generally be more effective in a sales position than someone who is more introverted.

7.2.6 Cognitive Abilities

Cognitive abilities reflect how we understand and act in the world (Michelon, 2011). It is further described as abilities, skills, or processes which are brain-based and influences the way in which we carry out tasks, whether simple or complex. They influence problem-solving skills and the employees’ ability to pay attention. According to Michelon (2011), cognitive abilities include the following:

• Perception

• Attention

• Memory

• Motoric abilities (the ability to mobilise muscles and manipulate objects)

• Language skills

• Visual and spatial processing

• Flexibility

• Decision-making

• Working memory

• Emotional self-regulation

• Sequencing

Cognitive abilities can be improved and exercised. Watch the clip below. It is a simple cognitive exercise to show you how you could exercise your brain.

LearningRxcom. 2010, ‘Increase Brain Power – How to work out your brain and get smarter’ [video clip], http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aykuFhQIob4 (accessed 12 November 2013).

7.2.7 Attitude

An attitude refers to a positive or negative feeling a person has towards a particular person, issue, experience, or object (Erasmus, et al. 2007: 82). An attitude is a complex mental state involving beliefs, feelings, values, and dispositions to act in certain ways.

© Regenesys Business School 22 Employee attitudes are important to note for two reasons (Erasmus, et al. 2007: 83):

• Knowing whether an employee will respond positively or unfavourably can provide a basis for job design decisions.

• Positive features should be reinforced and negative factors improved or removed, where possible.

7.2.8 Develop Yourself

We all have freedom to choose between things in life. You have a choice to wake up in the morning, and feel good and positive about the day. Alternatively, you can also wake up and decide that you want to be miserable and then the whole day would be miserable. This has a lot to do with attitude. Having a positive attitude requires you to focus on self-development. This involves developing aspects of yourself that will make you a better person, such as: determining your sense of purpose, developing self-confidence, and acquiring the skills, attitudes and knowledge to become a better person. Developing yourself involves being able to self-reflect, where you harness your strengths and overcome your weaknesses.

The ability to develop yourself is critical for the workplace because it ensures that you are open to new ideas and growth. This process often requires us to rise above our egos, especially when someone criticises us, and to extract the valuable lessons that have been shared.

Recap Questions

1. Explain the four critical aspects of an individual in your own words.

2. Why is it critical for a manager to understand these four aspects of an individual when managing people?

3. Why are all these factors important for managers? Give work-related examples to explain your points.

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