Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

1. Interdisciplinary field: it draws on psychology, sociology, anthropology and political science to understand human behaviour in organizations.
2. Focus on people at three levels: it studies the behaviour of individuals, groups and the organization as a whole, with the aim of predicting and improving performance and satisfaction.

1. Perceiver factors: attitudes, motives, interests, experience and expectations.
2. Target factors: novelty, motion, sound, size, background and proximity of the thing perceived.
3. Situation factors: time, work setting and social setting in which perception occurs.
4. Personality and culture of the perceiver: values, beliefs and cultural background shape interpretation.

1. Highly competitive, achievement-oriented and ambitious, always striving for more in less time.
2. Impatient with a constant sense of time urgency; they work fast, find it hard to relax, and are prone to stress and hostility.

Organizational change is any alteration in an organization's structure, technology, people, strategy or processes that is planned or forced by internal or external forces, made so the organization can adapt to its environment and improve effectiveness and competitiveness.

Dysfunctional stress (distress) is excessive or prolonged stress that harms an individual's health, motivation and performance. It leads to anxiety, burnout, absenteeism, low job satisfaction and reduced productivity, in contrast to functional stress (eustress), which motivates a person.

Quality of work life (QWL) is the extent to which employees can satisfy their important personal needs through their work in the organization. It covers fair pay, safe and healthy conditions, job security, participation in decisions, growth opportunities and work-life balance, and aims to improve satisfaction and productivity.

Training need assessment (TNA) is the systematic process of identifying the gap between current employee performance, knowledge and skills and the required or desired level. It is done at the organizational, task and person levels, and it decides who needs what training so that training programmes are relevant and cost-effective.

1. Graphic rating scale
2. Ranking method
3. Management by objectives (MBO)
4. 360-degree feedback

(Others include the critical incident method, checklist method and behaviourally anchored rating scale.)

1. Valued: the reward must be something the employee actually wants.
2. Performance-linked: it must be tied clearly to performance or desired behaviour.
3. Timely: it should be given soon after the performance.
4. Fair and equitable: distribution must be seen as just and consistent among employees.

(Visibility and attainability are also important.)

Green HRM is the use of HR policies and practices to promote environmentally sustainable behaviour in the organization. It includes green recruitment, green training, environmental performance appraisal and green rewards, so that employees support resource saving, waste reduction and the organization's environmental goals.

The study of organizational behavior (OB) has become increasingly necessary because of the following reasons.

• Workforce diversity: employees differ in age, gender, culture and values, and managers must understand and manage these differences.
• Globalization: operating across borders requires cross-cultural understanding.
• Rapid technological change: new technology changes jobs, skills and relationships, and people must adapt.
• Improving people skills: OB helps managers motivate, lead, communicate and resolve conflict better.
• Improving productivity and quality: understanding behaviour raises performance, satisfaction and reduces turnover and absenteeism.
• Ethical and employee expectations: employees expect quality of work life, empowerment and fair treatment, and organizations face ethical challenges.
• Competitive and changing environment: managing change and uncertainty needs a sound understanding of human behaviour.

Learning is a relatively permanent change in behaviour resulting from experience. The main factors affecting it are:

1. Motivation: a learner with a strong drive and clear goals learns faster and retains more.
2. Ability and aptitude: intelligence, prior knowledge and skills determine how readily new things are learned.
3. Reinforcement and rewards: positive reinforcement strengthens desired behaviour, while punishment weakens it.
4. Practice and repetition: repeated practice improves retention and skill.
5. Feedback: knowledge of results guides correction and sustains effort.
6. Nature of the learning material and method: meaningful, well-organized and relevant content with suitable training methods helps learning.
7. Environment and the trainer: a supportive climate, good facilities and a capable instructor aid learning.
8. Personality and physical or mental state: attitudes, confidence, health and fatigue influence learning.

The Big Five model describes personality using five broad dimensions.

1. Extraversion: sociable, talkative, assertive and energetic; low scorers are reserved and quiet.
2. Agreeableness: good-natured, cooperative, trusting and caring; low scorers are cold and disagreeable.
3. Conscientiousness: responsible, dependable, organized and persistent; it is the best predictor of job performance across jobs.
4. Emotional stability (neuroticism reversed): calm, secure and confident; low scorers are nervous, anxious and insecure.
5. Openness to experience: imaginative, curious, artistic and open to new ideas; low scorers are conventional and comfortable with the familiar.

The model helps in selection, team building and understanding behaviour at work.

Job satisfaction is the positive feeling an employee has toward the job. Its influence on performance is as follows.

• Satisfaction leads to performance: satisfied employees are more motivated and committed, put in more effort, and show higher productivity and quality.
• Performance leads to satisfaction: good performance brings rewards and recognition, which in turn raise satisfaction, so the link runs both ways.
• Lower withdrawal behaviour: satisfied employees have less absenteeism and turnover, which reduces costs and keeps experience in the firm.
• Better citizenship and service: satisfied employees help colleagues and treat customers better, so customer satisfaction and loyalty rise.
• Organizational level: firms with more satisfied employees tend to be more effective overall.

The correlation is moderate, because factors such as ability and the work situation also affect performance, but satisfaction remains an important driver.

Organizational stressors are factors within the organization that cause employee stress. Main ones are:

• Task demands: job design, work overload or underload, time pressure, poor working conditions and job insecurity.
• Role demands: role conflict (incompatible expectations), role ambiguity (unclear duties) and role overload.
• Interpersonal demands: lack of social support, poor relations with colleagues or superiors, and conflict.
• Organizational structure: excessive rules, lack of participation in decisions and office politics.
• Organizational leadership: an autocratic, tense or unsupportive management style, and unfair treatment.
• Career and change related: lack of promotion or growth, and uncertainty from restructuring or change.

A job description (JD) is a written statement of the duties, responsibilities, reporting relationships and working conditions of a job. A sample JD for an IT Officer in a hotel follows.

Job title: IT Officer Department: Information Technology / Administration Reports to: General Manager (through Operations/Finance Manager) Location: Hotel premises, Kathmandu Job type: Full-time, shift basis as required by hotel operations

Job summary The IT Officer keeps the hotel's computer systems, network, property management system (PMS), point-of-sale (POS) and security technology running reliably, so that guest service and back-office work are not interrupted.

Duties and responsibilities

• Install, configure and maintain computers, printers, servers, Wi-Fi and LAN across front office, restaurant, housekeeping and accounts.
• Administer the PMS, POS, online booking channel manager and billing software; handle user accounts and access rights.
• Provide guest Wi-Fi and in-room technology support quickly; solve staff IT complaints.
• Take daily and weekly data backups; apply updates, antivirus and firewall protection; protect guest data.
• Maintain CCTV, key-card locks, telephone/PABX and digital signage.
• Maintain the hotel website and coordinate with vendors for online listings and social media tools.
• Keep an inventory of IT equipment and licences; recommend purchases and upgrades.
• Train staff in the use of systems and prepare periodic reports on system performance and incidents.

Job specification (qualifications)

• Bachelor's degree or diploma in Computer Science/IT (BIM or BCA preferred).
• 1-2 years of experience, preferably in hospitality.
• Knowledge of networking, hardware troubleshooting, databases and hotel software (PMS/POS).
• Good communication in Nepali and English; customer-service attitude; problem-solving, patience and ability to work under pressure.

Working conditions Mostly indoor office and server-room work, with on-call availability during weekends, festivals and peak seasons.

Salary and benefits: As per hotel scale, with allowances, provident fund, insurance and meals.

Recruitment is the process of searching for and attracting a pool of suitable candidates to apply for vacant positions. Selection is the process of choosing the most suitable candidate from that pool and offering the job.

In short, recruitment links employers with job seekers, while selection matches the right person to the right job.

Off-the-job training is given away from the actual work place and work pressure, so that trainees can concentrate on learning. It suits knowledge, conceptual and interpersonal skills, and is useful when many employees must be trained together. Selecting the method depends on the training objective, cost, number of trainees, trainee level and available time.

Main off-the-job methods

1. Lecture / classroom instruction: The trainer presents information in a class. It is economical for large groups and suits theory, but it is one-way, passive and gives little practice.
2. Seminars, conferences and workshops: Participants discuss topics with experts and peers. They encourage exchange of ideas and updating of knowledge, though benefits depend on participation and the cost can be high.
3. Case study: Trainees analyse a real or imagined business situation and propose decisions. It develops analytical and decision skills, but good cases are hard to prepare and real action is not practised.
4. Role playing: Trainees act out assigned roles in a situation such as handling a complaint or negotiating. It builds interpersonal and communication skills and gives feedback, but some trainees feel embarrassed and realism may be low.
5. Simulation / vestibule training: Replica equipment or computerised models in a separate area copy the real job (for example, aircraft simulators, mock front desk). It is safe and reduces errors and cost of damage, but equipment is expensive.
6. Business games: Teams make decisions in a simulated market and see results. They develop teamwork, strategic thinking and competition, but need careful design.
7. Sensitivity (T-group) training: Unstructured group discussion helps members understand their own behaviour and its effect on others. It improves self-awareness and group skills, though it may cause stress and conflict.
8. Programmed instruction and e-learning: Material is learnt step by step through books, CDs or online platforms at the learner's pace. It is flexible and consistent, but lacks personal interaction and needs self-discipline.
9. Behaviour modelling / video-based training: Trainees watch a model performing a skill, then practise and receive feedback.
10. Outbound and adventure training: Team activities outdoors build trust, leadership and cooperation.

Appraisal Off-the-job methods allow focused, risk-free learning with expert trainers and are good for conceptual and behavioural skills. Their weaknesses are higher cost, time away from work, and the problem of transferring learning to the real job. A good organisation therefore mixes methods, for example lecture plus case study for managers, and simulation for technical staff, and follows up with on-the-job coaching and evaluation of results.

Organisational behaviour (OB) studies how individuals, groups and structure affect behaviour at work. Because employee behaviour directly decides service quality, customer satisfaction and retention, managers face several new challenges.

1. Globalisation and workforce diversity: Employees now differ in culture, language, gender, age, religion and ability. Managers must avoid stereotyping, build inclusion, adapt communication and use diversity as a strength. In Nepal, foreign employment, multinational firms and mixed teams increase this challenge.
2. Improving quality and productivity: Customers expect better quality at lower cost. Managers must use TQM, process re-engineering and employee involvement, and motivate staff to continuously improve.
3. Improving customer service: Service employees' attitude and emotions shape customer experience. Managers must select, train and empower staff and manage emotional labour.
4. Managing technological change: Digitalisation, AI, automation and remote work change jobs and create fear of redundancy. Managers must manage resistance, reskill staff and keep human contact.
5. Empowerment and teamwork: Flatter structures need managers to share authority, coach rather than control, and manage self-managed and virtual teams.
6. Stimulating innovation and change: Organisations must adapt continuously. Managers must create a culture that accepts risk and learning, and deal with resistance to change.
7. Coping with temporariness and uncertainty: Economic shocks, pandemics and political instability need flexibility and managers able to handle stress and job insecurity.
8. Work-life balance: Mobile technology blurs home and work; employees demand flexible schedules and well-being. Managers must reduce burnout and support family responsibilities.
9. Improving ethical behaviour: Pressure for results can lead to unethical acts. Managers must set clear ethical standards, lead by example and protect whistle-blowers.
10. Declining employee loyalty and generational gaps: Younger employees change jobs frequently and want growth, meaning and fair rewards. Managers must design motivating jobs, career paths and engagement strategies to retain talent.
11. Negative workplace behaviour: Harassment, bullying and incivility must be prevented through policy and culture.

Evaluation These challenges are interlinked, and none can be solved by rules alone. Managers need strong people skills: communication, emotional intelligence, leadership and learning. Organisations that apply OB knowledge (motivation, leadership, team and culture concepts) will keep satisfied employees, who in turn deliver satisfied and loyal customers.

Attribution theory Attribution theory (Fritz Heider; developed by Harold Kelley) explains how people interpret the causes of their own and others' behaviour. Behaviour is attributed either to internal causes (ability, effort, personality, which are under the person's control) or to external causes (luck, task difficulty, other people, situation). Kelley says the judgement depends on three cues:

• Distinctiveness: does the person act the same way in other situations? (high distinctiveness suggests external cause)
• Consensus: do others act the same way in the same situation? (high consensus suggests external cause)
• Consistency: does the person act this way repeatedly over time? (high consistency suggests internal cause)

Applications in organisations

• Performance appraisal: A manager decides whether poor performance is due to lack of effort (needs discipline) or poor resources (needs support).
• Selection and promotion: Success of a candidate is judged as skill or luck.
• Motivation and training: Employees who attribute success to their effort stay motivated; those who attribute failure to uncontrollable factors may give up, so managers can train them to see controllable causes.
• Leader-member relations: Leaders' reaction to subordinates depends on their attributions of the cause of mistakes.
• Customer service: Attributing a customer's anger to the situation rather than personality helps staff respond calmly.
• Absenteeism and conflict handling: Understanding the reasons for absence or conflict leads to fair action.

Attribution errors and biases

1. Fundamental attribution error: Observers overestimate internal factors and underestimate situational factors when judging others. Example: a manager thinks a late employee is lazy, ignoring a transport strike.
2. Self-serving bias: People credit successes to themselves (internal) and failures to external factors. Example: a salesperson says target was met by hard work but missed because of a weak market.
3. Actor-observer difference: People explain their own behaviour by the situation but others' behaviour by personality.
4. Halo effect and stereotyping: A general impression or group label distorts the judgement of the cause.

Critical evaluation Strengths: it gives a systematic way to understand behaviour, helps managers make fairer appraisals, and supports training that builds a sense of control. Limitations: people are not always rational and consistent as Kelley assumes; information on the three cues is often missing; culture matters (collectivist societies such as Nepal may stress situational and group causes more than Western individualists); and the errors listed above bias judgement in practice, producing unfair evaluation, demotivation and conflict. Managers can reduce these errors by collecting facts, observing over time and in different situations, asking the employee's view, using objective measures, and training in perceptual awareness. Used with care, the theory improves decisions; used carelessly, its errors cause injustice.

A reward system is the combination of financial and non-financial rewards given to employees in return for their contribution. An effective system is fair, competitive, linked to performance, understood by employees and affordable.

Characteristics of an effective reward system

• Internal equity (fair pay across jobs) and external competitiveness.
• Link between performance and rewards.
• Mix of monetary (salary, bonus, allowances, incentives, commission, profit share, provident fund, insurance) and non-monetary rewards (recognition, promotion, training, flexible work, job enrichment).
• Transparency, timely payment and legal compliance.

Present practice in Nepalese organisations

• Banks, insurance companies, telecom and large private firms offer attractive pay packages, performance bonus (the Labour Act requires a 10 percent bonus from profit for enterprises), provident fund, gratuity, medical and accident insurance, festival allowance and staff loans.
• The Labour Act and minimum wage rules set a legal base; the government service uses a grade scale, allowances and pension.
• Many firms give recognition such as employee of the month, awards, training and foreign tours.

Critical judgement

Strengths

• Basic benefits and security are generally provided, especially in the financial sector and multinationals.
• Social security fund and legal protection are improving the minimum standard.
• Festival bonus and recognition fit Nepali culture and raise morale.

Weaknesses

• Many small and medium enterprises pay only the minimum or less, and often delay payment; informal workers lack benefits.
• Pay is often based on seniority, personal connection or favouritism instead of performance, harming motivation.
• Appraisal systems are weak, subjective and not linked to rewards; there are few team or long-term incentives.
• Wide pay gaps between sectors and between public and private organisations, with inflation reducing real value.
• Non-financial rewards such as career growth and participation are neglected, leading to high turnover and brain drain, as youth seek foreign jobs.
• Gender pay gaps and little communication of the reward policy persist.

Conclusion and suggestions The reward system in Nepalese organisations is only moderately effective: strong in banks and big corporations, poor in small firms and the public sector's performance link. To improve, organisations should adopt job evaluation and market surveys, objective performance appraisal linked to pay, a balanced mix of financial and non-financial rewards, transparent communication, timely payment and recognition programmes, and review the system regularly.

(a) Synopsis, major issues and problems

A researcher visited a restaurant in central Kathmandu and found two smoke-filled rooms where about 24 well-dressed customers, apparently employees of financial institutions, were smoking while eating. An employee explained that about two out of every three employees smoke, even newcomers and women who recently joined the "smoking club", for socialisation, refreshment, addiction or as business courtesy. The next day a different group showed the same behaviour. The restaurant manager said that cigarette sales cover all of the restaurant's fixed costs. Meanwhile, organisations spend heavily on healthy-employee initiatives such as paid leave, sick and casual leave and insurance.

Major issues and problems:

• High prevalence of smoking among the working population, even among young and female staff.
• Peer pressure and social norms that treat smoking as a business courtesy and networking tool.
• Gap between organisational wellness programmes and real employee behaviour; the programmes treat illness, not its causes.
• Passive smoking and weak enforcement of the tobacco control law in public places.
• Rising health costs, absenteeism and lower productivity for employers.
• Business dependence on tobacco sales, so the restaurant has no incentive to stop it.
• Stress and weak work-life balance as underlying reasons.

(b) Tracing the changing lifestyle of employees

• Smoking and social drinking as a group culture: Smoking spreads through imitation; joining the group needs the habit. Even new, female staff join, showing changing gender norms and peer pressure.
• Eating out and lunch/tiffin culture: Employees spend break time in restaurants instead of home-made food, reducing healthy eating.
• Work pressure and stress: Sales targets in finance cause tension that employees relieve by smoking ("refreshment").
• Networking through informal gatherings: Business relations are built in cafes and restaurants.
• Short job tenure: The employee changed jobs after three years of career and adapted quickly to the new group's habits, showing mobility and the strength of group influence.
• Higher income and dress consciousness: Well-dressed, financially capable employees can afford such habits, while health awareness does not follow income.
• Sedentary and less physical life: Office work with little exercise combines with the addiction.

Thus lifestyle is shifting from traditional and family-centred to a fast, stressed, socially driven pattern in which unhealthy habits are normalised.

(c) Initiatives suggested by the HR manager

1. Smoke-free workplace policy and designated rules: Ban smoking at work and during official events, with clear penalties and support.
2. Wellness programme: Health check-ups, counselling and a quit-smoking clinic with nicotine replacement support, coordinated with health institutions.
3. Incentives for healthy behaviour: Rewards such as extra premium discounts, insurance benefits, bonus or recognition for non-smokers and those who quit.
4. Stress management: Yoga, meditation, gym membership, sports clubs, flexible hours and employee assistance programmes (EAP), so that employees do not use cigarettes to relax.
5. Awareness training and role modelling: Seminars on health risks; top managers must not smoke in front of staff or at business meals.
6. Healthy canteen and social alternatives: Provide a nutritious cafeteria, tea/juice breaks and team-building activities as other places for socialising.
7. Change business etiquette: Hold client meetings in smoke-free venues.

Example: A bank introduces a "Healthy Bank" programme: smoke-free premises, a free medical camp every six months, a quit-smoking challenge with a cash prize and a one-month paid gym membership, and yoga sessions during the lunch hour. Within a year smoking declines, sick leave falls and productivity rises. This is justified because prevention costs less than treating illness and absenteeism, and shows that care about employees changes behaviour more than leave and insurance alone.

(d) Researcher's judgement using attribution errors

Attribution errors may colour the researcher's view of the young employees:

• Fundamental attribution error: He may attribute smoking to internal causes such as weak character, lack of discipline or irresponsibility, and ignore situational causes such as group pressure, job stress, business custom and addiction.
• Actor-observer difference: He judges them by their personality, whereas the employees themselves explain their behaviour by the situation ("business courtesy", "social hanging").
• Stereotyping and halo effect: From their dress and age he may generalise that all young financial-sector staff smoke and are careless about health. His sample was two small groups at one restaurant, which cannot represent the whole sector.
• Selective perception and consensus mistake: Seeing many smokers, he may assume everyone smokes; the employee's statement of two in three also means one in three does not.
• Self-serving or confirmation bias: Because the researcher already believed healthy-employee initiatives were spreading, he may read the scene as proof that organisations fail.

A fair judgement needs more information: the distinctiveness (do they smoke in all places?), consensus (do others do this?) and consistency (is it regular?) of the behaviour. Better evidence comes from a wider survey, observing at different times, and discussion with employees and HR managers.