IGNOU : M.COM : MCO 1 : UNIT 5 : Q - 2. Describe the factors which influence employee’s behaviour and their performance.

 Ans. There are several factors which forces the employees to perform their jobs. Steven and Mary Annvon identified four factors i.e., ability, role perceptions, motivation and situational contingencies; which influence employee’s voluntary behaviour and their performance. Let us discuss them in detail :

 Ability: This refers to capability of a person to perform the job. It involves aptitudes and skills required for completion of the work. For example, when you appear in the competitive examination, you are tested for your aptitude, skill, comprehension, knowledge, etc. These tests are meant for assessing your capability which is required for the completion of the Job. Thus, the ability of the person must match the performance requirement of the Job. Therefore as a learner you must keep on trying to develop your ability for meeting the challenges of the changing environment.

Role Perceptions: Every task involves appropriate behaviour for successful completion. This appropriate behaviour is termed as role perception. The identification and learning of this appropriate behaviour is a great challenge for the employees. This means that what are you expected to do in a given situation? You must understand them in such a way that your behaviour satisfies the requirement of the situations. For example, communication strategy and convincing power of salespersons may result in successful completion of sale. This appropriate behaviour of sales persons is known as role perceptions. In order to introduce role perceptions, the manager requires defining the jobs clearly and providing adequate training and appropriate feedback to the employees. The proper understanding of role perceptions certainly facilitates the performance of the job.

Motivation: This is the most important aspect of performance. Robbins has defined motivation as the process that account for an individual’s intensity, direction and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal. Here, intensity refers to how much effort a person makes to perform the job. Moreover, the effort must be made in a proper direction. If the effort produces desired result, the person tends to sustain his behaviour. The manager requires identifying the reinforcing factors which encourages the employees to make strong effort for the completion of the job and sustain them over a longer period. Thus the effort in a right direction and desired result motivate the employees to perform well.

Situational Contingencies: Every Job is performed in a particular situation. The situation may be favourable or unfavourable for the completion of the task. If the manager provides favourable environmental condition, the employee may perform better. Favourable working condition, well structured task, better resources, good marketing strategy, etc. may facilitate the performance of the employees.

 

These factors are important determinants of performance. If they are favourable, the action of the persons leads to success. Moreover, except the inherent capabilities, other factors may be learnt. Learning facilitates the performance. Therefore, the managers must explore the ways and means of making the employees learn. Learning theories may provide good insight in this direction.