Individual behavior is a term that is used to refer to the pattern of the behaviors in reference to the individual thought and emotions which are so unique to each individual and the way this person will interact with other people will positively or negatively influence the situation. Individual behavior is generally affected by several factors which are referred to as diversity and demographic characteristics. Since organizations are composed of individuals, then this implies that the individual’s behavior will ultimately affect the organizational behaviors. These factors which consequently affect the human behavior of each individual include the ethnicity, gender traits, age of the individual, social-economic status, affinity, religion, geographic location, personality traits, value, and attitude differences. At the same time, these factors affect the performance of any group where an individual is involved. The diversity factors make each individual to be recognized as being distinct from other individuals. This paper tries to bring out the effect of personality traits, ethnicity, geographic differences, and age on individual behaviors.
Ethnicity is one of the factors which influences the behavior of an individual. There are so many ethnic groups in the world. The ethnic groups constitute different races that have different cultural differences. The ethnic groups originate from different nations having different economic statuses. The ethnic groups usually form racial groups such as the Hispanic-Americans and the African-Americans. It has been found that the ethnicity of each individual will determine the performance of an individual and hence affect the performance of the organization (Pasa, S. 2000). The Africans and Asians have been found to be more torellant compared with their American counterparts.
But at the same time, the Africans have been found to be more temperament. Thus the ethnicity of the individuals affects the behavior. The ethnicity of an individual will affect the way one is behaving in response to the feeding habits for example many individuals who are Indians do not consume beef which is a taboo according to them. Consequently, the dressing codes of Arab women are affected by ethnicity. The ethnicity of an individual affects the cultural behaviors of individuals (Penner, L, 1997). Constantly these cultural differences may affect the organizational behavior of any organization. For example, some employees tend to be comfortable when they have more power distance from the supervisors such as in the Asian cultures, this may not fit in the western ethnic groups. Moreover among the Indians, the interaction between unmarried women and men is not recommended thus many of them are not courageous to face the social challenges.
Religion is another factor that affects the behavior of individuals. There are many religions in the world which include Christians, Hinduism, Muslims, Buddhism, and atheists. The social problems in the community vary from one religion to another. Activities such as drug abuse, wars, and murder are not recommended in the Christian religion, thus those who are Christians tend to avoid such violent crimes. Those who are churchgoers are mostly married and they do not engage in divorce after marriage and at the same time, they are more satisfied with their marriages. Religious beliefs make people develop personal moral values. At the same time, religion discourages bad practices such as drug addiction, suicide and divorce, teen pregnancies, abortions, and sexual permissiveness (Robbins, 2006).
The personality traits of an individual determine the behavior of an individual. Some of the personality traits include pessimism, optimism, and courage. These personality differences between the individuals affect their performance in any organization. For example, those individuals who are more courageous can be able to interact with the higher authorities of an organization. at the same time, such individuals are likely to be successful in life since they can venture in different opportunities without any fear. Optimistic individuals can be able to engage in many social activities compared with those who are pessimistic (Torlak, O, 2007). The courageous individuals can influence organizational behavior by making it have a positive move. For example, those individuals who engage in evil practices in society such as gossiping and idling practices are likely to involve in having a lot of conflicts with their neighbors most of the time. Consequently, the secretary who is friendly will always remember the name of the employees of the organization with which he or she is working. The personality traits are not mostly recognized as one of the factors affecting the behavior of an individual but they have a great impact.
The geographical differences of the individual habitats determine the behavior of individuals. The geographical location determines the environmental orientation of the individuals. The geographical conditions can be divided as being rural or urban and inner-city or suburban. Most of the individuals who reside in the rural areas are less acquitted with the advanced technologies which are mostly well established in the urban centers. These technologies have consequently affected the behaviors of the individuals, for example, those individuals who watch violent movies in the urban centers have developed bad morals such as fighting and drug abuse.
The confidence of individuals is affected by the geographical location, for example, the individuals who reside in the urban centers have a lot of exposure to the different situations and lifestyles hence increasing their participation in society. The dressing behaviors of the individuals are also affected by the geographic locations, for example, the women who reside in the city have been influenced to wear trousers compared to their rural counterparts who prefer wearing skirts. Hence the totality of human behavior is a result of many factors but most of them are environmentally oriented in nature.
References
Pasa, S. (2000),” Leadership influence in a high power distance and collectivist culture.” Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 21 (8).
Penner, L. A., Midili, A. R., & Kegelmeyer, J. (1997),” Beyond job attitudes: A personality and social psychology perspective on the causes of organizational citizenship behavior, Human Performance”, 10 (2).
Robbins, S. P. & Judge, T. A. (2006), Organizational Behavior, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Torlak, O. & Koc, U. (2007),” Materialistic attitude as an antecedent of organizational citizenship behavior, Management Research News, 30 (8).