Behaviour: Intelligence, Leadership, Communication and Stress at Work

What the official syllabus says

Main Examination, Paper III (General Studies III), Unit III - Behavior and Law, Part A - Behavior:

• Intelligence: Cognitive intelligence, Social and Emotional intelligence, Cultural intelligence, Appreciative intelligence and Spiritual intelligence; Their importance and inculcation at workplace.
• Leadership Profiles: Theories, Types and Styles; Their Challenges and Effectiveness at workplace. Leaders of tomorrow; Their opportunities and challenges.
• Communication at workplace: Models and Networks of communication and their effectiveness; Barriers and Distortions of communication; Electronic & Destructive communication - Cyberslacking, Cyberloafing, Moonlighting etc.
• Flourishing at work - Virtues & Strengths, RIASEC Model and Person-Fit-Environment.
• Burnout, Stress and Coping at workplace: Occupational Stress; Sources & Coping styles; Personality and stress; Gender issues at workplace.

Topics in detail

Kinds of intelligence

• Cognitive intelligence: Spearman's general factor, Thurstone's primary mental abilities, Gardner's multiple intelligences, Sternberg's triarchic theory; IQ and its limits
• Social intelligence: understanding and managing people (E. L. Thorndike's idea)
• Emotional intelligence: Salovey and Mayer's model; Goleman's components (self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, social skills)
• Cultural intelligence: working across cultures; its parts (metacognitive, cognitive, motivational, behavioural)
• Appreciative intelligence: seeing potential in the present situation; reframing, appreciating the positive, seeing how the future unfolds from the present
• Spiritual intelligence: meaning, values and purpose in work
• Importance at the workplace and ways to develop each: training, feedback, mentoring, exposure, reflection

Leadership profiles

• Theories: trait, behavioural (Ohio State and Michigan studies, the managerial grid), contingency (Fiedler), path-goal, situational (Hersey and Blanchard)
• Transactional and transformational leadership; charismatic, servant and authentic leadership
• Styles: autocratic, democratic, laissez-faire; directive, participative, delegative
• Challenges: resistance to change, conflicts, ethical pressures, hierarchy in government
• Effectiveness: matching style to followers and situation; measures of effective leadership
• Leaders of tomorrow: digital and data skills, managing diverse and hybrid teams, uncertainty and rapid change, sustainability and ethics; opportunities and challenges

Communication at the workplace

• Models: linear (sender, message, channel, receiver), interactive (with feedback), transactional
• Networks: chain, Y, wheel, circle, all-channel; their speed, accuracy and effect on morale
• Formal and informal communication; the grapevine
• Barriers: semantic, physical, psychological, organisational, cultural, technological
• Distortions: filtering, selective perception, stereotyping, information overload, rumour
• Electronic communication: email, messaging, video meetings; etiquette and records
• Destructive communication: incivility, gossip, cyberbullying
• Cyberslacking and cyberloafing: personal use of the internet during work hours; causes, costs and remedies
• Moonlighting: holding a second job; conflict of interest and conduct rules for public servants

Flourishing at work

• Positive psychology at work: Seligman's PERMA (positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, accomplishment); flow; work engagement
• Virtues and character strengths: the six virtues (wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, transcendence) and 24 strengths of the Peterson-Seligman classification
• RIASEC model (John Holland): realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising and conventional types; matching people to jobs
• Person-environment fit: person-job, person-organisation, person-group and person-supervisor fit; effects on satisfaction and performance

Burnout, stress and coping

• Occupational stress: eustress and distress; Selye's general adaptation syndrome (alarm, resistance, exhaustion)
• Sources: workload, role ambiguity and role conflict, deadlines, poor relations, organisational change, work-life imbalance
• Personality and stress: Type A and Type B behaviour, hardiness, locus of control, neuroticism
• Coping styles: problem-focused and emotion-focused coping (Lazarus and Folkman); social support; organisational measures such as employee assistance programmes
• Burnout: emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, reduced sense of accomplishment (Maslach); recognised by the WHO as an occupational phenomenon
• Gender issues: glass ceiling, pay gap, double burden of work and home, maternity benefits, sexual harassment and the POSH Act (see Law: Women, Children and Senior Citizens)

Overlaps

Leadership, communication and morale also appear in Public Administration: Theories and Principles; motivation, perception and group dynamics in Paper I's Organizational behaviour (General Studies I); values at work in Paper II's Administrative Ethics (General Studies II).