Personal Learning

Paper 2
Swathic Baby FT174091

Organizational Behavior

Recently I read a short story titled as The Egg. This story took my thought process to a
whole new level. My perceptions about life took a rollercoaster ride. I dwell on this new
concepts about life for a long time and soon realized I could never think about life in the old
way anymore. The crux of the story is a conversation between a man recently passed away
and God. God told the man, In this universe theres just you and I. The man asked God in a
confused tone, But then what about others on Earth.God answered, They are different
incarnations of you.
What if the story is true? What if there is only one human being? Then we all are different
incarnations of him at dissimilar time periods. I was once Hitler and once Mother Teresa. I
was once a thief and once a police. Oh my God, every time I humiliated someone, I was
humiliating myself. Every feeling, whatever it may be, experienced by anyone at any time,
was experienced by me. And all the emotions that have to be experienced by the next
generation have to be experienced by me. So whatever I do now, the repercussions on that
will be faced by me at a later time. So its better to do good things now, so that I can enjoy
its outcomes at a later stage as a different incarnation. The world will be much better if
different incarnations of me in different parts of this world were able to comprehend the
story in the same sense as I did.
According to Bratton, perception is a process that select, organize, and interpret information
to create meaning of everything around us. Everything around us are subject to
interpretation. Whatever interpretation prevails at a particular instant will be a function of
perception and not truth. - Friedrich Nietzsche. I consider interpretation of information is a
significant process. Our mind has an inclination to take things for granted without much
analysis. When Perception was taught in the class, I could relate to one incident when my
interpretation went wide of the mark. While I was working in Angel Blue aviation academy
for a short tenure before joining Infosys, I had the opportunity to shortlist schools from which
students are selected for air hostess training program. I did not shortlist a school which was
located very near our office. My reasoning for this was, as its a Government school the
students lack English proficiency. We conducted interviews in various schools that I had
shortlisted. But still few seats were there to be filled. Consequently HR manager decided to
conduct interview procedure in that particular Government school which I did not shortlist.
On the day of interview I realized my perception about the school was wrong. Five students
performed very well and they rightly deserved seats. But only two seats were remaining and
hence we had to eliminate three deserving candidates. The HR manager was furious as I did
not shortlist this school in the first place. I did not take the effort to check the track record of
this school. That school was performed decently well in last three years. I did jump to the

conclusion without validating my perceptions. In OB, I studied how perceptions determine

how we conduct over selves, handle challenges, formulate opinions, interpret information
and manage decisions. We all consider ourselves as fair judge of ones character, but often
our impressions will be proved flawed. I understood in an organizational context, we should
be more cognizant and observant. We should be reluctant to make assumptions or jump to
conclusions. Paul J. Brower mentioned in his paper The Power to see ourselves, mentioned
whatever we perceive is influenced by how we see ourselves. Further on attending
Organizational Behaviour sessions, I understood that the most imperative attributes a
perceiver must have is to know oneself which would in the end help one to see others
precisely.
Attitude is the one thing that makes me what I am. I believe an attitude which is very
deterministic in making even a small change can do wonders. I came across a story in which
a young man was picking up and throwing star fish to the ocean. The sun was up and the
tide was going out. The starfish would die if he did not throw it to ocean. But there were
millions of starfish all along the beach and he could not save them all. When someone
pointed out this to him he took one another starfish and threw it into ocean. And then said
he made a difference to the life of one starfish. Yes, attitude matters. Whatever situation we
are in, if we have a positive attitude to support others we could make a difference. Nelson
Mandela once said, Everything seems impossible until its done. After 9 more months
when I start working again I will be thrown into situations which will not be easily
manageable. Then attitude is what that will determine my success. One of the worlds
greatest football Player, Lionnel Messi once said, It took me 17 years and 114 days to
become an overnight success. Yes success cannot be accomplished overnight, it depends
on how hard we fight our challenges. In Malayalam there is one saying, Theeyil kurutherh
veyileth vadila , which means the ones who are born in the fire will not be withered when
exposed to sunlight. Yes, we Greatlakers are thrown into the rigor which is the fire from
which we the future managers are born and, so I am sure we will not be frustrated when
challenges are thrown to us. Thats the attitude I am trying to inculcate in me.
Motivation reflects one's actions, desires, and wants. In other words it is what that prompts
the person to act in a definite way, or at least develop an inclination for particular behavior.
During my organization behavior lectures I understood the various concepts of motivation
that plays an immense role in organizational context. Motivation can be classified into two
theories known as Intrinsic (internal) motivation and Extrinsic (external) motivation. Both
type of motivations are equally important to strive forward with diligence. Og Mandino the
author of The Greatest Salesman in the World said, Failure will never overtake me if my

motivation to succeed is resilient enough. I am highly motivated to achieve greater heights

and Great Lakes is grooming me for that in a big way.
In my OB classes I learnt Emotional intelligence as the capability to identify their own, and
other people's emotions, to discriminate between different feelings and to use emotional
information to guide thinking and behavior. KARMA-YOGA, a Leadership Program at Great
Lakes is an ideal platform for experiential learning of emotional intelligence. It is all about
inculcating passion, compassion, humility and transform you into an emotionally intelligent
leader. I think one of the important trait in business is to get along with others and have a
positive impact in their actions. Now I am extremely content as my Great Lakes life enabled
me to be a better human with refined perception, motivational attitude and emotional
intelligence.