(p. 7) All jobs require some level of expertise which is gained either through formal education or on the job training. There are still today many managers that believe that this is all you need in order to effectively do your job.
There is much more to the management of a company than hiring a group of technically proficient people. Robbins also states that "the ability to work with, understand, and motivate people, both individually and in groups, describes human skills". (p. 7) .
Any manger has to work through and with other people in order to achieve results; they must have good communication skills in order to achieve their goals while they attempt to motivate their team members. It must also be mentioned that in addition to good technical and human skills it is imperative that a manager have conceptual skills so that they can rationally process and interpret information.
In order to effectively manage an individual in today's workforce, the manager must understand the major psychological contributions to organizational behavior which are; values, attitudes, perception and learning. The diversity in the workplace today as it applies to ethnicity makes it paramount for the manager to understand how these contribution areas are perceived by each ethnic category.
Attitudes in the workplace include job satisfaction, job involvement and organizational commitment. According to Robbins "the most important factors conducive to job satisfaction are mentally challenging work, equitable pay and other rewards, supportive working conditions and supportive colleagues". (p. 67) .
"Perception is a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment." (Robbins, 2001, p. 70) There are also several personal characteristics that affect perception and they include attitudes, motives, interests, past experiences and expectations.
