How Hardwired Is Human Behaviour

LORENZO C. VILLAFLORES

HOW HARDWIRED IS HUMAN BEHAVIOR?

Individual human behavior even before the old generation until today is genetically predisposed or influenced by environmental factors such as personal experiences and culture. Hereditary traits causes some people to behave and respond differently from one another. Say a person who has high temperamental makes him react furiously to situations that would somehow put him or her to danger or uncomfortable zone. This trait of being high tempered is very difficult to remove from a person’s behavior since this is already incorporated in the genes from conception. A person who has a high and fast learning ability could respond immediately to situations and instructions, hence attainment of the goal is made easy. For example, in our present situation at the workplace, during briefing and assemble, instructions given are the same within the group but, other people do otherwise. This is because the ability of one person to catch up the instructions vary from each other clearly caused by hereditary influence. People coming from intelligent clans usually exhibit the same character from the previous generations. We also encountered some people in our workplace today that despite the strong motivation given such as incentives and rewards to attain high quality performance and productivity, still they do not behave as expected, they tend to come late, and always absent from their work. We also observed in our people from the workplace that some have hereditary illness that affects so much in the performance of their job. As quoted “you can take the person out of the stone age but you can’t take the stone age out the person”. This means that a person behaves temporarily based on his present environment, condition and situation but the inner traits are still there and very difficult or can’t be removed. Responses and actions of a person are very temporary depending on the present condition he or she is within.

On the other side, environmental influence affects so much on the behavior of an individual. Unlike hereditary influence, people behave differently because of their unique thinking, feelings, emotions and influenced by present and past experiences. In Savannah desert for example, life was never easy and full of uncertainty, survival was the name of the game in order to exist, that kind of environment made the individual’s action an instinct rather than logic. When people are in danger, their decision is not based on logical thinking but react as fast as they could to avoid harm and probably loss of life. People who are threatened by extreme danger tend to become risk preferring while those people who feel safe and secure tend to become risk averse, they don’t gamble. Risk preferring individual might be successful in business endeavor but these are the people with high risk in their decision making because they respond and reacts without proper evaluation of the situation. On the other hand, risk averse persons are those whose decision are properly evaluated aided by some techniques such decision tree diagram and worksheets. These people don’t like to take too much risk. Temporary behaviors as influenced by environment can be seen in our present situation or in the actual performance of the workplace. Absenteeism for example in the workplace, during payday, workers tend to be absent the following day because they were drank and hangover. These workers are highly influenced from their environment with a lot of videoke machines, liquors and others.

With the hardwired individual behavior, leaders and managers of an organization find it difficult to neutralize and manage these different behaviors. However, no one is exempted from this hardwired behavior because leaders are also born not made, they also possess the ability and the passion to lead and leaders have their own unique qualities. As leaders, they should have the ability to be highly flexible managing people, should understand that people resist change except when they are not satisfied or when their employment for example is at stake, should realize that people will act and think creatively when given recognition and support. In handling gossips for example, managers should always considers that gossips in the workplace are detrimental but these are important informations which are sometimes helpful in the attainment of goals for as long as it is performed in an environment of trust and openness without malice. Gossips are also considered one important information to keep the managers updated on all aspects of the operation. But this information should be thoroughly screened and evaluated to ensure its validity. Qualities of a good leader and manager are very crucial and important in the attainment of goals of the organization. Professionalism in the work values and attitudes are the key factors of a manager to enable him to become effective in the management of people’s behavior. Professionalism per se does not imply educational attainment but rather it is being practiced with sincerity. For example, the story of the bread man and the lawyer, the bread man did not finished elementary, but he was dedicated to deliver bread everyday to all his customers regardless of weather condition at 6 in the morning. The bread man was able to deliver his services everyday and promptly. While the lawyer on the other hand, one day he had an appointment with his client to meet at 3 in the afternoon, the lawyer did not come on time instead he was late, he reasoned out that he was late because he had a party last night and was not able to wake up early. If we are to decide, who is more professional between the bread man and the lawyer? Of course, the bread man. These attitudes are all the results of our hardwired behaviors, influenced either by genetics or outside environment. “ I myself is not an exemption, I also have a hardwired behavior which can’t be detached”.