Psychology of management

 
 
 

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3. Psychological laws of leader’s management 
Psychology of management as a branch of practical psychology also studies the laws of 
managerial activity. The laws of psychology of management are manifested in the interaction in 
interpersonal relations and in group communication and like any other laws they act regardless 
of our awareness of their existence. The main laws of psychology of management and of 
managerial activity as a whole are the following: 
1. The law of response uncertainty. 
2. The law of inadequacy of mutual perception. 
3. The law of self-estimation inadequacy. 
4. The law of information distortion. 
5. The law of self-preservation. 
6. The law of compensation. 
Let’s view each of them. 
The law of response uncertainty
is called the law of dependency of internal influences 
on earlier psychological conditions. It is based on two psychological phenomena – the apparent 
and on the presence of mind stereotypes. The apparent is the dependence of perception on 
previous experience. Mind stereotypes are stable opinions, estimations, judgements which 
incorrectly and incompletely reflect the reality and influence behavior, creating obvious or 
hidden communication barriers. 
This law states that different people at different time can react differently to the same 
influences. In response to rudeness one person will act rudely, another will make no objections, 
and the third will try to appease the rude fellow. “We are unable to foresee how our word will be 
responded,” – these Tiutchev’s words reflect the essence of the law of response uncertainty. An 
executive should bear in mind another manifestation of this law: even the same person at 
different times can react quite differently to the same influence. A number of inner psychological 
factors (mood, emotional state, etc.) seriously affect, and sometimes determine a person’s 
reactions in specific situations. And it is impossible to take into consideration all of these factors. 
You shouldn’t suppose that it is possible at all times and at all places to predict a person’s 
reaction (response) to some action of yours. The response cannot be foreseen – this is 
indisputable law of psychology of management. 
For instance, an executive gives an order and hopes that it will be carried out (expects a 
certain response). Sometimes this is exactly what happens, but sometimes not. Let us imagine 

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that the order has been carried out incorrectly, wrong, or hasn’t been carried out at all. The 
executive finds out the reasons of not fulfilling the order from the employee, and at the same 
time analyzes the situation. In this situation both of them under the influence of apperception and 
stereotypes of mind may have their own, sometimes diametrically opposite explanations of the 
given fact. An executive may consider his/her employee an idler or a saboteur. An employee, in 
his/her turn, may find dozens of “objective” circumstances to justify him/herself. Both the 
executive and the employee are making a mistake: the former because of having selected a 
wrong way of interaction with the employee, while the latter – because of having chosen a wrong 
way of defense.