There are key factors affecting employee behavior and their relationships, which includes two main categories. External forces are those found outside the organization, as well as in the work environment (inside the organization), including leadership, aspects of the organization itself, coworkers, and the outcomes of performance. Internal forces are those within the employee, including motivation, attitudes, and knowledge, skills and abilities.

The model of employee behavior assumes that external and internal forces combine to produce a given behavior, and that employee behavior has a direct relationship to the personal and organizational outcomes that are obtained. Although it may be possible in some cases to trace the cause of a behavior to one or two dominant forces, overall patterns of behavior can best be explained by the combination of many factors.

Although many aspects of individual performance have been identified, one vital distinction exists between those behaviors central to performing one’s job, and others affecting team or organization functioning. Many training efforts focus on the first group of behaviors, namely those relating to performing the critical tasks associated with a given job. But the second category of behaviors is also important. Behaviors in this category have been given different labels, such as organizational citizenship. A central aspect of such behaviors is that in the aggregate, they contribute to organizational effectiveness.

HRD efforts to instill a culture of innovation and initiative-taking would focus more on this second category.