Chapter Six Attitudes Can Shape Your Life. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights...

Chapter Six

Attitudes Can Shape Your Life

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 6 | 2

Chapter Preview: Attitudes CanShape Your Life

• Impact of attitudes on success of individuals and organizations

• Ways people acquire attitudes

• Attitudes that employers value

• How to change your own or others' attitudes

• How to help others change attitudes

• Organizational efforts to develop positive employee attitudes


What Is an Attitude?

• A thought, accepted as true, that leads one to think, feel or act positively or negatively toward a person, idea or event

• An emotional readiness to behave in a particular way

• You learn them and can change them


Aspects of Attitudes

• Values serve as a foundation for attitudes

• Attitudes motivate to respond

• You have freedom to choose your response


Figure 6.1 - The Relationship Among Values, Attitudes, and Behaviors


Root Causes of Negative Attitudes

• Low self-esteem

• Unresolved conflict

• Work that is not satisfying

• Fear or uncertainly


Total Person Insight

The biggest career challenges these days are perceptual…psychological. Not technical. Not even skills-based. The major adjustments we need to make are mental. For example, how we frame things at work. The way we process events in our head. Our attitudes and outlook about how our jobs and organizations now have to operate.

Price Pritchett

Chairman, EPS Solutions


The Powerful Influence of Attitudes

• People with positive attitudes are more likely to achieve personal and professional goals

• People with negative attitudes find it difficult to achieve contentment or satisfaction in life

• Attitudes are a powerful force in any organization


The Age of Information Mandates Attitude Changes

• As the information age unfolded, advanced technology was not enough to retain clients and customers

• Competitive advantage is superior customer service provided by well-trained employees with effective interpersonal skills

• Empathizers have the ability to imagine and feel themselves in someone else’s position

• Leadership is about empathy


How Attitudes Are Formed

• Socialization

• Peer and reference groups

• Rewards and punishment

• Role model identification

• Cultural influences


Socialization

• Process through which people are integrated into a society by exposure to actions and opinions of others

• Family is important in early years


Peer Groups

• People one’s own age

• Have powerful influence on attitude during adolescence possibly stronger than parents, teachers or other adults

Reference Groups• Several people who share a common

interest and tend to influence behavior

• Point of comparison and source of information


Rewards and Punishment

• Attitudes developed to minimize punishment and maximize rewards

• Organizations use these to encourage or discourage certain attitudes


Role Model Identification

• A role model is someone that you admire or are likely to emulate

• Can exert considerable influence

• Supervisors are important

• Organizations should pay more attention to what supervisors do than what they say!


Cultural Influences

• Total of knowledge, beliefs, values, and customs that we use to adapt to our environment

• People define themselves differently in different cultures

• Includes both tangible and intangible

• Organizations should strive to create positive corporate culture


Attitudes Valued by Employers

• Attitudes sought by employers– Self-motivation– Openness to change– Team spirit– Health consciousness– Appreciation of coworker diversity– Honesty


How to Change Attitudes

• Attitudes are hard to change

• Knowing how to change attitudes in yourself and others can be essential to effective interpersonal relations


Changing Your Own Attitude

• Attitudes that help achieve positive results:– Choose happiness– Embrace optimism– Think for yourself– Keep an open mind


Total Person Insight

We don’t need more money, we don’t need greater success or fame, we don’t need the perfect body or even the perfect mate—right now, at this very moment, we have a mind, which is all the basic equipment we need to achieve complete happiness.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler

Coauthors, The Art of Happiness


Choose Happiness

• Happiness is the state of mind that permits us to live life enthusiastically

• Happy people Unhappy people– more sociable – self-focused– flexible – socially

withdrawn– creative – antagonistic

• Energy builder and key to overcoming adversity and reaching goals

• Perceptions of situation are critical


Embrace Optimism

• Optimistic thoughts give rise to good moods, which help develop positive attitudes

• Optimists are more likely to bounce back after a disappointment

• Focus on success rather than failure

• Avoid pessimism which leads to cynicism


Think for Yourself

• Need for acceptance by group can lead to “group think”

• Two groups in the workplace– Personal relationships– Professional relationship

• Overlap can cause confusion

• Evaluate situations based on your values!


Keep an Open Mind

• Our attitudes may persist in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary

• Learn to consider other points of view and gently question your beliefs

• Expose yourself to experiences and information beyond what you have been socialized to believe


Helping Others Change Attitudes

• Change the conditions that precede the behavior

• Change the consequences that follow when the person exhibits the behavior


Figure 6.2 - Serenity Prayer ,Source: “Serenity Prayer”by Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr.


Follow This Simple Rule

• When experience is followed by positive consequence, person is likely to repeat behavior

• When followed by a negative consequence, behavior should soon stop

• An attitude is someone’s thought process


Organizational Efforts

• Organizations realize employees’ attitudes and performance cannot be separated

• Salaries and benefits traditional rewards• Today, workers want

– Respect– Interesting work– Recognition– Skill development

• Workers expect competitive pay


Organizational Efforts

• Maintenance of positive attitudes helps productivity

• Provide benefits that workers consider important

• Find creative ways to influence worker attitudes

• “Choose one’s attitude”


Chapter Review

• Impact of attitudes on success of individuals and organizations– Attitudes are a powerful force in

organizations– Attitudes and performance cannot be

separated– Positive attitudes toward work and

coworkers improves teamwork and productivity

– A caring attitude leads to a high degree of customer loyalty and repeat business

– A serious safety attitude decreases accidents


Chapter Review

• Ways people acquire attitudes– People acquire attitudes through

• Early childhood socialization • Peer and reference groups• Rewards and punishments• Role model identification• Cultural influences

– Attitudes are not set in stone – You have power to choose attitudes


Chapter Review

• Attitudes that employers value– Employers hire and attempt to retain

employees who• Have interpersonal skills• Are self motivated• Accept change• Are team players• Are concerned about health• Value coworkers diversity• Are honest


Chapter Review

• How to change attitudes – You can decide to change your attitude by

• Choosing to be happy• Becoming an optimist• Thinking for yourself• Keeping an open mind

– Learn how to help others change their attitudes


Chapter Review

• How to help others change attitudes– Alter the conditions that exist before the

potential negative behaviors • Provide effective training

– Alter the consequences following a person’s behavior• Provide positive consequences


Chapter Review

• Organizational efforts to develop positive employee attitudes– Money alone is not enough– Enhance the quality of work life

Chapter Six Attitudes Can Shape Your Life. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights...

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