ORGANISATIONAL

ATTITUDE

By ANOOP MOHAN

OVERVIEW NATURE & DIMENSIONS OF ATTITUDE TYPES OF ATTITUDE COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDE FORMATION OF ATTITUDE FUNCTIONS OF ATTITUDE MEASUREEMNT OF ATTITUDE SUMMARY REFERENCES

THE NATURE AND DIMENSIONSOF ATTITUDES

“Attitudes” The attitude is the evaluative statements or

judgments concerning objects, people, or events. More precisely attitudes can be defined as a persistent tendency to feel and behave in a particular way toward some object which may include events or individuals as well.

Characteristics of Attitudes They tend to persist unless something is done to

change them. They can fall anywhere along a continuum from very

favorable to very unfavorable. They are directed toward some object about which a

person has feelings and beliefs.

TYPES OF ATTITUDES

Job Satisfaction

A collection of positive and or negative feelings that an individual holds toward his or her job.

Job Involvement

Identifying with the job, actively participating in it, and considering performance important to self-worth.

Organizational Commitment

Identifying with a particular organization and its goals, and wishing to maintain membership in the organization.

THE NATURE AND DIMENSIONSOF ATTITUDES

Components of Attitudes

COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDES

Attitudes structure can be described in terms of three components.

Affective component: this involves a person’s feelings / emotions about the attitude object. For example: “I am scared of spiders”.

Behavioral (or cognitive) component: the way the attitude we have influences how we act or behave. For example: “I will avoid spiders and scream if I see one”.

Cognitive component: this involves a person’s belief / knowledge about an attitude object. For example: “I believe spiders are dangerous”.

This model is known as the ABC model of attitudes. The three components are usually linked. However, there is evidence that the cognitive and affective components of behavior do not always match with behavior.

They evaluative statements in an attitude are either

favorable or unfavorable. They reflect how one feel about something.

A person can have thousands of attitudes. But OB focuses on a limited number of job-related attitudes.These include job satisfactionjob involvement (the degree to which person identifies with his or her job and actively participates in it) And organizational commitment (an indicator of loyalty to, and, identification with the organization).

FORMATION OF ATTITUDE

How attitudes are formed? How do you develop your attitude? Essentially attitudes are the outward manifestation of your inner values and beliefs.

These develop over time. As you grow you watch the significant people around you behaving in a particular way; you are being told to cherish certain things over others and you learn from your teachers and peers and come to value certain thins over other, thus forming your value system. These in turn give rise to development of your attitudes.

Attitudes help predict work behavior. The following example might help to illustrate it. After introducing a particular policy, it is found from an attitude survey, that the workers are not too happy about it. During the subsequent week it is found that the attendance of the employees drops sharply from the previous standard. Here management may conclude that a negative attitude toward new work rules led to increased absenteeism.

Attitudes help people to adapt to their work environment. An understanding of attitudes is also important because attitudes help the employees to get adjusted to their work. If the management can successfully develop a- positive attitude among the employees, they will be better adjusted to their work.

PROCESS OF FORMATION OF ATTITUDE

A) Social Learning: it is acquiring attitudes from others. There are broadly three processes of acquiring attitudes through social learning: Classical Conditioning, instrumental Conditioning, and Modeling.

Classical Conditioning is a basic form of learning in which one stimulus regularly precedes another. It is learning based of association, that when first stimulus is represent, the second would follow. Prejudices and preferences are created through classical conditioning. Classical Conditioning can play a role in the development of attitudes.

Instrumental Conditioning is concerned with learning to express the “right” views. Instrumental Conditioning is created through rewarding a desirable behavior and discouraging an undesirable behavior. Thus a particular type of attitude is created towards a particular type of action through Instrumental Conditioning.

Modeling as a concept deals with individuals acquiring new behaviors through observing the actions of others. Individuals tend to do what others do, not what others say. Thus attitudes may be transmitted from one person to other or from one group to other, or from one generation to other.

B) Direct Experience: Attitudes are also formed through real life experience, which may be also called as direct experience or personal experience. Various studies suggest that strength of the attitudes acquired through direct experience is stronger than the strength of attitudes acquired indirectly. Attitudes acquired through direct experience are held more confidently and are more difficult to be subjected to change. If you hold strong attitude about an object, issue, or a person, and you want others to properly understand your stand, it is better to let others have direct experience with the attitude object.

FUNCTIONS OF ATTITUDE

According to Katz, attitudes serve four important functions from the viewpoint of organizational behavior. These are as follows.

The Adjustment Function. Attitudes often help people to adjust to their work environment. Well-treated employees tend to develop a positive attitude towards their job, management and the organization in general while berated and ill treated organizational members develop a negative attitude. In other words, attitudes help employees adjust to their environment and form a basis for future behavior.

Ego-Defensive Function. Attitudes help people to retain their dignity and self- image. When a young faculty member who is full of fresh ideas and enthusiasm, joins the organization, the older members might feel somewhat threatened by him. But they tend to disapprove his creative ideas as ‘crazy’ and ‘impractical’ and dismiss him altogether.

The Value-Expressive Function. Attitudes provide individuals with a basis for expressing their values. For example, a manager who values hard and sincere work will be more vocal against an employee who is having a very casual approach towards work.

The Knowledge Function. Attitudes provide standards and frames of reference that allow people to understand, and perceive the world around him. If one has a strong negative attitude towards the management, whatever the management does, even employee welfare programmes can be perceived as something ‘bad’ and as actually against them.

Measurement Of Attitude

A) LIKERT’S METHOD It uses 5 parameters. These points show the degree of agreement or

disagreement. It is considered better than Thurstone’s method. It is also called as summated rating scale.

THURSTSONE’S TECHNIQUE OF SCALING

Developed by THURSTSONE & CHAVE. This technique was based on 11

statements. Most favorable statement was put under

pile-1 while the most unfavorable under pile-11.

The scale is shown to the respondent. His attitude score is then calculated on the

average of what he has checked.

SUMMARY

Attitudes have traditionally been described as a process in which we logically calculate our feelings toward the attitude object based on an analysis of our beliefs. Thus, beliefs predict feelings, which predict behavioral intentions, which predict behavior. But this traditional perspective overlooks the role of emotions, which have an important influence on attitudes and behavior

Behavior sometimes influences our subsequent attitudes through cognitive dissonance. People also have personality traits which affect their emotions and attitudes.

REFERENCES

Attitudes Influence on Behavior. (n.d.). Retrieved from boundless - Better than your assigned text books: https://www.boundless.com/management/organizational-behavior/drivers-of-behavior/attitudes-influence-on-behavior/

Luthans, F. (2008). Organizational Behavior. Mc Graw Hill

International Edition.

ORGANISATION BEHAVIOUR – ATTITUDE. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://mbanotesravi.com/2012/11/27/organisation-behaviour-attitude/.

What Are Attitudes? (n.d.). Retrieved from Pearson Education : http://wps.pearsoned.ca/ca_ph_johns_ob_7/67/17350/4441642.cw/index.html

WORKPLACE EMOTIONS. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/dl/free/0070876940/355897/sample_ch04.pdf.

www.ftms.edu. (n.d.). Values, Attitudes, and Job Satisfaction. Retrieved from

Values, Attitudes, and Job Satisfaction: http://www.ftms.edu.my/pdf/Download/PostgraduateStudent/OB-lecture%202%20values,%20attitude%20and%20job%20satisfaction.pdf

McLeod, S. A. (2009). Attitudes and Behavior - Simply Psychology. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/attitudes.html

Hogg, M., & Vaughan, G. (2005). Social Psychology (4th edition). London: Prentice-Hall .