Components of Work Attitudes: Allprt 1935 described these

components of attitude:

Components of Attitude :
( a ) Cognitive component:
Cognitive component of attitude is
related to value statement. It
consists of belief, ideas, values and
other information that an individual
may possess or has faith in. Quality
of working hard is a value statement
or faith that a manager may have.
( b ) Affective component: Affective component of attitude is related to
persons feelings about another person, which may be positive, negative or
neutral. I do not like Maya because she is not hard working, or I like Mina
because she is hard working. It is an expression of feelings about a person,
object or a situation.
( c ) Behavioral component: Behavioral component of attitude is related
to impact of various situations or objects that lead to individuals behaviour
based on cognitive and affective components. I do not like Maya because she
is not hard working is an affective component, I therefore would like to
disassociate myself with her, is a behavioural component and therefore I
would avoid Maya. Development of favourable attitude, and good
relationship with Mina is but natural. Individuals favourable behaviour is an

outcome of the fact that Mina is hardworking. Cognitive and affective

components are bases for such behaviour. Former two components cannot
be seen, only the behaviour component can be seen. Former is important
because it is a base for formation of attitude. These components are
explained in Figure below:

On the other hand:Attitudes

are evaluative statementseither

favorable or unfavorableabout objects, people, or events. They reflect
how we feel about something. When I say I like my job, I am expressing my
attitude about work.
Attitudes are complex. If you ask people about their
attitude toward religion, Lady Gaga, or the organization they work for, you
may get a simple response, but the reasons underlying it are probably
complicated. In order to fully understand attitudes, we must consider their
fundamental properties or components.
What Are the Main Components of Attitudes? Typically, researchers
have assumed that attitudes have three components: cognition, affect, and
behavior. 1 Lets look at each. The statement My pay is low is the
cognitive component
of an attitude a description of or belief in the way
things are. It sets the stage for the more critical part of an attitudeits
affective component
. Affect is the emotional or feeling segment of an
attitude and is reflected in the statement I am angry over how little Im
paid. Finally, affect can lead to behavioral outcomes. The behavioral
component
of an attitude describes an intention to behave in a certain
way toward someone or somethingto continue the example, Im going to
look for another job that pays better.
Viewing attitudes as having three componentscognition, affect, and
behavioris helpful in understanding their complexity and the potential
relationship between attitudes and behavior. Keep in mind that these
components are closely related, and cognition and affect in particular are
inseparable in many ways. For example, imagine you realized that someone
has just treated you unfairly. Arent you likely to have feelings about that,
occurring virtually instantaneously with the realization? Thus, cognition and
affect are intertwined.

Exhibit 3-1 illustrates how the three components of an attitude are

related. In this example, an employee didnt get a promotion he thought he
deserved; a co-worker got it instead. The employees attitude toward his
supervisor is illustrated as follows: the employee thought he deserved the
promotion (cognition), he strongly dislikes his supervisor (affect), and he is
looking for another job (behavior). As weve noted, although we often think
cognition causes affect, which then causes behavior, in reality these
components are often difficult to separate. In organizations, attitudes are
important for their behavioral component. If workers believe, for example,
that supervisors, auditors, bosses, and time-andmotion engineers are all in
conspiracy to make employees work harder for the same or less money, it
makes sense to try to understand how these attitudes formed, how they
relate to actual job behavior, and how they might be changed.
Figure 1.10 shows attitudes as accompanied by antecedents and results.94
The beliefs and values antecedents in the figure form the cognitive
component of an attitude: the beliefs, opinions, knowledge, or information a
person possesses.

1. Beliefs Beliefs represent ideas about someone or something and the

conclusions people draw about them.
2.The affective component of an attitude is a specific feeling regarding
the
personal impact of the antecedents. This is the actual attitude
itself, such as I dont like my job.

3. The behavioral
component is an
intention to behave in
a certain way based
on your specific
feelings or attitudes.
This intended
behavior is a result of
an attitude and is a
predisposition to act
in a specific way, such
as Im going to quit
my job.
Attitudes consist of
three major
components: 1.an evaluative component,
2. a cognitive component, and
3. a behavioral component.
The Evaluative Component. The most obvious component of attitudes is
how we feel about something. This aspect of an attitude, its evaluative
component, refers to our liking or disliking of any particular targetbe it a
person, thing, or event (what might be called the attitude object, the focus of
the attitude). You may, for example, feel positively or negatively toward your
boss, your co-workers, or the company logo. In fact, anything can be an
attitude object.
Our definition refers to "relatively stable" feelings toward attitude objects.
Temporary shifts in feelings about something may not reflect changes in
attitudes. Rather, attitudes are more enduring. So, for example, although
people sometimes change their membership in political parties, their belief
about a specific issue that may be endorsed by a particular political party is
generally consistent over time. Hence, the attitude toward it is stable.
The Cognitive Component. Attitudes involve more than feelings, however,
they also involve knowledgethings you know about an attitude object. For
example, you might believe that your company just lost an important
contract, or that a co-worker doesn't really know what he is doing. These
beliefs may be completely accurate or inaccurate, but they still comprise the
personal knowledge that contributes to your attitude. Such beliefs are
referred to as the cognitive component of attitudes.

The Behavioral Component. Naturally, what you believe about something

and the way you feel about it will influence the way you are predisposed to
behave. For example, if you believe that your boss is a crook, and you dislike
this, you may be inclined to report him to the authorities and to begin
looking for a new job. What we are saying is that attitudes have a behavioral
componenta predisposition to act in a certain way. It is very important to
caution that a predisposition may not perfectly predict one's behavior. In our
example, although you may dislike your unethical boss, you might not take
action against him for fear of retaliation, and you might not take a new
position if a better one isn't available. Hence, your intention to act a certain
way may or may not dictate how you actually will behave. Indeed, as we
shall see, attitudes are not perfect predictors of behavior.

ATTITUDE AND OB:

Employee attitudes are important to management because of their influence
on behaviour, attitudinal influences or perception, job-satisfaction, jobinvolvement, and organizational commitment.
Attitudinal Influences on Behavior:Attitudes affect employee
behavior. However, a direct relationship between attitudes and actions
is not agreeable to some, since attitude does not lead to any specific
action. For e.g., a manager may dislike certain people in minority
groups, but he may nevertheless treat them fairly and pleasantly in his
office. This inconsistency occurs because the manager does not allow
his attitude to interfere with his professional judgement. However,
these attitudes may manifest themselves in other behavior. For e.g.,
the manager may treat the minority workers fairly on the job but not
invite them to his sons or daughters marriage. Although the influence
of attitudes on behavior is not clearly discernible, two theories, i.e.
cognitive dissonance and self fulfilling prophecy, helps us understand
the direction of attitudinal influences.
Cognitive dissonance will be more intense when any of the following
conditions exist:
i.
ii.
iii.

The decision is an important one psychologically or financially.

There are a number of foregone alternatives.
The foregone alternatives have many positive features. Typically an
individual will try to minimize the dissonance by using any of the four
methods.

The methods are:

i.

The individual seeks information that confirms the wisdom of the

decision.

ii.
iii.
iv.

The individual selectively perceives (distorts) information in a way

that supports the decision.
The person adopts a less favarable attitude towards the foregone
alternatives.
The person down plays the importance of any negative aspects of
the choice and magnifies the positive elements.

The self fulfilling prophecy is the process by which we try to convert our
attitudes, beliefs and expectations into reality. If we predict that something is
going to happen, we will try very hard to make it happen. For e.g., if we feel
that we are competent, we will undertake challenging tasks. Consequently,
we gain experience and skills that make us more competent, so that we
accomplish even more. However, if we have a negative attitude towards
ourselves, we will not provide ourselves with the chance to become
competent.
Attitudinal Influence on Perception:
Perceptual outcomes are derived from past experiences and perceptions, but
they also influence the way we perceive stimuli such sayings as Beauty is
altogether in the eye of the beholder and one persons trash is another
persons treasure emphasize the importance of attitudes in perceiving the
world around us. If our attitudes are positive, things will look brighter to us
than if they are negative.
#############################Types of attitudes:
OB focuses our attention on a very limited number of job-related attitudes.
Most of the research in OB has been concerned with three attitudes: job
satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment.

Job satisfaction

Definition: It is an individuals general attitude toward his/her job.

A high level of job satisfaction equals positive attitudes toward the job and
vice versa.
Employee attitudes and job satisfaction are frequently used
interchangeably.
Often when people speak of employee attitudes they mean employee
job satisfaction.

Job involvement

 A workable definition: the measure of the degree to which a person

identifies psychologically with his/her job and considers his/her perceived
performance level important to self-worth.
High levels of job involvement is thought to result in fewer absences and
lower resignation rates.
Job involvement more consistently predicts turnover than absenteeism
Organizational commitment
Definition: A state in which an employee identifies with a particular
organization and its goals, and wishes to maintain membership in the
organization.
Research evidence demonstrates negative relationships between
organizational commitment and both absenteeism and turnover.
An individuals level of organizational commitment is a better indicator of
turnover than the far more frequently used job satisfaction predictor because
it is a more global and enduring response to the organization as a whole than
is job satisfaction.
This evidence, most of which is more than two decades old, needs to be
qualified to reflect the changing employee-employer relationship.
Organizational commitment is probably less important as a job-related
attitude than it once was because the unwritten loyalty contract in place
when this research was conducted is no longer in place.
In its place, we might expect occupational commitment to become a
more relevant variable because it better reflects todays fluid workforce.
Individuals possess hundreds of attitudes. But in organizational behaviour,
we are concerned with work related attitudes which are mainly three:

Job Satisfaction- Job satisfaction refers

to ones feeling towards ones job. An individual having satisfaction is
said to posses positive attitude towards the job. Conversely, a
dissatisfied person will have negative attitude towards his orher job.
When people speak of employee attitudes they invariably refer to job
satisfaction. In fact, the two terms are used interchangeably, though
subtle difference does exist between the two.

Job Involvement -Job involvement

refers to the degree with which an individual identifies psychologically
with his or her job and perceives his or her perceived performance
level important to self worth. High degree of job involvement results in
fewer absence and lower resignation rates.

Organizational Commitment- The last

job attitude refers to organizational commitment. It is understood as
ones identification with his or her organization and feels proud of
being its employee. Job involvement refers to ones attachment to a
job whereas organizational commitment implies an employees
identification with a particular organization and its goals. Needless to
say, it is to state that, an individual may be attached to his or her job
but may be indifferent to the organization and its objectives. Turnover
and absenteeism are low when employees have organizational
commitment.
IN SHORT,

Job satisfaction: Job satisfaction is

related to general attitude towards the job. A person having a high
level of satisfaction will generally hold a positive attitude while
dissatisfied people will generally display negative attitude towards life.
When we talk about attitude, we generally speak about job satisfaction
because they are inter-related in organizational behaviour.

Job involvement: Job involvement

refers to the degree to which a person identifies himself
(psychologically) with his job, actively participates and considers his
perceived performance level important to self-worth. (Robbins) . High
level of involvement indicates that the individual cares for his job, that
has an impact on high productivity. Higher the job satisfaction, lower
will be absenteeism and employee turnover.

Organizational commitment:
Organizational commitment refers to degree to which an employee
identifies himself with the organizational goals and wishes to maintain
membership in the organization. He wants to belong to the
organization and take an active part in the its functioning. Absenting or
resigning from the job versus job satisfaction is a predictor of
organizational commitment. The concept has been very popular in the
recent times. Organizational commitment depends upon job
enrichment factor and degree to which the workers enjoy autonomy
and freedom of action while performing.

Attitude and Consistency: As stated

earlier that the attitude of an individual is not visible but is reflected
through his behaviour as a mirror of his attitude. It is seen that people
seek consistency among their attitudes or between attitude and
behaviour. They seek to reconcile their attitudes and align their
attitudes with behaviour so that it is rational and consistent. If there is
inconsistency between attitude and behaviour, outside forces act upon
an individual, which leads to attaining of equilibrium state, thus
consistency is achieved. For example an individual may buy an old car
while praising the new model. Reconciliation like, why invest more for
a new model, or the old model is as efficient as the new one, because
the same had been sparingly used. Such feelings are expressed to
soothe the attitude (praising new car) and behaviour (Buying the old
model) to achieve consistency between them. (Attitude and
behaviour).