B.C.A.

Sem 2 – Organisation Structure & Behaviour, VNSGU

Chapter- 3
ATTITUDE

Topics under study:

Definition & Meaning of Attitude

Components of Attitude
Features/Nature/Characteristics of Attitude
Functions of Attitude
Factors affecting formation of Attitude
Scope of Attitude / Work related Attitudes

DEFINITION & MEANING

“Attitudes are evaluative statements – either favourable or unfavorable – concerning objects people or
events. They reflect how one feels about something”.

 Attitudes are evaluative statements – that means people have favourable or unfavourable feeling
towards persons, objects or events. This evaluation of people towards persons, objects or events
is known as attitude.
 In other words attitude shows how a person feels about something for e.g. if a Professor says “I
like teaching”, he is expressing attitude about his work.

COMPONENTS OF AN ATTITUDE
Three components of an attitude are Cognition, Affect & Behaviour.
 Cognitive component of an attitude:
It is the opinion or belief part of an attitude. These are the thoughts and beliefs people have about
an object. For example, you might like a singer because he or she has a melodic voice and catchy
lyrics.

 Affect component of an attitude:

It is emotional or feeling part of an attitude. This consists of the emotional reactions people have
to objects. For example, if you have a favorite singer and you hear their voice on the radio, you
might have feelings of happiness or excitement. The attitude object has affected your emotions.

 Behavioural component of an attitude:

It refers to a person’s behaviour towards someone or something. It consists of actions or
behaviour which can be observed. And these actions are the result of attitude. For example, if
you hear a new song of your favourite singer, you might start searching for the album and buy it.
You will spend some time listening to it. Hence, your attitude towards the singer has made you
to behave in this way.

Dr ZAKIR PATEL, PROF, NLCCM, Navsari 1

 B.C.A. Sem 2 – Organisation Structure & Behaviour, VNSGU

FEATURES / NATURE / CHARACTERISTICS OF ATTITUDE

Following are some important features/characteristics of attitude:

 Attitudes refer to feelings & beliefs of individuals or groups of individuals: It exists within an
individual and that is why it is considered as evaluative statement or predispositions of an
individual. Attitude is a psychological process and therefore it affects the feeling and belief of an
individual or group.
 The feelings & beliefs are directed towards other people, objects or ideas: The feelings and
beliefs are always about other individual, object or situation based on the earlier experience of a
person.
 Attitudes results in behavioural action: Behavioural outcome or response is based on the
attitude of an individual. An individual’s attitude will determine the action. If the attitude is
positive, we can predict that the behavioural action will be positive.
 Attitudes can fall anywhere between very favourable to very unfavourable: a person’s attitude
might be favourable or unfavourable towards any person, object, event or situation. A person
may have an attitude which will be in between very favourable to very unfavourable.
 Attitudes last longer: Attitude lasts for a long time. Once it is formed it is difficult to change.
Hence when a person likes or dislikes certain person or event or object, he will continue to like
to dislike for a very long period of time. This long lasting nature of attitude is based on the
sources from which it is formed. For example, if our parents have taught us
 All people, irrespective of their status or intelligence, hold attitudes: Every person in the world
hold attitude and their attitude will differ from other. Within all levels of an organisation, people
hold attitude. It has nothing to do with the status or intelligence they possess. Whether, it is
chairman or peon, irrespective of their status holds attitude. It is obvious that their attitudes will
differ but all of them hold attitudes.

FUNCTIONS OF ATTITUDE

Attitude is a predispotion of an individual which influence him/her at work. We hold certain attitudes
towards individuals or object because attitude helps us to respond to the individuals or object in a
meaningful way. Following are the functions of attitude at work;

Adjustment function:
 This function is also known as utilitarian or instrumental function of attitude.
 An attitude may be developed because it helps a person to obtain rewards or avoid punishments.
Hence a person may adjust his attitude in order to get rewards or avoid punishment.
 Example: A worker finds that when he expressed a negative attitude towards his boss, his co-
workers pay attention to and sympathize with him, but when he express a positive attitude, he is
ignored. This means that the negative attitude is instrumental (helping) in obtaining rewards
(acceptance from co-workers) and avoiding punishment (rejection or avoidance form co-
workers).
 In another example, a loan executive may develop favourable attitude towards salaried people, to
whom he can easily sell, and a negative attitude towards self employed people, who he finds are

Dr ZAKIR PATEL, PROF, NLCCM, Navsari 2

 B.C.A. Sem 2 – Organisation Structure & Behaviour, VNSGU

always difficult to sell. He associates success and profit with salaried people and failure and
difficulty with self employed. Hence, he develops attitude according to the reward he gets.

Ego Defence Function:

 People often form and maintain certain attitude to protect their own ego / self image.
 Example: For example, superior may feel threatened by the employment or advancement of
subordinates in their organisation. These threatened superior may develop prejudices against the
subordinates in the organisation. They may develop an attitude that such newcomers are less
qualified. Hence the superior may not treat subordinates well. Such an ego defensive attitude is
formed and used to cope with a feeling of guilt or threat.
 Unless this feeling is removed, this kind of attitude will remain unchanged.

Value Expressive Function:

 Our attitude shows our value system. And our value expressive attitudes are closely related to
our self concept.
 Example: One whose central value is freedom, the individual may express very positive attitude
towards decentralization of authority in the organisation, flexible work schedules, and relaxation
of dress standards.
 The other example of value expressive function is that if the central value is pragmatic (forward
looking), the individual may express positive attitudes towards the practical people.

Knowledge Function:
 Attitude is often substituted for knowledge. In the absence of knowledge, we use our attitude to
organize and make sense out of the perceived object or person.
 Example: People who are not familiar with nuclear energy may develop an attitude that it is
dangerous and should not be used as an energy source.
Manager should know about these attitude functions because knowledge of such function can provide
valuable information.
- First, it helps us to understand and predict how a certain person is likely to behave.
- Second, it can help manager to change the attitude of other person.
Following are some of the other functions performed by attitude.

 Attitude Determines Meaning: Attitude is defined as evaluative statement or predispositions to

feel and behave. We can determine the behaviour of other person on the basis of his/ her attitude
towards object, event, and individuals. If the attitude of that individual is positive or favourable
the response from his side will be positive or favourable. Similarly, unfavourable or negative
attitudinal response will generate bias and disagreement. Study of attitude helps in understanding
and predicting an individual’s behaviour.
 Attitude helps in understanding and respecting other people: It is very common that we
come in the interaction with the people who holds contradictory opinion. Proper understanding
of attitude as a background, we can understand and respect the opinion and belief of other
people.
 Attitude affects feelings: The feeling of liking or disliking, love or hate depends upon the belief
a person holds. Hence, we can say that attitude helps in forming the feelings and emotions
towards objects or people or events.
 Attitude results in behaviour: Attitude is responsible for a person’s behaviour. Hence if a
person always watches Cricket has a positive feeling (attitude) towards this game. This results in
his behaviour of watching cricket.

Dr ZAKIR PATEL, PROF, NLCCM, Navsari 3

 B.C.A. Sem 2 – Organisation Structure & Behaviour, VNSGU

FACTORS AFFECTING FORMATION OF ATTITUDE OR FORMATION OF

ATTITUDE:-
Following are the factors that are responsible for formation of attitude in a person. These factors are;

Direct experience with the object:- Attitudes are formed on the basis of a person’s direct experience
with object or individual. Negative or positive response or experience with that object or individual form
attitudes. For example, how do you know that you like organizational behaviour subject or dislike
computer application subject? The attitude of liking or disliking these subjects is formed on the basis of
our past experience with these subjects.

Classical conditioning & attitudes:- One of the basic processes that results into attitude formation can
be explained on the basis of learning principles. Generally people develop associations between various
objects & the emotional reactions that follow. Positive or negative associations can develop through
classical conditioning. For example, we may come to hold a positive attitude towards a particular
perfume because a favorite model uses it. Advances make use of the principles of classical conditioning
of attitudes by attempting to link a product they want consumers to buy with a positive feeling or event.

Operant conditioning & attitude acquisition:- Operant conditioning is also a learning process.
According to this, behaviour (attitude) is a function of its consequences (results). Behaviour is likely to
be repeated if the consequences (results) are favourable. Behaviour is not likely to be repeated if the
consequences are unfavorable. Hence, we can say that people learn positively from positive experience
and negatively from negative experience. This helps in forming their attitude.

Vicarious learning:- It is a type of learning in which a person learns something through the observation
of others. This type of learning occurs when a person has no experience about the person, object or event
for which attitude is being formed. This happens normally when a child learns something from his/her
parent. For example, if parents believe that blind children cannot do anything in life, then children will
form a similar attitude. The child has formed this attitude without meeting blind people. They have
learnt this from their parents.

Family & Peer groups:-A person may learn attitude through parents. Attitudes towards religion,
opposite sex, tolerance or prejudice, education, occupations & many other areas are the result of our
accepting or rejecting the attitudes of our family members. Similarly attitudes are acquired from peer
groups (co-workers) in organizations where people work.

Neighbourhood:- Our attitude is also formed because of our neighbourhood. We meet people in society
and this result into formation of our attitude. People affect the way we think. Neighborhood is a place
where people share culture and form religious grouping and such source like neighborhood will results
in attitude formation.

Economic status & Occupation:- Our economic & occupational positions also contributed to attitude
formation. Our socio-economic background influences our present & future attitudes. They determine,
our attitudes towards union and management and our belief that certain laws are 'good' or 'bad'. For
example the person from high economic status (business man) forms positive attitude for privatization
because he perceives it as growth opportunity for business and country, where as, low economic status
(workers) will form negative attitude for privatization because they believe that privatization will result
into unemployment.

Dr ZAKIR PATEL, PROF, NLCCM, Navsari 4

 B.C.A. Sem 2 – Organisation Structure & Behaviour, VNSGU
Mass communications:- All varieties of mass communications-television, radio, newspaper &
magazines feed their audiences large quantities of information. The presentation of news or information
is such that it forms the attitude of audience. Mass communication provide detailed information on
various subject which lead to formation of new attitude or concrete the existing one on different subject.

SCOPE OF ATTITUDE / TYPES OF WORK RELATED ATTITUDES

Job or work related attitude can be seen in job satisfaction, job involvement and organizational
commitment. Let us try to understand these work related attitude to employees in an organisation;

1) Job Satisfaction:

Meaning: Job satisfaction is an individual's general attitude toward his or her job. It is one's feeling
towards one's job. An individual having satisfaction possesses positive attitude towards the job, while a
person who is dissatisfied with his or her job holds negative attitude about the job. Job satisfaction is
related with the five specific dimensions of the job - Pay, Work itself, Promotion opportunities,
Supervision & Co-workers.

Factors affecting Job Satisfaction: Following are the factors that affect job satisfaction:

Individual factors:
 Level of Education: Level of education is the factor which determines the degree of job
satisfaction. On the basis of several studies it has been found that there is a negative correlation
between the level of education and job satisfaction. The possible reason for this may be that
highly educated persons have very high expectations from their jobs.
 Age: Individuals experience different degree of job satisfaction at different stage of their life. Job
satisfaction is high at the initial stage, gets gradually reduced, starts rising up to certain stage,
and finally dips to a low degree. The possible reasons for this are like this –when an individual
joins an organisation, he/she may have some unrealistic expectations about what they are going
to derive from their work. These assumptions make them more satisfied. However, when these
assumptions do not become real, job satisfaction goes down.
 Other Factors: There are other individual factors which affect job satisfaction. If an individual
does not have favourable social and family life, he may not feel happy at the workplace.
Similarly, other personal problems associated with him may affect his level of job satisfaction.

Nature of Job:
 Occupation Level: Higher level of jobs provides more satisfaction as compared to lower levels.
This happens because high level jobs carry prestige and status in society which itself becomes
sources of satisfaction for the job holders. For example, doctors derive more satisfaction
compared to salaried people.
 Job Content: Job content refers to the internal value of job which depends on the requirement of
skills for performing it, and the degree of responsibility and growth it offers. A higher content of
these factors provide higher satisfaction. For example, routine and repetitive job provide lesser
satisfaction; the degree of satisfaction increases where the job involves different type of work
and change.

Dr ZAKIR PATEL, PROF, NLCCM, Navsari 5

 B.C.A. Sem 2 – Organisation Structure & Behaviour, VNSGU

Situational Variables:
 Working Conditions: Conditions of workplace and facilities for performing the job determine
job satisfaction. If these factors are favourable, individual experience higher level of job
satisfaction.
 Supervision: The type of supervision affects job satisfaction. In each type of supervision the
degree of importance attached to individual varies. In employee-oriented supervision, there is
more concern for people provides them more satisfaction. In job-oriented supervision, there is
more focus on the performance of the job and people less important. This situation decrease job
satisfaction.
 Equitable Rewards: The type of linkage that is provided between job performance and rewards
determine the degree of job satisfaction. If the reward is based on the job performance and
equitable, it offers higher satisfaction. If the reward is perceived to be based on considerations
other than the job performance, it affects job satisfaction adversely.
 Opportunity for Promotion: It is true that individuals look for satisfaction in their jobs in the
context of job nature and work environment but they also attach importance to the opportunities
for promotion that these jobs offer. If the present job offers opportunity of promotion in future, it
provides more satisfaction. If the opportunity for such promotion is lacking, it reduces
satisfaction.
 Work Group: Individuals work in group either created formally or they develop on their own to
seek emotional satisfaction at the workplace. To the extent, such groups are cohesive; the degree
of satisfaction is high. If the group is not cohesive, job satisfaction is low. In a cohesive group,
people derive satisfaction out of their interpersonal interaction and workplace becomes satisfying
leading to job satisfaction.

2) Job Involvement: Job involvement refers to the degree to which a person identifies with his or her
job, actively participates in it & considers his or her performance very important. Employees with a high
level of job involvement care about the kind of work they do. High degree of job involvement results in
fewer absences & lower resignation rates (turnover rates). Job involvement makes the employee feel
happy about doing work and hence gets more and more involved in performing it. These types of
employees have positive attitude towards performing the job.

3) Organizational Commitment: It is the degree to which an employee identifies with a particular

organization & its goal & wishes to stay with the organization. Turnover & absenteeism are low when
employees have organizational commitment. Job involvement refers to one’s attachment to a job
whereas organizational commitment is an employee’s identification with a particular organization & its
goal. Organisational commitment is another job related attitude which is very important in
organizational behaviour. Organisational commitment is the strength of an employee’s involvement in
the organisation and identification with it.

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Dr ZAKIR PATEL, PROF, NLCCM, Navsari 6