Attitudes
Understanding attitude at work and
their impact on behavior
Father: "I want you to marry a girl of my choice"
Son: "I will choose my own bride!"
Father : "But the girl is Bill Gates's daughter."
Son : "Well, in that case...ok"
Next - Father approaches Bill Gates.
Father : "I have a husband for your daughter."
Bill Gates : "But my daughter is too young to marry!"
Father : "But this young man is a vice-president of the
World Bank."
Bill Gates : "Ah, in that case...ok"
Finally Father goes to see the president of the World Bank.
Father : "I have a young man to be recommended as a
vice-president. "
President : "But I already have more vice- presidents than
I need!"
Father : "But this young man is Bill Gates's son-in-law."
President : "Ah, in that case...ok"
This is how business is done!!
Moral: Even If you have nothing,You can get Anything.
But your attitude should be positive
Definitions
“Attitudes are evaluative statements – either favorable or
unfavorable – concerning objects, people and events.
They reflect how one feels about something.”
“Attitudes are the beliefs, feelings and action
tendencies of an individual or group of individuals
towards objects, ideas and people.”
“Attitudes are learned predispositions towards aspects of
our environment. They may be positively or negatively
directed towards certain people, service or institutions.”
Components of Attitude
Three components of Attitude
Affective Cognitive
Attitude
Behavior
Cognitive – the beliefs, opinion, knowledge or information
held by the individual
Affective – the feelings, sentiments, moods and emotions
about some idea, person or object
Behavioral – the intention to behave in a certain way
towards someone or something
Ex: An individual has strong and negative attitude about
use of nuclear power. During his interview in firm he finds
that company is supplier of nuclear power generating
equipments.
He might feel a sudden dislike for company’s interviewer
(affective component)
He might form a negative opinion about interviewer based
on belief about types of person who would work for such a
company (cognitive component)
He might make an unkind remark to interviewer or
terminate the interview (behavior component)
The ABC Model
A – Affective, B – Behavior, C- Cognition
This model helps to determine attitude of
employee
Positive/ Negative/
Favorable Attitude Unfavorable Attitude
Cognition (Belief) Being ethical is Being unethical is
right wrong
Affection I like my I do not like my
(Feelings) executive who is executive who is
ethical unethical
Behavior (Action) I always involve I avoid my
my executive in executive in
decision making decision making
Formation of Attitudes
Experience with
the object
Mass Classical
communication conditioning
Economic Operant
Attitudes
status conditioning
Vicarious
Neighborhood
learning
Family and
Peer groups
Direct experience with objects: Attitudes can develop from
Personally rewarding and punishing experience with an
object
Classical conditioning: People develop associations
between various objects and emotional reactions that
accompany them.
Operant conditioning: Attitudes that are reinforced, either
verbally or non verbally, tend to be maintained.
Vicarious learning: formation of attitude by observing
behavior of others and the consequences of that behavior.
Family and peer groups: attitudes are acquired from
parents, peer groups in colleges and organizations
Neighborhood: Cultural groups, religious groups and
society forms certain attitudes
Economic Status and Occupations: Our socio-economic
background influences our present and future attitudes
Mass communications: Television, radio, newspapers and
magazines feed large information and forms attitudes.
Positive Attitude
When all employees in organization have positive
attitudes, benefits will be many like:
Increases productivity
Fosters teamwork
Solves problems
Improves quality
Breeds loyalty
Increases profits
Fosters better relationships with employees,
employers and customers
Reduces stress
Makes for a pleasing personality.
Functions of Attitude
Ego
Adjustment
defensive
Attitude
Value
Knowledge Expression
Adjustment function: If employees are treated well they
develop positive attitude towards organization. such
attitudes help people adjust to their work environment.
Ego defense function: People often form attitude to
protect their own self images, serve in justifying actions
and defending their ego. It is aroused by internal or
external threats. Ex: Defending attitude of boss “boss is
always right”
Expressive function: attitudes provide the employees with
a basis for expressing their values.
Knowledge function: Attitudes provides standards or
frames of reference by which an individual judges
objectives or events
Changing Attitude
Employees attitude need to be changed
particularly when they are unfavorable. Changing
attitude is difficult because of escalation of
commitment, cognitive dissonance and
insufficient information.
Escalation of commitment refers to prior
commitment of people to a particular cause and
their unwillingness to change.
Cognitive dissonance refers to a state of
inconsistency between an individual’s attitude and
behavior.
Insufficient information means sometimes people
have no reason why they would change their
attitudes.
Ways of changing
Changing attitude of self:
Be aware of one’s attitudes
Think for self
Realize that there are few, benefits from
harboring negative attitudes.
Keep an open mind.
Get into continuous education program.
Build a positive self-esteem.
Stay away from negative influences
Changing attitudes of employees:
Give feedback
Accentuated positive conditions
Positive role model
Providing new information
Use of fear
Influence of friends and peers
The coopting approach
Group membership
Rewards
Measurement of Attitude
Attitude measurement usually implies
measurement of C component in the ABC model.
C stands for thinking component of an attitude.
The easiest way of measuring attitude is to slot
them as favorable or unfavorable. The most
complicated method involve measuring degree of
favorableness or unfavorableness.
Techniques for attitude measurement:
Self report technique – questionnaire method
Likert Scale – Scoring attitude intensity
Osgood’s Scale
Sociometry
Likert scale
1. Strongly disagree
2. Disagree
3. Tend to disagree
4. Neither agree nor disagree
5. Tend to agree
6. Agree
7. Strongly Agree
Osgood’s scale
7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Pleasant - - - - - - - Unpleasant
Friendly - - - - - - - Unfriendly
Cheerful - - - - - - - Gloomy
Warm - - - - - - - Cold
