ORGANISATIONAL

BEHAVIOR

ATTITUDE
 Attitude
Attitude are evaluative statements or attitude is something which reflect how we feel about
something.
It is either favorable or unfavorable statements about objects, people, or events.
Attitudes refer to feelings and beliefs of individuals or groups of individuals.
Attitudes are complex.
For example:
I like my job
I don’t like herattitude.
He is a hardworking employee etc.
 COMPONENT OF ATTITUDE

There are mainly three component of attitude: cognitive, affective andbehavioral

component.

COGINITIVE COMPNENT:

 The aspect of attitude that is a description of or a belief in the things way are.

 This component consists of beliefs, values, ideas and other information a person has about
the object.

 It makes no difference whether or not this information is empirically correct or real. For e.g.
“My pay is low” is a description
 AFFECTIVE COMPONENT
The Cognitive component sets the stage for the more critical part of an attitude, its
affective component.

Affects is the emotional or feeling segment of an attitude and is reflected in the

statement.

For e.g. “I am angry over how little I 'ampaid.

Affects can lead to the behavioraloutcomes.

 BEHAVIORALCOMPONENTS
The behavioral component of an attitude refers to an intention to behave in a certain
ways towards someone or something
Foe e.g. “ I 'am going to look for another job thatpays better.”

These component of attitude are closely related and cognitive and affect in particular are
inseparable in many ways
The cognition and affects are intertwined.
For e.g. imagine you concluded that your superior had just treated you unfairly. Aren't you
have feeling about that, occurring virtually instantaneously with the thought.
Let’s see how these three components are related
cognitive=evaluation
my supervisor gave a Behavioral= Action
promotion to a I' am looking for
affective=feeling
coworker who deserve another work, I will
I dislike my
less than me. He is complaint to higher
supervisor
very unfair authority

Negative attitude about

supervisor
 FORMATION OFATTUTUDE

1. Direct Personal Experience:

Aperson’s direct experience with the attitude object determines his attitude towards it. The personal
experience of an individual, whether it is favorable or unfavorable, will affect his attitude deeply.

2.Association:
Sometimes an individual comes across a new attitude object which may be associated with an oldattitude
object. In such a case, the attitude towards the old attitude object may be transferred towards the new
attitude object.

3. Family and Peer Groups and neighborhood

Attitudes like values are acquired from parents, teachers and peer group members. In ourearly years, we
begin modeling our attitudes after those we admire, respect or may be even fear.
The neighborhood in which we live has certain cultural facilities, religious groupings and ethnic differences.
5. Mass Communications:
Attitudes are generally less stable as compared to values. Advertising messages for example, attempt to
alter the attitude of the people toward a certain product or service.

6. Economic Status and Occupations:

The economic status and occupational position of the individual also affect his attitude formation. Our
socio-economic background influences our present and futureattitudes.
 COGNITIVEDISSONANCE

Given by Leon Festinger.

Any incompatibility between to or more attitudes or between behavior and attitude.
This produces a feeling of mental discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs or
behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restorebalance.
For example, when people smoke (behavior) and they know that smoking causes cancer (cognition), they
are in a state of cognitive dissonance.
Festinger proposed that the desire to reduce dissonance depends on the three factors.
A. Importance of the element creatingit.
B. Influence the individual believe he has over theelement
C. Reward of dissonance.
.
 FUNCTIONS OF ATTITUDE

Adjustment Function
The adjustment function directs people toward pleasurable orrewarding objects and away from
unpleasant, undesirable ones.
It serves the utilitarian concept of maximizing reward and minimizing punishment.
Thus, the attitudes of consumers depend to a large degree on their perceptions of what is needed
satisfying and what is punishing.

Ego-Defensive Function
The ego-defensive function refers to holding attitudes that -protect our self-esteem or that justify
actions that make us feel guilty.
Actually many outward expressions of such attitudes reflect the opposite of what the person
perceives him to be.
Value-Expressive Function
Value-expressive attitudes enable the expression of theperson’s centrally held values.
Central values tend to establish our identityand gain us social approval thereby showing us who we are,
and what we stand for.
For e.g. one whose central value is freedom, the individual may express very positive attitudestowards
decentralization of authority in the organization, flexible work schedules, and relaxation of dress
standards.

Knowledge Function
The knowledge function refers toour need which is consistent and relatively stable.
This allows us to predict what is likely to happen, and so gives us a sense ofcontrol. Some attitudes are
useful because they help tomake the world more understandable.
They help people ascribe causes to events and direct attention towards features of people or situations
that are likely to be useful in making sense of them.
 MAJOR JOB ATTITUDES
A person can have thousand of attitudes, butOB focuses our attention on a very limited number of
work related attitudes.
There can be negative or positive evaluation that employees hold about the aspect of their work
environment.
Most of research in OB has looked at attitudes: job satisfaction, job involvement,and organizational
commitment, perceived organizational support and employeeengagement.

JOBSATISFACTION
 The term describes a positive feeling about the job, resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics.
 Aperson with a high level of job satisfaction hold positive feelings about his or her job, while a
dissatisfied person holds negative feelings.
 When people speak of employee attitude, they usually means job satisfaction.
JOBINVOLVEMENT:
• Job involvement is related to job satisfaction.
• The degree to which an employee is engaged in and enthusiastic about performing their work.

People become involved in their jobs when they perceive in them the potential for satisfying salient
psychological needs (e.g., for growth, achievement, meaning, recognition, and security).
• Job involvement enhances individuals’ work performance by motivating them to exert greater effort
and use their creativity to solve problems and workintelligently.
• Worker with high job involvement finds work meaningful and challenging, work at complex tasks
employing a variety of skills, and see complete units of work through to their completion.

PSYSCHOLOGICALEMPOWERMENT
It is another closely relatedconcept.
Employee’s belief in the degree to which they affect their work environment , their competence, the
meaningfulness of their job, and their perceived autonomy in their work.
 For example: good leaders empower their employees by involving them in decision, making them
feel their work is important, and giving them discretion to “do their own thing.”
High level of both job involvement and physiological empowerment are positively related to
organizational citizenship and job performance.
High involvement has been found to be related to a reduced number of absence and low resignation
rate.

ORGANIZATIONALCOMMITMENT:
It is a state in which employee identifies with a particular organization and its goal and wishes to maintain
Membership in the organization. There are three separate dimension oforganizational commitment.

AFFECTIVECOMMITMENT:
It is an emotional attachment to the organization and a belief in its values.
Affective commitment relates to how much employees want to stay at their organization.
Apet-shop employee may be affectively committed to the company because of its involvement with
animals.
CONTINUANCE COMMITMENT:
It relates to how much employees feel the need to stay at their organization. In employees that are
continuance committed, the underlying reason for their commitment lies in their need to stay with the
organization
For e.g. :when employees feel the need to stay with their organization because their salary and other
benefits will not increase if they move to another organization.

NORMATIVECOMMITMENT:
This is where an individual feels they should stay for some reason. Usually this is because of a senseof
obligation to the organization. This sense of obligation can stem from the moral and ethical.
For e.g. organization spent time and money on your training or paying college fees etc.