Attitude and Values

The last of human freedom is to

choose one’s attitude in any given set
of circumstances
Frankl, V.E
• Definition
• Key Attributes of Attitude
• Attitude and other related concepts
• Characteristics
• Attitude formation and measurement
• Cognitive dissonance’
• Changing attitudes
• Attitude in workplace
• Value
• Attitudes are evaluative statements towards objects, people or
events.
• A tendency to react in certain ways
• So, what are attitudes? Attitudes are nothing but mental statements
we make about objects people or events.
• Attitudes are important because, attitudes are precursors for our
behavior, in a way how we behave depends on what kind of attitudes,
we have about that particular object person or an event.
• Someone/Video narrating covid experience
 ATTITUDE
Elements of Attitude
Attitude

Affective Cognitive Conative/

behavioral

Negative Attitude Positive Attitude

My teacher gave more marks to my
friend, though I did better than her.
He is very partial. (Cognitive)
I just hate him. (Affective)
I don’t attend his class and do not
submit my assignments on time.
(Conative,)
1
My teacher gave me highest marks on my
assignments.
He is the best teacher, appreciates good
work . (Cognitive)
He is my favorite teacher. (Affective)
I look forward to his class and submit my
assignments on time. (Conative,)
 Cognitive Affective Behavioral

Typically these come to Feelings or emotions that are ‘I cannot wait to kiss/cuddle
light in generalities or brought to the surface about the baby’, or ‘we better keep
stereotypes, such as ‘all something, such as fear or those smokers out of the
babies are cute’, ‘smoking hate library, etc.
is harmful to health’
 Importance of Attitude in an Organization
• A good relationship can be established only when employees demonstrate a positive attitude
towards their work and colleagues.
• Career success: Employees with a positive attitude will always think of ways to accomplish their
tasks in a well-defined manner instead of complaining or finding excuses for non-performance.
• Productivity: With a positive attitude, employees tend to take more interest in what they do and
deliver. Consequently, they produce better quality work with minimum errors.
• Leadership: Working in an organization is all about managing a diverse workforce. Some
employees earn respect easily and people often follow and listen to them. This is possible through
the positive attitude demonstrated by leaders
• Team work: A positive attitude helps employees to appreciate each other‘s competencies and
work as a team for achieving common objectives instead of being overly perturbed by the
inadequacies of team members
• Decision making: Having a positive attitude helps employees to make better decisions
• Motivation

ATTITIDE FOLLOWS BEHAVIOUR (Festinger)

 Inconsistency between beliefs and behavior
• Sometimes there may be discrepancies between attitudes and behaviors. This
kind of discrepancy is called cognitive dissonance .
• An individual who has the attitude that smoking is bad for one’s health but
who continues to smoke anyway would probably experience cognitive
dissonance.
• Such an inconsistency between beliefs and behavior is thought to create
discomfort and a desire on the part of the individual to eliminate or reduce the
inconsistency.

cognitive dissonance: A mental state of anxiety that occurs when there is a conflict among an individual’s various
cognitions (for example, attitudes and beliefs) after a decision has been made.
 Compare the Major Job Attitudes
job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment.
Perceived organizational support and employee engagement.
 The most important things that happen to me involve my present job
• Job Satisfaction  I live, eat and breath my job
• A positive feeling about the job  Most of my interests are centered around my job";
resulting from an evaluation of  "I have very strong ties with my present job which would be very
its characteristics. difficult to break";
 "Usually I feel detached from my job";
• Job Involvement: Degree to which  "Most of my personal life goals are job-oriented";
a person identifies with a job,  "I consider my job to be very central to my existence";
 "I like to be absorbed in my job most of the time"
actively participates in it, and
considers performance important to Meaning
self-worth. • The work I do is very important to me (meaning 1|.
• My job activities are personally meaningful to me (meaning 2).
• Psychological Empowerment: • The work I do is meaningful to me (meaning 3).
Belief in the degree of influence Competence
over one’s job, competence, job • I am confident about my ahility to do my joh (competence 1)
meaningfulness, and autonomy. Self Determination :
• I have significant autonomy In determining how 1 do my job (self-
determination 1],
Impact
• My impact on what happens in my depeirtment is large (impact 1)
 Compare the Major Job Attitudes
• Organizational Commitment
• Identifying with a particular organization and its goals and wishing to maintain
membership in the organization.
• Employees who are committed will be less likely to engage in work withdrawal
even if they are dissatisfied because they have a sense of organizational loyalty.
 Compare the Major Job Attitudes
• Perceived Organizational Support (POS)
• Degree to which employees believe the organization
values their contribution and cares about their well-being.
• Higher when rewards are fair, employees are involved in
decision making, and supervisors are seen as supportive.
• POS is important in countries where power distance is
lower.
• when rewards are deemed fair,
• When employees have a voice in decisions, and
• when they see their supervisors as supportive
 Compare the Major Job Attitudes
• Employee Engagement
• Degree to which employees fully occupy themselves in their work, as well as the
strength of their commitment to the employer and role
• The individual’s involvement with, satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for the work.
• Engaged employees are passionate about their work and company.
To evaluate engagement,
• we might ask employees whether they have access to resources and the
opportunities to learn
• new skills, whether they feel their work is important and meaningful, and whether
their
• interactions with coworkers and supervisors are rewarding
Caterpillar Dell Inc. Intuit, Inc.3

Engagement is the extent Engagement: To compete Engagement describes

of employees' today, companies need to how an employee thinks
commitment, work effort, win over the MINDS and feels about, and acts
and desire to stay in an (rational commitment) toward his or her job,
organization. and the HEARTS the work experience and
(emotional commitment) the company
of employees in ways that
lead to extraordinary
effort.
Define Job Satisfaction (1 of 5)
Exhibit 3-2 Worst Jobs of 2016 for Job Satisfaction*

*Based on physical demands, work environment, income, stress, and hiring outlook.
Source: Based on CareerCast.com (2016), http://www.careercast.com/jobs-rated/worst-jobs-2016.
 Define Job Satisfaction
• Job Satisfaction
• A positive feeling about a job resulting from an evaluation of its
characteristics.
• Two approaches for measuring job satisfaction are popular
• The single global rating.
• The summation of job facets.
 Define Job Satisfaction )
• How satisfied are people in their jobs?
• Over the last 30 years, employees in the U.S. and most developed countries have
generally been satisfied with their jobs.
• With the recent economic downturn, more workers are less satisfied.
• Satisfaction levels differ depending on the facet involved.
• There are cultural differences in job satisfaction.
Define Job Satisfaction (4 of 5)
Exhibit 3-3 Average Job Satisfaction Levels by Facet
Define Job Satisfaction (5 of 5)
Exhibit 3-4 Average Levels of Employee Job Satisfaction by Country

Source: Based on J. H. Westover, “The Impact of Comparative State-Directed Development on Working Conditions and Employee
Satisfaction,” Journal of Management & Organization 19, no. 4 (2013): 537–54.
Summarize the Main Causes of Job Satisfaction
• What causes job satisfaction?
• Job conditions
• The intrinsic nature of the work itself, social interactions, and
supervision are important predictors of satisfaction and
employee well-being.
• Personality
• People who have positive core self-evaluations, who believe
in their inner worth and basic competence, are more satisfied
with their jobs than those with negative core self-evaluations.
Summarize the Main Causes of Job Satisfaction (2 of 3)
Exhibit 3-5 Relationship between Average Pay in Job and Job Satisfaction of
Employees in That Job

Source: Based on T. A. Judge, R. F. Piccolo, N. P. Podsakoff, J. C. Shaw, and B. L. Rich, “The Relationship between Pay and Job
Satisfaction: A Meta-Analysis of the Literature,” Journal of Vocational Behavior 77, no. 2 (2010): 157–67.
Summarize the Main Causes of Job Satisfaction (3 of 3)

• Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

• Corporate social responsibility (CSR): self-regulated actions to benefit
society or the environment beyond what is required by law.
• Includes environmental sustainability initiatives, nonprofit work, and
charitable giving.
• Increasingly affects employee job satisfaction.
• CSR is particularly important for Millennials.
• But, not everyone finds value in CSR.
Outcomes of Job Satisfaction
• Job Performance
– Happy workers are more likely to be productive workers.
• OCB
– People who are more satisfied with their jobs are more likely to engage
in OCB.
• Customer Satisfaction
– Satisfied employees increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Life Satisfaction
– Research shows that job satisfaction is positively correlated with life
satisfaction.
 The Impact of Satisfied and Dissatisfied Employees on the Workplace
Responses to Dissatisfaction from
The exit response directs behaviour
toward leaving the organization,
The voice response includes including looking for a new position as
actively and constructively well as resigning. To measure the
attempting to improve effects of this response to
conditions, including suggesting dissatisfaction, researchers study
improvements, discussing individual terminations and collective
problems with superiors, and turnover, the total loss to the
undertaking some forms of organization of employee knowledge,
union activity skills, abilities, and other characteristics

The loyalty response means The neglect response passively

passively but optimistically allows conditions to worsen and
waiting for conditions to improve, includes chronic absenteeism or
including speaking up for the lateness, reduced effort, and
organization in the face of external increased error rate
criticism and trusting the
organization and its management this model expands employee response to include voice and loyalty—constructive
to “do the right thing.” behaviours that allow individuals to tolerate unpleasant situations or revive satisfactory
working conditions
Four Employee Responses to Dissatisfaction

• Counterproductive Work Behavior (CWB)

• Counterproductive work behavior: actions that actively damage the
organization, including stealing, behaving aggressively toward coworkers, or
being late or absent.
• Absenteeism: the more satisfied you are, the less likely you are to miss work.
• Turnover: a pattern of lowered job satisfaction is the best predictor of intent to
leave.
 Managers Often “Don’t Get It”

• Regular surveys can reduce gaps between what managers think employees
feel and what they really feel.
• This can impact the bottom line in small franchise sites as well as large
companies.
• For instance, Jonathan McDaniel, manager of a KFC restaurant, surveyed
his employees every three months.
• Some results led him to make changes, such as giving employees greater
say about which workdays they have off.
• However, McDaniel believed the process itself was valuable. “They really
love giving their opinions,”
 Implications for Managers

• Of the major job attitudes – job satisfaction, job involvement,

organizational commitment, perceived organizational support (POS), and
employee engagement – remember that an employee’s job satisfaction
level is the best single predictor of behavior.
• Pay attention to your employees’ job satisfaction levels as determinants of
their performance, turnover, absenteeism, and withdrawal behaviors.
Implications for Managers
• Measure employee job attitudes objectively and at regular intervals
to determine how employees are reacting to their work.
• To raise employee satisfaction, evaluate the fit between the
employee’s work interests and the intrinsic parts of his/her job to
create work that is challenging and interesting to the individual.
• Consider the fact that high pay alone is unlikely to create a
satisfying work environment.

Please read: McGuire’s Matrix of Attitude Change

Values
• Is assisted suicide right or wrong?
• Is euthanasia good or bad?
• Is a desire for power good or bad?
• The answers to these questions are value-laden.

• Value is a conception, explicit or implicit, distinctive of an individual or

characteristic of a group.

• Values represent the basic conviction that a specific mode of conduct is

personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct
• According Rokeach, value serve not only as standards or plans but also
as existence

• Terminal Value reflects desired end state of existence; instrumental

value would act as a guide to reach that end state of terminal value
Rokeach Survey
 Schwartz theory of basic values

• Values are beliefs linked inextricably to affect. When values are activated,
they become infused with feeling”.
• “Values refer to desirable goals that motivate action.”
• “Values transcend specific actions and situations. … This feature distinguishes
values from norms and attitudes that usually refer to specific actions, objects,
or situations.”
• The Schwartz theory of basic values identifies ten broad personal
values, which are differentiated by the underlying goal or motivation.
• These values are likely to be universal because they help humans cope
with one or more of the following three universal requirements of
existence:
• needs of individuals as biological organisms
• requisites of coordinated social interaction
• survival and welfare needs of groups.
 Value Name Defining Goal
Self-Direction independent thought and action–choosing, creating, exploring.
Stimulation excitement, novelty, and challenge in life.
Hedonism pleasure or sensuous gratification for oneself.
Achievement personal success through demonstrating competence according to social standards
Power social status and prestige, control or dominance over people and resources.”
Security safety, harmony, and stability of society, of relationships, and of self.
Conformity restraint of actions, inclinations, and impulses likely to upset or harm others and
violate social expectations or norms
Tradition respect, commitment, and acceptance of the customs and ideas that one’s culture
or religion provides.
Benevolence preserving and enhancing the welfare of those with whom one is in frequent
personal contact (the ‘in-group)
Universalism understanding, appreciation, tolerance, and protection for the welfare of all people
and for nature.”
• People can and do pursue competing
values, but not in a single act.
• Rather, they do so through different
acts, at different times, and in different
settings.
 Hofstede’s Framework of Cultural Values
degree of inequality that exists –
and is accepted – between people Power Distance Uncertainty avoidance
with and without power. (High vs low) (High vs low) This dimension
describes how well
A high PDI score indicates that a people can cope with
society accepts an unequal, anxiety. People in low
hierarchical distribution of power, Individualism UAI-scoring countries
and that people understand "their (vs collectivism) are more relaxed, open
place" in the system. or inclusive

strength of the ties that people

have to others within their
community
[the dominant gender-based
distribution of roles between men
and women. In masculine societies,
the roles of men and women
overlap less, and men are expected
to behave assertively
Masculinity Long-term orientation
(vs Femininity) (vs short-term orientation)
value systems]
long-term orientation tend to be pragmatic,
modest, and more thrifty. In short-term oriented
countries, people tend to place more emphasis on
principles, consistency and truth, and are typically
religious and nationalistic.