ATTITUDE

ATTITUDES
• Attitudes: evaluative statements – either favorable or
unfavorable – concerning objects, people, or events.
• They reflect how one feels about something.
• Attitude refers to a person's mental view,
regarding the way
he/she thinks or feels about someone or something.
• Attitudesare often the result of experience or upbringing, and
they can have a powerful influence over behavior. 
• A feeling or way of thinking that affects a person's behavior
Main Components of Attitudes

There are three main components of attitudes:

1. Cognition
2. Affective/ Evaluative
3. Behavior
1. Cognition
• What a person thinks about an object, person, or event.
• Themental action or process of acquiring knowledge and
understanding through thought, experience, and the senses.
It reflects the beliefs, opinions, knowledge, or information a
person possesses about a given target.
• It
refers to that part of attitude which is related in general
knowledge of a person.
• Typically
these come to light in generalities or stereotypes,
such as ‘all babies are cute’, ‘smoking is harmful to health’
etc.
2. Affective/ Evaluative

• This component is the emotional overlay to the cognitive

thought.
• It expresses how we feel about that object, person or
event.
• The affective component builds on, and amplifies, the
cognitive component.
• In reality, these two components are often inseparable.
Cont’d
• Affective component is the emotional or feeling segment of an
attitude.
• It is related to the statement which affects another person.
• It
deals with feelings or emotions that are brought to the surface
about something, such as fear or hate.
• Usingthe above example, someone might have the attitude that
they love all babies because they are cute or that they hate
smoking because it is harmful to health.
3. Behavior component

• This is the actual or intended behavior brought about by

the first two components of attitude.
• It is what we will do about that object, person, or event.
Cont’d
• Behavior component of an attitude consists of a person’s
tendencies to behave in a particular way toward an
object. 
• Itrefers to that part of attitude which reflects the
intention of a person in the short-run or long run.
• Using the above example, the behavioral attitude
maybe- ‘I cannot wait to kiss the baby’, or ‘we better
keep those smokers out of the library, etc.
Consistency of Attitudes
• People try to be consistent.
• They want their attitudes (and their behaviors) to be
aligned so that they appear rational.
• When people’s attitudes are not consistent, they will
either change one of the attitudes, their behavior, or
rationalize away the inconsistency.
Cont’d
• For instance, a person who has consistently said she hates
tropical fruit might try a mango and find she really loves the
flavor and texture. Now her attitudes are in conflict. She might
resolve that conflict by:
• Changein attitude. “I thought I hated tropical fruit until I had a
mango, now I love it!”
• Change in behavior. She might stop saying she hates tropical
fruit.
• Rationalization.“Even though I hate tropic fruit, I love mangos,
but then they aren’t really all that tropical, are they? They are
grown in California after all.”
History of Cognitive Dissonance Theory

• Leon Festinger first proposed the theory of cognitive dissonance

centered on how people try to reach internal consistency.
• He suggested that people have an inner need to ensure that
their beliefs and behaviors are consistent.
• Inconsistent or conflicting beliefs lead to disharmony, which
people strive to avoid.
• In his 1957 book, "A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance," Festinger
explained, "Cognitive dissonance can be seen as an antecedent
condition which leads to activity oriented toward dissonance
reduction just as hunger leads toward activity oriented toward
hunger-reduction.
Cognitive Dissonance
• Cognitive dissonance describes the discomfort
experienced when two cognitions are incompatible
with each other.
• Inconsistency b/n two or more attitudes or b/n behavior
and attitude.
• The clash b/n person action and behavior.
• Festinger proposed that these inconsistency among
beliefs or behavior causes uncomfortable psychological
tension and this leads people to change unconformities.
 Three modeling factors
• According to Festinger, the level of effort that is put forth to
reduce the dissonance depended on three moderating factors:
1. Importance
2. Degree of influences
3. Rewards
Cont’d
1. Importance
• The importance of the elements creating the dissonance
modifies the level of effort.
• Thegreater the importance, the more effort will be expended to
reduce the dissonance.
2. Degree of influence
• If
a person feels he or she has some measure of control over the
elements, more effort will be expended.
• But if the elements are felt to be outside of the person’s control,
little effort will be made to reduce dissonance.
Cont’d
3. Rewards
• What reward is there to keep or remove the dissonance?
• Theserewards can affect the motivation toward making
changes.
• People who are rewarded well for living with high
dissonance tend to feel less pressure to remove the
dissonance.
Managers can use cognitive dissonance to discover how and
when to help employees make attitudinal and behavioral
change.
Self-Perception Theory History
• Self-perception theory was first proposed by Daryl
Bem in 1967.
• As an alternative account of cognitive dissonance.
• Where certain circumstances lead to self-
described attitudes that are a function of the
individual’s observations of their own behavior.
Cont’d
• Another approach to explaining the relationship between
attitude and behavior is achieved by reversing the view: seeing
if behavior influences attitudes.
• Again, the purpose is to improve our ability to predict behaviors
more accurately.
• The premise is that people recall their behaviors easily and from
them, infer (or guess) what their attitudes must have been.
• Self-perception theory is especially useful in predicting behavior
in situations where the person has vague or ambiguous
attitudes on the subject or little experience with the situation.
Cont’d
• Cognitive dissonance describes a situation where a
person feels discomfort due to conflicting ideals, beliefs,
attitudes or behavior.
• While self-perception theory claims people develop
attitudes and opinions by observing their own behaviour
and drawing conclusions from them.
Major Job Attitudes

• Thereare three important attitudes toward work that

OB has traditionally studied:
1. Job satisfaction
2. Job involvement and
3. Organizational commitment.
1. Job Satisfaction
• This attitude relates to how an employee feels positively
about the job.
• High job satisfaction means strong positive feelings
about it; low satisfaction means strong negative feelings
exist.
2. Job Involvement
• This attitude describes how much a person “buys
into” their job based on the job’s worth to that
person and how much control the employee has
over the job itself.
• High levels of job involvement/empowerment are
related to higher job performance, better
organizational citizenship behaviors, fewer
absences, and lower turnover.
3. Organizational Commitment
•Astate in which an employee identifies with a particular
organization and its goals and wishes to maintain
membership in the organization.
Cont’d
• There are three separate dimensions of this
attitude:
1. Affective Commitment
2. Continuance Commitment
3. Normative Commitment
Cont’d
1. Affective Commitment:
• Theemotional attachment to an organization and a belief in its
values.
• An allegiance, this dimension appeals to the heart and is the
strongest dimension in terms of organizational outcomes.
2. Continuance Commitment:
• The perceived economic value of remaining with an organization
compared to leaving it.
• Asan economic problem, this dimension appeals to the wallet
and is a weak indicator of organizational outcomes.
Cont’d
3. Normative Commitment:
• An obligation to remain with the organization for moral
or ethical reasons.
• Asan obligation, this dimension appeals to the mind
and self-image.
PERSONALITY