Does Behavior always follow from Attitudes?

We have maintained that attitude affects behavior. Early research on attitudes assumed that they were causally
related to behavior; that is, the attitude that people hold determines what they do. Common sense, too, suggests a
relationship. Isn’t it logical that people watch television programs that they say they like or that employees try to avoid
assignments they find distasteful.

However, in the late 1960s, this assumed relationships between attitude and behavior was challenged by a review of the
research. Based on an evaluation of a number of studies that investigated the attitudes-behavior relationship, the
reviewer concluded that the attitudes were unrelated to behavior or at best, only slightly related. More recent research
has demonstrated that attitudes significantly predict future behavior and confirmed original thinking that the
relationships can be enhanced by taking moderating variables into account.

Moderating Variables:

The most powerful moderators of the attitudes behavior relationships have been found to be importance of the attitude,
its specificity, its accessibility, whether there exist social pressures, and whether a person has direct experience with the
attitude.Important attitudes are ones that reflect fundamental values, self-interest, or identification with individuals or
groups that a person values. Attitudes that individuals consider important tend to show a strong relationship to behavior.
The more specific the attitude and the more specific the behavior, the stronger is the link between the two. For instance
asking someone specifically about his/her intention to stay with the organization for the next 6 months is likely to better
predict turnover for that person than if you asked him/her how satisfied he/she was with his/her pay.

Attitudes that are easily remembered are more likely to predict behavior than attitudes that are not accessible in
memory. Interestingly you are more likely to remember attitudes that are frequently expressed. So the more you talk
about your attitude on a subject, the more you are likely to remember it, and the more likely it is to shape your
behavior.Discrepancies between attitude and behavior are more likely to occur when social pressures to behave in
certain ways hold exceptional power. This tends to characterize behavior in organizations. This may explain why an
employee who holds strong anti-union attitudes attend pro-union organizing meetings; or why tobacco executives, who
are not smokers themselves and who tend to believe the research linking smoking and cancer, don’t actively discourage
others from smoking in their offices.

Finally, the attitude-behavior relationship is likely to be much stronger if an attitude refers to something with which the
individual has direct personal experience. Asking college students with no significant work experience how they would
respond to working for an authoritarian supervisor is far less likely to predict actual behavior than asking that same
question of employees who have actually worked for such an individual.

Self-Perception Theory:

Although most attitudes-behavior studies yield positive results, researchers have achieved still higher correlations by
pursuing another direction-looking at whether or not behavior influences attitudes. This view, called self-perception
theory, has generated some encouraging findings. Let’s briefly review the theory.

When asked about an attitude toward some object, individuals often recall their behavior relevant to that object and
then infer their attitude from their past behavior. So if an employee was asked her feelings about being a training
specialist at Marriott, she would likely think, “I’ve had this same job with Marriott as a trainer for 10 years. Nobody
forced me to stay on this job. So I must like it”. Self-perception theory, therefore, argues that attitudes are used, after
the fact, to make sense out of an action that has already occurred rather than as devices that precede and guide action.
And contrary to cognitive dissonance theory, attitudes are just casual verbal statements. When they are asked about
their attitudes and they don’t have strong convictions or feelings, self-perception theory says they tend to create
plausible answers.—

1. Managers need to focus on employees’ behaviors not on attitudes. We presume that good employees are good
because of their attitudes so we try to change the attitudes of our unsuccessful employees. Successful
employees have good attitiudes it is not the other way around.

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 I’ve never heard a manager say about an employee, “He is a problem employee, his behavior on the job is
terrible, but I love his attitude so I am going to keep him around even though office morale is dropping like
stone.” It is all about behavior. Bob

Main Components of Attitudes

After various research projects by HR experts in the field it is assumed that attitudes have three components:
cognition, affect and behavior. Let’s look at each of these components. The belief that ‘discrimination is wrong’ is an
evaluative statement. Such an opinion is the cognitive component of an attitude. It sets the stage for the more critical of
an attitude – its affective component. Affect is the emotional or feeling segment of an attitude and is reflected in the
statement ‘I don’t like John because he discriminates against minorities’. Affect can lead to behavioral outcomes. The
behavioral component of an attitude refers to an intention to behave in a certain way toward someone or something. So,
to continue with the above example, ‘I might choose to avoid John because of my feelings about him’.

Viewing attitudes as made up of three components – cognition, affect, and behavior – is helpful in understanding their
complexity and the potential relationship between attitudes and behavior. Keep in mind that these components are
closely related. In particular, in many ways cognition and affect are inseparable. For example, imagine that you
concluded that someone had just treated you unfairly. Aren’t you likely to have feelings about that, occurring virtually
instantaneously with the thought? Thus, cognition ad affect are intertwined.

In this example, an employee didn’t get a promotion he thought he deserved; a coworker got it instead. The employee’s
attitude toward his supervisor is illustrated as follows: cognition (the employee though he deserved the promotion),
affect (the employee strongly dislikes his supervisor), and behavior (the employee is looking for another job). As we
previously noted, although we often think that cognition causes affect then causes behavior, in reality these components
are often difficult to separate.

In organizations, attitudes are important because of their behavioral component. If worker believes, for example, that
supervisors, auditors, bosses and time-and-motion engineers are all in conspiracy to make employees work harder for
the same or less money sense to try to understand how these attitudes were formed, their relationship to actual job
behavior and how they might be changed.

How Consistent are Attitudes?

Did you notice how people change what they say so it doesn’t contradict what they do? Perhaps a friend of yours has
consistently argued that the quality of American cars isn’t up to the import brand and that he would never own anything
but Japanese or German car. But his dad gives him a late-model Ford Mustang, and suddenly American cars aren’t so
bad. Or, when going through sorority rush, a new freshman believes that sororities are good and that pledging sorority
is important. If she fails to make a sorority however, she may say, I recognized that sorority life isn’t all, it’s cracked up
to be anyway.

Research has generally concluded that people seek consistency among their attitudes and between their attitudes and
their behavior. This means that individuals seek to reconcile divergent attitudes and align their attitudes and behavior so
they appear rational and consistent. When there is an inconsistency, forces are initiated to return the individual to an
equilibrium state in which attitudes and behavior are again consistent. This can be done by altering either the attitudes
or the behavior, or by developing a rationalization for the discrepancy. Tobacco executives provide an example. How,
you might wonder, do these people cope with the ongoing barrage if data linking cigarette smoking and negative health
outcomes? They can deny that any clear causation between smoking and cancer for instance, has been established.
They can brainwash themselves by continually articulating the benefits of tobacco. They can acknowledge the negative
consequences of smoking but rationalize that people are going to smoke and that tobacco companies merely promote
freedom of choice. They can accept the research evidence and begin actively working to make more healthy cigarettes
or at least reduce their availability to more vulnerable groups, such as teenagers. Lastly, they can quit their job because
the dissonance is too great

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Behavior modification

Continuous reinforcement schedules can lead to early satiation, and under this schedule behavior tends to
weaken rapidly when reinforcers are withheld. However, continuous reinforcers are appropriate for newly emitted,
unstable, or low-frequency responses. In contrast intermittent reinforces preclude early satiation because they don’t
follow every response. They are appropriate for stable or high-frequency responses.

In general, variable schedules tend to lead to higher performance than fixed schedules. For example as noted
previously, most employees in organization are paid on fixed-interval schedules. By such a schedule does not clearly
link performance and rewards. The reward is given or time spent on the job rather than for a specific response
(performance). In contrast, variable interval schedules generate high rates of response and more stable and consistent
behavior because of a high correlation between performance and reward and because of the uncertainty involved – the
employee tends to be more alert because there is a surprise factor.

There is a now classic study that took place a number of years ago with freight packers at Emery Air Freight (now part
of FedEx). Emery’s management wanted packers to use freight containers for shipments whenever possible because of
specific economic savings. Then packers were asked about the percentage of shipments contained the standard reply
was 90 percent. An analysis by Emery found however, that the actual container utilization rate was only 45 per cent. In
order to encourage employees to use containers, management established a program of feedback and positive
reinforcement. Each packet was instructed to keep a checklist of daily packings, both containerized and non-
containerized. At the end of each day, the packer computed the container utilization rate. Almost unbelievable
Container utilization jumped to more than 90 per cent on the first day of the program and held at that level. Emery
reported that this simple program of feedback and positive reinforcement saved the company $2 million over a 3 year
period.

This program at Emery Air Freight illustrates the use of behavior modification, or what has become more popularly
called OB Mod. It represents the application of reinforcement concepts to individuals in the work setting. The typical
OB Mod program follows a five step problem solving model: (1) identifying critical behaviors; (2) developing baseline
data; (3) identifying behavioral consequences (4) developing and implementing an intervention strategy; and (5)
evaluating performance improvement. Everything an employee does on the job is not equally important in terms of
performances outcomes. The first step in OB Mod, therefore, is to identify the critical behaviors that make a significant
impact on the employee’s job performance. These are those 5 to 10 percent of behaviors that may account for up to 70
or 80 percent of each employee’s performance. Freight packers using containers whenever possible at Emery Air
Freight is an example of a critical behavior.

The second step requires the manager to develop some baseline performance data. This is obtained by determining the
number of times the identified behavior is occurring under present conditions. In our freight-packing example at Emery,
this would have revealed that 45 percent of all shipments were containerized. Third step is to perform a functional
analysis to identify the behavioral contingencies or consequences of performance. This tells the manager the antecedent
cues that emit the behavior and the consequences that are currently maintaining it. At Emery Air Freight, social norms
and the grater difficulty in packing containers were the antecedent cues. This encouraged the practice of packing items
separately. Moreover, the consequences for containing the behavior, prior to the OB Mod intervention, were social
acceptance and escaping more demanding work.

Once the functional analysis is complete, the manager is ready to develop and implement an intervention strategy to
strengthen desirable performance behaviors and weaken undesirable behaviors. The appropriate strategy will entail
changing some elements of the performance – reward linkage structure, processes, technology groups, or the task with
the goal of making high level performance more rewarding. In the Emery example, the work technology was altered to
require the keeping of a checklist. The checklists plus the computation, at the end of the day of a container utilization
rate acted to reinforce the desirable behavior of using containers.

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Recruiting Passive talent

There is a famous adage, ‘A rolling stone gathers no moss.’ In the corporate context, the adage indicates the
importance of being on the constant lookout for a suitable opportunity and shift gears once the opportunity comes
knocking. However for several employees, the above saying doesn’t ring true at all. They are satisfied with their current
designation in their present organization. They are high flying executives formulating successful strategies for their
companies. Most importantly, they are highly engaged motivated and are not seeking a change. They don’t even update
their resumes. Experts try to generate this trend by stating that these are employees who are “too” satisfied or “too”
successful to even consider a shift. They are “passive” candidates. And statistics prove that passive job seekers
comprise a decent percentage of the best talent in the industry. Therefore, the million dollar question is, wouldn’t you
rather spend time and money hiring a passive candidate over an active one? The answer of many HR managers is a
resounding ‘yes.’ Hence companies are devoting resources to lure the attention and interest of passive candidates.

In the “push pull” theory for employees, they are the ones with minimum ‘push’ factor and for whom, talent hunters
would need to try extra hard to pull; mostly, because of their competencies. It is generally believed that passive
candidates are the cream of the crop and the personality traits that they possess are in maximum demand among
prospective employers. To a great extent, for an employer, the passive job seeker is the best bet.Passive job seekers are
people between mid to senior levels, with a higher level of expertise in their field. Many companies look out for these
well-experienced people for managerial and other leadership positions. The track record of passive job seekers in their
respective functions is extremely good and by virtue of their stable tenures with companies, they usually have
experienced full-blown project or product life cycles. This loyal workforce works for the intrinsic satisfaction they
derive from doing interesting work for a helpful employer. Industries that have high growth opportunities and high
employee turnover are on a constant hunt for such experienced people.

But reaching out to passive job seekers and convincing them to take up a job is not an easy task. As they are already in
comfortable positions in their respective organizations, they are less likely to apply for jobs. So, they must be persuaded
to move from their current employer to another. Gaining the confidence of passive job seekers is important. The
headhunter often has to play the role of a career guide or consultant to convince a passive job seeker. It is also
imperative not to push them into taking up a job. The employer brand, a challenging work profile, better perks and
employee satisfaction are attractive baits for passive job seekers. They also seek better learning possibilities over
financial benefits, especially in IT and other skill-oriented industries.

Recruiting passive candidates is a Herculean task. Though they are not actively looking out for a shift, they are averse
to a change if opportunities do arise, provided the opportunity matches up to their standards. Is the position that you are
offering as an employer desirable enough? Are you a strong enough employer brand to call and convince the candidate
to shift? And are you ‘active’ enough to lure a ‘passive’ candidate? If the job seeker is passively looking for a job, the
recruiter has to put in a lot of effort in order to garb his/her interest, persuade him/her for you and then, keep the
candidate constantly engaged. Experts say that if the recruiter is willing to take the plunge, the employer shouldn’t give
up on the candidate to soon. He/she might go back to his/her pervious employer and passively pursue his/her career or
he/she will move on to a better employer that fulfils his/her criteria.But it’s obvious that employers aren’t willing to
give up when it comes to hiring a passive candidate. The discussion with a passive job seeker regarding an opportunity
must be one in a manner, which arouses interest. The initial talk has to be powerful with compelling statements about
why the opening is a dream job and why the prospective organization is a dream employer as they have to believe they
will get to do interesting work and interact with talented peers. The passive job seeker needs to be convinced that their
work will be valued and also opportunities through job portals or recruitment agencies. The objective however, is to
ensure smooth functioning of the recruitment process. Often, recruiters tend to carry out a hasty procedure and go
overboard when they stumble upon passive candidate. The recruiter might end up overselling, over exaggerating the
candidate’s future work profile and ignoring the candidate’s demands in the bargain.

Many organizations consider proactive networking as the best strategy to reach out to passive job seekers. Business
seminars, networking forums, employee referrals etc. are preferred means of recruitment to rope in passive job seekers.
But today many organizations rely on e-networking sites for recruitment. An employer can also ask his high performing
employees to refer other high performing employees working elsewhere. To tap the power of technology, there are
certain online tools to reach out to passive job seekers.

128 / 176 C, Vedigounder Colony, Thiruvagoundanoor Bye Pass, Salem 636 005
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The trend of recruiting passive candidates is slowly catching up. While hiring passive candidates may seem as an
exciting proposition, it poses a major challenge. But if recruiters are willing to spend considerable amounts of time and
money to lure passive candidates, the hunt is definitely worth it.

128 / 176 C, Vedigounder Colony, Thiruvagoundanoor Bye Pass, Salem 636 005
Phone : 0427 6532870 Mobile : 98427 33318 Email: info@helikx.com
Web site: www.helikx.com