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