ORGANISATIONAL

ATTITUDE

By ANOOP MOHAN
 OVERVIEW
 NATURE & DIMENSIONS OF ATTITUDE
 TYPES OF ATTITUDE
 COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDE
 FORMATION OF ATTITUDE
 FUNCTIONS OF ATTITUDE
 MEASUREEMNT OF ATTITUDE
 SUMMARY
 REFERENCES
 THE NATURE AND DIMENSIONS
OF ATTITUDES
“Attitudes”
The attitude is the evaluative statements or
judgments concerning objects, people, or
events. More precisely attitudes can be defined as
a persistent tendency to feel and behave in a
particular way toward some object which may
include events or individuals as well.

Characteristics of Attitudes
 They tend to persist unless something is done to
change them.
 They can fall anywhere along a continuum from very
favorable to very unfavorable.
 They are directed toward some object about which a
person has feelings and beliefs.
 TYPES OF ATTITUDES
 Job Satisfaction
A collection of positive and or negative feelings that an individual holds
toward his or her job.
 Job Involvement
Identifying with the job, actively participating in it, and considering
performance important to self-worth.
 Organizational Commitment
Identifying with a particular organization and its goals, and wishing to
maintain membership in the organization.
 THE NATURE AND DIMENSIONS
OF ATTITUDES

 Components of Attitudes
 COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDES

Attitudes structure can be described in terms

of three components.

 Affective component: this involves a person’s

feelings / emotions about the attitude object. For
example: “I am scared of spiders”.
 Behavioral (or cognitive) component: the way the
attitude we have influences how we act or behave.
For example: “I will avoid spiders and scream if I
see one”.
 Cognitive component: this involves a person’s
belief / knowledge about an attitude object. For
example: “I believe spiders are dangerous”.
This model is known as the ABC model of attitudes. The
three components are usually linked. However, there is
evidence that the cognitive and affective components of
behavior do not always match with behavior.
They evaluative statements in an attitude are either
favorable or unfavorable. They reflect how one feel
about something.
A person can have thousands of attitudes. But OB
focuses on a limited number of job-related attitudes.
These include job satisfaction
job involvement (the degree to which person identifies
with his or her job and actively participates in it)
 And organizational commitment (an indicator of
loyalty to, and, identification with the organization).
 FORMATION OF ATTITUDE
 How attitudes are formed? How do you develop your attitude? Essentially
attitudes are the outward manifestation of your inner values and beliefs.
 These develop over time. As you grow you watch the significant people around
you behaving in a particular way; you are being told to cherish certain things over
others and you learn from your teachers and peers and come to value certain
thins over other, thus forming your value system. These in turn give rise to
development of your attitudes.
 Attitudes help predict work behavior. The following example might help
to illustrate it. After introducing a particular policy, it is found from an
attitude survey, that the workers are not too happy about it. During the
subsequent week it is found that the attendance of the employees drops
sharply from the previous standard. Here management may conclude
that a negative attitude toward new work rules led to increased
absenteeism.
 Attitudes help people to adapt to their work environment. An
understanding of attitudes is also important because attitudes help the
employees to get adjusted to their work. If the management can
successfully develop a- positive attitude among the employees, they will
be better adjusted to their work.
PROCESS OF FORMATION OF ATTITUDE

A) Social Learning: it is acquiring attitudes from others. There are

broadly three processes of acquiring attitudes through social
learning: Classical Conditioning, instrumental Conditioning, and
Modeling.

 Classical Conditioning is a basic form of learning in which one

stimulus regularly precedes another. It is learning based of
association, that when first stimulus is represent, the second would
follow. Prejudices and preferences are created through classical
conditioning. Classical Conditioning can play a role in the
development of attitudes.
 Instrumental Conditioning is concerned with learning to express the
“right” views. Instrumental Conditioning is created through
rewarding a desirable behavior and discouraging an undesirable
behavior. Thus a particular type of attitude is created towards a
particular type of action through Instrumental Conditioning.
Modeling as a concept deals with individuals acquiring new behaviors
through observing the actions of others. Individuals tend to do what
others do, not what others say. Thus attitudes may be transmitted from
one person to other or from one group to other, or from one generation to
other.

B) Direct Experience: Attitudes are also formed through real life

experience, which may be also called as direct experience or personal
experience. Various studies suggest that strength of the attitudes
acquired through direct experience is stronger than the strength of
attitudes acquired indirectly. Attitudes acquired through direct experience
are held more confidently and are more difficult to be subjected to
change. If you hold strong attitude about an object, issue, or a person,
and you want others to properly understand your stand, it is better to let
others have direct experience with the attitude object.
 FUNCTIONS OF ATTITUDE
According to Katz, attitudes serve four important functions from the
viewpoint of organizational behavior. These are as follows.
 The Adjustment Function. Attitudes often help people to adjust to their
work environment. Well-treated employees tend to develop a positive
attitude towards their job, management and the organization in general
while berated and ill treated organizational members develop a
negative attitude. In other words, attitudes help employees adjust to
their environment and form a basis for future behavior.
 Ego-Defensive Function. Attitudes help people to retain their dignity
and self- image. When a young faculty member who is full of fresh
ideas and enthusiasm, joins the organization, the older members might
feel somewhat threatened by him. But they tend to disapprove his
creative ideas as ‘crazy’ and ‘impractical’ and dismiss him altogether.
 The Value-Expressive Function. Attitudes
provide individuals with a basis for expressing
their values. For example, a manager who
values hard and sincere work will be more
vocal against an employee who is having a
very casual approach towards work.
 The Knowledge Function. Attitudes provide
standards and frames of reference that allow
people to understand, and perceive the world
around him. If one has a strong negative
attitude towards the management, whatever
the management does, even employee welfare
programmes can be perceived as something
‘bad’ and as actually against them.
Measurement Of Attitude
A) LIKERT’S METHOD
 It uses 5 parameters.

 These points show the degree of agreement or

disagreement.
 It is considered better than Thurstone’s method.

 It is also called as summated rating scale.

THURSTSONE’S TECHNIQUE OF SCALING

 Developed by THURSTSONE & CHAVE.

 This technique was based on 11 statements.

 Most favorable statement was put under pile-1

while the most unfavorable under pile-11.
 The scale is shown to the respondent.

 His attitude score is then calculated on the

average of what he has checked.
 SUMMARY

 Attitudes have traditionally been described as a process in

which we logically calculate our feelings toward the attitude
object based on an analysis of our beliefs. Thus, beliefs
predict feelings, which predict behavioral intentions, which
predict behavior. But this traditional perspective overlooks
the role of emotions, which have an important influence on
attitudes and behavior

 Behavior sometimes influences our subsequent attitudes

through cognitive dissonance. People also have personality
traits which affect their emotions and attitudes.
 REFERENCES
 Attitudes Influence on Behavior. (n.d.). Retrieved from boundless
- Better than your assigned text books:
https://www.boundless.com/management/organizational-
behavior/drivers-of-behavior/attitudes-influence-on-behavior/

 Luthans, F. (2008). Organizational Behavior. Mc Graw Hill

International Edition.

 ORGANISATION BEHAVIOUR – ATTITUDE. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://mbanotesravi.com/2012/11/27/organisation-behaviour-
attitude/.
 What Are Attitudes? (n.d.). Retrieved from Pearson Education :
http://wps.pearsoned.ca/ca_ph_johns_ob_7/67/17350/4441642.
cw/index.html
 WORKPLACE EMOTIONS. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://highered.mcgraw-
hill.com/sites/dl/free/0070876940/355897/sample_ch04.pdf.

 www.ftms.edu. (n.d.). Values, Attitudes, and Job Satisfaction.

Retrieved from

 Values, Attitudes, and Job Satisfaction:

http://www.ftms.edu.my/pdf/Download/PostgraduateStudent/OB
-lecture%202%20values,%20attitude%20and%20job
%20satisfaction.pdf

 McLeod, S. A. (2009). Attitudes and Behavior - Simply Psychology.

Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/attitudes.html

 Hogg, M., & Vaughan, G. (2005). Social Psychology (4th edition).

London: Prentice-Hall .