Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Attitudes
Attitudes
Its not the ability to do the job that counts, its whether theyve got the right
attitude.
Supervisor in a car factory
Section
objectives
In this section you will
_ Examine the defnition, formation and outcomes of attitudes
_ Identify the link between attitudes and prejudice and discrimination
_ Examine the process of attitude change and measurement and
_ Identify some of the trends connecting attitudes and work
1.4.1 Introduction
It is impossible to directly observe someone!s attitudes, yet they play an increasingly
critical part in the job selection, promotion and development processes Employers
enthusiastically seek job candidates who will have the "right attitude! to the
organi#ation
and the job $ith the appropriate attitude, some will argue, they can be developed,
nurtured
and moulded into the ideal employee
24 Core Management for H !tudents and "ractitioners
$hat is an attitude% It can be said to have a number of properties&
_ It is a disposition towards other persons, inanimate objects or ideas or abstract
concepts,
that is, a mixture of feelings, knowledge and a predisposition to behave towards
them
if given the opportunity to do so
_ It is relatively permanent 's we will see, our attitudes are based on our individual
value
system( this is not something which can be changed easily but is rooted in the essential
way we see the world around us
_ 'n attitude can be positive or negative, and we may attribute attitudes to other
people
)or example, employees who scrupulously take their allotted lunch break of one hour to
the full may be perceived by their manager to have a "negative attitude! to their work
'lternatively, the attitude of someone to those of the same political persuasion may be
a positive one
_ 'ttitudes permit people to construct an orderly framework of recognition and
behaviour
based on the life*standards determined by their central values
+he frst of these properties could be translated into three se,uential statements&
"$hat I know! -or rather what I think I know. / that is, our cognitive beliefs, which are
rational and logical to us, about someone or something
"$hat I feel! / that is, my positive or negative feelings about someone or something -an
a0ectation.