An attitude refers to our opinions, beliefs, and feelings about aspects of our environment. ...

At work, two, job attitudes have the greatest potential to influence how we behave. These
are job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Job satisfaction refers to the feelings
people have toward their job.
Structure 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.
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. Using the 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.
example: “I am scared of spiders”. Smoking is Injurious to Health. Babies are cute.
Behavioural (or conative) component: the way the attitude we have influences on how we
act or behave. Behavior component of an attitude consists of a person’s tendencies to
behave in a particular way toward an object. It refers to that part of attitude which reflects
the intention of a person in the short-run or long run.
Using the above example, the behavioural attitude maybe- ‘I cannot wait to kiss the baby’,
or ‘we better keep those smokers out of the library, etc. For example: “I will avoid spiders
and scream if I see one”. It’s better to keep those smokers out of the office.
Cognitive component: this involves a person’s belief / knowledge about an attitude object.
The cognitive component of attitudes refers to the beliefs, thoughts, and attributes that we
would associate with an object. It is the opinion or belief segment of an attitude. 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, for example: “I believe spiders
are dangerous”. such as ‘all babies are cute’, ‘smoking is harmful to health’ etc.
This model is known as the ABC model of attitudes.
Types of Attitudes.
A person can have thousands of attitudes, but organizational behavior focuses our attention
on a very limited number of work-related attitudes. Most of the research in organizational
behavior has been concerned with three attitudes.
Job Satisfaction,
Job Involvement,
Organizational Commitment.
Job Satisfaction.
Job satisfaction is the level of contentment a person feels regarding his or her job. This
feeling is mainly based on an individual’s perception of satisfaction.
A person with a high level of job satisfaction holds positive attitudes about the job, while a
person who is dissatisfied with his or her job holds a negative attitude about the job.
A person having a negative attitude shows a personality disposition that is inclined to
experience nervousness, tension, upset, distress, etc. whereas those with a positive attitude
will feel happy themselves, others, and their work.
Generally, it is deemed a high level of job satisfaction means positive attitudes towards the
job and vice versa.
When people speak of employee attitudes, often they mean job satisfaction. In fact, the two
are frequently used interchangeably.
Job Involvement
Job involvement refers to the degree with which an individual identifies psychologically with
his or her job and perceives his or her perceived performance level important to self-worth.
High levels of job involvement are related to fewer absences and lower resignation rates.
However, it seems to predict more consistently turnover than absenteeism, according to as
much as 16 percent of the variance in the former.

Organizational Commitment
The last job-attitude refers to organizational commitment. It is understood as one’s
identification with his or her organization and feels proud of being its employee.
It is defined as a state in which an employee identifies with a particular organization and, its
goals, and wishes to maintain membership in the organization.
Different studies demonstrate that an individual’s level of organizational commitment is a
better indicator of turnover than the far more frequently used job satisfaction predictor,
explaining as much as 34 percent of the variance.
Basically, turnover and absenteeism are low when employees have an organizational
commitment.
Functions of Attitude
Based on an extensive review of surveys of employers, an analysis concluded that “the most
important consideration in hiring and the biggest deficit among new workforce entrants are
the attitudes concerning work that they bring with them to their jobs. These attitudes are
often related to important values.
Daniel Katz outlines 4 functions of attitudes.
1. Adjustment Function.
2. Ego-Defensive Function.
3. Value-Expressive Function.
4. Knowledge Function.

Adjustment Function
Attitudes often help people to adjust to their work environment.
When employees are well treated, they are likely to develop a positive attitude toward
management and the organization.
When employees are criticized and given a minimal salary, they are likely to develop a
negative attitude toward management and the organization.
These attitudes help employees adjust to their environment and are a basis for future
behavior. The adjustment function directs people toward pleasurable or rewarding objects
and away from unpleasant, undesirable ones.
It serves the utilitarian concept of maximizing reward and minimizing punishment.
Thus, the attitudes of consumers depend to a large degree on their perceptions of what is
needed satisfying and what is punishing.
Ego-Defensive Function
The ego-defensive function refers to holding attitudes that protect our self-esteem or that
justify actions that make us feel guilty.
This function involves psychoanalytic principles where people use Défense mechanisms to
protect themselves from psychological harm.
Mechanisms include denial, repression, projection, rationalization, etc.
For example, an older manager whose decisions are continually challenged by a younger
subordinate manager may feel that the later is brash, cocky, immature, and inexperienced.
In truth, the younger subordinate may be right in challenging the decisions.
The older manager may not be a very effective leader and may constantly make poor
decisions.
On the other hand, the older manager is not going to admit this but will try to protect the
ego by blaming the other party.

Value-Expressive Function
Whereas ego defensive attitudes are formed to protect a person’s self-image, value-
expressive attitudes enable the expression of the person’s centrally held values.
Central values tend to establish our identity and gain us social approval thereby showing us
who we are, and what we stand for.
Some attitudes are important to a person because they express values that are integral to
that person’s self-concept.
Therefore, consumers adopt certain attitudes to translate their values into something more
tangible and easily expressed.
Our value-expressive attitudes are closely related to our self-concept.
One whose central value is freedom, the individual may express very positive attitudes
towards the decentralization of authority in the organization, flexible work schedules, and
relaxation of dress standards.
Knowledge Function
The knowledge function refers to our need which is consistent and relatively stable.
This allows us to predict what is likely to happen, and so gives us a sense of control.
Some attitudes are useful because they help to make the world more understandable.
They help people ascribe causes to events and direct attention towards features of people
or situations that are likely to be useful in making sense of them.
Consequently, they help to make the world more understandable, predictable, and
knowable. Knowing a person’s attitude helps us predict their behavior.
For example- people who are not familiar with nuclear energy may develop an attitude that
is dangerous and should not be used as an energy source.
Stereotyping is another example.
In the absence of knowledge about a person, we may use a stereotyped attitude for judging
the person.

Factors Influencing Attitude.

Factors Influencing Attitude by attitudes, we mean the beliefs, feelings, and action
tendencies of an individual or group of individuals towards objects, ideas, and people.
the essential aspect, of the attitude is found in the fact that some characteristic feeling or
emotion is experienced and, as we would accordingly expect, some definite tendency to
action is associated.
Subjectively, then, the important factor is the feeling or emotion.
These are the factors influencing attitude.
 Social Factors.
 Direct Instruction.
 Family.
 Prejudices.
 Personal Experience.
 Media.
 Educational and Religious Institutions.
 Physical Factors.
 Economic Status and Occupations.
Social Factors
Every society has most people who prefer to lead a harmonious life. They try to avoid
unnecessary friction of conflicts with people.
Naturally, they are inclined to develop positive attitudes towards most of the people and
issues.
Our attitudes may facilitate and maintain our relationships with members of positively
valued groups. Social roles and social norms can have a strong influence on attitudes. Social
roles relate to how people are expected to behave in a particular role or context. Social
norms involve society’s rules for what behaviours are considered appropriate. Direct
Instruction
In general, the individual being conformist or the direction of the attitude of the people it
deems important. Sometimes direct instruction can influence attitude formation.
For example, somebody gives information about the usefulness of some fruit.
On the basis of this information, we can develop a positive or negative attitude about that
fruit.
Family
The family is the most powerful source for the formation of attitudes. The parents, elder
brother or sister provide information about various things.
Attitudes developed by an individual, whether positive or negative are the result of family
influence, which is very powerful and difficult to change.
Prejudices.
An attitude may involve a prejudice, in which we prejudge an issue without considering all
the evidence.
Prejudices are preconceived ideas or judgments where one develops some attitudes toward
other people, objects, etc.
If we are prejudiced against a person, who is, accused of a crime, we may regard him as
guilty regardless of the evidence. We can also be prejudiced in favour of something.
Personal Experience
To be the basis of attitudes, personal experiences have left a strong impression.
Therefore, the attitude will be more easily formed when personal experience involves
emotional factors.
In situations involving emotions, appreciation will be more in-depth experience and longer
trace.
Media
As a means of communication, mass media such as television, radio, has a major influence in
shaping people’s opinions and beliefs.
There is new information on something that provides the foundation for the emergence of
new cognitive attitudes towards it.
Educational and Religious Institutions
As a system, educational and religious institutions have a strong influence in shaping
attitudes because they lay the foundation of understanding and moral concepts within the
individual.
Understanding the good and the bad, the dividing line between something that can and
cannot do is obtained from the centre of the educational and religious institutions.
Physical Factors
Clinical psychologists have generally recognized that physical, health and vitality are
important factors in determining adjustment, and frequently it has been found that
malnutrition or disease or accidents have interfered so seriously with normal development
that serious behavioural disturbances have followed.
Economic Status and Occupations
Our economic and occupational positions also contribute to attitude formation.
They determine, in part, our attitudes towards unions and management and our belief that
certain laws are ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Our socio-economic background influences our present and
future attitudes.
Attitudes reflect more than just positive or negative evaluations: they include other
characteristics, such as importance, certainty, accessibility, and associated knowledge.
Attitudes are important in the study of social psychology because they influence the amount
of attention and the type of judgment an individual may give to a specific subject.
Generally, we tend to assume that people behave in accordance with their attitudes.
However, social psychologists have found that attitudes and actual behavior are not always
perfectly aligned.