ATTITUDE

Attitudes

• Evaluative statements or judgments concerning

objects people or events.

• An attitude is a predisposition to act or feel

in a certain way towards a person or thing.
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Nature of Attitudes
i. Are organised and are core to an
individual.
ii. Have an emotional charge + or –
Situation
iii. Occur within a situation
Attitude
iv. Can not be measured direct
v. Are learned
vi. Not temporary - more or less
enduring
vii. Not similar to values but
interrelated
 Components of Attitude (ABC Model)

• Affect (How I feel about it):

Moods and emotions about
some idea, person, event or
AFFECTIVE BEHAVIOUR
object. Feeling Active

• Behavioural tendency (active):

favourable or unfavourable
COGNITIVE
evaluation of something. Knowledge

• Cognitions (what I think or

know): beliefs, opinion,
knowledge or information held
by individual.
Example:

Affective
Component
• (eg. Stealing • (You would
is bad) • (I hate xyz stay away
because he from xyz)
Cognitive steals)
Behavioral
Component Component
• The importance of the model is that to
thoroughly understand an attitude, one must
assess all three components.

• Example – If one wants to evaluate one’s

employees attitude toward ‘flexitime’:

a) One would determine how they feel about

flexitime (Affective)
b) Whether they would use flexitime (Behaviour)
c) What they think about policy (Cognition)
• Attitudes are generally +tive or -tive views of a
person, place, thing, or event- this is often
referred to as the attitude object.

a) Positive Attitude :- A mental phenomenon in

which central idea is that one can increase
achievement through optimistic thought
processes.

b) Negative Attitude :- Characterized by a great

disdain for everything. Someone who constantly
points out the negative in everything.
Why Attitudes Matter at Work?

• Because attitudes to work might affect:

 Whether a person seeks a new job?

 How co-operative they are with others at
work?
 Whether they present a positive image of
organisation to clients or customers?
 How they react to change?
 How hard they work (motivation)?
 Their psychological or physical health?
 Types of Attitudes(Workplace)
1. Job Satisfaction: A collection of positive and
or negative feelings that an individual holds
toward his or her job.

2. Job Involvement: Identifying with the job,

actively participating in it, and considering
performance important to self-worth.

3. Organizational Commitment: Identifying with a

particular organization and its goals, and
wishing to maintain membership in the
organization.
Formation of Attitude
• They are learned.

• These develop over time.

• As you grow…..
▫ you watch people around you behaving in a particular way
▫ you learn from your teachers and peers
▫ you come to value certain things over other
………..thus forming your value system.

• These in turn give rise to development of your attitudes.

• Individuals acquire attitudes from several sources:

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Experience with object

Mass communications Classical conditioning

Economic status ATTITUDES Operant conditioning

Vicarious learning
Neighbourhood

Family and peer groups

1) Experience with Object : Develop from a personally
rewarding or punishing experience with a object.

2) Classical Conditioning :Involves involuntary

responses and is acquired through the pairing of
two stimuli.

3) Operant Conditioning : It is based on the “Law of

Effect” and involves voluntary responses ,Behaviors.

4) Vicarious Learning : By observing behaviour of

others and consequences of that behaviour.
5) Family and Peer Groups : Learn through imitation of
parents.

6) Neighbourhood : By schools, community

organizations, religious doctrine, friends, etc.

7) Economic Status : Our Economical and occupational

positions contribute to its formation.

8) Mass Communication : Television, Radio, Newspaper

and magazine feed their audiences large quantities
of information.
 Change of Attitude
• Attitudes help predict work behavior.

• It helps people to adapt to their work

environment.

• Employees’ attitudes can be changed.

• The process of changing the attitude is not

always easy. It can be done by:
1. Giving feedback- Employees are told about their
negative attitude and if it is harmful and manager
needs to offer alternative attitude.

2. Good Working Condition to work in the culture.

3. Positive Role Model- if the Manager is the positive

attitude and the role model the workers provides
the positive attitude.

4. Providing new information- update information

and do not ignore the information's.
5. Use of fear to change some unethical negative
attitude.

6. Providing co-opting some situations to change their

attitude .

7. Degree of commitment on target means morale

development.
 Positive Attitude at Workplace:

1. Increases productivity
2. Fosters teamwork
3. Solves problems
4. Improves quality
5. Breeds loyalty
6. Increase profits
7. Reduces stress
8. Makes for pleasing personality