ATTITUDE

CONCEPT OF ATTITUDE
Attitudes are evaluative statements. They respond ones feeling either favorably or unfavorable to
persons, objects events. In other words attitude reflect how one feels about something for e.g. if a
Professor says I like teaching, he is expressing attitude about his work.
The attitude can be understood as Frames of references. They provide the background against
which facts and events are viewed. It is a set of predisposition of opinion, interest for a certain kind
of experience and a readiness with an appropriate response. It is a cognitive element which remains
inside of an individual. Manager need to understand employees attitudes in order to get the things
done effectively. It has been observed that attitude influence employees behaviour and performance
in an organisation.

DEFINITION
Attitudes are evaluative statements either favourable or unfavorable concerning objects people
or events. They reflect how one feels about something.
The word attitude describes a persistent tendency to feel & behave in a particular way towards
some objects.
Attitudes are learned predispositions towards aspects of our environment. They may be positively
or negatively directed towards certain people service or institutions
It can be defined as a mental state of readiness, organised through experience, exerting a specific
influence upon a persons response to people, object and situation with which it is related.

Components of an attitude
Three components of an attitude are cognition affect & behaviour.
Cognitive component of an attitude:It is the opinion or belief segment of an attitude. These are the thoughts and beliefs people have
about an attitude object. For instance, you might like a singer because he or she has a melodic voice
and catchy lyrics. You might also believe that the singer is a lot like you are which makes the music
easier to relate to.
Affective component of an attitude:It is emotional or feeling segment of an attitude. This consists of the emotional reactions people have
to attitude objects. For instance, if you have a favorite singer and you hear their voice come on the
radio you might have feelings of happiness or excitement. If there is a car you think is ugly looking
you might feel annoyed when you spot one on the road.
Behavioural component of an attitude:It refers to an intention to behave in a certain way toward someone or something. This consists of
actions or observable behavior that is the result of an attitude object. If you hear a song you like on
the radio then you might go home and research the singer so you can buy their album. You might
then spend all your free time listening to this album. The attitude object has changed your behavior
and actions.
1

The belief that discrimination is wrong is a value statement. Such an opinion is the cognitive
component of attitude. It set the stage for the more critical part for an attitudeit is affective
component. Affect the emotional or feeling segment of an attitude and is reflected in the statement I
dont like Ramesh because he discriminates against minorities. Finally and well discuss this issue
at considerable length later in this section, affect can lead to behavioural outcomes. The behavioural
component of an attitude refers to an intention to behave in a certain way towards someone or
something. So, to continue our example, I might choose to avoid Ramesh because of my feeling
about him.
Viewing attitudes as made up of three component-cognitive, affect, and behavioural is helpful
towards understanding their complexity and the potential relationship between attitude and
behaviour. But for the claritys sake, keep in the mind that the term attitude essentially refers to the
affect part of the three components.

FEATURES / NATURE OF ATTITUDE (CHARACTERISTICS)

Attitudes refer to feelings & beliefs of individuals or groups of individuals: It exists with in
an individual and that is why it is considered as evaluative statement or predispositions of an
individual. Attitude is a psychological phenomenon which referred to feeling and belief held
by individual or group.
The feelings & beliefs are directed towards other people, objects or ideas: In simple term
attitude represents an individuals feeling and belief which are directed in response to other
individual, object or situation based on prior experience.
Attitudes tend to result in behavioural action: Behavioural out come or response is based on
the attitude held by an individual. An individuals attitude will determine the action, if the
attitude is positive we can predict that the behavioural action will be positive.
Attitudes can fall anywhere along continuum from very favourable to very unfavourable:
It refer to feeling and basic conviction held by an individual for an object or individual
ranging from very favourable to very unfavourable. In simple it can be very positive to very
negative.
Attitudes endure: Attitude endure for a long time, once it is formed it is difficult to change.
The endurance of attitude is based on the sources from which it is formed.
All people, irrespective of their status or intelligence, hold attitudes: Every person in the
world hold attitude and their attitude will differ from other. Within all levels of an
organisation, people hold attitude. It has nothing to do with the status or intelligence they
possess. Whether, it is chairman or peon, irrespective of their status holds attitude. It is
obvious that their attitudes will differ but all of them hold attitudes.

FUNCTIONS OF ATTITUDE
Attitude is a predispotion of an individual which influence individual at the work floor. We hold
certain attitudes towards individuals or object because attitude helps us to respond to the individuals
or object in a meaningful way. Following are some of the basic functions of attitude.

Adjustment function: This function is also known as utilitarian or instrumental function of attitude.
An attitude may be developed because either the attitude or the object of the attitude is instrumental
or adjustive in helping one to obtain rewards or avoid punishments. In some cases attitude is a mean
to an end. A worker finds that when he expressed a negative attitude towards his boss, his coworkers pay attention to and sympathize with him, but when he express a positive attitude, he is
ignored or chastened. The negative attitude is instrumental in obtaining rewards (acceptance from
co-workers) and avoiding punishment (rejection or avoidance form co-workers). In another case, the
object is a mean to an end, and the attitude develops from association of the object and it outcome.
For example, a loan executive may develop favourable attitude towards salaried people, to whom he
can easily sell, and a negative attitude towards self employed people, who he finds are always
searching for a bargain and difficult to sell. He associates success and profit with salaried people and
failure and difficulty with self employed, and thus he develops appropriate attitudes towards those
objects through association.
Ego Defence Function: People often form and maintain certain attitudes to protect their own self
images. For example, superior may feel threatened by the employment or advancement of
subordinates at equal grade in their organisation. These threatened superior may develop prejudices
against the subordinates in the organisation. They may develop an attitude that such newcomers are
less qualified, and they might mistreat these subordinates. Such an ego defensive attitude is formed
and used to cope with a feeling of guilt or threat. Unless this feeling is removed, this kind of attitude
will remain unchanged.
Value Expressive Function: Our attitude reflects our value systems. And our value expressive
attitudes are closely related to our self concept. One whose central value is the freedom, the
individual may express very positive attitudes towards decentralization of authority in the
organisation, flexible work schedules, and relaxation of dress standards. The other example of value
expressive function is that if the central value is pragmatic, the individual may express positive
attitudes towards the practical people, those who are concerned with an end and not with the mean to
achieve that end.
Knowledge Function: Attitude is often substituted for knowledge. In the absence of knowledge, we
use our attitude to organize and make sense out of the perceived object or person. For example,
people who are not familiar with nuclear energy may develop an attitude that it 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 persons behaviour.
Manager should know about these attitude functions because knowledge of such function can
provide valuable information like first, it helps us to understand and predict how a certain person is
person is likely to behave. Second, it can help manager to change the attitude of other person. As we
know that the characteristic of attitude is to endure but it doesnt means that we can not change it. He
can do this by changing the conditions that sustain the attitude.
Following are some of the other functions performed by attitude.
1.

Attitude Determines Meaning: Attitude is defined as evaluative statement,

predispositions, or persistent tendency to feel and behave. We can determine the behaviour of other
person on the basis of his/ her attitude towards object, event, and individuals. If the attitude of that
individual is positive or favourable the response from his side will be positive or favourable.
Similarly, unfavourable or negative attitudinal response will generate bias and disagreement.
Attitude provides background against which facts and events are viewed. Normally people hold
attitude and it always remains inside of an individual. Study of attitude helps in understanding and
3

predicting an individuals behaviour. It is a cognitive element which determines meaning to the

response given by others in a specific situation.
2.
Attitude Reconciles Contradictions: It is very common that we come in the interaction
with the people who holds contradictory opinion. Proper understanding of attitude as a
background, we can rationalize or reconcile such responses or contradictory opinion holds by them
towards objects or individuals.
3.
Attitude Organize Facts: Different people perceive event, individual or object
differently based on the attitude they posses. An individual can concoct and wrongly communicate
the meaning to others by changing the attitude of the recipients towards the situation prevails.
4.
Attitude Select Fact: Attitude work as a filter which analyses the stimuli and
environment for generating meaning, organizing facts and selecting facts to conclude about the
object, individual and situation exists.

FACTORS AFFECTING FORMATION OF ATTITUDE OR FORMATION OF

ATTITUDE
The most important sources of acquiring attitudes are direct experience with the object, association,
family, neighbourhood, economic & social position & mass communication.

1) Direct experience with the object:Attitudes are formed on the basis of ones direct experience with object and individual. Negative or
positive response or experience with that object or individual form attitudes. For e.g. how do you
know that you like organizational behaviour or dislike computer application? The answer to it is that
you have formed these attitudes from your experience in studying these two subjects.

2) Classical conditioning & attitudes:One of the basic processes underlying attitude formation can be explained on the basis of learning
principles. Generally people develop associations between various objects & the emotional reactions
between various objects & the emotional reactions that accompany them. Positive or negative
associations can develop through classical conditioning. For example, we may come to hold a
positive attitude towards a particular perfume because a favorite model uses it.
Advances make use of the principles of classical conditioning of attitudes by attempting to link a
product they want consumers to buy with a positive feeling or event.

3) Operant conditioning & attitude acquisition:Operant conditioning (it is also a learning process) argues that behaviour (attitude) is a function of its
consequences. Behaviour is likely to be repeated if the consequences are favourable. Behaviour is
not likely to be repeated if the consequences are unfavorable. Attitudes that are reinforced, either
verbally or nonverbally, tend to be maintained conversely a person who states an attitudes that elicits
ridicule from others may modify or abandon the attitude.
4) Vicarious learning:It is a type of learning in which a person learns something through the observance of others, can also
account for attitude development particularly when the individual has no direct experience with the
abject about which the attitude is held. It is through vicarious learning processes that children pick
up the prejudices of their parents. For example, even if they never meet a blind person, children
where parents say that blind people are incompetent may adopt such attitude themselves.
4

5) Family & Peer groups:A person may learn attitude through immigration of parents. Attitudes towards religion, opposite sex,
tolerance or prejudice, education, occupations & almost all other areas where attitudes are capable of
expression are the result of our accepting or rejecting the attitudes held by members of our family.
Similarly attitudes are acquired from peer groups in colleges & organizations with which we are any
how associated.

6)

Neighborhood:-

The neighborhood we live in has a certain structure in terms of having cultural facilities, religious
grouping and possibly ethnic differences. Further it has people who are neighbors. Neighborhood is
a place where people share culture and form religious grouping and such source like neighborhood
will results in attitude formation.

7)

Economic status & occupations:-

Our economic & occupational positions also contributed to attitude formation. Our socio-economic
background influences our present & future attitudes. They determine, in part, our attitudes towards
union and management and our belief that certain laws are 'good' or 'bad'. For example the person
from high economic status (business man) forms positive attitude for privatization because he
perceives it as growth opportunity for business and country, where as, low economic status (workers)
will form negative attitude for privatization because they believe that it is the transfer of power and
resources to private industries which result in automation and generate unemployment.

8)

Mass communications:-

All varieties of mass communications-television, radio, newspaper & magazines feed their audiences
large quantities of information. The presentation of news or information is constructed so as to cater
to the attitude of audience. The audiences select the specific form of mass communication that best
reflects its attitudes on various subjects. Mass communication provide detailed information on
various subject which lead to formation of new attitude or concrete the existing one on different
subject.

TYPES OF WORK RELATED ATTITUDES:

Though an individual can have numerous of attitude, but organizational behaviour focuses on job
related attitude only. As such job related attitudes are of three types: Job satisfaction, Job
involvement & organizational commitment.

1) Job Satisfaction:
Job satisfaction refers to an individual's general attitude toward his or her job. It refers to one's
feeling towards one's job. An individual having satisfaction is said to possess positive attitude
towards the job, while a person who is dissatisfied with his or her job holds negative attitude about
the job .Job satisfaction is related with the five specific dimensions of the job pay, the work itself,
promotion opportunities, supervision & co-workers.
We have previously defined job satisfaction as an individuals general attitude towards his or her job.
This definition is clearly a very broad one. Yet this is inherent in this concept. Remember, a persons
job is more than just obvious activity of shuffling papers, waiting on customers, or driving truck. Job
requires interactions with co-workers and bosses, following organisational rules and policies,
meeting performance standards, living with working conditions that are often less than ideal, and the
like. This means that an employees assessment of how satisfied or dissatisfied he or she is with his
5

or her job is complex summation of a number of discrete job elements. How, then do we measure the
concept?
The two most widely used approaches to measure job satisfaction are a single global rating and a
summation score made up of a number of job facets. The global rating method is nothing more than
asking individuals to respond to one question, such as All things considered, how satisfied are you
with your job? respondents will respond by circling a number between one and five that
corresponds with answer from Highly Satisfied to Highly Dissatisfied. The other approach a
summation of job facets is more sophisticated. It identifies key elements in job and asks for
employees feeling about each. Typical factor that would be included are the nature of work,
supervision, present pay, promotion opportunities, and relations with co-workers. These factors are
rated on standardized scale and then added up to create an overall job satisfaction score.
Job satisfaction refers to an individual's general attitude toward his or her job. It refers to one's
feeling towards one's job. An individual having satisfaction is said to possess positive attitude
towards the job, while a person who is dissatisfied with his or her job holds negative attitude about
the job .Job satisfaction is related with the five specific dimensions of the job pay, the work itself,
promotion opportunities, supervision & co-workers.
We have previously defined job satisfaction as an individuals general attitude towards his or her job.
This definition is clearly a very broad one. Yet this is inherent in this concept. Remember, a persons
job is more than just obvious activity of shuffling papers, waiting on customers, or driving truck. Job
requires interactions with co-workers and bosses, following organisational rules and policies,
meeting performance standards, living with working conditions that are often less than ideal, and the
like.
Various studies have been conducted to find out the factors which determine job satisfaction and the
way such factors influence productivity in the organisation. Though there is no conclusive evidence
that job satisfaction affects productivity directly because productivity depends on so many variables.
Job satisfaction is the mental feeling of favorableness which an individual has about his job.
DuBrins defined job satisfaction in terms of pleasure and contentment. Job satisfaction is the
amount of pleasure and contentment associated with a job. If you like your job intensely, you will
experience high job satisfaction. If you dislike your job intensely, you will experience job
dissatisfaction.
Determinants of Job Satisfaction:
At the time of analysing the various determinants of job satisfaction, we need to keep in kind that: all
individual do not derive the equal degree of job satisfaction though they perform the same job in the
same job environment and at the same time. Therefore, it appears that besides the nature of job and
job environment, there are individual variable which affect job satisfaction. Thus all those factors
which provide a fit among individual variable, nature of job, and situational variables determine the
degree of job satisfaction.
Individual factors:
Individual possess certain expectations from their jobs. As soon as such expectations are met from
the job, individual feels satisfied from the job. Individuals education, age and other factors are the
basis for such expectations.
1. Level of Education: Level of education is the factor which determines the degree of job
satisfaction. On the basis of several studies it has been found negative correlation between
the level of education, particularly high level of education, and job satisfaction. The possible
reason for this phenomenon may be that highly educated persons have very high expectations
from their jobs which remain unsatisfied.
2. Age: individuals experience different degree of job satisfaction at different stage of their life.
Job satisfaction is high at the initial stage, gets gradually reduced, starts rising up to certain
6

stage, and finally dips to a low degree. The possible reasons for this phenomenon are like
this. When individual join an organisation, they may have some unrealistic expectations
about what they are going to derive from their work. These assumptions make them more
satisfied. However, when these assumptions fall short of reality, job satisfaction goes down.
It starts rising again as the people start to assess the job in right perspective and correct their
assumptions. At the last, particularly at the fag end of the career, job satisfaction goes down
because of fear of retirement and future outcome.
3. Other Factors: Besides the above two factors, there are other individual factors which affect
job satisfaction. If an individual does not have favourable social and family life, he may not
feel happy at the workplace. Similarly, other personal problems associated with him may
affect his level of job satisfaction.
Nature of Job: Occupational level and job content are the two important factors for deciding nature
of job, which determine job satisfaction.
1. Occupation Level: Higher level of jobs provides more satisfaction as compared to lower
levels. This happens because high level jobs carry prestige and status in society which itself
becomes sources of satisfaction for the job holders. For example, doctors derive more
satisfaction compared to salaried people.
2. Job Content: Job content refers to the intrinsic value of job which depends on the
requirement of skills for performing it, and the degree of responsibility and growth it offers.
A higher content of these factor provide higher satisfaction. For example, routine and
repetitive job provide lesser satisfaction; the degree of satisfaction progressively increases in
job rotation, job enlargement, and job enrichment.
Situational Variables: situational variable related to job satisfaction lie in organisational context
formal and informal. Formal organisation is created by management and informal organisation
emerges out of the interaction of individuals in organisation.
1. Working Conditions: Conditions of workplace and associated facilities for performing the
job determine job satisfaction. These work in two ways. First, these provide mean for job
performance. Second, provision of these conditions affects the individuals perception about
the organisation. If these factors are favourable, individual experience higher level of job
satisfaction.
2. Supervision: The type of supervision affects job satisfaction as in each type of supervision;
the degree of importance attached to individual varies. In employee oriented supervision,
there is more concern for people which is perceived favourably by them and provides them
more satisfaction. In job oriented supervision, there is more emphasis on the performance of
the job and people become secondary. This situation decrease job satisfaction.
3. Equitable Rewards: The type of linkage that is provided between job performance and
rewards determine the degree of job satisfaction. If the reward is perceived to be based on the
job performance and equitable, it offers higher satisfaction. If the reward is perceived to be
based on considerations other than the job performance, it affects job satisfaction adversely.
4. Opportunity for Promotion: It is true that individuals seek satisfaction in their jobs in the
context of job nature and work environment but they also attach importance to the
opportunities for promotion that these jobs offer. If the present job offers opportunity of
promotion in future, it provides more satisfaction. If the opportunity for such promotion is
lacking, it reduces satisfaction.
5. Work Group: Individuals work in group either created formally or they develop on their
own to seek emotional satisfaction at the workplace. To the extent, such groups are cohesive;
the degree of satisfaction is high. If the group is not cohesive, job satisfaction is low. In a
cohesive group, people derive satisfaction out of their interpersonal interaction and
7

workplace becomes satisfying leading to job satisfaction.

Effects of Job Satisfaction:

Physical and Mental Health:
Job satisfaction affects an individuals physical and mental health. Since job satisfaction is a type of
mental feeling, its favorableness and unfavourableness affects the individual psychologically which
ultimately affects his physical health. For example, Lawler has pointed out that drug abuse,
alcoholism, and mental and physical health result from psychologically harmful jobs. Further, since
a job is an important part of life, job satisfaction influences general life satisfaction. The result is that
there is spillover effect which occurs in both directions between job and life satisfaction.
Productivity: There are two views about the relationship between job satisfaction and productivity.
1. A happy worker is a productive worker,
2. A happy worker is not necessarily a productive worker.
The first view establishes a direct causes-effect relationship between job satisfaction and
productivity; when job satisfaction increases, productivity increases; when job satisfaction decreases,
productivity decreases. The basic logic behind this is that a happy worker will put more efforts for
job performance. However, this may not be true in all cases. For example, a worker having low
expectations from his jobs may feel satisfied but he may not put his efforts more vigorously because
of his low expectations from the job. Therefore, this view does not explain fully the complex
relationship between job satisfaction and productivity.
The other view, that is, a satisfied worker is not necessarily a productive worker explains the
relationship between job satisfaction and productivity. Various research studies also support this
view. This relationship may be in terms of the operation of two factors: effect of job performance on
satisfaction and organisational expectations from individuals for job performance.
1. Job performance leads to job satisfaction and not the other way round. The basic factor for
this phenomenon is the rewards attached with performance. There are two types of rewards
intrinsic and extrinsic. The intrinsic reward stems from the job itself which may be in the
form of growth potential, challenging job etc. The satisfaction on such type of reward may
help to increase productivity. The extrinsic reward is subject to control by management such
as salary, bonus etc. Any increase in these factors does not help to increase productivity
though these factor increase job satisfaction.
2. A happy worker does not necessarily contribute to higher productivity because he has to
operate under certain technological constraints and, therefore, he cannot go beyond certain
output. Further, this constraint affects the managements expectations from the individual in
the form of lower output. Thus, the work situation is pegged to minimally acceptable level of
performance.
However, it does not mean that the job satisfaction has no impact on productivity. A satisfied worker
may not necessarily lead to increased productivity but a worker who is dissatisfied leads to lower
productivity.
Absenteeism: Absenteeism refers to the frequency of absence of a job holder from the workplace
either unexcused absence due to some avoidable reasons or long absence due to some unavoidable
reasons. It is the former type of absence which is a matter of concern. This absence is due to lack of
satisfaction form the job which produces a lack of will to work and alienates a worker from work
as far as possible. Thus, satisfaction is related to absenteeism.
Employee Turnover: Turnover of employees is the rate at which employees leave the organisation
within a given period of time. When an individual feels dissatisfaction in the organisation, he tries to
overcome this through various ways of defence mechanism. If he is not able to do so, he opts to
leave the organisation. Thus, in general case, turnover is related to job satisfaction. However, job
satisfaction is not the only cause of employee turnover, the other cause being better opportunity
elsewhere.
8

2) Job Involvement:
Job involvement refers to the degree to which a person identifies with his or her job, actively
participates in it & considers his or her performance important to self worth. Employees with a high
level of job involvement strongly identify with & really care about the kind of work they do. High
degree of job involvement results in fewer absences & lower resignation rates.
3) Organizational Commitment:
It refers to the degree to which an employee identifies with a particular organization & its goal
&wishes to maintain membership in the organization. Turnover & absenteeism are low when
employees have organizational commitment. Job involvement refers to ones attachment to a job
where as organizational commitment implies an employees identification with a particular
organization & its goal.
Organisational commitment is another job related attitude which is of considerable significance in
organizational behaviour. Organisational commitment refers to the strength of an employees
involvement in the organisation and identification with it. There are three kinds of organisational
commitment.
Affective Commitment: Affective commitment is an employees intention to remain in an
organisation because of a strong desire to do so. It consists of three factors.
A) A belief in the goal and values of the organisation.
B) A willingness to put forth effort on behalf of the organisation.
C) A desire to remain as a member of the organisation.
Affective commitment encompasses loyalty, but it is also a deep concern for the
organizations welfare.
Continuous Commitment: Continuous commitment is an employees tendency to remain
in an organisation because the person cannot afford to leave. Alternative to leave the
organisation is probably securing a less lucrative job or remaining jobless.

Normative Commitment: Normative commitment is perceived obligation to remain with

the organisation. Individuals who experience normative commitment stay with the
organisation because they feel they should do.
Affective and Normative commitment are related to lower rates of absenteeism, higher
quality of work, increased productivity and several different types of performance.

Organisational commitment varies across countries. One study of workers in Saudi Arabia found that
Asians working there were more committed to the organisation than were westerners and Arab
workers. Another study revealed that Americans workers displayed higher affective commitment
than did Korean and Japanese workers.

ATTITUDE CHANGE
Attitudes can change for a number of reasons. It is a key interest of psychologists, advertisers, and
more to understand what makes people change their beliefs or opinions. Attitudes most commonly
change in response to social influence. What other people do or say can have a huge effect on our
own cognitions. The whole advertising industry functions on the knowledge that people's attitudes
toward products or services can be molded through the use of imagery and/or sound. There are
certain conditions that must exist for a person's attitude to change.
Attitudes of employees can be changed and it is in the best interest of the organisation to try for the
change. But change is difficult as there are barriers to it..
9

Barriers to change:
One obstacle to the change of attitude is the attitude theory of balance and consistency. That is
human beings prefer their attitudes about people and things to be in line (i.e., balanced, consistent)
with their behaviours towards each other and objects. ) when attitudes or behaviours are not
consistent, people usually seek to reduce the inconsistency rewarding internally. Leon Festinger has
developed a theory in support of attitude consistency. Called cognitive dissonance, Festingers
theory states that dissonance makes an individual feel uncomfortable. This feeling makes the
individual try to reduce dissonance.
Cognitive dissonance also occurs when a person behaves in a fashion that is inconsistent with his or
her attitudes. For example, a person may realize that smoking and overeating are dangerous, yet
continue to do both. Because the attitudes and behaviors are not consistent with each other, the
person will experience a certain amount of tension and discomfort and may engage in dissonance
reduction, seeking ways to reduce the dissonance and tension it causes. The dissonance associated
with smoking might be resolved by rationalizing, just a pack a day will not affect my health, or I
can quit when I have to. With regard to overeating, the person may decide to go on a diet next
week. In general, the person attempts to change the attitude, alter the behaviour, or perceptually
distort the circumstances to reduce tension and discomfort.
In the organisational setting cognitive dissonance occurs when an employee desires to leave the
present job as there is no use in continuing and working hard. The individual may rationalize his or
her stay with such explanations as, Organisation is not bad after all, or what is the alternative?
The second barrier to change of attitude is prior commitments. This occurs when people feel a
commitment to a particular course of action and are unwilling to change.
The third barrier results from insufficient information. Sometimes people see no reason why they
should change their attitudes. The boss may not like a subordinates negative attitude, but the latter
may be quite pleased with his behaviour. Unless the boss can show the individual why a negative
attitude is detrimental to career progress or salary increases or some other personal objective, the
subordinate may continue to have negative attitude.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory:

Cognitive dissonance refers to any incompatibility between two or more attitudes or between
behaviour & attitude. Thus, it is the feeling of inconsistency in beliefs, feelings & makes people feel
uncomfortable. They get motivated to rectify the situation by modifying the behaviours that cause
the dissonance.
Cognitive dissonance, a theory originally developed by Festinger (1957)], is the idea that people
experience a sense of guilt or uneasiness when two linked cognitions are inconsistent, such as when
there are two conflicting attitudes about a topic, or inconsistencies between one's attitude and
behavior on a certain topic. The basic idea of the Cognitive Dissonance Theory relating to attitude
change, is that people are motivated to reduce dissonance which can be achieved through changing
their attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors (action). Cooper & Fazio's (1984) have also added that cognitive
dissonance does not arise from any simple cognitive inconsistency, but rather results from freely
chosen behavior that may bring about negative consequences. These negative consequences may be
threats to the consistency, stability, predictability, competence, moral goodness of the self-concept,
or violation of general self-integrity.
Research has suggested multiple routes that cognitive dissonance can be reduced. Self-affirmation
has been shown to reduce dissonance; however it is not always the mode of choice when trying to
reduce dissonance. When multiple routes are available, it has been found that people prefer to reduce
dissonance by directly altering their attitudes and behaviors rather than through self-affirmation.
People who have high levels of self-esteem, who are postulated to possess abilities to reduce
dissonance by focusing on positive aspects of the self, have also been found to prefer modifying
cognitions, such as attitudes and beliefs, over self-affirmation. A simple example of cognitive
10

dissonance resulting in attitude change would be when a heavy smoker learns that his sister died
young from lunch cancer due to heavy smoking as well, this individual experiences conflicting
cognitions: the desire to smoke, and the knowledge that smoking could lead to death and a desire not
to die. In order to reduce dissonance, this smoker could change his behavior--stop smoking, change
his attitude about smoking--smoking is harmful, or retain his original attitude about smoking and
modify his new cognition to be consistent with the first one--"I also work out so smoking won't be
harmful to me". Thus, attitude change is achieved when individuals experience feelings of
uneasiness or guilt due to cognitive dissonance, and actively reduce the dissonance through changing
their attitude, beliefs, or behavior relating in order to achieve consistency with the inconsistent
cognitions.
For e.g. a corporate manager Mrs. Srinivasan believes that no. Company should pollute the air &
water. But because of the requirement of his job, he has to dump companys sewage into Local
River. What will he do? Clearly Mrs. Srinivasan is experiencing a high degree of cognitive
dissonance. There are several ways by which she tries to minimize dissonance.
1) By changing his behaviour (stop polluting river )
2) By changing attitude ( there is nothing wrong in polluting river)
3) By concluding that the dissonant behaviour is not so important after all (my role as a
corporate decision maker, I have to place the goals of my company above that of my
environment or society.)
4) Seeking out more consonant elements to outweigh the dissonant ones (the benefit to society
from manufacturing our products more than offset the cost to society of the resulting water
pollution.)

Counter Attitudinal Advocacy:

The funny thing about the lie you told is that you might start to actually believe it, and like coffee, as
a way to resolve feelings of post-decision dissonance. This is called internal justification, which
usually occurs when a person is unable to find any external justification for the dissonance they
experienced. For instance, if you knew that the woman could care less about whether or not you like
coffee and you decided to lie anyway, then you won't have any external justification for the lie. You
therefore must work to bring the lie you told (behavior) in line with your attitude (whether or not you
like coffee). To make them match, you would start to drink coffee. Soon you might like it so much
that you wonder why you'd ever hated coffee. This kind of phenomenon is called counter attitudinal
advocacy.
Counter attitudinal advocacy is powerful in that it can effectively change a person's attitude about
anything from doing drugs to stealing, as long as they experience the phenomenon in conditions with
low external justification. A famous baseball player who chews tobacco may be asked to give a
speech at a school about how to stay drug free. The player might feel dissonance about using a
dangerous drug himself and could change his behavior to bring it in line with the attitude he conveys
to the school children.

Ways of Changing:
A few important ways of changing attitudes have been examined here.
1. Providing New Information:
New information will help change attitudes. Negative attitudes are mainly formed owing to lack of
or insufficient information. Workers generally become pro-union because of the ignorance about the
good intentions of the management. Once they come to know how the management cares for the
welfare of the workers, they change their attitude and might turn pro-management.
2. Use of fear:
Fear can change attitude. However, the change depends on the degree of fear. For example, if low
levels of fear arousal are used, people often become aware of the situation and will change their
11

attitudes. However, if high degrees of fear arousal are used, people often reject the message, because
it is too threatening and thus not believable. On being threatened too far, people tend to become
stubborn in their attitudes and may refuse to change.
3. Influence of Friends or Peers:
Change of attitude can come about through persuasion of friends or peers. Credibility of the others,
especially peers, is important to effect change. Peers with high creditability shall exercise significant
influence on change. The same is not true with peers who have low credibility.
4. The Co opting Approach:
Co opting is another way of changing attitude. This means taking people who are dissatisfied with a
situation and getting them involved in improving things. Such activity will make him aware of the
situation and ultimately help in case of changing his attitude.
5. Others:
Research has shown that an individual is more likely to change a privately held attitude than one he
has stated publicly. It is, therefore, necessary that a situation is avoided where the individual makes
his attitude public prior to the change attempt.
The individual from a culturally deprived environment who hold an array of hostile attitudes may
change when he is given opportunities for education. A person from a privileged subculture, who has
always held to a democratic attitude, may become negative towards some group because of one
unfortunate experience. Again, through continued association with others holding similar attitudes,
one can be influenced in a positive or negative direction. Here the attitudes of both the reference
group and the social climate are important.
Types of change
Attitude change may be classified into congruent and incongruent change. Congruent change in
attitude involves a movement in the same direction but with reduced intensity of feeling. For
example, a negative or positive attitude of a boss towards his subordinate will persist, but the degree
of like or dislike is reduced.
Incongruent change involves change of direction itself from positive (or negative) attitude towards a
person to negative (or positive) attitude towards the same person. This change is observable in
behavioral terms such as change in retail store purchases, change in voting for a different political
candidate, change in the spouse, and resigning from an organization or reduced.

ATTITUDE AND OB
Employee attitude are important to management because of their influence on behavior, attitudinal
influences on perception, job-satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment.
1. Attitudinal Influences on Behavior :
Attitudes affect employee behavior. However, a direct relationship between attitudes and actions is
not agreeable to some since attitude dose not lead to any specific action. For example, a manager
may dislike certain people in minority groups, but he may nevertheless treat them fairly and
pleasantly in his office. This inconsistency occurs because the manager does not allow his attitude to
interfere with his professional judgment. However, these attitudes may manifest themselves in other
behavior. For example, the manager may treat the minority workers fairly on the job but invite them
to his sons or daughters marriage.
Although the influence of attitudes on behavior is not clearly discernible, two theories, viz.,
cognitive dissonance and self fulfilling prophecy, help us understand the direction of attitudinal
influences.
12

As mentioned earlier, cognitive dissonance refers to the feeling of inconsistency in feeling, beliefs,
and behavior. This get motivated to rectify the situation by modifying the behaviors that cause the
dissonance.
Cognitive dissonance will be more intense when any following conditions exist:
The decision is an important one psychologically or financially.
1. There are a number of foregone alternatives.
2. The foregone alternatives have many positive features.
Typically, an individual will try to minimize the dissonance by using any of the four methods. The
methods are1. The individual seeks information that confirms the wisdom of the decision.
2. The individual selectively perceives (distorts) information in a way that supports the
decision.
3. The person adopts a less favorable attitude towards the foregone alternatives.
4. The person downplays the importance of any negative aspects of the choice and magnifies
the positive elements.
The self fulfilling prophecy is the process by which we try to convert our attitudes, beliefs, and
expectations into reality. If we predict that something is going to happen, we are competent, we will
undertake challenging tasks.
Consequently, we gain experience and skills that make us more competent, so that we accomplish
even more. However, if we have a negative attitude towards ourselves, we will not provide ourselves
with the chance to become competent.
2. Attitudinal Influence on Perception:
Perceptual outcomes are derived from past experiences and perceptions, but they also influence the
way we perceive stimuli. Such sayings as beauty is altogether in the eye of the beholder and one
persons trash is another persons treasure emphasize the importance of attitude in perceiving the
world around us. If our attitudes are positive, things will look brighter to us than if they are negative.
3. Job-satisfaction:
One of the tasks of managers is to provide satisfaction to employees from their respective jobs. The
term job-satisfaction refers to an individuals general attitude towards his job. A person with high
job-satisfaction holds a positive attitude towards his job, while a person who is dissatisfied with his
job holds a negative attitude about his job. When people speak of employee attitude more often then
not they mean job-satisfaction. In fact, the two terms are used interchangeable.
4. Job Involvement:
The term job involvement refers to the degree to which a person identifies psychologically with his
job and considers his Perceived performance level important to his self worth. A person with a high
degree of involvement will identity with his job and will care about the kind of work he does on his
job. Besides, such involvement in the job results in reduced absenteeism and minimized
absenteeism. Needless to say that attitude is an important variable in developing job involvement.
5. Organizational Commitment:
If job involvement refers to ones identification with a particular job, organisational commitment
means ones involvement with his employing organisational. Being another name for organisational
loyalty, organisational commitment results in a stable work force. As with job involvement, attitude
is an important variable in determining organizational commitment.

13

VALUES
Value is generally used in two different ways as a characteristic of an object or as an attribute
possessed by an individual and thought desirable. The focus here is on the latter.
A value is defined as a concept of the desirable, an internalized criterion or standard of evaluation a
person possesses. Such concepts and standard are relatively few and determine or guide an
individuals evaluations of the many objects encountered in everyday life values are tinged with
moral favour, involving an individuals judgment of what is right, good or desirable. Thus, values
(1) provide standards of competence and morality, (2) are fewer in number than attitudes, (3)
transcend specific objects, situations or persons, (4) are relatively permanent and resistant to
change, and (5) are most central to the core of a person.
Values are convictions and a framework of philosophy of an individual on the basis of which he
judges what is good or bad, desirable or undesirable, ethical or unethical.
Values represent basic convictions that a specific mode of conduct (or end state of existence) is
personally or socially preferable to an opposite mode of conduct (or end state of existence).
Values are generally used to represent an attributes possessed by an individual and thought
desirable. The values can be defined as a concept of the desirable and internalized criterion or
standards of evaluation a person possessed. Such concept and standards are relatively few and
determine or guide an individuals evaluation of many objects encountered in every days life.
Value signifies what you consider as good and what you consider as bad. It also signifies what you
consider right and what you consider wrong. It also signifies what you consider normal and what
you consider abnormal.
Value defines what is right and what is wrong, what is important and what is not important, what is
beautiful and what is not.

Value System:
Value system is a hierarchy based on ranking of an individuals value in terms of their intensity.
Values have both content and intensity attributes. This content attributes says that a mode of conduct
or end state of existence is important. The intensity attributes specifies how important it is? when
we rank an individuals value in term of their intensity, we obtain that persons value form a system.
Thus hierarchies of values form the value system. All of us have hierarchy of value that forms our
value system. This system is identified by the relative importance we assign to such values as
freedom, pleasure, self respect, honesty, obedience, and equality.
A significant portion of our value system is genetically determined. The rest is attributable to factors
like national culture, parental dictates, influence of the environment, which includes teacher, friends,
society in general etc. major portion of our values we hold is established in our early years i.e.
during the childhood. As we grow up, we are exposed to other value system. We may have altered
number of our values.
When we rank an individuals values in terms of their intensity, we obtain that persons value
system. This system is identified by the relative importance we assign to such values as freedom,
pleasure, self-respect, honesty, obedience etc.

Characteristics of Value:
14

 Part of Culture:Values are elements of culture and culture is complex of values, ideas, attitudes and other
meaningful symbols to shape human behaviour in the society. Every society has its own culture and
people in that society adhere to cultural requirements.
Learned Responses:Human behaviour represents learned phenomenon. Human beings have to learn almost everything
about how to behave from experience. This is because human beings live in a society having certain
cultural characteristics which prescribe to behave in a particular way. The way in which individual
responds to particular thing depends on what he learned from society. Cultural items learned early in
life tend to resist changes more strongly than those learned later in life.
Inculcated:Values are inculcated and passed from generation to generation through specific groups and
institutions. Such transmission starts from family where the socialization process starts. Apart from
family, educational, religious institutions also transmit cultural values from one generation to
another.
Social Phenomena:Values are social phenomena i.e. cultural habits are shared by aggregate of people living in society.
Value defer from society to society, based on region and religion too. Social factor plays and
important role in value formation process.
Gratifying Responses:The elements in culture become extinguished when they no longer are gratifying to members of the
society. The society rewards behaviour which are gratifying for its members.
Adaptive Process:When the value system of a culture becomes associated with gratification of only one group or class
and other classes of society reject logic of value system, they replace it with new value system.
Mostly, the change in value system occurs slowly as a gradual process

VALUES AND ATTITUDES

There are differences between values and attitudes. Attitudes essentially represent predispositions to
respond. Values focus on the judgment of what ought to be. This judgment can represent the specific
manifestation of a determining tendency below the surface of the behaviour. Attitudes represent
several beliefs focused on a specific object or situation. Value, on the other hand, represents a single
belief that transcendentally guides action and judgments across object and situations. Finally, a value
stands in relation to some social or cultural standards or norms while attitudes are mostly personal
experiences.
There are similarities between value and attitudes. Both are powerful instruments influencing
cognitive process and behaviour of people. Both are learned and acquired from the same sourcesexperience with people and objects. Value and attitudes are relatively permanent and are resistant to
change. Finally, value and attitudes influence each other and are, more often than not, used
interchangeably. Below table brings similarities and differences between value and attitudes to sharp
focus.

Rokeachs Classification:15

Rokeach has classified values in two main categories: Terminal Values (End) and Instrumental
Values (Means).
Terminal Values:
Terminal value refers to desirable end-states of existence i.e. the ultimate goals that a person would
like to achieve during his or her lifetime. E.g.: comfortable life, family, security, self-respect etc.
Instrumental Values:
Instrumental value refers to preferable modes of behaviour or means of achieving terminal values.
E.g.: ambition, courage, honesty etc.
Instrumental value is means of achieving terminal values. E.g.: a person may desire to achieve
happiness (a terminal value) by being independent, ambitious, cheerful and responsible (instrumental
values).

Difference
Values

Attitudes

(1) Value represents judgmental ideas what is (1) Attitude represents predisposition to
right and what is wrong.
respond.
(2) Represents several belief focused on a
(2) Represents single belief that guides specific objects or situations.
actions and judgment across objects &
situations.
(3) Derived from social and cultural customs. (3) Attitude represents an individuals
personal experiences.

Similarities of Value and Attitude

1. Value and Attitudes are two important variable influencing cognitive process and behaviour
2. They are learned and acquired essentially from various sources.
3. They endure and are resistant to change.
4. They have reciprocal influence and are used interchangeably.

16