Attitudes

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR

Perceived Environment

Beliefs

Attitude Feelings

Behavioral
Intentions

Behavior
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ATTITUDES

Attitudes Cognitive component

The opinion or belief
Evaluative segment of an attitude.
statements
or Affective Component
judgments The emotional or feeling
concerning segment of an attitude.
objects,
people, or Behavioral Component
events. An intention to behave in a
certain way toward someone or
something. 3
COMPONENTS OF AN ATTITUDE: E.G.
NEGATIVE ATTITUDE TOWARDS SUPERIOR

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NATURE OF ATTITUDE

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 Attitudes are learned
 Attitudes refer to feelings and beliefs of an
individual/ groups
 Attitudes endure

 All people, irrespective of their status or

intelligence, hold attitudes
ABC MODEL

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Managerial style
Technology
Noise
STIMULI work related Peers
factors Reward system
Career opportunities

Cognition Beliefs and Values

Affect Feelings and emotions

Behaviour Beliefs and Values

FORMATION OF ATTITUDE

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Direct
experience
Mass Classical
Communications Conditioning

Attitude
Economic Status Observational
& Occupations Learning

Family
Neighborhood
& Peer Group
FUNCTIONS OF ATTITUDE

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Adjustment Ego defensive

Attitude

Knowledge
Value Expression
CHANGING ATTITUDE: WAYS

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 Changing attitude of self
 Being aware
 Open mind
 Continuous education
 +ve self-esteem

 changing attitude of employees

 Give feedback
 +ve role model
 Use of fear
 Co-opting approach
THE THEORY OF COGNITIVE
DISSONANCE
Cognitive Dissonance
Any incompatibility between two or more
attitudes or between behavior and attitudes.

Desire to reduce dissonance

• Importance of elements creating dissonance
• Degree of individual influence over elements
• Rewards involved in dissonance

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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. 11
ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT
 Affective Commitment: AC is defined as the employee's
positive emotional attachment to the organization.

 Continuance Commitment: The individual commits to the

organization because he/she perceives high costs of
losing organizational membership, including economic
costs and social costs that would be incurred.

 Normative Commitment: The individual commits to and

remains with an organization because of feelings of
obligation. These feelings may derive from many sources.
For example, the organization may have invested
resources in training an employee who then feels a
'moral' obligation to put forth effort on the job and stay 12
with the organization to 'repay the debt.’
THE EFFECT OF JOB SATISFACTION ON
EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE

 Satisfaction and Productivity

 Satisfiedworkers aren’t necessarily more
productive.
 Worker productivity is higher in organizations with
more satisfied workers.
 Satisfaction and Absenteeism
 Satisfied
employees have fewer avoidable
absences.
 Satisfaction and Turnover
 Satisfied
employees are less likely to quit.
 Organizations take actions to retain high
performers and to weed out lower performers. 13
HOW EMPLOYEES CAN EXPRESS
DISSATISFACTION
Exit Voice
Behavior directed Active and
toward leaving the constructive attempts
organization. to improve
conditions.
Loyalty Neglect
Passively waiting for Allowing conditions
conditions to improve. to worsen.

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RESPONSES TO JOB DISSATISFACTION

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Source: C. Rusbult and D. Lowery, “When Bureaucrats Get the Blues,” Journal
E X H I B I T 3–5
of Applied Social Psychology. 15, no. 1, 1985:83. Reprinted with permission.
JOB SATISFACTION AND OCB
 Satisfaction and Organizational Citizenship
Behavior (OCB)
 Satisfied employees who feel fairly treated by
and are trusting of the organization are more
willing to engage in behaviors that go beyond
the normal expectations of their job.

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JOB SATISFACTION AND CUSTOMER
SATISFACTION
 Satisfied employees increase customer
satisfaction because:
 They are more friendly, upbeat, and responsive.
 They are less likely to turnover which helps build
long-term customer relationships.
 They are experienced.
 Dissatisfied customers increase employee job
dissatisfaction.

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ATTITUDE MEASUREMENT
 Rating scales
 Critical incidents

 Interviews

 Likert scale
 Strongly disagree
 Disagree
 Tend to disagree
 Neither agree nor disagree
 Tend to agree
 Agree
 Strongly agree
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AN APPLICATION: ATTITUDE SURVEYS

Attitude Surveys
Eliciting responses from employees through
questionnaires about how they feel about their
jobs, work groups, supervisors, and the
organization.

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SAMPLE ATTITUDE SURVEY

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ATTITUDES AND WORKFORCE
DIVERSITY
 Training activities that can reshape employee
attitudes concerning diversity:
 Participating in diversity training that provides
for self-evaluation and group discussions.
 Volunteer work in community and social serve
centers with individuals of diverse backgrounds.
 Exploring print and visual media that recount
and portray diversity issues.

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