Attitudes 😏😎 in organisation behaviour (BCA)
ATTITUDES
Attitude is a relatively permanent organizing or cognitive, perceptual, emotional, and motivational process with respect to some aspect of our environment. It is primarily a learned predisposition to respond in a consistently favourable or unfavourable manner with respect to a given object. Thus, an attitude is the way we think, feel, and act toward some aspect of our environment.
Attitudes, especially personal attitudes, have a key bearing on how an individual functions within the organisation, particularly as these attitudes may be reflected in positive or negative behaviour. Sometimes attitudes may be influenced by the organisation itself, and one of the challenges facing the modern manager may be how to effect an attitude change in the organisation within the broad context of cultural or strategic change.
Attitude is a state of mind of an individual towards something. It may be defined as a tendency to feel and behave in a particular way towards objects, people or events. An attitude may be defined as a tendency to react positively or negatively in regard to an object. Attitudes are evaluative statements or judgments - either favourable or unfavourable-concerning objects, people or events.
Attitude formation is partly a reflection of personality formation. Attitudes are formed from the reaction of a mixture of external events with the individual's own personality. Sometimes direct experience is a powerful moulders of attitudes. If an individual had an unhappy time studying physics and did not get on with teacher, this may prejudice his attitude towards the subject for the foreseeable future. Attitudes based on direct experiences can be very strong and very hard to break.
According to Bem, "Attitudes are likes and dislikes".
According to Allport, "Attitude is learned predispositions to respond to an object or class of object in a consistently favourable or unfavourable way".
According to Engel, "Attitudes are an overall evaluation that allows one to respond in a consistently favourable or unfavourable manner with respect to a given object or alternative".
2. Characteristics/Nature of Attitudes
1) Attitudes have an Object: By definition, attitudes must have an object. That is, they must have a focal point whether it is an abstract concept, such as "ethical behaviour," or a tangible item, such as a motorcycle. The object can be a physical thing, such as a product, or it can be an action, such as lawnmower. In addition, the object can be either one item, such as a person, or a collection of items such as a social group.
2) Attitudes have Direction, Degree and Intensity: An attitude expresses how a person feels toward an object. It expresses:
i) Direction: The person is either favourable or unfavourable toward, or for against the object;
ii) Degree: How much the person either likes or dislikes the object; and
iii) Intensity: The level of sureness or confidence of expression about the object, or how strongly a person feels about his or her conviction. Although degree and intensity might seem the same and are actually related, they are not synonymous.
3) Attitudes have Structure: Attitudes display organisation, which means that they have internal consistency and possess inter-attitudinal centrality. They also tend to be stable, to have varying degrees of salience, and to be generalized.
The structure of human attitudes may be viewed as a complex Tinker Toy set erected in a type of circular pattern. At the centre of this structure are the individual's important values and self-concept. Attitudes closed to the hub of this system are said to have a high degree of centrality. Other attitudes located farther out in the structure possess less centrality.
4) Attitudes are Learned: Attitudes is gradually learnt over a period of time. The process of learning attitudes starts right from childhood and continues throughout the life of a person. However, in the beginning, the family members have a greater impact on the attitude of a child.
For example, if the family members have a positive attitude toward business and negative towards service, there is a greater likelihood that the child will inculcate similar attitudes towards these objects.
3. Components/Dimensions of Attitudes
1) Cognitive Component: This component of attitude refers to opinion or belief part of attitude. When opinion or judgment is formed on the basis of available information and decide whether they have a favourable or unfavourable opinion on that, it is the cognitive part of attitude that are talking about. The cognitive component of an attitude reflects the beliefs or ideas one has about an object or situation. The cognitive component indicates the opinions, values or beliefs of an individual about something. For example, a person, say Rajesh, may believe that taking or giving a bribe is wrong. This is the cognitive component of Rajesh's attitude.
2) Conative Component: This refers to the emotional aspect of attitude. This is perhaps the most often referred part of attitude and decides mostly the desirable or undesirable aspect attitude. It contains the feelings or emotions one has about a given object or situation. For example, how do a person feel about people who talk on cellphones in restaurants? If he feel annoyed or angry with such people are expressing negative affect or feelings toward people who talk on cellphones in restaurants. In contrast, the affective component of attitude is neutral if they are indifferent about people talking on cellphones in restaurants.
3) Affective/Behavorial Component: It refers to the behavioural part of attitude. If person have a positive attitude for a particular object, it is likely to be translated into a particular type of behaviour such as buying or procuring that object. The behavioural component refers to how one intends or expects to act toward someone or something. The affective component represents the feelings of a person toward something. For example, Rakesh may not like his colleague Deepak because he takes bribes. The behavioural component of a person indicates the intention of a person to behave in a particular way. For example, Rakesh may decide to avoid Deepak.
Attitude theory suggests that ultimate behaviour in this situation is a function of all three attitudinal components. Person are unlikely to say anything to someone using a cellphone in a restaurant if they are not irritated by this behaviour (affective), if they believe cellphone use helps people to manage their lives (cognitive), and have no intention of confronting this individual (behavioural).
4. Importance of Attitudes
1) Determines the Meaning of the Environment: Attitudes determine the meaning of what is seen in the environment. If an individual has a favourable attitude towards another individual, the former tends to judge the latter's actions as 'good' or 'superior'. However, if he holds a negative attitude towards the other person, he may be prompt in disagreeing with him and fail to appreciate any good work done by him.
2) Rationalizing the Actions: Attitudes reconcile contradictions in the opinions of people. With the help of a proper attitude as a background, it is possible for an individual to reconcile or rationalize actions which to another individual are obvious contradictions. Thus, when a worker takes a little rest during work hours, his supervisor may consider this act as 'loafing' or *relaxing' depending upon his attitude. Likewise, the worker may think that his supervisor is 'spying' or 'evaluating' him on the job, depending on his own general attitude towards the management.
3) Organisation of Facts: Attitudes organize facts. Accordingly, objective events can be perceived differently by different people with divergent attitudes. Thus, by influencing the attitudes of workers, it is possible for an irresponsible union leader to lead to misinterpretation of facts among them.
4) Selection of Facts: Attitudes also facilitate the selection of facts. An individual tends to select only those facts and stimuli from the environment which are consistent with his cherished attitudes. Thus, attitudes act as a screen or filter. Usually, with a negative attitude towards the union, several managers tend to enlist only its negative activities (i.e., sabotage, act of misconduct, etc.) and fail to pick-up its positive behaviour (i.e., voluntary wage cut, new norms of productivity, etc.).
5. Work-Related Attitudes
The focus of OB is on job-related attitudes of employees. Such attitudes tap positive or negative evaluations that employees hold about certain aspects of their work environment. The behavioural scientists have concentrated on three work related attitude are:
1) Job Satisfaction: The term job satisfaction refers to the general attitude or feelings of an individual towards his job. A person, who is highly satisfied with his job, will have a positive attitude towards the job. On the Perception, Attitude, Values & Motivation other hand, a person who is dissatisfied with his job will have a negative attitude about the job. For example, a person who is satisfied with his job will always be punctual, absenteeism will be minimum, performance will be high, his attitude towards his co-workers and boss will also be very positive. In case of dissatisfied person, he will generally be late for office, on small pretexts he will absent himself from the job, turnover will be high, performance level will be poor and his behaviour in the organisation will not be very good. When people speak of employee attitudes, they invariably relate these with job satisfaction. In fact, these two are used interchangeably, though some differences do exist between these two.
2) Job Involvement/Engagement: Job involvement is defined as "the degree to which one is cognitively preoccupied with, engaged in, and concerned with one's present job". This work attitude manifests itself through the extent to which people are immersed in their job tasks. It is important for managers to understand the causes and consequences of job involvement because of its association with motivation and satisfaction.
Employees who have a high level of job involvement very strongly identify with their jobs and really care about the kind of work they do. High degree of involvement just like job satisfaction will lead to less absenteeism and lower resignation rates. However, the research has shown that it seems to more consistently predict turnover than absenteeism. In case of turnover, the research has shown as much as 16% variation in the turnover depending upon the level of job involvement.
3) Organisational Commitment: The third job attitude that affects the organisation behaviour is the organisational commitment. Organisational commitment is a state in which an employee identifies with a particular organisation and its goals and wishes to maintain membership in the organisation. In such a setup the employee feels proud of being the employee of a particular organisation. Whereas job involvement refers to identification with one's specific job, organisational commitment means identifying with one's employing organisation and its goals.
Sometimes an employee may be involved or attached to his job but may not be committed to the organisation and its objectives. Turnover and absenteeism are low when an employee has organisational commitment. In fact, studies have indicated that organisational commitment is a better indicator of turnover than the far more frequently used job satisfaction predictor. Sometimes, an employee may be dissatisfied with the job, but he may not be dissatisfied with the organisation as a whole. In such a case, he may stick with the organisation because he may consider it a temporary situation. But once the dissatisfaction spreads to the organisation as a whole, he is most likely to consider resigning from the job.
6. Employee Attitudes and Behaviour
The focus of OB is on job-related attitudes of employees. Such attitudes t positive or negative evaluations that employees hold about certain aspects of their work environment. The behavioural scientists have concentrated related attitudes.
Employee attitudes and behaviours are usually related either one way or another, so when an employee has a negative perspective of their job, or a supervisor, o the organisation as a whole, then they are less likely to care about their job performance, disregard their supervisor or try to cause problems with them, or not consider anything that would benefit the company as a whole, just worry about doing just enough in their job and get paid. However, if an individual likes their job, they will take pride in doing it correctly, if they like their supervisor, they are 5) more likely to communicate and participate with them, and if they value the organisation as a whole, they tend to look for ways to improve the company as a whole, even when they do not have to.
7. Effects of Employee Attitudes
Attitudes are reasonably good predictors of behaviour. They provide clues to an employee's behavioural intentions or inclinations to act in a certain way. Positive job attitudes help predict constructive behaviours; negative job attitudes help Wh predict negative behaviours. High or low scores on job satisfaction, job div involvement, and organisational commitment have impact on following employee thes behaviours:
1) Employee Performance: Employee performance is higher if the employees have higher level of job satisfaction, job involvement, and organisational commitment. Though all these three factors are not the only determinants of employee performance, these contribute to higher or lower performance alongwith other factors as these three factors affect employee willingness or unwillingness to perform.
2) Employee Turnover: Employee turnover is the rate of change in the working personnel of an organisation during a specified period. It signifies parp the extent to which old employees leave and new employees enter into service in a given period. Though there are several factors, both personal and organisational, employee attitudes relating to job satisfaction, job involvement, and organisational commitment affect employee turnover highly. Generally, employees having positive attitudes towards job satisfaction, job involvement, and organisational commitment have much lower turnover rate than those who have negative attitudes towards these factors.
3) Absence and Tardiness: Absenteeism is unauthorised absence from the workplace while tardiness is a type of short-period absence ranging from a few minutes to several hours for each event, and it is another way in which employees physically withdraw from active involvement in the organisation. Both absence and tardiness may be affected by a number of factors, generally negative attitudes of employees towards job satisfaction, job involvement, and organisational commitment bring higher level of absence and tardiness.
4) Violence: Violence, in various forms of verbal or physical aggression, at workplace is one of the most extreme consequences of lack of job satisfaction, job involvement, and organisational commitment. In fact, frustration caused by violence is used as a defence mechanism to overcome dissatisfaction. Since employees who have high job satisfaction, job involvement, and organisational commitment do not feel frustrated, they do not tend to involve in violence.
5) Other Effects: Besides the performance, turnover, absence and tardiness, and violence, attitudes towards job satisfaction, job involvement, and organisational commitment affect employees' other aspects of behaviour. In particular, employees demonstrate organisational citizenship behaviours which are discretionary actions that promote organisational success if they have positive attitudes. Organisational citizenship is often marked by its spontaneity, its voluntary nature, its constructive impact on results, its unexpected helpfulness to others, and the fact that it is optional.
While understanding employee behaviour based on attitudes may pay rich dividend, managing their attitudes requires the analysis of causes that underlie these attitudes. Based on such an analysis, managers can take measures to change negative attitudes.
8. Developing Positive Attitudes by Individuals
In an organisational setting, managers may help employees to develop positive attitudes in them. However, employees as individuals may develop positive attitudes on their own within the organisation as well as outside it. Developing of positive attitudes is necessary for the betterment of the life because negative attitudes often result into bitterness, resentment, high stress, ill health, and purposeless life. As against these, positive attitudes lead to better personality development, meaningful life, feeling of being important, and contribution to self and society. Though, there may be several methods for developing positive attitudes, following actions on the part of individuals may be more relevant for developing positive attitudes:
1) Identification of Attitudes: Before developing positive attitudes, it is essential that the existing attitudes, both positive and negative, should be identified. Identification of one's own attitudes helps in locating the attitudes that are negative and need change. For identifying attitudes, attitude measurement test can be self-administered. There are several such tests available. These tests give results upto satisfactory level. Alternatively, t individual may identify his attitudes by analyzing what attitudes are contributing positively towards the realization of one's life objective and which attitudes are contributing negatively. Those attitudes that contribute negatively need change. If there are several such attitudes, each of these can be taken turn-by-turn.
2) Looking for Positive: For developing positive attitudes, it is essential that one must look for positive and avoid negative persons, things, and happenings. Every person or object may have a combination of both positive and negative. Therefore, if one wants to look for only negative, he may find fault with everything. Fault finders may even locate faults in paradise because people find what they are looking for. Therefore, if one looks for positive, he may find plenty of positive. However, looking for positive does not mean overlooking faults with any thing. For looking for positive, it is necessary that one must analyze the situation critically. This critical analysis gives better picture of the situation and helps in understanding the positive aspect of the situation.
3) Building Positive Self-Esteem: Self-esteem denotes the extent to which people consistently regard themselves as capable, successful, important, and worthy individuals. Therefore, developing positive self-esteem helps in inculcating positive attitudes. For building positive self-esteem, one must adopt the practice of doing something for others who cannot repay back in cash or kind.
4) Setting Challenging Targets: For developing positive attitudes and being successful at work, it is essential that one must set for himself challenging targets to be achieved. Challenging targets always help in motivating an individual to do something better because he feels that he has to achieve something. Achieving something is a source of satisfaction which is essential for meaningful life. However, while setting challenging targets; one m avoid building castles in air. Challenging targets must be based on reality.
5) Avoiding Procrastination: In order to achieve challenging targets, it is essential that procrastination should be avoided. Procrastination is the act of habit of putting off work till some future time, that is, the habit of "doing today's work tomorrow." Once this habit is developed, tomorrow never comes and the work remains incomplete. For avoiding procrastination, it is that plan must be adhered too. Sometimes, it is possible that time-wasting things may happen and the target for the day's work is not achieved. In such a situation, it is desirable that one should work for extra time to complete the day's work. Further, one should spot out the time wasters and try to overcome these because time once wasted cannot be regained.
6) Continuous Learning: For developing positive attitudes, it is essential that continuous learning must be made a part of total personality development. Learning is the process by which new behaviours are acquired. These new behaviours are based on new information with which an individual might have not interacted in the past. Since attitude formation starts from the early stage of life, it may be possible that an individual might have formed his attitudes based on incomplete information or even wrong information.
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