ATTITUDE

Attitudes are the views of a person whether positive or negative. An attitude is a hypothetical construct that represents an individual's degree of like or dislike for something. Attitudes are generally positive or negative views of a person, place, thing, or event this is often referred to as the attitude object.
The definition of attitude according to the Merriam Webster dictionary is: "a mental position with regard to a fact or state; a feeling or emotion toward a fact or state." Another way to think of attitude is a mental habit that filters how you perceive the world around you and also the actions and behaviors you take in response

There are three components of attitude. 1: Cognitive component: It refers that's part of attitude which is related in general know how of a person, for example, he says smoking is injurious to health. Such type of idea of a person is called cognitive component of attitude. 2: Effective component: This part of attitude is related to the statement which affects another person. For example, in an organization a personal report is given to the general manager. In report he point out that the sale staff is not performing their due responsibilities. The general manager forwards a written notice to the marketing manager to negotiate with the sale staff. 3: Behavioral Component: The behavioral component refers to that part of attitude which reflects the intension of a person in short run or in long run. For example, before the production and launching process the product. Report is prepared by the production department which consists of there intention in near future and long run and this report is handed over to top management for the decision. The theory of cognitive dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance Theory, developed by Leon Festinger (1957), is concerned with the relationships among cognitions. A cognition, for the purpose of this theory, may be thought of as a piece of knowledge. The knowledge may be about an attitude, an emotion, a behavior, a value, and so on. Cognitive Irrelevance probably describes the bulk of the relationships among a persons cognitions. Irrelevance simply means that the two cognitions have nothing to do with each other. Two cognitions are consonant if one cognition follows from, or fits with, the other. People like consonance among their cognitions. We do not know whether this stems from the nature of the human organism or whether it is learned during the process of socialization, but people appear

to prefer cognitions that fit together to those that do not. It is this simple observation that gives the theory of cognitive dissonance its interesting form. Two cognitions are said to be dissonant if one cognition follows from the opposite of another. What happens to people when they discover dissonant cognitions? The answer to this question forms the basic postulate of Festingers theory. A person who has dissonant or discrepant cognitions is said to be in a state of psychological dissonance, which is experienced as unpleasant psychological tension. This tension state has drivelike properties that are much like those of hunger and thirst. When a person has been deprived of food for several hours, he/she experiences unpleasant tension and is driven to reduce the unpleasant tension state that results. Reducing the psychological sate of dissonance is not as simple as eating or drinking however. To understand the alternatives open to an individual in a state of dissonance, we must first understand the factors that affect the magnitude of dissonance arousal. First, in its simplest form, dissonance increases as the degree of discrepancy among cognitions increases. Second, dissonance increases as the number of discrepant cognitions increases. Third, dissonance is inversely proportional to the number of consonant cognitions held by an individual. Fourth, the relative weights given to the consonant and dissonant cognitions may be adjusted by their importance in the mind of the individual.

Types of Attitude
Job Satisfaction A collection of positive and/or negative feelings that an individual holds toward his or her job. It regers to an individuals general attitude towards his job. Job satisfavtion or dissatisfaction is the result of various attitudes the person holds towards his job related factor, and towards his job reated factor and toward life in ganeral. Several times the term Employee Attitude is used interchangeably with the term job satisfaction. Job Involvement Identifying with the job, actively participating in it, and considering performance important to selfworth. It refers to the extent to which an individual identifies with his job, actively actively participates in it, and conciders his performance important to self worth. An individual with ahigh level of job involvement is likely to e highly satisfied, more productiveand less prone to leave the work than the one with a low level of job involvement. Organizational Commitment Identifying with a particular organization and its goals, and wishing to maintain membership in the organization. It refers to an individuals orientation towards the organisation in terms of loyalty , identification, and involvement.

Job satisfaction
Job satisfaction describes how content an individual is with his /her job. The happier people are within their job, the more satisfied they are said to be. Job satisfaction is a very important attribute which is frequently measured by organizations. The most common way of measurement is the use of rating scales where employees report their reactions to their jobs. Questions relate to rate of pay, work responsibilities, variety of tasks, promotional opportunities, the work itself and co-workers.

The Effect of Job Satisfaction on Employee Performance Satisfaction and Productivity Satisfied workers arent 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 How Employees Can Express Dissatisfaction Exit - Behavior directed toward leaving the organization. Voice - Active and constructive attempts to improve conditions. Loyalty - Passively waiting for conditions to improve. Neglect - Allowing conditions to worsen.

VALUES
A personal and/or cultural value is an absolute or relative ethical value, the assumption of which can be the basis for ethical action. A value system is a set of consistent values and measures. Aprinciple vaule is a foundation upon which other values and measures of integrity are based. Those values which are not physiologically determined and normally considered objective, such as a desire to avoid physical pain, seek pleasure, etc., are considered subjective, vary across individuals and cultures and are in many ways aligned with belief and belief systems. Types of values include ethical/moral value, doctrinal/ideological (religious, political) values, social values, and aesthetic values. It is debated whether some values which are not clearly physiologically determined are intrinsic such as altruism and whether some such as acquisitiveness should be valued as vices or virtues. Values can be defined as broad preferences concerning appropriate courses of action or outcomes. As such, values reflect a persons sense of right and wrong or what ought to be. Equal rights for all, "Excellence deserves admiration", and People should be treated with respect and dignity are representative of values. Values tend to influence attitudes and behavior. For example, if you value equal rights for all and you go to work for an organization that treats its managers much better than it does its workers, you may form the attitude that the company is an unfair place to work; consequently, you may not produce well or may perhaps leave the company. It is likely that if the company had a more egalitarian policy, your attitude and behaviors would have been more positive.

Importance of values
Provide understanding of the attitudes, motivation, and behaviors of individuals and cultures. Influence our perception of the world around us. Represent interpretations of right and wrong. Imply that some behaviors or outcomes are preferred over others.

Milton Rokeach Value Survey

The Rokeach Value Survey (RVS) is a classification system of values. Developed by social psychologist Milton Rokeach, the system consists of two sets of values, 18 individual value items in each. One set is called terminal values the other instrumental value RVS is based on a 1968 volume (Beliefs, Attitudes, and Values) which presented the philosophical basis for the association of fundamental values with beliefs and attitudes. His value

system was instrumentalised into the Rokeach Value Survey in his 1973 book The Nature of Human Values Terminal Values refer to desirable end-states of existence. These are the goals that a person would like to achieve during his or her lifetime. These values vary among different groups of people in different cultures.

The terminal values in RVS are: 1. True Friendship 2. Mature Love 3. Self-Respect 4. Happiness 5. Inner Harmony 6. Equality 7. Freedom 8. Pleasure 9. Social Recognition 10. Wisdom 11. Salvation 12. Family Security 13. National Security 14. A Sense of Accomplishment 15. A World of Beauty 16. A World at Peace 17. A Comfortable Life 18. An Exciting Life

Instrumental Values refer to preferable modes of behavior. These are preferable modes of behavior, or means of achieving the terminal values.

The Instrumental Values are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Cheerfulness Ambition Love Cleanliness Self-Control Capability Courage Politeness Honesty

10. Imagination 11. Independence 12. Intellect 13. Broad-Mindedness 14. Logic 15. Obedience 16. Helpfulness 17. Responsibility 18. Forgiveness

The task for participants in the survey is to arrange the 18 terminal values, followed by the 18 instrumental values, into an order "of importance to YOU, as guiding principles in YOUR life"

Personality

The word personality can be traced to the Latin word per sona which are translated as to speak through . Acoording to Gordon Allport, presonality is the dynamic organisation within the individual of those psychological systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environment. Thus, personality devotes for the methods of affecting others, reaching to others actions and interacting with others. The Big Five Model of Personality Dimensions Extroversion It represents a persons interest in the external world. Persons interest in the external world can be exhibited through socialibility, talktiveness, and assesrtiveness. Thus this dimensions deals with relationship with others. Extrovert are assertivr, sociable, people and introvert are reserved, timid and quite. Agreebleness Highly agreeable people are cooperative, warm, and trusting where as less agreeable people are cold, disagreeable, and antagonostic. Individuals with agreeable traits think from the view point of their employee or clients. Such individuals are trustworthy.

Conscientiousness It refers to governing or regulating th ework activity by conscience. It is a measure of reliability, persons with a high level of conscientiousnessare reliable, organised, dependable and persistent, while persons with a low level are easily distracted, disorganised and unreliable. Emotional stability Some extensive absorb th eactions, reactions, views, feelings, attitudes, outcome of activities,etc. And maintain stabilityof their emotions. Consequently, they tend to be calm, self-confident, and secure. People with negative scores tend to be nervous, anxious, depressed and insecure. Openness to experience Exicutives are expected to be open to new job experiences, learn, absorb nad integrate themwith their previous experience knowledge. This trait includes imaginative, artistically sensitive, itellectual, creativeand curious people. Those with low level of openness are conventional and go along with the familiar.

PERCEPTION
A process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment. Definition: Perception may be defined as the process through which people select, organise and interpret information from their environment. Factors That Influence Perception The perceiver It plays a major role in influencing the way he interprets a target. The perception of a person having a ppositive attitude about a particular thing will be different from that of a person having a negative attitude. A persons attitudes, motives, interest, past experience and expectation influence the perception. The target It is based on its attributes such as motion, sound, size etc. Sometimes target is not perceived in isolation but it is grouped or associated with things similar to it. This

may lead to grouping of unrelated object or events. People tend to group objects together because of the physical proximity of the objects. Event may be grouped together because they occured during the same time. The situation The context or environment, in which objects or events are seen, plays important role in influencing an individuals perceptios. Time, location, climate, a persons state of mind and other situational factors influence his perception. Person Perception: Making Judgments About Others Attribution Theory When individuals observe behavior, they attempt to determine whether it is internally or externally caused. Distinctiveness: shows different behaviors in different situations. Consensus: response is the same as others to same situation. Consistency: responds in the same way over time.

Errors and Biases in Attributions Fundamental Attribution Error The tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors when making judgments about the behavior of others. Self-Serving Bias The tendency for individuals to attribute their own successes to internal factors while putting the blame for failures on external factors. Frequently Used Shortcuts in Judging Others Halo Effect Drawing a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single characteristic.

It is a common error made by performance appraisers or raters. There are 2 sides of components to the Halo Effect true, illusory. It has negative consequences that ought to be avoide or elimineted.

A certain positive trait of a person may outweigh all other charecteristics thet haveto be considered while evaluating performwnce or making a decesion. Contrast Effects Evaluation of a persons characteristics that are affected by comparisons with other people recently encountered who rank higher or lower on the same characteristics. eg.interview Projection Attributing ones own characteristics to other people. Stereotyping Judging someone on the basis of ones perception of the group to which that person belongs. In organisation it is based on genderd, race, enthnicity. A person. Resorts to steriotyping to simplify the process of managing innumerable and complex stimuli that are encoutered on a continual basis.

Johari Window An alternate mechanism for determining an individual's Johari Window is to plot the scores from the Personal Effectiveness Scale(PES). The Scale comprises of three factors : Self-Disclosure, Openness to Feedback & Perceptiveness. The Self-Disclosure score is to be plotted horizontally, whereas the Openness to Feedback score is to be plotted vertically. The Johari Window formed naturally displays the sizes of the Open, Hidden, Blind Spot & Unknown areas, giving a perspective into the individual's personality.

The individual may also plot another Window, the Dream Johari Window. The sizes of the areas in the Dream Johari Window may be different from the sizes of the same areas in the current Johari Window. The Dream Johari Window represents what an individual wants his/her personality to be like. The individual having a Dream Johari Window identical to the current Johari Window may have a balanced personality. The Perceptiveness score from the PES indicates how likely it is for the individual to achieve the Dream Johari Window. For example, a LOW score on the PES indicates less possibility of transition.

Organisational behaviour
Definition Actions and attitudes of individuals and groups toward one another and toward the organization as a whole, and its effect on the organization's functioning and performance. What managers do?
1) Sets objectives: - The manager sets goals for the group, and decides what work needs to be done to meet those goals. 2) Organizes: - The manager divides the work into manageable activities, and selects people to accomplish the tasks that need to be done. 3) Motivates and communicates: - The manager creates a team out of his people, through decisions on pay, placement, promotion, and through his communications with the team. Drucker also referred to this as the integrating function of the manager. 4) Measures: - The manager establishes appropriate targets and yardsticks, and analyzes, appraises and interprets performance. 5) Develops people: - With the rise of the knowledge worker, this task has taken on added importance. In a knowledge economy, people are the companys most important asset, and it is up to the manager to develop that asset. Other important activities which mangers perform are: Make decisions

Allocate resources Direct activities of others to attain goals

Challenges and Opportunities for OB Responding to Globalization Increased foreign assignments Working with people from different cultures Overseeing movement of jobs to countries Managing Workforce Diversity Embracing diversity Implications for managers Improving Quality and Productivity uality management

Process re engineering Responding to the Labour Shortage Changing work force demographics Fewer skilled labourers Improving Customer Service Increased expectation of service quality Customer-responsive cultures Improving People Skills Empowering People Stimulating Innovation and Change Working in Networked Organizations

 Helping Employees Balance Work/Life Conflicts Improving Ethical Behavior