ATTITUDES AND VALUES

ATTITUDES AND VALUES

Attitudes represents beliefs, feelings and action tendencies towards objects, ideas or people. Attitudes are learned. Attitudes refers to feelings and beliefs of an individual or group of people. Attitude endure unless something happens. Attitudes are organized and are core to an individual. All people, irrespective to their status or intelligence, hold attitudes.

ATTITUDES - DEFINITION

An attitude is mental state of readiness, learned and organized through experience, exerting a specific influence on persons Response to people, object and situations with which it is relevant Attitudes are learned predispositions towards aspects of our environment. They may be positive or negative directed towards certain people, service or institutions By attitudes we mean the beliefs, feelings, and actions tendencies of an individual towards objects, ideas, and people. Quite often persons and objects or ideas become associated in the minds of individuals and as a result of attitudes become multidimensional and complex

COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDES
THREE COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDES

COGNITIVE

AFFECTIVE

BEHAVIOR

ATTITUDE

COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDES THREE COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDES

An affective component- the feelings, sentiments, moods and emotions about some idea, person, event or object. A Cognitive component- the beliefs, opinion, knowledge, or information held by the individual; and A behavioral component- the predispositions to get on a favorable or unfavorable evaluation of something. The three components of attitude described above constitute, what is called, the ABC model, the three letters respectively standing for affect, behavior and cognition. The significance of the model is that to thoroughly understand an attitude, one must asses all the three components.

FORMATION OF ATTITUDE

Mass Communication

Experience with the Object

Classical Conditioning

Economic Status

ATTITUDE

Operant Conditioning

Neighbourhood

Family and peer Groups

Vicarious Learning

FORMATION OF ATTITUDE
Individual acquires attitudes from several sources but the point to be stressed is that the attitude are acquired but not inherited. The most important sources of acquiring attitudes are direct experiences with the object, association, family, neighborhood, economic and social position and mass communications. Direct Experience with the Object: Attitudes can develop from a personally rewarding or punishing experience with object. Employees form attitudes about jobs on their previous experiences. Classical Conditioning and Attitudes: One of the basic process underlying attitude formation can be explained on the basis of learning principles. The same classical conditioning process that made by pavlovs dogs salivate at the sound of a bell can explain how attitudes are acquired. People develop associations between various objects and the emotional reactions that accompany them.

CONTD

Operant Conditioning and Attitude Acquisition: Another learning process, operant conditioning, also underlies attitude acquisition. Attitudes that are reinforced, either verbally or nonverbally, tend to be maintained. Conversely, a person who states an attitude that elicits ridicule from others may modify or abandon the attitude. Vicarious Learning: This refers to formation of attitudes by observing others and consequences of that behavior. It is through vicarious learning processes that children pick up the prejudices of their parents. Family and peer Groups: A person may learn attitude through imitation of parents. If parents have a positive attitude towards an object and the child admires his/her parents, he or she likely to adopt a similar attitude, even without being told about the object, and even without having direct experience.

CONTD

Neighborhood: The neighborhood we live in has a certain structure in terms of its having cultural facilities, religious groupings, and possibly ethnic differences. Further, it has people who are neighbors. The neighbors-adults or children-tolerate, condone, or deny certain attitudes and behavior and as a result we are either northerners or southerners. Further, we accept these moves and conform, or we deny them and possibly rebel. The conformity or rebellion in some respects is the evidence of the attitudes we hold. Economic status and Occupations: Our economic and occupational positions also contribute to attitudes formation. They determine, in part, our attitude towards unions, and management and our belief that certain laws are good or bad. Our socio economic background influences our present and future attitudes.

CONTD

Mass Communication: All varities of mass communicationtelevision, radio, newspapers, and magazines-feed their audiences of information. The presentation of news or information is constructed so as to cater to the attitude of the audience. In thur, the audience selects the specific form of mass communication that best reflects its attitude on various subjects. Once formed, attitudes play an important role in ones life. It applies to every sphere of life, including ones personal and professional life. A student cannot be a good student without a positive attitude. A parent, teacher, salesperson, employer, employee cannot be good without positive attitudes.

CONTD..
When all employees in an organization have positive attitudes, benefits will be many. For example, positive attitude Increase Productivity Fosters Teamwork Solves Problem Improves Quality Makes for congenial atmosphere Breeds loyalty Increases Profit Fosters better relationship with employees, employers and customers Reduces Stress Makes for a pleasing personality.

FUNCTIONS OF ATTITUDES
Peoples hold attitudes because they serve important functions. In general, attitudes perform four important functions: They are
Adjustment
Ego adjustment

Attitude

Knowledge

Value Expression

FUNCTIONS OF ATTITUDES

1.

2.

Adjustment Function: Attitudes often help people adjust to their work environment. When employees are well treated, they are likely to develop a positive attitude towards management and the organization. When employees are berated and paid poor, they are likely to develop a negative attitude towards the firm and the owners. These attitudes helps the employees to adjust t their environment about management or the organization. Ego - defense Function: People often form and maintain certain attitudes to protect their own self images. Expressive Function: This attitude function contains three main aspects It helps express the individuals central values and self-identity. Consumers express their values in the products they buy, the shops they patronize, and the life style they exhibit. The expressive function also helps individuals define their selfconcept, and facilitates the adoption of sub-culture values considered important.

FUNCTIONS OF ATTITUDES
3.

The expressive function helps individuals adopt and internalize the values of a group they have recently joined and as a consequence, they are better able to relate the group. An individual who has joined an ecology group may now express values manifest in the purchase and use of a bicycle and the recycling bottles. Knowledge Function: People need maintain a stable, organized, and meaningful structure of their world in order to prevent chaos. Attitudes provides standards or frames of reference by which an individual judges objectives or events, and attitudes that provide consistency in our thinking are particularly relevant. The knowledge function is observed more in consumer behaviour.

VALUES

Values represent stable, long-lasting beliefs about what is important. They are evaluative standard that help us define what is right or wrong, good or bad, in the world. Some people value money while others consider morals as more important. Values differ from attitudes. Values are general beliefs about life, whereas attitudes are directed towards specific objects, events, or people. Values influence our attitudes towards those objects. Further, a value stands in relation to some social or cultural standards or norms. While attitudes are mostly personal experience. They are always similarities too between values and attitudes. Both are acquired essentially from the same sources. Both values and attitudes endure and are resistant t change.

VALUES
1.
2.

There are two types of values: Terminal values Instrumental Values Terminal values are desired states of existence that we think are worth striving for. A world of beauty, equality, wisdom, and a comfortable life are some of the terminal values that people might hold. Instrumental values, on the other hand are desirable models of behavior that help us reach the objectives of terminal values. Some instrumental values include being polite, courageous, logical, self-controlled and ambitious.

VALUES
Some other ways of categorizing values is as follows:
o o

o
o o o

Theoretical: Values the discovery of truth and emphasizes critical and rational approach to problems. Economic: Value utility and practically and emphasizes standard of living. Aesthetic: Values form grace, and harmony and emphasizes the artistic aspects of life. Social: Values love of people and altruism and emphasizes concern for others. Political: Values power, position, and influence and emphasizes competition and winning. Religious: Values unity and peoples relationship to the universe and emphasizes high deals and the search for the purpose of being on the earth.

CHANGING ATTITUDES
Employee need to be changed, particularly when they are unfavorable. It is in the best interest of the organization to change attitudes. But changing attitudes is a difficult task as attitudes generally endure. Difficulty is reinforced because of the escalation of commitment, cognitive dissonance, and insufficient information. Escalation commitment refers to commitment refers to the prior commitment of people to a particular cause. This prevents them from changing. The second obstacle to change attitude is cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is a term popularized by psychologist Leon Festinger to describe a state of inconsistency between individuals attitude and behavior. The third barrier results from insufficient information. Some times people see no reason why they would change their attitudes. The boss my not like a subordinates negative attitudes, but latter may be quite pleased with his behavior. 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.

WAYS OF CHANGING
Attitudes need to be changed at two fronts:

Changing ones own attitudes.

Changing the employees attitude.

CHANGING ATTITUDES OF SELF

The following hints can help the individual change his or her attitude Be aware of ones attitudes. People who are optimistic have higher levels of job satisfaction. The individual needs to maintain positive attitudes consciously. Think for self. The individual should develop his or her own attitude based on others input. Realize that there are few, if any, benefits from harbouring negative attitudes. Keep an open mind. The individuals should listen to other peoples input and use it to develop positive attitudes. Get into continuous education programme Build a positive self esteem Stay away from negative influences

CHANGING ATTITUDES OF EMPLOYEES

The following hints can help a manager change attitudes of his or her employee:

Give feedback Accentuated positive conditions Positive role model Providing new information Use a fear Influence of friends of press The cooping approach Others

WORK-RELATED ATTITUDES OR MAJOR JOB

ATTITUDES
Two work-related are job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job involvement.

Job Satisfaction: A positive feeling about ones job resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics. Organizational Commitment: The degree to which an employee identifies with a particular organization and its goals and wishes to maintain membership in the organization. Job Involvement: The degree to which a person identifies with a job. Actively participates in it, and considers performance important to selfworth.

JOB SATISFACTION
The term job satisfaction describes a positive feeling about a job, resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics. A person with a a high level of job satisfaction holds positive feelings about his or her job, while a dissatisfied person holds negative feelings.

JOB INVOLVEMENT
Job Involvement is related to job satisfaction. Job Involvement measures the degree to which people identify psychologically with their job and consider their perceived performance level important to selfworth. Another closely related concept is psychological empowerment, which employees belief in the degree to which the influence their work environment, their competence, the meaningfulness of their job, and the perceived autonomy in their work. High level of job involvement and psychological empowerment are positively related to job performance and organizational citizenship. In addition, high job involvement has been found to be related to a reduced number of absence and resignation rates.

ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT
The third job attitude is organizational commitment, a state in which an employee identifies with a particular organization and its goals and wishes to maintain membership with the organization. There are three separate dimensions to organizational commitment and they are:
1.

2.

3.

Affective Commitment: An affective commitment is an emotional attachment to the organization and a belief in values. Continuance Commitment: A Continuance commitment is the perceived economic value of remaining with an organization compared to leaving it. Normative Commitment: A normative commitment is an obligation, to remain with the organization for moral and ethical reasons.

PERCEIVED ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT (POS)

The degree to which employees believe an organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being.

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND JOB ENGAGEMENT

A new concept is employee engagement, an individuals involvement with, satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for, the work he or she does.

MEASURING OF JOB SATISFACTION

The two most widely used approaches are a single global rating and a summation score made up of a number of job facets. The single global rating method is nothing more than a response to one question such as how satisfied are you with your job? Respondents are circle a number 1 to 5 that corresponds to answers for highly satisfied to highly dissatisfied. The other approach a summation of job facets, is more sophisticated. It identifies key elements in a job and asks for the employees feelings about each. Typical elements here are the nature of work, supervision, present pay, promotion opportunities, and relations with coworkers.