ATTITUDE AND VALUES

ATTITUDE
Attitude is defined as relatively lasting
feelings, believes and behavioral
tendencies directed towards specific
people, groups, ideas, issues or objects.
NATURE OF ATTITUDES
1. Attitude is a continuous tendency to feel and
behave in specific way towards some object.
2. Every person holds attitude towards an
object/person irrespective of their intelligence
level.
3. Attitudes tend to continue unless something is
done to change them.
4. Attitude generally fall any where alone a continuum
between extremely favourble to extremely
unfavourble.
COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDES
Attitudes can be broken down into 3 basic
components.
1. Emotional- Emotional component involves the
person’s feels.
2. Informational- Informational component of an
attitude consist of beliefs and information the
individual has about the object.
3. Behavioural-Behavioural component of an attitude
consist of a person’s tendencies to behave in a
particular way toward an object.
Attitude essentially stems from 3
underlying components:
1. Cognitive Component is the opinion or belief
segment of an attitude.
2. Affective Component is the emotional or
feeling segment of an attitude.
3. Behavioural Component is an intention to
behave in a certain way towards someone or
something.
 TYPES OF ATTITUDES
A person can have thousands of attitudes, but OB
focuses our attention on a very limited number of job-
related attitudes.
Most of the OB research has been concerned with 3
attitudes:

1. Job Satisfaction-
Job Satisfaction refers to an individual’s general
attitude to his or her job.
Responses to Job Dissatisfaction

Exit-Behavior directed toward leaving the organization.

Voice-Active and constructive attempts to improve conditions.
Neglect-Allowing conditions to worsen.
Loyalty-Passively waiting for conditions to improve
2. Job involvement-
Job involvement is a more recent addition to the OB
literature. A workable definition states that job
involvement measures the degree to which a person
identifies psychologically with his/her job and considers
his/her perceived performance level important to self
worth.
3. Organizational commitment-
The manner in which the employee identifies with the
organization, its goals and vision and his attitude towards
the organization.
EFFECTS OF EMPLOYEE
ATTITUDE
Employee performance
Turnover
Absences and Tardiness
Violence
Theft
FUNCTION OF ATTITUDES
Utilitarian Function: use to obtain rewards and avoid
punishments.
Ego-Defensive Function: self-protection, e.g.,
smokers
Knowledge Function: simplifies decisions, e.g., brand
loyalty
Value-Expressive Function: express identify to others.
e.g., t-shirts.
Sources of Attitudes:

Acquired from parents, teachers, and peer group

members.
There are “genetic” predispositions.
Observations, attitudes that we imitate.

Attitudes are less stable than values.

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
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
 Hierarchies of Beliefs, Attitudes, and
Behaviors

Decision-Making
Hierarchies
Experiential
Hierarchy
Behavioral Influence
Hierarchy
Decision making hierarchies
High involvement: beliefs attitudes
behavior
Low involvement: beliefs behavior
attitudes
Experiential
Affect behavior beliefs
Behavioral influence hierarchy
Behavior beliefs affect
 Attitude Point # 1
It is our attitude that tells the world what we
expect in return.

 A cheerful expectant attitude communicates to

everyone we come in contact with that we
EXPECT THE BEST in our dealings with our
customers.
Attitude Point # 2
It is our attitude toward life that determines life’s
attitude toward us.

 A simple cause and effect.

It is your attitude toward others that determines

other’s attitude toward you.
Attitude Point # 3
To achieve and find the life you want, you must think,
act, talk, and conduct yourself as would the person you
want to become.

For example, if one wants to be successful, he or she

must think, act, talk, and conduct himself as would a
successful person.
Attitude Point # 4
The higher you go up in any organization of value,
the greater the attitude you will find.

A great attitude is not the result of success; rather

success is the result of a great attitude.
The greatest discovery of my
generation is that a human being
CAN alter his life by changing his
attitude.
-William James

And so it is with you – you are in charge of your

attitude.
 VALUES
Values represent basic conviction that,
“A specific mode of conduct or end state of existence is
personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse
mode of conduct or end state of existence.

•Values differ between

generations.

•Values differ between

regions.

•Values differ between

cultures
 Values contain a judgmental element in that they
carry an individual’s ideas as to what is right, good or
desirable.

 It contains both content and intensity attribute.

 value system is a hierarchy based on a raking of an

individual’s values in terms of their intensity.

 Values are relatively stable and enduring.

If you want to understand a person’s behavior, you
must understand his or her values.

Source of our Value Systems:-

A significant portion is genetically determined.
Other factors include national culture, parents,
teachers, friends, and similar environmental influences.
 If we know an individual’s values, we are better able to
predict a behavior in a particular situation.
 IMPORTANCE OF VALUES
o Important to the study of organizational behavior.
o Values cloud objectivity and rationality.
o Provide understanding of the attitudes, motivation, and
behaviors of individuals and cultures.
o Influence our perception of the world around us.
o Represent interpretations of “right” and “wrong.”
o Values generally influence attitudes and behavior.
TYPES OF VALUES
Milton Rokeach created the Rokeach value survey.
The RVS consists of the two sets of values, with each set
containing 18 individual items.
1. Terminal value:- Refers to desirable end states of
existence. the goals that a person would like to achieve
during his or her lifetime
2. Instrumental value:- Refers to preferable mode of
behavior or the means of achieving the terminal values.
RVS values vary among groups. People in same category
hold similar values.
Terminal and Instrumental values in Rokeach
survey

 TERMINAL VALUES INSTRUMENTAL

VALUES
A comfortable life. Ambitious
An exciting life Broad minded
A sense of Capable
accomplishment Clean
Family security Courageous
Freedom Forgiving
Happiness Helpful
Social recognition Honest
Hofstede’s Framework for Assessing
Cultures
Individualism-The degree to which people prefer
to act as individuals rather than a member of
groups.

o Collectivism-
A tight social framework in
which people expect others
in groups of which they are
a part to look after them
and protect them.
Long-term Orientation
A national culture attribute
that emphasizes the future,
thrift, and persistence.

Short-term Orientation
A national culture attribute
that emphasizes the past and
present, respect for tradition,
and fulfilling social obligations.
 Relationship between Values and Attitudes
1. Attitudes are less stable than values.

2. Attitudes derived from values, but also to express

values , values is the core of attitudes .

3. Value don’t have a direct impact on behavior, values

strongly influence a persons attitudes.

4. Attitude is the way we reflect value.

5. Values are reflected through the way we treat people,
the approach we give to our work, and in our basic
work ethics and Attitude is the way we reflect value.

6.If you want to understand a person’s behavior, you

must understand his or her values.
conclusion
Employee attitudes are important to
monitor, understand and manage.
Attitudes are feelings and moods that affect
behavior and may change frequently.
Values are the basic notion/convictions of
what is right and wrong and values are fairly
stable over time.
Cognitive dissonance is a conflict between
two values or between values and behavior.