Role of Attitude in Organizational Behavior - Essay Example

ROLE OF ATTITUDES IN ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR By of Attitude can be defined as the tendency to respond favorably or unfavorably towards a certain idea, object, person or situation (Tosi & Mero 2003). For example, a positive job attitude means that the person has pleasant internal feelings when they think about their job. Attitude reflects a person’s likes and dislikes and influences his/her choice, action and responses to external stimuli like challenges, incentives and rewards (Tosi & Mero 2003). Attitudes may be positive or negative and vary in its intensity. For example, in an organizational scenario, an employee may strongly like the reimbursement policy for unused leaves but have only a casual dislike towards the music played by his colleague in the cabin next to his. Components of Attitude Social psychologists believe that attitudes have three core evaluative components (Vandeveer 2006): 1. Cognitive component is the mental component and consists of opinions or beliefs. 2. Affective component is the emotional component and consists of emotions or feelings. 3. Behavioral component is the action component and consists of the tendency to act in a certain way towards something or someone. For example, the attitude of a person towards a friend can be examined in terms of cognitive component (“I think my friend is funny and pleasant”), affective component (“I feel nice when I am around this friend”) and behavioral component (“I try to spend time with this friend whenever I get an opportunity”). Sources of Attitudes Attitudes are acquired and not inborn (Ferguson 2005). There are three major sources that help in the formation of attitudes (Ferguson 2005): 1. Experiences: Attitudes can be formed based on previous experiences and influence of family, teachers and peers. 2. Observations: Attitudes can be formed by observations i.e., what one has seen or heard. It can also be formed based on the knowledge one has. 3. Genetic predisposition: Genetic predisposition also influences attitudes. Relation between Values, Beliefs and Attitudes Attitudes of a person are influenced by both values and beliefs. Values reflect a general sense of right or wrong and do not require an identifiable object towards which it is directed (Cheek 2006). Values are therefore deeply rooted views that act as guiding principles for an individual. On the other hand beliefs are assumptions that one makes about oneself, about others and about how we expect things to be (Cheek 2006). Attitudes as Predictors of Behavior Attitudes develop from past experiences or observations and have been found to guide future behavior. Behavior is the way one acts and includes the things that we say or do, like facial expressions, hand gestures, eye contact and choice of words (Standen n.d.). Behavior is usually an outward expression of one’s attitude. However, the two are not always related. Attitudes are only one of the determinants of behavior. It is the predisposition to behave in a particular way in a given situation. However, how one would actually behave in a given scenario, depends on many other factors like immediate consequences of the behavior, perception of others viewing the behavior, personal habits and other situational factors (Standen n.d.). A classic example to describe this is the study conducted by LaPiere (1934) where he went on a tour with a Chinese couple (at a time when Chinese were discriminated against) in the southwest. He asked the hotel proprietors if this couple could stay in their hotel and also if they could eat there. All but one proprietor responded favorably, allowing the couple to stay and eat food at their hotel. These proprietors were later asked the same questions in a letter and the response was largely negative with only around 9% agreeing to let the Chinese couple stay and eat food in their hotel. Historically, studies conducted to measure attitude-behavior relationship have revealed a weak relationship between the two. This finding can be attributed to improper measurement techniques. In these early research studies, the researchers tried to predict specific behaviors from general attitudes or vice versa (Standen n.d.). This resulted in relatively low correlations. Olden studies also focused on single instances of behavior instead of measuring behavioral trends over time (Standen n.d.). In their study, Azjen and Fishbein (1977) state that attitudes can accurately predict behavior if they are both assessed at the same level of generality. According to Davidson and Jaccard (1979), attitudes can predict behavior if the right questions are asked. Job-related Attitudes Organizational leaders primarily focus on the following three main job-related attitudes of their employees (Ferguson 2005): 1. Job involvement: Job involvement is the extent to which a person identifies with his job. 2. Organizational commitment: Organizational commitment is the extent to which a person identifies with the organization. This attitude helps to determine employee turnover within the organization. 3. Job satisfaction: Job satisfaction is a person’s general attitude towards his work. Factors That Affect One’s Attitudes Towards Work Life Attitudes play a major role in employee satisfaction, performance and constructive voluntary contributions to organizational success. An organization can be very effective if its employees have positive attitude towards their work. According to Tosi & Mero (2003), there are numerous factors that affect one’s attitude towards work life: 1. Parental influence, especially their child rearing practices with regard to providing a loving and caring environment or an environment of rejection and avoidance are important early influences that affects a person’s personality and self concept. 2. Socioeconomic factors like family income, occupational status and educational levels also affect work orientations. This is especially true with respect to aspects like career mentoring at work, work ethics and values. 3. Preliminary work socialization during the beginning of the career helps one to learn about the characteristics and culture of their chosen occupational field. During this phase, one begins to develop more specific orientations towards a certain career or a particular type of organization. 4. Organizational socialization, which is a process of learning about the norms and expectations of the work organization, involves adapting to the unique culture of the organization. Role of Attitude in Organizational Behavior Today, organizations have been challenged to determine and assess the attitudes and behaviors of their employees. Attitudes of employees in their workplace have been found to influence important organizational outcomes. Therefore, organizations spend a lot of resources to assess employee attitudes so that they can accurately predict employee behavior. Employee attitudes towards pay, benefits, promotion, supervision etc can be either positive or negative. In the workplace, attitude of employees determine several performance related behaviors like quantity and quality of service, organizational commitment, absenteeism and turnover (Standen n.d.). These attitudes influence employee satisfaction – a key to organizational effectiveness. The attitudes of an employee may be taught directly by others in the organization or may be learned by observing others within the organization. It is therefore important for employees to adjust well with the organization in which they work. Otherwise, it can negatively affect their performance, health and morale. This negative attitude can also affect co-workers, friends and family. Therefore, organizational leaders need to consider the following aspects about employee attitudes: 1. Organizational leaders must focus on specific employee attitudes like attitude towards pay, supervision etc rather than general attitudes. This enables them to implement changes like modifying the pay system or providing training to supervisors. 2. Organizational leaders must not undermine the depth of feeling and behavior associated with the attitudes, values and beliefs. They should realize that attitudes are very important to the psychological well-being of people, especially those linked to a person’s self image. 3. Organizational leaders must realize that an employee’s negative attitude towards his work or the organization can lead him to avoid work or quit. Similarly, a productive employee may not always be satisfied. 4. Organizations should periodically evaluate employee attitude and satisfaction and involve the employees in the designing, collection and interpretation of data. However, the key is to be committed to act on the findings. 5. Organizational leaders should have open communication channels with their employees where in the employees can openly justify, rationalize and explain their beliefs and they can also be informed about the expectations of the company with regard to employee performance and outcomes. Organizations are also focusing on creating a positive outlook in the minds of their employees in order to improve employee productivity and reduce turnover (Standen n.d.). To achieve this, organizations have adopted several strategies like open communication channels to cut down bureaucracy, transparency in work place and sharing of information, encourage creativity in employees, involve employees in critical decision making and be receptive to listen and adopt their ideas. Companies like Google, Apple and Microsoft are all examples of organizations that have overcome the traditional barriers and adopted these new strategies to improve employee attitudes (Yackey 2007). These strategies have helped the companies to be more innovative, improve employee productivity, reduce turnover and improve organizational outcomes. In conclusion, employee attitudes are important indicators of job involvement, organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Since attitudes stem from deep rooted beliefs and values and reflect a person’s likes and dislikes, organizations should regularly measure and assess employee attitudes. This will help them to address organizational issues like employee attendance, retention, work commitments and interpersonal relationships. However, in addition to these measures, organizations should adopt open communication channels, transparency in work place and involve employees in critical decision making – factors that can help organizations to build strong positive attitudes and behaviors in their employees. List of References Ajzen, I. & Fishbein, M. (1977) Attitude-behavior relations: A theoretical analysis and review of empirical research. Psychological Bulletin, 84, pp. 888-918. Cheek, B. (2006) ‘Attitudes, values and beliefs.’GP Training. [Online] Available from http://www.gp-training.net/training/leadership/values.htm [17 August 2011] Davidson, A.R. & Jaccard, J. (1979) Variables that moderate the attitude-behavior relation: Results of a longitudinal survey. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, pp. 1364-1376. Ferguson, T.J. (2005) ‘Social psychology.’ Utah State University. [Online] Available from http://www.usu.edu/psy3510/attitudes.html [17 August 2011] LaPiere, R.T. (1934) Attitudes vs. actions. Social Forces, 13, pp. 230-37. Standen, J. (n.d.) ‘The relationship between attitude and behavior.’ Jeff Standen. [Online] Available from http://www.jeffstanden.net/attitudes%20behaviour%2001.htm [ 17 August 2011] Tosi, H.L & Mero, N.P. (2003) The Fundamentals of Organizational Behavior: What Managers Need to Know. United Kingdom: Blackwell Publishing. Vandeveer, M.S. (2006) ‘Learning outcomes – values and attitudes.’ College of Technology, Purdue University. [Online] Available from www.tech.purdue.edu/Ols/courses/ols252/ slides/chapter4.ppt [16 August 2011] Yackey, B. (2007) ‘Google’s 9 points of innovation.’ Digital Screen Media Association. [Online] Available from http://www.digitalscreenmedia.org/the-perspective/view/10355/google-s-nine-points-of-innovation [17 August 2011] Read More