Chapter IIIndividual Process And Behavior

Dr. Rajasshrie Pillai

Individual Process And Behavior:2.1 Attitude: Importance of attitude in an

organization, Right Attitude,Components of attitude, Relationship

between behavior and attitude,Developing Emotional intelligence at the

workplace, Job attitude, Barriers tochanging attitudes

ATTITUDES

Attitudes represent beliefs, feelings and action tendencies towards objects, ideas or people

“An Attitude is mental state of readiness, learned and organized through experience, exerting a specific influence on person’s response to people, object and situations with which it is related”

Experience with the object

Classical Conditioning

Operant Conditioning

Vicarious Learning

Family and Peer Groups

Neighborhood

Mass Communication

Economic Status Attitude

Formation of Attitude

Attitudes

Three Components of Attitude

Attitude Affective Component

The feeling, sentiments, moods and emotions about some idea, person, event or object

Cognitive Component The belief, opinion, knowledge or information held

by the individual Behavioral Component

The predispositions to get on a favorable or unfavorable evaluation of something

FUNCTIONS OF ATTITUDEAttitude serves four important functions:

The adjustment (Adaptive) functionSome attitudes serve to enable people to attain particular,

desired goals or avoid undesirable circumstance

The knowledge function Some attitudes are useful because they help to make

the world more understandable. They help people ascribe causes to events and direct attention towards features of people or situations that are likely to be useful in making sense of them.

The ego-defensive functionSome attitudes serve to protect the person that

holds them from psychologically damaging events or information by allowing them to be recast in less damaging or threatening ways.

The value expressive functionSome attitudes are important to a person

because they express values that are integral to that person’s self concept (i.e. their ideas about who they are). The attitude is, consequently, ‘part of who they are’ and the expression of that attitude communicates important things about that person to others.

Job-Related AttitudesJob involvement ( Employee Engagement

Kahn)Extent that a person identifies with his job.

Organizational commitment Extent that a person identifies with the

organization. This is a great predictor for turnover.

Job satisfaction (Edwin A. Locke’s)A pleasurable or positive emotional state

resulting from the appraisa1 of one's job or job experiences“.

Types of Attitudes

Responses to Job Dissatisfaction

CHANGING ATTITUDES

Barriers to changing attitudesThere are two basic barriers that can prevent

people from changing their attitude. One is called prior commitment, which occurs when people feel a commitment to a particular course of action and are unwilling to change.

A second barrier is the result of insufficient information. Sometimes people do not see any reasons to change their attitude.

OVERCOMING BARRIERS

Providing information.Use of fearResolving discrepancies Influence of friends or peersThe co-opting approach

Changing Attitudes of Employees

Give feedback Provide positive conditions Positive Role modelProviding new information Use of fearInfluence of friends or press The co-opting approach Group Membership RewardsOthers

Changing Attitudes of Self

Be aware of one’s attitudesThink for self Realize that there are few, if any, benefits

from harboring negative attitudes Keep an open mind. Get into continuous education program Build a positive self-esteem Stay away from negative influences

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Self-Perception TheoryAttitudes are used after the fact to make sense out of an action that has already occurred.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy:

Process by which ones expectations about another person eventually lead the other person to behave in ways that confirm these expectations

© 2003 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights reserved. 3–25

The Theory of Cognitive Dissonance

Desire to reduce dissonance

• Importance of elements creating dissonance

• Degree of individual influence over elements

• Rewards involved in dissonance

Desire to reduce dissonance

• Importance of elements creating dissonance

• Degree of individual influence over elements

• Rewards involved in dissonance

Measuring the A-B RelationshipRecent research indicates that the attitudes

(A) significantly predict behaviors (B) when moderating variables are taken into account.

Moderating Variables

• Importance of the attitude

• Specificity of the attitude

• Accessibility of the attitude

• Social pressures on the individual

• Direct experience with the attitude

Moderating Variables

• Importance of the attitude

• Specificity of the attitude

• Accessibility of the attitude

• Social pressures on the individual

• Direct experience with the attitude

EIEmotional intelligence is the capacity for

recognizing our own feelings and those of others for motivating our selves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationship.” Daniel Goleman

Sample Attitude Survey