ATTITUDES determine

ALTITUDES

VALUES, ATTITUDES & JOB SATISFACTION

• When you prevent me from doing anything I want to do, that is persecution;

• but when I prevent you from doing anything you want to do, that is law, order and morals.

• -- G. B. Shaw

ATTITUDE DEFINITION

• Attitude is a learned predisposition….

• Which shows a person’s tendency to respond to an..

• Object in a ….

• Consistently..

• Favourable or unfavourable manner….

• Within a given situation.

KEY POINTS

• Attitude is not neutral

• Attitudes are stable & evolving

• Attitude can be inferred from behaviour or statements

• Behaviour can be inferred from attitude but the relationship is not always reliable.

WHERE DO ATTITUDES COME FROM?

• Information about an object

• Direct experience with an object

• Indirect experience with an object• Observe others interacting with an object• Mass media

• Factual information

WHERE DO ATTITUDES COME FROM?

• Affective reactions to an object

• How does an object make us feel?• Nervous?• Happy?• Calm?• Afraid?

WHERE DO ATTITUDES COME FROM?

• Learned responses

• Classical conditioning

• Operant conditioning

• Modeling• we may imitate the positive or negative responses to an object that we observe others exhibiting

WHERE DO ATTITUDES COME FROM?

• Observing our own behaviours

•Just as we often infer other people’s attitudes from their behaviour, sometimes we look to our ownbehaviour to infer our evaluation of an object

WHERE DO ATTITUDES COME FROM?

• Genetics?

•Some of our attitudes are influenced (at least indirectly) by our genetic make-up

•Inherited sensory structures - attitude towards spicy foods or loud music

• Inherited body chemistry - attitude towards stimulants like caffeine, nicotine..

• Genetic differences in activity level might influence our attitudes toward various leisure activities

Summing up….

• Where do attitudes come from?

• Information about an object• Affective reactions to an object• Learned responses to an object• Our own behaviour towards an object• Maybe our own genetic make-up

What is an Attitude?

• Goldstein..”an evaluation of other people, objects, and issues.”

• Attitudes conceptualised to involve 3 components:

• Cognitive aspect (what you think about the object, person, issue);

• Affective aspect (how you feel about the object, person, issue);

• Behavioural aspect (how you act or react to the object, person, issue);

COMPONENT CHARACTERISTICS EXAMPLES

Affect Emotional Reactions

“I like….”, “…..makes me angry”

Cognition Internalized mental representations, beliefs, thoughts

"My co-workers should ..."; -or- "If .... then ...."

Behaviour The tendency to respond or overtly act in a particular way toward the attitude object

"I always do ...."; -or- ".... makes me angry"

Relationships between components

• Generally consistent

• Sometimes inconsistent; ambivalent attitude towards object

Do attitudes predict behaviour?

Early theorists assumed they did:

• “The attitude is the most distinctive and importantconcept in contemporary American social psychology.”

•Gordon Allport (1954)

The Evidence:

• Attitudes have been shown to predict behaviour towards things as diverse as:

• Littering• Voting• Snakes• Religious activities• Use of contraception

However….

• As early as 1930’s, inconsistent evidence began to emerge:

• In many studies, attitudes were found to be weakly or not at all associated with behaviours

• Attitudes towards minority groups often failed to predict behaviour toward a specific member of that group

• Attitudes towards cheating were often unrelated to actual cheating behaviour

CRISIS??

The Resolution….

• Measurement

• Level of specificity• very general attitudes cannot be expected to predictvery specific behaviours

• level of specificity of the attitude and the behaviour must match

3 determinants of the attitude - behaviour relation:

• Individual differrences

• for some people, attitudes are highly predictive ofbehaviour; for other people, attitudes are less predictiveof behaviour

3 determinants of the attitude - behaviour relation:..

• Situational factors:

• in some situations, attitudes are highly predictive ofbehaviour, but in other situations, attitudes are not atall predictive of behaviour

• situational constraints or demands can overpowerattitudes, and often powerfully shape behaviour

3 determinants of the attitude - behaviour relation:..

• Features of the attitude

• some attitudes are highly predictive of behaviour, and others are not predictive of behaviour at all

• “strong” versus “weak” attitudes• based on a lot of information• based on a lot of prior thought• personally important• highly certain

Summing up….

The relation between attitudes and behaviour depends on:

• The level of specificity with which we have measuredboth the attitude and the behaviour

• Individual differences

• Situational constraints or demands

• The strength of the attitude

How do attitudes change??

Elaboration Likelihood Model(ELM)

.. A Theory that discusses ways to persuade people.

• Two paths that can be taken:• central route• peripheral route

The two routes

• Central Route– careful scrutiny of

a persuasive message

– generation of positive or negative cognitive responses

• Peripheral route– no careful scrutiny of

persuasive message

– look for “cues” in the persuasion context

• source expertise• number of arguments

presented

The two routes• Central Route

– on the basis of positive or negative thoughts generated, attitude change may occur

• Central Route processing– requires ability– requires motivation– can lead to long-lasting

attitude change

• Peripheral route– on the basis of the cues,

attitude change may occur

• Peripheral Route processing– requires very little

ability– very little motivation– temporary attitude shifts

When will each route be effective?

• Central route

• when people have ability to process a message

• when people are motivated to process a message

• when arguments presented are strong and compelling

When will each route be effective?

• Peripheral route

• when people don’t have ability to process a message •aren’t motivated to process a message •when there are salient cues in the persuasion context

People using the central route scrutinise the ideas,try to figure out if they have true merit, and mull over theirimplications.

It is an attempt to process the new information rationally.

The peripheral route offers a shorthand way to acceptor reject a message ‘without any active thinking aboutthe attributes of the issue or the object of consideration’.

Instead of doing extensive cognitive work, recipients relyon a variety of cues that allow them to make quick decisions.

Relevance to OB

• Our interest: job - related attitudes

• Job satisfaction• Job involvement• Organisational commitment

Job Satisfaction

• ..refers to an individual’s general attitude towards hisor her job

• high level of job satisfaction Positive attitudes towards job

• job dissatisfaction negative attitudes towards job

Job Involvement

.. The degree to which a person identifies with his or her job,

actively participates in it, and considers his or her performance important to self-worth.

Predictor of:• absenteeism• resignation/ attrition

Organisational Commitment

..the degree to which an employee identifies with a particular

organisation and its goals, and wishes to maintain membership

in the organisation.

High job involvement: Identifying with one’s specific job

High organisational commitment: Identifying with one’s organisation.

Negative correlation with • absenteeism• turnover

Types of AttitudesTypes of Attitudes

• Job satisfaction

• Job involvement

• Organizational

commitment

ProductivityProductivityProductivityProductivity

AbsenteeismAbsenteeismAbsenteeismAbsenteeism

TurnoverTurnoverTurnoverTurnover

JobJob

SatisfactionSatisfaction

and Employeeand Employee

PerformancePerformance

JobJob

SatisfactionSatisfaction

and Employeeand Employee

PerformancePerformance

Responses to Job DissatisfactionResponses to Job Dissatisfaction

Destructive

Active

Passive

Constructive

Exit Voice

Neglect Loyalty