Attitude

Attitude
Definition
• Attitude can be defined as relatively lasting
clusters of feelings, beliefs and behavior
tendencies directed towards specific
persons, groups, ideas or objects.
• An attitude is predisposition to respond
positively or negatively to a certain set of
facts.
• Attitude can also be defined as an idea
charged with emotion that predisposes a
set of actions to a specific group of stimuli.
Components of Attitude
• Cognitive:
The cognitive component of an attitude is what
a person believes about an object. It represents
the person’s perceptions, beliefs and ideas.
• Affective:
The affective component of an attitude is how
a person feels about the object. It refers to the
emotions and positive or negative feelings.
• Behavioral:
The behavioral component of an attitude is
what a person does about an object. It is a
person’s tendency to behave in certain ways.
Functions of Attitude
Katz has suggested that attitude serve four important functions for
individuals:
• The Adjustment Function:

This function recognizes that people tend to develop favorable attitudes
towards objects or people that are associated with providing positive
rewards and benefits and negative attitude towards those that are
associated with negative sanctions and penalties.
• The Ego- defensive Function:
Attitudes can also protect a person’s ego from internal or external threat and
harsh realities of their environments. Attitudes may serve the function of
defending self-image.
• The Value-expressive Function:
While many attitudes prevent individuals from revealing their true nature to
themselves, other attitudes serve as a vehicle for providing positive
expression of central values in the mind of other people.
• The Knowledge Function:
This function is based on the need for understanding and making sense of
the world. People need standards or frames of reference for understanding
and interpreting people and events around them, attitudes tend to provide
these standards.
Sources of Attitudes
Experienc
e
Associatio Personalit
n y Factor
Attitude
Society
Family
Peer
Group
Types of Attitudes
Various job related attitudes are as follows:
• Job Satisfaction:
People in organizations develop a set of attitudes about the work,
supervision, coworker, pay etc. This set of attitudes is referred as
job satisfaction. A person with high level of job satisfaction holds
positive attitude towards the work environment. Job satisfaction is
strongly related to work performance.
• Job Involvement:
Job involvement refers to a degree to which a person identifies
psychologically with his job and considers his perceived
performance level important to self worth.
• Organizational commitment:
It is a state in which an employee identifies himself with a particular
organization and its missions and desires to maintain membership
in it.
Cognitive Dissonance
Leon Festinger proposed the theory of cognitive
dissonance. cognitive dissonance refers to any
incompatibility that an individual might perceive between
two or more of his attitudes or between his behavior and
attitudes. Any form of inconsistency is uncomfortable and
that individual will attempt to reduce the dissonance.
In order to minimize dissonance the individual may:
• Seek information that confirms the wisdom of the
decision
• Selectively perceives (distort) information in a way that
supports the decision
• Adopt a less favorable attitude towards the alternatives
• Downplay the importance of any negative aspects of the
choice and magnify the positive aspects
Self Fulfilling Prophecy
It is the process by which a person
attempts to convert his attitudes, beliefs
and expectations into reality. For instance,
if a person predicts that something is
going to happen, he will try hard to ensure
that it happens. One may hold self
fulfilling prophecy in both positive and
negative ways. The term is used more in
context of negative prophecy.
Attitude Change
People are constantly trying to change each other’s attitudes. Management tries
to create a work environment where employees can have positive attitudes
about their jobs and work place.
Richard. M. Steers has described the following methods of effective attitude
change:
• Providing new Information:
One of the common methods of changing attitudes is by placing individuals in a
new situation with new information. Thus by altering belief structures,
subsequent attitude changes can be expected.
• Fear Arousal and Reduction:
Arousing an individual’s fear of an object can cause the individual to modify his
attitudes regarding that object. For example efforts to arouse employee fear are
made by both unions and management just prior to a strike.
• Dissonance Arousal:
This method is related with theory of cognitive dissonance. This theory states
that when people find a clear discrepancy between attitude and behavior, they
experience tension and inconsistency. In order to reduce this tension , people
can change their attitude.
• Position Discrepancy:
There may be discrepancy between an individual’s present position towards
something and the position advocated by others. Greater the discrepancy
between an individual’s own position and the position advocated by others, the
more the individual will move towards the position held by others.
• Participation in Decision Making:
Another technique by which attitude change can be brought about is to involve
individuals in the process by which decisions are made.

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• The Adjustment Function:

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