TOPICS TO BE COVERED

UNIT 2 (III) 1

1. Concept and definition of Attitude

2. Components of Attitude.

3. Types of Attitude.
• CONCEPT OF ATTITUDE 2

• An attitude is a positive, negative, or mixed evaluation of an object expressed at some level of

intensity. It is an expression of a favorable or unfavorable evaluation of a person, place, thing, or event.

• These are fundamental determinants of our perceptions of and actions toward all aspects of our social
environment. Attitudes involve a complex organization of evaluative beliefs, feelings, and tendencies
toward certain actions.

• How much we like or dislike something that determines our behavior towards that thing.We tend to
approach, seek out, or be associated with things we like; we avoid, shun, or reject things we do not like.

• Attitude is the manner, disposition, feeling, and position about a person or thing, tendency, or
•
orientation, especially in mind.

• Attitudes are learned predispositions towards aspects of our environment. They may be positively or
negatively directed towards certain people, service, or institution.
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Components of Attitude:
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Cognitive Component:

The informational component consists of beliefs, values, ideas and other information a person has about
the object. It makes no difference whether or not this information is empirically correct or real. For
example, a person seeking a job may learn from his own sources and other employees working in the
company that in a particular company the promotion chances are very favourable. In reality, it may or may
not be correct. Yet the information that person is using is the key to his attitude about that job and about
that company.

Emotional or Affective Component:

The informational component sets the stage for the more critical part of an attitude, its affective
component. The emotional components involve the person’s feeling or affect-positive, neutral or negative-
about an object. This component can be explained by this statement.” I like this job because the future
prospects in this company are very good”.
.
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Behavioural Component:

The behavioural component consists of the tendency of a person to behave in a particular manner
towards an object. For example, the concerned individual in the above case may decide to take up the job
because of good future prospects. Out of the three components of attitudes, only the behavioural
component can be directly observed. One cannot see another person’s beliefs (the informational
component) and his feelings (the emotional component). These two components can only be inferred. But
still understanding these two components is essential in the study of organisational behaviour or the
behavioural component of attitudes.
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• TYPES OF ATTITUDE:

There are broadly three types of attitude in term of organisational behavior:

1. Job satisfaction
2. Job involvement
3. Organizational commitment
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Job satisfaction

A collection of positive and/or negative feelings that an individual holds toward his or her job.
A person will hold a positive attitude if had a high level of satisfaction, while dissatisfied people will
generally display a negative attitude towards life. When we talk about attitude, we generally speak about
job satisfaction because they are inter-related in organizational behaviour.

Job involvement:

Job involvement refers to the degree to which a person identifies himself (psychologically) with his job,
actively participates and considers his perceived performance level important to self-worth. (Robbins)
Higher job satisfaction leads to low absenteeism & employee turnover and indicates that the individual
cares for his job.

Organizational commitment:
Organizational commitment refers to a degree to which an employee identifies himself with the
organizational goals and wishes to maintain membership in the organization. Resigning from the job or
absenting versus job satisfaction is a predictor of organizational commitment. Organizational commitment
depends upon the degree of autonomy & freedom job and job enrichment factor.
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Attitude Formation:

Some of the learned characteristics responsible for attitude formation are:

Experiences
Perceptual biases
Observation of other person attitude
Association
Personality

Experiences
Our personal experiences with people and situations develop our attitude towards such persons and
situations. Through job experience, people develop attitudes towards working conditions, salaries,
supervision, group dynamics and so on.

Perceptual biases
Perception is the result of a complex interaction of various senses such as feelings, seeing, hearing and
so on and plays an important part in our attitude and behavioural formation. For example, if a manager
perceives a subordinate’s ability as limited, he will give him limited responsibility. Similarly, we lose many
good friends due to our changed perception about them.
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Observation of other person attitude

When we like someone, we try to emulate that person’s attitude.

For example, when we are impressed by someone keeping calm under stressful circumstances and we
appreciate such calmness, we might try to do the same.

Association
Our association with the group we belong to strongly influences our attitude. Our close association with
a group would encourage us to be consistent with the attitude of the group.
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Organizational citizenship behaviour:

Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is a term that’s used to describe all the positive and
constructive employee actions and behaviors that aren’t part of their formal job description. It’s
anything that employees do, out of their own free will, that supports their colleagues and benefits the
organization as a whole.

OCB is not something that’s required from employees to do their job and it’s not part of their
contractual tasks.

Organizational citizenship behavior was first defined by Dennis Organ in 1988 as “an individual behavior
which is not rewarded by a formal reward system… but that, when combined with the same behavior in a
group, results in effectiveness.”
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Types of organizational citizenship behavior:

• Altruism – Altruism in the workplace occurs when an employee helps or assists another employee
without expecting anything in return. A simple example of altruistic behavior at work is when someone
offers their assistance. Example, volunteering to help clean up the canteen after an internal company
event. Altruism in the workplace can boost employee morale, productivity, and effectiveness.

• Courtesy – Courtesy is polite and considerate behavior towards other people, in this case, other
employees. Examples of courtesy at work include saying good morning (!), asking a co-worker how their
holiday was, how their kids are doing, how a project they’re currently working on is going; basically any
question related to a (personal) subject someone has previously spoken about that shows people you’ve
listened to what they were saying.

• Sportsmanship – Put simply, sportsmanship is about an employee’s ability to be a good loser. It’s about
being able to deal with situations that don’t go as planned – or negative surprises – and to not
demonstrate negative behavior when that happens.
An example of good sportsmanship in the workplace is an employee who is temporarily taking over the
tasks of a team member who broke his leg and will be on sick leave for a few weeks.
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• Conscientiousness – Conscientiousness is defined as behavior that involves a certain level of self-
control and discipline and that goes beyond the minimum requirements. In a work setting, this means
that employees don’t just show up on time and stick to deadlines, but that they, for instance, also plan
ahead before they go on holiday so that their colleagues won’t be drowning in a big workload.

• An example that’s related to a remote work set-up is having enough self-discipline to get up in the
morning and get the work done, even when there is no manager around to give you a nudge.

• Civic virtue – Civic virtue is about how well someone represents the organization they work for. It’s
about how an employee supports their company when they’re not in an official capacity. How do they
talk about the organization to their friends and family for instance. Civic virtue is a type of
organizational citizenship behavior that creates a sense of community and belongness within the
organization. This, in turn, leads to higher job satisfaction and better job performance.
 UNIT 2 (IV)
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Definition of Perception

Perceptual Process

Perceptual Selectivity

Fundamentals of attribution & theory of attribution

Perception
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• Perception includes all those processes by which an individual receives information about his
environment—seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling.”

• Perception is the process of becoming aware of situations, of adding meaningful associations to

sensations.”

• The process of receiving, selecting, organizing, interpreting, checking, and reacting to sensory
stimuli or data.”

• Perception is an intellectual process of transforming sensory stimuli to meaningful information. It

is the process of interpreting something that we see or hear in our mind and use it later to judge
and give a verdict on a situation, person, group etc.

• Some of the main types of perception include:

• Vision 
• Touch
• Sound
• Taste
• Smell
Perception Process:
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Perceptual Process:
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Perceptual process are the different stages of perception we go through. The different stages are −

• Receiving
• Selecting
• Organizing
• Interpreting

Receiving
Receiving is the first and most important stage in the process of perception. It is the initial stage in
which a person collects all information and receives the information through the sense organs.

Selecting
Selecting is the second stage in the process. Here a person doesn’t receive the data randomly but
selectively. A person selects some information out of all in accordance with his interest or needs. The
selection of data is dominated by various external and internal factors.
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External factors − The factors that influence the perception of an individual externally are intensity,
size, contrast, movement, repetition, familiarity, and novelty.

Internal factors − The factors that influence the perception of an individual internally are psychological
requirements, learning, background, experience, self-acceptance, and interest.

Organizing

Keeping things in order or say in a synchronized way is organizing. In order to make sense of the data
received, it is important to organize them. We can organize the data by −

• Grouping them on the basis of their similarity, proximity, closure, continuity.

• Establishing a figure ground is the basic process in perception. Here by figure we mean what is kept
as main focus and by ground we mean background stimuli, which are not given attention.

• Perceptual constancy that is the tendency to stabilize perception so that contextual changes don’t
affect them.
Interpreting
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Finally, we have the process of interpreting which means forming an idea about a particular object
depending upon the need or interest. Interpretation means that the information we have sensed and
organized, is finally given a meaning by turning it into something that can be categorized. It includes
stereotyping, halo effect etc.
Perceptual Selectivity –
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Under the process of perception it has been pointed out that it is a selective process. In everybody’s
environment there are various stimuli. These stimuli are in the form of objects, events and people. An
individual cannot get attracted towards all these stimuli. He is attracted towards only those stimuli
which interest him. The stimuli towards which he gets attracted are selected and the others get
ignored.

For example, when we read a newspaper we get attracted towards only some of the news and ignore the
remaining news.

Principles of Perceptual Selection:

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Principles of Size 

Size is a characteristic which may affect the perceptual selectivity

by affecting the attraction of the perceiver. Generally, bigger is
the size of perceived stimulus, higher is the probability that
it attracts the attention of the perceiver and he may select it.
Usually, letter of higher sizes in newspapers or books are first
selected for reading. 

2. Principles of Intensity :The intensity principle of attention states

that the more intense the external stimulus is, the more likely it is
to be perceived. A loud sound, strong odor, or bright light are
noticed more as compared to a soft sound, weak odor, or dim
light. For example, based on the intensity principle, commercials
on televisions are slightly louder than the regular programmes. 
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3. Principles of Repetition :The repetition principles states that a repeated stimulus is more attention-
getting than a single one. Repetition increases people’s sensitivity or alertness to the
stimulus. Advertisers use this principle by repeating advertisement of the same product to attract
people’s attention. In the organizational context, repeated instruction, even for the routine work, is
based on this principle. 

4. Principles of Novelty and Familiarity :Novelty and familiarity principle states that either a novel or
a familiar external situation can serve as attention getter. New objects or events in a familiar setting,
or familiar objects or events in new setting draw better attention. For example, in job rotation, when
worker’s jobs are changed from time, they become more attentive to their new jobs as compared to the
previous ones. Similarly, communication in familiar jargons attracts more attention. 

5. Principles of Contrast :The contrast principle states that external stimuli which stand against the
background, or which are not what people are expecting, receive more attention. Letter of bold types,
persons dressed differently than other; buildings of different colors in the same locality, etc. get more
attention. Contrast is a kind of uniqueness which can be used for attention getting. 
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3. Principles of Repetition :The repetition principles states that a repeated stimulus is more attention-
getting than a single one. Repetition increases people’s sensitivity or alertness to the
stimulus. Advertisers use this principle by repeating advertisement of the same product to attract
people’s attention. In the organizational context, repeated instruction, even for the routine work, is
based on this principle. 

4. Principles of Novelty and Familiarity :Novelty and familiarity principle states that either a novel or
a familiar external situation can serve as attention getter. New objects or events in a familiar setting,
or familiar objects or events in new setting draw better attention. For example, in job rotation, when
worker’s jobs are changed from time, they become more attentive to their new jobs as compared to the
previous ones. Similarly, communication in familiar jargons attracts more attention. 

5. Principles of Contrast :The contrast principle states that external stimuli which stand against the
background, or which are not what people are expecting, receive more attention. Letter of bold types,
persons dressed differently than other; buildings of different colors in the same locality, etc. get more
attention. Contrast is a kind of uniqueness which can be used for attention getting. 
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6. Principles of Motion :Motion principle states that a moving object draws more attention as compared
to a stationary object. For example, workers may pay more attention to the materials moving by them on
a conveyor belt as compared to the maintenance needs of a machine lying next to them. Advertisers use
this principle in their advertising by designing signs which incorporate moving parts, for example,
commercials on televisions (moving ones) get more attention than print media.
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Attribution  theory:

It is a judgment we make about the cause of another person's behavior. Attribution theory explains

these attribution processes, which we use to understand why an event or behavior occurred.

To understand the concept of attribution, imagine that a new friend cancels plans to meet up for
coffee. Do you assume that something unavoidable came up, or that the friend is a flaky person? In
other words, do you assume that the behavior was situational (related to external circumstances) or
dispositional (related to inherent internal characteristics)? 

Well-known attribution theories include:

1. correspondent inference theory

2. Kelley's covariation model

3. Weiner's three-dimensional model.

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Correspondent Inference Theory:

Edward Jones and Keith Davis developed the correspondent inference theory. This theory suggests
that if someone behaves in a socially desirable way, we do not tend to infer much about them as a
person. For example, if you ask your friend for a pencil and she gives one to you, you are not likely to
infer much about your friend's character from the behavior, because most people would do the same
thing in a given situation—it is the socially desirable response. However, if your friend refuses to allow
you to borrow a pencil, you are likely to infer something about her innate characteristics due to this
socially undesirable response.

Kelley’s Covariation Model

According to psychologist Harold Kelley’s covariation model, we tend to use three types of information
when we’re deciding whether someone’s behavior was internally or externally motivated.

Consensus, or whether others would act similarly in a given situation. If other people would typically
display the same behavior, we tend to interpret the behavior as being less indicative of an individual's
innate characteristics.
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Distinctiveness, or whether the person acts similarly across other situations. If a person only acts a
certain way in one situation, the behavior can probably be attributed to the situation rather than the
person.

Consistency, or whether someone acts the same way in a given situation each time it occurs. If
someone’s behavior in a given situation is inconsistent from one time to the next, their behavior
becomes more difficult to attribute.
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Weiner’s Three-Dimensional Model:

Bernard Weiner’s model suggests that people examine three dimensions when attempting to understand
the causes of a behavior: locus, stability, and controllability.

• Locus refers to whether the behavior was caused by internal or external factors.

• Stability refers to whether the behavior will happen again in the future.
• Controllability refers to whether someone is able to change the outcome of an event by expending
more effort.
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Attribution Errors:

When we try to determine the cause of someone’s behavior, we are not always accurate. In fact,
psychologists have identified two key errors that we commonly make when attempting to attribute
behavior.

Fundamental Attribution Error, which refers to the tendency to over-emphasize the role of personal
traits in shaping behaviors. For example, if someone is rude to you, you may assume that they’re
generally a rude person, rather than assuming that they were under stress that day.

Self-Serving Bias, which refers to the tendency to give ourselves credit (i.e. make an internal
attribution when things go well, but blame the situation or bad luck (i.e. make an external attribution)
when things go poorly. A self-serving bias is the common habit of a person taking credit for positive
events or outcomes, but blaming outside factors for negative events. 

For example :A student gets a good grade on a test and tells herself that she studied hard or is good at
the material. She gets a bad grade on another test and says the teacher doesn’t like her or the test &
was unfair.