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 own
behaviour 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 “I like….”,

Reactions “…..makes
meangry”

Cognition Internalizedmental "Myco -workers

representations, should..."; -or- "If
beliefs, thoughts .... then...."

Behaviour Thetendencyto "I alwaysdo....";

respondor o vertly -or- ".... makes
act inaparticular meangry"
waytowardthe
attitudeobject
 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 important

concept 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 predict
very 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 of

behaviour; for other people, attitudes are less predictive
of behaviour
 3 determinants of the attitude -
behaviour relation:..

• Situational factors:

• in some situations, attitudes are highly predictive of

behaviour, but in other situations, attitudes are not at
all predictive of behaviour
• situational constraints or demands can overpower
attitudes, 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 measured

both 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 • Peripheral route
– careful scrutiny of – no careful scrutiny of
persuasive message
a persuasive
message
– look for “cues” in the
persuasion context
– generation of • source expertise
positive or negative • number of arguments
cognitive presented
responses
 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 their
implications.

It is an attempt to process the new information rationally.

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

Instead of doing extensive cognitive work, recipients rely

on 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 his

or 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 Attitudes

• Job satisfaction

• Job involvement

• Organizational
commitment
 Productivity
Productivity
Job
Job
Satisfaction
Satisfaction Absenteeism
Absenteeism
and
and Employee
Employee
Performance
Performance
Turnover
Turnover
 Responses to Job Dissatisfaction
Active

Exit Voice
Destructive Constructive

Neglect Loyalty

Passive