ORGANISATIONAL

BEHAVIOUR

ATTITUDES ,VALUES &

PREJUDICES
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Attitudes refer to beliefs, feelings and action tendencies of an
individual or group of individuals towards objects, people
and ideas.
2. Attitudes comprise three variables - affective, behaviour and
cognition.
3. Attitudes are formed from several sources.
4. Attitudes, after being formed, discharge several functions.
5. It is difficult to change attitude.
6. Attitude needs to be changed at the individual and group
levels.
7. Values distinguish between what is right or wrong, good or
bad.
8. Attitudes and values are important concepts in the study of
OB.
 Attitude
 “An Attitude can be defined as a persistent
tendency to feel and behave in a particular
way toward some object”

 “ An Attitude may also be defined as the

way a person feels about something-a
person, a place, a commodity, a situation or
an idea”
 Nature of Attitudes
 Attitudes are evaluative statements
 Attitudes is a bent of mind, predisposition of

certain actions.
 Attitudes endure, unless something happens.

For example if X is transferred to day shift, his

attitude may become positive.
 Attitudes are organized and are core to an

individual.
 All people, irrespective of their status or

intelligence, hold attitudes.

Components of Attitudes
 Affective(Emotional Component) : It involves
the person’s feelings or affect about an object.
 Behavioral Component : It consists of the
tendency of a person to behave in a particular
manner towards an object.
 Cognitive(Informational)Component : It
consists of beliefs ,values , ideas and other
information a person has about the object.
Attitudes
 Types of Attitudes
job satisfaction
General attitude or feelings of an
individual towards his job.
Types of Job Related Attitude

Job
Satisfaction

Types
of
Attitude
Job Organizational
Involvement Commitment
 Formation of Attitudes

Personal
experience

Mass
Communication
Association

Attitude
Family
Economic Status &
& occupation Peer groups

Neighbourhood
 ATTITUDE CHANGE
1. Congruent Change
2. Incongruent Change
Barriers to Changing Attitude
1.Prior Commitments
2.Strong Commitments
3.Publicly Expressed Attitude
4.Low Credibility
5.Insufficient Information
6.Degree of Fear
Ways to Overcome Barriers
1.Providing New Information
2. Use of Fear
3.Resolving Discrepancies
4. Influence of peers
5. Oral Persuasion Technique
6. Training Sessions
7. The Co-opting Approach
 Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Cognitive dissonance refer to any incompatibility
that an individual might perceive between two or
more of his attitudes or between his behaviour and
attitudes.
( According to Leon Festinger)

Desire
Desireto
toreduce
reducedissonance
dissonance
••Importance
Importanceofofelements
elementscreating
creatingdissonance
dissonance
••Degree
Degreeof
ofindividual
individualinfluence
influenceover
overelements
elements
••Rewards
Rewardsinvolved
involvedin
indissonance
dissonance
Self-Perception Theory
 Values
Values are very powerful but silent force affecting
human behavior. Values are very important to the
study of OB because values have an important
influence on the attitudes, perception, needs &
motives of people at work.
Milton defines values as, “ Values are global beliefs
that guide actions & judgments across a variety of
situations”
Values are similar to attitude but are more
permanent & well built in nature.
 Characteristics of Values
 Values provide standards of competence & morality.
 Values are fewer in number than attitudes
 Values are relatively permanent & resistant to change
 Values are most central to the core of a person
 Values have two attributes-content & intensity. The content
attribute stresses that particular code of conduct is important
whereas intensity specifies how important that particular code
of conduct is.
 When we rank an individual’s values in terms of intensity we
obtain the value system of that person.
 In value system all of us have hierarchy of values, which is
identified by relative importance we assign to different values
such as freedom, self respect, honest etc.
 Sources of Values

Family
Factor
Halo Social
Effect Factor

Sources
Role of Personal
Demand Values Factor

Life Cultural
Experiences Factor
Religious
Factor
 Beliefs
 Belief is a hypothesis concerning the nature of
the objects, more particularly, concerning
one’s judgment of the probability regarding
their nature.
 Beliefs reveals what one supposes to be true.
 Prejudices
 Preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or
actual experience.
 Prejudice is also known as prejudgment and
consists of thoughts and feelings regarding a
specific person or group.
 A negative attitude or affective response toward a
certain group and its individual members
 Common Features – Negative feelings, Stereotyped
beliefs and tendency to discriminate against
members of group.
 Summary
 Attitude is an important variable in individual behaviour. Attitude refers to beliefs,
feelings and behavioural tendencies of people towards objects, people and ideas. ABC
model seeks to better explain the nature of attitude. A stands for affective-feelings; B
stands for behaviour – action tendencies; and C stands for cognition- beliefs and
opinion.
 Attitudes are formed by direct experience with the object, classical conditioning,
operant conditioning, vicarious learning, family and peer groups, neighbourhood and
mass communication.
 Positive attitude insures such benefits to the organization as increased productivity,
better quality, reduced stress, improved loyalty and the like.
 Attitude serves important functions such as adjustment, ego-defense, value expressive
and knowledge.
 Attitudes of individuals and groups need to be changed. But change is difficult because
of three barriers - escalation of commitment, cognitive dissonance, and insufficient
information.
 There are hints available to change attitudes both at the individual and group levels.
 Values represent stable, long-lasting beliefs about what is important. There are
personal as well as organizational values. An individual enters organization with his or
her values which often clash with organizational values. They need to be merged for
increased organizational effectiveness.
 Attitude is an important concept in the study of OB as it has influence on perception,
satisfaction and commitment.
 Values influence attitudes, motivation and perception.