positive attitude

Attitude is a small thing that makes a big difference -

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Positive Positive AttitudesAttitudes

a key a key for successfor success


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Training Objectives -

• Know what attitudes are?• What are the sources of attitude?• What is the role of attitude in life?• Types of attitude. • Understand the relationship

between attitudes and behavior, especially regarding performance on the job.

• What are the effects of attitude?• How to improve attitude of others?

At the end of this training, you should:


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Attitudes Defined• Briefly defined, an “attitude”

represents a predisposition to respond in a favorable or unfavorable way to persons or objects in one’s environment.

• For instance, when we say we “like” something or “dislike” something, we are in effect expressing an attitude toward the person or object.

• What are some examples of people or things that you may have strong attitudes about?


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•Attitudes are evaluative statements - either favourable or unfavorable concerning objects, people, or events . They reflect how on feels about something.

•For example when I say “I like my job” I am expressing my attitude about work.

•Attitude themselves are invisible , but their traces are revealed through a person’s behavior on a series of occasions.


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Attitudes: Three Important Assumptions

Three important assumptions underlie the concept of attitudes:

1) An attitude is a hypothetical construct - we cannot actually see attitudes, although we can often see their consequences.

2) An attitude is a un-dimensional construct - it usually ranges from very positive to very negative.

3) Attitudes are believed to be somewhat related to subsequent behavior, although as we’ll see, this relationship can be unclear.


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Social Psychology and Attitude Research I• Attitude has been a central concept in social

psychology throughout its history.• An attitude is one of many constructs that

social psychologists have invoked to help explain consistencies and differences in behavior.

• For example, if person A responds favorably toward a particular group and person B responds unfavorably toward that same group, the differences in behaviors can be “explained” by attributing different attitudes toward the two persons.


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Social Psychology and Attitude Research II• Beginning in the 1950’s, social

psychologists studied areas such as: – How attitudes are formed.– How attitudes are changed.– How attitudes relate to behavioral

intentions - what people intend to do.

– How attitudes relate to behaviors themselves - what people actually do.


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Job Attitudes: Three Related Components

• The job attitude is the middle component in a belief-evaluation-behavior chain:

1) Beliefs about aspects of the job. “My work has long stretches with nothing to do.”

2) The evaluative component, i.e., the attitude itself.

“I am dissatisfied with my job.”3) Work-related behavioral intentions that follow from the attitude.

“I’m intending to quit my job.”


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Job Attitudes and Actual Behavior

• The belief, attitude, intention sequence is presumably followed by actual behavior.

• For example, if I believe that my job is boring, and if my evaluation of my job is that it is unsatisfying, and I intend to quit, I may indeed actually leave my job.

• This traditional model suggests that behaviors (including job performance) are largely influenced by job attitudes.

• Recently, this traditional model has been questioned as being too simple and some more comprehensive alternatives have been developed.


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Is A Happy Worker A Productive Worker?

• Over the years, one of the most strongly held beliefs among managers and I/O psychologists is that there is a relationship between a worker’s job satisfaction and his/her job performance.

• In 60 year’s worth of research I/O psychologists have found highly variable linkages between job satisfaction and job performance.

• The most recent examination by Timothy Judge and his colleagues suggests a correlation of 30 % between satisfaction and performance, a small but meaningful association.

• Why is this association not larger?


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Some Possible Explanations:

• 1) Research and Measurement Issues:– Is “job performance” defined correctly?– Can you predict specific behaviors from a general

attitude toward the job.

• 2) “Moderator” Effects:– Satisfaction-performance relationship is highly

complex (Katzell, Thompson & Guzzo, 1992)– For example, the sat-perf relationship may be

limited by constraints on performance, e.g., group norms for performance, environmental variables such as the speed of an assembly line.

• 3) Dispositional Effects:– Some research has found that a substantial

amount of the variability in job satisfaction may relate to “trait affect.”


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Implications for Organizational Policy I

• So, if little direct linkage exists between job satisfaction and job performance, is it possible for leaders to manage organizations so that employees can be both happy and productive?

• Importantly, while job satisfaction and job performance may have little direct impact on one another, the same organizational conditions, or “levers” may impact both.


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Implications for Organizational Policy II• Research and practice indicate that:

– Creating jobs that are intrinsically interesting and important to the people performing them

– Equitably linking extrinsic rewards such as pay to performance

– and setting clear, challenging, acceptable goals…

• Helps companies to perform better on the whole than companies that don’t do these things.

• Organizations need not manage for either satisfaction or performance; high satisfaction and high performance are goals that can be met jointly.


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How I/O Psychologists Help Organizations to Assess and

to Manage Attitudes

• Attitude Surveys• Job Design• Personnel Selection• Change Management• Training• Performance Appraisal


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There’s More to it than just General Job

SatisfactionOther commonly measured job attitudes

include:• Attitudes toward specific job features

– Performance evaluations– Benefit programs– Organizational leaders

• Organizational commitment• Career commitment• Work-life balance


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Components of Attitude

Cognitive Affective Behavior

OpinionFeeling Intention to behave


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Sources of attitude

Teachers

Living Conditions

Popular person

Friends

Attitude

Parents


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Types of Attitude

Attitude

Positive

Negative

OrganisationalCommitment

Job involvement

Job satisfaction


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Relation betweenAttitude & Behavior

Attitude Behavior

Work/RelationOutput


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Low productivity

Indiscipline

Poor Quality of workBad relationsCareerIndustrial Dispute

Effects of attitude


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How to change attitude If people like you, they are more

apt to identify and adopt your message . Be convincing, credible and liked. Be believable, knowledgeable about what you are liking. Present your arguments clearly

and persuasively.


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Attitudes that are expressed publicly are more difficult to change because

it requires one to admit he or she has made a mistake.

Oral persuasion techniques are most effective when you use a positive, tactful tone, present strong evidence

to support your position, tailor your argument to the listener, use logic, and support your evidence by appealing to the employees’ fears, frustrations and other emotions.


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The use of training sessions where employees share and personalize experiences, and practice new behaviours can be powerful stimulants for change.

Conducting attitudes surveys and suitable remedy.


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Summary of Learning Points

• Most psychologists believe that attitudes are an important precursor to behavior.

• Attitudes on the job - e.g., job satisfaction - are also related to behavior, although not necessarily to summary measures of job performance.

• On the whole, companies whose workers have positive attitudes are more effective than those whose workers do not.

• I/O psychologists help companies assess, understand, and influence job satisfaction through mechanisms such as attitude surveys and job design.


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Thank You for reading / downloading this presentation

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