7 - Attitudes - Organisational Behaviour PDF

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Organisational Behaviour...

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Attitudes Attitudes are mental states, developed through experience, which are always ready to exert an active influence on an indivual’s response to any conditions or circumstances to which the person has been directed. One other definition is that it is a predisposition to feel, think and act towards some object, person or event in a more or less favourable or unfavourable way. Thirdly, it can also be defined by stating that it is a relatively enduring organisation of beliefs, feelings, and behavioural tendencies towards socially significant objects, groups, events or symbols. Components of Attitude Attitudes are made up 3 components as we can see on the left. Attitudes can concern almost anything e.g. world, constructs and people. The cognitive component of attitudes refers to the beliefs, thoughts, and attributes that we would associate with an object. It is the opinion or belief segment of an attitude. It refers that part of attitude which is related in general knowledge of a person. Typically, these come to light in generalities or stereotypes, such as ‘all babies are cute’, ‘smoking is harmful to health’ etc. Affective component is the emotional or feeling segment of an attitude. It is related to the statement which affects another person. It deals with feelings or emotions that are brought to the surface about something, such as fear or hate. Using the above example, someone might have the attitude that they love all babies because they are cute or that they hate smoking because it is harmful to health. Behaviour component of an attitude consists of a person’s tendencies to behave in a particular way toward an object. It refers to that part of attitude which reflects the intention of a person in short run or long run. Using the above example, the behavioural attitude maybe- ‘I cannot wait to kiss the baby’, or ‘we better keep those smokers out of the library, etc. Attitude is composed of three components, which include a cognitive component, effective or emotional component, and behavioural component. Basically, the cognitive component is based on the information or knowledge, whereas the affective component is based on the feelings. The behavioural component reflects how the attitude affects the way we act or behave. It is helpful in understanding their complexity and the potential relationship between attitudes and behaviour. But for clarity’s sake, keep in mind that the term attitude essentially refers to the affected part of the three components. They represent the “truth” as we see it. One thing to note about it, is that it can vary between cultures (e.g. competitiveness, money belief) – but care needed in interpretation. Attitudes may be attributable to complex reasons: e.g. “I may hate my job but gain I gain status from it and so I do not leave” or may hate one’s job, but need the income. Assessing attitudes is very common in work organisations. Factors influencing Attitudes There are many factors that influence Attitude Formations. Those include: Personality, Values, Social Influence and Work Situation. Personality refers to whether the person is an introvert or an extravert and other various physiological factors.

Why might Attitudes matter? Because attitudes to work and/or employing organisation might affect:  Whether a person seeks a new job  How co-operative they are with others at work  Whether they present a positive image  How they react to change  How hard they work (motivation)  Their physiological or physical health Measuring Attitudes To Measure Attitudes normally a Likert scale is used (summated scale). Statements are worded either for or against an issue in question. Then an agreement or disagreement is indicted; statements responded to in the same way in two occasions are chosen (reliability). Overall Attitude is the sum or mean of the item response (after reverse scoring of negatives). One problem of this is that there is an issue of social desirability bias, where respondents respond in a way to be seen in a better light, impacting the accuracy, reliability and validity of the answers. Factors affecting Attitude Change  Credibility of persuader – expertness and trustworthiness  Attractiveness of persuader  One-sided and Two-sided arguments  Use of fear  Social pressures – conformity or Obedience  Central vs Peripheral processing Job Satisfaction Job satisfaction is a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from appraisal of one’s job or job experiences. The components include: Pay & benefits, Co-workers, Supervisions, the worker itself, Career opportunities, Job security, Working conditions etc. All these factors can be combined into general job satisfaction. Organisational Commitment Organisational commitment is the bond employees experience with their organisation. Broadly speaking, employees who are committed to their organisation generally feel a connection with their organisation, feel that they fit in and, feel they understand the goals of the organisation. There are different types of commitment: Affective, Continuance and Normative. Affective commitment refers to having a personal attachment to an organisation. Continuance commitment is having a perception of costs and risks associated with leaving. Normative commitment refers to the moral dimensions, obligation and responsibility to their employing organisation. The “model of organisational commitment” on the right shows the various different factors involved when it comes to Organisational Commitment and their possible outcomes. Multiple commitments can be experienced e.g. location, department etc. There are many factors that affect OC: Personal characteristics, Job characteristics, Group/Leader relations, Organisational characteristics, Sunk costs, Human Right strategies and more.

Antecedents/causes of Organisational Commitment  Personal characteristics (Age, sex, Ability, Tenure, Job level) – The older you are the more you tend to be committed due to age discrimination so they work harder, when younger you have more jobs to transit from so commitment is low. Women tend to be more committed because of gender discrimination.  Job characteristics (Skills, Autonomy)  Group/Leader relations (e.g. participation)  Organisational characteristics (size, centralisation/decentralisation)  Sunk Costs  Human Relation Strategies (staff sufficiency) 

Social Values - An identity of an employee’s and an organization’s values is a powerful tool in creating commitment. An organization which adopts employee values such as environmentalism, social responsibility and awareness and employee support will earn plenty in employee commitment.

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Fine hierarchy - The opposite of manager/ employee hierarchy is a type of hierarchy which is understated. A message of self-efficacy should be relayed: “Everyone can become a manager”. As every message, this message should be composed of three elements: the source, the message and the target audience. For example, in order to create a finer hierarchy, managers might adopt a more collective decision process such as consulting with a team. This does not mean it’s the group’s decision but sharing often yields better results.

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Internal Job Market - An organization which creates an internal job market relays a vote of confidence in employee capability and skills. Naturally employees of such an organization will have a general sense of potential and direction thus enhancing commitment. Creating an internal job market can be created by making a significant share of promotions from inside the organization, holding on to employees from life and by creating firm specific skills which enable employees to become distinct professional in the organization.

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Social Mechanisms - We all know Google, Cisco, EY and many others as good places to work for. One of the main reasons these organizations have become so attractive to employees is their success in creating the right social mechanisms. In Google, spare time for personal activities is available, welfare activities and environment such as gourmet foods and what not is readily available to all employees. You don’t have to be Google to create an attractive environment for employees. Allowing for personal time (no phones or emails for a couple of nights), vacations and proper working environment would work effectively to create commitment in employees.

Outcomes of Organisational Commitment  Job Performance  Motivated Performance  Organisational Citizenship  Determines the mind-set whether a worker will look to quit their job or stay  Helps build trust, Trust also important as a ‘central mediating variable’ - central to the work relationship Satisfaction and Commitment Both Satisfaction and Commitment are involved in people’s decisions to stay in or leave jobs and organisations. Commitment can be defined as an attitude or psychological bonding, defined in terms of an indivual’s loyalty to, investment in, identification with and/or involvement in some cause, group or institution. Satisfaction can be defined as the fulfilment of one's wishes, expectations, or needs, or the pleasure derived from this. Both have implications for people’s general well-being; both associated with motivation. However, they are not closely connected with people’s performance in their job.

To what extent do attitudes predict behaviour?  “Not very much”. (Wicker, 1969)  “In some situations, for some people”. (Snyder and Kendzeirski, 1982)  Social pressures do not reveal attitudes e.g. sexism Limitations on ability and general activity levels; there have been problems with the research e.g. measurement and short-term nature of studies. Theory of Planned Behaviour The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is seen as an improvement to the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), often mentioned and discussed with it. This makes sense, since the TPB reinforces and adds to the assumptions in the TRA.The TPB maintains what TRA postulated about human behavior being governed by one’s attitudes and behavioral intentions characterized by the presence of social norms and the exercise of volitional control. However, it incorporates several modifications that allows for greater accuracy and reliability in understanding one’s attitudes and predicting his deliberate, planned, and resulting actual behavior. Rational thinking finally enters the picture in this theory were, when employed, results in rational considerations that, in turn, influence and govern the choices, decisions, and behaviours of an individual. The Theory of Planned Behaviour upholds the key assumptions contained in the Theory of Reasoned Action, with certain modifications of its own. Deriving from the suppositions in TRA, the intentions of the individual largely reflects his personal attitudes, or their perception on the extent of favourability of an act. This will also be influenced by his perceived and cognitive beliefs about the act. Again, just like in TRA, the subjective norms that the individual is exposed or privy to will also have an impact on his intentions. This is in recognition of man being, by nature, a social creature, so that he will no doubt care about what others think or belief. More often than not, if society demonstrates general favorability toward an act, it is highly likely that the individual will think the same, his intentions largely shaped by the extent of approval (and disapproval) by family, friends, co-workers, or pretty much any person he trusts. The intentions and the resulting behaviours of the individual are affected by their perceived behavioral control, or what they think and believe to be their ability to actually perform or engage in the said behaviors. Succeeding literature on TPB led to the identification of the two clear facets of this perceived behavioral control: Internal control: This is basically how the individual perceives his own control to be like. It focuses on how the individual sees himself as being in control when it comes to performing the specific behavior in question, and this mostly has a lot to do with the sufficiency of his knowledge, skills and abilities, and the amount of discipline he wields while performing the behavior. External control: Other external factors also have a way of shaping how an individual behaves. For example, the acceptance or approval of family, friends, and peers is likely to influence a person into developing a positive attitude toward a behavior, bolstering his intention to see the specific action to the end. Time is also another factor that is external, but will no doubt impact one’s level of behavioral control. The TPB is more cognizant of how it is highly probably for one’s intention to be completely different with behavior is deliberately planned and carried out. This is mostly traced to the

divergence of the level of perceived behavioral control with that of the actual control exercised or employed.

Conclusions Research on Attitudes allows us a useful insight into several important workplace issues. The links between work attitudes and work behaviour are complex. It can be useful to know the causes and consequences of job satisfaction and organisational commitment....