TOPIC: ATTITUTE (M.P.O.

B) UNIT 3
MEANING

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.

DEFINITION

According to Gordon Allport, “An attitude is a mental and neural state of

readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic
influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations with
which it is related.”

Frank Freeman said, “An attitude is a dispositional readiness to respond to

certain institutions, persons or objects in a consistent manner which has been
learned and has become one’s typical mode of response.”

Thurstone said, “An attitude denotes the total of man’s inclinations and
feelings, prejudice or bias, preconceived notions, ideas, fears, threats, and
other any specific topic.”

Characteristics of Attitude
1. Attitudes are the complex combination of things we call personality,
beliefs, values, behaviors, and motivations.
2. It can fall anywhere along a continuum from very favorable to very
unfavorable.
3. All people, irrespective of their status or intelligence, hold attitudes.
4. An attitude exists in every person’s mind. It helps to define our identity,
guide our actions, and influence how we judge people.
5. Although the feeling and belief components of attitude are internal to a
person, we can view a person’s attitude from their resulting behavior.
6. Attitude helps us define how we see situations and define how we
behave toward the situation or object.
7. It provides us with internal cognitions or beliefs and thoughts about
people and objects.
8. It can also be explicit and implicit. Explicit attitude is those that we are
consciously aware of and implicit attitude is unconscious, but still, affect
our behaviors.
9. Attitudes cause us to behave in a particular way toward an object or
person.
10. An attitude is a summary of a person’s experience; thus, an attitude is
grounded in direct experience predicts future behavior more accurately.
11. It includes certain aspects of personality as interests, appreciation, and
social conduct.
12. It indicates the total of a man’s inclinations and feelings.
13. An attitude is a point of view, substantiated or otherwise, true or false,
which one holds towards an idea, object, or person.
14. It has aspects such as direction, intensity, generality, or specificity.
15. It refers to one’s readiness for doing Work.
16. It may be positive or negative and may be affected by age, position, and
education.

For example:-

“I like her attitude,” “He has a good attitude,” etc. Actually, it is

characterized by the tendency to feel and behave in a particular way
toward some object.
Components of Attitudes
3 components of attitude are;

1. Cognitive Component.
2. Affective Component.
3. Behavioral Component.

Cognitive Component
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 to 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
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.

Behavioral Component
Behavior 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 the short-run or long run.
Using the above example, the behavioral attitude maybe- ‘I cannot wait to kiss
the baby’, or ‘we better keep those smokers out of the library, etc.

Factors Influencing Attitudes

Many different factors can influence how and why attitudes form. These are-

• Social Factors.
• Direct Instruction.
• Family.
• Prejudices.
• Personal Experience.
• Media.
• Educational and Religious Institutions.
• Physical Factors.
• Economic Status and Occupations.

Types of Attitudes
3 types of attitudes are;

• Job Satisfaction,
• Job Involvement,
• Organizational Commitment.

Job Satisfaction
Job satisfaction is the level of contentment a person feels regarding his or her
job. This feeling is mainly based on an individual’s perception of satisfaction.
A person with a high level of job satisfaction holds positive attitudes about the
job, while a person who is dissatisfied with his or her job holds a negative
attitude about the job.

Job Involvement
Job involvement refers to the degree with which an individual identifies
psychologically with his or her job and perceives his or her perceived
performance level important to self-worth.

High levels of job involvement are related to fewer absences and lower
resignation rates.

Organizational Commitment
The last job-attitude refers to organizational commitment. It is understood as
one’s identification with his or her organization and feels proud of being its
employee.

It is defined as a state in which an employee identifies with a particular

organization and, its goals, and wishes to maintain membership in the
organization.
TOPIC : VALUES (M.P.O.B) UNIT 3
Values defined in Organizational Behavior as the collective conceptions
of what is considered good, desirable, and proper or bad, undesirable,
and improper in a culture.

DEFINITIONS:

According to M. Haralambos, “A value is a belief that something is good and

desirable”.

According to R.K. Mukherjee, “Values are socially approved desires and goals
that are internalized through the process of conditioning, learning or
socialization and that become subjective preferences, standards, and
aspirations”.

According to Zaleznik and David, “Values are the ideas in the mind of men
compared to norms in that they specify how people should behave. Values
also attach degrees of goodness to activities and relationships”.

Characteristics of Value
• These are extremely practical, and valuation requires not just techniques
but also an understanding of the strategic context.
• These can provide standards of competence and morality.
• These can go beyond specific situations or persons.
• Personal values can be influenced by culture, tradition, and a
combination of internal and external factors.
• These are relatively permanent.
• These are more central to the core of a person.
 • Most of our core values are learned early in life from family, friends,
neighborhood school, the mass print, visual media and other sources
within the society.
• Values are loaded with effective thoughts about ideas, objects, behavior,
etc.
• They contain a judgmental element in that they carry an individual’s
ideas as to what is right, good, or desirable.
• Values can differ from culture to culture and even person to person.
• Values play a significant role in the integration and fulfillment of man’s
basic impulses and desire stably and consistently appropriate for his
living.
• They are generic experiences in social action made up of both individual
and social responses and attitudes.
• They build up societies, integrate social relations.
• They mold the ideal dimensions of personality and depth of culture.
• They influence people’s behavior and serve as criteria for evaluating the
actions of others.
• They have a great role to play in the conduct of social life. They help in
creating norms to guide day-to-day behavior.

Types of Values
Two types of values are;

1. Terminal Values.
2. Instrumental Values.

Terminal Values are most desirable to humans and Instrumental values

are views of how human desires should be achieved.

Terminal Values
These are values that we think are most important or most desirable.
These refer to desirable end-states of existence, the goals a person would like
to achieve during his or her lifetime.

They include happiness, self-respect, recognition, inner harmony, leading a

prosperous life, and professional excellence.

Instrumental Values
Instrumental values deal with views on acceptable modes of conductor means
of achieving the terminal values.

These include being honest, sincere, ethical, and being ambitious. These
values are more focused on personality traits and character.

Importance of Values:
• Value is the foundation for understanding the level of motivation.
• It influences our perception.
• Value helps to understand what ought to be or what ought not to be.
• It contains interpretations of right or wrong.
• These influence attitudes and behavior.
• It implies that certain behaviors on outcomes are preferred over others.
• These allow the members of an organization to interact harmoniously.
These make it easier to reach goals that would be impossible to achieve
individually.
• These are goals set for achievements, and they motivate, define and
color all our activities cognitive, affective add connective.
• They are the guideposts of our lives, and they direct us to who we want
to be.
• Values and morals can not only guide but inspire and motivate a person,
give energy and a zest for living and for doing something meaningful.
Sources of Values:
Sources of values are;

• Family: Family is a great source of values. A child learns his first value
from his family.
• Friends & peers: Friends and peers play a vital role in achieving values.
• Community or society: As a part of society, a person learns values from
society or different groups of society.
• School: As a learner, school and teachers also play a very important role
in introducing values.
• Media: Media such as – Print media, Electronic media also play the role
of increasing values in the mind of people.
• Relatives: Relative also helps to create values in the minds of people.
• Organization: Different organizations and institutions also play a vital
role in creating value.
• Religion.
• History.
• Books.
• Others.