Importance of
Employee’s Attitude in an Organization
Dr. Vinod N. Sayankar
Sankalp Business School, S.No. 9/1/1 Ambegaon (Bk) Behind Sinhgad College, Vadgaon (Bk) Pune
- 411041
*Corresponding Author E-mail: vn_sayankar@yahoo.com;vnsayankar@gmail.com
ABSTRACT:
An attitude is an
expression of favor or disfavor towards a person, place, thing, or event. Attitudes help supply standards
and frames of reference that allow people to organize and explain the world
around them. Attitudes drive behavior and can be formed from a
person's past and present. Attitude
is also measurable and changeable as well as influencing the person's emotion
and behavior. Factors
that determine person’s attitude are Environment, Experience and Education.
Benefits of positive attitude make a pleasing personality. Attitude is
energizing and increase people’s enjoyment of life. Attitudes help people
maintain a stable, organized and meaningful structure of their world. Human
resource professional are saying that happy employees are productive employees.
If employee’s shows a good attitude their co-employees will as well making it
easier to communicate and get along in the workplace. If a person wants to live longer, healthier lives then that person need
to develop and maintain a positive attitude. Employees are increasingly
important for organizational success, growth and competitiveness. An
organization has to take care for their employees by keeping their moral high,
increasing motivation and applying rewards system.
KEY WORDS: Attitude, productive employees,
organizational success, competitiveness.
DEFINITION:
1. An attitude is a mental state of readiness, learned and organized
through experience exerting a specific influence on person’s response to
people, object and situations with which it is related.
2. Attitudes are learned predispositions towards aspects of our
environment. They may be positively or negatively directed towards certain
people, service or institutions.
3. By attitudes means the beliefs, feelings and action tendencies
of an individual or group of individuals towards objects, ideas and people.
4. An attitude can be defined as
a positive or negative evaluation of people, objects, event, activities, ideas,
or just about anything in surrounding environment.
NATURE
OF ATTITUDES:
·
Attitudes are understood as the beliefs, feelings and action
tendencies of an individual or group of individuals towards objects, ideas
and people.
·
Attitudes are organized and are core to an individual.
·
All people irrespective of their status or intelligence, hold
attitudes.
·
Attitudes are learned.
·
Attitudes refer to feelings and beliefs of individuals or
group of people.
·
These feelings and beliefs define one’s predispositions towards
given aspects of the world.
·
Attitudes can fall anywhere.
Components of Attitude:
Attitudes can be categorized
into three basic components affective, cognitive and behavioral. An attitude
comprises three components as shown in following figure.
Affective Component:
Affective
component consists of the feelings, sentiments,
emotions a person has towards an object, situation or an individual. The
affective component involves the person’s feeling or affect about an object.
The expression of emotions can be either positive like customer service
provider, negative like a tax collector or neutral like an academic
administrator is also important to work behavior.
Cognitive Component:
Cognitive
component refers to what we know or think that we
know about an object, situation or information held by an individual. It makes
no difference whether or not this information is real and true. A company
supervisor may think that two weeks of training is essential before a worker
can effectively operate a particular process in the organization. However in
reality the average worker may be able to operate successfully the process with
four days training. Yet the information the supervisor is using two weeks of
training for the workers is necessary is the key to his attitude about
training.
Behavioral Tendency
Component:
The
behavioral component of an attitude is the way an individual is
inclined towards an object, situation or an individual. That may lead to the
predispositions on a favorable or unfavorable evaluation of something. An
attitude represents the interplay of a person’s affective, cognitive and
behavioral tendencies with regard to a person or group. It is important to note
that out of three components of attitude; only the behavioral component can be
directly observed. One cannot predict another person’s feelings the emotional
component or beliefs the information component.
Work Related Components of
Attitudes:
STIMULI:
Work related factors:
Functions of Attitudes:
An understanding of attitudes is
important as it help people adapt to their work environment. According to Katz
the needs fulfilled by attitudes, people hold attitudes as they serve important
functions. These functions are 1. Adjustment 2. Defense 3. Value expressive and
4. Knowledge.
Any particular attitude may satisfy of these functions. The most
important function of any attitude can only be finding out by considering it in
relation to the person who holds it and
environment in which he operate.
Adjustment Function
The adjustment function tells
people toward pleasurable or rewarding objects and away from unpleasant,
unfavorable situations. When employees of any organization are well treated
they are likely to develop a positive attitude towards management and
organization. On the other hand when the employees are given minimal salary
increases, the attitude approach become negative. This may lead to spoil the
environment of the organization and affect the production and quality of
product. Thus the attitudes of
employees depend to a large on what is needed satisfying and what is not
fulfilling needs.
Ego Defensive Function:
Ego defensive attitudes may be
aroused by internal and external threats by frustrating experiences, by
suggestions or directives from an authoritarian source. Attitudes confirmed to
protect the ego or self image from threats help fulfill the ego defensive
function. Many outward expressions of such attitudes reflect the opposite of
what the person perceives him to be. Ego defensive attitudes are difficult to
change because of the misdirected nature of the impulses association with them.
People often form and maintain certain type of attitude to protect their own
self images.
Value Expression Function:
An attitude provides people with
a basis for expressing their values. Ego defensive attitudes are formed to
protect a person’s self image. Value expressive attitudes enable the expression
of the person’s central values and self identity. The expressive function helps
individuals adopt and internalize the values of a group they have recently
joined and as a consequence they are better able to relate to the group. The
expressive function helps individuals define their self concept and facilitates
the adoption of sub culture values considered important. While purchasing a
fabric conservative person might develop an unfavorable attitude toward bright
clothing and instead be attracted toward dark, flat striped suits.
Knowledge Function:
The knowledge function of attitude
is observed more in consumer behavior.
Peoples have a need for a structured and smooth orderly world and
therefore they seek consistency, stability and understanding. Out of this need
develops attitudes toward acquiring knowledge. Attitudes provide the standard
or frames of reference by which an individual judges objectives or events and
attitudes that provide consistency in our thinking are particularly
relevant. In addition the need to know
tends to be specific. Therefore an individual who does not play tennis, nor
wish to learn the sport is unlikely to seek knowledge or an understanding of
the game. This will influence the amount of information search devoted to that
area.
An expert
knows that a positive attitude is necessary for successful completion of a
project or an assigned task. Having a positive attitude with positive thinking
in the organization will reflect on what employee do and make them more
productive employee. If employees show a good attitude they may increase their
chances for a promotion. On the other hand they will get a rise in salary if
they are positive role model for others in organization. Positive thinking and
a good attitude help better people’s psychological well being and help them
cope better under stressful situations in the organization. If employee’s shows
a good attitude their co-workers will as well making it easier to communicate
and get along in the workplace. An attitude of a person is a form of expression
of self. People can choose to be happy, positive and optimistic or people can
choose to be pessimistic and critical with a negative outlook on their workday.
When people begin to display a positive attitude at work they can expect to see
the benefits of it. If an employee has to share knowledge about new project
with his subordinates in department he is making attitude upbeat and hopeful
for a positive outcome. People with character, integrity, loyalty, good values
and positive attitudes can contribute more than other. These are the five
things that are expected in an individual in the organization.
Many measurements and scales are used
to examine one’s attitudes. Attitudes can be difficult to measure as
measurement is a perception, meaning people have to give attitudes a scale to
measure it against. An attitude is ultimately a hypothetical construct that cannot be
observed directly. Explicit measures tend to rely on self reports or easily
observed behaviors. Explicit measures can also be used by measuring the straightforward
attribution of characteristics to nominate groups. Implicit measures are not
consciously directed and are assumed to be automatic which may make implicit
measures more valid and reliable than explicit measures. Employees with
positive attitude will create a healthy atmosphere in the organization, develop
positive relations with sub-ordinates, their supervisors, managers and top
management.
Employee’s Attitude in Organization:
Employees have attitudes or opinion while they are in services
about many aspects of their jobs, their careers, and organizations where they
are working. It is observed that the most important employee’s attitude is job
satisfaction. Job satisfaction defined as a pleasurable or positive emotional
state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experiences. Human
resource practitioners understand the importance of the work situation as a
cause of employee attitudes. It is an area human resource can help influence
through conducting organizational programs and applying best management
practices. In terms of other influences on employee attitudes, there is also an
influence of organizational culture on employee attitudes in the
organization. Dissatisfied employees are
more likely to left their jobs or be absent frequently than satisfied
employees. Employee’s attitude can be measured by conducting focus groups,
interviewing employees, or carrying out employee surveys.
DISCUSSION:
Attitudes are
the established ways of responding to people and situations that have been learned,
based on the beliefs, values and
assumptions that a person hold. It is an attitude that determines how fast a
person achieves a goal or how well acquires a skills and knowledge. Attitudes
also provide a sort of framework to solve
the problem of employees. Getting success at anything employees need to have
right mindset. Their body language is a result of their mental attitude. When a
person comes in that mood will reflect a message that everyone understands
consciously or unconsciously. A person’s attitude is the first thing that other
person will pick up on in one to one communication. It is not what happens to a
person that counts. It is how that person react to what happens to that person,
especially when a person have unexpected problems of any kind. Employees can
learn and master powerful
strategies for keeping themselves thinking positively and
creatively. This will help them in increasing positive attitude. An employee
with positive attitude can create a healthy atmosphere in the organization.
REFERENCE:
Book:
1.
Organizational Behavior by Fred Luthans, McGraw Hill International Edition
2.
Organizational Behaviour by K. Aswathappa, Himalaya Publishing House
World
Wide Web
1.
http://www.citeman.com/10170-functions-of-attitudes.html
2.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/180053-importance-of-good-attitude-at-work/
3.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attitude_(psychology)
4.
http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/crosscuttings/attitude.html
Received on 10.07.2014 Modified on 12.11.2014
Accepted on 14.12.2014 © A&V Publication all right reserved
Asian J. Management 6(1):
January–March, 2015 page 33-36
DOI: 10.5958/2321-5763.2015.00006.2