Can be thought of as a combined effect of a belief and a value which gives a feeling about a particular attitude object.

1. Presentation on Organizational Behavior
Topic: Attitude
Tasmon Islam
Army IBA, Sylhet

2. Attitudes
 Positive or negative feelings towards objects (people,
things or situations).
 A mental state of readiness organized through
experience, to behave in a characteristic way towards
the object of the attitude.
 Can be thought of as a combined effect of a belief
and a value which gives a feeling about a particular
attitude object.

3. Components Of Attitude

4. Components of Attitudes
Cognitive component: The knowledge or belief
aspect of the attitude – refers to what you believe to
be the case about the attitude object.
Affective component: The emotional or feeling
aspect of the attitude – refers to our liking or
disliking the object of the attitude.
Behavioral component: The behavioral
predisposition aspect of the attitude – refers to a
predisposition to act in a certain way.

5. Functions of Attitudes
 Adjustment function: instrumental or utilitarian function – helps
the individual to adjust to the world and to obtain rewards and
avoid punishment from the environment .
 Ego-defensive function: help people defend against information
that threatens their concept of self – to protect our self-image by
legitimizing behavior which may contradict our values.
 Value-expressive function: allows individuals to derive satisfaction
from expressing attitudes reflecting their central values and
concept of self.
 Knowledge function: help in understanding events which impinge
upon them by mentally organizing and structuring the world so that
it is more understandable.

6. Formation of Attitudes
Direct Personal Experience
Association
Family and Peer groups
Neighborhood
 Economic status and Occupations
 Mass Communications

7. Types of Job-related Attitudes
Job Satisfaction: refers to the general attitude or
feeling of an individual towards his job.
Job Involvement: refers to the degree to which
employees immerse themselves in their jobs, invest
time and energy in them, and view work as a central
part of their overall lives.

8. Types(cont…)
Organizational Commitment: refers to employee’s
identification with a particular organization and its
goals and feel proud of being its employees.

9. Changing Attitudes: Barriers to Change
Prior commitments: People’s commitment to a
particular course of action and are unwilling to
change. This is same like the tendency of the
decision makers to persist with failing actions.
Insufficient information: Sometimes people do not
see any reason as to why they should change their
attitude.

10. Principles of Attitude Change
Consistency principle: people strive to maintain
consistency between the affective, behavioral and
cognitive components of an attitude.
If one component changes, the person has two
alternatives:
 Reverse the change to a single component
 Change the other components to fall in line

11. Ways of Changing Attitudes
Providing new information
Use of Fear
Resolving Discrepancies
 Influence of friends and peers
 The Co-opting Approach

12. Types of change
Congruent change: change in the attitude in the
same direction but the intensity of feeling is reduced.
Incongruent change: Change in the attitude direction
itself from negative to positive or vice-versa.