Attitude refers to act in a certain way on the basis of our thinking & feeling. It is one type of body language which can be expressed through behavior. Attitudes are the beliefs, feelings & action tendencies of an individual or group of individuals towards objects, ideas & people. Attitudes are preset Attitudes are both positive & negative Attitudes are pervasive Attitudes are different from values Different Sources of Attitudes are: Family Reference group Social classes Personality factors Attitude formation can be done by two ways. These are Direct experience social learning Work related Attitudes can be explained in following manner. Job satisfaction Job involvement Organizational commitment

1. Meaning
Definition
Characteristics
Sources
Attitude formation
Components
Types of Work related attitudes
Cognitive dissonance

3. MEANING
 Attitude refers to act in a certain way on the basis of our
thinking & feeling.
 It is one type of body language which can be expressed
through behavior.
 Attitudes are the beliefs, feelings & action tendencies of
an individual or group of individuals towards objects,
ideas & people.

5. DEFINITIONS
 According to N.L. Munn – Attitudes are learned
predispositions towards aspects of our environment.
They may be positively or negatively directed towards
certain people, service or institutions.
 According to Fred Luthans - Attitude can be defined
as a persistent tendency to feel & behave in a particular
way towards some object.

7. CHARACTERISTICS
 Attitudes are preset
 Attitudes are both positive & negative
 Attitudes are pervasive
 Attitudes are different from values

8. SOURCES OF ATTITUDES
 Family
 Reference group
 Social classes
 Personality factors

9. FAMILY
 Both nuclear & joint family play very important role in
attitude formation.

10. LEARNING FROM FAMILY

11. REFERENCE GROUP
 It can be a family or any other organization where
people interact with each other & learn about attitudes
& different behaviors related to life style. It also
focuses on socialization

12. LEARNING FROM REFERENCE
GROUP

13.  Social classes transmit cultural behavior patterns to
specific groups & families. They define the
expectations of society for groups of people & for
families within the groups. The family then transmits
these cultural expectations to the individual. So it is
one type of imitate relationships & people behavior in
a common way.
SOCIAL CLASSES

14. LEARNING FROM SOCIAL CLASSES

15. PERSONALITY FACTORS
 Personality is influenced by various groups , social
factors & heredity. So all these factors form attitude.
For example, positive personality forms positive
attitude.

16. PERSONALITY FACTORS

17. ATTITUDE FORMATION
Attitude formation can be done by two ways.
 Direct experience
 Social learning

18. DIRECT EXPERIENCE
 Classical Conditioning – It states attitudes can be
formed by learning principles.
 Operant Conditioning – It focuses onReinforcement
of attitude. It is based on stimulus & response.
 Vicarious (explicit ) learning – This type of learning
occurs after observation. It can be done by reading
books or watching movie etc.

19. VICARIOUS LEARNING

20. SOCIAL LEARNING
 Family
 Peer group
 Models

21. COMPONENTS OF LEARNING
 Cognitive
 Affective
 Behavioral

22. COGNITIVE COMPONENTS
 It is the psychological process which helps to collect
past experience & past information & act as input to
take future decision.
 It is a learned behavior or feelings or beliefs of a person
on other persons, things or situations.
 It develops an attitude of a person on the basis of
learning.
 For example, discrimination, theft & forgery are
unethical.
 To get good result you have to labor hard.

23. AFFECTIVE COMPONENTS
 When Cognitive components are deep-rooted then
affective components develop.
 As individuals gain more & more direct experience
affective components become strong.
 It develops attitudes on the basis of personal beliefs.
 For example, a person who believes hard work is
needed for promotion, if he works hard & promoted
then he will be motivated.

24. BEHAVIORAL COMPONENTS
 Behavioral components are based on our feelings.
 The behavior of a person towards other persons, things
& situation depends on his/her feelings.
 For example, in organization our behavior towards our
subordinate, superior & peers convey our feelings
towards them which focus on our attitude.

25. TYPES OFWORK RELATED
ATTITUDES IN ORGANIZATIONS
 Job satisfaction
 Job involvement
 Organizational commitment

27. JOB SATISFACTION
 It is related to general attitude towards the job.
 A person having high level of satisfaction holds a positive
attitude, whereas dissatisfied people will generally display
negative aspects towards life.
 Both personal & organizational factors play very important role
in job satisfaction & attitude formation. These are – the work
itself, better payment, promotion opportunities, super vision,
coworkers & working conditions.
 Higher the job satisfaction lower will be the labor turnover,
higher will be the productivity &lower will be the absenteeism.

28. JOB INVOLVEMENT
 It refers to the degree to which a person identifies
himself with his job.
 High level of involvement indicates that an employee
is very dedicated for his work & as a result output will
be high.
 Higher the involvement higher will be the job
satisfaction.

29. ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT
 It refers to degree to which an employee identifies
himself with the organizational goals & wishes to
maintain membership in the organization.
 His belongingness will enhance & he participates with
pure dedication.
 Organizational commitment depends upon job
enrichment factors, such as – the level of autonomy
provided by the organization.

30. COGNITIVE DISSONANCE THEORY
 This theory was developed by Leon Festinger in 1950s.
 This theory focuses on the linkage between attitudes &
behavior.
 According to Leon Cognitive dissonance (discomfort)
refers to any inconsistency or incompatibility that an
individual might perceive between 2/more attitudes, &
attitude & behavior.
 For example, when a person has to choose among a number
of alternatives, he experiences conflict to take the decision.
 Any type of inconsistency is uncomfortable & individual
attempts to reduce dissonance or discomfort.
 Individuals try to reduce dissonance to achieve stable state
of behavior.

31. Example
 Workers complain that the working conditions of the
organization is very poor.
 Does it mean that if working conditions will be
improved the workers will achieve higher
productivity? Some times it is true.
 There is inconsistency between working conditions &
its impact on changing of attitude of workers in
relation to productivity.
 So the leader tries to reduce dissonance by motivating
them positively & providing cordial work environment.

32. REDUCTION OF DISSONANCE
Reduction of dissonance depends upon 3 basic factors.
 Importance of the issue, element or situation
 Degree of influence individual believes he/she has on
issue, element or situation.
 Reward that may be associated to the dissonance

33. IMPORTANCE OF THE ISSUE,
ELEMENT OR SITUATION
 If elements creating dissonance are unimportant, the
pressure to correct behavior will be low.
 For example – to prevent pollution (no-use of plastic bags )
is not so important for an individual. Therefore, though
prevention of pollution is important but individual rarely
show the concern & keep using plastic bags.
 Example – the train driver, though does not want to run the
train at odd hours of night, but he has to run the train
(behavior ) in spite of the high degree of dissonance
because it is related to high degree of rewards.

34. DEGREE OF INFLUENCE
INDIVIDUAL BELIEVES HE/SHE HAS
ON ISSUE, ELEMENT OR SITUATION
 If one perceives that the dissonance is uncontrollable
then one is less likely to change the attitude.
 Attitude change is voluntary in nature.
 For example – Voluntary Disclosure of Income Tax
(VDIT) is introduced by GOVT. If an individual wants
to reduce dissonance (tension of being caught if not
paid ) & if the degree of influence is high, then the
pressure to reduce dissonance will also be high &
therefore, individual will disclose his income
(behavior).

35. REWARD THAT MAY BE
ASSOCIATED TO THE DISSONANCE
 Rewards influence the degree to which individuals are
motivated to reduce dissonance.
 If high rewards are associated with dissonance
(discomforts) then individual will reduce his/her
tension which is inherent in dissonance.
 A reward acts as positive attitude change agent &
further achieves consistency in human behavior.