Attitudes Flashcards
Identify and describe the concept of attitude Identify and describe methods of attitude assessment Examine specific work attitudes including job satisfaction and commitment Assess the impact of attitudes on behaviour in work
What are the central features of an attitude?
. Can concern almost anything that we like or dislike e.g. work, constructs, and people
. Attitudes differ in valence (+ or -) and strength
. Represent the “truth” as we see it
. May not be consistent with behaviour, e.g. or may hate one’s job, but need the income
. Assessing attitudes is very common in work organisations
What is the definition of an attitude and who was it by?
“A predisposition to feel, think and act towards some object, person or event in a more or less favourable or unfavourable way” Richardson (1977)
What is the key difference between attitude and personality?
. Personality is the predispositions across many situations(more stable)
. attitude refers to a particular object/target/concept (less stable)
State the strength of relationship between persoanlity, work attitudes and work moods
. personality to attitude is strong . attitude to personality is weak . attitude to mood is strong . mood to attitude is weak . personality to mood is strong . mood to personality is weak
What are the 3 components of a work or any attitude?Breckler, 1984
. Affective component
. Cognitive component
. Behavioural component
Explain the affective component of a work attitude?
How a worker feels about his or her job or organisation
Explain the cognitive component of a work attitude
What a worker believes to be true about his or her job or organisation
Explain the behavioural component of a work attitude
How is a worker is predisposed to behave in their job or organisation
What are the influences of work attitude formation?
. Work situation
. Personality
. Values
. Social influence- co-workers , culture
Why do work attitudes matter? only if attitude=behaviour however
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 psychological or physical health
What is the relationship between attitude and behaviour?
. attitude influences behaviour
. behaviour can also influence attitude
. or mutually influence each other
How are attitudes usually measured?
. Normally using Likert scaling
. Statements worded either for or against issue in question
. Agreement or disagreement is indicated
. Statements responded to in the same way in two occasions are chosen (reliability)
. Overall attitude is the sum or mean of the item responses (after reverse scoring of negatives)
. Problem – socially desirable responding
What is job satisfaction?
“A pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experiences” (Locke, 1976)
Why might job satisfaction be important?
The happy worker-productive worker hypothesis
What factors contribute to job satisfaction?
. job characteristics- task identity, significance, autonomy
. Personality- affects how you see things
. Distributive justice- fairness of the allocation of rewards/treatment
Is the relationship between job satisfaction and performance conclusive?
This is still an area of research and debate, the relationship may differ depending on the variables
What impact does job satisfaction and commitment have on work behaviour?
Both involved in people’s decisions to stay in or leave jobs and organisations
Both have implications for people’s general well-being
Both associated with motivation
Some connection with people’s job performance
What is organisational commitment?
“The relative strength of an employee’s identification with and involvement in an organisation” (Mowday et al., 1979)
What are the three key features of organisational commitment?
Desire to stay
Believe in and accept organisation’s goals
Willing to exert effort on behalf of organisation
What are the three forms of organisational commitment and who by?
(Allen & Meyer, 1990)
- Affective: personal emotional attachment to organisation (liking)
- Continuance: costs and risks of leaving (personal sacrifice & investment and lack of alternatives)
- Normative: moral dimension. Sense of loyalty or obligation to the organisation
Each has own antecedents
What are some findings of OC?
High affective linked to high performance (especially linked to being ‘good organisational citizens’ / ‘extra mile’ / ‘voluntary helping’)
High continuance sometimes linked to low performance (staying because you don’t have a choice?)
Commitment to manager linked to performance
Commitment to organisation linked to turnover
How can OC be developed?
. Challenge and autonomy more than pay and reward (affective & normative)
. Perception of investment in the organisation (continuance – perception that current organisation is now better than alternatives?)
. Organisational values (fairness, courtesy, openness, initiative)
What is the relationship of attitudes to job performance? pros and cons
. Roughly 0.6 which= strong correlation with JP
(Harrison et al., 2006)
.
How does social influence change attitude and behaviour?
“Change in attitudes, beliefs, opinions, values and behaviours as a result to being exposed to other individuals’ attitudes, beliefs, opinions, values and behaviour” (Hewstone et al., 2008)
What factors affect attitude change?
. Credibility of persuader - expertness and trustworthiness
. Attractiveness of persuader - similiarty
. One-sided and two-sided arguments
Use of fear
. Social Pressures and conformity
. Logical argument
