Week 5| Values, attitudes and behaviour

Question 1

What are the characteristics of Values and Behaviours? E.g. are there a lot of values, are values easy to change

Answer 1

Behaviours:

1. Numerous
2. Quick to Change
3. Peripheral
4. Situation specific

Values:

1. Few in number
2. Stable
3. Central belief

Question 2

What is the definition of values? How are they characterised?

Answer 2

Values are enduring personal beliefs about what is important or valuable
Expression of the right way to behave and to support a preferred set of social arrangements (e.g. social or moral values such as honesty, fairness)

Values can be characterised in the terms of:

• intensity (e.g. level of significance/ importance)
• content (e.g. terminal or instrumental values)

Question 3

What does value provide for attitudes? What are the definitions of attitude?

Answer 3

Value provides the normative basis for attitudes (i.e, criteria against which we judge the object, person or event and form an attitude about it)

Attitudes:

• Evaluative statement about an object, person, or event
• A persistent tendency to feel and behave in a particular wat towards something
• Attitudes are characterized by their persistence, valance (positive or negative), and direction

Question 4

What 3 components are there within attitudes?

Answer 4

Attitude contains three components that are theoretically distinct but in reality hard to separate:
1. Emotional component
Positive or negative feeling, good/bad

2. Informational component:
   Judgements about the object, person, event based on our values and beliefs
3. Behavioural component
   When we hold an attitude we tend to act consistently in a certain way

Question 5

What is an example of using the three components from attitudes?

Answer 5

Emotional component: I don’t like my job
Informational component: Nightshifts interfere with my family life and I dislike anything that hurts my family
Behavioural component: I’m going to speak with my boss to change to a day shift. If this is unsuccessful, I will search for a new job

Question 6

What are the barriers to changing attitudes? What ways are there to change attitudes?

Answer 6

Attitudes can help behaviour at work. Employee attitude can be changed, but there can be barriers to changing our attitudes such as:

• prior commitment
• insufficient information

There are ways to change attitudes such as:

• providing information
• Involving dissatifsied people to improve the situation

Question 7

What is attitude does job satisfaction and what are the several aptitude it has towards?

Answer 7

It is a multidimensional attitude: A positive emotional response resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experience
Represents several related aptitudes towards:
- Job content
- Pay
- Promotion
- Supervision
- Co-workers

Question 8

What is the outcome of job satisfaction? Is there a table to demonstrate this? (think three factor process)

Answer 8

Antecedants -> Job satisfaction -> outcome

Antecedants: work itself, promotion, pay, supervisor, coworkers (values)

Job satisfaction: job satisfaction (attitude)

Outcome: productivity +, turnover -, absenteeism, better mental and physiical health , positive citizenship behaviour (behaviour)

Question 9

What management practices does job satisfaction relate to and what outcomes does this demonstrate?

Answer 9

Management practices:

1. Human relations approaches to work organization
2. raining
3. greater inputs to decisions

and therefore, illustrates that attitudes influence behaviour, management can influence attitude

Question 10

Define organisational culture

Answer 10

• Organizational culture is a shared understanding or set of beliefs about how people should behave in an organization
• A system of shared values, attitudes and behaviours is the ‘bedrock’ of culture; the “the glue” that holds an organization together
• Importantly, culture is a characteristic of groups not individuals
• Although the way individuals behave (i.e. interact, make decisions, communicate…) is shaped by the overarching culture in which they are embedded

Question 11

What are the dimensions of national culture?

Answer 11

• High vs low power: extent to which people accept the unequal distribution of power
• Individualist vs collectivist: degree to which people prefer to work individually or in groups
• Masculinity vs femininity: tendency toward achievement, status vs care for others, quality of life
• High vs low uncertainty avoidance: preference for structured situations, low ambiguity vs unstructured situations with high ambiguity
• Long vs short termism: tendency for thrift perseverance vs respect for tradition, fulfilling social obligations, and protecting one’s face
• Restraint vs indulgence: normative repression, duty vs satisfaction, pleasure