Define attitude. How attitude is formed in an organization?

Answer 1

ATTITUDE FORMATION IN THE ORGANISATION

In the present open economy, where world is a global village competition is fierce, we all accept the fact that there is a definite need for change in attitude of individuals at all level in an organization.

The organization comprises of individuals and growth of the organization depends solely on the positive attitude of all the individuals working in the organization. What does the employee want from his job? How do benefits influence his feelings about where he works? How do managers feel about what they do? Where does the scientist / researcher get his satisfaction? How do attitudes affect the amount and quality of production? These and similar questions are raised when we consider human needs and their interaction with organizational climates.

The goals of the organization are not necessarily the goals of the individuals and to achieve the goals a strong positive attitude and a positive approach to the affairs of the organization.

What is "Attitude "? It is a preparedness to act in a certain way. It is the prime movers of Human Behavior.

In the context of emerging challenges in the competitive world to survive, one has to change and change for better and the change have to be positive.

"No one can persuade another to change. Each of us guards a gate of change that can only be opened from the inside. We cannot open the gate of another by argument or by emotional appeal." - Marilyn Ferguson

Attitudes provide people with a basis for expressing their values. For example, a manager who believes strongly in the work ethic will tend to voice attitudes toward specific individuals or work practices as a means of reflecting this value. A supervisor who wants a subordinate to work harder might put it this way, "you have got to work harder. That's been the tradition of the organization since it was founded. It helped get us where we are today, and everyone is expected to subscribe to this ethic." - In this case attitudes serve as a basis for expressing one's central values.

An individual with a negative attitude is usually hostile and indifferent and this attitude which he has developed is based on his past experience. Hence our experience- good or bad interactions with other humans at sometime or other has a great impact on our attitudes. Thus the attitudes are concerned directly with the way in which people react and behave.

The negative attitude of an individual is not healthy for an organization. It is a hindrance for the growth of the organization.

Do attitudes affect the amount and quality of work production? This is an involved question; what are the facts? It was generally found in most of the studies that workers with positive job attitudes showed higher productivity than those with negative attitudes.

The Team Leader or the Branch Manager has to deal with negative people with tact.

First identify the person with negative attitude and isolate him because the damage done by a person with negative attitude is tremendous, it generates and influences others with the same type of attitude. Once he is isolated he is to be treated separately with care. After counseling with him find the root cause for his negative attitude. He must be having a valid reason for his behavior.

The Team Leader should

- Instill self-confidence in him.

- Make him feel important.

- Make him feel he is wanted by the organization.

- Explain the role he has played in the growth and

- How his contribution will help the organization

He must appreciate his work/project. Magnify his work and make him realize how he has helped the organization. Inculcate a 'sense of belonging' feeling in him that he is wanted by the organization. Consider him as part of your family, he should never feel neglected. We have to create favorable conditions / environment wherein the man himself wants to change his attitude.

Administrators and Managers face the problem of bringing about a change in the attitude of their employees, because the performance is affected if there is no positive attitude towards the organization and also towards their superior officers. To know how attitude has to be changed the superior officer should know the need for change and also how the attitudes are formed.

Generally attitudinal change can be classified into congruent and incongruent changes. The congruent change means movement in the same direction. It is a known fact that attitudes exist in a "dimensions" ranging from "highly negative" to "highly positive" with "neutral" in the middle. Expressing attitude in terms of numbers viz., the highly positive as 5, the highly negative as 1 and neutral as 3. The congruent change that the person has already a positive attitude to change in the lesser degree so it needs to be changed towards more positive, so that it motivates him for better performance. On the other hand the incongruent change involved changing the individual's attitude from negative towards positive, i.e. (-) 1 towards (+) 5. This is the task which has to be faced by many of these administrators and managers in the present environment.

The change can be brought about by the following factors:

1. The characteristics of the change agent
2. The method of communication or persuasion
3. The characteristics of the person, or the group to be influenced and
4. The situational factors.

The characteristics of the change agent is very important because he is to be accepted by the host and should posses some status, prestige, attractiveness, acceptability with organizations and a host of such factors. By status it is felt that a person should have some type of higher position and that does not mean that he keeps the physical and social distance from the host. If this happens the change will not take place at all. Hence he should be more accessible and acceptable to the group. In short, the change agent should command respect.

The next factor is the communication itself. It is very important that how the message is received, edited and put across to the host group providing a clear picture of the situation which would enable the people to think of the pros and cons, and change towards a positive attitude.

The third factor is the host himself. His background, personality, characteristics, etc. Attitudes are formed based on past experience. To change the attitude there is a necessity to bring about the process of unlearning what has been learnt earlier, so that the new learning can take place.

The fourth factor is the situational factors. They play a major role in influencing the change in attitude among people. The manager has to create an environment of credibility and acceptability and openness, so that the message put across is able to make convincing thinking in the individual and a change is brought about.

Organizations grow, survive, decline or become extinct, depending on the behavior of the employees. The basic change process attempts to make employees change their behavior, which cannot happen overnight.

We need a paradigm shift in our understanding of human resistance to change and the consequences thereof.

We have to recognize the most obvious connection between Economics and Psychology. While the former discipline is devoted to the study of the limited scarce resources so as to make them available to match the unlimited wants of people, the later discipline studies the very nature of human needs and the ways in which they are satisfied. Essentially, man is a bundle of needs and his entire life is devoted to satisfying them. And the truth is all the industrial enterprises are essentially catering to the needs of people by way of offering goods and services. What ever angle you look at from the 'needs of people' stand out as the prime movers. Yet, the paradox is the same enterprises are wearing blinkers when it comes to seeing their employee needs.

While the organizations employ people to achieve their objectives or profit goals, people join them primarily to satisfy their own needs. They are constantly looking for opportunities to get what they want - money, retention of job, professional growth, career advancement, recognition, status, respect, self-esteem etc. While employed in the organizations, every man is looking for what can satisfy his needs, who can get or help him what he wants, and how can he get what he wants. Anything that is perceived as having the potential to get him what he wants is accepted, and any thing that appears to threaten his interest is resisted.

A lot has been deliberated on the need for attitudinal change. There are many questions which remain unanswered:

- Whether only the attitude of the employee needs a change?

- Is there no responsibility on the part of the organization to change their attitude?

- The change should percolate from top to bottom and not vice-versa.

- The irony is "Everyone of us wants the other to change his attitude, but do we ever bother to do self introspection?" I would like to conclude with a phrase from Bhagwadgeeta "When you raise one finger to accuse others always remember the other three fingers are aiming at you".

Every organization can grow to great heights if everyone of us have the right attitude with a right perception at the right tim.