Attitudes are an integral part of the workplace that directly impact employee behavior. Understanding how people form attitudes, how those attitudes affect work behavior, and persuasion will help managers improve their ability to change counterproductive attitudes. A. The ABC Model The ABC Model includes three areas: affect, behavioral intentions, and cognition. Affect is the emotional component of an attitude. When we ask an employee how he or she feels about a new policy, we are requesting an affective response. Behavioral intentions relate to the action(s) an individual would take given the opportunity.
Cognition is a verbal statement regarding one’s belief about a specific person or situation, which reflects perceptions and attitudes. People experience cognitive dissonance when their behavior conflicts with their own attitudes or beliefs. B. Attitude Formation All attitudes are learned, and our attitudes vary based on our experiences and learning environment. One way in which our attitudes are formed is through social learning, which involves the influences of family, peers, colleagues, and institutions.
Attitude enactment is not as simple as thinking positively to produce positive results. The degree to which our behavior matches our attitudes has to do with relevance, personality factors, and social context. Work Attitudes Two primary work attitudes are job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Job Satisfaction Job satisfaction is the pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experience. There are several measures of job satisfaction. One of the most widely used measures is the Job Descriptive Index.
Job satisfaction correlates with several other outcomes, including organizational citizenship behavior – behavior that is above and beyond the call of duty. Organizational Commitment Organizational commitment is the strength of an individual’s identification with an organization. There are three kinds of organizational commitment: affective, continuance, and normative. Affective commitment refers to an employee’s intention to remain in an organization because of a strong desire to do so. Continuance commitment is based on the fact that an individual cannot afford to leave.
Normative commitment refers to a perceived obligation to remain with the organization. Some interesting outcomes of widespread company downsizing ventures may alter the level and types of organizational commitment. E. Persuasion and Attitude Change Because attitudes can be altered and shaped, it is in the interest of managers to be conscious of ways in which they might affect attitude changes. Through persuasion, attitudes can be altered. Characteristics of the persuader, and the individual being persuaded, and the message itself must be considered.
Source characteristics are related to the individual trying to persuade another, while target characteristics are related to the individual being persuaded. Source Characteristics The persuader may have an impact on the target through expertise, trustworthiness, attractiveness, and/or likability. Target Characteristics The persuader may have difficulty persuading a target who has high self-esteem, who is resistant to change, or who is negative. Message Characteristics People react either negatively or positively to the message content, as well as to the perceived intent of the persuader sending the message. Cognitive Routes to Persuasion Persuasion occurs through either a central route or a peripheral route, or both. The central route involves direct cognitive processing, in which the content of the message is very important. In contrast, peripheral routes involve persuasion based on characteristics of the persuader or the method of presentation. Consequently, the target’s level of involvement with the issue becomes very important, and the persuader should adopt the route that matches the individual’s level of involvement.
Values are the enduring beliefs that a specific mode of conduct or end state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end state of existence. Values are more difficult to change or alter than are attitudes, although attitudes are based on values. As ethical conduct receives more visibility in the workplace, values increase in importance as a topic of discussion in management. Instrumental and Terminal Values Rokeach divides values into instrumental and terminal values. Instrumental values represent acceptable behaviors as the means to reach a goal.
Terminal values represent the goals to be achieved. Work Values Work values are more specific than personal values, and have direct implications for behavior and attitudes in organizations. The work values most relevant to individuals are achievement, concern for others, honesty, and fairness. C. Cultural Differences in Values Culture exerts a significant influence on individuals’ values and the differences in values within various cultures become increasingly important as workforce diversity broadens. Central values such as loyalty, contribution, and authority can vary greatly from one culture to another, a king it more important than ever that managers seek to understand, tolerate, and capitalize on those differences. Ethical behavior refers to actions consistent with one’s personal values and the commonly held values of the organization and society. A review of one week’s issues of the Wall Street Journal illustrates the difficulty of developing ethical norms within organizations. Value Systems Individuals are bombarded with shocks and challenges to their value systems in work settings. If the situations are not in harmony with their perspectives, the outcomes can have far-reaching ramifications.
Locus of Control Internals are more likely than externals to take personal responsibility for the consequences of their ethical or unethical behavior. Externals are more apt to believe that external forces caused their ethical or unethical behavior. An interesting self-assessment of external locus of control was made by the second murderer in Shakespeare’s Macbeth: “I am one my liege, whom the vile blows and buffets of the world have so incensed that I am reckless what I do to spite the world. ” C. Machiavellianism Machiavellianism is a personality characteristic indicating one’s willingness to do whatever it takes to get one’s own way.
A high-Mach individual has little concern for conventional notions of right and wrong, and believes that the end justifies the means. It is not surprising that recent research has discovered that high-Machs are less likely to punish unethical behavior. Cognitive Moral Development The cognitive moral development model comes from the research of Lawrence Kohlberg, proposing that as individuals mature, their moral development also matures. Cognitive moral development is the process of moving through stages of maturity in terms of making ethical decisions.
The ABC model of an attitude contends that an attitude has three components: affect, behavioral intentions, and cognition. Cognitive dissonance is the tension produced by a conflict between attitudes and behavior. Attitudes are formed through direct experience and social learning. Direct experience creates strong attitudes because the attitudes are easily accessed and active in cognitive processes. Attitude-behavior correspondence depends on attitude specificity, attitude relevance, timing of measurement, personality factors, and social constraints.
Two important work attitudes are job satisfaction and organizational commitment. There are cultural differences in these attitudes, and both attitudes can be improved by providing employees with opportunities for participation in decision making. A manager’s ability to persuade employees to change their attitudes depends on characteristics of the manager (expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness), the employees (self-esteem, original attitude, and mood), the message (one-sided versus two-sided), and the route (central versus peripheral).
Values are enduring beliefs and are strongly influenced by cultures, societies, and organizations. Instrumental values reflect the means to achieving goals; terminal values represent the goals to be achieved. Ethical behavior is influenced by the individual’s value system, locus of control, Machiavellianism, and cognitive moral development. The ABC model includes three components: affect, behavioral intentions, and cognition. Physiological indicators such as galvanic skin response measure affect.
Because organizations face the challenge of operating in the global environment, managers must understand that job satisfaction is significantly affected by culture. Therefore, employees from different cultures may have different expectations of their jobs. Similarly, organizational commitment studies have shown variances among cultures in terms of commitment to the organization.
Attitude-behavior correspondence is affected by attitude specificity, attitude relevance, timing of measurement, personality, and social constraints. For some individuals, attitude-behavior correspondence is not so important. High self-monitors are more concerned that their behavior is situationally appropriate than that their behavior reflects their attitudes.
In order to influence individuals, managers must be conscious of characteristics that are likely to enhance their persuasive capabilities. These characteristics include attractiveness, trustworthiness, and credibility. Define values. Distinguish between instrumental values and terminal values. Are these values generally stable, or do they change over time? Values are enduring beliefs that a specific mode of conduct or end state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end state of existence.
Instrumental values represent the acceptable behaviors used to achieve some end state. Terminal values represent the goals to be achieved, or the end state of existence. These values are relatively stable, yet influences such as age and gender do affect individuals’ values over time. Ethical behavior is acting in ways consistent with one’s personal values and the commonly held values of the organization and society; thus values underlie ethical behavior.
Internals are more likely than externals to take personal responsibility for the consequences of their ethical or unethical behavior. What is Machiavellianism, and how does it relate to ethical behavior? Machiavellianism is a personality characteristic indicating one’s willingness to do whatever it takes to get one’s own way. High-Machs believe that any means justify the desired ends. Describe the stages of cognitive moral development. How does this concept affect ethical behavior in organizations? Cognitive moral development has three levels, each consisting of two stages.
At the pre-conventional level, Stage 1 individuals’ base decisions on rewards, punishments, and self-interest. Rules are obeyed to avoid punishment. In Stage 2, individuals follow the rules only if it is in their immediate interest to do so. At the conventional level, Stage 3 individuals try to live up to the expectations of people close to them. In Stage 4, the perspective is broadened to include the laws of the larger society. At the principled level, Stage 5 individuals base decisions on principles of justice and rights. In Stage 6, individuals follow self-selected ethical principles.
Many students will answer only one aspect of the model, such as suggesting an increase in skill variety. Managers must have accurate perceptions of what employees want in a job. Suppose you have an employee whose lack of commitment is affecting others in the work group. How would you go about persuading the person to change this attitude? Students should analyze characteristics of the persuader, the target, and the message to address this problem.
One of the strengths of the Rokeach studies is that they were longitudinal. There are suggestions of differences between males and females, yet there is a tendency to keep core values in relationships. Students may wish to contrast their values with those of their parents and grandparents in discussing this question.
Organizations can affect individuals’ perceptions of ethical behavior by creating a culture that rewards ethical behavior and employee involvement, training, and modeling ethical behavior. How can managers encourage organizational citizenship? By promoting a climate of honesty and rewarding the “helping” behaviors. Students may need to analyze their current environment (work organization or university) to see if the organization encourages citizenship.
Each supervisor manages a team of seven customer service representatives. One of your supervisors, Linda, has complained that Joe, one of her employees, has “an attitude problem. ” She has requested that Joe be transferred to another team. Write a memo to Linda explaining your position on this problem and what should be done. Encourage students to apply the concepts learned in class about attitudes to their resolution of this problem. This problem also provides a good opportunity to discuss how values, personality, perception, etc. could be affecting this situation. 8. Select a company that you admire for its values.
Use the resources of your university library to answer two questions. First, what are the company’s values? Second, how do employees enact these values? Prepare an oral presentation to present in class. Following the oral presentations, discuss differences in values that were identified across organizations. Get student input on why the values differ among organizations and how companies sometimes enact the same values in different ways. Think of a time when you have experienced cognitive dissonance. Analyze your experience in terms of the attitude and behavior involved.
What did you do to resolve the cognitive dissonance? What other actions could you have taken? Write a brief description of your experience and your responses to the questions. During discussion of these responses, encourage students to examine how people respond differently to cognitive dissonance. Discuss how an understanding of cognitive dissonance can be beneficial to a manager.
Manipulation is related to this question. Some organizations receive notoriety for attempting to influence their members (Cracker Barrel, Coors Brewery), and these efforts have been seen as an invasion of privacy. Codes of ethics reinforcements are about business practices, not personal lifestyles. Suppose a coworker is engaging in behavior that you find personally unethical, but the behavior is not prohibited by the company’s ethical standards. How would you handle the issue? This becomes a personal issue, rather than a workplace issue.
Students may need an example to begin their analysis. A useful example is use of “colorful language” by professors in the classroom. How would students handle offensive language? If they do not act on their principles (because of power and authority differences), would they really stand up to a person at work? Some people have argued that the biggest deficiency of business school graduates is that they have no sense of ethics. What do you think? This is an excellent question to discuss in class, particularly if there are students from other disciplines enrolled in the course.
Business students have heard this allegation often. They have also heard that they are self-serving. Students are often quick to point out numerous examples of “ethical conduct. ” This question is often answered differently depending on the emphasis that is placed on the topic among the majors. Is it possible to operate in a completely ethical manner and be successful in business when your competitors engage in unethical tactics? Many writers believe that self-interest and good ethics can coincide, because it is often in one’s interest to act morally.
Students’ opinions range greatly on this question. 5. How do Machiavellianism and locus of control affect an individual’s cognitive moral development? High Mach’s believe that any means available should be used to achieve the end. This relates to a low stage of cognitive moral development, where behavior is determined by punishment for being “caught”. Similarly, external locus of control individuals might not take responsibility for their actions, thus blaming their behavior on society, parents, peer pressure, etc. , again reflecting a low level of cognitive moral development.
In terms of the values survey, it can be seen that Chinese students tend to show a higher need than Americans for achievement, order, deference, abasement, succorance, nurturance, and endurance, with a lower need on exhibition, intraception, dominance, change, heterosexuality, and aggression. It was expected that a sample of the general population, rather than students, would have shown even greater cultural differences. The results of twenty studies done of Chinese students in Taiwan showed their predominant profile of value orientation to consist of inner development, past perspective, collectivism (lineality), and submission to nature. They choose to combine contemplation, action, and enjoyment in acceptable proportions.
They feel it is important to accept social constraints, to show and express sympathetic concern for others, and to preserve and maintain good human traditions and achievements. Further, they are high in theoretical and aesthetic pursuits and low in economic and religious ones. They feel that sensuous enjoyment and silent submission to external forces are both wrong. Harmony, self-restraint, and conscientiousness are rated high. When asking Chinese students which goals were important to them, they ranked top ones as good marriage and happy family, beating one’s brains out in the pursuit of knowledge, and a handsome salary. Low for them were goals such as religious beliefs, being a leader to dominate others, exercising intensely to develop physical qualities, and being successful in social life.
Studies of Machiavellianism, or the belief that one can manipulate and deceive people for personal gain, have shown that (despite a Western stereotype otherwise) Chinese people have a lower level of Machiavellianism than Westerners. In another study (in 1967) of authoritarianism using the California Fascism Scale, it was found that students from India and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) showed the highest levels, then came China and Arabia (tied), then Brazil, and finally, much further down, the United States. Some researchers, though, have found that Chinese society is moving away from the traditional values and going more towards (slowly, of course) autonomy, achievement, and inner-control beliefs.
This is a particularly useful and interesting discussion in which to have international students involved. International students are sometimes more aware of the nuances of exchanging gifts than U. S. students. It is useful to have the students list their positions on paper before they develop the answers and justifications. This is helpful to you because they may stray away from the intent of the question, or may not consider the breadth of the question. By submitting the approach they intend to take, you are able to enlarge on their perspective immediately, rather than waiting until they present their solutions to class. The depth of the answer is also very important.
Each subgroup receives copies of one of the four cultures: Anonymites, Personameans, Religionians, and Agnosticatians. The experience is more realistic and fun if a table is set up as a buffet styled reception. The classroom should be large enough to allow the four subgroups to work without disturbing one another and open enough to allow mingling in a party-like atmosphere. It is easiest to provide cookies and bottled liquids so that students have to share and pour for each other. The food setup can be as simple or as elaborate as the instructor wishes. Instructor’s Notes: Students should spend approximately forty-five minutes completing the instruction sheet for their subgroup. However, this has been completed in less time successfully.
While the students are working, the instructor sets out the food, drinks, and so forth and assists the groups as necessary. After forty-five minutes ask the groups to stop and spend the next twenty minutes attending a United Nations mixer. They should stay in their roles as members of their assigned cultures. They are instructed to share a “meal” with at least one member of another culture and to speak with as many people from other subgroups as possible so that they can learn about the customs, values, needs, and resources of the different cultures. After clarifying the task and answering questions, the students are asked to attend the reception.
After exactly twenty minutes the subgroups are asked to reassemble. Each subgroup should spend 20 minutes sharing the information they have collected about the other cultures, deciding which culture they want to negotiate with to trade resources, analyzing that culture, choosing a member to serve as their representative in negotiations, and developing a negotiation strategy. Next, ask the subgroups to conclude their meetings and announce their chosen representatives. The representatives are invited to take turns negotiating with one another in accordance with the decisions made by their subgroups. (Only one negotiation takes place at a time, so that the entire class can watch the negotiation process. After five minutes, the negotiation process is completed, regardless of the success of the bargaining. If you need to run this exercise in less than two hours, it is advisable to distribute the sheets to the class before you use the exercise. Other options include eliminating the need and instructions for food, running the activity with only two cultures that have differing values, (for example, the Anonymites and the Personameans), and to run the activity without the negotiation phase.
