Attitudes and Values

Following are the salient features which contribute to

the meaning of attitudes:

(a) Attitudes refer to feelings and beliefs of

individuals or groups of individuals. For example
“He has a poor attitude”, “I like her attitude.”
(b) The feeling’s and beliefs are directed towards
other people, objects or ideas. When a person
says, “I like my Job”. It shows that he has a
positive attitude towards his job.
(c) Attitudes often result in and affect the behaviour
or action of the people. Attitudes can lead to
intended behaviour if there are no external
interventions.
(d) Attitudes a psychological phenomenon which
cannot be directly observed. However, an attitude
can be observed indirectly by observing its
consequences. For example, if a person is very
regular in his job, we may infer that he likes his job
very much.
 (e) Attitudes are gradually acquired over a period of
time. The process of learning attitude starts right
from childhood and continues throughout the life
of a person. In the beginning the family members
may have a greater impact on the attitude of a
child.
(f) Attitudes are evaluative statements, either
favourable or unfavourable. When a person says
he likes or dislikes something or somebody, an
attitude is being expressed.
(g) All people, irrespective of their status and
intelligence hold attitudes.
(h) An attitude may be unconsciously held. Most of
our attitudes may be about those which we are
not clearly aware. Prejudice furnishes a good
example.

Components of Attitudes:

Attitudes comprise of three basic components:

emotional, informational and behavioural.

These three components are described below:

Informational or Cognitive Component:
The informational component consists of beliefs, values,
ideas and other information a person has about the
object. It makes no difference whether or not this
information is empirically correct or real. For example, a
person seeking a job may learn from his own sources and
other employees working in the company that in a
particular company the promotion chances are very
favourable. In reality, it may or may not be correct. Yet
the information that person is using is the key to his
attitude about that job and about that company.

Emotional or Affective Component:

The informational component sets the stage for the
more critical part of an attitude, its affective component.
The emotional components involve the person’s feeling
or affect-positive, neutral or negative-about an object.
This component can be explained by this statement.” I
like this job because the future prospects in this company
are very good”.
Behavioural Component:
The behavioural component consists of the tendency of a
person to behave in a particular manner towards an
object. For example, the concerned individual in the
above case may decide to take up the job because of
good future prospects. Out of the three components of
attitudes, only the behavioural component can be
directly observed. One cannot see another person’s
beliefs (the informational component) and his feelings
(the emotional component). These two components can
only be inferred. But still understanding these two
components is essential in the study of organisational
behaviour or the behavioural component of attitudes.

Values are stable, long lasting beliefs about what is

important to an Values are a very powerful but
individual. Values are very important to the study of the
organisational behaviour, silent force affecting human
because values have an important influence on the
attitudes, perceptions, and needs and motives of the
people at work. Values are the basis of human
personality and are a very powerful but silent force
affecting human behaviour.

Values are so much embedded in the personalities of the

people that they can be inferred from people’s behaviour
and their attitudes. Effective managers have to
understand the values underlying the behaviour of the
employees, because only then they will realize why the
people behave in strange and different ways sometimes.

Meaning and Definition of Values:

A value system is viewed as a relatively permanent
perceptual frame work which influences the nature of an
individual’s behaviour. The values are the attributes
possessed by an individual and thought desirable. Values
are similar to attitudes but are more permanent and well
built in nature.
A value may be defined as a “concept of the desirable, an
internalized criterion or standard of evaluation a person
possesses. Such concepts and standards are relatively
few and determine or guide an individual’s evaluations of
the many objects encountered in everyday life.”
According to Milton Rokeach, a noted psychologist
“Values are global beliefs that guide actions and
judgments across a variety of situations.” Values
represent basic convictions that a specific mode of
conduct (or end state of existence) is personality or
socially preferable to an opposite mode of conduct (or
end state of existence)”.

Characteristic of Values:
Values are generally, tinged with moral flavour and they
contain a judgmental element, involving an individual’s
idea as to what is right, good, desirable.

(i) Values providestandards of competence and morality.

(ii) Values are fewer in number than attitudes.
(iii) Values transcend specific objects, situations or
persons.
(iv) Values are relatively permanent and resistant to
change.
(v) Values are most central to the core of a person.
(vi) Values have two attributes-content and intensity. The
content attribute stresses that a particular code of
conduct is important. The intensity attribute specifies
how important that particulars code of conduct is.
(vii) When we rank an individual’s values in terms of their
intensity. We obtain the value system of that person.
(viii) In the value system, all of us have a hierarchy of
values; which is identified by the relative importance we
assign to different values such as freedom, self respect,
honesty, self respect, and so on.

Importance of Values:

(i) Values lay the foundations for the understanding of

attitudes and motivation.
(ii) Personal value system influences the perception of
individuals.
(iii) Value system influences the manager’s perception of
the different sindividual
(iv) Personal value system influences the way in which a
manager views the other individuals and the groups of
individuals in the organisation.
(v) Value system also influences a manager’s decisions
and his solutions to the various problems
(vi) Values influence the attitudes and behaviours. An
individual will get more job satisfaction if his values align
with the organisation’s policies. If the organisation’s
policies are different from his views and values, he will
be disappointed; the disappointment will lead to job
dissatisfaction and decline in performance.
(vii) The challenge and reexamination of established
work values constitute important corner stone’s of the
current management revolution all over the world.
Hence, an understanding of the values becomes a
necessity.

Types of Values:

Milton Rokeach Classification:An extensive research

conducted by the noted psychologist Milton Rokeach,
identifies two basic types of values.
Terminal Values:
A terminal value is an ultimate goal in a desired status or
outcome. These lead to the ends to be achieved.

The examples of terminal values are:

Instrumental values relate to means for achieving desired
ends. It is a tool for acquiring a terminal value.

The instrumental values given in this study are:

The combination of terminal and instrumental values an
individual has, create an enduring cluster of values which
is his value system. Thus, according to this survey, our
values and value system are primarily the determinants
of who and what we are as individuals.
 Theories Of Learning

Learning, as discussed above, is the acquisition of new

behaviour. People acquire new behaviour frequently.
However, experts do not agree on what is the process
through which new behaviour is acquired, and still there
is disagreement on the theory behind it. This has resulted
into the development of many theories of learning. Many
of these theories are well-established while others are in
the process of evolution. These theories can be grouped
into three categories: conditioning theory also known as
connectionist or behaviouristic theory, cognitive learning
theory, and social learning theory.

Conditioning is the process in which an ineffective object

or situation becomes sc much effective that it makes the
hidden response apparent. In the absence of this
stimulus, hidden response is a natural or normal
response. This is based on the premise that learning is
establishing association between response and stimulus.
Conditioning has four Theory:
1. Conditioning Theory
2. Operant Conditioning Theory
3. Social Learning Theory
4. Cognitive Learning Theory

1.Classical Conditioning Theory:

The classical conditioning occurs when a conditioned
stimulus is coupled with an unconditioned stimulus.
Usually, the conditioned stimulus (CS) is an impartial
stimulus like the sound of a tuning fork, the
unconditioned stimulus (US) is biologically effective like
the taste of food and the unconditioned response (UR) to
the unconditioned stimulus is an unlearned reflex
response like salivation or sweating.

2.Operant Conditioning Theory:

Operant conditioning theory is also known as
instrumental conditioning. This theory is a learning
process in which behavior is sensitive to, or controlled by
its outcomes.

3.Social Learning Theory:

Learning is not exactly behavioral, instead it is a cognitive
process that takes place in a social context.
Learning can occur by observing a behavior and by
observing the outcomes of the behavior (known as
vicarious reinforcement).

4. Learning Theory:
Cognition defines a person’s ideas, thoughts, knowledge,
interpretation, understanding about himself and
environment.
This theory considers learning as the outcome of
deliberate thinking on a problem or situation based upon
known facts and responding in an objective and more
oriented manner. It perceives that a person learns the
meaning of various objects and events and also learns
the response depending upon the meaning assigned to
the stimuli
 Group Dynamics

People may underestimate the importance of society and

group memberships on their lives. Whilst people
sometimes undertake solo journeys yet by and large
much of our experiences of life involves being engaged
with others and groups.

Within an organization we do find number of groups.

Individuals joining group (s) is a reality – may be formal
or informal groups. People work in groups quite
frequently and in many different areas of their life e.g. at
work, school/college, sport, hobbies. The managers need
to understand Group Dynamics that can enable
managers to adopt the right approach of interacting with
them.

Group Dynamics:
Group dynamics deals with the attitudes and behavioral
patterns of a group. Group dynamics concern how
groups are formed, what is their structure and which
processes are followed in their functioning. Thus, it is
concerned with the interactions and forces operating
between groups.

Group dynamics is relevant to groups of all kinds – both

formal and informal. If the UPA government has set up
Group of Ministers for every governance issue, the
Supreme Court of India has 27 Group of Judges
committees overseeing all manner of non-judicial work in
the apex court. In an organizational setting, the term
groups are a very common and the study of groups and
group dynamics is an important area of study.

What is A Group?
Every organization is a group unto itself. A group refers
to two or more people who share a common meaning
and evaluation of themselves and come together to
achieve common goals. In other words, a group is a
collection of people who interact with one another;
accept rights and obligations as members and who share
a common identity.
Characteristics of a Group:
Regardless of the size or the purpose, every group has
similar characteristics:

(a) 2 or more persons (if it is one person, it is not a

group)
(b) Formal social structure (the rules of the game are
defined)
(c) Common fate (they will swim together)
(d) Common goals (the destiny is the same and
emotionally connected)
(e) Face-to-face interaction (they will talk with each
other)
(f) Interdependence (each one is complimentary to
The group)
(g) Self-definition as group members (what one is
who belongs to the group)
(i) Recognition by others (yes, you belong to the
group).