Amity Business School
PROGRAMME: MBA
COURSE : BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE
NAME OF FACULTY: Prof. (Col.) A.K.RAJPAL
1
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UNIT - VI
Attitude & Personality
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What is Attitude ?
“An important psychological attributes of
individuals which shape their behaviour.”
“A predisposition to respond in a positive
or negative way to some one or some thing
in one’s environment.”
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Attitudes Varies in Several Ways:
•Direction – For or Against Something.
•Degree / Intensity – Degree of Confidence.
•Negative, Positive or Neutral (To be indifferent).
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Values And Attitudes
Attitudes are different from values.
•Values are the ideals (abstract ideals), positive or
negative not tied to any specific object or situation that
represents our beliefs about ideal conduct.
•Whereas, attitudes are narrower. They are feelings,
thoughts and behavioural tendencies towards a specific
subject or a situation.
•Attitudes are evaluative statements – either favourable or
unfavourable, concerning the objects, people or events.
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•Values are generally used either as characteristic of an
object or as an attribute possessed by an individual and
thought desirable (Focus is on the latter).
•Thus values provide :
Standards of competence and morality
Are fewer in number then attitudes
Transcend specific objects, situations or persons
Are relatively permanent and resistant to change
Are more central to the core of a person
Provride focus on the judgment of what ought to be.
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Dynamics / Characteristics of
Attitudes
Attitudes are characterized in terms of :
• Valence
• Multiplexity
• Relation to Needs
• Centrality
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Factors That Determine Our
Attitudes
•Environment
•Experiences
•Education
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Effect Of Attitude On Behaviour
• People have natural tendency to maintain consistency between attitude
and behaviour.
• Attitudes thus lead to intended behaviour if there is no external
intervention.
• Conversely speaking, change in behaviour calls for a change in attitudes
of individuals.
• Employees’ attitudes have direct influence on their perception.
• Although, influence of attitudes on behaviour is not clearly discernible,
two theories help us understand the direction of attitudinal influences :
– Cognitive Dissonance
– Self Fulfilling Prophecy
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Attitudinal Influence on
Perception
• Perceptual outcomes are derived from past experiences.
• Our five senses and past experiences create our
perception or interpretation of a current situation.
• Based on what we see, smell, touch and taste; we develop
our definition of what happened.
• If our attitudes are positive, things look brighter than if
they are negative.
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Attitude and Job Satisfaction
• Refers to an individual’s general attitude towards his job.
• In fact, two terms are used interchangeably.
• One of the important tasks of managers is, therefore, to
provide satisfaction to employees from their respective
jobs.
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Attitude and Job Involvement
• Refers to which a person identifies
psychologically with his job.
• High degree of involvement will lead to solid
identification of the individual with his job and the
result invariably will be a quality product.
• Needless to say, thus, that Attitude is an important
variable in determining organizational
commitment.
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Attitudes and Organisational
Commitment
• Another name for organisational loyalty resulting
into a stable work force.
• Here again, Attitude is an important variable in
determining organisational commitment.
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What Different People Expect From
Different Attitudes
The Players
The Critics
The Spectators
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Check Your Attitude
Spectator Critic Player
At Home
At Work
In Life
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Attitude And Stress
• The word stress is derived from the Latin word “Stringer’
which means ‘to draw tight”.
• Stress is understood as a stimulus and / or a response
which lays the foundations for three models of stress,
which are conceived as Environmental, Medical and
Personal.
• Stress is, thus, the response to events that threaten or
challenge a person and make him/her extremely anxious.
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Stress And Attitude
• Negative attitude emanating from lack of value and civility,
being driven by consumerism, disconnected from society
and reality, disloyalty, being too ambitious and cynical and
cut throat competition often results in ‘stress and strain’.
• A positive attitude, on the other hand, has a surprisingly
good effect on the way others respond to you.
• Success is not merely about managing the life and job if it
does not complement a management of our inner selves to
her positive attitude and remain destressed all the time.
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Steps to Building A Positive
Attitude
• We can build and maintain a positive attitude:-
– Become aware of the principles that build a
positive attitude
– Desire to be positive
– Cultivate the discipline and dedication to
practise those principles.
• Let us get away from the past and get back in the main
stream and think positive, be true, honest and good.
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•Let us consciously practise the following steps for
building and maintaining a positive attitude:-
Change Focus, Look for the Positive.
Looking for the Gold.
Make a habit of doing it now.
Develop an Attitude of Gratitude.
Get into a continuous Education Programme.
Sharpen Your Axe.
Build Positive Self Esteem.
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Action Plan
“Dream are a dime a dozen ……It is their execution that counts”.
List two problem you have with your attitude.
Then write down at least one potential positive outcome.
Though not easy, but can be done if we get used to looking for
opportunities in problems.
Practise this strategy with future problems your may encounter.
Make a list of things you would like to change about yourself.
Then list the benefits to you and others of each change.
Finally, establish a timetable and commit yourself to make the
changes.
