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Organizational Behavior: Solutions for Management
Paul D. Sweeney, University of Central Florida
Dean B. McFarlin, University of Dayton
Understanding Attitudes and Personality

Chapter Outline

  1. Understanding Attitudes and Appreciating Diversity
    There is the tendency to form an attitude about someone or something when perception patterns occur over and over again.
    1. Nonproductive attitudes such as stereotyping can hinder good relations.

    2. Diversity programs are one way to handle stereotypic attitudes.
  2. Understanding Attitudes Attitudes can be described as a stable disposition or tendency to act in a certain way.
    1. Attitudes may be formed by repeated perceptions of events or people.

    2. Attitudes can acquire a "mind" of their own.
    3. Most attitudes have three common components: The cognitive The affective The behavioral
    4. A classic study on attitudes was conducted in the 1930s that revealed there are constraints on the ability of attitudes to predict behavior.
    5. Attitudes stand a better chance at predicting behavior if three conditions are met:
      • The more specific the attitude and behavior, the better the chances of finding a relationship.
      • There are no conflicting situational pressures against acting in an attitude consistent way.
      • The attitude is strong and salient.
  3. Developing Productive Attitudes About Work
    It can be very useful for managers to understand attitudes.
    1. Job Satisfaction:
      1. How much do you like your job?

      2. There are several reasons why we study the concept of satisfaction: Satisfaction is thought to have numerous positive effects in the workplace. The factors that determine satisfaction are numerous and can vary across jobs and industries. Most of us spend considerable time in our lives at work.
      3. Four questions regarding satisfaction:
        • Are people happy with their jobs?

          • Effect on employee retention
        • What determines job satisfaction?
          • Determining what an employee needs to be satisfied.
          • Meeting those employee needs
        • What are the effects of job satisfaction?
          • Effect on absenteeism
          • Effect on turnover
          • Effect on performance
        • How can we promote/improve job satisfaction?
          • Delve into the specific areas of the job that may bring about worker dissatisfaction.
          • Consider conducting an attitude survey
          • Try to recognize and reward good performance
          • Do not assume high performers are satisfied and low performers are miserable.
    2. Organizational Commitment:
      American organizations desire to instill a sense of loyalty and dedication for the firm in their employees.
      1. The nature of the commitment is what counts:
        • Southwest airlines approach
      2. Commitment is thought to be composed of at least three major parts:
        • Affective commitment: Refers to an employee's emotional attachment and identification with the firm.
        • Normative commitment: Refers to a sense of obligation to or a pressure from others to stay on.
        • Continuance commitment: Refers to the fact that sometimes people are committed to a firm because a cost-benefit analysis has shown that the costs of leaving exceed the costs of staying.
      3. Promoting organizational commitment:
        • Suggestions to increase the commitment level of employees:
        • Try good faith efforts to increase employee input into the organization.
        • Build it and they will come
        • Consider using teams
    3. Organizational Citizenship Attitudes: Employees who have high commitment to their organizations strive to "go that extra mile" for the firm.
      1. Organizational citizenship behaviors: Those "above the call of duty" behaviors that are necessary to the success of the organization.
        • Talking up the firm to outsiders
        • Helping coworkers
        • Offering useful suggestions
  4. Attitudes Toward Others At Work: Understanding and Embracing DiversityWe have attitudes as individuals as well as attitudes towards others. These others in turn have attitudes towards us.

    1. Negative Attitudes Toward Other Groups: Stereotypes: Stereotyping occurs when we use a person's group membership to attribute characteristics to that person.
      1. National stereotypes:
        • Americans are thought to have some interesting attitudes toward individuals from other countries.
          • French are romantic.
          • Germans are punctual.
          • Japanese are detail-oriented.
        • Individuals from other countries have distinct attitudes toward Americans.
          • Americans are self-focused.
          • Americans make little attempt to understand other cultures.
      2. Gender stereotypes:

        • Glass ceiling

        • Ann Hopkins case example

        • Stereotypes are more likely to play a major role when three conditions are present:
        • The frequency of the type of person in the work setting is low.
        • Ambiguous evaluation criteria exist.
        • There is a lack of information about the person being evaluated.
      3. Racial and ethnic stereotypes:
        • African-Americans represent about 12 percent of the total U.S. population and are the largest minority group in the country.
        • The Hispanic population is expected to exceed the African-American population within thirty years.
      4. Other stereotypes:
        • Age stereotypes
        • Sexual orientation
        • Physically challenged individuals
        • Americans with Disabilities Act
    2. Recognizing and Overcoming Stereotypic Attitudes:
      1. One of the first things that must be done is to recognize the existence of stereotyping.
      2. Methods to deal with persistent attitudes of stereotyping:
        • Distinguish between facts and stereotypic assumptions when making important organizational decisions.
        • If it is determined that stereotypic assumptions are the cause of the problem, it is useful to investigate further.
        • If training is required, teach managers to gather enough information about behavior to make more accurate judgments.
        • If the problem is more endemic and is not specific to a few people or the appraisal tool, then consider more systemic education programs.
    3. Embracing Diversity in Organizations:
      4. An increasing number of American firms are incorporating diversity programs.
      1. What are diversity programs?
        • Diversity programs: Designed to attract and retain a more heterogeneous work force.
        • Usually at least three components to these programs:
        • Many firms develop plans and goals for creating more diversity in the organization.
        • Involve a training component
        • Include programs that allow employees to directly interact and show respect for one another.

      2. Problems with diversity programs: There is concern about general resistance.
        • There is concern about reverse discrimination.
        • Present more subtle problems:
        • Negative stigma
        • Can accentuate differences between groups
      3. Do diversity programs work?
        • Despite potential problems, good diversity programs can be highly effective.

      4. How to make diversity pay:
        • These programs are more likely to succeed if top management has a commitment to achieving the goals.
        • Give the program enduring value such as becoming an objective of the business.
        • Understand and address the concerns of the majority group.
        • Encourage and require management to interact with the different groups.
        • Use diversity training carefully.
        • Expand the supply of diverse employees.
        • Maintain a focus on diversity goals.




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