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Attitudes at Work

Attitudes at Work. Dr Joan Harvey Dr George Erdos. Attitudes “The regularities of an individual’s feelings, thoughts and predispositions to act toward some aspect of their environment.” Can concern almost anything e.g. world, things, constructs and people.

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Attitudes at Work

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  1. Attitudes at Work Dr Joan Harvey Dr George Erdos

  2. Attitudes • “The regularities of an individual’s feelings, thoughts and predispositions to act toward some aspect of their environment.” • Can concern almost anything e.g. world, things, constructs and people. • Represent the “truth” as we see it • Components need not be consistent e.g. I may hate my job but think it is socially desirable and so I do not leave. • Salience

  3. Components of Work Attitudes Affective component How a worker feels about his or her job or organisation Work attitudes Collections of feelings, beliefs, & predispositions to behave in one’s job & organisation Cognitive component What a worker believes to be true about his or her job or organisation Behavioural component How a worker is predisposed to behave in his or her job or organisation

  4. Personality The enduring ways a person has of feeling, thinking and behaving Work situation The work itself Coworkers, supervisors and subordinates Physical working conditions Working hours, pay and job security Values Intrinsic work values Extrinsic work values Attitudes to work The collection of feelings, beliefs and predispositions to behave in one’s job or organisation Social influence Coworkers Groups Culture

  5. Personality and work values (most stable) Work attitudes (moderately stable) Work moods (most changing) Stronger relationships Weaker relationships

  6. Why Might Attitudes Matter at Work? Organizations are now often conducting employee satisfaction surveys [even patient surveys in NHS] Attitudes to work and/or employer might affect: • Whether a person seeks a new job • How co-operative they are with others at work • Whether they present a positive image of the organisation to clients or customers • How they react to change • How hard they work (motivation) • Their psychological or physical health

  7. Measuring Attitudes 1.Likert scaling - summated scale 2. Statements worded either for or against issue in question 3. Agreement or disagreement is indicated 4. If the statements are responded to in the same way in two occasions, this indicates reliability 5. Overall attitude is the sum or mean of the item responses after any necessary reverse scoring has taken place (see example)

  8. Example of Attitude Measurement Top management in your company Please respond to the statements below to indicate how you see your top management: 7 = strongly agree with the statement through to 1 = strongly disagree with the statement 1. Top management do their best for the company agree 6 2. Top management in this company disgusts me disagree 2 3. I feel disposed to cooperate with the top management in this company slightlyagree 5 SCORE= 17 [6 + (8-2) + 5]

  9. Comments on measurement of attitudes • A 6 or 7 point Likert scale is preferable as in last example, depending on whether a mid-point is needed by respondents • More extremely worded items are needed [as well as milder ones] to ‘stretch’ the answers across the scale for the overall attitude measure. E.g. “Top management in this company disgusts me” from previous example

  10. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (Source: Ajzen, 1991, derived from TRA) Expected outcomes of behaviour and value of those outcomes to the person Attitude Relative importance to person of attitude and subjective norm Intention Behaviour Beliefs about how favourably or unfavourably other people would react if one performed the behaviour and motivation to comply with their views Perceived behavioural control Subjective norm

  11. Factors Affecting Attitude Change • Credibility of persuader - expertness and trustworthiness • Attractiveness of persuader • Sleeper effect • Extremity of message • Use of fear • One-sided and two-sided arguments • Central vs Peripheral processing

  12. Different types of workplace attitudes: job satisfaction • A pleasurable or positive emotional state resultingfrom the appraisal of one’s job or job experiences (Locke, 1976). Components include: • pay and benefits • co-workers • supervision • recognition • the work itself • career opportunities • job security • working conditions

  13. Organisational Commitment Meyer and Allen (1997) 1. Affective commitment - personal attachment to organisation 2. Continuance commitment - perception of costs and risks associated with leaving the organisation 3. Normative commitment - moral dimension, obligation and responsibility to your organisation N.B. Multiple commitments can be experienced eg location, department etc.

  14. More complex view of commitment • In addition to organizational commitment, there is also commitment to: • The professional organization e.g. Institute of Chartered Accountants, the Law Society • The Union e.g. UNISON, UNITE, UCU • The department • The manager • The job • Problems arise when these commitments conflict with one another • See work by Tom Redman & colleagues on multiple aspects to commitment

  15. Satisfaction and Commitment Both involved in people’s decisions to stay in or leave jobs and organisations. Both have implications for people’s general well being. Both associated with motivation…. Are connected with people’s performance in their job, but only to 25% shared variance. Anyway, why should people feel committed to their employer?

  16. Organizational trust A complex set of attitudes, comprising Trust in people [trust in management often different to that in peers] Trust in terms of security [e.g. in computer systems] Trust in terms of organizational justice and fairness [distributive, procedural]

  17. Some other issues Low trust and low commitment usually associated with stress, labour turnover, absenteeism Cause and effect (attributions) are also reflected in attitudes Reverse causality [Clegg, 1983] shows how attitudes might both predict behaviour and be changed afterwards to reflect it Specific attitudes more related to specific behaviours than are general attitudes [Foxall, 1998]

  18. Exercise in attitude change:safety climate and safety culture are known to relate to workplace safety performance • You are asked to set an agenda to improve safety culture in an organization, e.g. a food processing plant • What attitude and other components do you think make up safety culture? • How would you diagnose what the problem areas are? • What do you propose to do to change attitudes to make them more positive? • Would you propose to try to change behaviour as well?

  19. Thank you for listening • Dr Joan Harvey • Dr George Erdos • Newcastle University • Joan.Harvey@ncl.ac.uk

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