Characteristics of Attitude

1. Attitude refers to feelings and beliefs of individuals or group of individuals. 2. The feelings and beliefs are directed towards other people, object or idea. When a person says I like my job, it shows that he has a positive attitude towards his job. 3. Attitudes are evaluative statements, either favorable or unfavorable. When a person says he likes or dislikes something or somebody, an attitude is being expressed. 4. Attitude are gradually acquired over a period of time. The process of learning attitude starts right from the childhood and continues throughout the life.

Types of attitude
The focus of OB is on job related attitudes of employees. Such attitudes implies positive or negative evaluations that employees hold about certain aspects of their work environment. The behavioral scientists have concentrated on three job related attitudes:a) Job Satisfaction:- refers to ones feelings towards ones job. An individual having satisfaction is said to possess positive attitude towards his/her job, a dissatisfied person will have negative attitude towards his job. When people speak of employee attitude they refer to job satisfaction. A person who is satisfied with his job will generally be punctual, absenteeism will be minimum, performance will be high, his attitude towards his co-workers and boss will be very positive. If the person is dissatisfied his performance level will be poor and his behivour in the organization will not be very good.

Causes of job satisfaction

a) b) c) d) a) b) Organizational factors Wages Promotions Nature of work Organizational policies & Procedures Group factors Size Supervision

 Wages: wages play a significant role in influencing the job satisfaction. This is because of two reasons: 1) Money is an important instrument in fulfilling ones needs 2) Employees often see pay as a reflection of managements concern for them. Promotion: promotional opportunities affect job satisfaction. Employees takes promotion as the ultimate achievement in his/her career and when it is realized, he feels extremely satisfied. Nature of work: most employees tend to prefer being given opportunities to use their skills and abilities and being offered a variety of tasks, freedom & feedback on how well they are doing.

Organizational policies and procedures: Such as promotions, appraisal and reward systems, motivational methods, skill based /job based pay. Group factors: Group factors also influence the satisfaction. It includes 1) Size: the longer the size of the group, lower the level of satisfaction. As size increases opportunities for participation and social interaction decreases, so also the ability of members to identify with the group performance. 2) Supervision: satisfaction tends to be high when people believe that their supervisors are more competent, have their best interests in minds and treat them with dignity and respect

Organizational commitment: Job satisfaction is mainly concerned with the employees attitude towards the job and commitment is at the organisational level. There are always many employees who are satisfied with their job, but they dislike the organisation they work for. As an attitude, organisational commitment is most often defined as: 1) A strong desire to remain a member of particular organization 2) A willingness to exert high levels of effort on behalf of the organisation 3) A definite belief in, and acceptance of, the values and goals of the organisation. In other words, this is an attitude reflecting employees loyalty to their organisation.

Three dimensions of organizational commitment

Affective commitment:- an effective commitment is an emotional attachment to the organization and a belief in its values. Continuance commitment: A continuance commitment is the perceived economic value of remaining with an organization compared to leaving it. An employee may be committed to an employer because he/she is paid well. Normative commitment:- is an obligation to remain with the organisation for moral or ethical reasons. For example, an employee who is looking for a new initiative may remain with an employer because he feels he would leave the employer in the lurch if he left. 3) Job involvement:- Measure the degree to which people identify with their job and consider their perceived performance level important self worth. Employee with a high level of job involvement strongly identify with and really care about the kind of work they do.