Chapter Six
Attitudes Can Shape
Your Life
Chapter Preview: Attitudes Can Shape Your Life
• Impact of attitudes on success of
individuals and organizations
• Ways people acquire attitudes
• Attitudes that employers value
• How to change your own or others'
attitudes
• Organizational efforts to develop
positive employee attitudes
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What Is an Attitude?
• A thought accepted as true
• An emotional readiness to behave in a
particular way
• Leads one to think, feel or act positively
or negatively toward a person, idea or
event
• Deeply ingrained in our personalities as
we learn and grow
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Aspects of Attitudes
•
•
•
•
•
Can be changed or new ones learned
Not formed casually or quickly
Can motivate or cause to act
One can choose to act or not
Values serve as a foundation for
attitudes
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Figure 6.1
The Relationship Among
Values, Attitudes,
and Behaviors
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How We Relate to Attitudes
• In favor of things toward which we hold
a positive attitude
• Against things toward which we have a
negative attitude
• May encourage others to adopt
attitudes and copy behavior
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Root Causes of Negative Attitudes
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•
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Low self-esteem
Unresolved conflict
Work that is not satisfying
Fear or uncertainly
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Total Person Insight
The biggest career challenges these days are
perceptual…psychological. Not technical. Not
even skills-based. The major adjustments we
need to make are mental. For example, how
we frame things at work. The way we process
events in our head. Our attitudes and outlook
about how our jobs and organizations now
have to operate.
Price Pritchett
Chairman, EPS Solutions
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The Powerful Influence of Attitudes
• People with positive attitudes are more
likely to achieve personal and
professional goals
• People with negative attitudes find it
difficult to achieve contentment or
satisfaction in life
• Attitudes are a powerful force in any
organization
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The Powerful Influence of Attitudes
• Suspicion and cynicism may have
negative impact on employeemanagement relations
• Trust and hope may result in improved
worker morale, or improve
communication and cooperation
between an employee and a supervisor
• Care by an employee can increase
customer loyalty and set the stage for
repeat business
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The Age of Information Mandates Attitude
Change
• Rapid economic, social, and cultural
changes in the age of information
requires new attitudes toward traditional
practices
• Change is part of any successful
organization
• Resistance to change is common
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The Challenge of Change
• Increased focus on teams rather than
the traditional boss/subordinates
hierarchy
• Shifts from production- to informationeconomy
• Growth in service-related jobs
• Limited lifetime employment
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How Attitudes Are Formed
•
•
•
•
•
Socialization
Peer and reference groups
Rewards and punishment
Role model identification
Cultural influences
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Socialization
• Process through which people are
integrated into a society by exposure to
actions and opinions of others
• Family is important in early years
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Peer Groups
• People one’s own age
• Have powerful influence on attitude
formation during adolescence
• Influence can be stronger than parents,
teachers or other adults
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Reference Groups
• Several people who share a common
interest
• Tend to influence each other’s behavior
• More influential than peer groups during
young adulthood
• Point of comparison and source of
information
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Rewards and Punishment
• Attitudes developed to minimize
punishment and maximize rewards
• Organizations use these to encourage
or discourage certain attitudes
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Role Model Identification
• A role model is someone that you
admire or are likely to emulate:
– Parents and relatives
– People from TV or movies
– People at work
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Role Model Identification
• Can exert considerable influence
• Supervisors are important
• Organizations should pay more
attention to what supervisors do than
what they say!
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Cultural Influences
• Total of knowledge, beliefs, values, and
customs that we use to adapt to our
environment
• People define themselves differently in
different cultures
• Includes both tangible and intangible
• Organizations should strive to create
positive corporate culture
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Attitudes Valued by
Employers
• Attitudes sought by employers
– Self-motivation
– Openness to change
– Team spirit
– Health consciousness
– Appreciation of coworker diversity
– Honesty
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How to Change Attitudes
• Attitudes are hard to change
• Knowing how to change attitudes in
yourself and others can be essential to
effective human relations
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Changing Your Own Attitude
• Attitudes that help achieve positive
results:
– Choose happiness
– Embrace optimism
– Think for yourself
– Keep an open mind
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Total Person Insight
We don’t need more money, we don’t
need greater success or fame, we don’t
need the perfect body or even the
perfect mate—right now, at this very
moment, we have a mind, which is all
the basic equipment we need to achieve
complete happiness.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler
Coauthors, The Art of Happiness
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Choose Happiness
• Happiness is the state of mind that permits us
to live life enthusiastically
• Happy people
Unhappy people
– more sociable
– flexible
– creative
– self-focused
– socially withdrawn
– antagonistic
• Energy builder and key to overcoming
adversity and reaching goals
• Perceptions of situation are critical
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Embrace Optimism
• Optimistic thoughts give rise to good
moods, which help develop positive
attitudes
• Optimists are more likely to bounce
back after a disappointment
• Focus on success rather than failure
• Avoid pessimism which leads to
cynicism
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Think for Yourself
• Need for acceptance by group can lead
to “group think”
• Two groups in the workplace
– Personal relationships
– Professional relationship
• Overlap can cause confusion
• Evaluate situations based on your
values!
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Keep an Open Mind
• Our attitudes may persist in the face of
overwhelming evidence to the contrary
• Learn to consider other points of view
and gently question your beliefs
• Expose yourself to experiences and
information beyond what you have been
socialized to believe
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Helping Others Change Attitudes
• Change the conditions that precede the
behavior
• Change the consequences that follow
when the person exhibits the behavior
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Figure 6.2 Serenity Prayer
Source: “Serenity Prayer” by Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr.
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Follow This Simple Rule
• When experience is followed by positive
consequence, person is likely to repeat
behavior
• When followed by a negative
consequence, behavior should soon
stop
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Word of Caution
• View consequences through the eyes of
the person you are trying to influence
• What you see as a negative may be a
positive to someone else
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Organizational Efforts
• Organizations realize employees’
attitudes and performance cannot be
separated
• Salaries and benefits traditional rewards
• Today, workers want
– Respect
– Interesting work
– Recognition
– Skill development
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Organizational Efforts
• Maintenance of positive attitudes helps
productivity
• Provide benefits that workers consider
important
• Find creative ways to influence worker
attitudes
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A Final Word
• Changing an attitude can be a
challenge
• Change is part continued growth and
success
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Summary
• Attitudes are strong beliefs toward
people and situations
• Attitudes are a powerful force in every
organization
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Summary
• Attitudes are acquired through:
– Early childhood socialization
– Peer and reference groups
– Rewards and punishments
– Role model identification
– Cultural influences
• Individuals have power to choose
attitudes
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Summary
• Employers hire and retain people who:
– Are self-motivated
– Are self-directed learners
– Are willing team players
– Are concerned about their own health
and wellness
– Value coworker diversity
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Summary
• You can choose to become an optimist
by thinking for yourself and keeping an
open mind
• You can help others change attitudes by
changing conditions and consequences
that surround a situation
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Summary
• Organizations are taking steps to
improve employee attitudes by
enhancing the quality of their work life
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