Chapter 5
Attitudes Can Shape Your Life
Learning Objectives
After studying Chapter 5, you will be able to:
 Understand
the impact of employee attitudes on the
success of individuals as well as organizations.
 List
and explain the ways people acquire attitudes.
 Describe
attitudes that employers value.
 Learn
how to change your attitudes and help others
change their attitudes.
 Understand
what adjustments organizations are
making to develop positive employee attitudes.
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
5–2
The Importance of Attitudes
• Attitude Defined:
– A thought, accepted as true, that leads one to
think, feel or act positively or negatively toward
a person, idea or event
– An emotional readiness to behave in a
particular way
– You learn them and can change them
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
5–3
FIGURE 5.1
The Relationship Among Core Values, Attitudes,
and Behaviors
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
5–4
Core Values Revisited
• Core Values
– Are unique values that an individual consistently
ranks higher than other values
– Are the building blocks of personality
– Provide answers to questions:
• What are the highest priorities in my life?
• Of these priorities, which do I value most
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
5–5
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
How do attitudes have an
impact in the workplace?
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
5–6
The Information Age Mandates
Attitude Change
• Quick, accurate information and advanced
technology is not enough to retain customers
– Empathizers provide the balance between “high
tech” and “high touch” as we move from the
information age to the conceptual age
– Competitive advantage is now based on superior
customer service
What attitudes are important for strong
customer service personnel to have?
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
5–7
How Attitudes Are Formed
• Socialization
– Process through which people are integrated
into a society by exposure to actions and
opinions of others
• Media Influences
How does the presentation of
messages in the news by the
media affect our attitudes?
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
5–8
How Attitudes Are Formed
• Peer Groups
– Have a powerful influence on attitude during
adolescence, possibly stronger than adults
• Reference Groups
– Share a common interest that can influence
behavior, provide a point of comparison and
serve as a source of information
In what reference groups
do/could you belong?
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
5–9
How Attitudes Are Formed
• Rewards and Punishment
– Attitudes are developed to minimize
punishment and maximize rewards
• Role Model Identification
– Someone that you admire or are likely to
emulate such as managers in organizations
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
5–10
How Attitudes Are Formed
Cultural Influences
• The sum total of knowledge, beliefs, values, and
customs that we use to adapt to our environment
What attitudes have you adopted from your:
-national culture?
-ethnic culture?
-regional culture?
-state culture?
-school culture?
-work culture?
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
5–11
Attitudes Valued by Employers
Basic Interpersonal
Skills
Self-Motivation
Team Spirit
Valued
Attitudes
Openness to
Change
Appreciation of
Coworker Diversity
Personal
honesty
Health
Consciousness
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
5–12
How to Change Your Attitude
• Attitudes are hard but not impossible to
change; they foster achieving positive
results by helping a person:
– Choose happiness
– Embrace optimism
– Think independently
– Keep an open mind
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
5–13
How to Change Your Attitude
• Choose Happiness
– Happiness is the state of mind that
permits us to live life enthusiastically
– Perceptions of the situation are critical
Happy people
– more sociable
– flexible
– creative
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Unhappy people
– self-focused
– socially withdrawn
– antagonistic
5–14
How to Change Your Attitude
• Embrace Optimism
– Optimistic thoughts give rise to good moods,
which help develop positive attitudes
– Avoid pessimism which leads to cynicism
Is “reality” all relative?
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
5–15
How to Change Your Attitude
• Think for Yourself
– Avoid “group think” by not intermixing personal
and professional relationships
– Evaluate situations based on your values
• Keep an Open Mind
– Know that attitudes can persist in the face of
overwhelming evidence to the contrary
– Grow more flexible by exposing yourself to new
experiences and information
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
5–16
FIGURE 5.2
Serenity Prayer
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
5–17
Helping Others Change Attitudes
• Change attitudes by:
– Changing conditions that precede the behavior
– Changing the positive or negative
consequences that follow when the person
exhibits the behavior
Do you believe it’s possible to change
others’ attitudes? If so, under what
conditions?
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
5–18
Organizations’ Efforts Toward
Improving Employees’ Attitudes
• Employees’ attitudes and performance
cannot be separated
• Workers’ attitudes are positively affected by:
– Respect and recognition
– Interesting work
– Skill development
Does pay affect attitude?
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
5–19
KEY TERMS
attitudes
empathizer
socialization
peer group
reference group
role model
culture
cynicism
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
5–20