ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOUR:Types of Attitudes, Steps to turn attitude into action

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Human Relations MGMT611

Lesson 06

ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOUR

Attitude

Attitude influences the behaviour of the individuals. Attitude is a usual way of doing things. Successes and

failures in life depend upon the attitude of the individuals. If attitudes are positive, then human relations will

be positive. And positive human relations are necessary for a successful life.

a. Attitude is a disposition to approach an idea, event, person, or an object.

b. It is a tendency to act in one way or the other toward an `attitude object' or something (i.e. idea, event,

person, object, food, colour, and furniture, virtually everything).

Behaviour

Behaviour may be defined as

a. The manner in which one behaves.

b. The actions or reactions of a person or animal in response to external or internal stimuli.

c. The manner in which something functions or operates.

Ethical behaviour

Ethical behaviour is attributed with certain characteristics of honesty, sincerity, fairness and equity in

interpersonal and professional relationships.

Attitude is like a driver or decision maker. It decides how to act or behave in a particular situation. Success

and failure in schools or in work life depends on the attitude of an individual. Attitude is a kind of habit. It

is a usual way of doing things. Everything in an organization will get better if the attitude of everyone gets

better. We reward positive attitudes and punish negative ones. Just like weather, everyone likes to talk about

it but no one seems to do much about it.

Types of Attitudes

Attitude is something that lies between emotions and thought processing. Attitude may be positive or

negative. If someone has good feelings about something e.g. towards his/her work, or people, then it is

positive attitude otherwise it would be negative.

Positive attitude

The predisposition that results in desirable outcomes for individuals and organizations can be

described as positive attitude. Positive attitudes are rewarded. It means the individual is

encouraged to do the same thing in future.

Negative attitude

The tendency of a person that results in an undesirable outcome for individuals and

organizations can be described as negative attitude. Negative attitudes are punished in order to

discourage the same action in future.

Change in Attitude

Reward and punishment build up attitude. Attitude can be changed, if we differentiate negative attitude

from positive attitude. Positive attitude can bring positive change in life.

It is difficult to change attitudes but with some effort, it can be done. A positive attitude is a pre-requisite

for change and development. If anybody has negative attitude towards `change', this attitude will extend to

anything representing change i.e. leaders, technology, meetings, or any process of change.

Formation of Attitude

Individual attitudes develop through the interaction of complex forces and are learnt.

And what is learnt can be unlearned or changed. We develop our attitudes from copying those people who

are important to us (significant others), particularly parents and siblings. Religious beliefs are good

examples.

Human Relations MGMT611

Rewards and punishments associated with certain actions make individuals acquire beliefs and accordingly

result in building personal attitudes.

Demonstration effect from friends and playmates play an important role towards developing attitudes.

Media or persuasive communications also help develop certain attitudes. Often our attitudes towards

politics come from information or persuasive communications from media.

Why concern for attitude

For any change (growth or development), positive attitude towards change is critical. Without the positive

attitude towards change, development or growth is very difficult.

Positive attitude has the power to attract sudden good fortune from the world around us. We can observe

that when under critical circumstances, if we adopt positive attitude and stay calm, we can easily overcome

the problem, having no or less serious consequences.

How to change attitude

Negative attitudes towards change will disrupt the process of change.

Information alone is not sufficient to change attitudes towards a new idea or practice.

Don't fertilize the rocks. First, make people less resistant to receiving and processing information. And then

expect change in their attitudes.

Cognitive approaches focus on changing the way people think about an entity or object. This is done

through information, persuasive communication through introducing conflict or dissonance between the

existing attitude and the new one.

Behavioral approaches focus reward and punishments for certain attitudes and behaviours. It can be used

at homes, schools or organizations.

Social approaches focus on our tendency to copy the beliefs and behaviours of others. Role models

shown on television and in the neighbourhoods are examples. People change their residences, shift from old

localities/mohallas to modern localities to learn new values and bring change in their attitudes.

An individual is capable of holding two contradictory beliefs or notions as long the person is not made

aware about them. Once the person becomes aware, cognitive dissonance occurs. Dissonance is the

uncomfortable feeling when we feel that what we believe may not be true. We can not live with such

discomfort and we try to modify either our thinking or change our behaviour.

We can take the example of an environmentalist who is the advocate of keeping the environment clean,

himself uses smoke emitting car. When he/she is made to realize, about his/her attitude, the conflict or

dissonance emerges in his mind. In the result of this dissonance his/her probable actions will be either

1. Deny the evidence,

2. Change the car,

3. Rationalize the action that he had to drive a large car for safety or for some other reasons.

In all the cases, he tries to reduce dissonance or discomfort, because nobody likes to remain with the

discomfort. He/she will bring change in the attitude to get rid of dissonance. Dissonance can be a great tool

towards change. This conflict or dissonance can be created by oneself or by an organization or a group.

Steps towards change in attitude

Attitudes of individuals towards life, family, ideas, political thinking, religion or anything can be changed.

Following are the various steps for bringing change in one's attitude that bring change in the behaviours.

1. Identify the object towards which change of attitude is desired.

2. Introduce information about which individual agrees.

3. Introduce the new information that contradicts the existing beliefs or attitudes.

4. Identify the ways through which belief or practice conform to new information.

Human Relations MGMT611

These four steps towards change in attitude can be easily understood by this example. Suppose you want to

bring change in the attitude of your son towards education. So, first of all you have identified that you want

to change the `attitude towards education', secondly you will find out the reasons for certain attitude, thirdly

you will introduce new information or ideas that contradict with the current information. This introduction

of new information will develop dissonance which might help changing attitude.

Steps to turn attitude into action

Attitudes can be turned into positive actions by realizing certain behaviours such as

1. Understand the power of attitude

2. Take control of yourself and your life

3. Be aware about yourself and keep updated

4. Identify and frame your bad and good attitudes

5. Find purpose of your behaviour and develop prudent passion actions

6. Be pro-active and pre-active

7. Discover the ways to motivate yourself (motivators)

8. Build supportive relationships

9. See change as an opportunity

10. Leave a lasting legacy

Attitude by Charles Swindoll (American Writer)

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than

facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures,

than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness,

or skill. It will make or break a company ... a church ... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice

every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change the inevitable. The only

thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude ... I am convinced that life is 10%

what happens to me, and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you ... we are in charge of our Attitudes.

"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations."

A prudent personal attitude towards life can identify those opportunities and a person can be come

successful.

References:

Dubrin, A.J. (2005). Human Relations for Career and Personal Success. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey,

07458.

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