Attitude MeasurementPerhaps the most straightforward way of finding out about someone’s attitudes would be to ask them. However, attitudes are related to self-image and social acceptance (i.e. attitude functions).

In order to preserve a positive self-image, people’s responses may be affected by social desirability. They may not well tell about their true attitudes, but answer in a way that they feel socially acceptable.

Given this problem, various methods of measuring attitudes have been developed.  However, all of them have limitations.  In particular the different measures focus on different components of attitudes – cognitive, affective and behavioral – and as we know, these components do not necessarily coincide.

Attitude measurement can be divided into two basic categories

o Direct Measurement (liker and semantic differential)

o Indirect Measurement (projective techniques)

Definitions of attitude

An attitude can be defined as a positive or negative evaluation of people, objects, event, activities, ideas, or just about anything in your environment (Zimbardo et al., 1999) In the opinion of Bain (1927), an attitude is "the relatively stable overt behavior of a person which affects his status." "Attitudes which are different to a group are thus social attitudes or `values' in the Thomasonian sense. The attitude is the status-fixing behavior. This differentiates it from habit and vegetative processes as such, and totally ignores the hypothetical 'subjective states' which have formerly been emphasized. It is how one judges any person, situation or object.

North (1932) has defined attitude as "the totality of those states that lead to or point toward some particular activity of the organism. The attitude is, therefore, the dynamic element in human behavior, the motive for activity." For Lumley (1928) an attitude is "a susceptibility to certain kinds of stimuli and readiness to respond repeatedly in a given way—which are possible toward our world and the parts of it which impinge upon us."

Jung's definition

Attitude is one of Jung's 57 definitions in Chapter XI of Psychological Types. Jung's definition of attitude is a "readiness of the psyche to act or react in a certain way" (Jung, [1921] 1971:par. 687). Attitudes very often come in pairs, one conscious and the other unconscious. Within this broad definition Jung defines several attitudes.

The main (but not only) attitude dualities that Jung defines are the following.

Consciousness and the unconscious. The "presence of two attitudes is extremely frequent, one conscious and the other unconscious. This means that consciousness has a constellation of contents different from that of the unconscious, a duality particularly evident in neurosis" (Jung, [1921] 1971: par. 687).

Extraversion and introversion. This pair is so elementary to Jung's theory of types that he labeled them the "attitude-types".

Rational and irrational attitudes. "I conceive reason as an attitude" (Jung, [1921] 1971: par. 785).

The rational attitude subdivides into the thinking and feeling psychological functions, each with its attitude.

The irrational attitude subdivides into the sensing and intuition psychological functions, each with its attitude. "There is thus a typical thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuitive attitude" (Jung, [1921] 1971: par. 691).

Individual and social attitudes. Many of the latter are "isms".

In addition, Jung discusses the abstract attitude. “When I take an abstract attitude...” (Jung, [1921] 1971: par. 679). Abstraction is contrasted with concretism. “CONCRETISM. By this I mean a peculiarity of thinking and feeling which the antithesis of abstraction is” (Jung, [1921] 1971: par. 696). For example: "I hate his attitude for being Sarcastic."

MBTI definition

The MBTI write-ups limit the use of "attitude" to the extraversion-introversion (EI) and judging-perceiving (JP) indexes.

The JP index is sometimes referred to as an orientation to the outer world and sometimes JP is classified as an "attitude." In Jungian terminology the term attitude is restricted to EI. In MBTI terminology attitude can include EI and also JP. (Myers, 1985:293 note 7).

The above MBTI Manual state ment, is restricted to EI," is directly contradicted by Jung's statement above that there is "a typical thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuitive attitude" and by his other uses of the term "attitude". Regardless of whether the MBTI simplification (or oversimplification) of Jung can be attributed to Myers, Gifts Differing

refers only to the "EI preference", consistently avoiding the label "attitude". Regarding the JP index, in Gifts Differing Myers does use the terms "the perceptive attitude and the judging attitude" (Myers, 1980:8). The JP index corresponds to the irrational and rational attitudes Jung describes, except that the MBTI focuses on the preferred orientation in the outer world in order to identify the function hierarchy. To be consistent with Jung, it can be noted that a rational extraverted preference is accompanied by an irrational introverted preference. By Mr. M Amir Shehzad

Semantic Differential

The semantic differential technique of Osgood et al. (1957) asks a person to rate an issue or topic on a standard set of bipolar adjectives (i.e. with opposite meanings), each representing a seven point scale.

To prepare a semantic differential scale, you must first think of a number of words with opposite meanings that are applicable to describing the subject of the test.

For example, participants are given a word, for example 'car', and presented with a variety of adjectives to describe it.  Respondents tick to indicate how they feel about what is being measured.

In the picture (above), you can find Osgood's map of people's ratings for the word 'polite'. The image shows ten of the scales used by Osgood. The image maps the average responses of two groups of 20 people to the word 'polite'.

The semantic differential technique reveals information on three basic dimensions of attitudes: evaluation, potency (i.e. strength) and activity.

• Evaluation is concerned with whether a person thinks positively or negatively about the attitude topic.

(e.g. dirty – clean, and ugly - beautiful).

• Potency is concerned with how powerful the topic is for the person.

(e.g. cruel – kind, and strong - week).

• Activity is concerned with whether the topic is seen as active or passive.

(e.g. active – passive).

Using this information we can see if a persons feeling (evaluation) towards an object is consistent with their behavior.  For example, a place might like the taste of chocolate (evaluative) but not eat it often (activity).  The evaluation dimension has been most used by social psychologists as a measure of a person’s attitude, because this dimension reflects the affective aspect of an attitude.

Evaluation of Direct Methods

An attitude scale is designed to provide a valid, or accurate, measure of an individual’s social attitude.  However, as anyone who has every “faked” an attitude scales knows there are shortcomings in these self report scales of attitudes.  There are various problems that affect the validity of attitude scales.  However, the most common problem is that of social desirability.

Socially desirability refers to the tendency for people to give “socially desirable” to the questionnaire items.  People are often motivated to give replies that make them appear “well adjusted”, unprejudiced, open minded and democratic.  Self report scales that measure attitudes towards race, religion, sex etc. are heavily affected by socially desirability bias.

 Respondents who harbor a negative attitude towards a particular group may not wish be admit to the experimenter (or to themselves) that they have these feelings.  Consequently, responses on attitude scales are not always 100% valid.

Projective Techniques

To avoid the problem of social desirability, various indirect measures of attitudes have been used.  Either people are unaware of what is being measured (which has ethical problems) or they are unable consciously to affect what is being measured.

Indirect methods typically involve the use of a projective test.  A projective test is involves presenting a person with an ambiguous (i.e. unclear) or incomplete stimulus (e.g. picture or words). The stimulus requires interpretation from the person.  Therefore, the person’s attitude is inferred from their interpretation of the ambiguous or incomplete stimulus.

The assumption about these measures of attitudes it that the person will “project” his or her views, opinions or attitudes into the ambiguous situation, thus revealing the attitudes the person holds.  However, indirect methods only provide general information and do not offer a precise measurement of attitude strength since it is qualitative rather than quantitative. This method of attitude measurement is not objective or scientific which is a big criticism.

Examples of projective techniques include :

• Rorschach Inkblot Test

• Thematic Apperception Test (or TAT)

• Draw a Person Task

Thematic Apperception Test

Here a person is presented with an ambiguous picture which they have to interpret.

The thematic apperception test (TAT) taps into a person’s unconscious mind to reveal the repressed aspects of their personality.

Although the picture, illustration, drawing or cartoon that is used must be interesting enough to encourage discussion, it should be vague enough not to immediately give away what the project is about.

TAT can be used in a variety of ways, from eliciting qualities associated with different products to perceptions about the kind of people that might use certain products or services.

The person must look at the picture(s) and tell a story. For example:

o What has led up to the event showno What is happening at the momento What the characters are thinking and feeling, ando What the outcome of the story was

Draw a Person Test

Figure drawings are projective diagnostic techniques in which an individual is instructed to draw a person, an object, or a situation so that cognitive, interpersonal, or psychological functioning can be assessed.  The test can be used to evaluate children and adolescents for a variety of purposes (e.g. self-image, family relationships, cognitive ability and personality).

A projective test is one in which a test taker responds to or provides ambiguous, abstract, or unstructured stimuli, often in the form of pictures or drawings.

While other projective tests, such as the Rorschach Technique and Thematic Apperception Test, ask the test taker to interpret existing pictures, figure drawing tests require the test taker to create the pictures themselves. In most cases, figure drawing tests are given to children.  This is because it is a simple, manageable task that children can relate to and enjoy.

Some figure drawing tests are primarily measures of cognitive abilities or cognitive development. In these tests, there is a consideration of how well a child draws and the content of a child's drawing.  In some tests, the child's self-image is considered through the use of the drawings.  In other figure drawing tests, interpersonal relationships are assessed by having the child draw a family or some other situation in which more than one person is present. Some tests are used for the evaluation of child abuse.  Other tests involve personality interpretation through drawings of objects, such as a tree or a house, as well as people.  Finally, some figure drawing tests are used as part of the diagnostic procedure for specific types of psychological or neuropsychological impairment, such as central nervous system dysfunction or mental retardation.

Despite the flexibility in administration and interpretation of figure drawings, these tests require skilled and trained administrators familiar with both the theory behind the tests

and the structure of the tests themselves.  Interpretations should be made with caution and the limitations of projective tests should be considered.

It is generally a good idea to use projective tests as part of an overall test battery. There is little professional support for the use of figure drawing, so the examples that follow should be interpreted with caution.

The House-Tree-Person (HTP) test, created by Buck in 1948, provides a measure of a self-perception and attitudes by requiring the test taker to draw a house, a tree, and a person.

The picture of the house is supposed to conjure the child's feelings toward his or her family.

The picture of the tree is supposed to elicit feelings of strength or weakness. The picture of the person, as with other figure drawing tests, elicits information regarding the child's self-concept.

The HTP, though mostly given to children and adolescents, is appropriate for anyone over the age of three.

Evaluation of Indirect Methods

The major criticism of indirect methods is their lack of objectivity. Such methods are unscientific and do not objectively measure attitudes in the same way as a Likert scale. There is also the ethical problem of deception as often the person does not know that their attitude is actually being studied when using indirect methods. The advantages of such indirect techniques of attitude measurement are that they are less likely to produce socially desirable responses, the person is unlikely to guess what is being measured and behavior should be natural and reliable.

Attitude formation

Unlike personality, attitudes are expected to change as a function of experience. Teaser (1993) has argued that hereditary variables may affect attitudes - but believes that they may do so indirectly. For example, consistency theories, which imply that we must be consistent in our beliefs and values. As with any type of heritability, to determine if a particular trait has a basis in our genes, twin studies are used.[2] The most famous example of such a theory is Dissonance-reduction theory, associated with Leon Fastener, although there are others, such as the balance theory. Another theory that is well-known is the self-perception theory, originally proposed by Daryl Bem.

Attitude change

Main article: Attitude change

Attitudes can be changed through persuasion and we should understand attitude change as a response to communication. Experimental research into the factors that can affect the persuasiveness of a message include -------

1. Target Characteristics: These are characteristics that refer to the person who receives and processes a message. One such trait is intelligence - it seems that more intelligent people are less easily persuaded by one-sided messages. Another variable that has been studied in this category is self-esteem. Although it is sometimes thought that those higher in self-esteem are less easily persuaded, there is some evidence that the relationship between self-esteem and persuasibility is actually curvilinear, with people of moderate self-esteem being more easily persuaded than both those of high and low self-esteem levels (Rhodes & Woods, 1992). The mind frame and mood of the target also plays a role in this process.

2. Source Characteristics: The major source characteristics are expertise, trustworthiness and interpersonal attraction or attractiveness. The credibility of a perceived message has been found to be a key variable here; if one reads a report about health and believes it came from a professional medical journal, one may be more easily persuaded than if one believes it is from a popular newspaper. Some psychologists have debated whether this is a long-lasting effect and Hovland and Weiss (1951) found the effect of telling people that a message came from a credible source disappeared after several weeks (the so-called "sleeper effect"). Whether there is a sleeper effect is controversial. Perceived wisdom is that if people are informed of the source of a message before hearing it, there is less

likelihood of a sleeper effect than if they are told a message and then told its source.

3. message Characteristics: The nature of the message plays a role in persuasion. Sometimes presenting both sides of a story is useful to help change attitudes. When people are not motivated to process the message, simply the number of arguments presented in a persuasive message will influence attitude change, such that a greater number of arguments will produce greater attitude change [4].

4. Cognitive Routes: A message can appeal to an individual's cognitive evaluation to help change an attitude. In the central route to persuasion the individual is presented with the data and motivated to evaluate the data and arrive at an attitude changing conclusion. In the peripheral route to attitude change, the individual is encouraged to not look at the content but at the source. This is commonly seen in modern advertisements that feature celebrities. In some cases, physician, doctors or experts are used. In other cases film stars are used for their attractiveness.

Emotion and attitude change

Emotion is a common component in persuasion, social influence, and attitude change. Much of attitude research emphasized the importance of affective or emotion components. Emotion works hand-in-hand with the cognitive process, or the way we think, about an issue or situation. Emotional appeals are commonly found in advertising, health campaigns and political messages. Recent examples include no-smoking health campaigns and political campaign advertising emphasizing the fear of terrorism. Attitudes and attitude objects are functions of cognitive, affective and co native components. Attitudes are part of the brain’s associative networks, the spider-like structures residing in long term memory that consist of affective and cognitive nodes.

By activating an affective or emotion node, attitude change may be possible, though affective and cognitive components tend to be intertwined. In primarily affective networks, it is more difficult to produce cognitive counterarguments in the resistance to persuasion and attitude change.

Affective forecasting, otherwise known as intuition or the prediction of emotion, also impacts attitude change. Research suggests that predicting emotions is an important component of decision making, in addition to the cognitive processes. How we feel about an outcome may override purely cognitive rationales.

In terms of research methodology, the challenge for researchers is measuring emotion and subsequent impacts on attitude. Since we cannot see into the brain, various models and measurement tools have been constructed to obtain emotion and attitude information. Measures may include the use of physiological cues like facial expressions, vocal changes, and other body rate measures. For instance, fear is associated with raised eyebrows, increased heart rate and increase body tension (Dillard, 1994). Other methods include concept or network mapping, and using primes or word cues in the era .

Components of emotion appeals

Any discrete emotion can be used in a persuasive appeal; this may include jealousy, disgust, indignation, fear, blue, disturbed, haunted, and anger. Fear is one of the most studied emotional appeals in communication and social influence research.

Important consequences of fear appeals and other emotion appeals include the possibility of reactance which may lead to either message rejections or source rejection and the absence of attitude change. As the EPPM suggests, there is an optimal emotion level in motivating attitude change. If there is not enough motivation, an attitude will not change; if the emotional appeal is overdone, the motivation can be paralyzed thereby preventing attitude change.

Emotions perceived as negative or containing threat are often studied more than perceived positive emotions like humor. Though the inner-workings of humor are not agreed upon, humor appeals may work by creating incongruities in the mind. Recent research has looked at the impact of humor on the processing of political messages. While evidence is inconclusive, there appears to be potential for targeted attitude change is receivers with low political message involvement.

Important factors that influence the impact of emotion appeals include self efficacy, attitude accessibility, issue involvement, and message/source features. Self efficacy is a perception of one’s own human agency; in other words, it is the perception of our own ability to deal with a situation. It is an important variable in emotion appeal messages because it dictates a person’s ability to deal with both the emotion and the situation. For example, if a person is not self-efficacious about their ability to impact the global environment, they are not likely to change their attitude or behavior about global warming.

Dillard (1994) suggests that message features such as source non-verbal communication, message content, and receiver differences can impact the emotion impact of fear appeals. The characteristics of a message are important because one message can elicit different levels of emotion for different people. Thus, in terms of emotion appeals messages, one size does not fit all.

Attitude accessibility refers to the activation of an attitude from memory in other words, how readily available is an attitude about an object, issue, or situation. Issue involvement is the relevance and salience of an issue or situation to an individual. Issue involvement has been correlated with both attitude access and attitude strength. Past studies conclude accessible attitudes are more resistant to change

Implicit and explicit attitudes

There is also considerable research on implicit attitudes, which are generally unacknowledged or outside of awareness, but have effects that are measurable through sophisticated methods using people's response times to stimuli. Implicit and explicit attitudes seem to affect people's behavior, though in different ways. They tend not to be strongly associated with each other, although in some cases they are. The relationship between them is poorly understood.

Measuring Attitudes

Measurement helps to better understand attitudes. Many measurements and scales are used to examine attitudes and being that there is no one specific trait of an attitude, but many, there are many scales to measure it. Attitudes can be difficult to measure since measurement is arbitrary, meaning people have to give attitudes a scale to measure it against.

Attitudes can be examined through explicit (direct) and implicit (indirect) measures. Explicit measures tend to rely on self-reports or easily observed behaviors. Implicit measures are not consciously directed and are assumed to be automatic. Whitley and Kite (2010) describe how people can be intrinsically or extrinsically motivated by finding it socially desirable to appear to have certain attitudes about a situation. With this occurring validity can be low for explicit measures of attitudes and these circumstances need to be accounted for. To account for this, measures can be done anonymously so that people will more likely answer truthfully. An example of this miss-attribution is that the self-regulation model explains how people can act in a non-prejudice way and feel non-prejudice but actually be prejudice. Implicit measures help account for these situations and look at attitudes that a person may not be aware of or want to show

INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY ATTITUDE Attitude has been described as “learned readiness to react in a certain manner which normally involves in part of symbolic act. That is to say a certain object or situation will provide the individual with a framework within which he can react. In other words, an attitudes a way a person tends to feel, see, or interpret a particular situation. An attitude is intangible, it is determined by another from the way a person acts or responds to situation. An attitude is neither (i) motive, nor (ii) response. Attitude refers to probable direction, not the behavior itself. Attitude is not a drive or force, as a motive is but simply state of readiness to respond. Attitude is not simply getting along with people. It is much more. It is an outward manifestation of wanting to be helpful and useful to the enterprise and to other employees. It is reflecting a wholesome feeling from inside. It stems from both the personality and mental outlook. Giving not getting usually characteristics a good attitude. An individual can have a good attitude and still differ with superiors on policies and decisions, but outward actions and speeches of the individual show respect for the decisions made and co-operation in carrying them out. The kind of a person and the quality of this life, both at work and away from work, is strongly influenced by his attitude. The atmosphere is which on lives is determined more by his attitude than anything else. One person may always be looking to the past, ignoring the present and future. Another is viewing everything in the present and future; nothing is looked upon in the perspective of the past. One has fairly fixed ideas about certain types of employees and another considers each of then on individual merit. One individual will look upon mistake as total and permanent losses, while another view them as opportunities from which a great deal can be learned.

Two major types of attitudes:

Attitude are generally classified as (i) positive or (ii) negative. A positive attitude is directed toward a given object, that is, a person, policy, group, event or institution, whereas a negative attitude is directed away from a given object.

Frequently, positive attitude are classed as “Construction attitudes” Positive attitudes are characterized by the reaction of “YES” it can be done”. This is the direction to take “and” Let us advance along these approaches” In contrast, negative attitudes have been termed” Destructive attitudes” Because, they emphasize possible hurdles or stress the view point that the objective cannot be attained. Expressions typifying this attitude are “This is a poor labor contract and will no doubt give us plenty of trouble” and “Right now our organization structure is strong, but I fear our positions next year at this same month. Most objectives are accomplished far more effectively when positive attitude prevail than when negative attitudes are dominant. Managers should therefore strive to have positive attitudes and develop positive attitudes in their sub-ordinates. This is essential in maximizing managerial actuating works. Optimism is matter of attitude. Managers must first think they can before they can. Success and victory thrive under the influence of

positive attitudes. The attitudes. The world belongs to those who have positive attitudes, energy knowledge, and a dventuresomeness.

Formation and development of attitudes:

Attitudes are learned or acquired during daily life experience. People are not born with attitudes. From infancy on, a person acquires traditions, beliefs, opinions and knowledge, all of which helps to formulate his attitudes. Attitudes are acquired in one or a combination of three ways.

a First in past experience which is used to assist in evaluating and subsequently either accexpecting or rejecting the new situation into one’s system of though. b. Second, acceptance of the attitude of the group of which a person is a member. Group codes and unwritten agreements not only guide and shape the group but give support teach member individuality. Certain conventions, habits and attitudes are required in order forth individuality to possess fully accepted membership

c. Third and last is statement of an authoritative source. When a person is confronted with a situation about which he is expected to have an attitude but about which situation he has limited a background or knowledge, he may accept an attitude based upon the word of an authority.

What constancies and authoritative source depends upon the person involved. To one person a particular individual may be considered an authority, but to others the individual would not. An exceedingly complex pattern of influences tends to make up a particular attitude. Its not a question of simply combining three or four factors to produce an attitude, nor of exposing several individuals to the same patterns of influences in order to form similar attitude among those individuals. Attitudes develop from the influences of emotions, perceptions, social factors, economic forces and motivations. Attitudes are not necessarily related to the education and the intelligence of the person or the facts of the situations. Many attitudes are founded more one motional than on rational basis. An employee’s attitude is influenced by such things as the position and reputation of the enterprise, its policies and practices, the opportunities for advancement, the thoroughness of training, the caliber of leadership, the type of work done and the amount of compensation. The work situation is extremely vital in attitude development and frequently is thought of as the inclusive area which gives rise to attitudes. But the work situation is by no means the only area. The influence of social forces is of tremendous importance in attitude development. For example, if an employees „parents, wife, and children, are wholesome, understanding and co-operative, it is quite likely that the employee will have a constructive and sincere attitude toward his work. On the other hand if his family is quarrelsome and a great deal of dissatisfaction is usually prevalent, the employee will frequently reflect this attitude in the kind and quality of work he does. The motives aroused with an employee by his children what he wants for the, his plans for their future, his interests in their activities frequently means that he will have a

favorable attitude towards his job because he seems that through his employment the means for providing his children are achieved. Government is another important consideration in the determination of attitudes. Some view observance of the law as a necessary social control for the greatest overall good; others have the attitudes that most laws are probably necessary but many have little value and can perhaps be violated if it is so desired. This attitude may be carried over by employee to his place of work so that company rules and regulations are looked upon in various degrees of seriousness by an employee. The mode of living likewise helps shape attitudes. Some concentrate their entire efforts upon getting material possessions, their attitudes encourage the acquisition of goods, position and influence. In contrast, others believe in giving, not getting. Their attitude encompasses the fundamental truth that one cannot get until he learns to give and thus they divided genuine happiness and lasting satisfaction from his attitude. Outgrowths of experience are of major consequence in determining attitude. To a significant degree, a person feels and thinks toward on object. A lawyer’s attitude toward prosecution might differ widely from that of a social worker. Being in close association or experiencing almost daily experience to a situation or activity tend to influence one’s attitude toward that particular circumstance or entity.

Frames of reference:

Frames of reference are also of vital importance in the existence and development of attitudes. What is associated with an object or is referred to in connection with it helps to determine the attitude toward that object. Whether an attitude is favorable or invaluable depends upon the judgment in terms of the frame of reference. If the reference is highly desirable, the attitude will be favorable, and conversely a reference of low desirability will result in an unfavorable attitude.

Importance of attitude in Management:

Attitude is an extremely important concept in the managerial work of actuating A person is often descried in terms of his attitude. It includes a great many things and frequently is an important as ability, if not more so. Competence may deemed not only outstanding talent, expert, training and wide experience, but also a co-operative attitude. A person having limited ability and brilliance but possessing an attitude which is pleasant and fair toward other employees might well advance to managerial positions of greet importance. Every employee reflects his attitude towards his work in his daily affords. If he nervous any faulty attitudes, his work will show it, and further more, it will affect the efforts of these associated with him. There appears to be little doubt that the must frequent handicap of a manager is a faulty mental attitude or mental sets which consist of such things as believing an objective cannot be attained, lack of confidence, conceit, jealousy, fear, narrow mindedness, fallacious thinking and personnel prejudices. Attitudes permitting such traits do not make the task unattainable, but they render achievement

more difficult. Attitude is also important because it holds the key to job satisfaction. When each individual obtain genuine satisfaction from his work, the task of management is lightened. Attempts are being made to keep the employee satisfied means of various benefits. Such as pensions, group insurance, vacationer pay etc. These benefits are all desirable and fulfill certain social needs, but genuine employee satisfaction comes from finding real satisfaction in his job. Fundamentally that is what every employee actually seeks, although at times he may not fully recognize it. Attitude is the key that either opens or closes the employees mind to the proper service motive installed by competent managers. Work is as much a mental attitude as it is a concrete thing. Without positive attitude toward his work is an important reason for keeping him from obtaining employee satisfaction from his greatest potential his job. Research studies have confirmed that individual and group attitudes are commonly the difference between a highly successful work group and one that is not between a high production until a low production unit. The individual or group that believes it can succeed, that the mission can be accomplished his leader knows what he is doing are most likely to be most effective. It is the right king of attitude that makes the difference.

Changing Attitude:

There is little question that managers can influence employees attitudes. The old adage that employees reflect the shadow or perhaps more appropriately the light, of the top management group’s thinking illustrates the same point of view. Persons are influenced favorably or unfavorable by examples provided experiences permitted, frames of reference supplied, encouragement of certain motives and the discountenance of other forces. However, efforts to strengthen, modify or eliminate attitudes must handled expertly and with great care. Human being usually resist any attempt to change their attitude. People become set in their responsiveness. This tough mindedness is not more inertia or laziness butane active resistance to influence. Why does a person resist a change in his attitude? Primarily because of the attitude is a personal entity and exemplify a certain prize, affection or innermost readiness of the individual to response sociologists are the term “ego-Involves” explain an attitude which is clung to by an individual because he likes to think of himself as one who has this particular attitude. In other words, the self-evaluation and strong desire to retain a present attitude depend in great measure not only on the possessor’s confidence in that attitude but also in it being favorably responded to by others.

A person will normally defend his attitude when it is challenged usually challenge is viewed as undermining something deemed important because values of one’s ineffective involved. The greater the ego involvement of the person, the less the likelihood of gaining a change in attitude by means of arguments. An existing attitude represents the outcome of a balance of motives supporting the attitude. Some of the motives export a strongest influence upon an altitude than do others. In order to change an attitude it is

usually best to weaken the supporting influence. Other approaches such as frontal efforts to substitute new influences in order to counteract old ones are generally ineffective. The removal of accustomed influences meets resistance and arouse defenses. The weakening of supporting influences can be attempted in various ways. Among them ore common is to provide facts and knowledge which can be evaluated. The attempt here is to stress greater rational consideration than emotional Supplying export of authoritative explanations or view points along with the reasons for such view points can also be employed. In some cases, it is effective to get the individual to review his experience, to become more aware of what it means, and to re-conceived relationship of the individual with the reference group, that is, to reduce the ego-involvement by lowering the favorable response of the group to the attitude. Possibly the best way to achieve this so to talk with the group, request, their co-operation and support and appeal to the group a favorable decision. It is frequently less difficult to away a group than an individual. This is true for several reasons. Firstly, When members of the group change the attitude, the individual can see that a change on his part will not reduce his relative ego-involvement. Secondly, changes or acceptance of persuasive efforts are of ten more effective on a group than on an individual, the influence of mob-psychology and group motivations being exercised. Thirdly, the attainment of an atmosphere of high enthusiasm, helpful for indicating changes, can best be reached with a group.

Some suggestions for developing favorable attitude:

1. Have a wholesome, practical outlook on life and your fellow employees. Think optimistically, show enthusiasm, be genuinely interested in the other fellow, expect mistakes and misgivings but do not become depressed by them.2. Take the constructive side of issue Speak, wife and act from the positive view-point, Stress confidence and progress, avoid fear and retrospection. Keep looking until some good is found and then figure out the best manner to utilize this good. Emphasize what to do and what not to do.3.Associate with those who are successful. The people surrounding a person can exercise great influence upon him attitude. If they’re experiencing full, rice, helpful lives, they serve as a favorable motivation and tend to encourage a person to greater and better accomplishments. It is difficult for an individual to maintain an unfavorable attitude when all those around him have a favorable attitude.4. Give other the feeling of importance and self-worthiness. Permit others to participate, their opinions, build up their self confidence, and let them know they are doing something worthwhile. Practice the philosophy of giving, not getting. Talk about the individuals astute accomplishments and his sagacity in arriving at the proper decision, but refrain from talking about him.5. Feel deeply about certain values on life. A human being must have an outlet for his productivities; he must have a deep sense of responsibility for certain attributes of his own choosing so that he can anchor the whole of his activities around what constitutes to him a meaningful target.