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Flashcards in Attitudes Deck (25)
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1
Q

What are the central features of an attitude?

A

. Can concern almost anything that we like or dislike e.g. work, constructs, and people
. Attitudes differ in valence (+ or -) and strength
. Represent the “truth” as we see it
. May not be consistent with behaviour, e.g. or may hate one’s job, but need the income
. Assessing attitudes is very common in work organisations

2
Q

What is the definition of an attitude and who was it by?

A

“A predisposition to feel, think and act towards some object, person or event in a more or less favourable or unfavourable way” Richardson (1977)

3
Q

What is the key difference between attitude and personality?

A

. Personality is the predispositions across many situations(more stable)
. attitude refers to a particular object/target/concept (less stable)

4
Q

State the strength of relationship between persoanlity, work attitudes and work moods

A
. personality to  attitude is strong
. attitude to personality is weak
. attitude to mood is strong
. mood to attitude is weak
. personality to mood is strong
. mood to personality is weak
5
Q

What are the 3 components of a work or any attitude?Breckler, 1984

A

. Affective component
. Cognitive component
. Behavioural component

6
Q

Explain the affective component of a work attitude?

A

How a worker feels about his or her job or organisation

7
Q

Explain the cognitive component of a work attitude

A

What a worker believes to be true about his or her job or organisation

8
Q

Explain the behavioural component of a work attitude

A

How is a worker is predisposed to behave in their job or organisation

9
Q

What are the influences of work attitude formation?

A

. Work situation
. Personality
. Values
. Social influence- co-workers , culture

10
Q

Why do work attitudes matter? only if attitude=behaviour however

A
might affect:
. Whether a person seeks a new job
. How co-operative they are with others at work
. Whether they present a positive image 
. How they react to change
. How hard they work (motivation)
. Their psychological or physical health
11
Q

What is the relationship between attitude and behaviour?

A

. attitude influences behaviour
. behaviour can also influence attitude
. or mutually influence each other

12
Q

How are attitudes usually measured?

A

. Normally using Likert scaling
. Statements worded either for or against issue in question
. Agreement or disagreement is indicated
. Statements responded to in the same way in two occasions are chosen (reliability)
. Overall attitude is the sum or mean of the item responses (after reverse scoring of negatives)
. Problem – socially desirable responding

13
Q

What is job satisfaction?

A

“A pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experiences” (Locke, 1976)

14
Q

Why might job satisfaction be important?

A

The happy worker-productive worker hypothesis

15
Q

What factors contribute to job satisfaction?

A

. job characteristics- task identity, significance, autonomy
. Personality- affects how you see things
. Distributive justice- fairness of the allocation of rewards/treatment

16
Q

Is the relationship between job satisfaction and performance conclusive?

A

This is still an area of research and debate, the relationship may differ depending on the variables

17
Q

What impact does job satisfaction and commitment have on work behaviour?

A

Both involved in people’s decisions to stay in or leave jobs and organisations
Both have implications for people’s general well-being
Both associated with motivation
Some connection with people’s job performance

18
Q

What is organisational commitment?

A

“The relative strength of an employee’s identification with and involvement in an organisation” (Mowday et al., 1979)

19
Q

What are the three key features of organisational commitment?

A

Desire to stay
Believe in and accept organisation’s goals
Willing to exert effort on behalf of organisation

20
Q

What are the three forms of organisational commitment and who by?

A

(Allen & Meyer, 1990)

  • Affective: personal emotional attachment to organisation (liking)
  • Continuance: costs and risks of leaving (personal sacrifice & investment and lack of alternatives)
  • Normative: moral dimension. Sense of loyalty or obligation to the organisation

Each has own antecedents

21
Q

What are some findings of OC?

A

High affective linked to high performance (especially linked to being ‘good organisational citizens’ / ‘extra mile’ / ‘voluntary helping’)
High continuance sometimes linked to low performance (staying because you don’t have a choice?)
Commitment to manager linked to performance
Commitment to organisation linked to turnover

22
Q

How can OC be developed?

A

. Challenge and autonomy more than pay and reward (affective & normative)
. Perception of investment in the organisation (continuance – perception that current organisation is now better than alternatives?)
. Organisational values (fairness, courtesy, openness, initiative)

23
Q

What is the relationship of attitudes to job performance? pros and cons

A

. Roughly 0.6 which= strong correlation with JP
(Harrison et al., 2006)
.

24
Q

How does social influence change attitude and behaviour?

A

“Change in attitudes, beliefs, opinions, values and behaviours as a result to being exposed to other individuals’ attitudes, beliefs, opinions, values and behaviour” (Hewstone et al., 2008)

25
Q

What factors affect attitude change?

A

. Credibility of persuader - expertness and trustworthiness
. Attractiveness of persuader - similiarty
. One-sided and two-sided arguments
Use of fear
. Social Pressures and conformity
. Logical argument