MGMT 321
Sample Syllabus
Sample Lesson
Introduction
Personality
Attitudes
Attitudes (continued)
Attitudes (continued)
Emotions

Attitudes

Attitudes refer to an individual's feelings, beliefs, and behaviors that are directed toward a targeted person, place, situation, idea, etc. Thus, attitudes are much more specific than personality. For example, you might have an attitude toward higher education, but you do not have a personality toward higher education. Attitudes are relatively long lasting, but are amenable to change depending on one's background and experiences. The sources that shape personality (family, culture, group membership) also strongly influence attitudes.

There are three components to an attitude: affective, behavioral, and cognitive. Most Americans have an attitude about the national anthemsaluting flag. This attitude can be observed by watching what people do when they hear this song. Individuals may display the affective or emotional component; you see tears come to the eyes of many--generally a sign of love for their country. The behavioral component is evident when people stand facing the United States flag and place their right hand over their heart. It is difficult to know what people are thinking (the cognitive component) without asking them. If you did ask them, you would get various responses such as people remembering battles of war and those who gave their lives for our freedom, or perhaps remembering family members who were held hostage, or in other ways served their country. Thus, all three of these components interact to shape behavior; each does not exist separately.

When trying to understand the relationship between attitudes and behavior, one cannot assume that attitudes will directly predict behavior. For example, the correlation between performance and job satisfaction is approximately .10 at best, suggesting that satisfied workers are not necessarily the best performers and the best performers are not necessarily the most satisfied workers. Part of the reason for this low correlation is that job satisfaction is a general measure that takes into account satisfaction with supervisor, co­workers, working conditions, etc. Performance is a specific measure that takes into account number of units produced, number of customers served, and so on.