MEASURING ATTITUDE

Attitude has often been defined by psychologists as people's evaluation of almost any aspect of the world.

We often posses either positive or negative responses or actions towards different social stimulus, some of them are quite flexible and can be altered, while some are resistant to alternations; as we hold some attitudes with certainty, while uncertainty prevails towards other social aspects.

Social psychologists have reportedly distinguished two types of attitudes - 

1) Explicit Attitudes - They are the conscious or report able forms. The beliefs which we are aware about and can be easily measured.

2) Implicit Attitudes - These type of beliefs are less controllable and not at all conscious or easily accessible to us.

The measurement of explicit attitude are done following varied scaling techniques or tests. The belief or disbelief, favourable or unfavourable form of attitudes are measured with the help of scales, constructed by experts having short statements dealing with several social aspects like - climate change, sexual abuse, pollution, globalization and many more social constructs.

The scales or tests are constructed following a continuum, where the scale ranges from absolute unfavourable to absolute favourable acceptance of belief. Each statement will portray a specific degree of acceptance or rejection of a belief.

The 2 most popular scales for measuring attitudes are:

1) Thurstone's method of equal appearing intervals - The Thurstone's Scale is a quantitative form of measurement of people's attitude, using 'agree - disagree' format. These statements are assigned with potential numerical values, which helps the researcher to determine the strength of the belief which one holds toward  the specific social aspect.

This is mainly applied when the researcher wants to know the attitude of individuals about a specific topic and wants to compare it with others. It is also a possible technique of collecting data in a group situation.

2) Likert's method of summated ratings - This technique of measuring attitude is much simpler than that of Thurstone, yet follows a long and elaborate steps for analyzing and elemination of weak items.

The Likert scale follows a 5 - point method, having the range from: strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree to strongly disagree. This method of scaling attitude is much objective in nature and indicates the intensity of the opinion, also in accordance with the direction.

This is also a quantitative technique of measuring attitude, where the response ranges from being agreed upon to disagreement, also having an option of having no belief at all. The responses hold their own values but the interval values are not equal, with the limitation, that individuals can give false responses due to social desirability.

Another technique for measuring attitude is Bogardus Social Distance Scale - following the degrees of social intimacy. This scale was formed keeping in mind the social forms of discrimination which regulates our relationship formation with any stranger.

This scale has been defined, which measures the degree of closeness towards people of other social, religious, ethnic or racial groups.

The characteristics of Bogardus Social Distance Scale are : it is cumulative in nature, a 7 point scale and lastly, it measures social distance. 

     

WORK ENGAGEMENT IN ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

 Work Engagement has been defined as a positive, affective-motivational state of high energy combined with high levels of dedication and a strong focus on work. (Schaufeli and Bakker, 2010) It is one of the most essential factor in an organization to have engaged workers, as they will provide the organization with high productivity, 'out of the box' ideas, extra effort, commitment and citizenship behaviour.

A number of research studies are being conducted on work engagement to find out the characteristics of an engaged employee, what makes a worker more engaged, and what are the several outcomes of having engaged employees in the workplace. This particular aspect helps to determine an important worker, a more engaged work team, the output of the organization. These, workers due to strong and hard work is beneficial to the organization and show better job-role performance.

CHARACTERISTICS OF ENGAGED EMPLOYEES:

1) Engaged workers have a better attitude towards overall work and organization. They want to be a part of every team, participates in formal and informal events.

2) Engaged employees often show more organizational commitment.

3) Also, more citizenship behaviour are performed by them.

4) They are much higher in belongingnes. These individuals share a good interpersonal relationship with both managers and other coworkers.

5) They are much easier and simple to work with.

6) Engaged workers are better in terms of trust and responsibility.

FACTORS THAT MAKE AN EMPLOYEE MORE ENGAGED:

The organizations always try to keep their employees engaged to elevate the rate of productivity. So, what are those vital factors which keep them high in work engagement? The answer is :

1) Job Satisfaction: Employees who are satisfied with their job, their workplace, job-role, coworkers and employers are more engaged.

2) High Interest or 'of purpose': Employees who are more interested is performing their task and find it meaningful or of some purpose are usually more engaged in their job.

3) Organizational Culture: If the culture of an organization is positive, employee - friendly, recognizes its worker's efforts and encourages the employees - likely the employees will have more engagement towards their organization.

4) Leadership: A good leader can influence the whole organization. A good leader can encourage the employees and improve the climate of the workplace. A good leader can increase the productivity of the employees and keep them engaged.

5) Pay structure: If the organization pays well then they can keep the workers engaged.

6) Autonomy: If the employees receive freedom in decision making and in performing job-role, that will promote work engagement among them. 

7) Job resources: The physical, psychological and social job resources are if supplied adequately, the work engagement of the employees remains intact.

Work engagement is very much vital for the ultimate growth and development of the organizations. The current research studies are working upon to find out the factors which promotes the counting of engaged workers. 

ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY - AN INDIAN PERSPECTIVE

 Like the advent of mainstream Psychology in India, the Industrial or Organizational psychology also arrived late in comparison to the Western countries. The economical structure is the biggest welcome of this particular field  - where India was lacking at the post-independence era. The main aim of organizational psychology was to raise the performance level of the employees in the western world, which was copied here. The cross-cultural studies and indigenous psychology movements promoted or made it to realize that how much organizational psychology is important in the Indian settings.

The area of Organizational Psychology was mainly based on the 'right fit', turnover or absenteeism rate, job satisfaction, work culture and climate, job performance and other related facts. These are the main concerns on the basis of which, the theories, measurements and researches were constructed in the western countries. India was lacking the advancements in technology, data and organizations, so reprinting the western form of data, theory and measurement was done here. The local touch or involvement was lacking.

During the 1970s, a lot of cross-cultural research studies started in India following western prototypes. The research studies conducted in the Indian organizations followed rigorous collection of data on the managers and their behaviours. The form of relationship they use to built with their employers or 'bosses'.

The other topics of organizational behaviours which were covered in the Indian setting was the effectiveness of teams and groups. It was concluded that the effectiveness of team was depended on the job, environmental factors and the structure of the organization, while group effectiveness is the output of internal and external processes, personality of the members. Several meta-analysis were done on the concepts of individualism and collectivism.

And, several culture-specific research studies were done on the leadership approaches. The type of leadership practiced in the Indian Organizational set-up was clarified and several models were being established and compared to reach conclusions.

Indian Organizational Psychology is a field yet to prosper. Many more researches are to be done in the local set-up, on the basis of local or culture specific data collection. As, globalization has an impact on the worldwide economic integration - Indian philosophy has a lot to contribute to the field of organizational psychology.

Industrial management in India now also have some deficits which results from lack of acknowledgement towards human factors in the industrial set-up which results into a number of issues like increased turnover, absenteeism, lesser job satisfaction, less work commitment, poor working conditions and most importantly poor or low work motivation.

So now-a-days special emphasis are being given upon the development of manpower. Human Resource Management and Development are essential now and the Management and Labour policies are being formed to provide support to the employees. Human engineering is also now focused in the Indian organizational set-up. Organizational changes and developments are being done in the Indian organizations either by following the international models or by hiring professionals from different parts of the world.

The progress in this arena is slow and needs much more financial support and expertise to reach the fullest of its development.

  

 

ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT

 According to Fred Luthans (1998), "Organizational Commitment is most often defined as (1) a strong desire to remain a member of a particular organization; (2) a willingness to exert high levels of effort on behalf of the organization; and (3) a definite belief in, and acceptance of, the values and goals of the organization".

It refers to the interrelation or attachment a personnel shares with their organization or employer. Organizational commitment has also been described as an individual's psychological attachment to an organization.

Meyer and Allen, (1991) has defined organizational commitment as "a psychological state that (a) characterizes the employee's relationship with the organization, and (b) has implications for the decision to continue or discontinue membership in the organization".

While studying organizational behaviour, the researches and real life experiences, several vital actions from the part of the employees have been considered as the key roles behind the rate of productivity or output an organization shows at the end of the day. And, one of the most discussed behaviour among them are organizational commitment. It is an essential determinant for explaining employee's behaviour within the organization.

Organizational commitment shares strong correlations with many other variables like - job satisfaction, turnover rate, absenteeism or loyalty towards the organization. The job characteristics, job enrichment, and the role of the leader in terms of communication, participation and task interdependence plays a vital role in the formation of the commitment towards the organization.

MODELS OF ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT:

1) The Member - Based Model - This particular model suggests that the attachment or bond originates from the behaviours and personal attributes of the employees.

2) Organization - Based Model - The organization - based model puts emphasize on the role of the organization in providing the resources to its employees and in the satisfied ways of reciprocity.

3) Three - Component Model - The most popular model of organizational commitment is the three-component model suggested by Meyer and Allen. The three forms of commitment are - a) Affective commitment - This type of organizational commitment signifies the feeling or emotional aspect.

b) Continuance commitment - The summation of the feeling aspect and cognitive aspect of the employee which leads to the thought about the consequences of leaving the organization.

c) Normative commitment - It refers to the type of commitment an employee has when he feels obliged to retain in the organization.

Lastly, organizational commitment is essential for both the employees and the organization, as it provides certain positive outcomes - listing them below;

Employee productivity, Improved organizational performance, Employee advocacy, Lower absenteeism and Decreased turnover.

References:

Luthans, F., Luthans, B. C., & Luthans, K. W. (2021). Organizational Behavior: An Evidence-Based Approach Fourteenth Edition. IAP.

Meyer, J. P., & Allen, N. J. (1991). A three-component conceptualization of organizational commitment. Human resource management review, 1(1), 61-89.

ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOR

 The field of Organizational Behavior is evolving everyday. Researches are being conducted to explore new arenas of OB. There are already several concepts, theories and models which are been applied to study and promote human behavior in the area of Industries and Organizations.

The popular phrases "going above and beyond" or "giving their all" are almost getting zero application in the human life. We are restricting our behavior within the stipulated boundaries and scaling them with the job role which has been assigned to us by the organization.

The modern era concept of Organization Citizenship Behavior (OCB) is reaching out the field of OB quite prominently. The OCB if explained in simple languages, is the response or actions or behaviors which are not required by the personnel. They are not a job characteristics, but are beneficial to the team and works for the organization's better functioning and efficiency.

OCB has been defined as, "individual behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and in the aggregate promotes the efficient functioning of the organization". (Organ, 1997)

BENEFITS OF PRACTICING OCB: 

1) Finding one's work meaningful. The workers feel more significant and their contribution to the workplace more essential and useful.

2) Organization Citizenship Behavior increase the control ability over one's own tasks. They have a greater grip on what they are performing or how they are performing.

3) This kind of behavior helps in preventing burnout. As, the personnel identifies that his/her contribution of doing something good is of some purpose, it re boosts them.

4) OCB shares a directly proportional relationship with work-performance and productivity.

5) This is a good way to set in the organization. Employees who are new to the field can learn by practicing OCB.

There are very few disadvantages of OCB. Firstly, sometimes the behavior may get unnoticed by the supervisor or the leader. And, secondly it might lead to a poor Family - Work life balance.

TYPES OF OCB:

There are several ways in which an employee can show OCB. Past research studies highlight a few ways which are more commonly portrayed in the field of Organizational behavior.

ALTRUISM: When an employee assists his/her coworkers in finishing a project, though he/she will get nothing in return. The form of OCB where an employee helps another without any expectation, is altruism in OCB.

COURTESY: Personnel when guiding the colleagues to overcome a personal life experience so that it does not effect their job performance. Courtesy is being polite or considerate towards people who work with.

SPORTSMANSHIP: Taking a rejection from the employer's part sportingly. Refraining oneself from showing frustration or hate towards the authority in time of any rejection or disagreement is sportsmanship.

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS: Attending a project work or helping in structuring a pitch which is not a part of assigned job role is showing conscientiousness. Basically putting the phrase "going above and beyond " into use.

CIVIC VIRTUE: Participating in social events organized by the company or following company's principles in personal life is affirming to the virtues of the company. When the worker represents his organization in a golden frame, his/her civic virtue is said to be high.

So, while drawing the conclusion it can be said that OCB is argued to facilitate a positive work environment, which enables organizations to attract and retain employees (Organ, 1988) and increase employee's positive beliefs toward their job and the organization.(Koopman, 2016)

REFERENCE:

Organ, D. W. (1988). Organizational citizenship behavior: The good soldier syndrome. Lexington books/DC heath and com.

   

   

Mc CLELLAND'S THREE MOTIVES

 An individual is unpredictable. Psychologists have always worked and studied the complex human behavior - the behavior which he himself often fails to explain.

In the work environment  the task assigned to a worker can be repetitive or creative. That may feel as a duty or an accomplishment. Whatever it might be, an individual acts or behaves in multivariate manner in his workplace. And his behaviors are certainly influenced by his motives, experiences, social equations and cognitive functioning.

As, the work of an Industrial Psychologist is to predict and study the employees behavior in his workplace, the cause of the same is also essential to identify.

The human behavior is at least guided by a single motive at a time. So, working upon those complex motivations are one of the important agenda.

Motivation is a complicated phenomenon. And has been described by many psychologists in various forms overtime. In the field of organizational behavior motivation and need theories have always played an essential role. The popular Need theories which we often read about are delivered by Maslow, Alderfer, Herzberg, Mc Gregor and McClelland.

McClelland in his theory of Motivation talked about three forms of motives - power, achievement and affiliation.

Need for Power (n pow): The desire to control others is the key explanation here. The urge to control and manipulate others' behavior and to achieve personalized and socialized power. An individual with high n pow will control others, work to have an impact on people around and will use other people to accomplish his motives.

Need for Achievement (n ach): The need for excellence is the priority of every individual with high n ach. The tendency is to overcome challenges and reach goals either set by others or by the individual himself. They work upon obstacles and persist on their behavior to achieve the predetermined goals.

Need for Affiliation (n aff): The desire to posses satisfying relationships is the core of need for affiliation. The characteristics of forming and continuing close relationships, getting accepted by people around and to belong to them are seen in people with high need for affiliation.

REFERENCES:

Pareek, U. N. (1988). Organizational behaviour processes. Rawat publications.

TWO FACTOR THEORY - HERZBERG

 We always do have believed that the antonym of 'SATISFACTION' is 'DISSATISFACTION', but psychologist Fredrick Herzberg introduced a different thought in his theory of Motivation. The opposite of 'Satisfaction' is 'NO SATISFACTION' and that to of 'Dissatisfaction' is 'NO DISSATISFACTION'.

The theories of Motivation of early and contemporary ones has shown more than one perspectives of interpreting the cause of an individual's motivation towards performing certain tasks. Maslow's Need Hierarchy theory has highlighted the 'Self-actualization', Alderfer's ERG theory has concentrated on the 'levels of needs', McClelland has focused on the type approach of need.

Herzberg's Two Factor Theory aimed at analyzing the contrasting view of Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction. It is a theory that bridges up intrinsic factors to job satisfaction and links extrinsic factors to job dissatisfaction. This theory is also known as - 'Motivation - Hygiene Theory'.

By following critical incident technique, Herzberg did a detailed study on the data collected from several employees. He inferred from that, the factors reportedly responsible for job satisfaction are not engaged with dissatisfaction which lead him to reach the conclusion that:

a) INTRINSIC FACTORS like advancement in job, recognition, challenges related to the job role, achievement and the work itself are responsible for an individual's ultimate motivation towards his/her job. The content factors of the job work as the 'Motivators' and leads to 'Satisfaction' - and if they are not fulfilled there is 'No Satisfaction'.

b) EXTRINSIC FACTRORS or 'Hygiene factors' as mentioned by Herzberg are those peripheral ingredients, which by themselves though are unable to bring satisfaction but can save from 'dissatisfaction'. The 'job context' factors like salary, company policy, work team, working conditions are if fulfilled properly, the employee will be 'not dissatisfied'.

REFERENCES:

Pareek, U. N. (1988). Organizational behaviour processes. Rawat publications.

Robbins, S. P. (2010). Organizational behavior.