FREE ESSAY ON EMPLOYEE ATTITUDE / ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

EMPLOYEE ATTITUDE / ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Employee attitude/Organizational Behavior 
Introduction A happy worker makes for a good worker you say? Well, United Airlines had
somewhat of an "all for one" employee attitude in July 1994. They announced the purchase
of their own company for which they work for $5 billion through ESOP (Employee Stock
Ownership Plan). So now, in the case of United Airlines, there obviously is a soar in
employee productivity and spirits. Stocks have risen 120% due to this buyout (almost
three times higher than the airline industry average gain). Every company or small
business owner desires a positive employee attitude within his or her organization for
high productivity and quality. United Airlines achieved this because the employees
themselves took action, but for the majority, it is the management's first move. Taking
the Apple from the tree The Idiot's Guide for Changing Employee Attitudes would say to
pay the employee what O.J. paid his defense team. Take away the money part of a job then
no one except an old volunteer worker for a Save the World Foundation or a simple dork is
going to show favorable attitudes towards the job. Now let's get real…but I thought
that we were! Money can hypnotize some employees to become a more productive worker, but
not all employees. (And even the ones that are motivated at the first glimpse of dead
presidents will soon want…. you guessed it, more money in order to drag their lazy
ass up the next step). What about Bill Gate's techno wizards at Microsoft? What sum of
money short of Bill's own bank account is going to motivate these 30-year-old Gulfstream
owners to change their snobbish attitudes? On a more practical basis, what about those
employees who value intrinsic rewards over the monetary type? Not all employees will be
weaned with the flash of cash. So we all must consider the fact that human beings will be
consistent towards the general sense of satisfaction, but what sort of things lead to
this satisfaction? What kind of satisfaction are we looking for? More so, what is going
to satisfy an employee? Most of the research in the study of OB (Organizational Behavior)
are concerned with job satisfaction, job involvement and organizational commitment.
(Robbins, 1997) The second two attitudes, job involvement and organizational commitment,
are more or less the results of job satisfaction. An employee who has a high level of job
satisfaction tends to bear attitudes, which are favorable to the organization. When a
prospective employee goes to that interview, there are going to be friends of that
prospect who will give the most simple advice of "Sell yourself! This is your chance to
prove yourself to that important company!" Little do those simpleton friends know that
this is also the chance for the company to lay a sales pitch on the prospect too!
Managers are concerned with the efficient operation and profit margin of the company more
so than an employees job satisfaction. (Robbins, 1997) To managers, an employee's job
satisfaction is just an insurance that the employee will be productive and not skip work,
and of course, to get the best man for the job. So of course, when a manager giving the
interview favors a prospect, only the job's favorable side will tend to be revealed. The
prospect is told of a wonderland where the corporate ladder is actually a stepping stool.
There is no mention of the negative sides, to which the manager does a David Copperfield
on. The applicant now has expectations about this job that has to be met by the job or
there will be a lot of dissatisfied employees. Balancing the positives with the negatives
is important so that the employee will not be disappointed and become a problem that
could've been avoided from the beginning. (Robbins, 1997) Mirror, mirror on the
wall…. Successful leaders have vision, communicate well, make effective decisions,
and motivate their followers. Employees are more likely to respond to a leader who is
likable and credible. A leader who would want to change attitudes must have a very
unbiased one. The management's attitude is going to give employees a very visual idea of
how his or her job at the organization is going to generally be, and once an image is set
in people's mind it is difficult to change. From the start, the management must be
thought of as fair and consistent. The organization's workforce must see the manager as a
"better" person than they are, a person with integrity, a person who employees won't feel
prideful towards when taking orders from. So even if the leader of an organization is a
couch potato at home, he or she must show otherwise in front if the employees; strong
leadership qualities must be clear and visible. Lend me your ear, no not you Hollyfield.
Many people can talk and talk till they have spoken the extent of their vocabulary, but
few individuals have true listening skills. Listening to an employees reason for a
certain attitude or behavior is the data gathering part of this science if you will. In
order to listen, a manager must be able to put aside his shotgun and really pay attention
to the praises and complaints of an employee. He or she must also be able to retain that
information. There must be good eye contact so that a speaker will feel that the listener
has interest in the material presented. Visual confirmations of the main points of the
material must be shown; head nods, facial expressions, etc. This allows you to respond
without interrupting the speech of the speaker. Then, when it is the appropriate time,
the listener must be able to ask viable questions from the retained information. This
helps the speaker feel that the listener is not rushing the conversation, and instead,
the listener will appear more interested in solving the conflict. (Van Mechelen, 1997)
One small step for mankind There are a variety of attitudes, and a variety of commitment
levels to attitudes. Try changing a Japanese manager's attitude. Ever seen it done
before? Yeah, I saw it in a certain number of movies like" Mr. Baseball" or "Gung Ho".
These Japanese attitudes in these movies are fictional, but there are attitudes out there
that come from beliefs that are as strong as, if not stronger than, the ones from
Hollywood. It should be a good manager's job to be able to decide whether a certain
attitude will be easily changed or not. Once this is established, the balancing of
techniques and timeliness must be applied. Attitudes cannot be changed drastically nor
quickly. There is a reason why people have attitudes; it is a part of them. To change a
person takes patience and lots and lots of skills, especially in a boss/employee
relationship where it is more formal. Sometimes, all it takes is a warning in simple
words to change an unfavorable attitude. This is most effective when it is an attitude
which developed from shallow beliefs such as hitting that snooze button one too many
times and getting to work ten minutes late almost everyday. The shallow belief here is
that getting that ten extra minutes of sleep will make the body feel more refreshed and
make it easier to get up to go to work on time or some other. Immediate action to an
attitude is also important. Employees will go to extents of "testing" their boss. See
what they could get away with. If they feel that their employer will not take action in
the near future, then it is safe to assume that there will be some overflowing wastepaper
baskets under a lot of desks. A manager must let an employee know right away when there
is an unfavorable attitude. It is also imperative that the problem be stated clearly
within the interests of the organization's policy or rules. (Robbins, 1997) The employee
must feel that the manager is taking action for the sake of the organization rather than
a show of power. But here again is a situation that requires balance. This is explained
more simply by giving the example of most people who cower at the sight of that motorcop
who pulls them over and has a sense of power. Most people will not choose to demonstrate
resistance when the cop comes up to the driver's side window with his dark sunglasses.
The cop knows this and does things like wear extra dark sunglasses and show ice-cold
personality. Although this is not an ideal way to get an employee to play ball, a manager
still must give an impression to the employee of a balance between a cop, a mentor, and a
friend. A Scooby Snack Again, attitudes do not change overnight and require constant
monitoring. There will be some resulting steps that are noticeable to the manager.
Although these steps may not be the desired end state attitude, they still have to be
commended either verbally or with action. Expectancy theory (Vroom) argues that an
employee will be motivated to exert higher levels of effort when he or she believes that
that effort will lead to a good performance appraisal. Along those lines, a manager would
do well if he or she gives the employee a few acknowledgements when appropriate while the
employee is in the process of changing an attitude. Involvement in the organization is
also a determinant in an employee's attitude. An employee who doesn't feel like part of
the "team" will try just to meet the minimum levels of performance, while one who feels
like he or she is an integral part will try to go over that standard. So management must
consider each worker as equal importance to the organization. Conclusion Of course, every
situation is different when it comes to attitudes. The techniques discussed are some
recommendations and are situational. Management will find many cases and each case is
somewhat unique. Can attitudes be changed? Yes, at least sometimes. What's most difficult
is sculpting a person's attitude to fit a certain specific need. Anyone can go up to a
person with a good attitude and change it into a bad one. That's easy. Yet, sometimes,
that's what may be needed for an organization. I'll close with an example of this from my
own personal experience. I recently had two employees working for me, but these two were
husband and wife. Even though I may like the husband employee working for me, I may not
like the wife employee to work for me. This was exactly the case. I hated that girl for
professional and personal reasons, but couldn't really fire her for two reasons. First,
if she leaves, then he leaves. Second, she really liked the type of work she was doing
for my business, and it is this second reason that I changed. Of course, if an employee
likes the work that they are doing then it is an advantage to the organization, but I
felt that I had to make her believe that she really didn't like working at my store so
that she leaves on her own terms. This way, I get rid of her without loosing the husband
employee. To make a long story short, I don't believe a small business should hire a
married couple due to problems which can arise from personal feelings (If just one of the
two employees find a disagreeable situation, then the other will be enticed to follow.
Now, there is double the problem.), but in the beginning, I had no choice since she
wanted to tag along. Her husband was the prime choice for my store due to his extensive
knowledge and experience in this field, and for the amount of pay that he was willing to
take, I wasn't willing to give up that opportunity. So lesson well learned.