Introduction. In organisational behaviour, the concept of attitude occupies a central place because it strongly influences how people think, feel and behave at work. Whether an employee co-operates with colleagues, accepts change, deals politely with customers or resists authority depends largely upon his attitudes towards work, boss, co-workers, organisation and self. Managers are therefore interested not only in understanding what attitudes are but also in measuring them so that favourable attitudes may be strengthened and unfavourable ones may be changed. The present answer explains the meaning and nature of attitude and then describes the main methods of measuring attitude used in managerial practice.
Meaning of Attitude
In simple words, attitude may be defined as a learned predisposition of an individual to think, feel and behave in a particular way towards a given object, person or situation. It is an internal state which expresses whether a person likes or dislikes something.
Important elements of this meaning are:
- It is a predisposition – a readiness to respond in a particular manner, not the actual behaviour itself.
- It is always directed towards some object, person, group or issue (for example, attitude towards supervisor, towards safety rules, towards trade union, etc.).
- It is learned through experience, interaction and socialisation; it is not inborn.
- It has a favourable or unfavourable direction (positive, negative or neutral).
Components of Attitude (ABC Model)
Most psychologists describe attitude as consisting of three inter-related components, often called the ABC components:
- (A) Affective component: This refers to the feelings or emotions associated with an object – liking, disliking, respect, anger, fear, etc. Example: “I feel happy while working in this organisation.”
- (B) Behavioural component: This is the tendency to act or behave in a certain way towards the attitude object. Example: “I come regularly, work sincerely and recommend this organisation to others.”
- (C) Cognitive component: This refers to the beliefs, ideas or knowledge that a person has about the object. Example: “This organisation provides good opportunities for growth and fair promotion policy.”
Thus, attitude is a combination of belief, feeling and action tendency regarding a particular object.
Nature / Characteristics of Attitude
From the above discussion, main characteristics of attitude may be summarised as follows:
- 1. Learned and acquired: Attitudes are not inherited; they are acquired from family, school, peer group, culture, media and work experiences.
- 2. Relatively stable but changeable: Attitudes are fairly stable over time, yet they can be changed through new information, strong experiences, training and counselling.
- 3. Have direction and intensity: Attitude indicates whether a person is for or against something (direction) and how strongly he holds that feeling (intensity).
- 4. Object-related: Every attitude has a specific focus – e.g., attitude towards job, towards supervisor, towards safety rules, etc.
- 5. Influences behaviour: Attitude does not always determine behaviour perfectly, but it has a strong influence. Favourable attitude is likely to result in supportive behaviour and vice versa.
- 6. Can be measured: Though attitudes are internal, they can be measured indirectly through carefully designed psychological tools, which is essential for managerial decisions.
Need for Measuring Attitude
In organisational setting, measurement of attitude is important because:
- It helps to diagnose the overall climate of the organisation – whether employees think positively or negatively about various policies.
- It helps to identify specific areas of dissatisfaction such as pay, promotion, supervision or working conditions.
- It assists in evaluating the effect of new schemes and changes (introduction of incentive plan, job enrichment, training programmes, etc.).
- It guides managers in designing appropriate strategies for attitude improvement and change.
Methods of Measuring Attitude
Since attitude is a psychological state, it cannot be observed directly. It is therefore measured indirectly by examining what people say, how they act and, in some cases, how their body responds. The main methods are discussed below.
I. Self-Report / Questionnaire Methods
These are the most widely used methods in organisations. Individuals are asked to express their degree of agreement or disagreement with a series of statements. Their responses are scored to indicate attitude.
1. Single-Item Global Rating
- The simplest method asks the respondent to answer a single question such as: “Overall, how satisfied are you with your job?”
- Responses may be on a five-point or seven-point scale: Very satisfied – Satisfied – Neutral – Dissatisfied – Very dissatisfied.
- This gives a quick overall measure of attitude but does not reveal reasons behind it.
2. Likert’s Summated Rating Scale
- Developed by Rensis Likert, this is one of the most popular methods of attitude measurement.
- A large number of statements relating to the attitude object are prepared. Example (attitude towards job): “My job is interesting”; “My supervisor treats me fairly”; “Promotions are based on merit”, etc.
- For each statement, the respondent indicates his degree of agreement on a scale such as:
- Strongly agree (5)
- Agree (4)
- Undecided (3)
- Disagree (2)
- Strongly disagree (1)
- Scores of all items are added to obtain a total attitude score. High score indicates favourable attitude and low score indicates unfavourable attitude.
- Likert scales are easy to construct, simple to administer and suitable for large groups, therefore widely used in organisational surveys.
3. Thurstone’s Equal-Appearing Interval Scale
- This method involves preparing a large number of attitude statements and getting them judged by experts, who rate each statement on a scale from extremely favourable to extremely unfavourable.
- Statements representing various points on the favourability continuum are selected. Respondents are asked to indicate which statements they agree with.
- An average scale value of agreed statements represents the respondent’s attitude score.
- Though more scientific, this method is time-consuming and therefore less commonly used in routine organisational work.
4. Semantic Differential Scale
- Developed by Osgood and colleagues, this method measures the meaning that an individual gives to a concept by using pairs of opposite adjectives.
- For example, to measure attitude towards “my job”, bipolar adjective pairs may be:
- Good — — — — — Bad
- Interesting — — — — — Boring
- Important — — — — — Unimportant
- Between each pair, seven (or five) positions are marked. The respondent marks the point that best expresses his feeling.
- Scores on all items are combined to provide an attitude profile. This method gives a rich picture of the emotional meaning attached to the object.
5. Bogardus Social Distance Scale (mainly for social attitudes)
- This scale measures the degree of acceptance or rejection of various social groups.
- Though more often used in social psychology (e.g., measuring prejudice), the idea can be used in organisations to study attitudes towards different categories of employees.
II. Observation and Behavioural Measures
Sometimes attitudes are inferred from how people actually behave in real situations rather than from what they say.
6. Systematic Observation
- Supervisors observe employees’ day-to-day behaviour – punctuality, co-operation, willingness to accept extra work, participation in meetings, etc.
- Repeated observation over a period of time can give a reasonably accurate idea of the person’s attitude towards work, organisation or supervisor.
- However, observation may be affected by bias of the observer and therefore should be used carefully.
7. Behavioural Indicators from Records
- Certain organisational records serve as indirect indicators of attitudes, e.g.:
- Rates of voluntary absenteeism and labour turnover,
- Number of grievances and disciplinary cases,
- Participation in voluntary activities and suggestion schemes.
- While these do not measure attitude directly, patterns in such data may suggest favourable or unfavourable attitudes.
III. Interview and Projective Methods
8. Structured and Unstructured Interviews
- Employees may be interviewed individually or in groups about their feelings and opinions regarding the job, supervisor, company policies, etc.
- Interviews allow probing of reasons behind certain attitudes and are especially useful when complex issues are involved.
- However, they are time-consuming and may be influenced by the skill and biases of the interviewer.
9. Projective Techniques
- In projective methods, individuals are asked to interpret ambiguous stimuli such as pictures, incomplete sentences or stories.
- Examples are Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), sentence-completion test, word-association test, etc.
- Their responses are analysed to uncover hidden motives and deep-seated attitudes.
- These techniques are mainly used in clinical and research settings rather than in routine organisational surveys because they require expert administration and interpretation.
IV. Physiological Measures (Brief Note)
- In some research situations, attitudes are inferred from physiological responses like heart rate, blood pressure, galvanic skin response, etc., recorded while a person is exposed to particular stimuli.
- These measures are useful for exploring emotional aspects but they are costly and not practical for normal organisational diagnosis.
Essential Requirements of a Good Attitude Measurement
Whatever method is used, measurement of attitude should satisfy the following conditions:
- Reliability: The method should give consistent results if repeated.
- Validity: It should actually measure attitude and not something else (for example, social desirability or temporary mood).
- Simplicity and clarity: Statements and questions should be easy to understand.
- Confidentiality: Respondents must feel safe that their answers will not be misused; otherwise they may not respond honestly.
- Usefulness: Results should be analysed and fed back for improving policies and practices; otherwise employees lose faith in surveys.
Conclusion. To conclude, attitude is a learned predisposition of an individual to think, feel and act in a favourable or unfavourable manner towards a particular object, person or situation. It has cognitive, affective and behavioural components and plays a crucial role in shaping work behaviour in organisations. Since attitudes cannot be observed directly, they are measured indirectly through self-report scales (Likert, Thurstone, semantic differential, etc.), interviews, observation, behavioural indicators, projective techniques and, in specialised studies, physiological measures. For managers, systematic measurement of attitude is essential for diagnosing organisational climate, identifying sources of dissatisfaction and designing appropriate programmes for attitude development and change.