Individual Attitudes: During the process of the introduction of a new employee to the organization, every individual brings with him or her experiences and perspectives from their individual lives. Environment, upbringing, education, and other experiences help create the individual’s attitude towards work and their role within the workplace. Researchers believe that attitudes have three components: cognition, affect, and behavior (Breckler, 1983). These preconceived perspectives will affect the way the person introduces him or her to the organization and defines the role that he or she will play. As the employee introduces these perspectives; attitudes will develop individually and collectively. Individual attitudes will help shape group attitudes as each employee forms relationships and bonds with co-workers. This natural formation of the group dynamic takes place and can be either a benefit or detriment to the organization. Over the years several substantial theories has help shape the understanding of attitudes at work. In the 1950’s a researcher by the name of Leon Festiger introduced the theory of “cognitive dissonance” that attempted to connect the concept of attitudes and behavior Cognitive Dissonance is defined as “any incompatibility between two or more attitudes or between behavior and attitudes” (Robbins & Judge, 2007, p. 76).
But there also may be a detrimental side. Should employee attitudes towards the organization become negative, productivity, profitability, and overall effectiveness can be significantly affected and may be a by-product of these individual attitudes as they bond with others within the work group. The opposite exists where positive attitudes flourish within the organization presenting a very positive outcome for the organization by creating a more harmonious environment that fosters productivity and eventually profitability.
Values: When asked, many people will
identify themselves with the values in which they
uphold. Values, as defined is “a specific mode of
conduct or end-state of existence is personally
or
socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of
existence”
(Rokeach,
1973, p. 5). The source of values can
come from ones own experiences, faith, or
upbringing. As an organization shapes and develops it
identifies its own values which are
typically
derived from organizational founders’ or other stakeholders’ belief in what is
important
to
the organization in which it is to foster.
Often times these values between the individual,
others,
and the organization can differ and with it significant conflict may
occur. As noted
above,
the strong feelings of identity and sense of what is right for the organization
continue to
exist
and can significantly affect organization behavior. Daily activities such as goal setting,
prioritization,
decision making, and management approaches can be deeply affected by differing
values
sets between organizational members and the organization. Although there is limited
opportunity
for the organization to impose their values upon the individual, often times if
there is
a
conflict between the two sets of values the individual will typically utilize
their own.
Conflict
also results when a person's or group's behavior or action negatively affects
another.
These
negative behaviors or actions result when beliefs, values, attitudes, ideas,
needs, goals,
perceptions,
expectations, or interests differ (Starks, 2006).
Personality: As each individual joins an organization he or she brings along a
unique set of
Personality,
characteristics, attitudes, values and methods of working (Molleman, 2005).
Often
times the diverse personalities within the organization may spawn conflict
between
individuals especially where personalities are
counter to one another. Of all of the
characteristics of personality, self-esteem has a direct impact upon an
employee’s performance. Self-esteem is
defined as “individuals’ degree or liking or disliking themselves and the
degree to which they think they are worthy or unworthy as a person” (Robbins
& Judge, 2007, p. 114). An
organization’s ability to manage the self-esteem of employees can bring
significant benefits in the performance of such employees. Examples include; praise, promotions and pay
increases, presumed power, and recognition from completing courses or attaining
degrees (Kirschbaum, 2006).
Ethics: The simple individual perspective of what is right and what is wrong
can create an
impact
on various aspects of the organization. Although there exist societal standards
of ethics in
which
all employees share, there are intricacies of individual ethics and the beliefs
that support
them
that can be in direct conflict with organizational practices and policies. As with values,
these
often times are deeply set perspectives in which conflict may arise between the
individual
and
the organization. There exists a need
for organizations to ensure that members understand,
share
and project an approved and unified set of ethics (Granitz, 2003).
The
benefit of such a unified set of ethics helps prevent workplace deviance by
creating a strong
culture
around organizational ethics (Applebaum, Deguire, & Lay, 2005).
Cultural Differences: Certainly in the realm of the diverse workplace
cultural differences arise
and
continuously create impact on the organization as with all of the above
influences. Positive
integration
of multiple cultures can create an enriching work environment that assists the
organization
in servicing diverse client needs. On
the other hand, colliding cultural traditions
and perspectives can bring with it conflict that can
create problems. Personal conflicts may
result from perception rather than fact, and issues of perception are harder to
resolve because they often concern beliefs and values that have nothing to do
with the organization or its mission, such as differences in race, age, sex,
national origin, or culture (Starks, 2006).
As it
pertains to decision making, often the decision maker’s cultural background may
affect the means in which the employee approaches problems, analysis, and use
of logic (Robbins & Judge, 2007, p. 171) as well as the tendency for the
decision maker to make organizational decisions alone or collectively (Adler,
2002, pp. 182-189). Even the nature of
negotiations within or external of the organization may be affected. For example, researchers revealed that
Japanese and American negotiators view conflict differently and that the
American negotiators believed that that their Japanese counterparts negotiated
unfairly (Gelfand, Higgins, Nishii, Raver, et al, 2002). In order for an organization to be culturally
diverse such perceptions must be mitigated for the benefit of the organization.
Certainly
the above influence organizational behavior and in order to be successful it
will be up to the organization to establish strong expectations of behavior and
performance in order to keep the negative attributes at bay. Without such strong management practices performance
and profitability will suffer and create unnecessary distraction towards the
objectives of the organization.
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