Attitude and behavior at the workplace

Human resource is the major source which assists the business to achieve the best outcome out of all of the other capitals such as physical, financial and organizational resources. Making the best out of the human resources can provide a long-lasting competitive advantage over competitors. This is a dream for almost all businesses. However, despite the skillful, educated and potential human resource, many of these businesses are unable to achieve the expected success following the poor attitudes and behavior of the workforce. Employees’ attitudes and behaviors are some of the important elements in today’s global and competitive work environment.

Definition of Attitude and Behavior

According to Pickens (2005, 44), Attitudes have a considerable effect on the behavior of an employee. It relates to the way an individual feels about his or her work and their approach to work. Work attitude can thus be regarded as intangible. Hence one cannot see his or her attitude. However, other people feel employees work. Job satisfaction and organizational commitment are some of the two major attitudes that are most significant to essential results. Attitudes often create an intention for employees to work in a certain manner and it may predict actual behavior under certain situations. In most cases, employees develop positive work attitudes basing on their personality, fit within their surrounding, stress experiences, relationships established and the interpersonal treatment. When employees have a positive attitude towards their work, they may be inclined to have a good performance, display good behaviors and will have a reduced level of quitting their job. Organizations that foster positive attitudes benefit more as they receive higher safety and improved customer service. Ultimately, this results in a higher overall business performance.

Behavior, on the other hand, relates to the way an employee does his or her work. This involves how an employee gets his or her work done. Behavior can be easily observed. It is the actual work and hence one can be able to see the outcome of an employee’s work. Work behavior can strongly affect employee performance. Whether the behavior is positive or negative, it is important to note that productivity is directly linked to work attitude.

It is the dream of every employer to have workers who have glowing behaviors. This makes it easier for the management to have an easy task in managing their employees. There are so many issues in the workplace. Therefore having a gift for employees who have good behaviors creates relief to the employer. An employee with good behavior is always willing and available to get the work done. He or she also ensures that the job is not only done but it is also done in a better way that yields positive results. Organizations that usually devote their resources to deliberate cultivation of their employees create benefit with a higher skilled and loyal human resource. Maintaining a good behavior and positive attitude, allows an employee to feel less stressed and helps their colleagues to stay happy and satisfied (Daft, 2011, 349). Contented workers not only do what is expected of them but they often go beyond what they are expected. Confident positive behaviors are witnessed in the manner through which the employees come up with new ideas to assist the organization to succeed. This also ensures that there is job security.

The relationship between attitude and behavior

Attitude and behaviors at the workplace are directly related. Hence a good attitude results in a positive behavior while a bad attitude ultimately results in a negative attitude. The relationship between these two components has a strong influence on the link between job satisfaction and business commitment. Attitudes lead to behaviors. This means that the way through which an employee acts especially towards others determines the way they will conduct themselves. Hence if an employee has a positive work attitude, then this translates to a positive influence in the workplace (Alfaro-Barrantes, 2012, 6). It is also important to note that any action to moderate an attitude results in a similar effect on the behavior of an employee. For instance, once an employee decides to positively change his or her attitude, his or her behavior changes in a positive way and vice versa (Pratkanis, 2014, 247). Understanding the different attitudes portrayed by the wide range of employees in the organization will enhance the business to come up with interventions to change their attitude.

 

Factors affecting attitude and behavior at the workplace

According to Zare, (2012, 29) he argues that the way the individual employee experience the work situation affects his or her attitude and behavior. He continues to assert that the actual work situation plays no part in affecting and employees’ attitude and behavior but the experiences and reactions in these work situations. A workers attitude of how a business management values him or her may be crucial for determining his or her attitudes that would benefit the organization.

Our environment influences many employees’ behaviors. However, the environment is not the only living or working situation. The environment also composes of other people that employees must interact with. These interpersonal interactions are however believed to come along with many diverse challenges and issues that must be addressed and solved.  A positive work environment, therefore, improves the worker's attitude. This, however, depends on the management, available resources and the other workmates (Pride et al, 2012, 40). Therefore, organizations that take good care of their employees by providing them with the needed resources, will improve their productivity. Job productivity plays an essential role in increasing the business performance and profits. As a result, the business ensures that they make timely payments to their employees hence boosting the employee’s attitude. A good performance in the organization gives the workers a positive attitude that boosts their individual performance. Happy employees perform well and this increases the job productivity. Job satisfaction, on the other hand, improves workers relationships with customers. A good working relationship will increase the sales of the goods and services offered by the organization.

Culture affects employees’ attitude. Different cultures have varying practices. Some of the cultures do not allow their employees to work on certain days or for certain hours. This may affect an employee if they are issued with transfers to other work environments that encourage working for more hours. This may result in the negative development of attitude by the employee towards that work environment. However, in some other cultures, employees are risk takers. They get satisfaction both in life and also in their work. In this case, there is no better way to motivate them to improve their job productivity than supporting them (Pride et al, 2012, 40).

Communication is quite an essential component in the success of a business. This is because it ensures that information is transmitted to and from managers to employees and between themselves. Employees need to be at liberty with the management. This allows a successful communication as employees are able to approach the management when a crisis occurs. Good communication, therefore, has a positive effect on workers job satisfaction (Pride et al, 2012, 40). When employees’ needs are met, they are able to easily perform all of their duties effectively. With this, job productivity is attained and this improves employees’ attitude. Employees also need to maintain a good relationship with their fellow colleagues. This will, in turn, increase job satisfaction amongst employees. 

Organizational support for employees

Zare, (2012, 30) claims that employees who often receive a strong level of organizational support often reciprocate this act. They often feel the need to offer favorable organizational treatment with positive attitudes and behaviors that benefit the business. The employees, therefore, work hard putting the organization’s welfare as their first priority thus helping the business in achieving their goals. The behavioral end result of organizational support often increases job satisfaction and performance. It also results to decrease in turnover.

Pickens (2005, 52), asserts that each and everyone has attitudes. These attitudes are either positive or negative. It is therefore important for the management to understand the varying attitudes and behaviors among all of the human resources within the organization. In doing this, the organization will establish ongoing efforts and interventions to help the workforce in realizing their full potential. For instance, the management may decide to use healthy techniques that involve counseling and conflict resolution strategies.  These strategies may use a step to step process for changing the workers attitude. Attitude assessment and change is quite essential in the success of a business. Businesses should therefore seek to identify the problem and factors resulting to the change in attitude and behavior. This should be followed by efforts to adjust the workers attitude, solve conflict and seek to find a solution. Having an open communication with the workforce creates an environment where employees feel safe to differ and to which their ideas are respected. As a result, workers are able to feel valued hence they are able to change their negative attitudes and behaviors into positive ones.

 

 

Conclusion

The core role of the management and the employees in improving the attitude and behavior of workers is debatable. Some may argue that it is solely the responsibility of the employee to ensure that they meet the job satisfaction from their own work. This is because they are the ones who are in control of their own attitude, behavior and the overall performance. However, others argue that it is possible that the responsibility of ensuring job satisfaction in the workplace is entire o the management. They claim that the management is the ones who make a decision on the nature of the environment in which their workers work. They also argue that the management is the ones in control of the employees’ salaries, off time as well as promotions. It is also evident from the discussion above that external factors also play a part in affecting the employees’ attitude and behavior. However, it is important to understand that all parties have a part to play in deciding on the employees’ attitude, behavior and job satisfaction.

 

 

 

 

References

Alfaro-Barrantes, P., 2012. Examining the relationship between employees' perceptions of and attitudes toward corporate social responsibility and organizational identification. The Florida State University.

Daft, R. L. (2011). Understanding management. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Mathur, S.K., and Gupta, S.K., 2012. Outside Factors Influencing Behavior of Employees in Organizations. International Journal of Information and Education Technology, 2(1), p.48.

Pickens, J., 2005. Attitudes and perceptions. Organizational behavior in health care, pp.43-76.

Pratkanis, A. R. (2014). Attitude Structure and Function. Psychology Press.

Pride, W. M., Hughes, R. J., & Kapoor, J. R. (2012). Business. Belmont, CA: Cengage.

Zare, E., 2012. Effect perceived organizational support on employees’ attitudes toward work. Science Series Data Report, 4(9).