POSITIVE ATTITUDE BUILDING T.M.JAYASEKERA B Sc. Eng.,C Eng., MBA,MICE,MSLIM,MSLITD,FIE,FIM,FCIWEM

POSITIVE ATTITUDE
BUILDING
T.M.JAYASEKERA
B Sc. Eng.,C Eng., MBA,MICE,MSLIM,MSLITD,FIE,FIM,FCIWEM
MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT
WHAT IS MEANT BY
ATTITUDE
 WHAT HAVE YOU GOT TO SAY?
WHAT IS AN ATTITUDE?
 Attitude is a state of mind
 Your attitude is your mind-set
 It is the way you look at things mentally
 Attitudes are evaluative statements
 They indicate one’s feelings either
favourably or unfavourably to persons
objects and or events
ATTITUDES ARE EVALUATIVE
STATEMENTS
 Attitude reflect how one feels about
something
Ex. When someone says “I like teaching” he
is expressing his attitude about his work
HOW ATTITUDE WORKS
 It is a cognitive and affective evaluation that
predisposes a person to to act in a certain
way
Cognitive
Affective
BEHAVIOUR
THREE COMPONENTS OF
ATTITUDES?
 Cognitions (Thoughts)
 Affections (Feelings)
 Behaviour ( Actions and reactions)
THREE COMPONENTS OF
ATTITUDES- AN EXAMPLE
 Cognitions (My job is interesting)
 Affections (I love my job)
 Behaviour ( I am going to get to work early
with a smile on my face- my intention to act)
DEFINITION OF ATTITUDE?
 Attitude is defined as the persistent
tendency to feel and behave in a particular
way towards some objects, persons or
events
WHAT ARE THE SALIENT FEATURES
ABOUT AITUDES?
 Attitudes are related to feelings and beliefs
about people
 Attitude is a response to persons objects or
events
 Attitudes affect behaviour positively or
negatively
 Attitudes undergo changes
 Attitudes affect perception, and in turn,
behaviour
HOW ATTITUDES ARE FORM ED- DIRECT
LEARNING AND SOCIAL LEARNING
 Attitudes are not inherited
 They are acquired or learned by people
from the environment in which they interact
 The formation of attitudes is broadly
classified in to two sources namely
 1. Direct experience
 2. Social Learning
PROCESS OF LEARNING ATTITUDES FROM
OBSERVATION- DIRECT LEARNING
 One’s direct experience with an object or
person serves as a powerful source for his
or her attitude formation
 In other words attitudes are formed on the
basis of one’s past experience in concerned
object or person
PROCESS OF LEARNING ATTITUDES FROM
OBSERVATION- SOCIAL LEARNING
 The process of deriving attitudes from
family peer groups religious organizations
and culture is called social learning
 In social learning a person acquires attitudes
from his or her environment in an indirect
manner
 They acquire it mainly by observing their
models
PROCESS OF LEARNING ATTITUDES FROM
OBSERVATION- SOCIAL EARNING
 Attention - focus on something
 Retention - what observed must be retained
 Reproduction - Behaviour must be practiced
again and again
 Motivation - learner must be motivated to
learn from it
ROLE OF CULTURE IN
ATTITUDE FORMATION
 Culture plays a definitive role in the
formation of attitudes
 Ex- Sri lankans earn for future requirements
 Americans for that matter earn to enjoy the
present
THREE TYPES OF JOB RELATED
ATTITUDES
 Job satisfaction - Individual’s pleasurable or
positive emotional state toward his job
 Job Involvement - the degree to which
people immerse themselves in their jobs - It
is identifying with one’s job
 Organizational commitment - it is about
employees loyalty towards their
organizations - It is identifying with one’s
organization
JOB SATISFACTION IS RELATED
WITH FIVE SPECIFC JOB DIMENSIONS
 PAY
 WORK ITSELF
 PROMOTIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
 SUPERVISION
 CO-WORKERS
JOB INVOLVEMENT
 It is the degree to which employees
immerse themselves in their jobs, invest
time and energy in them and consider work
as central part of their overall lives
 Such employees tend to be high performers
and seldom tardy and get absent
ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT
 It is an attitude about employee’s
commitment to the organization
 It is the process by which an employee
identify with the organization and and want
to maintain membership with the
organization
WHAT IS A POSITIVE
ATTITUDE
 WHAT HAVE YOU GOT TO SAY?
WHAT IS A POSITIVE
ATTITUDE
 Attitude is the way you communicate your
mood to others
 The way you perceive the world and your
position in it directly affects your dealings
with others
 a positive self image will reinforce and
improve both professional and personal
relationships
ATTITUDE IS YOUR MENTAL
FOCUS ON THE OUTSIDE WORLD
 Like using a camera you can focus or set
your mind on what appeals to you
 You can see situations as either
opportunities or failures
 Examples
– A hot summer day may be beautiful or ugly
– A departmental meeting is either interesting or
boring
ARE YOU AWARE OF THIS?
 When you are optimistic and anticipate
successful encounters you transmit a
positive attitude and people usually respond
favourably
 When you are pessimistic and expect the
worst your attitude is often negative and
people tend to avoid you
 Quite simply you take the picture of life you
want to take
EMPHASIZING THE POSITIVE
AND DIFFUSING THE NEGATIVE
 Emphasizing the positive and diffusing the
negative is like using a magnifying glass
 You can place the glass over good news and
feel better or you can magnify bad news and
make yourself miserable
 Magnifying situations can become a habit
 if you continually focus on difficult
situations the result will be exaggerated
distortions of problems
A BETTER APPROACH
 Imagine you have binoculars
 Use magnifying end to view positive things
 Use the other end whenever you encounter
negative elements to make them appear
smaller
 Once you know to highlight the positive
you are on the right road
WHAT CAN WE LEARN
FORM THIS
 Think more about the positive things and try
to make use of the positives to drive your
life
 This means that you have learnt to alter
your imagery to highlight the positive
 This means that you are on the right road
REMEMBER! ATTITUDE IS
NEVER STATIC!
IT IS AN ONGOING
DYNAMIC PERCEPTUAL
PROCESS
Unless you are on constant guard
negatives can slip in to your mind
which make your mind time
spend on difficulties rather than
on opportunities
If negative factors stay around for
a long time they will be reflected
in your disposition
The positive may be still there
but may be overshadowed by the
negative
Challenge!
 Push the negative factors to the outer
perimeter of your thinking
 Those who will learn the trick will reflect it
and others will notice it
Challenge!
 Of course! No one can be positive all the
time
 Excessive optimism is not realistic
 Positive attitude is not an act. It must be
genuine
HOW TO MEASURE
ATTITUDES
 Self- Report
 Indirect tests
 Direct observation Techniques
 Psychological Reaction Techniques
HOW TO CHANGE ATTITUDES
 Filling in information Gap
 use of fear
 Resolving Discrepancies
 Impact of peers
 The co-opting approach
Thank you very much!
T.M.Jayasekera