CHAPTER 6
Attitudes Can Shape Your Life
CHAPTER PREVIEW
After studying this chapter, students should be able to:
1. Understand the impact of attitudes on the success of individuals as well as organizations.
2. List and explain the ways people acquire attitudes.
3. Describe attitudes that employers value.
4. Learn how to change your attitudes.
5. Learn how to help others change their attitudes.
6. Understand what adjustments organizations are making to develop positive employee attitudes.
PURPOSE AND PERSPECTIVE
A major objective of this chapter is to help students understand that attitudes represent a powerful force
in their life and within any organization. Early in this chapter, we explain what an attitude is and
describe the power of employee attitudes in organizations. Students will learn how attitudes are formed
through socialization practices, the influence of peer and reference groups, the effects of rewards and
punishments, the impact of role models (including managers), and the power of cultural influences. The
attitudes employers are looking for in their employees are examined. A further section on how to
change attitudes is divided into two parts: how to change one’s own attitudes and how to help others
change their attitudes. The final chapter segment explains how attention to quality of work-life factors
is affecting employees within modern organizations. Students should gain a greater understanding of
factors that influence their attitudes toward their work and thereby influence their own success as well
as that of their organization and fellow employees.
PRESENTATION OUTLINE
I. The Importance of Attitudes
A. Introduction: Components of attitudes:
1. Cognitive
2. Emotional
3. Behavioral
B. Hiring for attitude
C. Healing career wounds
D. Core values revisited
E. The age of information mandates attitude changes
II. How Attitudes Are Formed
A. Socialization
B. Peer and reference groups
C. Rewards and punishment
22 Chapter 6: Attitudes Can Shape Your Life
D. Role model identification
E. Cultural influences
III. Attitudes Valued by Employers
A. Basic interpersonal skills
B. Self-motivation
C. Openness to change—avoiding these three attitudes:
1. Stubbornness: refusing to be influenced by others
2. Arrogance: failing to recognize the need to change
3. Inflexibility: being closed-minded
D. Team spirit
E. Health consciousness
F. Appreciation of coworker diversity
G. Honesty
IV. How to Change Attitudes
A. Changing your own attitude
1. Choose happiness
2. Embrace optimism
3. Think for yourself
4. Keep an open mind
V. Helping Others Change Their Attitudes
A. Change the conditions
B. Change the consequences
VI. Organizations’ Efforts Toward Improving Employees’ Attitudes
A. A final word
CAREER INSIGHT EXERCISE
Encourage students to practice the suggested exercises, which train their brains to be positive.
TRY YOUR HAND EXERCISES
1. Answers will vary. Students should assess their attitudes toward teamwork, wellness, and skills
acquisition, and make suggestions for improving another person’s negative attitudes in these
areas.
2. Answers will vary. Students who are planning a career in supervision or management need to give
serious consideration to this issue.
3. Remind students daily, if possible, to make entries into their positive/negative diary. Helping
students to dwell on pleasant as well as unpleasant events and to maintain a healthy perspective
regarding which they can and cannot control (e.g., by recalling “The Serenity Prayer”) is a vital
step toward altering students’ attitudes.
4. Encourage students to monitor their thought patterns as an important step in understanding and
changing attitudes.
CRITICAL THINKING CHALLENGE
Students’ answers will vary according to students’ experiences. In thinking about how they acquired a
specific attitude (and speculating on how another person acquired one), students will have the
opportunity to review the text discussion on how attitudes are formed.
Chapter 6: Attitudes Can Shape Your Life 23
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
After completing the assessment, students should select an attitude or skill to be improved upon. They
should prepare a written goal and outline the steps required to achieve this goal.
YOU PLAY THE ROLE EXERCISE
Students are to think of words or actions to use when mentoring a coworker who needs help developing
attitudes that employers value today. Students should focus on the conditions preceding and the
consequences following the coworker’s procrastination, minimal effort, and abnegation of
responsibility as well as the desirable attitudes (particularly self-motivation, team spirit, and honesty).
CASE QUESTIONS
BELOW THE SURFACE: Attitudes Shape Jiffy Lube Success
1. Students can discuss the employee attitudes desired among Jiffy Lube employees. Answers might
emphasize good interpersonal skills and honesty when dealing with customers and coworkers.
2. Students can suggest ways to instill positive attitudes toward training among technicians. For
example, students might suggest demonstrating how training will help technicians cultivate repeat
business or more diverse service requests by increasing customers’ satisfaction with and trust in
Jiffy Lube.
CLOSING CASE: Are You Feeling Saucy?
1. Students can discuss what benefits, if any, they perceive for an organization and for society at
large when that organization insists on continuous learning among employees.
2. Students can suggest ways for restaurant managers to develop employee attitudes that enhance
attention to detail, quality control, and consistency in routine tasks such as food preparation and
cleaning.
ADDITIONAL APPLICATION EXERCISES
1. Transport yourself in your imagination to a very happy time or situation in your life. Relive the
emotions you felt. Share this experience with your classmates.
2. At some time in the past, someone upset you in some way. Maybe this person failed to recognize
your accomplishments. Maybe this person said things that hurt your feelings or treated you with
indifference. Schedule a person-to-person meeting or a telephone interview with this individual,
and describe in detail your feelings at the time of the offense. Before the meeting, make an outline
of what you plan to say. Write a brief report on how attitudes were altered after the conversation.
3. We have noted that attitudes represent a powerful force in any organization. Select one
organization for study, and assess the attitudes displayed by people who are associated with it.
Your study might focus on a club within your school, a retail store in the community, a church, or
a civic group. Step 1 should be the assessment of attitudes by personal interview, printed survey,
observation, or some combination of these methods. Step 2 should involve summarizing your
findings and preparing a final report.
4. Cynicism has been defined as a scornful, bitterly mocking attitude or quality by the American
Heritage Dictionary. Cynical people tend to distrust others and frequently question the motives of
people. To overcome this destructive attitude, we need to begin looking for the good in others. For
24 Chapter 6: Attitudes Can Shape Your Life
a period of two weeks, look for the good in others and compliment their good behavior. During
this period, try to eliminate destructive criticism. Focusing on the good in others will help you
find it in yourself as well.