Employee attitude and its impact

It is very important for the organization to enhance the performance of the employees. It is crucial for the organization because it is necessary for any organization to attain competitive advantage by its employee’s performance because enhancement in the performance of the employees is one of the major ways to enhance the overall performance of the employees. There are many factors that affect the performance of the employees (Khan, Dongping & Ghauri, 2014). One of the factors is the attitude of the employees at the workplace. Some of the elements that affect the attitude of the employees at the workplace are behavior of employees and leaders, job satisfaction, commitment to the job, motivation and training. The employees of the organization have a kind of attitude towards their work as well as towards their organization. This attitude can be negative and positive. It is a well-known fact that if any of the individual has any kind of negative thinking about the work, it affects his performance for that work because negative thinking decreases the efficiency of the person to work. On the other hand, if that person is feeling positive about the results and have positive attitude than it gives strength to that person to perform the task and may results in effective performance (Hettiararchchi & Jayarathna, 2014). This report is all about the effect of positive and negative attitude on the workplace performance.

Employee attitude: Attitude is something that is the behavior of the individual that reflect what the person is feeling about something. This attitude can be favorable or unfavorable depending upon the thinking and feeling of that individual. Attitude of a person towards something or someone is framed because of some of the external factors that affect his mind. For managers, definition of attitude differs that is attitude can be learned and can differ according to the situation. Author argues that early experiences of the individual in family and friends may affect the attitude of the person even after growing up. As every individual wants to be known in the society as well as wants to be accepted by the society so some of the societal factors and the peer groups affect the attitude of the person in the situation (Macky & Boxall, 2007). As far as the workplace is concerned, the attitude of the employees can be shown by different aspects. The first aspect of attitude of the employees is job satisfaction. It is one of the most important factors that affect the behavior of the employees at the workplace. Job satisfaction can be defined as the factors that signify the intensity of positive and negative attitude of the person towards their jobs. Author argues that work show positive attitude in their work and towards their job only when they are satisfied with the job (Avey, Wernsing & Luthans, 2008). Job satisfaction of the employees can be attained by various factors such as the remuneration they are getting for the job, the opportunities of growth associated with the job and many more. This it is not the one variable that can decide the job satisfaction level as well as the attitude of the employees at the workplace. If any of the individual is not satisfied with the job, he may get demoralize and show negative attitude at the workplace. The author argues that it is the link between the psychology and biology. The individual thinks what he feels and feels what he think and this thinking affects his body movements and gestures that can be the one way to show the attitude.

Job satisfaction and its importance

It is not only the factors associated with the job that affect the attitude of the person but his own commitment towards the organizations also the factors that affect his attitude (Kowske, Rasch & Wiley, 2010). Suppose, a person is getting whatever he wants from the job but still does not have the feeling of commitment towards his organization fir one or the other reason than the person will definitely do not show nay sign of positivity in his attitude at the workplace. The commitment of the person can be shown by the willingness of the person to work with the organization and the intensity of the initiation the person is taking in order to show his performance. Author has suggested there type of commitments. The first one is the affective commitment that is about the emotional connection of the employee with the organization. Second is the continues commitment that is related to what is the perception of the employee regarding the risks of leaving the present job or organization and third one is normative commitment that is based upon the responsibility of the person towards his organization (Appelbaum, Iaconi & Matousek, 2007). The involvement of the employee in his job is also the sign that hoes the attitude of the person at the workplace. Job involvement can be defined as the intensity or the degree of the involvement of the person in the job. According to the author, job involvement is the tendency of the person to perform beyond the expectation of the management. The kind of efforts the person is making towards the organization and towards his job is the job involvement of the person. If any of the individual at the workplace is engaging himself beyond expectation than it is the positive attitude of the person towards the work (Amos & Weathington, 2008).

Job performance:

Every organization have some of the expectation from the employees according to their capability and the job responsibilities, it is expectation of the  organization that every employee in the organization perform his or her duties well with proper dedication and with proper process that has been given to them (Velnampy, 2008). Job performance of the employees is affected by how the person feels about his or her job and this feeling is called the attitude of the employee. The factors that affect the attitude of the person at the workplace and hence are performance are discussed above. Job performance has been defined as the efforts the individual is putting to accomplish the tasks given to him in the given deadline. The performance of the employee at the workplace is divided into two categories by the author (Ahmad, Ahmad & Shah, 2010). The first one is the task performance that is purely related to the work and the job responsibilities and other is the contextual performance that is related to the voluntary responsibilities of the individual at the workplace.

Commitment and its role in attitude

Employees in the organization may carry different types of attitude towards their work ad this attitude may be the reason f their personal issues, organization issue etc. If a person has a negative attitude towards the work that he may not be able to give his 100% efforts to complete that work and thus it affect the performance of the employees at the workplace. The negative attitude of t erosion ruptures his relationship with the co-workers. This is a very obvious scenario that if a person does not treat some other person with positive attitude for long then it creates disputes among the individual and thus affect their relationship. The person with negative attitude may feel left out after a period of tie and this creates a more negative environment around him (Kafetsios & Zampetakis, 2008). The next impact of negative attitude of the person is that he will not receive the benefits and perks of the job. This is because the person with bad attitude loose out the opportunities that is coming into his way. As the negative attitude affects the relationship of the person so it may be possible that the opportunity that needs to be given to the person can be presented to some other employee because of his positive behavior in the organization. The major effect of the negative attitude of an individual at the workplace is that the performance level of the person drops down. Negative attitude spreads its effects. Thus, it is a sign of bad performance by the person with bad attitude as well as his team (Huczynski & Buchanan, 2010). Every organization has certain department to work and every employee in the department has certain responsibilities. If any of the employee fails to perform his duties, it affects the performance of the whole department and hence the whole organization. This suggests that even the bad or negative attitude of a single person in the organization can ruin the performance of the whole organization.

As discussed in the above discussion that attitude is one of the major factors that affect the performance of the employees (Adler & Gundersen, 2007). It is not necessary that the attitude affects the performance directly but it may affect the performance of the person in indirect ways. As the attitude of the person spreads so it goes for both the form of attitude that is negative or positive. Positive attitude of the person at the workplace creates no stress to the employee. This helps in performing the tasks with free and more creative mind. If the person has no stress in his mind than he enhances his capacity to think creatively and thus affect his performance in positive way (Salanova & Schaufeli, 2008). The environment around the positive person always remains positive and thus it provides a positive environment of other workers to perform better. Good attitude of the person does not mean that the person is performing exceptionally well in his job but it means that he is trying putting all his efforts with positivity in his mind and this positivity is  shown in the performance of the employees. It helps in making relationship at the workplace and thus affects the performance of the whole organization in positive manner (Griffin, Neal & Parker, 2007). If the psychological point view is analyzed, it has been argued by the author that any person with positive attitude towards others and towards the workplace results in high performance of the employee and also high commitment towards the organization.

Job involvement and performance

The research question in the report clarifies the aim of the research. It shows the direction of the research and allows the readers to understand the study properly. The research question for this report is:

“How negative and positive attitude affect the workplace?”

It has been analyzed in the study that attitude of the employees at the workplace is dependent variable as it depends on the factors such as job commitment, organizational structure, behavior of the people etc. Another dependent variable in this discussion is the performance of the employees as it depends on their attitude towards their job and the organization (Mowday, Porter & Steers, 2013). This suggests that every aspect of an organization depends on each other whether it be the attitude of the person or whether it be the environment of the workplace. This is because if any of the person behaves with negative attitude in the organization if affect the working of that person as well as the team in which he is working because all the role and responsibilities in the organization that has been given to the employee are linked with each other. The negative attitude of the person results in failure of the individual goals and thus failure of achieving the organizational goals as a whole (Lee, Kim & Han, 2008). Therefore, if the organization fails to achieve its goals thane it may ruins the environment of the organization and management tends to bring changes that may not be beneficial for the employees as organization has to take decision that results in organizational success. It is very important for the employees to have a positive attitude towards their organization and towards their work. This is because positive attitude of the employee helps in creating a positive environment in the organization and the positive environment results in developing the enthusiasm among the employees (Twenge, 2010). Attitude of the employees is shown in different aspects such by job involvement, organization commitment, job satisfaction, behavior of the employees towards other employees and the managers.

Conclusion:

It has been found that job satisfaction, job involvement and commitment of the employees to the organization are the factors that signify the attitude of the employees in the organization. If the employees of the organization are satisfied with their jobs they shoe positive attitude towards other workers as well as towards their jobs. The major factor or the element that is affected by the attitude of the employees is the job performance (Emery & Barker, 2007). Job performance and the positive attitude of the employees at the workplace are directly proportional to each other. The literature that has been reviewed above suggests that the employee has positive attitude at the workplace then it creates a positive environment to work in the organization and thus enhances the performance of the employees. The study of the literature proves that all the author have agreed to the fact that attitude of the employees affect the workplace in term of its environment and the performance. This is because the bad performance of the single employee due to his attitude affects the performance of the whole organization in negative way. To conclude, it can be said that there are many a factor that affect the attitude of the employees at the workplace and the attitude of the employees affect the workplace in negative positive way according to the nature of the employee’s attitude.

Job performance and its categorization

Limitation of the report provides the drawbacks of the study that has been conducted in order to answer the research question (Emery & Barker, 2007). In this report, the literate review part only discusses about some of the factors that affect the attitude of the employees at the workplace such as job satisfaction, commitment and involvement, other humanization factors has been neglected. The factors like personal issues, the nature of the employees, past experience can also affect the attitude of the employees at the workplace. Another limitation that has been found in the report is that the quantitative data is not being analyzed to provide the result (Herzberg, Mausner & Snyderman, 2011). The overall analysis of the employee’s nature and the behavior should also be done along with the environmental factors to identify the effect of his attitude at the workplace. This is because analyzing the overall environment helps providing more accurate results with respect to the intensity of the impact of positive and negative attitude of the employee at the workplace.

References:

Adler, N. J., & Gundersen, A. (2007). International dimensions of organizational behavior. Cengage Learning.

Ahmad, H., Ahmad, K., & Shah, I. A. (2010). Relationship between job satisfaction, job performance attitude towards work and organizational commitment. European Journal of Social Sciences, 18(2), 257-267.

Amos, E. A., & Weathington, B. L. (2008). An analysis of the relation between employee—Organization value congruence and employee attitudes. The journal of psychology, 142(6), 615-632.

Appelbaum, S. H., Iaconi, G. D., & Matousek, A. (2007). Positive and negative deviant workplace behaviors: causes, impacts, and solutions. Corporate Governance: The international journal of business in society, 7(5), 586-598.

Avey, J. B., Wernsing, T. S., & Luthans, F. (2008). Can positive employees help positive organizational change? Impact of psychological capital and emotions on relevant attitudes and behaviors. The journal of applied behavioral science, 44(1), 48-70.

Emery, C. R., & Barker, K. J. (2007). Effect of commitment, job involvement and teams on customer satisfaction and profit. Team Performance Management: An International Journal, 13(3/4), 90-101.

Emery, C. R., & Barker, K. J. (2007). The effect of transactional and transformational leadership styles on the organizational commitment and job satisfaction of customer contact personnel. Journal of Organizational Culture, Communication and Conflict, 11(1), 77.

Griffin, M. A., Neal, A., & Parker, S. K. (2007). A new model of work role performance: Positive behavior in uncertain and interdependent contexts. Academy of management journal, 50(2), 327-347.

Herzberg, F., Mausner, B., & Snyderman, B. B. (2011). The motivation to work (Vol. 1). Transaction publishers.

Hettiararchchi, H. A. H., & Jayarathna, S. M. D. Y. (2014). The effect of Employee Work Related Attitudes on Employee Job Performance: A Study of Tertiary and Vocational Education Sector in Sri Lanka.

Huczynski, A., & Buchanan, D. A. (2010). Organizational behaviour. Financial Times Prentice Hall.

Kafetsios, K., & Zampetakis, L. A. (2008). Emotional intelligence and job satisfaction: Testing the mediatory role of positive and negative affect at work. Personality and individual differences, 44(3), 712-722.

Khan, I., Dongping, H., & Ghauri, T. A. (2014). Impact of Attitude on Employees Performance: A Study of Textile Industry in Punjab, Pakistan.

Kowske, B. J., Rasch, R., & Wiley, J. (2010). Millennials’(lack of) attitude problem: An empirical examination of generational effects on work attitudes. Journal of Business and Psychology, 25(2), 265-279.

Lee, E. J., Kim, M. Y., & Han, J. Y. (2008). Effects of the organizational culture on the job satisfaction and organization commitment. Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration, 14(1), 5-12.

Macky, K., & Boxall, P. (2007). The relationship between ‘high-performance work practices’ and employee attitudes: an investigation of additive and interaction effects. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 18(4), 537-567.

Mowday, R. T., Porter, L. W., & Steers, R. M. (2013). Employee—organization linkages: The psychology of commitment, absenteeism, and turnover. Academic press.

Salanova, M., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2008). A cross-national study of work engagement as a mediator between job resources and proactive behaviour. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 19(1), 116-131.

Twenge, J. M. (2010). A review of the empirical evidence on generational differences in work attitudes. Journal of Business and Psychology, 25(2), 201-210.