Attitudes

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Example of cognitive dissonance: The impact of evidence of dangers of smoking (lung cancer, high blood pressure, stroke and cardiovascular diseases) on a cigarette smoker. This evidence is likely to produce cognitive dissonance.

The individual may adopt a number of possible strategies to overcome or reduce the cognitive dissonance and these include:

- Cognitive stance in support of the existing belief, through distorting or devaluing the evidence – e.g. “It is only statistical evidence”; “It won’t happen to me”; “I don’t believe it”;

- behavioural stance in support of continued smoking – e.g. avoiding the evidence, not reading newspapers where it is likely to be published, turning off the television or radio if medical programmes are being shown or broadcast, etc.

- cognitive stance in support of the new belief with the intention of giving up smoking – e.g. “I’ll give up next week”.

- behavioural stance in support of the new belief – actually giving up or cutting down the number of cigarettes smoked.

Trying to change beliefs or attitudes by information alone is likely to be unsuccessful, unless lack of information is the only barrier. For strongly-held beliefs, a cognitive movement towards consonance is more likely than a behavioural one – it is, apparently, much easier to mean to do something than actually to do it.

3.2.6 Effects of Trying to maintain cognitive consonance

In a study of occupational choice, Sherlock and Cohen (1966) found, among trainee dentists, many who would have preferred to have become doctors but had chosen dentistry because it provided rewards similar to those of the medical profession and was seen as being an easier profession to get into. They subsequently downgraded their desire to become doctors.

Post-decision moves towards cognitive consonance such as these may be important in marketing management. Purchasers who were initially uncertain as to the value of their purchase may well reinforce their original decision to buy by thinking less well of alternatives. Product information that helps them to do this may then help to commit them to supporting the product or service, and becoming loyal customers.

Another area where this knowledge is relevant is in retention of newly recruited workers. Upon entry to organisations, one problem can be that the high expectations raised by recruiting literature and selectors “selling” the firm to applicants are not met when the new entrants start work. Wanous (1977) suggests that one way of reducing this post-entry dissonance is to “tell it like it is”, and give a realistic job preview, rather than an unreal optimistic view.

3.3 The Psychological Contract[pic 4]

3.3.1 What is a psychological contract?[pic 5][pic 6]

A psychological contract is the perceived relationship between the individual and the organisation, and involves the various factors which bind the individual to the enterprise. Peter Herriot (2001) has provided a basic but useful definition of psychological contracts as:

‘ . . .The perception of the two parties, employees and employer, of what their mutual obligations are to each other.’.

Psychological contracts relate to the way people feel about the organisation for which they work.

The concept is essentially a dynamic one – the nature of the contract changes over time and is influenced by many variables. It also influences the factors which motivate the individual.

Three examples of psychological contracts are:

- A coercive psychological contract exists when a person works because they are forced to do so. They may be tied into the job because the salary and fringe benefits prevent them from moving elsewhere – they might not be able to achieve the same package from another employer and would have to lower their standard of living. Alternatively their age may render them relatively immobile.

- A remunerative psychological contract exists when a person works for the money. The person may tolerate the job in order to attain the lifestyle it provides. This differs from the coercive contract - the remunerative contract may bind the person in the short term, only to be severed if a better deal is available elsewhere.

- A collaborative psychological contract is one in which the worker is bound to the organization by a belief that personal objectives can best be attained by enabling the organisation to fulfil its objectives. From an employer’s point of view, this is more likely to result in having a highly motivated workforce. The person’s desire to achieve can facilitate the company’s performance objectives.

As stated above, psychological contracts can change radically. In managerial and clerical professions, “delayering” and “down-sizing” have become common features, with middle managers being sacrificed in pursuit of greater cost-efficiency. Large-scale redundancies in hitherto “safe” jobs can change the nature of the forces which bind the person to the organisation. Redundancy programmes not only affect the values, beliefs and drives of those who lose their jobs, but also those who remain with the employer. Managers therefore have to be conscious of these changes in order to manage in an increasingly volatile climate.

3.3.2 Breach of Psychological Contracts

Like legal contracts, psychological contracts can be breached or violated if employees feel that the significant terms have been broken, or that perceived obligations are unmet. Psychological contracts has been used to explain strike action and rises in absenteeism and employee turnover; at the same time, violation has been used to explain rising levels of cynicism about never-ending ‘programmes’ of organisational change and lack of trust in managers to ‘walk the talk’ (Martin et al., 1998)[2].

Employee reaction to violation of a psychological contract can either be active or passive. It can also be classified as either positive or negative.

[pic 7]

Source: Based on Turnley and Feldman, 1998.[3]

3.4 Values[pic 8]

Values are the building blocks to explain individual differences. values are enduring beliefs that a specific mode of conduct or end state of existence