When you say, "I like my job", "I am proud to be a part of my company", "I am very confident of completing the assignment", you are expressing your attitude. An attitude is a readiness to respond in a certain way to a person, object, idea or situation. Attitudes may remain relatively stable over time, others are subject to change with the accumulation of new information and experience. Attitude influences behaviour. Behaviour can also influence attitudes. For example, if Perera behaves in a certain way to please his boss, the response might be positive and Perera might find his attitude of disliking changing to liking. In this case, his own behaviour would have contributed to his change in attitude. Employee attitudes toward their job and company are important because they can influence productivity and satisfaction. An employee's general attitude towards his or her job is called job satisfaction.Research has shown a negative relationship between job satisfaction and absenteeism and turnover. A similar and ever stronger relationship is found between absenteeism and turnover and the organization's commitment, which is an indication of how strongly an individual identifies with her or his organization.
Employee attitudes are important and many companies measure them by means of attitude surveys.These surveys call upon employees to rate their attitudes towards their work, pay and benefits, supervisor, upper management, peer groups, opportunities for advancement and other areas. Effective managers augment these formal surveys with informal observation and indirect indicators such as absenteeism and turnover. The value of such surveys will depend largely on how skillfully and effectively managers use these results to improve identified problem areas.
