What Are Beliefs, Values and Attitudes?

In our various roles, our beliefs, values and attitudes are constantly interacting with those of our peers, friends, family or teachers. We seem to instinctively 'like' the individuals who share our core values and beliefs. Harmonizing our value systems is what makes a relationship successful, be itpersonal, educational or professional.

Proponents of adult learning state that in order to achieve competence and excellence, one needs to be able to teach and assess not only knowledge and skills, but attitudes, as well. To achieve excellence, we must be able to identify the core values and belief systems that underpin attitudes2.

Performance improvement can only come from learning the appropriate knowledge and skills. Possessing the right value and belief systems may influence our motivation, intention and engagement with a specific task.

We may come across individuals who seemingly possess theknowledgeandskills, OR a task, but only with a positiveattitudetowards the task will there be motivation, engagement and intention to complete the task.

The 'iceberg' diagram below shows the relationship between our hidden values and belief systems and our outward behavior's. However, there are two factors displayed that directly influence behavior'sone is the attitude that underpins the behavior, the other is the capability to express the expected behavior.

Iceberg demonstrating implicit and explicit bias.

'The power of knowledge to organize, select, learn and judge comes from values and beliefs as much as, and probably more than, from information and logic'

Thomas Davenport and Laurence Prusik (2000) Working Knowledge

Attitude: Description and Significance

Almost all educational theories encompass teaching and assessment ofknowledge,skillsandattitudes. While we find it easier to define knowledge and skills, definitions of attitudes vary.

Attitudes have been described as hypothetical constructs that represent a person's like or dislike for anything. Attitude is a judgment made on the 'attitude object' (a person, place, task, event, skill, etc.). Judgments from attitude can range from positive, negative or neutral.

Attitudes arise from an inner framework of values and beliefs, developed over time. Carl Jung, in his essay on psychological types, defines attitude as "the readiness of the psyche to act or react in a certain way,"1.

Beliefs, Values and Attitudes

The Three Components of Attitude

Attitudes are comprised of three components: emotions, behavior's and thoughts. These three components can also be described as the 'ABC' model: affective, behavioral and cognitive.

The 'affective' response is one's emotional response to a task or an entity. The 'behavioral' response is the displayed verbal or behavioral tendency to a task or entity, whereas the 'cognitive' response is the cognitive evaluation of the entity based on an internal belief system.

There is considerable overlap in the semantics of beliefs, values and attitudes, however, these are also distinct constructs (as illustrated above).

Attitude: Based on the Behaviors of Ourselves and Others

One of the key lessons to be learned is that we are at the mercy of expressed behaviors. Both in ourselves and in others, we 'assume' attitudes based on observed behavior.

For example, someone who regularly arrives late may be considered not very punctual or organized. However, this same person may spend time caring for somebody who is very ill, and their personal time delivering this care may interfere with their prompt arrival to work or lessons. With this new information, they may be viewed from a different perspective.

Our attitudes toward observed behavior will also tint our judgements. For example, if a person arrives shoddily dressed for an interview, we may feel they have not taken the time to prepare. However, if the said person believes their talent and skills are what should be recognized and not their appearancethis mindset influences their attitude toward dressing 'smart' and thus influences their behavior.

Behaviors may also be 'false'. A person may display false obeisance and ritualistic behavior when they need a favorable review, or feel they are being observed for performance. This may indicate a certain attitude, but the observer needs to delineate the difference between a true attitude and a false behavior implying an attitude. A person who is constantly fawning and agreeing to everything their superior says may not necessarily be in agreement, but may fawn in order to carry favor.

In assessing behavior, one needs to be aware of capability. There have been situations where a particular person may be considered 'rude' due to a raised voice or lack of clear idioms and phraseology, such as saying 'thank you' and 'please'. Yet, if the person or persons observed have never received any training to modulate their speech pattern or learn the idioms and phraseology of the language they are communicating in, they may not have the capability to express the right behavior for the situation. This, in turn, may be perceived as a 'bad attitude' by those that have the capability to express a more appropriate behavior.

"It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome."

William James

Provide Feedback on Behaviors, not Attitudes

Positive attitudes are needed in an individual in order for them to be motivated and engaged in a task.Attitudesarise out of core values and beliefs we hold internally.Beliefsare assumptions and convictions we hold to be true based on past experiences.Valuesare worthy ideas based on things, concepts and people.Behaviorsare how these internalized systems (attitudes, beliefs and values) are expressed.

These factors heavily influence the ability to learn and organize knowledge and skills. In order to influence performance in a learning context or an organization (or even at home!), one needs to be aware of the key differences between these constructs.

Feedback on attitudes will always be perceived as judgmental as it is about others' behavior filtered through our value systems. It is better, therefore, to provide feedback on behaviors. It is even better to determine ideal behaviors for an organization, situation or learning environment and set the scene before the behavior's are being assessed. This way, feedback can be contextualized on behavior that is observed and factual. This reduces the potential for conflict and low morale.

• Attitudes are not the same as behaviors.
• Attitudes are a construct of internal beliefs and value systems.
• Attitudes, capability or circumstance influence observed behavior.
• Use caution when assessing attitudes and use behaviors as examples.
• Feedback and behavior management can change attitudes.
• Changing attitudes can also change values and beliefs and vice versa.
• An understanding of these constructs helps personal and organizational management.

List three things you have learned from this chapter and give a separate example for each one of how managers in apple company or nick company apply this knowledge. Also how these 3 concepts will help you in business career.