In the last blog, we attempted understanding Attitude using the ABC model. In today's blog we take a situation and understand the underlying issue and how it is handles in real life.
Assume you are a salesperson who strictly believes that selling damaged goods to customers is an unethical behavior. For the day, you have been posted to the TV section of the show room; you know that a specific model (the last in its model currently available) of TV is damaged. A customer approaches you and asks for the same model and to be delivered immediately. How would you react?
There are many responses you could take to a situation like this, some of these are: you might refuse to sell the TV, or you could rationalize saying that the defects in the TV are those that wouldn’t harm the customer who doesn’t know about it and move ahead to sell it or any such approach. Invariably in any stance the behavior that you have adopted creates some form of "dissonance" or "discomfort" that is the result of a conflict between the "attitude" and "behavior".
Cognitive Dissonance is a state of tension that is produced when an individual experiences conflict between attitude and behavior. It originates from our attempt to be consistent in everything that we believe in and do. We prefer a consistency between our attitude and behavior.
As manager, one would need to understand cognitive dissonance since the employees who work with them and find themselves in situations in which their attitudes conflict their behavior. If there is a sudden shift in the behavior of an employee, might possibly be due to the attempt to reduce dissonance. In extreme cases it could also lead to one quitting the job.
Assume you are a salesperson who strictly believes that selling damaged goods to customers is an unethical behavior. For the day, you have been posted to the TV section of the show room; you know that a specific model (the last in its model currently available) of TV is damaged. A customer approaches you and asks for the same model and to be delivered immediately. How would you react?
There are many responses you could take to a situation like this, some of these are: you might refuse to sell the TV, or you could rationalize saying that the defects in the TV are those that wouldn’t harm the customer who doesn’t know about it and move ahead to sell it or any such approach. Invariably in any stance the behavior that you have adopted creates some form of "dissonance" or "discomfort" that is the result of a conflict between the "attitude" and "behavior".
Cognitive Dissonance is a state of tension that is produced when an individual experiences conflict between attitude and behavior. It originates from our attempt to be consistent in everything that we believe in and do. We prefer a consistency between our attitude and behavior.
As manager, one would need to understand cognitive dissonance since the employees who work with them and find themselves in situations in which their attitudes conflict their behavior. If there is a sudden shift in the behavior of an employee, might possibly be due to the attempt to reduce dissonance. In extreme cases it could also lead to one quitting the job.
No comments:
Post a Comment